Christmas Eve.

We continued our Christmas Eve tradition of eating brunch together as a family of four. The boys love the meal -- breakfast casserole, monkey bread, and grapefruit. And they also love sitting in the dining room and having a fancy meal. The rest of the day was low key until it was time for church. Boy can they dress up well!

Super handsome boys before Christmas Eve church at Covenant.

And their handsome Daddy.

And their lucky Mommy.

Fawn took a picture of Mom and Dad!

So nice to have a picture -- that's not a selfie -- of my sweetie and me.

Church was lovely -- we were joined by our favorite Uncle Pak and my sweet, dear cousin Annie from NYC. The boys, Annie and I walked around to get our energy out before church and Fawn helped Uncle Pak log some steps on his Fitbit. During the children's portion of church, Small Fry eagerly got up to join the other children up front. In true Fawn fashion, he was having none of it. And, we did not light ourselves or the sanctuary on fire during the candlelight portion. Winning! Truly, it was a great service and our boys did a great job of sitting through the whole thing. After a quick dinner for the boys, it was time for reindeer food and putting out cookies for Santa.

Now these faces...if I could bottle up this excitement and joy, I would. Christmas with children is magical. Merry Christmas Eve!

iJune.

Oh summer how we love you! May was gone in a flash and we enjoyed every bit of summer fun June threw our way.

We have fallen in love with McWane's Itty Bitty Magic City. It's a great place to beat the heat.

Daddy caught a snake in the backyard after Hannah barked at it. It was a perfect conversation starter for their photos with Barbara Harbin later that day.

They get tired at the lake -- especially after they learned to tube.

A little 12th anniversary celebration at the Garth Brooks concert. We started with dinner at Ollie Irene with great friends and then hit the 10:30 pm show. Best concert ever!

We blasted off with Covenant's VBS. Kelly and I taught Fawn's class -- a super fun group of rising 1st grade boys. Small Fry got to do mini VBS with Miss Anne in the nursery. Both boys had a great week and we've been jamming to the CD of the VBS music all summer.

Happy Father's Day to Buck! He was the happy recipient of new camo Crocs.

The boys loved tormenting the bait fish at the lake.

Photos for Dad.

With the promise of playing on the Slip N Slide, I bribed the boys to take these pictures for Buck for Father's Day. Melt my heart, they are precious!

Happy Father's Day to Buck! The best and most fun dad there is. When I married him, I knew he would be a good father but he has far exceeded all of my very high expectations. We love him and are so proud to call him ours.

Memorial Day Weekend.

We went to Lulu and Doc's new lake house for the first time over Memorial Day. We had a great time. Though the weather didn't look promising, it turned out to be not bad at all. I can deal with clouds! The house is beautiful and the boys are all set with a playroom and bunk room. We ate great and had tons of fun enjoying God's creation. The television was never turned on -- the boys were outside or on the porch the entire weekend. We swam, swam and swam some more (despite the pretty chilly water). We went on walks with Hank and Hannah. Buck took the boys fishing each day. We played in the yard, read books, played games,and built Legos. It was a great holiday weekend and a great way to kick off the summer.

Small Fry and I did lots of cooking to get ready.

He especially loved the juicer.

Happy lake rats.

We found out we were expecting Fawn seven years ago on Memorial Day. How can that be? SEVEN years!!! My how life has changed but it is so much sweeter to share it with our boys. Seeing the lake through their eyes is a blessing.

Bye Bye Gymnastics.

Small Fry had his last gymnastics of the year and I tried to take some extra pictures of him to remember this sweet stage. He loves gymnastics and I can see how proud of himself he is. I'm proud of him too. He follows instruction really well and tries everything they ask him to do. He's one coordinated little guy.

Look at him climb.

Big baby in a blue tunnel.

He can do a front flip.

Parachute time.

iSpring.

Monkey Man loves Mountain Brook Gymnastics.

Small Fry was my helper on a big kitchen project -- repainting and putting up a "mom" center. It looks great thanks to my real helper Pops.

Happy 34th Birthday to me!

I am not a fan of birthdays but because my boys love birthdays so much it makes them better!

The BEST presents ever! And I get to hang out with them every day!

First Doodles trip of the season.

Mommy-Son hiking trip at the Preserve.

The water was rushing and the waterfalls were amazing.

Barons Baseball in the box with friends.

Heading to Cinco De Mayo at Mimi and Pops' house.

Last baseball practice -- trophy from Dad!

Don't get too excited about the carousel.

Just a little baseball watching on a Saturday afternoon (followed by a six plus mile canoe trip...our bright idea to celebrate Mother's Day! It actually was so much fun but Buck and I were so sore!)

Mother's Day flowers from my boys.

Another one bites the dust...he lost another tooth.

Muffins for Moms.

Finally, finally it was my turn for a program at Fawn's school. He'd already celebrated Donuts with Dad and Grandpals Day. But I guess they save the best for last...Muffins for Mom the Friday before Mother's Day. It was adorable -- they sang four songs in the auditorium (he was very proud to tell me they only sang three songs at the other programs and added an extra song just for the moms). Then the kids came and sat on our laps (swoon) while we watched a slideshow of pictures of the kids with their moms. It just melted my heart. On the bottom of each picture was "I like it when my mom..." and the kids filled in the blanks. Fawn apparently likes it when I buy him stuff. My first reaction was "Oh my word!" Then I thought before I spoke and told him how I appreciated his gratitude. We've been really emphasizing that we should have a grateful heart and that we are not just entitled to things. I don't know if he was thinking of that when he responded that way or if he simply likes it when I buy him stuff. But he's at the precious age of six and I could just soak him up! After the slide show we moved on to the cafeteria where we ate muffins and fruit and got to see a precious Mother's Day hand print drawing and a book about us. In Fawn's book he remarked that I was 23 years old and weighed 400 pounds. And he said I was a cleaner and he was a kindergartener. And that I like it when he cleans up. I told him that was certainly true -- I love when he helps me -- but that actually I love him no matter what he does.

Selfie before slideshow. Note: I chose not to make his outfit an issue. He looks cute to me no matter what he wears.

Selfie in the cafeteria.

Sweet boy -- love him so.

And the sweetest teacher ever. What a blessing she has been to our family this year.