More fun with Grandma...

Wednesday night after everyone left, Mom and I stayed up and waited for Dad to get home.  Both the dogs were exhausted!  Can you find Chloe?

The next morning we got the play-dough out...nothing beats the smell and feel of fresh play-dough!

My little dude :)

Madalyn's one of many faces...

Mom's almost perfect ball!

#2

Getting close!

#3

#4

Mom turned her almost perfect ball into a soccer/golf ball ;)

While we were busy play with our play dough, Molly snuck on the couch...LOL  She doesn't look like she is sorry about it! ;)

We had so much fun on our little vacation....the only thing that would have made it better would have been if Doug could have joined us!  Next time ;)

Spending time with family!

It had been over a year since we had seen Caleb, Cristale, Casen and Arya!  Time really flies :)  I couldn't believe how much the kids had grown and changed!  When we first got there we spent most of the time outside.  Mom and Dad have a baby swing and a horse swing that hang from one of their big pines out back.  So a good share of the afternoon was spent switching the swings out from one to the other so a different kid could ride.  We also spent a good share of time playing kickball!  The three oldest especially got alot out of that.  Casen was so funny playing and really got into it.  By the time we were done playing, Grandma and Aunt Sarah/Mom were beyond beat!  It was pretty warm out so we headed inside to cool down with some snacks and drinks.  We ended up just staying in and the kids split to go do their own thing.  

Arya wanted to color...I can't get over how big she is and how much she talks!  

So sweet!  She looks so much like her Mama.

:)

LOL

These three were all over the house and played so well together!  The girls are really going to miss Casen!

Grandma and Grandpa had makings for Sundaes and the kids enjoyed making their own creations!

Arya was so funny with these balls...she found a bag full of them downstairs and she had so much fun playing by herself with them.

They Grandma joined in...with the help of "Gumby" who had to place the balls where Arya said to....so cute!

Love the look!

And this one too :)

The older three had gotten pretty quiet and I went downstairs to find these two on the phone with Marissa...I love them!

So thankful for the time we had to spend with them!

I'm back!

Tuesday late afternoon, the girls and I, (all 4 of them) headed up to spend some time with my parents.  It's been a little while since we have seen them, almost a month so it was really great to see them again and spend some time relaxing away from home and all that needs to be done here.  Wednesday afternoon, Caleb and Cristale and the kids stopped into Mom and Dad's for a while and we got to spend some time with them.  The kids had a BLAST together!  They have both grown so much!  We taught Casen how to play kickball and I think that was the kids' highlight of their afternoon!  I got back last night about an hour before Doug got home! :)  We snuck in a bike ride, got the floor grouted, and mowed the lawn.  This morning I got up, finished up the bathroom and I need to string trim the yard, fill in a hole in the back yard, and RELAX tonight with my husband!  The bathroom is all set until Sunday night when it needs to be sealed.  Unless Doug gets home during the week this coming week, it is official that by Friday evening or Saturday we will have 2 completed bathrooms again!!!  I'm beyond excited and I can NOT wait to be done with projects for a little while!  

Youth Group

This month we had an awesome meeting.  We met an hour early so we could clean the church.  Once we finished cleaning, eating, and having our devotion, we cleared the basement and played "Who can blow up the most balloons the fastest?"!  It doesn't look like it, but they blew up over 100.  

Then they chose teams...

Goofing around ;)

After a good countdown, we set them loose to play the human version of Hungry Hungry Hippos!!!

Afterwards, we headed outside to play a version of Capture the flag with the balloons.  9pm came really fast, but before we left, we had to "dispose" of the balloons...

I wonder if from now on Preacher will lock his truck when he isn't home on a night that we have Youth Group ;)

Poor Daniel didn't fare well on his first night at youth group!

We had a blast!  Looking forward to our next outing in July!

FINALLY!!!

We finally have all the tile laid!  I'm so grateful to be on the home stretch of this project.  It really hasn't been a bad project, but we are always on the run and its tough to fit in the time to get it done when we only have weekends and those are full!

Once this dries, we grout and a couple days after that it all gets put back together!  I can't wait!!!

Allergies

Poor Madalyn has been having a rough go of it here lately.  She has been taking the off brand of Zyrtec for a while now and it definitely helps, but doesn't do enough.

One of my good friends, and a cousin to Doug by marriage, recommended adding Flonase into Madalyn's treatment.  For the past two weeks has been spending a good share of the time wheezing.  I was getting close to just saying forget it, we need to go see an allergist and get put on shots.  Before I made that step I thought, it can't hurt, lets give Flonase a try.  So last night when we stopped into Walmart to get some supplies for youth group, we picked some up.  

The directions for it said that some people notice a change right after the first dose...and thank the Lord that was Madalyn!  She spent the even rolling down a hill with the other kids and she was a mess by the time we got home.  After taking this, she slept all night for the first time in a couple weeks with NO WHEEZING!  I'm so happy!  It was easy for her to take and she now loves it.  Thank you Cor for the recommendation!

                     

Homeschoolers

As a homeschooling family, we catch quite a bit of grief from the outside world.  Of course everyone always has an opinion on everything.   I'm super blessed where I live though because we have an amazing homeschool group.   Our group is actually pretty big, but the ones that show up every month for our mom's night out are  very encouraging to me.  The best part is that group is always growing!   I love it!   The girls have friends that they look forward to seeing and I enjoy some quality time with other adults ;) 

Days like today...

We are loving our free days!   The girls have their Lego city going in the playroom, I'm babysitting, and we are just enjoying the day!   I'm very grateful for my girls and the relationship they have with each other.   :)

Then and now...

Remember at Christmas when Molly got this toy?

It has been one of the best toys we have ever bought her...she LOVES it and plays with it every day.  Sadly, this is what the condition of it is today...

Chloe looks responsible, but rest assured she had NOTHING to do with it's destruction! ;)  

I guess its time to order another one...if we got 6 months out of the last one, the next one I buy should get us to Christmas again!

Our garden this year...

This is our garden this year...

SUPER happy with our rhubarb plant.  This is the third plant that we have planted and this one we put in last summer and it has gone to town!  The girls are super excited to say the least!

This year we have one row of potatoes, 3 rows of carrots, 1 row of radishes, 6 heads of red lettuce, 2 original tomato plants (added another one in since the 1st two froze and may be slower growing), 6 green pepper plants and 6 plants of a pepper strain that I can't remember ;), 6 broccoli  and 6 cauliflower plants, 1 set of onions (there are either 50 or 100 although over 3/4 of ours don't look like they are going to make it), 2 rows of corn, 3 cucumber plants, 3 zucchini plants, and 3 buttercup squash plants.  I think that covers it.  We are already enjoying our lettuce and we have a pretty decent sized tomato on our original tomato plant that went through our freeze.  It's growing so we are hopeful that it pulls through.  It was a lot of work planting early with the covering and uncovering, worrying and all.  In the end it probably wasn't worth it, but if we get stuff earlier this year that would be awesome!

Our "froze" tomato plant sporting our first tomato.

This plant froze too, but it has all new growth underneath, so we left it.  We did buy another new one though just in case.

We transplanted these bushes from Brian and Jen's last spring I think....they are Doug's babies and they are doing phenomenal this year!

They are loaded!

Our Lilac "fence" we are working on ;)  The biggest two plants were transplants from Jen that went in YEARS ago!  They were mowed over more times than I care to count until I finally stuck tomato cages around them to protect them.  This year they are almost as tall as I am, have really bushed out and there is new growth shooting up all over.  The other two plants were put in last spring and the middle one even flowered this year.  First flowers ever for us!

I'm very thankful that God has given us the ability to grow our own food.