Swimming with the Romers

Monday, the Romer's were in town and we met at Jimmy Floyd to swim. Ashton and Maddie were so excited they asked about a million times when could we leave to go meet them. Finally we all get to the pool and they had a great time!

Maddie and Addison had tons of fun playing together and splashing each other in the face with the water.

Daxton just wanted his daddy the whole time.

And I have no idea how I managed to not get a picture of Ashton. He was playing so hard the entire time, I guess I just missed him.

We did have a few BIG happenings that day though! Most importantly though, BOTH of my kids finally made it down the big slides (which really aren't that big, but to them they are)!!!!! Ashton even did it without his float on and me having to catch him every time! It was fantastic. I was super proud of the kids and they were extremely excited about telling Daddy when we got home. :-)

Papa Andy's Birthday

Sunday was Alex's dad's birthday. We went to their house for dinner on Sunday evening and this was a picture I got of the kids after they gave Papa his gift. Alex and Ashton were talking about it being Papa's birthday while the kids were making cards and Ashton said "Yea, Papa is turning 55, thats old, but I love him no matter what." LOL Alex couldn't help but laugh. It is so funny to hear some of the things the kids say some times!

TEN YEARS!!!!!

July 21st was our 10 year anniversary! We celebrated by going to Jimmy Kelly's with the kids for dinner. Alex took me to Jimmy Kelly's after he proposed 11 years ago and we've gone back many times since. The kids have been themselves and Ashton LOVES their corn cakes, so Alex thought it would be sweet to take them with us. When we got home, we all piled up in our room and watched our wedding video, which the kids have never seen. It was neat to hear what all they had to say. :-)

Saturday night, we went to Centennial Park and renewed our wedding vows with the kids at our side. It was just us, our good friend and pastor, Erik and his wife, Katrina and their kids, Kaleb and Kaleigh. Erik prayed for us, read some scripture and we said our vows. On the way there, the kids asked if they could give us rings like in our video, so we let them do that. It was cute!

Maddie was probably a tad bit more excited that Ashton about the whole thing. I asked Maddie if she wanted to wear the necklace and ear rings I wore on my wedding day and she got a big grin on her face. She has been wanting to wear ear rings that dangle and we've told her she was still too little. However, for this special occassion she could wear them. She couldn't wait and wanted them on instantly. I painted her fingernails and toenails and we sat in the bathroom and chatted while I fixed my hair. When it came time to do hers, she asked if she could wear it up like I had on my wedding day, so I said yes and did it up for her. (Not exactly how I had mine, but she was thrilled!)

Ashton has a ring that Alex's Geega had done for him when he was little and Alex has passed it on to him. He never has gotten to wear it because it wouldn't fit and so we let him get it out and wear it for something special. He was stoked!

After we renewed our vows, we went to dinner with the Reeds and then we headed home to hang out with the kids. It was a great evening and I'm looking forward to seeing what the next ten years has in store for us and our family!!!

Swamp People: The Perry Version

Our air conditioning upstairs is currently broken and we're waiting on a part that has been ordered to come in. In the meantime, its pretty unbearable to be upstairs for any length of time so the kids have to play downstairs. They are trying to come up with stuff to do that doesn't require everything from upstairs being brought down.

Today, Alex was watching Swamp People as he ate lunch and so the kids started watching too. Next thing I know, we have a Perry version of Swamp People going in the foyer. Alex got a few pictures of it for me.

They are using our rolling ottoman as a boat and pushing each other thru the swamp with toss pillow tied to string in various places to represent the baited lines and then ultimately their gators. They have toys guns to shoot them before they pull them onto the "boat".

Alex was pretty proud of his creative help with this adventure they had going today. I have to say it was a pretty good little set up they had going. It entertained them for some time too. Check Ashton's face out!! He looks like he's really checking the water for a gator to be on the other end of the line. Its great!

Here is Ashton trying to shoot and pull one in at the same time. It was cute. I'm sure there will be more episodes of Swamp People: The Perry Version to come! :-)

Monkey Joe's

Wednesday, the kids and I met Katrina and her kids in Rivergate to take the kids to Monkey Joe's. We've never been there but I'm up for trying just about anything. It was set up differently than Pump It Up, but otherwise, basically the same thing. The kids had a good time sliding on this particular slide.

Maddie wanted me to get a picture of her every time she went down. :-)

The boys had a pretty good time with it too. Kaleb was the only one brave enough to go down head first though.

Kaleigh picked a different slide, but she still had fun.
One big difference in Monkey Joe's and Pump It Up was the games they had all along the walls. I'm usually the one that tells the kids no, we're here to jump so lets jump but not Katrina. She started passing out dollars for games to all the kids, so then I followed suit.... peer pressure will get ya every time. LOL The kids really enjoy it, which is all that mattered. After some lunch, Katrina and I managed to get a little shopping in too, so it was all and all a good day!

First Write Off in the Perry House

Tuesday was a sad day for me. For the last several days, Ashton has been random lying to me. It hasn't been anything major, but it isn't the point. A while back ago, we told the kids there was no more "joking" in our house because they weren't fulling understanding the difference in "just joking" and lying. In order to make it more clear, we said no more "joking". It seemed to be working and then bam.... Ashton lied and wanted to say he was "just joking". It is little things like I brushed my teeth, but he didn't or I didn't hit Maddie when clearly she didn't hit herself. However, lying is lying in my book and we have to put a stop to it now or it will become a bigger problem. I have been spraying vinegar in his mouth but that hasn't been working for some reason. (It is pretty effective in other areas.) I tried spanking him and making him sit in his room but that didn't seem to matter to him either. So, Tuesday he tipped the iceburg for me and Alex suggested a write off. I was hesitant but I just didn't feel like I was getting thru to him. So, I let him think about it in his room for about fifteen minutes then went to talk to him about what he'd done and why lying isn't acceptable. It didn't go as smoothly as I expected so I took him downstairs, wrote out "I will not lie." on the top of the piece of paper and told him to copy it down the page twenty times. He almost fell out of the chair. :( I felt a little bit bad, but knew that I had to stick to it and make him understand that he wasn't just going get a free pass. He has to learn.

I helped him get started and then left him at the counter to work on it. I had Maddie turn the tv off nearby so he wouldn't be distracted and had her go somewhere else to play. Over an hour later, he had finished. HOWEVER, he had written some of his numbers backwards, so I made him flip the page and re-write the numbers in the correct order. (20, not 02 for example) WOW, what an experience! Hopefully this got through to him and we won't have any more trouble with lying in our house!!

Dax turned ONE!

It is hard to believe that Dax is already one!!!! It seems like he was just born a few months ago. Where has the time gone?!?!

Sunday, we went to Casey's after church to hlep her finish getting ready for the party. The kids immediately started playing and having a good time. I helped my sister with a few things and then fed Dax his lunch and got him dressed for the party. The cake that my sister had done turned out really cute. Candy Dollar always does a great job on her cakes!!

Here are a couple of shots I got of Dax with his cake. He was not happy that he didn't get to play with his candle, so we had to sing quickly and let him dig in. Using his hands didn't work well for him, so someone gave him a spoon and he went to town. It was cute!

Addison did most of the present unwrapping and Dax hung out in front of her to check out the toys. He racked up on some cool stuff, especially clothes. This is one of the only pictures I got since he was piled up in the middle of everything.
I think it turned out to be a cute party and we were glad we got to be apart of it!

Bible Camp

Last week, the kids went to bible camp at Gladeville Baptist church. They have gone there every summer for the last three years now and had a great time. They even ask randomly throughout the year when its going to be time for camp again. :-) They do the same basic deal each year with a theme for each day and this year was no exception. I asked each of the kids what their favorite part of the week was and then what was one thing they learned. I thought I'd share their responses exactly how they told them to me.

Ashton: His favorite thing was going thru the water tent on bike day. He said he also liked water day too. As for what he learned, this is what he said..... "Jesus traveled from Jerusalem and saw all his cousins and even strangers. You know they followed him everywhere."

Maddie: Her favorite thing was also water and bike day. She said she "learned new songs at camp to teach to Sarah."

Even though it wasn't really their responses to me when I asked before typing this up, the kids learned a lot of things last week. Each day they had some type of skit and the workers there really made it very interactive for them when it came to the teaching portion of the day. On the way home each day, they filled me in on all the things they had learned. It amazes me how much more Ashton and Maddie both picked up on in that type of environment as opposed to just reading to them out of their bibles at home. Maybe Alex and I need to start putting on shows acting out the stories instead of just reading them. Boy, wouldn't that be a sight!! LOL

Hockey Time

We don't get to go to a lot of Alex's hockey games, but Sunday afternoon the kids and I, plus Kaleb, went to watch. The boys played off and on a little game of hockey themselves on the sidelines and Maddie and I sat together watching Alex play. Alex scored one and had two assists (I believe). The game ended up tied at 3 at the end of the 3rd period so it went into a shoot out. The other team scored the first one, then the next three guys didn't score, then Alex's team scored and the other did not. Still tied! It went into another shoot out and Gomer (aka Chris) went in for his shot. I snapped a picture as he headed to the net.

And this is after he scored the game winning goal! Yay!

The kids were immediately excited because that meant it was time for them to head out on the ice, not that they don't enjoy watching Alex play. But lets face it, it's a little bit less eventful as a Preds game and it only holds their attention for so long!

As you can see they were having a good time shooting and Maddie was out there right in the middle watching.

Two hockey players in the making! :-)

Maddie's Birthday Party

Saturday we had Maddie's 5th birthday party! I know, I can't believe it either. I keep saying things to her and having to correct myself that she is 5 years old NOT 4 years old. It is crazy!!!

When Maddie decided she wanted a party at home this year, I got a little excited. Alex immediately told me I was being ridiculous and going overboard and I kept telling him that this was a milestone birthday and I couldn't help it. She's only going to turn five and be going to kindergarten once! I am sure you can imagine where this conversation went. LOL Alex told me milestone birthdays are like 100, not 5 and that I would turn every year in to a milestone some how to justify my party planning. We laughed and I went on planning her party as I wanted. (I love my husband for just going with it!)

I took Maddie shopping and let her choose her invitations and then I ran with it from there with some input from her here and there. She loved the cupcake invitations and so I immediately called my friend, Katrina, to start helping me brainstorm. Alex, probably really needs to thank her for me going a little more crazy, she found hundreds of websites and emailed me all kinds of pictures and ideas. It was great! I did find a cake online that I loved and Alex had already asked me to use a girl he met thru work for her cake this year. So, I emailed her a link to the cake and told her what I wanted to modify and our color scheme and this is what we got.I loved it! (If you want to give Heather a try, you can find her by clicking on her name and going to her site or email me and I can give you her contact information.)

Alex wasn't totally out on the party planning. He did suggest me doing little aprons for all the girls as party favors instead of the traditional favors (junk as he called it). This way they could use them to decorate their cupcakes, without messing up their clothes, but then take them home for a little gift. I loved the idea and tried to customize them each to the little girls favorite colors and/or parents' favorite team! (Jason and Leann)The girls all had a good time decorating their bags to fill with the pinata goodies and then decorating and eating their cupcakes. It wasn't near as messy as I thought it might get and the girls seems to really like it, which I was glad!After cupcakes, we played a little limbo upstairs and then headed out for some water fun to cool off from the heat. This turned out to be a hoot! Number one, Alex NEVER lets the kids play in the front yard because he is VERY particular about his grass. However, for some reason he decided that is where they could play with the water toys, including a slipe and slide. Everyone at the party was in amazement because pretty much anyone that knows even the least little bit about us, KNOWS this was major! The kids had a great time, including Kaleigh and Lillie, our little toddler buddies!!!! I wasn't sure they'd really get involved but they both were totally fine being drug down over and over. :-)

And the party wouldn't be complete without Maddie's special request:

A CUPCAKE PINATA!!!!!!!!After that, we let her open her presents and then the kids all scattered doing random things. Here is a shot I couldn't resist sharing of the girls after they got all dressed up and put their make up on. It seemed like they spent half an hour in my room getting ready. Don't they all look beautiful!?!?!

Maddie turned FIVE!!!

Its hard to believe that Maddie is FIVE YEARS OLD! I can remember her being so tiny and me sitting in her room every night singing to her until she went to sleep. Now, she wants me to lay down with her and rub her back. Isn't it amazing how times change?!?!?

Maddie has been very excited about her birthday and counting down the days since Sunday after church. On Wednesday she woke up saying "this is the last day I'm four." She couldn't wait. Alex had a breakfast scheduled early on Thursday morning and she was devastated that she had to wait for him to come home in order to open her presents. We decided that Ashton could give her his when she woke up so she'd at least be content for a while.

As you can tell, she was a little bit excited about the barbie with a dog stroller, dog purse and TWO dogs. That meant they could each have a dog to play with when they played barbies together. (That means no fighting!!!!)

After some breakfast, I took the kids to the pool at the park which is where Maddie asked to go. They played there for about an hour and then they were ready to hit the playground. I took tons of pictures, as usual. Ashton found a little boy to play with right away and they had a good time playing ball together.Here is Ashton taking a little break while he watched Maddie play with some little girls that she made friends with.

Maddie was super excited!!!

We stopped for Wendy's after they were "done sweating" as they both said. They wanted a frosty to go with their lunch and since its Maddie's birthday, she made all the decisions for the day. :-)

I was hoping that after the pool/partk, some lunch and showers, Maddie would be back to the barbie and not concentrating on "when is daddy coming home?" I was wrong!!! She was immediately back at it. Every couple of minutes she asked. When he finally got home, we let her open her other gifts and then they went upstairs to play. Alex brought in her "bigger bike" and called her back downstairs and she was excited. She just recently learned to ride without training wheels but her bike was really too small. She got on this one with a little anxiety but then quickly was ready to take it outside.

She was looking super cute riding around the cul de sac with Ashton!

For dinner, Maddie chose Ruby Tuesday because she said she "wanted salad and college cheese". (aka cottage cheese) So, after her hip hop class we met Grammy (Alex's mom) and Papa Monkey (my dad) at Ruby Tuesday for dinner. We had a nice time and they brough out a cupcake for the birthday girl.

Maddie was in a very silly mood and so I didn't get any serious pictures of her, as you can clearly tell!!!

What is this anyway?!?!?!

Maddie got ANOTHER star in gymnastics!!!!

Yesterday afternoon, Maddie FINALLY mastered her cartwheel. Miss Tammy has been working and working with her on doing it straight, without landing on her bottom or going sideways. It has been a long time coming and yesterday she got it. She did one and Miss Tammy got all excited and told her if she could do it again then she'd give her a star. The stars are to represent when you master something. I don't know if you'd say Maddie mastered it, but she has never done two good ones in a row . I guess she figured that might be as close as she gets. LOL

Here Maddie is sitting in the floor drawing a heart and writing her name on the star.
And here she is SUPER EXCITED about getting it! As you can see, she ran out of room for her name and had to finish it above! I love that kids do that like they are wrapping it around. LOL

4th of July Weekend

Our 4th of July weekend consisted of a lot of household chores. I worked on getting some things together and done for Maddie's birthday party this coming weekend and Alex worked on cleaning up and staining our deck which really needed to be done. He worked himself to death out in the heat and it looks so good!

Fourth of July we spent the day shopping for new mattresses, which we were in desperate need of and then cooked out and had some family time at home. We let the kids get a few fireworks and here are a few pictures of them having some fun. (My battery was dying so these pictures look a little funny!!)

After they finished with those, we watched others in our neighborhood from our front porch and called it a night!

Science Museum

Thursday, the kids and I went to the Adventure Science Museum. We haven't been in a few months and with it being so hot we decided some indoor fun was in order!

Maddie kept telling me to look at how tall she was when she looked in this mirror. :-)

Ashton riding the bike as fast as he could!

The digestion area is always a favorite of my kids. They are both trying to get the food in the mouth and neither are having much luck with it, so Maddie goes down the "tooting" slide as she calls it.

Off to being doctors.....

We even built some houses.

Ashton wanted a picture with his "double" house.

We had a good time and enjoying staying cool for a bit!