fun family fourth :: 4th of july.

july 4th fell on a wednesday this year, and since jason was off, it was a very welcomed break in the middle of the week. we decided to take advantage of the free day and pack up the explorer to head to the fort worth zoo. the fort worth zoo happens to have 1/2 price admission days on wednesdays, so it was a perfect treat! ;)

our original plan was to head out early so we could make it to the zoo when it opened to beat the heat. but, as is usual for our little family, that didn't happen. we had a nice morning and didn't rush, which was nice and stress-free. :) my mom got the girls some precious 4th of july outfits from gymboree, including sweet stars & stripes dresses and matching red cowgirl hats & boots! {the girls haven't taken them off yet!}

we stopped at chili's on our way for lunch, where the girls got lots of attention for their unbelievable cuteness. :) it was at chili's that i made a life-changing discovery... emma kate asked for broccoli as her side dish for lunch. broccoli. apparently, my 5-year-old has a love for something super green and healthy! (i'd like to say it's because i'm mom of the year and serve her broccoli all the time, but i'm actually not really sure where this came from... maybe her veggie-love will rub off on her daddy...)

the zoo was relatively busy, but not crazy. we really enjoyed all the exhibits. i especially loved watching the chimpanzees! they're such amazing creatures... really move around and behave like furry humans. :) there was a momma chimp with a new baby, and it was so neat to see how the mother-child relationship is so universal across not only cultures, but also species! i know it's small, but i tried to capture some of our moments with the chimps in this video:

i tried really hard to get some sweet pictures of the girls in their outfits, but none of them really turned out as great as i'd hoped. :) here are some pics from our day at the zoo:

rylie girl before leaving
{please excuse my messy bedroom floor}

our pretty cool ride. :) 

heading into the zoo
rylie already needs a nap. awesome. 

silly & sleepy

checking out the rhino

rylie was so interested in all the animals :)

me & my girl

me & my baby girl {still sleepy}

big daddy gorilla

looking at the gorillas

more interested in the gorillas than in
taking pictures for mommy :)

sign of a fun day :)

love this picture. and this girl. :)

once we got home from the zoo {very hot & very tired} we all took nice long naps. it took some convincing, but jason finally agreed to join us for fireworks at night. (i know it's crazy, but my husband sadly does not get excited about any holiday or the traditional festivities that most people enjoy... so i had to remind him of all the amazing memories he'd be giving to our girls. luckily, he's a really good daddy, so he tagged along!) :) i wanted to join the masses for mckinney's red white & boom in craig ranch, but my husband is {sometimes} smarter than me, so we parked a few miles away, where we could still see the show, but had a quick route out so we wouldn't get stuck in traffic. this was the first year we did fireworks with rylie, and she was really excited. a local radio station was playing music synchronized to the fireworks show, so we turned that up and tailgated in our explorer with lots of other {smart} mckinney residents.

my sweet family waiting for fireworks
{jason, as you can see, is thrilled.}

there is just something about fireworks celebrating our nation that i love. maybe its the tradition... the idea that americans have been gathering every year in july to watch fire and lights in the sky for hundreds of years. that in that moment, we are gathered together, and we are one... all celebrating and being thankful for the same freedom. it's beautiful. it's something i am proud to be a part of. thankful to be a part of. this freedom we are so blessed to have... freedom as americans, and freedom in Christ. i pray my children will grow to understand the price paid for both of these freedoms, and to be eternal grateful and thankful enough to live full in that Freedom.

happy fourth. :)

may you live each day, fully in the Freedom that has been given to you.

catching up :: june 2011 :: videos.

note: this entry was written in july 2012, in an effort to finally update this little blog on the missing year or two of our lives, while i was so busy starting my new teaching career. :)

i found several videos in my iPhoto, and i realized i wanted to remember my girls at this age... not only how they looked, how little they were, their sweet smiles... but also their giggles, the way their voices sound so tiny, the way rylie toddled around on her just-learned-to-walk legs. :)

here's a little peek at these sweet little lives, only one year ago. :)

emma got to go with her nonna and grampa to fort meyer beach {i think}, florida last summer for about a week. she got lots of sand and pool time. these are some of the sweet videos donna sent us so we wouldn't miss our girl so unbearably:

rylie, on {or around} her 1st birthday:

this little gem was discovered on my phone. i wasn't present during the writing of this song or the making of this video {hehe!}:

{"jesus, please, i love you..." yes.}

we spent lots of time at area splash parks with friends. on this particular day, rylie was not super interested in being in the water. she kept wandering off the pad, and i had to chase her down several times. :) i just love watching her little toddler walking... she's grown so much since then:

pumpkin fills.

i was emptying out the camera today in an attempt to finally update the ol' blog-a-roo, and i came across some really precious gems - one of which being this video. :)

this was filmed only about 2 weeks after emma kate's 3rd birthday. we were making jack-o-lanterns. her first ever, in fact. i was about half-way through my last semester of college at TWU, and i was also about 6 weeks pregnant with our sweet rylie.

my, what a difference 10 months makes - especially in the growing-up of my "baby" girl!! i was shocked as i watched, how young emma looks and sounds in this video. her voice sounds so baby-ish and although she's always be very advanced verbally, i couldn't believe she sounded this young so recently. her vocabulary and sentence structure is so "toddler-ish!" it seems like a lifetime ago... and its only been a few months.

anyway, enjoy this little peek into a sweet family memory. i'm so thankful i found this!

{aren't you a bit ready for fall, now?} ;)

kiss kiss.

this is going to be a quick post because i have class in the morning!

emma has a new obsession. kiss. that's right. as in, the 80's hair band. lead singer gene simmons. this obsession began when adam lambert performed with kiss on american idol. she just loved their songs, and we were stunned when, 3 days later, she identified kiss by a picture on youtube! since then, she asks for kiss just about everyday. we watch the american idol performance over and over again, emma serenades us on her guitar, and she even talks to kiss on the phone! :)

she says, "mommy, kiss' eyes have black on them. they're so beautiful." (in reference to the black paint on their faces.

needless to say, kiss is not what we would expect our 2-year-old daughter to love, but its innocent enough. :) she only knows one song, and it's a great one!

here is a video that "nonna" shot during a poolside performance last week. :) i love how she's just mindlessly singing it!

enjoy! i hope it makes your day!

just in case you can't tell... she's mostly singing:
"i wanna rock & roll all night...
and party everyday!"

she's the best air-guitar player around, too!

youth ministry at it's finest.

Bill the Elf from Woodcreek Students on Vimeo.

this is our church's youth pastor, mike, putting on an incredible show for our high school youth group at their christmas party. this might just be the greatest thing ever!

haha.

this is the guy ministering to our youth... : )

enjoy.

school songs.

in the last few weeks, emma has really started singing a lot. she has her favorite little songs she sings, most of which we have taught her.

but since she's started mother's day out, she is learning some new songs during their little "praise & worship" time. it is the sweetest thing ever! she'll just start singing, and we have to sort of "decipher" what she's saying and try to figure out what she's singing so that we can sing along! :-) because that's what she really wants...

she'll say, "mommy, sing 'hide it, no!'," which turns out to be "hide it under a bushel - no!" from "this little light of mine." but i'll have to think really hard to figure out what she's talking about.

tonight, while i was getting emma ready for bed, she was picking songs for us to sing. we sang "you are my sunshine," "the b-i-b-l-e," "Jesus loves me," and "the alphabet song."

then she said to me, "mommy sing 'ga-da fa-da'."

"ga-da fa-da?" i ask.

"yes."

hmm... for some reason i don't know this song, so i ask her to sing it for me, and this is what i got:

is that not the sweetest thing you've ever seen or heard? i love it! and i love that she's learning to sing these songs to Jesus while she's at "school."

we're so blessed. and this video makes me smile.

just in case you couldn't make it out, she's singing:

"God our Father, God our Father,

we thank You, we thank You,

for all our blessings, for all our blessings,

amen, amen."

i love it!

99 balloons.

i just saw this beautiful story on oprah.

what an amazing picture of how God is glorified in every situation.

here is baby eliot's story:

Sara & Jason in HSM3!

Try JibJab Sendables® eCards today!

next time won't you sing with me?

so, this evening i tried to get some much needed capture-time of emma kate singing "the alphabet song." we went through several "takes" on my trusty hot-pink motorola razr, and i laughed... a lot!

here are some of the best videos:

take 1: this is as far as she got the first time.

you have to listen carefully, but she starts the song: "a, b, c, d, e, f, g..." and then starts counting: "1... 2.... ... ... 3!"and then proceeds to dig around in her cute little nose. and yes, she's got great manners. and yes, my 2-year-old is telling me to "get back." (and please, excuse the annoying laughter coming from the mommy behind the camera.)

Find more videos like this on csci3002

take 2: stuck again. "WX! WX!" is what she's yelling.

Find more videos like this on csci3002

take 3: finally! this is classic. i love her ending line. :-)

(hint: she's trying to say, "now i know my abc's!)

Find more videos like this on csci3002

i know they're hard to hear, but they're oh-so-cute!

i will try to get some better video... maybe with something more hi-tech than my cell phone.