Second and Fifth

wha! Where does the time go? We were excited to send them off to school today, especially to the new school, but of course, missed them by the end of the day! They both had a great first day, love their teachers. Yay!! And tomorrow, I launch back into the world of full-time employment. crazy. I am officially excited to do my job better, with more enthusiasm and lengthier hours. I am very nervous about keeping up with the house and the kids and the eternal laundry. But Claire Huxtible could do it, so can I! BTW - we've been on a big Cosby Show kick at our house and loving it lately.

New Music

It's been a bit since a new Christian artist really got my attention. The kids and I have been really into this song. I'll be interested to hear the rest of hr album when it releases in September. :)

Sarah's Birthday Bash

Oh, it was a party! We'd been scheming for weeks now, especially fueled by my recent addiction to pinterest.com. We found lots of owl inspiration. It all started with the cake. At a doctor appointment in May we noticed this cake in Family Fun magazine and Sarah said she wanted to do an owl birthday party this year.

I may have gone overboard a bit. Turns out, it's really easy to draw owls and I'm pretty good at it. So we had owl everything...

balloons.

Crafts.

gift bags.

Magnets to go home with the kiddos. (they were especially hard to part with)

cups for the kiddos to use and keep.

owl sandwhiches.

and a one of a kind tshirt for the birthday girl..

This is what the living room looked like.

we had four guests.

and made wishes.

and opened gifts.

This was Sarah's big gift. I'd hunted on Craigslist for three months and then one day Rob's mom called and said she'd like to help with it. yay!! So we wound up purchasing a brand new one for a great price on Barnes and Noble.com It literally came in at 2:45 on the day of the party. Rob went into covert operations and had it put together before her friends arrived at 4pm. She was more than a little excited!

New Family Photos

So a few weeks back, close family friends and fellow photographer, Shane and Becca Monohan came for a quick weekend with us. Wow, we had a busy weekend and a blast. The best part was that we exchanged services. This was an incredible blessing for me because Shane is extremely talented. It was so fun to have someone crawl around and shoot my family the way I do so many other families. His work is fantastic and I know I will treasure these pictures for years and years to come. Thank you Shane, you have given us an incredible gift and we are unbelievably grateful. Here are a few of my favorite shots.








To see more of Shane's work, or to book him for a session, find his info here...


(he's located in Sioux City, IA)

craftiness and more

The craft bug has bit at our house. I have been keeping two extra kids on Tuesdays all summer long. The bummer is, 5 people don't fit in my convertible. So crafting has been my goal, but the move took up considerable more time than I had anticipated. But finally, I'm to a place where crafting is great fun with the extra kiddos. In fact, this week I took in one more.

The fish tanks were last week, and the macaroni skeletons were this week.

We also did yet to be photographed jellyfish. Very cute.

The owls are part of the many projects for Sare's seventh birthday. We are very excited!!

Last but not least, I finally got around to finishing my dining room table. Rob tells me it looks like Punky Brewster's house, but I'm ok with that. Don't worry, I cleared the colors with him before. I just don't know if he realised what he was agreeing to. ;) We have three more chairs coming, and yes, they will be three other colors. Hey, the walls are beige, a girl's gotta have a little color!!

Last week's Pages

a whole two days early! counting down to scrap time on Tuesday!

Last Week's Pages

Ok, so I haven't photographed yesterday's pages yet, but here are last weeks. I have loved scrapping with Lori on Thursdays. It's been so great to have a regular appointment with her, we get a lot done! I feel like I'm starting to catch up and it's really nice to do something just for me that I love so much.

August Already?!?

I look at my iCal and think, how did we get here?? 2011 has seemingly flown by. We are over the halfway point through the shift events calendar. We've almost finished our second summer with these teenagers. I just can't hardly believe it.

In some ways I feel like we've wasted the summer. The move took a lot of effort and time. More than I anticipated. But we've done a lot of awesome things too. I think it's time for a quick recap..

We started the summer with a trip to Six Flags with our youth group. Oh so sadly, that is the only time this summer that I have made it to Six Flags. We need to remedy that! Perhaps tomorrow evening??

Next we went to youth camp. Man, that was amazing. It's always neat to watch God move in the lives of our teenagers. Relationships with God and eachother are built at youth camp and I consider it an honor to be a part of the process.

Got home from camp and it was time to pack like crazy! We moved into our new place on June 21st (can't believe it's been a month already, I still occasionally drive to the wrong home). We took a week's vacation, but we worked like crazy the whole time, pausing long enough to take in Marriage Encounter in Houston. That was a really special time for Rob and I. We didn't really have any major issues to work on, it was just nice to slow down and have uninterrupted quality time.

Next we were in the midst of July 4th festivities. Yes, that is Rob playing an United States of America shaped guitar. It's always a special time at church, and then Pastor and Janet invited us over for swimming. The kids are always big fans of that! We are too, for that matter. Always good food and great conversation with the Roberts.

Later that week we hosted Spring First Church for a youth rally. It was a great time, their students showcased their ministries from Fine Arts. We got to catch up with some great friends of ours, Matt and Heather Rule.

Then I started a series of dental appointments to fulfill a treatment plan involving two crowns. Ouch! But I found an amazing dentist and I am super grateful to him and his staff pandering to my tender teeth. God abundantly provided for the ginormous bill and I am amazed again, even though He has a thousand cattle on a thousand hill, I'm still blessed to be His child. :)

Did a few photo shoots in and around there, including a family of fourteen, and then a HUGE family reunion (say 200 people or so).

Then our dear friends, Becca and Shane (Becca was a childhood friend of Rob's and one of my bridesmaids) did a whirlwind trip to San Antonio. Shane is a fellow photographer, in fact we've been talking shop every six weeks or so for about six months now. Anyway, we had a blast together, and wound up trading photo shoots. His pictures of our family are INCREDIBLE and I cannot wait to see the rest!!

We also did CT's Got Talent (I performed my vintage mime from highschool) and then the next day we loaded up 20 kids to take to Mustang Island to the beach for the day. It was epic. My children had a blast too. They are not afraid of sand or jellyfish or baby sharks... all of which we saw that day.

In and around all that we've had Frantic Friday every week, alternating hanging out at the church and various activities around town (bowling, Landa Park, Amazing Jump, Northstar Mall). And of course, Momentum, our summer long point based competition for shift. It's been a little intense. But good.

Oh, and my precious car got dinged pretty bad in the parking lot, but it's repaired now. whew!

So all in all, I think we've packed a bit in this summer. So yes, it went fast, but we lived it hard and made lots of fun memories. I am so grateful for our life, every insane minute of it!!

Tomorrow, I register the kids for their new school. yay! I don't know who is more excited about it, me or them. I also have an early dental appointment to fix my bite, boo. I do have another $600 worth of treatment to go, so I'm praying about that.

That is certainly not the extent of our summer, but a good chunk. We've had an awesome time, but it's not over yet. Still working on the end of Momentum (a crazy game night and formal dinner for the winners next weekend), the Health Fair, and of course, Sarah's birthday party. :)

Anyway, we are blessed. And fall is around the corner, we have some awesome things in store for us. God is so good.

Sarah's Birthday Invitations

Getting ready for a birthday party at our house. These are Sarah's sweet invites!

Before and After

I picked up these owls at a flea market last week for $3. for the pair. :) I've refinished them for Sarah's party in a few weeks. After the party, I plan on painting them again, bright red, to hang on my kitchen wall. LOVE!