A Fond Farewell

On Sunday, Robin and I were able to put together a great party, that was easy and fun, for the Morales family's formal goodbye to an amazing group of people! There was a total of about 92 people invited and 86 were there!!! It was an amazing turnout! We made it potluck style which turned out to be the best thing ever! There was plenty of food and TONS of desserts! The kids all brought their bathing suits and went swimming. It was a great Sunday afternoon! Adam and Lindsay loved the Photo slide show that Robin and I created for them of their entire 6 years here in Georgia. Adam was presented a special black belt from all of the instructors and they all signed it. The best part was that Bryson was able to get everyone from the party to come outside for a photo. The one request that Lindsay had was to get a picture of everyone so she could frame it w/ the words "Georgia On My Mind" and hang it in their new home in El Paso. Other than a few important people missing, it turned out GREAT! Adam and Lindsay each gave a little speach thanking all of their friends and expressing how each person had left a fingerprint on their hearts. It was really special. As I walked back towards the clubhouse I turned around and saw everyone walking back and was overwhelmed w/ emotion as I saw several people wiping their tears! It was really pretty incredible. Here's the funny part...the couple in the middle...Adam and Lindsay don't even know them! LOL! I guess we could have coordinated placement better. It was just awesome that we were able to get everyone to stand out in the 95 degree weather for this photo, so nobody thought about the fact that Adam, Emma, and Lindsay are completely scattered. The Party really couldn't have turned out better though!

Our own Hero!

James left for Baghdad today! He is only supposed to be gone until February of 2009, so we pray that the time goes by fast for him/us and that he returns home safely! We always miss him, but knowing he is so far away and not in the safest place in the world, is going to make it a lot harder! We won't know what he is doing while he is over there, but I am going to focus on him being very well protected and Luckily he will have his computer and still be able to communicate and stay in touch with us! We love him SO MUCH and are so incredibly proud of him!!! Today Aleigh said "I miss Uncle James...do you remember what he looks like?" I laughed and said "Of course I do silly, why did you ask me that?" and she goes "Well, sometimes I forgot what people look like if I haven't seen them in a while...but not my Uncle James!" Needless to say, she thinks her Uncle James is pretty handsome! I think all her her cousin's (pictured above) would agree. Poor James get's attacked by these girls when they get to see him!

Here is a picture of AJ in James' flight gear! James put this on him and AJ got to be the center of attention for a while...can you tell he kind of liked it!

Lisa Williams Live!

So on Friday night, me, my mom and Malin had tickets to go see Lisa Williams, the pyschic medium! It was really cool and incredibly interesting! I think all three of us walked away feeling blessed that we haven't had to go through a loss as great as most of the people who were read that night! Just about every single one of them was a woman who lost a child. One guy was 19 and was shot accidentaly, another guy was 23 and was in a motorcycle accident, and then two guys died of drug overdoses! Pretty crazy! Oh, but the funniest part (yes there was humor and not complete sadness the whole time) was a guy that came through for his wife and kept refering to their sex life! Lisa Williams even did a little sexual dance to show what he was doing! The wife seemed pretty blown away and aside from being embarrassed, she was pretty speechless as well! We got to sit through 3 hours of readings! Our butts hurt, but it was really captivating! I would definitely go and see her again! She is so sweet and comes out into the audience and hugs the people and makes sure their ok. It was cool, and we had a great time!

Slightly Adored!

Ansley is growing and suprising us more and more everyday! She I grabbing for EVERYTHING so if you wear glasses or have long hair, watch out! She is eating cereal and all stage 1 foods and seems to like them all except for peaches! Our hope is that she won't be a picky eater! AJ was picky because we only gave him what we knew he would eat well when he was little, so we take a lot of responsibility for his pickiness. Aleigh has always been a good eater, but AJ has a way of influencing her and she has become a little less willing to try new things. This is very frusterating! She still does pretty good after we explain to

her how important it is to try new things. She seems to really listen and will eventually try.
We are all enjoying Ansley, if you can't tell from the pictures!

If you didn't recieve our Heart Is Found gallery link, be sure and check Ansley's 3 month photo shoot! We are always more and more amazed at the amazing work Malin does! She is the best photographer I have ever seen, honestly! http://www.heartisfound.com/eartisfound.com/ It will ask you to create an account but all it asks for is your name, email address and to create a password. It's quick and easy. Then once you have set up an a

ccount, type in the access code: aj.

Emma is 3!!!

Our sweet little goddaughter, Emma turned 3 yesterday!!! We celebrated her birthday

on Saturday w/ a little swim party. Emma's favorite thing to do is swim and she could do it all day long!!! She is such a little fish and has no fear of the water, AT ALL! She keeps a little safety vest on and just jumps right in to the deep end and thinks nothing of it! Chelsea stayed with us this weekend so Lindsay was kind enough to invite her along and she had a BLAST! Emma LOVES the princesses and not just because their pretty. She genuinly LOVES every princess movie and will watch it in its entirety! Aleigh loved the princesses, but has never sat through an entire princess movie. Animated movies don't seem to keep her attention that well. She must be too much like her mom.

Believe it or not, I actually put a bathing suit on and got in the water with the kids! I quickly realized how important it was to get over my insecurities when I my little Aleigh cheered for me just for getting in the water w/ her. It made the kids very happy! Ansley LOVED the water and kicked her legs like crazy! My mom got a ton of pictures of us all in the water, I need to get those from her so I can post some!

We were happy to be able to spend Emma's last birthday in Georgia with her! When AJ turned 7 we went to Chili's for dinner and Emma had a princess cup with her. Well, Joe looked at her princess cup, grabbed a pen and a napkin and drew cinderella for Emma. Emma thought that was the greatest thing ever and carried it around proudly for a few days. When Lindsay told me this I shared it w/ Joe and that was when he decided he needed to draw and frame her a picture of Cinderella to hang in her room in El Paso so that she can think of her Nino (godfather) back here in Georgia! Well, the gift was very appreciated and even caused some tears for Lindsay. Joe was appreciative at such a sentimental reaction. We also gave Emma her first Dress up dress (Cinderella). Can you tell Cinderella is her favorite! She is such a cute little sweetie pie! We sure are going to miss watching her grow! Hopefully they will blog and we can at least watch her grow in pictures! The nice thing is, we will be able to see her and Adam and Lindsay during our annual trip to El Paso!

SOLD

Our family friends, the Morales' sold their house yesterday! They decided that they were going to move back to El Paso, TX when they went home for Christmas last year. They listed their house in February and after several people looking and a few offers, they sold their house! They will be El Paso bound on July 31st. We will miss them but know that they are moving for all of the right reasons, to be closer to both of their families! Emma (their 3 year old) is going to love growing up w/ her cousins, aunts and uncles and both sets of grandparents! With Joe's family being in El Paso, we know that we will get to see them at least once a year, and they know that they are always welcome here for a visit back to the place where they started their little family together! We wish them all the best!!!

4th Of July

PEACHTREE CITY 4th OF JULY PARADE!

This picture of Emma trying to pick up AJ totally CRACKS ME UP! She was giggling so hard! It makes me laugh every time I look at it!

Hope everyone had a great 4th! We had a nice 4th of July. We enjoyed the Peachtree City Parade this year because it was the 1st year, in the 10 years that Joe has lived here, that he was able to enjoy watching the parade instead of walking in the parade for Martial Arts America! It is such a neat little parade and so "small town America" as Lindsay called it. You have never seen so many patriotic golf carts lined up in your entire life! It's really neat! The kids came home w/ a big bag full of candy, coupons, water bottles, toothbrushes, stickers, etc... It's a great way for all of the privately owned businesses to be recognized. We were able to pick our shaded spot since Joe had us all there at 7:30 in the morning!!! The parade doesn't start until 9 am! We hung out in the van, watched a movie and had breakfast, so it was kinda fun! Ansley was able to make it through the first part of the parade but ended up sleeping in her stroller for most of it.
We had a cookout at our house later in the afternoon w/ my family, the Morales', and Robin. We were all miserably full by the end of the night! There was so much good food! AJ and Joe went w/ Robin and the Morales' to see the fireworks. Aleigh wanted to stay home w/ me and my parents. I would have loved to have gone, but Ansley was asleep for the night, and really needed her sleep.