Wood Badge!

Finally!  Wood Badge is a rigorous Boy Scout Leader training that takes a lot of time and commitment.  In the fall of 2011 Stephen went through the weekends of training and then had 18 months to complete 5 projects to enhance his local unit.  We're so proud of him for earning this award--he's a scout-MASTER!

A Baptism and a Blessing!

We had a wonderful occasion to travel to Houston....

The baptism of this little lady....

 

 

And the blessing of her sweet baby sister, the newest McKneely baby!

 

 

 We were really glad for the people who traveled the furthest, Uncle Joey and Liz...

 

And we enjoyed some fun time with family....

 

Marvelous Maverick

Sam's class performed at the first Rise and Shine assembly....

 

And like the cherry on top, Sam was chosen as the boy "Marvelous Maverick" in the morning assembly!  He's such a good kid. Here is what his teacher said about him:

"He sets a good example for his classmates and is a great friend!  He is also and energetic learner =)!

 

We are so proud of him!

The "Haps" of September

So September is getting off to a great and busy start.  I feel like our weeks are super busy each night of the week with a different activity, welcome to life with 4 normally involved kids!

Some highlighted activities of the September so far.....

Going to the Perot Museum of Nature and Science with Dad and Grandma and Grandpa Lewis on Labor Day--it's a GREAT place!....

Then that weekend we took them out on our boat.  The weather was PERFECT, the water was GLASS and we had the lake TO OURSELVES.  AWESOME DAY!

 

 

The next weekend we tried out one of the cabins at our boat club, it's pretty primitive but we made it work.  The boating conditions weren't ideal, it was really windy and so the water was choppy and once you got wet you were pretty COLD.  But we tried and still had a good time.  We hope to make it out again before it turns too cold.

Then this past weekend we attended the annual Balloon Fest breakfast put on by our friends the Blacks and the Matheny's who live in Plano.  We used to live there and it's the once a year excuse to go see old friends.  The picture above is after we got home, they really make it a fun morning with balloons, face painting, bounce houses and everything! (see photo above)

Here is the rundown of each kid and their activities:

Kailtyn:

Loves music and friends.  She's progressing nicely with the piano and dedicates a lot of time to practicing.  She's also decided to join a local children's choir that is getting started here in Dallas.  A new branch of the Millennial Choirs and Orchestras has started here in Dallas and we are excited for the good music and technical things she will learn about singing.  She is also ALL ABOUT friendships and spends as much time as possible with her friends.  Her BFF's include Kendall, Katie and Hailey.  She also loves to read, scrapbook and is starting to learn her way around the kitchen!

Sam:

 Is loving 2nd grade and having Kaitlyn's teacher Mrs. Lee!  He is a shining example in class and a RULE follower!  He ALWAYS has his nose in a book and reads even when he needs to be doing other things (though it's hard to get mad at him for such a good thing).  He plays the piano and has started his 5th season (starting to lose count) on the Dragons with Dad Stephen as head coach.  He even scored a goal in his first game!

Lindsey:

 

 Has started soccer as well, her first season on the "Cat's Meow".  She also scored a goal in her first game and is a real go getter!  Family schedules have it that she often tags along with Dad and Sam to their twice a week practices and the extra time on the field is doing good things for her!  She is learning how to read and gets better all the time, is a social butterfly with many friends in her school class.  She loves to make people laugh!

Matthew:

 

 Is a BIG boy and mommy's shadow.  He tags along patiently on all my errands and doings to keep our family going.  He and I are doing a preschool co-op with some friends from church so once a week he goes to someones home for a few hours for preschool.  The picture below is of his first time going to someone's house (don't judge the shoes, I'm clearly not a first time mom)  he LOVES being big like the other kids.  When at home with me he is a bit lonely and has a hard time if I have to walk into a different room than him which is getting a bit old but I'm told it's normal.

 

The Summer ends....

Sniff sniff.  Summer is coming to an end.  Wanna know how I know?  We have to make these....

 

Because we got some letters in the mail telling us who our teachers are going to be.  And then these teachers get all dressed up in grade themes and create a parade through our neighborhood.  Here we are sitting and waiting...

We are all really thrilled with our teacher choices this year (momma and most of the kids prayed quite a bit for good teachers).

Kaitlyn has Mrs. Berry.  She has a daughter who was in 2nd grade with Kaitlyn, and Mrs. Berry was her switch teacher last year for math and science so she's familiar--which is good for Kaitlyn.

 

Sam got Mrs. Lee, who taught Kaitlyn in 2nd grade so we are THRILLED, we LOVE her, she's AWESOME!  I think our whole street must have heard our cheering when he opened his letter...

 

And Lindsey got Mrs. McIntyre who is new to us but she's a member of our church and we know her sister.  She seems like she will be just fine.  Lindsey is not a kid I'm worried about with school.  She's READY!

*     *     *     *     *

So the first day of school came and here is my crew...Kaitlyn in 4th grade, Sam in 2nd grade and Lindsey is our big Kindergartener!!

 

and their individual shots:

Kaitlyn complete with her new messenger style bag, she feels so grown up!

 

Sam was all smiles,

And Lindsey was so eager, she practically bounced into her classroom and was a quick, bye mom.  We dropped her off first and I had 2 other kids to get settled so I left her.  Not a tear, no hesitation, she's fine!  And then after I got the other 2 settled I came back around just to peek in.  She saw me and gave me a happy wave.  She's so big all of a sudden (at least to me).

Last 2 weeks of summer!

I feel like this summer has just flown by!  We didn't "go" anywhere and spent our summer doing local things: The Dallas Arboretum, The Perot Museum, and the ZOO (our only trip the LAST week of Summer, documented below) and spent a lot of time with our local cousins and BOATING.  We read much and swam much and really just enjoyed the relaxing more flexible schedule.

Sam went to soccer camp with half of his "Dragon" team mates:

We finally made it to the ZOO!  This was a long awaited play date with Lindsey's pre-school friend Caroline.  The two of them had planned this for months and we finally made good on the plan, it was a hot day but a fun day!

And I hosted one last book club for Sam where we reviewed Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.  Mrs. Fancher the School Librarian came to help review and we made our own candy concoctions before eating pizza and watching the original classic movie upstairs on the movie screen!  This is still one of the BEST things I've done all summer, it's been just wonderful!

We bought a boat...

Early this summer we spent a day out on a friend's boat.  It reignited our boat fever.  We've talked off and on about getting a boat for a few years but I was always pregnant or had an infant and so it wasn't realistic.  But now....

Then when Stephen went to work and shared with friends how much fun we'd had on the lake, he had a co-worker offer to sell us his boat he didn't use anymore.  It was a pretty sweet deal and so we did it.

But, the boat had to make one final tune up in the shop and that took longer than expected.  Stephen took the whole week off work with the hopes of spending time on the lake but it wasn't until Friday (which was okay be me because my "honey-do" list was getting lots of attention) that we got the call that the boat was GOOD TO GO.  Here are some photos of our first weekend out.

The water was pretty choppy when we first went out, it was a bit unsettling for many of us.  Kaitlyn's hat blew off and we had to try and retrieve it, that was also unsettling.  By the time we got to a calmer part of the lake no one wanted to go in.  So we said a prayer that we'd be able to get over our jitters and enjoy the boat and make family memories (which is why we got it in the first place).  We decided just to jump off the boat and go swimming and that really calmed us all down a lot!

We ended up having a wonderful time.  I am learning how to drive the boat, Matthew lost his Diego hat, I lost a pair of sunglasses, and we have some practicing to do with getting the boat in and out of the water and the storage garage but I think this will be a good thing for our family!

McKneely cousins part 2

So as if we hadn't had enough of our cousins.....A few days later my two older nieces stayed with us for a few days and a good rendezvous spot is half way in Waco at the Mayborne Children's Museum.  

It's getting to be something of a tradition to go here each summer, but this museum never disappoints.  It's incredibly hands on and very easy to just let the kids go and as long as they stay on the floor you can find them without issue.  It wasn't too crowded and it was wonderful.

I even nursed my broken toe (which has to be documented THANK YOU VERY MUCH!--Matthew was playing with something he shouldn't and I was trying to get it from him and he fought me a bit and I rolled my toes, hearing pop pop pop and I hobbled for a good month without putting weight on them and taping them religiously!)

Fun times....