Lets Go All-Stars!

So proud of these boys!  This is the 2012 Franklin County Minor League All-Star team and I'm very proud that Brock has had the opportunity to be apart of the team.  This week has been full of All-Star fun along with July 4th fun :)  Saturday began the All-Star tournament, 100 degree heat and all.  The boys brought home a win against Rabun Co.  We headed back to Rabun Co. on Monday night for a late game!   What was supposed to be an 8:30 game started at 9:30.  The boys fought hard against Madison Co. but ended with a loss.  The game was called for time after midnight so to say they were tired would be a big understatement!  I know I sure was.  Tonight they will play against Toccoa so we are still in the middle of baseball fun.  Good luck boys!
Before Monday's game we took Cohen to have a picnic.  The tournament is being held in Rabun Co. so we decided to visit Tallulah Gorge State Park.  Cohen loves picnics so it was perfect timing.  Sug & Pop were having a sleepover with Kate since the baseball game would be starting at her bedtime.  She was a trooper at Saturday's game though.  On a funny note, Cohen continues to love taking pictures with my camera.  I think it takes up her whole face when she tries to use it.  She was wanting to take pictures of me and Kelly and she would tell us to do funny faces, smiles, and serious faces.  It was quite entertaining.  We also managed to do some with her in them.   She was excited to see some geese as well.  It was a long night but we enjoyed it all!

Enjoying the picnic

Funny faces...not sure about the fist she's holding up :)

Cohen's picture of us...a little crooked but I think its great for a 4 year old!

Our All-Star!

Brock's #1 fan

Cohen had to get a picture with Eli :)

Proud Grandma!

Picture Pride at the new Hospital

The new Ty Cobb Regional hospital has officially opened and its only a mile from our house.  I think this new hospital has been the buzz around Lavonia for over a year now.  The hospital asked for photo submissions a few months ago, and were looking for pictures to hang around the hospital and in the rooms.  I was very excited to have 3 pictures chosen to hang in the hospital, 2 in the mother/baby area and one in a patient room.  I got the letter a few months back saying 1 or more pictures had been chosen but I did not know which ones had been picked so it was fun going to see which ones were chosen and where they would be.  We got to go to view everything about a week ago and the official open house was on Saturday.  I was even more excited when I found out one of mine chosen was Kate's newborn picture.  I took her back to the open house to get a picture of her beside her framed picture.  She has really grown in a year!

She loves it!

Maybe she recognizes it from her bedroom :)

One of my pictures was my best friend, Rebekah's, son Nolan.  Nolan was born in September and he was so sweet at his newborn session, as you can see from his sweet smile in his picture.  I hate that the flash is reflecting in this picture but you can still see how sweet he looks.  The one with my phone isn't quite as bad.  This was a big one so I was very excited when I saw it.  It will hang in the mother/baby consult room.

This last picture was the only scenic photograph I submitted.  That was really what they had asked for with the pictures but I don't take very many of these at all, in fact this was at an engagement session I did.  I was still excited to see it in the patient room though!

Cohen also got some picture love recently!  She was in the photo section of the June issue of the Georgia EMC magazine.  We aren't EMC customers, but Sug, Pop, and Bebe are!  Lydia had showed me this magazine one day and I noticed they were having a fishing theme for June and I had the perfect picture to send in.  Not long after emailing it in I got a response saying they were wanting to use her picture.  I still remember this moment last summer!  Cohen was so cute wanting to hold a fish but the fish decided to jump as soon as it touched her hand.

Vacation Bible School & Kate's 1 year Check-up

This week we have been having vacation Bible school at church.  It was Monday-Thursday in the morning from 9-11:30.  Our Bible school starts at age 4 so this was Cohen's first year to be a participant.  In the past I have helped and she has just been in the nursery, which is where Kate went this year.  Cohen had so much fun!  She loved every part of it, singing songs, Bible stories, games, snack (of course), and the imagination station which was where they got to do little "experiments".  Our Bible school was Sky so they got to make things fly, explode, soar, etc...It was all very neat.  I was Cohen's crew leader so I got to see her in action all week.  I took my phone to snap just a few pictures and I did take my camera one day but I really was too busy to take many pictures.  Game time was when I could get some fun pics.  The kids played with a parachute one day, and they played the "scream" game several times which is where someone runs from one end of the grass to the other to see how far they can scream using just one breath.  Pretty funny!   The one thing I noticed about Cohen that was pretty funny and cute was how much she enjoyed being around boys!  She was sure to get close to her friend Wyatt on several days, and she loved being around the bigger boys!  She talked about Evan, Keaton and Eli several times :)  She knows a lot of these boys since they are Brock's age and Keaton is Josie's brother, but I think we will definitely be watching her :)

Cohen & Annabel

Playing with Wyatt at snack

Parachute games

Screaming loud!

For one game, the kids were divided into teams with one person being blindfolded and another person had to tell the blindfolded one where to go to find their bag.  Carson had to direct Cohen where to go.  Once she got the bag she could take her blindfold off then they had to put the puzzle in the bag together.  Puzzles just happen to be Cohen's specialty!

Cohen liked playing with Eli

Back beside her favorite, Wyatt!

This was the "exploding experiment"

Here are 2 links to videos, one is a game they played which they had to put Vasoline on their noses to try to pick up as many cotton balls as they could.  The second video is of Cohen singing and doing the motions to one of the theme songs, "I'll Fly Away".  It is a little dark because the lights were out so that their glow bracelets would show up a little bit better.
Click HERE for a video of the Cotton Ball Game
Click HERE for the video of Cohen singing I'll Fly Away

One last thing, Kate had her official 1 year check-up and here are her stats at 12 months:
Height-30 inches
Weight-21 pounds
HC-18 1/2 inches

She has 4 teeth and 1 more is starting to break through.  She loves to walk now and will spread her legs so wide when she does.  She starts going so fast and then will get a little off balance.  It is so cute to watch her.  She just laughs!  I love to walk in a room and her see me and just start walking so fast to get to me.  She loves to wave and will wave bye-bye and has started to blow a kiss.  She just yells and babbles when she sees someone she knows.  If she wants you to hold her she will just lean to you and gets a good grab on whatever she can find!  She is too precious!

Waving "hey there" to the camera

Our Garden

This spring/summer we decided to have our very first garden.  It has been a lot of fun to watch everything grow and now we are starting to get vegetables from the garden.  I have cooked my first garden green beans and we have had some squash as well.  My mama has really been my go to person on gardening.  She has to tell me when things are "officially" ready to be picked and helps me with recipes and putting things up to freeze.  I remember having a garden when I was a little girl, and mainly I remember helping with butter beans and green beans.  I always thought that was fun to do!  Cohen has taken interest in our garden.  She helped plant the seeds and she has helped pick our green beans and squash.  After the first few times of picking she gets bored and tired with it, but she loves to talk about what all is growing with anyone.  She also likes to show it off.  I wanted to have some pictures of our "first" garden so here are a few.  I know as more things come in I will have more pictures and stories.  I am searching Pinterest and cookbooks for recipes.  I laughed and told Kelly that I think this would have made my Daddy proud, because I'm really the last person I would think of for working in a garden.  I don't eat many garden vegetables but it has really been fun for all of us to see what we can produce!

Our garden

Green beans to freeze

Red Peppers only they haven't turned red

 

Baby watermelons

squash

Okra blooming

Corn...and anyone who knows me knows I do NOT like corn

Green beans

Lima beans...a first for all of us

Cantaloupes or we hope it will be :)