BClan Reunion

Yesterday was our annual BClan reunion at Heath's house.  As always, it was a lot of fun getting to visit and catch up with Cory's high school buddies. 

 

We got there a little later than usual because we came straight from Parker's All Star tournament.  Parker's team made it to the championship game and we just couldn't miss it!  They won the game and Parker couldn't wait to show off his first place trophy!

All of the guys except for Scott and Bart were able to make it this year.  Britt's son got sick and they had to leave before we could get the annual picture of the guys.

The kids swam until after dark while the adults ate, visited and enjoyed shooting off fireworks.  I didn't take a lot of pictures but we had a great time spending the day with lifelong friends!  It is definitely a day we look forward to every year!  Thanks again, Heath, for offering to host such a fun day!

VBS at FUMC

The kids just finished up a very fun week of VBS at the Methodist church.  The children's director, Mr. Reed, always does a fabulous job and makes it so fun for the kids!  Lily was so excited that she was old enough to go this year with Parker and Eden. 

Lily and Eden's group leaders were friends of mine and they were so sweet to take some pictures of the girls for me during the week. 

The kids always look forward to Mr. Reed's VBS and this year definitely didn't disappoint!  They had a great week learning about God and how much he loves them!

Happy 16th Anniversary

We celebrated 16 years of marriage today!

16 years of ups and downs.

16 years of highs and lows.

16 of joys and sorrows.

16 years of sickness and health.

16 of laughter and tears.

16 years of memories!

I wouldn't trade the last 16 years for anything and look forward to the next 16. 

And the next 16. 

And the next 16!

 

We celebrated our anniversary with a fantastic dinner at Eddie V's.  They serve steak and seafood so Cory and I were both happy!  Every bite was absolutely delicious and I can't wait to go back! 

Please ignore the fact that they misspelled "Anniversary"!  It tasted so good that we were easily able to ignore that!

 Thanks Cory for all that you've done for me the past 16 years!  I love you more than words can say!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to the best daddy in the world! 

 

We spent the day at Parker's baseball tournament.  When I apologized to Cory for not getting to do anything fun today, he said there is nothing he'd rather be doing than spending the day watching Parker play.   

Cory is such a fun, patient, selfless, dedicated daddy to these three!  They really don't know how lucky they are to have him in their lives!

 We love you Cory and we hope you know how much we appreciate all that you do for our family!

Happy Birthday to Me!!

Yesterday Emily and I celebrated our 37th birthday! We celebrated on Tuesday night with our 3rd annual birthday trip to the Rangers game.  We could not have asked for better weather for the game... high 80's with a little breeze.  This was Lily's first year to get to come and she did great!  I think her favorite part was the escalator up to our seats! 

We painted all of the girl's fingernails red, white, and blue to show our Rangers spirit!

Ryan was going to stay home but because of a last minute babysitter issue, he got to come too!  He got a little restless towards the end but overall did a lot better than we had expected!

On the night of our birthday, my mom offered to watch all the kids so we could enjoy a double date for our birthday.  Meredith and Craig ended up getting to join us at the last minute so we ended up on a very fun triple date!  We had a great time at dinner and even enjoyed a little birthday shopping after dinner! 

37 is off to a great start and I'm looking forward to seeing what's in store for me this year!  I'm thankful that I got to spend my special day with the ones I love the most!



May Recap/ Photo Dump

May was a fast and furious month!  It seemed like we had something to do every day so I was happy to see it come to an end!  June has started out busy too but at least school is over and we can sleep in a little bit!

 

At the end of every grading period, one student from each class is picked to be the "Heads Above the Crowd" student.  It is a big honor to be chosen and we were so excited when we found out that Addison had been selected for her class.  We all went to cheer her on as she received her award!  She has done such a great job in kindergarten this year and was truly deserving of this honor!

Parker was the top AR reader in first grade this year.  He read over 250,000 words and earned a trip to a Rangers game with all of the other Word Wizards from our school! It was a hot day but we had a great time cheering for our Rangers!

Emily and Jon are almost finished with their new house and will be moving in next month.  We drive out to the land about once a week to see the progress and let the kids play.  Their favorite thing to do is play in the dirt!  They keep themselves busy and entertained for hours running around and digging.  They are going to be very disappointed when Jon finally plants some grass in the yard!

Parker and his friends enjoyed their first grade field trip to Pirates Cove.  They had a blast playing in the waterpark all day!

You know it has been a busy week when Lily falls asleep in random places.  She actually fell asleep like this two days in a row so we knew she was exhausted!

May was a fun month but we are looking forward to summer finally being here so we can be lazy, sleep in, and swim as much as we want! 

Last Day of School

It's hard to believe that another school year has come and gone!  Parker is officially finished with first grade and is headed to second grade!  He had a fantastic year with a great teacher and lots of friends!

 

He has changed and matured so much from the first day of school.  I'm so proud of how hard he has worked this year and how much he has learned. He is an amazing reader and I'm so thankful that he loves to read! 

I can't wait to get our summer started!  I'm ready for no homework or packing school lunches and lots of sleeping in, swimming, and playing with cousins/friends!  And I'll try not to think about the fact that when school starts again, I'll have TWO kids in school! 

End of Year Speech Party

Last Wednesday was Eden's end of the year speech party.   She had such a great year in speech and made so much progress with both her articulation and grammar.  We could not have done it without our amazing speech therapist, Mrs. Courtnay. 

Anyone who attends speech at Gerard was invited to the speech party.  With that many kids, I was worried that Eden might get overwhelmed, but she did great!  She was so brave and sat by herself while Mrs. Courtnay read a story to the group.

After the story, it was time for ice cream sundaes!!  Eden enjoyed eating her ice cream with her friend Grace.  Grace was in Eden's preschool class and she came to speech at the same time as Eden.

Once the ice cream was eaten, the kids got a chance to play on the playground.  Mrs. Courtnay also brought some special toys and games for them to play with.  Eden's favorite was the EZ Steppers, which are basically cups that you can walk on.

Finally, Eden received her speech award for working so hard this year.  She has made so much progress this year that she will probably graduate out of speech in kindergarten.  We are so proud of how far she has come and are so thankful for everything Mrs. Courtnay has done for Eden.  It was a fun afternoon celebrating all of her progress!

Aunt Emily has been working part time as a speech therapist in our district the past few months.  Eden was thrilled that   Mrs. Courtnay asked her to come help at the speech party.  She loves her Aunt Emily so much!