Alivia's Drawing of Mommy and her Signature

Mimi's Birthday at the Lake

The Taylors and Risingers headed out to the lake to celebrate Mimi's 64th birthday. I have a pitiful number of pictures from the weekend but we were having too much fun! The kids are starting to really enjoy going out there. Alivia loves just riding on the boat and jumping off the back to swim in the lake. I got some good wakeboard time in with some coaching from Peyton. Matt and Will took a 3.5 hour nap on Saturday. . . ahhhh. . . .they both needed it!

Happy Birthday Mimi. We love you and appreciate all that you do for us.

Prima Ballerina

Alivia has been looking forward to this dance class for many months! She met Avery and another friend Katherine there and had a blast learning how to put on ballet and tap shoes and some basic steps. It was adorable to watch and Will longed to join in the fun as well. There are 3 more classes and we are considering signing her up for weekly classes in the Fall.

Fellowship Weekend 2010

We had a fun and crazy weekend out at the lakehouse with 2 other Fellowship Families and their kids. All together there were 6 adults and 8 kids. When the kids outnumber the adults, you know there will be a touch of chaos! The kids all got along so well and loved being on the boat and swimming in the lake. We look forward to more fun times with the Schooler and Truss families.

Grayson, Tyler, Alivia, Bentley, Will, Becca, and Luke

(Baby John was snoozin')

Kim, Christy and me (side note: Christy and I graduated the same year from Anderson High School!)

The boys - Ryan, Matt and Rob

Cheese!

Happy Fourth of July!

We had a really fun time out at the newly remodeled lakehouse. As my mom said, "This is our soft opening weekend!" There was lots for Matt to do while we were there, so it probably wasn't the most relaxing weekend, but fun nonetheless. We are looking forward to many more weekends out there in the future. And it is great for each family to have more space so we can all be out there together.

Happy Birthday America!

Brother couldn't quite put down his cinnabon to salute America. . .

Me and Baby John (11 weeks)

LOVE that smile. . .

July 4th at the Lake

Alivia loved jumping off the dock into Daddy's arms

Will enjoyed watching Sister, and then got in on it as well later in the weekend

Sweet Paige (almost 1 year!) with Alivia

The Boat Master, Peyton

Em and Avery (3 1/2)

The beautiful lakehouse

Feeding the ducks off the dock

Jet skiing (aka motorcycle boat) with Grandpa

Mimi and John taking a rest

Avery and Grandpa

Potty Training, Crying and Coon Skin Caps- Oh My!

OK, so any one of you who has ears has probably heard me tell a story about Will these days. . . to sum some of them up from the last few days:

1) Pooping in Nanny Alva's backyard

2) Pooping in his underwear three times today

3) SIX wardrobe changes today alone for various reasons - see #2 for reference

4) Spraying pee pee in both of our faces (I did not know this was even possible)

5) Lots of tears when things don't go exactly his way

6) Yelling "NO!" in Mia's face when she simply asked him if he wanted to get a snack

But at the end of the day Will goes and does something like putting on his coon skin cap given to him by Mimi upon her return from Colorado and all of my frustrations simply melt away.

After this pic was taken he begged me to "put him down" which means we go into his room and he sits on the sofa next to me while I sit in the glider rocker. We read 2-3 books (of his choosing of course). And then my absolute favorite part of the day: he climbs into my lap and I sing four songs: Michael Row the Boat Ashore, Jesus Loves Me, Amazing Grace (first 2 verses) and Twinkle Twinkle.

Ahhh. . . no matter what has happened the previous 12 hours, all is right with the world and I thank the Lord for my precious and precocious little boy. I will miss the days when he begs to have me read to him, to sing to him and to hold him.