Lovin' the Lake!!

Last weekend we went with my brother and his girlfriend and a couple from Richie's work to the lake.  We haven't ever done anything with this couple before, but have gotten to know them over the last year or so.  Well, they are an amazingly sweet couple and were so gracious and thankful to be invited with us to the lake! I didn't manage to get a lot of pictures at the lake as we were having fun and relaxing, but here's a couple!  My brother took his jet ski and they zipped around the lake as we went skiing, tubing, and knee boarding.  I was able to get up on the knee board on my very first try EVER! So excited because it's kind of hard--lots of arm strength needed and I don't have any! :)  I also got up on one ski 2 different times--something I have been working on.  I can ski on 2 skis all day long, but 1 ski tends to kick my rear! Fun times! I'm ready to go back to the lake!! P.S. I'm all cut up on my blog!

Eric on the Tube!

One of Eric's many attempts at the knee board!

Kylie's Hair Cut

Kylie has been growing out her hair to cut it for Locks for Love.  Well, it has gotten pretty dried out this summer (and has a slight green tint to it). She has also been begging me to just cut it off as it's so long and driving her crazy with all the tangles.  So, I decided that by the time we cut off the split ends, etc, there wouldn't be enough left for Locks for Love.  So, I caved and let her cut it off like she wanted! She was thrilled!!! And boy did it start to curl right up! All the weight was gone and her curls bounced right back!

Here's the BEFORE shot..keep in mind her hair is still down past the bottom of the pic when you compare the AFTER. Her hair is curly here from her braids she had in at her softball game.

AFTER! She got at least 6-8 inches cut off! She is SOOO happy! 

4th of July 5K!

I had my one year anniversary of running 5k races on the 4th of July! Last July, my time was 31 minutes and I knew I could beat that, so I set a goal of 28:14 or better for myself since that was my time on the same course in December at the Yule Run.  Well, I ended up running it in 28:47.  I was disappointed! :( But it was pretty hot! However, Weston ran his first 5k with me that day! He trained for about a month and the whole time he was nervous that he would get lost during the race.  I kept telling him, "Mom will be in front of you and if you run during the race, then there will always be someone behind you, so you will be just fine." WELL, HE FINISHED BEFORE ME! He caught up with me about the first mile and stayed with me until about the last mile.  I could tell he was holding back so I told him to go for it! He finished with a time of 28:15! I was just so proud of him! Also, my Uncle Kenneth who has Parkinson's Disease ran the race as well! I was so proud of him for finishing the race. He is 70 years old and has ran races all of his life.  After he was diagnosed, he took a little break from running and made his comeback at this race.  His son came to watch him, too.  I had tears in my eyes when I saw him there to run!  My Uncle Lionel also ran, so we made the race a family affair! :)
After the race, I took the kids down to the square for the Freedom Fest. I only managed to take one picture at the festival because I had my hands full with the 3 of them! I was able to snap a picture of Landen's first horseback ride! He loved it!
 Later that evening, Richie and I brought Landen back down to see the fireworks.  At first he was scared, but then he started to enjoy them.  Fun Day all around! :)

The Family Run

Me and Laura--Before

Me and Laura--After

Landen on Horseback!

July Happenings!

Finally, I am blogging in the same month as the posts are occurring!
Landen has such a sweet babysitter.  She bought the kids a little blow up pool and has converted her carport into a nice shady place for them to swim and play.  Landen is loving "simmun"! She is even sweet to send me pics of him having a ball!

Still June--but we finally moved in our house!

Well, as soon as I got back from Vegas, it was moving time.  Richie had already started because I had committed us to be out of the dupex by the end of the month, so he had a lot of the big stuff moved.  However, there was still a TON of stuff to move.  UGH, UGH, UGH.  We were so worn out by the time we got everything moved.  But good news is, we are in the house and a month later I can honestly say most (not all) of the stuff has been put away.  Don't get me wrong, still plenty to do, but it is definitely starting to feel like home.  I just love this house--it's perfect in every way.  I think knowing we started with an idea a year ago and now we have this home has made it feel like that.  I literally thank God everyday for such a great blessing.  I love the location, too.  So easy to get to town but still close to Gwd.  Anyway, here's a few pics I took toward the end.  I really need to get some final pics taken, but just have been too busy!  As I get each room situated, I'll try and post some interior pics as well! Thanks to my brother and his girlfriend and our good friend Jeremy for helping us move.  We honestly could not have done it without them! Such life savers (and back savers, too)!!

Front bed landscaping--Richie did this all by himself and he's just so proud of it!

The staircase with carpet.  I love the caramel color and pattern!! Please ignore the dusty bannister--this was right after the carpet was installed.  

Vegas, Part 2!! (Yes, over a MONTH ago...)

I am just so far behind it's not even funny anymore.  BUT, I do not want to miss posting on some great things that have happened lately!!

So, to Vegas, Part 2!!  I went back to Vegas about 5 days after I got back from the first trip.  It was another work trip, but a little different this time and not so crammed with things that we had to do.  So, I was able to really enjoy this visit! Another cool thing through blogging is that I meant such a sweet, dear friend--JEN! She stumbled upon my blog and was so sweet to comment one time and I just had to check out her site and left her some love as well.  From there, we just hit it off--we have an incredible amount of things in common--Adventures in Babysitting movie, Moscato d' Asti, you name it, we both love it! She was also the sweet friend who helped talk me through how to make a wreath for my front door.  My wreath didn't even come close to how cute hers was, but it was worth the shot.

Anyway, we met up for dinner and shopping one night and had such a fun time exploring the Vegas Strip.  We ate at a great Italian place and then shopped a bit before heading over to the Cosmopolitan to check out the great foyer!  Then, we were off to find the gigantic high heels that she has her picture in on her blog.  We found them! Supposedly they don't want people climbing on them, so we had to be super sneaky and wait for the security guy to walk by and then we jumped in real fast and snapped away! It as so funny if you watched us just get the courage to do something "daring"! :)  We also went to Sugar Factory which is basically a candy store but it's famous for all of the stars that come in it! The girl that was ringing up our candy told us that Holly Madison always comes down there and gets cinnamon gummy bears.  She said that after Holly leaves, all of the customers buy whatever Holly bought! Too funny! They also have these sucker sticks that are $15! You just buy a different sucker and use your "bling stick". They are covered in "bling" and different stars design their own....I almost bought Kylie one but couldn't bring myself to spend $15 on a sucker stick! Jen, I had such a great time with ya!!! Can't wait to hang out again!! Don't forget, it's your turn to come to my hometown--HAHA!!

The large chandelier in the Cosmopolitan

Cosmo foyer

The "experience" in the Cosmo--the towers change designs continuously.

The infamous heels!

The black heel--we played it safe here and didn't get in!

Sugar Factory

Chillin' at the Cosmo!

Still Playin' Catch Up!! Vegas--Part 1

I am still trying to get all my June stuff posted--so far behind! But I am taking that as a great sign! Been super busy!! :)
My biggest part of June was spent in Vegas--two separate weeks for work! The first week was our National Meeting and we are so busy during that time that we really don't have a lot of downtime!
But, I did manage to go see The Lion King--what an awesome show! I don't know when/if I'll ever make it to New York to see it and this was the last year it was running in Vegas, so I really wanted to see it.  I was so pleased--the kids would've loved it too!

My old manager Julie, MISS HER!!

One of my coworkers, Kim--super sweet gal!!

We stayed at the Palazzo for our meeting...such a pretty hotel inside. I didn't take a lot of pictures really during this week since we were so busy, but I managed to get a few the last evening.  Here's our final night celebration and a lot of my great coworkers!

Summer Vacation!

Well, since we have been working on building a house, we don't really have the time/money to go on a summer vacation this summer.  So, my parents had a weekend the first part of June at their condo in Branson they weren't going to use and were gracious enough to ask us if we wanted to spend the weekend in Branson.  They knew how hard we had been working on our house and that we were ready for a little getaway! We had a great, relaxing time doing pretty much nothing! Saturday my brother and his girlfriend came and spent the night with us.  We went to the pool at Big Cedar Sunday and hung out as well. Fun Times!!

Kylie's Church Camp Experience

This year, Kylie went to church camp with our new church youth group.  She had such an awesome time.  Lisa Belue was there with the girls and was so sweet to text me updates and pics of Kylie during the week! But the best news of all came when Lisa texted me and told me that Kylie had something to tell me.  When Kylie got home, she told me that she asked Jesus into her heart.  She was just beaming when she told me the news! So proud of my sweet baby girl!!

What Happened to June?

I literally blinked and June is over.  Gone.  And I didn't blog a single day in June.  But once I tell you everything I did in June, you will understand completely why! I felt like I didn't stop for the whole month! Where to begin?  I think I'll do several small posts because I have so many posts that deserve pics and their "own post".  Such great times happened in June and I don't want any of them getting skipped!
So, the kids went to school until June 4th since we had the massive winter weather season of the South around here.  But, honestly, I didn't mind! :) Not sure what they thought, but with the house getting close to completion, I really didn't want to deal with kiddos out of school a day sooner than I had to!
So, here comes all of my JUNE posts!