Now I must confess that one of the things I was most dreading about my kids growing up, especially Beau, was having to play sports with them! Ha! Is that rediculous. I would hear moms make mention to tball and basketball and I would think that sounded like the worst way to spend an afternoon.

Not anymore. I am so enthralled to watch and/or join in to some baseball or soccer. I love being in our backyard with the kids and watching Beau is just a joy! Now I know I really have no idea how to judge, but he is just so talented. Seriously. He can hit a pitched ball over and over and over again and he's not even 3! I know that I will love watching them in organized sports for years to come. For now they're both doing swimming and gymnastics and those are going great.

Sadly I missed any great action shots of Beau. I'm sure there will be many more to come. And speaking of baseball. We're off to the Tacoma Rainiers game this Sunday and we can still get tickets at the group rate if anyone else is interested in meeting us there to celebrate Beau and Lily. A post to come on that for sure!

Just thought it was time for new look!

Vegetables!

Well it's been a few weeks now, but we finally got our vegetable garden planted. Kyle built these planter boxes last spring, but last summer was our nightmare summer and we never got to use them. We planted tomatoes, lots of herbs, lettuce, cucumers and zuchini. Basically a salad garden, but we can't wait to start gobbling up our home grown produce. It's been great so far this summer hanging out at the farmers markets and getting more veggies in our diet, even Beau is enjoying trying lots of new things. The other project you can see almost finished in these pictures is the play area. Kyle got a yard of play chips delivered for his birthday by cousin Ross, (Thank you!) and Ross also brought us the railroad ties. It's hasn't been easy trying to make a fun yard that we want to entertain in for $0, but it's getting there. The kids love it!

Here I Raise Mine Ebenezer

Samuel took a large stone and placed it between the towns of Mizpah and Jeshanah. He named it Ebenezer—"the stone of help"—for he said, "Up to this point the Lord has helped us!" —1 Samuel 7:12, NLT

Here I raise mine Ebenezer;
hither by thy help I'm come;
and I hope, by thy good pleasure,
safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
wandering from the fold of God;
he, to rescue me from danger,
interposed his precious blood.
—Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing

We sang this song at Soma www.somacommunities.org on Monday and it reminded me of why I started this blog in the first place. I wanted to remember the things that God has done and is doing in our lives. It's amazing to look back over some of the things that have happened and what the outcome is. There are truths that I now believe, but I still struggle to put to practice. But ... throughout all of my wanderings and doubts and our joys and struggles, God has been faithful, He has been our help. Jesus rescue me from danger!

Jo Emery Dances with Dancers

Lily had her fist ballet recital this past weekend and it was such a wonderful experience. We had been thinking about taking a break from ballet, but we enjoyed watching the dancers so much that now I think we're all excited about continuing on. The performance was held at the pantages theatre in downtown Tacoma and boy was it a treat. Such a beautiful theatre! Lily even survived the dreaded bun! We'd been growing her hair out all year to be able to do this and if you don't know. To say that Lily has a sensitive head is putting it very lightly. But she did great and enjoyed that big lollypop afterwards.


After she performed, we gave her lillies (of course) and she proudly and excitedly watched the rest of the show.

Happy Fathers Day!

Come on ... does it get any cuter?

She's a Graduate ...

It's amazing what Lily has gone through this year at preschool. She just had the best teachers who encouraged her and accepted her and taught her to trust and have confidence. She got used to being with other kids everyday and she made a best friend. Having a friend gave her so much confidence that she was able grow in other areas and we are so thankful for that. I can't believe we're on this school track now, next year is kindergarten and on and on from there. What will Lily become, who will she become. This precious, precious girl who we have loved for 5 years is really entering the real world and becoming who she was meant to be. We love her so much! I really can't say enough how much the teacher's she had this past year have added to that process. What a great start they've given her. Here she is recieving her award and posing for a picture.
Lily and her dear friend Amelia singing a song during circle time.
Her class. This was a special group of kids who did a great job accepting Lily and becoming her friends. We're so glad she was a part of this.
Lily and Beau walking across the parking lot for the last time.

Lily writing her name for the last time. Everyday they would either write their first name, last name or their phone number.

Oh to my horror! I walk in to the classroom at the end of the day and see a list of what the kids said there were going to do this summer. Things were said like Cannon Beach, camping, swimming, Wild Waves ... Do you see what Lily said ....

It's so hard to believe with all the drama we went through to get Lily to preschool that she's done. A whole year went by, like that! We are so thankful and would recommend this school to anyone.

It's cheesy, but oh how time flies

We had a very fun work weekend at the cabin. It was nice getting some projects taken care of and still having a great time with family.
I always love those lifejacket pictures.

Before that was Easter ... (I'm not very good at Blogging in order) We love going to Grandma and Grandpa's house with our cousins and eating delicious brunch, pancakes of course, egg casserole, fruit, coffee. Yum yum! And of course the egg hunt. Our kids buckets were overflowing, they brought home dozens of hardboiled eggs. We ate egg-salad all week. I didn't do so good on Easter pictures of Lily .... we'll have to remedy that.

Extreme egg-hunting with Uncle Kevin.
Nothing but seriousness!

Cheesy Beau faithfully wore those sunglasses all day.

Oh I've been so out of the loop lately. Not that I haven't spent plenty of time in front of the computer, but sometimes I just get so overwhelmed I do nothing constructive. Darn Myspace, Facebook, Blogging. I'm such a nerd. But I do love my kids and I love sharing their faces and their words and stories. So here's my attempt to catch up. (I've got more for later, with Lily's Preschool Graduation last week!)