Hold Tight...

I did FOUR posts last night. Yes, four. I wrote them all and put them in my draft folder so that I could go back and add all of the pictures at once. Well, right after I saved them (thankfully) our power went out (we had ANOTHER thunderstorm--big surprise). Everything came back on pretty quickly...except our internet. A technician has to come out Tuesday to mess with it. I'm able to get online on Brian's laptop, but my pictures are on the PC, so I can't put my pics with my posts--well, not without a whole lot of effort. Anyway, hopefully, Tuesday you'll be able to read some updates on us...I know that you'll be on the edge of your seats until then!! Humor me and pretend you care.

Have a great weekend!!

The Perfect Weekend...

This weekend was the perfect summer weekend! We spent almost all of our time outside...doing just about everything that epitomizes summer! We grilled out, played in the pool and the sandbox, drew with sidewalk chalk, ate watermelon and popcicles...all kinds of things that made it the perfect weekend!
I know it's Father's Day weekend, but somehow, I ended up being the one getting treated!! First of all, Brian let me sleep in on Saturday morning while he picked up the house and wrangled with the kids, and then Saturday night we had a girls night out!! I got to go out to eat with some girls from church with NO KIDS!! WooHoo!! Again, I'm not sure how I managed that, but it was great!!! I did feel kind of guilty, it being Father's Day weekend and all, so I did make dinner before I left, and got them stuff to make banana splits while I was gone. Of course, Addie Grace thought that was just perfect!! When I got home, I did take over and do baths and read ten million stories and put them both to bed while Brian played xbox, so I guess that made up for a tiny portion of it!
My kids truly are blessed with a wonderful Daddy and I am so thankful that God chose him for us!! This weekend reminded me once again how blessed I truly am! Not because of what I was able to do, but because of who made me able to do it!!! I'm fortunate to have the kind of husband, and my children have the kind of Daddy, who constantly puts us before himself, and walks away saying that he is the lucky one!! Thank you for loving us and leading us!!! We love you!!
Also this Father's Day (and most every other day) I am thankful to my father-in-law for being such a wonderful father to Brian. I know that alot of the traits that I cherish in Brian and how he fathers my babies, were taught to him by Larry...and I am more thankful for that than he will ever know!!
And lastly, I have to say that I was truly blessed with the best father of them all! I am so thankful to my Daddy for always being an example of Christ to me. More important than any lesson his words have ever taught me, are the lessons that I have learned by him quietly leading me everyday...just by being who I know that he is. He has shown me over and over again his servants heart and he has shown me more than anyone I know how to walk towards God everyday...I know that no matter how old I am, I will always be able to look at him for direction as I try to follow God in my own walk and I am so thankful for that!!
I truly feel blessed beyond measure!! Happy Father's Day to my three favorite dads!!!
Here are some pictures from our weekend...

Sawyer is ONE!!

I can't believe that Sawyer is one today!! We've had a great day! A really long, but great day!! We started our morning playing in his new sandbox (thanks Nana!). He loved it! Today was his first time in, and he DID NOT want to get out. I think we'll be spending lots of time in there this summer. He tried to eat the sand a few times, so I guess we'll have to work on that.
Brian took off early from work and we spent our afternoon at the zoo. It was GREAT! The weather was perfect and we all had a great time!
After the zoo, we went to church tonight and then came home and Sawyer had his first ice cream cone. That was the final leg of our celebration...thank goodness!! We gave Addie Grace her first ice cream cone on her first birthday too. It's funny how different they are. Addie Grace loved it, but she was very slow taking each bite like she was savoring it. Sawyer loved it as well, but he couldn't get it into his mouth quickly enough! When we took Addie Grace's away, she didn't fuss or anything and there was barely anything to clean off of her. Sawyer...not so much. He SCREAMED when we took it away and he was covered in chocolate, so he had to go straight to the tub. I'm pretty sure he's going to be an ice cream aficionado like his Daddy!!
I have some video of Sawyer while my mom is singing Happy Birthday to him over the phone this morning that's really cute. I'm going to try and figure out how to get it posted on here tomorrow...then that will be the last you hear of his birthday I promise!!
Anyway here are some pictures from our fun day...

I'll close with my favorite two pictures of the day...I love these babies! Hope you all have a great evening!

the party that almost wasn't...

Oh, the drama of my life!! (Although, I do realize that this particular day that out of everyone involved, I was one that experienced the least amount of drama !!)
I had been bragging all this past week about how prepared I was for Sawyer's birthday party...uncharacteristically prepared admittedly, but nonetheless prepared.
Out of all the events that I have ever planned, I honestly think that this was the first time that I wasn't up until 2AM, the morning of the party, making a shirt, baking a cake, or doing something else ridiculous that should have been completed days or weeks earlier.
Sawyer's party was planned to start at 12:30. A little before noon, my sister Tami (who was coming from Nashville) called and said that they were about 30 miles away, but they might be a little late, because the sky looked really bad, like a big storm was coming. Fifteen minutes later she called back and said that traffic was completely stopped and that they were closing the interstates due to flooding, but not to worry, they would just figure out another route to make it the last little bit. Well, three attempted alternate routes, and 6+ hours of waiting it out...it never got any better and they had to turn around and go home!! YUCK!! We were so sad that they didn't get to be here, but we are very thankful that they finally made it out of the stinking storm and back home safely!
My mother-in-law and her sister also got stuck in the same mess and also had to wait it out. Finally, they ended up going to Louisville, getting a hotel room and then eventually making it here on Sunday! Hooray! We were all so happy when they finally made it!
My other sister, Tanya and her family came down on Saturday morning and they were closing the highway right behind them. Luckily, they made it by the skin of their teeth. Because of the flooding though, they had to leave earlier than planned to beat the cresting of the rivers so that their girls could leave for camp the next day. They had to travel around the world, but they eventually made it home safely too!
And to beat all of that Jill (Brian's sister who lives less than 10 miles from us) called around noon and said that they couldn't make it out of their neighborhood, so they didn't know if they would be able to make it!! They eventually did make it over for a little while later in the afternoon though.
Fortunately, my parents had come on Friday, so they didn't have any problems coming or going, so at least Sawyer will have two family members who won't look back on his first birthday and want to shoot us!!!
Anyway, back to the (pointless) preparedness...it was 12:15, we had the food grilled, the cake out, we were all ready for the party, but most of our guests were stranded elsewhere!! We went ahead and ate thinking that we would just do the cake thing after a few hours when SURELY they would have made it through the last 30 miles...yeah, well...we were wrong.
We FINALLY got to finish our party on Sunday. Although the situation was definitely less than ideal, Sawyer had a great time, and we feel very blessed that all of our family made it home and are safe and sound!
Here are some pictures of Sawyer's party...

Blessed...

Today we went to the nursing home to have a play group. It was really alot of fun. I loved watching Addie Grace interact with the patients...I know I'm her mother and I'm partial, but she has such a sweet little spirit and she just loves them. She loved talking to them and telling them about Butch...her little dog that she just had to take with her...and she loved even more that they appeared to be very interested!!
I can remember my mom taking me to the nursing home when I was little to visit. It really was such a blessing to me and I love that my kids are getting to do the same thing now...I am sooo glad that my friend Suzanne had the idea to have a play group there...isn't she smart??
Anyway, here are some pictures of our morning!



When I was explaining to Addie Grace where we were going, I seemed to keep coming back around to how sometimes the patients get lonely and how happy that they would be that she came to visit with them...however, as we were leaving, I couldn't help but feel that we were the ones that were blessed by getting to spend our morning with them!
It's been a great day and we're looking forward to going back in 2 weeks!!!

and he's off...

Well, not really but Sawyer did take his first steps today!! I don't have any great pictures to show, but luckily (not surprisingly) I had my camera handy, so although I didn't get a picture of his first step, I do have his second!


The more we tried to get him to take more steps, the less interested he became in the actual walking. It quickly became a game of him standing, watching us act like idiots cheering him on, him locking his legs and falling into Brian's arms, and then him wanting to do it all again!! Regardless of his lack of cooperation, we were pretty excited!
Also, we Jack-sat today. Here are a few shots of them playing in Addie Grace's castle. They would all disappear and this is how I would find them...

We moved the castle to the den so that I could keep a closer eye on them...they probably would have been safer in the dining room.
Here's the mishap of the castle's fall...


Jack's looking at me like, "uh, shouldn't you be saving your children instead of snapping pictures you crazy lady?!?"
I still didn't get any cute pictures of Sawyer and Jack together...I'll keep trying though, it really has become one of my top missions!
Hope you all had a great weekend!!