Memorial Day in H-town

We spent the long weekend at my parents house.  A great time was had by all, as we honored Memorial Day, which was particularly special this year because my brother.in.law, Nick, deployed Saturday for Afghanistan.  An added bonus was being with Uncle Stone for his birthday!

Avery poolside


Lots of water-sliding...

Uncle Stone's birthday dinner landed us at The Blue Nile for Ethiopian food (my favorite!), which Kylie quietly referred to "as piles of poop."

I'm still working on my adeptness with indoor lighting...bear with me!

Monday found our brood at the Rainforest Cafe, a great adventure for the girls!  Thanks, Mom & Dad, for a lovely weekend :)

Erin
In addition to running the girls around, playdates, and flirting with homeschool, I am attempting to grow my photography skills!  Slowly but surely...thus far I have taken one evening class in Dallas and several online tutorials. I have also started learning a new editing software. We shall see where I end up...hopefully not too frustrated ; )

Philip
As always, Phil has a lot of irons in the fire.  He has been out of town at least once a month since the beginning of the year.  This weekend he'll be in LA again for The Great American Pitchfest.  The filming of The Savior is steadily approaching as the funds come in and we are all excited about that!

Kylie & Avery
Kylie will have her first t-ball practice this Friday, with games carrying us through mid-July.  She will also start her first round of swimming lessons this month!  We've transformed the formal living room into a "school room".  Ultimately it's a good designated learning spot, reading, crafts, etc. Although Kylie was less than thrilled when I first moved all the furniture around, she is now in the habit of asking nearly every kid she meets, "What does your dining room look like?"  We are working our way through an English reading curriculum that seems to suit Ky very well and I'm teetering with starting her on some basic Hebrew in the near future.  Avery is ever-chipper and happy just to be included in whatever "my sister, Kylie" is doing!

Kentucky

It started with a long roadtrip...


and although everyone had a pretty good disposition...


we were all glad to get there.


Once we arrived we played in the woods...




watched old movies... (Kylie was feeling very Hollywood)


opened lots of presents...


and ate way too much delicious food!


Philip's sister, Debby gave him olive trees for Christmas! We are so excited to get a little Mediterranean vibe planted in the backyard!


LP taught us all the art of slack-lining...


And then the amateurs gave it a shot.




Avery was content with her tree.


Uncle James gave us a little tune up.


We said one last goodbye to the family cabin before it is sold.




We lived here for a year after returning from Israel so it will always hold special memories for us.

Advent Observations

The flurry of Christmas activity - family visits, parties, shopping, eating, drinking and making merry - make it is easy to lose one's sense of awe regarding the miracle of Christmas. Something I read on the subject this morning said, "The season of Advent means there is something on the horizon the likes of which we have never seen before... . What is possible is to not see it, to miss it, to turn just as it brushes past you."

With this in mind, we have decided to incorporate the observation of Advent as one of our family Christmas traditions. The daily moments of remembering to anticipate and meditate on the birth of Jesus, and all his coming encompasses, is good for Philip and me. It has also proven to be great for the little ones! The girls and I have made a construction paper advent chain with hot-pink glitter numbers. Everyday we tear another link off and tuck it into one of the Christmas tree's few remaining bald spots. Kylie gets excited as we discuss pretty much the same things everyday: "When we get to the end of the chain it will be Jesus' birthday, Christmas morning! You will get lots of presents and we will also go visit your cousins!" The discussion varies a little, elaborating on topics like who Jesus is and why he's important, and reminders of who the cousins are, and what gifts she might be craving at that moment, but the excitement grows all the same. Adult and child alike, we are preparing ourselves for the experience of Christmas, not only the observance of another holiday.

Giving Thanks

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving Day with my family. Every year the whole clan congregates at my grandmother's farm for a day of food, football, and catching up with one another. Everyone doesn't make it every year, so the attendance fluctuates, but as Gan always says, "we all know we have a table to put our feet under." For this I am thankful.

Apparently, something serious is happening, but they really did LOVE their cousin, Lilly!


Avery trying to do her frowny face for the camera but Kylie is just too funny!


Chowing down on Thanksgiving goodies at the "kid's table"


Philip was with us for Thanksgiving and then left for Israel to work on "The Messiah". No ketusha rockets have been lobbed from Lebanon since the 2006 war, but of course the week that my husband is only a few kilometers from the Lebanese border they start raining down! I'm not really worried about it, but we'll be glad to get him home all the same.

Surrounded by storyboard images


Hashing through the script with the team


In the meantime, us girls are decorating for Christmas and feeling very crafty! Earlier this week I asked Kylie if she thought girl time with Avery and me was going to be really fun. She replied, "Nope. We can't have fun without Dad." Despite her prediction it has been a pretty good week! My girls love their Daddy.

Kylie's first acrylic on canvas! Still a work in progress, but honest truth, I have only provided the outlines! She's darn good :)


Working on their United States puzzle


Homemade Christmas wreath - I can't decide if this is cute or tacky...leaning toward tacky. Feel free to weigh in on this!



Yay for Houston's Butterfly Museum!!!
While visiting my parents we took the girls for their first visit. Thanks for a great day, KiKi!

Looking at some kind of bug


Grocery shopping with KiKi

Father's Day & Big Fish

For Father's Day weekend we ventured down to Atlanta for a long overdue visit with the "Hotlanta Dorrs" - James, Tracie, David and Caroline! Saturday we hit the world-class Georgia Aquarium and had a really wonderful time. Kylie's favorite part was the dolphin show (no pictures allowed), but other highlights of the day were:

Avery

Jellyfish


Naps with Dad

Pushing Avery


Amazon Bass (upper right corner)


Sliding out of a whale's belly

Caroline


Penguins


Watching the massive fish feed


A big thank you to James & Tracie for a great weekend filled with fun & family. We love you guys!!!