Ella, the fearless!

While I was posting the post before this, I heard Ella calling my name and this is what I found. I got her down but she climbed right back up, so I thought - photo opp!! I have said before that she is going to be the one who gives us the most trouble, so far, so true!

The Kids!

Jonathon, Ella, and Grace smiling pretty for mommy in the mountains

My cousins Hunter and Emily with Ella.

Grace, Ella, and Jonathon outside the house one morning. Mommy never misses a photo opp!

Ella Bella - you are a cutie!!!!

Fishing

A few weekends ago we went to my nephew, Isaac's birthday party. One of his presents was a fishing pole with a "fighting" fish on the end. They were so cute trying to get that thing to work! Here are a few shots of their efforts.

Grace and Isaac trying to convince the fish to be reeled in!

Jonathon is trying to improve the situation!

Grandpa is making sure Ella doesn't lose her balloon! That is a sucker in Ella's mouth :)

Look what I caught!!!!!!!

Watermelon, Eggs and really cute Kids!

A friend of ours was snapping pictures at the Sports Camp

celebration and here are some of the kids.

Grace and Ella enjoying watermelon. Notice that both have ditched their shoes! :)

Ella Bella loving watermelon. Isn't she adorable?

Grace doing a great job in the "egg on a spoon" race. Notice the "model" smile! Always ready to have her picture taken! :)

Jonathon showing off his balancing skills in the "egg on a spoon" race.

Pie, anyone?

Tonight we had a follow up party for Sports Camp. The team or sport with the highest attendance percentage got the privilege of hitting their coach with a pie in the face. The soccer coach really was Chris Bott, but he was conveniently at the beach so the pleasure fell to me! As you can see, my children got the pleasure!

Getting ready!

Totally creamed!!

Take that you little stinkers!!!

Stupid people. . .

Drive me NUTS!!! After tonight's game, (WE WON 11-3), some of the players went to eat a Mexican restaurant to say goodbye to Shanan Stevens (she is moving to Wilmington). Sitting one table away were stupid people! They thought it was cute that the baby in the group (probable 6 or 7 months old) was sucking on the top of a beer bottle!! Now, I know the baby probably liked it because it was cold, but COME ON!!!! Stupid! Stupid! It took everything I had not to go over there and lose it on those people! I just can't stand stupid people!

Catch Up!!!

I know, I know! It has been forever since my last post! It has been a very busy week.

Last Friday, we left to visit family. This is always an adventure - 3 kids and an old dog! On Saturday, we went to my nephew Isaac's 3rd birthday party at Stumphouse Tunnel. This is a really cool place in Walhalla (my home town) that is an actual tunnel that was constructed 150 years ago to try to take the train through the mountain. It is about 300 yard deep and very dark, but really neat. My sister - in- law, Katie, planned a very cool party. The kids went on a scavenger hunt to try to find Thomas the Tank Engine's whistle. Of course we ended up in the tunnel. Unfortunately, she game them all train whistles. Just imagine the sound of 20 whistles being blown in a tunnel - can you say ear splitting!!!. It was really fun!

On Sunday, we went to a yearly family reunion. My dad's family goes to Buck Creek NC every year on the 3rd Sunday in July. We have Sunday school under a large tree at the cemetery where we have what you would call dedication. Well, this year, God was working on me to say something to my family. Needless to say, NERVE WRACKING! It is so hard to talk to family about salvation. I was obedient, and at the end of Sunday school, my grandmother called me up to talk. My family is large. I think there was 50 people there. I started by telling everyone about Victory Sports and I used the bracelet that we use at Victory to present the plan of salvation to my family. I couldn't tell what everyone was thinking and after a little bit I couldn't see them either because of the tears in my eyes. When I finished and sat down, Grace turned to me and said "Mom, that was great!" Have I mentioned that I have wonderful kids!!! God didn't make me wait long to see if anyone was really listening. We all drove to a park for a picnic lunch. While we were eating, my cousin Justin walked up and wanted to know what white meant. I told him and then offered my bracelet to him. His smile was all the answer I needed to have. I followed him back to his table to see what he was doing, and he was telling his aunt, another cousin, every word I had said!!! PTL!!!! I was so excited! Then, as we were cleaning up, another cousin, Kevin, came over to see if I had any more bracelets. His girlfriend, who had came with him, would like to have one. I did have one in the van. While we walked to the van, I got a chance to talk to him. It blows me away that God thinks I am worthy to tell others about him!!

Monday, I started working Palmetto Sports Camp. I am helping with soccer. I have never played soccer in my life, but I am having so much fun that I had to go buy a pink and white soccer ball. It has been very hot, but the kids have had so much fun. Monday we had 96 kids, Tuesday we had 100 kids, Wednesday we had 105 kids and today we had 97 kids!!!! Yesterday, the fire truck came and sprayed us all with the cannon on top. That was awesome!!!! I think the kids had as much fun as the adults!

Monday night the ORANGE played and unfortunately, we lost! We did great at the beginning, scoring 7 runs in the first inning, but we only scored 1 more the rest of the game. Our bats stopped and you can't win if you can't hit the ball! We have a game tonight, so I will let you know how it goes! GO ORANGE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Just barely!

The ORANGE prevailed victorious last night, but just barely. We won 12 - 11 over Harrison. It was a battle that was created by a HORRIBLE 1st inning. We batted first (we were visitors) and scored 5 runs, so when we hit the field, we were feeling pretty good. It didn't last long. We played awful. We missed balls (I missed a line drive that I should have caught. In my opinion that was the beginning of the ugliness), we had some over throws, I walked a batter, and their clean-up batter hit great. When we finally got 3 outs, Ed was not happy with us. We turned it around, but it took an extra inning to finally get the win. On a personal note, I haven't struggled that much on the mound in a very long time. I think God was trying to humble me. I take my pitching ability for granted and I should remember that it is God's grace that allows us to do any and everything. Lesson learned!

ORANGE Update!

We won tonight! Unfortunately, it was not by our awesome skills, but by a forfeit. :( We ended up using the time to practice and play an impromptu scrimmage. It was fun just to play for fun! We have another game tomorrow night, so hopefully we will get to show off the awesome ORANGE!!

Ice Cream

I think one of the best things about summer is ice cream and I think the kids would agree!

Grace thinks it is YUMMY!!!!

Ella wants more!!

Jonathon and Bradley couldn't get enough!

Charlotte loved it, too!!!

But the worst thing about summer is when the ice cream runs out, right Ella?

Fashion Diva

The other morning, I sent Grace upstairs to get dressed and this is how she came down! To get the full effect, you need to enlarge the picture. I asked her why she chose that and her response was "it matches!". I asked how and she pointed to the lime green stripes in the both the shirt and skirt and said "lime green and lime green match!" I just shook my head! You gotta love her self confidence!! You go Grace!

Summer Fun

It feels like forever since I have had anything to post. I still don't have anything, but I thought you (whoever you are who reads this!) deserved something up to date. The kids and I have spent the week living at the pool. We go every morning at 11 and swim about an hour and a half to 2 hours, then come home for lunch. Ella takes a great nap! She has to be part fish! She jumps in and swims around with her floaties on (water wings that go on her arms). She is fearless! You will be holding her and she will want down, so she just jumps out of your arms and floats away kicking her little legs as hard as she can. I will have to take the camera to the pool tomorrow to get some pictures. Grace loves the pool and has learned how to swim underwater, and now has no fear. She jumps in 5 ft. and swims to the ladder like it is nothing!

We had a good 4th. We went to the pool (surprise, surprise!) and that night the adults went to the Knights game. Les and I went with our friends Chris and Laura Bott. We left all the kids at the Botts' house with the sitter and we hit the ballgame. We sat on the berm which means the grass on a blanket. It really wasn't bad, because we weren't sitting on hard seats, smashed between sweaty people. Laura and I went to get concessions, and were gone so long, Chris came to check on us. We really wanted to get a funnel cake, but the line was LONG. It stretched for 2 sections - which was about 60 people! I like funnel cake, but not that much! After the game, they had great fireworks! The fireworks must have lasted for 20 minutes! We decided to go the the van and watch from the parking lot so we could beat the traffic. Laura and I spread out the blankets on the grass, but this wasn't good enough for Les. He took the seats out of the van and he and Chris sat in them in the parking lot. I called them portable redneck recliners! I am sure the people around us thought we were crazy! Then some woman walked up and tried to ask Les and Chris to help her friend get her Mini Coop off the curb, but she was so drunk that they couldn't understand what she was asking and by the time they figured out what she wanted, some other guy had the car off the curb! Laura and I laughed soooo hard!

I guess I did have something to write about after all! I will post pictures tomorrow, Grandy!

Camp

Jonathon and I left for Camp Kid Jam Thursday. We had a blast! Other than a few glitches, it was a great camp! Some of my favorite moments were during the Jam Sessions (for us old people, that is worship). It was loud and so awesome! It was so cool to see the kids praising God without reservation! Camp was fun, but it was good to come home. I really missed the girls! When we got to the parking lot, Ella saw me and ran across the parking lot to me. She stayed right beside me the rest of the day. I guess camp really wore Jonathon out, because he has slept late for the last 2 mornings. For Jonathon, anything past 7am is sleeping late, and he has been sleeping until 8 or 830!!