May recap

Our first vacation since our honeymoon.  Last weekend Justin and I were blessed to have the opportunity to travel to Myrtle Beach with some of our closest friends to celebrate Lynsey and Nick's wedding.  It was a very short trip but the weather was perfect, the wedding was beautiful, and the chance to get away and have fun was truly re-energizing.  I dreaded leaving the girls and was more then ready to come home to see them again but I also found myself once back into the home routine and responsibilities, wishing we were back at the beach again. :cP It's hard being responsible to so much, sometimes.  The girls had a great time with my parent's for the weekend, though we are all still trying to catch up and re-coop.  (On the way down we were blessed to have dinner with the Jones' in Knoxville.  Seeing them truly made my week and really was an answer to prayer to get my mind off leaving the girls a bit.  We miss them so much.)

 Isn't my husband handsome!?!?  :cD

 Call me crazy that I smile when I see my husband kiss another woman. Lynsey has been a great friend for a long time.  She will forever be the "other woman" in our life as Justin and she would hang out all the time while I was away at school.  All my friends in college thought I was crazy allowing their time together.  All I could say was "It's Lynsey!" and I was happy that Justin had someone to hang out with.  She was so close to both of us that we asked her to be our maid-of-honor at our wedding.  Her marriage is such an answer to prayer.  We are so excited for them both. 

 Isn't she beautiful!?!?

 The first dance....    I've seen a lot of silhoutte pictures lately and have fallen in love with the idea.  I saw the opportunity here so decided to play with my camera a bit.  I wish I had time to take some photography classes.

 Playing all day at the beach.  Not much beats sun, sand, and water!  We also learned how to body surf on this trip thanks to the Lentz's.  Here, Dan cought a good wave.  I love his facial expression and the smiles on Justin and Grace in the background.  I too, body surfed quite a bit, but of course being the photographer, luckily, my attempts didn't get cought on film (or is the phrase now "memory chip" :cP). 

 We also played a great game of beach volleyball with members of the Acton, Lentz, and Parks clans.

 and frisbee in the ocean....

 When you stand at the ocean's edge, you really get a sense of how small we all are and how awesome God's creation is.  It's mesmerizing.

 And for some laughs, and the grandparents, I had to include some pics of the girls.  Loved this pic I took today of the girls in the bath.  Can you tell who is the ham of the two?  Kaelynn cracks us up all the time.  I love this age....

 Every year over the Memorial Day weekend our church does not meet on Sunday morning.  Instead we usually have a fun field day event on Monday afternoon.  So, since we had the morning free today and we were all home as a family (the first time all week), we decided to take advantage of the nice weather and bike over to the park.  It was Kaelynn's first time in the bike trailer and wearing her new helmet.  She loved it! (Much better reaction than Morganne's first time out!) 

 It's fun now because Kaelynn is getting old enough that she and Morganne can actually play together.  Now, that also means that she's old enough to annoy and fight with Morganne too.  Oh, I dread the teenage years... :cP

 While walking the beach in SC, I got the idea to bring some shells home for Morganne to paint.  The idea was a hit and luckily I brought enough shells back to stretch this craft out for a few days.  She loved it!

 Another funny pic from the week.  We came home and I carried Kaelynn in asleep and just laid her on the couch.  When I came back into the room this is what I found.  Morganne had covered her up with her special blanket and had given her Cat in the Hat to sleep with.  I thought it was too cute. 

 And lastly, this is my latest project.  The lady contacted me in January wanting a picture of her dog drawn for her husband.  I stressed to her that it would be a while before I could get it done with busy schedules and the fact that anytime I sat down to work on my "craft" I had two girls that wanted to "help".  Luckily, she was very understanding and 4 months later I finally finshed my picture of Dusty. It was fun as I haven't drawn in over 3 years. 

Hope you had enough time to get all the way through this blog post, I know it's a long one.  I have ideas of things to blog about but getting them done is something else.  Justin is extremely busy with his Lawn Care business, working about 80 hours a week between is "full time" job at Home Depot and his Lawn business.  He loves what he's doing though, and I get so happy when I see him talk about it.  It's good to see him passionate about something again.  He's got plans to pursue this lawn care stuff further and that is definitely a prayer request for us over these next few years.  He's more than ready to be done with HD. Right now, we are looking at an even busier June and just trying to stay afloat day to day.  We are so blessed.

Blessed to be called a Mommy

I am so incredibly blessed to be called a Mommy.  My girls and Justin are my favorite people in the world.  This year's Mother's Day was very special and a lot of fun.  The weather was perfect and I was able to spend the entire day with my girls, Justin, and then the evening with my parent's too.  Justin and the girls got me a beautiful necklace (with some help) from Tag You're It Jewelry.  I've been eyeing their products for almost a year now.  It's a hand stamped metal square with a copper heart on it and Morganne and Kaelynn's names.  I love it.  I then got to take some photos of my parent's at a nearby business that has an old antique truck sitting out front.  Mom wanted some pics with the truck because it was made the year she was born and she and my Dad haven't had their pic taken together in quite a few years.  Other than the direct sunlight, which isn't really great for taking photos, it was a fun outing.   Here are some photos from the day.  Unfortunately, our computer is getting "full".  It was a gift, that we graciously accepted, but it's old and doesn't have much memory or RAM.  So, with all of my picture taking and software, it's begun to act up and not allow crisp uploads.  So, the pics are a bit fuzzy.  We are hoping to invest in a new computer with some of the extra mowing money coming in.  Hopefully....  Hope everyone had a good Mother's Day.  I am very blessed to have an awesome one myself, and to be called a Mommy by two beautiful girls.  God is so good.