Summer Fun

I don't have an iPhone to unload all my random photos, but thankfully, my camera does a pretty good job of taking random photos for me. :-)

Yes, Anna is wearing long-sleeved snowflake pajamas in the heat of summer!  They are her favorite PJs. They are a super comfy cotton and she doesn't like to have any blankets on her at night.  

We have gone to several Montgomery Mall family days this summer. We have made crafts (including the rainbow sun thermometer in the photo), enjoyed music performers, and gone to the movies too! A couple of our friends have joined us too, Naomi and her four kids (including Eloise one time) and (my mommy friend) Anna and her two kids came with us! Some of the movies we have seen this summer for FREE with popcorn and a drink are:

- Despicable Me 2
- Turbo
- How to Train Your Dragon
- The Emperor's New Groove
- Cars
- Toy Story 3

The girls were in a crafty mood after the fun day, so they did some painting! :-)

Anna made herself a cozy house in a box with her big sister's lady bug pillow pet and panda pillow pet, as well as Jillian's new flashlight from the camping party! 

All the girls had fun decorating one of our many Amazon prime boxes that have come to our house.  We are using the Subscribe and Save option and ordering cereal, toilet paper, paper towels, patches for Faith's eye, even makeup! I really enjoy having it come to my door and the girls are enjoying the fun boxes.  

We made chocolate chip cookies with fancy William's & Sonoma chocolate chunks using our SAM's ministry "MOM"'s recipe (Student Adoption Ministry at FBC Bryan).  The "secret ingredient" is vanilla pudding.  :-) They were super delicious.  

Daddy and Anna did a rock concert for us (in the same pajamas)  with the Bounce U hammers.  They look a little like electric guitars, don't they?

Jillian and Faith surprised me by writing "Mom" with our pattern blocks! 

Faith created a house with a little person inside and pretty flowers!  :-)

Jillian created some more modern art with patterns. :-) I love her hearts using rhombuses.

Anna helping make cinnamon toast on fresh bread from Panera! 

Daddy created his own special recipe with diced apple, raisins, and cinnamon sugar. :-) We love when Daddy is home on Saturday mornings, we have the yummiest breakfasts. 

Cinnamon Rolls

Aunt Michelle is moving to Colorado the first week of December.  My heart is already grieving how much all of us are going to miss our dear friend.

But one of our must-must-do's before the move was to make cinnamon rolls again! 

Michelle is a homeschooling mom and was one of my biggest inspirations for wanting to homeschool my girls.

She always make a point of mixing a little science with our baking.  Jillian really wanted to see the yeast overflow from the measuring cup, so of course, that is what we did! 

The girls have quickly become expert dough kneaders.

Anna can sometimes be very intent as she kneads her dough.  This is definitely big girls' work! 

This is lots of fun!! 

 It's like playing with playdough, except for at the end, instead of having pretend food to show for it, we get yummy cinnamon rolls!

 Can't beat that! 

Then for my favorite part, rubbing the melted butter on the dough before "sprinkling" (it's a pretty heavy sprinkle) cinnamon sugar on top!  

It gets a little messy, but it's well worth it.

Their "big kid" friend Lindsey invited her friend Kara to help with the cinnamon rolls too! I am very happy to say that Lindsey doesn't move until mid-December. She is a senior in high school this year and will complete her classes before moving, which is super good for us!! I already have her booked to babysit on Dec. 10th!! :-)

Sadly, I didn't get a photo of the sugar on top, but then we rolled it up and cut it into rolls! 

The finished product was divine. It is also super rich and we always have to drink some milk with it!!! 

Michelle's specialty is caramel cinnamon rolls with pecans! Yummy! 

And as always, we made a marvelous memories with Michelle and Lindsey! 

Baby J's Baptism

On the Sunday after VBS, we visited our first church in Maryland, 4th Presbyterian.

We attended 4th for nearly the first year of Jillian's life.  It is a truly phenomenal church with wonderful people. And to this day, we continue to be blessed by the friendships that we made at the church.

So when our sweet friends invited us to attend their son's baptism, we were very enthusiastic to get to go back and visit!!

I did not take any photos during the service, but I did take sermon notes.  It was an INCREDIBLE SERMON that I plan on going back to listen to again.  I've also attached a link to the sermon below, so you can listen to it too.

It was a sermon on a passage that I have heard several times in my life but never from this perspective.

(You may have a little difficulty deciphering my notes, but here is a brief overview of what was preached:)

Old Testament Reading: 1 Samuel 23:7- 24:22

http://www.4thpres.org/media_player.asp?messageID=160508

Christ's redemption gives us cleansing power and freedom

God is still good when no miracle happens.  He is still at work, while we are waiting.

David's soldiers told him to kill Saul. They (falsely) told him that God delivered Saul to him.  David, however, stuck by his convictions and did not kill the king, even when given the opportunity.

Rarely is our pathway to glory easy.

My Favorite Quote from the sermon: "When we have expectations that our goodness will be rewarded we will become embittered."  This really resonated with me.  I often have the expectation if I do the right thing, God will reward me.  But we live in a fallen world, where those rules don't always apply.  Our reward will be in Heaven and we must keep our eyes on our Heavenly Father and our eternal reward.

God most often teaches us the most through the pain that doesn't quickly fade away.  "Do not seek to escape God's pain quickly.  There is no sudden experience that sanctifies us."

After church, we went to our friends' house for a reception to celebrate Baby J's baptism. But we had a little time before the party started, so I captured a couple of photos of the girls outside.

To be completely honest, it made me a bit sad that we were no longer attending 4th!  I miss getting to see some of the wonderful people who attend there on a regular basis. But at the same time, I really believe that God was the one who led Brad and I to where we are now.

When we moved back, we decided that we wanted to attend a smaller church.  While living in England, we attended the smallest church Brad or I have ever attended.  It was actually quite a large church by English standards, but being from the Bible Belt in Texas, it was relatively small.  We really liked that there was only one service and the sense of ownership the congregation took in their church's ministries.   The church we attend now in MD is smaller and has an awesome MOPS ministry, AWANA club (which I grew up doing), outreach ministry, and a homeschooling ministry too! So it's a really good fit for our family.

I love Joanna's theme for the party! She is always able to make everything sparkle and shine! 

Joanna with Baby J!  It was a very special occasion; it was a beautiful to see Baby J being baptized into his covenant family! 

Brad and Josh dressed up almost exactly alike! :-) Great minds think alike.  

We were also able to see some of our other FAVORITE people from 4th, Richard and Linda.  Richard prayed for Jillian at her dedication at 4th.  :-) He has also been a mentor to Brad throughout the years.  Both he and his wife are some of the most hospitable, generous people we've ever known. They invited us to stay in their home the week before we moved to England and the week after we moved back.  I don't know what we would have done without their kindness! It was such a blessing.

I am thankful too, wherever we (or our friends) attend church, we all share the same Lord and Savior! That is the bond that really holds us together!  

Kingdom Rock

After RBC camp, we had a week off, then we started our second (and last) VBS for the summer.  We had several friends from church who were attending this VBS in Clarksburg, so we decided to join in on the fun too.

 Unfortunately, the girls weren't put in the same group with any of their friends, but it was a great opportunity for them to meet new friends!   Jillian's favorite thing about this VBS was the daily science experiments (and the snacks were pretty special too).  Faith was very excited to learn about a real queen from the Bible, Queen Esther!!   It was a great week for the girls and Anna and I had a great week hanging out with a couple of mommy friends & their toddlers.

Jillian was very excited to see Anna and me as she walked into the multi-purpose room for the assembly.

Every day the leaders shared a new story about a Biblical character.  As they shared the story, they flashed up photos of kids showing the action or emotion the character was feeling. In this photo, Jillian (and the other kids too) are looking mad!  They have their hands in fists too! 

For the younger kids, the VBS leaders took candid shots of the kids doing activities. This is Faith's new friend Noa! They became good friends during the week.  

The kids watching the slideshow and singing along with the songs.

This was Jillian's teacher, Mrs. Kim! She was a very nice lady and always able to get Jillian to smile a big smile. :-)

Another photo of Faith and Noa together.  At first I thought "Noa" was a shortened version of Noah!! But actually Noa is a Biblical name all on it's own. Noa was one of five daughter of Zelophehad (he is mentioned in the books of Numbers and Joshua).  Noa's mom's name is Tirzah, which is one of the other five daughters.  I thought that was pretty cool.

Faith's leader was Miss Angela! She was very sweet and enthusiastic with the kids.  It was a super fun week.

"Everything Nice"

"Sugar and Spice"

Sugar and spice
and everything nice
that's what little girls are made of

Sunshine and rainbows
and ribbons for hair bows
that's what little girls are made of

Tea parties, laces
and baby doll faces
that's what little girls are made of

Our dear friends, the Glenn's had their 4th child, a baby girl on July 16th.  We made a visit to the hospital to meet little Eloise the next day.  

Faith gave Mrs. Naomi our present for little Eloise.

 I could not believe that Naomi had just had a baby! Doesn't she look stunning? 

Little Eloise had a little poo, so I offered to change her diaper. I could not believe how out of practice I have become after a year of not changing diapers!! And Anna, of course, was mesmerized by every little thing about Eloise.

Believe it or not, the last time our family went to the hospital to meet a newborn was when baby Anna was born 3 & 1/2 years ago.

A couple of years ago, we missed visiting Lucy (the Glenn's 3rd baby) in the hospital because we had the stomach bug. :-(  This time, we were so excited to make it to the hospital!


A flashback to March 2010-  Andrew and Naomi cared for Jillian and Faith while we were in the hospital having our Anna.  (Jillian and Faith had the greatest time with their family that the girls asked Brad and I to have another baby just so they could go back! : )


I love this photo of Naomi holding Anna.  For some reason it makes me teary-eyed to see my friend teary-eyed holding my baby.  I am thankful to have Naomi as my friend and believe her to be one of the most incredible moms I know!

Back to our visit to the hospital,  this is a photo of our family with Eloise. Naomi and Andrew teased us a little and said this is could be what our family could look like if we have another one! ;-)

There is something incredibly special about holding a baby who has just come into the world. 

It is miraculous,

awe-inspiring,

and just down right sweet! Thank you Glenn's for sharing little Eloise with us.
She is a beautiful, precious gift and we are thankful for her life.  We love you guys!