quick update

Thank you everyone for praying for my brother! Thomas passed his running test! We are so proud of him. My Dad and sisters were able to make the trip to see him graduate and have a great few dasy together. He is doing so well. Keep praying that the Lord will continue to grab a hold of his heart! More updates coming soon. Things have been so busy!!

Prayer Request

Hey friends, I have a quick and simple prayer request. My little brother, little in birth order, not so much in size, is in boot camp in OK. He is due to graduate this coming weekend. However, he is having a little trouble finishing his two mile run in time. Could you please lift him up in a quick prayer that God might pick him up and "fly" him through those two miles. If he should not pass, he will not be able to graduate or see family this weekend. Tickets have been bought to fly out. Would be a big bummer not to get to see him. Thank you for your prayers and faithfulness in advance.

Good times with Papaw and sweet cousin Lexie

Hilton Head 07

Ah, we just got back from 6 days of paradise! Some dear friends own a place down in HH near the beach and let us use it for a week. What a huge blessing it was! The first day and a half we got lots of rain. But we did not let that stop us. We rode bikes in the down pour, played ping pong in the garage, played yatzee and did lots of puzzles, and made a 4 minute appearance on the beach before it just dumped down on us. We laughed harder than we have in awhile and enjoyed being together without the call of laundry or floors to sweep to cut into our time. After the rain left, we made the most of the sun.

In the mornings we would go to the beach to "wake up the sun." It was great! I only got to join in the fun on the last morning because Dylan and Avary slept past the rising sun, thank God!! Daddy stayed back with the little ones while I took the big boys to the beach to "wake up the sun" as they had done every morning with Daddy. We all took turns singing to the sun. Anything goes when you sing to the sun. We sang about how beautiful it was, we thanked God for giving it, and even sang about muffins??!! We also danced for the rising sun. Some man walked past and said my you all sing so lovely! Ha, Ha, guess we were a bit loud! After all the singing and dancing, we wrote 'Thank you Jesus' in the sand for the blessing of the sun, the beach, our family, and the vacation we were so blessed to have.

The boys loved body surfing on the waves! It was fun to watch them get so excited and nervous all at the same time. The next day we took out boogie boards and they were a hit. We built a few sand castles during the week that just got destroyed by the ever rising tide. The last day we finally all worked together to make "the biggest sand castle ever." Avary enjoyed the beach sleeping in her stroller under a huge umbrella.

We took long walks and bike rides throughout the week. We walked to get some super man ice cream. Man were we a sight. I think the family next to us thought we had gone mad letting our boys eat such messy ice cream. Meanwhile, their little guys were eating plain vanilla ice cream. I mean come on, at $3.50 a cone, you have to live a little!! The boys loved taking turns riding a double bike with Daddy. Dylan and I rode a couple of times with him in the baby seat. He kind'a liked it, squeals interchanged with "mommy, it scary." I agree bud, it was scary! Ty learned how to ride a bike without training wheels too! He is so proud of himself. It was fun to watch him get bold enough to take the plunge.

We saw many, many dolphins swimming out in the ocean. One day, it seemed as though they were putting on a show for us. They we jumping out so high and just flipping like crazy. It was amazing. On Wednesday, our last day at the beach, we saw a sand shark!! So dead serious! It was just 3 feet from us and it was about 5 feet long. I was not too happy to see that mean thing so close to my babies. So we called it a day, no more swimming in the ocean, and headed back to the house to swim in safer water, the pool!

One thing I realized as people just stared at us any where we went. Four kids in five years is a bit abnormal!!?? The looks we got were surprising to me, but Dust was like, "babe, how many people do you know that have 4 kids under 5?. Well, I could only name 2. It was so funny to me. I never thought that is was so weird to have some many little ones. I LOVE IT!! It was also funny how many people wanted to know if "the little one in the sling was a girl?"

We came back totally refreshed, with many many new memories, and a greater love for the beautiful family God has blessed us with. We are amazed at how much God continues to bless us with. We thank you Jesus for our sweet family.

First Team Kenya practice

Well it went pretty well. We have 7 kiddos on the team, only 2 girls! Bryce's best buddy, Tait is on our team as well. We are gonna have some fun. The whole practice Ty and Bryce kept saying: "Oh I know how to do that." Going to be fun being the coachs' sons:-) Dylan was out there too running hard with all the "big kids". He actually did pretty well keeping up and does he have some skill!! Avary slept in her sling on the side lines as I just snapped away everytime they did something new. Our first game is Saturay. We can't wait.

Fun times with old friends

My sweet friend from college, Missy came to visit us with her little girl, Rachel! We had so much fun! Hard to believe that from college days just 8 years ago, where we ate ice cream like it was our job, shopped as much as we could, and stayed up all night talking. To the here and now, where we still stay up all night, but now for the 5 babies we have and to "real life jobs". Of course ice cream is still a major part of my diet!! We had a great few days together! We went for walks, yup, two mommies and 5 kiddos, we sure were a sight for those driving by us. Went swimming, had "movie night", and bathed the kiddos together. It was so fun and refreshing to share that time with Missy. God has done some cool things in our lives over the past few years and it was fun to share our hearts and reminisce about old times. We love you Missy and Rachel. Can't wait for the next visit when it is girls only!!