Goodbye Summer!

I can't believe this summer is almost gone! My, where did the summer go? I thought it would be nice to go back and recapture the happenings of our summer:

May started off with my niece, Claire, 1st birthday! Notice big sister, Kate, is helping her with blowing the candles out. At first, Claire didn't know what to think about her cake, but it didn't take her long to figure it out. She had a good time!

May ended with my first "baby girl" Casey graduating high school. This was an emotional time for me. Casey and I have this special bond since she was born, so, it's hard for me to let go. I'm so proud of her! She is planning to attend Co-Lin this fall and play softball. As of right now, she wants to attend Ole Miss next year and apply for the Pharmacy program. I think she will be great at it! But come next week that could change.... Oh to be young again... The second picture is my sister, Tracy, and her entire family; husband (Robin), Casey (graduating girl) and my two nephews, Jake (14) and Buck (10).

Jake has changed so much over the summer, even from this picture. He now towers well over me. I now have to look up to look at him; and we're not even going to talk about the change of his voice... And he has become such a nice looking young man! I just hope he can keep the girls off of him when he goes back to school! Or, do I need to come down there myself and knock the girls off of you?

And Buck, well, he is in a class of his own.... He is this happy-go-lucky kid who tries to see the good in everything. This summer he went to army camp at Camp Shelby and LOVED IT! I think he's going to be our "soldier boy". Last night I got a friend request from Buck. Seems like he has his own facebook page.... What else will these boys do....

My mom and dad at Casey's graduation, and Buck and I goofing off before the graduation ceremony.....

June started with my niece, Kate, 3rd birthday. Jimmy wanted to get her tools, he so wants her to be a tomboy, but I won that argument and we got her makeup. Above are a few pics of us playing with her makeup. In the second pic I was putting her hair up and it looks like she was in pain, but she wasn't.... Now, Kate really has Uncle Jimmy wrapped around her pinky. She has such a spunky personality. This past Sunday she was sitting in Uncle Jimmy's lap during lunch. He was feeding cake to her, not like she can't feed herself... But she looked at him and said "Jimmy's so nice". They have a habit of playing a bit after lunch. Once Sunday not too long ago they were "sword fighting" and she started pointing, with her sword, the boys in the room. As she pointed to them she would say "you're a boy, you're a boy and you're a boy, boys are yucky" then she would point to the girls and say, "you're a girl, you're a girl and you're a girl, girls are sweet". Then she would start fighting Jimmy with her sword. Her mom finally said, well Kate, since you're a girl and girls are sweet, you're not being too sweet fighting with Uncle Jimmy. She then said "Well, I'm Kate the Great".

I just had to post these two pics of Kate & Jimmy. She's not spoiled at all!

June also included the cruise Tracy, Casey and I went on. I told Casey that I would either give her money for her senior trip, or, the three of us could do something. She really wanted the three of us to go someplace and just "chill". Our first night on the cruise a lady fell overboard, which wasn't good; but, after the shock wore off we had a wonderful time. Cozumel was beautiful but the highlight was when we went to the Myan Ruins of Tulum and swam in the ocean. That was so much fun! And no, y'all will not see any pictures of me in my bathing suit. That says in Mexico....

I really love the pic of us at Margarittaville's

It felt about 110 degrees that that hat of mine was hot, hot, hot....
Notice in the right pic: the rain storm behind us, was cool to see that.
Jake gets to go on the next cruise, but he has to finish school first, ha....

The month of June my cousin, Brock along with his wife Allyson and their children Mia (4) and Braxton (2), was in Philadelphia. They live in Clarkville, TN and they come down for a month during the summer. Mia and Braxton are getting so big! Mia turned 4 in June and Braxton turned 2 in July, so we had a birthday party for them while they were down.


It was great seeing them. Allyson and the family are getting ready for baby #3, which I think could be any day now. Funny story that happened on the day of their party. Notice Mia's swimming vest, well, Braxton has one like it except his is a frog, too cute! After a little while of swimming Braxton decides he's had enough and gets out of the pool to play. So we take his frog off and he's playing. Well, Mia (who has been scared of the water) starts jumping off the side of the pool. When she started doing that we started cheering her on. Braxton decides he wanted some cheering, too, so he walkes over to the pool and we hear a "plunk". You guessed it, he jumped in without his swimming vest. There was enough people around to get him, but it did give us a scare. He's just a little daredevil, but a precious one!

Mia getting dressed up with her jewels, and Braxton playing with his golf clubs..

In July, Jimmy and I drove up to Holly, Michigan to see his brother Mark, Sarah and their two boys Benjamin (3) and Nicholas (6 months). While driving up Jimmy gets sick so he is basically sick during the entire trip. But there were times he felt like putting on a smiling face for the boys. Benjamin and Nicholas are getting so big! This is the first time we got to see Nicholas. I just wanted to squeeze him to death. He is just so sweet and loveable. Benjamin, he has too much to do to be loveable but he is very sweet. On the Friday of our visit Benjamin got to stay home with Jimmy and I (we sent little Nicholas to daycare..). So Friday was all about Benjamin. We played, played and played. We had a great trip but I wish Jimmy had felt better...

It's so amazing to see Benjamin with Nicholas. Before Nicholas was born Benjamin was so excited to be getting a playing buddy. He was a little disappointed when Nicholas was born and couldn't get down in the floor and play cars with him. But now as Nicholas is getting more active Benjamin is having more fun with him. It's so cute to see Benjamin talk to Nicholas. Benjamin will hold Nicholas' hand and say "Hey little buddy, how's it going?" He's going to be a great big brother!



Benjamin getting some Uncle Jimmy time and Nicholas just happy to be here!

That was about the extent of our summer. We did go to Grenada Lake camping, twice, but I don't have any pictures of that....

Soon, Jimmy and the other farms will start harvesting the crops. That's what the fall season will consist of, being in the field. Let's pray that all the farmers have a good year! Hopefully I'll get some pictures of everyone out in the field and I'll post them...

The main excitement of the fall will be in September. My cousin Tyler will be getting married to his highschool love, Brianna. They are such a sweet couple and I just can't wait until their wedding!