first day of school and catching up

We've had quite the eventful summer already. Good times and bad ones. Our sweet G.G. passed away on May 30. We had her service and it was simple, traditional and lovely; fitting for our G.G. It was sad of course, but we were able to share so many wonderful memories together as a family. I kept thinking the entire time we were gathered that she would love to be in the middle of it!

Anne Pea had a great summer vacation! She was in Florida with her friend Maddie and her family earlier this summer. I am so thankful they invited her along! She had such an awesome time and I just have to thank the Neu family for their hospitality and generosity! She's been babysitting and helping momma pea around the house all summer. She's been to Cloudcroft, helped her Nina Pea paint some furniture, and has been saving her money for clothes and nail care. Oh, she's a fashionista alright! She's gotten to see some friends that won't go to the same high school as her. I think she's sad about that, but high school is going to be such an awesome adventure! She's the only girlie pea I know that made it out of middle school relatively unscathed, and actually loved it! I remember I couldn't get out of junior high quickly enough!

Abby Pea got her first real job! Wahoo! She now gets to pay for some of her Marquette stuff! Especially now that she's an officer! (Apparently, that's an honor that comes with more expense!) She's working at Once Upon A Child. She likes it...most of the time! She has been busy with practice and her job all summer. So busy, it was really difficult to find time to get her license! But, last week, she became a licensed driver! I am so proud and terrified all at the same time! She's an excellent driver; it's all the other idiots out on the road that terrify me!

So, today is the first day of school. I can't believe how time is flying! The summer was so fun, yet I didn't get half the things done that I wanted to. We have only camped once (I wanted to go every weekend!), but have another trip planned this long weekend (yay for Labor Day!). I am sure I will be here to bore you with more pics of the girls throughout the school year. Football season starts up Friday!

There are some awesome things on the horizon for the girls and the family. I'll try to be better at keeping the blog up to date! I'm a slacker sometimes! :)

 

Here are some highlights!

 

Abby Pea is a junior this year!

~ This is just not possible and I have been holding the tears in all day! Sort of! A couple probably escaped! ~

 

Even more unbelievable, my baby pea is a freshman! In high school! Yes, the big one with all of the big people in it!

~ This really can't be happening! ~

 

 

Abby Pea getting her driver's license! (It was a little sunny out!)

 

Our camping trip! Sierra Pea joined us! Another sweet pea! My girls have the best friends in the world!

 

A fun one of Georgia Pea driving! We only let her drive in the parking lot! No worries! :)

 

We went to the Phillip Phillips and John Mayer concert! Phillip Phillips was awesome! John Mayer was a little disappointing! Oh well! We had fun anyway!

 

 

Anne Pea and her friend Maddie in Florida! I'm still rather jealous!

new year; same ol' peas

It's a little late but...Hap-pea New Year! I am sitting here watching an America's Next Top Model marathon {yes, I know it's trashy and I'm melting my brain cells, but I don't care}, drinking spiced tea, and cuddling with Georgia.

We had a very, merry, little Christmas, and it was lovely! I have pics, but the girls look less than glamorous, so I am not posting them until I get an okay from them! :)

Abby Pea is back in the saddle with school and her dancing. Competitions are coming up and officer tryouts! Yip-pea! Our teeny break is officially over! We are in a new year and have new goals. Momma Pea is just praying we keep it up! When everything is so busy and crazy, it's so hard to keep our focus on what's important. Keeping our eyes on the most important things; happiness, peace, love. We only have a couple of short years left with our Abby Pea. I pray they are full of blessings and love. I want her to remember this time in her sweet life as a wonderful time to look back on. My high school years were a blast and I remember them fondly! I want the same for my peas!

Anne Pea...is already registering for high school classes. Pour me some more wine now! How in the H-E-double hockey sticks am I going to have my two girles in high school?!? WTH? This is a stressful, crazy time for her. She wants to accomplish so much, yet she is afraid to. I have been there. I know we all have. When all of life's possibilities are staring you straight in the face; it can be exhilarating and terrifying all at the same time! She has so many gifts and talents God has given her. I only pray Jon and I can nudge her in the direction we feel she should choose because she is capable of it. 

Two times with two girls this week, I have said that I don't want my peas to be mediocre. They are meant for something greater than anything they could ever imagine! I don't even know their full potential, but God does! I want them to not be afraid of opportunity. I have been paralyzed by it myself and still am sometimes. I never want my girls to feel that way. 

And finally, King Pea and I are pretty much the same ol' peas. We both have jobs we love. It's such a weight off our shoulders. I don't talk about my job much here. I was so worried about loving it, but I do! I have a great schedule, work with great people, and enjoy what I am doing. Jon is working about 20-30 minutes away in Lewisville, and he loves it! The other day we had just woken up and he turned to me and said, "Isn't great that we both love our jobs?"

Yes, babe. Yes, it is. We have so much we can still work on within ourselves and our family. But, one little step at a time we'll get there!

My beautiful peas! And Georgia!

Our white Christmas! These are bad pics. It was cold and I was using my phone!

Abby Pea showing me the snow.

Anne Pea showing me...her bum!

Our silly, sweet family! This pic makes my heart happy!

christmas already?!?

Wasn't it just summer? Where does the time go?

We have already had a few Christmas celebratory moments. The Christmas parade was not long after Thanksgiving. We got to see Abby Pea march by in her cute Santa hat really quickly! Sitting there for an hour just to see your pea march by for three seconds? Yep, and we enjoyed all three seconds of it! :)

The Christmas parade was really cool. The Christian academy here definitely had the best Christmas float ever! It was a nativity with the kids as the characters and the rest of the little peas were dressed as angels and singing. I was trying to hold back the tears; it was so darn cute and special! Anyhoo, back to my sweet peas!

Anne Pea had her band concert the other day. I couldn't hear her by herself, but she was definitely the cutest one up there! I had forgotten my phone, so I don't have video of it {Abby had her phone; I will have to try to get the video from it.}. But I got a sweet pic of her afterward!

We also had Christmas with my parents and my brother's sweet family. I love having my nieces around! Eeeekk! Opening presents is so much fun with the littlest peas!

Nina and Papa D's beautiful tree! I snuck a peek and a pic!

I love seeing these little peas with their messy hair and in their jammies opening presents! So cute!

Rylee Pea was the little elf passing presents out to everyone {with a little help from the bigger peas}!

Someone was awfully good this year to get such a big present!

Preslee Pea opening a present!

Rylee Pea must have been a good girl! She has a big pea-resent!

Rylee had to help Anne Pea with one of her presents!

I know I was supposed to crop out all of the big peas, but I just love this pic of Rylee and her Daddy cuddling together!

Preslee Pea is our wild child! She reminds me so much of Anne when she was that age! Haha! Such a cute, sweet mess!

And the whole Barrett-Penprase clan! This almost never happens for us to all be together! Especially including King Pea! So thankful he was here with us this year! There will be more to come! It's not even Christmas yet!

cross country meets

Anne Pea has just finished up her Cross Country season! It's so fun seeing these runner peas! She is so glad it's over. She wasn't really wanting to run this year, which breaks this momma's heart! I keep hoping she'll run in high school next year, but Saturday may have been our last meet. :(

Here are some sweet pictures from the district meet this past Saturday. It was "Pink-out" week, so of course she looked adorable! I'm going to miss getting up super early on Saturdays and waiting around for an hour to watch her run for 15 minutes! Haha!! The crazy things we do for our peas!

This is Anne Pea hugging her coach from last year, Coach Martin. We adore her and miss her like crazy! It was a huge reason Anne didn't really want to run this year. But, she's having a baby and we're so thrilled for her!

Starting line!

Ready, set...

...GO!

They're off!

This is about the halfway mark. She may not be first, but she looks really cute! :)

Running up the steeeeep hill at the very end of the race!

They call it "The Beast!" It is aptly named!

Go Anne!

After the race! She was so glad the season's over! Me, not so much!

Pretty, sweet pea!

This is Cameron, one of her best friends. {JUST friends!}

He's winking at the girls who are cheering him on!

This is from a few weeks ago and I think I missed posting it! She said she always wanted to run and jump into his arms, so she did it! {She's almost as tall as he is!}

My sweet family! I love them!

mhs homecoming 2012

Last night was Homecoming for MHS. Abby Pea danced at the game (of course), but this week she was nominated Marquette of the Week!! So proud of our girl! There are 50 Marquettes, about 10 football games, 1 chosen each game; well, you can see the odds of her getting chosen! Here's our MOW! :)

Abby Pea practicing her moves before halftime.

I wish I could remember this sweet pea's name! They're pretty precious!

I know that Abby is out of focus in this pic, but this is right after they announced her name over the loudspeaker. Needless to say, she was pretty stoked! Her expression says it all!

Abby and Sarah! Both were announced with honors!

MHS Marquette of the Week! Congrats, sweet pea!

dancing, running; running, dancing!

So much has happened over the last few weeks! I can barely catch my breath! The "new job" is now the "old job." The only words I have are, "I hated it." Moving on! I am currently seeking employment. I am doing some temp work with the agency that got me my previous Geomap job, and taking things one day at a time! This family needs prayers for Momma Pea to get a job! I have one in particular that I am waiting on and I really hope it is what God has planned for me! It would be perfect {in my mind anyway} and would be a fantastic long-term opportunity. So, keep us in your happy thoughts!

Anne Pea is a running fool! Her cross country meets are in full swing! She's been placing in the top 25-40% of runners (there are always so many girls out there)! Last week she placed 83rd, but that was out of about 250 runners! We're really proud of her tenacity! I have a feeling this will be her last year in cross country though. Sad face from Mom! I hoped she would love it and keep going throughout high school! It's crazy that we love getting up early on Saturday morning to watch her come in 83rd, but it is such a blast!

Abby Pea is a dancing fool! Football games are in full swing, and that means halftime shows and pep rallies! This coming Saturday is the homecoming parade and this Momma Pea is so excited about it! It will be in our historic downtown and will be so much fun! There will be pics! :) She just got her letter jacket today {a big deal, by the way} and she looks really cute in it! I can't wait to start getting patches put on it!

Anne Pea cheering for her teammates! 

At the starting line.

My runner pea! :)

Here she comes!

Anne Pea and her sweet friend, Cameron! (He's cute and sweet! Yikes!)

Abby and her friend, Megan, at a football game! Two sweet peas!

Abby cheering/dancing at the pep rally!