Beautiful Wedding

Last Sunday we drove down to the Huntsville area for Shawn's brother's wedding. We had a wonderful time witnessing David and Kayla committing themselves to each other and to the Lord, seeing family, and dancing it up on the dance floor.

The pictures are in order of how the evening went, so I'll let them do most of the talking. The piece a property they got married on was just beautiful.

Below is John, Shawn's older brother, and his wife Pam. She is holding Luke, David and Kayla's youngest. Ally is holding Tessa (Amanda's daughter, Shawn's younger sister), Keeland is to the right of Ally (Amanda's son), and Lance (Kimberly's son, Shawn's older sister) is to Ally's left.

The wedding party walking down the aisle. Chip (Shawn's dad) was David's best man, so sweet.

Austin is David's oldest son; he is in 1st grade. So big!

Kayla and her mom walking down the aisle. She looks beautiful.

Our little family, well 6 of us, not sure if that qualifies us as little. And Jase is not so little anymore with him just turning 9. Allyson is 6.5, our little Finn is 3.5 (4 this summer) and Maebry is 1.5 years.

So this is a rare occasion: all 5 siblings together at once. French family with the beautiful couple.

This is John's family. His wife Pam is in the middle. Christopher is the oldest (sophomore at Blynn) with his girlfriend, Morgan on the right. Alexander is the next oldest (11th grade) with his girlfriend, Jami on the left. And the youngest is Benjamin in the middle (8th grade).

Here Shawn was playing wedding photographer with my phone!

The cake was beautiful and delicious!

So about now I was wishing I had brought our big camera. The iPhone does great outside with good lighting. From here on out the photos get a little grainy, but I was still able to capture memories.

Ally loved eating dinner with her cousins.

This is Ryan, David's middle son. He and Maebry were doing a little dancing.

Video of sweet Mae and Ryan dancing. She was twirling.

The whole shebang! I hope the photographer was able to get a good picture of this! (We are missing John's oldest daughter and her two daughters.)

Sweet girl with her daddy. It was late, but she sure was a trooper.

 Adriel's speech (old friend of David's) was too funny. He let out some 20 year old secrets that Chip never knew! Check it out!

Chip and Peggy danced to Elvis Presley's "Can't Help Falling in Love". What a great example of love they are to the newlyweds.

I know it looks like she is doing the robot, but she is really doing some of her ballet routine. It was so sweet.

Jase and Finn danced it up as well. Here is a video of them doing the "Whip and Nae Nae"! Should I be concerned? LOL!

And a short clip of all the kids dancing together.

These are Kimberly's boys. Lance just turned 5 and Coby is 9 like Jase.

David and Kimberly got a dance in before the night is over.

We had a wonderful evening. Tons of fun dancing and visiting with family. Congrats to David and Kayla.

May the 4th

Happy May the 4th be with you! The kids and I had a fun day celebrating Star Wars Day! They are old enough now to anticipate it's coming. We gave all of our food items fun names in honor of the special day. Breakfast: Yoda's Yogurt, Wookie Watermelon, Order 66 Oatmeal, Blaster Bagels, Hoth Ice Water. Lunch: Padme's Pickles, Millenium Meat Roll-ups, Ezra's Eggs, Galactic Gatorade. Dinner: Republic Ramen (Jase has been on a kick lately!), Tatooine Taco Salad. It was super fun and we all got into it. Even me! Guess it's been too long since I've planned a party! Lol!! 

When Ally woke up Jase said "Ally, you want some Wookie Watermelon?" You should have seen her face light up. Too cute. And we all got dressed up in our Star Wars attire. I even dug a shirt out for Maebry that Ally wore 4 years ago at Jase's 5th birthday party, that I had made. 

Look at this little cutie. She is all smiles right here. Scroll down. 

This was right before I made her laugh. Little pistol! I can do that face too sister...you got it from someone. Haha!

The kids talked me into going to Walmart. Jase wanted to spend some of his birthday money and Ally wanted to see if there was anything she could buy. We spent the majority of the time in the toy section, but we had to make a pit stop at the restroom. On our way there we passed the big display of TVs and it happened to be playing a Star Wars commercial. We could not stop because Mother Nature was calling. But afterwards, we headed back over to electronics and an employee, that had saw us in route to the restroom, flagged us down and told us she had some Star Wars posters we could have. I had the kids pose with the posters in front of the TV's until the Star Wars clip came on again. I even had a cashier that was on break stop and talk to us and she was all excited for the picture! Yes, we are nerds! You should have heard her "y'all get ready, look at your mom, this could be it!" Break time was over and she missed the finale! 

It finally came back on and we did the best we could! It was funny! The little kids wanted to watch the TVs, which complicated the plan a bit. Here is what we got!

They were such troopers! Jase and I were cracking up the whole time! And look at Ally, she was a champ!

We ended the evening watching The Force Awakens. Jase got the movie for his birthday and it was perfect timing to save it for tonight. Shawn and the older two went to the movies and saw it, but it was new to me and Finn. I really enjoyed it and there was not a slow part of the movie. I'm not a SW buff, but I know quite a bit about the story line (from reading all of the stories to Jase over and over again). I think they did a great job of tying in the previous episodes and setting it up for the next one. What a fun day we had!

9 is Divine

Happy 9th birthday to our sweet, Jase Aubrey. I gave him a hug last night as the last time as an 8 year old! While doing so I told him "8 was great!" He replied with "and 9 will be divine!" He is so full of life and I just love it. 

As I was thinking about Jase today, here are some things that came to mind when I think about him. He loves to laugh and dance. His favorite dance move is "the dab". I bet he does it nearly every single day. He will change songs and add the word "dab" in them. Just like his Daddy. 

He also loves the Watch Me Whip, Watch Me Nae Nae. And the Nae Nae gets turned into Mae Mae. Ha! Here is his whip and Nae Nae. 

He loves sports. Basketball, football, baseball, you name it. I was the same way growing up. Shawn too. And we both still love sports. Yesterday I told him that I had baseball and basketball cards somewhere in the house. I remember I asked for a full set of baseball cards for Christmas in 1991 and I still have the full set in a binder. We found all the cards yesterday and he has been in hog heaven looking at them all. We got him some cards for his birthday and put them in his very own binder. 

Speaking of sports, he loves the Dude Perfect show. They are a group of 5 guys who do crazy sports shots and stunts. Like shooting a basketball and not from half court, but from the stands. Shawn has been watching them on YouTube for over a year, and he showed Jase. They even have their own app game now. Well, they just got their own TV show on CMT, so we've watched all of those episodes. They are fun and family friendly. Oh and they are from the Frisco area, which is 20 minutes from here, which makes it neat. We got him a Dude Perfect basketball goal to hang on the back of his door and he loved it!

He had a simple, but great day. His little neighborhood friends made him feel special by having a little swim party for him. He was on cloud "9" when he came home. So thoughtful of them. 

We had a great evening at home. I told him I was going to make the ham and Swiss sliders that he loves (and that we've made like 4 times in the past month!), but he didn't want that. He said "remember last night you said I could have Top Ramen Soup?" Ramen noodle soup it was then! He isn't too hard to please! LOL! I did make the sliders and they were yummy. 

Originally he requested a lemon chocolate cake. I thought that was a different combination, so we compromised and I made homemade lemon cookies and a homemade chocolate cake. Both turned out great in my opinion. 

Oh and I found a dab picture of him! 

He was a trooper and waited until Daddy got home, close to 7:00 pm, to open his presents. He loved everyone of them!

Oh and we picked Nanny up from the airport today, so she was able to celebrate with us as well. 

These kids are a beautiful mess! They give me a run for my money, but I love them so!

Me and the birthday boy and Finn! Love my boys!

8 years is in the books. Can't wait to see what the Lord has in store for this 9 year old. 

Oh and I do have to share that my little Finn is quite the baker. He loves to be in the kitchen with me. Whether I'm making homemade ranch or mayo or cookies, he loves it. He helped with Jase's cookies and cake today and yesterday. It makes my heart happy to have him by my side. 

And he loves butter. Like his Mama. So I have to share this story now. When I was 2 years old my mom could not find me anywhere in the house. She called and called, but I was no where to be found. Then she was in the kitchen and saw a little crack in the fridge. I was sitting in the fridge eating butter. Yes butter. And at 35, I still like it, but try not to make it habit of eating it solo!!

Camp Rancho de la Roca

A couple of weekends ago we drove out to Rancho de la Roca for a campout with our Married Bible Fellowship class. The property was beautiful and the kids had a blast running around. 

At first Jase was not very excited about going. Of course he thought he would not know anyone, and after we showed up we rarely saw him. He found plenty of his buddies from church to run with. They called themselves "the blue crew." Thankful for friends. 

Friday evening Rockin' with Rhett provided entertainment for the kids and they loved it. He had just finished performing and Ally went up to him and thanked him for playing. It was sweet. Here is a little clip of Finn dancing to the last song. Stay 3 forever! https://youtu.be/kCOgIu5Y15Q

We enjoyed some s'mores and a few worship songs by the fire before calling it a night.

With the temps in the 40's, we chickened out and decided to sleep at home. Ha. It was only 30 minutes from the house and we showed bright and early for breakfast. 

Jase took me and Finn on a ride in the paddle boat. We got the one that was broke and Jase insisted on peddling, so we didn't get very far, but it was fun and memories! Here is some footage of our paddle. http://youtu.be/F9ihuOiL8AI Eden also was helping Jase out with peddling. 

Ally and her friend, Joshua, also went in the paddle boat together. She was quite the brave one! Poor Joshua, he did all of the work! 

I took the 3 younger ones on a hike while Shawn was fishing and we saw a cool area. It had 3 crosses, symbolizing Jesus and the two criminals being crucified, and an empty tomb where Jesus defeated death (and why we can have victory in Him). 

Jase and Shawn were in the canoe fishing, so Mae and I decided we would go check on them. As we were walking up I thought I would video and sure enough Jase caught a fish while I was recording. The only problem was that Mae decided to walk in the water at the same time! Lol!! I grabbed her by her hoodie and pulled her out. http://youtu.be/bKgQtStpQ28

Look at Jase's big catch!

There was no shortage of fun this weekend and we are looking forward to doing it again.