Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving for us was a great time to enjoy family, to get away, to relax, and to reflect on what we are so thankful for this year. When I had to focus in on what I felt I was most thankful for, it was God's provision and peace. Heath and I started 2009 off with a media fast and it was a great time of connecting together, as well as in our relationship with the Lord. I think it was perfect to get us where we needed to be in the challenges we were going to face. It was a tough year economically and Heath's company took a hard hit. There were times where Heath and I looked at each other and didn't know where the money would come from. But God continually provided what we needed. Most of all, on a personal level, He provided me with an inner peace that brought me through the year in a way that I can only attribute to His presence. Things are improving with the company and there are a lot of things on the horizon that we are really excited about. I don't look back on the year as being a hard or challenging year. I look back on it and see where I have grown in my relationship with Heath, where I have grown personally, but in the forefront of my mind I see where I have grown in my relationship with the Lord. It is so exciting to be in a period of growth and learning and my prayer as I approach the new year is that I keep that a priority.

For Thanksgiving we went to Dallas to join my parents and my brother and his family. My sister Valerie spent Thanksgiving with all of our extended family in Massachusetts. We drove up Wednesday afternoon, my brother joined us Thursday at my mom's house, and then Friday we went to my brother's for the rest of the weekend.

The kids were excited for their cousins, Brice, Ashlyn, and Avery to arrive and once they were together they were off doing their own thing most of the time we were there. While waiting on dinner the boys enjoyed playing football, and the girls were in and out playing all sorts of things that only they seemed to understand.

The weather was great for throwing the football outside. Caleb has really been into football this year, watching it and playing it.

Derek is always the assigned carver of the turkey. Kaley was right there waiting for something to fall. It was sad not seeing Hunter there beside her. At one point Derek almost dropped a piece, but he caught it and she was not happy! He did drop one on purpose after that though!

My parent's house overlooks a lake outside Dallas and there are always great sunsets.

The kids enjoyed playing Uno and watching "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving".

On Friday morning we headed to my brother's house for the rest of the weekend. He has a big yard with a creek, swingset, and trampoline so the kids were outside most of the time we were there. They came inside everytime they needed a meal! We did spend some time watching the Alabama vs. Auburn game which Alabama made a little too close for comfort! Denise and I did some scrapbooking and Derek and Heath worked on projects outside.

We left Sunday morning so we could take our time going home and not have to get home after dark. I decorated for Christmas before we left so I was very thankful that I didn't have that project waiting for me when I got home. It was a nice warm day and the next day it was going to turn cold so we decided to spend the afternoon outside after we got home. Elizabeth had tried riding Avery's bike without training wheels so she was ready to go for it on her bike. She was a little unsure at first but it was no time before she was riding around the cul-de-sac by herself! I included a video at the bottom.

All in all it was a great long weekend and we are looking forward to the month ahead. I pray that all of you had a great Thanksgiving and were able to reflect on how God has blessed you.

Lego Store and Golf Tournament

Ok so I haven't been the best about keeping my blog up lately. Following this post I have updated events from the last few months.
Caleb earned a trip to the Lego Store after a month long incentive I did with him. One of the areas he needs to work on in gymnastics is his flexibility which is holding him back in other areas. He never wanted to stretch at home so we made a chart to put stars on for working hard at gymnastics and stretching when he wasn't there. He not only earned going, but he could bring a friend and we contributed money for him to buy something. The nearest Lego store is 45 minutes away so he has never been and was very excited. It happened that we could go the weekend Grammy and Grampa came to visit so it made for a fun day.
Caleb's best friend Trevor came with us and he was just as excited. When we first got into the store Caleb spent a lot of time trying to figure out what he wanted. At first he picked out some Star Wars box sets but I convinced him to take advantage of the special things you can only get from the Lego store.
Elizabeth was even excited to be there. She decided to build three minifigures because she always wants to play with Caleb's and sometimes he doesn't exactly want to share. She had fun making girl figures with Grammy! Caleb also ended up making 3 minifigures.
Caleb also decided to do the pick a brick wall where he could fill a bucket with all the bricks he wanted. He wasn't sure about it at first but when he got home he played for hours with them. He was able to get some specialty legos that he wouldn't normally have. Afterwards we had lunch at Burger King and headed home to enjoy some Alabama football and celebrate Heath's birthday.

As many of you know, Caleb is on Team Cypress at Cypress Academy of Gymnastics and will start competing in January. Each year the booster club for gymnastics, GHGF, (Greater Houston Gymnastics Foundation) holds a golf tournament to help raise money to offset the expenses of competition. We spent months getting ready for it, getting sponsors, donations, and golfers, and Monday, November 9th was the big day. My dad was able to play as well as some good friends from church. Heath and I volunteered all day helping with set up, drinks, lunch, the silent auction, and then clean up when it was all over. It was a perfect day weather wise after rain had been forecast, and we had a great time as well as did all the golfers.
Each gymnast had their picture displayed on a table in the clubhouse where the golfers ate. This was Caleb's picture of him on high bar with his coach.
We set up the pictures of all the individual levels of both the girls' team and the boys' team.
This is a picture of the level 5 boys' team with Caleb on the right.
Each golf cart had a picture of a gymnast with some personal information about each kid. We found Caleb's picture and put it in Grampa's golf cart so he knew who he was playing for all day.
This was a picture of all the golf carts lined up ready for the shotgun start at 9:00. We had over 130 golfers there!
This was Grampa practicing on the putting green before it was time to start.
This was our team of golfers: from left to right, my day (aka Grampa), TJ, Kelly, Kyle, and Billy. Kelly and Kyle are friends from church, and TJ is Kelly's son and Billy is Kelly's brother. A portion of the money that they paid to play will help Caleb compete, so they were very special to us and it meant so much that they contributed. Plus they had a great time golfing!
The best part of the whole day was that they won second place after hitting a 55! Kelly also won a golf bag for winning closest to the pin! Any of you out there reading this, we would love for you to join them next year!

Super Hero Night and Halloween

Many of you may remember my post about VBS this summer. If not, you can read here. Well, ever since, the kids have been anticipating the return of the Super Heroes when they defeat Zander Von Zoom. Super Hero night was the Friday before Halloween so the kids were excited all week about the big weekend. We went as soon as Caleb was home from school because they were serving Chick-Fil-A beforehand for dinner and then it was on to the big show.
The kids were wearing their VBS shirts. They could have come in costume but I thought they would enjoy it more if they weren't dragged down by their costumes. Elizabeth did wear her hair like her favorite Super Hero, Zap (the yellow one).

The show was a lot of fun with all the music from VBS and the funny antics of the Super Heroes.

After the show they had more music in the gym and bags of candy and popcorn for the kids. It is always fun when we have a church event at the main campus because we can catch up with friends we don't see very often or even haven't seen in years. We ran into a friend I graduated from college with whom I haven't seen since I was pregnant with Caleb. All in all it was a great night and the kids got in the car saying it was the best night ever!

Of course the next night was Halloween and Elizabeth spent the day asking how much longer until she could put her costume on? Caleb went as a Texans football player and Elizabeth went as Belle from Beauty and the Beast. It was a nice cool night which doesn't often happen for Halloween here and the kids enjoyed hanging out with all their friends from the street.

Before we went out trick-or-treating we went by to see some good friends that wanted to see the kids in their costumes. The kids love Kody and Corby (and so do we!) and it was a treat to go to their house and of course they got the first pick of the candy.

It was a great weekend and now the focus turns to the next holidays!

Oil Ranch and Fun Run

Elizabeth is an animal lover. I have said many times that we just need to live on a farm and she would be in heaven. Our playgroup from church went to the Oil Ranch a few weeks ago and she was totally in her element. It is a working ranch with horseriding, a petting zoo, a hay ride to feed the cows in the pasture, a chance to milk a cow, and a train ride to name a few activities. It was the first cool fall day which made it quite enjoyable. When we got there that morning, she knew that we were there to see animals and she was chomping at the bit (pun intended!) to get inside, but we had to wait for the rest of the group. Once we got inside she didn't want to mess with waiting on the strollers or stopping for pictures. She headed straight for the animals.She was extremely excited to find that they had a donkey. It is one of her favorite animals. We pass one everytime we go to gymnastics and she always has her eyes peeled for him.

We went on the hayride back to the pasture to feed the cows. This is one of my favorite parts because all the cows come running because they know we are going to feed them. Elizabeth loved seeing the cows but did not want to feed them directly.

She also didn't want to milk the cow but certainly wanted to pet it. We saw one of the school kids get pooped on while he was milking it which gave us a chuckle but made us glad it wasn't us.

The highlight of the day was horseback riding. When she saw that she could ride a horse she went straight for it and declared, "I want the biggest one!" Sure enough she got the biggest one and loved it. Later in the day when more of the school kids were heading out we got to do it again. She would have stayed there all day if I had let her!

It was a great day and unfortunately I had somewhere to go that afternoon or I would have stayed longer. I left for a retreat and the following day Caleb had a Fun Run for school which Heath took them too. Each grade runs a certain distance around the track and they give ribbons to all the kids and award the top finishers. Caleb did it last year and had a great time and wanted to do it again this year. The second graders ran half a mile and Caleb did great. Heath said in the final sprint for the finish, Caleb passed a lot of kids. It is a great experience for him to do and know it is not about winning. In the picture below Caleb is the third runner from the left.

We are enjoying the fact the weather has finally become somewhat fall-like. The afternoons are warm but the mornings and evenings are definitely chilly. It makes for lots of great time outdoors! But it is also getting me into the holiday spirit and I am looking forward to the months ahead.

Catching up

Well once again almost 3 weeks have passed since I updated. I am hoping that will change as I have a lot I want to start sharing on here. But for now I just wanted to post a few pictures and catch you up on happenings in our life.

Caleb is doing great in school. Second grade is the first time they start sending grades home so it has been fun seeing all his work come home. School comes very naturally to him so he has straight A's so far. He has been handling his schedule very well which I am so proud of him for. Elizabeth and I are enjoying our time together as well. Besides keeping up with Caleb in school and gymnastics we have enjoyed a few outings as a family. We surprised the kids one Friday night by taking them to the drive-in to see Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. It was a perfect night and the kids loved it as they had never been to one before. They sat in the back of our friends truck and listened to the movie from the truck radio. As part of the price you get to see two movies so after the first movie we made a palette in the back of our suburban and they fell asleep while we watched Julie and Julia. It was the perfect family night and then date night all in one.

Two Fridays ago we went to a local high school football game with youth and youth leaders from our church. That was fun and a good time of fellowship. Caleb loves going to watch football games and Elizabeth just had fun going from one lap to the next. Unfortunately the next day Caleb got quite sick with a 104 fever, body aches, and cough. Fearing it was the flu we took him to the clinic but it was a virus. He was down until Wednesday. Elizabeth came down with it Sunday evening and she was down until this past Friday. They are still fighting the cough but their fevers are gone. We were blessed that Heath and I have remained healthy.

It is still hot here in Houston but we are finally enjoying rain again and the extreme heat and humidity have lessened. The kids have been enjoying the trampoline more. I included some pictures of Caleb enjoying it in the rain. If there is no thunder and lightening, the kids like to jump when it is raining. I also included some cute pictures of them enjoying the sprinkler one warm evening.

That is about all the excitement here in the Lockhart house. The days are flying by with our busy schedule and it is hard to believe the holidays are approaching. The kids are looking forward to Halloween and have already started their Christmas lists. Keep checking back here as I am hoping to post some new things I have been learning.

Back to School

Ok, I promised this post a long time ago and it stayed in edit for a while and I am just now getting to it (the date says September 2nd because that is when I started it but I am actually posting it on September 20!). Our schedule stays pretty busy now that school is in session so I haven't found where to insert blogging. I will get to our schedule a little later in the post. Now that we have been in school for 4 weeks I guess it would be a good time to share pictures from the first day!

It doesn't seem that long ago that I put Caleb on the bus as a kindergartner and now he seems like a pro in second grade. Thinking back on that first day of school 2 years ago made me look back at some pictures and so I incuded them for your viewing pleasure.

This first picture is of him in kindergarten...he has such a little baby face compared to now! He is growing up right before my eyes! I was a little sad that year because I couldn't be there to put him on the bus for the first time since that was the year I was teaching.
This next picture was first grade. My tradition is to take a picture on the first day, but that day we walked out with the camera and the bus was already at the bus stop. Needless to say, he just took off running so he wouldn't miss it. This picture was taken on the second day of school!

And last but not least this was the first day of second grade. Wow, he is not a little boy anymore! We made sure we were outside this year in plenty of time to make it to the bus. He seemed excited and ready for what was in store. We had met his teachers the Friday before and they were nice. He was excited because this year he has two different teachers. One for Language Arts and Reading and one for Math, Science, and Social Studies.

All the kids lined up and ready to go. I always get a little lump in my throat at this moment!

Caleb is in green about to get on the bus. There were two new kindergartners there that day. The one mom is videoing and the other was a basket case!

Elizabeth had a hard time that day as she had gotten used to Caleb being home everyday and always having a playmate. She asked every other hour how much longer it would be until Caleb got home. They have their sibling squabbles but she loves having him around. By 4:00 Elizabeth was ready to go outside and wait for him. Of course the heat was unbearable but we headed out around 4:15 because we weren't sure what time the bus would show up since it was the first day. As seems to be the first day of school tradition for us, Caleb did not get off the bus until 5:00 which made it a long hot wait.

The box he is carrying was from his school supplies that we ordered through the school. The supplies come in a box that the kids can take home and memorabilia from the school year can be kept inside it. I think that is quite a clever and handy idea!

I asked Caleb how his first day was and he said it was good but lunch was too short! Well, if that was the only bad thing, than I am ok with that! After a long first day, Caleb had to quickly change because gymnastics was in an hour. Since I had spent the time I planned on cooking, waiting at the bus stop, we decided to jump in the car and we treated Caleb to dinner at Wendy's (his choice).

So far he seems to be enjoying school. He likes his teachers and has been doing well on all the work that has been coming home. The biggest adjustment has been to his insanely busy schedule. On Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, he gets off the bus at 4:30, comes in and works on homework, if he has any, or has a little free time. By 5:00 dinner is on the table and by 5:40 he is in the car to gymnastics. He doesn't get home until 9:20, when he has another snack and gets in bed as quickly as possible. Wednesday is his night off so we focus on working on his bible study and getting him to bed by 8:00 so he can get some reading done but also get a good night sleep. That early night has been helping a lot to give him a full night's sleep in the middle of the week. Friday is another free day for him which I am trying to make an effort to do something fun as a family. Saturday between free time and any commitments we might have, we work on bible study and learning his verses for Awanas. Sunday is church, his math homework that is due Monday, and Awanas that night. It feels like a whirlwind but he handles it remarkably well. Of course we have our moments here and there but everything that he is involved in, he wants to be involved in and I am doing my best in spreading things out so he doesn't feel like he is doing it all at once.

On the other end of the spectrum, Elizabeth is not in preschool this year so our days are pretty quiet. We have our few outings to the grocery store, the gym, the library, and gymnastics for her, but other than that, we find ourselves going a little stir crazy by the end of the week. I am starting to make an effort to get together with friends and going places so that she doesn't get too bored by the end of the week. We do a little school together and she has been doing great learning sight words, and writing her letters and numbers. She is more of a homebody than Caleb so she does well. She plays so well by herself and for hours during the day she totally immerses herself into her little imaginary world. She reminds me a lot of myself when I was little. I loved playing with my dolls and barbies and kitchen.

So that is what we are up to right now. Tonight is Sunday so I am mentally gearing myself up for the week. For me, we have a Romans bible study on Tuesday nights, Heath goes to youth on Wednesdays, and I watch Caleb on Thursdays at gymnastics. But keeping Caleb on track with his homework, bible study, and getting too and from gymnastics is a job in and of itself. I will post soon with some fun pictures from the weekend!