~Beautiful Life Friday~

Where has the time gone!!?? The days are just flying by me and I can't seem to keep up. You would think I would be now that it's just me and Karleigh Mei at home. :)

Last weekend we went to my parent's house to celebrate my Grandma's 90th birthday (Sept. 13th)! We had a lot of fun with Aunts and Uncles, Grandmas and Grandaddies, cousins and more cousins!

Look at these two sweet girls! Sweet baby Ella and Lexie.

Lexie with the twins, Grayson and Dawson.
Lots of fun was had running "the circle" at Grandma's house!
Running as fast as the wind! Unfortunately,  it was all fun until someone decided to run the opposite direction and there was a head on collision. :(
Karleigh Mei being silly with Noah.
Karleigh Mei and Dawson and Grayson.

Karleigh Mei and big sister Katie!

...and brother-in-law Blake! :)

The "big" cousins.

Singing Happy Birthday to Grandma Alice!

Karleigh Mei was a big help opening up presents with Grandma. Karleigh Mei cannot wait until it's HER birthday!!

♫ Singing In The Rain ♫

It's a Beautiful Life Friday, and we are singing 'cause it's raining in our parts! We decided that Karleigh Mei NEEDED an umbrella and so off we went to find  one! She is soooo happy about her *Hello Kitty umbrella and matching rain jacket. HANDS DOWN this is her favorite toy ever. Who knew??

You can almost see her singing... ♫ It's raining....it's pouring...the old man is snoring! ♫

Ohhhh...I love this girl soooooooooo!!

Disclaimer... Karleigh Mei insisted on wearing the mismatched clips and mismatched pink bows. :)

~Beautiful Life Friday~

Whew! What a week it has been! Karleigh Mei had tubes put in her ears on Monday morning. She did great and we are glad that it is behind us. The doctor said she had very sick little ears. :( Poor little sweet girl! Her right eardrum has ruptured 3 times, that we know of.  Praying that this is the end of ear infections and eardrums bursting.

~Karleigh Mei singing and dancing with big brother Gannon.

~Lexie was able to give Karleigh Mei a quick french braid! How pretty!
~We went to the Zoo yesterday with some sweet friends. Karleigh Mei was most excited about brushing the goats. Who knew!?

~Cheesy grins from some sweet girls!

~Brush, brush, brush
~Garrison is in the band this year. He's playing paercussions/drums.
~My little window washer. Karleigh Mei LOVES to help me with EVERYTHING. Window washing is fun busy work. :)

~Beautiful Life Friday~~

Another week has passed. Another day to reflect on the simple blessings in my life right now. School has started and we are surviving so far. :) The kids go to a great school, with really awesome Christian teachers who care about them. I'm anxious about this year for Garrison, but I'm trusting him in the care of someone who loves him even more than I~~God the Father. :)

It's just me and Karleigh Mei at home now. She's very confused as to why SHE can't go to school too. Last night as I was putting her to bed, I told her that I'd have to wake her up really early so that we could take the kids to school. She translated that to, "You're going to school tomorrow Karleigh Mei". Sigh. She woke up at 6:15 ready to go to school. :( I am so enjoying her by myself. The first real time alone with her. We are having too much fun....just Mommy and Karleigh Mei. :)

And I'm putting her to work.

She is a hard worker and LOVES to help me with EVERYTHING.

~Putting things in the washing machine~

~All this Mommy!?~
~Working on loading the dishwasher~
~So proud!~
~And something she has started to do, is kick off her "bip bops" at the door when she walks in. I love this silly, darling girl!

~Beautiful Life Friday~

It's been too long since I've done a "Beautiful Life Friday" post.

School starts next week (Wed. 19th) and we have made the HUGE decision for Garrison to go to school this year. I have been homeschooling him since forever. It is a huge leap of faith for us. We are trusting in the Lord in all things. Sometimes what may appear to be an easy thing on the outside to others, is not quite as easy as it seems. For all the prayer warriors out there, I would so appreciate any and all prayers for our sweet boy, Garrison. And me too. I get so weepy just thinking about it. I'm a real stink to be around these days. :(

Anyway....(sniffle, sniffle)....Garrison is required to have his haircut and so off to the barber we went yesterday. I have a before and after shot. 

Garrison "before" (He looks real excited about getting his locks cut doesn't he?)

And Garrison "after". He won't admit it, but I think he really does like it. :)
And here is a shot of my dining room table laden with "back-to-school" school supplies.

And I found these pictures in my iphoto. They must have been from a "photo-shoot" Lexie had with Karleigh Mei while Garrison was off getting his hair cut. I thought that these were sweet pictures.

Got to be one of the girls with a camera!

Oh-so-sweet!

And how cute is this!? Karl got me a new phone this week and so I gave my "old" one to Karleigh Mei. She is SO proud of this phone!

I'd love to hear what beautiful life blessings you have in your life!

~Beautiful Life Friday~

Katie's wedding is tomorrow! We have all been busy getting things ready for the big day!

~Washing Mabel_

~Vacuuming~(this girl LOVES to work!)
~Karleigh Mei loves admiring our pretty shoes~
~See! Aren't they so pretty! And tomorrow we can finally wear them!

~Beautiful Life Friday~

It's a Beautiful Life Friday post!!

My life is really crazy blessed right now! Katie's wedding is in 8 more days! 8 more days!!!!! That's not very long! Do you know how much planning goes into a wedding? Let me tell you....A LOT! :)  

Earlier this week we were blessed to watch another family finally arrive home with their darling girl from Ethiopia! Here they are as they were just arriving!

~Beautiful Cindy and her darling little one, Gracie Lu.
~Just look at those big, wide, happy eyes! She is so precious and I cannot wait to see her again after her and her family have adjusted. Poor little thing was just getting over the chickenpox. Hey...good news though..that's one less shot! :)
~Karleigh Mei and Maliah awaiting their arrival! ( I swiped this photo from Maliah's mom, Cristie) :)

~My sweet boy Gannon. He's slowly turing into a man. Where have the years gone!?

~Katie working on fans for her wedding!

~Katie and her finished fans!
~I found these guys in the hallway outside my boy's room.
~Garrison playing with his Legos*

~Today my girls (Katie and Lexie) left to go for a bachelorette party at a friend's lake house. I'm SURE they are going to have a super fun time. Lexie had to pick some photos of the two of them with a story to go with it and she also had to pick a Bible verse to give to her. I didn't ask which one she chose. sigh. But here is Lex with the photos she chose.

~ Here are some pics of them when they were leaving the house. Katie's friend, AlyRose, had decorated her car! Too cute! Karleigh Mei had to get in for the picture too! 

~The UPS man comes so consistently every day at nap time, that I decided to put a note on the doorbell. I love this sweet face, but nap time is mucho importante!!

Today I also got an email from myself that I wrote 3.5 yrs. ago. How crazy is that!!? Here is the email. The site that I did it at is called "future me" I think. 

Hello Me (Jennifer),
I found this site and thought it might be kinda fun to send myself an email to read in the future.  It is Monday, December 18, 2005.  The boys are outside playing right now.  The girls are off Christmas shopping.  Karl is at work.  We just got back yesterday from an awesome DC trip to visit Jim, Leonie and the boys, Tom and Eric.  Katie is home from college after just finishing up her first semester at ACU. Gannon and Lexie have tomorrow and Wed. left of school.  We plan on going to San Angelo on Christmas day, after our Christmas here at home.  And then we are going to Dallas to be with the entire **Family name taken out** clan.  Jennifer R. will be there too!  This Christmas the boys are getting golf clubs and a skateboard/bike ramp. Lexie is getting her purity ring and Katie is getting an iPod.  We are all very blessed, healthy and happy.  The boys were baptized Sunday before last, Dec. 11, 2005.  My prayer is that when I read this message again I'll be just as happy then as I am now.   Bye!!  :o)

How are you blessed today?