Tears of Joy...Not From Decluttering

Our pastor's family recently headed out to China to complete the adoption of their son. They left this past Friday morning and were officially together with him today! They are posting often on their blog about this incredible journey. I couldn't wait to get up and read their blog this morning, and those of you who know me, know that it had to be good if I was actually anticipating getting out of bed. I immediately headed for their site and then proceeded to cry tears of complete joy as I read through the whole account. My sweet daughter kept asking me why I was crying. Kiddos just don't understand why tears of joy flow when there is no band aid needed. At our home, most tears are always followed up by the question, "Can I have a band aid to put on it?". Please keep this precious family in your prayers as they have started on an incredible journey. Here is the link to their blog:

http://www.bowserfam7.blogspot.com/

Other than that, we spent the day going through my daughter's entire room and weeding out all the "too small" and "not so important stuffed animals" as well as all the misc. toys and whatnots. We really did a great job if I do say so myself. Tomorrow we will tackle my son's room and living room, followed by the kitchen on Wednesday. Yes, we are doing a major overhaul on decluttering and simplifying. It looks as though we will be putting our house on the market fairly soon and I am trying to get it all ready. Sounds like a big job, but I actually really enjoy organizing. I know that sounds weird, but it does give me the sense of satisfaction of a job well done. I love to organize, but I am terrible at keeping it that way. Good thing I don't mind doing it all over again, right?

It's Way Too Hot!

Oh My Goodness....It is so hot here! This will be my 3rd summer that we have lived here and I am still trying to get used to the heat when it hits. Today was well into the 100's and I felt like everything was melting. I am such a wuss! It didn't even seem to effect the kids in the least bit. The only time they were slightly annoyed was when we got into the van and the AC was taking a while to make it feel cool. Whew! Makes me thankful for AC!!!!
Well, I haven't posted for a couple days because I have been trying to play catch up from the past 2 weeks. I had a small mountain of laundry that needed folding and many other misc household items that really needed tending to. We got up early Saturday and did the whole garage sale thing once again. We didn't find any screamin deals like last weekend, but we were able to return the welder that my husband bought last weekend. Turns out it didn't work and the people gladly refunded our money. Yeah! After garage sailing, we spent the next 5 hours at my daughters end of the session horse show. She did an excellent job and we were very proud of her. It almost makes me want to get up there and try riding again. I am one of those adults who had a bad experience on a horse when I was little and just can't seem to get past it. It wouldn't be so bad, except I actually got bucked off of an old trail riding horse at church camp. You know the kind of horse that you don't even need to know how to use the reins, he just follows the horse ahead of him. The kind of horse that should be named glue stick because he is so old. Yeah, I got bucked off of one of those. All right, you can stop laughing now! Maybe someday I will get up the courage to get back in the saddle again.
Sunday, three out of the four of us woke up sick. I am thinking it was something we ate the previous day, but who knows. I started to feel sick at the horse show and was pretty ill by that evening. My husband and son were battling it for most of the day today. We decided to take a break from being cooped up and went to Walle, one of the new movies out. It was pretty cute, but I would suggest waiting for the rental to come out. The only reason we decided to go, was that my son has been anticipating this movie since he saw the preview a number of months ago. He was so excited that he didn't even sit back in his chair during the entire movie. He just sat on the front of his chair do a little bounce up and down, while munching again on his popcorn. Every once in a while we would stop to get a drink, but then it was back to the excited bounce.
At the end of the day we had some dear friends stop by for a couple of hours and it was really good to spend some time with them. We were once again blessed by friends!
Thankfully this upcoming week will be much less hectic than the previous two. The kids and I will be leaving next week for a 2 week stay in MT. I am so looking forward to being home with my parents. My kiddos love them dearly as well, so I am sure it will be a good time.

The Blessings Of Family and Friends

We have had a very interesting week. I had said in a previous post that this week was going to be busy, but not quite as busy as last week....boy was I wrong! This week has taken us on a crazy roller coaster ride. Speaking of roller coasters, our church is winding up it's VBS tomorrow and the theme has been centered around an amusement park. I have been helping to lead a group of about 18 kindergartners and we have had a great time. I feel so privileged to be a tiny part of showing these young kids who Jesus is and what He has done for all of us. It is so fun to see the light bulb moment on their faces when they really understand what is being taught. It's also funny to see how much the language of "candy" speaks to them. We did numerous illustrations, but the ones that involved candy really "stuck with them". You kind of forget how important candy is at that age.

I have also had the tremendous blessing of having family here with us this week. My mother in law has been here since last Monday and then my husband's cousin and her husband as well as their 3 kiddos came to stay with us Monday - Wednesday, and we also had my husbands sister and her 2 kiddos here on Tuesday evening. That makes 13 in all. My husband and I have had to make some very hard life decisions this week and I was so blessed to come home to a house full of relatives that were ready with prayers, hugs, and great words of encouragement and love. What a blessing it is to have family and friends that are lifting you up in prayer, especially during the difficult times.

The sleeping situation was a little bit interesting on Tuesday night as we were out of beds to set everyone up in. So, the kids begged to sleep on the trampoline that night. They had a blast! How fun to say that they spent the night on the trampoline. They all ended up sleeping somewhere in the house by the next morning. The first one crept in around 3:00am and they all followed , in about 1/2 increments until the last one came in around 4:30am. I don't think they got much sleep, but it was a memory made.

On Tuesday everyone packed up and went down to the water park to play. They had a really great time. This is a video of my brave daughter trying out the boogie board.

This is my husband's cousin trying surfing.

I was joking around with her saying that we should have a contest to see who stayed up the longest, my husband or her. So, if you have a vote, write a comment and we will see who the winner is. I think my vote is for her. She does get a prize however, because she hurt her shoulder when she fell.

The last pictures are of our cute cousins! We love them so much!

I am so thankful for our family and friends that have encouraged us this week. Thank you so much if you were one of those that were praying for us, calling to check on us, or just being there to encourage us. We really needed that and I am truly humbled by how incredibly blessed we are to have such amazing family and friends!

Looking back and ahead

Well, we survived last week, but we still have one more week to make it through. Even though we don't have as many activities as last week, this week will be one to remember! Both the kids will be attending our church's VBS and I am helping to teach the kindergartners. The lady that is leading the teaching is about 37 weeks pregnant and asked me to help lead "just in case" the baby decides to make an early debut. I am praying that she makes it through this week.

Then, since we missed horse back riding lessons last week, my daughter will be going on Monday afternoon as well as Wednesday afternoon, and this is all followed up by the last week on swimming lessons Monday - Thursday! Phew!

My daughter loved soccer camp last week. Here is a picture with her coach on the last day. He was a very theatrical guy to watch, but she seemed to like "Coach Bill".

As I said in an earlier post, my mother in law has been here since last week and boy oh boy we sure have enjoyed having her. This weekend we were able to go to a bunch of garage sales (fun!!) and then she helped with decorating for VBS. We all then went down to the new surf and slide water park and spent a couple of hours there, and finally decided it was too cold to stay any longer. Those of you who know what summer is like here, know that for me to say it was too cold in June is seriously crazy, but it really was. Weird, huh? Anyways, my husband decided to try surfing on one of the new attractions, and I fortunately got it on video. He said that it felt like he was up for much longer than the video shows. I am just glad that he remembered to tighten up the drawstring on his swimming shorts!

We then finished off the day by going out and picking up the trampoline that we bought for $10 at a garage sale. $10, can you believe it? It has the net and everything except the pad! What a crazy deal. The kids were super excited, but I have to admit that I am on the nervous side of things because I know to much about tramp injuries. Well, at least it won't be because of flying off of the tramp, right?!

Sunday was really great! We started off the day by going to the Presbyterian church for the end of the week VBS show and they did a tremendous job! What a blessing they were to my daughter. We then went over to our church for the 11:00 service and headed home for a fun filled afternoon of cleaning out the garage! UGH! But, once again, my sweet mother in law dove right in and was a huge help with cleaning and organizing everything. The garage is much more organized, but we definitely still need to either get rid of a ton of stuff or get my husband a shop for all of his big toys. He added to his collection this weekend by buying a welder at a garage sale for $40. Why would he buy a welder you ask? I'll tell you why.... because he might use it some day! Right?! No, seriously, he bought it because he really does know how to weld. Remember McGyver? I really do think that he needs a little shop to do all of his tinkering in. Well, my husband and I finished up the day by going to see Indiana Jones while kids stayed home with grandma. I thought it was a pretty good movie, but I think that there are many that would disagree.

Videos From The MT Trip

Here are a couple of videos from the trip that my son and husband took to MT. I tried to upload the videos when I posted about the trip, but for some reason they would not load. Thankfully, I was able to get them on here today. I hope you enjoy them.

The first one is of my son at my mother in laws home. She has a drum set in her basement and my son loves to play on them. Here is in serious rock star mode and he has no idea who is audience really is. Pretty funny!!

This next video was taken while the boys were out fishing at my mother in laws pond. I absolutely love my son!!! I think this sweet young boy really believed he could fly. Isn't it great to be a kid!

Abundant Blessings and Congratulations

Has it already been a week since I posted the "TGIF" posting? Goodness!! Times has flown by this week. Our daughter is surviving, but is definitely one tuckered out little girl in the evenings. Tomorrow marks the end of VBS#1 and soccer camp. Thankfully we will have the weekend to recuperate. Next week is another crazy week, as I will be helping with VBS at our church, horse riding lessons on Monday and Wednesday, as well as the last week of swimming lessons. Phew! We are so blessed to be able to be involved in these really fun activities. As the kids and I were saying our prayers tonight I was lifting up praises for our family, friends, health, home, and all the blessings that God has given us. We are so blessed and I have to admit that I do take that for granted sometimes.
Speaking of being blessed, some friends from MT stopped by and spent the night here at our house and it was so good to see them. The last time I saw them was at their wedding, and now they have a beautiful little girl with an adorable personality. Once again, my, how time flies!
We have had the blessing of my mother in law staying with us since Monday. I am very fortunate to have a mother in law like her. She is so easy going and fun to be around. She helped me to plant the garden yesterday and is going to help me clean out the garage this weekend. These two tasks where kind of weighing heavy on my mind these past couple of weeks. I am very thankful for her help and her cheerful attitude. It is always easier to tackle big jobs when there are two of you working at it.
One final thought for today....I want to give a HUGE shout out to my friend Tobi Magruder! I don't normally post names on my blog, but I want to make sure that she is fully recognized for this amazing accomplishment! Tobi is now officially the National Fiddle Champion! WOOOHOOOO! I am so extremely proud of her! I would encourage you to check out the link to the page that announces it, and read all about what she has done. Tobi, you are amazing and I am so proud of you! If you ever have the privilege of listening to her play, you will never forget it. She is an amazing fiddler and also an awesome woman of God!

http://www.historicalpresent.blogspot.com

The Boys Are Back

My daughter waited anxiously all day long for my husband and son to return. Sure enough, they arrived home around 9:30pm, which is long past bedtime for a little girl that has had such a busy day! However, that did not stop her from staying up and getting all the details about the trip.

It sounds like they had an excellent time. They rode horses, went fishing, explored caves, went four wheeling, and even got ants in their pants! Yes, that's right, when they were fishing, my son was standing near an ant pile and pretty soon he started crying because they were biting him. My son proudly told me that he "had ants in his pants"! Too funny! It is always an adventure when we go to the ranch and up to Pony.

The start of a crazy week!

Well, it has finally arrived. Every time I looked at the calendar this past month, I would look at this week and think..."Oh my goodness, what was I thinking when I scheduled so much?" Renee has VBS at the Presbyterian church every morning, followed by soccer camp in the afternoon and finally ending the day with swimming lessons. If it were me, I would probably be dead, or at least on my way there from a heart attack. That's why I am so glad that she is in excellent health and shape.

My husband and son will be returning from MT today and I am sure they will be full of great stories to tell. I do know of one. Apparently my son was on a four wheeler ride with two of his girl cousins and the girls got into an argument over which one should drive. My son let them argue for a while and then interrupted them by telling them "You guys need to share!". Hilarious because he is 4 and they are early teens (I think). Well, when they got back to the house, the girls couldn't wait to tell the story of how a four year old little boy made them share! I guess he was worried that he was going to be in trouble, so when they started to tell the story he hopped up into his dad's lap and said, "They needed to share, dad!". What a good kid!

I am anxious for their return!

TGIF!!!

Wow! What a full week of fun! My daughter finished up her dance camp today. She had such a great time. The parents were invited to watch a show of all the dances that they had learned. They all learned a lyrical, clogging, jazz and hip hop routine. Here is a video of the lyrical routine.

Her favorite one to do was the clogging one, but I wasn't able to get a good video of it. :(

My husband and son took off to MT today. We needed to get our horse back there so that it would get a little more attention than it was getting here. We had some family pictures taken with Grit (our horse) and here are just a couple. I thought they turned out great!!! Our friend took them for us and I am so excited to see how they all turned out.

Closing A Chapter

I am very glad that today is finally over. We had one of those days that was in every aspect of the word, a "whirlwind". We had so many things going on today, that at some points during the day I had to just stop and take a breath and remember that this is all supposed to be fun. It was my daughter's first day at dance camp as well as gymnastics team pictures, followed by the end of the year team party. It was a good day, one of exciting new adventures started and one of old chapters closing.
I have had the privilege of being the head coach at the gymnastics club here for the past 2 1/2 years, and my last day of work was last month. I chose to stop coaching so that my evenings could be spent at home with family. It was a difficult decision to make, but one that I am sure is the right one. I will miss all of those girls very much and they will always be my favorite team! The girls all made a scrapbook page and put together a book for me. What a great gift! I can really say that I had a dream team of girls. The next head coach will be a very blessed person to inherit such an incredible group of girls.

Uninhibited Joy

I am so thankful for the friends that my daughter has. It has always been my prayer that she find good friendships with kids that are kind and make good choices. It has been quite a while since she was able to spend time with one of her best friends. Last night she spent the night and it was so good to see my daughter so full of pure little girl happiness! The house was filled with little girl giggles and full on belly laughs from those two. I am sitting here just smiling as I am thinking about it and writing it out. How fun to have uninhibited joy!

Those of you who know my son, know that he is like clockwork when it comes to his bedtime. When 9:00pm hits he is literally asking if he can go to bed now. Last night, with the two girls here, he tried desperately to stay awake with them. I kept asking him if he wanted to go to bed and he would say no, and then return to his zombie like "I am going to stay awake stare". I finally put him to bed and he was out the minute his head hit the pillow.

Little did I know that the night was still young......Just as I was putting the girls to bed, my daughter gets a bloody nose. This is a fairly common thing for us, so it was no big deal. Then, at approximately 3:30am, my daughter comes into my room and tells me that her friend has a bloody nose. I jumped out of bed and went into the room to find her little friend covered with blood! It was quite the sight. I felt so bad for her because she just stood there with a very confused look on her face. So, we cleaned her up, took all the sheets and blankets off of both beds, and then put then both back to bed. I spent the next hour cleaning the blood out of the bedding items and putting them in the wash. THEN, about a half an hour later, my daughter comes back into my room and tells me that she has a bloody nose again! Seriously?!! How many of theses things are we going to go through tonight? So, thankfully, she did not get any on the bed and I took care of her and put her back to bed. It was now about 5:15 am and I was beat! My husband gets up at 5:45 so I had a good 15 minutes of sleep before that whole commotion took place. Well, I woke up at 7:30 to the wonderful sound of little girl giggles and I couldn't help but smile once again. Even though I feel very sleep deprived today I am content because I know how happy my daughter is.

Tonight we have the other best friend spending the night. Hopefully it won't be a repeat of the noses!

Interviews, Operations, and NASA...Oh My!

Today was such an interesting day in so many ways! I started off the day with a job interview at the school that my daughter attends. The interview went very well and I was actually offered the job. I would be teaching a science class and an algebra class in the secondary building. I have not yet decided whether or not to take it. There are many uncertain things going on in our lives right now and we are not entirely sure where we will be living next year. I will not be able to give them a definite yes or no for a little while. We'll see what God has in store. It sounds like it would be a great job since I would be working hours when both of my kids would be in school. There would be a few kinks to iron out, so we'll wait and see.

My friend watched my kiddos while I was at the interview, and when I came to pick them up they were having such a great time playing that old game "Operation". I used to love playing that game when I was little! My son was particularly funny to watch (or maybe I should say painful to watch) as the buzzer did not seem to affect him whatsoever. He would just keep digging away, buzzer ringing and all, until he got that piece out! I would just cringe every time he would go back for another piece. It was pretty funny.

Later, we were able to go and do something that I am sure we will never be able to do again in our lifetime. NASA is using the sand dunes here where we live to do experiments for a future moon project. They are letting all the local people come out and watch as they do their pretend experiments. We were able to see the astronauts as well as their moon vehicles. It was really cool! At the end, the scientists came out and answered questions and the kids were able to shake the astronauts hands. We were also able to view a couple more space vehicles. One was called the Scarab. It will be going to the South Pole on the moon to drill for water. Supposedly there is a possibility that it is there.

We finished off the day by signing my daughter up for soccer in the Fall. She is pretty excited about playing. She has soccer camp next week as well as one in August. I can't wait for her to dive in and have fun!

He's "Sew" fine!

OK, so my husband is the type of guy who is not afraid to try almost anything. It has been said quite often, by both sides of our family, that there really isn't too much that he can't do. He may not do all of it well, but he sure isn't afraid to give it a shot. And, surprisingly enough, the outcome, most of the time, is actually pretty decent. Here is an example...(this would be the first of the comical "crafting" stories that I warned you about in an earlier post). Last night I promised my daughter that we would finally try to conquer the first sewing project, which happened to be a little book bag made out of a pillow case. So, I asked my husband to please get the sewing machine out from behind the couch in our bedroom. He says " Sure" and then disappears into the bedroom while I finished the dinner dishes. Then, about 15 minutes later I realize that he has not yet come out of the bedroom. So I am thinking... A) He has fallen asleep - which wouldn't surprise me, B) I didn't hear him come out of the room, or C) He is up to something and I am sure it involves the sewing machine. Hoping that it wasn't "C" I entered the room to find him in the following mode...

He was actually sewing little pillows from some scraps of material that he found. I was pretty impressed! My kids were completely impressed! So, I helped him wind a bobbin and then put the kids to bed. When I returned he was still sitting at the machine with this sheepish look on his face. When I asked what was wrong, he told me that he couldn't get the bobbin "thing" to go back into the machine. I took a quick look and decided "OK, normally I would think that it was probably broken, but I am married to McGyver and he can fix anything, right?" He did and all was well. However, the story doesn't end there. The kids and I get home today from horse riding lessons and find him sitting at the sewing machine...get ready for this.... hemming his pants! Seriously!! Can you stand it! I didn't know whether to laugh or cry (or both)! He has a pair of pants that he decided to take care of and he did a pretty good job. You know, that's one of the reasons why I married this wonderful guy (not because he can sew). He is so fun to be around because there is always an adventure waiting. We have our story books full of hilarious stories that we love to relive with each other. Someday I will post a few of them. Some of you know the major ones and will be shaking your heads in agreement and probably laughing at this point!

Well, one last item for the day, my daughter had her second riding lesson today and learned how to groom her horse. I think that that is an excellent thing to learn, but I have to admit that it makes me a little bit nervous still. I know that I am just not used to taking care of large animals yet, but the whole kicking and rearing thing is a bit scary for me. One of the horses did that today when his cinch(sp?) was tightened and it kinda freaked us all out! Thank goodness my daughter did not see it or I think she may have been a little bit afraid to ride today. She is doing so well and loves being on that horse (new cowboy boots and all).

Family Reunion

A couple of weeks ago the kids and I drove to my home town and were able to spend the week with my mom's side of the family. For me it was a very bittersweet time, but one that I will never forget. My mom's oldest sister is fighting cancer right now for the third time in the past 11 years. It has been an emotional roller coaster for her and her family. We spent the whole week just lovin on her and making the most of every minute that we had. It was great! All of my mom's sisters and her brother were able to come as well as a good number of my cousins. We had a family picnic/birthday party on that Saturday and my mom hired a wonderful lady to photograph that time. Here is the link to her page with photos of that afternoon.
http://cindycieluch.blogspot.com/
Please keep my aunt in your prayers as she will start chemo therapy tomorrow. She is truly an amazing lady and I love her tremendously!!!

Swimming, Biking and Bowling!! Phew!!

This weekend we had a wonderful time spending time with my sister and brother in law as well as their kids. They all came into town last night and we hurried over to the hotel to see them and the kids were able to go swimming. We then met up with them at church this morning and finally went to the local bowling alley to eat and let the kids bowl a game. It was really fun to see how much their kiddos have grown up. My little niece has this very big vocabulary and is incredibly articulate! I love it! She sounds so grown up for a 5 year old. My son was telling her a story about when he hurt his hand and when he asked her if she knew about it, her reply was "No! Tell me about it!". She is a hoot to be around and we love her dearly. My son absolutely loves being around my nephew. He is about 3 years older than my son and so he gets a big dose of doing lots of "boyish" things with him. It seems like most of my friends have little girls, so the poor guy is usually playing "House", "Dolls" or some other "girly" thing when we get together with them. So, needless to say, when he is with another boy, he takes full advantage and really has a good time. Our nephew is a great kid and love him dearly as well.

I took a couple pictures and videos of us bowling as well as a picture of the new bike. We actually won't be keeping this bike because we found a great bike at a garage sale on Saturday. It was a little bit hard for my daughter to accept that we were going to return the new bike, but once she took a ride on the used one, she really liked it.

We have a very full and exciting week ahead of us, so I will try and keep up with the blog. Lots of adventures are awaiting!

Bikes, Bugs and Blogs

Today was the day that my daughter has been waiting for since the garage sale. She sold her bike and then had a week of chores and other things to do in order to earn her new bike. She used the money that she got for her old bike and then mom and dad put a few (ha ha) extra bucks towards the purchase. The guy who helped us get the bike off of the rack said that it would be waiting for us at check out stand #16. The whole hour that we were in Walmart, she kept reminding me not to forget that it was at checkout stand #16. We will never look at check out stand #16 the same again. I'm sure it had some kind of heavenly glow with the hallelujah chorus playing when we were finally ready to check out. She was by far the proudest little girl in Walmart at the moment.
We followed up that trip by stopping at Staples to look for some cheap software for me to try and design my own backgrounds for the blog. I am really trying to learn something new concerning blogging every day, and I am actually doing pretty well. I am slowly learning to connect the dots with all the information on how a background works. The guy at Staples was actually very helpful, but I am afraid that we do not have the $700 for photoshop. WOW! I am a little bit curious how amazing photoshop must be. I am thinking that for that price it should probably cook me breakfast and possibly mow the lawn at least once a week. LOL! I am still trying to figure out what program will be the easiest for me to work with and then I think it will be fun to try and make some different background stuff. We'll see.
As far as the bugs go, my kids are pretty sure that the house is infested with spiders. Every time they see a bug or what might be a bug, they yell "Spider!". I was actually in the middle of a shower this morning and my son comes running into the bathroom yelling"Spider, Spider, There's a spider in ____'s room!". I could not clearly hear him because of the shower water and thought he was yelling "Fire, Fire, There's a fire in ____'s room!" It was at that moment that I had to decide whether or not to rinse the shampoo out of my hair and THEN run to save the kids and the house from burning down, or just go as is and hope that nobody sees me running through the house in such a state. I yelled back at him..."There's a fire in ____'s room?". It took him a moment to process what I was saying, and I anxiously awaited his answer. He finally said, "No mom, a spider!" much to my relief. However, it does seem like we have killed a few too many of them in here lately, so I am going to have the house sprayed. Any suggestions for who to call?
I will post pictures of the new bike tomorrow since it is still in the back of the van. My daughter still has until Sunday before she is allowed to ride it. Just a few more days of chores and whatnot's to endure then it's time to ride!

First Day of Summer Vacation

WoooHooo! Summer vacation is finally here for both of my kids. We slept in a little bit this morning and then had a very relaxing day of just doing whatever we wanted to do. We started the day off by going to the dentist (for mom)and then going to get doughnuts for breakfast. Nutrition at it's finest. Then, my friends kids came over for a little bit and my daughter did her little babysitting thing. I can't believe that my daughter is helping with babysitting. When did I transition from having a babysitter for my kids to my kids babysitting??? Life moves much to fast sometimes.
She spent a good part of today learning how to make these little puzzle cubes. Does anyone remember these from your early school days? We used to make them all the time! I am not sure what they are called, but they are definitely a blast from the past. Anyways, when I showed her that coloring them was alright, she took off with that idea and made a colorful one for everyone. We even had to take a walk to her little friends house, just to hand deliver one of them to her as a gift. What a cutie!
I am so blessed to have such awesome kids!

Encouraging Video Clip

My mom sent me the whole video that this little clip came from. It was hands down the best video I have ever seen. I know that Louie gets a little loud at times, but I truly believe that he is so passionate about his love for God that he just can't contain himself.
I hope that you take the full 9 minutes and watch it. It is very worth it.
If you click on the symbol to the right of the volume button, the video enlarges to fit the box.

2nd Grade...Here She Comes!

I am seriously taken back by the reality that I officially have a daughter who is now a second grader! WOW! When we moved here she was in preschool and now look at her..all grown up. I told her the other day that she was going to be in big trouble if she kept growing up. I guess she didn't really believe me.
She had a cute little music performance at the end of her last day and then it was off to her favorite restaurant Shari's for a celebration lunch with Daddy, Brother and Mom. I gave her the choice of any restaurant she wanted to go to and she narrowed it down to a Chinese buffet restaurant and Shari's! How funny that those were her top two picks. Anyway, she slurped down a strawberry milkshake and had some criss cross cut fries and she was completely happy.
We finished off the afternoon with a trip to the public library and the kids had a ball choosing their books for the week. I took my son there last week and he got his very own library card, which made his sister fairly envious. So, we had to go and get her her very own library card as well. I like the fact that they think a library card is so cool. This summer I am going to try really hard to make it a weekly thing for us to go there. Both of the kiddos love books and I am trying to learn a few new trades myself (crafts... kind of a scary thought when you know that I am not very crafty!). I have been considering taking on sewing simple things like curtains and pillows for the kids rooms. I am sure that I will have some pretty comical stories for the blog when I start that adventure.
Here is a short video of one of the songs that the kids sang. You should hear the vibrato when she sings! It's so beautiful and cute at the same time.

My Little Cowgirl

I have been on a search for a more interesting template for our blog. Those of you who know me well, know that I can become obsessive about finding just the right one of whatever it is that I am looking for. Ugh! However, after much searching and finding very little, I can across a couple of sites that have really cute backgrounds and they are fairly easy to install and use. I added their links on the sidebar. So, if will probably continue to change the look of this blog just to keep things fresh until I find something that I really like.

Well, today started off kind of slow. My son woke up with a pretty high fever and spent the entire morning in his bed. Poor little guy! I gave him some Motrin and he was up and kind of running for the rest of the day.

My daughter had her first day of horsemanship camp today and boy did she have a blast! We signed her up for it through the city park and rec department. She learned how to walk her horse, do safety checks for the gear, get on the horse, and eventually they were able to ride their horses around in a circle. I was so proud of her. She had such a good time that all she could say for the rest of the day was "I can't wait until the next time". After the class, we ran down to buy a pair of cowboy boots for her and daddy loved that. I kept pushing for the pink and brown cute boots,but in the end the "real cowboy" boots won out..

Peonies and Power Toys

What a great weekend we have had. My husband has been traveling extensively for the last 4 months and we rarely spent an entire weekend together as a family. I feel so blessed that the last 2 weekends have been spent at home doing nothing but being a family!

My brother in law stopped by on Saturday night and ended up spending the night. We always love spending time with him and his family. He has a wonderful sense of humor and is always ready to go on some kind of adventure. He and my husband worked on his son's 4 wheeler for quite a while and finally got it running. It's a kid size 4 wheeler so our kids were so excited to see it. The brakes weren't working and there was something else wrong with it. In the end they were able to get it running and now it works great! I still chuckle when I think about my brother in law running behind the 4 wheeler as my daughter is riding it (without brakes...I know, I know) and he is holding the kill line just in case she wants to stop. It was pretty comical to watch and we now know that running it into our lawn lights does not help in stopping it! :)

I want to say congratulations to our friends Mark and Desiree on the birth of their beautiful baby boy. He was a little bit early, but we are so glad that he is finally here!

Finally, I wanted to show a few pictures of our amazing peonies! They were a house warming gift from my mom and they are growing wonderfully.