Retreat!!!!

Melonie (above middle) is a year ahead of Shane in the counseling program. This past year she offered to facilitate a small group for the wives of the first year counseling students. The group includes me, Amy, Jenn (above left), Melonie, and Ellen (wasn't able to make the trip :( We have been meeting every week for the past several 7 or so months. It has been awesome for all of us to have a place where we can share what is going on with us and walk through "life" together. This past weekend we had a "retreat". We stayed at a condo in Sarasota (thank you Johnson family!!). Our husbands all volunteered to watch our children so we could really have a retreat :) .....MAJOR PROPS to them!!

We had an incredible time! We had time to share with each other, journal, read, rest, play...etc etc!! On Saturday we spent the day at Siesta Beach. OK...so I was super pumped about the beach because it had been 2 WHOLE YEARS since I have laid eyes on the beach....yes, 2 years. I am not exaggerating. I LOVE the beach and didn't realize how long it had actually been since I had felt the powder sugar sand between my toes and seen the vast clear blue/green water of the ocean....ok...you get the point....I was pumped. The Lord made the day perfect...beautiful weather, gorgeous water, a breeze to keep you cool....need I say more???

Just taking it all in....

I was just a little excited....:) May I also mention that I have NEVER stepped foot onto a beach before with my body being this WHITE!!! I think I blinded everyone out there!!

Amy is serious about sun protection...way to go Mamie!!

Melonie had given us some "heart" questions to journal about while we were at the beach. I totally used to take it for granted having all the time I wanted to read, journal, or whatever. Now (after kids) having that time is a RARE TREASURE!!!

The pool/back porch of the condo we stayed in...yes, it was amazing!!

I got to have some make-up fun with Jenn and Melonie :)

Melonie cooked up an incredible meal for us on Saturday...seafood kabobs....yummy!!

Fun PIcs

Mohawks never go out of style... :)

A couple of weeks ago the 2nd year counseling students had a cookout for the 1st year counseling students. Here was Jocelyn watching Jayden play baseball in the backyard. She wanted to be out there with him so badly but she had to stay inside the porch since she already had a bath and she would undoubtedly get filthy. While Jocelyn is dreaming of baseball in the grass, Gabbie contently chills in a lawn chair eating her shoe...

Our four kiddos ("our" meaning our household :) surrounding poor little Henry (one of Shane's classmates son). Gabbie is rather forcibly trying to share her cup with him!

One of my college roommates coaches a women's pro softball team and they recently played a tournament down here in Orlando. We took the girls to "watch" one of their games (we def weren't able to watch much of anything besides the girls :). Gabbie was obsessed with the dirt. The entire time we were there, she persistently was picking up handfuls of dirt and gently placing it in the hood of her car as well as the seat. The pics show the progression....hilarious...

I think she was determined to bury the car...

While Gabbie was digging to the middle of the earth, Jocelyn was obsessed with the "baaaaaaaw...baaaaaaaw...baaaaaaaaw"...that is how she says ball these days and and she says it over and over and over....

The girls are together ALOT...ok, really ALL the time. And they definitely get on each others' nerves about every 30 minutes. ( some days, it's more like every 30 seconds!) One of the reasons they get in so many fights is because they insist on playing in a 1 foot by 1 foot area of space no matter where they are at. On this particular day they were getting along quite nicely. I thought I'd snap a few pics so I could have proof for myself that they actually don't fight ALL the time :)

They love sitting inside this tiny playhouse/slide thingy together. It's very cute. Jocelyn was trying to get Gabbie to eat her bottle top. Nice.

See what I mean by the 1 foot by 1 foot playing area???

This is a picture of Jocelyn's shoes. She has a few different pairs and they all look just like these..massive holes in the toes. Why? Because she likes to drag her feet when we take them walking in their cars. We have tried everything to get her to stop, but nothing seems to work. When we don't put shoes on her, she drags her bare feet and scraps up her toes. She just doesn't care :). So, I've succumbed to the fact that all her shoes are just going to look like trash right now. Oh, well!

On Tuesdays, me and Amy take the kids to a playgroup with some other moms from our church. This week we went to Monkey Joe's. They had all kind of bouncy thingys, slides, games, etc. The girls LOVED it!!

They played so hard. When the two hours were up, they were completely worn out (nap time!!! yay!!)

Playing games.... :)

Gabbie....he is WAY too old for you!!

On Wednesdays, the seminary has "community lunch" where they provide food for the the students and they all eat together. I've been taking the girls up there so they can have some time with daddy. They love hanging out with daddy and sitting in the "big people" chairs.

We love friends!!!

This month we have had several friends come down to visit. Summar (above) is one of my very closest friends. She came to see us all the way from Lafayette, LA!! Of course her boyfriend ,Stewart, was also down here ( he is on staff with Campus Outreach and their Summer Beach Project is in Orlando), but we were totally the main reason she came! :) We had so much fun hanging out with you guys!

The day Summar left, another one of my good friends, Lindsay (along with her boyfriend, Adrian) came to visit us for a few days. She is a former student as USA and is also the new owner of Taco (one of our precious dogs that we had to give away when we moved down here :( I doubt Taco even remembers us anymore. He is totally living it up in Tennessee on a farm and has like a zillion acres to sprint around on and a doggy door for him to come in and out as he wishes! During their visit Lindsay, Adrian, Shane and I went to Aquatica (Seaworld's new waterpark). It was awesome! Ever since we've seen the commercials on T.V. we have wanted to go and we finally got a chance to. We acted like 10-year-olds...it was so much fun!!

Jillian's Wedding :)

This past weekend my sweet husband watched the girls so that I could go to Jillian and Ben's wedding! Jillian is a former student at South and a really close friend of mine. I was so thankful that I was able to go! Congrats you guys!!

Me and "the blondies" :) Love you guys so much!!

Shrop and her new man....precious!

I thought their wedding cake was way cool...

Me and the Canadian...:)

I stayed with one of my best friends from college. She and her husband have triplet girls that are a few months older than my girls. When I am having a "tough" day, I just think of her...and how it would be adding one more to the mix....ahhhhh!!! WOW! Luann, you are my hero!! It was fabulous seeing you guys!

15 month stats

The girls turned 16 months old yesterday. That is absolutely crazy...I can't believe they are already that old! Anyways, I forgot to post their stats from their 15 month appt. Better late than never I guess!

Jocelyn:

Weight- 23 lbs 12 oz (65 %)
Height- 30 1/2 inches (50%)

Gabbie:
Weight - 23 lbs (60%)
Height - 30 3/4 inches (65%)

The River

The day after Shane and I got back from D.C., we loaded the girls into the van and drove to Mobile for a few days and then to my parent's house in Jay, FL to celebrate the 4th of July. As you can see from the pics, Jocelyn was pretty excited about the trip.... Gabbie...not so much. Both of them actually travel horribly in the car. They refuse to sleep at all so after an hour or so, they scream and scream and scream. I am not exagerating!! It is not a very pleasant experience :)

We had a fantastic time in Mobile catching up with friends. Thanks to the Loyd's for allowing us to totally trash your house for a few days! Below are some pics from the river. Every year on the 4th of July my family takes the pontoon boat out on Blackwater River and we party all day long. My dad actually goes out there at like 4:30am to "get the best sandbar" and then the rest of us mosy out there a few hours later. This was the girls' first year on the river and actually their first time ever on a boat. They loved it!

They didn't know what to think about these life-jackets. They thought they were pretty cool for about 30 seconds, then proceeded to try to rip them off :)

We predicted what would happen once we reached the sandbar. Jocelyn would want to get in the water and never get out. Gabbie would scream when her toe touched the water and would play in the sand the whole day. That is EXACTLY what took place :)

We did manage to get Gabbie in the water for a few minutes...long enough to snap a quick pic!

Jocelyn LOVES the water! Since we got back home from the river, she is now trying to "swim" in the bathtub. I mean, literally, she gets on her stomach and kicks her feet, flaps her arms and puts her head under. She is a fish for sure.

My brother, sister-in-law and cousin Landon. He borrowed Jocelyn's hat b/c she refused to keep it on :)

Big cousin, Kaylea, and Gabbie playing in the sand

The girls love watermelon ALMOST as much as their mommy!

We put Jocelyn in the sand to see if she wanted to play. Obviously she did not! That face is pitiful!

Gabbie "in the water" with daddy :)

Jocelyn with Aunt Emily

Jocelyn wants to be free!!

The girls with PawPaw