HaPpY 25th Birthday to PARKER & LUKE!!

On their first birthday :)

Love these boys!  So much fun over the past 25 years. 

They have always brought much joy, happiness, and laughter to our family.

 Luke- what a character - Love his zest for life!!

Parker -in his first triathlon -he is such an encourager!

This is just a brief summary of a wonderful 25 years.  I could not be prouder of the men Luke and Parker have become.  I want to thank them for being good children to raise, for not talking back, for not going down the wrong path in life, for their positive attitude, for their love of adventure (and no, I didn't have a heart attack - even tho there were many times y'all about gave me one). Thank you both for being independent, responsible, caring, generous, fun, exciting, quick witted, and always confident enough to be yourself!! Stay true to yourself and always trust and lean on God for guidance, comfort, and strength.

I love you, admire you, and absolutely adore you both.  Wishing you a happy birthday today and many many more in the future!!!

I mean, can you get any more handsome than that - I think NOT!

a Little side story on Landry:

His bed in our bedroom is on Tim's side, right next to the bedside table, which is a round table with a cloth on it.  Well, the long cloth under the topper is just a sheet, and I have the long extra ends nicely tucked under the table (so not to look like I cheated and used a sheet and then didn't bother to hem it - and know I'm telling on myself).  Well, many days I notice that Landry has pulled out all that extra material!  So, I always fix it back and wonder what makes him do this! (and of course think Pete never messed with this, why is Landry).  Well, today Landry was still asleep when I got up and was getting dressed (and the only reason he would still be asleep is because it is MONDAY- and that dog is slam pooped after a weekend and he never gets up on time or even when we do,  he will eventually get up and go straight to his kennel.  It takes him to about Wednesday to recoup). Anyway, today, I noticed he had done it again!! So I tip toe over to see why - and that dog is laying his head on it like a pillow or his blanket!!!  Oh my lawd - this dog cracks me up.  It is totally my fault, I'm sure.  I am the one who always gave him a blanket and made him a pillow for his kennel- and he LOVES them.  He curls up with his blanket and pillow just like a baby would - precious.  So I guess to save my table, I need to give the poor little fellow a proper blanket for his bed downstairs!  Bless him.

This Saturday I went to my cousin's Renewal of Vows Ceremony.  It was with my Ray family, and I have to say I LOVE my family!!!  I am truly blessed to have such wonderful families in my life- on ALL sides - Rays, Clements, Hendrick, White, and Gibbs. They are all large, all loud, all fun, and all with their quirks and uniqueness, and ALL AWESOME!!!!  Needless to say we had a great time.  We usually see the Rays only at Thanksgiving (some times being 2-3 yrs before we can all be there), so to be together again was fun!  My cousin and his wife are celebrating their 5th wedding anniversary, and being they didn't have a wedding the first time, they wanted to renew their vows in front of their family and friends. Honestly, it was perfect, such a sweet special ceremony!! I wish them much happiness with their growing family (they already have a precious little boy and are expecting TWINS!). From the first time I met Karen, I knew she was perfect for Daniel!  They are just too cute together and she is a great addition to our family! 

So after driving 6 hrs up Saturday, and driving 6 hours back on Sunday, Tim was ready for a jeep ride when I returned home at 5:30 pm.  Sure, why not, I say. Nothing like a good jeep ridin'!(of course I'm the driver, so I should say a good jeep drivin').  So we fill up with gas, and off we go.  We ride by the new high school that is being built, drive out to Cool Springs, drive thru Ellenton, ride out towards Reed Bingham, but decide to turn right instead of into Reed Bingham.  Now turning right is new territory for us, neither had ever been this way before.  So we ride and enjoy the beautiful turf fields, I mean really!  The land all around us is just breath taking if you take the time to enjoy it.  God has put it out right in front of us, and I want to thank Him for it!  Riding around seeing fields, hills, trees, cows and such is pure enjoyment.  So we are just enjoying our ride and views, and turning right each time we have to decide which direction to go next.  We ride some more, go thru very small communities (like a store at cross roads, but houses are closer together), make some more right turns.... you get the picture.  Just so you know, at this point we have NO idea where we are AT ALL!  So we ride some more, thinking we may have entered into Cook Co, but should be headed back towards the Old Adel highway.  Then we ride by something that says Valdosta! So Tim finally pulls out his phone to see JUST where we were.  We were almost at I-75, near Valdosta, 45 min from home!  So it (GPS) tells us to go to the end of the road and turn RIGHT- ha, ironic!  So when we did, we see a neighborhood that says Hahira- wha?? Truly it looked just like the neighborhood that Lela lives in- I mean how many gated communities does Hahira have??  We are now traveling this nice small hwy, we cross over "MeetingHouse Creek" what an odd name- and it was big- who knew it existed! (ok, you world travelers- yes this is just hwy 122- but at the time, I had NO idea where I was, and I do not go to Barney nor Hahira, so all new to me).   So in minutes we are in Barney- which means PEACHES!! What a pleasant surprise, so I whip in there and get me some fresh peaches!! How fun is this adventure, I ask! So, on the road again, for me I am still on unknown roads, until we get to the crossroad that right takes you to Berlin, left to Morvan, straight Pavo.  We go straight.   At Sand Hill we make the decision to go on to Pavo. I mean, why not?  So from Pavo headed home, we decided we needed food to grill, so Coolidge is now the next stop of our trip.  So we take some strange dirt road to cut over to 319.  It turned out to be such a pretty dirt road, trees on both sides of the road for miles - no houses, no fields, nothing but trees - just lovely- at this time it was getting to be after 8 pm. So, our nice little jeep ride took us a little over 2 hrs, 1/4 tank of gas and to 5 counties: Colquitt, Cook, Brooks, Lowndes, and Thomas!!! Pure enjoyment!  So glad we decided to take unknown roads, and were able to explore and see the beauty all around us.  It was a great day, and a great weekend. Just wish we had an app like MapMyRun - such as MapMyTrip- would love to see our path :)

New Jeep and Landry :)

and to carry on.... MONDAY the 26th is Luke and Parker's 25th BIRTHDAY!!! Whoop whoop!  I mean 25!!! Love them so much!!

The cousins stayed the weekend!!

Landry had so much fun playing soccer with his cousins, Brody and Sam!

They checked out the fish

They played sword fight- all 3 having their own sword!!

For Landry, it doesn't get much better!  Brody dropped his pillow and the second it landing on the floor Landry was lying on it!  Then to have Brody's little feet on his back.....heaven !

And this is were it got fun! The yardwork (no you can not come to my house for the weekend and not do anything!) So with a lot of persuading, and a little imagination the "games" began!!! Of course I didn't get their attention until I announced the score was Hayes- 2, Brody and Sam-0!  oh it was on....

Starting with "First stick ever" which lasted for about 20 sticks, until Brody said "you know this isn't really our first stick ever anymore!" Smart kid!  Then we switched gears and played pick up 5 or more:  pinecones, then big sticks, then skinny sticks, how many sticks can you hold in your arms, who can find the biggest stick, sticks with pine needles still   attached...then Sam announced his legs could not do any more and he needed to go inside for some video time... job well done guys, job well done!!

We started the day with Brody's last soccer game of the season- which they won and played really good. Brody said they were undefeated, couldn't anyone beat them! This is Brody and his friend Harrison with their trophies.