Snips and Snails: Another fast summer

As I type this, I am amazed again by how fast this summer has slipped by. When school was first out, I felt like we had tons of time to do so many things! But, July is closing in and school is right around the corner and I am in denial. It's just not possible.
We have had a busy, busy summer. It's been great though. June was mainly about weddings. On June 8th, one of my best friends in the world, Ashley Coleman got married to Matthew Wilson. Ashley has been like a little sister to me since we've moved back to Nashville. We've been through a lot together and had so many fun times. She is definitely like family and an honorary aunt to our boys. They adore her and Matthew both. Josh performed the ceremony, I was a bridesmaid, and the big boys were bell ringers. The wedding went great and we couldn't be happier for them both. Unfortunately, that weekend was extremely sad and stressful as well. On Wednesday of that week I found out that my Pawpaw (my Dad's father) passed away. We were kind of expecting it to be soon, but I was really hoping (selfishly) that he would hold on a little longer because we had plans to visit him in July. I was so worried that the funeral would be on Friday (the day of the wedding). Thankfully, it was on Saturday and me, my brother and my Mom made the trek to Memphis that day. We thought it best not to take the boys and Josh kept all three that day (and did an amazing job). He was a wonderful Pawpaw..one of the sweetest, most tender-hearted men that I have ever known. He will be missed. I am so thankful that I was able to attend the funeral.
Ashley's older brother, Chris also got married in June (30th). Nathanael was the ring bearer. And, Josh did a prayer in the ceremony. So, that was another busy weekend for us. The wedding was beautiful. And, Nate did an amazing job..I was proud mama!
The week of Chris' wedding we went to Josh's parents house in Alabama. We were there Mon-Thur. Josh spoke Wednesday night at the church they attend. We had a great time while we were there. We went on their boat one day and the boys got to swim in the lake. We also took the boys to Spring Park where there are ducks and geese, a carousel, train, kids roller coaster, and a splash pad. Talk about a fun park! We also had some amazing food while we were there, but my favorite was probably my mother-in-law's homemade banana ice cream...yum!!! Such a fun trip.

Riding on Papa's boat

Nicholas being a stinker :)

Feeding the extremely friendly geese

Nathanael being a cutie

The big boys and Papa on the train!

Riding the roller coaster

The splash pad

Man, I love those rolls!!

My sweet big boy on the carousel

We had vbs at our church the week of July 8th. It was a great vbs! We had a really good turn-out. The boys loved it. The songs, skits and classes were great. And, they had food every night - pizza, subway and chic-fil-a. And, homemade ice cream on Wed. night. I taught the baby class. I had 4 babies (including Nicholas) and also a pair of twin boys (3 yr olds) that have some developmental delays (they were born pre-mature and had some hearing issues) would come visit us some too. I had a couple of helpers which was great. I really enjoyed teaching those sweet babies! And what was neat is that they were all about the same age. In fact, Nicholas and another boy (JJ) were only a week apart. It was fun seeing Nicholas interact with all the babies, because usually he's the only one in his Bible class at church. One night, JJ's Mom brought JJ into class and Nicholas said "Hi, JJ!". He was so excited to see him. So cute.

This past week we traveled to Brownsville, TN. We were there Sat-Thur. Josh did a gospel meeting at Westside Church of Christ (the church we used to attend). They put us up in the Comfort Inn (two rooms with an adjoining door). It was such a great trip. It was so good to see everyone..it had been about 5 years since we had seen a lot of those people. They loved seeing the boys. The boys did great (except that Nicholas slept with me a lot of the time in the king size bed). The hotel had a pool which was really nice. We went swimming every morning. The members at the church hosted us for lunch and dinner which was great..we were spoiled. It was a good visit and Josh did a wonderful job as usual. We also made some new friends while we were there and had a lot of fun with them.

We're also having some things done to the house this week that I'm really excited about! They're remodeling the bathroom (yay!!!) and we're getting new carpet and kitchen flooring the end of next week (woohoo!!!). We're also planning on painting the kitchen. It will be like a new house :) We really love the location and the yard of this house and with a few updates I know we'll really enjoy living here for a few more years (we want to eventually buy our own home). But, living rent-free is wonderful right now.

So, that's basically been our summer so far. There have also been some little things..going to the Discovery Museum in Murfreesboro (with Frank and Allyson), Josh taking the big boys to Cheekwood to see the treehouse exhibit, swimming at different pools, and hanging out at Grandmama and Granddaddy's house. It's all been a lot of fun. And a bonus is that Noah and Nate have become best friends again. Noah is a lot less stressed and the meltdowns have decreased. He is getting along much better with his brothers. Yay! It's been a great summer.. definitely one we won't forget :) Here are a few more pics...