July and August

I finally figured out how to get the pictures from my Blackberry Q10 to Google Plus.  It's a pain, but I'm hoping with Blackberry's next OS update, they will fix this so I can sync directly without going thru the desktop.  WHEW!
So, just a portion of what we've been up to lately.  We went to Ashley's as I said in a previous post and had a ball!  We even went to Ft. Sumter and burnt slap up!  It was so flippin' hot!

 The kids all held up well tho.  It's SO wonderful seeing all three girls with big grins on their faces!  We love their husband/boyfriends too!  This is a first!  HA!  really.
Then, one day, Lily was playing on the front porch with me, Britt and David and nose dived off the top step.  Dr. Flanders said it could take up to a year for the scarring to fade away, but it's looking great already.  Isn't she just so little here?

 In between her speech and occupational therapies, we go to Waffle House for a feeding.  Lily loved sitting at the counter.

 As usual, we go to Kentucky every few weeks to catch the shows.  Here is Court and Jake entertaining the crowds.  I'll put a video on here of them singing when I figure out how.  They really sound SO good together.  Their harmonies are just like honey and his guitar picking is the best I've ever heard.  He come from bluegrass, so his country picking has a lot of bluegrass roots.  Just awesome.

 He sang "Eleven Roses" to her during one show and it was a tear-jerker.  They need to record themselves.

I love this next picture.  Grandma Terry is at an assisted living place that is just beautiful.  There is staff everywhere and she is just blossoming here.  She socializes, plays bingo, eats properly and gets loads of exercise.  Her memory has returned and she's sharp as a tack.  She is the most amazing person I've ever known.  Lily just LOVES her and Gma Terry LOVES Lily.  Britt did well when she named Lily after her.  What a legacy to carry!  I'm just so happy to have pictures of them together so Lily can know where she came from.
Lily and Silker were together for 20 months before Silker passed away.  We have loads of those pictures too, but Lily's personality didn't really come out until after her death.  I don't think there's a day that goes by that I don't soooo wish she were here to laugh at Lily.  And she would have!

 We went to visit her yesterday with John and Ash.  Lily and Gma T. were just clinging to each other and hugging and laughing.  It was beautiful.  Ashley enjoyed the visit too.  REALLY!  lol

 Last weekend, we all went to the Tadpole in Greer to celebrate Gma T's 96th birthday!  There was a load of us!

We're going back again this weekend.  Ash and John wants to go for Ashley's 25th birthday.  We NEVER need a reason to go, so a go we shall!
David got Lily a Clemson outfit, so she had to model it.  She'll be wearing it a lot during the games this year.  I'm sure she knows more about football than I do!  lol!

 David taking Lily for a walk.

 Here is a moment I captured while on the ferry boat to Ft. Sumter.  Lily is NEVER still, so I was glad to get this one in focus!

That's about it for the moment.  There's a million other moments and pictures I would love to share on here, but there are so many. 

More to come!!!

Anticipation....

Will Ash and John's baby EVER get here!!!  This is excruciating!!  ha!  We went thru this when Britt was pregnant with Lily and I really DID think I was going to explode!  I'm just so thankful to have Ash so close to here so when the baby finally gets here, we can be a part of his life!
I actually don't even have a photo to add on here that hasn't been added before. I have tons of Court and Jake singing, tons of Britt and Britt and David and Ash and John.  I haven't taken any of Lily lately.  Hmmm....
Lily's speech is better since beginning speech therapy, but SOOOO far from where it should be.  She did say, "tank ewww" yesterday and I nearly died!  She said "big truck" when I was driving her around the other day.  It's great hearing her but 2 single syllable words together tho!
We're going to visit John and Ash this coming weekend for the night.  Britt, David and Lily are going with us.  She will have a house full, but we'll behave!  I'll have loads of pics from that.
That's about it for the moment!!!

Ashley and John are having a BOY!

WHAAAAAA!  I have NEVER said we're having a BOY!  HAAAA!  We were so SO SO happy for them.  They want a boy as John needs one to carry on the family name! I can't tell you how beautiful our babys girls are and the same will be for this one.  We can't wait to enjoy all the changes fixing to happen!

Is that not precious!  I mean REALLY!  I showed this to a girl at work, and she asked me if Ashley's were lace up because she was looking for a pair.  I think I laughed at her! Leave it to a nurse to look outside the box!  hehe

I like this picture too..,..

I know they will be the best parents ever and I believe and hope they will have many many kids!  

Other news, Brittany is dating a guy we actually like! His name is David and he is just as crazy about her and Lily.  This is like HUGE news!  AND WE LIKE HIM!  I won't curse this by adding a picture YET, but I will soon.  We all have our fingers and toes crossed that he could potentially be the one!  

Other news, Court is happy too in Kentucky!  Working and performing is taking up all her time, but she's loving every second of it.  Jake, her boyfriend, whom we like too, is doing great too.  They're writing songs together, singing together and enjoying life.

They have a lot of plans that hopefully will come to pass here in the next year or so.  We're just enjoying going to KY and watching them do they're thing!!!

We're having Britt's birthday party/cookout/welcome home/baby cookout this weekend.  We'll be taking loads of photos and I will share them on here.

Stay tuned!!

Lauren Graduates

I was SOOO proud to attend her graduation festivities!  Our gene pool is just astounding.  She graduated with honors, in the National Honor Society and headed off to college.  She's bright, beautiful and my niece.  Because I know she's alot like me, she will thoroughly enjoy college life and all it offers and she will excel. I can't wait to watch her life blossom and see where it leads her!!!

In other news, we are SO not patiently awaiting to hear the gender of our next grandbaby. Ashley and John's first. We are terrible at waiting for anything, and this is just excruciating.  We are saying GIRL because that's all we've ever had and our baby Brittany had a girl.  What's a boy?? We'll find out on Saturday!!!

Court is excelling in Kentucky and loving being on the stage and also performing with and getting to know Jake.  We LOVE to hear him and Court perform together.  He's such a talented guitar picker, I've never even known anyone like him.  Court is crazy about him and he is her.  So are we!!

They have alot of exciting plans for their future, which could include a move!!!  We'll see!!

Britt and Lily are doing SOOOO good!  Lily finished K-2 and loved every second of it.  Southside Christian School has a wonderful educational system and Lily thrived.  She won't be attending next year due to her speech and communication issues, but will instead by concentrating on speech and occupational therapy, gymnastics and dance.  She's the happiest kid I've ever seen!  

That's it for the moment on this day!!!  More soon!!

BIG NEWS~~

Well, I forgot to come back on here and post what the news is!!!  Our Ashley is pregnant!!!  WOO-HOO!  THEN, if that wasn't enough news, she got married the week after she found out to John!!!  THEN, if that wasn't enough for any parent to recover from. John gets order to CHARLESTON, SC!!!  Like, 2 1/2 hours from our house!!  WHEW!!!!

She's shocked too!  hehe!!  John is a wonderful man who thankfully has a good head on his shoulders, loves Ashley and we know will take care of his family.  This is wonderful for all of us and Ashley sounds so happy!

WE are SOOOOO SOOOOO happy they are moving back down here.  Lily gets to grow up with her cousin, we get to visit all the time and they come up here all the time AND AND life is wonderful.

In other news, Lily has been spending loads of wall time.  We ran out of corners.  She is extremely hard headed, needless to say.  I don't mind putting her in the corner and she seems to enjoy it now!  

A good picture of John and Ashley I found.  Since they aren't here, I am reliant on what she sends me.  Her photo skills are severely lacking. Sigh...

Britt and I took Lily to the Sophia the First/Doc McStuffins to-do here.  She enjoyed it until it got loud.  

I took this in the back yard.  It's the main picture on my cell phone.  She looks so grown up here.  We love her!

Just Lily being Lily.

One of one baby booty I have created.  I'm reluctant to make the second one because Mike says she's having a girl.  He's 5 for 5 so far!  Ash and John really want a boy and gets irritated when I say, "she" when talking about her/him.  We, of course, don't care what it is, I'm just going by family history.  We have no boys what-so-ever except distant cousins to the girls.  We'll find out around the middle of June.

That's about it, as if that's not enough.  Courtney's shows have started back up at Renfro Valley.  SHE has a new boyfriend, Jake.  I haven't met him, but they seem crazy about each other.  I'm going up there in a couple of weeks and will meet him then.  He has a wonderful singing voice tho!!

More soon!!!

THE BIGGEST OF BIG NEWS!!

BUT....I can't say what it is.  Mike doesn't know, Courtney doesn't know, my parents don't, not even Lily. I will say what it is when the source comes out with it!!!  WOWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!  hehe

Mike's BIG 50!

Today Mike finally turns 50!  I've already been 50 for 7 months!  HA!  It's also the 1 year anniversary of his mother's passing, so we won't be having a party today.  She is very VERY missed.

Those were taken at his 45th birthday party. He's asked not to have a party today, so we won't. 

I could add a thousand pictures on here of her and each picture will have great memories, mostly of laughing. She LOVED to laugh and was hilarious.  Smoking is a horrible, selfish habit and it leaves the family with a huge hole. 

I'll make this a short update. I've put loads of pics on this blog thru the years of her and my family.  We did almost everything together so we have lots of photos and memories.

Happy St. Patricks Day!

Throwback Thursday

Today is the day we're supposed to put old pics on the web somewheres and look at it.  Don't know why!
Soooo,

The girls would kill me if they saw this picture!  I think they're beautiful!

HAAA!  Look at Britt's coo-lots!  HAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!  She never reads my blog, so I can laugh at her!  hehe

This is Lily yesterday when I was begging  asking her to take a nap.  She eventually did.

And this morning after getting her dressed, dragging this huge brush thru her nappy head, washing her face, finding her pacifier (YES she still can't live without it) and putting her peacoat on, I had to take a picture of my accomplishment.  One clean, dressed and happy 2 1/2 yr. old ready for school!  She only goes 2 days a week for 4 hours each.  She LOVES it, but hates getting ready for it.

That's it for today (hopefully). 

In the news today, everyone AND they're granny is looking for this missing Malaysian airplane. I have been watching loads and loads of CNN.

L8R!

Baby Raelynn!!!

I became a GREAT Aunt today!!

That's my Brittany holding her.  Deanna finally had her baby and she is just precious and so TINY!  7 pounds isn't really small, but after toting Lily around, Raelynn is definitely dainty.

My sister-in-law Donna and her ex-husband Jimmy.  They have both moved on in their lives, but it was nice seeing them together for Deanna.
The flowers are starting to bloom and my allergies have kicked in.  I've been up since 3:30am sneezing with a stopped up head.  I'd want to live no where else but the south, but spring is just awful.

Warm spring day!!!

We finally had a warm, sunny spring day and we did did enjoy it!! It's supposed to be cooler next week, so we had to lap it up while we could.

March 2014 update

About a month ago, we had a wonderful, beautiful snow and I was off work and took a few pictures before I froze.  YES, that's my frying pan collecting snow.  hehe

Not to say I take too many pictures of Lily, but she's about ALL I take of.  My family hates when I take a picture before they put their makeup on or whatever.  Lily doesn't care!!!

Mike's birthday is coming up and it won't be celebrated this year.  It's his BIG 50.  It also will be the 1 year anniversary of his mother's passing.  On his birthday.  Thankfully, it's a weekday this year, so he'll be at work and hopefully too busy to fall apart.  This has been 1 very long year since then.  I can say since the calendar flipped to 2014, it has been better...somewhat.

That's about all I have time for this time.  I'm a total slacker, but I do think about blogging alot, I just honestly don't have the time I did before Lily graced us with her self.  And that's a great thing.  I have learned since my mother-in-law passed away with no known journal/diary/message/letter etc...that this will be important to my family some day.  They won't have to look for it, it's right here.  We lost SO many friends and family last year that I want to pay tribute to my own family!! : )

Enough of that.  Lily was diagnosed with apraxia from her seizure and we're really working with her speach, and frustration issues she has with that.  That's another long blog post I'll get to one day.  Not very uplifting, but a reality.

More soon!

Joan

Happy 2014

Thank the LORD we're done with 2013! What a relief to wake up January 1 2014 and not look back.  I lost my mother-in-law, my uncle and my dog in 2013. 
So, to look forward now, Lily begins K2 next week, Court is looking forward to another great year performing at Renfro Valley, KY, we plan on flying to visit Ash and John this summer in NH and everyone plans on staying healthy. Done.
I'm typing this from my Note 3, so it's an abbreviated update!
This is the plans today! More soon!