7 Quick Takes Friday!

(another upload of random iPhone phuzzy photos, representative of our crazy summer days!)


~~1~~
Maybe you saw this on Facebook...doesn't YOUR baby play the piano at 3am? We found out the next day that he had an ear infection, hence the lack of sleep that week. Maybe he'll be a musical little guy like his big brother...which, by the way, if you didn't watch his guitar video on the last post, it's a must-see!


I think I took this picture of him after he took some medicine and was finally sleeping soundly...ahhh....


~~2~~
We made a visit to Kelly's grave the other day. I'm so happy she has a headstone now, but it makes it all the more real that our sweet friend is no longer with us. But she is a great prayer intercessor, and I'll be counting on her for lots of special intentions through the years.


~~3~~
The kids went on the mall carousel with NeNe!


~~4~~
The other day I couldn't find Steven and then located him in his room on the bottom bunk playing with one of the Montessori boxes! I was so happy to see him playing with this. He's getting very interested in letters and writing and drawing and sorting...and all those preschool things. It should be a fun year with him!


~~5~~
Saturday was a Dive In Movie at the pool! We walked down and watched Fish Tale. It was a fun family evening, another thing we'll miss about our neighborhood when we move. It's so nice to be able to walk to the pool, and even nicer that it's one that is rarely crowded and has a nice covered baby pool.


~~6~~
Lanie the American Girl doll had her First Holy Communion last week. They made a "cake" out of pancakes and took lots of pictures. I love the way poor Steven Joseph is always pictured with the dolls. One day he and Thomas will protest these kinds of activities!



~~7~~
The other day we went to the grocery store to return a rotten roast. After getting back to the car, I told the kids to get in their seats and buckle up. I decided to just wait and play on my phone, instead of making my request over and over again. About 10 minutes later they were still wrestling and the baby was crying. I finally had to yell. Hopefully it's just the novelty of the new car...but I'm not so sure...Every outing is a true adventure in this crazy family!

Read more Quick Takes at Conversion Diary!

"Climbers and Kayakers" by Steven

Moving.

I've been having a hard time coming up with a post to describe my feelings about our upcoming move. I've shared it on Facebook and made references here, but haven't talked much about this new journey for our family.

Last week, Steven accepted a wonderful job offer in another city. It's really an amazing opportunity for him and one that we just couldn't pass up. The problem is that we thought we were here for good, settled for life. The great thing is that God knows just what our family needs and he's answering specific prayers and dreams, although not in the way we'd expected.

We'll have a bit of time to transition to our new town. He'll be training in Houston for awhile, and we'll try to get through the MRI and possible open heart surgery for Steven Joseph this fall. So it could be October or November, or even later, before we actually make the move. We're hoping to make a few more visits in the next month or two, as we explore the city and try to find an area where we'd like to live.

It all seems very surreal. It is the one city in Texas where we literally knew no one and had no familiarity with the area. But it's a city with a great Catholic culture and is very close to our favorite place...THE BEACH! We've now been able to visit the parish where we'll likely be members, and we met many of the homeschooling families after Mass last weekend. So I feel like we have a "home base" and have a little more knowledge of the area.

The girls are upset about leaving family, friends, their house, their homeschool group, and especially their dance school. They fluctuate between saying they are never moving away, to negotiating about the things they want in a new house or about the exact time frame of moving (demanding it be after a birthday or after their May recital).

It's going to be a busy few months. Along with preparing for the surgery and the move, we'll also start our new school year and several new activities this year. They'll continue ballet for the time we're here, and we'll try to soak up all the blessings of having family and amazing friends close by. From the wonderful grocery store nearby, to the chicken finger restaurant down the street, to our pool within walking distance, and our lovely parish downtown, we are really going to miss living here.

BUT...although it's an unknown territory we're going to experience, I know that God has our family's best interests in mind. I can foresee weekly beach adventures, a wonderful small parish community, close-by museums, and opportunities to participate in the Nutcracker and other ballets. I envision more time with Daddy and less stress about finances. I imagine a time of growth in our family, better organization and scheduling, and a slower life pace. I am thrilled about purging some of our belongings and having less "stuff" to worry about. And it'll probably be good to have this big distraction as we're facing the scary surgery.

It's going to be a great adventure. 2012 will start a new page in our family journal and I can't wait to look back and see how God blesses us through this experience. Thanks for following us along the way, and please pray that we will find God's peace in the midst of it!

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!