a little izzy

while i was home, my sisters asked me to send them some new videos of izzy. so here ya go girls!

4th of July

for the 4th of July, laura and i went to the park with the haynes and the ostertags. it was a beautiful day and we had a fabulous time! we played a great (albeit looooooong) game of wiffleball, cooked out, had a bit of a water balloon fight (ok, we really just attacked becky!) and then played a great game of kickball. and all before the afternoon thunderstorm!


i think laura was trying to tell me something when she pitched the ball straight at my face! i still go the run though, so ha! ;)
on the way to the park, we were all talking about 4th of july family traditions and becky mentioned that "it's just not the 4th of july without water." granted, she meant a pool, or a lake or something, but we decided to help her out and give her a lil water to make her holiday complete. david supplied us with some water balloons and we waited until she had NO idea and then attacked!






we had an all-american cookout. hamburgers, hot dogs, potato salad, baked beans, dill pickles, potato chips and peach cobbler. yummmm!


after we got home, laura and i tried to take a walk in the rain, but it wasn't really raining too much. oh well. we did get a nice picture with a red, white and blue sign at a school near our house though!

self portraits in the car

for some reason, my sisters and i always wind up taking crazy self portraits when we're in the car together. here are just a few:

messy games night

a couple of days after i got to town, mal asked me to go with her to messy games night at church. i'm always up for that and we had a blast! we did, however, sit out when they played softball with dead fish. gross!
at the end of the evening there was a gorgeous sunset. of all the things that i miss from my time in oklahoma, blazing sunsets are at the top of the list. this one took me right back there!

baccalaureate

just a few days after i arrived, mal had her baccalaureate service at school. several youth pastors from the area spoke, including TJ, from our church. here is mal with TJ and her friend, Jen.after the service, we went to panera for dinner. it was SO GOOD!!! and we took just a few silly pictures (shocking, i know!)
seriously, my family is crazy. but i do love them so much!

graduation day

mal's graduation was outside on a sunday afternoon at 2:00. needless to say it was a bit warm! it was a beautiful day though.
black wasn't the best color choice, but somehow all 4 of us girls wound up wearin it!
later that evening, we went out to dinner with the youth pastor and his wife from church. we had a great time! and took a rather impressive self portrait, don't you think?
and, of course, a lovely family portrait.
after dinner we stopped by one of the other pastors' houses. they had taken in a couple of baby deer, who were two weeks old that day. they were so cute!

trip to Virginia

while i was in the states, our family took a short trip to virginia. we left the morning after graduation so that we could attend a banquet for the graduating seniors at our old church. we only got to stay 3 nights, but it was so great to get to see so many people!

i just LOVE these girls! it was so great to get to see them all together!

my "stafford parents," ray and jean jones. they are so sweet and i was so happy to get to see them!