Ecclesiates in action

The famous verses from the book of Ecclessiastes came to mind this past week around our house as God so kindly blessed us with the funds to finally replace our sad fence (thank you Blackwell Fencing!). Ecclessiastes 3:1 & 3 states, "There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under heaven..."

"...a time to tear down"

View from our back porch looking to the alley:
View from our front yard looking toward the backyard:

ALL GONE!

View from our back porch looking to the alley:

View from our front yard looking toward the backyard:

"...and a time to build"!











Sorry, no super spiritual application from these verses, but they certainly did seem to fit! We are adjusting to our enormously tall fence and the fact we can no longer see into our neighbors' backyards or them into ours. We're also adjusting to the simple fact we're no longer staring at rotten, popped-out boards in our old fence. We'll get the fence stained in a couple more weeks, and then we'll be finished. It's very exciting!

The last few days

We have had a wonderful week, and I've enjoyed how the rain has slowed us down some. Lots of random photos to share.

On Thursday, we finally closed on refinancing our house. Hooray! Our new fence was also completed (that's a separate blog post to come once it stops raining long enough to take the "after" photos). I also had brunch and a pedicure with my wonderful friend Melissa while our kids were in Mother's Day Out, but I failed to get a photo of us. :-( Later that afternoon, I took Julia with me to get my sunglasses repaired. Now that she's finally mastered getting down from the couch or a chair, she enjoys sitting up in a big chair more than ever. Here she is just hanging out with me while we wait on my sunglasses.



On Friday night, we kept Noah and Haley (the Selfs' kids) while their mommy and daddy went to a work party. I grabbed my camera for a quick pic when I saw that all 3 kids had climbed up with J to read a book.


Watching the rain during the wonderfully slow, lazy weekend.


On Saturday, my sweet husband had daddy-daughter evening while I went out with my dear friend Kasey for dinner and shopping. We went to the Watters Creek area in Allen, and we had a great dinner at Brio's Italian and shopped at some new stores I'd never even heard of before. We had a blast and thoroughly enjoyed talking without being interrupted by any of our kiddos.


On Sunday's ride to church, Julia rode forward-facing in her car seat for the first time!

On Monday, we'd finally had enough of being cooped up inside due to all the rain. With Julia's new desire to climb on the furniture and fireplace, I thought she might enjoy the playground at Willow Bend mall. Everything is super soft and many of the objects are at the right height for her to practice her climbing skills. She hesitated to move for the first moment, then she'd run off a short distance to play briefly before running back to me, and then after a while she nearly forgot I was there because she was having such a blast with her freedom!

This video captures that precious little toddler "run" I love so much with her arms back as if she's an airplane about to take off. It also shows how much fun she was having. I loved seeing that sweet smile as she'd run back over to me.


This video is simply documentation of when she began trying to climb things.

And lastly, we wanted to show Julia's dark side. About a month ago, she began making this crazy face to us. When Jarret first saw the look, he honestly thought something was very wrong with his baby girl and even asked if she was possessed! Since then, he's come to find it hysterical. He calls it the "evil eye" and she can now give it on cue:

Lake Fun

On Saturday we spent the morning at Lake Lavon with the Self family, with the hope of thoroughly entertaining the kiddos with all sorts of lake fun. I'd say it was a success! The kids enjoyed each other's company, and Noah and Haley both had some fun firsts with swimming in the lake and riding the Ski Bob (though poor Haley was not convinced that the Ski Bob was fun). Noah even wakeboarded with Jarret! The day could not have gone better as far as the beautiful weather, the calm lake, and very few boats around.

Julia often gets so mellow on the boat:

Julia and Haley enjoying the Motor Boat song:




The kids splashing around on the swim deck:


Way to go Noah!!!

Yes, you ARE cool!

Riding the Ski Bob - Noah having fun, Haley not so much:





The lake makes everyone hungry!: