The End

It's time to say good-bye for now.

I have loved every minute of blogging, but for a number of reasons, I have to stop. Hating to be the one to hang up first, I'll give you some of the reasons and then a quick update on our lives before I abandoned my captive audience:

• Blogbooks are stupidly time-consuming to make...and blogbooks are 80% of the point of me having a blog. Besides that, the company that used to slurp my blog into a book stopped offering that service. Dang them!
• Facebook keeps me in touch with friends and family as well as I could ever hope for.
• The books I've made from this blog are real treasures for my kids. And it's mostly because of the pictures and quotes. I can do that with chatbooks.
• Chatbooks are a thing!
• I have no more time to blog. I have four kids,  one of which is a very busy toddler. We just moved and I've got a super long list of things to do. I don't see it shortening anytime soon. And soon I'll have a job (I hope)!

 Family Update:

In July, we arrived in College Station, Texas--three hours from our beloved San Antonio. Jared has started medical school at A & M. Isaac still loves to read, Noah still loves animals, Ellie still loves being creative, and Natalie has discovered the joy of changing fancy dresses a hundred times a day and dancing in them. We have started going to a Spanish-speaking congregation in our church, which has been fun and interesting. We haven't taken a family picture in two years, or I'd leave it here. Love you all...ciao!

Natalie's 2nd Birthday

If you know my baby girl, you know she loves Elmo. Oh, does she love Elmo!

So, OF COURSE we had to make her birthday have an Elmo theme. I don't think we've ever enjoyed a little one's party so much, from the planning and decorating to the celebration and watching her face as she enjoyed everything.

One of the snacks was Goldfish, in honor of Dorothy (Elmo's goldfish). Natalie felt like using utensils on this apprized appetizer.

Her face while hearing the birthday song is so priceless.

She approves!

Quite.

Niños approve.

Presents! This party just got unbelievably better! Elmos for everyone.

 The best thing I ever bought (to date) was this Elmo balloon. It provided hours (I'm not even kidding) of fun. I can still see in my mind: Noah running in the backyard with Elmo tied to him, seeming to chase him, and Natalie's in stitches. But the day it finally died, it was saluted for all its service.

 

March with Friends

We are going to miss our San Antonio friends when we move! In March we got to do a couple of fun activities with some of our besties.

Green Lunch at Wildhorse Sports Park

I think my favorite part of this day was what I didn't get a picture of: me playing volleyball with a bunch of young women I didn't really know before! Such sweet girls--it doesn't surprise me because I know all their mommas and siblings and they are sweet, too. But it was all fun. 

Cibolo Nature Center in Boerne

My favorite thing about this day was how well my kids get along with like-minded spirits. But then when Natalie had to go home early (she had a big sore on her toe and she wouldn't stay away from the mud & water), that got bumped to number 2. My favorite part about this day was how amazing my friends are. Alecia and Kate volunteered to have my older three kids stay, despite the fact that mud and wet clothes were inevitable. The kids had such a good time, too!

The main March activity other than these outings and homeschooling was...getting ready for a garage sale! No pictures, but it came and went and we had a lot of fun and learned a lot.