September Jeff City Tournament

 As most of you know there is a lot of time spent on soccer in our family!  At least we have some GREAT friends that we get to share this time with ;)  Both girl's teams played in a Jeff* City tournament!  So of course, while at the capital we fit in some sight seeing in between games.

Mary Grace, Grace, and Hannah enjoying some down time together!

Maddie, Allee, and Annie

The whole crew in front of the Capital building

Serious discussion going on here about this statue :)

The Crew that we travel with :)

We realized as they were looking at the river...11, 12, 13.  This is one of my favorites!

Gotta make a little time for some CRAZY faces :)

Goofing around!

#1 Super Fan - Emma

Oops...I think I cut of the statues head!

Coach Jonothon with the U10 Girls

Allee with her 2nd place trophy!

Nice job Magic U10 Girls and Coach Wagner!

Beautiful Wedding of an Old Friend of Ours!

 We were blessed to be invited to the wedding of an old friend of ours!  It was a gorgeous night and an absolutely wonderful ceremony!  So glad that we were able to share in this very special day for Heath and Brittney!

My brother and his beautiful wife, Aubrey

Allee, our niece Gracie, and Emma trying to catch a peek!

What little girl doesn't enjoy a wedding?  :)

1st Day of School Pictures

Our girls on their 1st day of school! 

Hannah 8th Grade

Allee 4th grade

Emma...Kindergarten

Emma with her sweet teacher :)

Hope you enjoy the pictures!

A Friend Blessed My Heart Today!

A friend of mine shared this beautiful beautiful gift with me today.  I hope it blesses your day as much as it has mine :)  Enjoy life's little moments!

And They're Off...

How in the world did our baby girls get to be so grown up?  Why does it seem like time is going faster and faster?  These are all things that have been going through my mind this morning.

 We took  Hannah to her last first day of middle school today. She has turned into such a beautiful young lady.  She was not nervous what so ever and was really looking forward to getting back into school!  What a blessing it is to see her so EXCITED about school.  Hannah loves learning, loves so many of the teachers and administrators at the Middle School, and loves the social part of school!  So here we come 8th grade...Hannah is ready for you!

Allee started 4th grade.  Allee is our girl that is a little more reserved about school.  She would be perfectly happy staying home with us ALL day ;)  Once she is there she has a good time... it is just the getting started that she is always unsure of.  All summer long Allee and I have prayed that God will place her in a class with a Godly teacher and a good friend.  I think God has taken care of her in both of those departments :)...(Although I don't think you can go wrong with many teachers in our district)!  She told me yesterday that she keeps telling herself that this is God's plan for her ;)  I love knowing that she is putting her trust in him!

Emma was really EXCITED to be heading off to Kindergarten when I put her to bed last night.  She did AMAZINGLY well this morning when we dropped her off in her classroom.  Keeping her home with us last year was the BEST decision we made for her.  She just needed a little more time to get ready...truth be known, Mommy enjoyed that time as much as Emma did ;)  She is in very GOOD hands at school...which made leaving her at school a little easier for mommy!

Alright, I know there are many moms out there and probably a few of you that are reading our blog who will roll your eyes when I tell you that  I cried when I got back in the van after getting everyone dropped off.  There is something about the first day of school that always gets me.  Maybe it is the realization that our girls are growing up way too fast.  Maybe it's the fact that I feel like our girls are each a piece of me and when they aren't with me I feel like a piece of me is gone.  Maybe I just realize that they are that much closer to becoming adults and they won't NEED me like they do now.  I truly enjoy the time that I get to spend with our girls. I enjoy running them to practices and games. I enjoy them coming to work with me and helping me at the store. I enjoy picking them up from school and seeing their smiling faces. I enjoy cooking them dinner and eating at our table together. I enjoy being someone they feel like they can confide in. I enjoy reading them their devotions, praying with them and spending a little one on one time with each of them before I tuck them in at night.

As Jesse and I left the school.  I heard this song on the radio and it gave me a peace :)  Hope you all have a great day!

Camping Trip!

 We have wanted to go camping all summer but with the record breaking July temperatures we never were able to make it work.  It just so happened that the weekend before school was beginning was a PERFECT weekend to go!  So we loaded up and headed down to *Roaring River State Park.  It was a great place to camp with lots of things to do.  You could easily spend a week there!  Here are just a few pictures of what we were able to fit into our weekend trip :)

Mommy and The girls

Daddy with his girls

We were so proud of Emma for making the 1.5 mile hike 350 ft. up!
No complaining and she walked the whole way!!

Daddy and the girls in front of the natural spring.

SILLY FACES

Hannah caught her limit in trout!  The rest of us only caught 1 :)

Little Sis and Big Sis

Big Sis and Middle Sis ;)

Alright...funny story with this one!  As you can tell from several of our pictures Emma is going through the "FAKE" smile phase, so the big girls were all trying to make their best "Emma Smile"!