Stella's Preschool Graduation

Stella had a wonderful year at Parkview Baptist Preschool in Ms. Dolly's class.  She learned so much and grew a little bit, too.  If you want to take a stroll down memory lane and see what Stella looked like on her first day of Pre-K, click here.  Graduation day came all too soon and Stella was so excited for her big program...

Unfortunately, Cille came down with a virus during the program.  Here she is, burning up with fever and sleeping on Mawmaw...

The graduate!

At the reception she got a little case of the sillies...

Some of Stella's sweet friends from her class...we are going to miss them so much!  Sadly, most of Stella's class will be going to kindergarten at other schools next year...

Poor Cille...

Twirling...

This family shot really captures how miserable poor Cille was...and how disinterested Watts was...

Awww...

Cille perked back up for a few minutes, but we headed straight to a drug store for Motrin after the reception...

We are so proud of all the hard work that Stella did this year.  We are excited for her as she embarks on the rest of her education.  We can't wait to see what big plans God has for our sweet baby girl!

Watts's Baby Dedication

Since moving to Baton Rouge we have attended Parkview Baptist Church, but literally the Sunday we were planning to join the pastor resigned, so we put the brakes on actually joining until they have a full-time pastor.  All that to say, although we are not technically members at PBC, we kind of consider it our home church here in Baton Rouge.  The first baby dedication that they had after Watts was born happened to be on the Sunday that we were at Disney World, so we missed it.  Instead of waiting for another opportunity to roll around at Parkview, we decided that we would dedicate Watts at our actual home church in LaPlace on Mother's Day.  There were several benefits to this plan: 1) both girls were dedicated in LaPlace on Mother's Day, so it is something of a tradition for our babies, 2) Watts would actually have his baby dedication while he was still a baby and not walk up on stage like a teenager, and 3) we would get to have a reunion with all our wonderful LaPlace FBC family that we love and miss so much.  So here we are on the big day...

The whole family attended the service, including grandparents, but for some reason Cille decided that she did not want to be publicly associated with us and she stayed in her seat...probably had something to do with the grandparents also being in the seat...

Watts was very well behaved during the service and the only major hiccup was that I did not put a bib on him and he spit up on his shirt right before we got called to the front...

Pastor Paul praying for our family...

It was wonderful to be back home for this special ceremony of dedicating our only son to our precious Savior.  Being a parent gives you a new perspective on the sacrifice that our Father in heaven made when He gave His only son to die for our sins.  Thank You, Lord, for giving Your son's life so that my son can have the chance to spend eternity in Your kingdom.  Jesus truly is the greatest gift of all time!

Grand Isle

At the beginning of May the Guillory family invited us to their beach house in Grand Isle for a grand good time...

It was a little too chilly to get in the water, but we still had a great time flying kites and picnicking on the beach...

The chilly water did not deter my kids...the girls were soaking wet by the time we made it back to the car...

The girls found MANY hermit crabs...

John gives kites at least one thumb up...

Sand castle time...

John was trying to fly the kite into me and Kelly in this one...note that I am HOLDING THE BABY!!!  Geez...some people...

I was the artist behind all this fancy hair braiding, I will have you know...

Once we got back to the camp the girls set up what may have been the most lucrative lemonade stand ever for Lemonade Day...

Who could resist such cute sales people?

I can testify that their product was quite tasty.  If you zoom in on the picture you will see that their poster also advertises meat.  They were planning to sell the steaks John was cooking!  Damon wasn't about to let that happen...

Profit sharing...

I know that Lemonade Day is supposed to help kids learn all these valuable life lessons about working hard, earning money, saving it, and spending it wisely.  But you know what?  When the ice cream truck came rolling by, we figured to heck with all that saving stuff.  Let those girls see how sweet hard work can be!

The little entrepreneurs really enjoyed their sweet rewards...and they paid for them with their own money!