Recapping in 200 words or less

This seems to be about all I can do lately...play catch up. With Cory and I's busy summer schedule blogging gets moved aside for various other activites. I am sure when school starts back September 1st I will have a little time...maybe?? There are a few projects at work they want me to take on...so who knows?? Where to start?? Well as most of you know Meredith, jumping, bean bags, and bedtime don't go well together. In fact, just writing that makes me shiver!! Meredith broke her humerus (and it was not funny) exactly 5 weeks ago tommorrow. She sported a purple cast for 3 weeks and has had it off for 2 weeks. Tommorrow we go for a check up to see how the healing has progressed. Pray that we will have a good visit. Although the arm is much less swollen and bruised and she uses it quite a bit, I am concerned about a knot that has developed at the site. Call me superficial, but I really am not excited about her having a lump on her arm forever...its gross. But I know in the bigger picture it could be so much worse and at least she can swim without her cast protector now. All kinds of fun stories go along with this adventure, but I really do not want to relive them now. In spite of the set back she has had a fun summer. We have been to the movies a couple of time and swam quite a bit. Being that we have a good bit of summer left there is lots of swimming to be had! I honestly did not take a whole lot of pics of her in the cast...I was just to preoccupied to stop.

We did get to spend some good times with our friends in Florida. Meredith got to know Natalie and Bailey alot better and they seemed to hit it off well. We are so blessed to have amazing friends.

Fourth of July was nice. We spent it with another set of awesome friends; grilled out and went out on the lake for the evening. The fireworks show was beautiful and we had front row seats. Meredith went down in the cubby as she was not impressed with the noise the fireworks made. Not to mention that she was tired...we were out for 5 hours straight...it was all great fun though and I hope we can squeeze in one more trip out before too long. There is so much to do in the summer time and not enough time.

Cory will be happy/sad that I am updating now, you see I have been very sick for 5 days now and he wants me to be in bed. I got up to go to church this am and he sent me back to the bed. I am feeling like today might be a good sign of improvement and it could not come at a better time. I have 24 hours to pack up my entire house for 2 weeks...yes that is what I said. And I better not forget anything or mom will have my backside. Tuesday, we are hoping to leave for Kids Kamp...that is Meredith and I. A sister church in NC will be hosting again this year a vacation bible school on Psalms. Meredith just cannot wait...she has been asking to go everyday!! Hard to explain time to a 3 year old. She knows she will get to see alot of her friends and do crafts. Not to mention singing...her favorite. They will have a show on Friday evening and Cory will join us there for that. She is our heart, as you can imagine, and we look forward to seeing her on the stage!! Then on Saturday we leave from NC and head to the beach for a week with my family. This is a new adventure for all of us to be able to rent a house at the beach together. I hope it goes well so that we can do this often. I know that Lord will bless it and I really look forward to alot of things, but mostly watching Meredith play in the sand, frying myself in the sun, and eating some seafood somewhere along the way. I tell you that is the life, and I feel very blessed that God has allowed us to be able to go this year.

Well I will close with this...prayer request. Good doctors visit and clean bill of health. Meredith really wants to start back to Gymnastics and soccer in September...and of course we want that for her too, but more importantly that she will be well. And clarity of mind to get everything in order for our wonderful trips drawing nigh....especially in the aftermath of being sick!! Until next time I will leave you with some pics....

It has been too long!!!

If I even tried to play catch up , it would be ridiculous!! So I thought I would do so by posting some recent pictures...I hope you enjoy. Hopefully this will get me back on track! This first set is from our time in Florida over Easter...we got to do and see alot!! Great Fun!!


The next set is some May pics from Meredith...she had a birthday week this year!! She got to celebrate at school, have a Build-A-Bear party, and have fun in the mountains...those pictures are to follow, I still have quite a few to upload from my camara. These May pictures also include some from fun times swimming in May as well!! This will bring us up through mid May!!

So I am super excited about making my first pillowcase dress...thanks to my friend Ashley, I hope there are many more to come!! I had to show it off here...just too precious, except did I mention Meredith untied the straps and it fell off completely in Sunday School..oops, still needing to fix the dress so that it is a little more user friendly!! By the way...I cannot post any more pics tonight...the blogger page is acting funny, so wait to see pics of the dress on my next post...when this thing is working better...until next time!

We Can Hardly Stand Ourselves!!!

I made this title because the last few weeks have been so exciting that we can't hardly wait to share them with you. I do not even know where to start. I am sad that I do not have a pciture of us at the circus, but around St Patrick's day the circus was in town and my dad decided to take us all....10 of us. It was really alot of fun and we got some GREAT pcitures, but they are on Grammy's camara because I could not find mine that night. We went an hour early and it was well worth it because Meredith go ther picture made with some of the show crew and we got to watch some acts up close and personal...clowns, elephants, small ponies, and acrobats. It was fun...we even got to wear clown noses and get some pics of that...I will post them at some point....I promise. We have also had a nice stent of warmer weather here and I think I can safely say it is here to stay!!!!! I could not be happier...our last 3-4 days have been rainy, so that has not been great, but I know we are seeing the tailend of that so I am happy!!! When the weather was nicer, about 2 weeks ago, we went to the zoo 2 weeks in a row.

I have some pictures to share of Hannah and Meredith. They were especially cute waiting to ride the ponies.

I never let Meredith do this because it is 5 dollars, but Claire was given some Zoo Bucks by a customer leaving for the day, so we were able to let them both ride!!

They Really enjoyed their day and I even convinced Claire to go into the Bird house to feed them nectar. Meredith and I had gone in the week before and enjoyed it, even though the birds kept flying to me and landing all over me...it scared me, but Meredith loved it. This particular visit, both Hannah and Meredith got to have the birds land on them. Meredith was a little nervous, but stayed very still while the 2 birds ate the nectar.
Avery has been so much fun to watch the past couple of weeks, she is eating cereal and some baby foods now and also is cooing alot more. She has been a happy bug and of course Meredith continues to enjoy her. She asked to hold her and will do so, but only for about 2 minutes and then she is done. Avery's hair is now quite curly and it is just so cute!!
You can see some of our new couches on the last 2 pictures, and as promised I am going to reveal some new pictures from the Kitchen remodel, new den paint and furniture, and our new Kitchen table....
I cannot tell you how much fun it has been to update these areas and I feel so blessed that things are coming together. I do not know that these pics will do it justice, but for those of you who have been to my home, you will get enough of the picture to see a change. We still have a few finishing touches....curtains in the den and putting up some decor items, but I really do not want to just settle on anything, I want to feel confident that I am picking thing that are right. We still have to decide what we are doing on the shared Kitchen/Den wall. I origanally wanted to separate the two areas with some trim work, then changed my mind to making the shared wall the same color as the den, and now think that I would like to seperate them now, but using a column. Cory thinks this will be too expensive to do, but I remember the price not being very high, so for now we are patiently waiting and enjoying what we have been able to do!! Enjoy the pics, but please come visit and enjoy in person!
And last but not least, we dyed easter eggs today. Meredith was just too excited about this. She did an awesome job, but our only problem is that she is wanting to eat them all now. We started with 12, but are down to 10 already today. I might just have to hide them. We will be leaving a week from today to head to Florida to visit our friends not too far from the Jacksonville area. I hope our weather will cooperate enough to hot the beach one day and spend some time outside while we are there. My WHITE legs need some sun. Watch out world!! I have been trying this week to get some things together for Meredith and I to take with us for the warmer weather. It is between 79-89 degrees currently there. We will be there for 9 days!!I think Cory is looking forward to a little quiet time. I understand because everyone needs that every now and then. I know he will be quite busy with doing some tile work at the new church building, but still will be alone.
The gym continues to pay off for me, I have even taken on a Thursday evening Kickboxing class and have loved this. It has been a good workout. I am half way to my goal and feel good about my results so far. I have had tons more energy and feel better in my clothes!! Sorry for the long post, but I needed to get cought up, especially before we go out of town and have lots more to report!