rewind

i hate playing catch-up, but we had such a busy and fun summer. here are a few highlights from july and august:

jack attended a 3 day football camp at southside high school. playing football with a hundred other boys without his shirt on was pretty much perfection for him. he won a couple awards for his age group, including the longest punt.

ellie spent a few days at art camp with dani smith and was able to craft with a few different mediums, including paper met and clay. she really loves getting her hands dirty.

chris has been putting his new smoker to good use and is working on perfecting his ribs, much to the family's delight. these kids sure love papa's ribs.

we had a back to school feast and introduced a family theme for the school year. jack mentioned having a family scripture during an fhe right before school started and i have seen several other families come up with themes for their school years, so we adopted the idea. chris and i decided that our family needs to work on serving others, especially in our home, so Mosiah 2:17 Serve One Another is the family theme we picked.

we have our theme framed in the living room.

jack started 3rd grade with a brand new teacher named Ms. Weaver. Ellie is lucky enough to have Mrs. Been for 2nd grade. and Charlie man is the biggest preschooler at the first lutheran preschool. charlie goes to school on M, W, F and stays for lunch and recess and is there until 12:30. he loves taking his lunchbox to school, just like jack and ellie get to.

owen hit a few milestones at the end of august. he sprouted two teeth and began crawling. the kids helped teach and encourage the crawling. he's pretty happy being mobile. he now has 4 teeth, with 4 more on the way. chris was finally able to catch a picture of his champers last night.

owen also discovered pickles. along with ice cream, pickles make owen a happy boy.

early august brought my 30th birthday! i think i finally feel like an adult :) i was completely spoiled by chris. he planned a surprise party for me at the smith's and several of our good friends came including the peczuh's, rackham's, and sexton's. i have a hard time being the center of attention, but it was so fun and i know chris and katie worked really hard to make it a great night!

chris also let me bust open a piñata that was filled with my favorite treats, bottles of visine, chapstick, and 30 twenty dollar bills! I've never experienced anything like it! 

and if that wasn't enough of a celebration, i was able to go up to northern arkansas with my dear friend anna leah and go zip lining! we had an amazing time and hopefully i'll get some pictures soon.

ellie grew some butterflies this summer. she got the kit for her birthday back in february, but it was too cold then. we ordered our larvae and she grew 11 little butterflies from start to finish! it was fun for the kids to check their progress each day after school.

our last few days of summer were spent doing fun crafts, like tie dying t-shirts and making slime, going to the water park, and playing catch in the yard during the evenings.