Zoo

We went to the zoo during spring break. It was such a beautiful day. The flowers were absolutely gorgeous!

My little stinkers

Daddy had a great time too!

The famous fountain picture

Catching up

I have not been on here in forever, so I am going to try to do a quick update.

Praise Him in this Storm...

Sometimes in life, we are faced with the unthinkable. This week, our community lost an outstanding person. Cody Alan Bales. I have been so saddened by this. I grieve for the family, and for Chelsey. I sit here and try to imagine what they are going through and I can't. I can't even BEGIN to. I think about it from every person's view. Mr Delton and Mrs Georgia have lost a child. Oh my God... I beg you to never let me know how this feels. I can't imagine them never having him walk through their door again... never telling him I love you again... never sitting down at the dinner table with him again... and with Cody, I can't imagine them never joking with him again. Clayton and Lauren have lost a brother... I have three brothers. I can't imagine losing one. I know him and Clayton were so close. And him and Lauren still lived at home together. How do you go in his room and him not be there? And Precious Chelsey. God love her. She was planning the rest of her life with him. Where do you go from here? I can't imagine losing Jason! I mean, I know they weren't married, but they have been together for 5 years and were planning to get married next year. Already had their house built! I just sit here and cry for them. All of them! As I look back on the pictures that I took at Clayton and Vicky's wedding, I couldn't believe how many I took of Cody that day. In any other case, I would not have so many pictures of the groom's brother. God knew that day, what we never dreamed in a million years. This is a first for me as a photographer. Things like this make me realize just how important my job really is. As I sat in his service today, I was in awe. There wasn't even standing room in RPBC. What an awesome blessing for the family to see how many lives were touched by Cody. It was a beautiful service. Alot of people were told about Jesus. I hope that through Cody's death, someone can come to know Jesus. We may ask why, but the Lord has a plan and a reason for this happening. We will understand it one day. Someone once told me that sometimes God takes a good person in order to get people's attention. You only get through a tragedy like this, with the help of GOD! I pray that his peace and comfort be all around. They have a long road ahead, and I pray that they turn to God to guide them. For his Grace is Sufficient!
Here is Cody and his precious Chelsey

never dreamed in a million, that this would be their last family portrait...

What a beautiful young man... He will surely be missed!

4th of July

Every year, our whole family gets together on the 4th of July. We try to change up places every year. This year it was at Pam and Rick's house. They worked really hard to make everything so nice. We always get a waterslide for the kids and of course, we have our big volleyball tourney! Tons of food, watermelons, and homemade icecream! Aunt Trish and Cady Lynn

a few of the kids

Seth being... well, Seth

These three... What can I say?

Hayden and Landon... they are best buds!

Miss 4th of july... Brooklyn

Me and my little man

Jason gave a few haircuts... everyone was so hot, they wanted their head shaved!

The kids were so rough on the slide, we had a few bloody noses! Poor Tucker!

Hayden and Anna

Kallie and Presley

Rick trying to get up the waterslide... he fell 3 times before he got up!!

A family tradition... VOLLEYBALL It can get serious around here. Especially JOSH!

Him, Seth, and Jacob are very competitive! We always have three teams and make it a tournament. We love it!!

Blood is sometimes shed during these here games. And lots of sore muscles the next morning!

Panama City

We went to Panama City for a quick get away last week. It was so much fun and so relaxing! The water was prettier than I had ever seen it. You could see the bottom of the ocean . A little too clear! We saw two sharks swim by and they were really close! We also saw a sting ray jump up out of the water. We swam and ate and ate some more! The kids had an awesome time, too. Kallie loved the beach. She didn't want to leave. Hayden loved it, too, but he couldn't understand that when you have sand on your hands, you can not rub your eyes!!

We made great memories! We attempted family portraits, but they didn't go so well. I hate myself in pictures. I am much more comfortable on the other side of the lens!

He is such a little MESS

Mama's babies

I LOVE this picture!

My sweet blessings

My little man, on the other hand, was ready and posing by his boat!

She didn't have time to stop and pose for pictures, so I had to catch her in action

I still can't get over how gorgeous the water was!

Thanks to Rigell, we got to have a "Date night". We rented these little Scoot Coupe cars and rode around on those for a couple of hours, then we went and ate at Margaritaville. We loved it there! The atmosphere was so much fun and the food was good, too.

We had a blast in these things!

Riding through Pier Park

We could not bring the cars back without letting the kids have a turn, so we went to the condo and rode them around the parking lot. They loved it!

On the train at Pier Park

Hayden was tuckered out! He hadn't had a nap, and he was asleep by 6 and slept til 8 the next morning!

The Bauers

Eating at Pineapple Willys. It was really good!

He saw this boat and wanted me to take his picture on it! He got right up there and posed. I guess you could say that he is trained! ha

Hayden jumping in the pool. He loved it! He was not scared one bit. He got too far into the deep one time. You would think the pond episode would have scared him to death, but nope!

He climbed up in this chair and layed back. This was so funny!!

He loved being on Jason's back in the water.

The family

Riding go carts... This was the most hilarious thing ever. Paris was too small, so I drove her. Kallie and Presley were able to drive their own and Presley was scared out of her mind! She took off and immediately was running into the wall and everything else. She was wrecking so bad that her shoe ended up flying out of the cart! Before long she was crying her eyes out, so the man brought her cart in early. Poor baby. She cried for 20 minutes after that experience!!

Burying "Hunt" as the girls call him

He loved the ocean

I love this picture of the girls!

The boys really enjoyed themselves! They acted like complete idiots, as you will see in the pictures. They kept us laughing the whole time!

This was the view from our balcony one day! Jason and Cliff were whistling at them!

Trying to ride the waves

Okay, so they decided they were going to be synchornized swimmers! This was hilarious! They put on several shows for us!! Goofballs!!

This one they called the diamond cutter!