A DAY IN THE LIFE

So, I have a dear friend, Pam, who is also an AMAZING photographer. However, investing in people is what she does best! Pam loves on and cares for people well. I so admire her! Recently Pam offered to come spend a day/afternoon with my family. She wanted to capture our normal day of getting together. We didn't dress up or act different. We are who we are. We Also celebrate Poppy's birthday on the afternoon she spent with us. I want to share/overload you with some of the pictures from that day.

I am THRILLED to have a *day in the life of our family* in print and will treasure these pics always!

Thank you dear Pam. We are a normal family, in a fallen world, trying to love and make an impact. Thank you for reminding us, in pictures, of the blessing of family. We are eternally grateful.  

Nonny and Poppy

(You can find Pam @ Bonneygirlphotography.com)

Good Grief!

How is it April and I haven't blogged? I know it's not the TRENDY thing to do these days, but, I have my blog printed out every year instead of printing out photos! So, I love to document things here! 

In January we celebrated my parents anniversary!

In March, Baby W was dedicated to Jesus. 

There is no baby boy sweeter than this one! 

What a precious baby #9 is!

Poppy had a birthday in February!

A shout out to him...........

He started WHOLE 30 last fall and has lost close to 50 pounds!!!!

I had a birthday in March...the BIG one is next year!

Hubs treated me to dinner at CHEF AND THE FARMER!

It never disappoints....and I even got to talk with Chef Vivian!

Our #2 grand had her art displayed in The Mint Museum.

Quite an honor for this baby girl!

Also in March we bought a *fixer upper* because we want to be

Chip and Joanna! :)

Here is the BEFORE and the inspiration photo for the AFTER!

Wish us luck!

Easter came early this year.

Can you say cold and rain?

Repeat after me: Cold. Rain.

I host my family every Easter. 

There were 33 of us...16 of those were children.

Nuff said.

In my next post I will share some photos we had taken of our family!

Until then...........

Nonny loves you BIG!

Christmas 2015

Once again, it was LOUD and CRAZY.

That's just how we are.

Normally I fight against that for some reason.

This year I decided:

"It IS what it IS."

It didn't change a thing

Except my stress level.

Still LOUD.

Still CRAZY.

But family was there.

And Jesus was there.

And it's my family.

Me and my parents

All the cousins under 10 in their matching Christmas pajamas 

from Nanny and Granddaddy!

Our nine grands.

We love big.

We love well.

We love Jesus.

So thankful for each one of them.

Merry Christmas from my family to yours!

August 2015

I guess it's safe to title this August, since it seems I'm not blogging more than once a month! :( 

We returned this past weekend from our family beach trip. It was a great trip and actually was a little easier this year than last! The nine grands are getting a little older and they all play together SOOO well! They range in age from 14 months to seven years. (funny how that seems OLDER.) Our eight year old niece goes with us too (and my parents) so technically we have 10 playing together! We have a total of 20 on our trip and it's GREAT!

Our DIL has us spoiled by making a video of our trip! Probably nobody enjoys it but us, but I am sharing it in case you want to see our trip.

Cousin Camp #6 2015

It's a Cousin Camp Miracle! All 15 looking at the camera!
 Ages 10 months to nine years! 

This was the sixth year we have had Cousin Camp! Hard to believe we started six years ago with only a handful and now we have 15! The kids all have such a great time and though it is exhausting and hot, camp is such a fun thing to do! We spend all our time outside when we are at home and we also spend a day at our local Children's Museum! We eat lots of junk food and skip naps and play in water and ride golf carts and just enjoy spending time together! Long after Poppy and I are gone, we want them to all remember the importance of family. Some of their best memories will be of their cousins!

Poppy is incredible! He works tirelessly for days to make Cousin Camp happen! There is NO WAY i could do it without him. The kids always enjoy the slow golf cart rides through the neighborhood! It takes three carts to hold all of us!

Again this year the cookies are from Sweet Stuff by Meredith! You can find her on Facebook. She is local to me but she DOES ship and her cookies taste as good as they look!!!

I ordered the shirts from Blanks Boutique! A friend did the appliqués!

I may invest in a new sign next year! I never dreamed when I scribbled this on an old chalkboard back in 2010 that we would still be doing CC every year!

I won't bore you with the other 100 pictures we took! But, if you have any questions about CC, please leave a comment with your email address and i will try my best to answer your questions!

Until next year……..it's a WRAP!

One Last Beach Post

There were 20 of us at the beach this year. I so wanted a picture of all of us. My DIL was gracious enough to tackle the task! (it's quite the undertaking.)

Here we are with my parents and my niece:

Our kids and grands:

Our nine, sweet grands:

Poppy and I are truly blessed!

photos by jenny 

#Beachconk2014

We spent last week at Holden Beach, NC. There were 20 of us in one house. 10 of them were under seven. It was hard and glorious. Seven of the ten got a virus with temps. and sore throats. It rained for the first four days. The smoke alarm went off one night at 3 a.m. and a run to the grocery store for a nine volt battery reminded me that a poppy's job isn't easy either. We rented a house on the beach with a clean pool and nasty bathrooms. So, we spent a lot of time in the pool and took showers in the outside shower. But it was STILL a great week!!!! It's a tradition that we go to Sunset Slush every single night of our trip. The kids look forward to it all day. They talked all week about the last night and how they could get as many scoops as they wanted and what kinds they would be. (Rainbow SA (USA) seemed to be the favorite)….all the kids loved it! YUCK. We played games at night and talked lots about Uncle J's dream of opening a business. We laughed until we hurt about eating two containers of cookies that nobody in our family made. Seriously. They must have been left in the beach house by the previous renters. We each thought the other family had made them. They were all gone but a few when we couldn't find who to thank for making them. It made for lots of beach laughter that we will never forget!! I won't lie to you…it's not a piece of cake with that many little ones in the same house…whew!! It's not for the weak at heart! But man there is some love between those cousins! They play so well together!! They all get along remarkably well and the issues usually don't lie in them arguing with each other but just in the sheer numbers of them. Believe it or not, we all braved going out to dinner one night. We left the house at 4:30 and ate at 5:00. It worked, though Provisions Seafood may never be the same!! :) Nonny and Poppy took the five big kids to the park and Walmart for a *Beach Treat* and we had as much fun as they did! It helps mommy and daddy to get them out of the house a little while dinner is being cooked. Each of the families take a night to make a meal….That way, nobody has to do all the work!!!  We ended the week with a prayer for safe travels home. Now we are all tucked in our homes and are thankful for the memories we made. Until next year sweet family……..Nonny and Poppy dearly love you.
(So thankful for the video made by Jenny)

Easter 2014

HE  is risen indeed!