We had a BLAST at the beach with our dear friends!! Thank you LeBlancs!!! Here are the girls, ours and theirs in their matching swimsuits......what fun!!!
While on vacation, we decided that 3 girls (including mom) was not enough for one family, so we happened upon a greyhound adoption kennel and brought home our new baby. She is 3, and was racing up until about three weeks ago. Her name is Calli, and she is a blue fawn color.....she is tan, but has some grey that sometimes appears blue in the sunlight. So far she is getting along great with the children, but the cat is not very happy!!!! Oreo hides under things and growls at the dog!!!!
Here's her photo from the car ride home!! Nina, she can't wait to meet you!!!

This is a shot from the 17th, the day of Garrett's third birthday!! He was outside "helping" me feed the horses that morning. Nina, I think that is the smile you love so much!! Yesterday we had a real party for Garrett at DiDi's and Granddaddy's home. I will post lots of photos. The kids had a blast, and Garrett went to bed a worn out dude!!! Thank you to all of our friends and family for making his birthday a blast!! Also a special thank you to Jolie, Rebecca and company for meeting us at our favorite restaurant AND getting a cookie cake for Garrett!! I love you girls!!!! He is in b'day hangover mode having a hard time figuring out what to play with next!!! So far his 2 new lawn mowers win, and if anyone is planning to give him another (Aunt Becca), BRING IT ON!!! A guy can't have too many yard implements around here!!!

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It's the day before Garrett's third birthday!!! I am up attempting to make a video montage for his birthday. I will psst it here if I can get it to come together! Today he got to open another gift from Nina and Pop AND got to wear his Speed Racer PJ's that he opened yesterday! We saved a final gift for tomorrow! Here are a couple of photos of him as well as a photo showing how well Oreo has adjusted to nap time after less than a week. That's Ainslee zonked out next to the cat!! Hope you had a great day!

Oh, we made travel arrangements to travel to the Mayo Clinic in September. Nina will be traveling with us, and Consuela will be coming to help tend to the children as well. Ainslee will stay home for some Daddy-time that I know she will enjoy!

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Thanks for the Awesome jammies, Nina and Pop!! I kno wyou were worried he may be scared of them, but just the opposite, he LOVES THEM!!!! He tried to get me to put all of them on at once, but he finally gave in and chose Spider Man! He is quite proud of them, so much that he posed for this picture!!! We let him open that one gift today, and then another tomorrow and the final one on his actual birthday. Addie and Ainslee made up those rules!

Addie and Ainslee have dance camp from 9-12 all week at a local high school. Took Addie to a doctor this morning as she had a headache and a very slight fever with a little post nasal drip. It does not seem to be strep, so that's great, but she is on an antibiotic as a precaution.

And the big news in a small package is the NEW CAT!!! It was adopted from a local pet store that works with a foster animal group to adopt out cats and some dogs from our local shelter. His (yes, Nina, it is a boy, so calling it a "him" will finally be correct!!) original name in the store was Phantom, as he has a little white mask on. The girls re-named him Oreo, and I was informed this morning that his full name is Oreo Diego with our last name on the end!!! How funny!!!

So here are a few shots of Oreo. He is warming up to us, or either his is quickly losing his hearing, so he doesn't notice how incredibly loud and chaotic his new home is!!! He sleeps in Ace's crate inside at night. Ace moved into Mancha's. On that note, Ace seems to be okay.  Our precious Dalmation went to heaven last week. She had an accident with our truck and made it a couple of days, but our amazing vet found she could not get Mancha's pain under control. She was starting to bite and was so miserable that the vet read that as her giving up and not wanting to push through the misery. We understood and mercifully gave consent to the vet via phone. The vet recommended us not try to come to be with her as she felt it unfair for her to suffer any longer. Thank goodness for our vet and her Christian heart and hands that lovingly sent Mancha ahead of us. She is very missed, but her dear friends Coop and Cinders are puppies again according to Ainslee and Addie!!!!! It's relieving to have that confidence and amazing how God shares these beautiful creations with us. Ace isn't as quick to eat his food. When Mancha was here he would scarf it down.....probably because she would try to get it if he did not finish before she did!!! He gets brushed daily and the girls have bought special treats for him. We will need to start taking him for walks now as he is not going to have to be jumping up from his naps working out as often now Mancha isn't here barking her alarming tones for nothing!!

So on a happy note, here is Oreo!!!

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Garrett has been up to lots of new things lately. He is exploring the potty and working out!!! I will let the photos speak for themselves.......

Garrett joins Ainslee for punishment

Last week Ainslee was punished. he had to stay by the wall on her knees for a few minutes. Garrett decided to join her....I had to laugh!!! Needless to say, this lightened the moment and brought everyone back to good humor!!!

SOOOOOO proud to be an American and so thankful to all of the men and women who have kept us free!!!

Today was a fun celebration! We loaded up the children and our horses and headed to the arena to ride...that's about 5 miles from our home...and we rode about 5 minutes before we all became so miserably hot and sticky that we aborted the ride in lieu of Sonic's Smoothies!!! Home to swim and then Daddy cooked some ribs on his new mac-daddy grill! YUM!!!! Then naps and Dad had to drive to work so he could do a fly-over in a jet for a local celebration. He came over the house, so we all got to wave and enjoy the "SOUND OF FREEDOM!" Garrett ran to me with arms in the air screaming, "Airpah ALL DONE!!!" Then he chanted that for the next three hours until Daddy came home!

My parents are in Wyoming this summer, and we had planned to join them, but Garrett just wasn't ready for a three to four day drive, and airline tickets to nearby were outrageous. We were there with them two years ago today celebrating the 4th. Oh how I miss that place!!! They send lots of cool postcards, souvenirs, yard sale finds, books, shirts and information. It's just so beautiful there!!!! I miss jogging when it is 100 degrees and not knowing it is that hot!!! 

This evening our neighbors came over for a swim, and then they had us to their home for a cookout followed by an hour of fun fireworks!!! I thank God daily for the family next door. We are so blessed to be surrounded by such awesome people!!!

Love to you and yours, and Pop, send a plane for us and we'll come right up!!!

Hugs!