Impromptu Lightening Bug Catching

Tonight we had a great time doing something that I hope you get a chance to do this summer too...catching lightening bugs!! Lylah held the jar while mommy and daddy ran around like crazy people trying to catch each lightening bug she pointed out!! We filled her jar and came inside to turn out all the lights and watch the bugs flashing. Lylah loved it and actually so did I!!! We talked about how awesome it is that God created a bug that lights up at night! We also told her how we are to be lights of the world. We watched the bugs some more and actually went out and caught MORE!

Nathan put Lylah to bed (with her jar on the chair next to the bed) and he said we need to catch lightening bugs every night because Lylah was super sweet. She even asked to pray for me which she NEVER does!!! She talked to her lightening bugs for almost 40 minutes!! Summer memories. Love it :)

Princess Tea Party

We have the best library ever. We REALLY have the best librarian ever! She put together the sweetest little princess tea party for the girls on Saturday. Now our little lady is such a funny mixture of totally girly and adventure lovin' girl. Well let's just say that the tea party was super fun for the girly side of Lylah. Here are just a few pictures of our fun:

Thankfully the frog didn't turn into a prince :). We aren't going to be ready for that for a long time!!

Camping out

On Memorial Day weekend we finally got a chance to go camping. You see we tried going camping with Lylah for the first time in the fall, but couldn't find our tent, we borrowed one from our neighbors and it broke when we were trying to set it up :(

So we got a new tent for Christmas and finally had a night that was free and was good weather wise. Lylah was super excited about the tent and her sleeping bag!! When we got to the camp site we immediately ate lunch. Lylah was not happy about the flies which made me think we were for sure going to have to turn around and leave. Thankfully she calmed down and got to work "helping" daddy set up the tent. Like I said she was very excited about the tent so as soon as it was up she was ready to get in her sleeping bag!!

After playing around the site for a bit we went down to the lake to swim. She had some arm floats and another little float. We all had a great time swimming!! The water was perfect!!!

Nathan's uncle lives close to the lake so we went to his house for a cookout that evening. It was a great visit and incredible food, but sadly I didn't get any pictures :(

We got back to the site in time for Nathan to work on getting the fire going. We had the perfect camping evening. We roasted marshmallows and played games. We even got Lylah some glow sticks which were a big hit!!

When it came time for bed I reminding Nathan that I was sure we wouldn't be actually sleeping for a while. We all three got into the tent and the craziest thing happened....Lylah went right to sleep!! She slept until 7:30 the next morning!! Perfect camping trip with our little family!!!

A Year Later

You may remember that about a year ago I left my job teaching and started a new job of being a full time mommy and wife. You may also remember that decision was a huge step of faith for our family as Nathan was self employed. Our plan was to look around to find him a different job ASAP. We needed (so we thought) a steady, predictable cash flow to make it with me not working. Well, I'm so thankful that God knows exactly where I need to grow because it was His plan that Nathan would continue to be self employed for the whole "school year". Talk about taking the act of provision out of our hands!! There were weeks without work, there were weeks with lots of work, there was a new friendship made that provided work that otherwise would not had happened. He who calls you is faithful. Our bills were always paid, our tummies were always full, we even still had some extras. This year has been so humbling as things didn't go as we planned, but we were still taken care of. Last week, Nathan started a new job. We are beyond words thankful!! He will be working full time and also have benefits. This job came along in God's perfect time. He knew that we both needed to learn to trust Him fully for our provision, so He waited to bring that job. I'm so glad He did. Now, we still won't be living a life of luxury! We don't want that life anyway! We will continue to need to budget well and be wise with our spending, we will just know how much we have to budget. We definitely won't forget who is the one really meeting our needs each and everyday!

Adoption Update Alert!!

We got word last week that our dossier (AKA: big ole stack of papers important for the completion of our adoption) was in the DRC!!! Woooowhooooo!!! We are super excited for this big step!! Our agency estimates the wait time from here to be 4-6 months!! Now, we know adoption is a roller coaster and timelines don't always go as expected, but would you join us in praying that the timeframe would be close to this?? Lylah is asking more and more questions about Lydia. Tonight while I was rocking her she said, "Mommy, Lydia is going to sleep in my pack in play and I'm going to sleep in a big girl bed. I don't think you can rock her.". I explained to Lylah that Lydia may want to be rocked too and asked her if she thought I could rock them both at the same time. Her reply, "oh that's a good idea. After we are finished rocking can I kiss her?". She also asked recently, "Mommy, will Lydia be scared?". Deep question from my little thinker!! I told her that yes Lydia would probably be a little scared because she has never seen us before. Lylah of course had a solution to that problem. "I'll just tickler her mommy, then she'll be happy!". Oh sweet Lydia we can't WAIT for you to get home so we can kiss and tickle you!!!

Sometimes

Sometimes as a mom, you have to take a break from all the teaching, all the discipline, all the messes, and all the "am I doing this right" feelings.

Sometimes you just have to let loose...

Stop being so rational.....

And enjoy the moments....

Of being a mom.

I needed that afternoon of laughter between two buddies more than I realized. I needed a reminder that part of being a mom is not taking yourself too seriously. Oh what a joy it was to see these two girls be silly!!

Down on the farm

Monday we went with some other mama's to tour Chaney's farm. First of all, if you haven't taken your child to one of Mr. Chaney's presentations then that needs to make your summer bucket list! He loves what he does and it really does come through in his presentation!! I was always impressed when he could hold my kindergarten classes attention, but I was even more impressed when he held a rather large group of lil bits (who were mostly 3 and under) attention!! Most of them weren't even sitting with their mommies!!!

Anyway, we had loads of fun!! Lylah loves cows probably thanks to lots of trips to Uncle Kenny's farm. Her favorite part of the day was the baby calf, Bambi. She also got a big kick out of Mr. Chaney trying to squirt he with milk from Miss Glimmer the Cow's udder!! I loved getting to catch up with some of my best mom buddies and even though I did manage to lock my keys in the trunk it was a beautiful day so the wait for AAA wasn't bad at all!!! Here are some pics of our fun!!

Blurry getting squirted picture :)

Petting Miss Glimmer with her buddy Brady and cousin Bella.

Kisses from Bambi the calf!!

Tractor, tractor :)

Hugs from Mr. Chaney. So sweet.

Blue Mooooon ice cream! Yummy!!!

And some fun on the playground!