Weekend

We had a good, but busy and thus tiring weekend!

We are starting on our third month with Micah gone on away rotations and since we didn't get to see him over Memorial Day weekend, it had been almost two weeks since we had seen him and it is definitely starting to wear on the boys.  Last week at supper one night, William looked at me and said, "I really miss my daddy" and then his eyes got really bright and he says, "I kinda feel, think I'm going to cry" and so we all had a little moment where we hugged and talked about how much we miss him and how he is working so hard for our family. 

We had plans on Friday to meet up with Micah in Oklahoma City early afternoon for a little hiking at a park and swimming at the hotel pool.  Fortunately, Micah's attending sent him off pretty early since he knew he was going home, so we were able to meet for lunch and had the whole afternoon and evening ahead of us.  Unfortunately, it was a crazy cold and rainy day which nixed all outdoor activities.  The boys swam for a bit at the hotel, which was (also unfortunately) booked to capacity and there was some sort of birthday party happening resulting in a LOT of young teenage girls invading the pool and bringing our pool time to a close.  We did discover an outlet mall and found several great deals, so that was fun. 

The best part though was just being together.  Love how this photo totally captures that:

Saturday was my brother in law's graduation and in keeping with my practice of totally not mastering indoor photos, most of the pictures of the actual ceremony are horrific.  They had a Highlander bagpipe band that played the processional and recessional which was pretty cool.

My brother in law receiving his doctoral hood:

Two doctors and one future doctor:

It was a good day and while we made the day all about David and his family and their milestone, my thoughts could not help but look ahead to next year when it is Micah's graduation.  It is hard to believe that this time next year, we will be watching Micah walk across that stage and receive his doctoral hood.  It has been a long road and the journey is far from over (i.e. 4th year, the Match, and then residency), but God has just been so good to us and I am so thankful for how He has taken care of us along the journey. 

We made it home early evening Saturday and we all pretty much collapsed from fatigue.  In fact, I fell asleep around 8:30 on the couch and went ahead and got in bed while it was still light outside!!  I am realizing how I must have trouble sleeping while Micah is gone because this also happened the last time that he was home.  In comparison, last night it was way past 1 AM before I slept.  

Because of this, we are taking an easy morning, me drinking some extra coffee and the boys with a little dose of Super Why and Dinosaur Train.  At some point, the laundry is desperately needing to be done and we might try to head to the library for some summer programming!

Today

Hello, last day of May!  If anyone has figured out where this year is going, I would so love to hear....because seriously, it is June tomorrow?!?

In keeping with our lazy, crazy days of summer, we have enjoyed a full day.  We started out spending a few hours this morning at a friend's house.  The boys went to pre-k with this friend and see each other at church.  He shares a love of superheroes and legos and they always have a great time together.  His mom Lorie and I had a great visit.  She loves the Lord so much and is always an encouragement to me.  And I wish I had taken a picture of it, but she had the coolest thing in her house.  She also read the book One Thousand Gifts last year and in their home office, she had bought a large rectangle canvas and written prominently across the middle "One Thousand Gifts" and all around it in a large variety of colors were names, memories, moments, some names with crosses drawn around them, Scripture--it was beautiful and I totally LOVED it.  She said it is a work in progress and that she just keeps adding to it.   I am definitely taking a picture next time! I also think it would make a cool family project.

Because of a late night last night, I put the boys down for a nap and they slept for TWO hours!  After they got up, they helped me with some cleaning and then played outside for a while and ended up taking a blanket out and reading their library books we got yesterday:

Love how you can see Xavier following along with his finger--they both are pretty good about this.

LOVE how you can clearly see William working on his pronunciation.

Amelia Bedelia is proving to be a big hit

I also should point out that they were out there on that blanket for at least an hour and would probably have stayed except it was time to go to a cookout with their soccer team.  While they were reading, I was cleaning my house and about the time I finished (after stopping multiple times to take pictures and look at them through the window), I realized that next time, the house is SO waiting to be cleaned and I am taking my book out there and laying down and reading with them!  Of course, if I am there, I am going to have to ask them not to read out loud--I could hear them from the house each reading separate books out loud, seemingly undeterred by their brother reading out loud right next to him.

Then, on to the soccer cookout--I loved this photo of all the boys sitting waiting for their parents to fix their plates...notice the little boy in the red being 'choked' by his neighbor?  yes, we have a few personalities.

Second favorite photo op of the day--William coming back after playing to have his cake.  He insisted on going back to the same table  where they had eaten and all by himself eating his cake.  I asked if he wanted  to come and eat over by where the adults were, but no, he wanted to stay there.  I asked if he was okay or if he just needed some quiet and he says, 'yes..some peace...it's from God'--yes, my sweet boy, the only real peace comes from God. 

Then, even though, we maintain a pretty strict bedtime even in summer, I decided to let them keep playing outside when we got home--the high today was in the upper 70s--I could totally live year round with this type of weather.  We bought this little cheap 'lacrosse' set from Target earlier in the week and it has provided hours of fun.  I also kind of love that they think that they are playing tennis! William was quite proud to have thrown it in the air and hit it:

And check out the intensity on Xavier's face--yes, it is blurry, but he was so in to it!

Tomorrow we are heading to Oklahoma City where we are meeting Micah for the afternoon and evening before heading to my brother in law's Pharmacy school graduation on Saturday.  All three of us are SO ready to see Micah and thankful that we get to spend a few days with him! 

Wednesday's Words

We have sorely neglected working on catechisms for probably the last year and a half if I am really honest.  But getting back to that is one of my summer goals.  So, Sunday night, I pulled out our Truth and Grace Memory Book and we started working on memorizing Psalm 23.  Which led to a very cute discussion.

The Lord is my Shepherd

I shall not want

He makes me lie down in green pastures

He leads me beside the still waters

William:  'but why do we not want the shepherd?'

Me:  (confused at first...then figuring it out)  'well, if we have the Lord as our Shepherd, then we aren't going to want for anything, or need anything else, because He is everything'  (and totally thinking to myself how if we can all truly grasp that concept...)  

Xavier: 'what is a pasture?'

William:  'it is someone who tells you about God and teaches you'

Me: (totally confused...again!)  "no, that is a pastor....a pasture is the soft green grass where the sheep or cattle are"

William:  practices saying pasture and pastor

It's officially summer

Because the boys were gone for a couple of days last week on a Branson trip with their grandparents, I have felt like this week was our official start to summer.  It is already ridiculously hot here and yesterday it quickly became apparent that we were going to need to have some sort of summer programming.  We have been hard at work making a summer bucket list that includes things from making Pioneer Woman's Purple Monster Smoothies to flying kites to staying up until midnight.  Here is hoping that we can enjoy each day because 'the days are long, but the years are short'. 

This morning we headed out with some friends to pick blueberries at a farm south of Tulsa.  I think I was more interested in the actual gathering of berries, but it was a fun morning.  William was actually my most devoted berry picker--although, he was much more interested in picking the blackberries rather than blueberries.  He was able to find a quart or so of mostly ripe blackberries.  I will definitely take him back for blackberry season because of all the kids, he was the most persistent and showed the most interest in finding berries. 

This afternoon, their grandma took them bowling along with their cousins, then we spent a bit of time visiting with a friend and her daughter, bought a few water guns at the dollar store, came home and spent some time soaking each other in the back yard, finished up with getting hair cuts (I totally buzzed their hair off, pictures tomorrow!), putting them to bed, and then chatting with my neighbor over the fence for 45 minutes. 

I have decided that my mantra this summer is to 'attempt' to not get stressed out by life, to say yes to the boys when I can, to play with them, and to enjoy life....they are only 6 1/2 once.

A few pics from our day:

William and his desire to ONLY pick blackberries, regardless of the fact that there were very few that were actually ripe, but he totally searched out the ripe ones!

The chicken coop was the real draw for the kids :)

Good buddies!

And Xavier having some fun with the water gun I got at the dollar store, I am pretty sure I am heading back there to get a few more of those:

Hope your summer is off to a good start!

layouts

Just realized that I haven't posted pages in a while and thought my mom might like to see a few :)

credits can all be found her in my MSA gallery

K-5 Graduation

Let me just preface this post with a warning that there are a LOT of pictures--I just couldn't decide which to use, which to not use.  And I should never be allowed to take pictures in this type of setting...the white balance was atrocious, there was way too many different lighting directions that were completely throwing off the light meter in my camera.  oh well, it is the memory that counts, right?

A few pictures before it got started:

This was last year with their cousin at his Kindergarten graduation:

  And this year at theirs--

it kinda (okay, really) makes me sad how much they've grown up this year:

There were three kindergarten classes and each one chose three students to help lead.  The boys' teacher puts all the kids names in a bowl and then chose three names and both boys were totally excited to have their names chosen!  William proudly welcomed everyone and asked them to stand and Xavier led everyone in the pledge to the American flag.

 I just love the intensity in William's face in this one:

And I totally peeked (along with the little blonde boy) and snapped a photo during the Lord's Prayer:

 

After the three classes spent a good bit of time reciting verses, character traits and singing songs for the friends and family in the audience, they all filed out so that each class could receive their diplomas.  They also showed a slide show of pictures taken all through out the school year while they played a song along the lines of "Let them be Little"--totally pulled on the heart strings.

When each class came out, they allowed the parents/paparazzi to come down to the front, 

so that we could have a front row seat for taking pictures.

 

 William with his diploma: 

Xavier totally ran across the stage and threw himself into his teacher's arms:

I never managed to get a picture of them both looking at the camera, but I love this one as much for the craziness of the kids behind X as for the sweet look in his teacher's eyes:

 Then there was an attempt at getting a class picture, but as you can see, it was not super successful:

These boys love their teacher:

And their friend Grace came and even made signs for them 

(ignore the fact that she is totally not in focus):

 And these pics are a little fuzzy, but they just make me smile:

We came home and had Smores cupcakes with root beer and sprite with

 their grandparents, aunt and cousin:

 And a few pictures from the at-home photo shoot:

 They were SO excited about graduation and we spent the week leading up to it counting down the days until the moment arrived.  It was a sweet ceremony marking a milestone in their little lives.  I always have to  sit back and smile and whisper a prayer of thanks for the gift of seeing them mark it.