Abigail's 5th Bithday

Oh my goodness, my little baby has turned 5 years old! We had about 30 people over on July 5 to celebrate and then I took a half day on July 6 to spend with her on her actual birtday. I took the girls to xtreme play, kicked back and read my book I have been trying to finish up. They would come to check in every now and then and we stayed for about 4 hours. I think it was good for all of us! Here are a few pictures of her party and xtreme play.

4th of July parade

Getting ready to go to parade

Our friends the Woodards and us

Our friend Amy throwing gum for Bank of Stanly (far right on tailgate) and her daughter standing behind back window

Paul Shadt from 96.9 was grand marshal of parade

Search and Rescue Dogs Abi liked

Got any candy?

Emilt enjoying parade

Abi's fake smile

Emily waiting on parade to begin

Burnette and Woodard kids

Today we went to the parade in Oakboro. We found our friend Laura and her kids and sat with them. Usually it is so crowded you can't find anybody that you are specifically looking for, but we got lucky. Her are a few pictures. Emily is wearing her new outfit that she is so proud of. She saw it in a Justice magazine and had to have it. We went shopping last night at Toys R Us for Abi to pick out her birthday present and Emily wanted something too. I figured we would go ahead and go to Justice and let her get her outfit and that would satify her wanting it and not feeling left out because of Abi's birthday. It is going to have to be part of her back to school clothes! Abi was upset because the store didn't have her size (they start at size 6), but we did find her a hat that suited her. She has gotten so many complements on it. It definitely got people in the parades' attention. They would see her jumping and waving with that hat on and then they would throw her candy directly! Anyway... tonight will be the fireworks and we will be back down at Oakboro!

Working hard all week to put beer on the table!

Brandon and I went out on the Red Neck Yacht this past Tuesday night. It's a Yacht sponsered by 103.7 radio station. Josh Thompson was playing. He is a newer country singer. We had a pretty good time, but we only recognized 2 of his songs-Beer on the Table and Way Out Here. Here are some pictures and a video of him. I would prefer to sing Working hard all week to put Mountain Dew on the Table!

Child Labor Laws?! HA

Here is a picture of Abigail and Emily sorting potatoes in the basement. All I wanted them to do was to get the small ones out so I could cook and freeze them. You would have thought it was the end of the world! They hated doing it. I would go check on them and it was so pitiful them stowed away in the basement in amongst 2 bushels of potatoes! They got through it and I paid them their $2 and Emily made me so proud of her. She took her money and bought Abigail a birthday present with it. She didn't even think twice about it. I LOVE MY GIRLS!

Orlando Adventures

Waterpark view Me and the ladies ready for a night out on the town! Bubble room at Wonder House Ice Cream!

Emily's Ice Cream creation

Emily in the NASA simulator

Abigail as the astronaut

Abigail on the bed of nails at the Wonder House

Clyde and Seamore take Pirate Island

Look at that white belly! I mean on me, not the killer whale! Ha!

Shamu Show

Pirate's Cove Putt Putt

The Wonder House -Abi's favorite place

Our Balcony-Don't we look sharp!

Waterpark at resort that we stayed at

Here are a few pictures from our trip to Orlando. We spent the first couple of days resting around the pool area. There was a waterpark with slides right at the resort pool. There also was a pool area that had an outdoor pool where you swam indoors to the indoor pool and could even hoist yourself out and be right at the poolside bar.

We went to Sea World, but didn't do the other parks this time. We spent 13 1/2 hours there the first day when it was 98 degrees with a 104-108 degree heat index. The kids never complained about the heat. We had a few complaints about feet and legs, but nothing we couldn't distract them by going on to the next adventure. We visited as many shows as we could the first day and fit in as many rides and exhibits as we could in between. The first couple of animals we saw performing Abigail asked, "Are those real momma?" They would do some really weird things that we have never seen an actual animal do and it really did look unbelievable. After a few shows I think she realized that they were actually real. It is really amazing what they can train an animal to do. We bought some small fish to feed the stingrays and Abigail was the brave one to try it first. We read how to place the fish between 2 fingers and you were supposed to hold your hand down in the stingray pool and let the stingray swim over top of your hand and "slurp" the fish out from in between your fingers. Abi had the fish ready and was about to put it in the water and this huge white herring flew into her face and the fish was gone. I thought she had dropped the fish, Brandon said "Why did you drop the fish?!" Abi said, "I didn't drop the fish, THE BIRD GOT IT" Abi was stunned and never had a chance to get scared, but a minute later she said "That bird hurt my hand!" Then we read the sign about how you have to hurry and get your hand under the water because the birds were aggressive near the feeding tank because they like the fish too! I fed the stingrays next and I screamed when it slurped it up because its teeth scraped my knuckle and those things are really freaky up close. I changed my mind about every wanting to swim with them on a cruise excursion. We stayed in the park till after the fireworks show that night and we went back for our second day later in the week. We were all wore out by then and the day wasn't as smooth as the first, but we finished up all of the shows that we didnt get to the first day. We were there about 12 hours that day. We stayed indoors a lot so the above 100 degree weather wasn't too terrible! We also had some bad weather that day and some of the rides closed at times, but we worked around that and still had a great time.

One day we drove over to Cocoa Beach. That area was quieter than I thought it would be. It looked like a sleepy North Carolina Beach town. No high rises or crowds. The kids don't care where it is as long as there is waves and sand! We rode up to the Kennedy Space Center that afternoon. We didn't have time to go into it and look around, but we rode around and probably looked like a security issue!

Later in the week we visited the Wonder House. That was a place like Discovery Place with a ropes course, 4D movie (Canyon Coaster was playing when we were there), and roller coaster simulators. The kids loved it and there was lots of things to do there. Ya'll should go to http://www.wonderworksonline.com/ and look at this place-it is really unique.

Anyway there are lots of other adventure stories from this trip, but we will fill you all in when we see you next. Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Hershey the Horse

This past week Brandon and the girls have been enjoying the new horse more and more. Hershey has finally gained everyone's trust enough to be rode with a bit in and a saddle on. Brandon rides first to get him wore down and then he lets the girls ride till it's dark. The girls have been staying up later because of this and it is beginning to take its toll on them. They get home from school and they are exhausted. They haven't been getting in bed until 10 pm because of the nightly horse rides. Thank goodness it is almost summertime and no school for a while!!! Here are a few pictures. The one of Abigail is took in front of Brandon's quail he got for his birthday. Papa Terry gave them to him along with their neat little house! This picture looks a bit Amish to me, but anyway...

Emily's Softball Days

As most of you know Emily is really getting into the softball thing. Over the years she has done tumbling, gymnastics, ballet, tap dance, and cheerleading. Never has she really acted like she enjoyed any of that much. Softball is another story. She seems to actually enjoy it and therefore she has gotten pretty good at it. She plays catcher, but would rather be out in the field because playing catcher is "hot work." She hits hard and long and is consistant with her hits. We are very proud of her for doing such a good job. Here are a few pictures of her and her team. Enjoy!

Springtime Madness

WOW has it been a busy spring! Both girls have been busy with softball games. Emily is really getting good. She finally is learning the rules and actually paying attention to the game. And Abigail, well let's say at least she looks cute in the uniform! HA HA Actually Abi has hit the ball without the tee twice during games, so I think that is pretty good. She is starting to run faster instead of jogging to the bases, so this is an improvement too. They both played in the 90 degree weather this past Saturday and it was so hot! Somebody at the game had a nifty little handheld mister fan and we just had to go find some after the game was over. We went to Wal-Mart and they were $9 each and I figured we would get that much use out of them and so we got each of the kids one. After we checked out and were heading to the car I looked over the receipt and realized they rang up for $4.50 each. Emily said, "Well momma I guess it was rollback time!" She is such a mess! My kids are little comedians. They are always saying something funny. I wouldn't trade them for the world! We went to the beach a few weeks back and we put a weeks worth of activities into 3 days. We played in the pool, played in the ocean, built a sand volcano, walked around at Broadway at the beach, rode carnival rides, walked 1 mile to a restaurant, 1 more mile to the arcade and those 2 miles back to the hotel at midnight on Saturday night/Sunday morning. Who says you can't party the night away with kids!! The kids went to bed about 1am slept till 9 am and then slept from noon till 3:30 when we got home. (It was such a peaceful ride home)

In the middle of all this I am trying to study for a National Mortgage Lending recertification to keep my loan officer license AND I am looking for a place to get at least 8 hours in as a CNA before the end of November or I lose my license for that also. Ya'll should see my resume, it looks like I don't have any idea what I want to be when I grow up! I have started to make different resumes for different career possibilties so I can omit loan officer stuff when applying to healthcare positions and vice versa! I am a little nervous about the career I am in because there is so volatility in cytology in the Charlotte area now. Carilion labs is shutting down in the fall and we feel like our base lab in Burlington is swallowing up all of our work. Whenever someone leaves Charlotte they don't replace them in Charlotte, they open a position in Burlington. Who knows what will happen. I just want to be prepared to make a move if need be.

Well anyway, I hope this catches ya'll up a little and I hope to write again soon.