Ode to Lila

This is my first attempt at putting a video on the blog. The girls have written a song to Lila, our dog. Lila is a pet who could only be loved by her owners. Elizabeth is incredibly faithful to feed and take care of Lila. She even goes out to "train" her. We are thankful for our crazy dog. Just for fun I thought I would put a picture of Lila here so you could see what she looked like. She is fascinated with the green light on the camera so here is what I got:

A little wild eyed but at least she is sitting.

The Joy of Being Young

Abigail is doing very well this year in school. The other morning after she finished her math test, I was looking over the paper and telling her she did a good job. She looked up at me with a puzzled look and asked if I was going to send the paper off to be checked by someone. After I recovered from the fact that she wasn't sure that I could accurately grade her paper, I asked her "who would I send the paper to?" Without a single hesitation she replied "to the President of the United States." The joy of being young - what else would keep President Bush so busy!
Rachel and Elizabeth are on the same soccer team this year - the Red Hots! They had their first game of the season today. Rebekah and Abigail's games were cancelled due to water problems on some of the fields. We are looking forward to another busy soccer season.

Gustav Hits Arkansas

We are feeling the effects of this powerful storm. We have had a consistent downpour of rain for the last 48 hours and have received over 6 inches of rain. We are thankful that we have had power the whole time and have had no trees fall. Many of our church friends have not been so lucky. Many schools have been closed due to a lack of power. I can't imagine what it was like in Louisiana. I am putting some pictures on here to brag about my handy husband. Last spring we had the main water line into our house break in the front yard. Tim spent hours digging to find the leak and then we had a plumber come and repair the pipe. All this to say, while Tim was digging we decided to add some french drains around the side of our house and into the backyard. We had some drainage issues where water would stand at a few low spots which made it very muddy and hard to grow grass. Well this storm was a true test of our drainage success - and we passed with flying colors! I have included a picture below. We had very little water in our yard thanks to all of Tim's hard work. Here is our french drain working beautifully!

Our poor neighbors did not fair so well. A little waterfall landscaping??

Abigail's 6th Birthday

This Friday we celebrated Abigail's 6th birthday. Abigail invited her 11 "best friends" and we had a wet and wild, slip and slide birthday. We had a water balloon fight, water games, and our own homemade slip and slide. The girls all had a great time. After the girls left, we went to Chuckie Cheese for Abigail's birthday dinner.

It is hard for me to believe that my youngest child is six tomorrow. She is such a joy to all of us. We love her hugs and kisses and listening to all her imaginary friend conversations. She loves to play games - especially Slap Jack and Old Maid. She also becomes amazingly "very hungry" when she realizes that I have gum in my purse. We love the words that she comes up with - did you know that there was a disciple named Jankey? That toilet paper around our house is called taper powels? That she wears a " soccer costume" rather than a soccer uniform? She has a zoo of animals at the end of her bed but Rosie Bear is still the favorite of all. We love you Abigail! Happy Birthday!

Do you think she was having fun???

Watch out!

Abigail and her dolphin cake.

Imagination

We are back in the swing of things here in Little Rock. We had a busy week getting settled into life after our vacation. We were glad to be back in our own beds and get all 8 loads of laundry completed. Tim's Uncle Paul and Aunt Ruth Ann stopped in for lunch on Monday afternoon. They had been visiting Paul's mom in Harrison, AR. We enjoyed catching up with them and visiting with their grandsons Christian and David. We jumped back into school this week with both feet. The girls are doing a great job being diligent and are motivated to finish their work quickly. They have set up a town "Mayberry" in our playroom which includes the dollhouse, Lincoln logs, play mobile, Lego's, Polly Pockets, doll furniture etc. They each have their own home and there is also a store, a church, and hotel . Rachel and Elizabeth have also opened their own "library" in their room. The library has very strict hours and Christian and David were even roped into being security guards. Cake and tea are also served in the library. As you can see, they have great imaginations and I am thankful for the time that they have together as sisters.

Too many pictures!

Thanks Gray-Gray & Granddaddy for a great trip!

We have just returned home from a wonderful family reunion at the YMCA camp in Estes Park, CO. It is hard to choose just a few pictures from such a fun week. The scenery is beautiful, the camp is fun, and time with family is great. Here are a few highlights of our trip!

Getting ready to blast our rockets!

Time with cousins is such fun!

The girls table in the cafeteria made meal time lots of fun.

These huge rocks made a great place to play!

Elizabeth and Rachel try their hand at archery.

Learning to survive in the wilderness.

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The gorgeous mountains seen from camp!

Beating the Heat

We took a break from school this week to participate in our church VBS. The girls had a great time making crafts, playing games, etc. We also enjoyed spending our afternoons with friends trying to stay cool. Our weather has been unbearably hot. It is a sweltering 80 degrees when I get up to walk at 6 am. I am happy to say that I reached my 500 mile mark on Nike+ this week. We were also blessed to receive our new roof this week. One of the many hail storms that we had this spring allowed us to cover this expense. Tim took the Jr. Highers on a canoe trip at the end of the week. He is busy getting everything in place for the kick off of a new school year. We are looking forward to a family reunion next week in cool Colorado.



Enjoying a new park in downtown Little Rock. It is nice to be wet in 102 degree heat!


















Elizabeth perfecting her back dive.



Abby loves to be thrown by Daddy.