More Updates

This is Sam's favorite chair. It's a bean bag chair that she sits in to watch Mickey Mouse and drink her milk every morning. It's her routine, and it's so funny!

On this day, she decided to play with the antenna headband that goes with her Halloween costume. She kept it on for quite a while.

This was superhero day at school.

Kathleen playing with her camera.

Makala playing with her camera. This is her friend, Katie.
They were on a bus to somewhere.

This is Makala with Samantha and Colton. Samantha and Colton have been betrothed since birth. It's all been worked out already.
We've decided it's much easier that way.

Long Time, No Write

Okay, so I finally got around to moving the pictures from my phone onto the computer. So here they are, in no particular order. Above, Sam, in her favorite bean bag chair watching her favorite show (Mickey Mouse) with her favorite blanket.

Joseph and Joshua with a bomb robot at our new fire station's open house.

Sam eating her snack in a laundry basket. Couldn't keep her contained any other way!

Sam discovered the plastic cabinet.

Makala and two of her friends at a band concert last year.

Sam discovered riding in a wagon.

Sam discovered Sadie's crate. (Sam is into discovering things.)

This has been a big year so far for Makala. First, she auditioned and made the all-district musical, "Seussical, Jr.," then she auditioned and made the All-Region Honor Choir, then she auditioned and made the All-District Honor Band. So last week we had:play performance Thursday and Friday night, Choir concert Saturday night, play performance Sunday afternoon, and Band concert Mon. night. She took Tuesday off of school for a much-needed mental health and sleep day! Above is Makala and her friend Katie after the band concert.

These are all the kids from her school that made the Honor Band.

The Band concert with their guest clinician. They spent all day at a nearby high school rehearsing for the concert that night.

Makala at her school's choir concert where she was recognized with all those who made the Honor choir.

Samantha was an adorable little ladybug for Halloween and Makala was an adorable spider witch. (sorry Makala, I know adorable isn't what you were going for, but you were.)

So sweet!

This is from when Makala and the band played at the High School football game.

The boys got to sit in a helicopter at the fire station open house.
More updates to come.......

Wild, WILD West

The boys got to spend 4 days, (not nights, dang it) at Cub Scout Camp in June. I went with them the first day. Their very first activity was a shootout at the OK Corral. Here is their whole group for the week. Some of the boys are in our pack and some were from another pack. They were all the same age, though.
They're getting their instructions. Don't they look excited?

Soaking wet and ready for anything.

Decorating flags for the walking stick.

Hitting the water slide.

(Joe in the hat)
Making their Indian-excuse me-Native American vests, with some help from Dorian Cook. He's a red shirt, helping out.

(Josh)

The boys had a great week, with archery, BB shooting, making rubber band shooters, (wonder who came up with that one?), and lots more fun stuff. This was their last year to go as cubs. Next year, they will go as red shirts and help out like Dorian.
My how they've grown!!

Sorry, Mom!

Sam and Jackson

Enough of this crawling stuff, my knees hurt.

Okay, Mom, before you say it, Yes, these pictures are all of Samantha. I took them pretty much all at the same time and the other kids were all long gone. (You can catch a couple of them in the background if you look carefully for camo swim trunks.) They never came back...really...except to forage for food. And once I put the camera away, that's all she wrote. Not enough memory cells left to remember to pull it out again.

But I still had to post this because this was the day she really decided to start walking. Because the deck surface was rough, so she figured out pretty quick that it didn't hurt her feet as much as her knees. After that day at the pool, she was off and running...Literally.

My friend Jami and I took my kids, her kids, my cousin's kids and a couple of another friend's kids to this awesome water park in Valley Ranch. Yes, Jami and I and TWELVE kids. And you were wondering why my brain cells were diminishing. I have to say though, the kids were FABULOUS. Not a single problem, no one drowned, we took lots of food, and they ate it...all of it.

It was a great day.

WOW!

My first harvest!

I can't believe it's been 2 months since I last posted! I feel like a failure as a mom! Not really, just awfully busy. Then you think, "I need to update the blog, but there's so much to update, it would take forever, so I'll do it later." Then it just keeps adding up! Well, a little at a time, then. First of all, for Mother's Day I got just what I wanted. A garden! Some friends of ours do the square foot gardening, and one couple gave us a frame that they had made but weren't going to use. So I spent Mother's Day afternoon filling it up and planting my stuff! I was so excited to see my abundant harvest. Fast forward a couple of months. My corn never got over 2 feet tall and never produced, my squash all dried up and blew away, my tomatoes didn't grow, my peppers produced, although I think I must have mistakenly bought the miniature variety, because each one was only about a mouthful. My okra plants went nuts and I got to try my hand at home grown fried okra. Not too bad. I did get a few cucumbers and a couple of banana peppers. All in all, not too bad for my first attempt. And much to Tony's chagrin, I will keep trying!