Telling Aunt KK bye, TWINS, and a Trip to Montgomery!

Katie made the trek back to LU to start her junior year. Where did the summer go?!We sure are going to miss her. We love you and are praying for you.

Great time with Natalie, Lincoln, and precious Emory and Isaiah.

They are such dolls, and are getting so big!! Drew had the magical touch with Isaiah.

Sydney and her new friends. She looks like a giant:)

Over the weekend I finally got to meet baby Nolan!! Hannah and Jeremy are dear friends of ours that live in Montgomery. Hannah and I grew up together, went to college together, and now get to share in the journey of motherhood together. What a blessing!! Jessica and Sara also made the trip to meet this new sweet miracle. Lots of laughter, good eatin', and great conversation made for a wonderful trip! Drew and Sydney want to meet Nolan next time, which better be pretty soon!!

Hannah and Nolan

New Babies!!

Congratulations to Joel and Emily on their new baby girl Josie, to Seth and Katie and their sweet baby Emery, and to Michael and Stephanie, whose bundle of joy Carter arrived earlier today. It is such a blessing to see these miracles from the Lord. What a mighty God we serve!

Some days it feels like yesterday Sydney was born, and other days it feels like she's always been part of our family. We are thankful for her and the gift she is. She blesses us daily with her unconditional love, laughter, and smiles. She even blesses us on days like today where she is sick with a little cold, and overall pretty grumpy:) I think she may be getting some new teeth, which usually goes hand in hand with a red bottom around here. Poor thing!

At the moment she is being pretty sweet. As I'm typing this, she wandered off into her room to read books. I just checked on her, and she's sitting on the floor with books all around her just talking up a storm. The only word I can understand coming from her room is "hello"....Yesterday and today one of her favorite words has been "dilia," which means LYDIA!! Lyd's here with her family for a visit so they've had some good time together.

Good Time with Gramps

Sydney's finally got enough hair for a bow!! We've waited 18months for this!!

Beautiful Utah

Syd, Drew, and I just got back from a long, wonderful vacation in Utah. After a trip out there we always come home feeling rejuvenated and reminded of God's power and love. His creation there is utterly breathtaking, and it never gets old. From the beautiful mountains, to the bodies of water, it's a taste of heaven on earth. We are thankful to be able to go there and cherish every minute of it.
We were blessed to have Matt and Gabby and Michael and Emily join us for part of the trip. We enjoyed our visit with them so much. Syd loved getting to spend such good time with her uncles -- thanks Uncle Matt and Uncle Michael for teaching her her latest, hippest dance move. I wish we'd gotten it on tape! Thanks again for coming yall!!

The gang enjoying the sunset before a bonfire

The second part of the trip my mom met us out there. We are always blessed by time with her. Not only is she a ton of fun, she's also an example to me. She is constantly looking for ways to serve others. Sydney sure loves her Grammie (she calls her mammie). Thank you mom!!!

Taking a breather during a bike ride

Good times in the hammock

Hiking part of the way to Mt. Timpanogas Cave

We laughed the second half of our trip at one of Sydney's newest words....Ohgooguy....any guesses as to what she means when she says this?! She repeatedly said this word, so we knew she wasn't just jibber jabbering. It really meant something. We finally figured out she meant MOTORCYCLE...there are lots of them in Utah and she never missed one going by. Mom thinks we need to get her ears checked:)

Kentucky and Father's Day

A shout out to Hannah and Jeremy Vest who welcomed Nolan Robert into their family June 17th! We can't wait to meet him. Congrats to big brother Titan. If he's feeling neglected and needs to talk things through with Millie and Flash, he can give them a call!

We were finally able to make a trip to Sturgis/Morganfield, KY this weekend to meet Caleb Thomas Hagan born to Keely and John Tom Hagan on May 6th. He is such a sweet baby boy...I just couldn't get enough of him. We sure enjoyed our visit there (as we always do!) and of course it seemed way too short. We enjoyed some good cooking thanks to Keely and John Tom, fun times in the swimming pool, a special rose bud ceremony in honor of Caleb at their church, and lots and lots of catching up. I am so blessed by and thankful for our friendship. Here are some pics of our fabulous weekend. I already can't wait to see Keely, JT, and K-LOVE again soon! Love you guys!

Caleb

Happy Father's Day!! I am so thankful for the dads in my life. My dad holds such a special place in my heart. I can't begin to describe how much he means to me. I love you dad.

It has been such a gift to watch Drew be a daddy to Sydney. She loves him so much...I can't tell you how many times she says "daddy" throughout the day while he's at work. There is nothing he doesn't do as her daddy, and best of all he is teaching her what it means to love God, and to pray to Him. She has just started saying Amen after prayers. She is also a good present giver....she thought of her Mommy too with her gift. She gave Drew (and I) tickets to the Keith Urban concert...you better believe! Thanks Syd!

Oldie but goodie

eating like a big girl!

We let Sydney try to feed herself tonight out on the deck in between playing in her pool. It has become one of her favorite things to try, but pretty annoying to us because it's tough to feed her when she is grabbing at the spoon every second. So we finally let her at it tonight...

A pic of Syd's curly cue

What a load!..........It's just water and proof of the benefits of a swim diaper.

Story and Thought

Ironically enough after my last post dedicated to Millie and Flash:), I was fairly certain that I'd lost them today. It all started when earlier today I noticed Flash chewing on something out on the deck. Sadly it was a turtle scared and closed up in its shell:( I wasn't sure if Flash had killed it or not but he sure was chewing away at the shell. I turned it upright to see if maybe by the time Sydney and I got back from lunch the turtle would have migrated to a different spot. When we got home thankfully it had moved!! It was hiding under our grill and needed to be moved to a safer spot on the outside of our fence away from Flash. To do this, I open and realize later left open our gate. I didn't realize this till the dogs had been outside for 10 minutes or so. They were long gone...free to run and roam, which they loved every second of I am sure!! A huge THANK YOU to the Salvador family, a.k.a. the best next door neighbors in the world who stayed with Sydney as she slept through all this, and helped drive around and eventually find them for me!!

One of my favorite things in the summer are afternoon thunderstorms! It is a reminder to me of God's power and creativity. I just love it when it gets nice and dark before a short but heavy down pour along with thunder and lightning. Sydney only being 16 months old hasn't seen too many storms in her day:) Therefore she is really scared of not only thunder, but loud trucks, lawn mowers, etc....Any time there is loud noise outside she says in a real paniced voice, "mon mow, mon mow..."

And last but not least a couple pics from the last few days!!

Sydney and her buddy Carter

Syd and Lyd swimming together

A Girl's Best Friend...

Here are some pics I took the other day of Syd playing with Millie and Flash. She sure does love them. One of her newest words is Millie....so now every dog she sees is "Millie." It doesn't help that several of our friends have boxers too. Talk about confusing for a child.