the older girls

Last night all of us were looking back through old photo albums on facebook. They dated back three years ago. Most of the time I don't realize how much Emma and Ava have grown until I go back through old photographs. I was hit with the realization once more of how quickly time goes.

Emma is going to kindergarten this year. It's a time in her life that is a landmark. One landmark that society and the government mandates and tells us that it's time for us to hand over our kids to complete strangers and have their lives influenced by others.

Others that maybe I wouldn't choose to influence my girls. Sure, I could homeschool, but Jason and I both agree that it is not the best option for our family. We are genuinely excited about the influence we could have into the school and building relationships with families in our neighborhood.

It made me also realize that what we are instilling in them at home is even more important now. Emma will be in contact with kids and adults that may tell her things that is contradictory to what we say at home.

It's really easy to sit in our Christian home with our Christian friends that go to our Christian church and talk about the world and how to make it a better place and what we are going to do to win them for Christ.

For our family, it's go time. It's time for us to practice what we preach.

On a lighter note. Here's some pictures from some film Jason got back a while ago.

I'm not exactly sure what Jason was trying to get them to do here.

For a week, Ava has been obsessed with putting on her winter coat and wearing it all day. With the hood up. Goofy girl...

I walked into the kitchen one day and found this.

Hello, Miss Sassy! I'm hoping that's not a glance into my future.

Ava loves her babies!

And if Emma could have her way, she would sit in front of the television all day.

food

Today I was thinking about how much our lives revolve around food. This is a sample schedule of our day in regard to eating.

7:00 am Lila's bottle

7:45 am family breakfast

8:30 am Lila's baby food

10:00 am snack for Emma and Ava

11:00 am Lila's bottle

11:30 am family lunch

12:00 pm Lila's baby food

3:00 pm Lila's bottle

3:30 pm snack for Emma and Ava

5:30 pm family dinner

6:00 pm Lila's baby food

7:30 pm girls want a "special treat"

8:00 pm Lila's last bottle

Someone is eating almost every hour! I think I have discovered why my house is a mess, and I don't have enough time to get to it. It's because we're eating!

Excuse me while I go have a snack before bed...

just for fun

I found some gorgeous 8x10 frames at the Pottery Barn Outlet recently for a killer deal. The only problem I had was I needed some black and white pictures to fill them. So we had a little mini shoot in the back yard.

july 4

July 4th, we spent the day at Nana ad Papa's house. We had a relaxing day of cooking out and hanging out by the pool.

My fearless girl with NO swimmies on... Give me a heart attack!



Lila loves the water!

I love this face...

Precious!

The girls...

rolly poly

Lila Kate is rolling around now to get where she needs to go!

mary poppins

This morning Jason reminded me that Mary Poppins, the movie, was going to be playing at the Orpheum. The girls have really started to love this movie, and it is also a favorite of mine. They love the song "Let's Go Fly a Kite".

The whole family headed downtown. We were running late (huge shocker). As we entered into the Orpheum, Ava had a mini meltdown. Mary Poppins was standing in the lobby.

Ava is my child that has a fear of seeing characters in real life. This was no different. She started screaming and demanded that I pick her up. I am pretty sure she had the death grip around my neck for at least the first 30 minutes of the movie.

Emma, however, was a different story. She loved Mary. In fact, we couldn't stop her from hugging Mary after the movie.

After the movie, they had students from Memphis College of Art doing sidewalk chalk drawings in front of the Orpheum.


Fun day!

6 months and a crafty frame

I am so behind on blogging.

Even so, I am going to skip ahead because yesterday was someone's half -birthday!

What is Lila Kate doing at 6 months?

• rolling to get where she needs to go (pics to come later)
• almost crawling
• her thunder thighs are still the talk of the town (so precious)
• talks, smiles and laughs all the time
• loves the exersaucer
• wakes up happy in the morning
• has the same hairdo Ava had when she was a baby, down in the front and sticking up on the very top of her head

Last night I was needing more frames for some pictures I had, but I was not wanting to go out in the bad weather. So I decided to get a little creative.

All we did was paint one of the cheap boards from Hobby Lobby (I think this one was a $1.50), and then distress it. Next, we took bronzed furniture nails and hung the picture to the board. Super easy! I need to buy a smaller easel, but that project will be for another day!

blessings

At lunch today, Emma began to say thank you to God for our food. I love to hear how her prayers and her understanding have begun to evolve. A year ago, she would say thank you for Jesus. Six months ago, she began saying thank you for Jesus and that He died on the cross. As of the last week her prayer has been, "Thank you God for Jesus and that He died on the cross to save us from our sins."

My prayer is that she and all my girls would fully understand the gravity of that statement. That they would ask Him to do just that. That He would be their Redeemer, Saviour and Friend. And that Jason and I would realize that the best way for her to come to a saving knowledge of Christ, is to talk the talk and also walk the walk before her.

What an awesome responsibility He has entrusted to us!

member night at the zoo

We love our zoo membership. It has already paid for itself many times over. Since moving back, we have really tried to take advantage of all that Memphis has to offer.

The girls loved going to the zoo at night. They thought it was so much fun to walk around the zoo in the dark, and they were so interested to see what the animals did at night. A special bonus for them was that all the rides were open and were free. You see, they have a mean momma who will not waste her money on those rides:)

5 months... at almost 6 months

Things have been CRAZY.

We've moved. Again.

We knew when we moved to Memphis that the house we were initially going to stay in was only temporary. Hello! It was only 900 square feet.

But, we now have a bigger house. We were and are so thankful for wonderful friends that blessed us with a roof over our heads during the transition of moving here.

Things I have learned from living in a small space...

1. 2 adults, 3 kids and 3 cats are not conducive to 900 square feet
2. I need space.
3. Having just one bathroom with that many people should be considered a form of torture... make that one bathroom with no lock. Yep, no privacy. Even while you're using the toilet.
4. Sharing a bedroom with a baby... also not fun.
5. Once you go king, you cannot go back. Ever since we have been married, Jason and I have slept on a king size bed. During our stay in 900 square feet, we had the full size bed from our guest bedroom as our bed. Never again...
6. These complaints are really nothing. 900 square feet is really not a problem. How many people are going to bed tonight without roofs over their head? How dare I even think about complaining...

But on to my baby who is determined to not be a baby for long. Here's some pics of Miss Lila Kate at 5 months.




Oh, that smile. It's contagious.

We are now eating solids 3 times a day along with our bottle. Lila will eat anything you give her. Huge shocker, I know.

Oh, and she's still a momma's girl:)