OUR BIG NEWS!!!

Well, Nathan and I figured that it was about time to come clean with our big news. We've kept it quiet for sometime now... well, it's time you all knew:

Bryson is soooooooo excited! He has waited soooooo long for this. We even let Bryson pick out the names for him as long as it wasn't darth..........anything, really. And the name he came up with is ...drum roll please!

STRYDER DASH VLAZNY ...had you going didn't I....he he

(nathan may have helped a bit with his first name!)


We promised him when we found out Emily was a girl that we would get him a boy dog one day. They have all had goals they had to meet to show the capability that they were ready for this HUGE responsibility. They all rose to the challenge with great excitement! Stryder is 7 1/2 weeks, and is an Aussie. We are all looking forward to having long games of catch. Madison just wants to teach him lots of COOL TRICKS!! (I'm not really sure what they are.) I on the other hand am getting a wagon and am bound and determine to teach him to bring in my groceries!! You know you'll all be jealous when that happens. Not IF that happens but WHEN it happens. Anyway, here are some pics of us getting him and bringing him home!! Enjoy!!





LET'S GO PLAY!!!!!!


my do-dee

SCHOOLS OUT!!

After having a very lazy pretty calm and peaceful day at the pool it had me look back and think of my childhood summers. Here are some of my favorite things:

• After swimming for hours and you are so water logged your shaking from being so cold, then laying on the hot pavement and feeling like you are melting onto it. I LOVED THAT FEELING!




• I loved near the end of a thunderstorm, getting on my bike and riding through the water in the opposite direction it was running down the street and having it spray up on you.




• Spending all day at the baseball fields searching for lost change under the bleachers, from the pockets up above because Swedish fish only cost 1 cent a fish. I bought plenty of "just one fish" over the years.




• Being in such good shape you'd see the ice cream man go by your house and were able to go inside grab your money and then catch him a block away. I was a good customer! One year at the end of the summer he gave me all the leftover candy cigarettes, lollipops and paper button candies he had left in his truck.




• candy cigarettes, bad i know but I LOVED them!!




• Being freezing at someones house after they had the air conditioner blasting and then getting in a really hot car and having the warmth just take over and fill you up in a matter of seconds.




• Not having a care in the world, this I miss the most!

I asked my kids what they liked about summer,

• Bryson- going to the pool and i'm excited there's no school




• Natalie- My birthday and going to the pool




• Madison- going to the beach with my whole family and the pool with my whole family. Oh yeah mommy, and getting soooooo HOT that you HAVE to go to the pool!




• Emily- uh-oh uh-oh uh-oh baoon!!!! (she let go of a balloon a few days ago in our entryway and it still hasn't come down. She is very concerned about it. It's all she has said for two days straight now. Her neck has gotta hurt from looking up!)

Well, that's our favorite things about summer. How about you, what are yours?

Beach Babe Blast

My friends Sheila and Alicia and I went to Myrtle Beach for 4 whole days without kids or husbands!! We had a blast!!!









We shopped til' we dropped (on a few separate occasions). We went out to eat and had people wait on us!! We didn't do the waiting, YAY!! We swam in the ocean and didn't worry about anyone drowning, we swam in the pool and didn't worry about anyone drowning, we spent a few hours in the hot tub........and you guessed WE DIDN'T WORRY ABOUT ANYONE DROWNING!! (do you know how amazing this is?)
We got a pedicure and a massage, and then we shopped some more. When we were shopping, we didn't go in kid stores. We even went into stores where EVERYTHING could break and didn't stress out about it! We thought we would sleep in but were so well rested from laying on the beach and not worrying about the well being of our families that we were all up by 8:30 ready for the day. It's funny....you don't realize how much your mind being on your kids takes such a physical toll on your body. One thing I did find absolutely amazing is with the three of us moms there the hotel room stayed really clean and all the grocery's were put away in maybe 3 minutes. THREE MINUTES!! I found this nothing short of miraculous. I think I gained a little bit of insight why women put up with polygamy. J/K :)

(This is a joke people, I really think that's disgusting but couldn't resist the opportunity.)




this was the theme for the weekend, next time we're making t-shirts!!




Anyway, I'm happy to say we all came home to healthy kids and husbands who had survived and were all a little more loving and appreciative of us all. Not that they weren't before, obviously they are all awesome for letting us go to begin with. Every mom needs to do this! It is sooooooooooo good for you. So to all of my friends out there, start planning a girls weekend getaway! We decided we are going to make this a tradition to go the weekend before school is out to let ourselves be ready to deal with summer.










Next year, I think we are going to Charleston. Who wants to come with?