splash pad fun!

Thursday morning my little preschool class that I taught two years ago had a little get together and invited my clan. We went to a local splash pad...It was free which made it even more fun. We all had fun even the big kids. We took out little friend Logan. We begged and begged for Mckenzie to let us take him.Finally Andrew talked her into it. Too bad she just won't let us keep him.

Looks like Caroline has more on her mind than shooting the water gun! (maybe a potty break!)

Time flies when you are having fun!!!

I can't believe it's been almost a month since I last blogged. It has been crazy busy the last couple of weeks. There are a few things I wanted to blog about so in no particular order. The last week of school we had Blake going to Holiday world, Andrew in cedars of Leb. for an overnight end of the year 6th grade party, Leah Beth's hawaiian 3rd grade bash and Caroline's swim and kindergarten graduation.

Wesley's 5th birthday party

Leah Beth and her friend Hannah

Blake and Andrew invited around 20 youth from church over to have a swim and movie night.

Watching the Best 2 years

Leah Beth and Caroline had their dance recitals. Leah Beth had 3 performances and Caroline had one. Plus all the dress rehearsals for the week made it a crazy week. Leah Beth's eye got scratched right before she went on stage for the first performance on Friday night. She was in a lot of pain. Thank goodness Sat. morning before Caroline's show she got some numbing drops and she performed perfect.

Steve's nephew Bryan got married in GA. The most exciting new of it all was Papa's had surgery the same week of all the other craziness. He did really well. I think he came home a little early and had a hard recovery but seems to be slowly getting his strength back. We are so glad. We love our Papa. He did look pretty skinny Sunday though. And last this girl hit her first home run on Saturday afternoon game. Yes in the 100 degree weather she played an awesome game. We were so excited. She has come so far from hitting the ball and running straight to 3rd base to now hitting home runs. I thought Blake and Andrew were going to run out on the field and carry her off. It was a great occasion for our family!!!

Although we have been busy the last couple of weeks we have been so blessed lately. Papa having a great surgery was the biggest blessing of all. How did we get so lucky to have such a good Daddy and Papa. As he suffers each trial with his sickness I get so worried every single time but I am so grateful that Heavenly Father knows we need him still. I tease that he's like a cat with nine lives and I am thankful for each day I still have him!

Catch up!

Our garden is starting to look like a garden...maybe a little anyway!

The girls participated in Rally Days at school this past week. They loved performing for the school. It was really fun!

I had a wonderful wonderful mother's day. Lots of sweet love and breakfast in bed. Cuddles and fun presents. My clan really know did well for their mommy this year I begged for either homemade gifts or something very practical that I really wanted. Steve is a "go all out" present guy---which is really sweet but I really like practical gifts most always...especially right now since we are almost done with out debt...I don't want to get off track! A retractable clothes line to hang all these towels all summer from the pool on and sheets on. Now we really look like rednecks in Tennessee.( I can hear steve's family now laughing at my rough towels) A promise to them before they come for a visit I'll fluff the towels so they won't scratch any precious solomon skin!!!!!! and a screen back door. I was so excited. It was the funniest day. I loved it all! I am so blessed to be a mommy - I couldn't wait to have my very own babies when I was young I would day dream about being a mommy! Now I just want to put a brick on their heads so they will quit growing so fast!

And this week we have the matheny kiddos after school while H and M are in Washington. We have had so much fun and the girls cry when they leave each other. Today we made a worm compost for Blake and Andrew's scout project the gardening mer. badge. I think collecting the worms was the funniest part. My old neighbor Rhonda taught us this trick to pour a little bit of bleach in a bucket...then put the water hose in and let the water spill over lots into the grass...worms will start to appear every where... we all collected them and filled our compost again. We actually killed the first batch of worms from a couple of weeks ago. So we thought we'd try it again. If you have any compost pointers let us know!

broken bones

A week and a half ago-Friday night Andrew was a Mitchell's getting ready for field night at MTSU...big night for middle schoolers at our school. Mitchell and Andrew were cutting a rug to 4 minutes to save the world...I guess Mitchell did some kind of high kick the same time Andrew went for a swing with his hands and bam......they hit...broken hand! All weekend...Andrew said it wasn't broken. He didn't want to go to the Dr. finally on Monday we made him go...yep broke. They wouldn't cast it because it was still too swollen so this past Monday he finally got his cast. He is eating tons of yogurt hoping the calcium will help him heal faster!! He goes back for another x-ray in a couple of weeks and is hoping for a quicker recovery than the doc. thinks! He is wanting out of the cast by scout camp! We think he should stick to wrestling and leave the hip hop dancing to his sisters! I can only imagine their dance moves! Today I thought he broke his ribs when he was riding his scooter...but luckily just bruised up! He's my kid that has broken all his toes and is always banged up and bruised up. No wondered we didn't think it was broke his pain tolerance is so tough he just kept going...hopefully it will be over for him soon though. He hates the cast. He said he might just take it off like his Uncle bill did when he was young...(I don't think so!)

Spring is in the air!

Bella gets a good spring cleaning!
and a walk
and an outdoor bath...she LOVES

Caroline's freckles are popping out on her nose! Hamburgers cooking out on the weekends
My rose bush is starting to bloom!
magnolia tree is blooming
broccoli is starting to grow in the garden-which usually means the garden is still so fresh the weeds haven't taken over!!!

playing with Bella is more fun in shorts instead of big heavy coats
plants waiting to be planted
having fun on the tramp.

Flopsy gets an outdoor home!

Our little flopsy got a new outdoor cage today. While I took pictures Steve and the girls made our little bunny flopsy her very own outdoor cage. Every time we took her outdoors Leah Beth was so worried Bella would eat her so Daddy saved the day.

Flopsy seems so happy. Now she can go indoors and outdoors!

Mommy-Mama-Mom-Mother

Today as I was working I was thinking how my kids are calling me different names. When they have all been little it has been Mommy. Caroline still calls me mommy. Then Leah Beth calls me Mama- Andrew and Blake are now calling me Mom.
Oh well just thought that was interested but whatever they are calling me I am so grateful to have them and to be called something! I really am so glad to have my cup so full and be counting my chickens as we leave the ball parks and dance practices. I can't imagine my life without the part that makes me so happy and crazy at the same time. I love being a mom, mommy, mama! (Please remind me of this blog when I am loosing it next week!)