Martina McBride's song "Anyway" talks about things that might not ever come to be, that might scare or intimidate you, that may never be appreciated, or that might not even be accepted, but you do them anyway because you know it's good for you and it's where your heart and hope lie. Therefore, knowing that how my family acts, how we look, what we choose to enjoy, or even what we say and believe may not be appreciated or accepted, I still want us to be who we are anyway...do it anyway.
In June we attended two family functions with Aaron's two sides of his family. The first one was with the Dennington side and we all went to Mo Ranch together. Aaron's grandmother got all of her great-granddaughters matching dresses. They put them on right away. They looked so cute. We just had to take pictures. Titus is the only great grandson. He got to sneak into one picture. (In the pictures: oldest is Bethany (Aaron's cousin's daughter), Aaris, Cosette (Aaron's brother's daughter), and Skylyn))
Back in Jr. High and High School Aaron had a really great friend named Erin. We have all still been lucky enough to stay in touch over the years even though we've only seen each other 3 times now in the 12 years I've been with Aaron. While her husband was having to do new job training, she and her kids were in town visiting her parents. We all got together for a swim and dinner. Her daughter, Elena, is a true delight and the same age as Aaris. Her son, Egan, is following in his big sister's steps and over achieving and is only about a month older than Skylyn. The kids hit it off immediately and became instant friends. They were not happy to have to say good-bye to each other, and neither were Aaron and I with Erin.
Is it over yet? This is all I could think this year during basketball season. Aaron is a L.A. Lakers fan. I really had NO idea of this when I married him. I kind of think that was his strategy for marrying me so quickly after meeting so that I wouldn't know until it was too late. I quickly found out on our honeymoon, which happened to be right in the middle of the play-offs. And, actually that year the Bulls were a big team for him as well only because of Michael Jordan. It is one of those flaws of his that I try to look past because I do love him so much. I did say 'try'. I am all about Texas teams: Spurs first, Mavericks second, and Rockets third. Dallas Cowboys, Texas Rangers and Houston Astros are also sports teams I like. Anyway, my Spurs didn't do so well this year in the playoffs, but Aaron kept forcing me to have the Laker's play-off games on the t.v.. So, by the time it came to the final match up, I just wanted the Lakers to win so that I could quit having to watch them play. When they did win the championship Aaron celebrated with his reward of choice (as always) - a glass bottle of Coca-Cola.
(We were in the middle of our move, so we were at my parent's house)
When we were staying at my parents house in between moves I received a call one Friday morning from my Uncle Tim. Uncle Tim by true definition of the word 'uncle' is not my uncle, but by true definition of 'deeply loved family member' is. He is my dad's cousin. They have always been very close. Uncle Tim has been a part of many special memories growing up. He called that Friday morning to see if he could spend the night at my parent's house while he made a quick trip to Austin for the day. My parents were out of town on a trip, but I of course said come on over. He stayed the night and we got to have a little time to catch up. He got to play with the kids some and meet Skylyn for the first time. It was a short but special trip. Love you Uncle Tim!
I'm still playing catch up since I was out of commission for so long with the move. Here are a few activities from April of this year.
We had a wonderful visit from some very dear friends of ours, the Whitelaws, that moved away several years ago. They have a precious, and might I add, very smart little girl, Jenna, who is about a year younger than Titus. We had such a great time together even though being around my three kids might have been a form of birth control to them for future children. :)
One weekend while Aaron went to our church's men's retreat the kids and I went to the school carnival down the street from our old house. The kids had a blast playing games, riding little trains, eating hot dogs and cotton candy, and petting the animals at the petting zoo (only Aaris because Titus is scared of animals). Aaris's big thing of the day was begging me to go on the rock climbing wall. I was all for it. So, she got harnessed up and started out strong and confident. Not too far up though she got nervous and came down. She still talks about it and wants to try again to go higher.
Finally, Skylyn started to actually attend her Cradle Roll Nursery Class. She seems to do very well and enjoy it. She has no anxiety about being left for now, so I'm enjoying this until the clingy stage shows up (it would be great if it never does).
Aaris graduated from pre-k the last week in May. This happened to be the exact week we were closing on our house we were selling. Therefore, this post (like more to come) has been delayed. It was a very special day and hard to swallow. I want her to grow up, just not so quickly. She loves school and is very excited to now be five so that she can go to big kid school. She waved to me the entire time, and when she was going to walk for her diploma she loudly whispered, "Mom, I'm next!" They had a special luncheon afterwards and it was a lot of fun to experience with her.
"The Wonderfulest Time" are Aaris's exact words used to describe our very first family camp out. We went May 1st. It was the exact time that our option period ended for the buyer of our old house and the buying of our new house. (Explains why I've been to busy with moving to post about this trip.) We went on a Friday evening through Saturday noon to Enchanted Rock. There were so many things that went wrong, but it all turned out great. Skylyn did not go with us but had a great time at her grandparents house. We got our campsite moved when we got there but it ended up being a perfect spot. It was right next to the stream and the playground. Aaron set up camp while I cooked. I was suppose to cook over a camping griddle, but Aaron forgot it in his car. So, then I tried cooking over his one little burner he had since being in scouts as a kid. Didn't work. Thank goodness they had just lifted the fire ban and I had packed some firewood. We cooked over the open fire the rest of the trip and it was so much fun. The food just tastes better that way. With unpacking the car, having problems figuring out how we were going to cook without a griddle, and setting up camp we didn't eat until after 9:00 pm. The kids handled it well. They played in the stream, explored, watched us cook over the fire and didn't complain. (In fact they didn't get into bed until after 10:30, but were very happy and we even had to keep getting onto them to calm down and get some sleep.)The kids had a great time roasting marshmallows as well. For the most part they did end up just catching their marshmallows on fire, blowing them out, then feeding them to me. The only glitch was having to pump since I'm still nursing Skylyn. The outlet in the bathrooms was not working so I ended up having to go to the registration building and finding an outlet outside by the vending machines at 12:00 am in the morning. I just kept hoping that no one would be thirsty - and they weren't thank goodness. The next morning after a great breakfast we hiked the rock. The kids did amazingly well. Aaris climbed the entire way. Titus made it all by himself until the very top. Aaron has been camping many times at Enchanted Rock over the years since he grew up doing boy scouts, so he knew all the great places to climb and explore once we got to the top. Aaron and I ended up carrying both kids back down the rock, but that was easy and took no time at all. We packed up camp and headed into Fredricksburg for a late lunch. We stopped at our favorite spot - Hondos! They had live music and the kids loved dancing and eating outside with the music. It ended up being the perfect way for us to celebrate our new journey of our move that was about to begin. It's just another time that I marvel at God and the joy He loves to bring to His children. I had reserved this camping site months in advance, but God new that it was going to happen right when our option periods would end. He really provided us with a terrific way to celebrate and we savored every minute. It truly was the most "wonderfulest time"
I am so happy to say that we have moved into our new house. We absolutely could not have done it without the help of so many WONDERFUL FRIENDS!!! Thank you all!!! This week has been filled with trying to get the kids adjusted to sleeping in new bedrooms and finding the silverware. Aaron has tried to be a handyman already and has fixed lighting problems and electrical dilemmas concerning his TVs, speakers, DVDs, etc. We have also tried out local restaurants, grocery stores, Wal-Mart, and Home Depot.
I thought I would include some pictures. The house right now with all of my stuff is a mess, so I'm showing you the house as it was when we viewed it with the previous owners still living in it. We look forward to having friends and family over for years and years to enjoy our house with us.
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