Stream

A while back My sister Joanne came to town (to take care of me after Benson was born), and we decided to go let the kids play in a cute little stream that is nearby. Nickole and her kids, Judy and her kids, Joanne and two of her kids, and me with my kids.

It was the perfect arrangement. The kids had the stream to play in, and the water was only 3-5 inches deep, so we didn't have to worry about the younger ones much. The Moms got to sit on the blankets in the shade and catch up on talk while passing around the new baby for everyone to get a turn. It was blissful.

Here are a few pictures of the kids playing in the mud, building a damn, splashing, and such funness.

Meridales with Grandma Anna

I have the most spunky, classy, fun 90 year old grandma in the world. I could go on and on, and on, and on about how wonderful she is, and how much I love her. She has her guy friends that are constantly calling her trying to spend time in her delightful presence, and sometimes we get to benefit from her friendships. One of her friends owns an old dance hall that is being restored called "Maridales", and he invited Grandma to come see what they had done to the property and building. She invite me, and my sister Judy and our kids to come with her.

Can I just say Magical! The place was magical, and charming, and made me feel as if I had traveled back in time 50 years. I loved everything about it from the Rooster that followed us around, to the fish pond (void of any fish do to her unnamed friend over feeding and killing them all), to the duck pond with is mama duck gingerly swimming around, to the little red honey Moon cottage with the personalized hand soaps and mini fridge full of coke bottles and goodies, and the beautiful dance hall that was being renovated as we walked around. The Apple orchard filled the crisp fall air with it's sweet inviting fragrance, while the mature oak trees extended far above heat as if trying to reach heaven.








It's moments like that I feel Moms calm loving presence, and I know she is enjoying our casual outings by our sides. It seems at times that Heaven isn't so far away, and neither is she.

cat lady

I left layla on the potty to do her business. while I was gone she took the pen from her potty chart and drew whiskers on her face. This is the happy little kitty face I came back to find.


What would I do without my Layla to keep things light and playful around here?

end of summer olympics party

At the beginning of summer the kids and I made A summer calendar. We carefully planned all the activities we wanted to do. Here is an idea of what we had:
Garden Day, treasure hunt, camping, car wash, kite day, pajama day, water day, visit Dinosaur park, camp out in back yard day, Art sale, picture treasure hunt, fishing, American idle with the video camera, rock collecting hike, flower collecting hike, scavenger hunt, float the river, swimming, cupcake day (I liked that one), Theme picnic, go to the drive in (I didn't know it closed 4 years ago. opps), Talent show with friends, Project runway home style, and last but not least summer Olympics party.
We filled the days in-between those days with: Craft day, chef Day (the kids got to do the cooking), Make a fort day, game day, symphony at the part, visit farmers market, cousin day, cleaning day (not their fav), and stuff like that.
Every day the kids would look at the calendar we made and ask me what we were doing that day, they loved it. Some things didn't work out on the designated day, so we just switched things up when we had to. Our Olympic party kept getting pushed back, but we finally got it in at the very last weekend of the summer. feeeewwwww

new family pics

We have this friend named Nema that is an amazingly talented photographer. She is the one that took Bensons baby pictures, and the swim suit pictures for panga swim wear. She just did our family pictures this week, and they came out so fun. I love them. It's fun to see how our family changes from year to year.

Mystery Girl

Yesterday was Craig's day off work, and he worked his cute little booty off at home. We have had these three big ugly tree stumps IN our front yard since we lived here, and this week we finally had them removed. right now we have three BIG, UGLY, tree stumps ON our front yard, which isn't an improvement at all. It will be nice when we clear them out.
After a long hard day I thought Craig deserved a nice yummy dinner. I made a super really good meal if I do say so myself, and used almost all produce from our garden. Plus, these delicious blueberry bars from scratch. Yum. As we were all at the table enjoying our food we heard a little knock at the front door. Craig went and opened the door, and in walked a tiny little girl with her teddy under her arm. We greeted her warmly, and looked at each other. "who is that?" I finally asked Craig, "I don't know" he said, "I thought you knew who it was". We all had to laugh at this mystery girl that decided she wanted to come visit our home, but where did she come from? We went outside expecting to find a worried mother calling out for her girl, but were surprised to find no one. Our street was empty. When we got outside the little girl took off running down the road, so Craig followed behind her. He thought she knew where she was going, turns out she didn't. Suddenly, there was some guy running after them from the other direction. He grabbed the girl from Craig and said "um, thanks" and disappeared back where he came from. We made sure it was her father, and it was...random.

help me choose

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We just got the disc of all Baby Benson's pictures, and we are having a REALLY hard time choosing our favorite for his announcement. Please help! vote for your favorite to help a sista out. Thanks.