A Much Needed Update

Hello! Hope everyone is having a great summer! Braylen is napping right now so I thought I would update the blog. It's been too long. I have the windows open and it is so nice outside. I would be sitting out there but the kids next door are screaming. Plus they are like magnets to our fence whenever we are out there. They just stare at us......weird.......Anyways! We have had a really fun summer! In June we took 9 Boone students to Rockbridge Young Life camp in Virginia. We left Braylen with my parents and Guy's parents and it was very very hard to leave him. But our trip was amazing. Perfect weather, entertainment, food, club talks, music...everything. The staff was amazing as well. Our group was awesome and everyone got along wonderfully. We are now doing follow up work with the students by having hang outs at our house (we watched a movie outside! It was cool!), campaigners, and bible studies. We really want to start Club this fall but we're not sure how that will work out.

We had a busy start to July with the holidays and back to back birthdays-mom and Vince. Also this past weekend, Guy's cousin Brooke and her husband Wayne came to visit. We went to the Dayton Air Show with them all day on Saturday and it was freezing! The clouds were out and it was really cold. Good thing my capri's rolled out into pants. Braylen stayed with Grammy (Guy's mom) so we missed him. He'll love the air show one day!

We also got our house painted! It looks awesome! We are so pleased with it. It's a lighter shade of the previous green color. We have been working hard on our landscaping and everything is looking really good. We have soooo many projects we want to work on. The landscaping on both sides of the house and the back needs a lot of work! Frankly it just needs to be removed (sorry Madden's!). We'd also like to put a small stone patio in the back by our fence so we have a place to hang out and put our fire pit! Can't wait for it to be completed. We also just painted our bathroom. I love it but Guy is not sure about the color. It's a turquoise color. We painted the cabinet and sink white so it ties together. Stop by and see it!

Braylen has been amazing! We are trying to get him to repeat lots of words right now. He actually tries to repeat things but they just don't quite come out correctly. He can "say" amen, please, ball, woof, moo, mama, and dada. We've been working on more sign language so that he isn't as frustrated when we don't understand what he is saying. With sign language, instead of just babbling when he wants something, he can sign it and show us. Our bedtime routine is the best. We give him a cup of milk, read a story, sing a song, and say our prayers. Then he says amen and puckers out his lips to give us a kiss! Soooooo precious. I could just melt everytime he does that. He has been testing us a lot more too. He's so busy and gets into everything! It's also really hard to not laugh at him when he does something wrong or doesn't listen. He's just so darn funny. When he gets mad, he literally shakes his head and makes a fist and screams. But then he laughs about it. He's crazy! But we are all learning right now and I'm sure we will figure it out.

Next month, we are going to the beach! yea! Braylen has never been before so I am so excited for him to go. It's just going to be me, Bray, mom and Jess. The boys can't get off work! I can't wait!

Next week is mom and dad's 30th anniversary! Can't wait to celebrate with them. They are so amazing and we are so blessed to have a Godly example of marriage in our lives. Thank you God for my parents!

Hope everyone has a great week! I'll be updating more often!