A Night out with Alissa

can you tell we live in the country?

Well, Erica & Kayla were babysitting, so Bret & I decided to take Alissa out with us....we went shopping, then onto New York Pizza & Pasta in downtown. It was a fun night for all of us and good to spend some alone time with Alissa. Time to make plans to do it again with each of the others. :)
Shelly

Downs and all the animals

Awww!

Annie and Cleo

Matthew and Cleo

Andrew and Cookie

King of the Mountain

Well, some good friends of ours, the Downs, heard that we had chicks and asked if they could come over to see them. Of course, we said yes, so they came over and had lots of fun. I didn't get any good pictures of them and the chicks, cause the kids and the chicks wouldn't stand still at the same time. But there are some good ones of the big animals outside. It was lots of fun.

MAZI Ball pics!!! Yay! I loved the ball!

Erica in her beautiful dress, it looked like it was made for her!!

Kayla being pretty and girly!

My dress

The 3 of us with some friends. The girl in the tiara, Becka, it was her birthday!

With some other friends

The group, minus a few

The group I sat with, we had fun!

Awww!

I snapped this really fast, so that's why Kayla is blurry

We wanted a serious one. But we had a hard time not laughing.

We took this picture before we left to get ready for the ball at Becka's house

We had lots and lots and lots of fun at the ball. The 3 of us got ready at the Mosley's house. We had our makeup done, and got dressed. Then we all met at Meagan's house for hair and pictures. Then we drove to Red Lobster for dinner. We had a great time talking, laughing and taking pictures. There is just something about dressing up and going to dinner with your girlfriends that makes everything just about perfect. About halfway through the dinner, all of the guys from our church that went to Boston with us came into our room in the restaurant all dressed up in suits and holding roses. They sang us some songs, such as Aladdin's "A Whole New World" and "L-O-V-E", or whatever that really old song is. It was really sweet. Then they gave us each a rose. So that is where our roses came from. It was so cute and thoughtful. They left and we finished dinner. Then we all went to the Martin's house for a dance party. Not boy-girl dancing. They made a playlist and we all danced together. Mostly girls with girls, or everybody by themselves. But when we walked onto the patio in the back yard of the house, all the guys were lined up in a row, waiting for us. Now we did have a song or two where girls and boys danced together, but I danced with girls then too. It was definitely one of the best nights of my life. *Sigh* :) I really enjoyed it.

Stephanie, Vicki & Mahti come to visit!

playing soccer

just hanging

On Monday, August 24th (our first day of school!) Bret's cousin, Stephanie, from Africa came to visit with her twin daughters who are Erica's age. It was the first time for our family to meet them! It was a wonderful evening of sharing & visiting & getting to know one another. They ate supper with us then spent the night before moving on to their next destination the next morning. Too short; but very sweet. We hope to see them again very soon!
Shelly

Garden Abundance

lots of good stuff

look at the size of that cucumber!

We ate lots of tomatoes

1st watermelon

1st canteloupe - it was itty bitty

but it sure was yummy!

Well, these are some pics of our garden returns, hard work but good food. We enjoyed a few vegetables we don't normally eat or grow too often. It was yummy. :) The cucumbers were doing really well for a long time - so we made plenty of pickles.....but then the hogs came one night and destroyed them all. No more cucumbers.....or pickles. :( There is always next year. We are already making some good plans and adjustments from this year. Shelly

Claire and Randall

My cousin Randall

Claire, another of my wonderful cousins

Tavi really liked her, and Claire really liked Tavi. They were so cute together. I had so much fun taking pictures of them!

Well, I am supposed to be putting pictures of the MAZI Ball up here, but I couldn't pass up these really cute pics of when Claire and Randall came over. Hope you like them!

Baby Chicks are so cute!

Cute little wet chick!

Totally adorable!

I love chicks

I could sit and hold them for forever! They are so sweet! And really messy, and loud and precious.