Family day in Boston

We do enjoy a nice day in Boston as a family.  It's just fun to walk around and see all the sights and all the different people and hear all the different languages being spoken.  There are always street performers and lots and lots of people and traffic!

It was another really beautiful day with wonderful weather.  We rode the T in because the girls enjoy riding it and it's cheaper than most all parking in Boston.  I find it to be very germy and I have NO idea how to follow the different lines. Ha!

We ended up walking a little over 5 miles.  We had a picnic in the park, followed by our family Bible study in Proverbs.  The girls had some running races.  We enjoyed an ice cream cone and then headed back home.  It was a family day to remember:)

Anna Claire running hard!

Kyndal running hard!

Abby running hard!  She was actually done here!

This baby was tired after a day full of walking!

Sweet thangs!  All 3 of them:)

I thoroughly love family days and making memories with this wonderful crew I've been blessed with.  I'm truly so thankful.  I hope our girls grow up with lots of happy memories and always give Glory to God, the One who makes it ALL possible!

Enjoying friends

The big girls each had a friend spend the night last week.  All the girls seemed to have a good time.  5 girls make lots of noise. HA! 

I never knew how much entertainment little plastic cups could provide, but they seem to find lots of games to play with them!  Too funny!

Of course, there are lots of competitions!

We walked to the park for a little while.  The playground of course is mostly for Anna Claire's enjoyment!!

Feet in the pond!  They ask, "Can we jump in, we won't whine about being wet and have to walk back home".  Ummmmm, NO!!!  Nasty dirty pond, clothes on, and a walk home = disaster!

Church picnic at the lake

We had our annual church picnic at some friends house who live on the lake.  We always have a good turn out, lots of food, fellowship, and fun.  It was a beautiful day, so that just added to its goodness.  The girls did lots of paddle boating and kayaking.

4 Teeth

Before we left for B'ham, Kyndal's orthodontist said she needed to have 4 teeth pulled, so I had to take her to an oral surgeon.  I didn't want to have it done before we left so we made an appointment for the week we returned.  They told me to give her some medicine that would make her loopy before we left home.  This made me so nervous.  Craig was back in B'ham for his dad's funeral, so I was on my own.  They were not going to let me be in the room with her and this made us both nervous.  However, once I gave her the medicine, she was out of it.  She said, "if this is suppose to make me not nervous, it works".  I was happy to hear that, although she had small tears in her eyes when they sent me out.  It only took them 20 minutes and they said more than once that she was an excellent patient, better than most adults.  She is really such a trooper.  Now she has her new retainer and is good to go:)

A funny:  The day before we went, she said, "I'm gonna ask for my teeth so the tooth fairy will come".  We don't actually play the tooth fairy game, but we do give them money when they lose teeth.  We usually give them $5 a tooth. lol.  So I had not even given that a thought until she said that.  So the "tooth fairy" really went broke for this adventure:):):) haha


On our way to the oral surgeon's office!!!

4th of July

I realize I'm a little out of order with my posts, but I'm just trying to catch up and get everything on here that I want to!

After the Freedom Run, we enjoyed a family lunch and then went to some friends house for the afternoon.  We had a cookout and all the kids played.  It rained some and was pretty cloudy, but we still had a good time.  Very thankful to have the freedom we do and very thankful for those who sacrifice so that we can have freedom.

We went to the fireworks that night, but they started SO late and it was cold outside, so we ended up leaving and as we were close to home, they finally started so we stopped at the gas station to watch for a bit.  The girls were happy:)

A few leftovers

I downloaded the pictures from my camera and I really wanted some more on here for our memory sake.  Can't express enough how much we were blessed by this year's vacation.  Thank you Lord Jesus for your goodness to our family.

Too cute!

Uncle Craig is so much fun!

There will be one more added to this bunch next summer:)

Love this!

These two cuties were always looking for something to snack on!

Love these girls!

These children love their grandmother BIG!!!

Saturday snipets

We are doing the C25K with the girls to get them some exercise and we plan to run a family 5K on August 30th.  Anna Claire does train with us, but her Dr suggested she not run for longer than a mile at a time because of her age.  So Craig or myself will run at her pace with her during training and she probably won't do the 5K but we will see.  It's really been fun so far doing this together as a family.


I have an app on my phone called timehop that I love.  It's shows me pictures from years ago on the actual date.  It's so neat to see how much everyone changes.

We plan on doing fun family things every Friday up until school starts which will be the 3rd week of August.  My mom is coming to visit the weekend of Labor Day.  Yahoo


Craig and I are going on a Pastor's retreat in September, and I'm very excited and looking forward to it.


Craig and I will be running another 5K road race next month, which will be fun.


We have backyard Bible clubs 2 Sunday evenings in August, which will be lots of fun too.  Praying there will be lots of kids ready to hear what the Lord has done for us all.


Lots going on and we plan to enjoy every bit of it and soak up the summer time:)






These 2 cuties went to VBS at a local church and loved it!

Kyndal's Baptism

Our precious Kyndal Beth was baptized this past Sunday.  She was saved in 2012 before we moved here, but we really wanted her to fully understand before she was baptized.  She's been talking quite a bit lately about wanting to be baptized, so she was.  We couldn't be more happy for her.  So blessed to know that she too will spend an eternity in the presence of our Lord.  We continue to pray daily for her as she walks with the Lord that she will always seek His wisdom and allow Him to lead her every moment of everyday seeking to be filled with His Spirit!

 

Mission Trip to NY

Abby was invited to attend the youth mission trip this year since she enters the youth group in August.  Oh my goodness, I remember her being 1 like it was last week.  I wanted me or Craig to go on the trip with her and they needed another adult anyways.  I've never been on a mission trip, so I went.  We went to Newark NY for a week.
They divided each youth group up and mixed up the crews which was pretty neat and somewhat intimidating at first for the kids.  I had 6 12 year olds in my crew, as I was the leader.  We were sent to a church to work with a kids klub.  It was from 10-1.  The klub plays with the kids, does different activities, teaches a Bible lesson, and feeds them.  These are kids who are normally left alone all day and sometimes don't even get fed a lunch.  Several of the kids are in foster homes or live with family members other than their parents.
Since we had to be working from 8:30-3, we would help around the church during the other hours.  We weeded, cleaned the sanctuary, cleaned the fellowship hall, cut grass, and a few other things.  It was a great week and we had lots of fun.
A couple of days got pretty cold, but for the most part the weather was great.  All the kids were sad it was over.  The adults however, were ready for our beds:)
I really only have pictures of my crew since that's who I spent most of my days with.
We did get a free night and spent it at the mall, as the weather was bad and the water park was closed and all the movie tickets were sold out!!
We were welcomed home to lovely decorations, a hot healthy meal on the table, and cake for afterwards.  We were missed and we missed them too.:)

The girls at the mall

The great crew I was the leader of!

Freedom Run 15

Craig and I did the Freedom Run 10K this year.  It was my 3rd year to do the freedom run, although I've always done the 5K, so my first 10K.  It was Craig's first year to do the freedom run.  I'm so glad we do this together now, it's so much fun.  He's always a good bit ahead of me even in training but it's still lots of fun.  One of our good friends came out to support us and to keep an eye on the girls.  I love this race, and love that it supports veterans.


My goal was to complete the 6.2 miles in 60 minutes.  I finished at 58:38 and was completely shocked and thrilled.  I had a 9:28 pace and finished 16 in my age group.  Don't remember how many there were in my age group, but it was around 30.


Craig's goal was to complete the 6.2 miles in just under 58 minutes.  He finished at 51:21 and was completely shocked and happy!  He had an 8:17 pace and finished 8 in his age group.  I have no idea how many were in his age group, but he did awesome.


The weather was fantastic.  It was like 65 that morning or cooler.  It was cloudy, which was actually nice.


Now we are training for a half marathon to do in the fall Lord willing.

5 years celebrated

Anna Claire got to spend her 5th birthday in AL with all her family.  We were all very happy and thankful to be able to celebrate her there at home with everyone.  We actually woke up at Matt and Lindy's the day of her birthday, and Lindy truly made her morning very special.  It was very sweet.  Once we got back to Eron's, several of us went to Chick fil A, Anna Claire's choice, for dinner, then to Yogurt Mountain.  It was a really fun day.  The following Sunday, after church, we had her birthday party at mom and Pappy's where most all the family was able to attend.  She had an absolute blast!

Anna Claire had to get money from everyone because we didn't have a way to get gifts back home, so we took her shopping when got home and let her pick out what she wanted.  Here's what all she picked out!  Half of her money went into her savings.  She really racked up!!!