I heart Summer!!!! Part 1

An awesome summer is one kicked off with a trip to The Big Apple- for

a sisters trip!

Dessert in Little Italy!
We were really in NYC to watch Debbie be ordained as a Minister

of the One Spirit at the beautiful Riverside Church. It was a beautiful ceremony and we

were thrilled to be able to celebrate with her. Congratulations on a huge accomplishment!

and thanks for giving us an excuse to go to New York!

Camp Tallowood- Trey heading off to his first year of church camp!

It was a 5 hour trip on a charter bus(there were

6 buses:-0)

Swim Team - Go Dolphins!

A milestone birthday for my sister Terri.

Oh no it's the big 50!

The problem with that is that she drags be behind her by

10 years- so we know what that means for me:-0

Love the cake!

to be continued.........

The 3rd of July

Here in Texas, especially south and central Texas, the 4th of July was a little

uneventful. This

drought we have

going on does not go well with Fireworks, so in a lot of places, the local Fireworks shows were cancelled- Bummer!! We did have a great time on the 4th of July but

in looking at my photos, I took more on the 3rd this year!

We started our day out with pastries from Naegelin's Bakery- this awesome bakery is located on Main Street of New Braunfels and it has been a part of my family for as long as I can remember. My Dad would go pretty much everyday while we were on vacation and now my super wonderful husband has taken on that duty and I love him for it- and the pastries are pretty good too;-)

After some relaxing in the cold waters of

the Comal River and hanging in the pool we

headed over to one of our favorite traditions......The Landa Park train!

Waiting for the train......For the past two years The Evans and Knotts have joined us in NB!

We love that they have been able to come and enjoy this tradition that

we so enjoy! It is so fun for the kids to have time to play with their cousins and fish- which we did a lot of!

Oddly enough I have no pictures of them fishing but trust me, we

spent quite a bit of time putting worms on hooks;-)

We then headed to a restaurant that is as much of a tradition as just going to

New Braunfels, The Gristmill, located in Gruene.

these two boys

are definitely

related!

Look at that

intense look of

BOREDOM!

Such adorable boys!

This year Rob and I celebrated our 24th year of

meeting each other. It truly does not seem that

long ago that I met this incredible hunka-hunka!

I am so thankful for him and each and every day that

we have together!

I love you babe!

Back to Blogging!

I will give you three reasons why I haven't blogged in forever!!!!!

So glad to be back in the saddle! Weird, but I find myself thinking in blog posts!

Rough Start to Blogging

Okay, so this whole blogging thing hasn't taken off for me but after seeing my Sis-in-Law's it motivated me to try this once again. We have done so many things and had so many Milestones since my last post that there is virtually no way to post about all of them, so I will pick the most

significant for our family. I would have to say it was the Baptism of our son,Trey. Trey's journey of faith actually started when he was 5 years old. He attended a Sports Quest Soccer camp one week that summer at Second Baptist. Several weeks later we received a letter from the camp letting us know that our son had asked Jesus into his heart during the camp. Upon talking with Trey about it further we concluded that he might not have

known exactly what he had signed up for, so we decided it best that he wait and we revisit the issue later. When he was 9 years old he went to Camp T bar M for his 1st time at sleep away camp and came home, to go the next week to Vacation Bible School. On The Thursday of VBS they presented the Gospel to the children and Trey felt it was time to fully accept Christ. I will never forget the day; he ran into the room where I was teaching and with so much Joy and Excitement said, "Mom I asked Jesus into my Heart"! I couldn't believe it, I was overcome with joy and tears! At the time our church was being completely rebuilt and we really wanted him to be baptized in the new sanctuary. The new sanctuary was completed and then it took us awhile to get our acts together but we eventually got the Baptism scheduled and then Trey broke his arm and was put in a cast so we postponed again! We finally had the Baptism on May 23, 2010. Trey was so nervous about going in front of the entire church, but his nerves turned to excitement as the time drew near. It was a wonderful day celebrated with many of our family that were able to attend and for that we were grateful.

It is such a joy to see the child that you love and pray for decide to follow God and walk in his path. His Journey is just beginning and I pray that he always looks to his Faith in the Father for strength and guidance.

Joining the Blogging World

Well, I finally did it I joined the Blogging world. I have been quite disinterested in Blogs until recently and I still sometimes work to understand why I am spending time reading things that I have no time to do? It was only when school started and I realized that my 5th grade son was becoming more tech savvy than his mother(truth be known, he was already more tech savvy than me several years ago)! I hope to catch-up over the next year but the first step was setting up a blog, so there I did it!

I hope that through this blog I can let friends and family stay abreast of what is happening in the Evans' household, but I also hope to use it as a way to share encouragement to other moms in situations that we all find ourselves struggling with in the day to day rearing of our sweet children that God has so graciously given us. I always find comfort when I hear another mom talking about something that I was sure was just an Evans Gene Pool issue!

The Blog is aptly named for my 3 Monkeys :

Here they are at a family outing with their cousin.

(truly I did not mean to post this photo, but I can't figure out how to delete it-any suggestions?)

These 3 lovely gifts have and continue to be the sole purpose of my daily activities and existence- I do have the realization that my life is not my own and that can sometimes(most times) be such a wonderful and awe inspiring thought and then at other times can practically bring me to tears(in a bad way!)

I feel so blessed that God has allowed for me to stay home with these wonderful little people and I do cherish each and every moment as I do realize that it may come to an end at some point. Even If I do not return to work, each day the realization that these little people are growing and stepping into their own lives, that they will eventually navigate, is so obvious and can not be ignored.

We are in the midst of what I call Birthday Season in our house, with Kendra just celebrating her 8th Birthday one week ago and Trey's 11th coming up in 2 weeks! I think these days we over celebrate with elaborate parties and themes, but from a 4th child who never had a party I have an excuse! I did realize though that during all of the preparations and planning for Kendra's I had forgotten to thank The One who gave me such a perfect and precious gift. It caught me off guard that I would get so caught up in the celebrating that I would forget the most important celebration, the celebration of the gift of life of a sweet and caring little girl. I have always referred to her as "God's Grace" because she does make life so pleasant and easy. So I say Thank You God for all of the Gifts you give, but especially for the Sweet and Special one that you gave me and Rob in KENDRA............ Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!