The Bodyguards!!!

Far left: Josh; Far right: his buddy, Matt...
Seriously...they were bodyguards at the concert last night. You see, our local family christian radio station was hosting it's birthday celebration with a "free" christian concert. There were 2 newer groups (can't remember the name of those) and the now famous "Newsboys". And Josh and Matt got "hired" (without pay of course) to be their bodyguards for the evening. I knew they were going to work at the concert, but "bodyguards"??? Really now!!! It was so funny, when Hannah saw him standing there. she ran up to give him a hug (can you imagine? a bodyguard seen hugging a 2 year old little girl?) Anyway, not realizing yet what his "job" was, we came over to say "Hi!" and they informed us they were bodyguards and were not allowed to talk to the public! (I'm now just the "public!) And that we needed to "scram" because we were not allowed "back there" and we were going to get them "fired!!!" So, Bill gave Josh his sunglasses so he'd look more like a "bodyguard".
Here's a pic of our little dancer Hannah enjoying the "Newsboys"...

and eating cotton candy...

and getting her face painted...

and did I mention "everything" was "free"...there were carnival rides, wall climbing, a big slide, balloon animals, face painting, jumpers, soda, juice, cotton candy...the only thing you had to pay for was the hotdog dinner for a whole $1. Here's 1 last pic of Hannah with our neighbor, Kaitlyn, (Matt's little sister):

I have to say this is very much a family community here...they do a lot of things like this, and a lot for "free!" Who would have thought in California!? Free??...no way!!!

An afternoon at Carowinds...

Carowinds is our closest amusement park...it borders North and South Carolina. It takes us about 1 hour 20 min. to get there (same as going to Disneyland in traffic when we were in Cali.). So, we got the boys passes. Unlike Magic Mountain, the water park here is inside the amusement park. (They just have signs saying shirts and shoes beyond this point). Anyway, so we spent a couple hours yesterday at the water park. While the boys were sliding, Hannah and I just hung out in the kids area. She's not fond of water spraying all over her so we pretty much spent the time right here. I did take her on the lazy river which she loved until we got to the section that you have to get sprayed. She hated that and didn't want to go around again. Although Hurricane Harbor in Cali. was much bigger, I have to say I loved how "uncrowded" it is here. I grabbed a lounge chair in the shade right next to her. I remember we use to have to get there when it opened just to grab chairs for the day. And then the lines! (I do miss having you, Heidi and Tina, who we'd always spend the summers there with though!)

Don't kids make friends so easily???

And then we walked around the amusement park while the boys did their rollercoasters. Jacob finally joined my other 2 rollercoaster fanatics...now they all 3 are!!! So, Hannah and I spent most of our time in the kids land. We went on this "Boots" choo-choo train ride 3 times in a row (She kept saying "one more time!")...I finally said that's enough. We went on the carasoul twice and she is getting to be such a big girl, she was barely big enough for the swings and jet boat rides...here's a pic of her on the swings:

Although I don't think she'll go on them next time...she got a little scared! Last summer she loved the hot-air ballon ride...but won't go near it now. She's at that age where she's afraid. Hopefully, she'll get past that quickly so she can keep up with her brothers!!!:) (Actually, I think I'll keep her young as long as possible!)

Oh! I think I hear thunder...our storm tracker just went off twice...guess we're on thunderstorm warning...better call Bill so he can pack up tools! Weather here is soooo wierd!

Thanks grammy for my new purse!

...just a pic of hannah enjoying her new purse from grammy along with the sunglasses (Dora her favorite!) and best of all, her lipgloss!!! She LOVES lipgloss and she's only 2! (Uh oh!) Thank you grammy and papa and uncle jimmy!!!

Our watermelon garden!!!

This one's specially for our farmer friends (you know who I'm talking about Haney family) who think we're just city folk...betcha' didn't know you could grow a watermelon garden with a flower garden?!? If you take a good look you'll see a baby watermelon in the picture...we have a bunch of them! It's amazing what can happen when your kids spit their seeds in the garden!

Trying to catch some fish for supper...

After a cloudy, drizzly day, the sun finally popped out and the boys dragged dad (who was enjoying relaxing on his chair watching the ball game) to the lake to go fishing in the canoe...

and here's a couple pics of Jacob and Hannah kicking back, enjoying the beautiful sunshine and the lake...

Happy 2nd Birthday cupcake!!!

Good morning sunshine! She was serenated first thing in the morning with the family singing "Happy Birthday to you!"...

She came downstairs to see her dollhouse (actually her "mouse"house) she wanted for her birthday...

After swimming in the pool for a bit while waiting for brothers to get home from VBS, we took her to Build-A-Bear to pick out and make a birthday bear...

Then it was time for our grill out birthday party with the neighbors...

Her ice-cream cone pinata...

Her "cupcake" birthday cake...

Some of her friends...

opening her gifts...(she got mice and bunnies for her "mouse" house, groovy girls and a groovy girl tent, cinderella for the bath, a set of miniature horses, books, a webkins elephant she wanted, wooden sandwich and birthday cake sets for her kitchen, a mini portable cloth dollhouse, a new sprinkler, and a Dora trike!)

Happy Birthday sweetheart! I hope you had a fun day!

Canoing in our yard???

If you look closely, you'll see the boys trying to canoe down the side of our yard. Just hours after playing in the sprinkler and slip n' slide, we just had a big storm roll through again. This time bringing hail and buckets of rain in less than an hour. As you can see, we had so much rain that it made a little river down our yard. When it let up and the lightening stopped, the boys ran outside with the neighbors and tried to canoe in it. Had a good laugh anyway! Our neighbors just came knocking on our door looking for a chain saw. They were driving home when the storm rolled through and they had to make 2 detours to get home because 2 trees fell down blocking the roads. So, the boys drove off with dads to chop the tree near our neighborhood. But, they were only gone a few minutes...(they just came in the door)...guess the tree was too big for a little chain saw. Anyway, another interesting evening in South Carolina!

Outrigger Island

The boys just finished a wonderful week of VBS (vacation Bible school). Since Josh is too "old" now, he volunteered to be a leader. He has been a part of VBS since he was 4 years old and was able to be a helper this year in Jacob's group. Nate brought a friend with him from the neighborhood and each morning they along with 2 other neighbor friends piled in our neighbors van (since she was working it and going anyway). Today the parents got to see a slide show and they sang their songs to us they've been learning all week. Since this was Jacob's last year also, he's already talking about helping out with games next year and Josh wants to be a leader with me for Nate's group (I'll be able to get involved again since Hannah will be 3 next year, she can do it also!) She had fun watching the kids sing today, she was trying to do the hand motions as well. I'm sure she'll be ready next year!!! I'm so excited, I didn't think we'd be able to find another VBS to compare to Grace's in Calif. but the kids said this one (at our new church here)was just as good. We love VBS!!!

Happy Father's Day!

This is a pic of the kids making breakfast for dad. Typically on Sundays either I make a coffee cake or Bill makes an egg breakfast while I get ready for church. This morning when Bill opened the fridge and pulled out the eggs, there was a note on the carton that said "Dad, do not touch and go back to bed!!!! (Bill is an early bird!)...We are making breakfast for you today! Love, Josh, Jacob, Nate and Hannah" We both laughed and he was good and sat back down in his chair with his coffee and waited for the boys to get up. They made a wonderful breakfast with gourmet scrambled eggs and even fried the bacon. They brought him more coffee and gave him hand made cards with coupons for back rubs. And, to top it off we told him he can have a lazy day after church and veg on his chair in front of the t.v. all day (guys are sooo easy!) So, below is a pic of the boys having an Indiana Jones marathon afternoon:

Notice the Indy hats and shirt attire??!! Had to go all out for the occasion!

Happy Father's Day Men!!!

A thunderstorm evening!!!

Wow! We just had a crazy evening of severe thunderstorms. The weather here is definitely more interesting I'll say than in California!!! We had a quiet day, took the kids to the pool this morning. Even grilled hamburgers on the deck for dinner (supper?) Jacob's friend is sleeping over and they were eating ice-cream when the storms came in. At first, no big deal, we were watching t.v. and the lightening at the same time until it was right above us. We turned out the lights and the t.v. and I ran upstairs to get Hannah out of her crib and we all curled up on the sofas with the blinds open watching...it was cloud to ground lightening. It was non-stop for about an hour, no pause between the lightening and thunder and we could feel the house rumble. Bill was watching out the window when one struck down just a couple houses away (nothing happened!)...except it did make my car alarm go off. It was sooo funny though, Josh realized his bedroom light was on and he ran to turn it off and I'm not kidding, just as he touched the switch is when the lightning struck and my alarm went off. Scared the tar out of him...we were cracking up!!! Poor Hannah, she was on my lap and buried her head every time, clutched me so hard. She didn't cry though, but she was sooo cute! Even Cider, our dog, was going nuts. He kept running back and forth over my feet. Anyway, just had to share...we're all done now and I'm off to bed!

Jacob's graduation from elementary school...

Jacob with his teacher (who was also teacher of the year):

He did it....and with straight A's!!! I can't believe my "baby" is going to middle school!!!! Out here they graduate in 5th grade and go to middle school for 6th-8th. He is so excited! He is doing band next year also. I will have 3 different schools to go to...good thing we have a bus (which is so nice....it picks up and drops the kids off right next to our house.) Jacob was sad though to say good-bye to his teacher who was wonderful! She even cried at the graduation. They did a slide show presentation which was really neat (and they even played Christian music for the graduation! Unheard of for a public school in Calif.) Anyway, my babies are growing too quickly...but I'm a proud mom! We had a grad. pool party to celebrate and say good-bye. So he's officially a middle-schooler now!

Nate's 10th birthday bash...tiki style!!!

Silly boys!!!

cooling off with ice-cream sundaes!

You go Nate!!!

Limbo lower now!!!

We celebrated Nate's birthday at the pool with his buddies...they had a blast swimming, doing contests in the pool, a limbo contest, a hula-hoop contest (Nate's buddy Kie won that one using his neck!), eating ice-cream sundaes, tropical fruit salad and tiki punch with pool party music, tiki decor and lei's to wear. He got lots of cool presents from Learning Express (including Brian the Brain robot) and with his Gamestop giftcard and cash he received, he was able to get the Indiana Jones game he wanted for his Wii. What a fun afternoon he had!

Celebrating my birthday!

My date night with Jacob:

My date night with Josh...proud that he downed most of the bloomin' onion!

My parents' drove out from Cali. to spend my birthday with me (we won't discuss #'s any more...that's all I'm gonna' say!!! (I'm sure ya'll got a clue from the cake though!...Bill was very good!) Mom took me shopping for a Brighton straw purse I've been wanting, and out to lunch the day before. Then on my birthday Jacob had his last baseball game (came in 2nd place!) and we had birthday cake. Then we went out to Yamato's Saturday for dinner (pics with family here I'll post later, they are on mom's camera and she forgot to bring the connection cord) and the kids each gave me a gift card for the restaurant they chose for a "date" night with me. (Except Hannah's was a shopping date with her and daddy!) So, Jacob and I went out to Macaroni Grill (the waiter even sang us a song!) And Josh and I went to Outback. Nate and I still have our date to come...but we had his birthday dinner yesterday at Fuddruckers and tonight we have Jacob's grad. pizza party. So the rest is yet to come!!!

Oh and to mom Ellsworth (grammy)...thanks from Hannah and I for our matching dresses from Hawaii!!! (Hannah opened hers early with me!) We are going to get a mommy and me picture together in them...we love them!