Last weekend before school begins....mommy tears..

The family cabin is a great get away from all the business of life.  We are fortunate that it is not too far from us. So it is easy to get in the car and go for the weekend.  We had a great relaxing time together and spent this afternoon at the cabin pool just hangin out. The kids talked to us off and on today about going to school tomarrow. I know it is a huge adjustment for them, but I sure pray that is is going to be a good year and they can have a positive experince. Tonight as we are home now, we were making sure they both had everything ready. Amanda has all her cloths picked out for two weeks. :-) I'd say she has alot of cloths. Bailey ..well he is a boy and will just decide in the morning. Tonight Im making cinnamon rolls for them. It is their favorite thing in the world for breakfast. Tomarrow I will drive them to the new middle school of around 400 kids. (this puts a pit in my stomach tonight). And tomarrow I will drive away a sad mommy. I am certainly a mommy that LOVES having her kids at HOME!!!  I think every year I go away with tears rolling down my cheeks, but this year is even different with them starting this new public school adventure. No there is really no doubt that we have made the right decision, but it is still a hard one to digest as well....It is change...and this mom does not like change at all!!  Gracie and I will be hangin out at home and I know she will be missing them both like crazy. She adores them and loves to play with them. I hope I do not bore her. :-)  Tonight as the kids went to bed we prayed with them about several different things. I hope this gives them and me comfort to sleep well tonight. Here are a few pics from this weekend. Enjoy!

Mommy relaxing...kids playing...

Sister Love...night night!!

Summer is over and back to blogging..

Some of you have probebly wondered where I have been, and others have probebly also been so busy you have not noticed. This summer has been full of fun things for our family and busy schedules. ..but not as busy as the fall is. Which is what makes saying goodbye to summer so very sad. Next week school begins again, and soon (3wks) I will be back to teaching dance for the season. Next week we will all be adjusting to getting to bed on time and dragging our feet in the early morning. Our kids are now attending public school here in our town. We took a tour this week and they are happily excited!  Summer has been so great and it sure seems so short. I am so happy we took our trip to Florida Cocoa beach..this made our summer extra extra special for us all and it was something our whole family needed desperatly. Next time all I can say is that we need to stay for two weeks not just one. Im saving right now for the next trip. :-)

Is is just me or does time go fast?  My mom always says to me "the older you get the faster time goes". Well I want to get old, but I sure would like for it not to go so fast. At the same time isn't it interesting that when life gets hard, time seems to move slow and can't move fast enough, and when things in life are good time seems to move too fast and we want to slow it down. I look at my kids and wonder where on earth time has gone. It keeps moving...thank God~!  Sometimes I feel like I don't age, and sometimes I feel like I look very old...(guess it depends on the day)...I want to grow old, and yet I certainly am trying to capture my youth at the same time......Yes I'm up down and all around on this one these days!  Does anyone els feel this too, or is it just me?

Just my thoughts...as I am happy to be back to blogging again!

Wordless Wednesday!!

I really should have taken a photo of myself too on this day because I too was vacuming with my sunglasses on my head. ....She copies EVERYTHING she sees..it is sooo funny!

Just for a Season...

This year we are making the big jump from our kids attending Christian Schooling to now going into public school. One 8th gr and one 6gr. My heart is filled with mixed emotions..especially when one of them..my son is not to fond of the idea at all. But then again he is alot like his mom, and I like what I know and what is comfortable. Amanda is pretty ok with the idea.  At the private school they atteneded there were only about 5 kids in there class room. I knew they were getting the one on one attention you only dream about, and not to mention the great spiritual guidance and teaching.  Now they will be put into a class of about 25-30 kids. No praying in the morning, or during the day, no bible class! I will greatly miss this for them, and they even have mentioned it to us and how different that will be. We have needed to make this change for many different reasons...I just pray that this year will go great for them, and I pray that they have a heart close to Jesus and will continue to seek him on their own as well..and not just because their parents do.  I pray for their strength and all the knowledge that they know to give them strength during the hard times. Yes I know they are not going off to college, but this is a big deal when your child has had prayer and spiritual guidance from teachers since the 1st grade. This next week will be the last full week of summer vacation. It feels to me like the summer just began. Soon my house will be quiet again...too quiet for me. It will just be Gracie and I , and I will also be back to work at my dance studio. My season begins on the 30th of this month. So right now I am doing much of my planning, organizing and registrations. Yep summer is coming to a close and I am not too happy about it. It kind of makes me sad.......But I guess it was just another season, and seasons only last or a while.

Happy Birthday Gracie!!

Happy Birthday to my precious baby girl. Wow, I can't believe my sweetie is 2 years old today. We are so blessed to have her in our lives! Gracie's personality is one in a million, she seriously steels the hearts of everyone around her. When people see her they are always drawn to her and want to know her more. She has such a loving and sweet sense about her. She talks like a 5 year old and soooo thinks she is one of the big kids. She always says "no Gacie do it mama". Oh yes that is her famous line right now. She loves and adores her older brother and sister and vs versa! She loves to play outside. I think she could seriously live outdoors. She preferes spicey foods. Loves rice...go figure right! She loves to be read to , and has to cuddle with us in the rocking chair before going to bed at night. She is smart, wity, and very independent. Yes , we are blessed!

We had one birthday party earlier in the week with family...and another tonight with little friends!

Here is Video of Gracie blowing out her candles!! Pictures below are from a second party with a few little friends!

I am a blessed mama!!

Wordless Wednesday-- "Can't seem to come back to reality"

I know our trip is over, and it is time to jump back to reality...but do you see why I am having a hard time? This was heaven! (FYI, yes Gracie picked up someones pop) :-) She always wants to be like the big kids!!

Wordless Wednesday...."mama, sea sells" :-)

hugs from both my daughters = priceless

"My First Kiss" Dolphin style!

Discover Cove is definetly a vacation spot to hit if you can! It is one place that was so relaxing. You get there and check in right at 8am. The cost is a little high, but it was for sure worth it for the day. They feed you breakfast and a big lunch, drinks and food all day long are included in your cost. Today I am sharing the highlight for me which was kissing and swimming with the Dolphins. THis has been a dream come true for me. With your family pass you get one dophin swim. My family all voted for me to do it since I have dreamed about it for so long. What a great experience to feel, touch, kiss, and swim with such an amazing animal. They are so sweet!

The boys loved the coral reef, they swam in that all day long snorkeling. There were amazing fish they were just in awhhh over. And the thrill of swimming right there with them was amazing to them. The set up in this park is all like a beach, sand and chairs all set up. You feel like you are at the beach and you just go to whatever you want to do. Swim with the fish, do the lazy river, go see the birds ..this is what Amanda and Grace loved because the birds just land on your hand and you can feed them. It was such a relaxing day Gracie even napped for 2 hours. I vote this a 10 !!

A little taste of Paradise.....

Our vacation has gone way too fast and now today we will say good bye to my little taste of paradise here on Cocoa beach. We definetly have been blessed with the most perfect weather and good health through out our time here and we even made some new friends. This was so great for our family to really get away and finally take a real vacation. I know this has been really good for my soul. This trip was not about keeping busy...our lives are busy enough. This get away was about getting time to relax, and I can say we did just that. Are we feeling refreshed? Yes!, BUT we are not ready to go back home. In fact this morning we are all pretty sad about leaving. Even the kids say this and want to stay longer. This just tells me that we need to do this more often and a little longer next time. We absolutly love it here and will have this for sure be a destination we will hit again. Hopefully sooner rather than later. The rest of this week I will be sharing some of my favorite photos (I only took 1,300 photos this week) and some fun stories to share with you about our experience here at cocoa beach. I hope you find them fun! Here are just a few for today....before we head to the airport....

view from our condo deck. More very fun pictures to come tomarrow!

Florida Vacation- Day one...

Our family Vacation is going great! After 16 years of never taking a "real" vacation, I think we will definetly make this a family priority! Well lets just say we must make it a priority! It really has been so great here. I had only dreamed of getting away like this. Well now we are here. In our condo on Cocoa beach and able to really kick back and relax. So far we have spent the first two days just enjoying the beach. The kids are having a blast! This morning we took a run on the beach, it is so beautiful here. I am not going to want to go home..well none of us are going to want to. Here are some pics Im sharing from just the first day. I have so many more, but just thought I'd pick some faves! More to come through out the week. Right now Im thanking God for such amazing family time. So refreshing!

More to come................

Happy 4th of July and B1 Bomber fly by

Happy 4th of July everyone!! I hope you all have had a great weekend! This morning we went to the local parade. The clouds were rolling in and it was a much cooler day. This photo was taken of us all just before I dropped my camera in some mud and yes it is broke. Thankfully it was not my professional one, and just my less expensive point and shoot one. ugh...but this meant I did not get anymore pics :-( If you know me at all, this was very much a bummer for me! Towards the middle of the parade we had a down pour of rain...now that would have made for some interesting photos too. Grace loved the parade and getting a few pieces of candy. I remember last year at this time I was carrying her in the little front pack. Amazing how fast time seems to fly by. Lots more packing to do for our vacation..so will write more later! Have a great day!

Below is when we got to our house, we hopped onto our roof to see the b1 bomber fly by. :-)

This one he was directly above us...sooo soo cool!!

Carnival fun..

Carnivals are not exactly my most favorite place to be at. But this year Bailey has loved the zipper ride, just like I did when i was his age. So while driving by the carnival we have been telling Gracie we would take her on the horses, and she was not going to let us forget it either. She loved her horse so much, she would not let go of her when the ride was done. :-)  Afterwards we went home and climbed on our roof too watch the local fireworks display. Tomarrow is the parade..so more to come from our lovely weekend! Happy Fourth of July everyone! God bless !

earlier in the day Amanda and I snuck away for a quick pedicure. It is one of our favorite treats to do together. We have to have nice feet or the beach right ..lol

Remembering Gramps..

2 years ago today our sweet Gradpa went to be with the Lord..and united with his son (my daddy). When my dad passed away (his only son) at such a young age (42) it crushed us all, but for grandpa it really crushed his spirit. He did not think it was fair that his son went before him. I'm sure the moment he entered heaven my dad and him went off fishing..getting the biggest catch of their lives! :-)

 Grandpa is someone everyone loved. He was always so giving and loving. He would do anything for all of us. I have so many great memories of Gramps. Going camping, fishing, spending time and being so proud of his garden (which now my beautiful grandma still does).  He was the first to take me out and teach me to drive a stick shift. When we went to visit him and my grandma no matter how much his knees may have been hurting him, he was the first to pop out of his rocking chair to give us a hug and a big kiss. Now when we go to the house to see grandma this is the big part missing!

We miss you Grandpa and love you!

And Grandma, if you are reading this, please know that we are so proud of you, and we love you so very much! You truely are the best! We love you!

He passed the test!

Well it is official..Bay passed his driving test the first time. Don't worry everyone..it is only a permit which means he drives only with us in the seat next to him. This is him driving us home. :-) I am really proud of him, he is becoming a young man. He has a summer job mowing lawns and does a great job.

As for driving....I really was not ready for this at all. He is growing up on me, and I have had to learn to let go just a little bit more to give him room. This also comes with trusting that God will watch over him when I can not. I have always been a pretty cautious/protective mom, any of my close friends would attest to that one. :-) I feel like time is passing so quickly and I want it to slow down a bit. Another reason a vacation sounds so great to us all so that we can just slow down. I think when we are running such a fast pace in life this makes times go just a little faster..or so it seems!

Beautiful Butterfly

This butterfly has been living in our front yard. I think she is beautiful and I just had to share!The detail is amazing to me. Wish I would have had my good camera on me, but still got it with my little point and shoot too. Happy Summer everyone!