Thought You Should Know......

After much discussion and thought, Vanessa has decided to give birth to "only brown boys" and will adopt a little white girl so that she doesn't have to "do" hair.

This is a constant topic of conversation whenever we are doing her hair. "Mama, I don't want to worry about doing hair when I'm a Mom. If I just have boys, then that's easy.....but I want to have girls too. But doing brown girls hair is sooooo hard and it takes sooooo long."

I'm looking forward to her only "giving birth to brown boys"!!!! That I gotta see!

Ahhh, Summer!

First day of summer vacation and the kids were just sure it was time to do Iron Chef again! Thankfully Nana is here and she helped clean up the kitchen when they were through.....what a mess!

But I have to be honest, these kids can cook!!! Vanessa was the only one that I got a picture of.....the boys inhaled too fast, there was no evidence left!


Happy Summer!!!!

Heaven Help Us!

"Isaiah, what are you doing???"

Long pause...........

"Um, getting dressed."

Actually, he was headed to some gum that I tossed up on my top shelf in my closet for safe keeping! He spotted it and made his way up the shelves on the side and across the top to the gum.

Now to find a new spot to hide the gum! Ha ha....

She Did It!!!!

Waiting, waiting, waiting...

The Senior members of the choir performed The National Anthem as well as Seasons Of Love. Sam is in the front row, first on the left.

Full house

The whole kaboodle of us with our Graduate!!

Samantha with her proud parents and little monkey brother!

Samantha with Nana and Papa!

She did it!!!!

Always need balloons for a celebration!

And of course, a cake!

Saturday was a perfect day for graduation! The sky was blue and there was not a cloud to be seen! We debated on finding a babysitter for the youngest 2 but ultimately decided to take the whole family. It just didn't feel right to leave anyone home. We did ok for a few minutes and then Scott ended up out in the hall, while the youngest two ran wild. Sabrina texted him to let him know when it was getting close to Samantha's turn.

We took a couple of pictures afterwards and then we took everyone home for a bbq and swimming.

It was a perfect day! It was so nice to have Scott's parents here to share the day with us. Family always makes everything better!

Congratulations Samantha, we are so proud of you!!!!!

Pre-school Graduation!

Ready for her big day!

Sisters!

Sorry Izzy, you got cropped.....well, only because you were making that really goofy face.

One of the cakes.....the one with her name on it!

Her cute paper doll self!

Talisha with her teachers!

Yay for pre-school graduation!!! Talisha did a great job. They sang a couple of cute songs and then received their certificates and that was it!!!!! She loved going to pre-school all year and is looking forward to kindergarten in the fall. She is quite the little social butterfly!

Senior Honors Night

Monday night was Senior Honors night. All of the hard work that Sam has done the past 4 years really paid off. She came out of there with so many awards and honors. We couldn't have been more proud. She received:

*Presidential Award (certificate)

*Scholar Activities Award (certificate)

*Certificate of Advanced Mastery (silver cord)

*National Honor's Society, G.P.A of 3.75 and above (blue and gold cords)

*Hillsboro School District Chancellor's Diploma (white tassel)

*Glencoe High School Honor's Diploma (gold stole)

Truly amazing! She is a wonderful example of what it means to work hard and do your best!

Congratulations Samantha!!!

Special Day!

Pretty as a Princess!

Sisters

So proud of my sweet Vanessa!

On Saturday, Vanessa was baptized. As you can see, she had a beautiful white dress and looked like a Princess. I took other pictures while we were at the church but realized when we got home that I had forgotten to put the scan disk card in the camera and the pictures had gone straight to the camera memory. Now the sad part is, I can't find my cord to hook the camera to my laptop to get those pictures off!!!!! Tragic. There were some adorable pictures of she and Scott.

Anyway, it was a beautiful day and we are so proud of Vanessa!!

Mr. Woodworker!

Thomas, sitting at his new desk and stool that he built by himself!!!

Thomas loves to build and create things in Scott's shop. On Memorial Day/Vanessa's birthday, he was in there working away. While the rest of us were feasting on birthday bbq, he hurridly grabbed a handful of chips and ran back to work

I had no idea what on earth he could possibly be creating this time but figured I would see it soon enough. And I did!

But what I hadn't anticipated was how amazed I would be when he brought out his latest project.........WOW!

He had built a little desk and stool to go in his room!! Way to go Thomas!!!!! Looks great!!

Birthday Girl!!

This is how she would chose to spend every minute of her birthday....in the pool!! And thanks to her super nice dad, it was even heated for her!!

Beautiful girl!
(I love the look on Levi's face in the background as he plays with Jazz!)

Ready to get the party started!!!

Strawberries, cake and whip cream! Are you starting to notice a pattern here???? Our kids LOVE strawberries!!!

This girl loves music! She loves to sing and dance! This was by far her favorite gift!!!!

Monday was Vanessa's birthday! We celebrated by swimming in the pool and having a bbq! Those are two of her favorites!! Vanessa is such a sweet girl. She is full of laughter and smiles! She is an awesome big sister and loves to help take care of her baby sister, Jasmine.....even if that means changing messy diapers!!! Yep, she's the best!!!

I am so blessed that she is part of our family. I love you Vanessa! Happy Birthday!!!