Ten at the End - July 10th-23rd

1) The week of July 10th was marked by Evan coming down with a really bad stomach bug. I had planned that week chock-full of fun stuff to do, but one by one, every event had to be cancelled. I kept expecting him to turn a corner, but by Thursday night he still was unable to eat, and I began to be concerned about dehydration. So Friday we headed to the doctor. We got a prescription for anti-nausea medicine, and that made all the difference. He began eating and drinking considerably more than he had, and acted more like himself!

2) Since he turned the corner Friday morning, we decided to press on with the original plan to drive to Houston to see family and celebrate my nephew's birthday!

3) For the trip we graduated Asher to the next sized car-seat, and let him sit facing forwards. He was thrilled with the new view. For the first 30 minutes of the trip he couldn't stop swinging his legs, squealing "whee!", and pointing to me (who he could now see) and yelling, "Mommy!!"

4) Ben and I love to "quote Asher" to each other. He has such a funny way of saying, "Nigh-nigh", "Bye", and "Yeah." He says all of them in a Yoda-meets-German-accent which is hilarious coming from such a little guy.

5) Elena is pressing on in her piano book. She's right in the middle of the book and needed some motivation to keep going, so I took her shopping and she picked out a Poly Pocket toy that she can get as a reward when she finishes the book.

6) On that same toy-trip, I got Evan an Iron-man toy. I told him he could earn his by finishing HIS school book (some letter pages from a preschool workbook). He played and played with the box... we're talking hours!

7) I finished off these two weeks with three photo sessions on Saturday! Whew! It was a little much, but I survived!

8) And now...

9) I'm completely...

10) Out of stories!

The Light (weight) Knight

You have to be careful around here!

This little medieval dude is out to get anyone in his path!

Ten at the End - July 3rd-9th

1) Evan has two speeds of talking; very slow and very fast. But one thing is consistent; it's almost impossible to understand him. One day he was eating lunch at the table and he threw a rapid mumble my way. Thinking he's asking for more of something I said:

"What was that, Evan?"

He repeated the exact same way.

"Evan I can't understand you, what?"

He then yelled slowly, "I SAID, MY FAVORITE LETTER IS 'R', MY FAVORITE SHAPE IS A CIRCLE AND MY FAVORITE NUMBER IS 3!"

Ooooh. So completely out of the blue, but that's the way Evan is; which is reason #237 that we find him so adorable.

2) We've got a new light over the new-to-us breakfast table. The light was an e-bay steal! And I love the industrial (or is it nautical?) look. Once I get the e-bay chairs, I'll post a picture.

3) I have been coughing for a solid 4 weeks. Don't try and steam wrinkles out of a weird smelling drop cloth made in Pakistan, could cause respiratory troubles.

4) This past Sunday I went to the July Bible study for Wayside's high schoolers. It was good to see a lot of the girls from my small group. Many of them had just gotten back from a mission trip to The Potter's House in Guatemala, and had great stories to tell. I can't believe these girls are going into their junior year!

5) We watched "Beethoven" (90's movie about a St Bernard) as a family, and it really made an impression on Asher. Afterwards he crawled around and sat at our feet panting.

6) On the 4th we celebrated with our ABF and some friends nearby. We had a great time, but not a single picture was taken.

7) Elena has been on a "Netflix at Night" kick. We don't get cable channels, just Netflix; and Elena is perfectly capable of turning everything on and pulling up her shows. The problem is she does this at 2 or 3am. Ben and I have to remember to bring down the remote and hide it in our room, otherwise she will be up for a couple of hours watching "Angelina Ballerina" or some weird British claymation. Oh that girl!

8) Our playgroup headed to Artworks this week. Artworks is an art studio for little ones. Kids get to go through a dozen stations making all sorts of painted creations. It was an intense hour for the moms as they supervised their unpredictable paint-flinging toddlers. But we came home with some great art for our walls.

9) When your child sits on Laffy Taffy, it's a booger to get out.

10) It's been a pretty slow week. Lovin' summer!

Ten at the End - Two Weeks Worth

June 19th - July 2nd

1) So after our busy week of VBS, Elena (just Elena) did yet another week at a nearby church. It was nice for her to have something to keep her busy

2) I mentioned previously that we discovered our church's library. And now on top of that, we are LOVING the new public library built near us (Parman). I think we've gone about 6 times in the past two weeks! Going so often is pretty self-serving. Having new books in the home keep my kids busy and out of trouble.

3) On June 26th, Ben and I celebrated our 7th anniversary! We were able to celebrate the day before at... Schlitterbahn! My parents kept Elena and Asher. And our friends, the Kadanes, kept Evan. So it was just the two of us running around the park, having a ball. We finished up the day with dinner at The Gristmill in Gruene. A perfect day... well almost (see the following).

4) The only things Ben and I brought into the park were Ben's van key, credit card, and drivers license. He had put them in a plastic baggie and place it in his back pocket. Well I think you know where this is headed... mid-day Ben realized the bag was gone! Long story short, someone turned it in, and we were rescued from a VERY inconvenient situation.

5) We had a family movie night and watched, "How to Train Your Dragon" The kids are now on a knight/dragon/viking kick; even Asher!

6) Ben attended the Texas League All-Star Game with his work buddies. While there, he pursued a life-long dream and ran out onto the field. He followed the line of kids privileged to run the bases during the 7th inning stretch. Yep, I'm not making this up.

7) We got a new table for our breakfast room and I. love. it! It's a gorgeous antique round table with turned legs. I have some "wild-for-me" E-bay chairs coming our way too. We were able to sell our old table and chairs quickly on Craigslist which means the total cost for the change will be pretty small.

8) Asher has started refusing to go down for his nap unless everyone present in our home says "Goodnight!" and blows a kiss.

9) We attended the Magik Theater's production of "If You Give a Pig a Party" at (where else!) Parman Library! Seating is limited so getting a ticket was pretty competitive (they ran out in 20 minutes!)

10) Elena is starting to swim independently! She certainly needs a lot of supervision because she quickly gets stuck when coming up for air, but I'm so proud of her progress!