wildlife

i saw this hawk in our backyard a couple of days ago. it was beautiful. my dad would have loved it! he always loved counting hawks on long trips to pass the time.and a caught a hummingbird feeding. maybe next time i'll get a better shot...

CHEESE!

Laney can say cheese now... she says it when I pull out a camera and when I pull cheese out of the refrigerator. She has also started saying "Sam" and "gum" in the last few days. Pick up a bottle of Orbit gum, shake it around a bit, and she'll come running yelling "gum!" over and over again.

coach young

sam loves his p.e. coach, jeff young. coach young was also my p.e. coach when i was a little girl at briarwood. how often does that happen? he's probably been there for 40 years or more... every day coach young is out at the carpool line, waving to the moms, dads, and youngsters. and sam likes to get right up at the window and wave back. for all the years i've known him, he's always called the kids "brother" or "sister", or "man of God" and "woman of God". it's music to my ears to hear him say it to sam.
i also ran in to my teacher from 3rd grade today. mrs. rooks was at the information desk, and i clued her in to a story my mom tells often. it starts with the fact that i was a talker. a serious talker. i got in trouble often. one day i came home from school and my mom asked me what i had done that day. i said "mom, i had the best day ever. my teacher put my desk in the hallway and i sat there all day. i got to say hey to all of stannon's friends." i didn't even know i was in trouble! when i reminded her of the story, she said with much sarcasm "imagine you, getting in trouble for talking..."

fork finger

laney has decided to use her finger as a fork. she can successfully stab and eat mini-wheel pastas, blueberries, fried eggs and more...

Since we have a lake in the neighborhood, we get to look out our back porch and see these guys a lot...

We also get to see the presents they leave us in the driveway. Geese are fun, but I wish they'd poo on someone else's property. ☺

Kole and Luke had some good cousin time one morning last week. Their imaginations led them to a camp-out in the middle of the hallway.

In the mornings Luke and I have a little alone time while Laney's sleeping and Sam is at school. We were sitting at the bar reading the new ESPN magazine.

After I took a picture of us, Luke wanted to have a try at the camera. Good job, Luke...

First day of 4K

Although carpool makes life very easy, I walked Sam in the first couple of days of school. He was sweet enough to hold Luke's hand and help him up the many stairs.

Sam sits at Table #2.

Marrison is the little girl sitting to his left. Coincidentally, she lives 3 doors down.

I took a picture of him coming to my car while I waited in the carpool lane. Carpool has been an adjustment, but he's doing great. He was so proud of himself for getting up the first time his carpool number was called. He got in the car and said "Mommy, I love my new school".

Chuck E Cheese

Mama B took all the grandkids to Chuck E Cheese for one last hoorah before school started. What fun! Sam and Luke had only been one time before, and it was a few weeks before Laney was born. So it was time to go again...

Laney wasn't crazy about the rides.

Luke seemed to enjoy himself.

And Sam had lots of fun on the roller coaster ride.

Thanks for the treat, B. We sure had fun...

our precious church family

We had planned on returning to Huntsville on the weekends since it didn't look like we'd be selling our house any time soon. But the Lord had other plans, better plans than we could have asked for. Someone found our house through the for sale by owner website, came and looked at it twice, and we had a signed contract within 4 days. Our realtor graciously let us out of our listing with him, so we saved mucho money not having to pay him a commission. When we told the sellers in Birmingham that our buyers wanted to be in our house by school time, they agreed to move out a week earlier to accommodate us. So they told us we could move in two weeks later. (At least I think that's how it went.)

Several weeks prior, our church had planned a picnic for us on August 8th. Ended up that we weren't even going to be in Huntsville then. But we didn't let that stop us from driving to Huntsville for the day and going to our sweet church and enjoying a day with our family one last time.

I took a picture of Sam in front of this tree back in April of 2008. It's right in front of the door to our church. 2 1/2 years later and attending church for the last time as a Huntsville resident, I couldn't resist the photo opp.

Then and now...

After church, the kids ran around in their Sunday best before going to lunch.

We had a nice afternoon at the Schnorrenbergs then made our way to the picnic. It was hot! The kids ended up going in the church house for a little relief.

Kate and Laney found some ice and went to town.

Laney even found a water bottle for herself.

We got together for a family picture in front of the delicious cake they bought.

Then, to our surprise, there was a gift. What a beautiful vase! We were honored to be at Christ Pres. for 6 years, serving however the Lord had fit at our different stages in life.

I even got the little ones together for a picture. Miss Kate was on the move, so almost every picture I got has her planning her next escape.

We love you all and miss you so much already! Please pray for us to find a new church home here in B'ham. That's been the hardest part so far...we're ready to learn, grow, love, and more.