Fireflies and Fireworks!

Don't you just LOVE the 4th of July?!?!
Summer is in full swing, and it's a time to celebrate our countries freedom and independence with our family and friends!

Our day began with Sunday morning church.

I was so excited for the girls to wear the matching dresses I made for them!

Seeing them in those dresses just thrilled my heart to no end! (I made sure "A" was okay with the whole "matchy matchy" thing before I went out and bought the fabric. She wasn't just okay with it...she was ecstatic!!! Like jumping up and down ecstatic! I took her to the store and she picked out her favorite patriotic fabric. She wanted a dress with stars on it and was so..... happy when she spotted this print!

Made my heart SMILE!!!)

After church we headed home for lunch and naps.
Then it was off to my parents house for a cookout and fireworks!
We indulged in grilled pork chops, pasta salad, baked beans, watermelon, and of course...dessert. My sister B made a delicious fruit pizza, and I brought this...

Ice Cream Sandwich Cake!

We all enjoyed the PERFECT summer evening.

Mommy and my sweet Sophie!

Shane and the boys--just hanging out...

The weather could not have been any more enjoyable!
The kids ran around the yard playing corn hole and chasing fireflies!

Then they all jumped in the pool for an evening swim!

Sophie and her Daddy!

Miss "A" having so much fun!

My sweet Riley!

After a full evening of summer fun...

we all gathered in my parents front yard to watch the fireworks! My parents live right across the street from a golf course, and every year they put on a wonderful display!

What a PERFECT ending to a PERFECT day!

Some YUMMY summer fun...

So today the kids and I made "Pail of Sand Cake"! I've been on the hunt for a fun, summer, kid-friendly recipe to try as a way to not only welcome "A" into our home, but also to just celebrate the month of July! I came across this one and thought it seemed just right!

It was super easy and the kids could do most of the assembling themselves.

Of course, most of the fun was had while sampling the ingredients;)!!!

...And the finished product!
Bring on JULY!!!!

We would like you to meet...

Some of you are aware that our family is a license foster care family. We decided that in 2008, while we were pursuing our domestic adoption for Sophie, we should also go ahead and get our license to become a foster family as well. At that time, we weren't sure how the Lord was going to grow our family. We wanted to open up as many avenues as possible and then just see where the Lord directed. Well, most of you know our story...we JUST finished our training for foster care when received the call from our private agency about our Sophie. We also found out during that time that we were pregnant with Hudson! Needless to say, we decided to put the whole foster care thing on hold! Well, about six months ago the Lord started tugging at our hearts. We felt the desire to finish the process in order to get our foster care license. We had already done the 30 plus hours of training, so all we had left to do was complete a home study. Well, our license came around Christmas time of last year, and since then we have been waiting for a foster child. Our family is young and busy so waiting was really fine with us. We waited, trusting that if the Lord desired to bring us a foster child He would do it and His timing would be perfect. We were warned by our social worker that our wait may be long simply because we had requested only one child. Most children that come to DSS are sibling groups. It is VERY rare that only one child would come into their custody. We had also requested the child be in the 3-7 year old range. We knew that because of the ages of our kiddo's we couldn't take on another baby at this time.

Well, last week we received a call from our social worker concerning a precious five year old little girl.

Saturday evening our family was introduced to "A"! As of right now, her stay with us in indefinite. We are just so excited to have her here--for however long that me be. The kids have welcomed her wholeheartedly and are thrilled to have another play mate.

"A" seems to be adjusting well too. I am just praying that we can offer her a safe place to be and bring comfort and peace to her little heart.

We are looking forward to a fun summer and hope to make some special memories with little "A"!!

Friends in Christ are FOREVER!!!!

That was the theme of the party my sweet friend, Jessica, hosted at her home on Saturday afternoon. From the time I got the beautiful, handmade invitation in the mail,

I started counting down the days until the event! You have to understand something about my friend Jessica. She is extremely creative and a very gifted artist! She has a knack for throwing the most beautiful parties and no detail is ever over looked. Jessica loves finding a reason (any reason-really) to host a party. Saturday, she decided to throw one in honor of friendship! What a great idea!!! I mean... how often do we get a chance to celebrate the friends the Lord has given us to "do life" with? You know...those friends who walk along side you, encourage you in the Lord, pray for you, and just love you for you! Well, for me, Jessica is one of THOSE friends!

The table was beautifully set and we indulged in a delicious lunch.

The Menu: Chicken Salad Croissants, Melon, Parmesan Cheese Bites,

and for dessert...

Vanilla Ice Cream rolled in Coconut and Toffee Chips

Everything was fantastic!!!

Jessica shared some stories from her heart about what each person there meant to her. Can you say..."pass the tissue's, please?" There was not a dry eye in the house!

At the end of the party, Jessica presented each one of us with several beautiful favors...

homemade bubble bath (which I CAN'T WAIT to use), personalized stationary, and a library card set.

What a perfect way to spend an afternoon...great food, sweet friends, and precious fellowship with my sisters in Christ!

Sometimes the best laid plans, well...

don't go quite as planned.

Thursday evening, our Charlotte Bobcats hosted an open house at the arena uptown. They advertised that all in attendance would receive free hot dogs, popcorn, and soft drinks. There would also be live music, carnival-like games for the kids, and the 2010 NBA Draft would air live on the arena’s main scoreboard. Sounded like a fun, family night --right?!?!
Well, we thought so.
My sister KK was sweet enough to watch the babies for us so we could enjoy an evening out with just the older boys.

Instead of driving, we decided it would be fun to ride the train into uptown.

We were joined by my good friend Jessica, and her little guy Rhett. Jessica's husband Reggie works uptown like Shane, so we met the guys when we got off the train there.

We proceeded on to the arena where we quickly realized EVERYONE else in Charlotte thought this open house would be a fun family night too. The line (just to get in) wrapped around the entire arena. We found our place in line and then waited. And waited, and waited, and waited....

After about an hour or so wait, we finally made our way into the arena. We were given vouchers for our food and then pointed in the direction of the concessions where, of course, more massive crowds of people gathered. At this point we decided to "divide and conquer". Everyone was starving, so Jessica and I would wait in line for the food, while Shane and Reggie would take the boys to play some games. Sounded like a good plan! We all headed to our designated destinations and again found ourselves in extremely L-O-N-G lines. Long story short...we never made it to the front of that hot dog line,

and after the boys waited an hour for ONE trip down the bouncy slide, we decided it was time to call it quits!

We left, and headed on over to Five Guys where we could sit and enjoy a nice juicy burger and fries.

Even though the evening didn't go quite as planned,

we all still laughed, and enjoyed a great night out with precious friends.

All in all it wasn't so bad!

Father's Day Weekend

I hope you all had a wonderful and joy-filled Father's Day. Ours was just a little different this year. My parents are out of town, visiting my grandparents, so we didn't get together for our usual BIG Father's Day dinner. That dinner will happen next weekend at my sisters house where we will all be together to celebrate.

As for this weekend---
Well...in honor of Father's Day, Shane took Corban and Riley on their first ever real camping trip.

They went with our friends, Reggie and his little guy, Rhett, for a night filled with nothin' but some manly adventures;)!!

They roasted hot dogs, made smores, went hiking, met a corn snake, slept in a cabin, and came home dirty--yes...very, very, dirty!!!

Oh...they had such a GREAT time!!!

On Sunday, before heading out the door for church, the kids helped me make Shane's favorite breakfast---

---blueberry pancakes and scrambled eggs.

The kids also presented Shane with a few sweet homemade gifts, which they made for him during the week.

After church, we headed home for a rather quiet afternoon. The babies napped, and we worked on a few projects around the house. For dinner, we let Shane pick out what he would like to have. Of course, he chose steak and baked potato's!

After dinner, we were off to the pool to enjoy an evening swim.

The kids had so much fun hanging out (and ON) their daddy at the pool.

We've been spending LOTS of time at the pool lately, and seriously, my kids are turning into little fish!
They LOVE to swim!!!

And with that...Father's Day weekend came to an end! It was simple, but oh so sweet!
My kids are truly blessed to have such a fun, loving, godly man to call their Daddy!
Happy Father's Day, Shane!!!

Sweet Cousins!!!!

Yesterday, we had some very special visitors come with us to our pool. My sister B, and my nephew Jake, along with my sister-in-law Sallie, and my niece Makayla joined us for a morning of splashin' fun in the sun!

Oh.my.sweet.goodness...

check out these four cutie patooties!!
What sweet cousins!

It was nothing short of a miracle in order to get these little ones to sit still long enough to take one picture!!! lol