Ella's Music School Performance

"Rockin' Robin"

Crew and Parker singing "Greased Lightening"

"He's Got the Whole World in His Hands"

"Sing"

Ella tried to extend it to a solo

"Splish Splash"

Port picked pink flowers for Ella

Haynes chose blue flower for Ella

Daddy got her some roses!

Crew got Ella some flowers too!

Mama and Lolli with our little performer

Ella had her first music school performance this morning. Crew and another friend Parker were in her class, they have had so much fun together this summer. Ella turned out to be quite the little performer...who would have guessed?!? She did a great job! Our family decided that she stole the show...but we are pretty biased:-)

Port Robert Hartsock

Port Robert Hartsock

*we take Port's picture by his namesake every year

Our three kiddos...aren't they the greatest!

As Port grows older it is really fun watching him take in what it means to be named after Bob's uncle Port Robertson. I tried to take a picture of it so we could read it...but that didn't really work out so well:-)

My biggest nightmare did come true...when we finished Haynes asked, "where is my plaque?" Oh my...

Lake with Friends

Ella and Sophie playing on the dock

Lunch time with the kids

Haynes jumping off the cliff

Gerod, Jon and Liz jumping the cliff together (these are the big cliffs)

Movie Night...

Jake and the kids

Last weekend we were able to bring a group of friends to the lake. I think we had 14 adults and 8 kids!! We had a great time and beautiful weather!

Happy 30th B-Ray!

Allison planned a surprise dinner for Bryan last week. We had about 7 couples that attended a cooking class in the city for dinner. She pulled off the surprise perfectly! (The invites were adorable fajita warmers with the cutest baby picture of Bryan)

We were there for 3 hours and ate the ENTIRE time! Everything tasted amazing and we learned lots of fun new things. I can't wait to try our new recipes!

I think one of my favorite things was watching how much Bryan LOVED it! Allison knows her husband so well, he was in heaven! Way to go All!

To our end our night Allison had made everyone churros for dessert! The funny thing was Bryan requested them on their way to dinner that night. Thanks guys for including us in such a great celebration. We love you B-Ray and can't wait to celebrate the next 30 years together!

SwIm Lessons

Our swim lessons are around the corner from our house, so the kids love riding the golf cart to swim lessons.

Last week we had swim lessons with Ms. Murrey (or Mary as Haynes refers to her). A few of the days her son came to help and the boys LOVED it! Ella decided she wanted to try it out one day, but after one lesson we decided we'd wait until next year. I'm always quite amazed with how much they improve over one week! Port learned the backstroke, frog stroke, and freestyle. Haynes can now swim without a lifejacket and is working on his backstroke!

Ella's Purse

Ella would prefer to not leave the house without her purse. She can definitely hold her own with the boys, but she does love her accessories:-)

Happy Birthday Gracie!

Gracie LOVED her cake!

Ella gave Gracie her favorite tea set!

Gerod and Kerri threw a super sweet birthday party for Gracie. The kids loved celebrating Gracie with ice cream and cup cakes. Happy 1st Birthday Gracie!

Staff Day

Ella and Emmy enjoying their popsicles!

No more Pink Panthers...just Tweetie and Shrek

Our family has entered a new season, we are so excited to announce! Brian has been asked to join the Norman Community Staff as our Training School Director. Brian has been praying about this for a while and is SO excited for what God is asking of him. He will now be working from Norman one day a week...yay!!!

Our staff day started at Lolli and Champ's with lunch and swimming. Gerod called the ice cream truck to come bring ice cream later in the afternoon. Everyone LOVED picking their favorite treats! After an afternoon of swimming the adults met back for dinner and a movie. It was a great day!

Cathleen's Baby Shower

Saturday morning we threw a baby shower for Cathleen and Baby Elijah. We had a great time planning a fun shower to celebrate their family. We are SO excited for them!

As you can see we had a GREAT turn out! We had set things up to go outside, but decided that it was too hot. Cathleen got tons of fun things, but my favorite was her sister's idea. We had every person bring their favorite book and write Elijah a blessing or word inside it. Unfortunately there were so many people there that we didn't get to read them all, but I can't wait to hear about them.

This was our fun food table. We had bluberry and mocha muffins, parfaits, and egg casseroles. The girls did an amazing job on these, it was delicious! We placed pots of different herbs all over the house for the different members of her family to take home and plant.

Errands with 3!

Sometimes it seems no matter how prepared you are, this is what it looks like by the end of our errands:-) We had to run to Lowe's the other day and it took a little longer than I would have liked. The best part was that the man helping us had heard of "Brian Hartsock." He proceeded to tell the boys that there was a guy that worked at Lowe's that used to play football with Brian. He described Brian as the best athlete he had ever seen! I can't even describe how much the boys LOVED hearing that about their daddy. One of my kids favorite things is to hear stories, so this was a special treat from a stranger. We definitely think that Brian is the best athlete we have ever seen:-)

T-ball

Haynes now knows that he can go play "in the field" when his daddy is there to help. He also will wear this helmet the entire game waiting for his turn to bat. At the end of the game Mr. Casey kindly lets Haynes have 2 homeruns:-)

Ella just enjoys keeping everyone busy. Grandad and JuJu came to the game this week. Ella ate frozen blueberries (they taste like popsicles), playing on JuJu's phone, and singing songs. She is full of joy!

Port had some great hits! He almost nailed the pitcher in the chest with the ball. He got to play pitcher and did a great job getting the ball to first base. I feel like we haven't been around much for t-ball, but Port has sure picked it up and really enjoyed it.

Gingerbread Car Wash

Gingerbread has a fun Lemonade Stand/Carwash each summer. The boys were really excited to come wash our car. Port even managed to spray me down in the process!! I love this picture because you can see Teacher Skye helping Haynes squirt Port. :-)

Haynes was kinda missing his mommy, so he was super excited to see me. They washed the car and then each brought me some yummy lemonade.

I managed to get a picture of these boys before they headed off to play. JuJu came through in the afternoon with Ella to surprise the boys and bring them home. There's not much they love more than when JuJu picks them up!

Look No Training Wheels...almost!

Last week we decided Port should try to ride his bike without training wheels again. We headed over to Lolli and Champ's (they were at the beach) and started practicing. I'm not sure who had the more difficult task...Brian teaching Port to ride without training wheels or me keeping two very interested little ones distracted:-) Port did a GREAT job! We'll keep working on it!

After riding bikes we took Champ's golf cart for a ride to 7-11. We had so much fun that we kidnapped his golf cart for a few days while they were gone! (Our golf cart has been in the shop for a few weeks, but we just got it back) I'm sure you are surprised to hear that all the kids wanted to ride with Brian home instead of me:-)

Big Girl Day!

Thursday's for the next few weeks, Ella and I get to spend most of the day together without the boys. On our first girls day we were doing a lot of errands to finish everything for Port's birthday at the lake. Ella picked out a new pair of shades while we were at Target and proceeded to wear them the rest of the day...whether we were inside or outside:-)

I took Ella to Gourmet Deli for a lunch date. My dad used to take me there for lunch dates when I was in high school and college. I've taken each of the boys there a few times, so I figured it was time to take Ella. We had a great lunch together, love you sweet girl!

Haynes 1st Field Trip

Haynes was waiting for me on the bus, he saved me a seat right up front!

Watching a movie about fire safety...pretty cheesy but they loved it!

Haynes wasn't scared of the fireman at all this time! He did everything except climb on his back:-)

Climbing through the Fire Truck

Standing on the back of the truck with some buddies

*After I took this picture Haynes figured out how to climb to the top of the truck...who's surprised?!?

Marissa and I tried to get a picture of Tripp and Haynes. Instead Tripp kissed Haynes...Haynes wasn't too thrilled with the affection:-)

HoLd YoUr EaRs-

waiting to listen the siren

Everyone got to spray the HUGE water hose. I was glad there was supervision because I'm pretty sure I would have been sprayed in the face:-)

Haynes and I had a great time on our field trip. When I was walking to the car these two cuties were waiting for me. Port and Dax stopped long enough to say hi!