Long time, no see. Catching up.

First off, I apologize to those of you who read this blog for my absence.  God has called me to serve in new ways this year--the time involved in this service has consumed my allotted blogging time.  However, it is right where God wants me for now.   But, I still desire to regularly blog.  There is so much that I want to keep as my life's journal--especially so that our kids can read this someday and see what God has taught me, see what fun memories we made and know me even more by seeing different aspects of my heart.

For now though, I am going to rapid-fire as many posts as I can and publish them over the next couple of days.  These will likely be short and sweet with lots of photos.  But, it is better than nothing.  :-)

Luke's best friend, his cousin Traber, visited a few weeks ago.  They had a blast, as usual.  They get along so well.  At the beginning of their visit, they sound just like brothers who have been away from each other for a while.  Near the end of their visit, they sound like brothers who have spent a little too much time together--ha!  Either way, they love each other so much--like close siblings.  Luke always talks about Traber to new friends as if he sees him every week.  Traber now has a sweet baby brother--Sawyer.  Here are some photos from our long weekend with my brother, Jeremy, sister-in-law, Brandy and their sweet boys.

We visited the (free) Austin Science and Nature center.  The kids had a blast there as usual.  We always end our trip there with a dig in the dino pit.

  

Little miss expressive Abbey is talking about how she is digging for something here.  Notice her hand--so prissy!

My brother secretly hid real treasures (money) in the sand when the boys weren't looking.  Once they found their first coin, that digging pace picked up rather rapidly.  It was fun to watch the boys get so excited!

Jeremy and Brandy at the Science and Nature Center's Dino Pit.

Silly Traber!

Baby Sawyer--watching the OU game with daddy