Looking at the Calendar

I looked at the calendar and realized that I am a very bad blogger as I last posted in June and now it's ALMOST JULY!

Can we say busy?

Yes we can!

This has been a very busy summer!

So Far this summer:

The kids have gone camping twice.  Jaron caught 1 fish, Janea 3 fish.  They had a great time with their grandparents and I am grateful for the time they have with them.

The Firstborn well, she is now officially a TEENAGER!  I am not old enough to have a teenager!  I can't believe how mature and awesome she is and I am looking forward to seeing how she will grow and change.

Dan and I celebrated our 14th wedding anniversary by going out for a steak dinner and seeing Monster's University without the kids.!  It's amazing how far we have come in our marriage and seeing how much better friends and partners we are as the years go by.

We spent the 4th with friends and had fun lighting off fireworks and such, Jayden isn't a huge fan of the noise though.

Jayden has moved into pullups and we are beginning the potty training process.

School starts for me the 5th but for the big kids on the 15th.  So we are gearing up for the new school year and hoping we get everything done!

It's a crazy life, but it's mine!

Fun in Forts

Call it brotherly love, call it survival mode, call it staying sane on a rainy day!  I call it fun!  The boys have been into building forts in the living room this month, and while it makes a rather large mess it's nice to see my boys playing together!  True, the 10 year old does most of the work but I think they both have fun!

They have gone from one room to 3 rooms...still working on making it just right~!

Toddler Fun

Tonight, Jayden and I played in his room and we did the following:

• Built a train set, took it apart, remade it, and then drove a car on it....bububububub...
• Climbed on the bed and spun in circles(I didn't do this but sat and watched)
• Hid 2 legos in a blanket bucket and then hid ourselves in the bucket and then covered mommy up and said peek a boo
• Cooked some imaginary food and shoved it in mommy's mouth...(still working on the concept of gentle)
• Sang Ring around the Rosie about a 100 times and got dizzy and fell down.
• Shared kisses and hugs
• Got into jammies

Now he just needs to go to bed, cuz mommy is TIRED!  Jayden is still going strong but boy, I'm tired!

Love My Little Man!

Beautiful Easter Weekend

Friday the weather was fabulous!  So we took the kids to the park and walked the track around!  It was a great day for some exercise!

 Jayden and Jaron enjoyed playing on the equipment at the park too!  Janea and Dan walked while the boys played and then we all walked together!

 Saturday we went to my parents house and dyed Easter eggs!  Jayden loved it and we had fun hanging out with my parents and sister!  

 Sunday we enjoyed a wonderful morning at church and then the family came over for Easter dinner and birthday cake as Jayden turns 2 very soon!  I didn't get pics today since I didn't have sufficient memory!  Mom took a bunch and as soon as I get them I will add them to the post!

Very thankful for a time of family fun and refreshment!

Peaceful

Bennett Spring....one of the most beautiful places I have ever been.  The kids took their annual camping trip with Grandma and Grandpa last week.  Jaron was successful in casting, hooking, and reeling in 2 fish all by himself!  First time that has ever happened!  Janea wasn't as successful but she learned how to prepare the fish for cooking this year with Grandma and they set up their own tent!

Dan and I came down on Janea's birthday(Friday) to celebrate and enjoy God's great creation.  We didn't camp but stayed in a nearby hotel with Jayden and let me tell you he thought that was so much fun!  It was good to get away even for just a night as we are weekend people this summer.

All in all a peaceful and relaxing time!

Fall Leaf Fun

Digital collage created with Smilebox

Jaron's Birthday Party

Aunt Wendy came from Omaha for the weekend!

Grandma makes the best birthday cakes and fun decorations for the table!  Love parties at Grandmas!

Jayden enjoyed the balloons!

What's more fun than sitting on your sister and a balloon to celebrate being 9!

Tell me the truth....does this do anything for my hair???

We had a party with Grandma and Grandpa to celebrate Jaron's birthday!  So much fun to be with the family and celebrate our awesome 9 year old boy!

Fall Fun

We got Cider donuts at Dunn Cider Mill!  So good!

We went downtown to see the Kaufman Center for the Performing Arts for Grandpa's Birthday!  Didn't make it inside but really enjoyed walking around Downtown!

Jayden's first trip to a pumpkin patch!  Doesn't he just look thrilled!

Mommy  what's this stuff???  I think I like it!

I love FALL!

I really do...I think it has to be my favorite season! We are enjoying getting to do fun fall activities and enjoying time as a family!  It's also a lot of fun introducing Jayden to all the fun stuff that Fall brings!

Saturday Surprise

Dan and I had a typical morning filled with Saturday stuff and getting ready for him to go to Bible Study.  I puttered around the house while he was gone and talked to my mom on the phone and trying to work up my motivation to accomplish anything when he got home.

"It's such a great day temperature wise we need to do something outside today!"  Dan says.

"Like what" says me...

"oh I don't know....Deanna Rose, Powell Gardens, the Zoo?"  says he.

"The Zoo...lets go to the zoo!"  Says me...

And so we did...and it was fun, we got rained on but that was okay and the baby didn't really sleep and that may be bad but we had some good old Family fun...just what we needed!

My kind of Saturday Surprise!

New Things

Dan joined Gamefly this week with a trial offer of half price. Wii games can be very expensive and often when you are done playing them you don't want it anymore. Gamestop buys used games but don't give you a lot of credit for them so this is a friendly option to play new games without being committed to buying them. This one came in the mail today...and so far I am the only one in the family who hasn't played...Jaron was so happy when it came in the mail today!

AWANA GRAND PRIX

Every year our church holds a Grand Prix. Basically it means the kids make racers out of wood and the we have an evening when we race the cars. It's both a humongous pain and a lot of fun at the same time. When you don't have tools and the like it's a challenge to get the cars cut out. The kids often have a different design in their heads then what you can do and it can be a really big mess. The last few years our church has been having work days where you can go and cut out the cars and they provide saws, drills and such...so we have been in car building mode for the last 2 weeks. Jaron decided he want to make a half pipe and skate park for his car. Janea was initially going to make a skateboard, but it evolved into a phone when we needed to add clay to hers to give it more weight. Then we went through the hassle of trying to reduce the weight because it was too heavy! But we were proud of the finished products!

Janea's Cell Phone...complete with numbers!
Jaron's Skate Park Half Pipe

Jaron took 2nd place for design...we are good at design...not so good at speed!

Janea took 3rd place T&T for design...she was very happy...just what she had wanted!

I help out every year and this year I was the recordkeeper and so here I am in all my pregnant glory! People kept coming up to me asking when I was due and the announcer kept making jokes and implied I was having Triplets! Dan was in charge of picture taking this year and took so many that I will have to upload more of them later!

All in all I am satisfied, more than a little relieved to be done with another years race and pleased with all the results!

34 Today

I turned 34 today at exactly 5:15 CST since I was born at exactly 3:15 PST. I'm old!

I've had a most enjoyable birthday! I got to go to church this morning! I love my church and enjoy getting to worship with my church family! Dan and I did skip Sunday School and go to breakfast which was nice!

The afternoon was spent with my parents and kiddos. They treated the 4 of us to lunch at one of my favorite local Mexican restaurants where I got to eat one of my favorite dishes...and it was SOOO good! Dan is fighting off a virus or cold or something so after lunch we dropped him off at home so he could nap...and then we went to my mom and dad's to have cake! Yellow cake with chocolate icing! YUMMY!!!!!!!!!! My parents did make me blow out 34 candles...not an easy feat for someone who is 33 weeks pregnant! But I did it!

It was nice to just sit and chat with my mom! I love my mom and its a blessing to just share and talk and hang out...she's been very busy lately and its been nice to see her!

So I have leftovers for tomorrow...some extra cake to enjoy and the privilege of being 34...hope I'm older and Wiser!

Burr Oak Woods

We spent Sunday afternoon hiking around Burr Oak Woods. Some snapshots of our hike!

..such a Beautiful Day!