Snapshot in time

Hope each member of our most precious Village is having a great summer!!!  It's hard to believe that summer is almost over, so we are filling our days with playdates and lots of family fun.  Here are some of the highlights over the past two weeks...

PLAY DATES, FAMILY FUN, and a special BIRTHDAY CELEBRATION!!!

Besties sleep over...

Family fun at the Houston DASH game...

 

 
Fun at the park...

 
Waterpark with friends...

 

Celebrating Papa's birthday!  Gracie got him an "I Love Homies with Extra Chromie" shirt!

More playdate fun...

Girls day (and Andrew :-) waterpark playdate...  

 

 

This is such a fun time stage with the three amigo's (Abigail 7, Andrew 6, and Grace almost 3 years old)!  

We have told Abigail and Andrew since they were itty bitty that they are best friends, praise the Lord they've bought it.  It is such a blessing to see the way that they nurture and value their friendship and yet are very different people in many ways.  Here are a few examples:

Abigail- doesn't own any toys because she would much rather do something athletic outside (although she will serve her brother by playing with him and his toys despite the fact that she doesn't have a whole lot of imagination to put behind the toys), she loves playing soccer (especially scrimmaging with her daddy), going on bike rides, running with her mommy or daddy, watching American Ninja Warrior, doing math, playing board games, serving Grace, but she especially loves teaching her in every opportunity possible (David and I SO appreciate our little mommy in training :-), she falls asleep listening to Christian rap music every night, she's not a girly girl (her least favorite color is pink), but she loves to wear long/maxi dresses.

Andrew- He makes it very difficult to declutter and throw away toys because he can find a way to utilize any and all toys (even Grace's toys for that matter), he likes to play outside, but is much less tolerant of the heat, his favorite sport right now is swimming (maybe it's because he can escape the heat in the pool :-), he still values snuggling his mommy (thank the Lord), wrestling with his daddy, he is notorious for finding ways to be crazy/silly with Grace (this can be trouble because Grace loves to copy him), he always seems to be bouncing off the walls and flipping onto furniture (not always gracefully and coordinated though), he hates tank tops no matter how hot it is, he seems to know random facts about any animal, his imagination can be problematic when going to sleep at night because shadows come to life in his mind, so we pray every night for God's peace and courage; speaking of prayer, he has this amazing way of knowing exactly what to pray for even when you haven't given him specifics, he's very inquisitive, he goes to sleep listening to worship music, but always wants to make sure his music is set to skip the Christian rap songs because he thinks some of them sound spooky at night.

The Boss (Grace)- LOVES school, her family, and dogs.  As a family we find ourselves talking like Grace because she is forever cracking us up with her antics and funny sayings.  She is full of love, hilarious, and all kinds of stubborn at times.  David and I have been humbled and challenged with altering our parenting style to best match our little Gracie's personality because the parenting style that worked for the big kids does not produce the same results for her :-).  For instance, we are always having to think on our toes as to how to help her feel empowered (like it was her decision) when it comes to obeying.  A small example of what I mean is the process of getting her to walk from the car to the house.  She loves to be rascally and stand by the car with a squirrelly look on her face, as if she is trying to decide if she's going to run the other direction or not.  Instead of requesting and then threatening her with a consequence if she doesn't obey and come inside like we asked her to (because it didn't take us long to learn that... that rarely works), we give her two positive options.  For instance, do you want to stomp to mommy or hop to mommy?  She loves to feel empowered and will more often than not obey, but she ALWAYS keeps us on our toes!  We are far from having it all figured out, but in God's strength and with the help of her incredible teachers at The Rise School, we are enjoying the ride and beyond grateful that we get to be the mommy, daddy, brother, and sister to our Gracie Doo.

Some other Gracie Doo antics that we love...  Second to her family, her favorite thing to do is sing and listen to music, anytime David and I walk out of the bathroom she cheers for us "Yeah Momma, pee pee in the potty!," she loves to sing (especially in the microphone) and can often times be found singing Amazing Grace, talking about Elmo, or calling everybody in the family trying to convince them to come play with her in her bed when she should still be sleeping early in the morning.   Her favorite TV shows are Elmo, Hi-5, Barney, and anything with dogs in it, she is always trying to convince us that she needs to wash her hands or brush her teeth; this germ-a-phobe doesn't hate the fact that a reward for her is to wash her hands!  Here are some random pics of our silly little girl over the past two weeks...

Grace lovin on Tucker...

Grace started private PT last week...

We have our first of many ARD meetings for Grace at our local elementary school this Wednesday, will you please pray that the Lord will align our hearts and minds as to what is best for Grace.  Thank you, Sweet Village!!!