Meeting James William Payne

My brother, Justin & his wife Mandy had their first child on May 28th. My nephew, James William Payne (named afer both of his grandfathers) is welcomed into the Payne family by 10 other cousins!!!

We were able to make a quick trip to Memphis to meet him and visit with Justin & Mandy. We didn't want to overwhelm their family and planned for a couple of short visits, but once there, we all had such a great time visiting, that we stayed longer than planned.

Not only did we get to love all over sweet James, but we got to enjoy a couple of lunches, played washers, threw darts, and enjoyed the beautiful weather outside. What a precious time we had with family and look forward to seeing them again soon!

Sweet little James William


Justin, Mandy & James

Christian is thrilled to have another boy cousin!

Uncle Matthew with James

Aunt Katie with James

Julianna was a bit nervous around Kramer at first but she warmed up to him. I thought this was a funny picture

Julianna loved holding James. I have some great pictures of her with him but loved this one of her kissing him

Rebecca with her newest cousin!

Aunt Mandy & Julianna

Aunt Mandy and Rebecca

Enjoying a game of washers on a gorgeous day!

Julianna wanted to play, too

My baby brother with his son - so cool!

Special Friends

When we went to visit Justin & Mandy and meet James, we stayed with our dear friend, Susan. She lives about 10 minutes from Justin & Mandy so it worked out wonderfully. We were able to visit with the Payne's until dinner time and headed over to Susan's. After visiting for a while and playing with Harlee, we went out to a yummy dinner and got a little ice cream.

Before we headed back to Justin's on Saturday, we had a nice relaxing morning at Susan's with some great coffee and Pop Tarts! The kids love "Aunt Su-Su" and Harlee is quite a hit with them, too.

We love you, Susan!

Oops, he did it again

Well, Christian broke his tooth off again. If you'll remember, it was the end of last July and Christian was riding on a scooter over a ramp, fell and busted his front tooth. Our dentist has been able to build it back up. We've actually had to have it rebuilt 2 times after the original break (once from a ring pop (no more of those allowed) and once from a french fry). Anyway, until he's a full adult, they won't be able to crown it or whatever, so this is the best we can do.

We were swimming for the first time this summer at the Locke's pool and Michael was squirting Christian in the face with water so he was turning away from him and didn't realize he was so close to the side of the pool. Boom - there it went. Christian was so upset - he had just recently stated how long it had been since he'd had to get it fixed.

Our dentist worked us in that Friday and we got it taken care of..... Now we just need to be budgeting for this to happen a couple of times a year... oh well!

Right after it happened - poor thing

Lookin' good!

Rebecca turns 10!!

Our dear second child turned 10 on June 1st. She loves being in double digits! :-) We had a busy day planned that day but had our early morning celebration with presents and then had a special dinner for her that night.

She received the Ipod Touch, too, but had gotten it a little early so she could take it with her to Cincinnati on the soccer tournament. Se loves it, too!!

Rebecca and her Ipod Touch

Julianna received a beautiful and very soft blanket from a friend from school. I asked his Mom if she could make one for Rebecca's birthday and she found the art pallette to monogram on there. It looks great. Rebecca loves it.

We had a swimming party for Rebecca and the Locke's house. She invited her entire school class plus a few other friends from school and church. You never know how the turn out will be once summer hits but she had quite a few kids from school come and they had a great time. She really had a great group of kids in this class and we were very impressed with everyone there and what nice kids they are. The party consisted mainly of swimming, a little eating and a lot more swimming. Great for the adults, too!!

The Party Crew


Rebecca is our little fish!

Being nice???? A rarity these days it seems!

We had to QUICKLY eat this ice cream cake - hurry up, Rebecca!

Hunter & Chae, two really nice guys in her class that she's also in RISE with!

Final Soccer Tournament (for the season) in Cincinnati

We headed to Cincinnati, Ohio over Memorial Day weekend for our final soccer tournament of the spring season. We usually go to one bigger "away" tournament each year. The previous 2 years we went to Chattanooga, so we decided to go somewhere new this year.

It was hot, but we had a nice time and we didn't not have to play in the rain or mud! Most amazing for this season of soccer for sure.

We started off strong with 2 great wins, then had a loss which didn't really affect our standings, but lost on Monday morning in the semi-finals which put us out of the tournament. It was very disappointing and of course I won't go on and on about the horrible officiating that changed the events of the game...... Anyway, it was a good way to end our season and have fun, too.

What a great group of boys

White House Revolution 98!


Christian in the first game on Saturday afternoon

Christian's typical "position" at least once per game.... good grief!

A little pushing going on here!

Julianna and one of her best buddies, Cayman at the pool

The boys were given some time in the pool - they loved to rough house with Coach Matt

Julianna and Logan, one of her favorite buddies on the team!

Looks like a serious pow-wow!

More soccer

Can't leave her out

All my recent blogs involve the 2 big kids...

Just didn't want to pass up my silly little 3 year old!!

Man, we need to get to the dentist, even if we don't have insurance!

So silly

The most precious smile - we see it all the time

Julianna and her special friend, Leah

Awards Day & End of School

You know, I'm aware that all parents think that their children are the cutest and the funniest and the smartest, etc. And to each, they are...

However, this is MY blog so I can brag on my kids as much as I want to... so here we go (again!):

We were invited to Awards Day at the school. Below, you will see Rebecca with the awards she was presented. Since you can't read each of the certificates, I'll outline it for you:

* All A Honor Roll (she maintained an A in each class of hers all year long)
* Perfect Attendance (the first year for this, but very cool)
* Highest Grade Average in her class for Spelling
* Highest Grade Average in her class for Math
* Highest Grade Average in her class for Social Studies
* A certificate for her 1st place in the County Art Fair
* A certificate for her Best of Show Honorable Mention at the County Art Fair
* A ribbon for Special Recognition for Participation in the Duke TIP (Talen Identification Program - based on her state wide scores)

So as you can see, we are very proud of her!

We were also invited to Christian's Award Day (they hold each grade levels separately). Here is what Christian received:

* A/B Honor Roll throughout the year (however his final report card averaged all A's for his subjects which was a HUGE accomplishment)
* Perfect Attendance (a first for him, too)
* Citizenship Award - this is the Highest honor a student can receive -one boy and one girl is selected from each class by the teacher - this is a character award
* Certificate for participating in the County Spelling Bee
* Certificate for WINNING the County Spelling Bee
* Certificate for his AR Reading points
* Certificate for his Writing Assessment (something all 5th graders do and is graded on a 1-6 scale. Christian got a 5 on his which indicates a STRONG paper)
* A ribbon for Special Recognition for Participation in the Duke TIP (Talen Identification Program - based on his state wide scores)

Again, you can see we're VERY PROUD of our smart kiddos!

Silly, I know, but even I got an award. Rebecca's teacher, Mrs. Henderson, had a pre-Awards Ceremony ceremony for every kid in her class and gave them each some type of an award. She gave out 2 VIP (Very Important Parent) award and I got one. :-)

Christian with Mrs. Gay - his Spelling and Language Arts teacher

Christian & Mrs. Keel - his homeroom teacher and Science & Social Studies

Christian with Mrs. King - his Reading and Math teacher

Christian & Rebecca with Mrs. Pinson & Ms. Kim - the librarians, some of our favorite people at GES

Rebecca with Mrs. Henderson. She was the perfect teacher for Rebecca this year!

In Loving Memory Of.......

Yes, that's right..... my camera..... My Canon Power Shot A520 4.0 Mega Pixel Baby....

She had a good life, though. She served her master well.

We knew she was getting on up in years, but that did not make her passing any less of a shock or any easier.

I told Matthew that me without a camera was like him without a phone.... that made my mourning clearer to him.

As hard as it would be to replace her, it was necessary. We have done so and you will meet our newest family member in due time, but this blog is to honor my Canon Power shot...

Below, these are the first three pictures she took... (actually, not really but I'll explain below)

Matthew actually gave me my birthday present early so I could have it on Halloween that year. I was so excited. We went Trick or Treating around our neighborhood with our small group from church. We had so much fun - and I got some great pictures. That evening, after the kids were in bed, I was looking through my pictures on the camera (this was my first digital camera) and accidentally formated the card, which I didn't know what that meant until I realized all my pictures were GONE.

I cried and cried (remember I was 38 1/2 weeks pregnant, too). I was so upset with myself. The next morning was my birthday and Matthew got up super early, woke up the kids and had them put their costumes back on for pictures for me. You can see from the pictures they look half asleep and their costumes weren't 100% but it was a very sweet gesture and worked. Then of course we had to get the good ole prego pictures of me, too)

Below, are the three last pictures she ever took.

My brother Justin had called me about making some washer toss boards and I pulled one down and took these pictures for him so he could see how ours were made. Never would I have known these would represent the end of her dear life.

Her final picture is IMG_6110... wow, 6110 pictures and/or video. Canon, you will be missed!!!