Our Neck of The Woods: May 2012

Wednesday, May 30, 2012

Ashlyn's Graduation

My one and only niece graduated from high school last week. It's hard to believe she is already a high school graduate headed off to college.

I will never forget the day she was born. It was August 22, 1994 and the first day of my senior year of high school. It was love at first sight!

Proud parents

Proud grandparents

When Nate was one we started taking a family picture in our front yard every spring. We usually do it Easter morning, but it did not happen this year. A couple of weeks ago we took few minutes to get a few pictures before church. I am so glad we did. Some years they are "framers" and some years they are not, but it is fun to look back at all of the pictures and see how much Darren and I have changed and Nate has grown.

Thursday, May 17, 2012

Preschool Graduation

Nate graduated from preschool tonight!

Getting ready to take the stage

Our super cute graduate

Nate loves his Granna and Nan...

and Poppa Dub and Pops

I must admit that tonight was fun and not even remotely sad because Darren and I decided many months ago that Nate is going to do one more year of preschool. Since his birthday is in July, we decided we would rather him be one of the oldest in his class instead of one of the youngest. So we'll do this all again next year and I'm sure it will be very emotional for me. For now, I am just excited and grateful for another year at home with my Nate bug.

Soccer Party

Nate's final soccer game was Monday afternoon. His team had a great season. We enjoyed watching him have fun and watching his focus and skill improve over the course of the season. He says he'll play again, but we'll see how he feels when Fall rolls around.

Kepler and Dax (Nate's cousins) came to watch Nate's last game.

Nate and Coach Blake

The team: Aiden, Nate, Miguel, and Luis

Our soccer star!

Nate's Preschool Birthday Party

Last week we celebrated Nate's birthday with his preschool class. His birthday is not till July so this was a special treat for him.

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Beach Weekend

My parents invited us to the beach for the weekend. We were all so excited about this trip, but unfortunately Nate woke up sick the day before we were supposed to leave. We debated about staying or going since it's so hard to know if kids are going to be sick for a day or several. We decided to go and Nate did end up feeling yucky most of the trip. Thankfully he did have a couple of hours each day when he felt well enough to go to the pool or the beach. Even with the sickness we are very thankful for a weekend at the beach.

Fishing

We found this yellow bellied slider turtle at the edge of the water. It was surprisingly easy to catch. Its new home is our house. This is actually our second attempt at a pet turtle. Turtles need sunshine. I put our first one on the back porch where I thought the cats couldn't get near it. I was wrong. This little guy (or girl) will only be getting sunshine from a nice sunny window.

Easter

My favorite part of Easter this year was doing resurrection eggs with Nate. One of Darren's coworkers prepared several dozen for her church and shared a dozen with us. I don't have a picture of ours, but here is something similar I found on Pinterest. Basically your child opens one egg everyday starting 12 days before Easter. Each egg contains a scripture verse/passage and a small object to represent that verse.

I had no idea what a blessing these little eggs would be for me. We started opening eggs two days after the girls left and it was a VERY emotional time for me. Having time each day to focus on Christ and His death and resurrection was exactly what I needed. Each day we would read and discuss the verses and I would be reminded that God's grace demonstrated through the death and resurrection of Christ is truly enough. It's not about our successes or failures, it's all about Jesus and the final sacrifice He made on our behalf. Hallelujah what a Savior!

Here are a few pictures from our day.