summer rewind: precious friends

i was so incredibly thrilled and surprised when i received a message this summer from one of my dear grad school roommates, saying she and her family would be staying at the beach! julie, her husband paul, and their two sweet boys have been doing mission work in canada, so a beach visit from them was definitely not on my radar. to say it was good to see them would be a huge understatement!

my kids loved playing with julie's 3 boys... er, i mean her two boys and paul. :) i was so happy to see that paul hadn't changed a bit. he is such a fun daddy!


julie and i shared many hours of studying, crying, praying, more crying, laughing, singing, and driving to church together in grad school. we also shared lots of Bible verses, coffee, her wonderful meals, and adventures all over downtown memphis. :) :) we survived graduate school by the grace of God, and it was so nice to sit and talk with her about topics other than comps, aphasia treatment plans, and phonological processes! now we get to talk about labor, birth, and poopy diapers! ha! so after sharing so much during a very stressful time in our lives, it was a blessing to relax and share my couch with julie and her boys! (though we didn't leave them much room- squiiiish!)


i was so thankful to get to hug on julie's boys. david had a ball with amelia's boom box!


caleb and hallie just chilled together...wow, this was almost 4 months ago! hallie has changed so much, and i bet caleb has, too!


our morning with this sweet family went by way too quickly, but i am so thankful they came to visit. my great friends have turned into fabulous parents, and i just thank God for them!!

summer rewind: for the love of a horse

i can't remember when caroline's love of horses began, but i can tell you that at any given moment, she can be found drawing horses, reading about horses, playing horses, talking about horses, building stables for horses with legos... you get my point. so when i heard about a somewhat local stable having an open house way back in the summer, i knew she would jump at the chance to go. we invited her sweet friend madelyn, and we headed out to the farm.


we were greeted by a long stable full of beautiful horses, and the girls wasted no time meeting the gentle friends.



a couple of fellow homeschoolers have horses that are boarded at this stable, so it was fun to say hi to their horses!

after getting acquainted with the horses, caroline and madelyn each grabbed a tack box and were ready to work!


first order of business was to brush the horses... there were several different brushes they used... hard, soft... that's about as technical as i remember. :)




next, they dug poop out of the horse's feet. there was an actual term for this process, but let's just call it what it is, shall we? i think madelyn opted out of this activity, which was completely understandable.


and finally, the moment the girls had been waiting for: time to ride the horse!


here is the stable owner, amy, preparing caroline to mount guinny, her horse.


and she literally handed over the reins to caroline!


as amy walked caroline and guinny around the ring, she taught caroline how to use the reins to guide guinny.



caroline was kind of having a good time.


love this one of caroline listening with the red barn in the background.


then amy unhooked the lead rope, and my little girl was riding this horse all by herself.


she also put on the brakes all by herself.


this one is my favorite. check out that look of concentration.


ok, i like this one, too. i never expected her to get to ride the horse all by herself. i think caroline was just as shocked!


on top of that giant horse, my little 6 year old looked so big, yet so small.



madelyn was also excited about riding a horse, but when it came time for her to saddle up, she was a bit hesitant. amy was so great with madelyn, gently encouraging her to give it a try.


madelyn stayed on the horse...


and before long, she and guinny were walking around the ring!


i was so happy to see this girl smiling on that horse!


and she just kept smiling. :)


the girls hated to say good-bye to the horses, but the offer of a cold treat made it a little easier to leave the stable.


wanna see more pictures of sweaty kids on horses? never fear... madelyn decided to have her birthday party at the stables in july, so we will head there soon enough. just hold your horses!

summer flashback: my birthday

for my birthday back in june, we took the kids to a hibachi grill for the first time. we got off to a fantastic start when the kids' waters came complete with really cute straw decorations!



there's just something that makes your water taste extra special when there's a 3-d paper fruit hanging from your straw!


next came the soup. my kids are not real big "soup fans" in the first place, so i wasn't expecting them to jump up and down at the sight of brown broth with some mushrooms and scallions floating in it. but ethan and caroline surprised me! they took a few slurps and still had smiles on their faces!


it wasn't long before the hibachi guy came out to do his stuff. wow, he looks pretty mean here.


i tried to take a picture of him lighting things on fire. i am super proud of this shot.


the kids loved his show, especially the part where i was the only one to catch a pea in my mouth, and the guy yelled "big mouth!"... some things never change. :)


i did get another chance to document fire, and the pictures turned out a little better this time!


behold, the favorite... the onion volcano!


my kids all liked the zucchini, too! amelia and hallie especially scarfed it down. i have been roasting it at home since!


and this was my birthday dinner! yum. double yum.


here is photographic evidence of my finicky four-year-old trying new things! happy birthday to ME!


hallie kept grabbing for my fortune out of my fortune cookie, so i cracked up when i read what was printed on the little paper: "what you seek is within your grasp." yep!


here we are... one big happy (and very, very full!) family!


the kids could've stood looking at this fishtank for another hour.


so next year for my birthday, we will get fast food for a fraction of the price and then go stare at fish in the pet store. ha!

for my birthday dessert, we all picked out a cookie from the cookie company. you can't tell, but mine is a gluten free, fat free, calorie free cookie made only out of kale, coconut oil, and grass-fed beef. well, besides the thick layer of perfect icing in the middle. ;)


love this shot of amelia and her "happy birthday" cookie, a new recipe that the girls both chose. we all agreed it looked better than it tasted.


the kids really did love the hibachi experience, and they agreed that we definitely needed to go back soon. we told them that the last time we ate there was for my birthday 8 years ago... when i was super pregnant with ethan. so we joked and said we'd come back in another 8 years, and it hit me that ethan would be driving then. wowzers!

it was wonderful to celebrate my birthday with my crew. i am beyond blessed!