Cooking With Kate

Kate has really enjoyed doing some cooking the last few weeks.  She loves to watch and help us when we cook.  On Saturday night she helped me make baked spaghetti.  It was so much fun and I just love these pictures.  Special time together I want to always remember.  

A Fun Day With Kate

Before I get started on the next post I had to show this picture of Kate.  She is really allergic to mosquito bites and seems to get tons of them.  She spent a few minutes outside last week and her legs were covered!!  They were so big and swollen.  She looked like she had chicken pox.  Poor thing!

 Last Friday, Kate and I got to have a fun day together.  She skipped school and we headed over to Early Works.  Ben had been really wanting to go for months so we had to keep it really quiet that we were going.  Kate kept the secret!

 She (and I) had a great time!  She loved dressing up and playing.  She looked so cute as a little pioneer girl.

 We went with Addy and Hudson.  They had a great time playing together.  It was such a fun day to just hang out with my sweet Kate.  She really is a fun girl and I love getting to spend some one on one time together with ehr.

I'm A Bad Blogger

So I have been a really bad blogger in the month of September.  My goal is to do a minimum of 20 blogs per month.  Most months I go over that but I want to at least hit 20.  Here it is the last day of the month and I am only at 17. The month has just flown by and we have been so busy.  That is what I am going to blame.   I think that is the first time that has happened in quite a while.  So I guess I will quickly write 3 posts to hit 20! 

First up a quick weekend wrap up...  It was a super low key weekend!!  Just lots of relaxing and hanging out.  It was nice.  Saturday morning the kids tried coffee (well it was mainly milk with just a little bit of coffee).  I thought this picture of Kate was cute even if it is a little blurry.  She looks all grown up with her coffee cup.  

 The only big activity of the weekend was a soccer game for Ben on Saturday morning.  He played an awesome game.  He actually scored a goal!!!!!!!!!  It was awesome.  His buddy Evan passed him the ball and he kicked it right in!  We were all so excited for him.  He has really improved so much this year in soccer.  It was a great moment!

Saturday afternoon Ben went to a fishing birthday party for Evan which he loved.  The rest of us just hung out and watched some football.  Glad to have a week off from Auburn playing.  That makes watching much more enjoyable.

Sunday we enjoyed a great day at church including trying out a new life group and learning to ride a bike for Ben.  Lots of fun!!

Bags of Blessings

The biggest thing that convicted me over the weekend at dotMom was the thought that we really need to involve our kids in service.  Teaching them about Jesus is awesome but we have to really show them what Jesus did and would do.  Through service we can really show our children the heart of Jesus.  I began praying for opportunities to really share the heart of Jesus with the kiddos through service.  Of course God dropped an awesome opportunity right in my lap.  The Care Center that is right down the road from us has a great ministry where they provide food bags to children on Friday afternoons as they leave school.  These are children who might not have any other food over the weekend.  It is just amazing to me that just a few miles away from us are families in this situation.  The Care Center provides so many opportunities for sharing with these family.  

Ben and I were able to go last night and pack "Bags of Blessings."  It was tons of fun!  There were about 30 people there and we had 2 assembly lines going packing the bags with snacks and food.    

 Ben did an amazing job helping.  We were in charge of closing up the bags and putting them in bins.  Ben helped me tons and really worked hard.  It was not an easy job!

 In about an hour we packed 1,500 bags for the month.  So amazing that there are so many people in need.

 I am so thankful that Ben and I had the opportunity to do this together.  On the way home we were talking about how when we feed or help people we are helping Jesus.  I loved being able to provide a tangible example of the gospel.  I pray that it helps make it very real in his life!

Wordless Wednesday- It's Finally Fall Clothes Season

First Grade Update

Well it has been a little over a month and we are starting to feel settled into our routine.  This guy is really doing well in first grade!  We are so proud of him.  

 At first he wasn't so sure about it.  He came home most days saying it wasn't much fun and they had to learn too much but he is really starting to like it.  His favorite subject is science and he just loves doing science lessons on the computer.  He also really likes math (think he might be an engineer??).  His reading skills have increased dramatically over the past few weeks.  It has been so amazing to watch him become a confident reader!  We spend about 30 minutes reading each night and he just keeps getting better and better.  I am so proud of how hard he is working.  He loves taking his Accelerated Reader tests each day at school.  He got 10 points last week so he got a necklace and charm.  We are spending lots of time each night doing homework.  It is a little overwhelming and hard to fit in but we are making it!

One of my favorite things is that he can now read to Kate!  She asks him to read princess books and he happily complies.  Such a sweet big brother.

dotMom Weekend

This weekend I had the privilege of getting away with my two lifelong friends to head to Chattanooga to attend the dotMom conference.  It was amazing!!  Such a wonderful time of encouragement.  Just what this mama needed.  It was great to get into the Word and hear exactly what God has called me to as a mom entrusted with His precious children.  I learned so much I am looking forward to putting into practice.  It was great to get to worship and spend time praying.  

 One of the best parts of the whole weekend with the time I got to spend with my special friends!  We laughed and laughed.  After a couple of very hard months it was so good to get away and laugh..  I am so thankful for their friendship throughout the years.  We talked through some tough issues but also had a ton of fun.  We ate and we ate and we ate!  Friday night we had to take a detour..

 To the City Cafe to get these amazing desserts.  There is nothing better than girl time with chocolate cake!!  I am so thankful for the opportunity to get away!!!

 Matt did an awesome job holding down the fort while I was gone!!  I came home to happy kids (who I don't even think missed me) along with all the laundry being done.  It was awesome!!  He is a keeper!!  We got home late Saturday night and all the guys and kids were hanging out watching the Auburn game.  How cool is it that our kids are such good friends.  What if these 3 girls go to dotMom together one day?

Sunday we had an amazing morning of worship that went along exactly with what I learned at the conference.  Love when God confirms things for me!  The weather turned beautiful over the weekend - almost fall like.  We wanted to get out and enjoy it.  We headed up to the state park and enjoyed some playground time.  

 And some hiking.  It was so much fun.  Great to get to spend some time with my sweet family and to love on them.

Thank you Lord for a wonderful weekend!!!!

Our Little Pigpen

This silly little girl is such a huge mess...

 In fact, I would say she reminds us a little bit of Pigpen.

 If there is any dirt around it will find it's way onto Kate.  Her face is constantly dirty and her clothes stay stained.  I have to work magic in the laundry room!  Let's not even talk about the floor around her spot at the table.  This is after one meal...

 It keeps us laughing.  Not normally a girl thing but it just another wonderful quirky thing about our Kate!  Makes her so special.  My grandmother says that my dad was the same way as a kid.  She says it was like dirt just jumped on him.  So I guess she gets it honestly.  Here is my dad and uncle in about 1963.  He looks pretty clean to me.

The Fun Run

Our family of non-runners is quickly becoming one of runners.  Today Ben ran in the Huntsville Hospital Fun Run.  He has been excited all week about it.  This was the 35th year of it.  That means it has been around since I was little and I ran in this race way back in the day.  It was fun to carry on the tradition!  It is always a crazy event with lot of people.  Ben and Kate enjoyed doing some warm ups before the race.  

 We ran into Evan right before the race started so they got to run together.

 Kate enjoyed watching and cheering Ben on.  She said she wants to run next year.

 Love this picture right before the race started!  He was ready.

 And they were off...

 We walked down and were able to see him about 1/2 way through the race.  He was doing great.  We had gone out for a run earlier in the week and worked on pacing and walking when he needed to but he said he ran the whole thing.

 We then moved over to the finish line.  It was so fun to cheer him on as he finished!

 He crossed the finish line at 10:42.  That's pretty good for a little guy (hey that's pretty good for anyone.  I don't know if I have ever run a mile that fast.)  I asked him if he wanted to do it again next year and he said "No way."  I don't know if he is quite ready to be a full time runner.

 He loved all the "swag" he got - sunglasses, Gatorade, a ribbon and a t shirt!  Makes all the running worth it!

A Boring Work Post

So today I am working all day.  That is a new thing I have started doing on Tuesdays.  It allows me to limit my work days as much as possible by getting it all done in one day.  That being said my Tuesdays are really boring because all I do is work.  So I was trying to think of something to blog about and I thought I would blog about work.  I know that is a boring subject but I thought maybe one day my kids would like to read about what I did at work back when they were young.  So here goes...

I feel so blessed to have the job that I do.  Really if you had asked me 10 years ago when I graduated from Auburn what kind of job I wanted I would have told you exactly what I am doing now.  It is a really fun job but also a super flexible job that allows me to be a mom first and foremost!  I work as a pediatric dietitian for Children's of Alabama.  The main hospital is in Birmingham but I work at the Huntsville clinic.  Pediatricians in the North Alabama area refer patients to me when they need nutritional help.  I schedule the appointments when is good for me and I see them.  It is a great because I can set my own hours and also have a lot of autonomy in what I do (it helps when your boss is 2 hours away). 

So what do I do all day when I work?  I mainly just do counseling with kids who have nutritional issues.  This can range from overweight (the majority of what I do) to underweight to allergies to really cool random stuff (my favorite).  I love my job because it is mainly counseling kids and their parents.  It is challenging and really rewarding.  I spend a lot of time talking about food and eating which is always cool!  I get to play with food models and hand out lots of papers. 

Another really not so exciting part of my job is how much time I spend on the computer writing notes and doing tons of paper work.  The part that's not my favorite.  I also spend lots of time on the phone making calls to set up appointments.  Could do without this part of my job but that's life. 

I consider it such a joy that I get to do a job that I love and also that I can help people.  I am always excited when I get to put on my work "hat" and be "professional Emily."  But then so thankful when I get to go home and just be mom! 



Fun Times With Friends

What a fun weekend we had.  It was full of lots of fun times with our friends.  Friday night we had an impromptu meet up with the Johnsons.  We went to dinner then went for a walk by a nearby pond.  The weather was glorious!  Finally a little bit cooler (and in fact I was a little cold).  The kids had so much fun playing together!

 Saturday morning was soccer (see last post).  Then it was time for some Auburn football!!!!  It was the big Mississippi State game.  I was excited to use my new chalkboard for some Auburn fun!

 We were excited to see how the team did.  We knew it was a big game - sort of would make or break the season.  Nothing like that to make you nervous all day.

 The Cabras and Wrights came over to watch the game.  Football game food is so yummy!!!  We ate and ate all evening.  Lots of dips and sweets.

 The kids had so much fun!  They played and ran and pretty much had a blast all night!  So thankful that they have such sweet friends.

 Well the game was a total nail biter (what Auburn game isn't?).  Auburn pulled it out in the end!  We were all so excited.  The boys had to beat up Brad after the win!  Can't believe we are now 3-0.  I know it will probably end this week with LSU but at least we already have the same number of wins as last year and maybe we can end up with a winning season.  War Eagle!!

 Sunday afternoon after church we went to the Botanical Gardens to check out the scarecrow trail with Mema and Opa.  We have been to check on our Oscar several times but wanted to see the rest of the scarecrows.

 Loved this picture of Kate and Perry!

 There were lots of great scarecrows.  We really think our Oscar is one of the best although this one of Mr. Rogers and Daniel Tiger was really good.

Love a weekend where we have lots of fun and get to spend time with friends.