Just a normal day

Just a normal day around here. Hanging out the sunroof and taking in the rays. Still a little too short but who cares. Mom's always got her camera ready!

A Little Bit of Disney............and LOVE

Just wanted to share a little of the scrapbooking i've done in the past few days. I'm trying to branch out and stop doing the same ole - same old. What do you think? The doodling is handrawn on the last spread!! I can't draw a stick man. Luke thought I was crazy last week when I decided to try this. He was reading books to Jack in bed and I climbed up too and started doodling. Pretty cool, huh? (quote borrowed from Jack).

Sheran's Latest Creation

I just wanted to share with you Sheran's latest creation. I just thought it was stunning. She made it for one of Dad's office luncheons. A lady had gotten married a few weeks before and they surprised her with this cake. Iwas just amazed and it tasted better than it looked if that's a possiblility. She really out-does herself. Great job Sheran. And Ress grew these flowers in his yard. His yard is fastly becoming the new Birmingham Botanical Gardens. His entire body is a green thumb, of which I think is the greatest talent ever.

Add two more.....

I left these photos out of the previous blog.... they were too cute not to include.

A Day in the LIFE -

This is most definitely a day in the life of some pretty great kids! Jackson got to spend about everyday for a week with his cousins and he is now in withdrawal. We lived it up and played, played and played. Leigh Leigh invited her friend from church, Aidren, over and she is such a sweetheart. We rolled down hills, played dodge ball (with very soft balls!!), swam at the lake, went to the park numerous times, played with jack's He-Man collection and trains, watched videos, played boardgames and just had a great time. Maddie worked on mastering the Nintendo Wii with some help from a fellow video game master (Luke). Hope you enjoy the pictures. We miss you already!!!

Maddie, Kenzie and Leigh Leigh

Well, some of you know that I took pictures at the Botanical Gardens this past week of Maddie, Kenzie and Leigh Leigh. It was so much fun and I think the girls had fun too. I had them run around, skip, lay down in the grass, and do all kinds of stuff that I thought would look cute in a picture. They were the greatest sports. They are such a joy to be around and Jackson thinks they all hung the moon. No one else exists when they are in town. I'm having a hard time getting through to him that they have gone on to their other grandmother's house in Decatur. He expects that we can just go and get them. I know this because he tells me often. I appreciate Allison and Michael letting them come, in fact I know we all do. As usual, I got some good shots and then some not so great shots. All of the shots of them running around I shot in program mode and they turned out fuzzy. Made me so mad. I love my camera but it kills me sometimes. I think it's more the operator than the machinery. But I'll just keep practicing and learn what works and what doesn't. If anybody wants me to practice on their children just let me know. I'm looking for volunteers. And a BIG thanks to Uncle Charles for giving me an adjustment on my lower back so that I could actually get on the ground with them to shoot their pictures. As of 11:00 a.m. last Thursday I couldn't even bend over. (I fell down Wednesday night after church) By 5:30 that night I was on my stomach shooting up a storm. So thanks again, I owe you.

Luke's fam

Here's a picture (for Jo) of Luke's aunts and uncle (from left to right - Winston, Luke, Jack, Becky, Kim and Bryan). What a crazy bunch! We had a great time at Jim N Nicks for dinner last Sunday night after church. Bryan is in recovery and doing just great. Thanks for the prayers on his behalf. He is currently working towards maybe getting his pilots license back. He is in great physical shape and hoping this will be something that will happen in the future. I, also, got some great pointers from two of the best elementary educators in the business on how to start teaching Jackson to read. Winston is an elementary principal and Becky teaches 1st grade to every race, disability, over-achiever etc.. in the great state of Texas. She was given a grant from the U.S. government to teach all first graders to write like pros. It's really unbelievable to hear what she does with 1st graders. Thanks again for the pep talk on how to get started guys!! The last two pictures are of Leigh Leigh and the flowers that she, Mackenzie, their friend Adrien and Jackson picked in Nana's yard. They have had such a great time this week. Oh, we love these girls so.

Vacation Bible School.

This group loves vacation bible school. This was Jackson's first time, while Jaden, Linus and Harrison are old pro's at this sort of thing. I hadn't been to vacation bible school in 20 years. Man, I'm telling my age. We went Tuesday and Friday and everything went pretty well. I wasn't sure how Jackson would do because class is sometimes a scary thing for him but he handled it very well. He and Harrison (his class buddy and almost a year older than him) wanted to know where Miss Jamie (their Sunday school teacher) was. She according to them was suppose to be there. We told Murray (her husband) this and he got a kick out of it. After explaining to a 2 year old and a 3 year old that she wasn't going to be there, they were quite unsure of going without her. But alas, Miss Jennifer did a bang up job teaching them and even recruited her husband on Friday to be Goliath while she slung a slingshot at him and a pebble was supposedly lodged in his forehead. I was told he did a great job at dying. What fun there is to be had. On Friday, Jackson did start crying which led Harrison to crying and then Peyton started in. Oh, the wailing, but nothing that a good version of Jesus loves me can't fix. In all they had a great time and even were invited to a lady's house afterwards with all the other kids to jump on some blow up slides, etc.. that she had rented along with the other members. Wouldn't you know that it would lightning and pour down rain so as to prevent the kids from getting to play. We are under water restriction and the minute we have a party planned it rains. But, I can't complain because everyone here has been praying for rain. Jackson and I are going to continue to pray for it everyday. So, we took the kids to Froggies and they jumped indoors. Well, that's my vacation bible school story. Hope you enjoyed it.

Wild Baby Hair and One Blue Martian

As promised, I will deliver to you in picture format 2 babies (josephine and mikayla) with some wild boat hair (what cool dudettes) and one small blue martian named jackson (I really have no idea where he gets these ideas)! I guess you could say we are having fun in the summertime in our own special way.

Happy Father's Day!!

HiNt to Jack's DAD - Go lOOk under your sIdE of the BED for your FaTHer'S DaY giFT - it should look something like this pICturE!!!!!!!!!(Jackson helped mom come up with a few gifts for his daddy this year. He picked out the toy Thursday night at Walmart (I think he really wanted it) and mom picked out the other two.) Hope you like them DAD!! (Mom helped me type this - isn't it amazing that I can spell at 2) Happy Father's day to my dad, granddaddy, luke's dad and granddad verl. Love you all

What I've been up to lately...........

Hello out there!! I've been busy lately and I wanted to share a few of the creations that I've completed. I've been really inspired lately and it all started with a little trip with a few fun girls from church that live here in this great state. You might say that I take breaks from scrapbooking. Some might call them years but I like to refer to them as breaks. Then, all of the sudden, the bug hits me and it's gung ho! I like life in the gung ho stage because I love to be creative and I get so worked up that I can't even sleep (not to Luke's liking). I lay in bed thinking of all the great things that I could do. Great ideas are good, but just not at 3:00 am. Speaking of being up to late, I should go to bed now. so i will. happy looking!

not finished, but I'll get around to it (need to add birds and change you to they)
the..... what? needs to say the fam (scrapbookers work is never done) A.R. pretending to drive us around at Zoolight Safari this Christmas (what fun)
adding a page to go with this one of jackson and maura together (hopefully will be done this week)
done! Yippee...... (taken on Maura's trampoline)
Jack and Grandma at Zoe's Kitchen
Josh Coffman playing for Eastern Carolina
Jack and G
What a super hero (to me)
I sell a lot of this design ( people love this paper)

3o's young right?

Hint: He's the tall guy that I live with!!!!!!!

And now your wondering what this is and to answer that question- it's a Candyland cake. O.k. a 30 year old has a candyland cake. Yep! He does. Luke doesn't care what kind of cake he gets so Jackson and I made the executive decision to make him a Candyland cake because of his love for boardgames. Grandmother baked the layer and iced it and Jack and I decorated it. I'll admit that we ate quite a few starburst in the process and nibbled on a few jellybeans (at 11:00 at night - hey, it was Friday night and we were relaxing at the lake)! Jackson thought it was just great and he helped me carry it into the living room to show Luke. We kept it a surprise and once he saw it, he thought it was pretty cool and very creative. I'm not going into the cake making business but this was a great thing to do with Jackson and a great surprise to Luke. I thought Luke knew what we were doing because he is the most perceptive person I know and always guesses everything that I'm trying to keep a secret. (I always have to triple box his Christmas gifts and put in rocks, etc.... to throw him off) I had asked him the week before if he had an old candyland boardgame and of course he said, "sure, which version - vintage, new". Only luke would have more than one. I said whichever and I just knew he figured something was up but he didn't. Maybe I'm getting better at keeping a secret. Yeah, probably not.
Hope you had a good birthday and I'll have to figure out how to make a Settler's of Catan cake for next year.