Happy Birthday Matt!!

Matt had his big day on Saturday. We celebrated with a little party at the lake. 

Isn't it always fun when your birthday lands on the weekend. 

So mom got a really cool watermelon slicer and we have been eating watermelon non stop. 

This guy had some for breakfast. 

Happy Birthday Daddy!! We love you!!

We had our sweet friends, the Bowens up to play. Miller and Fulton were so excited to ride the airhead and sweet Rebecca took one for the team and rode in the middle. 

This was Fulton's first time and I think he enjoyed it. However, he didn't say a word the entire ride. He was serious and concentrating. 

We had rice krispie cake and homemade ice cream sundaes to continue the celebration.

 Happy Birthday Matt!

Baseball and Little Girls

Last Thursday night we started celebrating Matt's birthday a little early. He has been wanting to go to a Barons Baseball game since they built the new stadium downtown. 

The rain had finally stopped and the sun came out and it was a beautiful night. 

This little guy talked about it all day and couldn't wait to go. 

They have a great area for families. You can lay out a blanket and let the kids run and play. 

And look who we ran into there. Kiki and Pete were with some friends at the game too. Which by the way, one of Kiki's friends caught a foul ball and gave it to Fulton. He was thrilled. He guarded that ball all night and we finally made him put it down to go to bed. 

We didn't stay for the entire thing, but we made it for about half. Baseball moves so slow. 

Friday was another fun day and we had a play date with our best buds Laylee and Macy. Fulton was so excited to go to their house. The cloudy weather didn't stop us from having a little backyard pool party. 

These kiddos did awesome together and Ryan Lee and I got to catch up in the meantime. 

Sweet friends!! So thankful for this family in our life. 

Bowling With Buddies

Before I get to the bowling, I have a few random pictures I just found on my camera. 

Here I am with my sweet boy before church Sunday. We love him to pieces. He is such a joy!

We are in love with all things cars, trucks, and obviously playing with my headbands. 

Oh and not wearing any clothes. 

We had a big day today. We went bowling for the first time. 

All of his best buddies were there. Here he is with Laylee and Madelyn. He loves these girls. 

We have a first timer here. He pushed the ball so slow that it did take us a while, but we savored it and enjoyed every moment. 

These two are smitten with each other. 

He got pretty serious about it and wanted to count the pins as they fell down. 

He is a mess!!!

We caught him like this checking out his work.

After about a game and half they were pretty much done. We hit up the arcade for a game of skeeball. 

These two sillies made just enough tickets to get them a little prize. 

We had such a great day with sweet friends. 

Animals and Parties

Last Friday we headed to the zoo with this sweet girl and her mommy and little sister. 

These two are quickly becoming little lovebirds. They had a blast together. 

They were in a serious discussion as to how you correctly pronounce tiger. One says it sounds like the Winnie-the-Pooh version, the other not. 

The animals were all out and about. It was a successful day seeing many that we haven't seen before. 

Next up, the splash pad. They loved it. That was until Fulton had a head on collision with another child and he was just done after that. It was a good thing, because not long after this picture the bottom dropped out and it began to pour. We stayed at the splash pad a little longer than planned, 

but the kids did so good. 

Saturday was the lake and after church Sunday we had a birthday party to go to. Fulton's buddy Mayson was turning 2 and had a Minnie Mouse party. 

From there it was off to visit some family and pick up a beautiful piece of furniture mom and dad got me for my birthday. More on that later. But we walked out to this area where you can overlook the city. It was a great opportunity for a quick picture. 

Today we enjoyed lunch with some friends. This was just a few of the littles that were there. We had 8 in all and this sweet picture was taken in the calm before the storm. The playground was closed for cleaning and we practically destroyed the restaurant keeping them entertained. The kids had fun, ate too many nuggets, and probably picked up some lovely germs, but I sure enjoyed the conversation with sweet ladies. 

Sweet Friends

It was another lake weekend and Matt was off work early Friday and we headed on up. 

A pretty bad storm came through on our way up and continued to rain once we got there. That kept us inside and this little guy was thrilled when it finally stopped. 

Look at the beautiful sky as a result. We have some gorgeous sunsets at the lake. 

We just enjoyed the rest of the night relaxing on the porch. 

And we texted Kiki and Pete and told them we missed them. It was off to bed 

because we had a big day planned the next day. 

We had several couples from our small group come up. Fulton loves the ladies and had a ball swimming with his buddies. I wanted the kids to squeeze in a little closer but this is the best they could do with all the padding from life jackets and puddle jumpers. 

They swam, jumped, and played until they were starving for lunch. A quick 

boat ride and then we headed up to grill out. 

Lunch with the ladies. 

Fulton is going to miss his best buddy when she moves this week. More on that in a minute. 

Let me just say, the daddies were awesome. They stayed in the water with the little ones and let the girls enjoy time chatting and relaxing. We have got some good husbands. 

Back to this sweet family. I will have to get my tissues to talk about it. They are moving... this week. We are so sad about this. They are dear dear friends and neighbors and a part of us will be missing when they leave. We love their family and have enjoyed watching our kids grow up together. I hope they won't forget us. 

So part of this day's celebration was to wish them well on their new journey. As much as we don't want them to leave, we pray they will settle in quickly and find a new church home. They can never be replaced. We had a great day on the water with sweet friends. 

The First of Summer

What a fun first few weeks of summer we have already had. 

We have spent a lot of time in the water. 

Last week we got out the pool that Mrs. Vin gave Fulton at the end of the year. He had a blast with this. We made the slide go down into it and it was perfect for splashing. 

We also went to the pool with friends several days last week. One night we 

even took a picnic and had dinner there. 

Friday after Matt got home from work we loaded up and headed to the lake. Fulton has been asking over and over to ride the 4-wheeler. Matt finally took him for a slow ride. 

We helped KK make potato salad for our guests the next day. 

And before we even had breakfast these two were making cookies together. 

We spent most of the day on the boat and it was a gorgeous day. 

My two boys before church Sunday. 

Monday we went to the park and pool with a friend, but I didn't take any pictures. Yesterday we went to vote and back to the pool. See a pattern here?

Today started our summer ladies Bible study at church. I have so been looking forward to this. We are doing One Thousand Gifts and we started today just naming off the gifts the Lord has blessed us with. I want to do this more. She encourages you to make a list of 1000 gifts from the Lord. Not the things we want, but what the Lord has already given us. We really are so blessed. So afterwards a few of us headed to the park with a picnic lunch. Fulton had lunch with the ladies as usual. 

Alana, Brynna, Clara, and Hallie. 

He is starting to become a lover of the swings again. 

We decided to venture over to the falls before we left. Maybe it was a mistake.. it was quiet muddy on the trek there, but these to loved it and they loved on each other too.