July 15 - Professional Tee Ball Player, Natalie

Natalie had an All-Star game tonight at Tee Ball. She was hitting the ball and running those bases!

The coaches handed out the year-end award and they were really nice dog tags with engraving.

Natalie's coach praises her for her 'home run' hit! He was very proud of the smallest kid on the team! Wow!

July 13 - Grandma's Table

Grandma & Papa invited us over for Sunday morning breakfast. Scott was still out of town, so we gladly went over to Grandma's for a wonderful breakfast of biscuits & gravy. Papa did most of the cooking. Natalie decided to bring her Disney Princess Waffle machine with and so we made a batch of waffles. Yum! We need to do this more often.

Family time. * Natalie & Uncle Robbie devouring their yummy waffles!


Sydney & Ryan lookin' cute, as usual!


Amanda is SERIOUS about her cleaning these days.


The girls decide to soak their feet while they sit in the morning sun. My little princesses. Natalie has loved soaking her feet since she was a tiny baby. Scott used to put her feet in the bathroom sink to get her to stop crying due to her colic when she was tiny. She would go from screaming her head off to a complete calm. She does love to be pampered too and Amanda is learning how nice that is at a young age as well!




Uncle Robbie lets himself be attacked by 2 little girls who need a 'Daddy Fix'. Haha! They love to rough-house!


Papa needed to mow the lawn so the girls each got to ride along for awhile. Natalie was actually steering the lawn mower - SCARY!


Ryan and his Grandma Diamond & her Diamond necklace!

July 12 - Applebee's Free Lunches!

No, I'm not talking about the coupon emails for FREE LUNCH @ Applebee's (haha!), but all 3 kids did earn a FREE KIDS LUNCH CERTIFICATE for Applebee's after a check-in for their Summer Reading Program. So, Grandma Diamond treated Auntie & I to lunch and the 4 kids split 3 kids meals. So, chicken nuggets, grilled cheese, fries, mac & cheese galore! The kids loved it and they all behaved to well. We had a really nice time. After that, we paid a visit to Gymboree for some birthday shopping! That is ALWAYS fun.

July 11 - Walmart Garden Center

Well, with Daddy stille gone and the kids bouncing off the walls at home, we headed to Walmart to get a few things and well, walk around, stay cool and keep the kids busy. So, what's the girls' favorite thing to do when they go to Walmart (besides get chicken nuggets and fries from the deli)? You guessed it - the Garden Center. They beg me to go in there every time. They love it. I do not know why, but they do. So, here we are in the Garden Center after trying out the patio furniture inside. Haha!

Look how happy they are to be in the GARDEN CENTER!

July 10 - Purple Park Fun & Scary Storm

Well, big storms were predicted for the afternoon, but we fit a quick trip to the Purple Park in just before the first big drops of rain! And boy, did we have fun. Ryan is such a Monkey. He is so adventurous and easy going. He's willing to try anything and this day was no different. He was all over the place on this jungle gym - up, down & all around. Of course, the girls had a blast too! And Mommy & Grandma Diamond just laughed and took pictures of the cuteness!

Look closely at Ryan peeking out from behind Amanda! Here come the Three Muskateers!

More monkeys!

Monkey at play! Monkey swings!

With Daddy in Europe and a BIG STORM coming thru later in the evening (again!) we all went in to Mommy and Daddy's room, snuggled and watched a movie while snacking on popcorn, listening to thunder and watching the lightning and rain. Oh and of course reading one of our favorite Critter books, Just a Thunderstorm!

This was scary. This is what it looked like out our patio door. It literally looked like the 'End of the World' cloud!

July 9

Doesn't Natalie look like a real-life American Girl doll, just walked off the pages of history. Hehe!

July 6 - -8

(July 6)

Daddy was getting ready to leave for Europe for work for 2 weeks, so he wanted to take the girls to the library to check in for their summer reading programs and get their goodies they earned before he left.

(July 8)

Amanda in her AMANDA Hello Kitty dress looking pink and cute as always. What a card!

(July 8)

We had another playdate with Natalie's friend from school and her little brother. The little boys are so cute posing in their highchairs!

(July 8)

Here is Natalie and her friend enjoying McDonald's Play Place!

(July 8)
And then I dug KIT, Natalie's American Girl, out of the closet and had Grandma give it to her again. She had gotten it I think when Natalie turned 3 but she is now very ready for Kit. so she was so excited. The idea was to get Kit out and then the new movie, Kit Kittredge will be coming out very soon and then Grandma Catey is taking the girls and I to the American Girl Bitty Baby show and brunch for their birthdays! Let the hype begin!

July 5th - Sydney Elisabeth Turns 2

The kids are ready to go to Sydney's 2nd Birthday Party!

Sydney the BIRTHDAY GIRL posing with her presents! She opened a lot of presents and got a lot of cute things. My sweet adorable niece and Godchild looks like an angel, doesn't she?

Uncle Robbie looking PRETTY!

Abby Cadabby was the theme for Sydney's party. Such cute decorations and Auntie Candy had wonderful little goodie bags stuffed full of great things for the kids. Yummy lunch & cake.

Grandma Jane helped build a castle for Princess Amanda Reese.

Ryan finally got his piggy bank from Grandma Diamond & Papa.

Us ladies had fun playing bags. Lisa and I against Mom and Jane, the Grandmas. Lisa & I were winning and at the very end they caught up to us and stole the game away! The Grandmas won! Lots of fun!

Sweet Ryan explores the wagon and ride-on in the backyard. He is so easy to please and can keep himself busy for hours just exploring and playing.

This is Natalie all dressed up in Sydney's new fairy costume. She was granting wishes w/her wand and flitting about the yard. As you can see, she was in fully Fairy mode. What a sweetie!

Then it was off to Grandma Diamond's for some late afternoon swimming!