Happy 4th of July Ya'll! This is how we do it in the South...

On the 4th of July we packed up the car and headed down to Cowpens SC and spent the day with friends and family.  We had a Redneck Independence Day as Ranee (my sis-in-law) called it.  We spent the day eating, swimming, making homemade root beer, and shootin' guns.  Aaron even got to shoot a M-16.  Who owns M-16's you ask?  Good ol' boys from Cowpens that's who. 

Aaron, just floating.  And yes that is you in the background Jake.  He was concerned he wasn't in the picture.

Riannon getting ready to try a front flip.

Jake in the middle of a front flip that kind of went sideways a little...

The big kids: Jake, Elliot, Alex, Della, and Riannon.

Don't you wish this was your backyard?  I do.

The big kids built forts out of all the rafts for most of the day.

This is just some of the arsenal...If we ever get attacked I know exactly where I am going.  Aaron saw me posting this and said we will probably get a call from the FBI. :)

Ranee and Amanda, 2 of Charlie's Angels.

Aaron shooting the M-16.  I really missed the best picture.  His face after he shoot it.  Like a kid in a candy store.

Riannon smelling the root beer.

Jake got a little too much sun and didn't drink enough water so we spent a little time inside rehydrating and letting the ibuprofen kick in.  This was their game room, fully equipped with this game, pool table, pin ball machine, air hockey and all the action figures you can remember from the 80's.  This is a almost 10 year old boys dream...

If you don't know what the South Carolina flag looks like than you should look it up.  I am not from SC but I admit it is the coolest state flag.  It was being recreated right in the backyard that evening.  A Palmetto Tree with a crescent moon.  The guys tried desperately to snap a picture with there phones...I had to take a picture of them. :)

My camera is just a point in shoot (that I LOVE with all my heart don't get me wrong.) and I couldn't get a good picture with it any more than they could with their phones!

Night swimming..

Glowing wrist bands for the big kids...

...and the little girls. 

The frog we shared the pool with that day was glad when we were done swimming and he came out of hiding.

This is a picture of the guys hurriedly moving the fireworks away so they wouldn't all light up at once.  Just a few seconds before this the fireworks were all about a foot away from the lite ones...

Happy Birthday America! I am thankful to live in the most amazing country in the world.  I am also thankful for our forefathers that through Heavenly inspiration established and fought for this free country.  I am also extremely thankful for all of our soldiers that have fought and continue to do so for all of us to be able to spend Independence Day this way.
(Sorry we didn't get to see you Nana and Papa Harmon.  We will be heading back done soon.)

We really didn't forget Father's Day, I swear...

...I just forgot to post about it.  And we forgot (didn't forget just didn't make a priority...) to get cards in the mail to Papa G. and Papa Harmon-but we did talk to them on the phone.  Happy (late) Father's Day to all the fathers out there!

We started the celebration on Saturday by surprising Aaron with 2 of his favorite things:

1. Sweet and Sour chicken from his favorite local Chinese restaurant and
2. A blueberry cheesecake milkshake from a little drive-thru hamburger joint called Cookout.

I went to pick Jake up from his friend Corey's house after a day of swimming (yes I was jealous) and we picked them up on the way home.

We also let him do this since he:

Going to school full time and working 3rd shift full time is not much fun. (The little blue rug is for Sadie.  When we are sitting on the couch and she sits down next to it for us to pat her, she slides around on the hardwood floors.  How spoiled is that mutt?  Ruining the decor of the living room with an old blue bathmat just so she can sit her furry bum down without sliding all over the place.)

The next day I made 2 more of his favorite things:

1. Homemade rolls and

2. Homemade chocolate cookies.

So, you see we didn't forget Aaron.  Jake even wrote a song and played it on the piano for Aaron.  Thank you Aaron for all you do for our family.  Jake said it best one time when he said: "Daddy makes too many sacrifices for this family."  At first I didn't know how to respond, but then I just told him that is what good Daddies do and yours is the best.  Thank you Aaron. I love you.

Memorial Day, My B-day, Jake's a Bear, and Our Pool

We all had Memorial Day off this year which was so awesome! I have to admit I was reminiscing about our Memorial Day tradition in Asheville and really missing it this year...We used to go to Pisgah National Forest with a bunch of our good friends and play in the river and cook out.  We decided to do the cooking out part this year and Aaron cooked some ribs.  I am not a huge fan of ribs but my guys are so I was happy to eat a couple for my b-day celebration dinner.  My b-day wasn't until the next day, but Aaron had class and work that day which meant he wouldn't be home at all, so we celebrated a day early.  I got a ton of texts, phone calls, and Facebook happy b-days on Tuesday so I felt loved. Thanks everyone!  (I got so many emails saying I had messages on Facebook I decided I better go on...I am NEVER on Facebook.  I even got a couple of "Not sure why I am saying happy b-day here because you will never see it!"  messages on it.  I typed a little message saying thank you and I will most likely not be on until my next b-day if people are nice enough to do it again.  Why Facebook when you can blog?)

Aaron got cheesecake instead of cake because I LOVE IT!  It has become a fun tradition to look forward to.

Wednesday at Pack Meeting Jake got his Bear badge. Way to go dude!

All Jake's glasses are in serious need of some bending back in place.  We are going this week to have it done no matter what!  I can't take it any more...Take a look at the next pic and you will see what I mean....

They also worked together to see if they could catch water balloons in towels. :)

And last but not least for our week:  We bought a POOL!!!...For $10 at Walmart.  :)  It was in the 90's with HIGH humidity all week and we thought this would be a fun way to cool off for Sadie...and us too.

Sadie jumped around and splashed the water like crazy-she had a ball...Jake in the tiny pool with a dog who is going crazy...Not so much!  She acted like she was digging in the dirt or something which was pretty funny.  I kind of love Jake's face in this one. :)

Holding his breath since she was splashing water EVERYWHERE!

Jake was not loving it so much...This is his "Eye-yie-yie!" (how do you spell that?  I know it is Italian and we say it a lot...but never really thought about spelling it....You know what I mean right?), moment.  At least one of them was enjoying themselves.  Now when Sadie has been outside we have to check and see if we need to grab a towel before we can let her in. :)

That was pretty much our week...besides spending Thursday night going a project for AIG math that was so fun! Jake loves to research and do projects (he learned that love from me. I am so proud to have taught him so well!), and I think we will be using that love a lot in homeschooling. He doesn't even know he is homeschooling yet but he already want to do projects this summer on Black Beard the Pirate and Beethoven.  We are going to have so much fun homeschooling. :)

Picture a day in May, Day 8 (a day late): Jake bucks

I can redeem these Jake bucks to play board games or do anything I want to do.  The million dollar one is for him to play Othello with me, because he is not a fan of that game. :)

I am rich in Jake bucks!

More on Mother's Day and the rest of the weekend later...Hope you had a great Mother's Day!

Wordlful Wednesday: Easter Memories

All my childhood memories of Easter are purely Easter bunny, dying eggs, and hunting for candy. We didn't go to church when I was little, but I do remember fancy dresses and shawls so maybe we went for Easter. Did we Mom?

I watch commercial's on TV that show children hunting for plastic eggs outside...I grew up in New Hampshire so April is mud season (if there isn't still snow!), which meant our egg hunts were in the house. My mom hid individual jelly beans instead of the plastic eggs. There may have been chocolate eggs too, but I am a jelly bean fan so I don't remember anything else-except peeps of course. We have kept up the same tradition with Jake. Plus it always fun to find random jelly beans 3 months later that no one found. :)

I remember one Easter Tina (my older sis) swore she saw the Easter bunny and said he had a huge head. :) I am really considering coming clean on the whole Easter Bunny thing this year. I was torn at Christmas with the whole Santa thing but I didn't tell him. I think this Easter is going to be it. Jake always says "don't you trust me?" when I ask him something, and then ask him again to make sure...and yes I do trust him. So, it feels kind of like we are big fat liars. I can't believe he has believed this long! One year I forgot to hide the candy before I went to sleep and he still didn't catch on...

Easter...actually any holiday was special when I was growing up because my parents rock like that. :) I hope Jake will say the same in 20 years. We will see. I love the memories of Jake on Easter. He gets excited about everything and then is so thankful after wards. I think this is a good year to shift from Easter Bunny and Jesus' Resurrection, to just the real stuff. He knows what Easter is really about (His kindergarten teacher called him "little preacher" because a girl in his class said Jesus died on Easter and he corrected her and told the whole story of what really happened to the class), and it is about time we focus on what is really special about the day. I know that the Savior rose again and I have a testimony that we will all be able to live again. I am so thankful to know the truth and to be able to share it with Jake. Wish me luck that dashing Jake's childhood dreams of the Easter Bunny, will lead to better understanding and a stronger testimony of the Savior. :) We can still have egg hunts and jelly beans, even with out the Easter bunny...We have been doing it just fine all these years. So here is to our new Easter memory: complete focus on the Savior. Sounds like a great new tradition to me.
What are your Easter memories? Learn about other peoples over at Cocoa's blog.

I didn't forget about St. Patrick's Day...

Jake just got in bed about 20 minutes ago...another late night, poor kiddo. He of course had tons of homework (boo) and he was signed up to go to a book club at the library. They were discussing one of the Magic Tree House books...The one about Leprechauns , whatever number that one is. Jake can read M.T.H. books in like 45 minutes, but he still loves them and was excited to go...and I am so glad he did! While he was in the book club I went and searched out some home schooling books and found a few that will be helpful. While I was waiting for Jake to finish I started reading them and then a mother from Jake's b-ball team (not this past season but the one before that) came up and talked to me and guess what? She home schools her kids (2 of which were on Jake's b-ball team and are 8 and 10-perfect ages for buddies and were in the book club!!) and told me all about the H.S. group she is involved in. Their group is based on the classics too and I am so EXCITED!!! She invited me to check it out and come to a meeting for preparation for the next session...But anyway back to St. Patt'y's day! They made leprechaun traps at the book club-but Jake decided to make his a leprechaun hotel. :) He had a great time and is excited for the next one in May. That was a nice way to celebrate St. Patty's Day! We usually have green eggs and ham for breakfast but, that just didn't happen today...But we did have our green mac' n' cheese (along with chicken nuggets) and green milk for dinner. Phew! Another day lived and loved-now I better get to folding laundry and throwing more in!

What did we get for Valentine's Day?

For Valentine's Day I gave Jake and Aaron this:

Aaron gave me this:

Turns out Aaron has been checking the papers looking for a lab puppy for quite some time. I don't know if you can read it. If you can't it is ads for lab puppies for sale. If you can read it, NO we didn't not spend $350 on an AKC lab-not even close! Just the cost of a pound puppy. Aaron told me to call. I did....After 11 months (today) of a dog-less home we would like to introduce you to Sadie:

Sadie is 7 weeks old today and she is a genius. :) After driving only a few exits down the road she started to whine. We stopped and she got out and peed. Jake thinks she is already potty trained. I think (know) he is wrong, but here's to positive thinking! She LOVES Jake already. She really loves chasing him. :)

We gave her a bath. (I can almost hear you going ahhhh...) She looks a lot like Emily, just a little shorter ears...

Look how pretty the sky was on the way to....

...Pet's Mart! We needed food and a puppy collar (we still have Daisy and Emily's old ones so she can wear them as she gets bigger.), and we couldn't bare to leave her alone yet. The food was only $1 more for the bag than at Bi-Lo so we figured it was worth it to not traumatize her right when she got home. :)

Is Sadie adorable or what?!? Thanks Norb and Elizabeth for letting us borrow your dog crate! :)...I will get back around to our awesome Valentine's day feast another time, for now here is another sweet puppy picture. And they say dogs don't smile....I am pretty sure she is smiling. We are. Can't wait for you to get home in the morning to meet her Aaron! Hopefully I will have gotten some sleep... :)