General Assembly Week!

It was such a blessing to have some non-kid time with the Quillen's, Hathaway's and Connor's!

Tom's mom came out to stay with the five kids while Tom and I were in Nashville for the week. She was such a blessing to us...we had a great time visiting with friends in such a way that would not have been possible with our kids there. THANKS Rose Marie!!

may to june happenings....

Entry to our "boat" sanctuary....VBS started yesterday and we had a great first day!

AJ had her gymnastics recital last week...she was very proud of all that she has learned!


The Quillen's passed through town a few weeks back. we only had an hour or so with them...way too short but definitely better than nothing!

Kylie's piano recital was at the end of may....she has learned A LOT this past year.

My cousin, Daniel, came to see us for a long weekend. I hadn't seen him since we were kids, so it was a lot of fun getting to know him! the kids loved spending time with him.

We recently switched the twins into the room with AJ and Kylie into her own room. Here they are after they "helped" me move some stuff. I heart ikea furniture. :)

misc. catchup pics!

the clouds from pinnacle mountain

cedar falls at petit jean state park

fun visit from my cousin, Amos!

being a part of karen flannery's (now wilcox's) wedding on mother's day weekend!

AJ's kindergarten graduation!

celebrating after the graduation ceremony at TCBY! AJ's rainbow frozen yogurt decorated her dress and tongue!

Today was AJ's last day of kindergarten! She had a picnic and a short day at school...and then we went back to the gym for her graduation ceremony. It was a sweet evening of celebrating our rising first-grader. She has had a wonderful year at Abundant Life School and has learned a lot!
Many of you know that we are planning on bringing the 3 kids home next year to homeschool them. It was through a lot of figuring out details and praying for wisdom that we've decided on going the homeschool route. Please keep praying for me as I think through curriculum and scheduling our days....it's definitely going to be a life-style change for our whole family. We are definitely looking forward to the freedom to be flexible with our time and what we do...but there are a lot of school activities that we will miss a lot. I am anxious to see if homeschooling will suite our family well....or if i go crazy and we realize that we aren't cut out for it! Either way, I am planning on doing it next year (1st, 4th and 5th grades) with the freedom to figure out something different for them the year after if all does not go well. This summer is already gearing up to be a busy one. K and J are involved in the swim team this year (mostly to grow their confidence in being in water...while giving them exercise), AJ is still doing gymnastics, K continues to take piano lessons and has her recital this weekend, VBS is fast approaching at church, General Assembly in Nashville soon after that.... and than a nice trip to Virginia to spend time with family and friends! Between all that and finding fun (indoor, AC'ed) things to do with the kids...this summer is going to FLY by!
Thanks for checking in. I am so far behind in posting pics of our spring and what we've had going on. Not sure if i can catch up...or if i need to just try and keep up from here. :)

our garden

the tendrils that hold the cucumber plant to our tomato cage amaze me.

so, i haven't posted in WEEKS...and i decide that it is noteworthy to post pictures of our awesome garden that i am very, very excited about. :) we have several tomato plants, a pepper plant, squash and zucchini, cucumbers, a popcorn plant, some peanut plants and several potatos! i am very excited to eat the stuff that we're growing when it's time.

CACC Dallas trip!

Kylie at first said she looked like a waitress. Then we added the bowtie and "cucumber" and she decided she looked like a chauffeur (sp?).

The whole group after their performance!

Silly girls

Kylie and I.

We had a blast this weekend....these are only a couple of soo many pictures that were taken. I'm going to try and post more soon. Kylie and I rode in a van with 5 others and really had a great time getting to know our little group. The kids did a wonderful job singing. They were the only children's choir at the Heritage Festival....and we were very proud of them! We spent all day Saturday at Six Flags and had an awesome time with beautiful weather and lots of fun rides! It's funny, they had practice tonight and it was like it was a different group of kids. It's amazing how crazy/rowdy a group will act once they really get to know each other! We have a performance next sunday (at Toad Suck Daze in Conway) and a concert the following Monday and that will end our year with the Central Arkansas Children's Choir. It's been a lot of fun and I hope Kylie wants to do it again!

A visit from the Jordan's!

The last time we saw the Jordan's there were 2 kids between the 4 of us. We now have 9 kids between the 4 of us! (the twins were being uncooperative in this group kid pic) It was a lot of fun to have their family spend a couple days of their spring break with us! We were even able to get a sitter to sit in the house with (mostly) sleeping kids while we went out on a double date. (what a treat!)

We went to Crater Diamond state park....about 40 acres of dirt to dig in, all the while with hopes of digging up the next diamond. :) Sadly, the Jor-bella diamond was not found...but fun was had by all (except the twins, of course). :)

Jen and I

The twins, Elizabeth and AJ playing dress up for a few minutes in the morning before my 3 bigs left for school and the Jordan's left for home.

twins before school today...wearing cute coordinating outfits from aunt joanie (which you can't see b/c they are sitting).