Freer and Jordan's Wedding

The wedding was held at Elizabeth and Bobby's Yacht Club and it was truly an amazing place to be! They were married outside on the pier that evening just before sunset. The weather was overcast so it was perfect! Freer looked amazing and she was just glowing! Jordan is the only person she has ever dated...and they have been together for 11 years!

Freer and her dad Michael come down the aisle!

The ceremony was so sweet! Jordan's father passed away when he was just a little boy... his mom shared a reading...it was moving. Stewart, Freer's sister, was the maid of honor. She just got married this time last year...a busy year for my aunt and uncle!

Freer and my aunt Holly

Freer and I

Their reception was awesome! The band played the best music that we all danced to for hours. The food was yummy and the best of all...they had a PHOTO BOOTH in one of the rooms! The encouraged us all to get the photos talked (they even had the bride and groom's name on the photos) and then you took a set and the bride and groom got a set that you scrapbooked for them. It was the coolest things I have ever seen...and made for many great laughs!Mom and I had such a great girl's weekend!

My cousin Peyton and I...she is going to Auburn in just 3 weeks! War Eagle!
This is Rosemary...my godmother. She is also my grandmother's brother's wife...say that three times fast!

At the end of the night they got all of my mom's side of the family together...there were a LOT of us! We all wanted a photo and this was us waving goodbye!

We had the best time ever! At one point the band played "Sweet Home Alabama" and all of these crazy people you see above got out on the dance floor and sang at the top of our lungs! It was so sweet and precious to see how close our families are to even our extended family. That is such a gift! We danced all night to the best oldies music and laughed until we couldn't breathe!

Thanks to Freer and her family for inviting all us and giving us such a wonderful weekend. Thanks to the Hancock family for hosting us at their lovely home...and thanks to our Father in heaven for creating such a beautiful thing as marriage...and family!

Hilton Head wedding!

This past weekend my mom, my aunt and her family, and I headed to Hilton Head Island for my cousin's wedding! The girls and Jay stayed home due to the quick round trip...and that I would be gone over a Sunday. So...my mom and I decided that since we had not had a girl's trip away in forever that we would take ourselves a little road trip!

They came to Atlanta on Friday morning to pick me up...and then my aunt, mom and I jumped in one car while my aunt's family was in the other and we headed on to Hilton Head. We had a wonderful time catching up and laughing together. My family has GREAT sense of humors...so it's always crazy!

This was my first time at my mom's cousin Elizabeth's home on the Island...and let me just say WOW! My cousin Freer (who got married) lives in Chicago and wanted to do a destination wedding at the beach. So...Elizabeth opened her home for the rehearsal dinner and her yacht club for the wedding and reception.

These are the views of the water from her family room! This place was like a 10 star hotel...and it's their HOME! The water was amazing and the ships passing were breathtaking! We stayed at her house so we had the perfect place for all the gatherings.

This is the porch right off the living room!

There were threats of storms that night...so it was nice and overcast. If not...the heat and humidity would have been terrible right on the water. But, the night was gorgeous, the food was amazing...we had a low country boil, and it was such fun to see all my family!
Mom and I had more fun than I could every write! We shared a room at Elizabeth's house here and just felt like we were in a spa retreat all weekend!!

On Saturday morning, my mom and I had the scary job of getting the dress to Freer and her mom Holly...yikes! We got it there perfectly and then had a great lunch with them. We loved getting to chat with her once more before all the festivities began! Freer and her GORGEOUS dress!

After helping out Holly and Freer that morning and a great lunch...we headed over to where the rest of our family was staying at a beach home right across the island. We took some time to walk on the beach, watch the kids ride waves, and just relax together.
The weather was still overcast and the water was rough...perfect for Fletcher to ride the waves!

Mary Frances is one of my favorite cousins! She and grew up going to the beach each summer with our family. We have so many memories of the Litchfield Inn where our family owned condos. My grandmother has only one brother and they both had 5 children...so there are lots of us! We would go to the Litchfield Inn for 2 weeks every summer and have the BEST memories!

We loved catching up! We are already planning a reunion soon. I'll share the wedding photos tomorrow...it was just an awesome place to get married!

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Learning another language...

For the past few weeks, our family has begun to learn a second language together. About 3 years or more ago, we ordered the Swahili Rosetta Stone software because we had been to Tanzania twice and were praying about moving there to minister for 2-3 years.

Since God's timing is not for us to be in Africa right now...we just sort of forgot about learning Swahili. But, now is the time! We have had a BLAST together learning as a family. The girls are doing amazing and they remember so much.

We introduce the lesson all together one evening and take turns answering the questions. It is total immersion, so there is not ANY English at all. You have to figure everything out. But, it works! We are trying to work on it a little each day with the girls and then moving on to a new lesson each week. We really want to get it and not just fly through it!

We've had an awesome time together learning this language. And since we homeschool...we can pick any language we want to learn! Africa has always been such a huge part of our lives over the past 7 years...so Swahili just makes sense for us...and it's just a really cool language too.

Here is a little preview of what the girls are learning:

Ultimate Adventure Fine Arts Camp!

This past week we had Ultimate Adventure Creative Arts camp at our church! It was AWESOME! We all had so much fun and learned so many creative ways to worship God all week. Jay and I worked at the camp while the girls enjoyed attending...another reason I just LOVE being married to the Children's Pastor!
We had amazing times of praise and singing every morning to start our day off focused on God. We learned about worship and bringing pleasure to God.

Mrs. Molly was our fearless director for the week. She also is the director of our weekly Ultimate Adventure time each Wednesday. She was a fantastic leader and has such a passion for God and kids! Thanks Molly for being available and willing for God to use you to lead our children!

We made lots of new friends. We had several children from families who did not attend church...so it was a GREAT outreach event!!! The girls loved having a week to spend with new and old friends! The camp was from 9-2 every day...so we got to know each other very well:)

There was lots of time for singing, singing, and more singing!

As part of the creative arts camp, we learned about set building! We spent time each day working on the set and learning about different kinds of art.

Virginia LOVES all kinds of art! She was in heaven all week!

Mrs. Laura (an art teacher) came 2 days to help us learn and build the set design. She was awesome! The kids really took ownership of the set and it's so much better than having adults do it! They had a great time and did a great job!!

The painted, cut, made posters, did the publicity posters and much more!Anli helps paint the rock wall for the park where the musical takes place.

Both of the girls got a speaking and singing part in the musical. So, during part of the day the speakers would work with Mrs. Molly on lines, blocking, and memorizing. They both almost know all of their lines already! Anli is Jazz who is an over the top girl who loves to sing...perfect! Virginia plays Taylor who is a precious girl who has an amazing heart...bingo!

They worked in pairs to learn lots of lines.

I did the daily devotion times with the kids. We took the whole week to focus on the fruit of the Spirit. We learned that our heart condition is key to the overflow of ministry or performing. We had a great time with "Farmer Fred" videos, making fruit and baskets, and our fruit of the Spirit awards at the end of the week!

Their favorite part was learning the Fruit of the Spirit song! I learned that song years and years ago...and it is the only way I can remember all 9 fruit! The kids LOVED the song and they all learned the fruit of the Spirit by memory.

There was time on stage for all the kids to get a feel for where they should stand and how it is to be on stage.

Here is my Anli during her solo part! This picture says it all.

We had the best week! The girls loved every single part and though we were exhausted at the end (think VBS for 5 hours!)...I wouldn't trade one minute of it for anything in the world. I treasure these moments with my children. I love getting to see first hand how they are growing into amazing young women of God. I love to see their strengths grow stronger and their weaknesses mature. I love that Jay is there every minute too.

What a blessing and what a week!

Day at the Pool!

Well, with dropping off Anli at camp 2 hours away on Monday and then turning around to pick her up on Wednesday by 11am...we didn't have too much time alone with our Virginia. But, we did manage to spend Tuesday at the pool with friends! We had so much fun sliding and swimming and playing!
The moms had a great time together too! We so enjoyed the gorgeous day and getting to catch up together.

After a wonderful day at the pool, we stopped by the Life Cafe to get a smoothie! Virginia LOVES these things. We made sure to get McDonald's for dinner (her favorite) and play lots of video games with daddy! She loves to be home and to relax...so we spent both evenings doing whatever she wanted!

Our girls are so different. Anli loves to go, go, go...like her momma. Virginia loves to be home and relax...just like her daddy. We had a great time one on one with both girls the past 2 weeks. We have some super special girls, that's for sure!

Anli's Fun!

Well, Anli had a great time while Virginia was at camp too! We did fun things with Virginia while Anli had her fun at camp...which I will post about tomorrow. We loved having a child at camp enjoying fun new things...and having a child alone to enjoy the week with also! Monday was an important day! Anli was able to change her earrings! Jay and I had promised her that if she took extra good care of her ears and they didn't get infected, that we would buy her first pair of earrings for her.

After we dropped Virginia off on Monday at camp, we headed to the store to find the perfect first earrings. Well, it just so happened that what we budgeted to spend bought her a little box of 3 pairs that were the CUTEST things ever! The perfect size...and sterling silver backs (my requirement!). She got a pair of green butterflies, red ladybugs, and white dragonflies!

On Tuesday, we had gotten all ready to head to the pool after we dropped Virginia off...and then it POURED down rain! So...since she had her bathing suit on already...she spent the afternoon playing in the rain!

When we got home I saw that we weren't the only ones playing in the rain! It seems that several of my friends' kids enjoyed the summer rain too...maybe great minds things alike?

What fun we had!

On Wednesday afternoon, I had registered Anli for a puppet workshop at the Woodstock Library. It was fun and FREE! We love going to the library during the summer to enjoy their classes and the summer reading program!

Anli loved this workshop! It was only for older kids...so it was a little more advanced. They got scripts and real puppets and broke into small teams to perform. So CUTE!

At the end of the class they all made their own sock puppets. We have had LOTS of fun with puppet shows at our house during the week.

On Friday, we spent the time at our apartment complex in the sand volleyball court building cities in the sand together. Jay was off and we enjoyed spending a little special time with our oldest. What fun we have had the past few days!

We've got a busy week this week also with our Ultimate Adventure Fine Arts Camp at our church! I'll post all about it soon!

Virginia's Camp Week!

This past week it was Virginia's turn to go to camp! She chose Dance camp at FBC Woodstock where they have a wonderful dance ministry. We have enjoyed camp there before and we had an even better time this year since they expanded it to 3 hours each day with the girls doing ballet, tap, jazz, art, and Bible!

Virginia loved her sweet teachers. Here she is with her tap and jazz teacher. Her ballet teacher was Mrs. Lizette who we had last year and loved! They were both so kind and sweet!

There were LOTS of girls in her class and she loved meeting so many new friends! They had such a great time with so much to do! They also did arts and crafts each day. Here is Virginia's portrait!! It is so wonderful and I can't wait to have it framed this week and hang it in her room! She is such an artist.

It is sideways...I tried and tried to get it to change in blogger and in my own folder...and couldn't get it to transport correctly. But, you get the idea!They finished the day with prayer together. I loved how they put their feet together in the circle to end the class. What a blessing!

Here are the other crafts that she did this week. One is a precious little "Chinese cricket." She has decided for the past several months that she wants to go to China. I know. This is the same child who was terrified of getting shots to go to Africa! Now she is ready to get on a plane and head to China ASAP...maybe she knows something we don't!

The other is a cutie pie mug that she made! Friends were the best part of the week for her. She met so many cute girls and enjoyed getting to know them all. We hope that some of them are in her dance classes in the fall!

It was a fantastic week and we can't wait until fall!