Graduation

Sigh.......Our baby graduated from Kindergarten. WOW.......... Drew' school does a big and wonderful Graduation Cermony-real caps, gowns, the whole real deal!! After Graduation we celebrated in Kindergarten style-lunch at Red Robin with his buddies from class and playing in the water spouts at Bridge Street. He also got a DS and a game. A perfect day in the life of a 5 year old.

Saturday, we spent the day with my parents, Amanda's family, and Cory and his family, moving their stuff to storage and grilling out. The rest of the weekend we went to the high school graduation and ended the holiday with a trip to the lake with lots of friends from MA. I survived the tubing-only thrown off twice. (great efforts were made to throw off us "big girls" in front of the high schoolers!)

April 2009

Below-Kerron, one of Andy's players was named Mr. Basketball for the State-That evening we went to dinner with his family to celebrate. HUGE Accomplishment! We are blessed that Andy's players let our kids "hang out" with them. They love the "basketball boys" as Reese calls them. Look for him at Belmont on the court next year.

Easter Sunday-We had a great time of worship with our church family then joined our "adoptive" family for Easter lunch and the "Great Egg Hunt" We have some dear friends that we spend holidays with when we don't get to travel to see our families. This year the Easter bunny brought roller skates. Luckliy, no broken bones yet!

Drew is playing soccer this spring and loving it. Last week we had a warm day and Drew broke in his new swim suit at the water spouts at an outdoor mall we were at. Reese passed, it was a little too cold for her.

Saturday we traveled to Pops and BarBar and spent time with 2 of our cousins. The girls are 8 weeks apart and had lots of fun together (except for the few "girl fights" over sharing....:) )

Life

Receiving the 2nd place trophy at State Tournament

Coach Drew and Cheerleader Reese

Mom and Drew after the Fun Run-Drew ran 35 laps-he had a blast!

Our good friend Dasha who was back here visiting from Iceland. We hosted a baby shower for her.

Reese and I went to Build a Bear and she made "Monkey." Monkey is dressed in a Little Mermaid outfit. Monkey goes everywhere with us.

Blogger Slacker, I know....

Basketball has officially ended. Andy's team made it to the State Finals. The past 2 years he's coached, they've won State. This year, they came up 8 points short. But, what a great team we had and we couldn't be prouder of them. Our girls team also made it to the finals and they lost a heartbreaker. Last week we spent the week w/Andy in B-ham-the kids thought it was vacation for them. What more could you want than an indoor pool, the entire girls and boys basketball teams just few doors down, and no set bed time. As we came home I heard several times, let's go hotel, not home...

Drew started soccer this week and we will soon start to attack the "to do" list that was avoided during the season. I think Andy is still looking for excuses to avoid it.... Spring is coming-warm weather and flip flops-yes!

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

Cousin Stephanie and I.

Papaw and Jo with the kids (and Christmas pj's-a tradition)

Our family Christmas morning in Arkansas

Reese and cousin Allie

The family in Tennessee at Pops and Barbar's.

Visit w/Santa at Santa's Village. Reese is scared of Santa, so this is our Santa pic 2008. Lovely, huh?! (our power at the house had gone out so we quickly decided it was a Santa's Village night and loaded up and went to Santa's village. No cute christmas outfits!)

Decorating the Gingerbread House. I'm loving these pre made kits!

Merry Christmas to you! We had a wonderful Christmas and were able to travel to both Tennessee and Arkansas and see lots of family-what a blessing!

In Tennessee we spent time with Andy's family-7 grandkids in one house means lots of Christmas craziness! We had a blast. Barbar pulled out some of Andy, Matthew, Michael, and Amy's old toys-Star Wars men and ships and carebears. The kids loved them.

Then we were off to Arkansas to celebrate with my family. We were able to see all our cousins and family from SC, GA, and FL. My parents showered the kiddos with gifts-they loved it. My brother and his wife have a 2 month old baby-Reese loved "taking care" of her.

Santa brought Drew a wii (which we all are enjoying!), skateboard, and 2 wheel scooter. (Visions of scrapes and ouchies are dancing in my head!) Reese loves princesses and Santa delivered- she got a 3 wheel scooter and a set of 7 Disney princesses-she loves them!

After a delicious Christmas meal at my 91 yr. old Grandma's we opened lots of great gifts then hopped in the car and drove home. We were up and at 'em early the next day with the team over at the house at 7am and a game at 9am. Our guys played great-the won the first game and lost to Butler HS by 2-Butler's ranked #29 in the country by ESPN-we were so close to a win! Andy's team is having a really good year and they are fun to be with.

Most of all we enjoyed the chill time with family-it's nice to slow down. It was great to spend time catching up with family that we haven't seen is a while. Lots of fun memories!

Enjoy the rest of the holiday season and make sure you watch lots of football and basketball!

Rewind

Here's what's been going on with us...the pictures are from most recent to past pictures..... Drew has started playing basketball-he LOVES it. He's #1 in the picture. He's hilarious-he acts like he's a high school player on the court-yelling plays, pointing, pressure defense....you can tell he's grown up on the court. In the next picturue Drew is hanging out with the reindeer at Santa's Village on his field trip. It was a COLD day!

Reese loves playing dress up-everything was pulled out of her dress up box and she's inside of the box!

MVP of the basketball tournament-she took these from one of the girls.

Drew has resumed his coaching spot on the bench with Dad

I'll put some Christmas pictures up soon....

Opportunity to help someone

I have a quick prayer request/ opportunity to help with you....Just a few minutes ago I talked with a life long friend, Brittney (Barber) Cornwell. Some of you know them, some of you do not. They have have been on a tough road over the last few years, but are remaining faithful that God will provide.

Brittney and her husband Tim have 2 sons: Cooper who just turned 5 and Christian who is 1 1/2. Cooper was born with a cleft lip and cleft pallette. And about 1 1/2 years ago was diagnosed with Autism. Last year, Brittney and Tim moved their family to Tampa, FL for Cooper to attend a special school for Cooper. Tim is working two jobs to make ends meet. On Tuesday, Cooper will be having some much needed specialized tests done to help with further diagnosis. Unfortunately, it's not covered by insurance.

Making ends meet month by month is a big struggle for them right now-Cooper's school and diet are very expensive. They are taking a leap of faith that some way, some how the money to pay their rent and make it through this month will come in the next week.

I know with the economy so slow, times are tough for many. My question to each of you is to:
1. Pray for them-especially Brittney as she has been "the rock" over this past year and she is growing weary.
2. Can you help them in any way financially? ANY amount will help them.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and pray for Tim, Brittney, Cooper, and Chritian Cornwell. If you feel led to do this, please write your check today and put it in the mail tomorrow morning. What a blessing it would be for their mailbox to overflow with encouragement and financial blessings.

Their address is listed below if you are able to send them anything and there's also a link to their website.

Tim and Brittney Cornwell
10129 Haverhill Ridge Dr.
Riverview, FL 33578

http://coopercornwell.com/

Happy Halloween

First, let me start by congratulating Andy for surviving me being gone for 4 days on a trip for work. I work part time with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes. We had a training camp in Kansas City where the FCA home office is. This is a picture of me and the girls I work with on the porch overlook ing Arrowhead Stadium-Kansas City Chiefs and the Kansas City Royals Stadium . We had a great time but we were glad to get home to our family!

Andy managed to juggle Reese and Drew in the midst of lots of stuff going on. Drew even got to spend the night with a friend on a school night (big deal for a kindergartener) One morning Andy had practice at 5:45am...Reese joined him there and they didn't get home till 11pm after the volleyball state tournament-what a day it was for them! I made it home and everyone was still in one piece.

Happy Halloween from the Cowboy's! We trick or treated with friends in their neighborhood then went to a Halloween party at a friend's house. We roasted marshmallows, bobbed for apples, and played games-what a fun night! (Drew is making his "cowboy face" in the pics.)

Welcome Back

To those of you who check in on us.....we're back- I've been a blooger slacker. So much is going on-Here are some pictures of what we've been doing...

Andy's entire family at our baby cousin's baptism. (big accomplishment to get everyone together-everyone lives in different states!)

7 great grandkids and their Bubba, their great grandmother from Colorado

Our new cousin/neice-Allie. This is my brother and sister in law's first baby.

Drew's field trip to the pumpkin patch with his Kindergarten class-we all had a blast-kids and parents!

Sy and Dasha are two of our really good friends. Andy coached each of them in college and last year they moved across the street from us. They are following the Lord's call to move to Iceland, where Sy is from. He's going to play basketball there and Dasha will be having their first baby in May. We're going to miss them!

The girls and Dasha-last Wednesday we took Dasha to the airport. Reese loves her Dasha!

Happy 2nd Birthday Reese!

Happy 2nd Birthday Reese!

Hope everyone is having a relaxing Labor Day weekend. We kicked off the weekend on Friday with the first official high school game. Saturday we took a trip with some friends to the aquarium. It was really crowded but the kids had a blast. That night we went to some friends and watched the Alabama game...it's officially football time and you can feel it in the air in Alabama-Alabama and Auburn shirts, flags, you name it, it's everywhere!

Reese celebrated her 2nd birthday Sunday at the park. We had a great time, but were definately HOT. But Reese LOVES swings and slides-so we endured the heat and were thankful for the covered pavillion and ever so slight breeze. Now the night before, Andy and I stayed up till 1am (and Andy had to preach the next morning) putting together her new kitchen. (there were at least 8,000 screws-again, the things we do for our kids!) But, in the end, it turned out super cute and she's been cooking up good stuff on it.

As for the theme of the party-we went with butterflies. Her cake was a cupcake cake in the shape of butterflies. Gift opening was a blur-between Drew and Reese and others tearing in to them,....I just hope we made it home with her gifts! Some of her favorites were the Barbie tricycle, the kitchen and stuff to go with it, and chap stick. My favorites....the fall clothes! We ended the day with a trip to Maggie Moo's for another friend's birthday and played in the water spout area for kids. We all got a good night's sleep last night! Here's some pictures from the party and weekend

Rewind...

What's been going on.....



One of our dear friends being baptized by his Dad-What a blessing!



Reese's favorite book, Sam I am as she calles it-she loves to "read" it to us






Reese trying to get into the water fountain. We had a great time at the playground and eating at Cheeburger Cheeburger with Jenn's mom, Mrs. Deb.





Happy Birthday Andy! Andy, Drew and friend, Sy at dinner. Sy and his wife Dasha are some of our dear friends that will be moving to Iceland in October (where Sy is from). He's going to play semi-pro basketball there. They live across the street and Andy actually coached each of them when he was at UAH. We're going to miss them so much!

Reese helping Aunt Amanda at her baby shower. Baby Allie will be here in the next few weeks!

Drew's playing flag football & loves it! Cheerleader Reese!

First school project-stick horse. Blue is Drew's favorite color thus, the blue hair.

Well, I'm a few weeks behind.... The start of school has brought lots of excitement! Reese turns 2 on August 31 and we're getting ready for her party at the park. She loves swings and slides. With Drew in school, Reese and I have enjoyed our girl time on the days that I don't work. It's hard to believe August is almost over. You know what that means....Football!!! I love it!