Fishing Trophies

So for those of you who have not heard or seen, Jeff had an exciting fishing trip this week. His district at work gets together quarterly for meetings where they usually participate in a team-building activity one of the days they are gone. I'm telling you...sometimes Jeff really has it rough at work. This time his district manager took their team fishing at Lake Martin, which is about 30 miles East of Oxford where we live. The boats had guides and Jeff's boat hit the jackpot! He said that they caught over 20 fish between the 4 people on the boat in less than 2 hours...Jeff caught 7 himself. The highlight of the trip however, was Jeff catching a 26 pound striped bass. After a 30 minute fight and a couple of bumps and bruises, Jeff wrestled the fish in. We are now in the process of preserving the prize fish...yes, we are having it mounted. Don't ask me where we are going to put it...probably next to the deer head in the garage, but anyway it is pretty exciting! Here is the picture to prove it!

Speaking of Fish, having a pool at our house has definitely brought out the "fish" in our kids. Well, we have always known that Bayley was a fish. She has loved the water from day one and has always been good in and around water. Kendal on the other hand, wouldn't even put her foot in the pool less than 2 months ago. These days she is jumping in, she wants to dive under the water with her eyes opened, she is willing to play rough with Bayley, and is pretty much completely independent in the pool (of course with her Speedo floating swimming suit on). Trey also loves the water. He loves to pound the water with an open hand splashing any and everyone that is in his path. He is drenched by the time it is time to get out and really seems to enjoy it. We are looking forward to a fun summer!

Life Updated!

So, a couple of weeks have flown by and my great plan to blog at least once a week has already gone out the window. I will do my bet to update you and post some pictures of what we have been up to.

A few words about my birthday and Mother's Day. I am glad that my 30th birthday was somewhat downplayed. I really don't feel that old and I certainly hope that I don't look it. Jeff treated me to pancakes in the shape of the number 30...it was cute and the girls were very thrilled with their Daddy's project. We made the trip to Augusta that day for Spencer and Leigh's graduation. We met Mom and Dad on the way and had lunch at Chick-fil-A...one of our family favorites. That night Spencer and Leigh had dinner at their house and then they had a family appreciation social at the dental school. The girls managed to slip in naps on the way to Augusta so that they could check out the pool during the 1 hour between our arrival and time to head to Spencer's house. Spencer and Leigh's graduation day was very nice. We are so excited for them!!! After the hooding ceremony we headed back to the hotel for naps and a swim. We then went to the lake (can't remember the name of it) in Augusta for a cookout. It was so nice! We had a great time and on Saturday we headed back home and made it home early enough in the afternoon to go for a dip in the pool....notice a reoccurring theme concerning our days and the swimming pool. Mother's day was very nice. Jeff made us breakfast burritos for breakfast and the kids gave me a nice picture frame! Jeff gave me a WillowTree figurine and some money to prepare for our trip to St. Thomas...oh yeah, I forgot to mention what Jeff gave me for my birthday...at the end of July we are headed to St. Thomas for 5 days!! Our first vacation without the kids for over 2 years. We are so excited! Anyway, that sums up my wonderful birthday/mother's day weekend.


This last week has flown by. The weather here has been great...actually a little on the cool side so we only swam a total of 3 days this week. Despite the cooler weather we received very little rain. There is a drought in Alabama and we are about 14 inches under what we should be on the rain meter. Which means, if you don't have a sprinkler system your grass in brown...fortunately we do and our grass is green, but not as green as it should be in the spring. Enough about our exciting grass. Another highlight of our week was that Kendal and Trey had their 3 year and 9 month check-ups. Kendal weighed in at a whopping 28 lbs and was 37 inches tall. She was such a big girl as the doctor checked her out and it was noted that she is extremely healthy...she hasn't even ever had an ear infection. Trey weighed in at 21.4 lbs. and was 291/2 inches tall. He cooperated with the check-up, but in the end had to get a couple of immunization shots, which is not fun for any of us. Trey continues to grow up way too fast. He is not crawling, but has started to maneuver. He tries to pull up on things and has actually been successful a couple of times. He loves music...it is so funny...he claps and shakes his body all over the place.

Bayley's last week of school is this week. She will graduate from kindergarten on Tuesday! She is excited for the end of this year to come. She loves school, but has been through a lot for the first year of her schooling. She has endured 4 different teachers and 2 very different schools. The transition to Alabama has been a little more difficult that we had anticipated. All of you know that Bayley is extremely social, however, at her new school she has had a hard time making new friends. In fact, she has some MEAN girls in her class that have grouped up and decided not to be her friend...I think they are jealous. Bayley has sucked it up very well and despite the lack of friends still enjoys school. We are excited for summer and the opportunity to have her home with us for a while...Kendal is going to love having her big sister around to play. We have big plans for this summer, which includes lots of time around the pool, a couple of trips, the summer reading program at the library, and other fun stuff.

Yesterday we had some friends over for the first time to swim and cookout. It was so much fun! The kids had a blast playing in the pool...the food was good (thanks Jeff) and we loved the company. Our kids love entertaining, which is definitely something we can do at our new home...so if you are up for the trip...come and visit us!!!!

Well, I feel like I have written a book. I will try to post a couple of fun pictures!! Have a great week everyone!

Sunday Pictures

Another Sunday has come and gone way too quickly. We had a great day. I actually am enjoying having late church...we don't start until 12:30 p.m. As a result we have the morning to leisure around. The girls usually play downstairs with their toys, read, or study with their Dad while he studies his Sunday School lesson. I get to read the Sunday paper, which I really enjoy. Jeff was called as the Second Counselor in Young Men's today. He is really excited for the new challenge. It will be good for him to see that side of the church organization. I haven't received a calling as of yet, but I am going to teach in Relief Society next week. I am lobbying for that calling, but we will see!

After dinner tonight we let the girls feed the fish in our little pond outback. I bought a 50 lb. bag last week that should last us all of this summer, if not next as well. It was fun to see the fish (mostly catfish) come to the top to get the food. The girls were a little disappointed that the didn't get a real good look at the fish...it's almost as if they expected the fish to dance on top of the water, but it just doesn't happen that way. We also saw a couple of turtles poke their heads out of the water, so that was cool. So far we have seen lizards, frogs, turtles, otters, beavers, ducks and ducklings, and all kids of birds. As I am not an animal person, I just hope that these animals choose to keep to themselves and leave me and our house alone.

Catching Up

I have gotten a couple of weeks behind in writing my blog so at this point I won't even try to catch up. We had a great weekend togather as a family. Jeff went golfing early Saturday morning and was home by 11 a.m. so we could get a couple of things done around the house. It started out as an overcast day and we were hoping to get some rain, because we desperately need it, but it just ended up being hot. After doing some cleaning, the girls had a picnic outside for lunch. Kendal and Trey went down for a nap and Bayley and I went outside to work on the pool. The neighbors next door also have a pool and came over and invited Bayley over to swim with a couple of the young kids that they had there. Bayley was quick to jump at the opportunity to meet some new people and swim in a different pool, so we ended up spending about 1 hour over there. After Kendal and Trey woke up from their naps we took a dip as a family...for the first time all of us swam in the pool at the same time. It was a lot of fun. We are really going to enjoy having the pool at our disposal this summer. This morning we have enjoyed our time at home before church. The girls have played togather pretty well and are looking forward to their bath in the big jacuzzi tub...it is now a Sunday ritual that they get in that tub before church. I will post some more pictures later this evening if I get a chance...there are some cute ones from yesterday and I'm sure there will be some good ones before we go to church. Have a great Sabbath Day!