Black and White Wednesday..."FAITH"

"The meaning of Faith is believing in something we do not see and the reward of this Faith is to see what we believe."   



I have not participated in Black and White Wednesdays because of taking a blog break for the summer. But. I just HAD to join in this week in celebration of the wonderful news of Lisa receiving her referral of her beautiful baby girl Reagan!  Lisa and her family have waited 4 years for this day! One thing they definitely had during this wait was a strong FAITH that this day would come!

I have had so much fun this week sharing along in the anticipation of Lisa's referral. So many memories and emotions have come flooding back to me from when I received our Faith's referral. A time of such indescribable  joy and emotions unlike any other. Congratulations Lisa!  I feel so honored to have been able to witness you becoming a Mommy to Reagan and I can't wait for the next journey of seeing her in your arms! 
 

Splashing good Times......

We have really enjoyed the pool this summer, especially the kids! Our summer temps here have been unusually cool this year and now that the kids are back in school it is finally warming up! For me being a Texas gal it just isn't summer unless temps are well into the 90's. It is hard for me to get use to these cool California evenings with temps dropping into the 50's.

We spent most of our week-end out by the pool enjoying the warm weather. (With the exception of Dean, who now that he is a 10th grader finds hanging out with his family one of the most uncool things there is:)

Faith has become so comfortable in the water this year! A complete turn around from last summer when she still did not want to even put her face in. It has been so much fun watching her enjoy the pool!

A little relaxing time......

Before going back to splashing.......

Faith's latest....diving!

Enjoy the rest of your summer!!!!!!

FIrst Day back to school......Part 1

We have two "first" day back to school days in our household. Dean and Faith went back on Thursday and Reed starts back next Wednesday. I feel like the "official" day will be Wednesday when I have the challenge of getting 3 off to 3 different schools. I had to do this last year too and it can be quite the challenge (without having any tardies that is)! This will be my last year of doing this as Reed will be in HS next year with Dean. Yikes. Do not want to even think about that one! I will enjoy my challenge of 3 different schools while I can!

Couldn't be more proud of my beautiful 2nd grader!

She was so proud and excited about starting 2nd grade!
Faith is with her same teacher from last year in a 1st/2nd grade combo class.
I am hoping we did the right thing in accepting her to be in this. We thought socially it would be beneficial to her as she has socially always been a little on the young side compared with some of her peers. Our concern is if she will be challenged academically. They tested her in reading at the end of 1st grade and she was at a 4th grade level. I'm praying we did what we felt best for her and that she has a wonderful year.

I spared Dean the "first day of school" picture. He was dreading it. But. He does have to get one on Wednesday when Reed goes back. That was the deal! I want one of the 3 of them! And hopefully it will turn out better than last years! You can see that HERE! I have a challenge ahead of me!:)

Oh and I am writing this so I do not forget it!
On Thursday evening as Faith was getting her bath and telling me all about her day in 2nd grade our conversation went like this:

Faith: I know something girls have that boys don't have!
Me: (thinking oh my! Here it comes. What has she learned in school?!): Oh ya, and what's that?
Faith: A high IQ!

Whew! I wasn't too sure where that conversation was gonna go!:) 
(We did talk about how both girls and boys are smart as long as they work hard and do there best. Don't want my daughter getting too overly confident!:)

So hard to say goodbye to summer.......

(This new blog format is driving me crazy! I am having trouble downloading photos and figuring out how things work. I tried going back to my old template but I guess it no longer exists. May take me awhile to figure it all out.)
"Deep summer is when laziness finds respectability". `Sam Keen

(I took this while at our stay in the Sierra's. Our hotel overlooked the river and it was so nice to wake up in the morning and enjoy the sunrise)

I can't believe tomorrow is the end of our "lazy summer days!"

I just tucked Faith into bed after snuggling together reading "The Kissing Hand."  Tomorrow she starts school as a second grader.  This time of year is so bitter sweet for me. I love the excitement of them starting a new school year, but I so miss them being around me 24/7. I miss their voices through out the house and the ever presence of them being close by. The first couple weeks of them back in school is always a little sad for me. (Although I admit I am looking forward to enjoying a clean house again..if only for a few hours in the day! :)

Wow, it's been 2 months since posting here. I really tried to limit my time on the computer over the summer and just enjoy the moments. I did pretty good, and I do realize now I spend WAY too much time on here. lol I'm hoping to try and continue to do better with this! Speaking of.....better get off here so I'll be ready for our big day tomorrow!

What being 7 looks like!!!! (And taking a break for the summer :)

Faith's birthday party was on Saturday the day before her birthday and I am working on putting all the photos together into a slide show. As soon as I have it together I will post it. On Sunday, her actual birthday, she was invited to a friend's birthday tea party. We had a quiet little family celebration that morning and she opened her gifts from us.
Here she is Birthday morning eating strawberries dipped in powdered sugar.

They were suppose to dress in their Sunday best for the tea party. I let Faith pick out what she wanted to wear................

and I thought she looked awfully cute!!!!

7 YEARS OLD!!!

I still can't believe it!!!!!!

Funny, when all the girls arrived all of the hats and scarves were thrown right on the chair....

They had little tables set up for tea and it was very cute. I am not comfortable posting other peoples children on here, but I will post the one below because it is blurred and I really wanted to show how happy Faith was. I was a little unsure how she would feel or react attending a birthday party on her own Birthday. I didn't know if she would feel a little envious with it being her day too. Well, I should have known better.....she could care less! She was entirely focused on it being her friends party and was so very happy for her. Here they are singing Happy Birthday and she was just beaming for her friend.

We were suppose to go to another friends party that evening at Chucke Cheese, but I could see she was completely worn out from her busy Birthday week-end.

We have 3 more days of school and then they will be out for 2 months! They go back August 12th so I know the summer is going to go by quickly! I am so looking forward to all that summer has to bring.....lazy days spent by our pool, play dates, movies, Six Flags (we bought season passes) vacation Bible school, bike rides, a couple trips, swim lessons, library, evening walks, staying up late and lazy mornings, and just enjoying the feel and the sound of the house with the kids home with me. Reed turns 13 this month and I will have 2 teenagers! I know my days are numbered with them wanting to be around Mom (it is already starting with Dean). So I will soak in all I can this summer of enjoying these days.
I am taking a summer break from blogging so that I can do this. The computer takes up so much time and I need a break. I do plan on spending lots of time with my camera though so hopefully I will have lots of summer photos to show you.
Wishing everyone a fabulous summer!!!!

She's 7!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Faith woke up this morning as a "7" Year Old! Don't know how it is possible, but it is! Can't believe it! She woke up and shouted from her bedroom....."I'm not 6 anymore!"
We celebrated her birthday with her friends yesterday at the gymnastics center. She had a blast and I will post photos later. We are very busy today, but I just had to do a quick post for her special day!
She has 2 birthday parties to go to on "her birthday"! lol She really wants to go as they are special friends. The first is a tea party and the second is at Chuck Cheese so she will be partying all day. We let her open her gifts from us this morning and we will have a quiet little family celebration later today to sing Happy Birthday.

I tried to talk Faith into me buying her a nicely decorated cake for her party, but she insisted she wanted my home made cupcakes. She does not like store bought cake icing, only Mommy's!
I placed them in the shape of a 7 and thought they turned out really cute. Not to mention delicious!

Happy Birthday to our beautiful Birthday Girl!!!!!! Yesterday at your party I had someone come up to me and tell me what a beautiful and kind soul you have. You make me soooo proud!!!!! Love you, you 7 Year old!!!!!

Tea please......

For awhile now I have been admiring these adorable Korean inspired dresses here at Tea. That is about all I did..... admire them. Faith does not care for dresses so I could not see spending the money on something that would most likely just sit in her closet.
Recently they had a pretty good sale, along with free shipping. I decided to order a couple dresses in the hopes that just maybe Faith might, dare I say, like them.
Well, she LOVES them! I could not believe it! They are so soft and comfortable and perfect with leggings. Just her kind of dress! She also loves the style and tells me they look like kimonos. (she learned about them while studying Japan in school)
Here she is in one of her new dresses. She was not too happy about stopping to poise for me. lol
I am just so excited...it's so nice seeing her actually wear dresses and happy about it!