The Yard

Today the boys and I spent the morning at the zoo. We had a great time--we met Jon and Kelly and Jordan there. Very fun! When we came home, the boys needed a nap, so Sam and I worked in the yard. We moved a HUGE pile of dirt from the front of the house to the back yard. It took what felt like a hundred wheelbarrows!

Jon showed up in the afternoon to lend a hand! He and Sam worked on the retaining walls for our patio and that left me to do more wheelbarrow work. Tonight we both have sore arms and hands. (Sam definitely feels it more than I do!) That was the hardest part, so now we get to spread that dirt around, and we will roto-till the new dirt with the old dirt (we're basically mixing clay with sand and hoping for something in the middle!) and we hope to get grass seed down tomorrow! All in hopes of eventually having a nice backyard! :) I have faith that it will happen!

Henry woke up while we were still moving dirt and thought it would be fun to help. So he got out his wheelbarrow and moved a few loads of dirt for us! What a great helper!

Time For a Swim

Well, I think we are now officially Texans. Both of my boys own a pair of real cowboy boots. I got Jonah's from a neighbor's garage sale before we left Bozeman, and I found an adorable pair for Henry at a garage sale this morning! Now we'll be sure to fit in around here! :)

After a morning of garage sales, the boys and I headed to the teen mania pool to cool off and burn some energy. It must have worked, because Jonah fell asleep on the way home before we even got off the teen mania property!

Jonah is still pretty leery about the water--unlike his brother, the fish! So today I pulled out Henry's old float-suit for Joey, and he thought that was really cool! It didn't really make him any more brave, but he had a really good time!

Love those interns!

The boys and I just had lunch with Sam at Teen Mania. Henry was so excited all morning to go and meet daddy for lunch-- it was all he could talk about! So I was definitely surprised when Sam pulled up beside us as we were getting out of the car, and Henry says, "Daddy! Yay! Um, where is Kailee?" (Kailee is an intern and has babysat for us a few times--Henry loves her!.)

As soon as we got into the lunch room, Henry ran for another intern, Bryce, and spent the entire lunch with him. I don't think he even noticed Sam at the other side of the table! Don't get me wrong, Henry adores his daddy, but there is just something special about those interns!

We are so thankful to be here in Texas, and we're so grateful that we are surrounded by such wonderful, godly people to love on our kids!

A little accident...

The boys and I were in a very little car accident today. It rained here, and when it rains in East Texas it is kind of like a small flood. The drops of water are so big they could knock a man down! We were coming home from Tyler and stopped at a red light, when all of a sudden...wham! the car jerks forward. There is so much rain coming down that I can't even see out my back window what has hit us. I pulled into a gas station that was really close and the guy who hit us did too. I got out to check for damage, and the guy in the pickup that slammed into us sat in his truck and rolled down his window. He says, "Honey, I just couldn't get enough traction to stop!" Honey? Is it okay for him to call me "honey?" I'm not sure yet. Anyway, I got his information and headed on home. No harm done, the boys and I are fine and so is the car. The part that really made me mad was that I was trying out a new way to get home, and I was trying to see if it was faster. But the accident threw me off and I never did get to figure out if it's a quicker route or not!

Happy Fourth of July!

We had a great fourth of July, and I hope everyone else did too! The boys and I celebrated by finding the cord that plugs my camera into the computer, so now we can actually start loading current pictures to this site! Yay!

We spent the afternoon and evening at FatherHeart, a local maternity home for unwed mothers. They invited the public out-they have a party every year on the fourth. They had barbecues set up for grilling, about 10 inflatable toys for jumping and climbing, a climbing wall, a pool, a lake and poles set up for fishing, and the list goes on..... it was incredible! The weather actually cooperated (don't get me wrong--it was hot!) and it wasn't unbearable. We met up with Sam's family--Dave and Mary Beth, David and Beth, Beth's sister and family, Jon and Kelly for a little while, and a whole bunch of interns from teen mania.

What a fun day. The kids had such a good time! They mostly played with the teen mania crew and couldn't have been happier! They both enjoyed chasing and being chased by the "big kids" (as Henry called them), playing soccer and eating lots of watermelon and too many cookies.

The fireworks were nice-they put on a pretty good show. Both the kids really liked that part. I thought Jonah would be scared, since he's not really a fan of loud noises, but he really seemed to enjoy it. Henry oohed and aahed through the whole thing. I think both boys (and my husband too, come to think of it!) are going to sleep really well tonight!

The Helper

One of Henry's greatest joys in life is to "work" with his daddy. He can't think of anything more fun than working with Sam. And Sam is always so patient with him and lets him use real tools (which makes Henry's day!), so it's lots of fun.

(Above is a picture of Henry fixing the hot tub at our old house.)

Yesterday after church, Sam needed to work on the sprinkler system. For reasons unknown to me, it was leaking in a number of places and the wiring had to be completely re-done. Poor Sam. He was so frustrated and a little discouraged.

Out comes Henry to save the day! Unfortunately, when Hank "helps" his dad, he often misplaces tools. Yesterday it was Daddy's favorite screwdriver, and Henry's own hammer. (We still haven't found either one!) Sam was considerably more concerned about the screwdriver, but Henry spent all day looking for the hammer. He even called a number of family members to see if anyone knew where it was!