Over the River and Through the Woods...

 ... to grandmother's house we go. But, first the Covid test! See you soon, Grandma! 

16 years

Oh my word. I can't even believe we have been married 16 years. That's only four away from 20. 

The year Jon and I got married, both sets of our parents were celebrating their 25th anniversaries, which is just a smidgen over 20.  

And I don't know if you know this or not, but those people are old!

Celebratory Picnic!

Looking cute and only kinda old.

Happy 16 years babe! I bet we've got at least 16 more good years to come! Love you!

Random Bits of Life

 Look at this impish, early morning expression. Cutie.

Pre-K Pics

Sunday, late afternoon. I came back from the grocery store to find Nolan and Seth sound asleep.

Playing on our favorite hippo after haircuts. 

Mouse patrol is serious business.

Meet Daxton, Nolan's new best friend from school. Nolan talks about him approximately 4,799 times a day. (More on weekends.)

Hat Creek patio for the win!

Football and Soccer Wrap-Up

 Ollie's flag football team wrapped up their season last weekend, complete with playoff games and a championship. Guess which team won?!?!!  I bet Ollie won't forget these games for at least a decade. 

For the championship, it was Orange against the undefeated Red. Last time we played Red, they slaughtered us and held us to zero. This time Red started out strong with two touchdowns right off the bat. You could tell that Orange was starting to slump their shoulders a bit. But!! Somehow they turned it around and came back from behind to take the lead and win the game! Nolan and a couple other little sisters started a pretty major cheering section for our Orange, and honestly I feel like it really gave our team just the pep they needed. It was a pretty sweet victory. 

QB Ollie

My friend and other Orange mom, Lauren, went over and took a picture of our husbands. To say they were heavily invested in this game (season!) would be an understatement. 

Nolan also finished up his soccer season, and I don't even know what to say about this kid. Is it bragging to say that he dominated to the point of embarrassment? There were games that he barely played because as soon as he was put in the game he would score in under a minute, literally every time. For his last game I stopped counting after his 8th goal. And there was plenty of game left. 

I will say that the league was super unorganized and seemed very helter skelter, so maybe this wouldn't be the case if we were playing in a real league?  For his part, Nolan didn't really care. He usually started asking to go home sometime around his fourth or so goal. Jon was creative and would tell Nolan we could go home as soon as he helped Abram (or whoever) to score, so Nolan would focus on passing and cheering, but in the end he would usually just score himself. Sooooo, sorry Nolan if you ever read this someday. I didn't take many pictures or videos of you and hardly blogged about it because in all honesty it just didn't seem fair. 

Nolan, soccer prodigy? ;)

Camping at Lake Georgetown

We may have stumbled upon a few secrets to perfect camping. (Pay close attention, because even at this optimum, it likely won't be repeated for a good long bit.)

    * 2 tents (perfect for the people who need to sleep in a little later than 4:47 am)

    *Camp in central Texas in November after the first freeze. (Not one bug, lows in the high 50s, low 60s)

    *Camp half an hour from your house so you can jet home for whatever, whenever.

    *Bring two cars. (see above)

Hands-down the most memorable part of this trip was our kitty buddy Scarlet/Ginger/Sky who joined us. Right when we got there and started unloading, she showed up to welcome us and check out what was for dinner. 

After we got the tent set up, Jon was going through the camping box and realized we had our little pup tent as well. Seth wanted to sleep in that by himself, so we set that one up too. When Seth woke up the next morning, he found that Scarlet had snuggled in there with him. I'm not sure there could ever be a cuter or sweeter start to the day. Seth named her Scarlet and although his brothers fought with him over the name, I say Seth earned the right because she chose him to snuggle up with him for the night.

Hiking and Geocaching

Ollie and I only camped Friday night and came home Saturday after an early campfire dinner. We ended up watching Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince, which was perfect because he had just finished the book and hadn't seen the movie yet. It was the perfect Saturday for two Potter heads. It sounds like Jon, Nolan, and Seth also had a great time and thought they had the winning Saturday night plan. Win/win; how often does that happen??

Donuts for breakfast while camping, a tradition as long as the invention of tents.

Baptism

I don't even have words for how life-giving this post is. Ollie has been asking questions about baptism and asking if could be baptized for 6ish months now. We had talked about it on and off but hadn't made any plans. At church one Sunday, we saw about 7 to 10 people baptized, which was also the first time Ollie had see believers profess their faith and be baptized. This really sealed the deal for him. He was ready. I pulled out my baptism verses that my campus minister, Jud Weece, took me through almost 2 decades ago when I made the decision to be baptized after following Christ. I'm tempted to type about how sweet it was to see him pursue this, but really sweet it only a teeny tiny component of the over-whelming reality of what he was said yes to. 

Ollie has recognized that in his own power he will always be a flawed and broken person. The world tells us that money, relationships, comfort, or reputation will fix us by bringing us completion or peace. Ollie is beginning his journey to understand that God has placed eternity in the hearts of man and only falling in love with the beauty of Jesus will be an answer to any of life's questions.

We went down to Brushy Creek and Ollie was baptized that evening. Ollie was agreeing with Christ's death, burial, and resurrection, and declaring an allegiance to Christ by choosing to die to the world and live in pursuit of Christ.

Ollie, I pray that your identity and self-worth would be found in the creator of the universe. I pray that your desire to know Jesus would drive your pursuits, relationships, and life. I pray that you would continue to be amazed by God, learning more about Him, and becoming more enamored with His love for you; love for the world. I pray that your eyes would be open to the people around you, that you could see people as Christ sees people. I pray that as the Holy Spirit resides in you, you would become more attune to his promptings and his comforts. Lord, let Ollie be yours. Let his love for you grow.

Join me in welcoming a new brother to the Lord's table. Love you for all of eternity, Ol. 

Halloween Time

Frank and friends halloween cookies! Our first ever attempt at royal icing and flooding and I must say we were fans. It was way easy for kids to help, cookies turn out way cute, and (most important) everything tasted delish!

Minnie for book character day at school. No other Mot was awesome enough to dress up.  

We had a family theme this year for Halloween from the show Clone Wars on Disney Plus. We had Ollie as Captain Rex, Nolan as Cody, and Seth as Obi Wan. I even had big plans to make myself an Ahsoka costume, but that didn't come together in time. 

I feel the need to include a picture of Ahsoka though, so you can see how awesome it could have been. 

On the big night, Jon came out for trick or treating as Papa John, which of course was awesome. I was bummed though that he didn't let me in on his thinking so I could have thrown together a pizza or pizza box costume for myself. 

Our neighborhood was so super fun. Tons of people were out on their porches, ready to hand out candy. 

Clone Cody

Just a tuckered out kiddo and his Papa Jon.