Umbrellas and fishing poles

The girls and I were languishing in the heat under our fan in the living room one day (and yes, languishing is the right word... I'm 37 weeks pregnant, remember?) and I heard it... rain!  I jumped up and told the girls we were going outside.  They were conveniently in their underwear already so off we went.  I LOVE summer rain!  The girls LOVED the umbrellas.

Why is this so fun? 

Racing grass blade boats down the ditch

And, do we see a recurring theme here?  Fishing is Avery's #1 request... even over swimming.

Oh the joy!

The girls and their fishing guides

She hooked a big one!... or maybe it's a perch that wrapped itself around the dock...

Finishing the day off with a big bowl of ice cream... does it get much better?  Not for Landry.

Update and Summer Fun

Well, I ran into a sweet lady at Taco Delite today who asked about my Papaw.  She reads this blog and had been praying for him and my family (thank you!) and I realized that I had been putting off writing an update for too long.  I keep putting it off because I don't really want to acknowledge where we are in the search... it's not the wonderful and quick ending that we all wanted.  Right now, the authorities are still following leads, but we are definitely to the point where we are mainly just waiting.  Waiting to hear something, waiting to find something, waiting for closure of some sort... and coming to terms with the fact that we may be waiting a long time... we may always be waiting.  We haven't lost hope, but it would be maddening to not accept that there may not be an answer, for me at least.  So, I am still praying.  I am praying that God has Papaw safe and at peace where ever he is.  I am also praying that God give my family peace and comfort in ways only He can.  So, that is the update.  It's not the one I wanted to give.  And, I probably won't say anything else about it on here unless something happens.

Okay, so on to something else.  My girls don't understand stopping life when bad things happen and so we don't.  It's one of the great blessings of children.  Both the girls like to paint so the other day I let them each pick a Bible story and I sketched out a scene from it.  Half of the fun was letting them tell me what to draw, especially since Landry chose Noah's ark and then they both went crazy with what animals they wanted drawn on there.  I had to limit them a bit... I'm not that great of an artist.  Avery chose the parable of the lost sheep (thanks to INCREDIBLE Bible teachers, Mrs. Connelle and Mrs. Sandra!).  Here they are working away...

Landry is very serious about her art... not so serious about keeping the watercolors unmixed.

I LOVE this picture!  Real smiles from both of them at the same time!

We had another big event happen last week... we got our first swingset.  I researched for a long time (almost too long!) and found this little set that is the perfect size for preschoolers.  Not too big, not too small, and most importantly, not too expensive.  The girls LOVE it!  And can play on it all by themselves (read: get on the swings and don't need me to push them!) so I like it too.  I have a feeling that will be a great feature when Baby #3 gets here.

I don't have a picture of the finished product, but here are my parents and Clay setting it up.  They were determined to get it together all in one afternoon and did.  Although by the end, Avery was using a jar of lightening bugs to light their work.  Thanks mom and dad!

Sprinkler fun with the Spencer cousins and the Benedick kids

Makeshift umbrella so they don't get wet?

Maybe two separate umbrellas would work easier.  

All that fun left Nolan exhausted!

While we were playing the guys were out working on a new beach/sandbox at the lake for the kids.  That's my dear husband with the shirt over his neck.  He had gone out much earlier than everyone else and forgotten sunscreen.  He looks very similar to a lobster today. :)

The girls are making boats out of feathers from a turkey vulture (Clay says they are called buzzards, but he also calls a skunk a pole cat... therefore, he can't be trusted.)

Last, but not least, 5 weeks until baby #3 comes!  No, we are not ready, but since when has being ready been all that important?  If you have any great name suggestions for a boy or a girl that you would like to  share, we're open for suggestions!

Welcoming the newest member of our family...

Nope.  No baby yet.  Last week we welcomed Belle the guinea pig to our family... At least I think that's her name.  Avery is a little fickle about what we are going to call her.  As you can see from the looks on our girls faces, they LOVE animals and were pretty excited to get their very own pet.  This is really a stall tactic on our part so that we can put off getting a puppy until the next member of the family (the human one) isn't a high-maintenance newborn anymore.  That was by my request.  I just wasn't really excited about a puppy and baby coming all at one time.  I mean, how much work can a guinea pig really be?

Summer days have officially hit here.  I don't know how hot everyone else is, but I'm sweating enough to qualify these days as summer days.  We've been in the pool a couple of times already and I got a couple of cute pictures to share.

Picnic lunch

Avery has been taking gymnastics for almost a year now.  It's been a wonderful experience for her.  She gets to make new friends and learn to interact with them all on her own.  It is also wonderful for me to see her listening to and following directions from her teacher.  Today was the end of the semester and they got to show off their skills to the parents.

Avery's backbend... she did it all by herself!

Showing off her "routine" on the trampoline

Showing off her pike jump

Chatting with Landry and her friend Gabby after class.  They are sooooo big.

PLEASE PRAY!

They have found my Papaw's truck empty in Brownwood, TX (south of Abilene).  It's been there for at least a week.  My Nanny, my mom and her siblings are all on their way out there right now.  Prayers that Papaw is found safe very soon.  Prayers for strength during the search.  Prayers for peace whatever the outcome, knowing that God is in control.  


Thank you so much for lifting my family up in your prayers like you have.


Maurine

A little goodness in the middle of sadness

It has been almost 9 days since my Papaw disappeared and there is still absolutely no trace of him.  I don't really know what to think about all of this and, at this point, my family and I are having to come to grips with the fact that this may be a much longer ordeal than anyone ever imagined.  Every night I have gone to bed, it has seemed impossible that we would not find him the next day... I'm starting to realize that not only is it possible, but may be probable.  Our hearts are broken and our minds are spinning with the possibilities.  I ask that you remember my family in your prayers as everyone, especially my Nanny, my mom and her siblings, try to sort out emotions and try to figure out how to proceed from now on.  We haven't stopped looking, but, as my mom said, no one can emotionally, physically or mentally keep up the search as they have been doing for the last week or so.  Thank you SO much for all you have done for us.  God is good and I have felt his goodness through all of your support and prayers.  We continue to hold on to hope because that is what we have to hold on to.  So... I guess that's all I have to say about all this right now... there's not much else to say that makes sense.  If anything changes, I'll let everyone know.

Today is a big transition day at our house because for the last week we have had the joy of having my great-grandmother stay with us and this afternoon my mom and dad came to take her back to her home.  She is my Papaw's mother-in-law and lives with him and my Nanny in Aquilla.  We were so blessed to have her come and stay with us while everything has been so crazy down there.  She was sort of a light in a dark time and I'm not sure I was ready to have her gone.  My girls LOVED having her here.   Landry even woke up from her nap asking for her.  I posted a few pictures of her stay in my last post, but couldn't pass up the chance to post a few more.

Most of our week was spent trying to pass time in distracting ways while we waited for the call that would tell us Papaw was found and okay.  Although the call didn't come, those unimportant things we did to distract created some really wonderful memories for me.  On Thursday, we got out in the yard and worked.  It was such a beautiful day and Grandma sat out there with us and chatted.  She told us all about her old gardens, what she grew and how she grew them.  She even pretended to be happy about the earthworm that Avery found and had to show her. 

Saturday, we went to the Beauty Shop (really, it was a Beauty Shop, not a salon... I now know the difference) and got Grandma's hair all done up.  She told me all about her old beauty operator (silly me, I thought operators only worked on telephones!) and how, when she used to do hair, if someone didn't like it, she'd just tell them to go fix it themselves since they knew so much.  :)  She's a bit of a feisty one.

That night we went fishing again.  Fishing was really the highlight of her stay.  She loved it and loved telling Clay how if he would just hook the worm like she told him, more fish would be caught.  She ended up catching 6 or 7 perch that night, so I think she was pretty satisfied.

Avery's catch

Grandma would cast, wait about 20 seconds, and reel in her perch.

  Then she would throw her rod back behind her like this...

... where Clay would be waiting to take her fish, re-bait her hook and hand the pole back to her so she could cast again.  It was a pretty good system. :)

Landry's major role in all of this was to lure the perch in my tossing small amounts of dog food off the dock.  She took her job very seriously.

Here's Grandma and Avery with their fish.  I know I said this last time, but REALLY... who has pictures fishing with their great-great-grandmas?  It's a little crazy to think about.

Another one of my favorite moments happened on Sunday morning.  We were getting ready to load up in the car for church and Grandma had gotten up off of the couch before I could get to her to help her steady herself.  I came around the corner to find that Landry had already gone to help her walk to the car.  She had been paying attention and knew to hold her hand and walk with her.  I almost cried when I saw what she was doing (pregnancy, emotionally-charged situations and sweet moments have produced lots of tears this past week).

Avery and her great-great-grandmother's matching toenails.  Grandma was gracious enough to let Avery pick out her color... a very hot pink.

Thank you Grandma for coming to stay with us!  I know it was hard to be gone from your home for so long, but we enjoyed every moment.  Come back soon... there are plenty of perch (and turtles!) in the lake!  We love you.