A weekend adventure!

This weekend we traveled down the coast on a quick little trip!

We started the long weekend on Thursday night celebrating our 10th anniversary by going out to Texas Roadhouse for some yummy steaks. And we also found this...

which we purchased the next morning, and was so nice to have on our road trip! It's an '09 Toyota Sienna and has 8 seats and automatic doors. We love it! We left around 3pm on Friday afternoon and made it to our destination in time to ditch our luggage and head out for Mexican food!

We stayed at a bay house and before our Saturday beach adventure, we visited the big tree at the neighboring state park.


The kids loved climbing the trees!








We had 2 beach visits last summer...one on Mother's Day and one in San Diego. It was far past time for a trip to the seashore! This was actually a bay "beach" but the kids didn't care! The nice breeze made for some fun little waves!











Their sandcastle masterpiece


and destroying it!


Happy baby even though he was dealing with tummy issues from the antibiotics he was taking for an ear infection. Another fun outing on our anniversary was a trip to the pediatrician!


eating a water gun!


throwing seaweed!


fields of cotton...


bales of cotton


a harvested field


while driving around we found a Catholic church without walls near the beach!


late night fishing out the back of the bay house




and enjoying the TV during what little time we had for relaxing!


It was a quick trip, mostly spent scouting out our new future hometown (more on that later), but it was fun nonetheless. Now I'm just trying to recover and get over a sinus cold!

7 Quick Takes Friday!

7 little moments captured on the iPhone over the past few weeks....



Cousins enjoying bubbles on the 4th of July


Took all the kids to the tax office since I'd lost our car registration sticker (from October!). Guess when I found it? About 5 days later when BopBop and MC organized all my paperwork!


Feeding little brother ice cream with his finger. You can tell that baby is thrilled with this arrangement!


Just as I was leaving the house for a mom's meeting, 2 of the kids came out dressed as superheros!!!


Thomas loves playing the piano and Ellie loves to help him!
Only wish that she would stop forgetting him on the piano bench and leaving him there!!!


Silly boy at NeNe and PaPa's house!


And last but not least, remembering the time of road construction in our neighborhood. Excavators and giant concrete cylinders in our front yard, and even a port-a-potty near our driveway (the neighbors get the rare privilege of having it on their property)! Can't wait until the roads are done and we have curbs instead of ditches!!!

And thank you all for the anniversary wishes! It's been an eventful day, and the weekend proves to be the same. I'll have to explain later because I'm operating on about 4 hours of sleep....


Read more Quick Takes at Conversion Diary!

10 YEARS!

(copying my post from 3 years ago, because I'm not feeling very original today ;)

Amidst the Kleenex and Motrin,
The toy messes and dirty diapers,
The cups of juice and PBJs,
For richer, for poorer,
In sickness and in health,
For as long as we both shall live...

I can't imagine spending these TEN years doing anything else, with anyone else but YOU.
Happy Anniversary, Steven!


Thanks for leading this dance. It's just gettin' started!

{pretty, happy, funny, real}

~ Capturing the context of contentment in everyday life ~

(loaded a bunch of fuzzy iPhone photos from the past month!)

Pretty

My girls with their sweet teacher Miss Courtney at a fun dance playdate a couple weeks ago. She taught them a cute dance and then they all brought lunches and played on a waterslide in the backyard. We will miss Miss Courtney!

Happy

Welcoming the newest bundle of love to our group of friends. A sweet little girl to join their other daughter and 3 sons. We are all so happy for them!

Funny

The 3 of us dressed as cows for Chick-fil-a's Cow Appreciation Day! And they gave Ellie free food too, even though she didn't want to dress up. Tommy and Daddy stayed home, but Daddy got leftovers since they gave each of us a whole free (big) meal!

Real

My tupperware cabinet needed some serious cleaning today. Here are all the extra lids I had in there!!! This week I organized that cabinet, my shelf of photo albums, and had help from BopBop and MC with a bunch of paper organizing. A productive week!


Read more at Like Mother, Like Daughter

Jesus Makes a Difference Every Day

Last week was our first vacation bible school experience! I knew the girls would love it, and they did. It was at a Catholic church which we have never attended, but a friend from swim team was heading it up and allowed us to join in for free if I volunteered :) You all know that I can't turn down a free offer!

The first few days were a little hairy trying to be the "snack" leader with my 2 "helpers" you see here, but as the week went by things became easier and Steven enjoyed spending time with the other 3yr olds in the nursery.


All week we had the main chorus in our heads, which was "Jesus makes a difference every day!" I admit I had some theological concerns about why this had to be the main line of the main songs, and I wonder how in the world it has to do with the theme of Main Street? Why don't any of our local churches use the Catholic VBS options? (My critical nature shining through)


But you know...as I reflected on it more and more, I tried to let the main idea soften my heart. God is with us every day. Jesus makes a difference in our lives every day because of his grace working in our hearts. He blesses us with family, the Church, the Sacraments, our material possessions. Every day.


"You turn me inside-out and upside-down, show me how to turn everything around.
You change my life; you're all I need. Inside-out and upside-down on Main Street!"


Honestly, right now I do feel like some things in our life are changing...inside-out and upside-down! It happens all the time in this crazy family life with young kids. But every day Jesus is with us, making a difference in our lives and in the lives of others we encounter.


I pray that whatever twists and turns are facing us in the coming months, that we will find peace and solace in God's will. That Jesus will lead us down "Main Street" as we continue to follow him in our journey of life.

Just like Steven Joseph was having such a fun time chasing this precious darling around the gym, may we have fun chasing our dreams and God's will each and every day. Because He can make a difference in our lives every day, if we let Him!

Thanks to my friend K, and all the kind people at SH Catholic Church, who welcomed us on Main Street! We had a blast!