4th of July

We went to my parents' lake house for the 4th of July weekend.  Since the 4th fell on a Wednesday, that meant we got to spend Tuesday night through Sunday there.  It was wonderful to be away for such a long weekend!  My parents have a beautiful home that they built specifically for all of us to be able to be together in.  It has 4 bedrooms plus a loft, so whenever all of us siblings and our families are there we can all be in a bed under one roof!  There is always an open invitation to go to the lake house, and we try to get there as often as possible in the summertime! (Thank you MaMa and PaPa!!)

Lake Ouachita has a 4th of July parade.  Todd, Mel, and their boys participated (Taylor hadn't rolled out of bed before they left, so she just sat and watched the parade with us).  Look how fun their Polaris is decorated!

PawPaw R brought his 4 wheeler down for the kids to ride in the parade.  Nanny went to town decorating it up!  So cute

Once the parade was over we were off to the water to have some fun!  Boy was it a hot, hot week!

Caleb chilling on CJ's lap

Melissa and CJ being silly in the water

Taylor and Caleb

Todd with sweet Calvin

Look at Caleb's tooth!!  He now has another one, and Calvin has 2 as well :)

Mommy (Courtney) and Caleb playing "peek-a-boo"

Calvin is quite the little singer like his PaPa

This is what it looks like when our family is headed to the boat.  Alot of people, and alot of stuff !!

Courtney was getting our champagne glasses ready for our 4th of July toast !

OOOOOHHHHHH!

AAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!

Scott, Courtney, Calvin (l) and Caleb (r)

Todd, Mel, CJ, MT, and Taylor

CJ and Treyson taking in some cartoons while we packed up the cars

All of the kids rode in our car as we went back and forth to the boat----what a hoot our rides were !

Anniston and MT in the back of the car----they thought they were hot stuff

Anniston's 1st attempt at skiing (MaMa held her upright)

EEEKK!! Crash !!

Attempt #2--better !!

3rd try was a charm!!!  You go girl

Caleb was very happy for Anniston ;)

MT is quite the trick skiier---1 handed !!

The kids watched a cartoon on the iPhone one evening

Calvin was very festive for the 4th, huh!

We also got to celebrate Aunt Courtney's birthday !!  (You can count the candles if you want--ha!)

Making her birthday wish!

Jerry took the nephews for a quick spin on the 4 wheeler

Jerry and mine's birthday present to Courtney was to let the boys sleep with us and wake up with them in the AM so she could sleep in (really a nice birthday present for her hubby too!)  Their boys wake up around 6:15 pretty consistently, so we were ready for an early start.  She told us they were so happy in the AM....and she was right!  They were so snuggly and sweet (well, they're always sweet), and we enjoyed every minute of it!

We took the boys out on the screened in porch so that they could crawl around and make whatever noises they wanted without waking up the rest of the house.

Later that day, T-Man tried his hand at the ski-trainer.  He told us he wanted to stand up more on it, and he sure did!

He even waved to his fans who were watching from a distance

Here's one of MT's take-offs:

Love it!  He's such a great skiier !

This was Anniston's last time to have help before she started skiing.  (That's Mommy excited in the background b/c she got up on her first try)  Now we help her get into the ski boots, get her the rope, then climb back into the boat since she gets up on the first try.

The last time Anniston skied, she went about 6 miles....I personally don't want to hang out in the water alone for that long.

She was one proud little girl!

Scott and Caleb skipping rocks......ok, maybe Caleb was just watching !

Anniston and MT tubing

Pretending to sleep. . . . .silly kiddos !

Dadoo and the bubster !

T-Man doing his "show"

Scott and Courtney

Hanging out with PawPaw R and PaPa

MaMa and Calvin

Anniston and Nanny

Courtney and Scott took the boys tubing.  It lasted about 15 seconds......the boys did great, but they were sitting too far back and it just didn't work out all together like that.

Happy 4th of July !!

White Water

We headed out to Branson for the day back in June with some of our friends.  It was a SUPER HOT day, so perfect to be in a body of water!  We have a system when we tackle water parks (now that both kids are big enough--and have the desire--to ride all of the rides).  We get our chairs secured when we first get there, apply our sunscreen, and do all of the slides/rides first.  We do this for 2 reasons: 1) The lines are very short for rides first thing 2) It leaves the rest of the day to just relax and enjoy the wave pool, lazy river, or just letting the kids play in the "kids zone".

Here's a pic of T waiting patiently for his sunscreen to "soak in"

 Anniston is FINALLY tall enough to do the crazy, steep slide.  She's been eyeballing it for a couple of years now, but she had to be 48".  She hit that mark in between last and this summer.....wahoo!  This was her first time down (she now knows to cross her ankles!!)

Such a fun day with great friends.  

Welcome Home Baby George!!

Guess who gets to come home from the NICU today??  Yep, that's right!  Sweet baby George (our nephew) finally gets to go home with Mommy and Daddy!  Kinley and Will are SO EXCITED to get to love on George all the time.  What an amazing day for our brother-in-law and sister-in-law!!

Big George is already over 5 pounds and is eating bottles like a champ!  He'll have to remain on oxygen for awhile, but as he gets a little bit bigger I'm sure he'll get all of that figured out and can lose the oxygen tube.  Way to go buddy!  We love you!

LPGA at Pinnacle Golf Course

On Sunday, we took the kids out to Pinnacle Golf Course to watch the LPGA.  None of us have ever been to a golf tournament, so it was very neat to watch it all.  The kids were fascinated with the process as well.  We watched some from the green as they were putting in the balls.  Then we would watch them tee off from the box.  There was also a kids fun area where they got to practice swinging (and get a little mini-lesson), bounce around, and free ice cream.  

When we first got there, we went into the Wal-Mart Family trailer to get free yogurt tubes and apples.  They also had a putting green and offered a free picture--YAY!  We never get family pics :)

It was a super-hot day, but thankfully we made a stop at TCBY as we left Rogers, then headed straight to our gym to swim--so refreshing.  We ended the day with a 4th of July party at our next door neighbor's house with swimming, food, and hanging out with sweet neighbors.  What a great day!