OK — they aren’t all Whites, but Shannon and I are cracking ourselves up. Ha!
Last week Mom, Shannon and the girls came to visit. Here are the cousins on their first night together. They were holding hands, ready to pray! Thank you Lord for family. Thank you Lord for safe travel. Thank you Lord for taco salad!
On our first full day we took a long walk to the park — little girls in the wagon and the preschoolers on bikes. After we came home all the kiddos ate popsicles. The little ones were stripped for the occasion!
Aunt Shannon brought a fun toy to play in.
(Which has slowly been deflating over the course of the visit!)
And all of this is just day one. Cousins are so much fun!!
Our choice for this year’s vehicle parade was pretty easy — a tractor, “just like Papaw’s!”
To be just like Papaw’s it had to be red. Only Case International in this family.
Not too bad for only an hour’s worth of work!
With the rest of his peeps. OR . . . (hee hee!) . . . With the rest of his ‘beeps!’
Oh Mommy. At least I think you’re funny!
A few days after Easter we discovered something very unpleasant. Some undesirables had taken up residence . . . . in our hair!!!
Ugh. I highly recommend NOT getting infested. No fun. After we were debugged, I started doing laundry:
A LOT of laundry!
The good thing about this was that my car finally got a thorough cleaning. Nothing like a few bugs to get you motivated!
Last Saturday morning Raegan’s GT class met at Bear Creek Park to collect some samples of pond life. Her teacher warned them to dress in clothes that could get muddy. I let her borrow a pair of my old tennis shoes . . . .
. . . . THESE!!!!
My sweet baby Raegan has stretched quite a bit since this picture was taken in ‘03, right before she turned two. Now her feet are now the same size as mine.
And it happened in the blink of an eye!
“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith, and this not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.”
Easter is the time to remember and celebrate what Jesus did for us — reconciling us to God by being our righteousness through His sacrificial death on the cross and his resurrection. And the celebration of His resurrection continues all year long!
But before we celebrated on Sunday . . . .
On Friday night we watched the Rangers/Royals play one of their last Spring Training games.
Since a friend had given us free tickets, I told the kids they could pick a treat. They all picked cotton candy. YUM!
. . . . and STICKY!!
I tried really hard to get a picture of me and Juliet. This one was pretty funny!
The Ketchums came too!
Baseball is better with friends.
“For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son . . . That whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life . . . “
Saturday morning we headed to CityView’s Community Egg Hunt, complete with bounce house, face painting and other fun things! (Where, by the way, Juliet clung to me the whole time. I’m beginning to think she may have social anxiety. She was fine while we were setting up. She was fine after people had left and we were cleaning up. While people were there, she was a mess.)
We had four age categories for the egg hunters — and each of my kiddos was in a different section – ha! Here’s Aidan.
And AnnaBeth. Do you see her in the red shirt and pink skirt?
Raegan in action!
And Miss Juliet who I tried and tried to get to pick up eggs. She wanted me to pick HER up instead.
“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation . . . . the old has gone, the new has come!”
Sunday we were able to have 3 services at CityView — a first! (We are also celebrating 4 years — wow!) I brought my camera Sunday morning to get pictures of us looking cute. BUT — left it in my purse! Sunday night it was our turn to go to service. It was a great time of celebration! We were able to see three of our friends baptized. AnnaBeth and I have had some great conversations since then. I love the visual testimony of what Christ has done!
Angela brought her camera that night and took a few shots of us together. We are no longer ‘all dressed up’ but I think these turned out great!
They also show how hard it is to get a family picture with kids.
Especially with Brandon and Nathan trying to get in on the action! 
The verses above are the songs that have been on our playlist the past couple of weeks, and all from my new favorite album that I downloaded from ITUNES: Seeds of Faith by Seeds Family Worship. All the songs are 100% Scripture. It’s such a great way for us all to meditate on and memorize the Word of God!
Happy EASTER!!
Our week of Spring Break started out a little rocky. Sunday morning I was working with the 1-year olds at church, leaned down to zip up a jacket and my back seized up. OUCH! It turns out I have a bulging disk. (I’m not hurting anymore, so has it ceased to bulge? Not sure about that.) Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I walked around like a robot, rested, iced my back and was treated by my sweet chiropractor friends, the Kendalls. The kids, meanwhile, made their own fun.
Between hours of playing outside, they watched movies. The kids have now seen the entire Lord of the Rings trilogy and the first of the Indiana Jones series. Here, I think, they are watching Tom and Jerry — their collective favorite cartoon.
One day they spent the whole afternoon playing with play-doh. This was Juliet’s first time to join in the fun. (After one bite, ICK!, she realized that play-doh is for playing and NOT eating.)
They were quite content!
Anna Beth’s creations.
Raegan’s dog and house. And below — girl holding a balloon!
Aidan’s dinosaur cake and Juliet’s . . . something.
I was upstairs and heard them say, “Let’s surprise Mommy and clean up our mess.” What great kids!
Later in the week I finally felt well! We headed to the park with the Ketchum kids. The weather was beautiful, so sunny! Guess who forgot to put sunscreen on faces?
Ouch. Poor cheeks!! Juliet was the only one that got a burn, but happily it was gone by the next day.
To finish off our week, I took the big girls to get new haircuts. They’d been begging for short hair, so that’s just what they got.
They both look darling!
During the weekend before returning to school, Raegan worked on her salt-dough project: A replica of the Great Wall of China. I don’t have a shot of the final project, but here she building the wall.
What could have been a ‘ruined’ break because of my bum back. turned into a really good week. We needed that week to sleep in and rest. We needed some unscheduled play time with each other. It may sound odd, but I am truly thankful for the blessing of the bulging disk.
Raegan volunteered to watch two of the GT class pets over Spring Break. She needed permission from me. I skimmed the note from the teacher and read something about ‘low-maintanence’ and ‘easy to care for.’ Since our sweet cat Sam disappeared 6 years ago we haven’t had a pet, and I keep telling the kids that once all the people are house-broken we’ll talk about inviting an animal to stay. But the note said ‘low-maintanence’ . . . . and it was ONLY a week. Plus my daughter was giving me those big puppy dog eyes . . . . . So I signed the permission slip.
The next night at Open House we picked up our tiny week-long guests. And that’s when I realized – we’d signed up to babysit Crawfish!
We set up two ‘homes’ for the little guys, because apparently they are very territorial and will fight. We didn’t want them to be unhappy while they were with us. We gave them cups to hide out in and rocks and sand to dig in, because that’s what they like to do. Nothing but the best for our guests!
Never before have we kept a food item as a pet, but it was remarkably easy. We only had to feed them once every three days. And there was no cleaning up poo — My kind of pet! Although I read that if they molt you are supposed to avoid feeding them because they’ll eat that instead. Ick. Glad no one did any of that while they were here!
I’m happy to report that both creatures survived the week at the White house and are now safely back at school.
Maybe when the kids start asking for a puppy we can get them some Shrimp instead?
One of my favorite things about living in Ft Worth is being close to the zoo. Aidan, Juliet and I took a trip with some friends last week. It was an absolutely gorgeous day!
Aidan loved watching the elephants play.
Juliet was a tad bit wary about the elephants. Are you sure they can’t come get me, Mommy?
This white tiger had already ’swiped’ at a little girl through the glass. Aidan thought this was close enough.
BEFORE eating lunch.
AFTER eating lunch.
What do you mean I was a crazy, crying baby? Look how happy I am. There’s no way that could have been ME.
Listen up, Roo. I’ve got a plan to bust you out of this joint. . . . . Roo? Roo? Do you hear me?!
Instead of looking at the REAL alligator, my son climbs on the FAKE one.
Juliet finally realized that the animals weren’t out to get her. She especially liked the kitty cats.
In the afternoon, most of the people cleared out and we had the place to ourselves. We watched the thunderstorm in Texas Wild and then played with the interactive exhibits. Here, once again, is my son is enjoying the fake animals.
This time catching a fish. He had to catch it twice because I didn’t get a picture of it the first time. (Just like a fisherman!)
My little monkey posing for one last picture . . . in front of the monkeys.
What a fun day! I can’t wait to go back with the rest of the gang!
. . . . The birds and the beasts were there.
The big baboon, by the light of the moon . . .
. . . was combing his auburn hair.
AnnaBeth’s first grade performance at school was last week. She was a donkey — a very cute donkey, I might add. Heee ahhh! Heee ahhh! Heee ahhh, hee ahhh, hee ahhh!
My baby is obsessed with makeup. In December she found my lipstick and smeared it all over her face and the furniture. So in January, mom generously bought me a new stick of long-lasting lipstick in the perfect shade.
And she did it AGAIN. So, I’ve been trying to keep the door to my bathroom shut. I’ve been emphasizing that Mommy’s makeup is a ‘no-no.’ But I don’t always remember to keep my bathroom door closed. And Juliet is a sinner by nature. . . .
Obviously.
What do you mean I did something wrong?!
Along with her face and hair, my little makeup artist felt that her toys, the carpet and Aidan’s door all needed a little mascara.
