Birthday Camping

 

After the birthday party, we actually stayed the night and went camping!  The Bebers camped with us for our annual “Bebarkation”.  Here we are on a hike, where we found a troll bridge.

They had to solve the riddle before Troll Adam would let them cross!

Me…Tree Wrestling….apparently a favorite pasttime of Adam’s?  You learn something new every day.

Big Foot came out of the woods…the kids doing their best to capture him!

Jonah, Caleb and Camron monkeyin’ around.  We had this really great tree right beside our campsite that reminded me of a tree out of Lord of the Rings or something.  It had vine-like branches and I was just waiting for it to talk to me or reach down and grab someone.  The kids loved it and even at the birthday party it was the center of entertainment.  Of course the boys spent most of their time conquering the different branches of the tree.  Simple fun.

I didn’t get any pictures of the tents or anything.  Not sure how I missed that one.  We had such a great time, so relaxing.  The kids just enjoyed simple fun:  Shadow shows in the tent at night, playing with flashlights, eating giant marshmallows, sleeping in sleeping bags, climbing trees, hide and seek, makin’ up random games, all while getting really dirty and not having to take a bath…A kid dream.  And no electronics involved – imagine that!  I think we all let life get way too complicated sometimes, and need to just stop and appreciate the simple pleasures that God has given us.  Good friends (and family), good food & good surroundings!

Hannah’s 3rd Birthday

Well, I definitely have a 3 year old little girl now!  We had a wonderful birthday yesterday.  We started off by taking a picture with her Tangled Cake…it had slowly become the leaning tower of Rapunzel and I was afraid it might not make it until the party that night, so I thought it best to document the temporary success.
We started off the day by heading to the Star Nails….I had a gift card that I’ve needed to use for a couple of months, so Hannah and I both got our nails done.  She got to pick out her colors which were a surprising pink and purple.  She specifically showed them that she wanted “Pink, then purple, pink, then purple”.  The nail lady gladly obliged her opinionated customer and alternated the colors.  Hannah is a girl who knows what she wants!

Next, we picked up Gigi and headed to Kid to Kid, a really great consignment store in McKinney.  Hannah was so proud to walk through the “Kids Only” door.  She got to pick out some very cute outfits.  She was a trooper when we tried them on too.  I think she’s already a shopper at 3!

That afternoon we headed to Bonham State Park for her birthday party.  She invited a few of her 3 year old girl friends, and of course their families.  Here are Lilly and Olivia.  Checkin’ out the seashells on the lake beach!

Just Hangin’ around with Olivia!

Hot Dogs were on the men for the party….lots of kiddos havin’ a great time!  Cheetos, lemonade and hot dogs….what kid could ask for more?

Princesses Lilly, Via, and Hannah with their “Tangled” hair!

Make a wish….I wonder what a 3 year old wishes for?

Happy Birthday to my precious girl….you will always have my heart!

This picture was taken while Adam & the kids were hiking…I was on a Women’s Retreat! (Not sure why Jonah's eyebrows look white??)

What a beautiful day we have been blessed with today! Crisp, cool fall air with just enough sunshine to bring a smile to your face….as opposed to the scorching, face frying heat we endured this summer! I think there were some days this summer that I truly thought that the heat would never end, that somehow we were going to be in a permanent state of summer until the end of time. But once again, the Lord has reminded me that “this too shall pass”…and how much sweeter is a day like this, knowing where we’ve come from.



I have been an absent blogger. I am not going to apologize or explain why. I am moving on with all my guilt and lack of documenting my family’s adventures and daily encounters. Although, a brand new computer (thank you to Tootsie and Reebert!) has definitely helped spur on a new excitement with technology. My old computer took about 4 hours to download a picture….no kidding. It was drudgery trying to blog on it, so now I’m in blog heaven!



I want to just use this as a starting point and hopefully begin blogging more regularly. We have had a few “new beginnings” recently (hence the blog title), that I will hopefully get to expound on soon, but to name a few: Started homeschooling this year (loving it!!!), Helped organize and start up the new FCA Homeschool Co-op (absolutely love it!!!), Jonah started piano lessons, Caleb started to read, Hannah started saying she’s the “princess of the world” (which is a whole other blog post ). She is also starting her new beginning as a 3 year old on her birthday tomorrow! I am so thankful for new beginnings and days that remind me why I love being alive and able to serve our King.



Oh, and by the way….we had another new beginning in our family. Collin & Amy (Adam’s brother and wife) had their first baby 2 days ago. I would put a picture of the new little one, but I don’t have one yet….and I don’t even have a name yet, because they are still in deliberation. So….that is yet to come. We are so thankful for this new little blessing and I am so jealous that my husband got to meet her in Los Angeles yesterday. I’m sure my time will come :)



So, I’m off to make a “Tangled” cake for Hannah’s party tomorrow. I was supposed to start it a couple of hours ago, but procrastination took over and blogging sounded more fun at the time!



It's Potty-training time

Well, since we're stuck in the house for 4 days with this Arctic Blast...it's a great time to potty-train. It wasn't really my idea - Hannah just decided and started doing it herself a couple of days ago. She's so proud to wear her little panties and we've only had a few accidents in the last couple of days and we had our first #2 victory today! I'm sure you all want to know all of these details! These are her cute little Hannah panties (that are actually a diaper cover) but they have transitioned to panties. She's so proud and I am so happy to have a little relief in the diaper area!

Welcoming Baby Maddie

It's a little late...but better late than never. My niece, Madison, was born in November. This is my brother (Mike) and sister-in-law's (Crystal) baby. She is just a precious bundle of joy! The picture above is Maddie with Myka (her older sister).
All of the kids loved getting to meet and hold Maddie for the first time. Jonah is more experienced with this sort of thing and he kept wanting to come back for more.

Caleb loved getting to hold Maddie too. He had shorter bursts of interest, but you can see the pure bliss on his face getting to hold her.

Now Hannah was in love! I think she thought baby Maddie was her little baby doll. Baby "mannie" was all she talked about for a couple of weeks. Every baby doll was named Maddie. She even laid in my lap and acted like Maddie.

Fun Times!

Slowly, but surely, I'm playing catch-up on some of the fun pictures of the last 5 months. We're actually snowed in right now - with a wind chill of 5 below zero so I have some time to download. Caleb put on Hannah's dress-up clothes and Tangle hair and he was pretending to be a fairy. That kid just keeps me rolling :)
We had 2 sets of costumes to wear this fall. This is the set we wore to Lightfest. Tinkerbell, Darth Vader and Indiana Jones. Jonah has his serious Darth Vader look.

This was another set of costumes we wore to a Harvest Party at my friend Brooke's house. Dallas Cowboy, Lion and Darth Vader again!

Nerd Day at school...I know, I know...I didn't have to go to far to dress up like a nerd. We had a blast that day. I even had a fanny pack and my National Honor Society sweater on (actual sweater I received in high school). Don't you love Jonah's bow-tie?? Hannah wore her hair all day long at school-pretty impressive! I think Caleb just thought he was going to go swimming at school. Fun Day.

For our Harvest Party at school, Jonah dressed up like the much-needed FCA Maintenance Man, complete with plunger and big belly.

One Day at a Time

Okay, I'm back again...I think. The boys were scrolling through my blog today, having the best time looking at pictures. I was inspired to start blogging again. I love to blog, it just takes time. My main excuse lately has been the fact that I'm so far behind on my blogging. I'm kind of an all or nothing kind of girl. Either I want to be fully caught up or not at all...I think that's also called OCD! :) Well, I'm letting go and starting back, and going with the flow. If I get caught up on all of the other pictures one day, then great. But in the meantime, I dont' want to miss out on everything else. So, here goes...

The kids all got feety pajamas for Christmas. Jonah had even been begging me for some feety pajamas! Here they are all comfy cozy in their pj's!

Just a cute pic of Hannah and Daddy :)

Hannah has become a LOT more mischievous since the last time I blogged. This is not washable marker by the way. She had streaks on her face for a few days. The funny thing was that she was sitting right beside me, andI had just looked over at her about 30 seconds before that and she was just happily coloring on the paper! In that amount of time she had colored her face, all of her clothes and the floor in front of her. When I looked over at her, she said "Mommy look pretty makeup!"

We had a really great snow a couple of weeks ago! On our snow day the kids (dad included in that statement) made a snow fort. The snow was really too powdery to make much of anything, so Adam built a structure underneath to support the snow and they packed it on. You could go inside and everything! I think Adam spent a while after they went to bed to finish it...what a kid at heart.

Crawling into the snow fort.

Hannah loving the snow!

Caleb taking a ride on his "snow mobile"

As soon as the kids walked out the door they immediately all layed on the ground to make a snow angel!

We were shopping with my mom on her birthday, and Hannah put on these sunglasses. Immediately when she got the sunglasses on she started breakin' down in a dance. I love this kid.

Havin' fun! The boys were at basketball practice, we're havin' a little shoppin' fun for my mom's birthday.

Jonah and Caleb are playing Upward basketball for the first time this year. Adam is the coach of both teams. It has been a great experience for both of them. It's amazing to watch how quickly kids improve from game to game. Jonah is so enthusiastic and has such a positive attitude out there on the court. He's been making baskets in the games, and he plays defense with all of his heart.

Caleb is loving basketball too. He is interesting to watch...to say the least. From growling when he's on defense, to swinging around the basketball goal just for the fun of it and crying when he doesn't make a basket - he keeps me on pins and needles of what's going to happen next. I think I hold my breath the whole game, and finally release when that buzzer goes off. I really have to get a video, because I know one day I will love watching it. I was at a restaurant the other day and a grandmother of one of his teammates came up to our table and said, "I just have to tell you that I love watching your little redhead play basketball, he keeps us entertained!" The scorekeeper was even telling someone that he can't concentrate because he can't stop watching the little redhead. So, just so you know...whether I wanted it or not I have a famous redhead!