I'd like to check you for ticks!

On a Sunday in August, we decided to take a leisurely family walk on a trail by the lake. Displaying her treasure, a rock, then she was off and running!
Kids hydrating themselves at the water fountains.
The awesome new bridge along the trail.
Following the baby into the wilderness.We enjoyed a fun hike that day. The local master gardeners had labeled the trees by attaching with string a piece of paper(enclosed in a clear plastic bag) to several of the trees. They were having permanent markers made, and placed the temporary paper labels in the mean time. Apparently some teenage punk had humored himself by removing each tag and moving it to another tree. I told the man who labeled them all that we noticed the trees were now all labeled wrong. He said, "I bet that kid was worn out, I was exhausted when I finished labeling all the trees and he had a harder job of switching them all."

When we got home after the hike, we realized that we had been attacked by teeny tiny seed ticks! They were so small that they looked like freckles. I had to scrape a credit card across my skin to determine whether I had a tick or a freckle. I am excited for winter, only because the ticks will DIE! Maybe we'll revisit the trail then.

Frugal Photo Time!

I think the prices for school photos are outrageous so I decided to take my own again this year. I love choosing the backdrop, enjoying the outdoors, and capturing their personality. Most of the photos were taken at the lake in July, but the last 2 were taken in my neighborhood. Below is the group photo. It is a little crooked because I had to snap it fast, before the baby ran away or jumped in the lake. They are not as good as the professional photos we had taken in my last post, but I thought these would be fun to share too.

Baby Girl, 19 months old

5 year old. He's excited for kindergarten.
10 year old. Her first year in middle school, 5th grade.

8 years old. She's ready for 3rd grade.

11 years old, He's a middle school pro, 6th grade stud.

Below, a few extra pics, the crape myrtle was a perfect match to her dress.

Family Photos

It has been over a year since our last family picture, and many years since our last professional picture so I jumped at the opportunity to get a family photo taken. I had a great coupon and refused to get sucked into buying extra prints. I got 3, 8X10's for $18. They tried to pressure me into a $150 package, but I resisted. The photographer was great, I wish I had a bigger budget. Here are the proofs.... Below is my favorite photo, but my hubby looked funny so we didn't order a copy.Youngest boy's face is a little hidden.
We ordered this one, but our copy has my hubby's whole head.
We ordered this kid photo.
Cute, but baby had funny face.

Nice, but my hair blends into background.

OK, but a not all the best expressions.

This is why I SNEEZE!!!!

Ragweed is my nemesis! My husband affectionately calls me snot-face. I am seriously considering buying stock in Kleenex & Benadryl. Die! You nasty little yellow weed!!!

First Day of School

So far, the school year has been going pretty good. I've had the opportunity to get to know the school nurse, I received 3 calls about sick kids.
My boy, my sweet kindergartner, oh why do you act so silly??? I have received 2 phone calls from the vice-principal. The first call was the result of my boy being sent to the office for, "being a robot" in the bathroom & pushing another student. We had a few good days, then the next call came, " your boy thought the kid in front of him was taking too long on the playground equipment, so he taught the kid a lesson." Those kinds of lessons are not welcome in our school district. Yep, I am looking forward too another great year!

Finding Hope

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mkWc_EKLs4E

Our Precious Gift

We have this picture hanging on the wall in our living room. It's called "The Prayer at Valley Forge" by Arnold Friberg. I bought it for my husband for fathers day when we were newly married, about 11 years ago. My husband loved the picture and wanted a copy since he first saw it on the wall in someones office on campus. I thought, it was a nice picture, so I saved the money and bought it. It was a lot of money to spend at that time: we were newly married with a baby boy and my husband was going to school full time while working full time. I found an inexpensive frame that didn't do the picture justice, but kept the dust off until we could afford to have it framed professionally. This picture has hung in the living room in each of the past 7 homes we've lived in. While in house #6, we finally coughed up the cash for a professional framing job and I'm so glad we did. My children always ask about the man kneeling by the horse which leads to a conversation about the wisdom of this founding father of our nation.

To be honest, when I was in high school, I thought my American government class might possibly be the most boring class on the planet. I didn't get it. I totally took for granted the liberties I had been blessed with through the Constitution of the United States. It wasn't until recently that my eyes have been opened to the fragile state of our nation. Our freedom hangs in the balance. Our liberty is being challenged. Our government is becoming too large and our leaders too callous. "We the people" are losing our voice. Those in power who have taken an oath to serve our nation seem to be only self-serving. I know there are a few righteous leaders that are fulfilling their duty of serving the people, but they are fighting a difficult battle against a tide of corruption & immorality. It's time for us to figure our who we really are as Americans and stand for what we believe is true. We need to look past the propaganda and the lies. I am proud to be an American! I don't mean that in a cocky-better-than-thou-way or in a cheesy-bumper-sticker way. I mean that I am part of a country that stands for the greatest principles in the world, we stand united as a country, as one nation under God. With that privilege, comes a responsibility to defend our Constitution and teach it to our children.

It's not about Right vs. Left, North vs. South, Up vs. Down, or Democrat vs. Republican, BUT it is about Right vs. Wrong. We all love our America, but love shouldn't hurt and love shouldn't have a price tag of $250,000 per person, and growing.

When discussing liberty and freedom, it is important to also remember those who have fought and sometimes died to preserve this blessed nation. Please watch this video, click on the link below. As you watch, ask yourself, what do you stand for now, how far would you go, and what price would you pay to protect the liberties of this nation? More importantly, how can we thank those who have fought the fight? Keep the spirit of America and freedom alive. Remember the constitution and fight to preserve it by learning its contents, teaching others, and really looking at; who our nation is, where it came from, and how it can and will stand mightily in the future.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cghAiWH_AUM

10 is "in" !!!!

My little girl is growing up so fast! She turned 10 years old in July and started middle school in August. She wanted a red,white, and blue themed party. I found the cutest cake idea at http://familyfun.go.com/ . It was called the "flower power" cake. I got out red, white, & blue icing, sprinkle, and M&M's and went crazy! The flowers are made from regular & mini cupcakes. I had fun making it and she thought it was pretty cool. She enjoyed playing games with her friends!
Blowing out the candles.

Decorations!

Our birthday girl loves being 10 because she gets to drive in six more years. I wish she would slow down a little, instead of trying to grow up in fast-forward. "16" will be here way too soon!

Painted Ladies

These two girly girls love to paint their toenails!
Blue eyed beauties!

An end to the madness!!!!!!

Our remodeling project is over, for the most part! We have a little trim work and some touch ups to do. Below is our basement family room after the remodel. The basement used to be one large wood paneled room, we divided it into 3 rooms by adding walls to make 2 new bedrooms and enough remaining space for a family room. We kept the paneling for now in the family room to save money. The color isn't too dark & the kids might eventually ruin it with drawings & holes, so we decided to keep to make it work. We would like to decorate in a western theme to tie it all together. We currently have a hodge-podge theme, using items we already own. Below: Another view of the family room and the pine doors to the 2 new bedrooms.
Below: The orange(Citrus Blast is the color name) room upstairs, shared by 2 of the girls. It is bright & sunny & we hardly ever have to turn the lights on thanks to the glow of the paint.
Another view below of the orange room. I also painted the dresser white & the knobs orange.Below, one of the new basement rooms. We let the kids choose their own paint colors. Our 11 year old wanted brown, so we left a half wall of paneling & painted the remaining walls beige. The log cabin/northern woods/fishing lodge themed bedroom, above. The window is shown below with the curtains I made. Our son proudly displayed his b-b gun along with the II Amendment (the right to bear arms).

Below, the upstairs pink room! She LOVES it! We still have to apply the wallpaper border & do a few more finishing touches.

The blue "cars" room below. He loves his cars quilt & car stickers on the wall!

We started these renovations in November 2008, by adding the first window. Over the last several months we worked steadily to complete the project on a tight budget. We are happy with the result. We still have 1 remaining project, the basement bathroom needs new floors and walls, and we hope to remove the shower and add a prefab tub/shower. The bathroom remodeling project will have to wait while we take a break and catch our breath & complete the finishing touches on the bedrooms. It feels good to finally be at this point! And, I can send everyone to their rooms when I need peace & quiet! Well worth all the work!!!

Way to throw the book at 'em!

Oh, the joys of parenthood! We can now add window repair to the many areas of expertise that my husband has gained thanks to the kids disasters. This is how it all went down: An argument started in the living room, a child sat on the couch. A book was hurled at said child's head. The offending "head" ducked. Loud breaking noise echos through the house. More crying & yelling. I was afraid to look! The book slammed into our window, but luckily only broke 1 pane of the double pane window. My husband removed the broken shards carefully, and here we sit, waiting 3 weeks for the replacement pane. Luckily, you can't even tell a pane is missing unless you look closely. Below is the end result of the repair. Am I happy school started today??? YOU BET!

Watch out China, here they come!

We enjoyed a fun summer visit with my sister and her husband before they left for China to teach English as a second language! Pictured below, the summer birthday gang! We had an Americana themed party to celebrated all our summer birthdays!

Making a splash!

Everybody was kung foo fighting....

It was a little bit frightening!

Group Photo

It's only a flesh wound. Baby impales Aunt Annie with a bamboo stick.

Papa T., Granny Sue, Annie, & Brian

Uncle Brian, you'll never beat me!

Left- girls group photo: Granny Sue, Aunt Annie, and Me with my girls and Gracie the yorkie dog.

Uncle Brian, you'll never beat me!