Visit to Lorie's

I know this is a week late, but better late than never!  We went to Lorie's last Wednesday-Friday and had a GREAT time!  (I have had a bad headache since Saturday so that is why I haven't already done this.)  We got there about lunch on Wednesday and just visited most of the afternoon.  The kids swam a little and played in the playroom.  The kids played really well together.  Ethan and Cari Ann liked the same things and Jack and Collins really enjoyed playing together.  Olivia and Ava had fun playing, too.  Even though there is 8 months between them, they are almost the same size.  Here are a few pictures from the trip.

On Thursday, we went to Spring Park.  It is a little park right up the street from Lorie's house.  They have a splash pad, carousel, train, and kiddie roller coaster.  The kids had a blast!  Here they are on the train.  I would have gotten on of Olivia and Ava, but they were both sound asleep!
This is Jack and Collins at the splash pad.  Aren't they just the cutest things you have ever seen???
This is Ethan and Cari Ann on the roller coaster.  It wasn't very big, but it went pretty fast.  These two loved it!  Jack and Collins only made part of trip.  They wanted to ride on the front and I guess it was a little too scary.

When we first got there, Jack kept trying to take a picture of Collins and she would hide.  After just a little while, they had warmed up to each other and I got several of them together.
This is all the kids--Jack, Ethan, Olivia (notice her on the phone!), Collins, Ava, & Cari Ann.  You can really tell who belongs together!

Not long after we got there, Olivia figured out how to crawl into the toy cabinet.  Lorie said that Ava had never done that before, but she thought it was a great idea!

Here are the kids with Jeff--he is the cute one in the middle :)  Wednesday night, he went outside and tapped on the window and scared the kids half to death!  Then Thursday, he put on this mask and banged on the bedroom door and scared them even more!  They LOVED it!  They were SO funny!

As you can tell, we had a wonderful time.  Thanks, Lorie, for opening your home to my wild bunch!  

HAPPY BIRTHDAY OLIVIA!

Well I absolutely cannot believe it, but we are celebrating Olivia's 1st birthday today!  This past year has flown by!  We actually had her party yesterday at our church fellowship hall.  We don't have room in the little house we're in now and it was way too hot to have it outside anywhere so this was our best option.  It worked out really great I think.  She had a good party--just family and close friends.  She got a lot of wonderful gifts, many of which make a lot of noise :)  

Shawn & I got her a big girl car seat.  She absolutely loves it!  She likes being able to watch TV like the boys!

L to R:  Reed & Riley Newman, my nieces Tori & Lily Kate, my nephew Jace, Ethan, Olivia, & Jack.

Olivia had a great time playing in her cake.  It took her a few minutes to figure out that she could just eat it however she wanted, but after that, she made a big 'ol mess!

Aunt La La (Lauren) makes all of our birthday cakes.  She does a WONDERFUL job, doesn't she?

Olivia had a perfect party and would like to say "Thank You" to everyone!

Mom & Olivia were both worn out when it was over, but we still had time to pose for one last picture!

We had Olivia's baby dedication at church this morning.  I'll get some pictures and video from that on tomorrow.  She looked absolutely precious!  We are also planning a little mini vacation this week.  We are going to my friend Lorie's for a couple of days (Libby, we wish you could come too!).  I should have some great pictures from that when we get back.  Hope everyone has a great week!

Catching Up...

I feel terrible that I haven't kept up with my blog like I wanted.  I guess I have an excuse...3 kids and a husband!  That takes up most of my time, but I am not complaining.  I love it!  Maybe when school starts back, I will do better.  I know that sounds crazy, but I do better at everything during school--housework, cooking, etc.  I guess I just get lazy during the summer.  But the rest sure does feel nice!  

Anyway, not much has gone on these last few days.  Last Thursday, the 3rd, my sister-in-law, her sister, and I took two car loads of kids to Chuck E. Cheese.  We got there at just the right time--it wasn't crowded and the kids were having a ball.  After a few minutes, we realized that they weren't spending any of their tokens (they had about 100 each--enough to last ALL afternoon we hoped!).  I walked around and probably 90% of the games had stickers over the coin slot that said "This game is temporarily unavailable."  They weren't able to play anything!  The manager said they had RUN OUT OF TICKETS!?!?  Can you believe that Chuck E. Cheese ran out of tickets???  I told my sister-in-law that was like McDonald's running out of french fries!  The kids managed to keep themselves entertained for about 2 hours before the truck ran with the tickets.  They really didn't care...they had a blast anyway.

This is my niece, Lily Kate.

This was made right before we left.  They were completely tuckered out after playing so hard, but you couldn't tell it!  I bet they didn't say 10 words on the way home!

This seemed to be the ride of choice for the kids since most of the games weren't working at first.  I can't tell you how many times we rode this!

Even Olivia had a blast!  She even managed a little cat nap amongst all the fun.  When she woke up, she was ready to play.  This little pink car was her favorite!  Below is my nephew, Jace.

Ethan enjoyed playing the "big kid games."  He has just recently gotten big enough to play pretty much anything.  He will turn 7 on the 2nd of August.

Olivia and I had as much fun as anyone!

This is one of the things Jack picked out with his tickets.

This is Ethan, Lily, & Camryn riding on the monster truck.

We spent most of the 4th getting ready for a yard sale that I had on the 5th.  When we sold our house, we stored a TON of junk we needed to get rid of.  I sold some of it--enough to get rid of one storage building we're renting.  I'm planning to do one more the first weekend in August.  We went to Shawn's parents for dinner on the 4th.  They grilled steaks and we shot some bottle rockets.  The kids really enjoyed that.

After getting up so early on Saturday and working in the heat all day, Sunday was another lazy afternoon.  After church, we all took naps until time for church again.

This week, we are planning a birthday party for Olivia.  We are having it at our church fellowship hall Saturday evening.  It is SO hot outside these days so we needed somewhere that the adults could stay cool and the kids could play.  We have a little playground behind the fellowship hall so I think it will work out great.  I'll have pics from that this weekend.  Ethan, Jack, and I may go to Tupelo tomorrow shopping for party stuff.  They want to go to the "giraffe store" (Toys R Us) to find Olivia a present.  I hope everyone has a great day!