Girlscout camp Cedarledge!

A couple of weeks ago Adriana went to Camp Cedarledge with her girlscout troop and a 4th grade girlscout troop. It was perfect weather and the girls all had a blast.
A funny sign they have there.....

While there, the girls were able to do so many fun things. A few of the things are archery....

Adriana's troop leader, Bev, also partipating in archery.

The game win it in a minute with many fun things to do in a minute. This one consisted of the girls balancing dice on a stick in their mouth.

Lots of time to explore and just have fun outside.

Adriana and her buddy for the day.

This was a brick that had Adriana's troop leader's name on it.

This is the girls that came from Adriana's troop.

Adriana's troop plus the 4th grade troop.

All the girls on the bridge.

More exploring in a creek.

Fun playing on a tire.

It was a great time for the girls! On the way there Adriana asked me why I go to everything with her because most of the girls didn't have their moms with them. I asked her if she wanted me to go with her and she said yes so I told her thats why I spend so much time with her. Then she replied "I think its just cause you like to take lots of pictures!" Well that too, lol! She knows me too well!

Adriana's PE pep assembly!

Every year the PE teacher, Mrs. Burton, works with each class on a dance for the PE pep assembly. Last year Adriana did a father/daughter dance with her daddy. This year Adriana's class danced to the song "hey, hey we're the monkey's" which is a very appropriate song since her class is dominated with boys! I love watching this assembly! Each class from kindergarten to 8th grade performs which ranges to a bunch of kids standing around (kindergarten) to the group of kids doing a light show which is amazing (8th grade). Have I ever mentioned how much I love this school and all the kids! At the end they even allowed all the parents to come out and dance. Fortunately there was no pictures of the momma making a fool of herself :) It was a very fine time!
Here is a few pictures of Adriana with her class.....

Monster truck show!

I almost forgot about posting pictures of the monster truck show....that would be bad. We were able to go to the show the Saturday before Chris started his treatments so it was a treat for the whole family! This was even Chris' first monster truck show....ever!!!!! He didn't get to go last year because it was the same night as the father/daughter dance.
This year we also got pit passes so we could see the trucks up close. I had no idea that in order to do this you would have to stand in a very long line to do this. So we found a few that we were able to get close to without standing in line.


This year we brought my nephew again who loves the monster trucks as much as my boys do! Even Adriana really enjoyed it!
Andrew before the show!

Andrew and Jacob being serious!

Thats more like these two boys!

Daddy and his boys plus one!

Miss Adriana!

Joey LOVED the trucks and is still talking about them more than a month later!


Here is my boys favorite truck....the crane digger as they like to call it!



We had an awesome time and it was a wonderful way to spend the evening before the busy month ahead of us. I already have the tickets for next year and can't wait to go again!!!!

My sweet little Goddaughter!

Last weekend I was a very lucky Aunt and became the Godmother of the sweetest little girl ever! My niece, Jessica Renee Howell, was baptised at my old church. My little brother and sister in law made their way up to spend the weekend back in MO and I got some snuggle time with my sweet little angel!
Is she not the cutest thing ever!



Thank you so much Kevin and Jenny for allowing me to be the Godmother of Jessica! It is such a blessing and honor!

My karate kid!

While I was out of town with Adriana for her competition, my mom and dad watched my boys. Well while they were over there my mom let the boys watch the movie Karate Kid which created and obsession for Andrew for karate. So after researching many different places and prices, we decided to go with Lyndell Institute. Andrew can go to class everyday if he chooses, and this past week he did go everyday! I like the fact that it is not just one day a week, but they have classes everyday....in the morning and at night so we can pick which days we would like to go to. They also have a lot of discipline in the class and I think it will really help Andrew, especially for getting ready for kindergarten next year!
So here are a few pictures of Andrew in his karate class.





I also should add that the morning classes are any age, so Andrew is often the only kid in the class which he thinks is the greatest thing ever! There is also no contracts which I really like as well, so once Andrew looses interest we can stop.

A new addition!

Adriana has wanted her own horse since she was 3 years old. I inform her she was born into the wrong family (as we are the poor family) and we quickly moved on. Its never been an issue until Adriana started Pony Club. Most of the kids in the club have their own horses they can use for everything. Well nothing has changed with us and we can still not afford a horse. But we did come across a great opportunity! Someone had just finished a half lease on a great horse and the owner was looking for someone to take over the other half of the lease. Well this was still a bit much for us but after talking with Alexis' mom (the other young pony club girl) and getting a discount from Darla who owns the stable, we were able to do a quarter lease on the horse! Adriana was so excited to finally have her "own horse" in a way. The horse is a female and her name is Irish. Don't ask me much more about her because I don't know. I'm still learning a lot about horses. Our lease officially begins in April and the girls are able to use Irish for all their Pony Club activities! We figured we would do this for a few years until we decided to do another lease or get Adriana her own horse. But the horse doesn't come free to her. She has agreed to do a list of chores around our house each week along with doing other varies chores around her grandparents houses. She also has to keep her grades up. She has agreed to this and is doing very well with "earning" her horse.
So here is the newest member of our family.......Irish!



Its also not all fun and games with Irish around the stable. Adriana is responsible for grooming Irish and taking care of the tact.

She even had to pick out Irish's feet while standing over a present Irish decided to leave for Adriana! But it all comes with owning a horse!

Quiz Rally with Pony Club!

One of the great things I love about Pony Club is that the kids don't just get to ride horses, they also have to learn all about horse management as well. That is basically what the Quiz Rally is......a competition over all your knowledge of horses with no riding.
This year I was lucky enough to be a chaperone for Adriana's group. That consisted of me making sure the group got everywhere they needed to be on time. Most of the competition was at the hotel where I would drop the kids off at a conference room in the hotel and in the room the group would get tested together. I was not allowed at any of the rooms but I was allowed at the barn for the barn section.
Here is a few pictures of the barn section....
Here they were getting tested on all the parts of the horse. Adriana's question was where is the fat lock and she got it right! I was so proud of her!

This next session was all about the saddle. Adriana's question was where the throat latch was on the bridle and once again the little booger got it right! Did I mention how proud of her I was!

Having a little fun outside the barn! This was Adriana's group.....Adriana, Shea, Johnathon, and Alexis. Shea and Johnathon are brother and sister and their mom is one of the adults ahead of Pony Club.



The hotel also had a pool so the kids did get to have some fun during all their testing and got swimming!


After all the scores were totaled, it was time to see how everyone did! Adriana's group got 5th out of 5 but you would never know by looking at those excited faces!

Megan, Mason, and Ashley also got 5th place!

But the other girl group got 1st!!!! Way to go girls!

This was something I really liked about the competition as well, no matter what place you came in everyone got the same size ribbons just different colors. We really tried to emphasize that it is all about learning and having fun and Adriana keeps telling me that this was one of the best weekends she has ever had!
Here is Adriana and Alexis. This is the second youngest girl in the group with Adriana being the youngest.

Adriana and Megan!

A group shot of all the Pony Clubbers and their ribbons!

Adriana and her ribbon!

And having a little fun on the way home. Poor Adriana is the only Pony Clubber who has to sit in a car seat and she reminded me the whole weekend!

It was a great time and we are looking forward to going again next year!

Chris is done!

This has to be the happiest day we have had in a LONG time! Chris finally finished his last treatment! It seems like an eternity ago that he was just beginning and I know this had to be the longest month we have ever had but it is finally over!!!! Did I mention Chris finished his last treatment today ;) I want to thank everyone for everything you have done to help my family through this! Chris is my everything and I can't even begin to imagine my life without him in it. We began dating 20 years ago (yes 20 years.....holy cow I'm old!) and I can't even imagine it ending now. I know the prayers have been working because that is part of what kept him so strong during this month. And I don't know what I would have done without a warm meal being delivered to my house every night. I never had to stress over trying to make sure everyone had something good to eat and hurry to get dinner cooked. There was always enough to feed whoever came over to help us with the kids and for lunch the next day! And my wonderful, amazing friends who all pitched in to give us a huge gift card that we have used to help buy a few things to make this as easy as possible during this past month. We are also so excited to use a gift card for a hotel room that Chris and I can use to celebrate his recovery! And for the cleaning lady who made Chris and I smile when we walked in to a clean house and took a huge load off of my back worrying about cleaning my house. And for all my family and friends who have helped watch my kids while I sat with Chris during his treatments or sat at my house and put the kids to bed when I had to work. We would have never survived if I didn't have so many generous friends and family! I love you all and I want you all to know that if you are ever in the place that we were, I will be the first to come running to help! But I pray it never happens to you!
This has really been the most difficult month of our lives and I am so glad it is over! I know Chris won't feel the best for another week or two, but I know each day will be better than the day before!
Thank you, thank you, thank you from the bottom of my heart! I really do love all of you and am so thankful to have each of you in my life!!!!!