My Sweet Baby Boy...

is 12 years old and over 5 feet tall. Born a small toddler on July 19th he was a very easy sweet baby. Grew up too fast. He had a fun day with lots of friends and even though our family couldnt be here to celebrate with us we managed to have a good day with lots of cake and presents.

the cake is for Fallout. Mackey's fav video game

A camp kids style war...

Even Mark got into it...with LillieGraces help!!

You know the neighbors love us!!

We blew up the slide so everyone could rinse off afterwards.

I hope this is a really slow year because next year he will be a teenager!! Yikes!!

The best people in the world.

Lacey, I just realized that in my editing yesterday I erased You and KK and Lexi from my list and didnt put it back on.. I re worded it so many times I think I erased yall and had planned to put in a special section about you and then forgot I delelted it. Your Aunt is CRAZY!!I was so worried about leaving someone out and here I left out three of the most important. You were in there I swear. You know how much I love you and Miss you guys every single day. I miss that sweet baby and I hate it that I will not get to see her often in the next three years. You need to show her my picture everyday!! So she will know who I am. Maybe tape an 8 by 10 over her crib!! Give my love to Cody and his family. Send me some pictures!! I love you all.

Thanks Mama for giving birth to me on the 4th of July

Being born on the 4th of July has its perks. I mean everyone is willing and ready to celebrate and no matter where we are we are surrounded by good friends, good music and fireworks.

I have so many wonderful memories of my birthday. Like being a little girl and my Daddy telling me the fireworks were for my birthday (and they still are). I also have great memories of family all getting together for my birthday( thanks mostly to Aunt Laura and her insistence that everyone celebrate everyone's birthday with BALLOONS and the correct # of candles). Being surrounded by family and friends and being at the beach. This year was a little different. It was fun and we had great friends with us(thanks Nat for making my day so sweet) and my children are healthy and sweet to their Mama. I have the most awesome husband in the world who loves me.
However I missed my Mama and my Aunt Laura, My Daddy and Robert. I missed Daddy Mac and his 4th of July horseshoe game. Seeing my wonderful grandparents Grama Great and GG. I missed my cousins and their children. Aunt Pats sweet hugs and Uncle Herby sitting on the beach. Aunt Diane and Uncle Ricky and Aunt Laura Smith who never miss my party and have always treated me and my children as if I was a Smith I love Ya. I missed Amy( who after that one year will never miss my birthday again LOL) and Nicole and Glenn who always make me laugh. The 4th wasnt the same without all the Smith/Mackey children, Allison, Cla, Riley, Lollie, Rachel, SarahJane and Caroline. I missed all our wonderful friends spread out under the tent on tybee, eating boiled p nuts. Of course I missed Tonya probably the most only because we have celebrated our birthdays together my whole life I love you !
So while I had a wonderful day and my awesome husband did a great job, it was bittersweet. I miss you all and cant wait to see you again. God Bless America and remember that while we are free it comes at a price and we should be ever so grateful to those who are serving our country in Iraq and Afghanistan so that we may enjoy such things as BBQ chicken on the grill, fireworks on the 4th of July, balloons and of course getting to putt 35 candles on your birthday cake. We LOVE you and THANK you for all you sacrifice.

Mackey's Garden

Mackey and I have been hard at work in the garden. Most everything is doing well.

potatos and sunflowers

Strawflowers

Greenbeans

Daisys and day lillies

Summertime

On Fathers day weekend we went to the Navys Birthday part. Good times.

They have a big BBQ with lots of fun stuff to do. Facepainting and sumo wrestling. Lillie and Mackey got in the suits.

They also had a waterballoon fight. Of course Lillie took a couple extra balloons and towards the end of the fight when all the balloons were gone she SOLD hers for a dollar. Crazy girl.

Anyway we all had a blast and spent a nice quiet Fathers day at home the next day. Of course in the pictures of Mark opening his gifts you can see LillieGrace brushed her hair with a firecracker again.

Anyway we are all doing well but miss you all alot and can't wait to see you guys.

Cherry and Strawberry Picking

We took the kids to pick cherries and boy was that tree full. We got a ton of cherries and left a ton on the tree. We ade cherry cobbler. Yummy

Then we headed over to the strawberry farm and picked strawberries. There are lots of fruit picking going on here in Germany. Wish y'all were here to help us eat it all.

As usual I was behind the camera LOL