Shooting

Today the farrier that I use for my horse took some of his guns to Amy's house for her to try out because they are considering getting a gun and wanted to try some out. I've only shot a gun once or twice before as a teenager at a gun safety class I went to. But I figured today I would try some out, too! It was actually really fun albiet kind of scary! Some of those guns were just wicked. But fun! Anyway - enjoy the pics of the day!

Me with a big gun. It was HEAVY and hurt my shoulder with the kick back!

Getting ready to shoot...

This is Kelly, our farrier's wife. She is great with a gun!

This is Josh, my horses' farrier with one of his cool guns.

Sort of a group shot. Pete (Amy's husband), Brandon, Joey, and Amy.

Amy with my favorite gun. I really enjoyed shooting that one!

Some of the guns.

Brandon (Amy's son) with a gun!

Pete with what I thought looked like the 'noisy cricket' from Men in Black.

I had alot of fun today being outside in the wonderful weather!! :)

Time Out For Women!

A couple weeks ago I went to Time Out for Women with my sister, my mom, and my sister's friend, Amy in Indianapolis. It was SO FUN!! And so inspiring. Unfortunately I waited too long to do this post so I don't have lots of details to divulge, but I thought I would at least post the pictures so I would remember the good time!!

Here's our group shot!! I'm on the left, then my sister, Amanda, then my Mommy, then Amy! It was such a fun group of women to kick back with for the weekend. :)

Aaaaand what do women do when they have a night out together? Facials!! Amy brought this cool Aztec Healing Clay that we mixed with raw Apple Cider Vinager and it made a really cool clay mask. And my skin felt amazing afterwards!!

Here is my mom with one of the presenters, Mariama Kallon. She was AMAZING. Long story short, she was raised in war-torn Sierra Leon and witnessed her parents murdered. After that she ran away with her sister, but they were caught by rebels and her sister and many other women were murdered in front of her and she was next in line, but the UN soldiers came and scared the rebels off. After a LONG hard road, she came to the US to serve a mission for the church, and in turn got to stay here after wards. Just to listen to her talk of her struggle and the struggles of her family.... it truly made me thankful that I have healthy kids and a warm house and a full kitchen. I take so much of that for granted.

Here is Amanda and Amy enjoying lunch.

Here is Diane Crankson and I. Diane served a mission in our area when I was in college. It was so neat to run into her again after all these years!! She just had the baby she's pregnant with in this picture - a healthy little girl! This is her 3rd.

All in all it was a GREAT weekend full of inspiration and HOPE. The theme of the TOFW was Infinate Hope. It was nice to be reminded that no matter what is happening in your life, there is ALWAYS reason to hope. :)

Out

Joey is generally a very well behaved boy. He is easy to get along with and is typically mild mannered. But I always know when he is tired because I swear a little devil boy comes out catching me off gaurd. He does things totally out of character of himself! So typically when this happens, I give him a time out on the couch so he can rest. This typically ends up with him going to sleep. Well today he made some not-so-good choices in handling a situation so instead of playing with his friends I told him he needed to go take a couple minutes to lay on the couch. I swear not even 60 seconds passed and I come check on him and he looked like this. Ha! Tired boy. He continued to sleep like that with the other kids playing around him and even Savanna hitting him in the head a few times! When the kid is tired, he is tired!

Trike-a-thon

This year Joey's pre-school held a Trike-a-thon to benefit St. Jude Research Hospital. It was so fun! Joey really enjoyed asking for sponsors and ended up raising $40 all on his own. I know it doesn't sound like much, but for a 4 year old, he did great! I let him do it all by himself and I'm very proud of him. It was so fun to watch him ride his bike! He was CONVINCED it was a race and he wanted to win! I swear that kid rode his bike for an hour straight, stopped to get a drink, and rode for another 30 minutes! By the end of it he said "I won mom! I rode super fast like Lightning McQueen! I passed everyone and everyone else had to stop before me!"

I swear the kid has tremendous endurance and I can so see him being a track runner some day or something like that! I love him. :) Here are some pics from the day!

Joey is in the middle in the green shirt w/ the red bike and helmet.

There goes my super fast boy!! :)

Off he goes!

So fast he's a blur! He often will run and asks if I could see him or if he just zoomed right by!

Here is my Joey with his class. :) Joey is on the bottom right in the green shirt.

Strike a pose. :)

Popcorn Popping!

Ok, so it might not be an Apricot tree, but it is a white cherry tree and it DOES look like popcorn popping! I LOVE this tree, simply for the 1 week a year it EXPLODES in white buds. It makes me happy. :) It's one of a whole 2 trees that is on my property and I do love love love it!

Easter!!

Here are the Easter pics!! :) The professional ones are ... kind of... copy righted - ha ha. But you can still see how cute they are through the 'print over'.

I think Savanna is soooo cute in this one! And I also love it because Savanna struck that pose on her own. The photographer was trying to get her to kneel on the floor, but Savanna decided she wanted to lay on her stomach. :) I love my independently minded baby, even if she does drive me crazy!

Pretty baby girl. :) Grammy got the outfit for her and Meemaw put the ribbons on the hat.

The 2 cutest little kids EVER.

Aren't these beautiful kids?!?

Joey is getting so big and handsome!

Here is Savanna eating her bunny... she started with the feet.

Then switched to the ears.

Joey went from the ears down.

Here is what the Easter bunny brought!

Such a cute girl! Practicing french braiding her hair. I wanted her hair braided with her easter dress, but then I thought even though it's SO cute, it made her look a bit bald, which is why I left her hair down for the professional pics.

Braid from the back

Braid from the top. I love doing the zig zag part!

Joey on the Easter egg hunt at the local nursing home.

Savanna showing her haul (she thought 6 eggs was enough! :) )

Joey 'hunting' for more eggs - they were lined 3 thick all the way down the hall way at the nursing home, so it wasn't much of a hunt, but he had fun nonetheless!

So cute. :)

Joey with the Easter bunny who is 'just a person' (read the previous post - ha ha!) Savanna didn't want anything to do with that bunny!!

Joey Chatter: Just a Person

On Friday we went to an Easter Egg hunt at a local nursing home. The 'Easter bunny' was there and Joey sat on his lap for a picture (Savanna would go no where NEAR the Easter bunny, but that's another story...) Anyway - yesterday as we were driving out of no where Joey says:

J: "The Easter Bunny is just a person in a bunny suit. He's not a REAL bunny."

M: "What makes you say that, Joey?"

J: I could tell when I sat on his lap. He's not a real bunny. He's just a person"

M: (surprised he made such an observation when he's only 4!!) Well, Joey, he was an Easter bunny helper. The real Easter bunny is so busy getting Easter stuff ready that he sends helpers to take pictures with kids.

J: ...OK... (sounding very skepitcal, but dropping it)

Yup... he is his very analytical father's son!! Although this morning he was quite excited to see what the 'Real' easter bunny brought him!! LOL