The end of the summer

Well not too much has been going on since Steve's surgery so I haven't had anything to post about. But I just thought I would post once before the Summer ends and our chaos begins! Steve is recovering well. He still couldn't lift the kids (nothing over 10 lbs) for two weeks after his surgery. That was hard on Mom having to do all the lifting when we went places together, but we survived! Steve has started his Seminary classes and is working hard. He said he has studied more in the past week than he did his entire four years in College! I believe that as I have heard the stories of his slacker years in College! He is learning a lot and is excited to see what God is going to do with this.


We are officially starting homeschool "preschool" for Carter next Monday. So right now we are just having fun playing together while the summer comes to a close. I am planning to blog about my homeschooling since it is all a learning experience and hope to share some of that with you all! We are going to be following the Heart of Dakota curriculum for 2-5 year olds, called "Little Hands Toward Heaven." We'll start on Monday and see how it goes! I am not stressing over it since Carter isn't even 3 yet (will be in two months) and whatever he learns now is just a bonus! Looking forward to getting my feet wet in homeschooling to prepare for the real deal! Carter already has a great head start as he knows pretty much all of his letters and sounds and can count to 15.

Sydney is still a little joy. She has been taking off with the crawling thing. Now that she is more mobile, she is learning to sleep on her stomach. She never used to do that before. I sometimes find her in interesting positions like the picture above. I don't know how that can be comfortable! She loves to move all over the house. And unfortunately, pick up fuzz from the floor and put it in her mouth! Yuck! So she's always choking on that... not fun!

She has also discovered the cats. And the target of her obsession seems to be Therapy, above. Poor little guy used to get abused by his brother Roo and now he is the object of Sydney's obsession! She loves to pull his tail and try to eat it. Here he is "hiding" from her.

Look at her, looking so innocent on the outside of the gate, while Therapy stays safe and sound inside the baby gate hoping she will just "go away!" He stayed there a good 20 minutes without moving.

Who could resist this face? We are going to have to keep her locked up when she gets older! :-)

Just kidding of course...

Or this face? Carter has very curly hair, and I had a little fun the other night during bath time. He's my little ham, always loving a good camera shot! I think it's across between Jimmy Neutron and Peewee Herman! Love my little man!

Dada

Sydney has been saying "Dada" an awful lot lately. I don't mind. I know she loves me because she's attached at my hip! Speaking of Daddy, Steve has officially applied to Seminary. He applied to Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Please pray for the Lord's direction in our lives with this. We are just waiting to find out if he has been accepted and if it's not too late to start this Fall. We are excited to see what the Lord has planned for us.

4th of July weekend

This was the first of three BBQ's we had over the weekend to celebrate the 4th of July. This was at our friends the Murray's house. We swam, had a Bible study and had dinner together.

Carter and his best pal Alex Murray in their matching bathing suits. Alex is 2 1/2 years older, but they have great fun together!

The kids: Aaron Gish, Chloe Gish, Carter and Alex Murray. Missing from picture: Adam Gish and Audrey van Eck.

Alex and Sydney absolutely adore each other!

On Saturday night we went to Steve's family's house. This is Cooper who is only 3 weeks older than Sydney. They are pretty much the same exact size in height and weight!

Cousin Emma, three years old.

The kids playing with each other.

Sydney is adorable even with spit up and slobber all over her dress!

On Sunday my dear friend Nicole came in town. We hadn't seen her since Carter was 6 months old, so it was a treat to see her! Sydney's middle name is named after Nicole, since Nicole was very instrumental in getting Steve and I together. We had a great time hanging out with her on Sunday night with a visit from our friend Kristin Higginbotham and her boyfriend Mark. On Monday morning, Katie came by to visit Nicole and then Nicole was off to Mississippi again! Hopefully it won't be another 2 years before we see her again.

Steve and his friend Vincent Luttrell. On Monday night we had the Luttrells over for dinner before Vincent heads off to be a chaplain in the Army. He just graduated from Dallas Theological Seminary and will be moving to Tennessee where he and his family will be living. Steve is going to miss his Seminary pal. They had many a Theological discussion over the past few years! And speaking of Seminary... Steve is considering going to Seminary, something he has thought and prayed about a lot over the years. He is hoping to start this Fall. Please pray for the Lord's leading with this!