Summer Times!!

This is my Shelby Grace all day long! She is the happiest adorable baby that I just can’t get enough of. Summer is awesome getting to be with her every day!

We have been up to some fun times lately! Yesterday I finally moved home!! I will post some pics of our house remodel soon! We are so super excited!

Wednesday, Jill came in town and we went to the butterfly museum.

I gave June piggy tails for the first time, her hair is finally sort of growing in!

The arrow is pointing to a butterfly. They were everywhere and June was so thrilled when they fluttered all around her! She has been saying “butterfly” every five seconds all day long!!

Of course June was loved the “NEmo fish” at the butterfly museum!

She named all the fish Nemo and Dori and did not want to leave this exibit!

When she saw this pond she tried to take off her dress and kept saying “Unt go swim in water”

We kept returning to the fish exibit. Even Shelby liked the fish!

 

There were these cool bugs that June really enjoyed. We ended up sitting on a bench while she stood in front of the museum volunteers and said “WOW big buggy!” over and over and over driving them crazy I’m sure. They tried to get her to touch it but……..eeehh not so much

My sweet girls with their Auntie Jill! Thanks Auntie Jill for taking us to the fun museum!

 

I love the connection of the butterfly to the three stages of life in Christ. The caterpillar represents our life before Christ. Hungry and preoccupied to satisfy our physical needs.The chrysalis or cocoon resembles the tomb and the butterfly represents the resurrection into a new and glorious life free of material concerns and restrictions.

Jesus declared, "I tell you the truth, no one can see the kingdom of God unless he is born again." John 3:3 (NIV)

God didn't just take a caterpillar and stick some wings on him and paint the wings all different colors. When the cocoon opens and the butterfly crawls out, it is a new creation. The caterpillar is gone! It has now become a butterfly.

That is a good picture of what Jesus meant when he said we had to be "born again." The Bible says, "if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!" When we invite Jesus to come into our heart, we become a new creation. God doesn't just clean us up and slap on a little paint, he makes us into a new person. Would you rather be, a worm or a butterfly? Jesus will make you into a new creation if you will invite him into your heart.

Dear Lord, we thank you for sending Jesus to die on the cross so that we, like the butterfly, can become a new creation.

I ask that you will change my daughters into butterflies one day and that they will know the beauty of the sacrifice you made for them!

Today, Natalie came over withe her adorable nephew, Ali!

He LOOOOVED Shelby, and kept touching her soooo gently and kissing her. He would look at her and just start cracking up!

Ali is only 17 months old, and already taller than my 2 yr old! He is a big boy and already wears a 3T! He is so incredibly sweet and adorable, I simply could not stand it! He has the most precious sweet smile and is super layed back.

Natalie is graduating from college this summer and moving to France to continue her education. I am SO PROUD of her! I met her when I was working with her youth group and she was just in High School. She wants to be a teacher WOO HOO!! Congrats Nat!!!!!

June still doesn’t like to share….we are working on that right now.

We tried to get a group pic, and as I was preoccupied trying to get June to sit still for the picture……

Shelby decided to try out her new teeth on Ali’s arm!

She thought it was pretty funny!!

Weekend in Austin

This weekend we went to Austin to celebrate Marcus’s birthday, Dad’s birthday and Father’s Day. We went out to eat at this awesome restaurant called the Oasis. If you have never been there it is quite an experience! It seats over 2400 people! There are 900 tables! When we got there and I saw cars parked over a mile away from the restaurant, I was thinking uuummmmmm I think we should try another place there is gonna be a monster LONG wait!!

Turns out there wasn’t a wait, only a line to be seated as they filled this giant place up!! It was AWESOME. There are beautiful fountains, iron sculptures of people and animals, and beautiful flowers everywhere you turn. There are so many levels, and balcony’s I couldn’t even count!

When you arrive at your table you are blown away by the veiw of Lake Travis in front of you. There are huge fans with misters to keep you cool and literally a sea of brightly colored umbrellas everywhere!

June doesn’t like to sit at the table for very long so I took her to the gift shop where she got some pop rocks to keep her happy.

Shelby was such a good little baby and just got passed around . She is like a little happy baby doll, just cute and smiley all the time!

 

She ate like ten pieces of ice…mmmmmm She was soaked in drool!!

After a little while they took down the umbrellas so we could watch the sunset!!

We were so amazed when we saw this airplane writing I LOVE  U and a big heart in the sky. Everyone in the whole place was watching with anticipation with each letter to read what he was writing. I have never seen anything like it before. I’m sure it was rightside up and not backwards to some special person somewhere in Austin!!

The sunset was amazing, and when it finally went over the hill they rang this huge bell on one of the balconies!!

 

 

We went swimming in Marcus and Brooke’s neighborhood and had a blast. Then we all went to the Hula Hut.

June enjoyed licking sugar packets while we waited for our food. Not such a good idea since we had a three hour car ride ahead.

 

She loved walking on the dock and looking at the fishies. We had so much fun weekend! Thank you so much Brooke and Marcus for having us over and dealing with my high maintenence toddler! Ps. I owe you a new pair of sunglasses next time I see you for the ones Junie broke, Marcus!! So sorry bout that, bro!