I Am An Aunt.....

Okay.... so technically I am not but when your BFF has a new baby, its a good as, right?

I don't want to give away of the goodies so you will have to hop and skip on over to Stacey's blog and check out all of the stats. I will tell you that her name is Charlotte Kate aka "Charley Kate" and although I did some begging and pleading, I am forbidden to call her "Chuck". Boo :( Maybe I will just whisper it in her ear and Stacey will never know {evil laugh}. I will also tell you that she is beautiful and in typical Neal tradition, has a look all of her own! Her hair is a little lighter so will we continue to pray for a head full of curly red!

I am in awe of Stacey and so proud of her. She is such an amazing woman and an inspiration to me! She is so resilient and determined and has babies like a champ! I live vicariously through her in that way!!

So..... congrats Neal's on another baby well done! I will leave you with some pictures that I took this morning.....

Isaac was instantly in love with her. He didn't want to let her go!

Ethan was so excited, he said he would wash his hands for a full 40 seconds for permission to hold her!

Jack... the proud BIG brother!

Molly Beth was so giddy she even did a few twirls for us!

Suzannah took charge right away. She mommies with the best of them!!

Charlotte Kate Neal - Charley Kate

Honest Scrap

I would like to thank everyone who has supported me as I have spent hours pouring over my blog. It has taken much effort and many tears have been shed in the process but it has brought me to this moment! And it was worth every blister and sore wrist!!

What am I talking about? I have not lost my entire mind yet.......

Darcy Lee at In This Season is one of my new blogging friends that I met through Nan at momstheword. She has kindly bestowed the Honest Scrap award to me!! How fun to wake up in the morning and have won something... I have loved reading her blog and being encouraged by all of the woman out their that honestly and humbly share their lives with me!! What a blessing!!

The rules are as follows:
~Say thank you to the presenter of the award and link back to them.
~Share 10 honest things about yourself.
~Present this award to 7 other people whose blogs you find brilliant in content and/or design, or those who give encouragement.
~Tell those 7 people they have been awarded Honest Scrap and inform them of these guidelines in receiving it.

Here are 10 Honest things about myself:

1. I love the Lord Jesus Christ and although I fail everyday, I want to serve Him with all my heart!

2. I love my family! I love spending time with them and just being home!! Our favorite family past time right now...watching McGyver and eating cheese together!! Weird, I know...

3. My husband I have been together for almost 20 years and we are only 35. He is my best friend in the whole world and I love to just hang out and laugh with him.

4. I am going on my 5th year of homeschooling my boys and I struggle almost daily with it! Will it ever be easy?

5. I have BA in Sociology and History and have never used my degree in a full time job. I conduct adoption/custody home screenings part time for my friend who is a lawyer and I teach a history class to our local homeschool group once a week.

6. I am very social and love friends but can be quite moody and seem distant sometimes. I blame it on para menopause. Is that fair??

7. My husband and I have a dream of either owning our own commercial vineyard or a great lake house someday..... or maybe a lake house with a vineyard!!

8. I am a 7th generation Texan... my family has deep roots here and I most likely will never leave.

9. I am very impulsive and a lot of times do things without giving them much thought. My most impulsive thing I do and then regret... cutting my hair off after spending a year letting it grow out!!

10. I guess my last thing should be something that most people don't know about me, since I am being honest.... I am not really a neat freak like most people think I am. It's more like the "illusion of clean" at my house. Don't you dare look in my closets or under my beds!!

Well... that's a few honest things about myself. And now its my turn to bestow awards! This is so much fun...

1. Stacey...my BFF and honest to goodness great mom and blogger at A Neal Family(who won't be able to respond b/c she had her baby last night YEAH!!!)

2. Nan... my new blog friend who inspires me and is just plan hilarious at momstheword

3. Katy Lin... who has inspired women to lift up and praise their husbands at the great adventure

4. Susanne....who has inspired me to live frugally and cook great meals at The Hillbilly Housewife

5. Pilar... another blog friend and missionary in Spain at The Stark Family

6. Kim... who is new to blogging but always makes me laugh at The Bulgrien Family

7. Jamie... whose blog I stalk but their story of adoption amazes me at Rose Cottage

What's That Sound??

I love this sound!! It makes me feel right at home! Makes me want to curl up on the front porch with a glass of sweet tea and relax. If you are not from the South, you may not know what it is. It may even scare you! Care to guess?

Fourth of July Festivities

We really do the Fourth big around the Howard side of the family. We have had a big bash at my parent's house for the past 13 years! We invite family, friends and our churches to join us out at my parent's place for dessert, a great big slide, a train for the little ones, live music and most importantly AMAZING fireworks!

We start our celebrating early with family all week. Cousins, aunts and uncles trickle in a few days before our big party! There is lots of great food, conversation and most importantly for my boys, lots of Arden and Maggie Kate time. My boys love hanging out with their cousins!! They have a blast and always get along!! We love them so much! This year Aunt Amy helped all of the kiddos make tie dye shirts for the 4th! She is always doing something crafty with them!!

We were so busy but had so much fun!! This week will definately be relax and regroup week!!

Party...Party...Party

That is what we have been doing around the Hill home lately!! We have had two fun birthday's in the past two weeks. Our first party was for my friend Adriana. She turned 27 (yes she is a baby)! Kim came up with the idea for a surprise party for her. We all went out for dinner and then a scavenger hunt! It was so much fun! My baby also turned 7 last Thursday (sniff-sniff)! I can't believe he is that old! But we partied big for him this year. It was his first "real" party. We invited all of his friends out to the lake for swimming, food and fun! It was a lot of fun but INCREDIBLY hot! The temperature hovered around 102. The sand burned out feet, the water was lukewarm and the sun beat down on us but it didn't stop us from having a great time! I think we had around 31 kids splashing around! Later that day we had just the neighborhood kids join us at Dairy Queen for ice cream and then home for a slumber party! We had four boys spend the night and amazingly all went well!! No tears, no wanting to go home in the middle of the night! I think they all finally fell asleep around 1am! It was exhausting for everyone but the boys were great and Isaac loved his special day! I am leaving you with a slide show of all of the fun....