Barn Door

Since we got to stay at the lake house free of charge for over 7 weeks, we decided we would do something to show our appreciation.  Mom had talked about wanting a barn door in the main bedroom at the lake so Keith set about to making it happen.  We looked at ideas on Pinterest and Mom picked her favorites and we came up with this:

We were able to use a bunch of old weathered fence pickets to make the door and it gave it a good look.  The door actually serves as a headboard and a window covering.  We were pretty pleased with how it turned out.  It was hard to get a good picture of it b/c the room is a bit small.  But Mom was plsd so our goal was accomplished!

Sweet Hugs for Pappy

Country Girls & Country Rides

For Christmas last year the girls got pink 4 wheelers and they absolutely loved them.  I must say I was not really a fan of the idea of having two 4 wheelers but then we moved to the lake and I absolutely love the things.  The girls ride them every day and the amount of fun they have on those 4 wheelers is priceless!

I can only imagine how much fun they will have at the new house on 1.5 acres with their 4 wheelers!

Camp Deer Run

We signed Carli up to go to Camp Deer Run on  a leap of faith.  As a kid I always had such a hard time going to camps.  Not that I didn't go to many, but I can't say that I ever really liked going.  I was very much a homebody.  Keith never went to any summer camps as a kid.  So for us to sign Carli up for Camp Deer Run was really very hard for us to do.  But it was a day camp, and she would be going with several kids from church. 

Carli was so excited to go to camp.  Kayla sent me updates all week.  Carli would ride into Tyler with Keith each morning to catch the church van to go to camp, then Keith would pick her up each evening and bring her home.  I was so nervous the first day she was gone and so relieved when she got home and had had a blast. 

Ava and I went with Sarah one day to take Carli and Riley to camp.  We got to see what they did each day and that was really neat.  Carli was glad for the week to end b/c she was absolutely exhausted but she had such a great time.  She did not hesitate to let us know that she wanted to go back next year and take Ava with her!

Ava's End of Year Gymnastics

Ava started gymnastics when she was 2.5 and enjoyed every minute of it.  After almost 2 years of gymnastics, we had a light bulb moment that at the end of the year performance, she was still basically doing what she did at 2.5 years old.  They had not really taught her how to do much.  And that was kind of disappointing.  When I asked the front desk about the lack of "push" to teach the girls something more than what a pike and straddle were, I was told that they would when they moved up from being in the preschool class.  Ava was to be in the preschool class for one more year until she was 5.  Basically they said they wouldn't teach her anything other than what they were already doing.  So, much to Ava's disappointment we did not sign back up to do gymnastics again after the Spring semester.

She was a cute little gymnast!

 

Sunrise & Sunsets

We were blessed to be able to have a place to stay in the seven weeks between closing on our old home and being able to move into our new home.  We put most of our stuff in storage and moved out to Lake Striker in Grammy & Pa's lakehouse.  We had a lot of fun out at the lakehouse and enjoyed the "simple" life.  Keith particularly enjoyed watching the sunrise and sunsets across the lake...here are a few of the pictures we captured..

A Treasure at the Lake

Keith found a box full of old bats, gloves and balls under the deck at the lake house.  I am pretty sure it was the highlight of his week!

Words of Wisdom

 

Quite possibly one of my favorite pictures ever...

CA Friends

My best friend from college came for a visit back in May.  We were the most unlikely of friends.  Our friendship has lasted from freshman year in college to present...fourteen years.  We've been through boyfriends, moving, surviving college, grad school, engagements, wedding days, moves and having babies.  We may live thousands of miles apart, but our friendship is something I'll always treasure.

The last time I saw Amber was at my Grandma's funeral last September.  She never left my side, and I can't tell her how much it meant that she came that week. Amber became a part of our family during college and we'd take her back in Texas if she could leave the beaches of California!  When Amber came to visit her husband's family she made sure that we were able to meet up.  This was the first time we had gotten to meet her little girls Leah.  Leah is so adorable and a little fire cracker!  The girls absolutely loved getting to play with her!

It turns out Leah is going to be a big sister in November to a little brother.  It's times like this that makes the distance between CA and TX seem twice as far.  I so wish I'd get to go help Amber out, and who knows maybe I can make it happen.  :)

Cheesin' Ava

She's just so photogenic sometimes...

Playing at the Park

We still do our monthly neighbor date nights.  Even though we are moving we plan to keep up these dates and are actually looking forward to having the Woodley kiddos over to our new home where we have much more room to run and play!  It was our turn to keep the kids at the end of May, so we took them to the park (since we were already out of our house and at the lake at that point).  You'd have thought we'd separated the kids for longer than just one week!  They all had a blast playing together again...

We usually take them to Chick-fil-a, but I kind of think we took them for Pizza this time...either way - we wore them out!  The girls fell asleep on the way back to the lake!  We will miss many, many things about our old house...and on the top of the list is our awesome neighbors!

Tea Party & Packing

The last time we moved, it was Keith, I and three dogs...this time around, we added in two kids and man they have a lot of stuff!  They are great helpers when it comes to packing too...right?  A mom can dream.  I quit cooking at some point during the packing process so we went out for lunch one day and topped off lunch with a visit to Nothing Bundt Cakes...yummy!  We saved them for an afternoon snack of  cakes and milk...I guess kids are always good for an excuse to have a tea party when we should be packing! 

Carli & WT

WT has become quite the cuddling dog in his ripe old age of 10.  Carli especially loves his cuddles in the mornings.  We are pretty sure he has artheritis in his front legs b/c he is very stiff and slow to get up a lot of the time.  He has a slight limp when he does manage to stretch and get out of bed a good hour after everyone else! 

Reading to Ms. Patty

We had Ms. Patty over for lunch one Sunday after church.  Carli was very excited to "read" to Ms. Patty.  And yes, they are in their pajamas...the best Sunday afternoon is spent lounging in PJs reading to friends.  :)

Hair Curling Experience

The girls started asking for curly hair earlier this year.  We didn't have any soft rollers so a search on the internet had us doing their hair like this before bed.

We learned that Ava's hair is very easy to curl and will hold the curl.  Carli's hair did not hold and if we did her hair when it was wet, she would wake up with wet hair.

Ava loved having curly hair, so we invested in some sponge rollers, and Carli reluctantly participated.

Ava turned into a little Shirley Temple.  Carli's hair curled well too!

By the time we got dressed and their hair fixed, Carli was not loving it and insisted on having her hair put into a bun!

 

Ava's hair was super cute and she loved it...somehow my tomboy is also a little bit girly too.  :)