just a few more....

Enjoying ice cream on a hot day.  Keenan slept through the visit to the ice cream counter. Chocolate chip was the favorite!

Oops..I forgot to rotate the picture.

Back from the beach

Obviously, I love black and white pictures.  They are my favorite because it shows so much of the personality of the child.  So take note of the kids in the sand.  Look who is sitting and who is squatting.  Just shows the difference of the kids.  We enjoyed the beach after dinner one night.  It was nice and cool.  I had fun with the camera trying to get some shots.  Ok, I did pose the kids in the first shot so it is really not a "true" candid shot!  

And I love the picture of the kids and Scott in the bed.  I told the kids to wake Daddy so we could head to the pool.  They did a great job getting him out of bed.  Our family loves to sleep!

It is hard to believe summer will be over soon and school will start.  

I was experimenting with turning my camera to get some angle shots.  I think I may have turned it a little too much but oh well.

Looking for Rest in All the Wrong Places....

Boo (i.e. me!) has been a little restless the past few weeks.  Everything was getting to me and I was allowing it to get to me.  I was wound tighter than...well not sure what but let's just say I was stressed!  I kept thinking to myself it will get better when we get away to the beach, knowing deep down that was not the answer. So off we went to the beach, which usually is nice and relaxing.  We arrived...

I could not relax!  My sweet hubby had to deal with my tearful mood, which he is really good at. :)  I thought a nap would help...kind of but not really....thought some retail therapy would help....nope, not that....thought a big soft yummy chocolate chip cookie would help...nope, not that.  Surely, a strawberry milkshake would help...nope, not that.  A nice evening on the beach...nope, not that.  As great as all these things are they only give temporary relief.  So why did I not turn to God in the beginning and wait until I felt miserable?  I was trying to give myself rest but He is the only one that can give true rest.  God says, "Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest."  And how wonderful it is that He promises us this type of rest.  Rest that is beyond our own understanding.  Although I am physically tired from the 2 little ones, God has filled my cup back up and I am rested mentally.  Thank you God for pouring out your love.

On another note...I did take a few pictures at the beach.  I will share them once I download them on my computer.

10 Years!

Happy Anniversary My Honey!

It is hard to believe it has been 10 years since we said "I Do".  Lots have changed in 10 years but the one thing that still has remained is that you are my best friend.  I love you more today than I loved you on our wedding day.  My prayer is that our love will continue to grow.  Thank you for being the godly husband that you are.

One of my favorite things that you say is "We may not be perfect but we are perfect for each other".  

I love you bunches.

Punkin Boo Wife

Swimming Lessons

She did it!!!  I am so proud of my little girl.  She started off swim lessons with big tears (well actually screaming and gagging to be more exact).  However, she persevered and made it through.  She went Mon-Thurs mornings for 2 weeks.  And I am happy to report that there were absolutely no tears for the past 3 days.  She tried new things and said it was fun.  She is very proud of herself that she learned to blow bubbles, kick, use her arms and jump off the side. We had to celebrate today with a visit to the ice cream store.  In her sweet little voice she said, "It gets better each day".  She was very proud of her pink certificate that her teacher gave her today.  And I can not say more great things about Ms. Lindsey and Ms. Linda.  They were determined to help her work through her fears.  Here are few pictures I was able to capture over the past few days. 

1-2-3 JUMP

Kick, Kick, Kick

1-2-3- JUMP AGAIN

B and Ms. Lindsey

Ms. Lindsey, K, Ms. Linda, and B

Loving the Rain

I am loving the rain that we have gotten in the past week.  So different from last summer.  And I think it is a sign of getting older.  I remember as a child I did not like the rain at all.  Now I love it.  And the flowers love it to.  These are a few pictures of the flowers in our yard.  Have a blessed day!

Digital Scrapbooking

My first attempt to digital scrapbooking!  I downloaded a template off the web and used photoshop elements.  I was a little frightened when the instructions said "Take a deep breath before reading below.  Once you get the hang of these they are super fun and easy but can definitely be a bit of a challenge in the beginning."  That is enough to scare you away! However, I thought I would take the challenge and try it out.  Perhaps it would be good for my brain to learn something new!  The sweet little kids in the picture can suck out the brain juices!  Anyway, it was a bit of a challenge because I am still learning photoshop elements.  It is pretty cool that there are websites where you can download FREE paper kits.  I did pay for the template but it was worth the $2.99 to have something to go by.  For all you scrapbookers, give it a try.  

Little Man Feeling Better

Wow, what a week it has been!  K was still not feeling that great from the stomach virus (see previous post).  Poor little guy was hungry but his stomach was not ready for all the food he wanted to eat.  The little temper that he has showed itself many times this week.  Thanks for all the phone calls from everyone to see how the kids were doing.  I am happy to report that he is back to his happy little self.  He enjoyed his food today and scooted his cars all over the house.  Maybe one thing that helped was that mommy got a babysitter for the afternoon.  My plan was to take B to the pool but it started raining.  So went to her favorite places...the bookstore and the pet store.  B started swimming lessons this week.  I hope to have some pics next week.  We have just been focusing on getting through it without lots of tears.  She is making progress.  She has gone from screaming to the teacher "I don't want to do that" to holding on a bar and kicking her legs while they pull her down the lane.  She even jumped off the side of the pool. The teachers at the Y have been great with her.  Very patient!  So hopefully, I can get some pictures next week of her during the lesson.  Hope you enjoy this picture of K at the table today.  He loves wearing hats.  Just trying to keep the pink cowgirl hat off of him!

More pics

I can't figure out how to add more pics to my previous post.  So here are some more from the weekend.

the train that goes around Stone Mtn.

Finished off with a hamburger

B could have sat here all afternoon with this man.  She crawled on the bench with no hesitation.  She loves music!  They sang Itsy Bitsy Spider and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.  

More Summertime Fun

The Garrison kids are having a busy summer packed full of backyard fun and travel.  We ended last week with a morning full of fun in the backyard.  We had our own water park.  Blowup pool, water table and sprinkler were the main attractions.  I decided to take the kids to GA to visit family over the July 4th weekend.  We arrived on Tuesday afternoon after a full day on the road.  The kids did great traveling.  Wednesday morning I took them to Stone Mountain Park.  I grew up going to this park with my grandparents.  My granny would pack a picnic and we would spend the afternoon at the park.  It has so much to see and do.  Kids love it.  B was excited to see the BIG rock and K loved crawling on the lawn.  We had a great morning and then took a nap at Gee's house.  All was well until about 10:00 at night.  The STOMACH VIRUS hit the family!  First Keenan, then my mom and then Bailey.  It was horrible!!!  I will spare the details.  But God is good and provided in many ways.  My dear cousin came over at 4:00 in the morning to help me.  I was afraid I would get it and then we would not have fluids, etc for the kids.  Then my dear friend Pam took off work to go to Walmart for me to get more stuff for me.  And my sweet friend Ginger called and checked on us and told me what to give the kids.  Thankfully everyone was feeling better by Friday.  I decided to head back home a day early.  By the grace of God, I did not get the virus and was able to take care of the family.  Those of you who know me well, know that taking care of the sick is not one of my gifts.  I get queazy (sp?) really easy!  God got us all through it.  Thanks for all those who helped.  So here are some pictures before the virus hit. 

Backyard Fun

Stone Mountain...B called it the BIG Rock

Little man crawling on the lawn infront of the mountain.

More pictures in the next post.