Summer Ingenuity!

On the way home from church Sunday afternoon, the kids started talking about playing in the water. Emma and Dougie are good sports and will even play with Caleb in his little pool. They began talking about different things they could do. After lunch, they quickly changed their clothes and headed outside. I was cleaning up and putting Asher down for his nap and when I finally made it outside, this is what I found!

With Daddy's help, they had hooked the hose above the slide, put the pool under the slide and created their very own water slide!

And since they had the nozzle on the hose, they could change the way the spray came out. Summer ingenuity leads to summer memories!

Fun at the Farm

A few weeks ago, my cousin's son graduated from high school. It gave us the chance to see some family and spend some time at the farm. The ceremony was Sat. morning and was limited so we didn't attend but we hung out at the farm. Steven cut a little grass using the tractor and of course, Caleb had to ride along with him.

I love Caleb's expression, pure joy!

Asher didn't ride but he liked sitting with daddy on the tractor.

The graduation party was late on Saturday afternoon so we got some of the cousins together to swim at my aunt and uncle's house. They had an absolute blast.
The boys spent most of the time playing catch the ball as you jump off the diving board! Boys will be boys!Haven fell in love with Asher. She stayed by him during the whole party!

These are the wild boys!

Their birthdays range from 12/99 to 2/01 so they're all

very close in age and have a great time being together!

I just realized I didn't even get a picture of the graduate. oops!

The news....

I'm going to be an aunt again!!!
My sister, Laura is expecting her 2nd child in late January.
To say we're a little excited is a huge understatement.
Asher's just glad that he'll now have a cousin to grow up with and someone to exchange gifts with at Christmas!

Congrats to Laura, Phil and Chaz-man!
We love y'all and can't wait to meet this little one!

1 Samuel 1:27

Helllllooooo Summer

Well Summer is here and we've been soooo lazy this week!

So let me catch you up on what's going on in our lives, I'm sure you're so excited.

Dougie finished his baseball season! They were 9 and 3! woo-hoo

Dougie was selected for All-Stars, so they've been practicing a lot to get ready. And although I've always vowed that I wouldn't let my child be sucked into the black hole that takes the lazy days of summer and morphs it into a baseball tournament (aka travel ball), we've given in this year. (I heard that! You just called me a sucka!) The coach promised that we would only play one tournament a month, and I'm going to hold him to it! :) Our travel team coach is also the coach for our All-Star team, which is really nice because he's holding off on tourneys until A.S. are done. whew!

Emma's getting ready for cheer leading camp. She's a little bummed because in years past they've attended camp in Jekyll Island. But this year they're going to a college in middle Ga.! :( My girl loves the beach as much as her momma but she can't complain, she's going to get to be at the beach 2 weeks straight in July. One week with her dad and the other with us!

Caleb and Asher are doing great. They are both growing so much. Caleb continues to crack us up with the things he says. Yesterday he told me he didn't feel well, when I asked what was wrong, he said, "my throat's coming back." Last week Steven was preaching a revival at the church where his brother is pastor. On the way to church one evening, Caleb said, "we have to go pass the bible to get there." Steven and I were completely stumped. When turning onto the street that the church was located on, Caleb pointed to the church's sign and said, "see, we have to go pass the bible." There was a bible on the church's sign!
Asher is crawling all over now. And more than once, we've had to do a house search to find him. He's pulling up on things to his knees but won't stand up yet. He finally has a 3rd tooth coming in. But the lack of teeth hasn't affected his eating habits. He gave up baby food several weeks ago. He's been very picking lately, and kind of fussy so I think he must be getting some more teeth.

I got a phone call today with some VERY exciting news (no, I'm not pregnant!) but I can't share just yet.

Hope you're enjoying your summer!

Eat some ice cream!!!

Finally....

Asher started crawling a couple of weeks ago. Now he's an expert and getting into all kinds of things! :o)

THE wedding.....

I'm pretty sure I mentioned a while back that Emma, Dougie and Caleb were going to be in my cousin's wedding and if you would have been around us lately, you would have heard phrases like, she needs shoes for the wedding, get measured for tuxes for the wedding, get a haircut for the wedding. I think you get the picture, it's been all about -the wedding. Well the wedding took place this past Saturday and it was absolutely wonderful. The bride and groom are honeymooning in a tropical location and I think we have pretty much recovered from all the festivities. Now for more pictures than you care to see of -the wedding! Ok, that's the last time I'm going to say it, I promise!

Dougie and Max were Junior Groomsmen and Chaz and Caleb were the ring bearers. A few days before the wedding (sorry, it couldn't be helped) Caleb tried to persuade to buy him a ring pop because he was a ring bearer!!

Mia and Emma, Junior Bridesmaids.
The Groom, Jacob with the ring bearers!


Emma and the Bride, Kaylan.

Max escorting GiGi, my grandmother.
The Wedding Party
The Pastor that married them, was the pastor who led me to the Lord. I haven't seen him in many years, so that made it extra special. Ok, I'll stop there. The Wedding pt.2 The Reception coming soon!!!

Monday, Monday.....

When we were loading up the van this morning to take Emma and Dougie to school, we had a whole morning of plans. Dougie was the last one out the door but he told me, "I didn't close the door." I went back, closed the door and got in the van. That's when it hit me, the keys were in the house!
I immediately tried to call Steven but to no avail. He was on his bus route and I knew he couldn't answer his phone.
We checked all doors and windows and of course, everything was locked. Our back patio has a flat roof that is just under the boys' upstairs bedroom windows. Dougie was pretty certain that his window was unlocked so we got the ladder. Unfortunately, the ladder wasn't tall enough. We were still trying to get Steven, little did we know that his phone was on vibrate!!!
I then got the bright idea to try and pick the lock. As I was trying various tools that I could find to try to break into our house, SNAP! The tip breaks off in the keyhole! No use calling Steven now. Our key ONLY opens that door! The key for the other doors is IN the house. OMW!
I call a neighbor and ask her if she knows anyone who might come help us. she gives me a name and the sweet man came over within 5 minutes. He first attempted to use a credit card to open the door, I knew that wasn't going to work. Then we told him about the upstairs window, so he went and got his ladder and then he and Dougie climbed up on the roof. The window wouldn't budge! Fortunately, it was unlocked and after a few tries, it opened.
After we got in the house, the sweet man tried to get the tip out of the door lock but it wouldn't budge. He even took the doorknob off but it was a goner.
After all that, Emma and Dougie were only 45 minutes late for school and we were able to get the rest of our errands done, including an unplanned stop at L*wes to but a new door lock!

On the way to school, I told the kids we learned 2 life lessons today!
~Always keep a spare key hidden outside!
~No matter how desperate you get, don't ever try to pick a lock! LOL!!!