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