Praying for baby Aubrey

 Shannon and I have been friends forever!  She lived just around the corner my entire life growing up.  There wasn't a birthday ever that we weren't together.  We always played together.  We pretended that Ponch and John from CHiPs were our boyfriends when we were little.  She was my bridesmaid when I got married.  She got married herself a few summers ago, and at the end of May, she had her first sweet little baby, Aubrey.

 I was lucky enough to get to spend a good portion of a day visiting with Shan and holding sweet little Aubrey while I was in Texas visiting this summer.  Sweet little miss Aubrey has been having trouble eating, breathing, and gaining weight.  One doctor referral led to another, and they found out yesterday that she has a hole in her heart requiring open heart surgery on this upcoming Wednesday.  My heart, and thoughts, and prayers are with Shannon and her husband and their sweet baby during this difficult time.

I have a strong testimony of the power of prayer.  I know that it works and that Heavenly Father always hears our prayers.  Our family is praying that all goes well with Aubrey's surgery this week and that the Lord gives comfort and strength to Shannon and Tim as they deal with this trial.  I wish that I were there to do something.  Since I can't be there, my prayers will be with them!! I love you Shannon and your sweet baby girl!!!

Uncle Aaron Fishout

 Every year as a family, we take a day right around my brother, Aaron's, birthday to remember him by going fishing- one of his favorite things ever!!  :)  His birthday fell on this past Sunday, so for family night, we went for a picnic dinner and took the kids to the pond in our subdivision to fish.  It was a perfect day.  It only got up to about 80 that day and the evening was nice a cool.  Perfect for being outside.

 We usually fish from the dock, but it was closed off, so we fished on the bank in the shade.

 We had 4 poles between the 5 children and it turned out perfect.

 Everyone caught several fish, but it was our Aaron who caught the first one.  I could just imagine Uncle Aaron there with us in spirit, making sure that his name sake caught the first fish.  :)

 Amber and Evan took turns with one pole.  It was the pole that Uncle Aaron gave to Weston when he turned 4 years old.

 Evan loved the fish and wanted to "pet" every single one that was caught.

 Weston's fish.

 Aaron caught quite a few.  :)

 Brian with his fish.  In the end, Brian and Aaron tied for the most fish.  I don't remember how many each person caught though.

 For the most part, I was the one who took the fish off the hooks.  Barth did a few as well, but mostly I did that. :)

 I am not sure what was so funny, but something obviously was.  :D

 Weston also brought some bread to fish with, but when he didn't have any success, he and Brian decided to feed to to the ducks instead.

 Our whole fishing crew!

 Brian took his fish off himself.  It is there under his flip flop if you look closely.

 This one is a little blurry, but I like it.  Weston looks natural here.  We all had a good time.

Amber and one of her fish.  :) 

After we had fished for about an hour and a half, Barth had the children go back to our picnic blanket.  We all sat down and talked about Uncle Aaron.  We discussed how we will see him again.  We talked about how Jesus made it possible for us to be together again.  I am thankful for the knowledge that I have that I will see my brother again.  I am thankful that I know that our family can be together forever.  It gives me comfort and strength.  Whenever I face hard things, I always think of Aaron and ALL that he had to go through, and that gives me the courage to face my challenges and to try harder.  Aaron was a kind, strong, courageous, fun, stubborn, happy, giving person.  My hope is to be like him as much as possible.  I am so thankful for my own sweet family and that they can, in some part, know who my brother is though me!!  I love you Aaron!!  Happy Birthday!!!

Making "Clouds"

 Online a few days ago, I found this blog that talked about how they liked to make "clouds" by microwaving Ivory soap.  It looked so cool that I thought that I would try it with my kiddos.  It was fun to watch.  I use Ivory to make laundry detergent, so I had some on hand to try.  Once all the kids got home from school we tried it out.  It just takes a few minutes and it really was pretty cool.  :)

It feels really cool too.  Not slimy or anything.  It reminds me of a marshmallow.  :)  They lady that did the blog said that the more fresh, or right from the store, that the soap was, the bigger clouds the soap made.  We have had ours for quite a while, so perhaps that is why it didn't make as big of a cloud.  Still, it is fun to handle.  She said that she let her kids break it all apart and then she would add a little water to it and then use a cookie cutter to re-mold it into shaped soap.  I will just use mine to make more laundry detergent.  :)  Still, it was a cool science project!!!  I just had to share!!!

*as a side note, if you do want to try it, she said it only works with Ivory soap.  And you should put it on a sheet of wax paper, or plastic wrap, or a paper plate so that your microwave plate doesn't get soap residue on it.  We used wax paper.  :)

Cool mornings

In the mornings we like to play outside.  Especially on days like today when it was in the 60's still after we ran our errands.  :)  Amber caught a cricket.  Grandma would be proud!  :)

Can you see the cricket in there?  

Evan wanted to catch one too.  But he decided that it was easier to catch ants.  :)

He finally got one to crawl on his hand.

The kiddos also love to play in the sand box.  I just filled this up but it looks like I need more.  It falls right through the cracks of the deck!

We have to make all sorts of cool sand castles you know.

This is what they look like when I ask for them to please look up for a picture.

Such silly kiddos!

And, of course this is blurry, but they are in action.  They love to swing too!!  We are really enjoying the new swing set!!!  :)  Fun mornings are the best.  The bigger kids are enjoying school so far.  :)  I am enjoying the next few weeks when Amber will be home every day before she starts pre-school.  She is so excited about it!!

Miss Curls

 Now that Amber's hair is finally getting long enough, I convinced her to let me put hot rollers in it today for church.  She doesn't like the sponge rollers much, but she did think that these were pretty fun.  :)  We both wore our hair curly today.  I should have gotten a picture, but I forgot.  Here she is holding her ears down so that they won't get hot.  

 After we took the curlers out, I made sure to put lots of hair spray on it.  She has such fine hair that the curls fall out very quickly.  As I was spraying her hair, she said, "Oooo....I get to have hair spray!  Just like Grandma (Whitley)!"  She was very excited about that.

 I had to get a picture of the back because I knew it wouldn't last long.  I think that by the time we made it to church, she had like half of these curls in her hair.  She takes that pretty sleek hair after her Grandma Yorke!  I took the curlers out about 5 minutes before we walked out the door.

Here she is all ready to roll for church.  She got lots of compliments on her cute hair today!  It is just so hard to believe that she will be 5 here in 2 and a half weeks!

Trip to Texas- Week 1

The first week we were in Texas we spent at Grandma and Grandpa Yorke's house.  We had a great time.  We went and did lots of things while we were at their house.  We went to downtown Dallas and ate as a family at the place where Barth and I went on our very first date!  The Spaghetti Warehouse.  I was happy that it was still there and it was fun to go back and think about those fun memories.  It is too bad that they closed down the West End so we couldn't go there.  Barth and I, and Russ and whom ever he took as his date did lots of things down there during our dating years.  :)  It is hard to believe that it is coming up on 19 years since that first date of ours.    While we were there, G&G also decided to have a birthday party for everyone.  It was almost Aaron's birthday, so they decided to do one for him, but also for most all of the rest of our family, since all of those September birthdays were coming up!

 Evan loved his race car and choo choo train music box.

 Amber loved her pink clothes and new sun visor.

 Aaron loved his new chess/checker set that you play on a big mat on the floor.  Brian liked his clothes and I liked my new kitchen things, but somehow I didn't get a picture of that.  :)

 Barth thought that his new coin set was pretty awesome!!

 And then it was time for cake!!  There was no #3 candle, so Evan got a 2 and a 1 to make 3.  :)

 It was so funny when Grandma put the 5 on the cupcake for Amber.  Barth looks over at me and quietly says, "She isn't going to be 5, is she?!?"  Um, yes, yes she is Daddy!  Your baby girl is growing up.  Somehow I can see that same look and expression happening here in 11 more years when she want to go on her first date!!  :)

 I can't believe that Aaron is the big #7!!  It is hard to believe that he will be baptized next summer!!!!

 And 10!?!  It is hard to believe that I will have 2 children in the double digits soon!!  What a happy guy he is!

And Weston, he got the big 0.  It isn't his birthday but Grandma and Grandpa didn't want him to feel left out.  :)  So we sang, "Happy Un-birthday to you!" to Weston!!  :)  He got a kick out of that.  We also got to see Great-Grandma while we were there.  She will be 96 in just a few days!!!  We also played lots of fun games with Grandma and Grandpa.  It wasn't even all that hot the week we were there, so it was more comfortable to play outside in the mornings.  :)  We always enjoy going to Grandma and Grandpa Yorke's house!

The First Day of School - August 15, 2012

 Yesterday was the first day of school for us!  It came way to soon for me, but the kids were excited about it.  This past week was insanely busy for us.  We had just over a week from the time we got back from Texas to get all of our school things, pick up schedules, meet the teacher, squeeze in a few doctor's appointments, and a few billion other things!!  Weston had his first day of 7th grade this year!!  Overall he liked it.  He was sad that he didn't have lunch with anyone he knew and was concerned about this 1st 6 weeks when he has Spanish since the band kids didn't have it last year, but have to take it this year with all the other students that had it last year and are ahead of him in what he knows.  I am sure it will work out!!  He is a smart boy!  :)

 Brian and Aaron were off next to elementary school!!  :)  Aaron has Brian's 2nd grade teacher this year which I am soooo happy about!  I really liked her when Brian had her and I know that she will be good for him!

 Aaron was excited that he had new kids in his class to get to know as well as some that he knew from both Kindergarten and 1st grade!!  I think he will have a great year!

 Brian is a big 4th grader this year!  He got an excellent teacher as well, which I am thankful for!!!  :)  He is excited to be switching classes some and can't wait for science.  They do experiments every day in that class!!

 Amber says, take a picture of me too!  She starts pre-school after Labor Day.

And then Brian wanted me to take a picture of him doing a "cool" pose!  Such a silly goose!!  All in all, they had a great first day of school!  I can't believe how fast the summer flew by!