Pumpkin Carving

Ever since the boys were little, we have done pumpkin carving each October. This is one of our favorite activities and the boys always ask about it!

This year, since we were still living in a hotel, we had some good friends invite us over to their house to do the carving. They had never carved a pumpkin with their kids, so it was great fun to see it all from a "newbies" perspective. It was also fun to be around little ones again!

The pumpkins!

What is in there?!?

Is it supposed to look like that?

The daddys are working hard to get all of those pumpkins done!

G with his pumpkin opened up!

M with his pumpkins innards!

G with his finished product!

M with his finished product!

Drew with his finished pumpkin!

Sweet baby Evan with his pumpkin!

MCA Jog-a-Thon

The big fundraiser for the boy's new school is the Jog-a-thon! This is held in October each year and the kids get people to pledge money for how many laps they can run. I was quite surprised because the laps were not short and I would venture to guess that each lap was about 1/4 of a mile. The kids had to run as many laps as they could in 30 minutes!

G getting ready to run!

There were moms available to mark the lap logs as each kid came around another lap.
Here is G's lap log - he did 13 laps!!!!

M's group getting ready to go!

M getting his laps logged!

M ran 12 laps!!!

I was so proud of the boys as they persevered even as they were getting tired!

Moving Day

This is how we spent many a house showing! We would all pile in the car and drive down the street while someone went looking at the house. It was always a hurry up and wait scenario! Sometimes we would even eat dinner in the car! You never knew when a showing was going to happen and you sure didn't want to turn anyone away. This happened to be September 12. That evening we got a call that an offer had been made - it was for cash and they wanted to close quickly! Wow! How quickly can you move? On September 20, we had movers and packers at the house and they loaded the truck on September 21. We also closed on the house that day. So after having the house on the market for 3 months, we got an offer, moved and closed in 10 days.

James actually stayed in Oklahoma and supervised the movers and packers and with the help of his mom cleaned the house. The boys had school (Garrett had a school trip), so the boys and I left and went back to Dallas. This was such a bitter sweet time - we knew God was moving us, but this had been a GREAT house for us and we were sad to give it up!

Little did we know it would be another 2 months before we would find, buy, and move into a house in the Dallas area. But God knew exactly where He wanted us - it just took us a while to find it! :)

First Day of School!

New School!

I think we were all nervous about starting a new school this year. We did some research and decided that McKinney Christian Academy was where the Lord was leading us to be. We were very impressed with the school, the teachers, and the administrators when we met them.

Although we were still living in a hotel, the show must go on! So off we went to school. Here are pictures at the hotel on the first day of school!

M is all ready to go! Doesn't he look sharp in his uniform?

G as handsome as always!

Both boys ready to go!!!

M with his teacher Mrs. L

G with his homeroom teacher, Mrs. C

We are anticipating a great year and praying for friends to made quickly!

Cousins Camps

Lee Cousin's Camp

Every year we try to get together with all of the cousins. This year the Lee clan got together in early August. The kids always have a blast being together for a week. And although, it is a tiring week, we are making memories that will last a lifetime!

At Little Niagra in Sulfur, OK.

After making cookies together, the kids delivered them to a local nursing home - something mission minded they try to do every year.

We also got to have all of the families together for pictures this year. We had someone come out to the house. It was lots of fun and we were able to get so many more shots. I really think we have outgrown the studios. These are some of my favorites!

Summertime kid legs!

Lee Family

All of the couples - kissy face! Now we know who goes with who!

The Lee Clan

A great one of the kids!!!!

We went bowling again this year - for most of us this is a once a year activity - and boy was it obvious! We did have a good time though. This is M and his cousin A - they are only 71 hours apart in age, so it is always fun to get a picture of them together.

The kids bowling.

The adults bowling.





Stokes Cousin's Camp

The boys also have a great time with my folks at Cousin's Camp in New Braunfels. This one is NO Parents Allowed! My sister and I joined them at the end for a few days, however. Also, Meg is not old enough to join them yet and we wanted a little time for them all to be together!

5 little monkeys sitting in a tree!

SK

MK

MK

Playing in the river near my folks house. Little bit was not going to have anything to do with the water - it was too cold!

ML - toothless!

GL

Little Bit -showing off for the camera.

It was a great and busy summer - with lots of changes for us. After Cousin's camps were over, we headed to Dallas to start getting ready for the start of school. Sure wish the house would sell.

Florida Vacation

In June, we traveled to Florida to spend a week at the parks and the beach. We have some great friends - Chip and Heather Whitehead and their son, Carter, who graciously invited us to share their timeshare with them.

We decided to drive - I know, crazy for a family who has free airine travel. We stopped along the way to see James' grandmother in Arkansas and his sister and her family in Alabama.

We started our fun in the sun in Orlando at Sea World - which was a walk across the parking lot from our hotel. Very nice.

Here is the whole gang at Sea World.

There was so much to see and made a full day of it. We even did the backstage tour and got to see lots of animals that are not necessarily "on display" all the time. This little penguin was one that we got to pet.

The animals were amazing and just another reminder of the creativity of our great God.



Here we are ready to tackle Universal Studios and Islands of Adventure!

Universal Studios is set up like street scenes and many of them are from popular movies. For you Back to the Future fans - this is the Delorian used in the movies. The boys have just seen these movies recently, so this was a highlight for sure.

Islands of Adventure has lots of different areas, but I think the favorite was the comic strip area. The boys got to see and get pictures with SpiderMan, Wolverine, Captain America, Storm and others. What a thrill! There was also a new area this year, Harry Potter. Even though we are not really Harry Potter fans, this area is amazingly well done and we got to have a "sneak peak" at the area, since it wasn't scheduled to open for another week.


After our time in Orlando, we travelled to the east coast of Florida to Vero Beach. We did not have any plans for these days, so we just hung out at the beach all day. This is the view from our room! Amazing, huh?

We did not know it before we got there, but Vero Beach is one of the largest nesting grounds for Sea Turtles in the world. There were several spotted during the day when we were swimming, but there were also lots of sea turtle nests up and down the beach.

M on the beach.

G on the beach.

A vacation momento.

Me and my hunny!

Family pics on the beach.