It's hard to believe that summer is already here! The past year has just flown by and so much has happened in that time!

For Memorial Day, we took advantage of the beautiful weather and invited our family that lives in town over for a cookout. Shane's parents had taken Xander and Cade to Myrtle Beach for the weekend, so they showed up sunburned and waterlogged! They had a wonderful time, so we enjoyed listening to all of the stories they had to tell. I believe the highlight for Cade was that he made two holes-in-one and tied his score with Xander's! This obviously was NOT the highlight for Xander! His favorite part of the trip was the "slingshot" he went on 30 feet into the air. For a little guy, I'd say that was pretty brave!

We enjoyed the food and the babies, since Hayes and Gage stole the show as usual! Here you can see Auntie Sara spoiling Hayes as any good Aunt should do! And she's definitely the best when it comes to taking care of her nephews!

The rest of the week was busy finishing up school with exams and graduation. I spent the week working on a syllabus I had to submit for our AP English program (to keep us accredited), so that made for some very stressful days! However, we got through it, and I will never have to do it again as long as I teach at GCA! (whew!)

Friday morning, we attended Xander's awards ceremony at school. He received a certificate for the A/B Honor Roll, for which we were very proud of him! His only B was in Reading, and that was because of his expression. Now, I know what you are thinking, and you are correct. How can such an expressive child not read with enough expression?! Well, he was afraid that people would laugh at him if he did, so he would read in a voice that was VERY monotone! We worked on this all year and were thrilled when he finally started getting A's in Reading during the last quarter! He also received a certificate for having the highest average in Math for his class! This award was by far the most important to him, because Math is Xander's absolute favorite subject!!! We are so proud of him and the effort he put forth this year in school!

Friday was also Cade's last day at his daycare. These are three of the children with whom he has spent his days. The fourth child is an adorable baby who had already fallen asleep by the time we took this picture.

After Xander's award ceremony, we met Miss Debbie and the kids at Krispy Kreme and had breakfast. Then making a day of it, we went to the Jumpin' Monkey which is a place with inflatibles, much like the place Xander went for his field trip. Once the kids had worn themselves out there, we finished the day at our house for a picnic in the back yard.

Miss Debbie has been such a blessing to us and has gone above and beyond the call of a caregiver! She came into our lives when Xander was a year old and has been a huge part of our family ever since! This will be very difficult for both her and us as we make this transition. Fortunately, we will still continue our friendship and will take part in special activities with her from time to time.

Shane's mom has decided to quit teaching to watch Hayes for us, which is why Debbie will not be helping us with him. Once we knew were going to have Hayes, his mom began talking of being a full-time Grandma! She is very excited about doing so, and we are thrilled that Hayes will get to spend his days with his Grandma Golden. Because I will only be teaching part-time, I will be able to bring Cade home with me from school to spend the afternoons together with Hayes. I am greatly looking forward to this new schedule and hope it will help to have a little more flexibility in my days.

Cade's favorite friend at Miss Debbie's is Riley. They have been the best of friends for the past 3 years and will miss seeing each other on a daily basis! We will definitely be keeping in touch with Miss Riley, but I know the transition will be difficult for both!

Well, that's all for the school year. Xander is looking forward to 2nd grade, and Cade is anxiously awaiting K-4. However, summer is here...and we are ready!

Well, I can't believe it has been two months since we welcomed Hayes into our family! I honestly thought I might get bored while on maternity leave from work; however, I must say that I have never been busier in my life! It's a "good busy" though, and I am thoroughly enjoying my time at home.

Hayes just had his two-month doctor's appointment, and he is now 11 1/2 lbs! I think it's all gone to those kissable cheeks of his! After checking him all out, the doctor just kept saying that he is "perfect, just perfect!" And as you can see from the picture, he is as happy as can be! We are loving that he is now smiling at us on a consistant basis and that he is trying to verbalize a response when we talk to him! It's so much fun to see him grow and change everyday! Being the third child, he just goes with the flow and is content to be entertained by his crazy brothers who absolutely ADORE him! Xander and Cade could not be happier with their little brother and have not been jealous of him for one second. I was mostly concerned about Cade, but I wasted my time doing so. He is such a good big brother and smothers (yes, literally!) Hayes with kisses. Being a bit older than Cade, Xander is a tremendous help and can actually hold Hayes and calm him if he starts to fuss. I asked Shane the other day if he felt adding a third child was harder or easier than he thought it would be. He didn't hesitate to say that he felt it was much easier than he thought it would be, and I really have to agree. Hayes has just slipped into our lives without so much as causing a wrinkle. We are truly enjoying him!

As we near the end of the school year, we are busy with all kinds of activities! On Thursday, Xander had his end-of-the-year class field trip to Goldsborough, where they have a place called All-Stars. The kids love the games and inflatibles that are available, and the parents love how tired the kids are when they leave! :) Because Shane was asked to drive the bus and I am still on maternity leave, we were all able to join Xander for the day making it extra-special for him! It's so hard to believe that he is finishing up first grade this year and will be a big second-grader next year! I think what is even MORE amazing is that Cade will be going into K-4 next year! GCA won't know what hit them, that's for sure! :) It's exciting and kinda sad at the same time! My babies are growing up! It makes me want to freeze Hayes at this age so I can still have a baby forever!

Well, we have a busy week coming up as we finish up school and have high school graduation Friday. I'm actually going in to school this week just to give my three exams, and then Shane and I will be reading the "Senior Messages" at graduation. The week after that, Shane will be taking his volleyball girls to Raleigh for volleyball camp. A school there is having the coach from Clearwater Christian College come up to conduct the camp. My mom is also going to be here that week, so we are looking forward to spending time with her. And then we are off to Disney the following week! It's going to be a BUSY summer, so I'm sure it will fly by before we know it! We would love to hear what you are up to and what your summers are going to be like! Take care and be safe in your travels!