Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Pictures posted

Here is a slide show from when we visited daddy, daddy's pics from a sight seeing excursion (without us), a few from home, AND Rib Fest. All this complete with fireworks at the end!

Hopefully, you can make it that long. I had 100 pictures before I realized it! Figuring that would be enough for one slide show, I will save the trip to the zoo for another time.

Enjoy!

Click to play this Smilebox slideshow: summer fun
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Monday, June 29, 2009

A week in review...

Somehow I don't get the posts in as I hope to. It seems to be getting longer and longer in between. It has been a busy week. The camera was loaded with tons and tons of pictures. I just uploaded them late last night and quickly breezed thru them. Lots to share! Along with gymnastics classes, there was a play date, a day trip to where daddy had worked last week, swimming, Rib Fest, and the zoo.

Did I mention that there are lots and lots of pictures? I will leave you with a few. Three of them are from Rib Fest Saturday evening and one of Brandon at the zoo on Sunday(sporting daddy's shades.)





And this super cute smile from Jess... She was a little put off that she was not included in the picture of the boys standing by the fence. But she thought it was the funniest thing that we were getting their picture while Brandon's underwear was showing.

Thursday, June 25, 2009

lightening

Check out this cool shot that Daddy captured. This is from the storms that rolled thru last Friday, the 19th.

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

hats and a haircut

That pretty much sums it up.





Birthday Recap

Oh yeah.The blog.Long time.No post.Really?

So belated. But the birthday girl had a good time. She was a little bummed out that more kids wouldn't be there. But was super excited when she found out that Megan would be there. Her best buddy since WAAAAAY back in kindergarten.

I took the easy way out. I had ordered pizza from Papa Murphy's. (Printed coupons from online.) Good stuff.

I think that she is getting at "that" age where it is sorta difficult to shop for her. That tween stage. We had gotten her an assortment of stuff. Books, a game, a couple Littlest Pet Shop animals. And a few other small items. But I think the thing that she liked the best (from us. She loves all her gifts! Thanks everyone!!) was the $2.00 LPS playset that we found at a garage sale. And to think, all this time we have been buying NEW STUFF for her birthdays. What were we thinking?!?
And Brandon likes it too. Later after everyone had left, the kiddos were playing with the LPS, and when one of the animals was put on the top of the playset, the canopy starting going around! Apparently, you wind it and the magnet on the pet shop animal makes it go. They thought it was the funniest thing.

And now the slideshow... surprised?
Click to play this Smilebox slideshow: Jessica's Birthday
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To backtrack a bit, we did have cupcakes on Jess' actual birthday. She and her brother took a turn at the "pinata" that she had made in school. Just in case you're keeping track, it has been nearly a month since school let out. She has had this sitting on her desk just waiting for her birthday to roll around.




PS. She has already read the whole book from Great Rachel. (as opposed to Aunt Rachel)

Thursday, June 18, 2009

Birthday Girl


Just missed her actual birth time, but I guess this will do for her "officially turned 8 years old" picture.

Eight

How can this be??
Our sweet girl is eight years old now.
Gone are picture books and nursery rhymes. Replaced with chapter books and Radio Disney. Wouldn't she just be beside herself to realize there is a website!
I look at her and wonder where my baby has gone. Gone are the cute baby rolls.

Replaced by long limbs that are becoming graceful and strong.

Where once there was only soft peach fuzz is now beautiful long hair that I love to brush. Especially after a bath. If you let me.
The sweetest freckles.
The same big blue eyes.
The same beautiful smile.

Happy Birthday, sweet girl!!
We love you!!!

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Under Construction...

Ok, this is what I'm going with. For now at least

Earlier:

It looks as though I have messed around too many times. Looking into adding new fonts and now the background is not working correctly. I have deleted and readded the cute cupcake background, but no luck. It was to be left up for birthday months (May and June). So, I have given up on it. I thought this one was pretty cute for summer while quickly trying to find something. I will come back later to change the other colors.

Which I probably could have done instead of typing this post...

Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Hello Mudder, Hello Fadder...

I think that our little birds have already flown the coop. This past Friday, we had spent the day at Connor Prairie. I peaked over at the bird's tree and noticed all sorts of "stuff" around the base of the tree. I figured that momma had either been cleaning house or the little birds had been perching on branches close by. I told Daddy that I thought the babies may be learning to fly. He grabbed the camera and the kiddos to check it out. Next thing I know they are all running and laughing, "we're being attacked!" Really, they were not. Just a bunch of skittish babies that took flight when Jess moved the tree branch. But I'm guessing that this picture, on Friday, will be the last one from our nesters. This poor thing stayed perched on the lattice forever!!


On Sunday, we spent the afternoon and dinner time at Grandma and Grandpa's house. The whole crew was there. We were having an early Father's day get-together. Daddy is scheduled to work on Sunday. (it stinks, I know.) And it makes it nicer for Mike and Rachel not having to drive across town two days in a row as they will be here on Saturday for Jessica's birthday. (was that the longest sentence ever?) BUT... in wanting to get pictures together, I realized that I never did put MOTHER'S DAY pictures up. I'm right on top of it! Better late than never.

Click to play this Smilebox slideshow: Mother's Day 2009
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Click to play this Smilebox scrapbook: Father's Day 2009
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Sunday, June 7, 2009

One week later...

I couldn't believe how much "our" baby birds have grown! Here's a peek-




I have no idea how many are actually in there. It is a pile of fluff. We tried leaving a cup of bird seed at the base of their tree last week. Sort of a peace offering for bothering, but they didn't seem to care for our choice of food.

Friday, June 5, 2009

Afternoon at Grandma's House

Just a quick little story. We had gone to grandma's house this afternoon. There will be a neighborhood garage sale and I had offered to help her set up. Not to mention that I had taken lots of Jess' outgrown clothes. (Not sure how much help we really were...)There is one house in between grandma's house and the neighborhood playground. The kids had asked to go over to play. The kiddos had been gone for a short bit when Brandon came back. He tells me that a bigger boy was tackling him. (in retrospect, I think he was saying "attacking." Whichever.) So I go over. Thinking I'm going to have to... Well, nevermind what I was thinking. Of course, the two older boys that were there quickly ran off as soon as they saw me. I stayed at the fence to the playground. The boys came back. The one, after a few minutes, went over to Brandon to tell him that he was sorry for kicking him in the side and hitting him. Then went back over to where the other older boy was. I had called Jess over to me. I had her go over to "that boy" to tell him that I wanted to talk to him.

I had asked him why he kicked my son. Shrugs shoulders.
We had a bit of Q & A. Then I thanked him for apologizing to Brandon (although I think it was for show) and that this better not happen again. I stayed for a few minutes then collected my kids. It was time to leave anyway.

Hopefully, grandma doesn't get a knock on her door from one of "that boy's" parents.

Ahhh. Seriously people. I'm just glad that Brandon wasn't hurt. No crying. No bleeding. Here I thought it would be ok to go 2 houses away.

On a much lighter note, at our house, we have a nest in one of the trees in the front yard. The eggs have hatched. Last Sunday, Daddy stood on the step ladder and blindly pointed the camera. He didn't want to disturb the babies by getting too close. But this is what he captured:


We are hoping to get pictures weekly of the babies. Keep you posted!

Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Baking with the Kids

Yesterday while checking in on a few blogs, sweet Jonah's mom mentioned how she happened to like Chick fil-a. Well, I happened to have a fondness for them myself. Reading her entry made me hungry and it was kids day. What more motivation did we need?
We seemed to hit the jackpot of kid's days. Not only did they see a magician, but there was also a craft table set up. Oh happy day. I have another added bonus... on the inside of the bag (really who looks?)is a Super Simple Kindness Cookie recipe.
Today, we made those cookies. Patrice, I wish we could send one via the web. They turned out pretty darn tasty!

I've made a small scrapbook of our baking project.
Click to play this Smilebox scrapbook: cookies
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Super Simple Kindness Cookies
(says it makes 2-3 dozen. I ended up with 4 dozen)

Ingredients:
1 box of your favorite flavor cake mix
1/2 cup flour
2/3 cup vegetable oil
2 eggs
6 oz chocolate chips

Directions:
1. preheat oven to 350
2. mix all ingredients, except the choc chips.
make sure it is mixed together well
3. stir in choc chips
4. using a teaspoon, dop spoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheet
bake for 8-12 minutes
5. remove from cookie sheet and allow to cool
6. dig in! and maybe share a few too!

Tuesday, June 2, 2009

Happy Birthday and Pets- A contest



It has been kinda crazy lately and I have not checked the I Heart Faces in a while. So when I hopped over, I thought that I surely had a couple of pictures to fit this weeks contest! So here we are...

Happy Birthday entry-


Jessica's birthday last year. We always do a "mini" celebration with just the four of us on the kiddo's actual birthday. She had picked out these fun colored cupcakes; and of course pink was for her! All too soon, it will be time to celebrate again!

Pets entry-


Taken just a couple of weeks ago, our "first baby" playing in the backyard. Duchess loves running with the kids. She was still sporting her daisy bandana that she received at the groomers and a big doggy smile.

Last day

Here she is... a second grader no more! And brought home a really good report card to boot! I hesitate to say that she is a third grader; as this means that she is just growing up WAY TOO FAST!!
I still have 2 months before it will officially be a third grader and a kindergartner.




Lots of new pics, but where does the time go to post them?