Yakima

Every summer we venture over the mountains and spend a few days in Yakima. It may not be a glamorous get away, but we love it. We meet up with friends and family and spend lots of time by the pool. One of the highlights is going out to the fields for the afternoon hunt. (this is technically a hunting trip with shopping and sitting poolside as a bonus) The girls go out and retrieve birds for Korey( Ty is just to old to make the trip anymore) and hence, they go 'hunting'. This year Korey let them hold the gun for pictures-that is a huge deal, as you can see on the total joy on their faces. This will be great to show some punk in a few years- yep, my girls can take care of things-and yes- they know hoe to handle guns....consider yourself(or your son) warned!!!!=)

The One Year Mark

Yesterday marked one year- Dad has been gone a whole year now. I took the morning to leisurely make it out to the cemetery, stopping by La'El's for coffee first. A little joy to work up to the sadness that I knew would follow. I got to the cemetery and placed some calla lilies, irises and some red coral bells in the flower slot. Dad loved Calla Lillie's and I picked some from the bulbs he had shared with me so that was cool, the irises were from GG's house, also sentimental to me. The coral bells, they were what Dad wanted me to dig up and share with him, so on a weird way I did. I didn't last long there, nothing peaceful or joyful about it, but just needed to get there. I went to our property next, to check on the dogwood tree we all planted in his honor. Didn't even get halfway there before the tears came. It was a much harder place, lots of memories from early childhood on. I weeded around the base of the tree and planted some alyssum starts to hopefully add a little more color to the area.
Just so hard to believe he is gone. The girls miss him, Addie is most vocal about it. She just started sobbing at the street fair last weekend b/c she missed him. She didn't know what made her think about him, she said she just started feeling sad and missed him and GG. Poor sweet girl, love her sensitive little spirit.
This is the time of year we would always increase the number of times we spoke. Always plant questions and wondering who had what plants to divide and share-I miss that along with all the knowledge he accumulated about plants....so may things I miss about him....

I want to be with Jesus

So last night I overheard the girls talking about Jesus being in Addie's heart....so I went in to investigate. Alexis is excited and says.
' guess what,mom?!' Addie asked her what hell was and Alexis described it as a place where Satan lived and Jesus didn't. It was a hot and scary place, but if you love Jesus-you won't go there.
Addie tells her she loves Jesus and doesn't want to be anywhere Satan is because he is bad. So Alexis led her in prayer and had her tell Jesus she wanted him in her heart!!!! Love those girls. So as I was talking with Alexis how proud I was of her for helping her sister- she says she doesn't remember asking Jesus in her heart. I remind of her of her first year as a Sparky at Awana and she asked Jesus in with Megan and Julia...she doesn't remember. So i ask her if she loves God, if she believes he died and rose again for her sins and if she believes he will come back for us. She says YES! Is that it? she asks. God makes it so simple for us-even a child can do it. We talked more on what God expects form us as his family-Ephesians is great for this. I am so grateful that is the book I am studying...I am just so JOYFUL knowing my girls will be with their heavenly father someday by their choice. Praise the LORD!

Addie scores her first goal!

This week Addie 'got it'. She has been doing great in practice-participating and following instructions. Her opportunity came on Saturday and she took off on a fast break all by herself. She had a few fast breaks- and scored her first goal on one of them. She was so excited, she practically floated over to high five me. She dribbled the ball well down the field and even showed her new skill of turnnig the ball around without walking all the way around it. We are so proud of her!

A Serious Athlete

It has been so much fun watching Alexis each week in soccer. She works so hard and is all over the field. She has scored goals consistantly for her team- four the first and second games and three in the last game. She just seems to 'get it'. She is able to logically predict where the ball is going to go based on the level of skill her opponent has- and then go and take the ball. It is so awesome to watch. I see her coach helping her to improve by shifting her around- to different positions. She seems to be on defense when a girl is in goal(yeah it sound bad- but that is just the way it is sometime) Alexis is a great defender- she has mo hesitation to go right for the ball and clear it out. She has figured out so much already that lots of kids take years to figure out. She is just an amazing athlete. I hope to see her continue to work hard and play hard and keep talking on the field. She is vocal and talks to her teammates like I do when I play-it is so great to see this. I never knew it would be so much fun to watch my own child succeed. It is so awesome!!!

Addie is in Kindergarten!

I have been spending the first half hour in Addie's class helping her calssmates in writing their names on chalkboards. Her teacer, Aaron Reno, is an old family friend that I know pretty well. The second week of school, he pulls me aside and tells me about an incident the day before.(he is grinning from ear to ear, so I am wondering....) So Addie is playing Lego's with a group of boys and she creates a 'gun' of legos and proceeds to shoot a few of them. So Mr. Reno comes over and tells Addie that we don't play with guns and we don't shoot people. She cocks her head and puts her hand on her hip (Addie-tude style) and says 'Uh, Mr. Reno,it's not real'(basically she is saying hello dumb, dumb),' its only pretend'
He had a hard time keeping a straight face! Later she tells me that we can only shoot what we will eat and, gross, it's not like I am going to eat a yucky boy!
Gotta love this kid!

Beautiful Blloms

I can't believe how amazing the flowers look in my front yard. My dad would love to see all the variety and tell me what I should consider adding for next year. I miss those walk n' talks on our gardens.