my friend Jared...

Our friend, Jared Pike, is a creative genius of sorts:) Check out his latest masterpiece!

*** side notes - the crazy "old" lady driver is our great friend Eva, who just happened to deliver both Abby & Carter-and for the record... it was a wig:) The frustrated driver, is none other than Eric Foster... husband to Mandy and dad to two gorgeous boys. Last but not least.... the nut in the black pickup was a professional balloon artist who spends his days cracking necks, other wise know as Dr Rob!

"i thought she was asleep..."

this is what happens when a three year old is left alone in your bedroom...
I love that kid!!

strawberry pickin'

This morning, Rusty and I loaded up the kiddos and headed to the Hall Family Farm to go strawberry picking. The kids were so excited! When we lived in Ft Myers, we usually went at least twice every season....but this was our first time since we've moved to North Carolina:) The kids had such a great time, they just went from row to row looking for the 'big ones'! They loved it so much that we ended up with 7 pounds of beautiful, fresh strawberries! So far, we've had plates of strawberries and sugar, and strawberry syrup with our pancakes for dinner (yes, we had pancakes for dinner:) I'm looking forward to trying out some new recipes with the strawberries we have left. Here are some of the pictures from this afternoon.

Carter with his first row's bounty

Abby checking out her berry

beautiful berries:)

Paige's handful

starting a new row

roller coaster

I know, I know, it's been a long time..... Please forgive me - it's been a crazy, crazy month. Some days I feel like I'm on a roller coaster that won't stop and let me off. So many things all happening at once. It's been hard to process it all. Last Sunday was Mother's Day. I knew this would be a tough day for Rusty, but I wasn't prepared for it to hit me as hard as it did. I woke up that morning just feeling so blue. I missed my mom, I missed my grandma, I missed my sister and I missed Janice. I have been so blessed by having such amazing women in my life.... It was just so hard knowing how far away they were on that day. The next day, our house in Ft Myers was finally auctioned off from the foreclosure. That was a hard day for me. There are a lot of amazing memories in that house. I know it was just a building and I also know that so many other people are going through the same thing, but on that day, I felt like we were the only people in the world who had just lost their house. Then, Wednesday was our 14th wedding anniversary. We had such a great time that night! We went to dinner and a movie and spent some much needed time alone. I am so blessed to have such an amazing husband! 14 years married to my best friend-Who could ask for more??

So, I hope that sums up some of the reasons about why I haven't blogged lately and what our Bunch has been up to this past month:) I promise to try and be a little more consistent with my posting over the next few months! Thanks for your patience:-)