Sweet Summertime

I realized over the past few days that I haven't updated this blog in a while. We have been enjoying summer and realizing how much we did NOT miss seriously hot and mostly humid summers. The kind when your hair can't hold a curl from the hot roller to last 5 minutes but kinks up like curly sue just from walking to the car! But I keep telling myself...aahhh but we have seasons again! I am a summer girl for about a month and then pretty much after the Fourth of July I am ready for Fall. That's my time. My favorite. Maybe because I'm an October baby :) This year as I look forward to Fall I start getting a pit in my stomach. Isaiah's first birthday is coming up. Then I wonder...how am I going to feel?, What do we do?, Do we celebrate?, Do I just take the day to cry and eat lots of chocolate?, I'm nervous and anxious about that. A sweet friend that God has put in my path so gracefully, lost her baby at the end of her pregnancy. She also has other children and so every year they do what her children think that their little sister would want to do. So I'm thinking of that. Walker and I talked about it and I said "maybe we could take some cupcakes to the park. Do you think Isaiah would like that if he was here?" and Walker clearly said "no, mama, Isaiah would want to go to the beach and eat blue cupcakes!" My My, sweet boy, you are exactly right. When Isaiah was in my belly our favorite place to go was the beach. He was definately a beach baby. Matter of fact, Fourth of July weekend we went to the beach with some friends. As always, when life is so beautiful and sweet I want Isaiah here with us. I can't keep my mind from imagining what he would look like, I always picture him laying on my chest sleeping without a care in the world. Walker and I started digging in the sand right at the shoreline looking for sand crabs. That boy loves every little thing that crawls on the ground. This sweet shell washed right up to my toe. Not kidding. 

I was like a kid at Christmas. God knows my heart. He reminded me that He was acquainted with grief. He also knows what it feels like to be seperated for a time from His son. His only son. This shell reminded me that Isaiah is as safe as possible and the sea of seperation between me and him will be gone soon and we will be together forever and I will never stop thanking Jesus for that. But, here now it's hard and I will never lie about that. I'm praying for more children, although Isaiah can't be replaced. An update with foster care is that we just got the paperwork that we have to fill out for all the states that we have lived in. We have been so busy lately that we haven't finished it yet and really I just honestly wanted to enjoy my time with Walker this summer. Just really enjoying him. He is the sweetest. He is a Mama's boy and I love that. I think God purposefully made him that way to help comfort my heart. I do. He is my side kick. We pretty much do everything together. I really just wanted to spend time with him without us stressing over handwriting and sounding out words and adding and subtracting. So we have stayed in the pool and at the gym. Also, we made a visit to Water Country, which was a total blast except for that part of dropping my phone into the pool. PSA: I can't keep a phone out of water to save my life so please don't ever ask me to take a picture for you if we are around even the smallest body of water! We have spent a many of days at the beach because I mean do you really need a reason when you live 35 minutes away. My husband actually made the comment the other day that he didn't want to drive "all the way" to the beach. I was like, "honey, our people in MS would throw something at you for saying that!" Walker has been working on his swimming skills this summer and I'm proud to say that he is now part fish! haha! You don't know the level of anxiety that I go to when we are around water so it was very important to me that he know how to swim. We had VBS and made a few fishing trips. That Walker boy loves to fish just like his daddy. I may or may not have almost dropped my book in the water from trying to escape a yellow jacket and then the boys called me "city girl" the rest of the day. It looks like Mama may be sent shopping or something from now on. Awe, poor me (sarcastic). Speaking of my husband. I know that I don't write a whole lot about what he does everyday and that's because he makes a living for our family. He lets me stay home and be the best wife and mother that I can be. He lets me live the dream that God put in my heart. He works hard to provide for us while I put in my eternal investments with Walker. I'm so thankful for him. His job also has to be protected so that's why I don't talk much about it. But I'm so proud of my husband, my baby daddy and my sailor. 

I'm trying to think of anything that I have missed. Summer. Hot. Humid. Baby boy in heaven. Baby boy on earth. Sweet husband. Water. How much I'm ready for Fall. Oh, and we started Kindergarten. Yes, in July. Because when you Homeschool, you have freedom. You have freedom to take off if you have Dr. appointments, family visits, vacations, a birthday, days that everyone just needs a break, field trips, friend days, or just because the kid is just not going to do handwriting to save his life day! Not mentioning any names or anything. haha. That boy is so smart but he is a science boy. He invents something new pretty much every day. He is always up for a science experiment and learning about how things work, what makes this move, what makes that fly, what makes the world go round, what makes the wind blow, what makes Mama google everything because she doesn't have a clue! The questions, oh the questions. But handwriting...NOT.HIS.THING. Today my words were "Walker, I did not like Geometry (that's an understatement for the century but I didn't want to use the word hate although that would have been accurate) but I still had to get through it and do my best (or maybe not best but you know) so you have to practice handwriting even though it's not your favorite!" So we got through it (barely) this morning and went swimming :) But the child is learning how to do sign language. Something that's been on our heart for a while now...not sure why but stay tuned because I'm sure God has something up his sleeve! and he is also learning some spanish words. He also learns about 100 random facts everyday because of all the questions that he asks. I love to see his little brain literally soak up the world around him. Makes this Mama so proud. But please Lord help us get through handwriting and spelling. So that's where we are at. If youre still reading this random and long winded post then thank you for reading and caring about our simple life in Virginia. Love to you all! 

Here are some pictures from our Summer...

Water Country:

He loves dogs. Can you tell?

It takes a great man to fill these shoes, buddy, and that's exactly what you will be!

Daddy's Command Picnic-

then we visited a nice little coffee shop in VA Beach-

Father's Day: W had duty so he got home early that morning-

"Your Boys, Walker and Isaiah"

"No buddy like a Dad"- Walker picked out the card himself.

after church, sporadic beach trip

the end of Father's day. I took this picture because I thought this was a perfect picture to represent what a great dad he is. Mr. Monkey's neck needed to be sewn up because his fuzz was coming out and so daddy performed "surgery" while Walker held Mr. Monkey's hand. Best. Dad. Ever.

Walker with his Swim America Certificate-

working on some science experiments about the weather-

A thunderstorm-

putting together his weather lap book-

So proud-

We went to the summer movie express day to see "Max" I questioned whether to take him to see this movie because I guess it could be traumatic for some kids but truth is, in our home, we talk about the "bad guys" not bad people but people who make bad choices. We always look for the good guys, the heroes. The ones who go to the battle line to fight for others. We talk openly about death in our home. Since September 29th, 2015, death is a word that has been talked about regularly. So although this movie is dramatic for some, for my child, he loved it. We talked about the bombs and things before we got there so that he was prepared. I also told him that the little boy's brother was going to die (just like his brother died)  from the bomb because he was trying to keep other people safe. And he loved the movie and now has a dream of getting a german shepherd from "Santa" that he can name Max :)

taking walks after supper in our neighborhood is one of our favorite things to do-

and sitting on the gazebo-

beautiful sunrise-

Fishing-

Beach Bummin' 

VBS week!

Krispy Kreme lovin' boy-we make a visit at least once a week!

Beach with friends-

After a long beach day-

Fourth of July- Fireworks in the Park

"I thank God for my life. And for the stars and stripes. Let freedom forever fly and let it ring. Salute the ones who died. The ones who gave their lives so we don't have to sacrifice the things we love."

Rainy Fourth of July here- at the parade-

then lunch at Texas Roadhouse-

Red, White and Blue(in) it!

K5!

I put together Walker and Isaiah's shadow box. Walker's was broke in one of our moves and then I hadn't made Isaiah's yet so I thought I was ready. I was very emotional but I'm glad that I got it done. 

So thankful for this goofball. His idea after working out the other day: Let's leave Walker in childcare and go sit by the pool! We love when we can steal a few moments alone. Love him big time. 

Hope everyone has a great end of summer and I will be sitting over here dreaming of pumpkin spice everything, leaves and some cool crisp weather!

Love, 

Candace