Not Me Monday!

Gosh, it's already been a week! Time flies when you're having fun, right? Got to love summer...it's the best! Not me Monday was created by MckMama for moments in your life when you do something that makes you think, 'did I do that? No, not me'!
I did not buy organic orzo pasta from the canisters at my grocery store, let it sit on the shelf in my pantry for a week, open it to make a new creation, only to see little live bugs crawling around. I did NOT proceed to sift through the pasta, locate and destroy all unwanted guests, and think to myself, 'if I missed one, the boiling water will take care of it'. Nope, not me! And I certainly, did not serve it to my children, who did not eat it, nor did I have three servings before the story unfolded to Kyle and I came back to reality and dumped the dish!
I did not hang out at the pool last week for many hours with the highlight of that time spent underneath the water slide talking with friends about the end of the world...nope, not me.
I did not take a CPR class and while resuscitating a plastic dummy, I thought about the real life person I was saving the whole time. Not me, I'm not that dramatic!
I hope some of you try this! It's easy, if you're anything like me :)

this is where...

she is happiest.

in a room full of shoes...

she has an undeniable shoe fetish :)

Like a moth to the flame...she is drawn to shoes...it's been her thing since she could walk. I first noticed it at Chick-fil-a...she didn't want to play on the structure, she wanted to try on every pair of shoes in all the little cubbies. She's NOT picky. She likes them all.

At the public pools, she's rummaging through bags desperately looking for shoes she can put on her feet. Kyle overheard her in my closet this morning while he was dressing for work...she was saying to herself, 'I love shoes' as she looked around for a pair she could walk around the house in...

New do's...

The girls are starting to like their hair...and they want to wear it differently. Kameron has more of it, and it seems to be blonde. Brooke isn't patient enough nor tough 'headed' enough for braids and Erin doesn't want just one braid, she wants two :)

We were at the pool for...4 full hours today! Summer, summer, summer!

Kam 'thinking' about pulling up on her own...which we haven't done yet :)

One of her braids...just guessed at how to french braid...

Brooke and what she calls 'honey buns'...

Not Me Monday!

I'm going to try this because I think it's fun and because I certainly have "not me" moments!
I did not take off my bikini top in our pool on the fourth of July (just Kyle and I) so that I could swim faster underwater in order to beat him on the number of pool lengths we could swim without taking a breath...oh no, not me!
I did not float the lazy river at Creekside while breastfeeding Kameron on my inner tube underneath my big floppy white sun hat...and no one commented on what a perfect way to nap my baby while I politely agreed.
I did not walk with the Tea Party in the 4th of July parade behind a man with big black combat boots and a sign that had pictures of prominent local representatives telling them that he was their boss...Not Me!
Whew...that was fun! I encourage you to try it! Didn't know I would have so many "not me" moments over the 4th of July :)

Life is so good when...

*I focus on God and stay thankful for all that He's given me...Jesus, Kyle, my girls, my parents, my sisters, my brother, my friends, His beautiful creation...

*I trust Him implicitly...

*I'm eating flaxseed granola over blueberries and yogurt for breakfast...

*I'm running outside and a praise song comes on and I look up in the clouds and think of my Creator...

*I think about taking a vacation with just my husband...

*I live in the moment...swimming with Brooke, underwater, letting my hair get wet...

*I'm holding Kameron and watching Erin and Brooke play (oh, so nicely)...

*my friends' kids are friends with my kids....

*I crawl into bed before 9 :)

Life is good just about all the time these days...

on a lazy day, questions are answered...

by my girls....

Who is your dad?

e and b: kyle robert

What does he do?

e: takes us to the donut shop sometimes (but we don't eat donuts) :)

b: takes me to church

Who is your mom?

e and b: sarah

How much do you love your mom and dad?

b: I love them so much

e: I love my momma big, so big and I love my dad so big...

What is your favorite thing about summer?

e: playing with all my friends, like daddy, kameron, and everyone I know

b: playing with mimi and papa, and getting in the water at their house

Do you like hot days?

e: I do, I just like to go swimming on hot days

b: I like hot days in summer when I'm swimming

What do you like to play?

e: little mermaid

b: with toys in the car

What's your name?

b: 'burk'

e: erin elizabeth watson

What are you thankful for?

e: you, swimming pools, ocean, kameron, and everyone around me

b: the stars and the flowers

What do you want to do when you're an adult?

b: be a daddy

e: be a mommy, actually I really want to be something else...I want to be all of them, I can't choose...a fireman...

What do you tell Jesus about?

e: I tell Him about the holy words

b: about how I'm going to play

Who is your best friend?

e: Drew and Tyler

b: God

What's your favorite movie?

e: Aladdin

b: the spiders

What is your favorite thing to do?

b: um, play and go swimming

e: play with you, now put the TV back on...

What do you want to do today?

b: umm, play with someone, and play in the house

e: watch TV all day

Fell off...

the blog wagon...but we're all really enjoying these summer days despite the 100 degree heat and walking through soup (the humidity) :)

Erin and Brooke both have fevers this afternoon, which made me nervous because Brooke kissed Ms. Betty on the lips this morning at church, before the fever. I wrote her an email letting her know... she wrote me back and said that if she gets sick, she WILL be well before next Tuesday so that she can come hold Kam on Wednesday. She's so awesome and has fallen in love with Kameron...she tells me her hip is lonely (the one Kameron rides on for hours) when Kameron isn't on it and that she thinks she's in Heaven when she holds our sweet Kam...they met during VBS and it has been love ever since.

Kyle took Erin and Brooke on a kayak tonight and it wore him out...good idea, but only 300 yards out they asked what else could they do...

Both girls are loving gymnastics and swimming for hours on end.

Great summer days...keep em' coming :)

I will take pics this weekend and post them!

when city meets country...

it's really fun(ny)...today we went to play at the farm...and there is nothing like it back home :) The girls loved it and so did I, but only for a day :)

More pics...

My sensitive smeller immediately upon exiting the car...

the silo (far right) Rachel and I repelled from in college...

inside their life size clubhouse....

tractor rides with Uncle Phil...

Brooke and Kate...

swinging from...

the rafters :)

good times...

in Martinsburg...when you start hearing a lot of random, unsolicited 'I love yous' from the little ones, you know that they are loving life...tonight, Brooke told Mimi on the way home from the carnival, that she loved her, that she (Mimi) was her best friend, and then she said that 'I wish I could marry you'...my girls LOVE it here and would never want to leave if their daddy was here with them...

more pics...

duck duck goose and 'pick me' from Erin...

Kameron and Brooke messing around...

Erin and Brooke playing tag...

boat rides...

Brooke...

horse and buggy...

happy spectators :)

flying high! and loving life...

Pennsylvania

Rachel and I are up here in the hills of Pennsylvania :)  It's beautiful and the girls are enjoying ALL their cousins!  We've been entertaining the little ones with a lot of wholesome fun :)

Take a look.

Security is always scary for Brooke.

Brooke and her puppy and popsicle.  

Erin and hers...

Kam in the trees...

the campout is not complete without a tent like this...

The Texas campers...

and the rest of their cousins (excluding Kyle, he's getting a little too old to enjoy this)...

Tyler and Erin looking in the sky for clouds and...

airplanes (the airport is just a couple of miles from parents' house)...

truck races...Tyler is faster, but Erin is full of tricks to delay his start...he still beats her everytime...

Kam spending a lot of time in someone's lap...

More to come!

the armor!

I'm a chronic blog surfer and stumbled on another awesome blog!  Here's her post from yesterday that I copied, pasted and printed so that I can do this with my girls :)

On the way to school this morning, Em and I were praying in the car. We put on our "Armor" every morning in the car so that neither of us starts the day "naked"...because that would be...AWKWARD!  It goes something like this:

Me: Lord, we put on our armor. We put on the belt of...

Em: TRUTH!

Me: Yep! So that we share your truth and always choose to tell the truth, not letting the devil tempt us to lie.

Me: We put on the breastplate of...

Em: RIGHTEOUSNESS!

Me: Yep! Lord, we want to do things Your way, not ours, so help us to be a light and choose to do the right thing.

Me: We stand with our feet in the gospel of...

Em: PEACE!

Me: Yep! Lord, we thank You that You sent Jesus, the Prince of Peace! And we trust You as our foundation! Your ways ROCK and no matter what the d(D)evil tries to throw our way, we will trust You and know Your peace!

Me: We put on the helmet...

Em: OF SALVATION!

Me: Yep! Lord, we thank You for Your word! We want to renew our minds with Your word because the d(D)evil tries to lie to us all the time so we need to know the difference between Your truth and his dumb lies!

Me: We take up the shield of...

Em: FAITH!

Me: Yep! Lord, we thank You that FAITH can ward off the fiery attacks of the e(E)nemy.

Me: We take up the...

Em: SWORD OF THE SPIRIT, YOUR WORD, SHARPER THAN ANY TWO-EDGED SWORD AND WE WILL PRAY AND PRAISE CONTINUOUSLY!

Me: EM, YOU ROCK! I am so proud of you!

I want to be an astronaut...

yep, that's what Erin wants to be when she grows up.  After baths tonight, she asked "mom, can I pleeeaaase be an astronaut when I grow up? I promise I will stay on the moon".  

Earlier in the day we talked about gravity and how the moon has very little of it...that it's kinda scary cause if you jump you just go floating into outer space (that kinda freaked her out, but not really because after that conversation set in her brain all day she ended with wanting to go to the moon).

By the way, in ninth grade I was voted most likely to be an astronaut...but it wasn't because my 'friends' thought I was super smart or ambitious, it was because people thought I was the most air-headed girl in the class...So. Rude. :)