A Full day

We had some visitors today and it was FUN.. My cool friend Sherry brought Elle over to play with SA and they had a great time together. After they played awhile and had their snacks, we took off to go shopping at a new store where we could all save even more money on our bargain shopping trips. Thanks for coming over and hanging out Elle, see ya soon! Sherry, I had fun with you tooooo.

aawww, what pretty little face. They both wanted to sit on the bench. They are about 3 months apart. Sweetness

Then, my friend Cheley called and said they were going to be out our way and wanted to stop by. How awesome is that? Love, love, luv Cheley, and here she is bringing the kiddos out! Her two older boys were at VBS.

I say kids, because Cheley and Marty are doing Respid Foster parenting and this little cutie has been with them all week.. Such a sweetie. Cheley has an enormous heart and I am sooo soooooo proud of her for being used by God to minister to little kiddos.

Here is her son Eli on SA's little rocking chair and he had a good time sitting on it. Isn't he cute?

Now on to the projects of the day.. We are having an

extension put on to our patio and the work began

TODAY.. SA was having a blast looking out the door

watching the big machinery tear up the ground. She

also was loving seeing her Uncle Andy who is the

Foreman on the job! :) She was calling Uncle Andy

"DeeDAY" today. Yah, I don't know.

A picture of it before

And now a work in progress

WHAT A DAY.. Lots of fun and

activity over here. Whew, now I

am going to bed...

oh Mrs. Heather

If I could have understood what SA was trying to tell

me about her day with Mrs. Heather and Georgia, I am

sure it would have been something like this:

"Momma, Mrs. Heather is so sweet, she rocked me

and sang to me before she layed me down for my

naps.

Momma, Mrs. Heather is really silly, I mean, Look at

me in this picture. We had so much fun, she let me

try on all these head bands and she said "ooooh

Sarah Avery don't you just look so pretty, try these

glasses on cuz I know your momma would love those.
seriously, look at how fun this is"

Momma, Mrs. Heather is very kind, she loved on me

and took care of me all day even when she was tired

and Georgia didn't feel so hot, we still all still had a

good day.

OOoooooh, Momma, I didn't really wanna leave

because I was having so much fun. When can I go back?"

WE LOVE YOU MRS. HEATHER and thank You and Georgia

for taking care of SA and playing on Wednesday.

"outside"

My little one decided it was time to go "ouside" after the rain. So, here we go!
She loved splashing Look at the curls in her hair

Playing on the wet slide

MUCH FUN.. Come play with us!

Covenant

I, DeDe, receive you Matt, as a gift from God,
I joyfully receive you to be my partner in life,
to have and to care for from this day forward,
in times of sorrow and in times of happiness, in
times of poverty and in times of properity, in
times of sickness and in times of well-being,
to love and to enjoy, till death makes us
separate again. I pledge my love to you this day.

That is what I said to Matt on July 8th, 2006.
We just celebrated our 3rd year of marriage
and as I reflect back on that pledge, God still
brings to mind that it is more than just a pledge,
it is a covenant. It is THE only human covenant relationship. When I think about that, I am humbled
by God's goodness. Humbled because we have
both messed up on several occasions and He has
been faithful to send the Holy Spirit to rescue us.
Thank you to the Lord Jesus who
knows our needs and provides beautifully the spouse
that we have and will remain in covenant with.

Anniversary stay: Ross Bridge Resort, 3 years in a row! Love it!
Look at those beautiful roses that Matt had delivered to our hotel Room.


Self portrait, and the only one we took

The view from our room and the

same view on our wedding night, I

might add

SA hung out with us in the afternoon

We had a great time in the pool!

paci dependency

She asked for her paci while she was in her playroom and I told her that she could have it when she went down for her nap.. To her credit, her teeth are coming in and her mouth hurts, but...Next thing I knew I heard her doing something in her room, grabbed the camera and this is what I found!

Moving her blanket out of the way to get to the closest paci.

Whoooop, there it is!ahhhhhh, happy

ok, a few more funny and cute pics

She is all about doing everything herself these days. so, check out those shoes! I told her that it was time to go take her morning nap, and this is what she did!

Doodle time! Concentrating really good. Just cute as can be in the morning, wish I was.. hahahaa

Having fun with Momma and Dadda at Ross Bridge resort's pool. I crashed their

anniversary party! :)

pool bubbles are fun

Her favorite part about the pool was the "no entry" pool. Being able to walk in herself

and gradually get deeper and deeper.. Fun

She helped me bring in the groceries, except she brought them into the living room. ha

Matt put this diaper on her head and she liked it so she wore it for quite awhile

this is how I found her waking up from her nap.. .look what is laying next to her!... She gets this honestly

And showing off nonetheless... Funny girl

1st lake visit

Hey ya'll, we made it, let's see what this lake stuff is all about!

Matt's brother Andy and his wife Carol have a place at the lake and so does his mother in-law Regina. They invited us all up for the 4th and we had a really fantastic time with everyone. It was probably one of the best days I have had in a long time. Here is the run down on everyone that was there: Andy, Carol, Drew, Regina and her mother, Marty, Debbie, Matt, me, SA and Heidi. They cooked a delicious lunch and Andy is like the master at smoking meat. WOW, yum!

SA and her cousin Drew (Doo)Pops

she really liked sitting on this chair at Regina's.

Uncle Andy showing her the ropes. (She wasn't too sure about it all at this point)

Getting more comfortableBam, I think she's got it!I love this face. She is frustrated with not being able to unlatch her life vest.Whew, tired and hungry! Lake timeLoving it!

The fun of water vessels Matt too.

Relaxing

My camera battery died and I was unable to get pictures the rest of the day, but..... Andy towed out his old dock and put it in the middle of their slew area and tied it up. That night we all watched an incredible fireworks show put on by him and his friends. Here is the fun part. We were in the boat out on the water watching it. SA kept saying "birthday" everytime they shot them off. So SOOOOO fun. Loved this day.

More new experiences that are stressing Momma out!

So my friend Heidi was watching SA one day two weeks ago and during nap time was watching her on the monitor play in her crib.. Heidi looked over at the monitor and saw her straddling the top bar of her bed and ran in there after her. She was half way over the bed. So that day, the bumper pads were removed. Then the other day I am talking with a friend and was in her room and she didn't want to come out of her bed so I just let her stay in her bed as I talked on the phone. Low and behold if the baby doesn't get her little body all wrapped up on the pole doing a baby pull up in the corner to the point she was on top of the crib.. SO, I am sorry, but I told her no and put her back in the bed and ran to get my camera.. Here is what I was able to document on film. It's not as good as it was prior to that, but boy howdy it is enough to stress me out.. Seriously, I am NOT prepared for this stage in the game. She is 17 mos and I like the crib for her, but apparently she has other ideas... ON to toddler bed shopping. Oh well. It's still fun..

"hey Momma, I have some new moves"

"hmm, let me see how I am going to do this "How about those teeth finally coming in~
"check this out"