Summer Time!

It's been a fun summer around here. Busy as usual, but also full of fun and exciting new things! So here's a little catch up.

At the end of July we wrapped up our school year and officially finished 1st and 2nd grade. We even had a fun family ice cream party that night to celebrate the girls and all of their hard work!

This was during Daddy's funny speech as he presented them a certificate!

 Yay! We did it!

 Proud of these two cuties. I am one blessed lady to spend my days teaching these precious girls (and the other three as well!).

 Family ice cream party to celebrate.

Another exciting thing that happened was our sweet little boy moved to his big boy toddler bed. Back down to only one crib in the house! He is just growing too fast! It has been an incredibly easy transition though. Not once has he even gotten out of his own bed. At nap time and in the morning he waits in his bed til we come get him . Makes me super proud of him! And to follow tradition, I let him pick out material for his new pillow and blanket. He picked Thomas the Train, so I got to make him his new set for his big boy bed.

 The girls were just as excited as he was!

 Cutie boy!

My sweet sweet Aubrey Claire, made a decision to put her trust in God alone! It was a pretty incredible moment and I am beyond proud of her. She truly has a heart that wants to know Him more and more.  The moment she decided was actually during our last week of school, and happened during our Bible lesson. Another home schooling perk! Our conversations often dig a little deeper during Bible time, and I am so thankful for that opportunity. Jeff was home that day as well, working from home, so she was able to go in his office, with tears in her eyes,  and tell him she was ready to make that decision. The three of had a great discussion and we were able to all pray together. It was very special for each of us.

The big girls were able to participate in Creative Arts camp again this year. It's such a neat camp and they love going. This year they were both in flags and during the performance they got to be up on stage waving the flags during one of the songs. It was too cute, and Jeff and I were beaming with pride. It's a big deal for our girls to get up on stage and do something on their own. Aubrey had to take the lead and lead them out on the stage when it was time. They were nervous but they did it! They were so cute up there! 

 These were some of the creations that they made this year.

 They are really hard to see but they are the two on stage waving the flags.

All three girls were able to participate in VBS this year, but I can't see to find the pictures for that. Stay tuned...

Lynlee's 10th Month

Sigh... my baby girl is now only weeks away from that first birthday. I can hardly believe how fast this year flew by. I wouldn't trade a moment and I feel so very blessed and honored that God entrusted us with another sweet baby. I love having a baby and I love all those sweet snuggles that she still gives me.

She is a sweet heart for sure, but this tenth month has most definitely brought out her feisty side! She is really excited about her new found freedom of blowing raspberries and spitting. Often times she does this while I'm feeding her food which doesn't go over well. "Lynlee, no" is our new phrase around this house! That will doesn't stay innocent for long! And this girl can scream. Not a crying screaming, but screaming just for the sake of screaming. It's still kind of funny to all of us, but I have a feeling it may get old soon. But those brown eyes, and incredibly long eye lashes kind of melt all of us.

Lynlee is everywhere she can possibly get. She loves crawling and especially loves when she can crawl really fast. She pulls up on everything now, and I'm sure will begin cruising around before too long. Just in the last few days she started pulling up on Jeff's drum and hitting it which she thinks is pretty great. Another drum player in the house maybe?

She now has 4 teeth, 2 more about to pop through!

She loves to mimic! Pretty much any sound or face you make at her she tries to do it back. "Dada", she loves doing that one back and forth. Anytime I say "mama" to her, she tries to kiss me. Awe! She is just a giggle box and a happy girl and puts a smile on our faces all day long.

Another baby who is an awesome sleeper. She is a solid napper, and sleeps 12 hours at night. It always feels good to finally reach this point, night after night and day after day. This first year is always rough and I welcome full nights sleep for sure!


She loves the windows and watching outside. Once it's not so unbearably hot outside, I know she will love being out there just like her big siblings.

 Mommy and her brown eyed girls!

 This girl loves loves the water and her bath time!

 Here she is playing the drum. She loves it!

 This was when she was just learning to stand up. Those big sisters are always right there to check on her and cheer right along side of her.

 She has loved playing with the stacks and stacks of board books we have!

I am so thankful for this girl. I really truly am. I wasn't sure if I wanted to have number 5  and honestly felt like I could handle another one, after Mr. Landon came along.  But even through that doubt, God blessed our family with this precious gift. This completely beautiful little girl that has brought so much joy and laughter to our family. God, you are so good! You gave me this gift, this treasure. And I am forever grateful to be her mommy. You ALWAYS know what is best and I always want to live my life in your will. 

4th of July

We had quite an exciting 4th of July this year! It was crazy busy, and crazy overwhelming, but ended up being one incredibly great experience for myself and my family.

Rewind a few months, while Jeff and I were just beginning our fundraising efforts for Save the Storks and Houston Storks. We were brain storming one evening, about fundraising ideas, and Jeff threw out the possibility of being a part of the Kingwood 4th of July parade and bringing a bus down to be in the parade. He is always a big dreamer, so I said "yeah maybe", thinking there is no way they are going to send a bus down to Kingwood for a parade (they are out of Colorado Springs). Through the next few months we started developing a great relationship with the staff at Save the Storks and the founder and sure enough it all worked out and they agreed to allow us to have a stork bus for a few days here in Kingwood. We got busy right away planning for the parade. About 10,000 people attend the parade so we knew it would get a lot of attention.

Our church hopped on board as well, and really empowered Jeff and I to serve in this area. They partnered up with us, announced it at church for a few weeks and allowed us to set up a table in the foyer.  Some other friends of ours got their church involved as well and they actually held a benefit dinner one evening while the bus was here in town. It really came together and I know that God already had it all worked out way before I ever stressed about it.

The week of the 4th ended up being probably one of the most chaotic weeks to date. Jeff had 8 different real estate transactions happen in ONE WEEK! 8! One of which was the selling of the ranch which is a whole other story in itself .   So this meant I was basically on my own with the kiddos. On my own, preparing for a wild weekend, bundling 750 cups and frisbees for a parade, and of course still being mommy. Jeff and I were also had the opportunity to speak in church about STS that Sunday, so one more thing to prepare for. Not to mention that I have an INCREDIBLE fear of public speaking, but God often must use our fears to grow us, and that He did!

But this is the part that God incredibly took over. I spent my week stressed immensely about if we would have enough people participate in the parade, if I would have time to stuff the cups and frisbees for the parade, if we would have time to plan and get a float ready, and how in the world would I have time to prepare to speak at church and actually walk on stage and talk?!?! He took over, one thing at a time. Aubrey ended up stuffing a huge amount of cups, and I had a friend volunteer to come over and help. We had friends who offered to help build a huge wooden stork for the parade. We had friends who volunteered their trailer for the parade and had it loaded with hay. We had a friend offer to to get speakers and play worship music during the parade. We had so many people volunteer to walk in the parade, plus some who offered the buy water bottles and loaded coolers, plus some who bought bags of candy to pass out. A friend offered to take pictures of the whole parade. A friend brought us donuts that morning for breakfast, and another friend delivered lunch to our house for after the parade.  Many of those things happened without Jeff and I even having to ask people. It just all came together.

Mom's in crisis pregnancies has been a passion for Jeff and I for a long time now. As I walked the parade, seeing it all come together, seeing people along the path ask who we were and friends involved with  parade explain who STS is and what Houston Storks was trying to do over and over again, it just seriously took my breathe away. I got teary several times throughout the parade. Plus my kiddos were riding on the float and handing out candy, and cups and it was just cute. It was a great moment that my whole family was a part of!

When I got home that afternoon, after I fed my family lunch and got all those kiddos down for nap, I was completely over whelmed, and over whelmed in a good way. I pulled up my bible verse of the day and this is what it was.
Psalm 103: 13-14
"As a father has compassion on his children, so that Lord has compassion on his faithful followers; for he knows what we are made of; he realizes we are made of clay".

The moment I read that I felt a great sense of peace which I know was from Him. He revealed to me that through our faithfulness in doing what He asked us to do, He had compassion on us and put so many people in our path to help us out and to allow it to come together. And it was a blessing to all those that were involved! We walked away from that weekend with around $11,000 raised for Houston Storks! Praise God!

That night we joined our church family at the tail gate party to watch the Kingwood fireworks. We were able to bring the bus out there as well and offer lots of tours!
Here's our crew waiting for the fireworks to begin.

On Sunday morning, Jeff played on the worship team for the first time in 5 years, plus we were able to speak that morning briefly to our church family about STS. We even had to bus there for people to tour after church. I over came my fear and spoke from my heart. It was scary, I'm not going to lie, and I really hope I don't have to do that again anytime soon, but following through with what God asked of me, felt pretty good!

If you are still reading we would so appreciate your prayers and donations so we can move closer to our goal of raising a $50,000 grant for a local center to help them with their purchase of a stork bus!
Houstonstorks.com