Snow People

The last big snow storm we had we went out and built snowmen.  The kids did this one by themselves, they found the sticks and came up with the rocks on their own.  It’s back by the barn, and even though it’s rained and mostly melted there is still a snowman lump left.

After Deric and I were done working in the barn we went into the front of the house and built another snowman.  I was hoping we could make a huge one, but this was as big as he got.  The girls were happy though.  Brody was not.  He snuck inside, broke into the pantry and helped himself to a snack while we worked! 

He is also now just a lump on the lawn… but what I just (like right now) realized is what happened to his scarf?!  I don’t think it is out there with the lump, but I didn’t go get it either!  Humm…

Gettin’ Pretty

At AWANA Kylie earned ‘dollars’ for saying her sections.  She’s been saving them, and last week came home with a make up set!  Last Saturday they asked if they could put some on and since it was before bath time I let them.   Kylie actually did a really good job with hers!  You could see it on her, but it wasn’t over the top.  Reygann and Brody on the other hand are a different story!

Neither of them could wait for the other to be done so they actually worked together, Wow!  (Don’t you love how they are standing on a paint bucket so they could reach the counter?  Who needs steps when you have paint!)

Love the blush Reygann!  It looks so natural! :0)

Orange?  Really?  Why do they make orange blush?! 

Ahh, and blue eyeshadow to finish it off!  I love the globs on her lashes too.

You look beautiful honey!

Brody didn’t go as far with the make up.  He stuck to the glitter gels, that could be just because Reygann was globbing all of it on herself though!  He didn’t want to stand still so I could take his picture, so that’s why he looks so bad in both of these! 

I like how this one looks like he is rolling his eyes though.

Kylie felt left out and had to ‘touch up’ her make up before I could take her picture., (in other words she had to glob a little more on to not be out done!)

They had fun, that’s what matters… but next time we are cleaning it off earlier.  Reygann still had pink and orange stains on her face when she went to school on Monday!  Ha-haa!

Meet Bernie

Bernie meet the Blog readers.  Blog readers, meet Bernie.   We’ve had Bernie for 2 months now, there have been a few rocky patches, but I still love him!  We usually keep the house at 64 in the winter (except when I just can’t stand it and bump it up a tiny bit), last year our heating bill got up to $400 a month!  Now I might be ok with it if I was toasty warm, but I was FREEZING every day!  I knew we had to do Something!  We’ve talked about getting a wood furnace add on before, but we never went anywhere with it.  This year I brought it up, kinda just joking around, and Deric was all on board.  And after a bunch of research and deal hunting we found the one we wanted.  We were told that it would be a week to order it, but I asked them to see if they had any in stock and they did!   We brought it home the next day (we didn’t bring the trailer with us since we were supposed to order it), and installed it the next day (I think).  You are supposed to season it by having tiny fires and building up to small ones, and keep getting them bigger and letting it cool in between.  Granted there was the incident the first day I used the stove on my own…  but I don’t want to talk about it.  (FYI I still don’t add wood before getting in the shower!  Ha!  I must be scarred!)

Look, it’s hot in here! *grin*  Actually that’s nothing, it was 76 (on accident) yesterday!

Ok, so these pictures are a bit scary…  It’s the scary basement!  I’ve called the basement that since we moved in.  I guess it isn’t that bad, but the paint on the walls and floors are chipping and the ceiling is really low (and full of cobwebs).  I just don’t like it down here, yuck!

After a few other issues we had last week I put the table cloth over the window… there’s nothing like standing in the basement in sight of the neighbors in the middle of the night! 

Our wood pile.  The pile we have now (we stacked it Sunday) was all the way up to the ceiling!  The pile in the picture only lasted about 2 weeks, hopefully this stack will last a bit longer.

One really great thing is it makes a great place to dry all the kids snow clothes, and daddy’s too!

Although, Daddy’s clothes hanging there scare the crap out of me at night.  They totally look like someone is standing there! 

The one good thing about not having the stove upstairs is that we can keep this stuff just as it is.  There is no way I’d have a cardboard box full of newspaper, and a Rubbermaid of kindling sitting in my family room!

…or a stack of wood either!  Don’t you love the laundry basket for toting the wood!

This is our old wood stove… ha!  The two are so different!!  (It was so cozy though!)

 

It’s been awhile

…and I didn’t get a new laptop for Christmas (Not that I was expecting or even asking for one), so it is still going to be a while! I keep being hounded by VERY low disk space warnings, and NOT RESPONDING messages. Ugh drive me crazy! Seriously it took 30 minutes to just get this page open and responding (and as I was typing the word ‘responding’ it quit responding! Gurr!) A few times now I have even gotten the Blue Screens of Death! Double Ugh! (And I ‘not responded’ 9 times in the last 3 (yes, 3) sentences!!) I’m going to try to add a few picts… we’ll see if it happens!

Shew, I did it!

(FYI this post took WELL over an hour (that's not counting the 30 minutes it took to open), pathetic I know!)

Deck the halls…

I’m pretty sure the house is a Christmasified as it is going to get this year.  It’s been cloudy the last few days and I’ve had a cold and don’t feel that great, so the pictures aren’t that great.  I knew I just better snap a few and post them or they will never get posted (like the fall decorations oops!)

I LOVE my tree this year!!  Every year I keep trying to get my tree to look like the one in my head, and every year I get it wrong.  I finally figured out it’s the type of tree, not the shape of it!  It makes me happy!

This pillow also makes me happy.  Isn’t it wonderful?!

I just got this cabinet and I haven’t exactly figured out what I am going to do with it, but this works for now.

I thought it would be a safe place for my ‘unassembled snowman’ he’s never really had a home before but I really like him on this platter from my fall decorations.

I also think this picture (?) is yummy.  I love penny snowmen!

I didn’t know what to put in the bottom, so I stuck my nativity set in there.  The angels wings got broken off last year so it might be a good idea to keep it behind glass this year!  Plus the kids have their own set to play with, so they really don’t need to mess with mine.

I did a ‘pretty tree’ this year, but I put some of my favorite ornaments up still including the kids first Christmas ones.

I’m not a huge fan of this, but it will have to do for now. 

My stocking holder looks a little lost here, but it doesn’t really look this lonely in person.  (At least I don’t think it does.)  It needs something though… maybe I’ll tuck some greenery on there or something, humm…

I got this wall hanging years ago and got it for a steal!   I used to LOVE it, but now I’m not sure.  I still like it, but its too something… cutsey?  Oh, I don’t know.

This is the table in the foyer right by the front door, I think I am pretty happy with the way it turned out.  I put a few packs of battery lights in the garland, I really wish I had an outlet here.  It really would have made this easier!

This is just ehh, anyone have any suggestions??

 

I love this garland on my stairs! I just wish I had a newel post on the bottom so I could really show it off!  …next year.  (It better be in by next year!)

This year I put my little trees out by the front door, I rigged them with lights and they look so cute!

My wreath is the same as last year, I did add battery lights so I can light it up when people come over though.

I also Christmased this up a bit too.  I think it would look sharp with lights in it too… but I didn’t think about that till later and I don’t feel like messing with it anymore!

Books of the Bible

I recorded Kylie saying the books of the Bible when I had her say the 23rd Psalm, but I forgot to post them! Oops! Better late than never, right??





Enjoy!

Pumpkin Pickin’!

Now that I am getting ready to throw out the pumpkins and put up the Christmas stuff I thought I’d post the pictures of the kids at the pumpkin patch, before I am completely out of season!

The rule when you go to the pumpkin patch with school is ‘if you can carry it, you can keep it’. I think that sounds like a good idea! We usually steer the kids towards the pie pumpkins, they are so much cheaper that way! I think they are getting on to us… I wonder how much longer we can keep it up?

Daddy and his babies. I can’t believe how much they have all grown, it made me so sad when I looked at these pictures (here’s last years, somehow 07’s never got posted I guess). I can’t believe how big they are now! Sniff, sniff.

These pumpkins were so neat, they were an awesome silvery greenish color. They were way cool!

These peanut pumpkins were pretty neat too… I’ve never seen anything like these before. It just might make me rethink our pumpkins for next year! :0)

Going, going, GONE!

On October 31st Kylie discovered that her tooth was ‘bendy’, and was absolutely thrilled!!  She has been dying to lose a tooth for a LONG time now!  I grabbed the camera and took a quick video of her (pardon, the unbrushed hair, the dress-up that is falling off, and her excited strange behavior!) 

Kylie’s tooth has been loose for 2 weeks now and it hasn’t changed too much, but after giving her an apple in her lunch her tooth became REALLY wiggly!  A friends son lost his tooth accidentally (I think he was 2?) and she posted the last picture of his smile before he lost it and it got me thinking.   So Saturday morning I took a few pictures of her ‘last smiles’.

 

You really can’t tell here, but she closed her teeth with the tooth on the wrong side.  It is in front of her top tooth instead of behind it since it is so loose.

I’m glad I took the pictures because she lost the tooth the next day!  She actually made it all the way through the day, and when I was tucking her in to bed I asked if I could try to pull it out.  (It was barely hanging on and I really, really didn’t want her to lose it at school and possibly lose it!)  She said I could try, but only if I agreed to put a piece of candy in her lunch!  That’s my girl!!  I’m not sure who was more nervous, me or Kylie!  I grabbed it and chickened out and let go as I pulled, I got it on the second try though! 

She cried for half a second and just looked shocked!   You can see the tears in the first 2 pictures  :0(

I had her close her eyes and put her in front of the mirror, and took a picture of her checking out her lack of tooth for the first time!

 

And checked it out, and checked it out!

    

Isn’t that a cute toothless grin?!

I can’t believe how tiny it was, It seemed smaller once it was out!

She told me she was going to put it back in!  Silly girl!

Showing off her new tooth pillow

And sharing the news!

And here she is, my toothless girl!  I snapped a few ‘afters’ when she got home from school today.  Isn’t she cute??

 

I forgot to video her after she lost it, so I’ll have to try to do that tomorrow…

Lost

Kylie lost her first tooth last night, and then lost it tonight!!!  We went to Pizza Hut for dinner to celebrate Daddy coming home, her tooth, and we had her Book-it to use.  When we were there I saw that Kylie had the baggie her tooth had been in in her purse, and it was OPEN!!!  Ack!  I took everything out slowly one at a time and didn't find it.  I looked through everything again, and we looked on the floor and all around with no luck.  There was a chance it could be at home (since that is where she put the open bag in her purse), so when we got home I crawled around the family room and looked in the foyer (the 2 places she said she was with it) and didn't find it!  I mean seriously, the cat lost a tooth and we found it!

I didn't give up, and I finally found it!!  Under the kitchen table!  I have no idea how it got there, but I am just thrilled that I found it!!  Crisis averted, shew!  Humm, this isn’t the first time Kylie almost lost a tooth… Anyone remember the first time??  Sigh!  (Pictures coming soon, Promise!)

Happy 3rd Birthday Brody!

Like I told you in the post below my little man turned 3 just over a month ago.

 Man, I really should have fixed his hair real quick!  He looks so shabby!

Showing me how many he is, it’s hard work to get the right fingers up and the wrong ones down!

SO excited …over the gift mommy got on clearance (oh yeah!)

He got a Cars paper set, notebooks, pencils, rulers… the works!

 

He also got a worklight like Daddy’s!

And a motorcycle engine he can take apart and rebuild!

and the last of his steel trucks

I made blonde brownies since his party was the next day and we didn’t need 2 cakes.  He didn’t mind, he just likes blowing the candles out!

Happy Birthday Buddy!!

Ok, so a month (yes a MONTH) ago my little bugger turned 3!  Sniff, sniff.  My baby is growing up!

I tried snapping a few pictures of him before his party, but he didn’t really care!

I did get a few good ones…

…and this one!  Ha-haaa!   He had a Cars themed party and Gramma Murphy made him his very own plate of 3D car jigglers!  

He got a lot of cool presents…

His first very own Harley shirt!

Yeah, it’s a recorder… I could kill you for this one Jody!  :0)

Ha-haa!  This one makes me laugh too!  He got gold dollar coins from Gramma Murphy and he threw his head back and squealed Mooonneeeey!  …and that is what it looks like in a picture!

Brody loves blowing out candles.  Any type of fire actually!  He’ll dig around and find the clicker (the click flame thingy) and bring it to us to light so he can blow it out!

Happy Birthday Buddy!!  I can’t wait to see what this year is like…

Where do I even start?

This morning started off just as any other morning.  …except one thing, we now have a wood burning furnace.  Brody comes downstairs a little too early (just like every other morning!) so I brought him back to bed and added some wood to the furnace and hopped in the shower. 

While in the shower I started to smell the furnace, we seasoned it (having small fires and building up to bigger fires) yesterday and it lets off this odd odor which is completely normal, that is what I was smelling again.  So of course being in the shower and not being able to do anything I was a little concerned and knew I would be checking on it as soon as I got out!  But it beat me to the punch, the smoke detector started going off, ALL of them (they are all linked together, they’re supposed to all go off)!

I jump out of the shower (covered in soap and conditioner), grab a towel and run to the basement.  I still smell no smoke, just the stinky smell but I have no idea if my basement is on fire or what.  Everything looks fine down there, and I open the furnace and all looks good in there too, so I run back up stairs to check everything else out.  As I pass the stairs I see the girls running down them (as best you can when you have just been jarred from sleep and you are freaking out thinking your house is on fire!), one of them is shouting ‘What about Brody, WHAT about Brody?!?  Where is he??’  (That was probably Kylie!) They were also mumbling something about Ms Maja (our neighbor), we are supposed to meet on her front porch if we ever have a fire.  (So at least they remembered what to do and where to go!)  So I tried to calm them down a bit and told them that our house isn’t on fire, but I can’t make the smoke detectors go off so I need to figure out what’s wrong.   Brody is stumbling down the stairs at this point and he wants that noise to stop!  Trust me, I do too!  

I still smell nothing, and I have NO CLUE why they are going off.  I have all the ceiling fans on, and I am standing on a barstool fanning the detector closest to the basement door… remember I am still covered in conditioner and soap and am only wearing a towel while perched on the barstools fanning the smoke detector, oh yeah it is right by our back door that has a huge window in it too!  I am also a little concerned that the whole neighborhood  can hear it and is going to come make sure everything is alright and is going to catch me dripping wet in a towel covered in conditioner and soap!  

I went to the basement and flipped the breaker on the detectors, but they still didn’t stop!  Dang battery back ups!!!  I find myself back on the stool trying to get the cover off so I can take the batteries out, but I can’t get it off and I am still worried about my towel!  So I throw my pj’s back on (still soapy and conditionery) and try again now that I have 2 hands!  I am pretty sure my ears are bleeding at this point and I am really annoyed that it won’t SHUT UP!!  I still couldn’t get the cover off so I flung the front door and garage doors open and switched the (real) furnace to ‘fan on’ and after a little bit the blasted thing FINALLY stopped!!  It’s about 6:30 at this point, and the kids are still a little freaked out, and I am running on pure adrenaline!  I settled the kids on the couch and put on a show and I finally finish my shower! 

I think my ears are still ringing, and I am completely EXHAUSTED!  That took a lot out of me!  I still have no idea what went wrong, and now I am nervous about tomorrow!  I can NOT go through this again!   Ugh, I need a nap!

So how was your morning?

Fall Fun

A local restaurant was having a special day for kids so soon as we could get them ready we were on our way.  There was a costume contest, but we missed it by 5 minutes.  Bummer!   Oh well.  The kids got treat bags just for showing up in their costumes.  Plus we got to go for a hay ride to a pumpkin ‘patch’.

We were the only ones on our hayride so we got to sit wherever we wanted to sit, of course the kids wanted to sit at the back so we did.  We almost exited the ride right after we got on, the petal on the tractor got stuck so when we took off we TOOK OFF!!  The wagon lurched forward, and we we went back!  Kylie and Reygann were on the last bale on the side and they both fell into the wagon towards the back, I was across from them and went flying too!  It was funny.  After we composed ourselves I looked over and saw Reygann still holding on for her dear life!  He-hee!

 

The wagon stopped at the ‘patch’ and the kids got to get out and pick out any pumpkins they wanted.

Kylie picked hers out in record time, and Brody was right behind her.

   

Reygann took her sweet time making sure she got the pumpkin that just just right for her! 

Not sure why he looks grumpy here, maybe because the ride’s almost over??

Nice one hun!  I remember to take a picture of us, and this is what I get, oh well.  I’m lucky I got any pictures, it was such a bumpy ride I didn’t think any of them would turn out!   After the ride was over they had cider waiting for us, the kids gulped it down and were sad when we were done.  I felt a little guilty going and having fun and not eating there… but they didn’t say you had to eat!  Plus we had already eaten by the time I got the info, so there!  Hopefully they’ll do it again next year…

Happy Anniversary

…to Me!   Last Wednesday was my 9th wedding anniversary, and look what I got!

Flowers!!  Ohh, I love flowers!  I rarely get flowers, Deric thinks they are silly, why spend your money on them because they just die, I say spend the money!!   I have actually only ever gotten 2 roses from him, one he left for me in my car, and the other was given to him by a friends mom to give to me when we sent the boys on a Valentines day scavenger hunt.  So I went from 2 flowers, to a whole dozen!  *swoon*

But that wasn’t all…

…I got chocolates too!  And not just ANY chocolates, Fannie May!  Yumm-O!

And I thought he forgot… *sheepish grin*

Apple Picking

The last weekend in September we went apple picking.  This year Brody was old enough to really enjoy himself and help out too.  (More like help himself to the apples, I can’t tell you how many we found with bite marks in them!)

 

Taking the wagon out to the field

We actually passed up the first wagon that came so we  could take the horse drawn wagon.  The kids loved it, and hung over the side watching the horses.

See, eating apple!

Picking apple

Kylie too

All the kids got to climb a tree so I took their picts up there too.

Helping Daddy out…

…and helping Brody out

And eating another apple… He couldn’t even put it down for a picture!  :0)

 

There is a train track that runs on the other side of the orchard, Brody loved seeing the train and we all stopped to watch it.

Soon as I saw the ladder I knew I *had* to take the kids picture on it.  I have a picture of me and my Great Grandpa sitting on a ladder in an apple orchard.  Ideally I would have wanted each kid by themselves on the ladder, but I didn’t want to push it!

I love how they all look grumpy here!

I was NOT pleased as this guy almost landed on me!  And then again when I was taking his picture he flew off (towards me) and I screamed!  I’m such a girl!

This guy was kinda cool… as long as he didn’t come near me that is!

Would these be considered ‘road apples’?

I picked this apple it had these 2 dents in it from being smashed on the branch.  It was actually kinda hard to pick, it was smashed on there so tightly.  The skin wasn’t broken or bruised either, just dented in… I thought it was kinda neat.

Way to go Kylie!

L C Fair!

Doesn’t it look nice and warm in that picture?  Not cold and crisp like it is now?  That’s cause it’s from this summer.  I thought about posting the pictures right away, but it seems like I prefer to post pictures months after the fact and I didn’t want to shock you by actually posting something right after it happened!  *grin*

I loved all of these pictures for different reasons and I couldn’t pick one, so I picked 4!

Brody was a lot less sure about being on the ferris wheel!

There we go a nice fake, almost smile.  Who me?  I’m not scared…

Deric took the day off of work and made it an all day trip.  We got the kids wristbands so they could ride all the rides they wanted.  After the ferris wheel we went on the swings.  And by ‘we’ I mean the kids and I had to go to cause Brody was borderline too little. 

He didn’t really like it, could you tell?!

I reached over before we swung too far apart and held on to his swing and rubbed his arm the whole time.

It didn’t stop him from going on the nest ride though…

Wee here we go!

Ahhh, I don’t like this!  GET ME OFF!!

The guy saw Brody and stopped the ride after just one pass to let him off, then the ride continued on.

I’m not sure what he was scared of, it wasn’t a crazy ride.

The motorcycles were next

Making the horn honk

bye guys

(a little bit of whiplash when the ride started!)

I don’t know about this…

I DON’T LIKE IT!

Of course the girls were good, they loved it!

So we tried the boats…  With success!  All they did was go in a circle, no ups, no downs.  Perfect!

The girls liked them too

Brody stayed on the boats and I took the girls over to the slide thing.  It was a mess of stuff you had to get through, ah kinda like an obstacle course.  And there was a gigantic slide all the way at the top you got to go down if you made it to it.  The girls loved it, seriously we did it 20 times over and over and over again! 

We finally broke the girls away from the slide thing, and Brody from the boats and we tried the train next.  The first time around they got to ride in the engine and ding the bell and blow the whistle. 

Brody stayed on the train and the girls took a turn on the dizzy dragon

He loved the train, he was just tired and zoning out at this point.

The next ride was the trucks.  They had fire trucks, hummers, jeeps, and other trucks, they all had fun riding on this one too.  Brody stayed here for a few more times and the girls went back to the swings. 

Next we hit the carousel, Brody was just a bit too small to ride alone so Daddy went with to hang on to him.

   

It started raining again, so we decided it was time to check out the animals.  Uncle Tommy and Brody looking through a hole at the horses.

Aren’t they too cute?

The kids loved the piglets

(…and I am pretty sure Uncle Tommy is telling a inappropriate joke here!)

 

Brody kept saying that his feet hurt, and since Uncle Tommy is wrapped around his finger he carried him around for a while

It stopped raining (for the most part) and so we hit the rides again.  If you look close, you can just see Brody in there too.

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The girls did the slide thing again, so Brody and I sat on the bench and waited.  We were going to ride on the boats some more, but the seats were all filled with water.  So he made silly faces and I took pictures!

 

We checked out the petting zoo area they had this year, one lady was done and gave us the rest of the cup of food she bought for them.  There were normal animals

and cooler animals!  I loved the zebra, I’ve never been so close to one before! 

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There were other odd ones too, like Emu and some crazy rabbit looking thing.

These are the only pictures I have related to food… can you tell why they are?

Oh the food!  It’s always so amazing (and expensive)!  Actually nothing really impressed us too much this time, but the very last day of the fair (yes, we went more that once) we found one that knocked our socks off!  Hopefully they will be back next year!  We will definitely be doing the ride pass again too!  I tried to keep track of what rides we went on and how many times, and I came up with that we would have needed to buy 240 tickets, at $1.25 a piece we would have spent $300, just on tickets!  Wowza! 

 

Maybe I should have blogged about this sooner… now I want to go back to the fair!

School Stuff

I walked out of the house the other day and saw this written on the floor.  I thought it was so cute that she didn’t just write her name, but she drew the ‘paper’ it went on too.

 

Reygann had to draw a picture of what she did to get ready for school, can you guess what it was??  It was shopping for school supplies.  You should have been able to guess from all the Target bags!  I love the ‘shoulders’ and ‘elbows’ she drew.  Need some help finding them?  Her arms are drawn in pencil, and the blue loops around them are the shirt sleeves.  The little circles are her elbows (and a wrist on the one side), and the blue humps by her neck are the shoulders.

I’m loving the face too!

Isn’t it adorable!?  I just LOVE it!  (Don’t miss the mouth, it can be hard to see and it really makes the face.)

Reygann painted this apple tree for class this past week.  I thought she did a very good job.

Kylie brought this one home last week.  She was supposed to draw a pictures of the blessings in her life.  She drew, her school, her home, her church, her parents, and Clothes!  That’s my girl!  Ha-haaa!! 

Well that was fun

The food is put away, the dishes are washed, the floors are vacuumed (again), and the leaf if out of the table and put away.  Sounds like it is time to go to bed.  We had a great party tonight, and we have a busy day tomorrow.  We’re going apple picking!  I’m glad the house is back in order… since it will be covered in apples soon!

3 years ago today…

We welcomed Brody into our family!  I can’t believe that it has already been 3 years, wowza!!   So as a refresher I dug out a few pictures from his first year.  Brody and I snuggled on the couch (way too early this morning) and looked through some picts and I just had to share.

 

Brody minutes old, he looks pretty small here.  Awww

Mommy and Brody

Meeting their brother for the first time

 

Giving kisses

    

Not only did he have a FULL head of hair, but he was also born with highlights!  Seriously it looked liked he had frosted tips!  I have never seen that before (or since) and neither has anyone else that I know.

Exactly 2 days old

Reygann wasn’t a huge Brody fan, it took a few weeks but she finally warmed up to him… but just a little.

 

3 months old (wearing one of daddy’s baby outfits)

   

4 months old

    

6 months old  

10 months old

One year old!

  

…and now he’s 3.  Where’d the time go?  *sigh*

Hunting Camp

We took the kids down to the hunting camp a bit ago, Deric wanted to check on his stuff so we thought it would be fun for the kids so we tagged along with him.

We forgot sunglasses at home and daddy only had a few pairs in the truck so Reygann got to wear the super cool daddy glasses! 

This is one of the ‘roads’ you have to drive on to get there, basically it’s just a path through the woods.

It opens up into a corn field you have to hug the edge of the woods till the corner of the field and then go through a few trees before opening up into another field where the guys stay. 

Ah, Camper Sweet Campers  (Snort, yeah right!  I’ll show you more camper picts later on)

The kids loved the huge swing! 

It was a good thing too, there wasn’t anything else to play with!  We brought a few trucks for Brody to play with but that’s it.

This is where they eat and hang out.  There used to be a cover on the frame, but I don’t think there has been one in a few years.  There is a grill in the shed and they keep some stuff in there.  It used to be that all the guys would eat together and this is where they got dinner ready, but now they don’t do that anymore so they just make dinner in their own campers, they still hang out here though.

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Brody was so cute playing with his truck, he would load sticks in it and drive them somewhere and unload them and pick up different sticks and bring them somewhere else.

Ha-haa checking out the porta potty!  Just kidding, they don’t use it anymore.

 

They built themselves an outhouse!

I think Kylie’s face here says it all!  Ewww!!

What you really can’t see is the wet spot between Deric’s feet

The potty has seen better days (see the hole now?)  But Deric built a new potty so they shouldn’t have problems with that anymore.

 

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I thought these pictures of the girls on the swing were so sweet.  Look at them telling secrets… oh wait no their not.  Kylie is telling Reygann she needed to get off the swing because it was her turn to swing by herself now!  Never would have guessed, huh?  I do love Reyganns face in the last pict!

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Brody had fun doing boy stuff, he spend a lot of time hanging out and looking for bugs.

There was snap weeds down by the creek, the kids had fun playing with them and snapping them apart.

Deric and his dad shot a can on the other side of the creek

Kylie looked for treasures

Reygann and Brody watched

Then I took a turn shooting the can, I took a few shot and hit it every time!  Oh yeah!  I used to shoot all the time, apparently I still have a little of it!

Brody was just standing there looking at the creek, but the way he’s standing it kinda looks like he is taking a leak!

The girls were making a snap weed sand pies, yumm.

Yeah, not too thrilled about this one… this tick was on daddy, but I later found one on Reygann too!  Eek!  That was enough to keep me from wanting to go back!

Brody found this stick and kept calling it his ‘letter G’ stick!  We’ll need to work on that…

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Brody had a blast playing with the shell casings.  Actually all the kids did, but Brody played with them the longest.  He would set them up, sing happy birthday to himself, and then blow them over!  It was super cute.

Here it is, Deric’s camper sweet camper.

Yep, that’s it.

Leaving the campers behind.

 

Kylie played with her pinwheel in the car

Brody fell asleep playing with his ball

And Reygann fell asleep with her pinwheel

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The kids got a kick out of the windmill things on our way down

 

 

We passed this on our way home, Brody was sleeping and didn’t get to see it.  He would have loved it, it was HUGE.

See?  HUGE!  (That’s a pickup truck in the pict!)

We stopped at a drive in and got ice cream, yummy!!

 

I like that if you look closely you can see everyone in this pict.

It’s coming

…apple picking season that is!!  And like years past we are almost out of apples, perfectly planned again!  I made a few goodies this weekend and I have 1 bag of apples left.  Only 6 more days till we go picking, hopefully we will have amazing weather, if not I don’t know when we will get the chance to go again!

Doesn’t that pie look yummy??

Someone thought it did, and snuck into it!

Umm what’s up with that?!  Goobers! 

Reygann’s first day of school!

 

I can’t believe that my baby girl is old enough for school already!  She is so excited and has been counting down to this day.  She ate her breakfast in a flash and couldn’t wait to leave!

Showing off her new backpack.  We almost didn’t get her a backpack, and she was going to use Kylie’s toddler backpack (we were having a hard time finding a toddler one (it’s smaller than a regular one), and she would need a bigger one next year so we were just going to wait), but I found this one for $5 so we went for it!  When she saw it her eye’s lit up, she was thrilled!

 

I got Reygann a card for the first day of school she was tickled pink that she had her very own card.

Reading her card

 

Kylie offered to read it to her but she declined, and asked me to read it to her instead.

 

She wasn’t too happy with me when we got in the car because I had her sit in Brody’s seat.

  

But I had her sit in his seat so I could take a picture of her when Daddy called to wish her a ‘happy first day at school’.

Standing outside in her class line

And in the hallway…

Kylie’s locker was right across from where Reygann was standing so she came over and gave her a hug!

Haven was there (because they were dropping Harrison off) and gave her a hug too.

Putting her stuff away in her cubby.  Apparently they ran out of lockers last year, and with another 60 new students this year they had to turn this closet into a cubby room! 

Reygann and her teacher

Sitting at her desk

Of course we have to include a picture with her bestest friend Mckinley!

I can’t wait to pick her up and hear all about her day!

Kylie’s first day of school!

 

Look at her, my first grader!  I can’t believe she is so big!

 

Daddy called on our way to school to talk to the girls and to wish them a happy first day of school.

Standing in her class line on the playground.

And putting her stuff in her locker

Reygann was right across the hall from her locker so she ran over and gave her a great big hug.  She is too sweet!

Then she saw Harrison by his class and gave him a hug too (it’s his first year at the school).

Do you see her?  I was taking pictures through the window in the door and since she was right there I really couldn’t see her. 

How about now?  All you see is her hair and bow!  (She is next to the boy in blue)

Ahh, now this is something you don’t see in most schools!

What were you doing

…a year ago?  This is what I was up to. 

Wow, I can’t believe it has been a year already!