Ok I am attempting to get this blog post finished before Summer 2019 begins! We'll see if that happens!
Haha, I failed... Hey first trimesters are hard!! I fall asleep on the couch at 9:30pm every other night. Anyway, I'm trying again! Hopefully doing this post now will help me remember there's a lot of fun that happens in the midst of the intense Texas summer heat!
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| Look at how big that group has gotten!! We're overrun by kids. : D |
I'll start right where I left off. In early July we were so blessed to get to have a full Sisterhoodie reunion when Liz came back to Texas from China for a bit. There have been two additions since the last time we all got together. Little Xan and Elias. Finally Atlas has another boy to hang out with in the group! We are quite the crew now. The kids totally outnumber the adults now. We usually have all our momma's to help us out with the kids while we try to hang out and catch up. That still makes us 7 adults to 8 kids and we're still growing! I wonder how many babyhoodies there will be in the end.
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| The babyhoodie boys |
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| The Oldest babyhoodies! |
The oldest girls sometimes separate themselves from the rest of the group, which I understand, the next oldest babyhoodie is two years younger than Jane and Brianna. Nicole is the oldest but she doesn't have anyone her age so she hangs out the next oldest girls. We try to remind them not to exclude the little ones if they are able to participate. In the picture above they were the only three that could swim and jump off the rock so they were validated in separating themselves.
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| Atlas and Lenore |
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| Atlas and Ariella |
These three are all about a month difference in age. It's so cute to watch them interact and grow up through the years! They were all 2 years old here. Atlas is surrounded by girls! I don't think he minds much though. ;)
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| Just the sisterhoodies! |
No matter how much time I spend with these ladies it never seems like enough. It's so special to have such a wonderful friendship that has lasted about 15 years now. Love each of you ladies so much! Can't wait until we can get together next. Let's never stop! <3
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| She worked hard and earned her roller skates! |
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| So Proud! |
When Jane turned 4 I decided it was definitely time to kick the thumb sucking habit. We had tried a couple different methods. I tried the ignoring it all together and letting her grow out of it and I tried the reminding her to stop every time I saw her with her thumb in her mouth. I didn't feel like going to the nasty tasting finger stuff or the arm braces extremes. So one day I asked Jane if she wanted to work towards a reward if she didn't suck her thumb for a whole week. She said YES! And she told me she wanted a pair of roller skates. We printed off a calendar and used some stickers to mark off each day. She did great and earned her roller skates fast! It lasted about a month and then she fell back into the habit somehow. She had never stopped sucking when she slept though. So that was probably it. We tried again in the fall, but I'll save the conclusion of the story for my fall recap post. Spoiler alert: the next time we tried she stopped for good!
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| Thrift Store Win! |
Have a mentioned how much I love my thrift store?? They have a semi annual sale that marks their clearance items down to $.50! Amazing! Look at all the shoes and clothes I got for about $15 all together. Yes the backpack was $.50 too! I can't wait for the next sale. Kid to Kid is the best!
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| Unidentified virus! |
Why is it that someone always seems to get sick right before you have a busy weekend planned?? Jane came down with a fever a few days before a weekend when Scott, Anna and Ellis were planning to visit and our Awana Camp Reunion was scheduled on the same weekend too. I thought, "Well it's early enough in the week hopefully Jane will get better before it all gets going." We also had planned to go see the McNairs and go to their neighborhood pool before the weekend got started. So after Jane had the fever off and on for a couple days I took her to the doctor thinking surely she has an ear infection from all the swimming we had been doing. If so, we can get antibiotics and know she's not contagious and get going with our plans. No such luck. She had nothing that could be diagnosed other than just a common virus. So we had to take a rain check on our visit to the McNairs and delay spending the night at my parents with the whole family a day or so. That night Jane's fever got worse and she started talking about her neck and legs hurting. She was being almost inconsolable. I called my mom crying thinking she'd come down with meningitis or something. My mom came over and evaluated Jane's behavior and I called the nurse to ask for advice. Both assured me she was fine and it was just the first time she was old enough to try to explain and really experience fever pains. Within the next day her fever finally broke and we were able to start our weekend fun!
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| They were so little!! |
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| Can you spot Ellis being super interested in Xan's diaper change? |
Ok, so this is when it's really fun to do this post almost a year late. Ellis and Xan are exactly a year apart. It's so cool to see what Ellis was like about a month or two older than what Xan is right now. Seems so crazy that Xan is starting to be a toddler looking back at these pictures. Anyway! Back to last summer. It was so good to finally get our family weekend started. It's always so much fun to all stay together at the parents house. Especially in the summer when the pool is warm. When all the kiddos are in bed for the night the adults AKA big kids play board games. ;) We were having the most fun with Say Anything and Balderdash this visit I think.
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| Look at the adorable smile! |
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| Pool fun! |
If I remember correctly this was the first visit Ellis could actually kind of play with her cousins. She was still getting her feet wet though. ;) My kids are a lot and pretty crazy. I think with Ellis being a little more timid, she was kind of intimidated by their ridiculousness. Haha! But it was sweet to watch the beginnings of their cousin relationships.
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| 13 years earlier! |
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| Me and my buddy Taylor! |
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Throwing the frisbee while trying to stay in the shade and avoid hitting children. ;)
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While Scott and Anna were visiting we got to attend the Awana Scholarship Camp Reunion! We got to see a bunch of camp friends we haven't seen in 10 or 15 years. Since we were home schooled it felt almost like a super low key high school reunion. I really enjoyed getting to reminiscence together, catch up on each others lives and meet everyone's spouses and kids. We fit in a fun camp like scavenger hunt game with red, blue, green and yellow teams. Our team won! Woohoo Yellow! ;) We also had to make time to throw the frisbee around and sweat a ton just like old times. Haha! It was a good time.
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| My oldest friend. 25ish years and counting. |
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| So happy for you friend! |
I was able to attend the baby shower of one my dear friends for her second sweet boy, Jaxon. Jane wanted to come with me but she had a cold. (Jane was sick a bunch this summer apparently...) Mindy and I have been friends since elementary school. It's super special that she moved back to the area and now our kids get to be second generation friends. While I was at the shower I met one of Mindy's friends, Tally and realized it was her and her family that moved into the Thistle Creek house after us. This was the house we shared with the Chandler family back when I was pregnant with Jane. Small world! While we were there we made plans to meet up at the splash pad on Tuesday.
We had lost touch with the Chandlers for awhile. There were some hurt feelings from some misunderstandings and differences that come from living in such close proximity. We had since forgiven each other and tried to get back together for a while! Finally we made it out to the splash pad together with Tally that next week after the shower. So the whole Thistle Creek crew was there. It was great to have restored and new friendships begin all at once. God is good.
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| First and last day with my car. |
At the very end of July my car bit the dust. It had a hefty repair that was going to cost more than the car was worth. Plus we were outgrowing my little car. We made it work with three littles for about 4 months though! We needed a van. The very same day that we found out my car was done, my grandfather calls and asks my dad if I was still looking for a car and if I would be interested in their van. Talk about insane. God was so present in it all. HUGE answered prayer. If you want to read the whole story with all the cool details you can click here!
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| I got emotional. It was my first car. |
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| My car served me and my family for 10 years. <3 |
Yep, I cried a little when the salvage yard guy drove off with my car. I loved my little car and it's silly, but I do get attached to inanimate objects. I mean your car is like an extension of your home and I had my car before I even got together with Sam. So we'd been through a lot together. In fact Sam told me that he liked me for the first time while we were driving down the highway in my Grand Prix.
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| Thank you sooo much Mama and Papa! |
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| OUR VAN! |
As much as I loved my little car, I love our (new to us) van even more!! It's amazing and so perfect for us. We've already gone on a bunch of trips in it. Some days I still can't believe it's ours. I can't thank my grandparents enough for offering it to us. Such a blessing.
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| She did really good at answering the questions honestly |
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| Atlas too! Except I don't know where librarian came from. ;) |
At the very beginning of September we started preschool! I decided to use a curriculum called playing preschool since Jane has a hard time sitting and doing worksheets or even a craft sometimes. It worked pretty well for us. The only thing is that it feels like there is paint involved every other day. Which is hard when my 2 year old boy has no idea how not to be messy with paint and always wants to paint too. Other activities I skip all together because it's just too messy or too difficult for not much learning. One example was, have a sensory bin of flour and cups and let your child explore. Put a towel down to catch the extra flour. I'm like WHAT? Give them a bin of flour?? Inside?? Like a towel under the bin is gonna help. Plus there was nothing important to learn from it. No thank you!
The other problem was, even though it's all play based, after the first few weeks Jane started saying most things about it were boring. So I had to add my own story to the activity to make it more interesting to her. Like, here help the little baby letters find their momma letters! We'll be taking a different route for Kindergarten.
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| Mario Kart on the switch! |
My brother and I have birthdays just a year and 10 days apart. So both of our birthdays are in September. But his birthday is a Summer birthday and mine is in Fall. Growing up we'd always go to New Braunfels every year right around Scott's birthday since it always seemed to fall on the last weekend Schlitterbahn was open for the summer. It's my favorite vacation. With all the little kiddos around things have gotten complicated and expensive for that sort of vacation. So we don't do it every year anymore. On the off years we have a Daugherty Staycation at my parents house and we find fun things to do around town and hang around the pool a bunch. I mean it's not New Braunfels, but it's pretty awesome too.
It started to rain on us during one of our swims and the kids thought it was fun until it became a total deluge all of a sudden! Crazy Texas weather! But that's alright, there's a enough fun to be had inside as well. Scott brought his Nintendo Switch with Mario Kart 8. We all enjoy a good video game and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe has steering and acceleration assist. So the little kids can really feel like they're playing with us.
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| Happy Birthday to us! |
We find a moment in the weekend to sing happy birthday and have some cake and give presents. We never gave each other presents growing up because the majority of our life we shared our money so we could buy the video games we wanted faster! : D We do a couple of small gifts for each other nowadays. I've been giving Scott board games lately. I guess it's slightly selfish since I get to play the games too. ;) I like games that are less about strategy and more about just having fun and interacting. Our favorite game this year was The Game of Things. It's so much fun and really surprising sometimes. Looking for a fun new game to play with the family? Pick up The Game of Things. I don't think you'll be disappointed.
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| Grandparents and all their grandbabies! |
It is not easy to get a picture with all these little guys sort of happy and looking! Jane had a meltdown about it at first because she was just so tired from the weekend. We had a talk about how we can't make things all about us and we need think about how our actions are effecting others. She took a minute to relax and was able to sit for a picture and not frown. I was proud she was able to make that decision.
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| Birthday buddies hangin out at the baseball game |
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| Jane loved swatson! |
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| Everyone at the baseball game! Jane is hiding behind Xan's head. |
Our outing for this staycation was a trip to watch a Sugar Land Skeeters baseball game! It was a good time. Jane loved the mascot. I guess she didn't inherit my childhood fear of people in costumes. Atlas might have though. ;) Xan got passed around a lot and what we didn't expect is just how hot it was even though we were in the shade! The humidity that day was killer. I had to spend a good amount of time up on the concourse with Xan under a big fan to keep her cool enough. I think next time I might opt for a night game and let the kids fall asleep in the car on the way home or something! Oh, I almost forgot! Jane and Atlas got to run the bases after the game! I didn't get any pictures of that because I ran the bases with them so I could direct Atlas. SO fun! It was a wonderful weekend. Can't wait for next year!!
When our friends, the McNairs, moved away early this year we were pretty sad, but we've been able to keep up with them pretty well! Their new neighborhood has a super cool pool with big, fun water slides. We were finally able to make it out there to try it out at the very end of the summer. Jane LOVED the slide. Sadly while she was up at the top waiting for her turn and I was waiting for her at the bottom. A mad red wasp came up and stung her. It was her first one. We went to a lifeguard and got some first aid provisions for it and she was able to forget about enough to keep having fun. Understandably she didn't want to go down the slide anymore. I had a tough time keeping up with Atlas, Jane and Xan. Next time I might have to leave Xan home or get my mom to come with us. ;) Jane says she wants to go again this summer minus the wasp sting experience this time.
These two have a special relationship. It's so cute! They have talked about moving in together when they grow up so they can play together all the time. Jane used to talk about getting married, but she changed her mind and said she was too young to decide to get married. Haha! Good thinking young lady! They have said they are going to kiss each other at times. Thankfully the closest they've gotten is a secret air kiss from Nathan in front of the fountain. So sweet!! I hope their friendship continues over the years!
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| All worn out from our trip to Nathan's pool! I LOVE OUR VAN! |
And so concludes our 2018 Summer! It was full of family, swimming, splash pads, sickness, friends and sooo much fun. We are so very blessed. I am loving this hard and yet super amazing life.
Isaiah 41:9-10
You whom I have taken from the ends of the earth,
And called from its farthest regions,
And said to you,
‘You are My servant,
I have chosen you and have not cast you away:
Fear not, for I am with you;
Be not dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you,
Yes, I will help you,
I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’
