We're back :-)

I want to thank everyone who has emailed me to check in with our family. I know we have been silent for awhile, but it has been for great reasons.

The tragedy that my friend is going through did rock our family. My husband has never met Marsha or her family (we kept saying we would all get together and we would try to make plans, but you know how that goes. . . ), but this affected both of us. We have both been actively praying and turning to God, trying to get any lessons He wants to teach us from this experience. So far, that has meant A LOT of family time and reaching out more at our church. One thing that touched us was the amount of support they have locally from their church family, and we realized that since we changed churches a few months ago, we haven't really met many people there (besides my wonderful parents who go with us!) . . . we wondered who we would call if a situation like that would occur in our family. As it turns out, our church is holding a meeting this Sunday to create new small groups, this one particularly for Married Couples! We are praying that we will be able to make some friends and establish relationships through this new group.

As for the family time, we have been BUSY! I will make separate posts about all of the things we have been doing, but I will quickly summarize here. The week of Christian's passing, we were in the middle of a Camping theme. Monday and Tuesday we read lots of stories about camping, made a make-shift tent with blankets and pillows in the living room, and watched some fun camping cartoons. Tuesday evening, while I was driving to Marsha's house, Gregg wanted to do something special for the girls to wake up to. . . I think we all felt the need to hug our children closer and let them know how much they are loved. . . so he put up the huge tent in the living room. He added a lot of soft blankets, sleeping bags, pillows and stuffed animals. He also laid all of the books out inside. It was very nice and the girls were definitely excited to wake up to it Wednesday morning! That evening we decided to take the girls out to dinner -- I was in need of a family night -- so we went to Pizza Hut. Not five-star dining but come on, they are preschoolers! We were so impressed by how well they did in the restaurant. . . we kept flashing back to what seemed like a short time ago when they would be climbing all over the place, not wanting to sit still, and crying. They grow up so fast, don't they?

Friday afternoon we set out on our camping trip. It was a hard decision to make for me, as that was the same night they were holding the viewing for Christian, but the major thing that we are taking from this experience is how important family is and how quickly things can happen. I knew Marsha would understand and want me to keep the date with my family. The girls were really excited! I will be posting pictures from that night soon . . . and I must say that my first camping experience, even in the midst of extreme Texan heat, was a great success!

Last week was all about HORSES! My girls love horses so we started a two week unit on all things horse and pony. It has been a blast and this weekend we took the girls to the Sam Houston Racetrack -- not to bet, but to see the horses. :-) We had a great time, and I am loving the idea of incorporating these fun family events into our units! I will have lots of pictures coming from that week!

This week we are continuing our Horse week, but we also held our first Preschool Co-Op meeting in our home on Monday! The girls are SO excited! I am a little nervous about leading so many children (what works for us may not work for others), but the girls are making lots of friends. Currently there are 7 families total with 15 children, and I think one more family will be joining us. Ever since they left, the girls have been asking for their friends to come back!!

So that is what we have been up to. Busy, but really, really good! How about you? I would love to hear what everyone else has been up to for the past two weeks. . . I have so much blog reading to catch up on!

I will be back soon with all of our pictures!