Memorial Day!

I know Memorial Day is just that, a day to honor and remember the fallen soldiers who paid the ultimate sacrifice. One we can never truly thank them for. But I can't help but think of those who are still risking it all on this day as well !! I appreciate them more than words can say!

I just want to say Thank you to all of our Troops!! Those who are active and those who are retired! Not to mention the families that are left behind while they go to serve and fight for us! You're strength is inspiring!

Because of you, I am blessed to be able to spend this day with family!
So I wanted to show off a few pictures of our wonderful lunch at my Dad & Mom's house today!! They grilled out, which we LOVE!!!
Here I am with Grandma and Debbie!!
My sister Tasha and our Dad!!
Mom, Grandad and Caleb!!
Stephen & TashaAnd if you are hungry I am sorry but I had to show off the food! I thought it looked yummy and wanted to remember this!! So if I need to I can e-mail this to someone for a hint to cook it again! ha!!
We had grilled burgers, fruit...

Mac-n-cheese
Chips...and my FAVORITE!!! COOKIES!!!!! :)

We also paid tribute to those fallen soldiers at church on Sunday. The Childrens Church walked in with flags. Here is Caleb right before they went out!

That's my Caleb, leading the group down the church aisles.

After they made it up front we sang a song and said the Pledge of Allegiance and then Caleb said Pslam 23!! He did sooooo good!! He has been practicing and can say the whole thing from memory!! I am soooo proud of him!! No doubt God has something special for this boy!!
I just LOVE this picture of him! Proud to be an American!
We then moved onto another part of our service. Leading into my Dad's sermon he had , Timothy, one of the men at our church stationed at Sheppard Air Force Base, read a little and share a little something about Memorial Day! ( He is also Cindy, Grace's Mommy's, hubby)
One of the things that I still remember is when he said, along these lines, that we are not being asked to die for our country but to LIVE for it.

Same thing Jesus wants us to do for him. Don't be concerned that you will have to die for him, but instead LIVE your life for Him to the fullest!! After all HE died for us so that we MAY HAVE LIFE! So be excited about His promises and love, and remember the one who gave it all so we can!!

Blessings & Love, Ashley

Honor Roll Awards Ceremony For My CALEB

The Honor Roll Awards Ceremony took place the day before school let out and let me tell you how proud I was! :)
Here is Caleb being called up to the stage to get his awards from his wonderful teacher Mrs. Robinson! Showing off his awards!!!
That's a folder FULL of them too!!
Here is a close up of the folder. He decorated it!! Great job huh!!
A close up of one of the AWARDS!! That's right he is officially a 2nd grader!!! Mommy & Caleb!!!
Ninna & Caleb!!
Caleb cheering on his friends as they get their awards!
Here we are looking through his folder!!
And here is a CLOSER look! This was his award for all of his AR Reading! AR stands for Accelerated Reading and Caleb does an awesome job at it!

After they read a book they take a test and earn points. And once they reach a certain limit they get rewarded in the library!

Their name gets called on the announcements and they get their picture taken and placed on the bulletin board!

GO Caleb!!!
Here are some more awards!!

The Citizenship Award!!
The STAR Student Award!!!
The A/B Honor Roll Award!!
And the most exciting... the one showing he is now a 2nd grader!! I'm sad he is growing up but so I'm PROUD of him!! LOVE YA BUDDY!!
Blessings & Love, Ashley

Birthday Dinner & Cake with Granny!

I love Birthday's! It means it's time to Party & EAT!! :) Ha!
And CELEBRATE someone you Love! :) Like Sue, my MIL & the kids Granny!! :)
We headed to On The Border to eat dinner, one of my favorite places, and also had some delicious cake!!
It was so much fun!! And looking back at pictures I noticed how much the kids had grown in just a year!! And since I wasn't blogging back then I had to show off the changes!! :) First Mr. Caleb! Here he is on Granny's birthday last year...

And here he is with Pappy & Granny this year!! Such a big boy!!
And now Miss Chloe!! She was just 6 months old at Granny's birthday celebration last year!
And now she is such a big girl!!! Same sweet face though!!!
This was sooo cute, that I just had to show it off! This past week or so she BEGS to drink out of a straw!!
Meaning if she sees a cup with a straw she grabs for it, babbles, or whines! ha! I mean she can't talk yet! ha! And when she has it, man she will drink non stop! She will drink a full cup of water if it has a straw!! SHE LOVES IT!!

Now you know I am not done showing off some birthday pictures!! ha!

Here's Daniel and Caleb! Love those 2 handsome boys!!

Me & My Pretty Girl Chloe!!
Posing with the Birthday girl!
Pappy & Granny Smiling with the Grandkids!! After we sang Happy Birthday...It was time to open PRESENTS!!
Granny & her Gift Certificate for her facial :) A time to relax and be Pampered! She deserves it! :)
HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!
Blessings & Love, Ashley

Family Field Day Fun & HAPPY BIRTHDAY Sue!!!

Caleb recently had Family Field Day at school!!! It was lots of fun and I wanted to show off a few pictures but first...

HAPPY HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO MY MOTHER-IN-LAW SUE!!!! :) We are going out to celebrate, so I will have more pictures soon but I wanted to wish her a HAPPY Birthday first thing!! :) Enjoy your day and know that you are LOVED!!
She is soooo sweet and a wonderful Granny!! Here is a picture of her and the kids last year on her birthday! Look how little Chloe was!! Caleb has grown soooo much too!!
Since it's also the last day of school, the activities have been in full swing!! So I have LOTS of blogging to do! :) First though was last Friday's FAMILY FIELD DAY!!

Me, Chloe and Ninna all went to spend the day with Caleb! Here we are in line getting hot dogs, chips, cookies and a drink!

Mommy and her babies!!Look at Caleb's shirt! Nearly all of the kids had one! CUTE HUH!!
Oh and that hot dog was YUMMY!!!! It was rainy and muggy that day so we had to eat inside in the classroom! No complaints here!

I know my Hubby, Dad, Mom and Sister are laughing because they all know that I am NOT a fan of Heat!! or outdoors! ha!! (sad huh) MY kids on the other hand, LOVE to be outside!!

Ninna and Caleb!! Caleb showing off his Flat Stanley sent back in from Aunt Tasha & Uncle Stephen!!
Ninna feeding lunch to Chloe while Caleb and I enjoy hot dogs! :)
After we ate Caleb and I made the trip to the library to check out the book fair! I love that Caleb LOVES to read!! And he of course wanted a book, so we got a joke book! ha
After that it was nealy time for the MAGIC SHOW!
But before that Mrs. Robinson, his teacher ,did a little magic of her own with a magical coloring book! I think I was more impressed than anyone else in the room! :) It was full of black and white drawings, then blank pages , then colored drawings, and so on!

After that was time for the FULL magic show in the cafeteria! Those kids are so funny! They all DANCED AND JAMMED out to music playing before it started! Sooooo funnny! And of course Caleb was bustin' out the moves! ha!!

They even gave out Free Popcorn!! YUMMY!!!

After that we ran to Starbucks for my Mom's coffee fix

and a birthdaycake cake-pop for me!! :)
Only I think Chloe enjoyed it, and ate more of it than I did!! It was soooo funny!! She was soooo excited!! And these pictures say it all!
Blessings & Love, Ashley