Links and Friends

Our May visit with the Links was fun and friend-filled. :)  First with the Pierceys...

Sweet girls

And Sam is already keeping up with Gehrig's love of all things football and baseball :)

Had a little sno-cone treat after dinner...

Sure do love these babies!

We started day 2 with some swimming lessons and an attempt at a fun swim too at our sweet neighbor's house.  It was still too cool, so they mostly just jumped on the their trampoline :)

Some chit-chatting time for Sam and Garn...

And more friends on day 2...the Bailey girls visited for the afternoon!

And some fun dinner pics...

The girls got the babies playing so we could leave them with a sitter to head to Gehrig's baseball game. Such a great night all the way around.  :)  Matt joined us later for birthday cake for Jenn too (we conveniently seem to always be around to enjoy this with them!).

Another great visit in the books...love y'all!

The Yearly Turning

When he was still 6...for a few more hours:

And then he did it again...added another year to his age and subtracted another year from the total that he will be home with us.  As they get older, more growny and self-sufficient, it really does seem that the time goes faster and faster.  It makes me so thankful for the extra time I get with him now homeschooling.  I love learning with him, watching how his mind works and having sweet conversations that I didn't have written in the lesson plans for the day.  It's hard to believe we have already finished a whole year.

So, what's he like at 7?  Still so conscientious, detail-oriented and smart, compliant and amazingly patient and sweet with his sisters.  We're working on some Phil 2 and thinking of others before ourselves and starting to really make plans for chores and being more involved helping around the house.  He LOVES baseball and football...and has spent multiple 12+hr days at the field with his daddy this summer.  And when he's home, he takes advantage of our empty dining room and uses it to play wall ball...sometimes I'm sure that I will go to sleep hearing that thumping in my head!  He is obsessed with the Braves and goes to bed listening to them on his radio when they have night games.

Oh!  And how could I forget his love for sports logos?!  His daily request is that we print team logos from the internet for him to cut out and practicing drawing...college football and MLB mainly.  They are pretty impressive!  So glad he will be able to get more practice and instruction this fall in Jen's art classes.  All in all, I would say that his favorite things are sports, art, music, Bible, history and geography.

He is social like his mama and daddy, loving any opportunity to play with his buddies.  I'm so grateful for the amazing group of boys that the Lord has blessed him with as friends.  It's been fun to have a little more freedom this summer for playtime.  He has started his own quiet times and asks every night during prayer time that God will help him to love Him more and spend more time in the Word.  He has an amazing memory and loves comparing anything we read in Scripture with the awesome pictures in his Action Bible.  It has truly implanted images from the Bible that I know he will never forget.  I pray that his life is devoted to the Lord, standing firm in this crazy world and seeking to know and follow Him with all of his heart.


Gehr, we love you so much and are so proud of you...it has been one of our greatest blessings to be your mom and dad.  Looking forward to another really fun year! :)

Gehrig's Birthday Fun

To celebrate Gehrig's birthday (which I realize was over a month ago...I only catch up to get behind again!), he wanted to have his buddies over to play some football.  Super low-key and lots of fun!

Getting everybody's flags on...

All the boys hopped in with B to ride to the field down the street.

Super sweet and silly crew :)

Let the games begin!

They were so fast!

Jen stayed to help and keep me company :)

Sisters were there too :)

Never a dull moment with her silliness!

Jen and Greer played and raced while the rest played football...

About a month later, Greer told me, "Be-member that day we played football in the field and Mrs. Rucker was there?  She told me she loved me."  Melt. My. Heart.  Thanks for making such a loving impression on my daughter's heart, Jen!

And climbing in for the ride back!

This may have been their favorite part!

Transferring the playtime to our backyard...

And the grill master and proud dada...love :)

Yum!

Sorry for the sideways pic...Gehr doesn't like cake, so we did a cookie cake for dessert.

And some fun gifts!

Gentry spent the night and helped Gehr with his new legos...they did a great job!

And she wanted to pose for a pic too...couldn't resist.

Sign of a fun time...a rare nap for our getting-bigger-by-the-second sweet boy.  More about him and his new digits soon...