{iPhone Rewind} :: July

Aiden's turban nest. He said, "send that to the president." This kid's got jokes!

We had a long stretch of 100-degree days, and the humidity was stifling. Not our favorite summer days...

4th of July flowers from Mike

Maddie was super excited about the free samples at Trader Joe's :)

A beautiful {double} rainbow after a storm

Lunch and a show {our neighbors were having a tree removed}  :)

Happy 15th Anniversary to us!

I wonder how many days are left of seeing this bear on the stairs...

This little guy spent a lot of time climbing around our living room window, flying into our back door, and hanging out on our patio table. I'm pretty sure he was either a baby learning to fly, or he was hurt and needing to recover. I'm choosing to maintain our Disney backyard aesthetic and believe he eventually gained the strength to fly safely away on his own :)

They're both WAY too big to snuggle on top of Mommy, but where there is a will, there is a way...

 

We ventured into Rainforest Falls for VBS this year! Our Super Sloth, Jumpin' Jaguar, and Amazing Anaconda learned all about the nature of God, and it was a fun week full of praising our all-knowing and faithful Creator!

Aiden accidentally left Pooh Bear at a friend's house...and he took a journey to make it back safely home :)

Our little World Cup junkies haha

One of our missionaries from the Netherlands {same one Mike visited earlier this year} has come back to Virginia for the summer, and he taught a class on the 4 gospels: Four Portraits, One Jesus. I always enjoy learning from him, but was doubly excited for this class, as I prepare for our Luke Bible study this Fall!

After almost 40 years of faithful ministry, Milt and Val said "see you later" to our CBC family. We had a sweet morning hearing Milt's last sermon as our Shepherding Pastor, and then enjoying an all-church picnic with family and friends throughout the years.

These two thought it was hilarious to stuff the Pooh bear costume with blankets and have been carrying it around like an extra person. They have been dancing with it, sleeping with it, and I find it propped up in random places. 

{iPhone Rewind} :: July

A nice cool morning = summer school on the porch

Sibling antics

Early morning walk in the neighborhood <3

We have bird eggs in our birdhouse! We have been watching 2 birds build and guard the nest, and we were pretty positive it meant eggs :)

Flower from my love

We had a great week at VBS! Our spent a week at the Son Harvest County Fair, learning about the fruits of the Spirit!

Brothers working nicely together :)

The kids sang one of their VBS songs at church :)

We had a heat wave, and it was starting to feel too much like Texas...feeling like 97 at 8:40pm!! We have gotten so spoiled with our Virginia weather haha.

Bedhead cutie!

Pooh Bear antics :)

I went out to fill the bird feeder and heard a ton of chirping coming from the birdhouse. Sure enough...four tiny baby birds!

We got to host our Catalyst young adult group this month. They make me feel old, but man, they encourage me so much.

July 2024 can be the month that chess took over our house :)

We had another great month of book club!

All the kids play all the time. And they have the board set up, ready and waiting for Mike when he gets home. And I love it :)

I couldn't figure out why I couldn't open Maddie's sock drawer. When I finally got it open, it was FILLED to the brim with socks. I started organizing them....and learned quickly that every sock that I had told her to throw away because it had a hole in it? She put back in her drawer. The reason why? She was going to organize them {??} My daughter and I are not the same LOL.

Poor kid ended up with a random 2 day fever.

We had a mid-summer Ice Cream Social for our women's ministry, and I got to add in a little creativity :)

Eli drew Mike with his Bible in his office :)

Our cutie girl took a nasty tumble and hit her front teeth/mouth. It involved lots of blood, lots of tears, and an after-hours visit to the dentist. She was such a trooper though!

Full prep for fall Bible study is underway! We're studying Ephesians, and I am so excited to dive in with our women :)

VBS 2020 :: KIDZ Adventure Week

This past week, we had VBS at home! Laura told me about Prestonwood putting out their VBS materials online, so we decided to check it out. My kids are still too young for most VBS programs under normal circumstances, so it was nice to have an option for them to "attend" this year at age 3. A silver lining to the pandemic :)

They made the decision to host their program online because of COVID-19, so they did a great job of creating online content: age-appropriate videos, curriculum, resources. Some days, we did all of the activities, other days we just watched the video. It was nice to tailor the material to what worked for us! It was nice to have some new, ready-made material, since we finished up our Toddler School activities back in May. Also, it was a good distraction as we come down from the Grandma and Papa high of last week ;)

Day 1: FOCUS on what you can see.

We can believe God is real, even though we can't see Him, because we can see what He made.

We kicked off VBS week with the fun video, which included songs, fun puppets, and a Bible lesson. Maddie was really excited to stand up and dance, and the boys just sat and watched her and I be silly haha. We went on a nature walk to find things that God has made. Maddie was really excited to point out all the trees, flowers, grass, ants, worms, etc. that she found. We took along our Flat Jesus {Sunday School version of Flat Stanley haha}, but only Eli wanted to take his picture with Flat Jesus and his nature finds. Aiden was just excited to be outside for a walk!

Day 2: You can HEAR from God.

Jesus told a parable about building a house on a rock and another house on sand, and that helped teach us how listening to God helps us make wise choices.

Daddy got to join us on our morning walk! We first examined our own house's foundation, to see if it was firm. Then we headed out on our walk to enjoy the exercise and find some rocks. The rocks were to remind us that we have a strong foundation in Jesus, our Rock. And we got a little more buy-in on taking our photo with Flat Jesus. Zero smiles, but at least they wanted to show their rocks with Jesus haha.

"I want to hold your hand, Mama"

Day 3: You can TALK with others about what you believe.

Jesus loves everyone and wants everyone to love Him back!

Aiden is getting a little more into the music and characters...I even got him to dance a little :)

Day 4: You can PRAY anytime about anything.

Jesus taught us that we can talk to God anytime about anything, and He gave us an example.

We talked a lot about prayer today. We practice praying with the kids at meals and bedtime, and when we want to pray for specific needs/people. If we forget to pray, Eli and Maddie are quick to remind us. It's still hard for them to sit still {and even quiet} during prayer time, but we're working on it ;) 

Day 5: You can LIVE for God by loving others.

Jesus taught us that the greatest thing we can do is love people the way He loves us.

We ended the week with a nice long walk to review all that we had learned, and then spent some time coloring some VBS-themed pages. 

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We had a great week! It was fun to have some set activities, and I was excited that the kiddos were engaged and even looked forward to VBS every day. You never know how much they are going to take in, or how much they are going to engage, but I call this week a win for us!