Joy in the Journey: September 2014

Whew! Last Summer Update Post

Talk about blogpost overload today! I'm realizing just how much we did this summer after uploading all these pictures to the blog today! Here are the final few pictures from our Gulf Shores Weekend. Glad to be caught up and back to sharing bits and pieces here of the happenings in our family. I hope to catch up on specifics on the boys and God at work in our lives especially the last month or so soon!

This is from the beginning of the summer but it got mixed in with these photos. :) They love Jude's cozy coupe!

Dinner at Lamberts for my 30th Birthday

More Gulf Shores

Kassi's 30th Birthday/Weekend at Gulf Shores

For several different reasons we were not able to make the Lakes Family beach trip this summer after so looking forward to it. James was pretty crushed because he had talked all summer about building a sandcastle and had not been to the beach since he was a baby. We are so grateful that our brother-in-law's parents let us use their place at Gulf Shores for the weekend and that I got to celebrate my 30th birthday there as well. They had also let us use their place seven years ago for our honeymoon but we hadn't been back since, so it was so special to go back and bring the boys with us. I prayed that they would see everything the beach has to offer in those couple of days and we sure did: crabs, a jellyfish, and even dolphins on the last morning. James absolutely love the sand. He literally rolled around in it and made "snow angels." Jude was pretty content with the whole situation too, but that's his way. We got to enjoy several yummy restaurants (Thank Dad & Mare and Mom for the extra birthday $$ for the trip!), mini golf, and picnics at the pool after our mornings at the beach. Here are the pictures in several posts:

Summer Highlights Four

We started preschool about two weeks ago. I am homeschooling for preschool, and after several years of talking and praying we feel lead to homeschool starting out in the elementary years and reevaluating year by year. (The reasons are many: christian education being so important to us, more time with our children, knowing the personality of our child, and flexibility with life in ministry. It's not for everybody, but (for right now) it's for us and the way we sense God leading our family. Isn't it great that we live in a country where we can choose!) There was a possibility of teaching two days a week with a homeschool co-op in the area this year that didn't work out in the end (the original teacher ended up working out), but I'm really hoping that both James and I can get on board when he starts kindergarten next year. This year we are doing All About Reading, Five in A Row, and then as many real-life, hands-on activities as we can! We will also probably add in the second year of Awana Cubbies to finish up where we left off at church last year since our new church isn't currently doing that program.

Before a Birmingham Barons game (our first!) with our church

Jude's First Haircut! He was perfect and didn't fuss a bit. I waited as long as possible but the hair was in his eyes all the time. And his curls are still very much there after that first haircut!

An after shot when we got home from his first haircut.

James is 4.5! Maybe I can do an update on life with James at 4.5 soon!

James is painting and it was Jude's first time coloring (aka eating crayons!)

Summer Highlights 3

Early in the summer we went to the grand opening of the children's exhibit at the Southern Museum of Flight and made a 2 second news clip (we had to rewind and pause multiple times for James to see himself!) and at the end of summer we went to Desoto Caverns because James won a family fun pack from our library for summer reading. It was our first trip to both places. I love Birmingham!