We had a GREAT turnout at See You At The Poles!
We met at First Baptist Church Of Swartz at 6 am for a time of breakfast, fellowship, and even some door prizes!
We had a awesome day set aside for us as Christians to pray for our schools, students, and for our country!
Bro. Thomas speaking to our students, parents, and teachers.
This sign was posted on every classroom showing that prayer was said!
Bailee and her Friend Mary Grace and their teacher
My whole family along with others
The group saluting our flag! What a wonderful gathering we had!! I thank God for Christian students, parents, and teachers in our schools!!
Bailee had a project to do for her 5th grade science class.
Caiden did one last year, and so enjoyed this project. Girls and Boys are so different, for Bailee wanted her project GREAT!! So we took several rocks and spray painted them and made it a Fall Theme.
We took a simple cardboard box, painted it, glued on it, and put hay in the bottom. We glued several leaves on rocks. We also took some pilgrim faces and glued them onto the rocks. I found a cute little pumpkin that used batteries and blinked in and off! It was so cool!!
She painted jack o lantern faces on some of the rocks.
Bailee and her friend Ashley evened worked together on their projects. We had so much fun doing this cute little pet rock project!! Bailee made a 100 on it!!
For my 35th Birthday, my family gave me a wonderful gift!! I got to swim with sea lions at Sea World!!
It was such an AWESOME experience and I enjoyed every minute of interacting with these amazing animals!!
Not only did I swim with them, I got to really see these animals perform some amazing things!
The sea lions were very smart and they are some beautiful creatures!
The instructor taught us some neat hand tricks to do and these sea lions were very willing to do whatever we asked of them!
I was so nervous but so excited at the same time!! They were unreal, the touch of their skin was like a puppy dog, really.
Just from a simple hand signal, the amazing creatures did some amazing things!!
The water was VERY cold, but i warmed up very quickly!!
I so enjoyed everything about this amazing trip!!!! Thanks so much to Jerry, Caiden, and Bailee for letting me live a dream and swim with some amazing animals!!! I had such a great time and learned a lot about sea lions!!
Not really, but our puppy Baxter thinks he is! His favorite place is always to sit on people's shoulders. He is not a lap dog, but a stand on your back dog!!
The kids and I had a great time here.
We did the car tour, petting zoo, and walked around feeding animals. Caiden had a great time feeding all kinds of animals.
We had a hard time getting around the HUGE Bulls. They just kept roaming around the car and I was scared those big horns were going to damage my car.
Caiden had his turn of feeding the ostrich, he did quite well and was not scared.
I love nature and all she has to offer. What a beautiful sight to see so much of it here!
After the car tour, we found a nice picnic area surrounded by a pond. I prepared our lunch last night. I made my mom's famous chicken salad. Her recipe is AWESOME!! I used boiled chicken, eggs, walnuts, apples,pecans, and some red pepper!! It was YUMMY!!
We got some of the animal food and put some on the ground.
Even Bailee decided at this point to feed her 1st animal!!!
We were so amazed that such a wild creature was letting us pet him!!
We had such a wonderful time here. Glad we got to go before the BIG rain hit!!
We had so much fun at this amusement park. After a long and fun day at the water park, we went back and rode a lot of fun roller coaster rides!
The kids and I rode so many rides, I was so surprised that they rode the best ,funnest, and most bizarre rides! For sure Caiden, he rode the best rides with me!
Caiden and I rode this awesome roller coaster ride called the ragin cajun! We did so many flips, forwards and backwards. It was a BLAST!!
Caiden enjoyed this ride and so did I!! We were going to fast, you can tell by my hair!
Jerry and Caiden took some time to play some games, they played a couple games of basketball.
Bailee and her new friend Laurin rode a lot of rides together.
They loved these swings.
The kids rode a lot of rides together
I could not believe they were holding up their hands like this!!
Caiden and Bailee rode this cool roller coaster ride.
They also ride the spider, they loved this ride also
My friend Amy and I rode this pirate ride with the kids!
OK, this was the BEST ride there. It was a straight down path going 80 mph. I told Caiden that I was not going to do it, but I ended up doing it with him!
Caiden LOVED it, and so did I!! It was AWESOME!!
This ride was also fun for the kids. We rode it aleast twice, well I did then they rode it again for the 3rd time!
Jerry did not ride many rides, rollercoasters are not his thing, but he did ride the bumper cars with the kids!
We has so much fun here. We arrived at the waterpark at 10 am and left the amusement park at 10 pm, when it closed so we for sure got our money's worth!!!
Bailee going down . It was a straight down ride, it was very fast.
Jerry
We walked over to the amusement park and did the only water ride they had the log ride. We wanted to go ahead and do this because we were going there that night and we did not want to get wet again.
It was FUN!
Our BIG splash at the end!
The kids and I had so much fun making Homemade Ice cream today!!
I stood back and let them do all the preparation for it
Caiden was really involved in helping make it, a lot more than he usually is!
The kids even worked together, helping each other and making sure all the ingredients were being added.
They did very well with the cracking of the eggs. I had a separate bowl handy for them to but the egg shells in.
After mixing, Caiden went outside and poured everything in the container.
We sat outside under the carport and ate our ice cream!
Caiden had to get the first taste in!!
We brought in the leftovers and put it in the freezer to have some more later!
We even let the dogs have a taste of it, and they LOVED it!!
During the summer time, we visit many hotel swimming pools!
From state to state, we love getting to experience everyone elses culture and yes, their swimming pools!
Here are us in Baton Rouge!
Caiden and Bailee decided to go behind the ladder to see if they would get stuck there, well, they didn't!!
Bailee's handstand!
Bailee in the hot tub and it was HOT!!
this hotel was in Shreveport
They had a BLAST here!!
what made it more fun was that our puppies Bubba and Baxter came out to swim with us!
Caiden and Bailee really love their puppies!
We are so blessed to be able to travel with Jerry and see so many different things!
We had a great time at the baseball game!
We love sports and love going to see the real live action anytime we can!
We drove from Baton Rouge to New Orleans to watch this game.
They even had a pool where you could swim and watch baseball, how cool is that!?
I was so proud I actually caught this towel, I was hoping to catch a baseball, but oh well, I will take what I can get!! I gave the towel to Bailee, She LOVED it!
The Zephyrs Mascot messing around with the players!
What a cute couple!! Doing some southern dancing on the field!!
Then he got in trouble, OH NO!! She was just a fussing at him!!
Half time show!! It was a race at who could make the fastest human hamburger!!The kids were laughing so hard at this!
The last of the "human" hamburger!! I thought he was going to hurt him when he jumped on him!!
At the end of the game, all the fans got to go on the field and run the bases. Caiden was so tired at this point, But Bailee and I were excited about doing this!!!
Bailee was having so much fun!! We are almost to the home plate!!
I was kinda upset that these pictures did not turn out well but I am still learning about my new camera. We had fun posing!!This is Jerry!
Bailee
And me!! We had so much fun and look forward to going back for another game!!
We had a great time visiting our state capital in Baton Rouge Louisiana
Jerry and I have been there several times, but this was Caiden and Bailee's first visit and they enjoyed learning about our State History.
Jerry and the kids walking up the LONG stairs, it was soo hot and they were so glad to finally get to the top!!
Caiden was so proud that he made it and thought he was Rocky!! One of my favorite movies!!
I cannot believe that Caiden was brave enough to climb here, I was kinda panicking but Jerry was trying to tell me that it was ok!
My Bailee
Inside the state Capitol, it was soo pretty
We had so much fun and glad our children got to visit our state capital and learn about our state's history, YES, even though it's summer we are still doing things that are essential to our children's education!
Look at all those pretty flags!!
Jerry flying high on the USS KIDD !
While on our trip in Baton Rouge, home of the LSU Tigers, we got to tour the LSU campus and see the mascot, Mike the Tiger!!
He was taking a little nap while were there! Caiden and Bailee and I were in awe of this mighty beast!! But he did not look so tough lying here!!
This is Mike's purple ball that he plays with.
What a wonderful day for us as Americans!!We have so much to be thankful for!! Freedom, Life, Liberty..and most of all our family!!!
Bailee had I had the best time on her end of year field trip to various places in Baton Rouge!We went to Myrtle's Plantation,Rosedown Plantation, and the Bayou Swap Tour. It was such a wonder experience and I got to spend some great time with her! This picture of a snake was the highlight of the trip! While we were on the balcony of the Rosedown plantation, we saw this little creature just passing thorough the garden. The kids were in awe of this snake slithering along!
Bailee and I got up at 4 am to be at the school. We left at five thirty am! The school rented a BIG bus with many TVs for the kids to enjoy!
Our first stop was Myrtles Plantation.
This a picture of one of Bailee's teachers and many girls on the field trip!
Bailee and her sweet teacher Mrs.Tanner. She was the BEST teacher! I so loved going to every party and function and helping her out in any way I could! Bailee and I love you dearly!!
Bailee and her best friend Ashley with one of the tour guides.
I LOVE this picture! Bailee brought her yearbook on the trip for all her friends to sign! What a special moment in a girl's life! I see so much of me in Bailee! Special memories Bailee will have of all her friends in school!!
These are just pictures of various things in the plantations that I thought were really cool! I took soo many pictures, 420, to be exact, so it was very hard for me to choose which ones meant the most to me! 
This is a picture of the boy's room. I LOVE the slingshot, for sure the hobby of a typical boy!
Of course, I took many pictures of the kitchen because I LOVE to cook!It is so amazing to me how women cooked back then! I feel so blessed to have the many convinces of electricity! And Dishwashers!
We had a great picnic time! I brought several blankets and me and some girls camped out on the ground and enjoyed nature, and YES, and lunch!!
Bailee and Ashley enjoying a cool soda on the bus! Bailee and Ashley toured the gift shop and ending up buying the old soda pops in the glass bottle. We sure have come a long way from this! But I am glad they enjoyed a cool refreshment!
Bailee's favorite part was the Bayou Swamp tour!
Bailee had I had soo much fun there! We learned many dance steps.
I was choosen to be the leader in a group of music groups, We voted on the name of the Gator Glory crawdads!
Bailee learning how to play her instrument
Bailee learning how to dance !
Baliee enjoyed meeting this alliagtior and for having the chance to pet one!
After some dancing and petting the alliagtor, we got to enjoy some Domino's Pizza!
Bailee wrestling an alliagtor!
The Boyou Swamp Tour had a sign welcoming our school!
Bailee and I had such a great time on this trip! What a way to end the year with a trip like this! Again, I am feel so blessed to go on any trip with my children! I so enjoyed it!!
My kids love all things about summer, but they look forward to VBS most of all!
Caiden and Bailee had a GREAT week at VBS at Swartz Baptist Church!
The theme was Boomerang Express.
Caiden and Bailee enjoyed being around cousins and friends, But most of all, learned more about Jesus and His love!
The last day, they had Water Day and got to play on a water slide and with water guns!
Caiden doing crafts
Bailee and Sarah
My two sweet kids!
Bailee had a BLAST on the water slide!!
CRAZY cousins, Caiden and Carter!!
Cousins, Caiden and Peyton!
Caiden was enjoying his snack that consisted of LOTS of nachos!
I cannot tell you how many times Bailee took on the water slide. It was A LOT!!
Cousins, Caiden and Patrick
Bailee got in right on the face with the water gun!
Caiden had a great week at the Coach Shake ULM Baseball Camp this week!
I took Caiden and Bo this week at they learned so much and had such a great time! This is a picture of Caiden hitting a home run!!
I got to watch Caiden play a lot and enjoyed seeing him have such a great time.
Where is the baseball going to end up?!
Caiden and Bo were very proud of their certificates!
After the Camp, the guys got to get autographs with Coach Shake and The ULM Baseball players
Caiden such a great time and had a great experience of baseball time! He loves baseball and is always willing to learn more about it this sport!
Bailee had a GREAT year of 4th grade this year!! She made A-B Honor roll all year and received the Spelling Award! Her average in Spelling was always 100 A plus and most of the time above this average!
Way to go Bailee Grace for all your hard work and discipline in studying all year long! Love you!
Bailee and her best friend Ashley proud of their awards!
Bailee was so proud of her award!!
I am so proud of Caiden for all his GREAT grades this school year!
He got all A's and B's all year long! For the final 6-weeks, he made ALL A's and His LEAP scores were AWESOME!! He got advanced and Mastery on his scores!!
There is no better feeling for a parent than for their child to succeed, and excel. Out of any of Caiden's accomplishments so far in his life, I am most proud of his scholastic accomplishments more than anything!
Way to go Caiden on an AWESOME year!!!
After a GREAT week of VBS for Caiden and Bailee, Bailee has a friend over to spend the night.
Bailee, Ashley, and Mary Grace headed over to Mary Grace's house for a little summer fun on the Slip N Slide.
So I enjoyed watching these girls do this, They had a BLAST!!
What a wonderful memory for these girls to have of summer fun!!
Thanks Mary Grace for letting the girls come over for some summer fun!!
Mrs.Tanner was a WONDERFUL 4th grade teacher and I am so glad she was Bailee's teacher! This is her helping Bailee and her friend Brianna get ready for the 3-legged race!
Bailee throwing a softball.She did GREAT!!
SNOW CONE time!! YUMMY!
What a fun and Great time for not only Bailee Grace, But Jerry and I as well! I love all school events my children are involved in, but this is my favorite school party! For summer is on the way!!
Proud parents!
Caiden had his field day at school last week and it was so fun to watch him and his classmates race!
Caiden participated in several events and did so with his best friend Bo!
Caiden and Bo did the Broom Race together and it was so funny to watch them do this event!
Caiden also did the tug a war.All the boys wanted him in the back because he was the biggest and the strongest.
The boys had such a great time together. I am so glad that Caiden has many friends at his school.
Best of buddies.
The Stroker boys! Have you ever seen so many orange hats!
Caiden was glad I brought a blanket for him and his friends to sit on. They ate snacks and watched the games.
Caiden's classmates ,the girls, had a good time too!
The girls in Caiden's class doing the Broom Race
Goofing around his what these boys like to do!
Caiden was planning his strategy!
Caiden's teacher , Mrs. Thomas and her boys! She was a GREAT teacher this year! I am so glad Caiden was in her class!
On you marks, Get set, GO!!
Jerry and I had such a great time with Caiden! How blessed we feel to be able to attend school functions!
Either I am credibly CRAZY, or just brave!!
What a blessing it is to be called "MOM". My Mother's Day was not spent with breakfast in bed, flowers, or a gift of my own, but a gift of being with the ones I love most in this life. It is so amazing to me how God allows certain situations and circumstances in our life to bring us closer to the ones we love, more than that,closer to him! Since my brother moved away, I have not has the same relationship with him. I love him so much and so miss him being only 20 minutes away,now 8 hours away. I am so blessed to have such a loving and caring brother and sister. My brother just received one of the greatest blessings in life, a newborn baby, a son, and his baby boy was having some problems. But by the Grace of God, he is doing great! My WONDERFUL mom, has been through a lot this last week, and has made sure she was there for my brother and his family. With her dad just having surgery, she was trying to hard to be there for everyone. One of our jobs as a mother is the need to take care of any situation and everyone involved in that situation. Yes, sometimes it feels like a burden, but as a mother, we thrive and act on situations that involve our family, and seek guidance from the Lord and loves ones to make their life the best it can be. I think about the saying, "God could not be everywhere, that's why he created Mothers," But God is everywhere, and involved in every aspect of our lives. He gives us a choice in how we respond to these hardships and sees us through them so others can see His amazing Grace! The Lord can take any situation good and bad and use it so other's can see love, unconditional love, the love of a mother and child. Nothing illustrates this better than God giving his ONLY son, for us! I thank God everyday, for my family, for being able to wake up, and seeing my children grow. I thank Him for being able to bear children, and most of all, being blessed with raising them under His leadership! For my children are not my own, they belong to God. This was very hard for me to do, praying to God and saying to Him, they are yours not mine, let your Will be Done. Ultimately, my children belong to Him. I love being a mother! When I was younger, I often dreamed about my life and how it would be. I have made LOTS of mistakes, but I have learned so much, and I am glad that God allowed them, for it has forever changed me as a person, a mother, but more as a child of God. I imagined a life of bliss and a perfect family centered around the dinner table! My life is far from this, but I love my life, and have learned to be "content" with what I have. What a wonderful realization to have!! Being content is a humbling experience! I thank God for my mother! I thank him for her dedication to her children, for always putting us before her. I thank Him most of all, for raising us in a Christan home! I have so many wonderful memories of my mom and all the things she did and sacrificed or us! So in honor of my mom, I write these things I LOVE most about her! Love you mom, you are the greatest!
Bailee's class had a great and fun party in celebration for Cinco De Mayo Day!
We had Mexican dishes to eat, and watched a great video!
After all the eating, the class also got to dance to the Maharani song and I so enjoyed watching Bailee dance and her friends!
I am so blessed that I am able to attend these class celebrations! Thanks Mimi for the Sombrero hat! She was very grateful!!
This weekend we got to watch some great baseball games.
Our family loves baseball in general, and we try to watch it or play it every chance we get!
Jerry,Caiden,me, and his best friend Bo caught a ULM game Friday night. Bailee Grace spent the evening at her friend's house.
Caiden and Bo had a great time and even got some foul balls at the game. They were very proud of them!
Not only did they play some baseball at the game, but also enjoyed sitting with friends and talking baseball.
Caiden also got to see his cousin Carter, who likes and plays baseball too!
The Baseball boys!
Before the game, we went to a great little place called the FieldHouse to eat. It is a great place for Sports fans across the area. Caiden and Bo got to talk baseball with the Owner of the restaurant and got baseball tickets from him! Thanks Joey for talking and visiting with Caiden and Bo and for the tickets!
Watching the game.
Saturday afternoon, Caiden and Bailee went to their cousins house to swim and Jerry and I caught a game with just the two of us! We had a great time and even got our pictures made with Ace!
This past week has been a busy and stressful week! Caiden and Bailee had LEAP and ILEAP testing.We have been preparing for these tests for weeks.
I am very proud of both of my children for their preparation for these tests. Especially Bailee, she has gone through various tutoring for LEAP. Bailee had a Spring day at school in celebration of LEAP being done and over with Wednesday. They got to bring various things to school to play with and share with friends. They played outside, played with Ipods, and even played with curling irons and make-up!
I spent 2 hours with her and her friends, and ate lunch with them!
I really enjoyed the time with her and I am so proud of her for working hard in school!
Bailee has TONS of Barbie outfits and accessories for her dolls. One day she decided to create her own Barbie outfit. She took simple Aluminium foil and made her own dress. I love her imagination and her simplicity for life, She never demands expensive gifts. She simply enjoys the "simple" things in life!!
Our family got a new vehicle last week!
Our family is so excited and blessed with this new purchase. We got a 2009 Tahoe and we are enjoying riding around in it. Jerry and I have been praying very hard about this decision. Buying a car is very stressful and we wanted to make the right choice based on what was best for our entire family. Our other car was not very safe to be in and we travel so much. The kids and I try very hard to go to as many places as we can to see Jerry when is working out of town.
We are so blessed that we were able to get the car that was best for our family of four!
The kids were very excited about seeing it for the 1st time and they are looking forward to taking many trips in it to see their daddy!
I was also very proud to be able to FINALLY put Caiden's ALL STAR decal on display. I have had this decal since June of 2008. I was waiting patiently to put in on a new car. This is how long we have been looking at cars!
We are thankful for so much, mostly for having safety and security when traveling to see Jerry!
Bailee loves to doodle and draw on just about anything!
She got a really cool Crayola Paint doodle kit from her friend Mary Grace.
It came with sidewalk chalk and a paintbrush kit.
These are the things she loves in life.
Her family, favorite sports teams, and her school and school playing role, a teacher.
I am always amazed at her imagination and her creativity!
I love her drawings and I always display them around the house. Her art is on the fridge and even on my computer desk. I love looking at her work when I am on the computer!
This art had to be photographed for it will wash away, but will forever be remembered!
Our family had a great and relaxing weekend!
It was great to get away and have some great family time together.
We decided to have a family weekend together for with baseball starting up and Jerry might getting called away, we didn't know how much time we would have together.
We chose this park because we have not been here , and other parks were so booked up! Seems like everyone is ready for some relaxation and camping!
We arrived Friday around six, and I had already cooked a ham before we left. Jerry and I went shopping Friday morning to get everything we needed for the weekend.
Our little cabin was small and cozy, perfect for a family of four!
My Bailee is such a little helper, and she made the beds for Caiden and her.
She also helped me warm up the ham for supper and enjoyed helping me!
We had ham sandwiches for supper and it was yummy!
We knew it would be raining, so we planned activities for inside. 
We played many board games. we played pictionary, poker, and apples to apples. Thanks to Caiden and Bailee's cousins, Caiden played it over there and love it, so we added it to our collection!
Thank goodness, it stopped raining Saturday evening, so Jerry and Caiden fired up the grill.
I love watching them together, Jerry is so awesome with our children!
He taught Caiden the "proper" way to grill!!
The kids and I decided to warm up by the grill, for the ground was way to wet to set up a campfire.
Caiden found his steak he wanted and made sure it was cooked to perfection.
We had family time and also our own individual time. Caiden played is PSP.
I enjoyed reading my book
Bailee played school.
Jerry worked on his laptop.
I also got to expand on my hobby, photography.
I LOVE taking pictures, for sure ones of nature!
We also took some pictures of our family.
We had a great time and look forward to many more camping trips!
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