♥ Family Fun ♥

Hi friends!  How's your summer going so far?  It's supposed to be HOT here later in the week....mid 90's.  I can't complain too much though because we have had some milder days this year (actually had a spring), especially for June in this area!

Our days have been a buzz of activities ever since we finished Algebra!  :)

Joy and I got to get dressed up......and wear our sundresses and cowgirl boots for the first time......to a wedding!  :)

Saturday (a week ago), we attended the wedding of a long-time friend of our family.  I thought the vows were beautiful!

Samantha and Michael



Joy with Sam

I didn't get a picture of Sam in her wedding gown, but it was a beautiful mermaid style gown.....she changed into another dress for the dancing at the reception, which was when I brought out my phone camera.

Joy was right there dancing with all the young girls.  Luke didn't like sharing her.  :)

This is Joy and long time friend, Katie Beth.  I have pics of these two from the age of two on up! It doesn't seem possible they are this old....they're growing up too fast. 

Instead of throwing rice or bird seed, the guests released balloons as the bride and groom left. I thought that was really pretty!

This wedding must have got Luke to thinking......he told Joy that when she gets married, he's going with her!  :) 

Knowing the dad of the bride and the cut-up that he is, we knew the father/bride dance wouldn't be an ordinary sentimental one of the sorts.....so Jason had his phone video camera ready.  And we were right!  :) I thought I'd share this for a smile today.  And yes, that is my husband laughing in the background!  :)  His laugh has been known to stop a show before (and make his kids want to hide under their seat)!  Lol!  It takes it a few seconds to begin the song that they dance to...and then make sure you keep watching past the 2 minute and 30 second or so mark....that's when the fun begins!  :)



Then last Sunday evening we took the kids to a local carnival.  The carnival usually comes in the spring (around Easter) and then again in the fall.....so this one was a little surprise.  The kids spotted it right away and asked Dad if they could go.  And so we did.  :)

Joy has always been a little daredevil when it comes to riding rides, even as a little thing.

And you know how Luke loves to be with Joy......well he hung with her on every ride that he was tall enough to ride.

He wasn't that excited over the carpet slide because he slipped off the carpet and did a little tail spin coming down on his belly.  After that, he was done with that.  He was content to watch Joy slide down it.

And then this past Thursday, I took the kids to the Pink Palace Museum.  We had a great time there as well.

Creepy, huh?  Some Indian tribe did this!

For me, the highlight was this vintage cupboard and stove though.  That would be what got my attention!  :)

These days, we've been hanging around the house doing a little more of this.......

Life is good.....enjoying these summer days of family fun!  :)

♥ Tammy ♥

♥ A Trip to the Zoo ♥

While my nephew and his wife were here last week, we were on the go all week!  I have several things to share here but it would be picture overload to do them all in one day, so I'm starting with a few highlights from the zoo!  :)

Last Thursday we enjoyed a beautiful day at the zoo!  It was overcast and breezy.....just THE perfect day for the zoo!

Luke had never been to the zoo before so it was fun watching him.  When we were in China, we went to a safari, but he doesn't remember it.  He was so excited, but since he walked all the way through (no stroller for him), he was ready to go home towards the end!

There is a special exhibit going on where the kids can pet stingrays (Stingray Bay).  That was a highlight!

Joy and Luke enjoyed it....

So did the big kids.....Colt, Amber, Trey & Shauna!

Luke with YaYa, the panda......

Jason and I doing what tuckered out parents do best....sitting on a bench catching a rest.......  :)

Joy and Luke rode the camel....Joy says it's so rhythmical that it just about put her to sleep!

At the farm petting zoo.......

Love this one......it totally sums up the relationship of these two!

We caught Luke sitting (resting) "China style".  If you've ever been to China, you'll total get this one!  You especially see the men sitting this way on the sidewalks in China....even the older ones!

Luke enjoyed dippin' dots compliments of big sister.....

It was a fun day!  We headed to CiCis pizza afterwards before calling it a day.

Lovin' these summer days!  :)  Hope your summer is wonderful so far!

Thanks for stopping by!

♥ Tammy ♥

♥ Summer is Here! ♥

I thought I'd better pop in here and let you know that I haven't abandoned my blog!  I'm here!

My nephew and his wife (Trey & Shauna) are here for a week, so we've been busy.

But to catch you up on a few things.......

Our mini vacation turned into a stay-cation, which turned into work around here....imagine that!

What was supposed to be a spray-the-deck-and-be-done-in-a-day didn't work out that way.  But does it ever work out like planned?  Nope.....we're having to roll it all on....the entire BIG deck!  And not just one coat....but two!  So needless to say, we're not even close to being done.   Why do we start one project before we are finished with another?  :)

But the kids are enjoying the pool in spite of the deck painting. 

Alot of swimming has been going on around here.  We got the pool opened and ready last Friday and the kids swam in 66 degree weather.  Not this girl.

We've had friends over.....

School is over for awhile....and we celebrated because Algebra 1 is finished (and we're trying not to think about Geometry and Algebra 2).

Oh and Joy and I got new genuine cowgirl boots......we've wanted some for so long!

And Mr. Luke has been practicing his casting skills getting ready for fishing......which he has been talking about doing for some time now!  :)

The next few days will be busy as we have a trip to the zoo planned, a homeschool book sale, and a wedding, but I'll be back as soon as I can!

Thanks for stopping by!  :)

♥ Tammy ♥

♥ Summer and Watermelons ♥

Summer and watermelons………I’m not sure we’ve ever had a summer without watermelons. It’s just one of those things that go together.

 We grew watermelons in our garden this year, and my cousin also sent a few home with us from Alabama when we were there.

Both of my boys love watermelons.

We took one to Colt because he absolutely loves watermelons and always looks forward to the first one he’s able to enjoy each summer. I could tell by the grin on his face that he was glad to see us pull up with it.

And Luke loves them just as much!

Joy even made some watermelon pops. Luke thinks she’s pretty awesome! To make them, she just stuck a craft stick in the green part of the watermelon (by pushing hard) and put it in the freezer inside a freezer bag.

I eat watermelon, but it’s not my favorite thing. I blame that on my mama.  She said she craved them when she was expecting me. Maybe I got too many of them then. :)

Growing up, I remember it being a treat during the summer, after supper, Mama would put newspaper out on the table and haul the watermelon out of the refrigerator and cut it up. We’d salt it up real good and enjoy it for dessert. And there were always the seed spitting contests if we were enjoying our watermelon outside.

What about you? Do you like watermelons? Did you grow watermelons in your garden? Do you have memories of summers with watermelons?

***************************************************************************************************************

Stay tuned........coming soon.......a fall giveaway in honor of my birthday!  :) 

Thanks for stopping by!  :) 

♥ Tammy ♥

Joys of Summer

One simple joy of summer (for me) is homegrown tomatoes. And for some reason, our plants just aren’t putting out the tomatoes! We’ve only gotten two this summer so far. So…….since the garden is between my mom and dad and us, they took one and we took the other!

And let me just say that I enjoyed every.single.bite. of my mayo and tomato sandwich. Oh my it was juicy melt-in-my-mouth delicious! It’s so sad that there was only one! Do you like tomato and mayo sandwiches?

Another simple joy (for us) has been our evening bike rides as a family. Well, we’ve been waiting until around 7:15-7:30 p.m. every evening to go because it’s just unbearably hot to go any earlier and five miles is just too far for smoldering heat (for this girl anyway). And did you know that it’s STILL humid even at 7:30?

We’ve had a few days that were cooler in the evenings and they were wonderful! About the time we are rolling back into our driveway, the sun has begun to set. Isn’t it a beautiful time of day?

The ride was just too much for our Little Emperor this particular cooler evening. Jason carried him in and he was out for the night.

I hope you’ve enjoyed many joys of summer and made lots of family memories!  I know fall will be arriving soon, and I for one will welcome it with open arms!  It's my favorite.  Have I said that before?   :)  (I'm thinking how wonderful those bike rides will be on those fall evenings)!

Thanks for stopping by!  :)

♥ Tammy ♥

Summer + Cousins = Fun!

Growing up, I always looked forward to the times we would go to Indiana and I would get to spend time with my cousins and have sleepovers at their house……or the times they would come to see us! We stayed up all hours of the night, told ghost stories, rode each other on the handlebars of our bikes, and stayed outside a lot! We have great memories!

Now all of us cousins are grown up and our kids are looking forward to spending time together every summer. Now they’re the ones making memories. I had so much fun watching them and hanging out with them.  And it's amazing how much each one of the girls look like their mother!  Wish I had a picture of all of us when we were little to compare!

The week before the 4th of July, Emmalee, Jessica and Tiffany came and stayed for about six days until we went to Alabama (and took them home). Well, all of them stayed six days except Jessica who went home earlier for a cheerleading camp.

The funny thing is the whole time they were here, we stayed up in The Cedar Loft. That’s SIX people in 600 square feet. :)  But you know, we really enjoyed it! It felt like we were on a vacation in a cabin, and I guess they might have thought we were crazy staying out there the entire time when we had a bigger house a few feet away!  :)  I also learned I could live in a small space and be happy!

So the girls did all the stuff girls do – they texted each other…………… when they were 2 feet away from each other.

Jessica, Tiffany and Joy - cell phones were never too far away! 

 

They played board games and giggled.

Jessica, Tiffany and Joy

They goofed off.

L to R - Tiffany, Jessica, Joy & Emmalee

They stayed up late.

They made silly videos.

They sang to the top of their lungs....and they danced.

They swam.

And while they swam every.single.day., I enjoyed a dry view perched high on the porch of The Cedar Loft (they were merciless on that lower deck, I tell you)! 

And they included Luke. Bless their hearts. And he enjoyed every single minute of it!

Tiffany, Emmalee, Joy & Luke

They made me laugh…..alot! I really enjoyed it and I know Joy thoroughly enjoyed having them here. (And so did Luke). 

We hope it’s a summer tradition, because summer + cousins really does = FUN!

Summer Days

I know it’s not officially summer yet, but summer days are definitely here for us!


It’s so exciting to start summer with a new bike! I remember those days! It’s too bad that kids today can’t enjoy the same freedom that we enjoyed as kids riding our bikes. I remember riding all around the neighborhood. Everyone waved at me. I was home at supper, or by dark. No worries. I wouldn’t dream of that for my kids today.

Joy and Luke saved their money and bought new bikes. (Well Luke had to have a little financial help but he didn't do too bad for a 4 year old).  :)

I love the vintage flare to Joy’s bike. My brother was here this weekend and asked her, “What old lady did you steal that bicycle from”?

Isn’t it cute? Love the color too!

Luke opted for a Car’s bike. (He likes Lightning McQueen, but Mater is his favorite).

Luke has the bike riding down now (with training wheels of course). He had only ridden a tricycle up until this summer. See………he started cautiously with his helmet, wearing it every single time, taking it slowly.

Now he’s getting more daring…..no helmet......

......riding faster, and wearing his Mr. Cool shades.

 

This evening Jason, Joy and I went for a two and a half mile bike ride. We’re going to try to build on that and go every evening. Even though Luke is Mr. Cool on his bike, we didn’t think he could keep up with his training wheels, so he stayed with Grandmama and Pop next door.


Oh, and we did get the red mulch in our flower beds in the backyard. It's not all play. 


Remember the before?

Much better now:

Unfortunately, there hasn’t been any swimming in our pool yet, because we had a slow leak somewhere that we couldn’t find. Jason and I finally found a few tiny pinhole punctures and got those repaired, thanks to Missy (my sister-in-law). When they were here this weekend, she told us she heard somewhere that if you put a water hose under water near the suspected leaky area, it will bubble on the outside and reveal the leak. It worked! Hopefully, we’ll be swimming in a couple of days! Believe me………. we’re counting down the days, especially the kids!


Luke has been enjoying snow cones (in a bowl). I pulled out my Pampered Chef ice shaver; picked up some snow cone syrup at Walmart, and he’s one happy little boy. Joy’s not a big fan of snow cones. She’s more of a lemonade girl. Come to think of it….I’ll have to pour some lemonade over the shaved ice for her! Don’t know why I didn’t think of that before!

Summer is also band-aid season, especially for little rambunctious adventurous boys! And Luke has a thing about them. You’ll probably notice in many pictures that he’s sporting one!

The other day he came into the kitchen with a band-aid stretched across his ear. He had a mosquito bite on the back of his ear and this (evidently) made it all better! He wouldn’t part with it for a couple of days either!

Luke has also been enjoying his sandbox everyday, which means a lot of sweeping for dear ole mama.  :)

It's flip flop weather.  (And evidently time to beat occasional boredom and take photos of your shadow).  :)  Right, Joy?

I’m a bit of a whimp about the hot weather though, especially the older I get. Give me fall weather any ole day! But summer days are especially fun for kids and good for making memories!


Speaking of summer, it’s the season for vacations and family reunions, which means packing and unpacking, trips to the pool or beach, going on picnics, all of which require toting all the necessary equipment along. I recently got the opportunity to look at a catalog from Thirty One. If you haven’t heard of it……it’s a Christian company (based on the principles of Proverbs 31) that specializes and carries the cutest organizational baskets, totes, note cards, purses (and more) with a wide choice of pretty fabrics! I love their products! And they c an be personalized!

Anyway, I decided to host an online catalog party that begins today, June 18th, and lasts until June 29th. You may order directly online and pay online and your merchandise will be shipped directly to you. I will get credit for any orders made through the link for my online party. So if you’re interested, drop me an email here and I’ll send you the link to shop (no pressure to buy…if you just want to look, I’ll send you the link). You can even book your own online party if you’re interested so you can earn free and half price items too.  Oh, and I have to point out that through the end of this month, they are offering a special that allows you to purchase a large utility tote for only $10 when you spend $35, which is an awesome deal.  Thank you in advance for taking a look!  :)


 Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your summer days!  :)