Summer 2014

Well, we will try to capture our summer and the past few months with everything I happened to document....  

First, Aaron graduated from Kindergarden and had a great year.  We were very proud of his performance, his behavior, and his character this past year.

Aaron and his friend, Carson....

Aaron loved his teacher, Ms. Cartmell....

Papa Ken had a major heart surgery in May and has spent most of summer in rehab and recovery....  We have been blessed by the extra time spent with him as he pulled through a pretty major medical issue.  

Aaron had a great end to his soccer season and closed it off scoring a total of 26 goals in 6 games.

He got to be on a team with several friends from church - Aiden, Keaton, Caleb, and Kyler...

And Noel had their little siblings to keep her company at practices and games ;)

Aaron got to be on swim team this summer.  It started out a bit rough as he was intimidated and insecure, but he got into it and had a great coach.  We were very proud that he overcame his fears and timidity and worked hard....

He was coached by our friend, Patrick, and we loved how great he did with Aaron - he was so encouraging and Aaron learned a lot from him.

Aaron learned the breast stroke and it was by far his best!  We were so proud and excited at his last meet when he placed first in his division.

Noel got to enjoy a princess party with some of her friends from church...  She is blessed to be so loved and have so many fun friends close to her age.

As Saturday night services continue, we got to enjoy "Food Truck Frenzy" every Saturday night.  It was a lot of fun and everyone loved hanging out and eating together.

We of course went swimming as often as possible....

And enjoyed a bargain from Kohls to help us on those hot boring days...

We got to go camping up in the mountains with my side of the family...

The cousins had a blast all together...

And we got used to constant dirty faces...

Uncle Keith's quad was always a highlight to ride...

Here is Noel popping out one of her verses she learned at church...

We also took a road trip to California to have some time away from the heat and hit the beach...  Here is some entertainment we had on the drive...

I got to meet up one day with some of my old college buddies, Jen and Laura... Was so fun to catch up and see them.

The kids loved playing in the waves and learning to boogie board.

Papa Bob and Grammy joined us for a few days to play also....

Aaron also turned 7!  His choice instead of a birthday party was to take Uncle Keith's boat out on the lake.  He chose to take his friends from our neighborhood, Trey and Grady...  They  had a lot of fun!

Most of the summer, Aaron and Noel had fun playing together...

At the end of July, Aaron started 1st grade!

There is the summer in a nutshell.  Thanks for sticking with us and checking in!

It's spring already?!

I am always horrified when I finally post as to how much time as passed since my last post. But I will not give up on the blog completely, I have at least committed to that ;) So I'll just post the pictures I have and interesting things that have happened over the past few months....

Christmas was lots of fun and my kids scored big outdoor toys like scooters, bikes, and a basketball hoop all for super cheap and thanks to Grandparents ;)  In this amazing Arizona weather and with all our neighborhood friends, these things are used daily!

Aaron got a nice Specialized mountain bike and has gotten to go mountain biking with Daddy several times now.  He does awesome and both of them come home beaming after a ride together. It is a treasured time for them, and we are so thankful the Lord has allowed Lee's knee to be able to things like this....

Aaron continues to do well in school, getting straight A's and being on the director's list....

I got to go with his class on a field trip to the zoo in February....

I'm always thankful to have extra good time with him now that he is in school full-time.  And I'm glad he's not too cool for me to come on a field trip with him! 

He also played baseball on a team for the first time with his friend, Carson, from school.  He did great and made his Momma proud ;)

Noel is doing well and growing up quickly - She is strong and opinionated, but has a sweet heart.  She has been blessed to live near some little friends close to her age and pretty much plays daily with them....

One of her little friends, Ezra, also comes to our church and preschool with her.  They are the very best of friends....

Noel's cousin, Gracie, was in the hospital and very sick for awhile and she missed her greatly!  We are so glad she is healthy and well!

In February, we also got to enjoy some time with both of my brothers coming into town for a long weekend.  We have not all been together for several years now, and it was a sweet time.  To spend time with them and have all the kids together was something I really cherished....  We had to take time for some family pics...  Here are a few....

In mid-February, Kyle, Sarah, and Obie headed back to Uganda.  It was so wonderful to have them around for a few months and saying good-bye was sad, but we are so thankful that they are doing well and following the call of Yahweh as missionaries there.  

So in a nutshell, there are some glimpses into our past few months!  We also went through a big change of adding Saturday night services to our growing church....  It is been an adjustment to the schedule, but we are obviously ecstatic to be seeing so much growth and need for this at Harvest, and we really do feel privileged to be a part of it all!  Thanks for checking in!