Enjoying every moment....

I feel like every time I post these days, I start off with how far behind I am posting pictures.  Instead of it being a negative thing, I'm turning it into a positive thing.  I am so far behind because my days are spent enjoying my family and our many activities.  We are living such a sweet life, I should never complain.  Don't get me wrong though...I do complain more often than I should.  I complain about those things that really don't matter.  The ONLY thing that matters is my relationship with Jesus Christ, my husband and my children.  An amazing family that we are so blessed to know have reminded me of that over the last week. This father has experienced an indescribable pain as he has watched his son go thru something so tragic to now beginning the healing process.   I cannot describe how reading this young fathers blog each day has given me a renewed strength and reminded me we are so NOT in control of our lives like we think we are.  I am the world's worst control freak.  I hate surprises and I feel like I have to control every situation to produce the desired outcome.  Who am I kidding?  I'm sure God gets a big ole laugh at me when I am doing that.  When I sat down to update the blog today, this is not where I was headed.  But I guess its what I needed to share. 

I love this amazing life God has so richly blessed me with. Even when in the middle of my somewhat heavy blog post, I am constantly interrupted by teenagers whose world is all about them.  I love my teenagers exasperating and all.   My children are awesome...not perfect. When they are busy being teenagers, I have to remind myself that our children possess so many wonderful qualities.  They are the ones who can point out my flaws and make me want to be a better person,  The one  thing I am most proud of about my children is their gift of compassion.  They treat everyone equal and they try to find the good in everyone.

It's been an amazing start to our Summer.  We finished off the end of the school year with awards...awards and more awards.  Grayson and Parker racked up at awards day at school with Grayson receiving Best all Around Student for her class in addition to perfect attendance and honor roll.  In the cute classroom awards voted on my their peers, Parker received Biggest Boy Flirt. Should I be worried? :)

 After awards at school, the 5th grade walk was a special tradition for the students and emotional as well. After all they have been at that school the last 3 years and were the big kids on campus for the last year. After school, we had a blast at the 5th grade celebration at the pool, followed by Smores and silly string fight at the Sims house.  A great group of kids enjoyed celebrating together the end of 5th grade and their exciting new adventure....... Middle School!

The very first celebration of our Summer is Parker's birthday.  This year Parker is 11 and headed to middle school.  Wow!  He was excited to get an IPhone like his brothers even though they were shocked and reminded me they got a "crappy" first phone.  What do you say?  technology has changed since they were 11.  Look at that sweet smile.  We are so in love with this adorable boy who is very quickly turning into a young man.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY PARKER!

Finally an Update

Finally....I am updating the blog.  I am really far behind and not sure where to even begin at this point.  So here goes! I have downloaded all my pictures from the last month so I think I will let the pictures tell you what we have been up to lately.

This picture is left over from Easter.  The two little ones still enjoyed dying eggs.  The funny part was about 20 minutes later their eggs became egg salad for sandwiches. So much for hiding and hunting them this year :) Thank goodness they agreed they were to big for that part.


Field Day was a blast this year for both Parker and Grayson. I have to first apologize for not having any pictures of Parker's field day this year. They have their fun day at Dellinger and I was planning on dropping by for both. I made it to Grayson's, but was running late for Parkers and when I finally arrived, the events were over. Sorry Parker for not having any pictures.

Grayson and her friend Lydia

Grayson was really good at this.  Thank goodness she is more athletic than me.

The picture below is from DARE Graduation.  I am so proud of this boy.  His DARE essay was selected from hundreds of 5th graders as outstanding and he was invited to read it at graduation in front of his peers.  It was wonderful!  As I get up to video him reading it and take his picture, I notice my camera is missing the memory card, so guess what?  No video or pictures from this on my camera.  However, my friend did video it and hopefully will send it to me very soon and I will post.  This picture is from my phone and is very fuzzy, but you can see him receiving is certificate. He also received a medal for his essay. Way to go Parker!!!

Kanon is about to head down the river with Dad.  Don got a Kayak for his birthday and is looking forward to hitting the river a lot this summer.  We still need to add a few more kayaks for the entire family to go at once.

During the springtime, CSL has their annual Spring Coffee to celebrate the new girls and former members. Each year, we are assigned our item to bring.  This year I was extremely lucky and got to pick up mine from the local bakery.  However, I did decorate my tray.  Just a little girl stuff and something for mom thrown in the mix of all the children's activities and events.  It's a lot of fun to get dressed up and mix and mingle with our girlfriends sometimes in a former members lovely home.

Our friends, the Conners, always have the best ideas for fun things to do.  We were so excited to be invited to Twilight in Athens with them this year.  Good food, drinks and fellowship with great friends.  Even though...Don and I realized midnight is too late for us.  We definitely can't hang anymore.  We are officially old!  It was so much fun watching the bicycle races and eating dinner in the turn.  The pace car was flying by with only inches to spare.  Good thing he was a good driver.  Loved it that Jim and Cindy could also join us for the evening adventures. Earlier in the day, the kids enjoyed jumping around and playing on the bounce things for kids and Kanon loved eating the funnel cake and fried oreos and making money from KL.  I think I'll keep that story from making the blog.  Let's just say I am a little nervous about college for Kanon, he will make the perfect frat boy.

She was so high and loved it!

Buckle Up!

This is just the beginning of my update.  I have lots more to post.  Awards Day coming next.  Blessings for now.

Restful Weekend....

Thank you Lord for a wonderful restful weekend at home, we definitely don't get many of those.  I feel like I got a few things accomplished in the house and ready to take on another long week.  Quick update on our many activities for the next week or so.... Kanon is working out with a personal trainer 3 times a week to get bigger and stronger.  Most people pay for help to lose weight, we are paying for Kanon to gain.  He needs to be stronger for baseball.  He also starts playing travel ball in a few weeks and has his first practice this week with that team.  Grayson has started tennis and is loving it.  She has lessons two times per week.  Tyler is just working with little league and Parker is enjoying his last month or so of being an elementary school kid.  I can't believe he will be in middle school very soon, where does the time go? Mom is still in rehab trying to get better to come home.  I'm really not sure what is going to happen there.  This uncertainty continues to weigh heavily on my heart and mind.  I'm constantly praying that I am making the right decisions in this situation. 

We have just hired an additional sales person for the company and praying for the continued growth of the business.  Don is busy covering spring sports and all of the other details and many duties for his work.  We are all crazy busy, but trying to add some fun in along the way.  Oh yeah,  we leased our other house...a very big blessing!

It's almost time to start counting down the days until our first cruise vacation.  I hope we love it.  I'm so excited.  It will also be fun having our sweet friends along.  Just please don't let me, Don or the kids get sea sick.

I have included some great pictures of Kanon pitching in his first ever high school season of baseball in this post.  I was thinking I never really posted any pictures of my favorite pitcher. 

He Lives!!!!

What a fabulous Easter.  We enjoyed a wonderful Church service followed by a great lunch.  I love the sweet pictures of my beautiful family. 

 

Spring Break

What a week of pure fun at Orlando's Islands of Adventure and Universal Studios we just spent. We walked what seemed like a million miles each day making sure we did not miss a thing and it was well worth it.  Parker even got to see some wrestling action while we were there and participate in a live taping of IMPACT Wrestling to air on television next week.  Tyler was absent from this trip cause he was off having some teenage fun of his own.  Thank you to Ms. Kim for taking the teenagers to the beach.  Hopefully Tyler took some pictures for his mom to post later from his trip. 

Harry Potter World

Thing 1 was at the beach....:)

Terrible picture of me, but great time having dinner by the water. 

This was so funny....When Parker and Grayson walked up, Donkey said" who are you too...Jack and Jill?"
They had a blast talking to Donkey and Shrek.

I think we rode this ride the most.  It was so much fun.  We even got to be the last people to ride it before closing one night and boy did it fly without all the weight.  The maintenance engineer was the only other person on the ride with us.

Now, we are home and getting ready for Easter.  Thank you Jesus for dying on the cross for our sins.  We are so thankful.  The Spring Season is such a beautiful time of the year.  I can never say enough how truly blessed we are!