Vacation Bible School

Last week our church held Vacation Bible School from 6-8:30 every evening. It was rough getting off work, picking up Landon, then having him fed and at the church by 6, but we managed it do it! The theme was Saddle Ridge Ranch and all the kids really enjoyed it! "Saddle ridge raaaaaaaanch!" was in my head all week long, and Landon caught on to the songs super fast. He sang them all and did the motions and just had a good time with it. I put him in the preschool class because I thought he would do better with Abbie, and we invited his friend Jackson who is 3, so we figured he'd do good in with them. Every night they did the pledge to the American flag, the Christian flag, and the Bible, and apparently he was paying more attention than I thought, because the other night he told me and jonathan to pay attention it was time for the Bible pledge! It's so funny how they soak up So much information and I'm glad he enjoyed Bible school so much! He keeps asking when we are going to go back!

This was Landon's class on the last night. They had just come in from singin.. Landon loves Paige, and somehow managed to get her to do all his crafts he didn't wanna do for him..haha..

Tiffany took all the kids pics in this and had them printed for us on the last day

Each child gets points all week and then is allowed to go to the "store" and buy stuff. With the little ones we just had them shop for them and deliver the bags to our classroom! Worked out VERY will for the little ones. Here's Landon in his new cowboy hat and bandana. We had an awesome time at Saddle Ridge Ranch!

Working on their lesson for the night..

This was during song time, and them sitting on the pew lasted about .5 seconds! They were up and dancing around for the whole 15 minutes!

Happy 4th Of July!

We headed up to Dave & Betsy's for our annual 4th of July picnic. This year there were over 30 people there, family & friends, and we enjoyed ourselves. I think the 4th is my favorite holiday because I love when family/friends get together, i love cookout food, and I Love fireworks! Landon thought the whole thing was pretty cool as well! We were all actually dressed pretty patriotic!

We had about 6 dogs total for the cookout..hey they're family too!

Landon takin Abbie for a spin in his jeep..

A group shot of all the sister in laws.

Me & Lori decided to go for a spin on the 4wheeler too! haha

Me & Oscar watching Jonathans firework show!

We don't have to go to the park to see the Fireworks display, just go to the top of Dave & Betsy's road. Well of course the whole crew wanted to ride the 4wheeler down!

Ahhhhh..Love it!

I totally forgot that I had bought Sparklers for the kids until almost 10pm! Luckily they got a chance to play with them, and it was Landon's first experience with one. After he figured out you don't hold it close to your shirt and you don't try to touch people with them it was smooth sailing!

Happy Independence Day!

Red White & Blue Parade

This year to add to the usual 4th of July activities one of our local radio station dj's- Big Al Howard came up with an idea to put a parade together to honor all of the soldiers that are fighting and have fought for our country. His brother was killed in Iraq and he began an organization called "Operation Never Forget" where busts of fallen soldiers are made to honor them. When a soldier from a small town gets killed or wounded in wartime it's like everyone somehow has a link to them. The parade marshalls were family of the fallen soldiers, or even soldiers that had been wounded. Jonathan was asked to drive his vehicle in the parade and he had LCorp Will Chapmen who was wounded in action. My eyes fill with tears anytime I see a military person being honored, and people stand up and clap. We owe them Everything and sometimes they just don't get the thanks they deserve. Jonathans grandfather is a retired Marine, and was able to come from the nursing home to watch the parade, and he said as they drove by him, Will's dad said "look at that gentleman smiling!" It was grandaddy Keith, and Jonathan proceeded to tell them that he served in the marines in World War II. One of my best friends, Stan , was part of the 3rd Infantry Divison that were among the first to go into Iraq and my heart flls up for him when he would tell me stories. Some of my best memories are him calling me from Iraq in the afternoon(which was 230AM United States time) and would be like "oh no, did I wake your dad up?!" In walmart one day after talking to him and his new wife I walked off and turned around to see him bending down and shaking the hand of an elderly man with a WWII vet hat on, and saying "Thank you sir" needless to say I left the store in tears. We can't thank all the veterens, soldiers now, and future soldiers enough. Because of them we are free.

Wow..that turned into more than I set out to write, but it's something I feel strongly about. Take time every night to pray for our troups. Whew..now back to the parade. There ended up being over 100 entries in the first parade and Big Al did an awesome job. Of course the Rhinestone Rockers were in the parade AND we got 1st place in the marching unit! We danced to Rodney Atkins -It's America song, and even tho some of us didnt' make it the whole parade in the 95degree heat I thought it turned out well!

Here is a pic I stole from my friend Ashley who took picturse of all th parade entries!

Our Rhinestone Rocker truck all decked out!

Cousin visit

It's not often I get to see my neice Mckenzie..matter of fact this was only the 2nd time I've seen her her since she was born! They lived in Arkansas so it was a little hard to make trips home on the weekend. My brother recently moved to NC, and she was there to visit w/ him and his girlfriend for a few weeks, so they came up here to see family in Covington! They spent the night with us, and these two wild things were up at 7am playing! Hopefully we'll get to see her more often!