Kate and the Zoo

The first week in August our friends Kelli, Kyle and Kate came to visit. They moved to Texas last year, where Kyle teaches at Baylor. Kate is about six months younger than Alina and it was a lot of fun to see them together. They came over one night and then we went to the zoo the next day.


It looks like the girls were discussing something serious here:) A lady asked us if the girls were sisters. They both have curly brown hair and blue eyes.

We met up with our friends Burton and Ted while at the zoo. The girls don't seem to know for sure what to do with Burton, but he was really sweet with them!


It was fun to spend time with friends who are so far away now. I guess we need to do a better job of visiting them when we are in Texas!

Back to School

To help me get ready for school, Alina, Riley and Pauline all came and help put away supplies the week before I officially went back. It was so nice to have the help.



Alina was the official "trash girl." Anything we gave her she put in the trash box.

Riley did a great job of showing Alina what to do. She also put page protectors in my class folders.

Pauline did all sorts of things, but the most helpful was putting the numbers on the desks. I hate doing that job, so thank you Pauline!

Trash girl:)

You need a break after all that work!

Name ideas?

So now that this blog won't be just about Alina, I guess we need to think of a new name. I am terrible at this, so I would love some help with suggestions. We could use our last name, Liles, or baby names (once we know #2), or whatever. You creative people out there give me some ideas, but please don't be offended if we don't go with your suggestions. There can only be one winner:) Or we may just look at the suggestions and maybe that will spark an idea. Start thinking!

Also, I will have some new posts up in the next few days that are actually about older events. Apparently, I fell a little behind this summer since Alina and I were so much on the go and took so many pics. Stayed posted for some past events.

Tent Making

Alina and Justin have taken up tent-making in the living room. The other night I was out and when I came home, Justin showed me pictures of their tent and also pictures of them in the tent. They are sooo cute! Since then, we've made a few more tents. Tonight, we ate cherry cobbler and ice cream while sitting in the tent. Alina loved it! It is so much fun to play with her and to see her get excited and ask Justin to build her a "tet."

My cutie-pies!

O Help My Unbelief

So in the past few months I've really grown to love Indelible Grace music. I wasn't very familiar with it before, but now its almost all I want to listen to. They take old hymns and put new music to it, but its great! (This is coming from someone who usually throws a fit when a hymn gets a new tune.) Some time ago I posted the words to a John Newton tune that really spoke to me. Recently, there's been a new favorite, I often use the song or parts of it as confession and prayer. The words are by Isaac Watts. I hope you like it.

O Help My Unbelief

How sad our state by nature is!
Our sin, how deep it stains!
And Satan binds our captive minds
Fast in his slavish chains
But there's a voice of sov'reign grace,
Sounds from the sacred word:
"O, ye despairing sinners come,
And trust upon the Lord."

My soul obeys th' almighty call,
And runs to this relief
I would believe thy promise, Lord;
O help my unbelief!
To the dear fountain of thy blood,
Incarnate God, I fly;
Here let me wash my spotted soul,
From crimes of deepest dye.

Stretch out Thine arm, victorious King,
My reigning sins subdue;
Drive the old dragon from his seat,
With all his hellish crew.
A guilty, weak, and helpless worm,
On thy kind arms I fall;
Be thou my strength and righteousness,
My Jesus, and my all.

Blueberry Lover

So I finally got around to making the blueberry blintzes. They're kind of like crepes that you fill, fold like a rectangle, and then put back in the skillet until golden brown.

They were good, Alina however thought they were REALLY good!
She had to have a bath after eating the blueberries. This picture doesn't do justice to the mess of purple this girl was after eating her blueberry blintz!

Blueberries

One of our favorite things to do in the summer is pick blueberries! There's a place near our house where they give you a bucket and you can go pick your own blueberries, you can also eat as you pick. Alina gets our money's worth by eating as many as she can while I pick them! Its best to go early in the morning before it gets too hot. We've gone a couple of times this summer. The first time we got 2.7 lbs and paid $2.70, the second time we got 3.28 lbs and paid $3.61. Its such a great deal compared to the grocery store sale price.

Here's Alina reaching out for the blueberries

Eating them as fast as mommy can pick them!

Here's what Jo-jo got, he didn't like to just eat them as they were picked

Alina just goes straight for the blueberries in the bucket
mmmm...she probably got a whole pound free by the time she was done eating!
We've made blueberry pancakes several times with what we've picked. Also, we made blueberry muffins, blueberry pudding cake and ate fresh blueberries. I've frozen most of them and plan to use them for blueberry blintzes soon (didn't get to it yesterday) and then whatever sounds good!