Happy 10th birthday, Emma-P! So thankful for this little ray of light in our lives! Emily has been such a sweet and faithful friend to Noelle for the past 4 years. Since the day they met the first day of school in kindergarten, they have been the best of friends. I have so loved seeing our girls make their very own friends. The ones they walk up to on the play ground and say, “Hey, you wanna play?” That’s exactly how it happened with these two. They aren’t the likely pair, but they just get each other. Their friendship is easy, fun, refreshing, energetic, and down-right joyful—exactly the way it should be!

 

 

One of our rules at the Pond house is if you come over to play with one, you play with all. We don’t do the “no babies allowed” thing. Too much of that rejection happens outside the home, so I do not allow it in the spaces that I can protect. We definitely let the big girls have set aside time to do age appropriate activities, but I try to plan ahead and coordinate the other girls having friends over themselves or super fun activities made just for them at the same time. Hearts is what we are in the business of around here, and these hearts are my number one priority. Emily doesn’t just tolerate the littles, she adores them! They consider Emily a very best friend and that means the world to me and speaks volumes about her as well! Happy 10th on the 10th! You rocked your golden birthday, Emma-P!

 

I love when kids get bored in the summer because they come up with the most creative ways to keep themselves entertained!  Absolutely everything (hair, make-up, accessories) was created by Noelle.  She had the awesome idea to dress-up as Elsa for kids’ birthdays, starting out at just $25/hour.  So… if you know of anyone having a Frozen birthday who would like to have a super friendly Elsa make their kids feel super special, let us know! *We just bought her her very own Elsa dress. This was Rose’s actually!

On this day, she called herself, not “a” mermaid princess, but “the” mermaid princess. And she played the role perfectly! I love hanging out with this kid—She is beyond interesting and cool!

 

I don’t know how these pictures progressed, but they are my new favorites of Rosey Posey!

 

I had fun with these pictures on Instagram yesterday! I got diagnosed with the flu weekend before last, and it turned into pneumonia this past Thursday. Today is Wednesday, and I am still on breathing treatments and double antibiotics. Hopefully I will turn the corner soon! The only good thing about being sick is getting caught up on all things stationary. Although I have tons of drafts to post, I am only one post away from being all caught up. I literally spent the entire summer a month behind—I never thought I’d get caught up!

  

Rose is a little bit of everything—sweet, sassy, shy, reserved, crazy, wild, calm, gentle, nuts, funny, kind, sensitive and back to sweet! Not one word describes her more than the next, and I love that about her. She keeps us all totally entertained, and she’s such a great daughter, sister and friend.

 

Happy 2nd birthday, Liv Annabelle! We love you, sweet little ginger girl!

 

The little sisters thinking up mischief of one kind and another. Anna Kate holding a chicken for the first time!

 

Eden LOVED that chicken! I think she needs one for Christmas!

 

I call this one, Liv’s dental exam on the goat! This kid is awesome!

 

  

 

Liv’s mom handed her a carrot to feed the goat, but she took a bite instead, and then the goat kicked her to get her out of the way of that carrot. Her big sissy, Ava, scooped her up to comfort her. I love seeing big sissies in action!

 

More hungry goats!

 

Now isn’t that cute?

  

 

Noelle loves the goats a little too much! The goats were all putting their horns together and butting heads, and Noelle put her head down in there with them to play their little game too. It was all I could do to rip her outta there before one of them poked her in the eye. Good grief, child! Scared me half to death!

 

Don’t escape your farm, Liv!

Friends of the heart!

  

Eden, Anna Kate, Noelle and Ava are the best big sisters! Having friends in the 3 girls club makes life so much easier/more fun! I was sad we didn’t get a picture with baby sisters Rose and Liv!

  

 

 

What do you think about Rose’s headband pull-through braid? I thought it turned out cute! Love Cutie Kate posing all fancy with the chicken—She’s got this!

Rose put eyeliner on for this birthday party, but I didn’t realize it until we were leaving the party. I guess that means she got away with it. Rose!!!

The birthday girl #onamission!

So much love!

 

Ava knows exactly how to tell baby sisters’ what’s up. I love that about her! She’s not messing around and gets the job done right.

  

Sydney and Hannah are great friends!

 

What a cute party for a super cute girl! Happy birthday, baby Liv—You make us smile so big!

 

 

So excited for these little dancers! Noelle is taking hip hop (first formal dance since she was 3!), and Anna Kate is taking tap, ballet, and jazz. Can’t wait!

 

I think our last swim just came and went. We’re going to miss you, summer!

 

This was our wild and crazy back to school month for the year!

 

We found this cute little buddy with no tags on the street that one of our friends lives on. As we were getting in our car to go home, he followed us, and I was too afraid I’d run over him to drive off. We got out and gave him water from one of our leftover cups, and he guzzled it right up. He was so thirsty and lonely… one thing led to another, and here he is having a spend the night with us. Mike put his picture with a missing dog description on social media and found out he has owners. They pretty much don’t care about him as they let him roam the streets 24/7 parched in the blistering Texas heat with no tags, but he was their dog. They didn’t answer the door when we returned him, so we had to trick him with food into staying in their back yard in enough time for us to drive away. We came back several times to play with him and say hi (we walked these times because driving off was impossible), and every time, he was outside waiting for us. So sad! The last time we went back to check on him, his family had moved, and he was gone. I think about this little buddy a lot and hope he is okay. He was a very sweet dog.

 

Rose playing with Noelle’s make-up app, and Rara’s wrapped presents are the best!

Can we say pre-tween?! Boo for getting too big too fast!

 

At least once a week, Anna Kate sets up the most creative shops, perfectly thought out. We all love to buy things from her shop. She makes it super easy and accepts pretend money without a blink! And about the picture on the left—I know, I know, I should wear gloves, but they get in the way of my yard work. Digging in the earth is exhilarating for me, and I love a pretty yard! If I’m ever stressed, you’ll see me out in my yard. It’ a huge source of relaxation for me! I promise I start out with gloves every time, but they never stay on for long. I’ve met two grass snakes this year. Fortunately, both times, I had my gloves on!

 

We missed Will’s birthday this year, so Rose insisted on collecting presents for him this summer. She was thrilled to take them to him and play outside for a little bit. If you’ve followed the blog for a while, he was Rose’s little buddy at Mrs. Paula’s preschool last year. The one on the bench… well, let me get that picture right quick. It’s a favorite. All to say, they are super great friends that go way back, lol!

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Found this one too, OMG, the drama!

 

Noelle and Maddie are sweet friends, and Maddie was awesome to help during our service projects this summer. She’s a great kid! Anna Kate looks so cute in overalls! I was so excited when I found these pin-striped overalls for her for back to school—She is awesome about wearing almost anything I bring home. I love it!

Had to go back to the park to find our left-behind, beloved cat hat. Whew, glad it was still there!

 

Miss Joella!

Too much sass and all the things! Love her!

 

Jax is and always will be #1! He has our entire family completely smitten, and when he comes here to stay while my parents travel, he gets absolutely anything/everything he wants! He’s usually on something soft, wrapped in a blanket. There is no sweeter, kinder, more patient, gentle, and therapeutic dog in the whole wide world! He makes everyone feel so special!

 

 

 

Rose and I took Jax on a picnic one day during his last visit. I bet we’ve said a thousand times, “He’s such a good dog!” He’s excessively patient with Rose as well. Someday I will be able to tell the tale on Rose and it will be funny, but for today, I’ll just say, she isn’t allowed to be alone with him, but he wants her and loves her all the same. He holds no grudges or hard feelings whatsoever. Aunt Nancy is FINALLY kidney stone free and back on track. It was a very dangerous, exhausting situation, and we are so thankful she is all better!

Love this little cutie so much! She’s always doing sweet set-ups to say, “I love you!” She has such a good heart, and I hear of her kindnesses from all over the place, and I’m so proud of her for always trying to do what is right! 

 

On my first outing by myself with the Banks girls, I couldn’t ask for a bigger smile than this from Saylor Rose!

 

Mike and the girls love playing the Japanese app, Neko Atsume. Every night they beg to go check on their cats! The first time I heard them ask Mike to go check on their cats, I was so confused, lol! And here are our little heroes!

Someone just got new tires! I took this picture for a big truck loving friend in California. Bigger in Texas, but really—This is quite silly!

 

Juicy orange sorbet from TCBY is my favorite treat ever!!!

 

Saylor, Harper and Rose were 3 peas in a pod when we were in Houston!

I haven’t been back to Common Grounds, our favorite coffee shop in college, in years! We had to drive through Waco to get home from our road trip, so we stopped for some late night coffee. The only thing that was the same was the photo collage of the man flushing the toilet that was still hung in their bathroom—It’s such a fun place!

 

 

 

Delicious Bar-B-Q with Poppa, Rose, Jax and Mike!

  

 

Anna Kate made our friend Megan a little gift for being the last guest at our Euc party—It was a pencil, paper clip, and of course, a shark tooth!

  

Summer play dates usually consisted of a trip to Wal-Mart where we ran into lots more friends!

Baby Joella rockin’ it out at her newborn photo shoot and a collage I made of all the awesome faces of Rose!

 

My super heroes this summer at Six Flags, and Anna Kate and Rose pretending to be the bride and groom one slow Sunday afternoon.

Princess Rose with King Brayden and Guard Braxton. This was the best afternoon of pretend I’ve ever witnessed in my life!

Six Flags collage!

They were in another world, and I know it was the most magical place imaginable!

  

Anna Kate set up a “mug shot” for Rose. Kindly, she wrote “princess” under Rose’s numbers. Doesn’t she look as guilty as ever? I call the second picture #busted!

 

Rose’s outfits this summer were awesome! When 4 year olds dress themselves and own it, it’s just so great!

While the big sisters had a sleepover at our house, the littles slept over at the Robinson’s—Such a fun night all the way around!

 

Morning bed heads and Rose playing with torturing Jax. Fortunately, he was asleep and didn’t even notice how silly he looked! Bless his puppy heart!

We go on one-on-one dates with the girls as often as time allows, and this date I had with Rose was super fun and sweet!

 

The big girls worked together and made this worm crawling in an apple out of clay at home while Rose and I built her Christmas present at Build-A-Bear! She has wanted a My Little Pony from Build-A-Bear ever since her MLP birthday in February! They were about to be expired, so I’m thankful we got her one. More than the big girls, she really plays with her stuffed animals—A lot! It’s really cool to watch. She has little voices for each animal, and they talk out loud back and forth for hours at a time. She spins the best stories! I’ve recorded so many of her little play times with her dolls/animals!

 

 

Daddy cuddles and Rangers game fun!

 

As I pulled out of Starbucks one day, this field was staring me straight in the face. I’m blown away by the endless amount of litter in our community. It’s devastating and so irresponsible to me. I’m so sad there are so many of us who lack a care for our environment. Just wanted someone else out there to see this and hopefully pick up a little trash here and there to help out our beautiful earth. I shudder to think what we are leaving behind for future generations. I hope the earth can sustain the damage. That may sound extreme, but this looks extreme, and we’re not even talking about the air that we breathe into our lungs on the daily. Okay, moving on. The picture to the right is Anna Kate in the middle of getting her back to school bob hair cut! The back is cut in this picture, but the front is still long. I love it both long and short, and it’s fun to let her decide how she wants to wear it!

Always having fun!

When the girls ask Mike to cut them apples, this is what he does! #inlove

 

I seriously found edible grapes in our back yard this summer! I was trimming back some brush, and under a thick bunch of leaves, this is what I found. Each grape had two seeds each, but other than that, they were sweet and delicious! Sadly, the stalk is on our neighbors side of the fence, and she said they may not keep the bush. It does take up a lot of room in their back yard, but it was a fun surprise hanging over our fence this summer!

 

Anna Kate wrote her kindergarten teacher an awesome back to school letter about her summer. I love letting her free write and try to guess the correct spelling and wing it, but it’s also important for her to start learning correct spelling, punctuation and grammar. For this writing exercise, she dictated what she wanted to say, and I quickly typed her words on the computer. I printed her letter and then she sat down at the table and wrote it out on notebook paper. She worked so hard getting everything just right, and her handwriting is impressive for a 6 year old! She’s blowing us away with her smarts! Her inventions keep coming and are so clever and cool (she made a pulley last night to open and close a drawer), and she is reading soooo well! I’m excited for her. In the picture on the right, she got a time-out after meet the teacher. When Mike went to get her (after 6 minutes), she was sound asleep! I can’t say that has ever happened in the Pond house before! Back to school is always an adjustment for our late-night family but school hadn’t even started when this happened! She’s a precious kid, and I think our consistent discipline is contributing to our girls turning into lovely little ladies. Don’t get me wrong, we all get exhausted and let things slip, and we are far from perfect, but when we can follow through with the things you say with the appropriate reward or consequence, it makes a huge difference! I’m seeing that first-hand! Say what you mean and mean what you say and don’t ignore bad behavior! And love big and hard, unconditionally. The last one is easy! These are a few tips that are helping us along the way, and when we get tired and let things slip, we all feel it. It’s way less fun just coasting along than taking time out initially to address behavior problems and then moving on so the rest of our day/night can be fun and happy!