Blindsided

Please pray for my family. My brother-in-law died unexpectedly this morning.

This is the way I want to remember Tony...on vacation with the boys he loved most in the world (July 2010).

and with Tiffany, his bride of 15 years

We are a very close family, and Tony is one of us.  This is very hard.

Labor Day Weekend!

So you can see just how far behind I am as these Labor Day pictures are just getting posted, but I think this puts me at four posts until I catch up.


On Sunday of Labor Day weekend, we enjoyed a cookout at my parents' house. We enjoyed Wii wars playing some sports gladiator type game. Since Andy, Tiffany, and I do not play the Wii, we were the half-time entertainment during the tournament...meaning we played the game but were there for comic relief.

Tara and Tessa go at it!
and Tara is victorious!

Jonathan and Joshua take on each other. As I recall Joshua claimed victory over everyone and won the tournament.

Even Grandma joined the action fighting Logan. You aren't supposed to try and knock your grandma off a platform, are you?

Austin goes after Grandma.

Aunt Tara fights Savannah.

On Monday, we visited with the other side of the family, when Andy's sister Dianna brought her boys and Granny to our house. Andy showed off his percussion skills and gave Alex and Ben some pointers.


Alex takes a turn.

Now, it is Ben's turn.

We then visited a festival at our church where Zach got a "tattoo." The weather was beautiful, but it was very crowded...lots of fun to be had, but we were hungry, and the lines were long.

Wyatt enjoyed a slide.

waiting to climb the "King of the Mountain"

from left: Dianna, Granny, Julia, Ben and Alex

Ben is King of the Mountain

Julia got some help from the guy controlling the ropes. He had no idea what a monkey, she is. With a little patience, she may have done this on her own.

Julia waves from the top.

Alex starts his ascent.

a birthday and a boyfriend

We had a packed weekend here starting with an Art Club swim party on Saturday for Savannah. I thought this picture of her with her friends was cute. The girls also painted and had some fun with hot glue and seashells. This was held at the home of Savannah's art teacher, and she had so much fun that we ended up playing hookey from our nursery and preschool duties at church. I really owed Savannah this one, but playing hookey from serving God is not such a good thing. However, we were confident that the church would be okay without us this time.

Wyatt and Julia had a lot of fun as well. As you can see, it wiped them out.

On Sunday we attended our regular church service and were hit with one of those sermons were you just know that you have to figure out how, not if, it will change your life. We then went deeper in our Sunday school class and probably should have pondered and addressed this all afternoon. The burning question: "does Christ know me?" --in the context of the judgement where some will argue that they did mighty things in His name, but He replies that He did not KNOW them. I definitely need to work on that relationship.

Right after church we had a church picnic to attend and then we raced home to greet family to celebrate Julia's birthday. She will be five on Thursday, and we celebrated early so that my mom could be here as she was scheduled for surgery on Monday. That has since been rescheduled. It was a fun, fun day, and Julia loved it. I will let the pictures tell the rest of the story.

Our glam girl got some dress up clothes.

Watch out Hannah Montana! Julia even has a twang when she sings. It is hilarious, and we don't know where she gets it - though Andy argues that it comes from my sister Tara.

Check out those nails!

As usual I took pictures of all the family with Julia, but I am only posting the one with my mother-in-law because I shared the rest of the family with you on Savannah's birthday post.

We then had some Slip 'N' Slide fun. Austin is seen in this first picture. I think you will recognize the rest of the kids.

On Monday as I drove home from preschool, Julia and I had this conversation:

Julia: I finally got my boyfriend today.

Me: What??!! When did Daddy and I say you could get a boyfriend?

Julia: I just got him today. Just let me deal with this for a few days!!!

The good news: I know his family, and he may be a keeper....in about 20 years. Julia had a great time at preschool with her boyfriend, Alex and reconnecting with a best friend from a year ago, Jada.

Later in the day, I learned that Alex has at least two other girlfriends and that he tried to kiss another girl on the playground. I told Julia that she needed to DEAL WITH him right away. Wyatt joined the conversation to let me know that he has two ladies, and he helps them fight.

We have our work cut out for us.

pictures that I just can't leave off

I don't know how these pictures were left off the previous post, and I still can't figure out how to rearrange pictures on this blog, so they require an extra post.



My nephew Logan goes for the catch (he tossed his Easter egg up in the air). This is Austin.

This is my sister Tessa with Savannah.