playing in the rain...

we have been enjoying some beautiful weather the last couple of days, but prior to that we had days and days of rain!! i loved the rain, but olivia was so sad to not get to play outside. after day 7 of rain and 7 days of olivia asking if she could play in the rain, i finally said yes! she was thrilled! she ran to her room, changed into her swimsuit, and ran outside to the backyard. she had a HUGE smile on her face the entire time she was playing outside.

she needed her goggles on, of course...

she loved running through the grass and feeling the rain...

her favorite thing was playing in the water running out of the down spout...

and playing with her shovel and bucket..."rain, rain it's so fun to play! stay around another day!"
(this was the song that you could hear olivia singing while she was playing in the rain.)

another lake weekend...

no mom, jack is not about to go overboard, just trying to be like the big kids!! :) i let go for just a second for the picture.

"i'd rather be lost at the lake than found at home."

this quote is hanging in our lake house it is SUPER cheesy yet so true for me, especially after a weekend like we just had. our great friends, the herridges, were able to come out to the lake and spend the weekend with us. it was wonderful!! we arrived thursday evening and left saturday night. brad is a pastor (a church outside of waco, tx) and mark leads worship at our church so everyone had to be home for church on sunday morning. actually the timing was great because we didn't have to share the lake with very many people on friday, since most of the world was still working. the weather was perfect and we had such a great time hang out together.

o and grant had soooo much fun together. o believes that grant might just be her husband one day so she is always excited to play with him.

brad and the kids swimming in the lake. how come kids can swim for hours and never get tired or bored??

jack waving on the boat.
(excuse my dress/knee blowing, so ugly!! but a cute pic of jack.)

i love weekends like these where i only have to drive an hour outside of dallas and feel like i am hundreds of miles away. i get to spend time with some of my most favorite people. and i come back refreshed and renewed. thanks herridges for making the trip!! we love y'all!!! :)

at the little gym...

this summer i wanted to do something special with just jack. my friend mari and i decided that it would be fun to take our little ones to the little gym. jack and mc kenzie (born just one day apart) had so much fun and so did their mommies. i can't believe that it took me the entire summer to remember my camera. of course i brought it to the last class and the battery died in the middle of the class, typical!! oh well, here are a few pics...

jack and mc kenzie, little gym buddies

every class begins with a welcome song and the bells!!! jack loved to get the bells AND put them away.

jack spent the majority of his time "exploring" in the gym. he crawled (not walking, still) everywhere and i just follow after him.

another one of jack's favorite things to do was hang and flip on the bar...

(with some spotting of course!)

kenzie and jack played/climbed on the balance beam...

jack knew that class is ALMOST over when it's time to play with the balls...

he really had fun chasing, rolling, kicking, and throwing them.

sadly, this is when my camera died! :( each class ends with bubbles raining from the ceiling and then a good-bye song. the bubbles made jack smile from ear to ear and giggle! so cute!!

we are going to miss little gym, our wednesday lunches with mari and kenzie, mommy and jack time, and mr. forrest, our teacher. jack has brought some of his skills home though, on any given day you can see him in this position...

trying to do a forward roll all by himself. he really did LOVE little gym!! :)

summer fun...

o,j, and i have had such a fun summer together. we have been playing with lots of friends, swimming, going on playdates and lunchdates, and of course just hanging out at home some. we have had some fun time with our friends in the 'wacky wednesday' playgroup. here are some pictures of our most favorite playgroups from this summer...

thanks to misty and lilli olivia didn't have to miss out on the owen's farm experience. jack was feeling a little under the weather, so we were going to have to miss out on the fun, but sweet misty came to olivia's rescue and allowed her to tag along.

misty said o was kind of reserved, but she came home and talked nonstop about all the fun she had so i guess she did enjoy the farm. she loved feeding the goats and told me that she fed them from the cup rather than her hand because she liked that better. so olivia!! :)

not sure if the next gathering could be labeled as "fun" but it was memorable for sure. the 'wacky wednesday' group attempted to get all the kids together for a little photo session. not everyone made the session, but it is really neat that we have some pictures of these friends. we sweat A LOT and did anything we could to get them all to smile and look at the camera...

not a really all that successful at getting them to look and smile, but still a memorable picture!

of course there was a ton of bribery happening among the 3.5 year olds and their mommies...

olivia's bribe was skittles. she really did a great job, just a few tears, but overall she did great!!

next we were off to the dallas museum of nature and science (i think that is what it is called) at fair park. it is a really fun place with a super great children's museum filled with all kinds of things for the kids to experience. we had a great time playing with our friends and all the neat stuff.

jack loved the farm section and especially riding the tractor...

olivia and lilli had so much fun playing at the water tables...

olivia would NOT think about wearing the apron, "it's gross mommy!!"

and to cap off our summer we met at rylee and haven's house for a little end of the summer bash. the kids played in the backyard, in the little pool, and in the sprinkler. we all ate pizza and just had fun sitting around visiting.

olivia being brave and going in the sprinkler...

not always her favorite thing, but she is even smiling!!

jack climbing on the slide and playing with a ball...

he was LOVING every minute!!

ryan and olivia splashing in the pool...

kenzie and jack playing in the sprinkler...

kenzie loved it more than jack, but at least we got one picture.

olivia and i have been coming on and off to this playgroup since she was tiny. unfortunately she was in school for most of the get togethers, but this summer we have enjoyed getting to hang out once again. jack has really loved getting to hang out with the other babies.

so far away...

so i have been thinking about this post for quite some time, but i have not had the words (probably still don't) to express my thoughts, but here it goes...

my precious friend and fellow gemini, misty, and her little family are moving so far away... el paso to be exact. they are beginning a new chapter as her husband begins an exciting new career. i have known this day was coming for months, but in my silly way dealing with sad things i just pretend it isn't really going to happen. funny, that never really works out for me. so this morning they loaded up the last of their belongings and began there journey west to their new home. i did speak to misty a couple of days ago and refused to say good-bye just that i would talk to her in a couple of days and be on plane soon to come and visit. as i sit here tonight and really think about what it means for her to live so far away, i am going to miss so many things about misty not living in the same town as me... sharing our latest marshall's find, dinner dates to amigos, play dates, knowing i have a friend to depend on to watch my kids and loves them for who they are, lazy days where our kids play and we sip diet coke and witness the chaos, sitting in the park while the kids play talking about anything and everything that's on our minds, knowing that if misty is there i don't HAVE to bring the camera because she will capture every moment and email me the best pics of my kids, and seeing her sweet smile. the great thing is we can still have our long chats during nap time and she is only a plane ride away!! i am confident that friends like misty are a precious gift and we will continue to remain close, but i am going to miss her being a car ride away. i am going to miss her girls. i am going to miss her sweet husband (we don't see eachother often but i know him so well).

one last thing i have to share... olivia's preception of el paso being so far away...

o and lil

we were driving around town and she noticed the multitude of balloons at every car dealership. often when she sees balloons she thinks about releasing her pacifiers in balloons (over a year ago!!). anyway, she said "mommy, where do the balloons go when they go up in the sky? where did my pacificers go?" i responded, "they go really far away." olivia is of course not satisified with this response so she asks, "where is really far away?" i think for a moment and say, "i don't know." she is quiet and i can tell she is trying to make sense of all of this and she says, "i think really far away is el paso. maybe lilli and lola will find lots of balloons and my pacifiers at their new home." i just smiled and then swallowed the big lump in my throat thinking about our sweet friends being so far away.

so misty and company, know that you are dearly loved, you will be greatly missed, and will be in our daily prayers. we love you all!!

camp...

mark at camp...

olivia loving EVERY minute of being with daddy AND being at camp...

jack and i smiling to see daddy...

mark has been serving at children's camp this week with our church. mark loves everything about camp and was thrilled when we came to visit him. like with baylor, good food, and all things that mark loves he wants our children to love them too. so this year olivia got to stay for an afternoon, all night, and through lunch the next day at camp with daddy. mark says that it is his way to spend "quality time" with olivia during his crazy summer schedule, but i know he really wants her to adopt his love for camp. they ate tons of sugary snacks and food with no nutritional value, rode around on his golf cart, sang and danced for jesus, and stayed up way past bedtime- basically had sooo much fun! i think it is great and such a sweet memory for them to share. even though jack and i were just there for a short time we had a great time too! daddy comes home tomorrow, but then in 1 week he is headed to youth camp. olivia is already talking about our visit. :)

o & j + water = :)

since it has been so hot we have been spending lots of time in the water.

at the lake...

or in the pool...

water always brings a smile and a little relief from the heat!