Our summer has been busier than I ever thought it would be. Work has had us hopping but we have strived to keep our family life balanced along with work. We had a very quick but wonderful weekend trip to Pennsylvania in August to be with my brother, his wife, and kids during a surgery for her thyroid. She found out recently she had two cancerous nodules in it when they removed it and she will go for a treatment for that soon. I ask your prayers that a single treatment totally gets rid of it and there aren't any cancerous cells left.
While we were there my sister in law had made "Busy Bags" for the kids to keep them content while they were at the hospital waiting room and at the house. They were a huge hit! I came home from PA and made several sets for the kids and they have loved them. I found lots of great ideas I have saved on my pinterest for anyone interested in making their own!
Our summer has been so hot here that we haven't been outside near as much as I would've liked, but now that it's getting a lot of cooler we're spending a lot of time outside in the evening and on the weekends.
When we went to Florida for our anniversary, the kids, Sarah specifically, were terrified of the beach and the sand. One night recently after work we were grabbing sonic and the kids wanted to play at the playground there. It is a sand playground and the last time we tried it, they all 3 bawled and wouldn't set foot past the gate. But, this night was different. We had to carry Sarah in to the playground equipment but after a few minutes she took off thru the sand and that's all she wrote... The kids played in the sand for two hours!
So, we immediately decided to spend the weekend at the beach while the weather is still nice enough. We left this past Saturday and came back on Sunday, but we had such a great time! We took the kids to the beach and to the Houston Zoo, and they were absolutely thrilled with it and we had so much fun.
This week we played outside at the playground here at home, went on walking adventures thru the pasture finding rocks and pine cones. This age is so wonderful because the kids find treasure and adventure in every single thing they do.
It's hard to believe that they turn 3 next month. They are so smart and we are so proud of them.
Last weekend at the zoo, we were remarking over a couple we saw with a kid probably barely 2, and the kid was asleep on the moms shoulder and they had no stroller. Ryan remarked "they don't have a clue do they?" And I assumed he meant how busy it could be with 3 and that at that age a stroller was a necessity when we were out alone with the kids... But before I could respond Ryan finished his thought- "they don't have a clue of the joy that three kids at once is and how wonderful life is." He was so right. We have our challenging moments when all 3 kids are being holy terrors or we're so tired we can't see straight because we have had no sleep, but even the worst day is better than a great day before they were born.
Sarah's treatments are going well. About a month ago she had to be on antibiotic for what ended up being a double ear infection; and because her fever was so high they did an x-Ray to make sure she did not have pneumonia. Her x-Ray showed no pneumonia and was showing
Improvement in her lungs, which means the treatments are apparently working!!! Praise God!
I better stop for now. It's late and I should be sleeping while the kids are.
Sarah playing at the beach
Nicholas running from the water. It was so funny how he ran from the tide for the longest.
Emily showing me her sand castles. She had to have them all in a straight line.
Sarah monkeying around with me one weekend morning.
Our family at a Christmas Convention we went too (see my Christmas Blog for the fun story there!)
Sarah and nicholas monkeying around with Ryan.
A fun app I've been using to capture our every day paradise. :) it's called "collect" and you add photos every day. I did bad my first couple of days of September so I cheated and used a couple pics from the last day or two of August. I love looking back at the simple moments, because those so often are the big moments.
Liberty Hall from our trip to PA
The kids thrilled to be headed to my brothers house in PA.
