Vacation Shrewsbury Style

This year we decided to vacation a little differently. You see, this year we took our very first Shrewsbury family vacation. Mrs. Terri, my wonderful mother in law, (no lie she really is awesome) decided that she wanted to get away with all of her kids and grandkids. We planned in May to take off the second week of July and head out to Hilton Head. It was a little rocky there right at the end as to whether or not we were going to actually go. Real estate can sure be up in the air, but after weeks of getting closings pushed back and an endless night before vacation time of moving out of a house into a new house, we made it! Sam and I got very little sleep. There are two things that I have learned while vacationing or traveling with Sam. One is that we leave early. He doesn't like traveling during the majority of a day if he doesn't have to. Two is that you hold your need of bathroom breaks and make yourself have a bladder of steel! Being able to do these things makes traveling much easier in this household! We spent the week together in an amazing house! We really did have a great time together. The girls are so darn cute!

Calyn asked us all week to swim with her. On our last night we finally got in the pool. It was a little small for all of us to get in, but we made it work!

This was our last day at the beach...and it rained. :(

Beautiful Shrewsbury family if I may say so myself!

Building sand castles was Calyn's favorite thing to do at the beach. We also taught her how to ride the waves.

Aunt and Uncle picture with our nieces!

Ready to start the trek home.

Sam and I took a date day and traveled to Savannah, Georgia. It was only 45 minutes away and was a perfect day. Well, aside for the downpour of rain that would happen every few hours, but it was still beautiful there. We were both pretty intrigued by the trees. We got a picture in one of the many park like areas.

I'd say for the first real family vacation it was pretty successful. There are not many families that can be put in one house and not be hanging each other up by their toenails by the end of the week..but I am glad to say that no hanging by toenails, hair pulling, or name calling occurred on this vacation! :)

Artistic?

I have never considered myself artistic. I remember dreading art class in elementary school because I was never quite as good as the person sitting next to me. I do remember always being asked to write everyone's work down for them in their agendas because they liked my handwriting though...which did help boost my artistic self-esteem some..I guess. Okay Okay that's really beside the point. The point is that I have always wanted to be artistic, but never felt comfortable even trying to be. Well..out of shear boredom of how plain Jane our house feels and having absolutely nothing to do these days. I'm not complaining about that..just saying that there is only so much to do before you start to get bored. I guess if I was smart I would be getting ready for the school year, but I am just not quite ready for that SO I have been working on some projects for the house.

First up is a painting that I did based off of a painting that my friend Kim sent to me from another blog that she follows. I decided to put my ability to look at a picture and interpret it to my own taste to the test. My friend Amanda took the day off of work because she was jealous of my time off....I mean because her youngest was sick and needed to go to the doctor. :) HA!! I am SOO Funny!! Anyways..we decided to work on some projects that have been on our to-do lists. I decided to suck it up and get started on the huge blank slate before me.

Here is how it all went down...
First I drew the branches with a paint pen.


Then I started making a lot of dots.


Then I made even more dots.


Then I was finished and it looked like this:


Overall I think it went pretty well. I would show you how awesome it looks in the living room and how it adds so much to the space...BUT I can't because it's not on the wall. It is laying on our guest bed waiting to be put up. Sorry any guests that would like to stay over..you can't because there is a huge canvas staying in your spot. When it does get put up though..I will share the final result!

Now on to the next project...

I have been wanting to go to Sips-N-Strokes for FOREVER! The last time that I had the opportunity to go I couldn't, which was a big bummer, but I was determined to go again. I had had my eye on a painting that I thought look super super cute and signed myself up to go. Little did I know that I was signing for one of the harder paintings that they offer. The good news is that I didn't take a picture of what the original looked like so my painting is going to look awesome to you guys!

The beginning of the night...



Break time for a photo opt :) We weren't feeling too awesome about our painting abilities at this point.



Middle of the night...


We are finished!! Although we are not insane artists with some deeply hidden talent, we enjoyed ourselves and had many many laughs throughout the process!


Here's a close up of my masterpiece:


One thing is for sure though and that is that I am one messy painter!



This painting, again has not yet made it to its home home, but it is closer than the other masterpiece I created! ;) This painting is going into our newly painted office. Here are some before and afters of our office. It was touch up painted before we moved in and looked AWFUL so we painted it this weekend. I like it I do believe!

BEFORE


AFTER


BEFORE


AFTER


Hope you guys like it too!

Accomplishment

I am not a runner. I actually have been a hater of running for some time now. I think it stems back from my cheering days when I had to run all the time and it just stunk! Well...I have really been working on my attitude toward running. I am working toward having a well rounded workout and I feel like my cardio is best when I run. There was a 5K on Memorial Day in Pleasant View. On Friday, I decided what the hey...let's give it a try. I couldn't even run a full mile. I hadn't ran/walked more than one mile. I just thought...well if anything I will run what I can and walk the rest. Luckily, I had some accountability partners to run with me. Libby and Amanda have been my workout partners. We keep each other in line...as best we can. Some of us are pretty stubborn..cough cough..me! :) We took off bright and early and while we did not run the whole thing..we FINISHED IT!


I did really well for the most part. I was feeling good. I was accomplishing something. I was so close to the finish line when out of no where...I threw up! lol It was a pretty nice way to finish the race if I may say so myself! :)

We are thinking about trying another 5K to try to beat our time. By the way..the winner won the thing in 16:33 minutes. That's a 5 minute mile. He was from Kenya. That's all you need to know.

End of An Era

It has finally happened. All Claud children have graduated from high school. After seven years of graduations (although mine included two Claud's), I am happy to announce that we will not have to sit through another one until little baby no name graduates from kindergarten, if his school even does that.(Sad to say that many public schools don't do kindergarten graduations anymore!) Otherwise, we have at least 17 to 18 years of rest until then. :) Libby has finished her high school career!! She is extremely excited to leave the past behind her, both good and bad, and see what lies ahead.

Libby,


We are VERY proud of you! You have the most contagious laugh and are a beautiful young woman. You hold your head high and do not let little things get to you! It has taken me years to be able to do that..and still struggle sometimes. You are so confident in yourself and what you want to do with the start to grown-up life. I am very very proud to have gotten so close to my little in age..but bigger in height sister! :)

A few pointers that I learned from my college days...
*Go to sporting events of some kind. It makes your college experience better...even though some teams might suck!
*Don't eat Easy Mac all the time. Yes, it is an easy, cheap meal...but you will gain the freshman 15 pretty easy on that diet. (I had trouble eating it for awhile after I left TTU.)
*Wal-Mart is not a cool hangout unless you are a college redneck.
*Do your homework, but don't let it consume you. Have fun!
*If you need home, we are just a call away. I was tempted many times to pack up and come home, but a call always worked.
*There is a gym. It is nice to hang out in. Some people think you should actually use the equipment. I always just got on it for about 5 minutes and considered it a job well done. Thanks to you...I am much better in this area!
*If a teacher offers extra credit, DO it!! It will help you in the long run..unless you have all A's. You will just be an overachiever if that be the case! :)
*Ratemyprofessor.com is a great source to see which teachers you want to sign up for. It helps when you have choices. If you don't have choices are you're screwed.

Most importantly, remember your family is here for you no matter what. You will be expected to come home and see baby no name and see me...and the rest of your family of course. I will need a pick me up from my personal trainer every now and then so you can't stay gone all the time!




We love you and are so very very proud of your accomplishments. Now...if I could just get your abs....

Easter 2011

This year Sam and I got to celebrate Easter with both of our families. I know that this is a daunting task and will only get more difficult when there are kids thrown in the mix, but I am pretty proud of our system right now! :) This year we went to my parents house on Saturday night to have an Easter dinner together because on Easter Sunday everyone was going in a different direction. We had yummy "Reggie Steaks" as Sam calls them with sweet potato fries and some other fixings, but those were the highlights of the night. We played Kinect, looked at old pictures, and got to hang out and enjoy each others company. Well when I say everyone I mean everyone minus one because Moriah didn't come home. She really needs to stop loaning her car out to her friends so she can hang with her awesome fam..but that's just my opinion! :) We stayed as long as we could..this year the Easter bunny wasn't coming around so no one needed to hit the hay early.

We woke up to a rainy, yucky Easter morning, but we didn't let that dampen our spirits. We got started our part of Easter lunch, got ready, and hit the wets streets for church. We had a great Easter service with plenty of worship and celebration of our risen Lord! Thank you Jesus that we can celebrate the hope of life with you!

We had to hit the road as soon as church was over, but we spared 2 seconds to get an Easter picture just in case we didn't get one later.


Emily had to be a part of our family picture too! She's part of the family. She even has her own room at our house. Ask her about it. She loves it!


Sam also thought that we would want to document us dressed up so nice. He never wears a suit, so we had to get evidence that this does occur once every blue moon.


We ran home, got a change of clothes, grabbed our dish, and were on our way again to Sam's mom's house. We all brought some goodies and had a delicious lunch. We are definitely going to have a circus running around when there are more kiddos added to the already rambunctious bunch we have. This year Chris's sister and her husband and daughter got to hang out with us too!

Although the rain did put a damper on the day, we didn't let it get us down. Sam and I went out and hid Easter eggs for the girls to hunt. They enjoyed every second of it. They kept saying, "I found one!" for every single egg they found. It was really cute. Samantha enjoyed getting into everyone's candy once they found all the eggs. I really like her approach: Let the big girls do all the work and then enjoy their candy while they are looking at the neighbors dogs. Smart little girl!

Here are some photos of the afternoon:





Aside of the time with family, the candy devoured, the stomachs stuffed to the brim...The most important thing is that we took time to remember why we have hope that this life on this earth is not the end. The struggles and heartache that we face will only last for awhile, but our hope is in the eternity of life with our Father. Thank you Lord!

One of my favorite songs that I got the chance to hear in concert is by Newsong called "Arise My Love". It brought tears to my eyes as I got the full understanding of the words and meaning of the song. I find joy knowing that these words could be spoken to me one day...

"Arise my Love, Arise my Love, the grave no longer has a hold on you. No more death sting, no more suffering. Arise, Arise my Love."

Happy Birthday Samantha!

It really doesn't seem like we should have a 3 year old niece, but I'm pretty sure that we were just in the hospital to get our first glance at our second little niece, Samantha.



It had been a long day, so no judgement on the appearance of Aunt Holly! :)

Now a year has flown by and we are back together once again to celebrate Samantha's 1st birthday. She is such a doll! She's a chunk, but we love every little roll and her chubby little cheeks. She always has a smile on her face and is very photogenic if I may say so myself.

She is working on walking. I think by the end of this week she will be walking solo. All she needed was a little finger to help her balance and she had the rest. She is growing so so fast!

Happy Birthday Sweet Samantha! You are one loved little girl! Keep smiling your toothy smile!



Love,
Uncle Samuel and Aunt Holly

Play Ball

I absolutely love spring. Spring brings some not so awesome things like allergies and storms, but spring brings so many great things such as warm weather, flowers, summer following soon, and last but not least BASEBALL! Sam watches all sports. Literally, he watches all sports. I don't catch a break from the sports, but the summer is my favorite time, aside from football in the fall, but still. We decided to take a night out and go support our local Minor League team. It was a great night. We hadn't been to a game since the summer of 2004, so needless to say it's been awhile. It felt like we were in high school again on a date. It was a great feeling. I think that we are going to be going to several games this summer. We are also wanting to hit some Braves games again this year too! We have to support our team with their new manager! :)