Saturday, May 14, 2022

What I'm Loving April {2022}

 Besides our week of Spring Break fun, we still had lots to love in April.  

Miss Maggie loves her little strider bike.  A friend passed this down for the boys, but they never really got the hang of it. 

Mr. Mattox prefers his scooter. 

We saw a pretty butterfly on our walk. 

I love seeing messages like this from Mattox.  He loves playing with his brother Brody. 

Sweet boys loving their Chick-fil-a ice cream. 

Chick-fil-a ice cream mustaches


And cheesy ice cream smiles. 

Little sister has to show off her ice cream 'stache too. 

Little Daniel Boone

Finally getting these sweet babies' newborn pictures framed to match their big brothers'. 


Little Superheroes...especially Iron Woman with her tutu. 

Framing a sweet tribute to our beloved Cocoa. 

And a special memorial for Brody's room. 

Little sister dueling with her biggest brother. 

Dueling siblings attack on brother Brody's bed to wake him up. 

Pretty girls picking flowers at her school. 

Pretty girls wearing their cute pink overall dress to school. 

Flowering Dogwood trees in the yard. 

Getting the deck stained and sealed after a good power washing. 

The lake full of sail boats. 

Just a selfie to send a picture of my butterfly necklace from a dear friend. 

My biggest boy officially became a driver!

He has his permit to drive with a parent.  Here in SC, he can get his license at 15.5 after completing the driving training and amount of hours driving.  We probably won't rush it though.  Driving in this area can be scary with so many crazy interstates around us. 

This pretty blue jay came to visit us.  He stayed for a while. 

A movie date with my oldest boys to see the new Fantastic Beasts movie. 


Maggie helped fill up her pool.  She did not mind the really cold water. 


Miss Maggie loves her sand (um, mud) table.  Every time we buy new play sand, it is a different consistency.  This time, it was very muddy sand when wet.  She loved it though. 

Mattox likes the sand too. 

He fills his dump trucks. 

I watch from above. 

The kids could not wait anymore for the water to warm up and had to swim before the end of April. 

Brrr...the polar plunge.  They didn't mind the cold much.  

Miss Maggie wasn't loving it though. 


But once she realized she could stand up this year, she was happy. 

Miss Maggie wanted to wear Mommy's high heels to school.  She did finally listen to reason and found her more practical shoes. 

These boys loved seeing all of the artwork at their school art show.  Yes, they had fantastic pieces in the show. 

Mr. Mattox's masterpiece

Mr. Brody's masterpiece 

We wrapped up the month going to my niece's high school graduation.  She has big aspirations continuing her music education at UNC Greensboro and sings and plays opera and classical music in multiple languages.  She sang a beautiful song at her graduation.

Emma with all of her cousins and siblings minus the youngest little man. 

Had to let them do one silly picture. 

Miss Emma with our family

Me and my first niece

Emma and her parents (my brother and his wife)

Emma's family

We wanted a picture of Papa with all of his grandchildren in it together because it has been too long, but only Grayson and Libby would cooperate.  Grayson and Libby are "almost twins" both born in December 2016. 

Emma and her Papa


Emma's graduation table was decorated to show her interests and accomplishments.  She loves historical fashion and is also a budding seamstress and designer.  Her senior pictures were perfect wearing some beautiful period fashion in a beautiful 1800s building.  She also loves traveling.  

Emma and her Daddy

I love this picture of Miss Maggie with her girl cousins Emma, Libby, and Cate. 















Saturday, May 7, 2022

Our Favorite Google Collages

 So Google has been making us some pretty sweet little memory collages, and I wanted a place to keep them.  I think facial recognition software has come a long way so that Google can detect who is in each picture and groups them in neat ways.  I am kind of glad our phones automatically back up to Google so these fun creations can be made.  Years of photos for the blog helped too.  Here are some of our favorites:  

A collection of our family pictures since baby Grayson was born.  

A collection of pictures of the kids together. 

An assortment of recent memories of the youngest three kids. 

An assortment of Maggie pictures from 35 weeks old to 3 years, including her first school portrait in which they gave her blue hair.  Sigh. 

More of our sweet Maggie.

A recent burst of photos I took of Maggie picking flowers outside her school. 

A sweet collage of some special moments with our first son, Evan. 

Our family when it was just 3 of us. 

For Evan's recent birthday, Google made a special collage of Evan pictures with his Dad. Oh those boys are best friends!

A sweet collage of my oldest two boys. 

A sweet collage of Brody. 

And another one of Brody. 

More special Brody moments. 

A sweet collage of Mattox and Brody together. 

Another one of Brody and Mattox. 

Another kind of crazy one of Maggie.  

A very special collage of Mommy and daughter.  Oh how long have I waited to make memories like these?  

Sometimes it repeats pictures with a few new additions. 

A few more additions to the girls' pics. 

This one highlights the very special father daughter bond these two share.  She's definitely his mini me!

It detected all of these pictures of Mattox and Maggie together.

Precious "twins" 12 years apart.  Oh how they love each other!

A little collage of our recent Fall excursions. 

One to highlight our very precious first rainbow baby, Mattox.  What a colorful addition he has been!

A sweet collage of our precious Grayson. 

Another sweet collage of Grayson.

It made some sweet collages on Grayson's birthday.

More beautiful Grayson. 

This one is supposed to highlight Grayson and Maggie. 

More Grayson and Maggie moments.

This one highlights some excellent memories of my sweet husband. 

More fun moments with my husband.

And one that highlights the mom!

And a very special collection of photos of us as a couple.  Wow, that's a lot of history!  Almost two decades of marriage!




Sunday, May 1, 2022

Brody's 11th Birthday at Hogwart's

The 11th birthday has become synonymous with Harry Potter these days as the popular books and movies have made this birthday a milestone.  Harry gets his Hogwart's acceptance letter the summer of his 11th birthday to begin his training at the magical school.  Kids who read the books or watch the movies grow up wanting to have Harry's magical adventures at Hogwart's so this birthday gives them a chance to experience a little of the magic.  Brody accompanied his older brother, Evan, on the trip to London's Diagon Alley and Hogwart's School of Witchcraft and Wizardry in 2016, but he was too young to partake in many of the adventures at that time.  While we hope to relive this experience one day, we took our own little trip by enchanted flying car, enjoyed some frozen butterbeer, and were sorted into our appropriate houses by the Sorting Hat.  Brody's letter from Hogwart's arrived by owl, and he also received a special cake from our pal, Hagrid.  It was a very "magical" birthday! 

Brody's sweet cake from Hagrid and his official Hogwart's letter which was delivered by a sweet little owl.

We had some yummy Sorting Hat cupcakes to magically be sorted into our House. 

Our enchanted car flew us to Hogwart's, and Brody enjoyed a frozen butterbeer and was already hoping to get into Gryffindor. 

Mattox just wanted a magic wand while Maggie wanted an owl of her very own. 

The birthday boy made his wish for a real trip to Hogwart's! 

A special Sorting Hat experience.  Which house did he get?  

This kid has been a long time fan of Harry Potter and read all the books by 4th grade.  

Mattox doesn't care which house he gets into as long as he has a wand. 


Grayson just wants a cupcake although his favorite color is blue so he wanted the "blue house." 

Miss Maggie just loved posing for pictures, eating her cupcake, and making a mess. 

Mommy and Daddy are applying for teaching positions at the school. 

The official House selections:  Daddy and Maggie were our Slytherins (yikes), Mommy and Mattox were our Hufflepuffs because we are the nicest, Grayson got his wish for the blue house Ravenclaw, and Evan and Brody got their wishes for Gryffidor because they are the bravest. 

Our Brave Gryffindor

Brody enjoyed opening his cards from family and getting some money.  Isn't that what all kids these days want? 

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