Birthday Celebrations #1 and #2

Jackson has already had two birthday celebrations! On his actual birthday (May 20), he got to choose the place for dinner. He chose Chop House in Franklin...yummy and much better than Chuck E Cheese! Gaga went with us to celebrate the big day.








Mom, Jackson and Ainsleigh trying to relax and enjoy dinner out.....

The Birthday Boy...can you believe he is 7?









His birthday hot fudge sundae.















The boys shared for a while...












...then Ainsleigh of course needed in on the action.

His next celebration was on Sat. We had Mimi, Popsy, Michael and Kristin over for dinner, cake and presents!

Way too many presents!

He finally got a DS from mom and dad.

Uncle Michael and Kristin got him two games to go with the DS.

Daddy got him a new baseball glove for the All Star Tourney.

A very cool helicopter from Papa and Grandma. He also got another DS game and a Flight Jacket from them. Wow!

Open up the flight jacket.

Mimi and Popsy got him books and money so he could go pick out another DS game.

Mom really needs to take a cake decorating class with three kids! He liked his cake, but my brother did point out that it wasn't much of a diamond as it was a square. Close enough!

Look at all of those candles.

Cooper and Ainsleigh still going strong after the party. Yes, that is her baby doll stroller that she is riding in at least for the moment. I think it is just about broken, but I am not sure why??!!

Ainsleigh and Cooper

I was trying to take a picture of this table to put on Craigslist. Ainsleigh, however had different plans. It was the perfect spot for striking a pose!

Another pose!

They always seem to crack each other up.

Sweet babes!

Ahh! They like to try and kiss each other.

Last day of Kindergarten...sniffle, sniffle!

Where has the past year gone? Friday, May 21st was Jackson's last day of Kindergarten! It seems like only yesterday that we were taking him to his first day of school. He has had a wonderful year with an excellent teacher. She has spoiled him and us! It was truly bittersweet. We are looking forward to 1st grade, but he still seems too little!!








Saying the Pledge of Allegiance in his classroom.

Me with the babes. We will blink our eyes and they will be in Kindergarten.

Each child wrote or drew a thank you note for Mrs. Dorsten. Then our room moms had them bound into a little notebook for her. They were very cute. Jackson thanked her for math, bringing him to specials and being a good teacher!

Ainsleigh and Cooper loved getting to eat with Jackson!

One of our moms has a photography business. So she took pictures and videos all year long of the special parties and field trips. She then put them to music and edited them into a wonderful cd for each family. It is the perfect momento of their first year. Ainsleigh had to sit in Jackson's lap to watch it.

Ainsleigh felt right at home in the classroom!









Jackson and our wonderful teacher, Mrs. Dorsten. He is going to miss her over the summer.






Mom and the soon to be 1st grader!

Bellevue and the clean up

Whew, we have been very busy this week. Taylor has been working 12 hour shifts for a few days, I have been in Bellevue helping out and Jackson helped over the weekend. My parents took the babes to Murray for several days. That helped out more than they know.

This is the view out of Cathy's front door. You felt like you were looking into people's windows when they weren't looking. All of their personal items were just lying out on the front and back lawns.

Her sign says "My house was clean last week...sorry you missed it". Everyone LOVED it!!













After we took out the drywall and insulation. It was strange being able to look through to the different rooms.

One of Jackson's jobs was to pull all of the nails out of the 2 x 4's. He did an excellent job!







This is the living room floor. The water made the floor buckle. Jackson was the first one to get a board up and he was very proud of that.














Jackson moving things outside.

Jackson pointing at the water line in Cathy's kitchen.

Jackson with his work goggles.

Jackson ripping up the floor. He loved being able to hit things without getting in trouble!

The pile of appliances at the end of Cathy's road.

Look at this pile of debris. It was piled up at the end of Cathy's street.

The working crew...Damon, Barry Codling, Taylor and Jackson.

This was the debris piled along the main road in Bellevue.

Another pile of debris.

The road caved in due to all of the water.

Look at the trees laying down. They were knocked down by the raging water. If you look closely, you can see the river between the trees. It was about 10 times as wide when the storms hit.

More trees that stood in the way of the water.

This was the team of volunteers that helped out in Cathy's neighborhood. Service International is based out of Saint Louis. Some volunteers were from the Middle TN area. They helped out so much.

Here comes the bulldozer moving all of the trash from the ally way behind Cathy's house.

There were so many volunteers that helped out in the aftermath of the storm. On this day, we got to eat a free meal from Logan's. The dessert shots were the best. Strawberry cheesecake and Chocolate Peanut Butter Delight.

Look at the water line on this newspaper dispenser. Amazing.

This is too funny...the Dumpster Diner. It served hamburgers, hot dogs, chips and drinks all free of charge to the people in Bellevue.

A flag hung up at the end of Cathy's street with all of the debris behind it. Amazing.