the very first playdate

Rachel and Julia meet for the first time...

May 2004

Such precious girls and sweet cousins...lifelong friends!!

Lost Treasure: Found!

Rachel Jane- 10 weeks old

I thought these pictures were gone forever with the death of my first computer. But, thankfully since I used to get all my pictures developed at Ritz/Wolf Camera, they sometimes gave me a picture CD with them. And, I found some of them tonight! I'm so excited! I'll be going down memory lane alot for awhile!!

Campfire fun!

chatting around the fire

Rachel loves s'mores

Bradley enjoying an "un-roasted" marshmallow

Trenty spending some time with Dixie

R&B playing in the trent

The campfire!

having fun!

getting a little chilly, but still having fun!

For the past two weekends, we have made campfires and enjoyed roasting hotdogs and making s'mores in our backyard. The kids think it's awesome and we've really enjoyed just being outside in nature for a change. The summer was so brutal that we really weren't able to enjoy our yard! Nick is quite the fire-starter (and would kick butt in Survivor!) and enjoys making a nice bed of hot coals so his fires last a looooong time! At first, Trent was really interested in the fire and didn't understand that he wasn't allowed to get too close. But now he gets it and doesn't even pay much attention to it. He'd mostly rather run around and play. We strategically placed our "campsite" near the playground so the kids could play and be close to the campfire. Last weekend, Nick set-up a tent and the kids thought that was fun to play in. We contemplated camping in it, but with our lack of sleeping bags and it being a Saturday night (and we have church in the morning), we haven't slept out there yet. Anyway, it's been so much fun to kick back, relax, let the kids play and just enjoy the fresh air while also eating some tasty treats. I love the fall and look forward to the cooler temps again soon!

PS- these pictures were all taken with Nick's Blackberry phone. Can you believe it?!

No cameras needed anymore!!

A Brother is like no other

I'm sorry, but could we be any cuter??!!

Funny old facebook pics

this was in 4th or 5th grade at my friend Keri's birthday party
YIKES!! Mom, you shouldn't have let me wear those stripes.
Just kidding, I LOVED this outfit for some reason. And, the hair...wow!
This was in 9th grade at Band Camp.

This was my Junior year as drum major.
Check out that young, handsome guy on my right!
Who is that??


These pictures were published on facebook by different friends from the past. Isn't that crazy that ANYONE can post a pic of you and if they "tag" you in it (attach it to your Facebook name) it's there forever...and you can't delete it! Great, huh??!! I thought these were pretty funny even though I wouldn't have chosen my 9th grade one...that was an awkward year!! :)

The Blessing

The Blessing is a big deal at our house. Rachel and Bradley love to say it before meals. Even Trent likes to get in on it...he squints his eyes and then waits for us to say "Amen". Rachel and Bradley have both had the same pre-k teachers and thus have learned the same prayer. It goes like this:
God our father, God our father,
thank you lord, thank you lord,
for our many blessings, for our many blessings,
A-men, A-men.

Rachel had it down pat when she was in pre-k and still says this sometimes. Bradley's version is a little different. It goes like this:
God our father,
thank you for our blessings, thank you for our blessings,
a-men, a-men, A-Men!
He loves saying it and is so proud of himself.

Recently, Rachel started saying, "oh my God" for things she was surprised about or whatever. We had a couple of discussions with her about how saying, "oh my God" is taking the Lord's name in vain and that it hurts his feelings and makes him mad, and we shouldn't do it, etc...etc... So, last night she was in the tub and she was asking me if we're NEVER supposed to say, "oh my God" for anything. And I told her we could use it when we were praising him and praying with passion and excitement or sadness or whatever...as long as we were speaking to him and wanted to praise him and give him respect...then it was okay. I told her a couple of examples and she seemed satisfied. So, tonight at dinner, first Bradley said his blessing. Then, Rachel wanted to say hers. It went something like this:
"Oh my God! I praise you and am glad I get to pray and praise and thank you for our supper and for praise." Amen
It was hilarious and precious and took all my control to not change my expression or open my eyes.
Precious, sweet kids!

the way we were...

...a year ago!

It's amazing how much the kids change each year.

The top 2 pics are from our visit last October to Bainbridge.

Obviously, it was still VERY warm in B-town in October.

The bottom pic of Trent is at home in his crib.