The Gymnast Within

Lainey began her training this week for the USA olympic gymnastics team 2024. I think we are looking at a future champion! Look at this summersault...such perfect form!

Sweet victory!

Our New Almost Home

Thought all of you might enjoy having a picture in your mind of where we are! This is our "home away from home." We are really enjoying the church and the area. There is always a lot going on which helps to get to know new people. The villa where we are staying is great...but we cannot wait until our house sells and we are able to settle in our own home.

Our new church First Baptist O'Fallon, Illinois Saturday we took a trip to the St. Louis Zoo. Lainey seems to love animals and gets excited any time she sees one. The penguins and giraffes were a favorite. This chimp was on the other side of the glass and scared Lainey to death! She was happily staring at him until he turned to look at her. Suddenly our little girl who knows no fear grabbed her daddy's neck and burst into tears. She quickly recovered however and tried her best to go for a swim with this elephant. Next up was the sea lion show. I thought Lainey would love this and she did until the sea lion started barking loudly. Once again...grabbed my neck and burst into tears. Lucky for her Bailey, our shitzu, neither barks loudly nor catches raw fish in his mouth!

Random Summer Fun

Maddie trying to convince little miss busy that it would be fun to stop for a picture in their matching outfits from Mawny.

Attempt number 2 at a picture

And we finally gave up... This was as close as it was going to get!

Waiting for fireworks on the 4th of July
Daddy and his girl
One of Lainey's many new faces...
My favorite picture of the summer

A summer favorite of Lainey's...riding in her wagon from Grandpa and Grandma O'Dell

Another favorite activity...the backyard swing

We love to take Lainey swimming...she kicks and giggles and really seems to love the water. It's a little nerve wracking for mommy however...she has no fear and would jump right in if I would let her!

Have you ever seen anything so cute and so onery? A special thanks to daddy for teaching her to stick her tongue out at him! Only problem...she sticks it out at other people too!

Our recent trip to the Eggen family reunion. We stopped by and visited Lainey's Great Great Grandma on the way.
Some of my favorite memories as a little girl were my trips to visit Great Aunt Jessie and Great Uncle Hardy in Wichita. It was so nice to see them at the reunion and introduce them to our little Lainey.


In June, Lainey and I tagged along with Mawny and Papa to visit Chad and Jennifer and the girls in Georgia. We had a great time visiting, swimming, and playing games. Lainey loved playing with Ava and following Julianna everywhere she went.

All ready for an evening walk

Two peas in a pod!
Julianna looking so pretty and so grown up with her grandma. I was amazed at how much she has changed. Such a little lady.
I love this picture of my dad being "dolled up" by his girls! Thank goodness for he and Uncle Seth we have baby Isaiah on the way. Maybe there will be some action figures or car races in his future! Although I don't think papa minds at all.

MASTER JAMIE

After a long and tedious program, I finally finished my Masters of Arts in Christian Education. I tried to enforce that everyone must refer to me as "Master Jamie", but I quickly learned that it just wasn't going to happen. Next up for me: REST... then I will be looking into PhD programs. Nikki and Lainey both had to endure long restless nights of studying and papers. They really should have walked across the stage with me.

Pre-Graduation Ceremony

Diploma in hand, what a relief!
I am sure that my Parents were scratching their heads, knowing what kind of student I was in high school. note: they don't refer to me as "Master" either!
My Pastor, Doug Richey

ZOO-ology

Nikki and I took advantage of a gorgeous day and took a day-trip to the good ole Kansas City Zoo. Lainey seems to have developed a fascination with animals so she had a good time. The morning started a little slow.All of the animals must have hit the snooze button a couple of times. The first hour or so all we could see was sleeping animals which made for a rather boring morning, but the longer we were there, the more the animals became active. Lainey didn't really seem to be attracted to one animal over the others, but she does make a very cute monkey sound.

This gorilla and I "tussled" for a little while before he finally had enough and walked away defeated!
Right next to the Elephants read a sign: NO POACHING??? To me it seems obvious that a zoo would be off limits to such activity. I guess we can't assume too much.

FUNNY Story: I've always heard that sheep have to be one of the dumbest animals, but this trip proved that sheep aren't no dummies (pardon the poor use of english). You actually walked through the sheep exhibit and there was a "candy" machine for sheep food. What a brilliant idea I thought, to feed the sheep. So as I placed the quarter in the machine, this brute of a sheep jumped up the post, lifted the cover with his snout and proceeded to lick every last morsel of the food from the machine before I could even get it out. As you can see this one doesn't usually miss a meal OR an opportunity to ruin the opportunity to feed the others. But I finally wrestled the sheep from the machine and was granted the opportunity to feed some of the others.
Lainey enjoyed petting the sheep.
The queen and princess of Arabia on their majestic camel
If I had the opportunity to mount an animal on my fireplace, I think something like this would be my choice. What a friendly, dumb, yet gentle looking beast.Lainey just had too much fun for one day.

One year pics from the Professionals at Portrait Innovations