First Half

Things are still swinging around here!

Monday we were up and at 'em - headed off to school. After school it was waaaaaaay beyond time for JR to have a haircut. The wonderful lady who usually cuts his hair doesn't work on Mondays and we just missed her Saturday afternoon. I wanted JR to have his hair cut before the first football game Tuesday night, so we went over to Big Daddy's office and walked down to the barber shop right down the street from him. JR LOVED it - mostly because he got to watch Disney XD the entire time.

He's not allowed to watch it at home because most of it is too mature for him and nearly all of it is way too mature for ML. I can't keep them away from a TV once it is on, so therefore the rule is - no Disney XD.

After the haircut I left JR with Big Daddy and they walked next door to his office to the Brick House to have some dinner, while ML and I headed home to eat and bake some brownies for her Kindergarten Open House!

The Open House was a ton of fun and I was able to meet even more kids in her class as well as their parents, which was so great. I finally got a picture of ML with her teacher, Ms. Atwater. ML LOVES Ms. Atwater - she really is the sweetest! ML gets in the car everyday singing songs and just so joyful! I think that says a lot about the school she is attending.

Tuesday it was back to school and then after carpools, we headed to the bank to drop off some things in the safety deposit box (like my birth certificate that I got back from the passport people sometime in March........ yep. Those kinds of things! Ha!) While I was there I remembered that I still had ML's birthday money from her great aunts and uncles in my wallet. Usually we deposit this money into her education IRA, but JR has had a savings account for some time and I thought it might be time to open one up for ML. The bank was offering to add $5 to any new savings account (a back to school special for 'junior' savers.) So we opened up ML's first savings account!

Then we headed to Wendy's to have dinner with Big Daddy. We had hoped for a sit down meal, but ran out of time. Once again I sent off one child with Big Daddy and I took off with the other. Big Daddy and ML headed to soccer practice from 5:15 to 6:00 and I headed to football with JR for his first game! But not before I picked up the cutest shirt my friend Hillary made for ML. More to come on that in a little bit.

Can't believe this is my kid!

We didn't win the game, but it was close. The parents of kids who played last year said these two teams were always #1 and #2 and they actually played each other for the area championship last year, so I think it was a toss up who would win anyway.

Here's Miss Priss in her shirt that my sweet friend over at Mint Julep Monograms made for ML. So awesome!

Finally, a pic of the new table for Katie. Nothing too exciting, but I'm pretty pumped! Looks like the whole front of our house will be getting a makeover.

Full Swing

What a week!

After Big Daddy's birthday party, things didn't slow down. Tuesday, Grandma and Grandpa Owens were still in town, so ML stayed home from school to play with them. Then we checked JR out of school and we all had lunch with Big Daddy and then went home to play with Grandma and Grandpa.

That night, Grandma and Grandpa Owens helped us out tremendously by taking JR to football practice from 5:30 to 7:30, while Big Daddy went to coach ML's soccer practice from 5:15 to 6:00 and I got everything ready for our Young Adult Bible Study that happens at our house on Tuesdays from 6:30 - 8:30. Whew! It was quite an evening. Lots of moving parts, but 2 extra set of hands certainly helped!

Wednesday we got up really early to take Grandma and Grandpa Owens to the airport. But after a late night and an early morning, we were all dragging. I think this pic of ML Wednesday afternoon sums it up best:

(And yes, I've just noticed that there are no less than 4 different types of polka dot fabric in this picture. I think I might need a support group for this problem!)

I got my second wind though, because that night was super exciting, as Pam Tebow came to speak at our church at a women's event called "Girls Night Out." There was an awesome dessert bar.

The ladies who worked on this event deserve a ton of praise, including my sweet BFF. Everything was effortless, even though there was a lot of work that went into it!

Pam herself was AMAZING. I really can NOT say enough good things about this woman. She just exudes the Holy Spirit. She talked about hope and let me tell you, as a wife and mother, and child of God, it was just so refreshing. I have never left an event feeling so at peace (and isn't that what we're all striving for??? Peace??? Well, you know, except for me - I mean anyone reading this knows me already and you know I've already got it all together. Right? Right? :-)

I didn't have the courage to take a picture of Pam speaking, (plus I was mostly mesmerized by her the entire time she spoke!) but I did snap one of Nicole singing! Nicole is just amazing, has just started attending that Tuesday night Young Adult Bible Study and she just got word that she has been accepted into Hillsong University in Australia!!!! WoooHooo!!! Nicole will be the third student from our church to study at Hillsong - we are going to be sooooo blessed when these students return and share their talents with us! (Hint, hint, hint. LOL)

On Friday, I finally purchased a dining room table! I am so excited! I have been looking for one for over 5 years. I've never found exactly what I was looking for at a price I was willing to pay, but I finally found one that I liked enough and the price was right, so I jumped on it! It's by a local lady who buys, refurbishes/ paints and then resells furniture. I'm smitten.

I drove out to Big Daddy's new subdivision to take pictures for his FB page:

We also had spend the night company, which was a ton of fun for the kiddos!

Saturday was non stop. First we had ballet, then a birthday party, then another birthday party, plus a trip to the Botanical Gardens.

ML had such a great time skating at her friend Katie's Birthday party! ML has known Katie since they were in the nursery together in preschool.

And speaking of preschool, I was excited to attend the second birthday party because the birthday boy was one of ML's classmates at her 'new' school. ML misses her friends from her old preschool terribly and is always asking for a play date. The only problem is, she is out of school at 12:20, but her friends aren't out until 2:30 or later. And we have to pick up JR at 3:00 and it is non stop every night trying to do homework, feed the kids something, and get to practices on time. So no play dates yet this school year for poor ML. :-(

Luckily, I was able to meet some really nice moms at the birthday party, and I think we will have a play date in the very near future!

Sunday, I worked on getting sponsors for the CARE Center 5K,

did bags of blessings with my small group girls (who are now in 8th grade! I can't believe it!) How sweet is this picture of (three) small groups praying over the Bags of Blessings they assembled?

Bags of blessings are bags of food sent home with at risk children every weekend to be sure that kids have food, even on the weekend when they aren't at school.

JR was a little jealous that his sister had been roller skating the day before without him. He's trying to work his way up to rollerblades, so I took him to the roller rink to practice his skating before practice.

After some MORE (yeesh!) football practice, we headed to Mellow Mushroom to end the weekend with some fun with our other Bible study group!

37

On Monday we celebrated Big Daddy's Birthday.

It was a sort of thrown together at the last minute party - but aren't those the best kind? Big Daddy's parents flew in from Chicago and we had our closest friends over for dinner and cupcakes.

Speaking of the cupcakes, I tried The Corner House recipe for brownie cupcakes and cookies and cream icing and they were amazing! But I didn't crush my oreo crumbs enough and so my decorating tip was clogged and mine didn't *quite* look like the original. But they still tasted good - that's all that matters right? Right?

Happy Birthday Big Daddy!

Back to Life

Not sure why, but for some reason, I just haven't wanted to post these pictures.

I should be MORE than excited about the kids going back to school. After all, I have about a million projects to finish that will go sooooooo much faster without all their 'help.' Like our office remodel. I still haven't even picked out a paint color!

(Neither of those colors are going to work BTW. The one on the left is waaaay too much like our bedroom paint color - not the look I was going for. And the one on the right? Can you say - Hello 1980's Country Blue? All it needs is a few pink painted hearts and we'd be set. This color falls under 'what was I thinking in the paint store?' Ha!)

but for whatever reason, I just haven't found the motivation to get these pictures posted!

Maybe it's been all the other things going on. Like Pinterest? Anyone else hooked?? I suddenly find myself wanting to scour our city for any type of bargain and paint it and turn it into something amazing. Like this lamp:

$4 at the thrift store. 1 hour and 1 awesome assistant later:

Love it! I know you can't tell by the photo on here, but it is the lightest green color, Sea Anemone by Martha Stewart, and I am in l-o-v-e.

We've also started into fall sports. This year we've taken the leap that every mother dreads - full contact football.

I can not believe that is my baby out there!

He looks so big!

And speaking of big, here, finally, are our first day of school pictures:

I'm not going to lie, it was a little difficult to focus these pictures through the tears:

Thankfully, my camera has an automatic setting.

Time

My parents used to have a bumper sticker on the back of our Ford Aerostar (yep, yep..... the old Aerostar!) minivan that read, "The best thing to spend on your children is time." True. that.

With that in mind, I put down my camera this past week and just enjoyed my time with my kiddos. The only images I will have to remember this sweet time are a few blurry iPhone pics. It was our final week of summer and we celebrated in the most summer-y way we knew how.

By nearly giving ourselves a heat stroke braving the masses at the Mouse House:

And by cooling off in the best pool in the whole world:

And having even more fun in the sun at the beach:

And so, we bid a fond farewell to Summer 2011. It has been one amazing summer, one we won't forget any time soon! This week we start Kindergarten and Second Grade. Where does the time go????

These are days you remember.