Looking Back June Edition

You can see how we started our month here.

Then we were boarding a plane and headed to Orlando for Family Vacation.

Breakfast in the Airport.

Our Magical Express B47.

They look way to grown up here chatting as we were waiting to check in

This was only the beginning of Golden Boys obsession with Guitar Hero. You could find him here if we were at the resort and not in the pool.

Day 1 in the park gave us a bit of a scare. This is what i said about this photo on Instagram: Holding tight after a scare where we lost him. He stuck by my Side for a good while after That, received lots of hugs and told me multiple times how much his heart still hurt after it all. He talks about it as the time he lost his family. learning lessons and good things to do when times like this happens. Growing up and still young and close. The ups and downs of growing up are hard but good. 

My hubby's Uncle came for some of the vacation. It was his first time in Disney. Be brought great snacks for the kids and adults and we all had a great time with him. We worked really hard to get him to stay one more day. He did and the morning that he decided to leave the girls made one last attempt to get him to stay. 

It was a whirl wind of a vacation but a lot of fun. There are so many pictures to go through and loads of laundry to do.

after we got back we were in need of phone change so my sweet hubby took care of all the details and this was the first photo i took with my new phone. my case is a mint green color which is pretty but not the color that i would have chosen originally. i knew she would like it though and she did.

we had a birthday party to celebrate

a baby shower to attend

served in childrens church on sunday morning

shoes are from Avarcas USA

and attended another birthday party

Golden boy went for a week with Bear and Honey and Little girl stayed with Papa and Granny so hubby and i headed for the mountains for a few nights. It was a pre-birthday celebration.

never put me in charge of the snacks. i came back with all the things. coke icee included. it's a must. i posted this on instagram: "Dear Burger King, we are so over you. You have let us down too many times. From US"

Our Cabin, Dancing in the Moonlight (the names of these cabins crack me up)

the view

enjoying the view

day 2 involved a jeep trip

we drove the 49 miles of the blue ridge parkway that we missed last summer. making it to the highest elevation on the parkway.

our 12 hour trip in The Wanderer. the Jeeps name couldn't be more perfect.

we too Golden Boy to see Solo

I love, love, loved it. My hubby was going to take him the week before and kept asking me if i wanted to go. i didn't really care either way. i knew i would eventually see it. i am so glad that he waited and i got to go and see it too.

here is what i wrote about my thoughts on it:  *Love learning all the small things that make him who he is. *Love how he got his name Han Solo. * Love how he and Chewie met. *Was worried I wouldn't like young Hans. (I mean Harrison Ford. Come on, he is epic and dreamy.) Young Han though, just as cocky and yep, dreamy. Way to go on finding young Han. *The music was fab. I loved hearing small bits of the original score running through the movie. *I have been wanting a pant suit (or maybe they are called jump suits, IDK) all I know is that I wanted one before I even saw this movie but after seeing Qi'ra in her's, YEP I want one. *oh and she is Lou from Me Before You. *Sawyer said the Millennium Falcon didn't look the same, he was right and I would have never noticed (it looked the same by the end of the movie though) *He also said he was pretty sure that who we thought was Darth Maul wasn't. (i'm going to trust him, he has watched the movies more that I have. he said there were things about him that weren't the same (the light saber being one for sure))

Pretty much, I really enjoyed the movie.

we had a game of monopoly going and the kids were out pretty quick. it rolled over into the next morning and i was so ready to just quit but my hubby said we were playing to the end. Money kept changing hands and there were multiple times when one of us were completely out of money and then would come back. I ended up winning the whole thing.

the last day of the month we were invited to some friends back yards for a Summer Backyard bash

I said friends and yards because their two back yards but up against one another.

they have a gate between the yard so we could go between either yard to chat and hang out and for the kids to play. 

this is their second year to have this, we missed last years with all of our traveling. 

i am so glad that we were able to make it and hang out with everyone. the kids had a great time and so did we.

Shelved

We bought those two book shelves when we moved into our house 11 years ago. 
My parents told us they were bringing us their book shelves fathers day weekend. They are wooden bookshelves that survived Katrina in the New Orleans court house. They are way bigger than our other ones. 

My dad and mom Helped us set up and anchor the shelves after listening to Michael and I marriage squabble about how to set them up.
 

That TV is just for the playstation. 
That window frame has photos of all of our grandparents wedding pictures (minus one because we couldn't find one of my paternal grandparents) each of our parents wedding pic and us. It came down because it wouldn't be centered anymore but I've had it for 16 years so it's going back somewhere. 

We are hoping to repaint so the big putty spot where dad busted the sheet rock but patched it for me will be covered.
The Lego table will be gone soon. 😢 he just doesn't play with them anymore. I'm not sure why we ever chose that track lighting but since an ugly chandelier was there when we bought the house anything was better. We debated about a fan but decided on a school house light. 

And when we get a new entertainment center for the other side of the room, we will move that one between the book shelves because it matches better. This current one was a $10 Craig's list find but is in pretty rough condition. 
Wow that was a lot. 
There's still a lot to do. 
One step at a time. 

But first....ALL.THE.LEGOS

8 is great

She lives with a song in her heart

Is full of joy

Loves BIG

enjoys life

Happy birthday beautiful girl, you can do amazing things.

8 is great

Hair washed and cut

Making cupcakes out of her new cook book

Looking Back May Edition

Earlier this month we got to go to a small recital for Little girl. She has been in a 12 week piano course after school and learned a few songs during that time.

Her class also did a Wax museum project too. They each had to pick someone who was a leader and learn more about them. Since Little girl loves gymnastics all three of her choices were gymnasts. She ended up deciding on Simone Biles. She had to make a project board or diorama. She also had to memorize her part about Simone Biles. I was so proud of her. She worked on memorizing it and never looked at her notes about it once. 

One of my favorite things about how this was set up was that there was a play button at each station for the students. you can see her presentation below. It was really noisy with other kids doing their presentation down the hall and people watching them.

Her teacher also does this with the kids every year.

I love the way her teacher teaches the kids and shows them love. She had each one of them write about their favorite part of them. There were a ton of different things and reasons. I love her confidence here. I never want her to be prideful or conceited but there are so many girls who don't like the way God has made them. I pray that she always sees herself as beautiful. Just as God has made her.

My sister and brother in law had the chance to go to London for over a week and my mom went to keep her two boys. We went down for one night. We got to hang out with them and play. We also got to go to the little's tball game and eat at a yummy pastry place.

Little girl wasn't the only one to have performances this month. Golden boy had his class recorder program this month as well. I would post the performance but since there are other kids in the video i don't feel right about posting it. lets just say that it was way better then i could have imagined. they did such a great job with stage presence and learning the music.

On May 22 my Nana in law celebrated her Birthday in heave. Little girl asked last year if we could send her a balloon. I noticed that i had a note about buying a balloon on two of my calendars. I was out the night before and bought one. Then that morning i had them write her a little note and we released it to. it was sweet and a good way to keep her memory alive since my kids both have memories of her.

He makes parenthood fun. Sure, there are challenges but choosing to focus on the good stuff like watching him read (or look at pictures as he says but can then spout off football stats that had to come from reading) or his arms around my neck (at school, in front of all his friends) there are struggles but the good surely does out weigh them. Here we are waiting to go back to be fitted for new hearing aids. 

Here are a few other posts about our hearing aid journey

ears

tigger ears

Lost another tooth too

He is 10 and lost tooth #10

10 more left and then all big teeth

i'm not sure i can handle the teeth falling out.

stop the growing up

a post from when he got his first tooth

post from when he lost his first few teeth

we headed to the lake the weekend of Memorial day were Golden boy got to fish, fish, fish. he only caught one but was determined 

they both got the tube. Little girl was way more interested in tubing. Big brother went along. (remember he just wanted to fish)

And we ended the month with the anticipation of a new year. 

The count down is on. In just a few hours she goes from being 7 to 8. 7 has been a challenging year. A growing year for all of full us. A figuring some things out kind of year. I think it will also be one I look back on and smile. This girl is full if great things. If you take the time to look, see, know her.....your life will be greatly blessed.

16 years

we spent year 16 at my parents lake house.

we had coffee and breakfast then headed to the beach at the lake.

the kids tubed there and then there was sand digging with daddy.......

fishing with Bear.....

mud treatment spa time.............

i even got one.....

hanging out with my mom...........

we played ate lunch, Ticket to Ride and headed home sweet home.............

Day 5,844

and ate pizza in the van on the way home.

it wasn't a glamorous anniversary but was a great one.

time to hang out with family and have fun.

check out the link below (2017) to see us at day 1.

2017

#andylastdays

It may only be small changes but I see them. After today I will have a 5th grader and a 3rd grader.

looking back:

2017

2015

2014