cousins

elise and nora are ten days apart in age, and it's so neat to see them grow up side by side. here's their most recent time together. nora likes to pull elise's hair, while elise likes to try to kiss her face and arms and fall on top of her. at first we thought nora was the screamer, but elise seems to have taken on that skill as well. i can't believe we got a shot with both of them smiling!

here's oma with her girls. this was taken on a cell phone, so excuse the grainy-ness. but elise decided she just had to give nora a kiss. i guess she somehow knew laura and nora would be leaving that day.

elise's first camping trip

our church does a camping trip every summer and this was our third year going. we had a fantastic time with friends. elise did great for her first trip. and though it rained here and there, God was very kind in giving us lots of nice weather and hardly any bugs! here's the highlights.

elise and her daddy practicing with their hiking backpack. i can really see justin in her in this picture. can you? (they got to use this on the trip when we hiked to a waterfall. a friend took some pictures on her camera. i'll post them later.)

elise napping in the camper

on the beach. don't you just love this face? she's finally understanding to smile when i have the camera, and now i can't get her to stop!

dipping her toes in the water. don't you just love those legs of hers?!

elise and her mama

daddy helping her finish her dinner

getting a bath...camping style!

think she enjoyed it? :)

it rained monsoon style our last night there. thank you Lord that my husband bought us the pop up camper. it was a blessing!! here's elise sitting in the car with me while daddy packed everything up.

we were blessed with free tickets to a water park nearby, so some folks from our care group got to go. it rained and we left early, but not before we got some fun in. here they are by the wave pool.

and so ended our third camping trip with church and our first (very successful and fun) camping trip with elise.

care group

i don't know what your church may call it: small groups, mini-church...but at our church they're called care groups and this was ours. yes, i realize it's not very small, and that's why i said this was ours. our group is splitting in the fall and this picture was from our last meeting time together. our group was so large, but so connected. countless folks have expressed how amazed they are at how close our group was, despite the size. and i can't let another day go by without sharing this fantastic picture with all and saying how blessed we have been by this family of friends. words cannot express how cared for we have been by these people. when we first got involved two years ago, we had no idea the depth of friendship, fellowship, and accountability we would receive. though this split has been and will be hard (it hasn't sunk into my brain yet at all!), i know we are all exicted at the new things God has in store, and i know we will not give up meeting together. for all other care groups out there, don't get too excited...i'm sure we'll all still team up for care group races. lockhart care group unite!

and a new post will be up next week about the church camping trip. we are blessed to be going with quite a few couples and families from our care group. it's gonna be a blast! (not to mention elise's first camping trip! i think our "stuff" has doubled in quantity!)

a great day

happy birthday to our nation and my husband. yup, justin's birthday is on the fourth of july. the lucky guy gets fireworks every year for his birthday! here he is with elise and his cake. vanessa and her kids decorated this awesome masterpiece to look like an uncle sam hat with strawberries and blueberries for stars and stripes. so cool.

elise also got her first haircut on daddy's birthday. she had this mullet thing in the back, but only on one side. cute as it was...it needed to go.

so here she is from the back with an even hair line. thanks daddy!

later that day we went to oma and papa's for a family picnic. here's eva feeding elise. she did a great job. but she had a problem with the food dripping off the bottom of the spoon. so here was her solution...