Precious Moments...

Happy last day of June!! Well, just like with Master Thomas, Moma is sending me some pictures of Shelby while she's up there visiting this week and Thomas is at camp. Here she is practicing putting the golf ball.

Chillin' out with PawPaw and Tuffy...

My beautiful Belle...Moma said she was getting ready to work on a little painting project for PawPaw. He "hired" her and she made $5.00 and was very excited about it. =)

A trip to Grandma and Papa's already. Here she is loving on Miss Gracie, Pop's little sidekick.

These are the pictures I LOVE the most...precious moments!

Two of my favorite gals, plus the one behind the camera!!! =)

Last I heard, Belle was getting ready to go swimming!!! I'm sure I'll have more pics to share tomorrow.

Thomas Goes to Camp!

This afternoon, Thomas headed off to church camp. This boy was so excited last night I didn't think I was ever going to get him to sleep. HA! Here he is with his buddy, Colt. Colt is a year younger than Thomas but they are big buddies and Colt lives on our street. Thomas was very happy Colt was going to camp.

Here they are waiting to get loaded up. Thomas is talking to Tyler, in the gray shirt, who goes to our church. Colt and Tyler know each other too because they play on the same baseball team.

This little guy trying to sit on Thomas' lap is Shane. He's Tyler's little brother. The boys were SO excited to be riding together with Shane and Tyler's mom, who is going as a camp sponsor. Five boys in a car under the age of 8. I couldn't help but feel sorry for Shelly. :-)

Thomas returns home Wednesday afternoon and I can't wait to hear all about it!!

A Full Day...

Finally, a post for today!! It's been another busy day for us Hathorn's!! First, we met Gramms and PawPaw for lunch again up in Lufkin to hand Shelby over to them for the week. Once back home, we got my truck inspected since it expires this month, got Thomas all packed up for camp, then took Thomas out for dinner this evening!! A fun day but we are ready for bed. I just wanted to share a few pics I took this evening after we got home from dinner.

First, we had a crescent moon out tonight!! I love, love, love, this picture!

Doves sitting on the fence - they were cooing too. It's been so HOT lately that they have been trying to nest on our padded rocking chair under our front porch where it's nice and shaded. Only problem is they poop on it too. :-)

Thomas jump roping for a few minutes...amazing how he can do this after just eating a large meal.

Sunset sky...

Tomorrow is another very busy day for us including, church, lunch, Thomas leaving for camp, Transformers movie, and topped off with a dinner with friends from church. Hope everyone else has a great Sunday! Thomas returns from camp Wednesday afternoon and Shelby comes home with Gramms and PawPaw on Friday afternoon, just in time for a special 9th birthday!!!

Something to be Happy About...

I took Miss Shelby to her dentist yesterday to get her orthodontic appliance out of her mouth!! She was very excited, especially since we originally thought she would not have gotten it off until some time in July!! She was so thrilled to have it taken off early and right before her 9th birthday.

Oh yeah, I just threw this one on here for kicks and grins, because he's just so handsome, charming and irresistible. :-)

Shelby and I go back to the dentist on July 9th just to get her post-appliance impressions done to make double sure that everything looks great!! Hopefully, this will be the last appliance for a long time.

Swimming Fun & Photography!

Yesterday morning I took this person...

and this person...to the pool!!

It is so, so hot here!! I don't really remember a summer since living down in this neck of the woods that was so hot! It has not rained here since MAY!!! Even the water in the pool doesn't feel as cold to me.

But, the kiddos still want to swim and play and do handstands, like Shelby here! She loves doing handstands in the pool.

Then they decided to snorkel.

Shelby was having difficulties with her mask. HA!

She gave up on that and then just decided to chase Thomas and squirt him!! :-)

Then I decided to play with my new camera, which is an ongoing process! First, this helicopter flew right over the swimming pool and it was moving fast. I was impressed when I saw that my picture I took at that instant was NOT even blurry. Pretty neat.

Then I decided to start exploring with my photo selection known as "Color Accent". In this picture, I chose only for the blue in the rope behind Shelby to be colored. It can give a neat affect to pictures.

Here's one of Shelby and Thomas with only the pool water accented.

This is an example of just a picture in black and white - I chose the Lifeguard stand.

And then here's the same picture with just the red accented.

I also accented the dropping buckets and shower pole.

I accented nothing but the water and sky here. I think this is my favorite pic out of the ones I took yesterday. Not a cloud in the sky.

Yep, it was a fun day at the pool. I just wish it wasn't so bloody HOT!!!!

Keaton

On Monday afternoon, we had the privilege of keeping Master Keaton while his mommy went to a doctor appointment.

He loves hanging out with Master Thomas and Miss Shelby!!

And also with the big DAWG...

Trinity just lets him climb all over her...she does look like a live jungle gym!

We even had a jam out session with Thomas' Blue Man Drums/Tubes.

I didn't get it on film, but he was dancing right here...

I love this picture!! Keaton turned 10 months old on June 11th - hard to believe!! This past weekend he got his first big boy haircut!! It makes him look so grown up.

Then we had some playtime in the playpen!

The kids both read books to him and Keaton loved it!!

Keaton is going on his first plane ride today to California with his mommy. He's going to Disneyland and also going to his aunt's wedding!

SALTeens 2009

Sunday night at church we enjoyed a concert put on by a summer traveling group of high schoolers sponsored by Dallas Christian College. Their theme this year is called "Example". They are called the SALTeens.

We sat up in the stadium seating this time so I could take a few pics! This was pre-concert.

This was the opening song. This summer there are about 45 kids in the choir and band. Seven of them are kids from Northside.

The girl singing solo here in the white scarf is Kim. She is a Northside kid!

This was a shot from one of the skits they were doing. They brought a great message about how to not be a hypocrite and how to lead by EXAMPLE.

This is a shot of Mark Worley from DCC. He has written and directed the SALTeens for over 30 years now. He preached Sunday morning for us since Dave is still in Africa on a mission trip. His message Sunday morning was terrific! It was on Hebrews Chapter 4.

They did a fabulous job this year! After the concert, we let the kids play outside for a bit with their friends before coming home.

Yes, Shelby is still in her Sunday morning dress but she does have shorts on underneath! She is a tomboy that likes to wear dresses!!

Why do boys think they always have to climb up to the tallest part of any structure!?

Shelby's look when I said it was time to go!! :-)

Father's Day Treat!

Yesterday, the kids helped me make a special Father's Day treat for this guy:

We decided to make cheeseburger and french fries, but not just any ordinary burger and fries...look closer!!

These were made out of cupcakes, brownies, icing, and sugar cookies!!! YUM!!

Here's Shelby and Thomas working on some...

The first one James had we put into a little basket with cute blue tissue...

He was so surprised!! He really liked the french fries...

And the burger too!! Look at that face...it's saying, "Mmmm, not bad!" He actually did say that he had never had a burger and fries quite like this!!

It was not hard making these cute little treats at all. You basically cut a cupcake in half, put a cut-out circle shaped brownie piece in the middle for the patty, use different colored icings for condiments and fix sugar cookies for the fries. As soon as they come out of the oven cut them into french fry shaped slices. Very cute and yummy and the kids had fun helping make them.