Our kitchen is getting close!!!

Mike has worked sooooo hard for the last 2 weeks on our
kitchen. Here is how he looked after texturing our ceiling.
It is so much more open getting rid of the cabinets over the
bar and raising the ceiling a foot!!!

What a messy job texturing a ceiling is. There was mud
all over everything!!!

We hired Matt to install our cabinets for us. That kid can
do anything!!!! He did such a great job!!!!

I love all the extra space the new cabinets gave us! Because Mike
and I are so tall, it is really very usable. I have even more space
than before we took out the cupboards above the bar.

We just have to hang the 3 pennant lights over the bar, and 1
over the sink, and put the can light covers and bulbs in, then
install the microwave, crown molding, and beadboard around
the bar. We stayed up until 2:30 this morning putting all our
stuff back in the cabinets and cleaning up. Almost done!!!!
(The red color is not really how it looks in the picture, it
is tomato soup red)

Libbie and Katie sleep over

We had Libbie and Katie for a sleep over this week. Merijane picked up an extra shift since we have vacation coming up and she will miss a shift. Libbie kept asking me if we could make "honey scones." I didn't know what honey scones were. She opened my fridge, and got out a can of refrigerator biscuits, and showed me how. I totally let her do it, and she made some very fun shapes. She had a dog bone, lips, an egg, and other shapes I can't remember. Then when they were done, we put honey butter on them. Yummy, Yummy!

Almost done.

The finished product!!!

Libbie riding a teeter totter in our pool

We went down to play with Molly for a little while. Two
upside down girls, having fun.

Katie can climb up and go down the slide all by herself.

Jamie and Emily just finished their basement. They
built an awesome family room, a bathroom, a playroom,
and a bedroom for Molly. She loves her new bedroom!

Happy Father's Day

I am so blessed to have such a great dad! He has always been a good example to me. I know I have learned a lot from him, and I think I am quite a bit like him. I learned money management skills from him. I sometimes have a hard time parting with my hard earned money. He taught me to not spend more than you earn, and to save for a rainy day. He made us buy our first house, even before we were married, and that proved to be great advice. He can fix almost anything, and has helped us fix almost everything through the years, (especially our cars.) I'm sure he's glad that Jeffrey has taken over for him there. He's been a great example of service, and will help anyone anytime. I'm so glad he's my dad, and I love him a ton!
I am also blessed to have found such an amazing dad for my kids. Mike is so patient and kind and has set a great example for our boys on what dads should be like. I love watching Josh and Jamie with their little girls. He has worked so hard to be a good provider for us, even when he didn't feel well. I appreciate all he has done for us, and love him so much.


Mom invited us all over for a Father's Day Barbecue. She worked so hard, and everything was so nice.

All our kids were able to come, (Jamie and his family stopped by for a few minutes on their way to Emily's parents house) Everyone else was here, except Chip and Elycia, so that was quite a crew! Thanks mom for having us all over.

The Hursts

Josh and Merijane

Jeffrey and Jenn

Me and Libbie

Pierce and Stacy

Jordan and the girls swinging

Katie and Aida love Gigi and Papa's car. They were pretty good at sharing it.

Aida LOVES Simon! He is doing good after his knee surgery, what a sweet little puppy.

Katie is quite the little climber, she climbed to the top of the monkey bars all by herself!

Kitchen remodeling project

The day after we returned from our cruise, Mike was up at 6:00 am beginning the remodeling of our kitchen. We are taking out the drop ceiling and cabinets over our bar. We are putting in taller new cabinets on the wall,so we won't miss the space in the ones we are getting rid of.

Sterling was in town and was a big help on the project. Jamie came by after work a couple of days and worked till very late.

Josh has been a HUGE help, he came and helped with the electrical as well as the demolition. Jordan also spent an afternoon in the dust working with the boys. It's great to see how much Josh and Jamie have learned finishing their own basements, and we sure appreciate everyone who helped!!!!

Mike let me do the first coat of perfataping on the ceiling. I didn't do a great job, but he did the next coat, and made it look MUCH BETTER!

We have just a little dust on everything, but by this time next week, we should be looking good!!!!

Molly and Abibe Meet Olivia!

Grandma Cline got a new puppy, and I took Molly and Abbie over to meet her on Saturday. Olivia (the puppy) LOVED Molly immediately, Molly was just a little nervous, but warmed up to her very quickly.

Olivia followed Molly wherever she went.

After a few minutes, Molly really enjoyed that energetic little pup!

Here's Abbie in her cute sunhat to shade her darling face!

Abbie is such a sweet baby, she played for a while, then took a little snooze.

Molly was great at painting the Dora paint with water book, she sat and painted the entire book!!!! She loved the little table and chair grandma has for the girls.

Abbie loved playing block, she tried to steal Molly's. Her favorite trick was throwing them on the floor for Olivia to play with.

Molly was great at building bridges and towers

They really did enjoy playing with the blocks

Fancy Nancy Birthday Party

Hailey and Libbie got invited to one of their friend Brooklyn's Fancy Nancy Birthday party. It was THE FANCIEST PARTY I HAVE EVER SEEN!!!!! On the invitation, they were asked to wear their fanciest outfit, and that they would provide the accessories for them at the party. When they came out of the party, they had on FANCY sunglasses, with glitter and feathers, a boa, tiara, they had their nails done, and makeup on. I have never been sadder that the batteries on my camera died right before I could take their picture!!!! They were absolutely the cutest things you have ever seen. Brooklyn's mom promised to send pictures of them, so I hope she does!!!! She had decorated their house UNBELIEVABLY FANCY! It was so much fun.

Here they are getting ready. Krista gave them both ringlets, so cute!

Posing for a picture!

One more shot, what a fun day it was for these two! We have LOVED Fancy Nancy ever since my great niece Brooklyn introduced us to her. I have most of the Fancy Nancy books and LOVE them.

Jordan SCORES on the GMAT test!

Just as we were heading out on our cruise, we got a message from Jordan that he got the results of his GMAT (General Management Admissions Test) It's like the MCAT for medical school or the LCAT for law school. He is planning to work for the FDIC for a few years, and then get his Masters in Business. He was hoping to score 740/800, and called to say that he didn't get a 740, but that he got a 750!!!!! He was thrilled, and when I got home, I googled to find out what the average score for the test is, and it said 570 was average, and that 682 is really good, so 750 is "freekin awesome" He has spent the last few months doing rock chip repairs, and while he has been waiting for customers, he has been studying, and it looks like it paid off. Way to go Jordan!!!! We are so proud of you.

Our Retirement Cruise

To celebrate Mike's retirement, we decided to do it right, and head out on a Caribbean Cruise. We had a GREAT time, here are a few pictures from the week!

There is only one night on the cruise, that you have to dress up for dinner. The rest of the time, you can wear whatever you want. Here is a picture of us on the formal night.

Lani was in Fort Lauderdale for a conference the same time we were there. She took Cierra along to make her trip more fun. They invited us to spend the night with them at their hotel, before we left on our cruise. This is the view off our balcony.

The Marriot has it's own private beach that was beautiful.

We took Lani and Cierra out to dinner with us at the Outback, so yummy!

Here's our cozy little cabin, I am really going to miss Edison, who took such good care of us.

Each night, when we returned to our room, there was a darling towel animal to greet us. An adorable elephant,

and a cute swan.

We rented snorkeling equipment while in Cozumel, and had a good time floating around looking for fish.

There was a beautiful pool on the ship, we enjoyed relaxing by the pool and reading. (I read 2 books on the trip)

Most of our meals were eaten at the buffet. They had such delicious food, I have never eaten so much in such a short time!!!

Everything looks so beautiful, you can't resist trying it.

On our last night, they had 3 desserts that sounded amazing, we couldn't decide which to get, so we ordered all 3!

We enjoyed every bite of all of the desserts!

Every night we ate with this fun group of people. One couple was from Switzerland, one from California, and one from Indiana. Both of the young girls were art teachers, so it was fun for Mike to visit with them.

We decided it would be fun to do a para-sailing trip while we were at Key West. We found a guy that looked a lot like Jeffrey to take us out. It was very fun, and not even scary at all!!!

Here we go!

Up, up and away

We got pretty high in the sky, and had a great view of Key West!

Our last stop was at Cococay, where we just relaxed and swam around in the water most of the day. We used enough sun screen that we didn't get much of a sunburn, (or suntan unfortunately)

Cococay was a darling private island, everything painted so bright and cute!

They had a beautiful beach with hundreds of chaise lounges lined up to soak in the rays.

Back to the ship for our final dinner and to get packed and ready to head back to the real world.

Goodbye Grandeur of the Sea, we can't wait to cruise again!