Moving Time :)

We are moving! 

I have said that way too many times in the past 5 years. But this time, things are different. The owner has agreed to let us rent this home until our house in Tennessee is able to sell. Which could be up to a year. We have a family renting our TN house now, and they have been wonderful tenants! We have been so blessed. 

Anyways, we're moving this weekend :) We are so excited! I love this adorable, darling house!! :) 

Swim Lessons!

One of the highlights of our summer: swim lessons! 

Today is the last day for lessons. As of yesterday, Isabelle can jump into the water, go under and swim back up to the top on her own. (!!!) Pretty impressive considering how she's been a little scared of the water this second week! She is learning to swim on her back, on her tummy, with her arms out & under water. I have had so much fun watching her learn! Isabelle's classes are closed to parents, but I like to peak over the wall and watch while I'm waiting for Madeline's class to start. :) 

One of Madeline's favorite parts of swim is jumping into the water! She has also learned to float on her back & kick her legs, she can swim a very short distance to the wall of the pool, hold on & pull herself up (with no help!!). She's also learned to catch the rings under water, blow bubbles & swim with a life jacket on. Madeline has to have a parent in class with her. Mommy did most of the lessons, but Daddy was able to attend two classes with her. :)

Both girls have really enjoyed their swim lessons, even though they were a little scared at times. This last week has been a little harder on Madeline. I think she's just ready to play in the water and not do all of these lessons. :) Today is parents day and I'm hoping to get a few more pictures of my girls! I'm so proud of them!!

Summer Fun

We are loving our summer vacation! This is really the first time it has felt like a break. Both girls were in school this past year and we were so busy with other activities.

It's nice to just sit back and enjoy each other. :) 

As soon as school ended, we hopped into a van with my wonderful in-laws and we headed over to Tennessee & Kentucky to visit our other family members. We spent a week there & I left my camera at home. I don't have any great pictures to share, that show you just how much fun we had. But even without the photos, we really had a wonderful visit. I always love going back to that area, and I'm so thankful for any chance we get to let the girls visit my parents, brothers, and Jared's grandparents. 

One of my favorite moments from the week is watching Isabelle cook breakfast with Mrs. Susan and Grandma Bilbrey. She made her own biscuit and a cup of gravy. The gravy was only flour and milk, but it looked delicious. :) I absolutely loved seeing them together in the kitchen! I am very blessed to have married into such a wonderful family. I love them as my own. 

Once we returned home, we jumped right into our summer activities. We went on a play date with some of our favorite friends. We always love spending time with them & we are so very thankful for them.

Then we went swimming. :)

Both girls love swimming at Grandma & Papa's house! They both practiced going under water and blowing bubbles in the water. Madeline loves being in the water. She keeps her eyes open when she goes under and it is so funny! The water was pretty cold, but once we got in for a few minutes, we were fine. It was a great way to spend our day :)

 

And then, we went to our first visit to the dentist. It went a lot smoother than expected. She wouldn't let any of the machines in her mouth. They had to brush & count her teeth manually. And she didn't want to lay all the way back. So we had some issues but she got through it and got a goody bag. :) Hopefully next time will be a little better!

We went to a cookout with some good friends of ours, the Nays. They have beautiful horses! The girls loved getting up close to them and Isabelle even hopped on one :) 

At this point in my post, I'm realizing we've done a lot more things in just these few weeks than I thought. I'm tempted to make a Part 2 post.... But I'm already here. And I have been slacking on my postings so I'm just going to keep on rolling :) 

Last week, we were blessed with being asked to join our friends on a trip to Nags Head. (On a side note,  I'm so thankful for all of our friends! Our kind-hearted, sweet, caring, honest as they come, friends. It is so nice to be surrounded by a great group of Christian friends.) Anyways, our friends, Doug & Laura, spent the week in Nags Head on a family vacation. I was so excited when they asked us to join them for a couple of days! The girls had so much fun, the weather was perfect and No One got burned!! 

There are a ton of photos from that trip, so I'll write a seperate post about that :)

This week, we went on a shopping trip to Target and found a treasure! A Dora water sprinkler for $4!! We bought it and came straight home. Best $4 ever spent :)

Today, we went on our first trip to the library! I've been so excited to do this with our girls. We had a big talk in the car about our "library manners" and "quiet voices." I was so proud of them for their good behavior! They were so great!! We went with some of our friends, the Brewers. Tosha & I had 5 kids in there, y'all!! It could have been a disaster! But they were all so well-behaved and we were definitely proud mommas! They were so well that we decided to take them to Chick-fil-a :)

I signed Isabelle up for a summer reading program and she is so excited about it! She doesn't know how to read, but they have tons of beginner books and if we work through them with her, they still count. We read through one of her books today and I was so impressed to see how many letter sounds she remembered! Sometimes, I feel like I'm talking to a brick wall when we are working through some of her workbooks. It's nice to see things paying off :)

Today, we worked on the word "See" and the name "Otto" and she read them every time we saw those words. SOOO proud of her!!

Madeline is not ready for reading yet, but she loves to be read too! And she absolutely loves Elmo. She spotted this book from across the room and there was no way she was putting it down! 

We were very excited to see a puzzle table. These girls love some puzzles!

We've had a great start to our summer! We're enjoying each other and thankful for the time we have together. I hope I find time to post a little more! 

End of Another School Year

I can not believe this week is already here. It was just yesterday, we dropped them off. Meeting Madeline's new teachers, excited to see Isabelle's teachers again. Seeing friends we met the year before. Meeting our new friends. We were all so excited for our first days at Memorial Baptist Weekday. 

The picture above was Isabelle's first day. 

The picture below was Madeline's first day. 

Super precious, right? :)

This school year has flown right by. We love the teachers, the friends, the other parents. But most of all, we love that this school took the time to teach our children about God. We are so very thankful for the opportunity we have to send our children here. It has been such a wonderful experience! 

Madeline loved making new friends this year and she loves her teacher, Mrs. Turner! She only went to school one day a week, but she learned so much while she was there. 

This was Isabelle's 2nd year at Memorial. She went for 3 days a week. She has grown up so much this year! Isabelle made a very special friend in her class, Rachel. They have been best friends since the first day. It has been so sweet watching these two become so close! We've made some plans with Rachel this summer and we're excited about getting to see her! And praying they are able to be in the same class again next year :) 

This year has passed so quickly. I'm thankful for such wonderful memories and a box full of beautiful artwork made by my girls. I'm praying Memorial will have the chance to open a K-12 school. We sure would love keeping our children here! 

We Went to the Zoo!

It's getting so hard to post updates on here. We've been so busy lately! The school year is ending & Isabelle is super busy getting ready for her first ballet recital. (!!!!!) It seems like we are busy with something every single day. So it was so nice to take a break & head to the zoo with some of our best friends! All 8 of us piled into a mini van and headed to Asheboro for an overnight trip. 

We love staying in hotels. Usually, the girls have a hard time going to sleep. They stay up late giggling at each other. When we stayed at The Great Wolf Lodge, one of the girls ended up in our bed. On this trip, they fell asleep quickly and kept the giggles short. And Mommy & Daddy didn't have to share their bed.

I'm so thankful for technology! And I really mean it, from the bottom of my heart. We had enough iPads in the car for the girls to share and other electronics like a LeapPad and a StoryTime Pad. There was a DVD player in the van so we were able to watch movies. Well, more like movie. I'm pretty sure I can recite the entire script of Mary Poppins. Anyways, all of these things kept the girls entertained and happy. It was a smooth ride & we were all so very thankful.

After settling into our rooms, we enjoyed a yummy pizza dinner. The had a Sir Pizza and there was no way we were passing it up! After dinner, we changed into our bathing suits and headed to the indoor pool. The girls were so excited! Isabelle wore her swim floats and she did really well with them! I took them off her arms for a little bit to see how she would do. She "doggie paddled" pretty well! I could let go of her waist for a few seconds and she could hold herself up. I'm pretty excited about getting her in swimming lessons this summer. I think she's going to do great with it! 

Madeline loved swimming, but loved jumping off the edge into Daddy's arms the most! Last year, she was a little scared of the water. She didn't want to wear floats or life jackets, she just wanted to be held. I was so excited to see her loving the water so much! She laughed and squealed the whole time. It's going to be a great summer, swimming with these water babies!! 

We woke up early and headed to the Zoo! The girls were so excited!

The best money spent during the entire trip was on these nice strollers. I'm so glad we forgot ours at home, these were so much nicer! And really easy to push around all those hills.

Such great dads!

Madeline loved relaxing in her fancy stroller but she wanted to get out at every stop and see the animals. She loved them all! It was so neat to see all the girls so excited about the animals.

photo opp!

The animals where neat, but the girls had the best time climbing on all of the statues! 

Madeline was excited to see all of the animals, but her absolute favorites were the "oh-oh ah-ah's." That girl loves monkeys!! 

She can even walk like them :) She while she was doing this, she was saying, "Oh-oh ah-ah!!" It was the sweetest thing!

We enjoyed our breaks! Even though it was beautiful weather, perfectly shaded and breezy, we still stopped for snacks every now and then. It's hard to pass up cotton candy :)

We even saw a few dinosaurs! Madeline was excited until they started moving around. She stayed close to Daddy!

Isabelle & Lily stayed close most of the day, chatting away! I was so thankful our friends came with us on this trip. We all had so much fun together! It's so nice to have great traveling buddies! It was a beautiful day, and so wonderful to see God's creation up close. I can't wait until next year :)

Bubbles!

Ugh. That's all I have for this week. 

Madeline had pink eye.

Isabelle had a stomach virus.

They both shared a little cold with it all.

We prayed over the girls, all day. For everything to pass quickly. And for nothing to be passed in the house. For healing, strength, comfort that only He can give. 

I held back her hair and cried with her. All day. Complete heartbreak.

Madeline had to be held down for her eye drops. Pinning down a feisty two year old by yourself is not easy.  And also heartbreaking. 

I can't complain too much. I have plenty to be thankful for. 

Nothing was passed around the house. No one else caught the stomach bug & Madeline was the only one with pink eye. That's amazing! 

A friend had eye drops for pink eye. Saving us a doctor's visit and the money for drops. (They can be expensive.)

Isabelle's virus only lasted one day. She was almost back to 100% the next day! She couldn't hold down a drop of water, got sick at least 8 times & ran a fever of 102. You can imagine, to see her feeling so well the next day was pretty exciting!

Did I mention that no one else in our house caught her stomach bug??? 

Praise the Lord for His goodness! 

Once Isabelle started feeling better, we grabbed some bubbles and headed outside for some fresh air. It was so beautiful! I knew they would have tons of energy. Being inside all day, sick & on the couch, isn't fun for anyone. 

I grabbed my camera, knowing there were some cute pictures coming! 

Madeline enjoyed playing with one of her birthday presents. A bubble-blowing lawn mower. She pushed that thing all over our yard.

Then we broke out the bubble wand! There were bubbles everywhere! :)

It was so nice seeing that joy in her face! 

Madeline was in control of the wand. She didn't want to pop the bubbles. Isabelle loved popping the bubbles and chasing after them! They made a great team. :)

I had so much fun watching them play together. It was a perfect cure to our mini case of "cabin fever." 

Madeline became a little attached to the bubble wand. She didn't want to share with her big sister. We had to have a time-out on the steps. :) 

Once our bubbles were gone, we took everything back inside. It was still so nice out so we decided to go on a walk. As soon as we got across the street, we heard to ice cream truck. :) I saw it coming to our street, so I picked up Madeline, grabbed Isabelle's hand & told her to run! We ran across the street (looking both ways!) as fast as we could to my purse. Grabbed some cash and ran back outside, just in time to meet the ice cream truck. The girls stood at the end of the drive, shaking their hips to the tropical music blaring from the truck. It was quite a sight, they had the driver laughing so hard! We got two Dora creamsicles, with the gumball eyes. They were so yummy! We sat in the middle of the drive way, enjoying our snack. The sun was setting, so we started back on our walk. Only walking a few houses down, then back across the neighbors yard.

After a day of horrible sickness, this was just what we needed. I'm so thankful for His love & for giving us exactly what we need. :)