Lil Scholars!

William and Madison won a SCHOLARSHIP! I'm so proud of the Chunkies! Our adoption agency offered the scholarship in conjunction with American Christian Credit Union. I had to write about how adoption has impacted our life and include some pictures. We returned home from the beach to a very exciting message and learned William and Madison had won! Every bit little helps and we're so excited to have a little extra in their accounts to help with college in t minus 16 & 15 years :)

Santa Rosa Beach July 2011

We had an awesome trip to the beach with some great friends this past month. The kids are getting to the fun age where they are enjoying playing with other kids - which is fun for us adults too - we get a little bit of a break! We rented a beach house in Santa Rosa Beach, Florida - just a little east of Destin. In just one year - it was amazing how big of changes we saw in the Chunkies! William was all in and everyone agreed - he probably enjoyed the beach the most - my lil surfer boy! He loved jumping the waves and would ride them on his "surfboard." Madi loved the beach too but was upset she couldn't go deeper in the water and ride the waves like older kids - next year - I'm sure she will be my lil surfer girl! We had some great seafood - and great company. After only four short days - we said bye bye beach - we'll see you next year - we hope :)

Georgia Sunflower Fields

The Sunflower fields are in bloom and of course I had to try to get my dream shot of the Chunkies in the fields! It was the end of a long day and everyone was so tired! We got a few snaps but hopefully we can go back before they wither away :(

Happy Birthday USA!

This year - William and Madi got to celebrate the 4th with a bang - and their cousins - Casey and Claire visiting from Maine! We had a blast swimming and enjoying Uncle Brian's Famous Ribs on the Big Green Egg! We had thundershowers here instead of Fireworks - so we'll just have to wait til next year! Happy Birthday America!!!!

FINALISTS!!!!

So proud of my Chunkies! We received an exciting email today - actually TWO! Chunky 1 and Chunky 2 were BOTH selected as finalists in the Atlanta Parent Magazine Cover Kids Contest! Out of more than 400 entries - they both made the Top 50 Finalists! Just by making the Top 50 - they will both have the opportunity to appear in the magazine throughout the year. The next step - we've been invited to appear before a panel of judges on Monday July 18th. Tee-Hee - that should be interesting! My prediction - William will cry - Madi will either have a melt-down or break into her Shirley Temple - dancing - marching routine - it's 50/50 - but my money is on "The Mad!" I'm just happy for them that they made it this far - it's all a fun experience!!! Here are the pictures I submitted - wish them luck!

Happy Father's Day!

Happy Father's Day to all the dads out there! And a Happy Father's Day to my personal favorite - Brian! Our children are so lucky to have a dad like Brian! He works so hard to make sure our family is safe, healthy and happy and he loves spending time with the Chunkies! This father's day we started the day off at church and then came home to celebrate with Brian's Mom and Aunt Judy. We grilled home-made pizzas on the grill which were out of this world DELICIOUS! Then William and Madi "SURPRISED THE DADDY" with a Big Green Egg Cookbook and BBQ belt! We swam and played in the pool all afternoon. What a great day!

Fresh Cucumbers 10 cents each!

We are having a great time with our garden this year! So far we have harvested delicious green beans, banana peppers, jalapeno peppers a few tomatoes! Are tomatoes are not coming in as well as they did last year - but it looks like a few dozen are about to ripen so the crop is coming! Today we harvested a green pepper, banana pepper, a bunch of green beans and our first two cucumbers! The cucumbers as you can see are GINORMOUS! We had an incredible thunderstorm last night and in just one day - the cucumbers literally DOUBLED in size from all that rain! Looking forward to some good eatin' :)