Atlanta's June Potluck

This past weekend we had a wonderful time spent partially in Atlanta, GA and partially in Wedowee, AL. Every june is a church potluck at a lake in Alabama. The entire church is invited and its so much fun. Its a saturday event and then we ski, tube, wakeboard, swim and just plain have fun. Here are many pictures of the great time we had.

This is Philip and Lana Steidinger whom we stay with everytime we head to atlanta. What a great looking family! And thanks for always hosting us when we come.This is Kelly Camp(her parents own the cabin on the lake). She is giving Caden a canoe ride and he was thrilled.My very dear dear friend Lana whom I have so much in common with and just love to death. Thanks for being such a wonderful friend....I love you girl!!! We have known each other for officially one year and what a wonderful year its been.Daddy giving Caden a ride on the tube. Figure they could go a bit faster with an adult riding. Caden loves it so much.And this is MY BRAVE ELIJAH jumping off a 20 foot platform. He jumped three times and the last time unfortunently he wasn't "pencil" straight and did a belly flop and lost his breath. Poor guy, but none the less he had fun the first two times.This was the only way I could get Elijah out on the tube...we went so slow I hardly had to hold on.

Check this out!!

Ok, so I just got this website thru email, and I found it very interesting. If you have time click on this address and watch this 13 minute video...pretty nerve ending if you ask me.

http://www.eyeblast.tv/Public/Video.aspx?rsrcID=2036

Have a great day!

Our Second Visitors!!

Our second visitors for the summer were Michael, Mindy and Levi. We were so thrilled that it worked for them to come visit us after they were attending a family wedding in Rome GA. I am so glad we are located in such a great vacation destination...it really does bring in lots of visitors. Even those who are traveling thru to head further south....our home is always open. Please let us know if you are ever in the area!

Thanks to M&M for visiting. We enjoyed our short time we had and got to eat some bruster's ice cream (unfortunently I forgot my camera). We played games (bohnanza) and sat around catching up. It was so good to see Levi in person. He is such a cutie and such a good little boy!!! Let us know when you are in the area again or if you just feel like making that long drive again to visit us:). Elijah took this picture of the four of us.

Happy 3rd Birthday Caden!!

I know Im late on this post, but I just wanted to wish my little baby boy a happy 3rd birthday. His birthday was actually Monday the 9th. He is such a wonderful little boy full of life and excitment. He is starting to talk more and more and I just love watching him grow up. He has a soft heart, but a strong will and I pray that someday he can grow to love the lord and serve him with all his heart. Happy Birthday my little Caden. I love you!!!
My little ham!! His facial expression when he is bashful!! Oh and yes, this is his natural hair...a mohawk....I can try taming it down but once it dries its back to the center....as my sister says "it matches his personality quite well" :)

Our First Visitors!

Our first vistors for the summer were my brother AJ and my cousin Tess Gutwein. They arrived here on Thursday afternoon and we wasted no time in getting them out on the lake. We were out until around 8pm that night. Nick took friday off work so we could hit the lake without much traffic. It was beautiful. Nice weather, and hardly any boats out. A few fisherman here and there, but we enjoyed the lake to ourselves basically. We packed a sack lunch, lots of liquids, snacks, etc and stayed out all day. Our plans were to go again on saturday but we were sore and tired and decided we had enough so we just sat around home and relaxed and enjoyed the day. Here are a few pictures from the wonderful time and great memories that we made. Thanks guys for coming to visit us. Come again anytime:)

Hang on AJ....nick gave him the ride of his life. I always get a little nervous watching people tube....I just know how much it tears up the neck bouncing around and all.

They had never had sushi before so we decided to go to a sushi buffet so they could try all sorts of different items and they really enjoyed it. What a great picture of some tan kidos:) This was taken at Bruster's Ice Cream place.

Aj showing us how to do the air chair.....yeah I never did try it. Nick did, but didn't have any luck in getting up. Im kind of glad cause personally I think it looks dangerous. But good job aj:)
Tess attempting the wakeboard. She did a good job but was nervous to do it because prior to this AJ was doing the wakeboard and took a terrible spill and did a face plant into the water. His face hurt and so did his jaw and neck so tess was super cautious but yet tess also took a dive face first, but was ok:) I attempted it and could NOT get up. I think I tried around 15 times. Guess its just not my sport!!!

Caden is tubing in the back ground...he loves it.
Tess getting her fill of the tube also.

Celebrating Elijah and Caden's Birthdays

While visiting family up north we decided it was a great time to fit in both of the boy's birthday parties. Elijah actually already turned 6 back on May 11th and Caden doesn't turn 3 until June 9th. On Saturday we celebrated with the Gutwein family and we included both Kyra and Kylie's birthday's too. (these two girls are Tricia and Mark's kids) Kyra turned 5 and Kylie turned 1(not pictured). Then on the following Tuesday (after memorial day) we headed over to the Waibel's house to celebrate Elijah and Caden's birthdays once more. Grandma Waibel always does such a nice job making the boy's cakes. I didn't help this year, but I thank you so much mom for making my kids' cakes. Elijah ordered a fire truck cake this year and mom waibel picked out Caden's cake ( a pan she had on hand already from Avery Pritts cake a few years ago). So we had a truck theme birthday party. Lots of fun and the boys loved all their gifts. Here is a picture of the boys all ready to put out the next fire:)

Albert John Gutwein's Graduation

Not only did my Elijah graduate from Kindergarten, but my brother AJ graduated from High School. The boys and I were able to go home for his graduation and get to see lots of family and friends. We had a great time. Here we are waiting for the commencement to start. My cousins Tess, Alisha and Mark (not pictured) were able to come home from Haiti and it was so wonderfuol to see them.Had to get a picture of the siblings. Mom and Dad are now empty nesters as we have all graduated, moved out of the house, and even gotten married(or soon to be).
This is AJ and his fiance Raquel Messer.

Elijah Graduated!!

As promised here are a few pictures of Elijah at his Kindergarten Graduation.
This is Elijah's teacher Ms. Miranda(left) and her assistant Ms. Margie(right).