Picnic at Waterloo

Well, yesterday I took all the kids to Waterloo Lake for a few hours. The two olders ones fussed at first, but once we got there, they seemed to enjoy the day! (pretty typical). We first walked around the walking trail at the playground area. We saw a huge turtle in the creek...pretty cool. Of course, Carson wanted to climb down the steep hill to get a closer look, but to worried about poison ivy...I said no! We went and played on the playground equipment. All four of them played on the merry go round. That was fun. Carson and Jake both crashed off of it...typical boys. Grace after being on it for about 10 minutes, screams..."I want off!" Think she got a little dizzy.

We then went over to the Lake side and had a picnic. It was fun. We decided to spread the quilt on the ground and have a true picnic...not on the tables. We then went to feed the ducks and look out on the docks. We always like to take pictures of everything. Carson and Grace, while eating our lunch, decided to attempt to Kiss Jake. The wrestling match was on. Pretty funny! All in all, we had a great day! Even the olders one had a great time. Enjoy our pictures.

School is out!

Yeah! We are so glad that today was the last day of school!!! We did our annual breakfast today. Hayley and some of her friends spend the night and we get up and go eat IHOP before school. I don't think they thought this year through very well. Most of them barely eat breakfast, so after eating those HUGE breakfasts...they were pretty miserable. It was kind of funny. Of course the mom in me kicked and we started talking about the importance of breakfast...they didn't really listen! haha! Unfortunately, I still have to go half a day tomorrow, but the kids get to sleep in. Tomorrow is Hayley's birthday. I can't believe one year from now, she will be driving by herself! Unbelievable how time flies! Jake turned 12 on the 15th. He will be in 7th grade next year. Very excited. Carson will be starting Kindergarten soon and Grace will be so lonely at home. Actually she will probably enjoy not fighting over toys with her brother. I'll write more later. Kind of tired tonight.

Kids Thinking

When I got home yesterday after work, the kids had all kinds of stories to tell me about their adventures that day. They had went to Chuck E. Cheese's for Luke Kirkbride's birthday party. They had been talking about it all last week! Carson tells me how scared Ty, Luke's younger brother, was of ChuckE...which I thought was funny, because the last time WE went there, Carson and Grace were both UNDER THE TABLES hiding from Chucke...I reminded Carson of this. He tells me, "I'm not scared anymore. I went up to Chucke and gave him a high five!" I then turned to Grace and asked if she did too. She gives me this very serious face and says, "No, I not do that. I still scared." So cute!

When we were leaving last night to go out to eat, Carson brings his ballon outside from the party that day. He looks me right in the eye and says, "Mom, can I give my balloon to God? I think he would like that". I smiled and told him yes. Grace starts jumping up and down, very excited about God getting their balloon. Carson lets go and watches it for a few minutes. Every 10-20 seconds he would say, "bye balloon...go see God" or something like that. It was very cute and so sweet. Most people don't even think things like that...giving something to God.

It was a great day. Kids were very excited and bouncy...so much that not too long after 8pm, they started whining and getting tired. Grace finally crashed after a little crying fit. Oh well, can't win them all!!!

Mother's Day

We decided at the last moment to travel to Arkansas on Sunday, so my mom could spend the day with my brother's family (and us!). My nephew, Taylor who is 6' 2" at the age of 14, played in a baseball tournament this weekend. We watched him play the last two games and win the tournament! It was fun. The Cousins got to play with each other too. My brother Brad has 4 kids also. Taylor, McKenna, Elijah, and Shae...baby Shae...she is so petite compared to her TALL brothers and sisters. We had a great time. Saw my Aunt Kim and Uncle Paul too...I think we scared them bringing in so many kids! haha! We also went out to eat with our best friends from High School, the McCorkle's and played with their two children also, Avery and Matthew. It was a whirlwind trip. We left at 7:30am on Sunday, arrived at noon, left Arkansas at 8:30pm and arrived home close to 1am...yes, Robbie and I had to go to work the next day and the kids had school. They all fell asleep around 10pm...except Robbie and I, who traded off driving. haha! It was wonderful. I can't wait to go back up and spend more time with them this summer. Here are some pictures of Mother's Day.

Note from Carson

Carson says, "I love you, everybody". Carson and I are looking at our new blog space. We took some really cool pictures of us on the Lovesac (for those of you who don't know...it's the name of this HUGE bean bag that all 4 kids can fit on!) Carson said the Lovesac grows every night...bigger and bigger. (He means, we fluff it every night and it's enormous). Carson is perfecting "Hayley's favorite face". It's pretty funny. He likes to ham it up for the camera, just like Hayley. Oh boy, a masculine version of Hayley... we are in for a treat.
It's never a dull moment in our house.

Carson wants to make sure everone from Arkansas sees this website, so they can see all our pictures. I don't think he quite grasps the concept of getting mail/messages on the internet. Here are some pictures of our kids! Grace asleep in the HUGE LOVESAC!
She looks like the center of a flower! haha!

Hayley, one of her many shots for her myspace layout.
She loves to take crazy (and beautiful pictures)

My honey and I enjoying the dolphin cruise

Jake skimming on the beach.

Spring Break 2007

We decided this year to head to Destin, Florida for Spring Break. This is one of our favorite vacation spots. It's what I call the mom's vacation...beach, pool, couch. (in no particular order). Robbie and I first went to Destin 15 years ago and try to make it back at least every couple of years. Oh man has it changed from that first time! Growing so fast, but still seems so quiet and peaceful.

This year, we decided to go with 3 other families. We found a big house that sleeps 21 and I do believe we maxed it out with all four of our families. We had a wonderful time. A few bumps in teh road, but nothing to crazy. Pretty typical for the number we had in our house. This vacation included the Trotter's, the Pryor's, the Thompson's and the Newton's (some of church buddies). We had a wonderful time.

We played on the beach, tried to play at the pool (long stories with that subject), the guys went golfing a couple of times, went shopping at the outlet mall and Destin Commons, ate at some wonderful restaurants, played Minature Golf, raced go-carts, bought a gallon of Dippin'Dots (another story), Dolphin Cruise, and just had an amazing time. It wasn't near as relaxing as I would have liked, but for most, it was their first time visiting Destin, so we all tried everything. Below you will see some of the pictures we took on this trip.

David, Kathy and Lindsee

Jennifer, Rich

Colton, Lindsey, and Zach

Our family!

Robbie, Janaga, Carson

Hayley, Jake and Grace

Angela, Brett

Chance, Hannah, Shelby

Hope, Derick, Haley

Yes, all these kids in one house! Amazing, huh!

Hayley playing with Grace and Carson!

Jake, Zach, and Colton
Our last day on the beach...at sunset.

The sun was perfect and the sand was so soft.

New Blogger!

Well, my first try at "blogging". I thought I would try to do this for all our family and friends back home and all over the country. Remember I am new to this, so who knows how it will turn out!

We are all doing great. Here are some recent pictures of our family. Enjoy! I will try to do more later.

Love to all!

Janaga

Yes, that is Jake playing with kids about 2-3 years older than him. Don't let his size fool you! He can out run most of them!