10th anniversary!!!

wow... it is still hard for me to wrap my mind around us being married for 10 years! on june 10th we celebrated our 10 year anniversary. we dont usually get to celebrate on the actual day because it is a busy camp time and we usually have a group booked. daves parents gave us a 24 hour get away with no kids in may to help us celebrate. we stayed at a lovely suit in pigeon forge. to be honest most of what we did was SLEEP! but we both obviously needed it. it was a really nice restful getaway. just wish it could have been longer.

well when our actual anniversary date came around we were able to get a little bit of time just the two of us. we headed to knoxville and enjoyed MELTING POT. one of our all time fav restaurants. bringing a pregnant lady to melting pot is very good idea. :) every bit was bliss, and so was the company :) we had really good conversation and joked how we at least still had things to talk about after 10 years.

here are some other lovely, high quality photos from the iphone.
i borrowed some great heals from a friend. couldnt walk in them, but they sure looked good.

dave picked out these flowers for me and had them waiting on my desk in the morning. they were beautiful. i love having fresh flowers in the house.

he also totally surprised me with this ring to wear with my engagement ring. he had handed it off to the waitress at the melting pot without me knowing so when we were eating dessert she had brought it out to me. it is beautiful but needs a little tweaking to make it work with my ring, so no pics of it on my finger yet. i cant wait to get it. i was not so in to jewelry at the time we got married and i liked things very simple. now as i have "matured" (ha ha) i guess i am liking to show off that diamond a little more :)

i am so blessed. david is an amazing man. he has made me who i am today. i was so young when i got married that i feel like most of my "growing up" has been with him. he has given me so many great blessings including a wonderful family. i love him so much. cant imagine life without him.

strawberries and silly bands

i finally downloaded some pics from my iphone today and came across a few cuties... last year we planted some strawberry plants in our flower garden. they have a pretty white flower on them as they start to produce fruit so they look really nice out there. it is long past strawberry season now and we didnt get to the berries before most of them were eaten by other visitors to the garden but we did get a few that were just right.

i also wanted to share about silly bands. now i guess these things are pretty popular with the kids these days. i had never heard of them, but GRANDMA KAY (still cant believe she was up on the trends before i had ever heard of them) got some for the grandkids. the kids love them. it reminds me of the days of slap bracelets, EG socks, and BONGO shorts. fun memories of fads that come in and go out again.

Ella Joy

my good friend marcie had her sweet baby girl on May 14, 2010. it is hard to believe she is already 3 weeks old. she came over for a little visit and quick photo shoot the other day. i just wanted to share this beautiful baby with you all.

gorgeous little lips
look at all that pretty hair.
perfect little toes
showing off her pretty eyes
it is hard for me to remember how tiny they are for only such a short time. i love the newborn stage and cant wait for our little newborn to be here.

giddy up...

last weekend we took the girls to their first horse show. aunt debbie and cousins, katie and sydney, had told about about the show and helped us get all ready for it. on friday night before the show we went out to the barn and cleaned lily all up. we gave her a bubble bath and trimmed her mane. daddy and rae practiced riding in the ring. she is getting so good at steering that horse all by herself. of course brenna wants to do everything the big kids do so she rode a little on sydneys horse while syd led them around the ring. syd had offered for brenna to ride her horse in the show for the lead line class. brenna thought that was the BEST! so saturday morning dave and debbie trailered the horses out to where the show was and the girls and i met him there. this is rae when we first got there. she was so excited, just taking it all in.

here are all the girls, big and little, katie and sydney are so great with our girls. rae and brenna just adore them. it was so special to share the day all together. from left to right, brenna, sydney, katie and raelyn.
such a proud girl sitting up there on summer. it was hard to get her back off for sydney to ride her when it was her turn.
they each got their own numbers! so official.
waiting their turns to go in the ring
a quick kiss from dad
the class we entered them in is called a lead line class. pretty much all they do is hold on while someone leads them and the horse around the ring. it is just so they can get a taste of being in a show.
at the end, they all line up for the judges. the judge says "its to close to call" so all the little kids get a TROPHY! how exciting is that! the girls thought they were big stuff.

we also entered raelyn in a walking class where she had to steer the horse all by herself. she was by far the youngest in the class. b/c it was her first time daddy walked next to her but she did a really good job. she said next time she will be ready to do it all by herself! so proud of her. rae can get pretty shy sometimes and to be honest i thought we were going to have to push her to do this but she did really great and was such a good sport. i was so proud of her.

and i cant leave garret out... what a trooper he was! horses arent his thing but he was super excited for his sisters and didnt complain once about being there. it was a really hot day and he did great.

summer check list

--$2.00 sprinkler from Big Lots- CHECK

the kids love to play in the sprinkler! such a fun way to cool off. they play until the grass is soggy and their bodies are pruned.

---homemade sandbox- CHECK

the kids had been enjoying the sand box at the park and at a few friends houses, so i asked dave if he would build one for us this summer. dave is not a fan of the sandbox and wonders why any kid would want to sit in sand and get all dirty :) i loved playing in the sand box when i was little. as you can see dad gave in and built us a great summer activity. you know it is a big hit when you find sand in the lint screen of the dryer, and everywhere else for that matter.
---"home school" lesson plans--CHECK

to help me get through the days as much as the kids, i have come up with 5 weeks of short lesson plans to do with the kids. each week has a theme and then for about and hour each day, after we do our chores, we sit down for what garret calls "home school". it is really hard coming up with an activity that is suitable for all three kids on such different levels. not sure how real homeschool moms do it. so the themes i have come up with are, math, science, art, social studies and reading and writing. here the girls are working on their shapes during math week. garret got to spend some time on the computer doing math problems while the girls did their shapes. next week we will be working on science. i think garret will really enjoy it.

--everyone has a bike to ride-- CHECK

we got raelyn a new bike last week. she loves it. she had been riding a little tricycle since she was 2 but brenna had pretty much taken that over and it was really to small for rae. so brenna got raes hand-me-down and rae got a fun new bike. it is great to watch all three of them ride their bikes in the back yard.
--last but not least, LYNNSEY- CHECK

(no photo yet, but i am sure to get one soon)

this summer with dave being gone for about two months and me being pregnant we decided we would need to look into some outside help. the lord is so good how he works things out. we have a studio apartment above our garage and had heard of a young college student who needed a place to rent from may-dec. so, long story short, lynnsey is not only our tenant but also our "nanny". she is working for us for the months of june and july as a second set of hands for me. she works 3 full days 9am to 8pm and one half day 12 to 9pm. she has been such a blessing to me already in the short time she has been with us. the kids ADORE her, especially the girls. she is an answer to prayer and we are so thankful for her.... the best part, i have been able to take a nap and a shower every day she has been here :)

memorial day weekend

pretty sad sitting here in tennessee while the rest of my family is at sebring for this lovely holiday weekend. lots of things kept us from being able to make it down there this weekend. i know things change and we can not always do what we want to do, but i'm still bummed. i have such relaxing, peaceful, fun, memories of being there. i hope that we will be able to make it down in september for labor day weekend. we will see. hope everyone had a good holiday weekend. did you get to travel or did you stay put?

sleeping beauty

raelyn has not been taking naps for a long time now, but the other day i could tell she was really tired. i put her in the bed with me while i tried to take an afternoon nap. when i woke up, this is what i saw laying next to me. the most beautiful, peaceful little face. i got the camera and tired practicing with lighting, exposure and depth of field with my focus. i have to say i have missed using the camera. i have just been so whipped out this time around, a lot of the things i love have taken a backseat to the indention my tired body has made in the sofa.