~Catching up...part 3...a birthday party, & Our Girl Cousin Reuion~

~One of Mary's little friends NiKayla had a fun little party at the park...a few days before we went to GA, so I wanted to post this pics first.

 ~The guys.~

 ~NiKayla and her cake.~

 ~My "Fri-enemy" Rob being nice (for once) and bringing Abigail to us.  HA!
(Rob and I have teased each other for years.  We really are friends, but shhhh!  Don't tell him. :-) ~

 ~Abigail and her friend Raegan.~

~Little Andrew Hawn getting dedicated.~

 ~One Sunday morning, Pastor preached on "Letting the little children come to Jesus"....and so Phillip took this pics of our little ones with Pastor after church.~

~GIRL COUSIN REUNION!!

God worked it out for us Girl cousins to get together at Susan's house in GA.
We have not all been together since Christa's wedding in 2008!
My cousin Martha expressed it... in this Beautiful way:

"So fun to be with the girl cousins this week. We are blessed. It has been a rough year physically and emotionally for some of us. Healing is slow and painful. God has chosen to give and take away. As the song says, "Our hearts will choose to say, Blessed be Your name!" What a blessed family we are to have a common faith in Jesus Christ! I love each of you dearly!"      ~Marty

My cousin Esther faced a huge physical battle in April and we didn't know if we were going to lose her, and I nearly died in May...and others have had very tough times this year...so it made us HUG EACH OTHER A LITTLE TIGHTER...and VALUE each moment of our day and a half together.

Laura drove down and took Brittany, Darla, and Bryan, and let me ride along and bring Mary and Abigail!  We split up the trip by stopping in TN to see our DEAR Grandmother first.~

 ~Abigail and Mary at the Tennessee Welcome center~

 ~First we stopped in Tenn. to see my sweet Grandmother.
Laura got her a cute sign to hang in her kitchen.~

 ~Bryan and Abigail~

 ~Darla and Mary's snapchats.~

 ~Grandmother, Mary, Abigail and I.~

 ~This is the cute sign that Laura got for Grandmother...~

 ~"Bed and Breakfast...You Make Both!!~

 ~Mrs. Linda, Grandmother's caregiver, and I.  (I took this for Kimberly since she couldn't be with me to see her good friend Mrs. Linda.)

 ~We saw this guy in a blow-up suit on the side and just had to take his picture.
Brittany said this is what you should wear when your "summer body" doesn't turn out great. Ha!~

 ~LADIES AND GENTLEMEN...THIS IS THE GREAT SMOKY MOUNTAINS!!!~

 ~On the way to the cousin reunion...we spotted some beautiful orange flowers in a field.  So, Brave Brittany, donned on her brother's boots and went and picked some for a centerpiece for us.~

 ~Aren't they beautiful?  The flowers AND the girls!~

 ~We saw a sign that we wanted to turn around and take a pic of, and we turned around in this abandoned hotel parking lot.
Poor Mary!
She thought we had ARRIVED at Susan's house...and barely above a whisper asked,
"THIS IS WHERE THEY LIVE?!"
We howled laughing!!~

 ~This it the sign we thought was so cute!~

 ~Getting closer to Susan's house.~

 ~And we have arrived at Aunt Cora's Jeff and Susan's dear house.
Our Dear Great Aunt Cora lived here and I'm telling you...
If those walls could talk...OH, the stories they would tell!!
Growing up...My Moma, Aunt Carole, and Susan's Daddy, U. Carson spent many a summer here!!~

 ~Jeff and Susan had 4 swings...and they all stayed busy!
Here's Bryan pushing Abigail.~

 ~All of us cousins are ALL ABOUT DEALS!!!  This was Martha's deal ...she got bread 50% off. (Laura got our hamburger buns on sale for .25 each at Aldis.  :-) ~

 ~Here are our beautiful flowers that Brittany picked...and Susan put in a cute little pitcher.~

 ~Some of us cousins before, Jane and Esther arrived.~

 ~Mary and her sister Abigail.~

 ~Abigail LOVED that RED GA DIRT and was even EATING IT!  HELP!!~

 ~Abigail and her beautiful cousin Brittany.  I think Abigail "adopted Poor Brittany" as her Kimberly...for this trip. :-) ~

 ~Abigail LOVED that red GA dirt and was covered from head to toe.~

 ~The trampoline was a hit as well.~

 ~It was fun to have Aunt Carole join us.   Wish Moma could've come.~

 ~We split the 4 meals that we would be eating in between sisters.
Martha and probably Christa did lunch,
Cheryl and Susan did supper.
Jane and Esther did breakfast
and Laura (and I) did lunch before we left to go home.~

 ~We were wall-to-wall people, laughter, giggles, wrestling (among the boys,) stories, tears from laughter, and tears from our hearts, hungry little people, tired little people, hungry big people, tired big people...making memories for Forever.~

 ~Brittany probably went outside to ESCAPE...but look who joined her?~

 ~A cute little puppet show with the Beanie Babies from Mrs. Linda and Mrs. Baker.
Love Thomas' little face in the mirror.~

 ~I don't think Thomas was too impressed with the girl's puppet show. :-) ~

 ~All of us ladies.~

 ~Then we had a "traffic jam" in Crandall, GA, as we drove to the swimming hole to let the kids get a dunk.~

 ~Abigail was EXHAUSTED...but woke up and wanted in the water.~

 ~Cousins in the water.  (primos en el agua.)~

 ~Carson and Bryan having a splashing war.~

 ~A Rainbow.  Here's one end...

 ~And here's the other.~

 ~Susan has a beautiful garden and so she had the boys up early picking green beans for our lunch.~

 ~Breakfast line.~

 ~Alyssa, Mary, and Emma enjoying the yummy fruit and delicious Butterbraids and juice that Esther, Jane, and Aunt Carole provided for breakfast.

 ~Snapping beans.~

 ~Christa...Our youngest cousin and her precious Reagan.~

 ~Abigail.~

 ~Jane was trying to knit on the couch...when Abigail used her as a pillow.~

 ~Martha had a good idea to get our picture taken together.   
The only cousin we were missing were the 2 boys...my brothers...Andrew and Lincoln.~

 ~Oldest to youngest:

Jane, Cheryl, Laura, Susan, Heather, Martha, Esther, and Christa.~

 ~When these 3 oldest girl cousins were probably 1 or so, they had their picture taken on a bench.
So we tried to repeat that picture.~

 ~And they had one on that bench where none of them were looking at the camera, so of course we repeated that pic too.~

 ~Sisters. Laura and I.~

 ~Cheryl, Martha, Christa, Angela, and Susan.  (Angela is like a sister to Christa.)~

 ~Sisters.  Cheryl, Susan, Martha, and Christa.~

 ~All our children...except Laura's Natasha, and my Kimberly, Sarah, Noah, and Elijah, and Cheryl's Ethan.~

 ~Jane's Thomas holding Abigail's hand helping her jump.~

 ~So cute.  Love Jeff's hanger. :-)

 ~Supper time.~

 ~Laura cooked most of the lunch. I helped some.

 ~My brownies.~

 ~Yummy desserts.~

 ~Steven and Darla...great friends...sometimes...! :-) ~

 ~Look at Bryan's FOOT.  That red dirt!!!~

 ~Look at my BABY...IN THAT RED DIRT!!!~

 ~One very exhausted Abigail...on the road back to Cinci...and Daddy!~

 ~We stopped for some supper ...and realized that Mary left her only shoes ...her white flip flops...in GA!  So, she borrowed Abigail's shoes.~

 ~This is little Abigail....and her RED GA DIRT.~

 ~While we were gone Elijah and Noah put together this 500 piece puzzle.~

 ~Our family devotion time often ends like this...when all the younger kids pile on Phillip.  This time he did 2 push ups with them on his back. :-) ~

 Some DEAR person paid for our Kimberly and Sarah to go to Band camp in Greenfield, IN.     They LOVED IT!!  They learned a lot and made friends and really enjoyed themselves.  Those pics will come soon.

~HEATHER~