Strawberry Picking!

We headed out early one morning to Gieringers Orchard to go strawberry picking with the Souders and Stilleys.  We have picked blueberries and blackberries before but never strawberries.  It was a beautiful morning, a little chilly, but the sun was shining!  Cooper was a great picker and was chatting the whole time, Laney was iffy about it and Piper was happy to eat all the strawberries after I let her out of the stroller.

 Pretty much sums up her attitude about strawberry picking.  

 Our family picture got photobombed by Gunner and he's the only kid looking!

Look at that blue sky!

 She was covered in strawberries, was just picking them off the vine and eating!

 Landree was her partner in crime.

Our pickings!  We didn't do anything but eat them as is and they were delicious!

We went to Chick-Fil-A for lunch and Laney graciously shared her ice cream with Pippi.  Mamaw met us at Chick-Fil-A, she has stayed a couple extra days after the weekend to work in KC.  Since we were headed to Wash, MO in a few days for Memorial Day weekend, she graciously took the big kids with her for a little vacation (for the kids, not her;)).  More on their stay later, obviously they had the best time and Piper sure thrived on her one on one time with Adam and I.  And I accomplished more in those 3 days around the house than I have in the last 6 months!!!!!

Coop's last soccer game

The day after Laney's dance recital, Coop had his last soccer game.

 This girl slept after church thru lunch, so she ate during the game.

 All 4 Vermillion/Jones kids were at the game!  So were Uncle Brock, Uncle Aaron and all 4 Grandparents...lucky boy to have such a big audience!  And he scored 2 goals-what a way to close out the season Coop!

 They both wanted this chair so Piper just sat on Quincy's lap ;).

 It was just a little bit windy, can you tell??

 Cash played after Cooper so we headed to his field next.  Braeden led the boys in some skills/drills and those little boys were mesmerized.

Adam was the head coach this year and did such a great job leading those boys!

Babies!

I have met some special babies this month!  

 My uncle Greg and Jen had sweet twin baby girls!!!  Twins!  And they have a girl that is Piper's age...their house is going to be so fun in years to come!  I am the oldest grandkid and these girls are the youngest...33 years difference!

 The 2 baby girls together weighed about the same as Piper did!  This is Rozlyn, she was only 3 lbs, 12 oz when they brought her home!  They are both so sweet!!!!

 Then my best friend Julie brought this sweet girl into the world.  Meet baby Madeline!

 She is so sweet!!!!!!!!!!!!

And I came home to snuggle with MY BABY, who wanted nothing of it!  Waaahhh!!!!!

Then we found her sneaking applesauce from the pantry to underneath the island where she was puncturing it open with her teeth to eat it.  Our baby is growing up too fast!!!!!

Shower -1 Piper -0

I was showering with the girls the other night-we were finishing up and I was helping Laney pick up all the toys.  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Piper pushing the shower door open and in slow motion before I could catch her...she pushed the door open and her feet slid out from under her.  She face planted on the granite ledge :(.

 I picked her up saying to myself, "please no blood, please no blood."  About 5 seconds later, the blood started :(.  And of course Adam was out of town.  I needed another adult opinion in regards to stitches or no stitches.  So I called my sister and Rusty (who are both in the medical field) and they happened to be on their way home and stopped by.  They reassured me she didn't need stitches...cut was so small and so close to eye.  There were 2 separate cuts.  She cried a lot when it first happened but then was totally fine.

 We FaceTimed Dad to show off the war wound...her other eye was from earlier in the night when she fell off the tricycle :(.  Poor Baby!

 I gave her some Motrin before bed and was so nervous to what it was going to look like in the morning.  I was sure it was going to be swollen and bruised.

 Here she is the next morning.  It looked so much better than I thought and she was all good.  Kids are so resilient!

This was a couple nights later and by the weekend it was almost completely healed.

Phew, that was a scary fall Piper!

Laney's Dance Recital

Laney started dance after the first of the year and she has really liked it!  I wouldn't say she loved it, just because she never practiced her dancing at home and didn't talk much about it unless she was there.  But she was always happy to go and danced away the hour she was there.

 They had a dress rehearsal their last class for the recital.  I am so glad they did a dress rehearsal for the moms to see what they had been working on because on recital day they were frozen on stage ;).  Here is the dance dress rehearsal.   My videography skills need some improvement.

 They danced to bippity-boppity-boo from Cinderella.  They all loved their dresses and were so pretty!

 Hugs from Miss Marilyn!  She's the best!

 Such a sweet group of girls!  Piper and I enjoyed getting to know all the moms and siblings.  Piper had lots of little buddies to run around with during their 45 minutes of dancing.

 We will miss this sweet teacher!

 Aunt Alli came to do her hair for recital day.  It's days like these that I question why God gave me 2 girls.  I am clueless when it comes to hair and makeup.  Seriously, I can't work a curling iron!  I didn't even have pink lipstick for her!  Thankfully I have backup to help me out.

 Quincy had snoozed in this pack'n'play for a few hours the night before so it was still setup.  Piper wanted in it and was pretty content...awesome!!

 Pretty girls!

 Sweet, sweet sisters!

Hard to get good video and pictures of her up on stage....there wasn't much to video anyway...just a bunch of cute girls waving their wands around.

 This little dancer had quite the crowd in the audience!  My grandma was there too, she just snuck out early ;)

 Cooper and Adam rushed over from his soccer game just in time to see Laney perform.

 She got lots of flowers from her grandparents and great grandma!

 We met up with the rest of the Jones' for lunch at Jalapenos.

We are so proud of our little dancer!  It was such a special day to her!

Mother's Day 2015

My Mother's Day was pretty darn hard to top in my books...well, except for the weather.

 Adam's Grandma sent this to me for Mother's Day, love it!

 Adam got up with the kids and they made me breakfast in bed.  My sidekick watched me eat with envy.

They told me to get dressed to go somewhere.  Cooper said, "it's somewhere far away but not St. Louis or Texas."  Earlier in the week Adam asked me what I wanted to do for Mother's Day and I said go to Lawrence for the day.  I could hear him rolling his eyes over the phone.  He likes going to Lawrence for games and that's about it.  I would live in Lawrence...freakin' love that town and everything about it!  Anyway, moving on...we were all getting ready to get out the door.  I was fixing Laney's hair and she said, "I don't even want to go to Lauren's house."  lol.  Obviously there was a communication issue on where we were going for the day....we don't even know a Lauren!

 We pulled into Lawrence (or Lauren's house as Laney called it all day) and it started pouring rain...boo!  Piper was sleeping so we drove around for a bit to all our favorite places.

 We decided to go to the Union to let the kids run around but sat in the car to wait the rain out and let Pippi finish snoozing.  Laney had dressed herself that morning in a very mismatched outfit.  She came in my room after I was dressed and said, "oh, you're wearing a dress!  I need a dress."  So we went to her closet to pick out her second outfit for the day at 8:30am.  She cracks me up!

 The boys were talking video games.

 Such a dreary day!!  We are far removed from college because we got to the Union at 10am and were the only ones there.  Then we remembered that most college students don't function before 10!  

 I feel so lucky and yet a bit petrified at times that I am the mother to these sweet children.  It is such a daunting task and I pray everyday that I am doing what's right to bring the best out of them and mold kind, loving and hardworking big kids and adults.  Honestly they make my job pretty easy now, it's 10 years from now that I am really worried about!

 It's a good thing there weren't students there trying to study because these kids were excited and loud!

 We went to Quintons for lunch.  It hit me when we walked in...oh yeah, they aren't going to have high chairs or kids' menu...it's a different life in a college town...an awesome life ;).  So Piper ran back and forth across the booth behind the kids.  I loved lunch...everyone else, not so much.  Sorry peeps, it's my day.

 After lunch we went back to the Union to go bowling at JayBowl.  The hours were 12-5, we got there at 12:30 and it was still closed!  I like to think the manager skipped out to take his mom out to lunch, he was probably hungover.  We were totally bummed but thought we would hit up Allen Fieldhouse instead...and then it was closed too!  Major road bumps in the day, luckily little kids aren't easily bothered by that.

 Outside Allen Fieldhouse, you can buy a stone to personalize.  This one was my favorite!  What a brilliant idea!!!!!!

 This was my other favorite, what a great tribute from one coaching legend to another.

 We went to the top of the hill, love that view!

 "Let's get a picture kids!"  Awesome.

First shot people, this may be one of the best family pictures we own!  

 After Lawrence, we came home for the kids to take quick naps and then headed to my Grandma's for dinner.  Laney's favorite part about my Grandma's house is drinking her Pepsi and eating candy...I think those were 2 of my favorite things growing up too!

 Checking out the cattle on the farm.

I now wonder how I raised my kids so far from family, specifically my mom and sister.  I am not sure what I would do without them.  My mom is the most giving and selfless person I know...she once spent 3 hours at the McDonalds play land with my kids...I think that is a credential to Sainthood ;).

 To top off Mother's Day, we went for ice cream to end the day.  I am telling you, my day was perfect!