When you get your LOCKER!

 Last year Lex was so bummed to not be able to get lockers because of all the COVID restrictions but THIS year.............they are getting them!

It was always fun....way back when I did it all....to get my locker and figure out how to open it and decorate it!

We went alllll out with our lockers............shelves....pictures....mirrors.....contact paper...you name it!

Well.........Alexis did not want to do all of that....until she got her locker...opened it and got really excited.

So, we will go shopping at some point and get some fun goodies to decorate her locker and make it cute! She wants shelves..........a mirror and magnet pictures and a marker board......that she has already named! :)

It cracked me UP to see all of them trying.....over ......and over..........and OVER to get the combination correct to get the lockers open!

It took Alexis several times...but she finally mastered it! ha!

And....guess who she is beside!?!?! Yep........SP! Oh my goodness......of everyone in her entire class....it is him that she is beside................but it is....and it is adorable.............but I can guarantee neither one of them is going to speak to the other............the entire time they have them beside each other. It is just the oddest thing.........they both freeze....and just forget how to be a normal human around each other. It really is soooo awkward!  I told Alexis she better get over whatever weird thing it is and talk to the boy!
She is watching....slash he was helping show her how to do his..............though....they were not talking to each other! Missy and I just laugh at the weirdness! :)

Lex trying to get hers open. Im glad SP is beside her..............he can be her protector! :)

Alexis got her schedule so she is all set with knowing what friends are in what classes with her! She is super excited about school starting!

Lily is DYING to find out who is her homeroom teacher and what friends are with her! This year...she will switch classes so she will have all the teachers...but the students will be the same as who is in her homeroom class. She is busting to find out! Hopefully it will be in the mail to us soon!

Summer is winding down...and Fall is on its way! I have to say...I LOVE all things Fall...so I am ready!

Wordless Wednesday....on our honeymoon!

 Yeah....that time...on our honeymoon....that I thought it would be so FUN to have a real...'authentic' Jamaican lady braid my hair!.....

OH....the memories!

NO words!.......   :)

Celebrating!

 We had a wonderful night celebrating our anniversary! We went to Nola and then bowling! Two of our favorite places!

It was a good night!

Lily is the most thoughtful person I know! She literally put money from her piggy bank in a card for us to go dinner with! She was even so creative that the money 'popped up and out' at me when I opened the card! ha! {We gave her money back to her....in case youre wondering!} She is the sweetest!

Us two...old...kids! ha!

Lily was the picture taker...and we tried to re-create the picture we made almost 16 years ago. ha! Its laughable!

Bowling fun!

He bowled....left handed....all 3 games....but he is awesome...and I suck at bowling! ha! He still beat me...bad...all 3 games...left handed..... :)

She's back and on horseback!

 We got Alexis back yesterday! 

Lily and I woke up early and trekked to Georgia to pick up Lex! Daddy wanted to go but he was {and JSU} selected for the Beautification Award so he had an award lunch that he couldnt miss!

So proud of him and his hard work!

Alexis just could NOT stop....and is still talking about how much fun and how much she loved camp! It was so good to hear all of her stories and see her smile as she was telling me allll about it! It was good to get an Alexis' hug also. Glad she's back home!

So to break up the drive, we decided to go horseback riding in the Blue Ridge Mountains!

It was wonderful! It was beautiful! It was so peaceful and calm and both girl's first time to ever ride a horse and they LOVED it!

We made a memory for SURE!

After, we grabbed lunch and headed home! It was a great day!

Meet Lex on Ike, Lily on Fancy and I was on Barbie! Our horses were perfect for us!

Barbie was the Momma. Her 'baby' horse, Shade, was with us ...but on another person {we had 3 other people on the ride with us that were together} Well, any time Shade would get out of his spot in line...or if the donkey {who followed us the entire trip...it was so cute and funny to have him with us...} would do something she didnt like, she would jerk around and snap at them. BOY,  I had fun trying to keep her going and not trying to boss everyone! Ha!

Lex was a little nervous....Lily...said...her dreams have come true! haha!

Such a nice ride! We rode for 2 hours!

Going up the mountain!

Lex and Lily on Ike and Fancy!

Alexis actually fell off Ike soon after this picture. We were going down an area and there was a mud hole and Ike's back leg slipped in it. He was amazing! He literally sat down and popped Alexis off on the hill to sit and then he got himself back up. It was so cool to see how he did. He was even extra cautious with Alexis the rest of the trip. If there was another muddy area...he completely went a different way and didnt go in it so he wouldnt risk slipping! He is an amazing horse! Alexis didnt get hurt at all. She was a little shaken just because she didnt expect to be off her horse but she was fine and said she had the best time riding....and that she even wants a horse for Christmas!

We walked through a creek! We were letting them drink. Lily was a pro!

SO fun!

We went to DQ for lunch..practically took a shower in their bathroom! ha! We all smelled like horse poop! ha! Came home....showered...and then headed to the Fritts for 'fairy hair' night!

The house was full and allll the kids loved hanging out together!

Lily getting her fairy hair!

It's the coolest! It stays in her hair until her hair falls out. I know...crazy! We came home and crashed...well except Alexis. Somehow she convinced me to let her spend the night with Sara Kate. So, she hasnt slept in her bed....in awhile!

We had a great and busy fun Friday!

16 trips!

 16 trips around the sun.....with a lifetime to go!

Its our anniversary! {Yesterday} :) ha!

Because I had to go pick up Alexis.....we decided to celebrate today!  More to come! :)

This is one of my all time favorite pictures of us!

Love him and so proud of the hard work and love that we have to build our little life!

That time when Lex had family at dance!

 I love how these pictures popped up! Circa July 2011. I was about to POP with Lily during this time! ha!

They had so much fun....and look at little Alexis!

For a look back in time!

Alexis showing them how to dance! ha!

Look at that little stinker! She was such a mess when she was little! :)

A fun afternoon! We all went to dinner after class! Goodness....time sure does fly!

Always in my heart!

 Never will forget this day!

Always a day that is marked in my head and is so vivid. 

Love and miss you Pops!

My favorite picture.

More fun at camp!

 More fun pictures of Alexis! I love getting these and glad she is having a blast!

Her counselor....really is the cutest ever! So glad she is being take good care of and meeting new friends!

Cute!

Some of Wednesday's fun! Cant wait to see more pictures coming my way!

Thursday was ultimate REC day! Alexis said this was so much fun and that her team came in 2nd!

Sweet friends! So glad they had a great camp!

Last night....was a pj party night! So fun!

Alexis' 1st day-Winshape, Lily's last day-Dr. Hall

 Today marked Alexis' first full day at camp! We get updates and pictures throughout the day so it is good to see her having fun! I have not spoken to her as the only form of communication is email. Well, I emailed her this morning .....and as of right now, she has not responded but the camp counselor that is with her has to let her see it {once they check and see who has mail} and I dont know when that happens so I cant wait to hear from her and hear how its going so far! Based on the pictures today....she made it through her first night so I think she's good and she looks happy! :)

This morning...I had this waiting on me from the meet and greet last night that they had! This is Alexis' suite group and the counselor that sleeps in their 'apartment' with them. Isnt the counselor the cutest! I hope Alexis has fun with this group...........and alllll the other girls she'll be meeting!

And...full...day 1 picture! I dont know who braided her hair....so apparently she's met one friend outside Sydney because I know Syd doesnt know how to braid! She is smiling...so I think the good guess is...she is having fun! ha!

 

Love and miss her!

 And...today...this girl and I headed to Bham for a fun day before her last appointment with Dr. Hall. We shopped and OF COURSE could not leave before having PF Changs!

Lily will not be going back to Dr. Hall as the eye drops, etc just have not worked with him so he has referred us back to her original doctor...Dr. Patal to figure out next steps to see if we can figure out the red spot on her eye. It is still a mystery!.............

We had a great and fun day together!

The rest of our weekend!

 We have had a busy but productive weekend!

Tyler and I both finished our paper!!! {Allll the hands go UP!} :)

And in the mix of it all...and taking Lex to camp...Lily got to celebrate Reese's 1st birthday! I was so sad to miss but Lily was super happy to get to go with Gran!

 Judging by the picture....and what I heard...she had the best little 1st birthday! She is adorable!

And...SUPER pumped...Misty and Brandon are now a STREET over from us! Whoo hooo! We went over and visited with them and took them dinner and a little 'new home'...'welcome' gift! It was so great to see them happy and in their new home!

Alexis' first away camp!

 Alexis has been looking forward to this for about 5 months now!

The day came that I dropped her off at her very first 'big girl' camp! She will be gone until Friday! 

So crazy!

Already miss her! Like, I feel a piece of me is just gone and its only been a couple of hours that she has been away!

I am soooo excited for her and I just know she is going to have a blast!

Yeah....how long is she going to be gone?!!? ha! Talk about packing! We got allll the things! She was ready! The yellow box....she doesnt know about! Its called a 'care package' that is a surprise that is special for them to get from family on whatever day we choose. It is all of her favorite things and she'll love allll the goodies I packed her!

We had the best day! We were up and out and hit the road!

We stopped in Ellijay and had lunch at the cutest pizza place! I have never been to the little town and it was adorable!

And.......then....just like that....they were on their way! Ready to have the best week! Behind them is where they will be staying! It is apartment style dorms and they are SO nice! There will be a counselor and then I think 2 other roommates in their suite! They have a sitting area and a little kitchen with just a fridge and sink....but it is so nice!

I cant wait to hear allll about her week on Friday when we pick her up!

Allll the creatures!

 We have had our fair share of creatures in our backyard...mainly our porch....for years!

5 instances stand out to me and I have ranked them in the order I think is the 'most WOW' to me! ha! Starting lowest to highest...though all of them are just crazy that they have been back there!

5. A huge buck! I will NEVER forget hearing a noise in the middle of the night and getting up to it. When I cut the back porch light on I was amazed at what was standing right out the window from me. Just so peaceful and HUGE! I could not believe something that big with a rack that big was just standing in my yard! It took off quickly and I have never seen it again. It was beautiful!

4. Poop. I heard a noise....but never could see anything that was out there. Well the next day....I went outside and on our chair cushion, that is under our porch, has a huge pile of poop on it. I still to this day have absolutely no idea what did that..........on my chair cushion. It was NOT Tickles because if it was......she lost about 30 pounds that night from the size of what was on it. Shocking!

3. I have two raccoon stories on my countdown actually! Yeah....those suckers are SMART...and STRONG! So my number 3 came last night! Alexis came running into our room about 10:45pm saying there were aliens or some type of creature scratching on her window and trying to get in her room. Well...we cut the light on.............and we were all shocked at the sight!

3 baby raccoons literally trying to climb up the wall and scratching against her door/window! They did sound like aliens jabbering too! They were cute but not sweet and it was comical watching Tyler get them down. He finally did it..............it was touch and go during some points :) :) ..............but they were not injured and he took them off and dropped them off somewhere close to Piedmont! ha!

Just crazy! 

2. My next raccoon adventure leads me to number 2! We have always dealt with raccoons and opossums coming up especially because of Tickles food bowl. We did have an electric food bowl that would open and close just for Tickles when her collar got close to the sensor. It was GREAT because we finally stopped feeding the entire neighborhood of cats. Well....the opossums would try and fail...EVERY single time to get her food but they could not ever figure it out and do it. Well.....raccoons............OH my goodness they are strong and smart! We had to bolt the feeder to the deck because they would literally pick it up and walk off the deck with it. They would always drop it trying to go down the stairs...which would wait me up every.single.time. Well, once it was bolted, they would still open the lever door and still get the food. So Tyler put the feeder in a rubber maid container and had it so secure that it was hard for me to take the lid off for Tickles to be able to get to her food!! Well...I heard a noise. {Yeah...its always me hearing alllllll the things. Literally the rest of my family can sleep through trains coming through. I wake up at the drop of everything!} so I cut the light on...and I sat there and watched the fattest raccoon....biggest one I have ever thought to see....open that rubber maid lid...take it off.....and open the feeder lid and sit there and eat Tickles food. It was amazing. He did it like it was NOTHING. Again....it was hard for me to open the rubber maid lid because you had to not only remove the clasp on one side {that was hard to do/stuck so you had to knock it to move it} you had to turn around and do the opposite end as well then actually take the lid off to get to the feeder lid, to open it to get to the food! AMAZING I tell you! I just still can NOT believe what that raccoon did!

1. Even after allllll of my adventures in the backyard!...................the number 1 still blows my mind! It all started when............you guessed it............I heard a noise!

I cut the light on and there was this HUGE fox just sitting on our couch/patio furniture like he owned the place! He was crawled right on the chair and was sitting there like a person, like he was just looking out watching the stars! I actually had to slap myself to make sure I wasnt dreaming! I ran and woke Tyler up {to which he was mad at me until he realized what I was showing him!} and we just watched him sit there all comfy with not a care in the world! He didnt look sick at all. The light did not scare him. He finally got up and ran off when Tyler rattled the door and I guess he thought someone was coming for him! I have never seen him again after that night!............thank goodness! I have pictures throughout my blog of the fox....and the damage the raccoon did to the feeder {I just cant find them at the moment} but WOW.........................wonder what we are going to have next!

Stay tuned!  :)  

Not just a bunch of papers!

 Sometimes you look at a stack of papers....or just some papers on a counter and think...that's just trash or clutter....

well...........

not these pieces!

These pieces of paper hold strong memories for me when I played volleyball! These pieces of  paper is what Alexis has brought home to learn the sport of volleyball! The play calls....the 'inside tricks'....all of it that must be learned. She has some reviewing to do! I cant wait to watch her grow to love this! I am excited to watch her play....even if she may not play alot this year with it being her first year on the team to ever play the game. I still cant wait to see her out there!

THIS....I love THIS about Lillian Grace Law. She is soooooo thoughtful and puts her heart into making little moments....little sweet gestures! Almost every time we 'eat as a family around the table.' {not every time I cook that we sit around the table. Sometimes the girls eat at the island....sometimes we eat outside...this and that....

but almost always....when we sit around the kitchen table...Lily will come up with something 'special' to go along with our meal! Whatever random thought she has in her mind...she makes it happen. Sometimes it is simply putting a candle and lighting it. Others she has us write 'what we love' about whoever she selects for us. I had Tyler the other day and I had to write 'what I love most' about him and read it to everyone. Then we went around the table. Sometimes she just folds the forks into the napkins in a 'fancy' way. Sometimes she will have music playing in the background as we eat. Last night..she had a 'special' menu for us as we were having to pretend we were at PF Changs in Birmingham and not at home! :)

Her menu she made us is the red paper. We had to pass it around and read it and see what our specially prepared meal was for dinner! 

I just LOVE how she does this! It makes my heart smile! 

{Excuse her wet head....she didnt want to take a shower from swimming at camp before dinner because she wanted to go outside and play after she ate and then take a bath later} :) And...the edamame, that was the appetizer and it was put on a paper plate. :)

After dinner cleanup....Lex had another 13th birthday party to attend with alll the same group that has been going to 10,000 of them since the year started! :) They all had a blast!

This is the day...that the Lord has made! Lily gave her heart to God!

 Lily has had a big week!

She has waited two years now to get to go back to 'Science camp week' since last year was all cancelled due to COVID.

It was her very FAVORITE week that she talked and talked about for months after! Well this is the week and she has had the BEST time!

She has made all kinds of experiments and make gloop after glop after this after that! I have NO idea what all concoction type things that are coming home...I just know she is having a blast! ha!

She made her very on lab coat that they have worn every day! Well.....Lily has....she has wanted to wear it everyday! She loves it!

She said that she was the only one that put a 'button' on it! She is so creative!

Look how cute!

And this week she has gone to Hillcrest to Nan and Pawpaw's Church for VBS since we were at the beach for ours and has had so much fun! BOY....she was WORN out! On the way down to the final night, last night, she fell asleep! Between Summer camp during the day and this until late...she was done but had so much fun and loved dancing and singing!

She also made a HUGE decision this week also! She prayed for her salvation and is now a sister in Christ with Alexis and I! Our family is complete and we all know where we are going when that day comes! PRAISE!

So proud of her and cannot wait for her baptism coming up!