A lot to say...a lot happening... here is just a quick break down that I will expand on later...
My brother and Jessica moved into their new house....(pictures to come)
We went back to the water park (free tickets) with Reid, Ally, Aubrianna, Leah, & Jacob....
We found out that our friends Tommy and Danielle are having a baby...Congratulations Guys!!!!
Last weekend was spent at my brother's and sister-in-law's at their pool...(you will see pictures below!)
This weekend we are going to my 10 year high school reunion...really...10 years?..already?..
Labor Day weekend we are going to the Nascar race in Atlanta and camping out....
We also have the Chili Cook Off coming up in September and we are camping out and my brother is cooking again this year...unlike last year...remember?
So for now I will leave you with some pictures, because who does not love pictures!?


Her is Kylie at the Water Park at my Dad's company picnic. This is the only picture you will see this time. Not because I favor one child more than another it is just because I have a 7 year old that has more important things to do than hang out with her mom and have her picture taken.

This is Kenzie swimming at my brother's pool all by herself! Such a big girl!

Here she is jumping into the pool! She is so proud of her new found independence.

This is Kenzie on our way to Uncle Steve and Aunt Jessica's house. Does she not look amazing in bright colors?

Here is Kenzie and Aubri enjoying a snack on our free day at the Water Park.

This is Kylie's T-Ball All Star sign that is permantely hung at the field. What a great accomplishment as this is the first for Brookwood T-Ball All Stars.

And in honor of Rian and Mine 3rd Anniversary tomorrow....

"A wedding anniversary is the celebration of love, trust, partnership, tolerance and tenacity. The order varies for any given year." - Paul Sweeney

Not me...and yet probably me....Monday!

***I am a complete computer genius and there is no reason why I should not be able to get the cool "Not Me Monday" logo to appear but I digress...***


So...because I am the most organized, on top of everything, all my ducks in a row, super mom who can do it all, I am totally not overdue for an update on all things Ferrero and I actually did not have to back track to find out exactly where I left off....so to keep you guys in the loop and to update what I promised I would, I will do a quick run down to catch you up to the last week...Ready, Set, Here we go!



All things stated below are believed to be true to the best of my forgetful memory....



Sunday, June 21st...took Kylie to meet Grandma and Grandpa for her week long stay.



Sunday, June 21st - Saturday, June 27th....Kylie spent the week with Grandma and Grandpa in the mountains and had an absolutely amazing time! She had the absolute pleasure of going horse back riding, swimming at the lake, shopping, getting her hair cut at the "beauty parlor", learning the amazing alphabet (that she will still recite to anyone who will listen), etc. She had an awesome, wonderful, learning experience (and even learned a little new trick from Grandpa about what can get a point across when Grandma forgets to give him the keys to the car when he is getting it washed! ;) I am almost positive that Grandma is either reading this saying What? or possibly saying....Oh no...she did not go there! Arliss will have to give you the answer!) I thought it was quite funny because I swear (although I try not to) that she catches me doing no no's all the time!



Saturday, June 27th....We had Kylie's end of the year party for All Stars and she received 2 more trophies. That put this year's total to 7 and 10 overall! Not bad for a 7 year old!



Saturday, July 4th...We had an amazing time up at the Rabun's for the 4th of July. Yeah....I know, not so much to say except it was a wonderful time spent with wonderful people. And yes...you waited over a month for me to tell you that.



Saturday, July 18th...My dad's company ViaSat had their annual summer company picnic and we all were invited to Lake Lanier Island's Water Park....free of charge. This included free lunch, beer, and entrance to the water park. Kylie had a blast on all of the water slides now that she is tall enough to ride them all and Makenzie had so much fun with Nana at the kiddie slides, lake, and wave pool. Thanks Mom for allowing Rian and I to ride the rides with Kylie!



Thursday, July 23rd - Monday, July 27th...We spent the long weekend in Chicago. We had absolute fabulous time meeting our new nephew Luca and spending time with Dain, Amy, and Gianna. You would have never known that Kylie and Gianna had not seen each other in almost 2 years. They are like old kindred spirits and never missed a beat!



Saturday, August 1st...We were allowed the privilage to help my brother and sister-in-law move in to their new house that they just purchased. It is absolutely beautiful and I will post pictures as soon as I have them. While we are very happy for them it is also very hard to get used to not seeing them several times a week!



Wednesday, August 5th.....Our baby girl, our first born princess turned 7 years old. We celebrated at our house with Grandpa Ferrero, Nana, Papa, Uncle Steve, and Aunt Jessica. Kylie had her usual Filet Mignon (sp?) that she has every year and the rest of us had Chicken Burgers.



Saturday, August 8th...We had Kylie's actual birthday party with 50 of our closest friends and family at my parent's house and pool!



And that my friends brings us to today! Monday, August 10th, the day that my oldest started 2nd grade, my baby got moved into the next level of "new big gir cass" as she likes to tell us, and I am fast aproaching my one year blogiversary (August 14th of 2008 was my very first post!)

Times are flying and good times are had by all! We hope that this post is finding everyone in wonderful spirits and good health! Good night to all and may God bless you.

I am not sure who the author is of my quote for the evening but I actually read this in Arliss' bathroom while I was taking care of some bussiness and I absolutely fell in love with it and completely sums up how I look at our lives...(I hope I don't screw this up)

"We may not have it all together...but together we have it all!" - Unknown

Enough said!

Chiacago Part 2....

Some of these may be repeats. Sorry...


Kenzie and her baby "Yuka"...

Kenzie riding the horsies at Navy Pier...

Dain, Gianna, and Kylie somewhere on this Ferris Wheel. They are in #11. Can you see them?....Me neither....

The Bean in Millenium Park. Can you see Rian & Kenzie's reflection in the background?

Another picture of the bean....

Millenium Park...Water Fountain. The faces spit on you.

Here is one of the face fountains....

Luca & Uncle Roc....

Kylie & Gianna...

"Words and pictures can work together to communicate more powerfully than either alone."

-William Albert Allard

Chicago Part 1....

Pictures & Chicago Part One...It has been a while....I know that I still owe 4th of July and other things that I said I would post about but it is the end of the summer for Kylie so we are trying to make the best of it and have been staying quite busy. I also need to post about Kylie's trip to Grandma's house. But for today because I am tired and ready for bed I am going to leave you with pictures from our absolutely wonderful, amazing, relaxing, peaceful, fun filled trip to Chicago to see Dain & Amy. (These are in random order due to the way the blogger uploads them...)

The BEAUTFUL Chicago...
A Sculpture at Millenium Park...

Rian, Kylie, and Makenzie @ Millenium Park....

Makenzie playing in the fort in the backyard....

The girls trying to escape out of the back gate of the yard...

Absolutely Precious Baby Luca...

Rian, Dain, & Luca...

Makenzie playing in the sandbox...

Another picture of baby Luca (or "My baby Yuka"...according to Kenzie)

Uncle Roc & Luca

Kylie & Gianna

Paddle boating....

Kenzie watching the paddle boating....

Kenzie sliding while everyone else went on the boats...

Kenzie pouting about something.....

Wrigley.....

The most amazing backyard....

Kenzie and Daddy at the pool....

Kylie & Gianna at the pool....

The most amazing backyard again...

Kylie & Gianna...(Look at the eyes...can you tell they are related?)

More pictures to come tomorrow! - I promise!

"Lost time is never found again." - Benjamin Franklin

No "Not Me Monday" today. Too tired and no time. A big update on the 4th of July happenings of the Ferrero Four coming in a day or two as well as catching you up on my reminder from my last post. But for now...some pictures to hold you over...

Here is Kenzie getting her water to water Granny Rabun's Flowers at the 4th of July party....

This is Kenzie watering the concrete instead of the flowers...

This is Kenzie's beautiful black eyes and nose from her baseball bat to the eyes...

Here is Kenzie and Daddy swimming at Granny and Papa Rabun's house at the 4th of July party...

Here is Baby Grant at my parent's pool...

Another beautiful picture of a very beautiful (I mean handsome) Baby Grant....

Here is Aubrianna contemplating her next move at the 4th of July party...

Here is Aubrianna and her daddy at Grandma's in the mountains...

Here is Kylie and Kenzie at Grandma's in the mountains....

Here is Grandma with Kenzie and Aubrianna reading a book....

Almost forgot...but totally did not. Just that it is almost 11:00pm and I am super duper tired after a long Monday! This post is to remind myself next time to let you know about the Stefanko's (and family) visit to Georgia and how I absolutely did win our game of 31 but most definitely did not break a wine glass! (I am now down to only one although I think this is the first one that I actually broke!) (Now Arliss can understand why I requested the plastic wine glass while in the mountains this last weekend!)

2 posts in one day! Consider yourself lucky!

Goodnight...don't let the bed bugs bite!

-April

Welcome to Not Me! Monday! This blog carnival was created by MckMama. You can head over to http://www.mycharmingkids.net">her blog to read what she and everyone else have not been doing this week.

Welcome back everyone! This is going to be a combo post and you my reader will have to decide for yourself what actually happened and what most certainly did not!

After having Comcast scheduled to come out to fix our phone / internet / TV on Thursday (actually 2 Thursdays ago) between the hours of 2 and 5 I was totally not super excited when our air conditioning at work went out causing my office to become 89 degrees by 11:00 am and my boss sending everyone home for the remainder of the day with pay! I then actually did try to be super wife and cut our grass and our neighbor's since it was his riding lawn mower and they were out of town and I was watching their dog for them. But then I absolutely did not forget to mention to him when he got home that the belt fell off of his lawn mower while I was trying to cut his grass and I did not make Rian have to tell him when he came to get the lawn mower. Not me!

Kylie did have an amazing time at her Grandma and Grandpa's house for the week and was able to go to the lake, get her hair cut, go horse back riding in the mountains, go see her Papa's college, and many more things that she did journal about while she was there. I most certainly was not amazed that my amazingly smart child was actually able to memorize the amazing alphabet in the short week that she was there and then able to continually repeat it for anyone who would listen when she got home! I also most certainly did not insist on driving to Grandma and Grandpa's house since Rian had miss placed his license so that my fears of driving in the mountains would be eased by my complete control of the car! I am never afraid! Not me! Makenzie also did not proceed to vomit all over herself after being thrown back and forth in her car seat by her mother's nascar attempt to climb the mountain in record speed. I assure you I stayed in the right hand lane with my flashing lights on doing a mere 5 miles an hour on the hair pin turns that make up our climb of the mountain that gets you to Grandma's house! Abosutely not me!

I most certainly did have an amazing time on Saturday night going out with a couple of friends to see one of our friend's band play at Wild Bill's while my most amazing husband stayed home and watched the kids. I do have to say that this is an actual rareity (sp?) at our house as my amazing husband is usually the one that gets invited to do things without me but I assure you that I am never a jealous person! Again, Not Me!

This past Sunday found us spending an amazingly beautiful day at my parent's pool where I actually did get in and enjoyed it as I always do! (everyone knows that I certainly did not get in only maybe once last summer!) The day was spent with great friends and family. My brother and Jessica returned from their much deserved beach trip for the past week and we are hoping that God graces us with a beach trip this year as well! Speaking of beach...Florida...let me just tell you that my wonderful Kylie was invited by her Grandma & Grandpa (at this time "in the mountains") to go to Disney World with them this fall and my princess of all princesses absolutely did not tell them that she did not want to go! Definitely not my child! We are going to have work on this one! Definitely!

On a much more serious note, our family has had some major happenings go on in the past week and I would like to ask for some prayers specifically for my dad (although he is doing much better), my grandma (who is doing better this week as well), and for my brother's best friend and his sister who I consider to be our friends as well in the passing of their mother after a short but courageous battle with cancer. We pray that God will hold them in his hands and help them through this difficult time. There are no words that can be spoken that will make things better but we can only hope that time and our trust in the Lord will help us to understand his master plan. I can never say that I know how they feel as everyone deals differently and I have not had to face the loss of a parent but I can say that I have felt the loss of very dear loved ones and I can say that time does not heal the hurt but with time we learn to remember the happy more.


"Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding." - Proverbs 3:6