Twirls 'n Curls

 Why I Love My Family: #1: They care about me, even when act like a monster. #2: My family loves me, just because I'm me. #3: And when I can't quite see what the next step should be...    ... someone is always there to lift me up.   #4: My family knows how to make me feel special,  and they're never afraid to show a little love.    #5: No matter what lies ahead,   I know my family will see me through... 'cuz that's what families do best!

 A few weeks ago we had a fantastic Vacation Bible School! This was our first year using the Group Publishing curriculum, which really impressed us. They had tons of hands on, small-group activities and key points each day that really drove the lessons home. The songs were fun and got the kids moving, but they had a great message. The Bible stories were amazing - I'll try to post about those later. The main auditorium is where we have our opening and closing sessions, so it's decorated to the max. Some easy ideas for any flight/sky theme: 1. We flew objects all over the room by hanging them from vents with fishing wire, such as kites, small airplanes, and hot air balloons. To make hot air balloons, blow up beach balls and attach a basket with ribbon for hot air balloons. Our "baskets" were small round tupperware containers covered with brown construction paper. You can also use empty rolls of packing tape. How easy is that? 2. To make a large hot air ballo...

 I had one of those defining moments recently. You know, where you see something - perhaps one of those things you've always done - in a new light. My girls had two friends over for the day, which meant they outnumbered me 5 to 1. I knew it was futile to try to get any housework done, so we packed up and went to the park instead. Once it got too hot to be at the park (in the desert, that's about 10:30am - the slide was steaming!), we decided to cool off with some ice cream at our local diner. As the waiter handed me five ice cream cups, I noticed several containers of sprinkles on the counter. "Do you mind if I put some of those on?" I asked. He hesitated, then gave me a half smile. "I guess it would be all right." I sprinkled about 10 mini fish-shaped sprinkles on each scoop and brought them over to the table. The girls squealed with delight. "Mine has fish sprinkles!" "Mine too!" "They're soooo cute!!" And I realiz...

 Ten years ago, we thought we knew everything about each other, about parenting, about the world. About 2 weeks later, we realized we didn't have a clue - but we were together, and that made everything all right. As soon as we got the routine of "us" down pat, Baby #1 came along and threw us into a tailspin again. Diapers, midnight feedings, and laundry abounded. But we were together, and that made everything all right. Baby #2 made us wonder why we thought having one was so hard...  And by the third we were just plain exhausted. But we were together, and that made everything all right. For better for worse,  for cheesy, for poor...  You light up our home, you bring laughter into so many situations - And I know that no matter what, everything is going to be all right when we're together. Because no matter where we are, no matter what we're eating doing... You never fail to make me feel like the luckiest gi...

Stuck? Who's stuck?  Some people may feel, well, stuck in the desert heat, but we've managed to keep pretty busy  - and have a lot of fun - this summer! So busy that my blog has completely gone to the back burner as we swim nearly every day at the local pool and go on countless adventures... isn't that what summer's all about? Here's a recap to catch you up... We've played dress up and been people from all over the world, And found out that Nattie has a passion for stickers. We went on adventure one day to a small nearby town with 200 people and drank from their hundred year old soda fountain. Root beer floats, anyone? We've made several trips to the park in the early morning - any later than about 10am and the equipment is too hot to use, no kidding!   But mostly, we've just enjoyed being together, and that's a big part of summer for us :) Stay tuned for more summer fun!

Happy Memorial Day, everyone! We are headed off to a church picnic in a couple hours, but here's what we've been up to:   1) We did it, we did it, yay!! (Can you tell Dora is on in the front room?)  Despite a 9-day trip to China, Tom's hernia surgery, and numerous other distractions, Linsey finished her schooling on May 11, two weeks ahead of schedule! Her final unit in science was on the human body - let's just say I don't think she'll be going into the medical field in the near future! "That's disgusting!" was a phrase I heard often, but she did learn something, because the other day she came to me with a pathetic voice, "Mom, my esophagus is hurting. I think I need some medicine!" 2) This is Nattie, my adorable, devilishly stubborn almost 3-year old. We bought her these "sparkly shoes" a couple weeks ago, and she's hardly taken them off. Actually, for the first 48 hours or so, she didn't take them off. S...