hazy lazy crazy days...

Summer has hit here in Georgia, and it's been wonderful!! It's been a bit hotter and more humid than I'm used to, but that's totally ok. :o) (about the hot-ness- one day, I took a bag of gummy worms to the pool, I opened it up after being there for an hour, and the entire bag had melted!!! You know it's hot when your gummy worms melt.) We've just been spending our days at the pool, keepin' cool, makin' friends, and splashing the day away. :o)

They boys love the pool and their momma loves the pool, so it's pretty much been a match made in heaven.

And as if going to the pool every day wasn't already a dream come true for me, my dear friend Bridget introduced us to "frigid frog", which is a little trailer right around the corner from us that sells New Orleans style Snow Cones. This snow cone trailer is just so sweet. It's out in the Georgia country, on a dirt lot, and it just really feels like "the south" to me. :o)

So, my days pretty much look like this:

I wake up early to do bible study and prayer
boys wake up around 9
eat breakfast and do family bible study
Brody goes down for morning nap while Jasper watches his show and I work out
eat lunch
go to pool
swim
swim
swim
take a short break and eat gummy worms
swim
swim
swim
go to Frigid Frog and eat snow cones
come home and take short afternoon naps
eat dinner with a friend
come home
boys crash and go straight to bed
I wait up for Andrew to come home from school
hang out with Andrew and eat popcorn (the best part of my day, by far)
go to bed, asleep before my head hits the pillow

the only sad thing about summer is that Andrew's summer semester is a killer. Mondays and Wednesdays, he leaves at 7:30 am and gets back at midnight. Tuesdays and Thursdays, he leaves at 9 am and gets back at 9 pm. Fridays, he's just gone in the mornings. But when he's home, he is really slammed with homework. I miss him a lot, but it's only for a short time and his dream is my dream. I tell Andrew many times that i'm his biggest cheerleader and for him to do whatever it takes to make his dreams come true and to not worry about anything on the home front. I think that's why the pool has been such a blessing to me, it's helped fill the long days. :o) Also, the Lord is so good to give me my in-laws (built-in friends right above my head) and lots of great friends down here who are quite active in getting together. Even though Andrew's gone a lot, I never feel lonely or isolated and I don't take that for granted. I'm very thankful!

Here are a few pics from the pool and snow cones this week :o)
Mom Meade came with us one day, and Bridget and baby Jackson came with us one day, too!

early Father's Day

we had the sweetest (early) Father's day celebration today! Nate, MB, Henderson, Gma, Gpa, Uncle Tim, and Vale all joined us for the weekend, and we had such a wonderful time celebrating our family together!

say cheese!

On Sunday, when the Clausons were here, I told Brody to "say cheese", and this is what he did:

Then I got to thinking that Jasper's "say cheese" face was just as adorably cheesy when he was Brody's age... So I looked back through my pictures, and I found the following picture of Jasper from August, 2012 (fyi- they are exactly the same age in these pictures.)

I've never seen anything so adorable in my whole life as these two little boys, smiling for all they're worth for the never-ending camera in their face!! Gracious, how I love them!! 

our pool :o)

It was such a blast today to go swimming as a family!! We've found the sweetest little pool ever- complete with a water slide, zero degree entry, water mushrooms (the thingys that spray water everywhere), and fountains! It was so fun and DIRT cheap!  We bought membership passes for the summer, so Lord willing, we hope to be there quite often! :o) we loved it, and the little ones are turning out to be quite the little swimmers. So fun!!

this is andrew, coming out of the water slide with a splash!! 

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Also, we had the most precious time with the Clausons! It was so, so sweet! we are so thankful for their friendship and willingness to drive all the way down here. Like I said on fb the other day, they are precious gifts to us from a  gracious God, and we're so thankful!!

The Clausons are coming!!

The clausons are coming, the clausons are coming!!!

I'm so excited I can barely contain myself. In fact, they should be pulling in any second. The poor guys have hit traffic jam after traffic jam. I feel so bad for them.

But...

We just got back from camping, and it was AWESOME!!

Oh my lands. It was such a treat!!! It was a blast and we seriously loved every second of it!

We hiked to waterfalls, hiked down lots of hiking trails, made 3 fires, roasted smores, hiked to a huge man-made cave way yonder, read books, caught bugs, Andrew and Jasper went fishing and caught 2 fish, they went on a special father/son pj hike, etc, etc. It was awesome!!!

camping!

sleeping bags- check!

s'mores fixings- check!

bug spray, fishing poles, and firewood- check, check, check!!!

We're going camping today -eek!!- for the first time ever!! Jasper's so excited, I'm afraid he might spontaneously combust. :o)

Keep posted to hear of how our Meade Adventure turned out! :o)

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also, on a completely separate note...

Last night, Andrew was asking Jasper about his day, and Jasper was telling him all about it. And then Jasper said this little gem:

"And also, I was eating a plum that we bought from the vegetable market down the street, and i accidentally swallowed the pit, but then I burped really hard and I spit the pit up and I threw it outside so the birds could eat it. And I'm able to do that, because basically my mouth is just a really magical place."

andrew and I looked at each other and burst out laughing! what?!? a "magical place"?? we have no idea where he got that from!

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also, Karissa, thanks for chatting last night and giving me encouragement to keep on blogging, :o) It was the perfect encouragement! Thanks, friend! :o)