March

We have had a busy and fun March. Here are a few of the highlights. Copper Lakes is one of our favorite family outing destinations. We go there alot on weekends. This time Brian thought Tatum was ready to try fishing, so Avery used her big girl pink & black checkered rod, and Tatum got to use the Dora rod. Laney & I played on the playground while they fished. When we walked over to check on them, I found out the main reason they love fishing so much. The worms. Avery especially, loves worms. They just play with the worms while their rods are sitting on the grass. So here she is holding a handful of her squirmy friends:

Laney wants to be on her own two feet all the time now. And that is okay with me because that girls is getting pretty heavy! She out-eats her older sisters at most of our meals.

Tatum was a good little student for Brian while he helped her fish, but she always likes an excuse to run off with sissy. These two are best buddies.

The blue bucket on the ground is where the girls collect worms and dirt. That bucket sits outside our garage and the girls add to it whenever they find a worm outside. At least it's not in our fridge. I had a talk with Brian about that a while back.

Tatum's first time to fish with Daddy & Avery

We went to the rodeo one day during spring break. We made two mistakes that we don't intend to duplicate. First, we went on a weekend. It was way too crowded for it to be really fun. Second, we didn't shop around for dinner, we just stopped at the first little shack we came to when we got hungry. As we carried our food over to some close-by tables, we looked up and what do you know? Pappasito's was a few feet away. We both almost cussed, but we didn't. So, next year, we will go on a weekday and we will get Pappasito's for dinner. Here's our little cowgirl and her pink horse on a stick.

We also made it out for opening day at Zube park last week. We got to go twice because there was no line when we got done with our first ride. Right at the end of our second ride, it started to sprinkle, and right after we got in our car and headed back up 290, the clouds opened up and it poured the rest of the day. We were so thankful for our early morning train rides!

Guess who threw out the first pitch at the Cy-Falls baseball game on Friday night? My little hurlers, Avery & Tatum. I worked with the girls all afternoon on how to step & throw. And I must say they did really well. The Dugout Diamonds cheered for them and they loved the attention. They waved to the crowd and smiled. All five of us walked out to the middle of the field and two of Brian's boys set up to catch. Then they autographed the balls for the girls after they threw. Brian was one proud daddy.

Daddy's little pitchers before the national anthem.

Tatum got her first haircut yesterday. And not a day too soon. It's been really straggly for awhile, and i've gone back & forth about trying to grow it out or cutting it off. I'm so glad we went with a short cut. Here's her mane before the cut.

She got to sit in a firetruck seat and watch Thomas the Train. Although she really didn't watch the movie because she was looking at herself in the mirror the whole time. She did so good. I told the lady this was her first haircut, so could she save me a little bit of the hair. She gave me almost every hair she cut off Tatum's head. I had a little baggie full of it. I appreciate her kindness.

Ta-da! She loves herself with her little bob. It really does suit her.

And they all got suckers because they did so good in the haircut shop.

Tate, you are my sunshine!

We also started going to another church recently. It was a tough decision, but we felt the Lord showing us it was time to move out of our comfort zone in this area. We loved First and all the wonderful friends we've made there over the past 6 years. Our SS class has loved us and encouraged us through all our babies and all the growing we've done in our marriage. I miss them so much since we haven't seen them in a couple months, but we feel like we've obeyed the Lord and He has been faithful to us.

The problem was it took us 30 minutes to get to First on a Sunday and close to an hour if we tried to go on Wednesday night. We've struggled with this for a while, but now that our girls are old enough to be involved in church activities (not just nursery), we decided we needed to find a church closer to home so we could all be more involved. We want to be those kind of people that are there every time the church doors are open.

So we've found a church that is 4 minutes from our house. We blink and we're there. The Bible teaching is amazing. They place a major emphasis on the kids' Bible classes. I love that they give out a Weekly Challenge for the kids each week to work on at home, and all the kids are learning the same Bible story, just in a different way depending on their age. God also answered one of my specific prayers in our Sunday school class...Brian has met several guys in the class who are in education. I had prayed he would. And they just started a Wednesday night program. Avery gets to do Awana, Tatum & Laney are in the nursery and Brian & I are doing a MasterLife Bible study. I'm so happy to have that mid-week time to be at church and be refreshed.

I feel like another benefit to our new church is the ability to invite my co-workers to church now that it is so close and easy for them to get to. Before I was always hesitant because I was sure they would not want to drive 30 minutes on a Sunday morning to go to church. So today I felt God laying it on my heart to invite 10 people at my school to our Easter service next week. Y'all hold me accountable because I'm already nervous about it. I hope I do it. If I can just have the courage to invite them, I know God will work in their hearts and bring the ones He has called. I'm excited to see what He will do.

Two months left until summer - Yipeeeee!!!