my cousins wedding

We also celebrated my cousins wedding this weekend. I rode down with my parents and grandmother to a state park in West Tn. It was very sweet and my cousin married a great guy. I took this pic of the cake for Nate. He was very impressed.
I do not have a very large family, but do have all 4 grandparents still around. Here are my mom's parents with us and the bride and groom. What a cerw! Congrats Amanda and Jeremy!!

They did it!!

One more time I am going to take some time to brag on the little brothers! This time they did it, graduate that is! On Friday night we watched with great pride as Taylor and Tucker both graduated with honors from PHS. We are so proud of them both and can't wait to see what the next stage of their lives holds. Taylor will be attending Bel*mont in the fall. While Tuck will be a VOL just like Clay and I. Here are just a few shots from the night!
Nate and Taylor
Tuck and I

the brothers, Nate, Clay and Tuck

Way to go Uncle Tuck!

Way to go T-dawg!

Belated Happy Birthday Uncle Clay!

So again I have been behind on my posting, but last week was a bit crazy. We celebrated Clay's 27th birthday on Wed. night. It was super fun and the food was yummy! Also nice to have a dinner out without little people. Here is the birthday boy and his mom!

My wonderful parents!

If you know Clay he is a really happy, jolly guy. This is a typical face for him. We were singing "happy b*irthday" at this point!

Little Miss Shaelyn Jade

This past Sat. all of our patient waiting finally paid off and we were able to meet our newest family member. Well around lunch time SHE finally made her debut! And we were all soo excited. She makes girl #2 out of 6, so her biggest cousin Briley was about to bust!! Here is her super proud papa singing the words "Hey Jade" to tell us all that it was indeed a little baby girl!
Here Rich and Livi ring the bell to let the rest of the hospital know that the Lord had blessed another family with a sweet baby.

I love the pic of mom and baby girl. All Dana could say was "really this is a dream come true!" She was so happy that it was a healthy baby girl and that the delivery was nothing like the "nightmare" she was worried about.

Close up with Daddy, Rich and man did she resemble him.

Sweet Jade was attacked by her crazy Aunts and we all took several pics! More to come I am sure.

Update post- Happy Mother's Day

After we recovered from getting dad back we woke up early on Sunday to celebrate Mom's day and go to church. I got a such fun shirt from Dad's trip and a very sweet letter from my boys. Here we are all wearing our Nic. apparel.
Later that afternoon we all headed over to my mom's house for a large Mother's day celebration. It was great, very easy and low key. Thanks mom for letting us have our event at your house!!
Here I am with my wonderful sis-in-laws, we are still waiting patiently for baby Andrews to make his/her arrival! But Dana is definitely already a mom in my book so she had to join in our annual Mother's day pic this year!

All the mom's at the party, some have been moms for 30+ years and some are still waiting to meet their first sweet baby!

update 2- Dad's back!

Finally around 5 on Sat. night Dad, made it back from his trip! We were so excited to go to the airport and pick him up. As usual, it is hard to tell if Cy missed his dad or his sweet friend Sophie more. They run toward each other and embrace like it has been months, not a week since they have last seen each other. Too sweet!
Here is a small shot of all the kids waiting for their dads to arrive home. We must really be a show to all the other passengers that walk past us.
We love you Dad!
Our fam back together again! 7 days is a long time!
I am so proud of Nate and this trip that he takes. This year he was able to speak several times to large groups in the village. He speaks using a translator and delivers a powerful message for the Lord. You make us proud, Dad!!!

First of several update posts- the beach

Making this his 3rd trip in 2 years, Nate headed back south to Nicaragua last week to spread the love of Jesus. I love that he goes and does it, but man 7 days is a LONG time to be alone. So last year Courtney and I came up with a solution. We take all the kiddos and hit the beach. Now taking 5 kids and 2 adults is not exactly a vacation, but that is not why we go. We go so that we are not sitting alone at home in rainy TN, but are all together playing in the sand. We left shortly after the guys last Sat. and returned home late Fri. night. The ride home was terrible, thanks to my screaming 2 year old, but some how we managed and made it safe. Here are some of my favorite pics from the week. Enjoy!!

My sweet little guys, posing with mom before dinner one night!

Look at that sweet smile!


my blue-eyed boy!
the gang saying so long to the ocean for now
brothers
my handsome big brother
he played with that bucket forever
licking the salt water?? boys can be strange
it was a great trip considering all the small kiddos, everyone played nice and the time passed quickly!