jewels

Little sister is growing fast.  The boys call her jewels. Uncle isaac started it and it fits her. 

Month 5 was big for sister.  She started sitting and has gotten two teeth (so far!).  Yesterday, I saw her bunching her knees up will lying on the floor.  Looks like she may start scooting soon.  Both boys crawled at 7 mo.  That's not too far away.

She's so happy she can sit and play with toys now.

Somebody left some crayons out.  Took sister about 2 seconds to dump them all out.

Straight to the mouth.

Sister has some funny hair.

She's so dainty.

And like her brothers is very, very curious.  I've yet to have a low-maintenance, laid back child. Shep was close as a baby, but that ended rather quickly. She's very dramatic and always has a big smile for her daddy.

I think we'll keep her. She's pretty sweet. Love this girl.

soccer

Both boys are playing soccer.  They've enjoyed it and the games are highly entertaining. 

Conner has improved a lot since the season began.  He's finally getting a little more aggressive and scored a goal in their last game.  He mostly just runs around, but he's starting to get in there and kick the ball more.  

 Shep is funny during the games.  He becomes almost shy in those kinds of settings.  He did the same thing in swim lessons.  I think maybe it's the attention??  He gets aggressive in the wrong way and mostly wants to run around tackling people, usually his teammates, but he's learned a lot, too and enjoys it.

Practicing before the game.  Conner was trying to kick the ball in the goal and was taking forever lining everything up just right.  Shep got tired of waiting and just ran in and kicked it.

Reminding them which goal to kick it into. Good thing we have a girl on our team.  She's the only one who pays attention and the only one who really has any idea of what's going on.  Me: Conner, who won the game? Conner: Kyla won!!  Yeah, that pretty much sums it up.

Conner throwing the ball in.  Usually at any given time someone on our team is on the ground pouting.

Nothing like a little gatorade.

Shep getting ready to kick it in.

Go Shep!

Conner trying to guard the ball, so he could kick it.  We've had to work on that one:)

Best part of the game...snack time!

I'm really a soccer Mom now.

state fair

It's that time of year.  

We told the boys they could pick one ride and that they better enjoy it as much as it cost.  This is the one they wanted to do. I think it was approximately a dollar per second.  Zack and Conner vs Spencer and Shep.

 And the winners are...

Spencer and Shep!

The other little Stanton girl with her Daddy.

Zack and the boys.  Julia and I were there.  She slept in the ergo almost the entire time. She did wake up and enjoyed looking around at all the sights and colors of the fair!

Snow cone

Enjoying the show.

The Kenyan acrobats.  They were amazing.

Petting zoo.  A lady gave Shep a bag of animal feed.  He wasn't too sure at first, but warmed up to it.

Kid area

I think Shep was starting to have trouble seeing with his sunglasses on.  I told him it wasn't sunny anymore so he could take them off.  I guess he tokk it very literally when I told him he would need to wear his glasses at the fair.

Oh, yeah

Look what we found!  Up close and personal with the Oscar Mayer truck.  They were giving out samples and Shep tried to take all of them.  Conner wanted to wear his Texas shirt to the fair, so everyone in TN would know he's from Texas.  That's my boy.

Fun evening and totally worth the meltdowns at bedtime (I think:)

weight of cares

Someone shared this with me the other day.

The weight of the cares that are laid on us is meticulously measured by the one who "knows our frame" and "knows full well that we are dust." (Ps 103:14) Not a hair's weight more than we can sustain will be added to the load, but a load there must be for each of us, for we are in training. -Elisabeth Elliot

I admit, it often feels that God's forgotten we are like dust. The load feels too big or over-whelming.  Grateful that even though I often fail to trust God's promises, He never fails to hear my prayers. His promises are always true. 

"that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give you a spirit of wisdom and of revelation in the knowledge of Him, having the eyes of our hearts enlightened, that you may know what is the hope to which He has called you, what are the riches of His glorious inheritance in the saints, and what is the immeasurable greatness of his power toward us who believe, according to the working of His great might..." Eph 1:17-19

"Fear lies at the unexamined core of who we are. Faith grows from the surpassing of fear in spite of its presence. It is not a denial of fear, but rather itself, acknowledges the fear and in fact uses it to engulf the fear itself, transforming it into th emost powerful, rather than debilitating force there is: love." -Surprised by Oxford

six years

Today is our 6th anniversary.  It's been a hard week.  Harder than I thought it would be.  Zack was gone a whole month last summer, but this has been harder.  I think I was prepared mentally and emotionally for that trip, but all this happened so quickly and caught me off guard.  One week we  were in Austin, trying to sort things out, the next week we were gone and Zack was on his way to Nashville.  It was a blur.  I still haven't quite wrapped my brain around the fact that I'm not going back.  I feel a little bit lost.

Someone reminded me yesterday to try to enjoy this time and not to miss what God has for me here.  Not to miss the cute things my kids do or say.  Not to miss the blessings.  LORD, help me not to miss the blessings.

There was a huge stack of old newspapers waiting for the compost pile.  Conner was obsessed with them and passing things out for people to read.  "Here mom, read this. Read this because you like to read.  You like to read the news.  This is for you to read Mom.  You can read it in your head.  I'll read mine in my head, too"  etc  He handed me a paper dated back the end of June. It was the obituaries.  I saw the young face of a soldier, just twenty-eight years old.  He had a wife, probably my age and a baby.  Thank you, God that even though I'm not with my husband today, I can still text him every 10 minutes, if I want to.  I am so blessed.  I know that young soldier's wife would change places with me in a heartbeat.

"The lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; indeed, I have a beautiful inheritance...You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore." Psalm 16: 6, 11

sweet

"Mommy, take a picture of me and Julia."

date time!

Took the boys on a date to the jump zone this morning.  It's the first time I've been able to do something with just them since Julia arrived.  I was going to take them each individually on a special date, but they both wanted their brother to come.  Awww....they really do like each other!  

When Conner realized Julia was not going to come he said, "Are you going to join us in the bounce houses?!"  Well, yes, of course!  

We fought bad guys with Batman.

Shep was a little freaked out that I was jumping and climbing with them.  Guess I've gotten boring the past couple years.  I was climbing after him, pretending to chase him and he said, "Just be Mommy, ok?"  Then later I was talking in a silly voice and he said, "Use your own voice, Mommy."  Can't a mommy have some fun?

Climbed volcanoes.

And braved the stormy seas.

Go Shep!!

Glad for some time with my big boys.  I've missed that.

As we walked out the door Conner said, "It's time to go.  I'm burning hungry!!"