The Art of Torturing Thomas...

For the most part, Thomas was the lone male in the pool yesterday while Shelby and her buddies tortured him...HA!

They tortured him during games...

They rode on his back...

They tickled him...

They tried to "drown" him...

They chased him...

They squirted him...

They had noodle races with him...

And they snuck up on him...

Yep, it was a pretty rough day in the pool for T-man and he was LOVIN' EVERY MINUTE of it!!

Madison's Swim Party

Last Saturday, Shelby and her buddy, Logan, attended one of their softball teammates swimming pool party for her 10th, just like we had for Shelby. Guests mostly consisted of the softball team, a few cousins, and brothers of teammates.

Love this pic of my Belle...she's growing up so fast!!

Logan and Shelby...best buds!!

The birthday girl is the one standing up at the end about to jump in. The party was held at Madison's uncle's house.

Logan and Shelby in the hot tub chillin'.

Most of the time the girls were playing games against the boys and the hot tub was the safe zone!

Which is why Shelby is in there A LOT! HA! Gabby, sitting on the ledge, is also one of Shelby's softball buddies!!

Shelby protecting Logan from the boys...she was splashing them!

Taking a break...

They had a great time at the party!! Ironically, this is what we're doing today too. Not a party, but definitely hitting the pool with Logan and her sister.

Football Camp - week 3

Most of you know Thomas has already started football practice with his own team this week and it's going great. I will have pics soon of that but first, I wanted to finish off the pictures from his last week of football camp which ended last Friday night.

This pic was taken of the group on the last night...

This was a common sight every night...that's his new cooler buddy which he has named Red and a cold rag on his neck to cool him off. I would freeze the rag an hour before we left for camp so it was always really cold.

My boy...

Thomas did some great running drills on the last night...

He didn't let anybody catch him!!

putting the after-burners on!!! =)

At the end of the night, Coach gave all the boys a cool camp shirt!

The small lettering on one said says...Blood, Sweat, Tears, and the other side says, Committment, Dedication and Courage. He had every one of those except for the tears!!!

It was a great camp and T.J. learned a lot in those three weeks!! Bengal pics coming soon!!

Beauty Everywhere...

James took these photos with his cell phone on his airplane last week coming home from Alabama!

I just had to share...

since God created beauty everywhere!! =)

Grandma's 86th!

My beautiful Grandma - taken on her 86th birthday, July 25, 2010!!


Grandma with her sweetheart on her birthday...so sweet!!

Happy Birthday again Grandma and here's to many more!

We love you so much,

K,J,S,&T

The Circus - Last Post - The Tigers

Finally, my last circus post! The tigers were awesome and were one of Thomas' favorites at the circus this year.

View of entire cage from our point of view...

All I can say is...that dude is brave or crazy!!!

they were as tall as their trainer!!

The kids loved this shot...the trainer had told them to smile for a family photo!! =D

This is James' favorite photo of them!!

This concludes the circus photos! Hope you enjoyed. We sure did.

Up next...Grandma's 86th birthday photos.

The Circus - The Show - Us plus Elephants

To hurry up my circus posts a little bit, I decided to combine the elephants with pics of us!!

Shelby in their circus hat - this hat which had cotton candy attached to it cost $12!! HA!

Thomas especially wore the hat the most!! He has adopted it and keeps it in his room now.

With Daddy...we took all these during the intermission. Notice who is munching on the cotton candy!!

Moma with kiddos...

Right after intermission, the Elephant portion of the show began and they were one of my personal favorites!!

Watching these huge creatures do tricks is cool and all but part of me has mixed feelings. I know they are taken care of well but sometimes it just didn't seem right. It was almost like they belonged out in the wild, roaming free. Makes me wonder what God thinks about this sometimes.

This came out a little blurry but still a neat shot of elephants...sitting.

This was one of my favorite shots...so strong and magnificent!

Remember the old elephant named Sarah?? She got to stand proudly on this stool the whole time instead of doing all the hard tricks.

I've always wanted to know what it was like to ride an elephant, like these girls. Hmmm...maybe one day.

Up next, last circus post...The Tigers!

The Circus - Part Three - The Show

At the beginning of the show they of course did the National Anthem with this decked out elephant. Pretty cool...and this circus was represented by 20 different countries!

Some of the acts...you can't tell but this girl was very high in the air and I had zoomed in on her!

One of my favorite acts...the elephants. I will post a lot more of the elephants tomorrow!

The gorgeous horses...one of Shelby's favorites! We had such great seats and were so glad the horses were on our end. The other end had the zebras.

The dog act was not only full of amazing tricks, it was hilarious!!

They picked three kids out of the audience, dressed them up like wizards and did this cool magic trick where they levitated their parents. I still can't tell how they did it!! =)

A husband/wife team that were the human canon balls!!

These guys were one of T.J.'s favorites. They ran on the inside and outside of those circles while they were spinning around. They also jump roped! It was amazing.

Nice shot...

Up next...the Elephants!! =)