Captivated: July 2009

it's a whopper!

Today we spent the morning doing 4th of July crafts with friends...the girls made super cute t-shirts to wear for tomorrow (great idea Laurie)! When we were done we headed over to meet our friends Mitch and Karmelle and their daughter Clare, who were in town visiting Karmelle's mom. Karmelle's parents live on a great lot outside of town with a fishing pond. Mitch and Levi set up the poles and got Ezri set to catch a fish...and what do you know...they really caught one! This was Ezri's first experience reeling in a fish and she seemed to really enjoy it! The thing was huge! Mitch was great about making Ezri feel like it was her catch (even thought he did all the work). Eden wasn't too interested and preferred playing with Clare and reading books with Ms. Terri. After cleaning the whopper and hanging out for awhile, we headed back to our house to BBQ that fish! Mitch prepared it for us and Ezri loved eating her catch! We really enjoy hanging out with the Richard's...Levi and Mitch played football at Central together and it's so fun now to watch our daughters playing together!

camping in sunlakes

This past weekend we went camping in Sun Lakes with our small group, my folks, and one other set of parents. We have been so blessed by our small group and cherish the relationships Levi and I, as well as the girls are building. It was so much fun to spend the weekend together, and great to have my parents with us. We were quite the crowd...all 7 families...but it was really a blast.

Within moments of getting out of the car Eden was covered in dirt and ash from the fire pit she chose to sit in! The weather was beautiful...in spite of a mighty wind storm that tried to blow us away Saturday night. My parents brought the boat, which was fun but a little crazy on such a small lake...yikes! So we decided to enjoy the water from the beach instead.

Friday night I woke up to the sound of rustling and crunching, only to discover a raccoon had opened our food box and pulled out a bag of Kettle chips (he had to choose the expensive ones). After getting Levi up, he shooed the critter away and secured our food, only to discover he chose to hit everyone elses sites too. He enjoyed cheese-its, trail mix, and more...those raccoons must love camping season!

Eden after sitting in the fire pit

Peek-a-boo daddy!

beach bathing beauty

dig...dig...dig

Emily and Ezri in the inner tube

Audrey and Eden...sand buddies

I love the dirt!

Emily and Ezri had to go potty and couldn't make to the restroom, we told them to walk out in the water to cover their bums and go....when we looked over this is what we saw...oops! No hiding what they were doing :)

The boys are just drawn to Levi...Braiden and Tristen were have water wars with him...we now have surrogate sons!

"Take me home I'm cooked" Most the kiddo's before we headed home Sunday...you can they're wiped out!

Thanks for such a special weekend friends!

vbs painting

Vacation Bible School at our church is such a fun and exciting ministry to our community! The church is transformed into new places for the kids to discover the truth of Jesus in...and I just love being a part of it. Having little ones not old enough to attend, I usually volunteer to help decorate. This year the theme was wildwood forrest and I decorated the worship center. My room was "misty meadow." Because the sanctuary is so big, I had to paint a mural 27 feet x 9 feet...needless to say it took me about 35 hours to paint. Here are a couple pics of the mural, before we were completely done decorating the stage.

preschool celebration

Ezri had her end of the year preschool celebration a couple weeks ago. We had to postpone it because Mrs. G had her baby...a precious little boy, but rescheduled for June.

The party was a ocean/tropical theme. The kids sang and acted out what we call in our house "the fishy song," received their certificates, were able to show us the projects they worked on all year, had delicious snacks, and just got to play! We're so thankful for all that Ezri has learned at Jack and Jill's house this year, she's made special memories and life long friends!

singing "the fishy song"...can you spot her?

sisters playing in the sandbox with friends

the places and positions we sleep...

I was realizing how many pictures I have of Eden sleeping...that little darling is always asleep in some odd place (most often at the table) or in some cute little position (usually bum up)! Oh, to sleep like that!

cousin Kiki's graduation

Our beautiful niece Kiki graduated from high school this year...wow...so hard to believe! We are so proud of the beautiful young woman she has become and are so excited to see where the Lord takes her!

Of course we couldn't miss the special day, so made the trip to Lewsiton for the weekend. Graduation was Saturday and then her party was on Sunday! The girls love spending time with their cousin's and I don't think Ezri or Eden let Lewonne or Kiki out of their sight the whole time.

After graduation, the girls got to decorate cupcakes with Kiki...what fun!

Lewonne was so good at entertaining the girls during the graduation party, and totally amused Eden by pretending to sleep...Eden was doing it too...so cute!