Wimberley

Last weekend we went to Jeremy's grandparent's place in Wimberley. We met his brother's family there and we had a blast! The kids are getting more and more brave as they try new stunts and tricks. This year I even jumped out of the tree. It was a little scarier than I thought it would be - obviously I'm getting old!

Austin posing as he jumped out of the tree.

Jackson does not like me taking his picture - so he decided to shoot water at me - but that's the beauty of a telephoto lens - there's no way that water was going to reach me!

Ok, so I feel I should explain this picture because I'm sure you are thinking that my husband is being a little dangerous there! And yes he is...but the kids kept saying "timber" as they jumped. So Jeremy decided to really show them what it would be like to really fall in the "TIMBER" sort of way. After we explained to the kids that you should NEVER jump in to water without putting your hands over your head, we let them do the same thing - (with their hands over the heads) - so they really just did a dive off the tree. But it was much more fun to say "TIMBER" as they fell!
My boys and their cousins.

The newest member of the family

We welcomed the newest member into our family last night. She is 15 months old and loves livin' in the fast lane! This is Jeremy's baby...not mine. I will not be taking care of this one! Jeremy has waited very patiently for a different car and I'm so proud of his sacrifice. His 2000 red honda has now become the 'new car' for a dear high school boy who had been working his tail off and saving his money. It was only 'for sale' for less than 24 hours on craigslist! We love craigslist - you should try it sometime...just make sure you type the name in correctly on the internet or you'll be in for a big shocker! I'm serious - don't try it - you'll be scarred for life! The boys think daddies new car is way cool! I on the other hand have to become comfortable with the stick shift again. Jeremy used to have a red firebird and I loved the speed that came with that car and it's manuel transmission! This car has lots of 'get up and go' too. We get to take it out on our date this Saturday - I'm sure we'll be cruising the hills around the lake as we head to the Oasis for a sunset dinner.

Mourning the loss of time!

well, I guess we are now joining the ranks of parents who have soccer games and baseball games every Saturday! We have been able to avoid it for 2 years now...but the cool sports center by our house that only had sports practice/games 1 day a week isn't doing that right now - I so bummed. So we have now let Austin join the coach pitch baseball team at the YMCA and Jackson wants to do soccer. So who knows, we could be doing something different 3 school nights a week with 2 games on Saturday. We'll have cub scouts on Mon. nights, soccer practice one night, baseball practice one night, games on Saturday and AWANA clubs on Sunday night! I've been protecting our 'at home' family time for so long - now I'm mourning the loss of it early! It will be fun and the boys are supper excited. Speaking of supper excited, Jackson had me put the count down for school on our calendar. Of course I was curious too just how many more days until school starts - but Jackson is way excited! 26 days!!!

Fireproof My Marriage - another Christian based movie

A friend sent me the link to this new movie that is coming out in September I believe. It is from the same group that brought us "Facing the Giants". So spread the word that another great movie will be coming out. I want to encourage everyone to line up babysitters and go see it on opening weekend so that it has great numbers for it's opening weekend. Check out the trailer (and notice Kirk Cameron) and pass it on. Encourage your church to buy a block of tickets for opening weekend and bring your friends along.

http://www.fireproofmymarriage.com/index.php

Even the angels are celebrating!

Back on July 11th, Austin asked Jesus to come in to his heart and be his savior. As a way of celebrating, a friend of mine suggested angel food cake. So, we made an angel food cake because the angels were celebrating with Austin as his name was written down in the book of life. He enjoyed his special party. We want him to remember this special decision and we want him to know how important it is that he CHOSE Jesus and that Jesus chose HIM! Thank you Jesus for dying on the cross for our sins so that we can choose this free gift of eternal life. Thank you for the forgiveness of sin that comes with accepting your gift of eternal life.

Lego Mania

At the moment, Jackson's favorite things are Lego's. With his birthday money and with a few toy returns we had to do, he was able to purchase these new Star Wars ships for his collection. He is very proud of them...they were hard to make! He had some help from big brother and a small amount of help from mom, but he did most of the work. He wanted his picture taken with his new ships so he could have the picture to put in his room. He's already making his list for Christmas!

Happy Birthday Jackson

Our dear sweet Jackson turned 6 this past week. He had his first friend birthday party with friends from his pre-K class. He had a great time and couldn't wait for his party to start. He chose to have a Star Wars party at the pool with pizza. The weather this summer in Austin has been brutally hot with no rain - but on the day that we have a pool party planned - it rained! But thankfully it cleared out before the party and left the evening nice and no so hot. The rain also cleared all the people out of the pool leaving us with the pool to ourselves for most of the party. Jackson is such a sweet boy who loves to be silly and play. Right now he is in love with Star Wars Lego items. Most of his present centered around that. Any birthday money that he got was put toward some new Lego ships. He and Austin have a had a great time putting the ships together. They are really very good at following the directions and making the ships - one had 450 pieces! Happy Birthday Jackson!!

"There's a New Name Written Down in Glory!"

What an incredible thing as a mother! Sitting with your child, watching them ask Jesus to forgive them of their sins and to come in to their sweet little heart to be their Savior and Lord. Praise God, there is a new name written down in Glory, and it's Austin! He can hardly wait to go tell the pastor and the children's minister at church on Sunday!

Washington D.C.

Here they are - a few select pictures from our 10 Year Anniversary trip to D.C. We had a fabulous time! I think the best part was just being by ourselves - as husband and wife - not mommy and daddy!

This is a shot of the neat shops and the Hotel Monaco in Old Town Alexandria, VA. We loved staying in Alexandria. There is so much history in this small town, just across the river from DC. In 'old town' the atmosphere was great. The streets were lined with neat shops and restaurants and had a great night life. Most people started hitting the streets to shop around 10 am but later in the day, the restaurants didn't really fill up until 8 or so.

This is the National Cathedral - it is so big you can't really get it all in 1 picture. It took almost 90 years to officially by complete.
The front lawn of the White House. We didn't go through the long process to get approval for a tour, so this is as close as we got!

This is a picture taken from Arlington National Cemetery. That was incredibly awe inspiring. One thing that I thought was pretty difficult was that while all these hundreds of visitors are walking all over the cemetery, there would be at least one funeral going on every day - with most days having more than 1 funeral. That would be particularly difficult if you were actually there to bury a loved one. We went and saw the "Eternal Flame" for President Kennedy and we saw the tomb of the unknowns along with several other special statues and monuments.

"Freedom Is Not Free". I took this picture to sum up the general feelings after visiting all the different war memorials. They left you speechless for sure. One funny thing about the memorials: they want the visitors to be so respectful - and I completely agree, but the signs say "quiet please, no food or drinks and no chewing gum". I thought the gum thing was funny.
This is the Hope Diamond. It is housed in the Natural History Museum.

There's good ole' Lincoln! Sitting up high.
This is a picture of the house at Mount Vernon. The 4ooo +acres estate of George Washington. This was my favorite sight to visit. Maybe because I had visited most of the other places before. George Washington was such a family man and inventive farmer. He came back to his estate after all his political endeavors and ended up dying in the master bedroom of an illness similar to strep throat - that could've been cured if antibiotics had been discovered at that time. The actual bed frame where he died is still in the room. It's pretty cool that the house has been preserved so well since it was built in the early t0 mid 17oo's. Shortly after Martha Washington died the house was taken over by a historical group to take care of it.

This is one of my favorite shots of the capital with the Washington Monument in the foreground. This was taken from the Lincoln Memorial.

We braved the heat and 2 rain showers for 5 hours waiting for the National 4th of July Concert. We were sitting on the lawn of the Capital and you can see how crowded the steps of the Capital were. We had a great seat for the concert and thought we would also be able to see the fireworks, but we couldn't. We had to get up and move, quickly, to see the fireworks as the symphony played the traditional John Phillip Sousa Marches.
What a great shot to end on...The capital all lit up as we left the mall area after the fireworks.