Sam had his date day today with Lucy. While he went to Apple Adventures at Play Street, I got to enjoy Alex playing soccer uninterrupted. He has come such a long way over the year! He is awesome at obtaining the ball from his opponents! He is also scoring at least once in his games too!Lucy had a great time with Daddy! I am so glad Play Street opens these Saturday slots so parents who work can take their kiddos. Lucy LOVES Play Street!Sam was cracking up because Lucy thought this calculator was a phone.It was HUGE! Yep, we can surely tell our generation gap. Any kid from our day would know the difference! 🤣Lucy and Daddy learned all about apples. They even got to make apple curls……and fresh apple juice. I think Lucy approved! When they came home, Lucy refused to get out of the van as usual. She always wants to “get out so I dont get out!” Sam and I escaped for the evening to Joes. The clouds were so amazing. A picture doesn’t really do them justice, but I know if Brie were here, she would approve. 

Storytime was a puppet show today, and I have to say they rocked it! The puppets, and kids, all jammed out to The Beetles “Yellow Submarine.” The Wylie Library does such an amazing job for the kids of our community. After storytime and Park day, it was Home for a quick rest and then off to Future Pirate Night at Wylie Stadium. It is awesome that the schools recognize all the upcoming athletes to the high schools. It sure helps the kids get excited about moving up.Wylie sure knows how to put on a show!I can’t believe Lucy slept through the entire first part of it all!Natalie did an amazing job cheering, and loved being on the big field!After having taken such a late nap, Lucy came home WIDE AWAKE! While the rest of us were ready to go to bed, she just wanted to hang out in the bathroom and read.I guess there could be worse things she could be doing. 😏 I’ll keep it!

Lucy loves to dig in the dirt. The boys planted flower seeds in the pots on her table months ago, but no flowers ever came. Thank goodness, because Lucy has claimed the dirt as her own now.Today she was making soup for her and Maedreigh. Looks… well… …interesting! (Not sure I’d want to try it. 😏)

Finally having both me and Lucy better, schedules being just right, and Sam being home to help, I was finally able to go see Natalie cheer at a Home game. She did so awesome! It is hard to believe Natalie has NEVER cheered until this season. She looks like a pro! I am so very proud of her and love to see her fabulous smile! She still has quite a bit of her tumbling down too.Even though their team lost, they gave a great effort!

Natalie and I had the amazing opportunity to go to Beaumont this weekend and help with the clean up efforts there after Hurricane Harvey. I was still quite a bit under the weather, and was nervous about going, but I knew this might be my only chance to do something like this. It was one of the hardest weekends I have ever had, but I am so grateful I was able to be there. The amount of devastation was far more than I expected. Dealing with life continuing, while living has practically stopped, was so hard to see. The people we were helping had completely lost everything in their homes but the external walls. As we drove up to our first home, the owner was leaving to go to the funeral home because his wife had just passed away moments before we got there. It was a very somber morning, but we knew we had a job to do and would be helping this family in so many ways.There was so much to be done, but we had a fantastic team that just kept going to the end. It was amazing how much water was still saturated in everything!These mushrooms were enormous, and a kind I had never seen before.Natalie discovered this crawfish in a soaked bag of cat litter she was removing from the garage. It scared the living daylights out of her because she thought it was a giant spider. Needless to say, it ended her work in the garage.One of the hardest parts of the weekend, was realizing that we were going to be leaving without completing the entire job. There is SO much work to be done to get life back to how is used to be there. I have done so many service projects and always loved the feel of completing the job. That was not the case this time.This was part of the walk we had to take to bring all the debris to the trash pile. By wheelbarrow mainly! The pile was large, the truck arrive at around 1pm, and still had not even removed half of it by 4pm when we moved to our next location. Piles like that lined both sides of the freeway for miles. Very hard to know peoples memories were all in those piles. Made me really ponder on “things” though, and what is truly important in life. We spent the night in the Ford Center. It was so cool to see so many volunteers all together in one place. Youth members from local wards were handing out root beer floats to everyone as they came in. It was so nice. I didn’t hear any complaining. People were tired and very dirty, but were glad to be helping in the work. We had a great night reflecting on the day past, and Brother Welge treated our entire crew to Chick FilA. It was so very kind of him! After a good night’s sleep, we opened the new day with a 3000+ person sacrament meeting. It was an amazing sight to see! There was so much love and gratitude in that Ford Center. Once we were spiritually renewed, we quickly headed to our next destination. Brother Adams offered a wonderful prayer with the homeowner, Ms. Cara, before we started, whichbwas just what everyone needed. 

Today was our Art Class field trip to the Dallas Museum of Art and Klyde Warren Park. Boy is it crazy trying to get 25 people on the train and keep track of them all through downtown. It was a lot of fun though too. 😁 Emilee did a great job planning and organizing everything, so it all flowed smoothly.Lucy had school today, and it was picture day. So, I had to pick her up a couple hours early, and bring her dressed from school. (No time to change in the process.) I love Lilly peeking at us from behind. The boys really enjoyed the works of art! They were even able to make their own sheet music for a music box. Lucy….well she fell asleep on the way to the museum from the train station, and slept the ENTIRE time we were there! Even when we stopped for snacks, Lucy was still out! It was such a beautiful day!!We finally woke Lucy up so she wouldn’t miss EVERYTHING, and promised her a cookie if she would let me get one good picture of her.I think she did great! The kids had a great time playing at the park. We will definitely have to come back.This is what I call “Boy Power!”We didn’t want to stay too late, because the train traffic is pretty heavy at 5:00. We even had a difficult time finding a train that had room for all of us at 4, but it was well worth it. A WONDERFUL DAY! 😊

Our Moms Club got together and painted rocks today for hiding around the city. The kids had a blast. The rocks are a way to brighten someone’s day.Lucy even managed not to get any paint on her clothes.William and Alex got in on the fun too.Lucy did however decide to paint herself with Ty. Silly girls! 😂 Luckily it washes off their skin very easily.While the rocks were drying, the kids all snacked on popcorn and watched Muana. (One of Lucy’s new favorites. She loves singing the songs!)Now to go find hiding place for all these gems, and hope people will find them. #WylieRocks

Lucy missed three weeks of dance class due to the holiday and being sick. We definitely didn’t want to share with anyone! She was so excited to get back and see Miss Kristen.Lucy is quite the little dancer. 😊❤️Getting to class on Monday nights had been such a challenge though. Natalie has cheer until 5, and most times does not get out until 5:15 or later. And then we have to be to West Plano by 5:45. And the traffic is TERRIBLE at that time! It gives me the worst anxiety every week. I LOVE TippiToes, but there isn’t another Toddler and Me Class that works with our schedule. I decided to take Lucy to trial class at another dance studio, to see if it would work better for us.We were the first ones at class. Even before the teacher. Yet WE were on time. The teacher was late, and the other students didn’t arrive until almost 15 minutes after the start of class. SO NOT COOL to me! If I am paying for a service, I expect to get what I have paid for. In this case, a full 45 minutes of quality dance instruction for my little ballerina.That was NOT the case at this facility. It was awful! There is no other way to put it! Lucy knew FAR more dance than the other kids, and they were all 3! The parents kept commmenting on how well she knew her positions and steps. Miss Kristen has done such a wonderful job with her. The teacher at this studio had no schedule at all and no organization. She didn’t even know the music she had or which songs she used for whatever she was doing. It was painful for me to participate, so I can only imagine what Lu was feeling. We were very kind, and Lucy behaved SO very well, even when one of the little girls in class deliberately came up to Lucy during one of the activities and shoved her to the floor. Lucy immediately said, “I want to go home.” And walked out the door. I felt terrible for her. The mom of this little girl NEVER even knew it happened because she was too busy talking to another parent. The dance instructor was mortified and just kept apologizing over and over again. It didn’t help out to have a large roach come running across the floor during the middle of class. Nope! We will not ever go back! That did it! Needless to say, as hard as our rushed schedule is on Monday nights, I have realized what a wonderful gift we have dancing with Tippi Toes and am happy to fight traffic and anxiety to get there. Lucy has learned so much and loves going. We won’t be changing!

Lucy’s Fever is finally completely gone and she is sleeping so much better! Now I’m just hoping we can catch up on our very behind schedule. 😬

Our family, along with several members of our Ward, had the opportunity to travel to areas affected by Hurricane Harvey. Sam and Nate went first, since Lucy and I were still recovering from our illness, and I had Divine Consign this weekend. The boys were very humbled by the experience. It was super hard work, very hot and humid, but very rewarding.It was amazing how much damage there was, and how much work needed to be done.Mold grOws perfectly in that type of environment. The homeowners were all so very grateful for the help.It made it so very worth it to know they were getting a fresh start at fixing their homes and lives.After spending the night at a Junior High, there was a massive sacrament service of over 1,000 members. Nate had the privilege to bless it before it was passed. It was a very wonderful way to start another hard working day of service.The amount of trash and debris was like none the boys had ever seen before. It just lined the streets everywhere. These things were people’s entires homes. Their lives. Their memories. Very hard to see and realize. But also a great reason to help remember why they were helping.The boys had a few scary moments along the way, like watching a truck burn outside Wendy’s on Sunday, and also being stuck in traffic for almost an hour, to realize there was a horrible accident that no one survived. Lots of prayers, and hard work, and the boys were able to return safe and sound. Stinky and exhausted, but with a greater appreciation of what is important in life.