Thanks Aunt Tab!

Thank you Aunt Tab...and Uncle Brent, and Kiersten, and Aubrey! Jalyn loves his army gear.

Thank you to everyone who sent birthday money. We went in with him and he got his own Nintendo DS. The boys love being able to play together now....and there's much less fighting over the one DS.....so thank you from me!

Taekwondo Testing for Two

Today, Saturday, was belt testing for both of the boys. It was SUPER long day, Jalyn tested from 10-12 and then Jon Michael until 2:30, but the boys did great, check out the fun pictures.

This was last night, I walked downstairs to tell them they needed to go to bed and they were already out.

Jalyn doing punches and kicks.

Jalyn sparring.

He broke his board! He was so excited it was on the first try.

Mr. Dobson giving him his new green stripe belt. He skipped a stripe belt today.

Mr. Webre signing boards.

Mr. Dobson signing his board.

Jon Michael doing a pattern.

Only four testing in his rank..the higher he gets the smaller the group.

Stick self defense....taking down his attacker.

Jon Michael was the attacker and Jason is disarming him...and readjusting his spine!

Jon Michael sparring with Mr. Dillon.

Jon Michael breaking his board.....first try also!

Mr. Roy signing his board....Jon Michael has been with Mr. Roy since he was in the preschool class, they love their instructors.

New belts and broken boards...what a great day!

Happy Happy Birthday!

Yesterday was Jalyns birthday. We had a Pirate/Snake party (try finding invitations for that) at our house. Here's lots of pictures of the party....you know me, I'd love to be a perfectionist with this whole blog thing but to keep from becoming that I didn't put the pictures in order, just check out the captions.

How old are you? 5!

Samson getting some love.

Mr. Dobson, Jalyn's taekwondo instructor, showing him how to use his gift. We think Mr. Dobson should do his own tkd birthday parties!

Genelle and Baby G enjoying the cupcakes!

Showing off his gift.

Mr. Dobson showing off...oh sorry, giving a demonstration! It was very cool to watch.

Opening Mr. Dobsons gift....can you tell from all the gift pictures which was his favorite gift?

Blowing out the candle. We had chocolate and vanilla cupcakes with pirate treasure (gold choc. coins) to top them off.

So calm and collected...with a python on his neck!!

Easton showing off!

Genelle not to sure of the whole snake thing.

Comparing the snakes length to Jalyns height.

One of many snakes.

Mr. Dobson checking out a snake.

The first snake....he loves this stuff!!!

Checking out Mr. Clints snake bite....YES, I said snake bite!!!! Great! Just as we're about to show and handle snakes!!!!

This was late last night, I looked over and Jalyn was hanging out, watching tv, eating some birthday candy. The relaxing end to a great day!

Thank you to everyone who joined us for his birthday or sent cards and gifts. We are so very thankful for the friends and family that God has brought into our lives. Thank you for being a part of great memories with our family.

Look, Look!!!

After the hurricane people were putting all kinds of things out on the curb. Sometimes they had just a very little amount of water damage. We "picked up" 3 dressers, 2 headboards, and a footboard. We took the dresser drawers off for me to use in a craft I've got planned for later. Today we got around to the headboard and footboard craft I've had in my mind for months.

I love working with Jonathan on this kind of stuff!

Jalyn cleaning off sheetrock dust on a board.

Our makeshift sawhorse! A lawn chair and car jack!

Here's the backside of the headboard. The boys always love to "help" in anyway they can.

LOOK a bench!

It's a full size headboard and we thought about making it into a daybed but we thought we'd practice with a bench first.

Staining the night away!

Ta Da!!!!!!

I LOVE IT!!!!

I've always wanted a pew (I know kinda strange) and this thing is as heavy and almost as long as one. We're already planning our next project when we come across another headboard.

Fantastic 4th!

We had a great 4th of July. It all started July 1st, we had a church picnic and celebration at our church office/house. (It is a house that's been converted to office space across the street from our actual building.) The boys had so much fun. There were right at 90 people there, a great turn out. Jonathan worked on the 4th but when he got home we went for a walk and then did a few fireworks. You could only buy the little ones b/c our area is so dry right now but it was still lots of fun for the boys.

Jon Michael and Matthew playing volleyball.

Kids water balloon toss.

Adult water balloon toss. Pastor Mike and his son won...think that was rigged?

Since we couldn't do fireworks, the kids popped packing bubbles. It was crazy how much it sounded like black cats being set off.

Tammi getting in on the "firework" action!

Jon Michael loves smoke bombs, especially since Daddy lets him light them himself now.

A tank face off.

Getting ready to do battle with the tanks.

A firefight!

About 11pm, we could hear big fireworks going off in some of the neighborhoods, so Jonathan took the boys outside to sit on top of the expedition and watch them....such a good daddy.

We hope your 4th was great, I was reminded over the holiday how amazingly blessed we are to live in the United States and thanked God for that.