Busy Bees!

This is before we went to get his haircut...pretty funny that he is like an info-mercial and frowned!

The after shot! We think he looks so grown up in this one!

One of John's bigger house projects, putting in our new trench drain. This has taken a lot of sweat and hard effort on Johns part and we are lucky we have great friends that have giving their advice and some help too!

So cool what he comes up with, this is his "helping hand"! hahaha (that is actually an engine hoist for automobiles)

Another big project! We recently had 3 sides of the house re-sided and he is doing the front himself to save money. He not only had to re-side it, but put up the OSB boards behind it, then put up the Tyvek, and is now working on the siding. It looks great so far and I can't wait to show you the finished product! He also built those stairs in the pic and the rails on the stairs. He has already made all new rails for the front porch too, he is waiting to put those on after he does the siding. It really is amazing what he can do around the house!!

This is Mrs. Moe and Jackson at our new pool we joined this summer. Can you tell he loves it?!?!

And this is a picture of the wreck we got in yesterday. Myself, Maureen, and Jackson were in the car at the time of the accident. Long story short...I was just driving along and a lady pulled out in front of us trying to take a left turn. Everyone was fine and we are waiting to hear what the end result will be (if it is considered a total loss or not).

Gulf Shores Beach Trip!

At the Gulf Shores State Park Pier

at the Gulf Shores State Park lake!

showing Dad some cool stuff on one of the trails at the Gulf Shores State Park

A little night swimming :)

Jackson enjoyed the water most at night!

All the kids getting soaking wet after dinner at Lulu's!

The Ballard grand kids!

Weird to think that next year there will be a 7 month old little girl in this pic!

Dan, Amy, Avery, Will, and Miles

On a boat ride at the Gulf Shores State Park lake.

At one of our favorite restaurants, Sea and Suds!

Swimming with Mom in our pool!

On Mother's Day

Mother's Day again!

The kids did a great job of burring Miles!

"Beash, beash, beash" as he said all week :)

Sweet Will was really good at sharing and poor Jackson was not having it most of the time :( He is going to have a rude awaking with his baby sister!

Sweet Avery!

I know it looks like I uploaded a bunch of pics, but I actually took 619 pics! So this is a REALLY short version of all that we did! hahaha We had the best week at Gulf Shores, not a single day of rain too! All the kids had a blast and it was great to spend a week with Amy, Dan, Miles, Avery, and Will because we don't get to see them near as much as we would like to! We went to the beach and pool everyday, went on boat rides, ate the best food, laughed almost all day, visited the new Pier, went shopping at the outlets, went fishing, played at the lagoon and much more! Jackson started talking so much on the vacation and his new favorite words to say are, beach, boat, Will, home, and so much more everyday! When you ask him "can you say Cooper"? he says, "no". And is saying no and yeah to so much more lately. "do you want to go downstairs"?...."no". hahaha

Fun with Liam

They were cracking up laughing splashing in the bath tub!!

They ran around the "circle" in our house so many times and were chasing each other!

All we heard were the pitter patter of little feet and constant laughing!!

Cooper hugs

Grandad Ballard's 90th Birthday Party!

As you can see one of Jackson's new favorite things to do is lay with Cooper and give him hugs! You can tell who Jackson thinks the dog belongs to ;) I think they both love to go outside equally as much. In fact, Jackson now points at Cooper's leash when he wants to go outside. It's so funny how they catch on to things like that so fast! He also loves to let Cooper lick his hands constantly and attempts to feed him when we are not looking.

Speaking of catching on, John and I have learned to spell better in the last couple months! We now have to spell ALL the time about things. Especially o-u-t-s-i-d-e, p-a-r-k, t-i-m-e o-u-t, s-n-a-c-k, b-a-t-h, and the list grows everyday!!