It's now officially Summer!

Today we took our boat out for the first time this summer! We just went over to the AR River, so no swimming, but it was fun to just be out and about on the boat!

Whitney was ok for a little bit in her life jacket.... Ryan grilled. One of my favorite things on the boat!

Lindsey loves to drive! She does a pretty good job actually!

This is what Whitney really thought of her life jacket!

Without swimming, there was a lot of just "hanging out"

Finding places to hide....

Do you think that Courtney looks like a little model in this picture?

Something about it looks so pretty/cute/modelesque... Whitney seeemed to have fun!

It was HOT when we weren't in the shade or the breeze wasn't blowing!

I look forward to times this summer of hanging out on the boat as a family!

Fun with Friends

Friday night we had some of our friends, the Costons over. They were minus one kid, so there were only 5! Soon, when we get together we will have 7 kids age 6 and under! They are adopting a little boy from China! We are so excited for their family!

Here they are planting Hairy Harrys. If you don't know what that is....stay tuned! Courtney did NOT want me to take her picture, so she walked far away!

Here is Lindsey and Abi! They have been great friends since we moved here!
We ended the night with grilling burgers, playing on the waterslide and having fun on the new playset! I love having friends over and having good food and fellowship together! I'm so thankful for the friends God has provided for us here in Greenwood. We are so blessed!

Hello? How are you?

This was my girls just enjoying the company of eachother...and whoever they were talking to on the phone. I don't know, maybe Lindsey is texting....who knows?! Courtney is in deep conversation about something

We are loving the new playset!

What color are you on?

This post is a couple of weeks old, but it will probably have a better "tune" this week than it would have a few weeks ago! We have been in a "down swing" with behavior if you know what I mean. There were quite a few limits being pushed, rules being broken, aruguing going on, and I was at THE END! There were too many days that I found myself in tears and in total frustration about how to handle behavior problems in our house. It isn't anything new or earth shattering, just the day to day arguing and disobedience that will wear.you.out if you don't get control of it.

There are many long, no fun stories I could go into, but here is the short version of what was happening:

• During the day, if things didn't go a certain way, meltdowns would start.
• Lindsey is the chid that we were having the most trouble with and she is also the child that I have the hardest time connecting with. She shuts down so much that I get frustrated.
• So it got to a point that I would feel like I was just going to make her mad, so I wouldn't "battle" her
• This meant that by bedtimes I was DONE and Ryan would "take over" and talk to her and get her settled down. He does a good job of talking to Lindsey and I'm so grateful, but things would be solved for one night and then repeat itself the next night.
• Needless to say, we hit a wall together and decided that we had to do something to get things back under control.

This comes from my classroom management days! It felt so drastic in a way to do this at home, but realized quickly that anytime we had to get behavior under control, a chart had worked wonders for Lindsey. This time we are not using a chart, but are using something VERY visual for her to see and know exactly where she stands and how things are going. There is no question on what her behavior should be, and there is no question on what the consequences of wrong behavior is.

It has seemed to work well. I think just the fact that we set obvious boundaries and clear consequences (again) helped her to realize who was in control--not her! :) We haven't been home very much this week due to schedules, but she has had some good days too! She changed her color this morning for the first time. Bedtime has been a breeze. I'm so thankful. I hope it will last.

She's a sweet girl and I love when she chooses to act like it!

My Graduate

Here she is! I could gush and gush, but I will let the picture speak for itself! I'm so proud of her! Here is a self portrait that Lindsey drew at school! I love it for so many reasons!

• I love her blonde hair
• I LOVE her lips
• I love that she has earrings
• I love the she has on a necklace
• I love her blue eyes
• I love her eyelashes

Lindsey is such the artist! She's such a smart girl! I'm so blessed to be her mommy!

Just A Swingin'

This past weekend, Ryan put together (all by himself I might add)

a HUGE swingset/playset for the girls! He's an awesome dad!

Courtney will swing as long as you want to push her. Thankfully she has learned to "pump" and will swing by herself too! She loves to swing!

Lindsey loves that she has a playhouse!

Here it is, in all of it's glory! I love it!

I'm sure our girls will enjoy some great times playing out here. Ryan decided to put some old mats down to keep the weeds and grass from growing, so we have to get some more of those. We also have to get a couple of more boards to edge it in and then get some mulch and it will be finished! Thankfully the girls don't care about the edge and mulch, so they have already enjoyed lots of playtime out there this week!

Baby Will

*This is the 8th post I have done tonight! Getting caught up! At the bottom of the page, you have to click on "older posts" to see the rest! Wow...that means I was way behind!*

When we were in Bentonville last week we visited Martha and her kiddos and got to play!

My girls just LOVE babies.... Even Whitney....

Field Trip to Kindergarten

I was so excited to go on a field trip with Lindsey's preschool class. They got to go visit Kindergarten! Next year Greenwood is splitting to 2 K-5 schools, so we didn't get to visit the actual school she will be going to, but still....it was KINDERGARTEN and she couldn't have been more excited! Here she is waiting outside to go in with her class. Do you think she's excited?
Getting ready to be turned loose on the playground! She even got to see some of her friends that are already in Kindergarten while we were out there! So fun!

I have such mixed emotions about her going to school. I'm a little sad because I know that this is forever more and she's so big! However, she's so stinkin' ready that I'm excited to see her grow, learn and be an excellent student! She will make one teacher very happy (I hope!) with her excitement to learn! I'm already praying for her teacher and for her to have good friends in her class at school! We will see where God puts us in August!

PS-Thanks Mandi for taking these pics for me--bad mom me forgot my camera! Oops!

Go Quik Stiks! (TONS of pics!)

There are wayyyyy too many pictures on this post, so I won't put many words.... :)

Best Coach EVER! He is so good with these kids and so encouraging!

Maycie and Lindsey

I love her tongue out!

Go Scogin #14!

Playing first base

BIGGG swing

Good hit!

1, 2, 3 QUIK STIKS!

I am blessed!

Yeahhhhh Honey!

Way to go Honey, Way to go! We got to go celebrate Honey! We had a Mother's Day dinner, spent the night with them and then went to her school the next afternoon. Honey was being honored for teaching in Bentonville for 15 years!

She's such a great teacher!
The "party" was in the library, so the girls picked out some books
for Honey to read to them before we had to leave.

Uncle Taylor came too! Amber and Ryan both had to work and couldn't come! We took a few pictures and this was the best of the 3. It is hard to get a good group picture with 3 little girls!

We are proud of our Honey!

Cynda's Birthday and Mother's Day

Cynda's Birthday and Mother's Day fell on the same day this year. I'm so blessed to have such a sweet mother in law. She's so loving and so encouraging. Here she is with Whitney! Uncle Kyle showing Courtney how to play Bag-O. I love this picture I got of him high 5ing Courtney! He's such a sweet uncle! We are blessed there too!
Ryan gave Whitney her first taste of chocolate ice cream!

She liked it!

Lindsey was so excited that Aunt Miah and I had matching shoes.

Lindsey's didn't match, but they are yellow box! Gotta start 'em early!

Cynda and her boys.

It was a fun Mother's Day!