Busy Labor Day Weekend

Sadly, I'm almost a full week late in posting pics and such from our Labor Day Weekend...but better late than never, right? So, here is what filled our weekend....in semi-bullet point fashion.

• Friday night: Randy's first love is football...he just can't get enough of this season. And since our Residency Program docs work as one of the local HS team's "Team Docs", he thought it would be fun to take the family....show us (specifically, Josiah) where he will be "working" many Friday nights till November. It was a great night (minus the surprising cost of admission=$24)...and the kids really enjoyed themselves. We sat right next to the band (on the non-student side) where Josiah and Laney could dance their little hearts out...and they did! It was an interesting environment, being around all of those 'kids' (boy, things/kids have changed in the last 13 years--whoa, that makes me feel old) and seeing the marching band (yep, I was one of those band geeks, but I loved it). And one other interesting observation....a popular concession item here is cucumber wedges seasoned with chili powder and lemon. Hmmmm, wasn't quite sure what to think of that, so I refrained. Here are a couple off snapshots from our of HS football game experience.

Football is SO big here in TX that it's not uncommon to see scoreboards with jumbo-trons at the HS level...I was amazed.

As long as Laney had popcorn, she was good to go.

Ah, just remembering the days...wool uniforms in high heat and humidity.

Laney also turned 16 months on Friday...and sported her first up-do (or 'whale spout' as I've just been informed my bloggy friend, Sabrina). Isn't it just darling?! Up to this point, she's not really had enough hair for us to pull up/back with even a clip...but with all of the outside activity (translation: sweating), she kinda sat still long enough to let me pull it up off her forehead in an effort to cool her down.

• Saturday: I decided it was time to finally install Laney's new car seat. The big, pink, flowery car seat had been sitting in the entry way for the last couple of months...and every day, Laney would sit in it. My hesitation about installing it so soon after it was delivered was that it was too big to sit rear-facing...and I wasn't ready to turn her around quite yet. But I broke down, cleaned out the backseat, switched Josiah to the passenger side (his legs are too long to fit comfortably when Randy drives), and installed Laney's new seat....she LOVES it. Now there's just one more seat to install.......

• Sunday: We headed to Brownsville for a friend's first birthday party at a local splash park. I've been wanting to go the park since we discovered it last year; but when it came down to it, I never really could get myself excited about traveling 30 minutes just to play around in water when we have multiple friends in town with pools. So this was perfect....plus, we didn't have to worry about a ton of random kids pushing over the babies, my friend had reserved it specifically for her daughter's birthday. It was so much fun...and the weather was perfect (yep, still really hot down here; however, we have cooled down to the low 90s)!

• Monday: We just relaxed and enjoyed having daddy home for a change. I cleared out the hall closet to make room for my newly organized file boxes (I no longer have clutter in the 'junk' corner of our bedroom--YAY, now we have room for the crib!) and was granted time to grocery shop ALONE. Randy had also smoked a turkey on Saturday, so we invited our fellow PGY2s over for fellowship and food.

It was a great weekend, filled with lots of family-time. Only a couple more weeks before Randy heads into another horrible month of hospital service, and then shortly after that, we become a family of FIVE.....we are definitely cherishing these moments as our little 'Table for 4', full weekends or even an hour--we'll take whatever we can get. Hope you had a great weekend!

Hiding His Word

Last night was Josiah's FIRST night as a Cubbie in our church's AWANA Club. And if you aren't familiar with AWANA, it's an international, nondenominational, Bible-centered ministry for 3YOs through HS students, and the name comes from 2 Timothy 2:15:

"Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth." Approved-Workmen-Are-Not-Ashamed.

Last night was also Parent VIP Night for the Cubbies, so I was able to sit in his class and observe how he'll be spending his time (6pm-7:45pm every Wednesday)...and Josiah did pretty well considering he one ball of non-stop energy, which is only enhanced when he's around his friends. He began learning his first Cubbies Bible verse: "...God...loved us and sent His Son..." (1 John 4:10), the AWANA Pledge, the Pledge to the Christian Flag, the Pledge to the Bible, and Cubbies song. Each week, Randy and I will work with Josiah to memorize a different verse, thus hiding the Word in his heart. And with each successful verse recall (or series of verses), he will earn a badge to put on his Cubbie Vest, which he'll receive in a couple of weeks.

Randy and I are excited to use this additional opportunity to teach Josiah (and Laney) about Jesus and God's grace (truthfully, I think I'm going to learn just as much). We just can't believe that we have a little one old enough to participate in the Club. 7-8 years ago, before Randy and I were married, we were group leaders for our church's kids program...I remember thinking just how cute, small, and impressionable our Cubbies were....and now we have one.

Kind of a goofy picture....he's learned the art of cheesy smiles.