articles of faith (1 & 2)

(ps, yes, they were rocking)

tickle video

this just made me laugh... if you need a quick smile, check it out :)

ps, sorry, i didn't realize it would be so dark -- this was the end of our family night games

nasher museum

two weeks ago we went to the nasher museum (first saturday free thing), and though i don't have a ton of pictures, i thought i'd share a little of what we liked :)

a lot of the art was (too) modern, though there were some great sculptures (i say too, cause i didn't really like a lot of it, though paul appreciated more than i did :) i also was too busy trying to keep watch on my kids to take too many pictures, i keep forgetting how much more it is with three, even when paul's there too...

the exhibit was designed with kids in mind, and afton made this mask:

(rayna had one too, but somehow it didn't make it home--oops!)

afton liked the statues outside almost as much as she LOVED the bamboo :) that's my girl!

again, the favorite of the family (as a whole) seemed to be watching the excavator at lunch...

we had a picnic across the street from the museumboth girls were getting rather heart-broken that they weren't allowed to climb on any of the statues when we ran into this fellow on the way home (not affiliated with the museum in any way), we got to climb on the thing you see in the background, and rayna was quick to shake this man's hand :)
and finally, no family outing to "downtown dallas" would be complete without the train! we love riding the DART trains into town, and the girls were excited that this time mommy came too (usually they go on "just-for-fun" rides with daddy, he has a pass for school so he -and they- ride free)

basketball princess

this was from the end of june, but i don't think i ever shared it... afton wanted to be a "basketball princess" for a while (now i think she usually wants to be a ballerina princess, though it still changes occasionally). it's only a few seconds long, but it still cracks me up :)

ps, it's important to notice the shoes :D

can you say...

B E D H E A D ! ! ! ! !

malachi's blessing (pictures)

i've been meaning to add something profound to this before i posted it, but i font' think it's going to happen anytime soon ;) oh well, many of you were there anyways, and when i do add to it, i'll post a note so everyone can look again :)

full effect of cute little outfit :)

the whole family (can you say "fake smiles") :

and since i don't have any other pictures with grandma, here she is with 'baby' afton :)

projects

a couple of my big projects this summer included:

1) refinishing the kitchen table from this

to this:
now that it's done, i'm trying to seal my new table so we can give that one away. we have some friends that need it more than we do now... go figure, though it wasn't as much work as i feared.

2) i also painted a nightstand for malachi to use as a temporary dresser. it's pretty bright for him, but i figure it'll look great in my girls' room eventually... if we ever graduate ;) and evidentally we don't have a picture of that. (it's bright yellow-orange)

3) i had my first foray into home canning. i think i like it. it's a ton of work, but i LOVE fresh peaches and they taste way better from a jar than from a grocery store can, so i hope it was worth all the work. i think this is as far as i'll go this year, but i hope to branch out eventually to salsa, jam, and/or other fruit. (notice there are some nectarines and plums in these jars too, but mostly peaches). thanks to all my helpers! i promise i've learned a lot this year, so i promise if i need help next year, i'll apply what i learned and do it right the first time :)

sunday with afton

a few little stories before i get to work updating everything here in blog-land...

afton's become quite the little fashionista. yesterday at church she commented to me about the little girl sitting in front of us at church "mama, did you see her pretty dress, it's white and sparkly on the shirt, and spinny on the bottom. mama, i like her hairbow, it's got a bow on it. wow, did you see her heart ring, it has jasmine on it, jasmine's a princess mama..." she went on to describe the bracelet, shoes, and even socks in great detail. after primary class, she was telling me about another little girl... "mama, she's my new friend. did you see her hairbow? it's not a bow, it's a flower, and it has a shiny silver spakly jewel in the middle. mama, i want a flower bow like that..."
... and so it begins.

after church we hada quick dinner. it was just pieced together left-overs because we were in a hurry. afton volunteered to make her own healthy dinner, (and i knew i was in a hurry, and she wasn't starving, so why not?). she made a sandwich: hamburger bun, lots of sweet pickle relish, a little mayo, and some ketchup. all set! (BLECHHH!!!)

she ate the whole thing

(ps, the picture is obviously from a different day, they all are, but i liked them :)

after church yesterday afton told us all the picture she drew in class (below, it is from yesterday so i guess i lied about them all being from different days) it's our house. she told me all about it. there's a lot of bugs outside, and that's afton in the house. mama and daddy were taking a nap and afton went outside in the backyard and was playing, and when mama and daddy woke up she got in trouble for playing outside without permission, so this is a picture of her in time out. then she had to go to bed without supper...
--as far as i know, afton has never even been up alone when paul and i were napping, let alone playing outside by herself, so if that part's true she's really sneaky.
--she's had plenty of time outs in her life, but she's never been sent to bed without supper... does she even know what "supper" means? we usually have "dinner" at our house...
--did she tell a story like this to her primary teacher? cause it sounds more believable than i would have guessed, but it never happened... wonder what the teacher thinks of these poor parents? (i'm a little overwhelmed)


and last, but not least. we were in a hurry after dinner yesterday because paul was teaching an adult fireside at church. we brought the girls with us because nicki and naomi were coming down to babysit while missy listened to the fireside with us, win-win-win (presumably, since n&n said they wanted to come)... we got there a few minutes early (we were first to arrive), and as we entered the room the first thing afton said was "there's no fire" it took me a couple seconds to get it, cause i didn't remember using the term "fireside" to her, but i guesss she picked it up from other conversation, which was easy enough to do :) she's really smart :)