First Day of School 2015!

It's time to kick off another school year already!

This year these big kids are going to be in 1st, 

 Of course they wanted to do a "silly picture". 

(I don't know if you can tell from the picture, but Thad has his eyelid turned inside out. He recently learned that trick and does it any chance he gets.)

Thad with his teacher, Mrs. Pyles.

Rhett with his teacher, Mrs. Moore

 and this girl has moved up to the MIDDLE SCHOOL year.

I can't believe it. 

She didn't want us to walk her in, which I understand, so I had to snap a few quick pics in the drop off line.

 I'm praying they have another great year! They've always enjoyed school and had great teachers and done such a great job at school. We're praying that this year is no different!

A Day at the Nature Center

Sunday afternnon we took the kids and our neighbor friends, Alyssa and Drew,  to the Janet Huckabee Arkansas River Valley Nature Center.

It is just right up the road from our house and a really cool place for the kids.

 This was a fishing simulation the boys had fun with.

 On Sunday afternoons they feed one of the snakes a rat and let the kids watch. They all thought that was pretty awesome, but I failed to get a picture:)

 They have a big spider web, climbing rope thing the kids enjoy. I was just snapping a few pictures of them playing and look at these gems of Rhett I got.

 Of course the archery hour was a hit. 

Birthday Boys

Rhett turned NINE this week. 

He is getting so grown up and we are so proud of him!

We decided we weren't doing big birthday parties this year, but he did get to have a friend come over and play for the day.

I forgot to take of pic of them that day, but here he is with Bryson one day at the ball fields.

 Rhett got to choose where we went to eat that night and he chose Hibachi.  This is a terrible picture, but here he is at the Hibachi grill.

When we got home, he got to open his presents.

 After showers, we ate Rhett's birthday cupcakes that Hollace had made for him.

(She is loving to bake these days.)

Happy 9th Birthday to our sweet Rhett!!!

We LOVE you!!

We didn't forget Brent the next day on his birthday.  We made him a yummy ice cream pie!:)

WE LOVE you too!!!

Just Peachy!

As summer was wrapping up, we took a day and went with our friends, the Keeps, to Peach Pickin' Paradise. It is an orchard near Clarksville, AR. We tasted (they said we could sample all we want) and picked lots of peaches. Then we went to a little hamburger shack for some lunch, then cooled off at a little water park in town. It was a peachy day!

Barracudas 2015

The boys participated in the summer swim team with the Barracudas again this year. 

We were only in town for the July meet.

They did such a great job!

(I didn't take my good camera, so I didn't get many good pictures.)

Showing off their ribbons.....

Rhett won two firsts and a second place.

Thad brought home a first, second, and third place ribbon.

Here's a little video of Rhett winning first in the free style.

....and a clip of Thad dominating in the butterfly.

So proud of these little swimmers. 

Here they are showing their "Swimmer of the Day" awards they earned during practices.

Miss Firecracker

Every year Mooreland has a Little Miss Firecracker Pageant around the 4th of July. Hollace has been wanting to do it for several years, but it just hasn't worked out.  She finally got to do it this year, and she had so much fun. She had to go stay in OK the week before the 4th for a rehearsal, then we went back on the 2nd for the pageant.  She was so excited and pretty nervous, but she did SUCH a great job. We were all so proud of her!

They came down the aisles doing a little dance number to Blue Suede Shoes.

 During the introductions, they had to tell their favorite part of the the 4th of July. She said hers was coming to Oklahoma!:)

 The Casual Wear portion in her "patriotic wear"

 For the talent portion she sang "Part of Your Wolrd", from the Little Mermaid. This is the part she was most nervous about, of course. I was nervous for her!, but she did a FABULOUS job. I was so proud of her!

 She did a TERRIFIC job at modeling her "party wear" too!!

She is a natural!:)

 She looked SOOO BEAUTIFUL -if I do say so myself!!!:)

 Thanks SO much to Grammy and Papa, Nana and Papa, and Aunt Juana for all you did to help her prepare, and practice, and get her dress, and get to Mooreland for the reheasal, and get great pictures, etc, etc!  We couldn't have done it without you!!