First Day of First Grade...Our Little Girl is Growing Up!!!

Ava had a great first day of first grade.  She started last Wednesday.  We are so proud of our sweet girl. She is off to a wonderful start and loving the year so far.  She has a teacher who LOVES her job as she wrote in a welcome letter.  This makes a momma (and former teacher, who loved her job) very happy.  I know that Ava's year will be that much better being in a classroom where her teacher wants to be there!  Here are her first day of school pics...enjoy!

Leaving for school

I love my little girl and loved having her home all summer.  I know she will enjoy her year...but I am sure going to miss her everyday!

Sign I made for the first day of school

Sign Ava made for the first day of school

Our neighbor and Ava's buddy, Conor

Love the Brooks School and thankful to be there!

She survived her first day!!!

Pick up in the school yard

Love my sweet family!  It's hard to believe next year this time I will have two in school...but I will try not to think about that for now. 

Sweet Carolina

We had a great visit with family and friends when we traveled back to North and South Carolina a few weeks ago.  We made a long road trip and the kids did well in the car.  Our two weeks down south were spent visiting with the people we love.  Jon was also able to spend some time in the library at Southeastern preparing for his dissertation.  Enjoy all the pics from our vacation...they are in reverse order, sorry...blogger has changed things up on me and I'm having trouble figuring it all out!

The kids and I got to make a couple of day trips to Durham while Jon was in the library studying.  We enjoyed Pelicans Snoballs with Sharon and Cindy one afternoon.  Oh, my the snowballs were good, but our time with our sweet friends was even better.  This is Emet and Shay-Shay as we like to call her.  He loved being with her when we were at Gorman!

Ava and Cindy...love Cindy and miss her!

Ava and Addi...best buddies!  It was SO GOOD to see these two back together again!

The Chasteen and Murray Kiddos...we spent and entire afternoon with the Murrays.  I love my sweet friend Laura and her precious girls.  It was great to get to spend the day with them and to see the kids together.  I enjoyed getting to catch up with Laura and have an afternoon together!

My College Girls...it's hard to believe these two were in the 8th grade when I met them.  I love Brittney and Chelsie so much.  We had a great lunch with them and enjoyed our time, even though it's never long enough!

Janet and Larry Perry were so dear to us while we were at Gorman.  They loved on us and our kids so much.  We made a stop by their house and got to catch up with them for a little while.

Bob and Linda (my aunt and uncle) had my mom's side of the family over for dinner one night so we could see everyone.  It was a special treat and so good to see my mom's family.  This is my cousin Tammy with Owen.  Love her!

Nana and Papa and the kids...and Precious.  As always, it was great to spend time with Jon's family.  We got to enjoy their new house, their whirlpool and a community pool in their neighborhood.  We are looking forward to getting them up here next week for a visit!

Allyson and the kids

Papa and Ava

We got to spend a couple of hours with Tracey and her kiddos.  We met Tucker for the first time and got to love on Bailey.  Loved seeing them.  Tracey and I were also able to squeeze in two early morning runs while we were in S.C.  It was great to get to run with Tracey.  I'm so thankful for her and her friendship!

We went to Clemson for church the Sunday we were in South Carolina. We loved being able to worship at Crosspoint.  That evening the family came down and we all hung out at Liz and Jeremy's house.  Emet was worn out and fell asleep on Kaleb.  It was so sweet, I could resist this picture.

Lydia, Ava and Bryn in the dresses Nana made them...they matched for church on Sunday!

Sweet O with Liz

Dad's company had family day at Carowinds the Saturday we were in town.  We spent the day with both sets of our parents at the park.  The kids LOVED it.  Ava was our little thrill seeker.  She even rode a big roller coaster.  Thanks dad for bringing us all along and toughing out a day at Carowinds for us.  Our kids also really loved the water park.  I think that was their favorite part of the day!

Me and Ava on the swings

Whirlpool time at Nana and Papa's

Pool Time

Papa and Mama Simmons came for lunch the day we got to Jon's parents.  It's always good to see them.

Ava and Pops

Ava and Eli...we had a picnic with Leigh Ann, Kellie and their kids one evening.  Loved having time with them!

I'm so thankful for these ladies.  I love that our friendships that formed in college have withstood time and the distance between us.  I love these women and can't imagine my life without them!

Me and my man

We made a trip to Boone one day.  We met my friend Holli and her kids for lunch at Chick-Fil-A. It was good to catch up with her and to see how much her kids have grown.  Holli was the first friend I made when we moved to North Carolina (I was eight years old the summer we met).

We got to visit the stadium and see a little bit of practice. Thanks to Kindsay for showing us around and giving us the tour.  It felt good to be back at ASU...some great memories were made there!

It was a real treat for Jon to see Coach Moore, his old coach.  He also got to connect with some of his other coaches as well as an old teammate of his.  He loved his years playing for the Mountaineers and being coached by Coach Moore.  It's always good to go back and see how things are going for the team now.

Mom and Emet...we had a great visit at my mom and dad's house.  Their neighbor had a pool they let us use, which the kids loved.  Mom made cookies with the kids, dad had them help feed the birds and they enjoyed playing and riding bikes in their driveway.  Mom also treated me to a massage...I loved it.  Thanks mom!  It was a real treat!

My fish!

Owen loved the water!

We are thankful for a great week with mom and dad and look forward to seeing them again soon!

Summer Vacation was a blast!  Thankful for time away and for time with friends and family!

Snapshots of Spring and Summer

I have been away for way too long...here are some snapshots of our fabulous spring and summer!  (I have not included our vacation pics, but will work on a post about that later.)  Enjoy this snapshot of our spring and summer with pics in no particular order.  Back to blogging...at least I hope so!!! Oh, we did spend some time at the beach, pond and pool this summer too...but I didn't have my camera.

Celebrating a friend's birthday...love them!

Celebrating a friend's birthday...love these boys!

Owen and Daddy

T-Ball Awards

 

 

Baseball Buddies

So proud of our little ball players!

We got to have our sweet friends up for a visit. It was a blessing to have Brooke, Kevin and Bennett with us for almost a week.  We are so very thankful for them and their friendship!

Gymnastics Show

Our family at Ava and Emet's birthday party...what a day!

Love these boys SO MUCH!

My four year old boy

My six year old girl

I think the Sox could use this little guy!

This is Ava and her Kindergarten teacher on the last day of school. We LOVED her and are thankful for a great year with her!

Patriot's Stadium and Kids' Finish at the 50 race

3rd place in her division

Speedy Gonzales....he finished 1st in his division

Enjoying homemade ice cream on the 4th of July

We loved having Jeremy, Liz, Carson and Bryn here for a week.  This was at the Public Garden and the Make Way for Ducklings statues.  It was great for our kids to get to spend so much time together.  I am very thankful for time with our family!

Mom came up to help redo Ava's room and to help with the birthday party.  She was a great face painter and did a good job feeding Owen his cake.  Thankful she was able to celebrate the kids' birthdays with us!

Sox game...we had a blast.  It was fun to be with family, friends and our Summer Link Leaders.  We had a group of 8 college aged young adults serving with our church this summer.  Caroline and Joel joined us for a game at Fenway.  Thankful for them blessing our families and church this summer!

Day trip to Maine

Family Pic from Soccer Nights

Berry picking with our sweet friends

A storm snapped a tree in our front yard.  It was crazy.  You couldn't get to the door next door. Our neighbors had moved out so the apartment was vacant.  The basement window on that side busted and the tree tore down a gutter.  Hopefully everything will be fixed soon and we will have some new neighbors. 

Serve Medford Week...for those of you who don't know, my kids adore Jeremiah and Carly.  It was wonderful having them back for a week.  We are holding out hope that Jeremiah will come to BU for college to wrestle, and that we can have his as a part of our family while he is here for a season.  LOVE these two, very special, young people!

Our friends from RBC were here for Serve Medford week.  They worked like crazy to clean parks in our community and help us pull of our community fun night.  We are so very thankful for this great group of friends!