Where did July go?!?!

Ok, so maybe I didn't make more time for blogging after VBS ended like I said I would...oops! This month has been full of fun, excitement and surprises...and it's not over yet ;-)


We headed to The Coast for the 4th of July weekend for a much needed vacation and quality time with my family and super duper friend, Linda! It was her first time to meet JT, so it was an extra special trip! It was so good to see her and my sisters, nieces, nephew and parents...I wish we all lived closer :-(

Look at that smile! He had so much fun with Linda!

Lainey, Keira, JT, Ethan, Ali...sweet memories with cousins!

Obachan (my mom) decided to come back home with us to stay for a week so she could get more "JT time" in, and boy was it a God thing she did. Late Monday night, Papa, (Shawn's dad) had a heart attack and went to the ER. He then had to be taken by ambulance to Tupelo for a heart cath. Stints could not be put in because he had so many blockages, so on Thursday, he had open heart surgery...5 bypasses! Then on Friday, our friends, Casey and Stephen, had their sweet baby boy, Aaron, at the hospital in Amory. With all the hospital visits and with Nana and Papa out of commission, it was such a blessing to have my mommy home to help us out!

JT visiting with Papa the night before surgery.

Papa is doing great now! He's on the road to recovery, and he's beyond ready to be able to hold his grandbaby again. I think that's the hardest thing for him right now...maybe...

Another exciting thing we got to do this month is take some of our kids from church to Shocco Springs for Student Life for Kids Camp! For the first time, Shawn and I left our sweet baby boy...for four days and three nights! Nana and Papa kept him for us, and guess what he learned to do while we were gone??? Sit up on his own!!!

Nana found him sitting up in his crib when he
woke up from a nap! All by himself!!!!

Our crew! We were on the RED squad in
case you're wondering...

JT is doing a lot more now, too, like crawling, saying "Bye-bye" and waving, dancing, cutting more teeth...he now has SEVEN teeth...and he's pulling up! This is how I found him this morning when I went to get him out of his crib

Yup...we lowered the crib...again! Look how
proud he is of himself! Hahaha!

I must say that teething is very challenging...and I hear when they cut their molars it's even WORSE. Yay. I mean, do they make teething crib guards? JT has decided to pull a Bucky Beaver and gnaw on the crib rails! Ugh...well, on the bright side, at least his teeth are cute and white and healthy! :-)

Hello??? Blog Update any day now!!!

Ok, so where have we been? Well, I have to admit, I've totally neglected "The Family Stone" and all things blogging, and I apologize...I know y'all have been sitting on pins and needles waiting for the next blog post from yours truly ;-)  

The month of June has been a blessed month filled with 1 and 1/2 weeks of Vacation Bible School, and now that PandaMania VBS 2011 is over, I just don't know what I'm going to do with myself! Update my blog more, I guess. That's a start! 

Here's a picture from PandaMania VBS at Mt. Vernon.
It was a HUGE success!

JT was such a trooper through it all, and so were his friends, Harper and Ruby! There were many long hours, long days and long nights preparing for this amazing event, and they were right there with their mommies and daddies helping out as much as they could!

Ruby, Harper and JT resting up for a long night of VBS work!

Taking a VBS shopping trip to Hobby Lobby!

Something neat we do at Mt. Vernon is we take VBS to the Plum Grove Community here in Lowndes County, and let me tell you...this was an amazing experience for me this year. I didn't get to help out last summer because I was working full time, but this year I got to go, and I am so glad I did! What an amazing time of ministry...God's children are such a blessing!

The kids and the adults/volunteers had a great time!

It was a fun week of PandaMania at Plum Grove!

I got to bring JT with me each day to Plum Grove, and I have to say...he is quite the TROOPER! He was so good every day, and I think he had a lot of fun, too. I'm so glad we had an AMAZING photographer, Katie McCrary, with us this year...she took some awesome photos, and she was such a wonderful volunteer. She took the above two photos, and she even took time to capture a couple of my baby boy :-) You can see more pictures from Plum Grove on our Facebook page (you'll love the photos!): http://www.facebook.com/mtvchurch

Our new favorite!!!

Hehehe!!! Love this one!

JT is all of a sudden 8 months old, and I'm scared to blink anymore! He's growing so fast and doing something new almost every day. He woke up on Father's Day saying "Mama," and he's clapping now. He's also starting to scoot really good...almost crawling! And he's becoming more and more mobile (wiggly and wild is a better description) and more and more vocal. He's really developing his little personality, and I'm afraid he's going to be a funny guy! Just like his Daddy :-)

Having fun and being silly at bath time!

Kicked back at The Front Door Restaurant...
we're going to have to teach him some
manners or Obachan will get him!

We have a fun weekend ahead of us as we head down to Ocean Springs tomorrow to spend the 4th of July weekend and my mom's birthday with my family. I'm sure there will be more pictures to come. Until then, good night!