I am so excited for him! The story on how he engaged is below... heartbreaker! He did a great job!
Imuber excited about welcoming Jennifer into the Rhea/Strawbridge/Taylor/Lane Family! Check her out... doesn't she look cute as a button? I've never met a girl from Texas that I haven't loved, so I'm excited about adding this Texan to our Family Tree! Welcome Home, Jennifer! We can't wait to meet you and are so excited for you and Doug! I hope the next few months of planning are the greatest! We love yall!
The engagement story:
Jennifer and I spent the week of June 6th at the beach condo in Perdido Key. On Tuesday night, June 9th, we were watching the NBA finals at the beach condo. I told Jennifer that I was going to run to the truck, grab something. At that time I set up a scavenger hunt around the beach colony. The hunt started with a note on the front door. From there, little poems / clues lead to the next spot. Each spot had a small gift that brought meaning to something in our past. The clues lead her to the beach where I was waiting on bended knee.
Charley is dunzo with softball! Whoooo Hooo!!!! Welcome to the Summer little bit! I am proud of you for all of your hard work..... i know practicing so much and having games every single weekend was exhausting. We are proud of you for commiting and playing your hardest this summer! Great job, Bug!
In normal fashion, I have no pics of Charley, as I can't seem to catch her face in front of my camera! Her mom has a PRECIOUS picture of she and Caden that Im hoping she'll email me so I can share with you guys!
Cute one of Renny and Toot's at the softball fields.
Saturday night, Mom and Pops got to go on a dinner date! Yay for parent date night for these two! They work so hard and have such a crazy life! I am so glad when they get to slow down and just spend time being perfect for each other. I also love when we get to babysit on date nights!
The beginning of babysitting. So. Much. Fun. All. The. Time.
The Crew
It's kind of hard to tell, but she's off the ground! Get it jumper!
Sweetest picture ever! They love each other so much! :)
What a long overdue visit with our awesome outlaws. It was ABSOLUTELY WONDERFUL to see them and spend time with them. There is just something about having family nearby that helps you sleep better at night. Something so cozy about having them under our roof. I LOVED every second they were here and wish we could see them so much more often.
I would have just taken looking at their faces and feeling complete for the weekend, but as an added bonus, they brought along the best treats ever! They hauled a washer,dryer, refridge, smoker, new tools, and watermelon to us from Mississippi! Talk about life savers! I can't believe how much they did for us! They even helped us out with one move in item that I was not looking forward to. We are so indebted to them for their kindness, generosity, and help. They are the best and I am so lucky to have them in my life.
Oh, mom 2, yellow kitchen idea is out. Apparently, like father like son, they share the same disgust for any shade of sunshine! Oh well!
Yay!!! Booper came to save Powers and my life at our house closing last week. Closing a house is totally.... something. I would say not worth it, but it is worth it bc were homeowners now, BUT, it is rigorous. I think that's a good explaination.
After our hour signing party, Booper went by Barry and Lauren's to visit the babies! Look who was SO EXCITED to see Booper! (I can't blame 'em a bit!!)
Sunburst Financial's owner's wife is the director of an awesome program called Summer Show Off's. (They also do a Christmas show that is great!) Mrs. Cecile asked Serenity to come to camp this summer. I wasn't sure if Renny would be into it because she usually only sings and dances for us at home and is usually not a 'lime light' type of girl. The purpose of Summer Show Off's is to build confidence in children and teach them leadership.
Mission Accomplished. Each child in the show had a solo. No one is left out. Serenity beboped her way through the week, danced like a champ, practiced her solo so she could have it down and ended the week with a new found confidence that I've never seen before! We were SO PROUD of her! On top of being excited about the show because Serenity was involved, the whole show was AWESOME! It was 1st-12 grades (i think) and they put on a wonderful performance!
I have loved watching Serenity do all the 'big kid' dances this summer! She's got a whole book of new moves and anytime there's a dance break in a movie were watching, she'll pop up off the couch and totally get down! She is so cute!
Thank you Mrs. Cecile for this awesome opportunity!
We're REALLY early on, so I'm not going to post much until we have the official dr's apt. YAYYYYYYY!!! Supposedly Baby is the size of a sesame seed and has a brain and heart that is developing chambers this week! WOW! I'm totally overwhelmed in the most amazing way. Praise my sweet, wonderful Lord. We are so blessed. God's goodness overcomes me....
We had a great dad's day! A REALLY great dad's day at our house! We woke up, went to church- which was awesome as always- Pow Pow and Renny got filmed for an interview for Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, then the whole Rhea/Lane clan packed it up and headed to Alabama Adventure for a stinky afternoon of fun!
We had a great time but something seriously stunk. I'm not sure if there was a plant leak, or a mass cemetery next door, but it was FOUL. We laugh now... but we were running from the stink the whole time we were there!
These pictures are supposed to be in sequential order, but I always post so many pics and get tired of organizing them! Here's a bad attempt at keeping you hour by hour...
Amigo's first thing in the a.m.
She's a really good face maker... Adventurous little dude on the Carousel! They love the Carousel! I taught Caden how to say 'Giddy Up', which comes out 'Gilly Up' and is just perfect! He makes me laugh! We also taught Toot how to say 'Super Duper' which comes out a total jumble of a lot of words but you CAN hear 'tuper' in there somewhere! She's also learned 'Peace' and can kind of get the peace fingers with it when she tries hard! You always find a theme park jewel... thanks Powers!I love you, Caden Back seaters Here's where it gets good.... This is Powers, Charley, and Barry on the first roller coaster of the day. Barry is in green, hands in the air. Powers is directly behind him, hands in the air. Charley is beside dad in black... We pointed out dad on the roller coaster as it zoomed by and this is Tootie's reaction. She. Hated. It. Her day was pretty much ruined from then on out. She was totally scared to death... like her little body was shaking she was so scared. Caden on the other hand loved that Dad was plummeting to the earth at 50 mph on a creaky roller coaster. He laughed and laughed! Her consolation. Sweet Pow Pow. General attitude for the next few hours. Renny being awesome as usual! Cute pic, huh?! Charley and Renny on a really rough roller! And another... Finally feeling back to normal! Hush it! How cute are they?! In case you're interested, here's the link to Serenity and Powers's news spot about House for a Cure... never mind. It wont let me post the link. Go to cbs42's website then search for 'Serenity's Story'.
Allie decided it was time for a sing along the other day, so she hopped on into the front seat and got it started with dad! She is so funny when she gets going! What a weird dog! Sing it girl!
I have been to so many camps.I've been to Camp rainbow and Camp risingsun.I have had so much fun you would not believe how much fun i've had.there is a inertube tied in the back of a jetski that i rode on. I had a super fun time. As you can see it was awesome and cute.
(Taylor is supposed to post pics here but im going to post 'em in a minute!)
Another quick post... here are the kido's this am when I got to Barry's house. They had just woken up and were watching morning cartoon's while mom fixed yum yum. How comfy and cute are they?! Toot's, can we get you anything princess?!?! I love them so much!!
We miss Gracie Harris. Our whole family misses her! Even Allie! Come on home, Grace, and hang out with us!!
Gracie started the week with us at Summer ShowOff's (show choir camp that Renny's participating in). The BIG GRAND FINALE is in just a few minutes! Gracie ended up getting an awesome invite to go spend the week at the beach, and we hope the whole family has had a WONDERFUL time, but we miss you guys and are ready for you to be home! Hopefully next year this opp will present itself again and the gracemeister and renny pooh can steal center stage...
just felt like giving a little shout out to our sweet friend!
So, our church decided this year to not have vacation bible school and instead have 3 Wild Nights. Were having 3 parties this summer for kids and their families. We had our first one this past Sunday and my vote is no more VBSEVAR. Wild Night ROCKED. It was SOMUCHFUN! It was essentially just a much longer version of what we do on Sunday mornings- Sunday on Steroids. Ill take it any day! Our pacesetters (kids worship team) did a bunch of songs (all that are choreographed to the T), then Mr. Timmy and Mr. Jeff did a skit, we had a Kids Clubhouse skit, more music, more Mr Timmy and Mr Jeff, give aways, small group break out sessions, dinner, snowcones, we had it all! We even did the peanut butter jelly dance. The whole church doing 'peanut butter jelly,peanut butter jelly, peanut butter jelly with a baseball bat' in super sonic speed. That was a first but hopefully not a last! There might not be anything funnier than adults dancing this fast...
Here's the song just in case you interested... I think this posted twice.. not sure how to fix it though!
Here are some pics from our night! Can't wait til the next Wild Night! Church is so great! I love our church family so much! Oh my. Hush his mouth! He is so cute! Tay Tay in action.... Kids Clubhouse is the best. This is Sam teaching Vinny how to swim. It was a cute skit! Little Daddy Lurvin! Powers thinks this is my Clearwater Clone. What do you think? I told her she could have my ID when she went to college but people would ask why she's 45 and still hanging out at clubs...
Renny got home from Camp Rising Sun this week and it's practically all she can talk about! She went to two camps back to back, and never once got home sick! Atta girl! She went to Camp Rainbow for a week, turned right around, went and hung out with Booper and Chuck from a few days, the off again to Camp Rising Sun! She LOVED it! She got TONS of really cool stuff (much of which will decorate her new room!!). She asked me yesterday if they were having another CRS this summer and if so, could she go! She said she wants to keep going every year and be a counselor one year! Im so happy she loved it! Powers and I ended up coming into town early ... due to the torrential rainfall this weekend ... and were able to drive out to camp Saturday night for the talent show. It was totally awesome. My checks hurt from smiling so much! The skits were really clever and everyone did such a good job! My favorite was a little girl who got up and danced with everything she had to 'I like to move it, move it!' It. Was. Awesome.
Here's the muffin getting her 'best rookie camper' award! Go girl! Here is Renny's cabin's skit. It's kind of hard to tell what they are doing but here's the cliff notes version: Girl 1 takes a sip of water, she passes the 'secret' down the row and its supposed to be tasting worse as it passes down the row. By the time girl 5 gets the 'secret' its really gross and when she spits it out its brown. I'm not sure if I had a uberblonde moment, but I didn't get it at all until she explained it to me!
