Independence Day

Tim sang this song last night at his concert and I loved it! I have friends who have served in the Middle East, friends who's husbands are there now and friends who have lost loved ones there and I'm so grateful for them all. We are so blessed to live in America and I'm grateful there are men and women willing to fight for our freedom.

Enjoy your Independence Day and be grateful to those who gave us our Indepedence.

Tim McGraw

Sorry Keith, I have a crush on another man...Tim McGraw. Stephanie got tickets to the Faith Hill/Tim McGraw Soul2Soul II concert and she took me---Yea!!! It was so fun! Faith did great, but Tim was awesome (and very sexy I might add!) I think this years concert was better than last!! It was Stephanie's first concert--I hope it was fun.

Thanks Steph, I had a blast! Happy Birthday!

P.S. Loved our matching cowboy hats!

Swimming Lessons

Swimming lessons ended yesterday. I finally remembered to bring my camera on the last day! Most of them are taken through a window (the parents watch from outside the pool area) so they are not the best quality.



Practicing the back float:





Front crawl:

Sit dive:

Little Carter eating his snacks, watching his big brother swim:

Swimming Lesson Report Card:

Three bobs without hesitation: Great Job

Back float unassisted for 5 seconds: Great Job

Opening eyes under water: Great Job

Sit dive: With help

Front stroke: With help

Flutter kicks with kick board: With help

Front float unassisted for 5 seconds: Not Yet

Swimming alone for 5 feet: Not Yet

Indians Game

So I promise I'm getting to the birthday party pictures and will one day be caught up, but Keith just emailed these to me and I had to post.

Last Wednesday (yes, I'm still a week behind) Keith got awesome tickets to the Indians game. We decided to be brave and take the two boys. It was great! The seats were second row behind the Indians dug out. Carter and Ty had a blast! They cheered and danced (and ate, of course). Garko (an Indians player) even threw Ty a ball he was practicing with. It ended up being a really exciting game and we stayed way longer than we thought we could. I was so mad I forgot my camera, because the boys were extra cute. Keith took these couple on his phone, so they are not the greatest quality, but still cute.

Father's Day

Ahhh!!! Where does the time go?! It has been such a crazy busy week and I still haven't posted Father's Day. This weekend was full of birthday parties (my little guys is FOUR!! and Keith's grandma is 90!), swimming lessons and baseball games. I promise there is more to come on those, but I couldn't skip a Father's Day post.


I hope we were able to show Keith how happy we are that he is the father of our family. My boys are so lucky to have a hardworking father who loves them so much. Keith always puts his boys first and making them happy makes him happy. We are blessed to have him in our lives!



I too have been blessed with a great father and want to take this time to thank him for all that he has been in my life. He is the definition of selfless, has taught me valuable life lessons and been a great friend and companion. I often wonder why I have been so blessed in my life and am thankful everyday for all that I have been given!



Ty sang with the primary children in church today for the fathers. So cute!! I missed him singing on Mother's Day because we were in Disney.



From church we went to Keith's parents for a fun and relaxing afternoon. The kids had a blast on Grandpa's water slide.

Until Ty and Keith passed out in the backyard for an afternoon nap. It started here...

and ended up here...

Ty woke up in time for a quick baseball game with his cousins and uncles. I love the look of determination on his face! He started baseball practice this past week (and had his first game)! He is so into it! He is really good too (well, we are working on his catching). Love that boy.

We finished the night at my parents with a wonderful steak dinner and strawberry pie.

So grateful for Fathers!

Pink Pearls Go Golfing

I may have mentioned this before, but some of my girlfriends from high school (and high school friends' wives) get together once a month for a girls night out. We each take turns planing and it's always a lot of fun. This month was Allison's turn and she chose to go golfing (or in our case, putt-putt). To put a fun spin on things she decided we should all wear our best "golf attire." Since summers are so crazy for all of us, only a few of us could make it, but it was still so fun. Whitney and I had way too much fun picking out our outfits! After we went to Champps for appitizers and dessert out on the patio. It was a beautiful night to be outside and the company was great!

Bailey

This past week flew by and now I'm trying to play catch up (what else is new?). One day last week (I think it was Thursday) my neighbor and good friend, Kelly, asked me to snap some pictures of her daughter, Bailey, sport'n her new (and very frilly) pink dress in the back yard. Bailey was a total pro in front of the camera! Kel, you gotta get this girl in front of the camera more--she's a natural! I couldn't resist posting a few--I took close to 100 pics, these are just a few that I touched up in photoshop. Enjoy. (Oh yeah, baby Brycen joined us too, but unlike sister, was not so happy to be in front of the camera).

Whipp's Ledges

oops.

I have been without a computer for a couple days, but now that it's back I have to play catch up.
Last Saturday took the boys to Whipp's Ledges with Kevin (Keith's brother) and his family, Michelle (Keith's sister) and Orlando (Keith's brother-in-law) to rock climb and repel. We had so much fun! The boys were total troopers! The adults took turns hiking with the boys and repelling and climbing. The boys loved hiking and we had a great time climbing and repelling!

I promised our nephew, Trevor, that I would give him the special recognition that he deserves. Trevor is almost eight years old and was the first that day to climb and reach the top!! He tried to scare us with a crazy slip and flip upside down, but was able to recover and reach the top all by himself.

He later wowed with his strength and bravery again when he repelled from a higher ledge.

When we were finished everyone came back to our place for hamburgers and smores.

Sunday after church we spent the afternoon and evening with my family and our friends', Stephanie and Rob and family, for another cookout. What a fun summer weekend!

Six Years!

Couldn't post this yesterday because our power was out all day. So, happy anniversary a day late Keith! Look at all we've been through in six years. Thank you! Love you.

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Went here...

Cleveland Metroparks Zoo. It's great having a season pass--you can go whenever you want and don't feel like you have to stay all day. We were supposed to meet some friends at a wading pool for playgroup today, but when I woke up and saw it was only going to be a high near 70, I decided it would be a perfect day for the zoo. So, after kickboxing Whitney (did I mention she is in town for the summer? Yea!!) and I took the kids headed to the zoo.

Apparantly everyone else in Northern Ohio had the same idea we did--it was packed!! But still a perfect day for the zoo.

We got there at lunch time, so Carter was content walking around with his hamburger in hand.

Both the boys loved the monkeys.

We ran into our neighbor, Katherine, with her two boys, making the day that much better my guys.

We actually spent most of the time there playing on the playsets, rather than checking out the animals. Fine with me--whatever kept them happy.

The best part about going to the zoo today? BOTH boys taking naps after!!!