another ballgame

We recently had a fund-raiser for Royal Family Kids Camp (to read more about it click on the RFKC tag at the end of this post) where we sold tickets to our local baseball team's game, and all proceeds went to the camp.  All of our tickets were for the same section behind home plate, so it was a lot of fun to go to the game, support our camp, and be with a TON of friends & family.  It was a gorgeous night & we really enjoyed ourselves.

The sunset was unreal!!!

Kellen has become a regular on my blog.  In between innings they started playing the YMCA song.  And nobody was dancing. So Kellen jumped up and led everyone (not just our group) in the dance. They really should consider hiring him!!

At the end of the night was a fireworks show.  Since the boys haven't seen one in the last 2 years, they really don't remember what they are like. Well, Sean sat like this the whole time. And Nolan was in tears by the end of it.  Oh well, maybe next year they will like fireworks ;)

I just love being able to support something we love & spend time with our family & friends at the same time.  Hopefully we can continue our relationship with not only the Jethawks but other public figures to get exposure & help with fund-raising for our camp.  God opens up so many amazing doors for us!!!

mulligans

We have a fun local mini-golf place called Mulligans.  Well, when I was growing up it was called Funland but somewhere along the way they changed the name (I think I like Mulligans better!).  The last time we were there Sean was about 3 or 4 weeks old, so it's been awhile! Ha! Our friends were giving their daughter a birthday party there so we got to join in on the fun.  It was a beautiful night with fun friends & happy kids!

Here they are getting ready to play!  The pretty girl with long hair next to Sean is Alyssa, the birthday girl.

It was nearly impossible trying to get a picture of all the kids together. Sean & Alyssa had fun in front of the camera though ;)

Sean LOVED playing.

So did Nolan, but he found an easier way to get the ball in the hole- just put it there! Ha!

This picture cracks me up!

He is such a good sport, he poses for me in all the fun places I find.  He may make silly faces 98% of the time, but at least he lets me take his picture!

Some of the pretty girls we played golf with- Alyssa, Alexis, & Presley.

This is my favorite picture of the night.  All the kids were too short to ride the go karts by themselves, and only Sean & Malachi were tall enough to ride with an adult.  But they all wanted to and would just watch through the fence.  It was adorable!

Presley, Nolan, Lexi, Sean, Seth, & Malachi

Presley & Malachi are the children of our friends who just recently lost their 4 day old son.  If you think of them, please still keep them in your prayers.  The healing process is a hard one, but they are blessed with a hope that comes from the Lord, a strong family, wonderful friends, and an amazing church to help them along the way.  You can actually read more about their journey here: John's blog and Bre's blog.  If you do not get inspired by them (and cry reading them!) I would be surprised!!

pool party!

I love summer because it is full of parties with friends and lots of good food!   We had a pool party at one of our pastor's house for our marriage matters class, and I made this hit to serve for dessert: banana pudding.  You can click here for my recipe (and some pretty bad pics LOL).  I don't like bananas so I actually don't eat it, but it seems to be a winner with everyone else!

We drove out to our friends house and jumped in their pool.  It was HOT (I think 105) so the pool felt great.  Dathan & I LOVE to swim & the boys do too, which is wonderful for all of us!

In fact, Nolan is our fearless child.  He always asks to be thrown higher. Or go under. Again daddy again!

Sean is more cautious in the pool. He also always wears his goggles and "snoogle" (snorkel).

We stopped swimming long enough to eat a potluck dinner with carne asada as the main course... yummy!  Then some of the kids played a mini game of baseball.  We were impressed with how good Sean did!

We went back in the pool for awhile.  Dathan & Nolan came up with this fun game where Dathan would toss Nolan in the air, jump off the rocks, catch Nolan, and land in the water.  It gave everyone a heart attack but they both loved it & I knew that Dathan would catch him so I wasn't worried ;)

Then later in the evening we ate dessert.  Nolan loved the banana pudding.  And then he started crawling around and being silly in the grass, and before he realized it the dog ate the rest of his dessert.  So funny!

Our family could swim every day if we had the time!  We LOVE LOVE LOVE it!  And then when it's with friends it's even better!

party cabin!!!

Being on the core staff for Royal Family Kids camp is so much fun!  I started out at camp as a teen helper, then was a counselor, then a helper (when I was pregnant with Sean & when Sean was less than a year old & I'd have to go home to be with him every night) and now this was my first year on core staff.  I love it!  I love meeting every week and planning camp, helping raise the funds, getting staff, etc.  My friends Amanda & Regina, along with myself are... well... the youngest members of core staff.  So we have fun and get teased a lot about being so young.  The 3 of us roomed together at camp along with our other (young) friend Lisa who is the camp therapist (we are so proud of our college graduate friend!).  So... we called ourselves the party cabin.  This was our door (yes baby boy Stephens even had his own name paper):

We tried to have fun all week with everyone, cheering and encouraging people to have fun.  So all day Thursday we were thinking of something funny we could do to the other core staff members that night.  Just a fun, harmless prank, of course.  So we took out everyone's name labels for their doors & colored them, then wrote "you've been partied" and switched them around to the wrong rooms.  See... that's harmless right?  And then we took some streamers and put a big X in front of everyone's doors.  That's harmless too... but it was fun!

When we went to bed we locked our door, because we knew someone would get us back... and lets be honest, we would have been disappointed if they didn't!  When we woke up in the morning & opened our door, this is what we found:

Hahahaha so funny!  The paper on the chairs says "You've been old folked" HAHAHA we were laughing so hard!

Here is the party cabin.  I think it is SO neat to be able to do ministry with your friends, and serve God together doing something you all have a heart for.

Lisa, me, Regina, & Amanda

Oh on Friday at camp everyone (adults & kids) get autograph shirts to sign, and we decided to pick ours up early and decorate them ;)

Our party cabin won't look the same next year because Amanda is moving to Kansas in a couple weeks!  Boo!  We will miss her!

sometimes it's just too beautiful to stay inside

especially when you have friends to join you!

reunited & it feels so good...

Some of you may remember in this post when I talked about our friends who were the youth pastors and due to budget cuts they had to be let go.  They were given an amazing ministry opportunity that they took in Oklahoma City and moved out there in March.  Well Sarah's sister was getting married here in southern California, so just recently they took a trip out here for the wedding.  They were only going to be here a few days & I knew their schedules would be jam packed full (not to mention they were staying about an hour & a half away) so I wasn't going to try to get together with them.  But then Sarah invited myself, Veronica & her kids, and Candice & her kids out to the grandparents' house to swim one of the days, so of course we jumped at the chance (canceling all other plans we had that day of course)!

The boys & I rode down with Veronica & her 3 kids.  We did not tell them where we were going, just that it was a special surprise.  When we got there, we let Sean & Ethan knock on the door, and Sarah had Hunter & Caden inside waiting to open the door.  It was so much fun to let them see their friends again!

When we got there, Ethan asked the boys where their trampoline was.  He thought we drove to Oklahoma, it was so cute!  They swam for a little bit then came inside for a picnic lunch in the living room.  Hunter & Caden's grandparents were so much fun & so chill & didn't even mind that the kids were making a wreck out of their downstairs area ;)

The kids swam ALL DAY.  No naps, hardly any breaks, just a whole lot of swimming.  It was a blast!

Look at all these kids between 4 moms!  Sarah & Veronica each have 3, and Candice & I are both pregnant with our 3rd... so in about 6 more months there will be 2 more kids in this mix!  Hunter & Caden's grandpa is the sweet man sitting in the spa with all those crazy kids :)

We forgot to take a picture until after we were swimming, but this will do :)  This is Monique (a sweet college girl who came along for the day), Sarah, Candice, Me, & Veronica.  That is Isabella knocked out on the couch behind us.  Ha!

Attempting to get a picture of all the kids together.  We had them sit there since Isabella was asleep on the couch, and she slept through the entire process of all of us taking pictures!  She was tired!  And Hunter is holding Grace's picture because she was already in bed ;)  If you read my Easter post then you read about our new method of taking pictures where we have everyone make all sorts of silly faces.  Well, it worked like a charm with these hilarious kids!

After a long, fun, full day we all left.  When we got in the car Sean said "Are we driving back to California now?"  Bless his heart, he thought we drove to Oklahoma too.  Makes sense, all they knew was that Hunter & Caden moved to Oklahoma and it was far away.  A couple hour drive IS far away to a 4 year old, and Hunter & Caden were at this strange new house so it had to have been Oklahoma ;)  We knew the kids wouldn't last very long in the car, and we were right.  Here are all 5 kids knocked out!

I really do have such a blessed life, with so many wonderful friends!  And I'm so thankful that I get to raise my kids with the same friends & roots that I was raised with!

auntie erin came to see us!

My best friend Erin still lives in Huntsville, and so she made a day trip up to see us while we were still in Alabama.  We had the best time (as always)!

We went to a local frozen yogurt place called Frostbite and ate some yummy dessert on their big nice deck they have outside.  The boys loved it!

Erin taught Sean how to use her camera & he took pictures with it the rest of the day!  I think we may have another photographer on our hands ;)  And I think we know what we want to get him for his birthday....

And since I didn't get in any of the pictures at Frostbite I decided to take one of me & baby.  At 6 months pregnant I can still see my feet!!!

After we left Frostbite we ran by Sonic to get Dathan & his dad (who was helping him work that day) some drinks & bring it to them at the work site.  It was fun to see the progress that Dathan has made, and the owners of the house are just the nicest people and loved having us there.  Dathan took both boys up on the roof, which they loved.

It was so pretty there we had to take some friend pictures.  I love the one of Sean & Erin, he just loves her & that makes me SO happy :)

The home owner took Erin, Sean, Nolan, & I on his mule (like a golf cart type vehicle) down to their property on the river.  The sun was setting and it was gorgeous (but very hot and VERY muggy! ha!).

The boys loved riding on the mule!

Erin & I always have the  best time together!!!  Which is to be expected after about 18 years of friendship! :)