two in a row

Sunday morning I woke up early too, but on purpose this time. I met a girl who works with me and her daughter at the beach to take a couple of pics of them together. I was so thankful I did! The sun came up glowing fire red and the sky was flooded with pink which bounced off the clouds and hugged us in a blush. It was breathtaking....

Later it changed to a sunny yellow that filtered out behind the clouds. It started my whole day perfectly. What better way to get into the spirit of worship on a Sunday morning then to watch the sun come up, listen to the waves, take breath after breath of salty air and think about how amazing these moments are? I may have to start doing this every Sunday morning.

sunrise

Saturday morning the kids woke up way too early. The result of school. Bah! So when you get handed lemons what do you do? You throw the kids in the car, rush to the beach with your camera and get amazing pictures of the sunrise. I did the same thing with Micah when he was right around the age Beatrix is now. My plan is to frame both of their beach pictures side by side so I can forever freeze them in this amazing age of pudgy cheeks, adorable baby shoulders and carefree spirits. I LOVE how these turned out. My only problem will be deciding which ones to frame. I could make wallpaper out of their beach pictures I love them so. I can not believe she will be two next month. Have I mentioned how thankful I am to be home with her this year? Well, I am!

surrogates

"A person appointed to act for another"...That is what these two special ladies did for Micah. September 15th was Grandparent's Day and our Pastor, Shirley and our special friend Cindy helped make this day special for Micah. Trinity had a special assembly and I asked Micah if he would like to invite anyone. First he mentioned his grandparents in Iowa and then he asked about Daddy's Mommy and Daddy and when I told him that they couldn't come he mentioned these two wonderful ladies. It was a fun and special morning.

new to us

Three weeks ago we got a new to us car. It is a 2008!!!! Dodge Caliber. (the cute silver hatchback in the center of the photo. Don't tell Matt I called it cute though, hahaha!) I have never owned a car that was this new in my life. I think all the vehicles I have ever owned were over 200,000 mileage! :) We knew that our station wagon was on its last leg and sure enough exactly one week after we got the Dodge the wagon died a slow and painful death on the interstate following Matt to school...in the morning....on the highway...with the kids in the car. Yeah, it was not fun! But we are thankful that the timing was just right with getting the new one. Even though we are down to one car again we are enjoying the air conditioning and the new car smell.

This is our friend and banker Paul. It was very intimidating to the car dealers that we brought our own banker! HA!

little fish

We spent a lot of time in the pool this summer and because of this Micah has become an amazing swimmer! He can jump in the deep end and swim down to the bottom to retrieve things. Beatrix loves the water too which I am so thankful for. The two lovely ladies in the pictures are our neighbors. The kids adore them! I was so thankful we had this all summer long to help us stay cool.