Ways to Beat the Heat...

Wow!  Summer has arrived.  This weekend it went from being pretty warm, to just plain HOT!  As in 105 degrees every afternoon.  How are you supposed to enjoy the outdoors without melting?  I'm glad you asked.  We found plenty of ways up at Lake Texoma.

Get Boom Pa to buy you a new swimming pool and fill it up with seriously cold well water.  As in 46 degrees!  No worries, it does warm up in the sun, but it's mighty refreshing.

Spend lots of time swimming all over the cove.

Bored with swimming?  Get Gigi to play a little football with you...in the water, of course.

Listen to some of Boom Pa's jokes...in the water, as well:)

Sport your new hot pink shades and chill with Gigi.

Chill on the beach with your mamasita and a nice cold drink.

Tube around the lake on a beautifully calm morning.  (Yes, that's Lila in there, too!)

Get so relaxed on your tube ride that you actually fall asleep!

Let your mama take off your lifejacket and lay you down on a lovely beachfront palette.  Then enjoy a nice little nap with calming waves assisting your slumber.

And finally, have a seat under the shade and enjoy a cold one. 
Heat, I think we've got you beat. 
Now if we could just move the lake a little closer to our house, we'd really be set.

Old friends...and one new one, too!

This past weekend we were so excited to get to visit with some of our friends, Matt and Clare.  Matt and Jared are college buddies from Wake Forest.  Matt was one of Jared's groomsmen and they both sang in our wedding--The Prayer, better than I've ever heard it done at a wedding.  They are both awesome people.  They live in North Carolina now and it's been 5 years since we've seen them. 

So much has changed. 

We now have these three kiddos and they have a little boy who just celebrated his first birthday. 
We loved getting to meet sweet Mac!

Thanks again, Johnson family, for driving all the way out to our neck of the woods to come visit. 
We look forward to the next one--hopefully sooner, rather than later! 

All Star Game

The All Star game was today and our fam was so excited! 

They introduced each player over the loud speaker in their batting order.

"Batting third, #32 Jackson Hays!"

Jackson played a new position for most of the game.  We found out he's a darn good second baseman!

He was all ready to knock it out of the park.  No homers today, but he did good.

An action shot of Jackson running to second base.

Did I mention that it was 100 degrees today?!  We were burning up!  We tried to keep Lila under Gigi's big umbrella, but sweet girl was still pouring with sweat. 

The heat was tough, but the East All Stars prevailed with a big win over the West All Stars. 
The final was 24-13.  A decisive victory!  Each boy got a medal...

then they all lined up for a team picture. Jackson is third from the right--it's hard to tell because he's wearing eye black and sunglasses, along with the hat. 

We have had so much fun cheering him on this season.  For his final game he had all four grandparents, two uncles, one aunt-to-be, and us four.  That's pretty cool.  We love you, J!

Operation Overboard!

The big kids have been attending Vacation Bible School all this week.  They have loved every day and so has this mama!  That little 3 hour break?  It's been nice, I'm not gonna lie.

This morning they were all pumped up for VBS. Maddie was not feeling the camera, which is unusual these days, but she recovered by the time we got into the car.  No permanent damage done.

A mere 2.5 hours later, Lila and I were all ready to watch what the kids learned this week.  She got to sit next to Caitlin, who was also there to watch her big brother and sister.

Jackson is in the middle of this pic and in the middle of singing, "Oh, oh, oh, let's go! Operation overboard!"  He did all of the motions--I was a little surprised.  I thought he might be too cool for that stuff, but he wasn't:)

Every day the kids collected an offering and they raised over $1000 this week.  All of the money was divided between 4 different organizations and will be able to help out many kids in need.  What a wonderful thing to be a part of.  VBS, we'll see ya next year!

Girls will be girls...

Yesterday afternoon one of Jackson's teammates came over to play before practice.  Not five minutes after he arrived, Madison told me that she wanted to go put on a costume.

Of course, little bit followed right in her footsteps and a few minutes later these were the girls!

I think Tinkerbell may have grown a little bit since last Halloween!

Nothing lasts too long around our house, so pretty soon Lila was back into her jumper.  She took it upon herself to add a few accessories.  It's hard not to love this stage.

First Haircut

Miss Madison had her very first haircut, ever, earlier this week!

She was so excited.

She entertained Shannon and sat pretty still, well, as still as a four year old busy girl gets!

We trimmed off about 2 inches, so she's still got plenty of long, pretty curls.

I think she's a fan!

Happy Father's Day!

We had a great day celebrating Daddo this past Sunday.

After enjoying some Starbucks with his breakfast, our fam headed off to get some good religion.  Actually, it was our turn to teach Sunday School, but we still learned about how God created the world from their lesson.  I thought it might be a lesson about fathers, but no dice.  Maybe next year!

After church, we met my parents up at the golf course for lunch.  It was a beautiful day and many dads were taking advantage of it.

Anyone who knows my dad, knows that he is full of stories.  Lots and lots of stories.  The man has so many crazy stories, that I have been telling him for years that he ought to write a book.  So, in order to faciliate this process, I found a computer software program.  All he has to do is wear this cool headset and tell his stories.  The computer will type it all out and when he's done I can begin putting it all together.  It's so genius!  I can't wait for him to get started.  I also bought him two books that were written by a guy and are all about what his dad said and did while he was growing up.  His dad is so funny and politically incorrect and reminds me just a tad bit about another dad I might know...I thought maybe it would inspire him to share all of his wisdom and experiences, too. 
Stay tuned for book updates!

After the girls napped and the boys watched some soccer, it was time to give Daddo his presents.

Then we hopped back in car and went over to Memaw and Poppi's for the annual Father's Day Swim Par-tay.  Daddo really enjoyed relaxing with a cold one in his float...

probably a little more than he liked hand-cranking this homemade ice cream machine!

The big kids were the first ones to test the vanilla ice cream.  Let's just say they LOVED it!  It was all over both of their faces.

After we stuffed ourselves with burgers and sides, it was time for the chocolate cake that I brought.  I think I went a little overboard with sprinkles, but it sure tasted good...

especially with Poppi's homemade ice cream!  Yum, yum, yum.  The perfect way to end a great day.

Happy Father's Day, Daddo, Poppi and Boom Pa!  We are so thankful for all of you.

Cubs Swim Party

We celebrated a fabulous Cubs season with a swim party on Saturday night. 

Memaw and Poppi were nice and brave enough to let us use their pool and awesome backyard!

While the adults tried to stay in the shade...

the kiddos were all over the backyard!

It was so much fun!

This little girl stuck right by her daddy for a good amount of the night.  He was in heaven.

Madison and Cole quickly found each other and hung out on this float for a while!  Too funny.

After a good hour of swimming, these munchkins had worked up an appetite.

With the exception of Jackson, Cole and a few others, who just couldn't tear themselves away from the water.  J did finally eat and he was hungry!  Two hot dogs, many chips, cookie cake and an ice cream sandwich.  Whew!

In addition to the pool, we also set up these fun sprinklers and had the bean bag toss going, too.

One of the best parts, though, was when the boys got their trophies from Coach Brian.

We didn't realize it, but Jackson had a remarkably high batting average this season.  He batted .954 and got the award for highest batting average!

Way to go, #32!  We're so very proud of you.

Thanks again to Shelley and Warren for letting us take over your backyard for the night.  We all had a really good time and appreciate your generosity so much.