The Elam's

Catch Up With Us Pictures!

2009-05-24T21:16:00.011-05:00

It's Been Awhile

2009-05-24T21:12:00.002-05:00

I've let time just get away from me and it has been so long since I have posted to our blog. The girls are such blessings and are growing so fast....Reagan is now 4 and Kensley is 19 months. Time has flown! I know it is going to go by so fast.... Life has been good this year and we are continuing to grow in all sorts of ways! Spirtually, Emotionally, Physically....I don't know what God has in store for us but I know I am excited about our journey with Him and what He has done for our family!

Gentry's Farm

2008-10-29T16:59:00.000-05:00

This was the day we went to Gentry's Farm in Franklin! It was a great day and lots of great pictures!! I love these of Reagan in the sunflowers...I picked out a few to put on the blog. They were so great I thought especially in her Matilda Jane outfit....it looks like she fits right in on the farm!!!! We saw the sunflower patch, the pumpkin patch, went on a hayride, and saw the goats. It was a great day!

KENSLEY TURNS ONE!!!

2008-10-19T14:28:00.000-05:00

Kensley turned one this past week! Wow! The time just flew by and I can't believe we are already celebrating one year with our little angel. She has been such a gift and is such a great baby! We had a great weekend with family in town and friends over for the party. The cake was so good. It was from Ivey Cake in downtown Franklin and it was pumpkin flavor with pink butter cream icing! SOOO GOOD! It was great to celebrate her life! Happy Birthday my little princess!

Soccer Time!!

2008-10-19T14:12:00.000-05:00

Well, this year we started playing soccer at the YMCA! What an experience! Rick is coaching the U4 for the first time and it has been a learning experience for him! We call it "herd soccer" because they don't play by rules, all of them just run around in a group and kick the ball at the same time! It is hilarious! The uniforms are adorable....way too big and they just hang off of them but it is so cute!
Now, Reagan....it remains to be seen if she will be a soccer player!! She usually has her shoes off by the end of the 2nd quarter (they only play 8 min quarters) and tells me everytime that it is too hot!! Maybe...she is going to stick to inside activities!

Washington Trip 2008

2008-10-19T13:02:00.000-05:00

Rick and I traveled to our nation's Capitol in September for his National Sales Meeting. We got to stay at the new Gaylord hotel called the Gaylord National. It was brand new and very nice. Rick's meetings were all at the hotel so that was convenient. We got there a day early so tour Washington together and that was fun. We had been once when we lived in Pittsburgh but it was a day trip so we did not get to see a whole lot. This time was much different for me. I got to tour stuff every day I was there. It was a neat place to visit and to see so much history and to realize our government is run right in that city! It was a good trip and I just feel so blessed to have been able to travel to the places I have this year. It has been great! I was also so proud of Rick's accomplishments this year! We feel so blessed by God for all He has given us and all of the opportunities He continues to place in front of us! We pray we will continue to be lead by Him and good stewards of all He has given us!

England Trip

2008-08-12T11:13:00.000-05:00

WOW! That is a great way to describe our England Trip. Rick and I have been so blessed to have been able to go on the trips we have this year and this was another one that just he and I were able to go on for 5 days! There is so much history there and so much to take in and see. This picture is at the famous site Stonehenge. Just to be there and think that people 3000 plus years ago built this and possible to use as a calendar is just incredible. Sometimes I think we think we are so advanced and so technological but they did this stuff that long ago!! We walked a lot and saw so much..Buckingham Palace, the Changing of the Guard, Big Ben, Parliment, Westminster Abbey, Windsor Castle, The Tower of London, St. Paul's, Harrod's, and various other sites of the city! We stayed at the Four Seasons in Hampshire, about 1 hour outside of London and it was beautiful! One of my favorite things of the trip was going to a church service at Westminster Abbey. The famous singing by the choir boys and also just being in the place that all the Kings and Queens are crowned and where Princess Diana's funeral took place! It was an amazing trip and I am sure I will be blogging more about it!

Our New Outfits

2008-07-23T09:23:00.000-05:00

Kensley and Reagan stayed in Mississippi while Rick and I were in Boston and Cape Cod. They had a great time and enjoyed their time with Gan & Papoo, Aunt Lia, Uncle Nick, Uncle Theo and Nana & Papa. Nana loves to buy unique outfits for the girls and she took Reagan shopping one afternoon and bought the girls adorable outfits. The one they are wearing actually matches! I had to get a picture this morning and post it so you can see how cute the girls are today!!

Chatam Bars Inn/ Cape Cod

2008-07-21T07:15:00.000-05:00

We went to Cape Cod on Monday, July 14 and stayed until Friday, July 18th. It is a beautiful part of the country. Very relaxing and slow paced especially being in Boston for a couple of days before we went. We stayed at the Chatham Bars Inn and it is gorgeous there. Very old hotel and lots of history with it. The flowers were beautiful and they had it so well manicured around the property. This part of the trip was the part Rick won with his work. It was nice to be able to meet some of the people in his company from other parts of the country. We ate good food...I actually tried a lot of seafood and it was good! I have never been a big seafood eater but have decided recently to try new things and discover if I actually like them or not. Seafood made the list and I have discovered I like it. This is a beauftiful part of the country to see.

Boston Red Sox

2008-07-21T07:07:00.000-05:00

What a neat experience, being able to go to Fenway Park and watch the Boston Red Sox play baseball. Rick and I just went on a trip to Boston and Cape Cod for 7 days and it was a fun and relaxing trip. Boston has so much to see and so much history. Rick and I both like history, although we like to study it in different ways!! Rick is fast paced and likes to move quickly through stuff and I am like to read everything!! He will ususally make laps around me. With time, we have learned how to appreciate one another and our different ways of learning so it is a more enjoyable experience when we travel now to historical places. I don't try to keep up with him and he doesn't rush me! I really enjoyed the baseball game and it was really neat being in one of the oldest stadiums in America. If you have never been, Boston is a place that should go on your list!

OUR FIRST SISTER FIGHT

2008-07-11T10:57:00.001-05:00

WEll we had our first Sister Issue at the house....As you can see Kensley got a handful of Reagan's Hair and began to pull! Reagan was screaming but we couldn't resist grabbing the camera to capture this moment first!! Reagan doesn't quite understand why Kensley can pull her hair and not get in trouble! Kensley was so happy! I guess we will have more of these to come!

Kensley's Debut Swimming!!

2008-05-30T21:06:00.000-05:00

Memorial Day 2008 was Kensley's first time in the pool! She loves the water! Of course the pool was heated! You learn with the 2nd child, Reagan went in freezing water her first time to swim and cried the whole time!! Her float is a little car with a horn on it! It is so cute! She had a blast and even tried to eat it at the end of the day!!

Reagan on Memoial Day 2008

2008-05-30T20:59:00.000-05:00

This is some pictures of Reagan at the Memorial Day party! Since she is potty training, and I do believe we are almost trained(Praise the Lord!), she is wearing two pieces this year! The first time she put it on she was so upset her stomach was showing!! Now, she loves them and that is all she wants to wear! She loves the pool and loves to help Rick get everything ready! The bottom pictures is my favorite! She is eating chicken wings!!! I have never seen a 3 year old who eats chicken off the bone like that!! She loves them! She swam all day long and had so much fun, she even asked to go down for a nap, so you know she played hard!!

Memorial Day 2008

2008-05-30T20:54:00.000-05:00

This was our Memorial Day 2008 party at our house! Kensley's first summer pool party! She loves to be in her exersaucier!! She is the happiest baby, always smiling and this week has started babbling and spitting!! I think it is so fun the 2nd time around because you actually know what you are doing and so you can enjoy the moments!! We had about 40 people or more at our house on Monday for the party! We had so much food! We started at 11 am and it started raining at about 2pm, I thought Rick might have a coronary when everyone had to come inside!!!! We had fun anyway and it never stopped raining so most everyone left by 5 pm! We love the summer and the pool!!

Summertime is Here!

2008-05-23T12:28:00.000-05:00

Our first summer playdate was on Monday! We went to Barnes & Noble for storytime and then we went to the park with our friends and had a picnic and played! The older kids were holding hands and walking to the playground and all the babies were in strollers! These are Reagan's friends in the pictures! (Top) is Maddie Grace, Lainie, Reagan and Kade walking to the playground. (Middle) is Lainie and Maddie Grace with Reagan in front! Lainie is the youngest in the group (21 months). Maddie Grace is 2 , Reagan 3 and Kade is almost 3. Kade has it made with all the girls!! Maddie Grace is wearing her Matilda Jane outfit too!!
All of our babies are born in the same order too! How neat! Kensley then Jake (Kade's brother), Hudson (Maddie Grace's brother) and then we are expecting Emmie to arrive at the end of June (Lainie's sister)!

Matilda Jane Outfits

2008-05-23T12:20:00.000-05:00

These are the girls in their new outfits from Matilda Jane!! I love the line because it is so different! They looked adorable that day! Kensley looks a little like Aunt Jemama with her sash on her head!! The line is called Matilda Jane and you can google it and pull up their website if you like the line!!

Tricycle Riding is so much FUN!!

2008-05-23T12:15:00.000-05:00

Riding a tricycle is so much FUN! Rick enjoys it too as you can tell by the pictures!! Reagan is getting good at riding her "bike" as she calls it!! Our neighbors were laughing so hard when they saw Rick coming down the hill on a pink tricycle!!

Arizona Trip

2008-04-27T15:10:00.003-05:00

Rick and I just returned from our trip to Arizona! We stayed at the Royal Palms Resort in Phoenix and it was a beautiful place. The pool was gorgeous and the trip was relaxing. We were there for a trip Rick was awarded for being on the CEO roundtable this year. The girls stayed with their Nana and Papa while we were gone and they had a great time. We are very fortunate to be able to go on all these trips and to see all different parts of the country! We took a trip out into the desert and it was really peaceful and quiet. It was a great time to reflect on God's creation and just be still for a little while.

2008-04-12T13:41:00.000-05:00

This is where I spent a lot of time! On the ground! Acutally, I did pretty well! Rick was able to catch this run down the mountain perfectly on camera, the Fall and all!! It is so frustrating when you fall down and actually pretty difficult to get back up again! At least, my clothes looked good!! That is the main thing...as long as your clothes look good, you look like you know what you are doing!!!!

2008-04-12T13:32:00.000-05:00

We just got back from our ski trip to Vail, Colorado. We had a great time and stayed in the Ritz-Carlton in Bachelor Gulch. It was my first time to ski and Rick's third or fourth time. It was a lot more challenging than I had imagined to learn to ski. I am always up for a good challenge! After the first day in ski school, I got the hang of it and really loved it! I can't wait to take the girls and teach them. I want them to get them on skis early. Everyone out there said 3 or 4 is a great age to learn!! It is so cute to watch the little ones on skis! They fly right past you and you feel really inexperienced! It was a great trip for Rick and myself. A time to relax, away from the children. This blogging thing is new to me and I am trying to figure out how to post more pictures!