School's out for the summer!

Cole had his last day of school last Thursday.  They had an awards day first and then he was free!

Sitting on the carpet waiting.  

Receiving his award.

He got the Marvelous Musician award.  His teacher said it wished it said dance moves too. :-)

 Me and my boy!

His sweet teacher, Ms. Jessica.

And we just found out that she got approval to loop, so she will be his first grade teacher too!  I am glad about this because of the continuity and stability it brings.  When he goes back to school in August he will know who his teacher is and who is classmates will be.  And on the same token, Ms. Jessica will know where Cole is academically which I think is great!

Here's to a fun summer!

Tampa!

We had an awesome time in Tampa visiting Jonathan!  After almost 4 months apart it was nice to see each other, if only for a few days.

Cole and I flew out last Wednesday.  My in-laws (who are great!) kept Crosby.  It was nice to have one on one time with just Cole and we were able to do big kid things together.  

Of course, Cole was SO excited to see his daddy.  He is quite the daddy's boy.

All we were missing was Crosby.

Jonathan had a to work Thursday and part of the day Friday so Cole and I went and did some things.  We went to children's museum on Thursday.  It was fun!

Playing in the sand at the museum.

They had some fun climbing stuff.

A guy from our squadron is deployed to Tampa right now so we met up with him and his wife for dinner at the Cheesecake Factory.

I ordered a monster burrito and a monster it was!  The spoon is in the pic so you can see just how huge this thing was!

Barbara and I after dinner.

Cole and I went to the International Plaza Mall on Friday and he got himself a $7 ice cream cone. Sure hope it was good son!

Playing at the park on the beach.  I could get used to this life. :-)

Cole found a crab and wanted to bring it home. I think he was serious...

On Saturday we went to Busch Gardens.  A first for all of us!

Feeding the kangaroos.

We watched the Madagascar show and it was really good.

Cole enjoyed it too!

Unfortunately we rode the water rides first and I had no change of clothes.  I am a big wimp and I cannot stand being wet (in my defense, I was soaked, not just a little wet).  So, I went to the first store I saw and bought something to wear.  This dress was the most practical.  It is not the prettiest thing I've ever seen, but it was comfortable and DRY!  

We flew home on Sunday, but our flight wasn't until the afternoon so we got up and headed to base to go paddle boarding.  Jonathan hasn't been wanting to try it out for quite some time and I must say, it was fun!  We saw a couple of jelly fish and even a stingray while out on the boards so that was neat!

Playing in the sand.

Tampa wore poor Cole out so he was fast asleep on the flight back to Birmingham.  Cole was pretty sad to leave his dad and started bawling when we landed in Birmingham.  He cried most of the way home too. :-(  It was heart breaking and I am so glad we can see the light at the end of the tunnel.  Come on beginning of August!  :-) 

Mother's Day

I had a good Mother's Day with my boys.  I received a couple of handmade gifts from Cole which truly are my favorite. 

This cracked me up, but also reminded me that he knows me well!

Not sure if you can see them in the picture or not, but back before Easter we were eating at Cracker Barrel with my in-laws.  Cole had been wanting to get me jewelry and he picked out these butterfly earrings and had my father-in-law buy them for me.  I kept them in the bag (he didn't want me to look!) and then he gave them to me for Easter.   I finally wore them to church yesterday and he was so excited that I had them on.  He has such a sweet spirit!

My heart is SO full and SO thankful.  I thank God everyday for these crazy boys! 

We had a fancy Mother's Day lunch at Sonic. :-) Crosby went to town on his corn dog.  Me, Cole and Crosby all love corn dogs and hot dogs!

The sweetest face I have ever seen!  He is thinning out now that he is so mobile, but I could still eat him up. ;-)

We had a quick late afternoon rain shower while the kids were outside playing.  I just let them stay out and play in it.  They were in hog heaven!

Even Crosby enjoyed it!  It only lasted about 5 minutes and it was over.   Just enough time to wet my car that I had just washed and get the kids clothes nice and wet! ;-)

As we celebrated Mother's Day yesterday without Jonathan here, God brought a verse to my mind over and over throughout the day and here it is:

Philippians 4:11-13

11 I am not saying this because I am in need, for I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances. 12 I know what it is to be in need, and I know what it is to have plenty. I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want. 13 I can do all this through him who gives me strength.

My prayer is that I will seek contentment always and not let my circumstances (husband deployed, sick baby, bad weather, etc.) control my attitude and mood.  Regardless of circumstances, I want to always have the JOY that comes only from being a child of Christ.   God is good and I never want to forget that! May I always praise Him for his lavish love, mercy and grace that is poured out on me.

Hope you had a great Mother's Day!

A whole lot of Random

We went to a fink flight for a friend and this is about how long the ear muffs lasted on Crosby's ears. :-)  

Looking so cute and sweet before church.

Crosby had ketchup for the first time and he loved it! 

Cole is a pretty creative little guy. He made a racetrack out of his books.

Crosby loves spaghetti!

Last weekend we went to the annual Market Street in downtown Columbus.  They have lots of vendors selling homemade things as well as music, food and things for the kids to do.  We took Chloe along with us (no surprise there!).  

Me and my lil' guy

These two are BFF's!

 Cole made sand art.

Cole showing off the coin that was in his care package from daddy. 

We got our first batch out of strawberries our of the garden the other day.

I had to take this picture because  we have similar ones of Cole when he was little.  Playing in the toy basket is much better than outside it!