Friday, August 15, 2008

Ellie's Birthday


Thanks for making the incredible cake Amy!

What else do you do for an August birthday in Texas?

Ellie loves all of her new presents!

The care bear went everywhere with Ellie

Sweet girls loving their cake

Fun in the bounce house

Fun Cupcakes
The Yummy Cake!

Early Morning Birthday Picture

Amy is running today....

I think I have it figured out that my friend Amy is running this morning which is Friday night Beijing time. They just mentioned it on the today show and I think it will be on around 11:00 tonight. Set your tivo if you can't watch it. I know you will enjoy it. There are 32 women in the 10k and her goal is the top 10. She will be running against many ethiopians etc....Her teammate Kara Goucher has a chance to medal. Go Amy!
* She didn't do very well... I'm wondering if she didn't feel well. Her teammates both did incredible and one got the bronze which an american has never done in this event.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

Growing like crazy....


So we went to the doctor today for Ellie's 3 year old appointment and Anna's 18 month old appointment. It was quite the experience and we were there for almost 2 hours so you can only imagine the fun we had in our little room! The girls are actually catching up on height. They are both at the 50th percentile. We've never been above the 25th percentile so I was a little shocked! However, they are looking like they are going to be tall and skinny! They are both below the 5th percentile for weight. Ellie weighed 24 pounds and Anna weighed 19 pounds. I got the questions on are they eating enough etc.... It seems like that is all they do is ask for a snack or more food! However, she is not worried since they both follow the exact same curve which will be great for the clothes situation. I think Anna will be a little taller as they get older cause her foot is growing all the time compared to Ellie's. They both got shots which went really well and of course we had a little potty adventure. We were almost to the car and Ellie starts pulling down her pants on the sidewalk. I caught her and we ran back into the dr.'s office for her to go potty. While we were in there Anna got into the open trash can and found a urine sample cup and put it up to her mouth. SICK! Those little hands can find anything it seems these days! The doctor was not worried at all about Anna's motor skills as she was pushing a chair around and crawling up into it. I almost laughed when she asked if Anna could climb, run, or throw things? ha ha! She get to go to timeout numerous times a day for these three things! Ellie is off to the dentist on Friday. I'm already looking forward to it.....

Monday, August 11, 2008

The weekend at Possum Kingdom Lake...


Our Community Group took this weekend and went to Possum Kingdom Lake. With 10 adults and 9 kids there was never a dull moment. The weekend was filled with 4 wheeling (apparently people from Arizona call it "quading"), water skiing, wakeboarding, tubing, cliff jumping, napping, grilling on a big green egg, hanging out by the pool, and encouraging each other to grow closer as couples, and closer to the Lord. You may be thinking, how could you do that much with that many kids running around? We're just that awesome.
I was reminded this weekend of what the new testament church is really supposed to look like. We experienced community in a great way, and I'm now trying to convince everyone to sell their houses, and begin the search for a house that's big enough for all of us here in Dallas. It's taking some work to convince them...-Mike

My friend Amy...

Here's a little spotlight on my friend Amy who runs on August 15th at the Olympics...

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Run Away....

Anna is for sure an 18 month old in its fullest! She is so different than Ellie was at this age.  Ellie had barely been walking and she also had a new baby sister. Wow those were the days. I am uncertain sometimes how to handle certain situations cause I really didn't face them with Ellie. Anna is everywhere and exploring everything. I know some of this comes with her age. However, I think she is starting to understand boundaries. I was wondering how my blogging friends with toddlers would handle these situations. Tonight, I took the girls to the mall playground to play. Anna loves it and is very good at climbing on everything. She is always content just playing there. However, tonight she was intrigued by something outside of the playground or wanted to play chase with me. I'm not sure which one was going on in her mind. However, she ran out of the playground about 5 times and then a few times kept running away from me down the hallway. She seems to do this a lot even at home when I am trying to change her diaper etc....I was firm with her each time tonight and spanked her hand/thigh in private! I made her sit by me in t.o., but this doesn't really work at her age. I eventually told them we had to leave cause Anna was being disobedient. I can see this needing to happen more in the future. I don't want to stay and reward them if they are misbehaving. She also loves to try and get out of her high chair. It is another situation I don't know how to handle. I know that I have about 3-4 months until she will really get it. She is such a sweetie and I love her lack of fear. I can sense that she will be a leader with lots of determination and I don't want to hold her back. However, I need her to listen to mommy! Do you all have any suggestions? On a more funny note...we've had some more adventures in potty training. We were out somewhere yesterday and I already had Anna in the car seat. Ellie told me she needed to go potty and there was no way I was going to get Anna out along with the stroller and go back into the bathroom cause that is a 20 minute process. I let Ellie go potty on the ground and she loved it! Tonight, at the mall once again Anna was in her car seat and Ellie had to go potty so she got to go on the ground again. I'm wondering if she is just tricking me cause she thinks it is fun to go on the ground. Life is funny these days......

Colorado....

                          At least a two of us are looking at the camera!
                            Anna had to spend some time in the bjorn again!
                               Ellie conquered her fear of the big swings.
                                    A beautiful river along a hike we took.
                                      Family picture on another hike.
                                     Ellie and Ellis at a horse stable. 
                                 Ellie: "Why does daddy make me do these things?"
                               Best friends! I love Ellie's legs in this picture.

We had a great time on our vacation to Pagosa Springs, Colorado. It is near Durango and such a beautiful place. I think it is my favorite in Colorado. We met our friends Cassie and Trevor there. They have two children close to the same age as ours. It was so fun to have another family with us. Our kids are on the same schedule and really play well together. Ellie loves Ellis. They have known each other since birth when we both lived in Virginia. Our timeshare was in a beautiful area with a lake and incredible views. We did lots of swimming, playing, hiking, and ice cream trips! Mike and Trevor played golf a few times. We traded off on baby-sitting so we each got to go out without the kids. Mike and I went to hot springs in Pagosa. There were 20 different hot springs that you got to soak in while overlooking the down town river. It was really neat and so fun for us to be away! We had many funny memories and I'm glad we ventured a road trip to get there. The girls did really well and it wasn't so bad. I loved the weather since it is 100 degrees here everyday!

Sunday, August 3, 2008

Almost 3.....

Ellie turns 3 in two days. Where has the time gone? I've been so remembering her early days this weekend. She is so sweet and this morning ran up to me saying "I love you mommy"! I got a little teary eyed knowing that her little heart is full of so much emotion and kindness (most the time)! More to come.....

Friday, August 1, 2008

A little dirty....

Here's a little video of Ellie playing at a river in CO. She loved throwing the rocks and could care less about getting muddy. Sorry about the camera action. I guess you can tell who shot the video?

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Ice Cream and The Pool.....

It seems like most of our summer days involve both of these at some point. It is still very hot here almost to where I am used to seeing 100 degrees at some point during the day whether in my car or on a bank sign. We cannot play outside or go on walks. I guess we could at night, but I normally go to the gym in the morning. I think we've almost visited all the city pools in our area. We have our favorites and all of them are very fun. The girls are becoming little fish and even Ellie is overcoming her fears of the water. Anna is crazy and loves the water. I hope to get a video of her soon in the water. We bought her some sort of floatation thing that is amazing. It is a little shirt that comes half way down with an tube going around her. It is so nice cause I don't have to hold on to her the whole time. We always see people we know at the pool which is fun or I meet my play group girls there. I love to get ice cream in the summer so I thought I'd give you a list of our faves.....
#1- Braum's:it is mainly only in the south (OK, AR, TX).... I love a single dip sundae of german chocolate ice cream with caramel topping and pecans! It is super cheap and where we go the most. We can also buy our milk there so that is nice since we are always almost out!
#2 TCBY: White chocolate mousse in a cone and Mike loves the raspberry sorbet. Wednesday is 99 cent cone day.
#3 McDonald's : Ice Cream is the only thing we get there. However, they have a fun play area and I can get a sundae for $1 while the girls play.
#4 DQ: Dipped cone yummmyyyy.
#5 Cold Stone: Mike's favorite, but I don't like to pay $4 for a dip of ice cream. We only go there on a date.

What are your favorites? I hope you are enjoying this last day of July.....

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

Bye Bye Diaper Day!

Well, I feel like we have been saying this oh since about April! We traveled so much this summer that it was nearly impossible to stay consistent with p.t.. Ellie has her own little personality and for sure her own time table of when she is ready for things.  I can say that we enjoyed the paci till she was 2 1/2 and diapers till she is almost 3 (next week)! We just got her big girl bed and she never has tried to climb out of her crib. However, I can tell that now she is totally ready for both. She stayed dry all morning and was very excited. When I tried before she screamed every time I tried to sit her on the potty when we were out. We still enjoyed quite the experience of going potty in Target, but it was cause Anna is pulling everything out and touching who knows what while I was holding Ellie. Anna is a totally different personality. She's fearless and has done everything very early. I'm hoping it will be the same with p.t.. This morning Ellie said "Anna go potty to" and Anna always is pulling on her clothes when she sees Ellie. I put Ellie on the big potty and Anna on the little potty. Anna went right away and immediately started clapping. She also requested and m&m like her sister. She's one smart girl. She also has figured out how to climb up onto a chair and then onto the table. These girls are keeping me busy, but I love to see them grow. God is so good to me for their health and sweet spirits. Tonight, is bye bye crib night! More to come.....

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Road Trip Conquered....

Well, we did our road trip to and from Colorado. We all survived and it went really well. I have to admit in the past I would always be so confused when people would say their children traveled so well. I always was a little jealous and thought I can honestly say our children do not travel well either by car or plane. They've traveled so much and it has never been easy to this point. I was really nervous about this drive to Southwest Colorado. I was praying so much the week before for them to enjoy it and for us to have patience etc... The way there we drove straight through and it took us about 14 hours with all the stops. We watched many movies and had many snacks etc... I knew if we could get to dinner time that we would be fine cause they always sleep really well at night in the car. I couldn't believe how well it went and there were no major stressful things that occurred. We had such an awesome time in Pagosa Springs, CO. Our friends joined us and it was so fun. Our kids played so well together and our girls slept well the whole time. Ellie has never been a fan of sleeping in new places, but now that her and Anna can share a room they do great! They shared a bathroom together this week it was pretty funny, but it worked really well! I will post more pictures from our trip when I get them uploaded onto the computer. We split the trip up on the way home and it was so nice. We drove about 9 hours yesterday and did the rest today. The girls did great once again. Mike did such a great job driving us on this journey and solving all of our electronic problems. Yesterday, our radio/cd/dvd outlets all would not work. We had to stop at an auto zone to get a new fuse. We are now home and it is time to get caught up on laundry. It was our last trip of the summer and I am a little sad. We've had such a fun summer and I am looking forward to the fall. However, this week I think we will be spending lots of time at the pool cause they said tonight a slight cold front would move through Dallas this week and drop the temperature to 102 degrees! Colorado was so nice in the summer with highs in the upper 70's!

Sunday, July 20, 2008

Vacation in Colorado Part 1...

I took this picture with my iphone this morning around 6:30 a.m. from my balcony in Pagosa Springs, Colorado. We (my wife and 2 kids) arrived last night around midnight, so we had no idea what to expect when we woke up. Pagosa is in the Southwest part of the state near Durango. This may sound crazy, but I actually like it better than the rockies up in Estes Park. There's a lot more color here. And I can promise you this, after living in Dallas for a year I was ready for some color (anything other than concrete). That's not a bash on Dallas, but bragging on God's handywork here in Colorado. It truly is beautiful here. I've only been here for about 18 hours, and I can already say this is going to be a place I'd like to come back to every year. One of the reasons is there's not a lot of people here. You can truly have sabbath here, and practice the presence of God a lot easier than our busy lives in whatever city we live in. Most of our blog readers should appreciate this since most of you are in decent sized cities (yes, I am watching you :) This morning we went to Centerpoint Church in Pagosa and worshiped with the folks there. It was pretty similar the church I worked at in seminary, so it gave my wife and I some fun flashbacks to our days in North Carolina. I actually contacted the youth pastor there ahead of time and asked him if he had any good babysitters. Is that weird if I'd never met him? David will probably think so.
Our friends the Oakes are going to be coming in tonight to stay with us for the week, and we are so pumped to see them and get to spend our vacation with them. I'll update more soon!!!

Thursday, July 17, 2008

I love my Anna....


I took this video the other day and I love Anna's little voice. Ellie had to be in the video as well. She is very in to wearing "unique" clothing for nap time, but it helps her take one so I am all for it. She found one of Mike's old student ministry shirts and she loves to wear it. 

Texas Friends

Ellie and Caleb on the 4th of July. I love their faces!
Sweet friends! They are about 7-8 months younger than Ellie.
We often join others for lunch and it is always "interesting"!
A few of our play group friends waiting for the train.

We've had a fun summer with our little Texas friends. It is neat to finally connect with other moms and our kids enjoy playing together. I am so thankful for this blessing of friendship. It means so much to me and is a real answer to prayer. Ellie loves to see her friends and talks about them all the time. I look forward to seeing them all grow up and we all pass through these trying days of tantrums, picky-eating, paci's, potty training and naps.

"Mom, I want a bath...."

The other day I couldn't find Anna anywhere. I went into the bathroom and found her in the bathtub sitting in her bath seat. She climbs on everything and can get pretty high. She is giving me quite a few scares these days, but I try not to hold her back. She is hilarious to watch at the mall play ground cause she thinks she can do anything and is not afraid to try! I love her spirit and determination. She is still so sweet and mommy's girl most of the time!

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

"It's a Bad Night to be an Atheist"

Last night Josh Hamilton set a record during the Home Run Derby. He hit 28 home runs in the first round of the competition. After all the greats that have ever played; Ruth, Mantle, Sosa, etc..., Hamilton beat all of them. I just kept saying one word last night; "unbelievable." The greatest thing about Josh is his story. If you haven't heard it, you can read a great blog post by Peter Gammons here. He was addicted to Heroine, was a bad husband, father, and God completely turned his life around. The commentators last night couldn't stop talking about his story, and how he had found God, and then one of the guys made a pretty interesting comment; "it's a bad night to be an atheist." Josh chalks everything up in his life to God. His story is God's story. Josh is just happy to be a part of God's story, and He's doing something very unique with him. While experience (stories) is never the first thing we would use to argue for the existence of God, it's hard to deny the turn that Josh has made and who the author is behind it all. On a personal note, the last church we worked at is the church that Josh attends when he is home in Raleigh, North Carolina. He got baptized there, and is very close with many people in the church. I got to meet him a little over a year ago, and I can say that he is completely changed, transformed, and his story is legit. He is an amazing guy, and a big congrats to Josh and his family.

Saturday, July 12, 2008

A fun and tiring week....

So I've decided this has been the best summer we've had since seminary days or when we worked at kanakuk! I feel like we are always on the go or enjoying time at home. I had a great week this week with friends and Mike. Here's a random summer week for us. What's yours like?
Swim at a new city pool (Texans love their city pool!)
Ice Cream almost every day
Reintroduce potty-training to Ellie.
I did a garage sale today. It was interesting to say the least, but I got rid of lots of junk!
A trip on the city train with my play group girls to a fun shopping area with the kids.
Sweltering in the 100+ degree heat everyday. Tuesday night community group.
Many messes and meltdowns this week. I went to the gym consecutive days in a row.
I showered at the gym which was very peaceful. I ordered Ellie's big girl bed (yes, my almost 3 year old loves her crib!) Five Guys Burgers opened in Dallas yummy....
I went to a fun baby shower for my friend, Katrina.
Mike sold his old iphone for more than the new one costs!
Swimming twice in one day on Wednesday and more baby pool today.
A little worried about what our electric bill will cost this month?
Mike's Moonwalks is back in business ha ha... He's getting lots of calls lately.
Mike and I wishing we had family in town to baby-sit and cause we miss them.
I'm about to start a new Beth Moore study and I'm so excited!
My sweet husband watched the girls for 3 hours while I cleaned the house and did some errands. It is amazing what I can get done when everyone is out of the house!

I hope you all have a great Saturday!

Friday, July 11, 2008

Mike's blog...

Check out my sweet hubby's blog post about Camp Barnabas. He did such a great job!

Wednesday, July 9, 2008

Baby-Wise/Attachment parenting...

My good friend April just wrote a really interesting post on attachment parenting vs. baby-wise method. We did mostly baby-wise except more of the laid-back version of only keeping a schedule. Ellie had 3 paci's till she was 2 1/2 and it was so nice. I think the Ezzo's would have not agreed with that position! Anyways, I thought you all would enjoy reading her thoughts. I must say she has the cutest most well-behaved "Texan" children! I've only seen Anna Kate in the cutest dresses and a bow to match everyday! Here's the link to April's blog.

Tuesday, July 8, 2008

Ellie Grace....

Ellie has been making me laugh lots lately along with the frustration of becoming more independent. I love the way she just thinks out loud and says whatever she is thinking at the current moment. Here are a few of her new things.....
Mommy: Ellie we are going to see our friend Caleb today.
Ellie: What's his last name? What's my last name? She now likes to tell me her name is Edie Shelton. We started calling her "Edie" sometimes cause that is what she called herself for a really long time when she couldn't say Ellie. Today, we saw our friend Carsen and she immediately said what's Carsen's last name?

Ellie has always been a "tomboy" and loves Lightning McQueen so much more than Dora etc...
I love to tease her and say do you want to wear your princess pajamas or something and she said to me out of the blue "NO mommy, I'm a super-hero".

Ellie loves any kind of strange animal, reptile etc... so you can imagine yesterday as we were reading our children's Bible and we were reading Adam and Eve. She was only wanting to read about the serpent. I didn't quite know how to explain the snake to her so I just said he was a naughty snake.

We were driving the other day and she always asks me what every single place on the road is called. We drove past Wal-Mart and I said "Ellie that's Wal-Mart; we love to go there."
She said "No, that is Target"! I love to go to Target as well, but try not to as Wal-Mart is so much less expensive!

Anyways, I hope you all are having a great afternoon in nice, cool weather. Texas heat is crazy and I knew it would be like this I just have to get used to it. We've been going to the pool almost every night. I'm excited to try a new pool in the morning before it gets to hot! I think this weekend every day is supposed to be over 100 degrees. Enjoy!

Monday, July 7, 2008

Myrtle Beach trip...

Ellie loved the beach and playing in the sand!
                              We did lots of swimming and had so much fun!
                        Anna is now feeding herself!! Meals in peace!
               Ellie made a froggie at build a bear that she loves so much!
                      We went to eat seafood at Calabash, NC! Yummm!!
We went to a fun alligator/snake/reptile adventure! 

Friday, June 27, 2008

My friend Amy...

Well, it is 12:45 A.M. and I am watching the USA network in tears cause one of my best friends Amy Begley just made the olympic team in the 10,000 meters. It was amazing cause she fought like I have never seen anyone race before. She had to be in the top three women, but she also had to meet an olympic standard A time which was under 31:45 and she ran 31:43. She is now 30 years old and we were roommate our freshman year at AR and have ran many miles together. We've always kept up with each other and were in each others weddings. She has an awesome husband who has followed her all across the country supporting her. I love her family and I cannot imagine her mom and dad right now in the stadium. Anyways, I am sure there will be a youtube video soon of her race/last couple of minutes that I will post soon. You could probably watch her race tomorrow night as well on NBC I think it is at 8:00. It was just so amazing to watch it live and see her running her victory lap with the American flag. Cheer her on in Beijing!

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

The beach and teeth....

Well, I'm just checking in for a few minutes. I've been at Myrtle Beach for the past few days with my parents and the girls. Mike is at Camp Barnabas with the students. We had a great time in Myrtle. I will post pictures soon. The girls did so well and had so much fun. Ellie was not ready to come home and Anna seems to be changing daily. She loves the water and any sort of adventure so the beach and a water park were definetly a blast for her. Ellie loved the beach as well which is so funny cause this time last year she hated it and would throw a fit if sand got on her feet. Myrtle is definetly a great place for kids so if you are ever looking for a great beach destination with your family I recommend it! Tomorrow morning I am getting 3 wisdom teeth removed (fun fun)....The dentist said I am in the middle of how bad they are and that the recovery should be pretty normal. I went tonight to the pharmacy to pick up all my medicine. They don't knock you out anymore, but they do give you a medicine to make you really drowsy and then some nitrous oxide. I am just ready to get it over with as I have been wanting to do it for a few years, but the timing was always bad. We either had horrible dental insurance or I was pregnant etc... I'm going to my mom's dentist that I 've seen a few times. They are great and it will be nice to have help with the kids. Mike is doing awesome and loving camp. I miss him and can't wait to see him in a week. The girls have been talking about "daaaee" as Anna says all the time. He was so jealous when he found out we got to go to dinner in Calabash, NC which has some of his favorite seafood. Anyways, I'll update you again when I am awake and able to function!

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Summer Time....

It seems like our summer is flying by and has been so busy I've hardly had time to get reorganized between trips. Actually, two suitcases are still in our garage somewhat unpacked. We've been to Colorado and a quick trip to Lawrence to visit Mike's family and for a wedding. We had a great time visiting mimi and granddaddy. The girls really enjoyed getting to spend extended time with them. Ellie loves all the little treasures in their house and neat books that Mike used to read. We celebrated Mike's birthday a little early with them and went to Longhorn Steakhouse which was on the East Coast as well. We got to see some of our really good friends in Kansas City and enjoy our time at Bode's wedding. He and Mike work together at Watermark. We got home and it seems like it is almost time to leave again. Mike leaves for Camp Barnabas on Monday for 8 days and I leave Friday to go to my parents house for 12 days. I have to stay a little longer cause we are going on vacation for a few days in Myrtle Beach and then I'm getting my wisdom teeth out next Thursday (yuck). I'm not looking forward to it, but my dentist there is great and I haven't found anyone in Dallas. I'm so excited about going to Myrtle. We went there so many times when we lived in Raleigh and always loved it. Mike is really excited about taking the high school students to Camp Barnabas. It is just like Kanakuk, but is for disabled children. Our students will be helping them one on one throughout the week.
Ellie has been in swimming lessons the past two weeks. It is another post in itself. HA! We've worked through lots of fear issues and giving our struggles over to God. Today, we just played in the water instead of forcing her to go under etc... She did much better without forcing her and I actually saw a little smile on her face. She normally is screaming when we pull into the parking lot and saying "I scared of water, Go Home". We have one more day since I will miss on Friday. We'll see maybe she will love it tomorrow?! Anna is changing everyday. She is enjoying feeding herself and climbing on everything! I hope you all have a great rest of the week!

Sunday, June 15, 2008

The Best Daddy.....



I am so blessed today to have two examples in my life as incredible father's. Mike is such an awesome daddy to our girls. He is so selfless and has so much fun with them. He has an abundance of energy that amazes me as he plays with the girls and gives me so many breaks. He loves to teach them about Jesus and read to them every night. He is always creative in what we do as a family and our family album is already full of so many amazing experiences. We just flew home today from Kansas as we were at a wedding and visited Lawrence. The picture shows a great picture of how Mike is selfless. Many dad's would be overwhelmed by traveling with two toddlers, but Mike just goes with the flow and helps me so much. He pushes our double stroller like a pro and it has two car seats attached to it! We often times have a pack n play, suitcases, etc... He serves me so well and our girls are so blessed! I tell him often that how he helps with the kids is amazing and I don't really care if he helps me clean etc.... Almost, every Friday or Saturday morning he gives me the morning off and he takes the girls to do something fun. I love the way Ellie and Anna light up when he comes to the door at the end of the day. I am so proud of him as a daddy and as a husband. He challenges me and is the rock behind our family! I love you, Mike!
I also want to tell my dad how thankful I am for him as a father. My dad and I have always been very close. We are a lot alike and enjoy so many of the same things. I know that my dad prays for us daily and that is what is most important to me. He has always sacrificially loved us and given us so much. He was always there for me as a child/young adult. He has seen me shoot thousands of baskets and run hundreds of miles. Ellie and Anna are so blessed to have a papa like you!

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Estes Park....

Well, I finally got our pictures up from Estes Park. We loved family camp and I hope we always have the opportunity to go in the future. We formed such great relationships with our church family in a much smaller setting. There were about 300 of us who journeyed by car or plane to Estes. I am so glad that we went by plane as I cannot imagine driving home with the girls after a week of camp. Mike and I hung out with the students every morning in Bible study and Mike went back at night for all kind of different activities. Our hallway was so much fun and full of kids! There were 36 kids under seven years old on our hallway of 10 rooms. Ellie loved playing with the big kids and letting them take care of her. Every night we got to go to the evening program. We had awesome worship and then a share time. All the children over 3 years old then came in for a fun night of skits and games with their parents. The only bummer part of the week was that I got really sick the first two days and ended up in the E.R. to get an iv and nausea medicine. I was so sick and could not have recovered without some meds. I had a really bad virus and ended up dehydrated. I am so thankful for Mike who balanced me, kids, and his job so well! I was so well taken care of by so many and really got to enjoy the rest of the week. The YMCA in Estes Park is an awesome place for big groups. We could give any of you details if your church or family would be interested. Our church goes every other year and has it booked for many years to come. We are now recovering and getting used to the summer heat of Texas. It was so fun to see snow and experience cold weather for a week!
What the kids did instead of taking a nap each day!
We all went sledding on our free day. There was still lots of snow!
Student Ministry Crew in the park
All the "little" ones who wimped out during sledding!
We went sledding at the continental divide!
Ellie and her good friend Emily Jane
We saw lots of Elk and other animals
Family picture in Rocky Mtn. National Park
Where are Ellie's shoes?
I think I will always love this picture

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Colorado Round One....




We went to CO a few days early to see our friends Trevor and Cassie. We had a great time and loved seeing our kids play together. They are all almost the same age and could easily pass for twins. I love the picture of Ellie and Elllis. They are so funny together and we had a great night in Boulder together! I have many more pictures from our time in Estes Park at family camp. I am way to tired to even think about it tonight. We got home this afternoon and I am so thankful for the opportunity to get to know so many more families from Watermark. We learned so much while we were there and God showed us so much about His grace and love!