More Oklahoma City pics

By the luck of the draw - not kidding - Patrice got to go on the Oklahoma City trip. She replaced one of the people from UMC who had a last minute cancellation - so they had to replace him. That was Friday and I was so excited when I found out she was going! We really had a blast! It was a quick trip - we left Sunday afternoon and came back Tuesday at noon! FUN FUN!

Oklahoma City

I went to Oklahoma City for a city visitation program the Greater Jackson Chamber Partnership puts together every other year. The first day there - the city officials told us to visit the site of the Oklahoma City bombing at night. It really was something to see - I was amazed at how beautiful and serene the place was - I got chills as I saw all the things hanging on the gate that people place every day there to remember their relatives or friends who they lost in the bombing - they have to clean it off every so often - What really got me is when I saw a photo of the two brothers who died in the bombing - they were probably 3 and 4 and were in the daycare. I was overwhelmed with sadness for the mother - I just couldn't imagine. They also have a marathon there now to remember the victims and you can see their numbers hanging on the gate - it is really something. They have a chair for each victim - the smaller chairs mean the victim was a child.

Rally Day at Covenant Church!

Sunday was Rally Day at Covenant. Kathy Frye is the best! She is the Children's Director and she had the Silly Olympics for the kids. We have such great volunteers for our Sunday School classes. The kids did a great job! It was a lot of fun. I think I am going to start a separate blog for our kids at church - we haven't figured out all the details yet - But we are just so excited b/c we are getting a new preacher - he starts in a couple of weeks and we couldn't be happier. It has been a hard couple of years at our church but we know that God is going to take care of everything!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATE!!! 2 years old!!

Happy Birthday my sweet boy!! Today is Nate's second birthday. We celebrated last Saturday and we had a great time! But what a sweet little man! And I love this little boy soooooooo much! I didn't know what to do with a boy b/c I was so used to having a girl. But I couldn't be happier. He is so sweet, funny and handsome - and he loves loves loves his momma!! :)
HAPPY BIRTHDAY NATER GATER!! WE LOVE YOU!

Cotton States Triathlon !!

So I did my first triathlon in 8 years yesterday in Louisiana. Trey and I woke up at 4 a.m. and took Nate with us to Lake Providence, LA. Bekah opted to stay with Kelci and have a girls night. Oh well. But we got there and lined up my bike and I put on my pretty swim cap and I was ready to go. I tried to post photos where you couldn't see what I looked like - spandex doesn't look pretty on anybody - but it's really the only thing you can do all three sports in.. So oh well. Trey took some good photos and I really appreciated him being so supportive. Eugene trained me well - I was able to do the swim in 10 minutes and the bike in about an hour and 11 minutes and the run in 31 minutes. So it wasn't too bad. The time on the clock was 3 minutes off for me b/c the females started later. My time was about 1:53 - not too bad! I don't know what I'm going to do next!! I guess I'll take a little break - Thanks Eugene for the training!! I forgot how much I loved triathlons!! :)

Playing around!

Sunday afternoon - after a LONG nap - we went outside and played with all of Nate's new toys. It was very nice to just relax and be with the family! We played soccer and Bekah really was pretty good - I think she might need to sign up. Nate liked golf, baseball and soccer -What a boy!! What a fun day - later we went and bought a storage box b/c we needed a place to store all the balls Nate got!! :)

Bye Bye!

Most of you know that Nate can be very partial to women... he has not quite warmed up to Big Dad yet because he just doesn't like men too much. Seriously, Nate is just now warming up to Trey. Well, finally as we are saying our goodbyes to Big Dad and Susie did Nate give him a sweet good-bye! :)

Nate's bday party!

Nate's "ball" birthday party was a BLAST! I was so happy b/c we had a party at Mom and Earl's! You know Bekah got sick of the swimming parties so she had one at Deep South Cheer this year - I was determined to have a party at moms! So we had Nate's there! YaY - it was a swimming and "ball" party - b/c Nate is obsessed! He will go straight to a basketball at the store - it's crazy! Such a boy! Anyway, it was fun - despite the rat- it was a great time. We had stations set up b/c we were afraid it was going to rain and kids wouldn't be able to swim - but not a drop! Renee did the invites - aren't they cute - and Suzanne Barnette did the cake - it was yummy! We all had loads of fun. I was also so excited b/c Danielle and Chad were in town from Dallas and they were able to come to the party! I hadn't seen them in so long so it was so good to get together - of course, I wish I could have spent a little more time with them - you know how parties go - I didn't get to talk to as many people as I wanted to! I also have to say - Juicy - Courtney - that little girl - I can't talk about it - look at those purple tights?? We missed poor Miriam who was recovering from pnemonia - poor baby! I also can't talk about Patrice's son Evan - look at him.. don't you just want to pinch those cheeks!?! Kellye brought her boys - also adorable - (everybody wanted to hold baby Sebastian) to the party - she is a friend from my new job - she let us borrow that blow up thing that Trey was blowing up near the car and the kids really enjoyed it! Renee brought the bubble machine and let me just say - Beau was obsessed with the bowling pins! We are going to give those to him for sure! The pinyatta (sp?) was lots of fun - Austin broke it! The kids loved the pool. I didn't get to spend a whole lot of time at the pool - but from what I hear - it was fun. Mom couldn't keep her eyes open for any of the photos - she was doing good for a while.. okay am I missing anything? Oh yes - i forgot - Bekah was rocking the plumber's crack! Oh and I didn't get many photos of Hudson and Miles or Aiden. Oh well! Send some to me if you have any, Story and Betsy, Patrice ? (NEVERMIND - just posted some) And Big Dad and Susie helped clean up after the party - I think a lot of you know that Nate has OCD - already - not kidding - he helped Susie clean up all the balls in the front yard!

We did miss Grammy, Bill, Becca and JJ - but we will celebrate with them over Labor Day! YAY! We can't wait! Anyway, thank y'all all for coming! I know Nate had a great time! He was exhausted afterwards and so were we!! I don't think I moved off the couch the entire night! I was too tired to take any more photos that night - but I think you'll see plenty from the party. Oh and I just had so many photos to choose from - I just started posting!! Thanks again everybody! You made Nate's birthday very special.

OH and keep scrolling down to read about our uninvited guest!