Life at the Circus...

Wow, June 9th. So much has changed in such a short time! A few short weeks after my last post, some things that I'll spare the details of, took place and my dad moved out of my parents house. The choices he was making left my mother no choice but to ask him to leave. Unfortunately, I had to be the one to discover/catch him making these choices and relay the facts to my mother. Needless to say, I have not been in a bloggy mood. I'm afraid that whatever "followers" I had, have all but deleted me from their readers.

On top of all of that, I've been super busy working on a women's retreat that our church is hosting. I am the head of the publicity team and have been working on everything from posters to name tags. Most recently, I've put together the entire program that we will use at the retreat. Between these two things, I've had very little spare time....UNTIL NOW!

We are currently on our after summer vacation! We've decided to leave all our stress at home, no one is allowed to talk about the yucky stuff waiting for us back home and we're spending some much needed quality time together. My mom and brother are here with us and we're lovin' it! We're gonna be here in Destin until tomorrow morning and then we're off to Disney World for 5 days! My grandparents came to meet us in Destin for a quick visit and it's been great to see them. Here are few pictures from our day yesterday...you might notice that my pictures look a bit better quality...that's because my husband surprised me for my birthday and bought me a D40! I'm still learning, but I LOVE it! (Maybe I'll get time to post about the amazing surprise party he also planned for me...I have an amazing husband!)

Surfer Dude Cooper


Good thing he has on those floaties!




The amazing view from our room

Papaw, Jean & the boys

Dinner on the patio at Angler's. We could look over the balcony and see the boys playing on the playground they had on the beach. Carter was bathing in the sand, and then he decided to take a quick dip in the ocean with all his clothes on...you'll see that in a sec.




The view from our table...


They loved going in the sharks mouth.

Just a tad wet. That's what happens when you fall face first into the ocean!

We had a great first day in Destin. I can already tell that two days wont be nearly enough!

Backyard Visitor

A few weeks ago we noticed we had a visitor in our tree in the backyard. We found a small dove with a nest full of two small eggs. We decided that she must not have scouted out her spot too well, since our backyard is like 'home run derby' every night. Not to mention, this tree is only about a year old and is very measly. We showed the boys and talked about how we had to be super careful not to hit the tree.

We've been giving her bread to eat, and keeping a watchful eye on the nest, thinking any day now we would see the babies. Well, today was the day! There are two fuzzy baby birds in the nest. I'm pretty sure she's wishing she'd made a bigger nest. They already look like they could fall out if the wind blows too hard.

Here's some pictures of our backyard visitors...

Spring Campout

****Note: I found this post in my folder that I had 'drafted' and forgotten about. This was from back in early March, but thought I'd give it it's moment in the limelight!****

This year for our annual Sunday School campout we went to Lake Whitney. It was a new experience for us, since this was our first time w/o our camper. We sold our old one just after the new year, and haven't found one since...so we were tent campers for the first time. We put the boys in a small tent and Day and I used a tent we borrowed from our friends the Smiths. The weather was beautiful and the fellowship was great! We had a lot of fun, but it sure is different now that so many of us have kiddos. It just makes for a lot more work and a lot more mess to clean up, more mouths to feed, more clothes to wash when you get home, more people to keep track of, and more toys to fight over share.

I think we might need a bigger table!

Pinata Time!

Conner takin' a wack at it!

Cooper rarin' back for a good swing!

Splashin' in the lake!



Trying to fly kites!

I just loved this pose from Conner. Such a ham!




The boys hangin' out by the fire.




Fishin'

Rock Throwin'

Rock Skippin'

The kids really did well overall and Cooper made a huge milestone while we were there. He's been talking for awhile about wanting to learn to ride his bike w/o training wheels, but since our first attempt, we just haven't taken the time to work on it any more. Well, Cooper made up his mind that he was going to take them off while we were camping. So the first chance he got, we took them off and he never looked back. In true Cooper form...he hopped on his bike and started riding like a pro. He did have some issues with starting and stopping, but mostly because his poor little legs are too short to reach the ground.

We are so thankful that we have a group of people that we can make memories with, that encourage us in our walk with the Lord and have seen us at our worst and love us anyway! I love the memories we are making with our family.

(By the way, in case you were wondering why Carter didn't make it into any of the pictures, its because my mother graciously offered to keep him with her for the weekend. We love ya Carter, but you're just not camping material quite yet!)

WE MISS MABRIE!

As many of you know, Conner and Mabrie are best buddies (in love and will be married upon their 30th birthdays, according to the contract that we've made with her parents!)

Unfortunately for us, Mabrie and her family have been in California for over three weeks while Mark has been working there. Conner had been making her pictures every so often since she'd been gone, so we decided to mail them to her. Carter made pictures for Allie and Cooper made a card for Mabrie too! We mailed it and waited for the news that they'd received them. Here are some pictures of their correspondence. Jenn was even nice enough to take a video of them opening their goodies and telling the boys thank you and that they missed them!

On our way to the mailbox.

Conner putting his letter in the mailbox.

Carter's turn.

And three short days later....

...there were smiles on two little girls faces.

This one is my favorite! I think she liked 'em!

Mission Accomplished!

Don’t hate me because I’m behind!

Okay, so yes...I'm behind on blogging AGAIN! My excusses are long and uninteresting, so I'll skip that part and go straight for the good stuff.

I'll start with Field Day! Cooper's field day was not what I expected, mostly because I was expecting it to be like our field days when I was a kid. Not so much anymore. Mostly, it was just random 'sports'ish games that required little skill nor brought any real compitition. There were no ribbons or awards to win, but the kids seemed to have fun none the less. The few things that were familiar were good ole' Tug of War and the Three Legged Race.

Cooper and his buddies...Jackson and Lathan.

Jumping Rope

Cooper & Jackson winning the Three Legged Race!

Carter taking a turn w/ the football.

"Hockey"

"Betcha Can't Guess"

Conner and Carter had a very scaled down version of field day at preschool. I came to get a few pictures of them in action. It was very cute watching them race each other and be so excited to finish. They did them by class so I didn't get any of them together.

Carter anxiously waiting for his turn.



...and he's off!

The ole' egg on the spoon race!

Looks like he found a faster way!

Two year olds and Tug of War, not a good combo!

Conner's ready with his egg.


He did really well!

Then the bean bag toss...his went next to the furthest.

Running his little heart out!

Three year olds and Tug Of War worked much better!

This post is long enough...stay tuned for more updates!