Putt-Putting around...

Last week we got a Buy a Game, Get a Game Free coupon for a local putt putt place in the mail, so Saturday we took the kids putt putt for the first time ever! I was so excited because I knew that even though they would be too little to bypass any frustration associated with the game (heck, I still get frustrated at that silly little game!) that they would be old enough to grasp the concept and enjoy the game. It was pretty hot, but boy was it a fun afternoon!

Here's Jon showing them how it's done...
Poor Jordan, she has the hardest time holding the club the right way. I don't know how many times Jon had to fix her hands! Good thing she's so darn cute! :)
But she can also be a little priss! Look at that stance!
Once Lawson did a few holes, he started to get the hang of it! He actually did a pretty good job.
Jordan was hilarious...She just dragged her club around after a while, guiding the ball this way and that, circling around and around the hole until it finally went in!

Got it!!!
Waiting patiently for his turn...
They LOVED going into this cave!
Line it up, girl!
Me and my boy...
WE LOVE PUTT PUTT!!!

The next Master?

I just had to include this video of Jordan. It makes me smile. :)

Stinkin' adorable.

Hiking Rainbow Mountain

It has been excruciatingly hot this summer, so at the slightest hint of a cooler day we decided to spend it outside! Yesterday the kids and I went up to Rainbow Mountain for a Nature Hike. We packed up a picnic lunch and got ourselves ready for a day of exploration in God's beautiful creation. We saw so many neat things, and had a really great day!!!

It is amazing to me how much bigger my kids are each time we do something like this...Every time we come they are able to do so much more, and they really enjoy being out in the woods!
The flat shady spot we found for lunch...
This picture makes me laugh...Lawson was being the leader, guiding us out of the rocky area. I told them to pay attention to where they put their feet and to not slip. Jordan couldn't figure out where to put both of her feet, and she ended up a little bit stuck and, um, 'over-extended'! It was so cute...she just couldn't figure out how to get her feet back together!They cracked me up on the trail part...such imaginations, and so interested in everything we saw. Here, they are holding their arms up to pass through the "tall grasses"!
We thought this rock looked like a dinosaur head...There were cactus plants everywhere. So cool...They played around on these huge rocks for so long! There were tons of places to climb up to, and lots of little skinny places to shimmy through. It was a neat place for them to freely explore, while I stood on top and could keep an eye on them wherever they went. They felt very "big" because they felt like they were going off exploring in the woods on their own, but I was comfortable because I could still see.This huge tree fell across the path....Lawson climbed a ways up the trunk, but then I started to panic that he would fall off the side so I made him climb back down.
They're getting so big!
I about had a stroke when I saw this animal on the log--thought for sure it was a little snake...
But on closer inspection it was a legged lizard...
Love this picture of the kids peeking into this rotten log. It was so neat to just follow behind and let them lead the way! They had so much fun!
We found another small lizard and Lawson quietly got close enough that he touched it. Yes, that's right. He touched it. Ugh....boys. :)
Thought these mushrooms growing on the trees were pretty cool...
Some 'treasure' that Jordan found.
We LOVE Rainbow Mountain! It was a beautiful day of exploring and exercise and learning and fun. Good times!

Tarzan...uh, Jane... uh, Jordan?

This is how I found Jordan the other day after breakfast...maybe two sleeves was just too constricting??

Kindergarten

It's hard to believe that Lawson is old enough to be in Kindergarten! It seems like just yesterday that he was a little baby, and now he is growing up into such a smart, kind, strong, healthy big boy! After much prayer and discussion, Jon and I decided to homeschool, and I am so blessed and privileged that I continue to be my son's one-on-one, personal teacher. I love that I get to see all of the progress he is making first-hand, and that I am the one helping him when he struggles.
I was so concerned about how schooling would go, but we are a month in and so far it has been wonderful! Lawson really likes doing schoolwork, he loves his supply box, and he really lights up when he learns something new! He also loves the new backpack that Nana and Papa bought him!



I am praying that God blesses Jon and me with wisdom and patience as we try to teach our children the things they need to know and that we can keep God as the foundation of everything that they learn.

A new fan

Monday night Jon and Lawson were able to go watch the Tennessee Titans play in Nashville, thanks to one of our good friends, Ben, giving them tickets b/c he couldn't go to the game. Lawson's friend Joshua let him borrow his Titans jersey, and Lawson loved it! Lawson had never been to a professional game before, and in the past he's not been much of a fan of sports. He has loved playing tee ball, but never cared much for watching any sports at all on TV. Well, Lawson had SO much fun watching this game! Just this year he had started to be interested in football, much to Jon's delight! They had a lot of fun together on their Boy's Night Out!

I'm so thankful they had this opportunity to spend this time together. It's definitely a memory they won't soon forget! Now, the Titans have a new fan! Every time they are on TV, Lawson and Jon sit down to watch them play.
On the way home, they had quite an adventure too! The front driver tire on the van blew out!!! I am so thankful they were safe, but they had to put the donut spare on and had to drive 45 mph all the way home!! They ended up getting home at about 1:45am!! They were exhausted, but at least they had a fun, safe night!

HodgePodge

There are so many things going on in the Stacy world right now...sometimes it seems a little bit overwhelming!! Last thing I knew we were entering a summer that was supposed to be calm and not busy, and next thing I know we've had company about 4 times, been out of town a couple times, and done a million things in between. Here we are at the beginning of a school year and I'm trying to get my ducks all in a row. Well, not my ducks, but my kids, and their schoolwork, and my laundry, and my dishes, and our family stuff, and my marbles! :)

I have had several things floating around in my head lately, and I am hoping that if I just type them out so they can be here to stay that I won't have to spend memory trying not to forget them!

• Last week Jordan said a couple things that cracked me up. One morning I was asking her to come over to me so I could talk to her, but I could tell that she was busy and 'on a mission.' I called her over to me again, but she told me that she'd "...be right back. She saw a fly and she needed to go get the 'swapper' for me!" Of course, she promptly brought me the fly-swatter. Sweet girl.
• Another day she was playing with one of her new birthday toys which resembles a little gumball machine but little plastic balls with toys in them come out instead of actual gumballs. It has two little plastic 'coins' that you use to put in and then turn the handle to get the balls out. Well, someone had put both of the coins in at the same time and they were stuck. I asked Jordan to bring me my make-up bag so I could get my tweezers to get them out. (Side-bar--Jordan loves my make-up and make-up bag. She loves watching me put it on and she wants to know what everything is for. She does not however know the appropriate names for all of the items.) Well a couple minutes later, she runs in, not with the make-up bag, but with my eye-lash curler. I asked her why she didn't bring me my whole bag, and she was so proud to announce that she didn't need to bring me the whole bag because she just got out my "squeezers" for me! Good intentions, right! :)
• I am so excited/nervous/scared/relieved that we decided to home-school Lawson this year for Kindergarten. There may be a post about this later, if I ever get around to it, but for now I shall remember this: We have been doing a lot of work on letters and sounds and writing and things like that. Well, one day last week we were upstairs cleaning up the kids' rooms when Lawson called to me that I could come into his room if I wanted and sit on his "lower-case bed". I thought it was just precious, and pretty contextually correct of him to call his bottom bunk lower-case!
• Today we were going on a field trip with our home-school preschool group and I had given the kids big bottles full of pink lemonade to last the whole day. As we were walking from the car to the park, I realized that Lawson had drunk almost his entire drink in the car on the way there! I asked him why he had drunk it almost all gone, and that now he wasn't going to have much to last the rest of the day, and cool as a cucumber he replied, "It's okay, Mommy. I can hold my thirsty 'til I get home." Ha!!
• A couple of quotes I have found/heard recently that I can't stop thinking about:
  "Being still and doing nothing are two different things." --From Jackie Chan's character in the new Karate Kid
• "But God doesn't call us to be comfortable. He calls us to trust Him so completely that we are unafraid to put ourselves in situations where we will be in trouble if he doesn't come through." --From Francis Chan's Crazy Love
• There are so many things going on in our life right now...this is such a time for us to practice our faith, to experience growth and to fully rely on God to meet our every need. I can't wait to have more time to fill you in on all that God is doing in our lives!!
  

There may be more later, but for now I shall head to bed with a slightly lighter load.

Have a great day! And be sure to look for God's power working in your life...when you are able to be an eye-witness to what He is doing in your life, you will be changed!

Quite the doodler...

In the last few weeks, Jordan has really taken to drawing, writing and doodling. She has always been an 'arts-and-crafts' girl, and I'm sure that she is going to continue to amaze me with her creativity! I love when they doodle on white boards, and when they do something I love, I always try to take a picture of it so it's not gone forever!
Love these pics of her working so intently on her picture...and her little people are SO.DARN.CUTE. :)
See...I told you!
I just love their big googly eyes, and their rainbow-ey yet thin hair and the cutest little hands and feet you ever saw!! She's also working on her name, but no matter how many times I show her the right way she still makes the J backwards, colors in the O, and gets the last 3 or 4 letters in a jumbled scramble. We're working on it!
This one was so funny I had to write down the story...See the two biggest heads? That's me and Jon. She was telling me about this and said, "That's you. And that's daddy. And these people (waving motion to the other people with just 2 eyes) are me and Lawson and Kenny and Jamey." So I pointed at the one with 4 eyes and asked her who that was and she informed me, "Oh. That's the big, mean, scary monster!" Well then. Maybe that's why we all look so scared! :)
Keep it up, sweet girl!

Party for a Princess

Jordan wanted a princess party this year, and Nana and Papa wanted to get a bouncer for her party, so I was so excited to find this pretty castle bouncer! The kids LOVED bouncing the whole time, and the adults enjoyed being able to sit and talk without having to worry about what the kids were getting into!

As always, I made the cake, and this one was HUGE! It took 9 cake mixes and about 12 batches of homemade icing and it was so heavy! I was more worried about what it looked like than how much supply I had to use. Actually, it looked different in my head, but time restraints made me modify and downscale what I had in mind! I was worried it wasn't good enough, but Jordan came down from her nap whenI was icing and decorating it. She gasped a huge gasp, got the hugest smile on her face, and sighed, "It's so beautiful!" That made every second of it worth it!
I didn't do a good job of taking pictures of everyone who was there and getting a lot of action shots. I was so tired, and I really just wanted to relax and enjoy the evening! We got a few good ones, though!
Here is the "cut-into" cake. Massive.
It was a fun party, and as always, I am so thankful for our friends and family who come out to make our special days even more special!

I'm thankful for Jordan and the blessing that she is to our family, and being able to celebrate another year of her vibrant life and her healthy growth is such a blessing for us!