little chef

Hannah loves to help in the kitchen and is always asking to help.  Today she wanted to make pork chops with thyme and oregano and apples and onions.  She did all the work herself and then plated it just the way she wanted it.  It was delicious!!  She served it with brown rice, and watermelon.  Yumm

goldilocks and one great big bear!

Home again

I had such a fun weekend visiting with everyone.  Last night after our bug bite rich, swassy picnic/fishing trip we came home and bathed all the babes and then tucked them in for some Disney fun.  We watched Pocahontas.  Reg was such a big boy and hopped in bed with Ethan and Lucy who had never seen the movie before.  There are a lot of classic Disney movies that they haven't seen.  Maybe we will remedy that this summer. 

This morning we woke up and had breakfast and one last turn feeding the geese then headed for home.  We really meandered along stopping for lunch, a very unremarkable Hardy's stop, and then had a two hour detour to Bass Pro Shop.  It was a lot of fun.  We looked at boats, do we want one?  and fishing poles, which one do we want? and fudge, we want it all :)

Jenna found a camouflage recliner and waited for us. I think she may have even napped, I know she texted Brian. (thank goodness for unlimited texting.)

Shopping and lunching

Rainy lunch fun:)

A real live brick and morter Barnes & Noble!!   Heaven

family

 The very best part has just been being with family.  Andrea and Yoho have been such nice hosts for us.  Their apartment is cute and they are such a nice little family.  Yoho is the kid's favorite Uncle,
 he plays with them and is so patient and sweet.

 We have loved spending time with baby Reggie.  All three little kids and J can't get enough of his cute smile and crazy laugh.

 Hannah and Aunt JaNee watching the fishing.

It's been a delight to get to know my newest sister and she's been so sweet to shop with us and hang out with us.  I am looking forward to many more family get togethers in the decades to come!

Today we went to church and then hung out with family.  We spent time in the pool, took naps and had a BBQ.  Uncle Michael, the other "favorite" Uncle (actually they are all great, we are lucky, that's why I wish we lived close together everyone is fun and it is such a joy to see the kids with their extended family and enjoying those relationships.) taught some mad fishing skills.  Another fun thing we got to do was meet some of the other friends who are out here selling and the wives.  They are nice.

fishing

 Uncle Michael showed Lu and E how to fish.  They both caught something!!  E spent a lot of time at it, he's been wanting to be a fisherman for a long time.

Love the little boy hands, learning new skills.  I can see the man he's going to be someday in this picture.

wild life

 We have had great luck with critter spotting this trip.  Lu found a snake, which Uncle Michael caught.  It was a water snake.

 Michael also found a little turtle which Bub enjoyed playing with.

 There are tons of geese families living around the apartments and the children have really enjoyed feeding them.  The goslings are all different sizes and are so cute!

Children's Museum

 Our first day here we went to a really cute children's  museum.  The kids had a blast, their favorite part was taking Reggie to see everything.  It's been so cute to watch them play together.

Downtown Fayetteville is very quaint, we walked around and looked at shops and then ate lunch.

 After lunch R took the two littlest ones swimming and the rest of us went and did some shopping.

It is so fun being here with our family.

North Carolina

Reggie  and Ethan, cousins meeting for the first time.  We are spending the weekend with our family who are working in NC for  the summer!

Poor Lu

Poor Lu has had some rough luck lately.  She came in contact with some poison ivy this weekend and has itchy, angry welts on her legs.  Today she went on a field trip to Elms Beach and came home with two new friends...bloodsuckers, but not cute ones like Edward.  She got two ticks! Yuck!!

Last day of high school

Can't  believe this is here!   It  seems like yesterday that I held her hand and walked her into Mrs. Brady's kindergarten class.  She was fun size even then, with long brown hair and the cutest personality.  Now she is bigger, and all grown up, but otherwise the same. Today is the last day, tomorrow the senior picnic, next week is practice and then Friday is the big day!!

This is her with some of her fellow orchestra members and their conductor.

Pack Meeting

We had a pack meeting tonight.  It was noisy:)  The boys did lots of relay races and fun games outside.  We also had "healthy snacks", which were delicious.  E has another  month until he moves to the bear den, hopefully he'll get another couple of arrow heads by then.  He is really looking forward to moving up.  Rob Coleman is super fun and E likes him.

more art

Hannah and one of her water colors in black and white. 

art show

Tonight we went to the middle school art show.  It was really wonderful.  They had the cafeteria full of really great art, these kids are so talented.  Hannah is taking art and has really enjoyed it this year.  I haven't seen any of her work all year and was pleased as punch to see what a good job she has done.  This is her ceramic piece.  They worked with all kinds of different medium.  I am excited to see what she does next year!!

a few random summer thoughts

 

Summer is here, we've been enjoying hot and humid weather.  Our plants are growing and we are expecting to harvest zucchini and tomatoes soon, although something got the eggplants and they look pretty wimpy so we may not get any of those.  I love these hanging baskets that R got at the farmers market.  They are so patriotic with their beautiful red, white and blue blooms. 

This weekend our neighborhood pool opens.  The kids are waiting with baited breath.  So are the grown ups :)  It will be nice to have a place to cool off right across the street. 

Our neighbors have several bird feeders in their yard and when we eat out on the porch we love to watch the birds enjoy their supper as well.  Our favorite is a beautiful red cardinal that comes by.  I also like the red winged black birds a lot. 

Mom and Dad bought tickets to come visit, they are coming when it will be blazing hot, still we are very excited to have them come.  The kids haven't seen them in forever and it will be lovely to have a nice long visit! 

This will be a visitor rich summer.  Nana and Abba and Uncle Brian are coming in June, twice.  Then Tatum and Dani and Mackenzie are coming.  Then we are all going to NC together along with Greg and Nana and Abba.  Then they will stay 2 more weeks and the day before they leave Papa and Grandma are coming here.  This coming up weekend we are going to visit Reggie, Andrea and Yoho and Micheal and JaNee in Fayettesville.  Now if I can convince Anna and Ama and Joneaux to come visit I will get to see everyone I love this summer!!That would be a delight!

Saturday

Saturday was a beautiful day.  The weather was perfect! and I got to go to a fun sailing activity with the youth.  It was tons of fun, loved it!!

While I was gone R took the boy to his soccer game and he also watched the McCombs little ones while their parents were gone.  By the time I got home he had half the neighborhood over playing soccer in the backyard and the girls were running around inside playing.  They really had a great time.
There's nothing like having friends over for a play date :)

In the evening we went on a date and Ashley baby-sat for us.  We went to Chevy's and to Home Depot, whoo hoo!!  Good times.

Camp Clinic

 Friday night the young women had a camp clinic at the Callihans.  They have an awesome house!  It was a lot of fun.  I am really impressed and grateful for our camp leaders this year.  They are so on the ball and I haven't had to do anything.  Last year Nicole was awesome as well, we are just really blessed with neat women in our ward who care a lot about our girls!

We got a lot of camp certification done as well as working on skits and cooking out and being silly :)

 dutch oven dessert

I brought my kiddos along and they had a great time too.  The girls are always so sweet to them and they enjoyed spending the evening outside.