Birthday Celebrations

Micah, our first born child, turned eight years old on Friday. Amazing how quickly the time has gone by. In three and half weeks he will be finished with school for the year and will officially be heading into third grade! We are so proud of Micah ~ the precious boy he is and the young man he is becoming. He brings such joy and a lot of fun and energy into our family! How blessed we are!

Last Sunday we celebrated with David’s parents. I made a cake and grandma made terriyaki chicken and rice for dinner, at Micah’s request. Spiderman is still a big hit and he seemed to steal the show this year! Spidey was everywhere!

On his actual birthday, we started the day by visiting the aquarium. This is always a favorite for Micah. It is amazing to me to see the strange and incredible creatures that God has created! You definitely have to watch out with things in the sea. Things aren’t always what they seem…

This little guy (a puffer fish) had the most incredible teeth! He flashed me a big toothy grin a couple times, but I couldn’t quite catch the full effect.

Upside-down jellyfish ~ aren’t they cool?!

For some strange reason I have the most difficult time getting my children to cooperate in front of the camera. Here is the result of my attempt at capturing something nice in front of that lovely rose bush…oh well. They’re cute anyway!

After the aquarium we came home to open gifts. It didn’t take Micah long to break into the Legos.

For dinner Micah requested the following:

• Grill-Roasted Whole Chicken with BBQ Sauce
• Broccoli and Cauliflower
• Baked Beans
• Watermelon

 Not your typical 8-year-old birthday dinner, but I’m not complaining! It was quite tasty.

Saturday we headed to the Dallas Zoo. They had a great new exhibit called Stingray Bay where we were able to feed and touch the stingrays. It’s a travelling exhibit so it will only be there through the summer. We were so glad to be able to see it.

It was such a fun weekend and I think Micah enjoyed it. Anytime he is able to see the animals is a fun time for him! Our (not so) little animal lover!

Happy Birthday, Micah! We love you!!

 

 

The Grand Finale

Abigail’s birthday partying has finally come to an end! Last Saturday we invited three families to help us celebrate. Some of our friends we had not seen in quite some time, so it was enjoyable for the grown ups as well as the kids. We started out by playing some good, old fashioned party games. Drop the Clothespin in the Jar (this one is self-explanatory!)…

The Cotton Ball Game–if you are not familiar with this game, this is how it goes. There are two bowls; one with about 12-15 cotton balls, the other empty. The kids take turns trying to scoop the cotton balls into the empty bowl, seeing how many they can move in about 30 seconds. The catch is, the one trying is blindfolded so it is almost impossible to know if there are any cotton balls on the spoon. The kids thought this one was hilarious! Here’s a picture of Isabel giving it a whirl.

 

These are games I played at birthday parties all the time when I was a kid. Thanks to my mom for reminding me of them! Good, simple fun!

Since I had already made cake twice this month, I decided to go with big sugar cookies for the kids to frost. Fun for them and I didn’t have to frost all the cookies!

Happy Birthday, Abigail!

 

Highlights from ‘07, Part 2

Continuing our journey through 2007…

On the 4th of July we spent the day with some friends in the country at the home of our friend’s grandparents. It was a fun day of fishing, food, fellowship, and fireworks! The kids enjoyed being out exploring and getting dirty in the mud. Micah caught his first fish, which was a highlight for him. He will tell you that Dad caught it, but we give Micah the credit because he reeled it in after David hooked it (is that correct fisherman language?). Here he is with his big catch!

Playin’ in the mud…

Mid-July brought Isabel’s 3rd birthday. We celebrated with an Elmo party for the second year in a row!

One other highlight of the summer…we finally left the world of diapers behind! It was a big milestone, but bittersweet at the same time–at least for me. David wanted to start potty training Isabel when she was about 18 months, I think! But even though it is nice to move out of that phase of parenthood, it’s hard to see your babies growing up. (Sorry, no picture for this one!!)

The Autumn winds brought with it some special visitors from the North! My sister, Heidi, and her family came for a visit in September. It has been several years since all four of them have been here together.  We went to a baseball game (Abigail’s first Rangers game!) and visited the zoo. For the most part we just enjoyed hanging out together and letting the kids play.

One of the most significant events of the past year was David’s ordination. It was such a blessing to watch him take this next step in ministry. Several of our friends came to support him when he stood before the elders for consideration and his family came when he was prayed for before the congregation. An added blessing to this event was our good friend, Jerry Brown (president of Leadership Vistas), also went through the ordination process along with David. He is the gentleman standing to the left of David in the picture (with the light-colored shirt); David is kneeling.

Christmas this year was nice, but seemed a little quieter than years past.  We missed having David’s brother, Bruce, and his family with us this year, but his other brother, Aaron, and his family were able to come from Florida. Our kids are always excited to see their cousins, Ashley and Johnathan. A couple days before Christmas we had a big family dinner at David’s parents’ which included our family; Aaron, Tina, and the kids; Jacob and his girlfriend, Stephanie; and Uncle Bill and Aunt Donna (Uncle Bill is my mother-in-law’s brother). Of course, I missed spending time with my family during the holidays. We’re hoping one of these years soon to make the long overdue trip to Washington for Christmas.

Our year ended with a relaxing weekend in Arkansas at Lake Catherine State Park. Our dear friends, Tim and Emily, invited us to come along with them for a couple days. The kids stayed with Grandma and Papa while we had a relaxing and quiet weekend in a cozy cabin right on the lake. It was chilly, but the days were beautiful and sunny. We took a short hike to a waterfall and spent a majority of our time in front of the fire playing games and chatting. It was a great way to end one year and prepare for the next! We look forward to all the things this year will bring!

 

Highlights from ‘07, Part 1

Here are some of the highlights from the past year. It was a busy year with many changes, but we had a lot of fun along the way! We are excited to see what 2008 brings!

We began last year with Abigail taking her first dance class! She had a lot of fun meeting new friends and getting her first experience in performing. The studio puts on quite a production! The first picture is of Abigail on her first day of class and the second is her with her recital costume on.

In the Spring Micah played baseball. Much to his delight, his team’s name was the Rangers…he is a big Texas Rangers fan!!

 April turned out to be a big month for us. Micah and his good friend, Braydon, had a joint “Spy” birthday party on the 1st. Parties for us in the past have been extremely low-key…this one was not! I was very thankful I had another mom to help with the planning! The kids had a lot of fun, but it took me a few days to recover. Party planning is not my calling! Here’s a pic of the spy guys…

Mid-April David took his third trip to Africa with Leadership Vistas. This time around he was gone for just over two weeks. He spent a week in Rwanda and a week in Uganda training pastors and other church leaders. Maybe one of these days he will post some of his experiences. It’s always an adventure when he goes, even for those of us left behind. The night he left there was a tornado warning and the kids and I ended up spending some time in the bathtub surrounded by pillows and blankets! We have had warnings many times before, but when the weather guy says that the path of the storm is heading down the Interstate a mile or so from your house it’s a little strange. But I was surprisingly calm and thank the Lord He gave me peace in the storm…literally!

The third picture is David with his packet of salmon! This is his primary source of protein while travelling since he is allergic to eggs and prefers not to eat the meat there. He usually comes back quite a few pounds lighter!

We kicked off the summer with our first camping trip! The highlight was toasting marshmallows and making smores. The kids were quite proud of the toasting sticks they found! We had an interesting experience at the beach. Take a look at the picture and see if you notice something missing. It’s a good thing they posted the warning sign.

The conclusion to Highlights from ‘07 coming soon!!

 

Birthday Girl!

Our sweet Abigail turned FIVE on New Year’s Day!! Here are a couple pictures from her second birthday party (take note of her special helper in the bottom pic).  Following my family’s tradition, birthday celebrations tend to become birthmonth celebrations! We had dinner and cake at home with just the five of us on her actual birthday and then we celebrated again last Sunday with Grandma and Papa and Uncle Jacob (David’s brother). We will celebrate yet again in about a week with a few of her friends. It just goes on and on! None of it is all that elaborate but when you are five and get to have frosting (I mean cake!) three different times, it doesn’t get much better than that!

It appears that I have finally figured out the picture thing, so when I have more time I will post some more pics!