Remind You of A Certain 3Yr Old?

Sweetness and Good Visitin'

Our new homeschool reading chair also works for sweet snuggling...

Bebe and the Links came to visit at the end of June. We enjoyed the time with both and the rare overlap. :) It was a nice relaxing time and we even decided last minute to all go out to Outback one night for dinner...thoroughly enjoyable even with 5 kiddos :).

Sam took care of Garner's bill :)

Before the blazing heat set in, we hit the park one morning. Garner's first time swinging...she loved it :)

We fill up the park swings...love :)

June pics ready and up :)

Best Daddy Ever

Father's Day Lunch. LOVE.

Reunion-izing

Natural Bridge...such a special place to B's fam and the place we meet for his family reunion each year. I love it there and love all of the memories it holds for B and the memories we are making there for our kids.

This was our first trip with three kids in a hotel. We couldn't have asked for better sleeping. Thank You, Lord! Had to wake Garner Saturday for the day's activities!

That morning, we enjoy Breakfast with the Old & Rare...there's a story to that, and to most everything involved in the weekend. It's part of what makes it so special. :) B and the kids headed there...

Always afterwards, there's a family pic at the big bear and fun playing with all the novelty items in the gift shop. We let the kids pick something as long as it's under $5. This year we enjoyed Greer bringing countless items to us, asking each time, "How much dollars is this?" She settled on a purple sparkly butterfly ring and a purple butterfly note pad with a purple furry pen. Perfect choice. (I thought it was a pretty impressive combination for her to put together for $4.98 actually.)

On to Cave Mountain Lake...hanging out in the grass, looking for tadpoles, playing a little baseball, swimming etc. All in one :)

In the pavilion, we hear from Uncle Bill, eat, enjoy the story-telling contest, eat, sing, eat, enjoy a variety show, eat, do some silly dancing (as seen below), eat, dance the Virginia reel and eat. :)

The crew this year...missing a few :(

The matriarch and patriarch, Aunt Ginny & Uncle Bill. Love them SO much. One of my and B's favorite memories is of a weekend we spent with them at their beautiful place in PA. I so wish we could have more time like that with them.

Heading back to the hotel...oh Greer!

Can't be there without making a quick visit next door to the dinosaur forest!

Sunday morning at Granny Tolley's. Feels like home.

A baseball glove in hand and a barbie in his back pocket...the Dad life :)

And it happens every year...less than an hour on the road after a busy and fun weekend.

Love this time every year...it's what family is all about.

Atlanta

We rounded out May with an Atlanta visit to Slade and Jessica's...great to see them and Bebe and a few friends too! Wish we would've done a better job of grabbing the camera :(

Getting ready for bed...oh, the Garner love :)

We met up with the Johnsons for dinner...super cute kids and 2 boys who are gonna be great big brothers to their soon-to-be baby sis!

Love these boys...twin friends :). They always have the best (and silliest) time!

Some pool time! I am so sad that I didn't get pics of Aunt Gretch or our sweet friends, the Summers who joined us. Briana is one of my oldest and greatest friends...so love her and her family! Garner was great about going with the flow and caught a nap out there with Bebe. Love that good snuggling...

A cute shot of the crew...hard to get Gehr to pause for a pic. He loves the pool this year! It's nice to be past the learning how to swim stage and on to the game playing etc that I remember as a kid. :)

Getting ready to head home...love you guys!

May pics are done and up, yay!

Our May Link Visit

Cute and matchy :)

Pool time!

Playtime in the front yard :)

She truly loves my kids like I do...and plays with them like they are hers. So blessed to have her in our lives :)

Meanwhile...reading and talking over in the shade...

Breakfast the last morning...

Classic Greer!

She makes me smile... and laugh! :) :) :)

And the new favorite dressup for Mads...

So thankful for a good, relaxing, playtime, birthday, first-time-in-the-new-house visit with our besties. Love you guys :)

6th Birthday

His last night being 5...

I. love. this. boy. He is truly such a joy, so generally pleasant and easy-going. Incredibly smart and loves to learn. His favorite subjects (especially after the last year of co-op) are art and geography. And he still loves music and jams nightly to great contemporary Christian tunes. For the past month or two, he has started going with us to "big church" at his request. For this mama, it's just weird that we're finally at that place where he's safe (behavior-wise) to be in grown up situations. It seemed so far away when he was a baby. :)

His heart is kind and honest and oh so tender. His favorite place to be is at the field with his daddy and he doesn't miss a detail. He loves his buddies and sports and nerf guns. He is super silly and has learned the art of making noises with his armpits and under his knees. :) And he has definitely turned into a "growing boy" who wants to eat ALL the time! He is a follower of rules and loves routine and knowing what the plan for the day is. He doesn't enjoy running errands and counts down until we're done.

He does the big brother thing so well...Garner lights up when she sees him and we love to hear the big Gs laughter when they're playing together. He loves the Lord and doesn't miss a day reading His Word. (The Action Bible rocks!) We are so thankful for the gift that he is to us. Despite the craziness the past few months have been, his birthday turned out really well. :)

Birthday day! Aunt Gretchen sent him a new wii game...the girls like to cheer him on!

Present time from the fam...

He asked for a globe :)

For a party this year, we took some friends to the local minor league game and let him have his first sleepover. Three of the friends met us at the house to ride down to the game. Oh the silliness that ensued! The car rides there and back may have been my favorite part. I loved hearing their jokes and did well not correcting the boys' inevitable references to potty words :).

Add one :)

Walking up...man, they look big.

Ballfield food.

And they're all there. Gehrig seriously has such a great group of friends. So thankful for them and their families!

For some reason, it is super easy to imagine them as teenagers in this picture. I hope they are all friends still then!

So much fun!

Glad it's still fun to hang out with Mom & Dad :)

A girl working there asked if the boys would play a guessing game between innings...Gehrig's friend, Davis, agreed and guess the right batter to win the whole stadium some free Wendy's!

Bottom of the ninth...the game went into extra innings but we didn't stay since it was already late. They ended up losing after 11. :(

They filled up the back of the land cruiser...

Bedtime! We fully expected to have someone want to go home but no one did. They had a great time and slept really well.

The next morning...loved hearing them describe the good guys and bad guys during the nerf wars :)

So fun to have a house full of boys for a night and once again thankful for great friends for Gehr. (And it was the easiest party ever for us to plan!) Happy birthday buddy...you sure are getting big.