Ok, ONE more to finish May :)

Although weather and sickness tried to interfere, we finally got on the road to visit Mammaw and Pots at the farm in late May.  It turned out great and was a fun day!

I'm one!

Playing on the farm...so fun having that time with Mammaw.  We all loved it!

She is not afraid to hold some animals...

Meanwhile, Garner loved having time with her favorite animal, Breezy.  Such a good, laid-back pup!

Garner cracked us up trying to make the computer screen respond to her touch.  They learn so quickly :).

And some randoms from home...first, cute cracking up at Tex Avery funnies on YouTube:

And then, Greer decided to decorate her sister.  Goodness gracious!

An example of the card that accompanies presents (pezit) that Greer puts together for Madi all the time.  Sweet and giving as much as she is mischevious!

Such a sad face when rainy weather cancelled her swimming lesson...had a lot of rare rainy days this summer! :(

Playing in a fan fort with Dada

And whew!  Finishing up some working out with Mama :).  She is so cute watching and trying to copy the moves.

Ok, next up...JUNE!  :)

BanjoBQue

So fun to have a combo family/friends fun weekend for the Memorial Day holiday at BanjoBBQ.  Our awesomely talented bud, Chris, did mucho work putting the bluegrass festival/BBQ cookoff together, featuring his great graphic design for logos etc.  We all had a blast hanging out with their fam and Papa & Rosie who came to visit for the weekend!

Annalise and Greer took advantage of their backstage comforts, coloring in the AC.

And then, all the kiddos filling up water guns to help beat the heat...

That's a BIG green egg!

They were enthralled by the pig races :).  (I was too!)

Homemade "banjos"

Greer and Dada coloring on the sidewalk...

My Babygirl enjoys the stage and an audience and dancing and any form of dressup...including a cowboy hat borrowed from sweet Sarah.  She had such a great time "performing" to the bluegrass tunes :).   (See videos below for the performance itself :))

One of our faves...

Papa is so good with our kiddos :)

Love this picture of us with Papa and Rosie :). (Garner was home in bed with a sitter.)

Our sweet buddies, the Ruckers :))

Finished the night up with fireworks and some pics...fun was had by all!

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! :)