Mud Lake

We went out to Lake Lavon for a friend's 2nd birthday party. I got pictures of the kids in dirt. However, the dirt was easier to deal with than the mud. Oh, the mud! I do not remember that much mud from the last time we were there! We decided to go for it --100%. I sat with some of the little girls in a shallow area of the lake and squished and slopped mud. We were "baking."
When we got home, I spent a good amount of time rinsing silt out of our swimsuits.

I don't let Tessa play in the dirt as much as she'd like. But I do believe that kids need good fun getting dirty sometimes. So, after swimming and mud flinging, I let her sit in this beautiful spot and just dig dirt......while I ate cookies.

Love these girls

And these are only half of them! I am fortunate enough to work with awesome young women as part of my church calling/job. They are filled with goodness and teach me so much.

And a new semester begins...

I'm back to work reading texts for the same gal over at UTD. There is only one class --which is reading intensive. I'm grateful I can share the time load with a friend. The class is called "Literature and the Holocaust." I'm grateful I can share the emotional load with a friend. The reading selections have started out with the history of anti-semitism, which I find fascinating because I've always struggled to understand where all that hatred and need to persecute came from. All the historical facts are put forth, and I'm glad that I still don't "get it."
I just finished a chapter called "Karl Marx and the Enlightenment" from a book about the origins of modern anti-semitism. I don't think I've ever read so much straight from Marx himself. For several reasons, it's safe to say that Karl and I could never be friends.

Playgroup

In the last few months we've starting mixing up where we go for playgroup each week. I'm pleased that we have because the kids have benefitted from the fun of variety, and really, moms can chat anywhere. Here we have a couple of pictures from the Heritage Farmstead from a few weeks ago mixed in with the fountains at the Dallas Arboretum yesterday. And what a beautiful day to spend outside. It was so much cooler than it's been, and there was even a breeze. Hallelujah! The Arboretum is gorgeous. However, I didn't pull out the camera until the very end when we played in the fountains. The battery died after a few pics, but I was able to catch the kids loving the water.

What he is.

I was going to start this post out with a picture of a fat baby to show what Cole is NOT. However, when I Googled "fat baby" in images, I couldn't bring myself to use one. These babies looked like their cheeks were eating their faces. I can only figure that they drink from bottles of bacon grease.

So, we will focus on what Cole IS. I'd say happy.

So many of you left reassuring comments after I mentioned Cole's lack of weight gain. Thank you. I thought that I'd update on the subject. And I'll try to sum it up and get to the point --not one of my strengths.

The week after Cole's year check up, I took him to the lactation consultant I'd worked with before. I knew that even though he was drinking cow milk now, she'd offer good advice and weigh him for free. She did both. I decided to tell the docs that I wanted to wait. We'll see how things are going at 15mos. We feel good about letting it be for now.

He's such a content kid. What a blessing to have him in our family. He thinks he and his sister are hilarious. They are.

Tessa took another 6 week course of Ballet and Creative Dance from Miss Linda through the community center. On the last day she has the parents come and watch the class so the kids can show what they've learned.
Tessa loves to dance, but she was on another planet for the first half of the class or something. Then, whenever I would hold up the camera, she'd start hamming it up. Goofy kid. She snapped back into focus near the end of the class.
Trying to take pictures and videos with a wiggly one year old on your lap is harder than it sounds.
At the end of class, Miss Linda turns on "Under the Sea", and the students dance like different underwater sea creatures. This is Tessa's starfish:

And here she is as a dolphin doing her jump and dive:

The class:

We received the new community ed. Leisure catalog, and while looking at possible classes for Tessa, surprise, surprise, I glanced at the picture on the page and saw her face in there. Too funny. So, if you live 'round these here parts, you'll have to take a look.

Pioneer Day!

Growing up in Utah, the 24th of July was almost a bigger celebration than the 4th. The 4th of July kicked off the month long patriotic, firework, picnic fun with pride in our country, and then the 24th tied it all together with pride in our heritage and our state. I have great memories of Pioneer Day.
However, since we've lived in Texas, obviously we don't have anything going on the 24th. We changed that this year. We celebrated the heritage part of the holiday and had a mini parade. And it was cute. Kudos to Woody the Grand Marshall of the parade. Not all 16 year olds would agree to do this. He is awesome.

Tessa had a basket of candy so she could throw pieces to the people watching.....parents and a couple kids. I told her to throw the candy at people when she passed them. She took me a little too literally with the "at." She would stop in front of a kid, grab a piece or two and then huck that candy at their face from less than three feet away. Since it was candy, though, a shot to the face was easily forgiven.

Then it was time to attack the Grand Marshall with the water balloons. I think they were to be used for games, but this was much more fun.

We had a jam packed fun day. Not only did we have our breakfast and parade, but we had a birthday party, ward party, and our Muskogee fireworks show. It was wonderfully tiring.