July 2015

July is always one of my favorite months of the year, and this year was no exception. Even though I was incredibly huge and went over my due date with our baby boy (who does that on their fifth pregnancy!), it was a month full of exciting moments, celebrations, new blessings, and lots of laughs.
We celebrated the 4th of July again this year at the Bethel Blast. We, along with many others, are so appreciative to Bethel Baptist Church for putting on this super fun, family event. The food, entertainment and fireworks were all amazing like usual.

We celebrated Elsie's fifth birthday and one of the things she wanted to do for her birthday was go see Scooby Doo at Tweetsie. They came the day after her birthday and the kids enjoyed watching the show and meeting Scooby and Shaggy.

A few pictures of Vada Belle with her birthday goodies (we were really late taking this picture, and we actually forgot to give her the little bike we bought her for her birthday until the 4th of July- can you tell it has been a busy couple of months!). Vada Belle also had her 3 year well check up on July 6th, and she was 27 pounds, 3' 00'', and checked out wonderfully.

 Some more things we did this month; Eric and I celebrated our 11th Anniversary on July 10th, we spent some hot summer days at Mamaw and Papaw's pool (since I was very pregnant and didn't feel like going to a public pool and watching four kids), the kids went to 4 different Bible Schools, and we enjoyed play dates with friends.

Elsie and Vada Belle doing a little dancing in the rain; a mama doe and her baby that we had to wait to move out of the road on afternoon, Elsie playing with the chickens, and Ansley Kate and a chicken- the story behind the picture of Ansley; One morning I kept hearing a sound on our back porch.  I opened the door to see one of our chickens, so I wake Ansley up to take it down to the pen.  I had left the door open when I went to her room, and the chicken decided to come into the house while I was waking her.  Jackson walked by not knowing any of this was going on, and was a bit shocked to see a chicken standing in my bedroom! Even though Ansley looks rather angry in this picture, she really did think the whole situation was hilarious- I obviously just snapped the picture at the wrong time.

Jackson and his best buddy Caleb at their baseball banquet;

Jackson creating some type of Lego invention; Ansley Kate dressing her princesses with her play-doh dress creations; sweet Vada Belle and her sidekick- lovie

From July 23rd- July 26th, the kids along with their cousins, Abigail and Amelia, spent the night and had their "Camp Mamaw and Papaw." They were so excited on the day we were packing and getting them ready, and they had such a great time that Ansley Kate was crying while we were cleaning up the slip and slide and getting ready to go home. They stayed busy in the pool, on the slip and slide, jumping on the trampoline, playing games, and spending the night watching movies and sleeping in the camper. 

The kids loved checking out Mr. Butch's truck, and were so excited when he told them to take a "ride" in it.

Ansley Kate, after Bible School one night (on July 30th), told Eric and I that she knew that she wasn't saved, but that she wanted to be. Eric and I talked to her, prayed with her, and told her how proud of her we were that she wanted Jesus in her heart. It is such an amazing comfort to hear your children say that they want to be saved. 

On Tuesday, July 28th, I had a doctors appointment and Tiffany was in town and was going to take her girls to Tweetsie. She said she would be happy to take my kids, too, (except she couldn't fit Vada Belle in her car because there weren't enough seats- but Vada Belle and I had a great day hanging out together), and just look at this little gem she sent me while they were there. Those are some precious kids! 

July also got even better this year with the addition of our 5th baby- Felix Phipps Clifton. A blog post on his birth is coming very soon! I posted this picture one day on Facebook and said that I just may be the luckiest girl in the world, and that was even before I had my precious second son. I have so much to be thankful for, and I thank God for all of my many, many blessings!