My favorite princess

She came to visit the zoo y'all!

All things pink.

Photo Dump from the iPhone.

New cousin to play with at our playground.

She loves the Cochrans and we love her!

All smiles with Aunt Kitty!

Yes.

We went there.

Hospital selfies with my kiddos while visiting my mother in law last fall.

Get Your Pink On race at WES.

It's a rental

Leigh Leigh comes to visit a lot since she moved to NC.

We love having her visit.

It is a lot of fun, she brings cool rental cars, and she makes us laugh.

Occasionally, we have car parties in the driveway!

Pool Date

I am determined to catch up on life/blog this month.

Here's a cousin swim date this summer.

Love them!  

Hayes and Elizabeth both took ACTUAL swim lessons this summer and they both learned how to swim really well.  I was thrilled to see them progress and learn how to handle themselves in water.

Amber

In case you wanted to know what 15 years of friendship looks like...

2 years in a college dorm.

3 marriages--2 are mine.

4 cities... those are hers....

5 kids--3 for me and 2 for her.

a handful of forgotten messages and a couple of random thoughts.

a few road trips to see concerts and boys that we shouldn't have....

during college... not recently.

And finally, a reunion in NC while traveling.

Funny, God has awesome plans that are so much better than our own.

Shortly after our visit Amber called me and couldn't speak because she was so distraught.

Come to find out, her mom was really sick and she needed to come to GA to be with her immediately.  I offered our home for her and her family as long as they needed it.  She came and stayed with us for a whole week.  I got to cook and entertain the children and help.  It was lovely.  Catching up with an old friend is so much fun.

Sadly, her mother passed away about a week after she left and went back to NC.  I was able to be with her again and enjoy her family along with her dad!  I'm so grateful for a relationship that picks up where it left off, no matter the distance or time or space or life that gets between it.  God was able to use our bizarre reunion for a connection that was needed.  

I love my friends.

NC 3

Yes, we took a trip in June.  I'm aware that it is November.  Judge me.

I've been busy and I'm just getting caught up.

Its fine.

Please note Libby's expression and pose.  Professional...

Ohmystars--I love baby girl's grin!

The Fireman's Museum was so neat!

The whole entire city of New Bern burnt to the ground at some point in time.  The museum outlined the whole story and gave us some insight into how difficult it was the get the flames under control and finally extinguished.  The older equipment was amazing to look at and see in person!

Take 2... Take 57.... #willshouldnotbeinchargeofthecameraever

I was blessed with two baby sisters.

God saw fit to give me a few more soliders in my sibling army, but these girls are the originals.

Bless them.

They have been my little sisters for 30 and 26 years.

I wouldn't want to do life along with ANYONE else.

Both of them happened to marry really fantastic guys.

Occasionally we get to enjoy time together!

This dinner was a FIRST for all of us and it was awesome!

I so enjoy spending time with the guys and the girls too!

The conversation was interesting and the laughter never stopped.

After dinner we ventured off to dessert....

And we asked Sir William Pitts to come take our photo.

There were about 90 pictures that looked like this one below... before we got to the ONE shot that looked acceptable.

Just one shot.

most of them look like this...

Man, I love these people.

V town

Clearly, summer isn't my prime time to blog.  I guess I'm too busy from May-August to actually sit and do this.  We are actually living and going and doing.  Sitting down to blog would require quiet time and nobody talking to me or needing me to be the referee or asking me for a snack.  

Not happening.  

So we visited Vidalia in April for The Onion Festival.

A good time was had by all.

Hayes searched for 'the mysterious red deer' while we were on our safari.

Libby enjoyed time with 'the girl cousins and Emma's mom' while we visited.

Spencer climbed stuff she wasn't supposed to and ate chalk.

The best thing about a 4 month delay on publishing these entries is that Spencer has SO much hair now!

Still working on my pirate face.

I'll get it before he turns 6...

Bikes and sleepover.

Forgive me...

I've done a picture purge on my phone, which means I'm documenting the millions of photos that I should have shared about 5 months ago.  

Like this...

Sean got a 'new to him bike' and drove it from Vidalia to D'ville.

He wrecked it less than 4 miles from our house.

Drove for 3 hours before he put it down.

After that, I picked Kendall up from the hospital and let Bethany give Sean the stink eye...

Poor Sean.  Except, not really.

Kendall apparently doesn't ever fall asleep.

Ever.

Everyone was shocked when she managed to pass out with Libby in her bunk bed without any assistance from any adults.  She sure did!  Granted, she took a bit longer than the Cochrans, but she made it asleep and I documented it for proof.  She's a sweet girl.  We were honored to have her and so grateful that Sean was okay.

Great Grands

There are a lot of things that my Granny taught me.  There are a lot of things we did WITH her and my Pop that are special.  I don't remember one single thing she ever bought me for Christmas.  Ever.  Or even my birthday.  I do remember that she taught me about money and how to save and spend.  She showed me how to write a check and how to balance my check book.  She taught me too many recipes to even recall.  Her love is huge.  Her heart for God is huge.  Her passion about others knowing Jesus is amazing.  I love her more than words can possibly even say.  I love that my people get to see her and love on her.  I believe they were discussing how to read a watch at this moment in time.  She probably taught me that too.  We stopped by after church for a really quick visit.  

We got in a good visit with June and Percy.  I am so thankful that they aren't too far away.

And well, she had fun too.

Mysterious Red Deer

While in Vidalia,you visit the wild animals.

And no, I don't mean our relatives....

We spent the afternoon after the arts and crafts festival visiting some exotic wildlife.

Goats.

This really cool bird.

Some cows from Africa.

The females all have horns!

And this boy.

He was fascinated with the tour guide and how he referred to some of the deer on the property as the 'mysterious red deer' and he kept reminding us that we were on the lookout for those deer!  

Walkers for Life

This sweet girl got to go visit my sweet grandmother while she was in recovery at the hospital.  Spencer had the very best time walking up and down the hall with Grandma's walker.  Who knew those things were multigenerational?  I had no idea.  I'm not sure who was more pleased, Grandma or Spencer... either way... It was awesome.  

Hakuna Matata

A week before I went to have Spencer Brynne at the hospital I took Hayes to see THIS!  Mom was able to get tickets for us to go and enjoy this fantastic show.  We had dinner at Chick fil A on the way into the city and then we met Buddy and Leigh Anne at The Fabulous Fox theatre.  Hayes was thrilled to see those two and just as excited to see the show!  He was totally convinced that the large truck below transported those 'animals' back to the zoo once they were done with the show.

He loved the sign outside the theatre and talked about it several times after we left.

I am so thankful that I was able to have some one on one time with Hayes before we had a baby girl.  The look on his face once those 'animals' came to life inside the theatre was amazing.  I know it brought me to tears!  It was super special that we got to share that time with Leigh Anne and Buddy!  If you've never seen that show, do yourself a favor and GO NOW.  It was one of the best shows I have ever seen and my 4 year old LOVED it!

Shades

There is nothing like a Saturday stroll with these two kiddos and their shades.  Stolen shades, of course...

My sisters were so kind as to take them out for a walk twice last weekend.  We had major work to do at my house to get ready for the bridal shower and bachelorette party.  (by the way... bachelorette is not a real word that spell check recognizes.... so we should use something else?)  My kids enjoyed a walk twice in one weekend, even if they did complain and ask to go home a million times... and I certainly enjoyed the quiet moments at home.  Friday night they rode along with their own glasses and Saturday morning they forgot their glasses.  Apparently they conned their aunts into giving up their glasses for the remainder of the ride.  

Typical.