A beginning and an end

My heart is full tonight. Full of emotion. Happy and sad. Overwhelming emotion at all the changes around us right now. You see, our family is moving. We are moving. My in-laws are moving. My kids are growing. My business is growing. Things are changing. And it feels like they are changing at a rapid pace right now.

I will get into our family's move in another post. There is a lot to talk about there and this post is going to be long enough on its own:)

First the happy news. Emerson. Is. Finally. Swimming!!!! In typical Emerson fashion, she had to wait until she was ready and then it is like a switched was flipped on overnight and here we are with a little girl who LOVES to swim. LOVES IT. Tonight at the pool she would jump and swim to daddy and demand to do it over and over and over and over again. Just like I did when I was a kid. And the pride in my heart just overflowed. It makes me teary just thinking about it. I was truly worried that her fear of the water could turn into a life long fear. But now I know it won't. Instead she is just beginning her life long love affair with water. And my heart is happy.

Her brother on the other hand, he already loves the water and seems to think he can swim. Looks like I need to get that boy in some swim lessons:)

Just jumping right in to swim to daddy.

Love how proud Steve is of her.

Ashton jumping in and "swimming" to Steve.

And she is so proud of herself too!

And my heart is sad tonight too. My in-laws have sold their house here in Fort Worth. They will have another one someday but for now we are back to being on our own. We have always been on our own but with them having a home here it always felt like a little part of them was here with us. And when they would come visit it was almost always an extended stay. My kids always felt like it was their second home. They had their own room and beds there. To nap or spend the night.

We have so many memories in that home. They originally bought it for Emerson. "Emy's Digs" they nicknamed it. And Emy did fill it with so much love and laughter. We had Steve's 30th birthday bash there, TCU tailgates and Ashton's baby shower there too. We watched TCU win the Rose Bowl there. We swam in the pool countless times. Emy got her first bike and learned to ride there. We hunted for Easter eggs inside and out. Emerson learned to swim there.

Ashton always loved it there just as much as his sister. He loved to sit on the swing out front and watch the cars go by. Whenever we pulled up to their house he would shout "GaGa" (his name for Karen). And as soon as I got him out of the car he would run for the door...Normally to be greeted by someone waiting there with open arms.

Tonight when we went to swim the house was empty. The movers have already come and gone. The kids bolted in the front door only to stop in their tracks. Emy said, "It looks funny in here". They then proceeded to run around screaming and making sounds echo in the emptiness.

We swam and had a blast and my heart was full of pride for Emerson's accomplishments but was also heavy. This is probably the last night we do this as a family here. As we were leaving, I could not help but take a picture of the (now) blue door. It is the end of an era. But, as Karen said, "the beginning of something better. With God, the next chapter is always better." And I know she is right.

Family River Trip 2012

For the past few years, every summer we have taken an annual beach trip with friends. We look forward to it so much each year. There are normally at least 14 adults and 6 kids there (but often times many more). It is mass chaos but a lot of fun.

This summer we just could not justify going for so many reasons. We had so much on our plate and then we decided to add moving to our summer. That sealed the deal. No beach trip in 2012.

Knowing that we still wanted to get out of town at some point with the kids, we opted to take a weekend away at the River Ranch (Steve's parents place) in Johnson City. Steve's parents do not live there so it would just be our family, the river, nature and a little R&R.

The kids were super excited about the trip and having a "family adventure" and it turned out to be a fantastic weekend. The weather totally cooperated and was a little cooler than normal (only 89!!). Everyone slept great. And the kids really loved spending so much time outside.

As soon as we got there, Ashton wanted to stretch out on the couch while daddy unloaded the car.  

I have this dream of finding a fantastic nature-filled, overgrown, grassy are to shoot at sunset with clients. It just dawned on me that the river ranch is the perfect spot. Too bad it is 3 hours from DFW.  

 Waterfront sunset on Friday night.

 Saturday morning we took the kids on a nature scavenger hunt (thank you pinterest!). They had a

blast.

 

  We wore boots on the scavenger hunt because mommy was worried about snakes:)

 

Ashton showing off the rock he found for his scavenger bag. 

 

After the hunt we took a break and rode on the tire swing. 

 

 We made sure to take lots of gator rides.

 

 Ash riding the gator in daddy's lap. Not a perfect picture but considering we were traveling fast and I was holding Emy in my lap, I love it:)

 

Emerson still had plenty of time to ham it up. 

 

Changed into bathing suits and still hamming it up. 

 

The one picture I am in to prove that I was there:) 

 

    Cooling off and watching a few cartoons before naptime.

 

 Emy treating the rock wall like a balance beam. 

 

Ashton had a blast jumping off the bottom step into the grass. Over and over.

All boy. Could not get enough of walking around outside.

 After dinner swim with daddy. 

 

 All ready for bed.

 

I could not resist a few sunset shots with Emerson. I really should have done these Friday night because Saturday was pretty overcast, but they are better than nothing:)

 

 The key to Emy giving me a real laugh in photos? Saying the word "poop" in as many ways as possible. Don't worry, she knows that she is only allowed to say this word when we take pictures:)

 

  And Sunday I put away the camera. It was truly a wonderful weekend. I know the kids are already wanting to go back.

Playing Outside

My poor neglected blog. So sad how behind I am on posts.

Anyways, here are some recent pictures of the kids playing outside. The weather is warm (hot) and so we get to play outside at least once a day. I am so thankful for our shady backyard that is still cool in the late afternoon.

The kids are still really enjoying the sandbox. This is one thing that they play really well together with. The fact that they play in there without arguing makes the sandy mess they track into the house worthwhile.

 

We have gotten out the play pool again. Both kids are so much bigger this year that they really don't fit in it together anymore but they still have fun.  

This is Emerson giving Ashton a firm talking to about something. I wish her hair wasn't in her face so you could see her expressions. She is negotiating with him about something. And notice how he is staring off in the distance...typical boy has already learned to "listen without hearing".  

This is Emy before her first swim lesson this summer. Wish I could say she was that happy at the end! That is another post all on its own.

Emerson's Dance Recital

First of all, I know that I am MONTHS behind on blogging. I have a big list of posts and pictures, but recital day trumps all that so things are just going to have to be out of order.

Anyhow, Emerson's dance recital was a success this year. She had been to this rodeo before and things were totally smooth sailing like she was an old pro.

We did a mommy-daughter trip to the nail salon for pedicures this afternoon as a special treat (for both of us) before her 2pm recital.

Her little class this year only had 4 girls in it and one was on vacation so there were only 3 of them on stage. It was really cute. The good thing about her class being so small is that the girls really got to be friends. It was so cute to watch them play together and be silly in class.

On to the recital, her tap song was pretty fast this year and the steps were a lot more advanced than last year. It was a noisy mess but the girls enjoyed it and they all finished with a smile.

The ballet routine, on the other hand, was absolutely precious. It was to a great song that was about worshiping God and Emerson really loved it. Most of the times I watched her routine before today she would mouth the words to the song as she was dancing.

So sweet.

There were 2 or 3 times in the dance that the girls were to open their arms to heaven and look up in worship of God. It was absolutely beautiful and totally brought tears to my eyes because of the innocence.

 

 I just had to post this again in black and white because I think it really shows off the innocence even more.

Of course, Emerson got flowers after the recital. She LOVES getting flowers.

A big thanks to Jen for babysitting Ashton today. It was so nice to to have to entertain him for 2 hours in a dark auditorium when it should have been naptime:)