I hate when people do photo dumps BUT...

... here I am, a couple of months behind on ANY sort of posts, doing a "photo dump" to catch y'all up! :)

I think the pics uploaded backwards so we'll start where we ended.

We spent a lot of time with friends and outside in the month of July.

 We found that Carson has a love for ribs--got to be from his daddy because I cannot stand the sight, much less the taste, of meat on a bone. :)

 He also has a love for swimming. This particular time, we were at a party at our friends, Tina & Bill's, house and everyone had gotten out of the pool but Carson.

 Here he is jumping to LG.

 Here is LG on her first day of 1st grade. She was happy and fine after school

 but you can see the nervousness in her face as she boarded the bus to the "unknown" before school

 and in this pic right before the bus got there

 Andy has been doing some work in the yard. Any time he is out there, Carson wants to "help." He went and got his plastic shovel and started digging too.

 We celebrated LG's b-day at the Kids Only Gym a couple of weekends ago.

 She also chose to go to Steak & Shake for her b-day dinner.

 A funny in the middle of all of this:

Carson sent his chicken nuggets to "time out." LOL!!

 We had our annual EH Lilley Memorial Golf Scramble the last weekend of July. We always provide BBQ  for lunch after the guys come in from playing.

 Here's everybody eating lunch in the clubhouse.

 Most of my family comes in for the weekend to help us remember my dad. We went to a Mexican restaurant Friday night. Bryson was not a fam of the sombrero!

 Everything we do that weekend is dedicated to my sweet daddy. We miss him so much!

 The beginning of July was marked with a professional development trip to Philadelphia, PA (not MS as people kept asking!)

Of course we had to try a Philly cheesesteak (I don't eat red meat so I had a chicken Philly), and this is where the locals told us to go.

 These are my co-workers who went on the trip with me eating at the best Mexican restaurant I've ever eaten at~El Vez in Philly. Even though
we were there for work, we had the best time!

July was packed full of fun activities but we are back into the swing of the school routine (for all of us). Hopefully, I'll be better about updating now!

Full Weekend

I don't know why we do this to ourselves but we always pack our weekends FULL. Well, maybe it's because we like to keep the kids busy or they will get into things they're not supposed to...

This past weekend was no exception.

We woke up Saturday morning and I took the kids to our friends, Brian and Brooke Loeffler's. I affectionately call their house "Loefflerland" because their backyard has so many toys, play sets, and fun things to do. This particular morning they had a blow up water slide out. The kids ran around, played, and had a blast.  

Kylie and Carson

Kylie, Carson, and LG

 Carson

 LG and Nate eating lunch

 Carson and LG playing on the slide. Carson would not go down the slide. The one time he got stuck at the top, he sat there for about 15 minutes before I was ale to grab his leg and pull him down. My thought was that once he went down and saw how fun it was, he would love it. Not so much...he cried when he got to the bottom and never went back in again.

 While I had the kids at the Loefflers' house, Brian went to our house to help Andy put together our new play set. Brian stayed all day.

 

 36 hours later, Andy was finally putting the finishing touches on it and the kids were able to play.

 Saturday night, Andy and I celebrated our 12th anniversary. My mom kept LG overnight and his mom kept Carson overnight. It was so nice knowing we could sleep in Sunday morning. Andy took me to Capital Grille. The experience was fabulous. The food was great, as was the service. Our friends, Carrie and Brian, were across the street at a wedding and came and met us for a minute after we finished dinner. They came and sat at our table. We thought we were done, Andy had asked for the check but the waiter brought us a complimentary creme brulee (divine) and 4 glasses of champagne, instead of 2, because he saw our friends had joined us. How classy is that?

Speaking of classy, Andy bought me some shoes that I have been coveting for years~Christian Louboutins!!!! Aren't they lovely?

All in all, it was a busy and fun weekend!

A buncha stuff!

 SO much has happened over the last couple of weeks! After I downloaded all the pics, I really saw how busy we've been.

 We've been spending a lot of time with our friends lately. Alex is like my first child (I'm sure I've blogged about him before) so we LOVE having him over to play. He plays so well with my babies. He and Carson look so much alike. It's kind of freaky. Alex lets the kids drag him around and they make him play with them the whole time he's over. He's such a good sport. :)

 He spent the night with us while his mama and new husband were on their honeymoon. LG wanted to lay in the bed with him and watch TV before she had to go to bed...obviously, Chloe wanted some "Alex" time too.

Carson wearing Alex's hat~one day that hat will fit him and he'll be a big boy. I had a moment...sniff...

 LG is learning to ride her bike without training wheels. Boy, does that take a lot of patience and that is why it's Andy's job because I literally have NONE!!!

LG had her yearly dental check-up last week. This girl absolutely loves going to the dentist. Everything looked great! She is right on track!

 After her appointment we went and got ice cream because she did so well.

LG's last day of Kindergarten was last Friday. She said she's a "summer grader" now. :) She had all S's on her report card for the last 9 weeks which is the highest they can get. She is also on a level H in reading. They have to be on a C to get out of Kindergarten and they have to be a level I to progress to the 2nd grade so she has almost reached 2nd grade level!

 Last Saturday was a big day. The day started off with graduation at the Cannon Center downtown. Here are the 3 counselors with the top ten. These are the few we will miss!

 That night we had several of our closest friends come over to grill out and to let the kids play together while we caught up.

Brian, Kris, Mike, Kathy (clockwise from left)

 Barbara helping Micah with her cupcake.

 Carson loved Micah but she was not feeling it. Carson is 3 months younger than Micah.

 Carson with cupcake hands.

 Kiley with cupcake hands.

 Micah with cupcake hands.

 Monday, the kids and I spent the day at the pool at Peppi's condo. 

Carson would not take his hat off because he thought he couldn't go swimming if he didn't have his hat on. Isn't he sooooo cute! He looks like an old fisherman.

 LG doing her cannonball and me pointing away from myself so she wouldn't splash me. Needless to say, I was soaked after that jump.

 Me and my babies

 Carson loved the water and LG can swim in the shallow end by herself. I just need to work on her being able to come up for air and still swim without having to stand up.

LG always wants to help her brother.

Peppi "walking" with Carson. She would lead him around the pool and when she would stop, he would say, "I wanna go walking."

LG lost 2 teeth this past month. She lost her 2nd one the same way she lost her first. She hit it and it flew out on her field day at her school. It flew into the grass so I had to dig around looking for it and finally found it.

Funny story~I took $15 out of Andy's wallet in front of LG this morning. She told me that she and I needed to use our own money, that I had a purse and she had a piggy bank and that Daddy needed his money to do things to the house. LOLOLOL!!! I'm going to have to train her better on who's money is who's!

Family time

We have been spending a lot of time lately doing things with family and friends, whether it be just the 4 of us or our extended family. We have been spending a lot of time outside these past few weeks. By the time we all get home in the afternoon, the sun is setting and it feels so good. The kids run around in the driveway, playing basketball, blowing bubbles, riding on their toys, or we walk around the neighborhood~sometimes all of the above. The kids have been getting in bed past their bedtimes because we stay outside until the sun goes down. We LOVE our new house, yard, and neighborhood. There are so many kids and so much to do.

One afternoon, Andy was doing some yard work and Carson decided he needed to help.  

 All of us, sitting on the bed of Andy's truck one afternoon.

My God~daughter, Madison, and LG playing outside.

Fun times playing at the Loefflers'. Their backyard is a playland. We love to go over there and hang out~there's so much to do!

 My God-brother got married last month in Columbus, MS. My mom and I went down for the day to attend the festivities.

My Fairy God-mother and I :)

 Tad and I

 I had to post about this~Andy sends me sweet little pics on my phone when he thinks I might be having a bad day, just to make me smile. He sent me this one last week! The message read, "Why hello...hope you are having a good day." Isn't that the sweetest?!

 Lilley Grace had her Kindergarten program last Tuesday. It was called "Down on the Farm with Mama Goose." It was so cute! Each class performed a different nursery rhyme. LG was the cat and the fiddle from "Hey Diddle Diddle." She got to stand next to her BFF, Olivia, who was the dog ("who laughed to see such a sport").

 Lately, people have been saying that LG is starting to look more like me...not so sure about that.

 Big news, LG lost her first tooth on Sunday, May 4th. We were having lunch with some friends after church and she hit it with her hand while playing. It was already loose but once it was hit, it flew out of her mouth onto the floor of the restaurant. Luckily, one of our friend's kids found it. The tooth fairy came and brought her $5. 

Funny story~when Andy woke her up for school the morning that the tooth fairy came, LG looked over at the place we put the $ and saw it. She pulled the $ out and the conversation went like this:

LG: "Where's my elephant?" 

Andy: "What elephant?"

LG: "It was right here! Where's my elephant?!"

By this point, she was getting very frustrated, she was looking under pillows, and trying to move Andy out of the way to look under him.

Andy: "What did it look like?'

LG (in an exasperated voice): "It was gray and had big floppy ears!"

Andy: "Where did you get it?"

LG: "The tooth fairy brought it to me."

Andy: "Honey, I think you're still half asleep. The tooth fairy doesn't usually bring things like that..."

Andy said she was so groggy but she finally gave up on finding the imaginary elephant. 

Well, that about sums up our last month, lots of outside time and fun end of the year activities. More to come so stay tuned...