Summer Crusin'

Watch out Abilene! Someone knows how to drive! 

Fun on the 4th

I just realized now that it is August, I didn't post our 4th of July pictures. There were too many cute ones not post and share. We headed up to Mike's great aunt's house the weekend before the 4th. It is always nice there because it is way out in the middle of nowhere, they have many acres in between them and any neighbors, everyone tries to make it out there, and we eat LOTS of good food! This year, was by far the best. Families are getting bigger and there were 7 kids under the age of 8!

 Talk about a good time. 

This is M with her Great Uncle Johnny. He is teaching her to sit on his very well behaved and good natured dog. 

He then told her to pull up his ears. Good dog didn't mind one bit! 

You see where Madeline gets her love for purple? Her great aunt Lydia also loves purple. 

Holding two of my favorite kids. Can you believe how big Tanner is getting?

 Me either. He is growing up too fast! 

The kids played with bubbles, chalk, and water guns while the guys shot guns and clay pigeons. 

I love seeing all of the kids in this picture. Makes my heart full knowing they will grow up together and remember these traditions. 

Madeline also enjoyed playing with Johnny's "toys". You know how she loves anything that has wheels and drives! 

I have to include this pic for laughs. Lesson here is don't fall into a food coma

 otherwise you will be the target of many pranks! 

The wagon is always a big hit with the little ones. We took a tour down the driveway to checkout the windmills.

Tanner even joined the fun. Can you tell Auron (Madeline's cousin) likes to pose for pictures? 

He posed and smiled almost every time I took a picture. Sweet cousins! 

This picture cracks me up. Auron was making sure Tanner didn't fall out of the wagon. 

Taking the easy ride back to the house. Little Miss Independent wanted to pull the wagon all by herself. 

Over all we had a great time with Mike's family. It is always nice to see everyone.

Hodge Podge

Dr. Suess visited Abilene a few weeks back. Talk about festivities galore! We only hit up art walk on Thursday night, but enjoyed walking around and eating snow cones.

Madeline had a cat painted on her face. She was a little unsure and wanted 

daddy to hold her hand, but she did great.

Cutest cat face I ever did see! Although next time we might avoid this type of face painting.

 It was stinky!!!!

Meeting the cat in the hat.

Take a break.

We celebrated Father's Day. My favorite guy and gal posing with his father's day gift. He opened it as soon as he got home that afternoon. Some little girl can't keep a secret and started asking daddy to share his candy. Next time I will have to wrap it when she isn't around! ha! She was so excited about the candy and she hasn't quite figured out the whole present/surprise idea.

Her latest thing is wanting to have a baby in her tummy. She is a great little mommy to her baby dolls, but I don't know if it is because we know so many pregnant women/people who just had a baby, either way she is fascinated with a baby in her tummy. We told her she has to be a lady and married before that happens. She also wants to get back into my tummy. This kid cracks me up! 

Enjoying some summer fun in the sun. She is sporting her new gifts from one of our dear friends! As you can tell she is very excited. A water baby for sure!

Lastly, we took down her toddler bed and moved her into the big bed. We are TIRED of the toys taking over the living room. Hopefully we can get most of them moved into her room now that there is some room. 

Movie Date

Madeline is officially a big girl now. She saw her very first movie in the theater a few weeks back. She loved Madagascar 3. She even wants to see again, as long as we get popcorn. If you haven't seen the movie, it is pretty cute. Her favorite part is the polka dot circus song. Good thing Mike remembered how it goes because the two of them sing it often! 

We were not sure how she would do with sitting still so long. She sat down for about half of the movie and the other half consisted of sitting in my lap, trips to the bathroom, and walking down the aisle. Over all I would say it was a successful trip. 

I can see, I can see!

At the beginning of the year we noticed our sweet pea's eyes crossing a little bit here and there, not really thinking about it too much. Shortly after we noticed the crossing occurred mainly when she tried to focus in on something close to her face.


 After talking to her pediatrician, he referred us to the ophthalmologist who performed her eye surgery for the clogged tear duct last year. We took her in and he was pretty sure it was Accommodative Esotropia, meaning she is farsighted in both eyes and her right eye would cross to "accommodate" the other eye allowing her to focus on close objects. He assured us it would be fixed with glasses, but we could wait six months to see if anything changed.


 Honestly, I had a very hard time accepting and dealing with this, after all it was only glasses and I am very familiar with wearing them. No biggie, right? After lots of prayer and talking it over, Mike and I decided it was time to face the music and get our baby girl some glasses.  Having a child who can converse back and forth has been a HUGE blessing. We were able to discuss getting glasses with her for several months in preparation and allowed her to decide what kind of glasses she wanted. Anyone who knows this child knows about her obsession, I mean love for purple. Surprisingly, getting glasses was easy. She found the ones she liked and was done "shopping." We ended up with two pair, just in case and she has done AMAZING!!!! 


We are so thankful for all those who prayed over this situation and are so happy about how well she has done wearing glasses. After all of that anxiety over her wearing them, we have several people come up and ask about her glasses who ended up having the same issue as a child. Another way God eased my mind and soften my heart about her wearing glasses. Another praise, we are thankful we noticed the signs early, prompting an easier and short term solution rather than surgery. 

I know I am biased, but she looks absolutely ADORABLE in them and I feel like it makes her look so mature. My baby is growing up too fast. Someone make it stop!! 

Graduation

I am not sure where the last 12 years went, but at the end of May my brother, the last kid in the Sims' clan graduated high school. I bet the teachers all celebrated that day! ha!

 When I left home and headed to Tech after graduating high school, my brother was only 6 years old and had only finished kindergarten. Here we are 12 years later, he is 17 and I will let you do the math on how old I am! ha! 

Here is a picture of my two favorite girls, Madeline of course and my niece Megan, before graduation. 

Here is a picture of our cute little family, with Megan of course! I miss that kid! Jenna if you are reading this why can't you relocate so our kids can grow up together? :) 

My youngest sister left before we took pictures so she didn't make it in any of mine. Sorry Jessie, we still love you! The happy parents and my sister. Good thing I wore heels or you would be able to see how short I am in comparison to my family. Some how the tall gene completely skipped over me and landed with the other three kids. Imagine me four inches shorter. Weird I know! Anyway, Devin is glad to be done with school and will be heading to Wayland next year. 

A trip to the Granny and Gramps' must include golf cart and tractor rides. This kid could ride either one all day and never get tired. Watch out, as soon as she gets tall enough she will set out on her own. 

Farwells

June was a month of goodbyes for our family. Our good friends left Abilene to follow God's call to Macedonia as field personnel. If you don't know about their ministry you should check out their blog, http://thelittleleefamily.blogspot.com/ It is amazing to see how God has worked through them the last year to prepare them for this awesome call. Selfishly we didn't want them to leave, but we know that they will do great things in Macedonia. We had dinner one last time before the left town. As you can see the kids are bffs. They had more fun playing with blankets and pillows. 

Nothing but giggles going on here! 

Lets take a trip down memory lane. We knew each other before babies. As you can tell Ethan and Madeline practically grew up together! 

I will miss the sweet moments like this. 

Ethan loved that Madeline had "new" toys to play and didn't care that they were pink!

Sweet friends!!