Our very own mermaid

GG is now almost 5 years old. I can't believe it! 

 This summer she has just taken to the water like, well... like a mermaid.

 She still LOVES mermaids. One day she was swimming with her swim vest and the next day she wasn't. That quick.

 She is my very independent, very strong willed, funny (actually quite hilarious) little girl.

 Somedays I just don't know what to do with this child.

But I really don't know what I'd do without her. 

Lately...

So lately we've been doing a lot of...

 Hanging out at the pool (it's HOT here!)

 learning to swim

taking family evening walks

 well, just once so far (it's HOT here!)

dressing up the puppy dog

being silly (but that's the norm around here)

 getting cute haircuts

NAPPING ( I love naptime!)

and really enjoying our summer.

What have you been up to, lately?

A little Lily Love

That's what we got this past week. Some love from Lily. My best good friend Keri, her sweet husband Joe and most precious baby Lily came up for a visit last week.

We had such a fun visit. We sat around, drank coffee, ate good food and watched the kids play. There's nothin' better, in my opinion. We went to Buck Creek park and let the kids swing and play and get very dirty. 

Lily got lots of love from my little ones.

And lots of play time.

Hopefully Keri got better pictures of this. Shep has never done this before with any other baby. He hugged and kissed this baby girl so much. It was the sweetest thing. He just loved her.

 

Hopefully we'll all still get along when we become in-laws one day. :)

I so enjoyed their visit. We have to do it again really soon.  

A wedding!

and other fun stuff...

This is my brother Jason and his new bride Jennifer. They were married on 

6-7-08. 

What a cool wedding date. I am so happy for them. It was a really sweet wedding at my dads house. 

Welcome to the family Jennifer!

My dad built this huge playground in his backyard and it was perfect. All the kids had a blast playing on it. Even during the ceremony.

Here is Sophie all dressed up. She is growing up way too fast. She is at church camp this week and from what I have heard, having so much fun. We miss her though.

Uncle Jason and little Shep. 

Before we all headed back home, we met up with my brother Andy and my sister in law Megan and Hayden and Hattie for lunch. Hayden and Sophie were really good. G.G. and Hattie were little stinkers though :). Terrible twos were among us for sure :):).

This was G.G. and Shep's first bath together. G.G. thought it was great. She sure loves her little brother. 

We were all supposed to leave Monday to go to St Augustine Florida with Josh. He had a conference there for work and we thought it would be fun to make a little vacation out of it. We woke up Monday and Shep was really congested and had a little fever. We decided that Sophie would go with Josh and I would stay home with the little ones. We didn't feel comfortable with being so far from home if he got really sick. He was just 5 weeks. It was a good decision because he did not sleep at all on Monday and by Tuesday morning had a fever of 100.2. We went to the DR and he had an ear infection in both ears and bronchitis. He got an antibiotic shot and just told me to give him saline drops in his nose and run a cool mist humidifier. I was doing that already. I had to bring him back the next day for a re-check and they also told me if his fever went up at all, to take him to the emergency room that night. Fun. A toddler and a newborn in the er in the middle of the night, by myself! Luckily Josh called his mom and she immediately drove 6 hours to come and help me. Thank you Linda! She stayed the rest of the week and just helped me with everything. Mostly with G.G. so I could take care of Shep. I appreciate it sooo much.

So below are some pictures of Sophie and her Daddy's trip to St Augustine. They had so much fun and I think it was really good for them to have some time away from the little ones. Sophie helps me so much so I was happy she was having time with just her daddy. 

What a crazy couple of weeks we've had! I'm on my way to take Shep back to the Dr. I think his ear is still bothering him.

Kentucky!

So after Florida and Chattanooga and Knoxville, we went to visit family in Kentucky. We really had a great time with all of our friends and family. Below are the pictures to prove it!

G.G. exploring Nana and Papa Bill's house

G.G. and Maddox playing in the new pool Kaity brought over.

Sophie caught a fish! ( the first of TEN from that day)

Fishin' with Papa Bill

The boys ( Maddox, Isaac and Conner)

Visiting at Aunt Lisa's

Sophie and Isaac

Sophie and Brianna

G.G. and Conner

It was also my cousin Rachel's 16th birthday. She had a surprise birthday party and we were so glad to be there!

So that capped off our summer travels. Can't wait to do it again!!

Horse Camp

Sophie went to horse camp this past week. She absolutely loved it. She couldn't wait to get up and go every single morning and at the end of the day, she was exhausted. She learned about the care and safety of horses and all about riding and posting. She even got bucked one day riding a horse named Casey, but she held on and her teacher said she reacted perfect. It was a great experience and I hope that she'll get to continue with lessons.

All I had was my camera phone so the pictures aren't that great.

Here she is on Jazz

And on Minnie

She's riding Minnie bare back in the ring