Look...my first Fudgesicle!!

Piper with her fudgesicle
The sisters with their fudgesicles
YUM YUM!!

Can I have another please?!?!

Today Piper fell in love with Fudgesicles. She ate every bite...well except what ended up on her face, arms, and chest!! Tomorrow we welcome our new niece and cousin Brooklynn. My sister is going in for a scheduled C-Section in the morning. Pray that there are no complications and that mommy and baby come out just perfect!! Will post pictures tomorrow, till then, love to you all.

Busy Busy Weekend

Over the weekend Ali's team had a state tournament in Hendersonville. They finished 4th. Not where we wanted to be but, still good out of the number and level of teams present. Also, we attended my BFF's wedding. Vivian and Bob were married at Oakland Mansion and it was absolutely beautiful. Daniel Carr did the ceremony and it was one of the best services I have seen. The reception was so much fun with the kids dancing all night and consuming enough candy to feed an army from the Candy-Bar. The cake Viv chose was a watermelon cake that was fabulous and her dress and flowers just perfect. I don't think things could have gone any better. My only complaint was that Ali had another ballgame to go back to so my sweet husband left the reception to run Ali all the way to Hendersonville for her 9pm game so that I could stay and celebrate with my friend. Thanks again honey for being so thoughtful and once again putting me before yourself. Your thoughtfulness does not go unnoticed or unappreciated. I love you!!!

No More Seats in the Van

I love days where there are no more seats available in the van. I really think we should invest in a short bus so that I can transport more kids. My BFF Vivian had to run some errands so all of her kids came over. She has the twins Kylie and Peyton that are a year older than Maveric and he loves them. Then she has Bryson who is a few months younger than Josh and older than Ali. Our kids play so well together and all love each other so its really fun when they can come over. Josh and Savannah were not here yesterday so we had enough seats in the van to actually go somewhere. They played here at the house all morning and I asked them if they wanted to go to lunch somewhere and they all voted for Chuck E Cheese. Everybody had a great time, ate lots of pizza, played lots of games and got enough tickets for lots of cheap prizes. Here are some pics...

This picture is really funny because I said, "Ali let me get a picture of you and Bryson together"

Batting Cages

Bailey batting
Ali batting

Piper sweating!

Maveric with all of his trinkets!

Savannah and Josh are not home today, so Ali decided that we would call Bailey to meet us at Grand Slam. The girls had a great time in the batting cages and in the jumping basketball shooting game. Maveric was pleased to spend $2.00 getting prizes out of a machine. Piper spent her time sweating and wondering why God put her in this family:) It wasn't that bad for her, she got to eat Cheetos so she was happy!

Where's the fun?

Today we went on a field trip with much fun in mind! We were going to go to the Farmers Market downtown and then play in the fountains at Bicentennial mall. I had never done this before, but had heard that it was a really fun trip to make. All of our kids, plus Bailey and myself headed downtown, and I didn't know where to park. We end up parking in the wrong place realizing it after I fill the meter up with money. Perhaps it was to save the car in front of me from a ticket, their meter was expired so I filled it up too. A policeman helps us to realize where we need to be, we head back to the car, load everyone up and park in the appropriate spot. At the Farmers Market everyone is hungry and ready for lunch, and of course the only place that they want to eat doesn't take check cards. So I have to go to an atm that is not our bank, pay the outrageous fee for getting money, and get everyone lunch. We then went to get some fresh fruit, the peaches were awesome. Then they all wanted to get in the fountains. We walked out to the fountains which are going and everyone runs toward them just as they go off...no water. The city worker comes over to us and lets us know that they are getting them ready to run for the summer. What? It is the middle of June? Are you kidding. We then pack up the disappointed kids and headed to the library where we heard the international puppet festival is going on. I filled the same parking meter back up with money and head in for the puppet show from China. We get to the door and the lady says, "I'm sorry, the show just started so I can't let you in now." So, I take the again disappointed kids upstairs to a smaller outdoor puppet show. The kids find a seat on the carpet and of course an obnoxious brat finds a seat right in front of our kids. He is turned around waving his balloon animal in their faces, trying to take Josh's mini skateboard, up and down, on his knees talking...UGGH! And his Mommy is watching this behavior and does nothing! Piper decides she is not into this at all, so I take her to the side and attempt to keep her from climbing into the fountain. When its over, I ask the kids if they all want to go get a snow cone outside to make the day a little better. The disappointed kids are now all excited and we rush out to the snow cone stand, only to find it closed for the day!! Oh well, I tried, but the fun just escaped us that day.

Eating Chinese @ Farmers Market

Playing on the rails instead of in the fountins

Waiting for the puppet show to begin...before the obnoxious brat showed up!

Group shot in front of the fountain that Piper was trying to swim in.

Another Fun Day!

Okay yesterday was so much fun we went to the zoo again! This time the girls and Bailey joined us. Afterwards we had to rush to Savannah's saxaphone lesson. Next door to the house where she takes lessons there are horses. So while Savannah was inside doing her lesson, Josh, Ali and Bailey went to pet and feed the horses. Hope your day was wonderful too. I LOVE SUMMER:)

Fun Day

We had a really fun day today. The girls were hanging out with Bailey at my mom's house and didn't feel like going anywhere. So the boys & Piper and I went to the YMCA to meet my friend Shannon & her daughter Amira. I worked out for bit and the boys swam. Then we all headed to the zoo. We had a picnic in the bamboo and then headed out to see the animals. A highlight of the trip was feeding the birds. Maveric and Josh got the birds to sit on their hands and eat the cups of nectar. I had a bird land on my head which was not so much of treat for me, a little freaky! Great time with two of my three favorite boys in the world and our sweet girl!!

Never know who you will see at the grocery

Last night I had about a 3 hour trip to Kroger. I stopped by after Pipers party that we had with my family. She was asleep when I got her out, but we really needed some stuff...some of the kids had boiled eggs for lunch that day!! Anyway, I walked in and saw Shawnah and Kent and I whistled at Shawnah, knowing that she would automatically turn around when she heard it. To my surprise she didn't although the man behind her thought that I was a little desperate holding a sleeping baby while whistling at women in the produce department. Anyway, I caught them admiring the bananas and we began to chat. Kent insisted that we sit down under the gazebo that was set up with a nice set of patio furniture in front of the bakery, so we did. Shawnah kicked her shoes off and we were set. About 30-45 minutes into the conversation, we see Sharon Henley from church and insisted that she join us, Kent got up at this point to go do their shopping. So we all chatted for about 30 minutes. Kent busted up our party and drug Shawnah out of the store. If we would've had some coffee I think we would still be there. Just when I got serious about my shopping, I ran into a friend that I grew up with and another 20 minutes was spent chatting. I finally said I have got to leave this store and call my husband who I'm sure is wondering what in the world has happened to me. But what a fun trip to the grocery! And that patio set is super comfy, try it out!!

Happy Father's Day

We had a wonderful day celebrating our Daddy and he so deserves a day to be celebrated. He is just amazing. God blessed us with a man that loves and provides for us, so often sacrificing things that he loves for us. Weekends that he used to spend hangliding in Chattanooga are now spent cheering for our daughter at a ballpark in 90-something degree weather for hours on end or evenings that he used to spend at writers nights pursuing singing and songwriting are now spent at gymnastics practice, softball practice or up with a fussy baby and then working on things that need to be handled from the office. He works harder than any person that I know but still manages to do fun things with our kids like play video games with the boys and jump our kids and their friends on the trampoline. We all got him a mobile gps device. My friend has one and let me borrow it one day and I thought that it would be perfect for Eric with his love of all things technical! And he did. The kids all bought or made cards for him that fit their personalities. And my brother did an excellent job of cooking Father's day lunch for Eric, Adam and our dad. It was a great day!

My brother has a hamock in his living room and our kids absolutely love it!!

Happy Birthday Piper

Our baby girl is one!! In celebration of her being able to face forward in the car, I thought that it would be a good idea to go buy her a big-girl carseat. Most babies love it when they can see where you are going in the car. Well, I was wrong. She hated it!! She screamed from the second her little behind hit the seat in Babies R Us parking lot until we reached Smyrna. We stopped at my mom's for a break because she would not calm down. I got her some crackers to put in the cup holder and she thought that was pretty cool, so no more screaming. We took her to Chuck E. Cheese because our other children are just that thoughtful and insisted that she would love it. After we made it through Chuck E's security gate her brothers and sisters hit the games and never looked back! Oh well, I think Piper had fun too. She loves the baby ferris wheel and would scream at any other child that thought of coming near it.

Happy Birthday Sweet Girl!

We can't imagine our lives without you! We all love you so, so much.