Smiles

Look at these smiles! They love their Daddy. Aaron is so good about wrestling with them like every day when he gets home from work! He can make them so happy and smiley! One of their favorite things to do is ride the horse. That was my favorite also as a little girl!

Say Cheese for...

your super eager Mommy who is just dying to use her new toy! I've taken a ton of pictures lately, feeling inspire and all with my new camera. Here are a few. I really need to relax. I get so up tight trying to capture that amazing picture that it just results in miserable children, and terrible pictures. Once I stopped trying they got happy and I was able to get them to smile (their natural smile). Check out this last picture of Christian. He is so serious and grown up looking. He looks like he is trying to sort out some kind of philosophical mystery...OR...he is really tired of hearing my say "Christian, please smile. Just one more picture sweetie! Can you just smile for Mommy?! PLEASE!!!"

My New Toy

Words cannot describe how incredibly excited I am! So, here is the story behind this magnificent piece of (CLICK HERE) equipment: basically, a friend from Church GAVE IT TO ME!!!!!!!! (...well, gave it to our family, but since I take most of the pictures in this household I feel like it is my own new toy) Can you believe that??!!! I don't think he would want me to mention his name, so I will just say Mr. X. Anyways, Mr. X gave our family this camera because he got a new one that does HD video, so he just didn't need it anymore. Yay for us! THANK YOU MR. X! DID YOU SEE ALL OF THE BELLS AND WHISTLES ON THIS THING!!!! I'm going to have to study the manual and take a course to teach me what this glorious piece of machinery can do. Okay, I am now going to stop gushing about it-the kids have starting screaming for my attention...hmmm...maybe I should take a picture.

Battles

This little tiny human can really get me in a tizzy.I marvel at my children and how different their personalities are and how they are both so completely wonderful in their own way. My friend made a comment once about her son that is very strong willed. I don't remember her exact words, but it was something along the lines of trying to make sure that she directs him on the right path to keep him from ending up in jail somewhere. If you knew this Mom, then you would find that very comical to hear her say considering her husband is a Pastor of a local church and their children can like recite scriptures! This little one of mine has much of the same personality. That super strong will that can absolutely exhaust any mother and push her to her wits end! That's where I'm at. The end. In some respect I can take part of the blame because I have failed with consistent discipline. It is so draining to have to discipline him around the clock. Seriously, that's what he needs. I am also writing this to document a new beginning if it's not too late. From now on I am going to be as consistent as I can possibly be, and raise my expectations of what this little boy is truly capable of. Smart he is, but I am smarter. For those of you that see or speak with me on a daily basis, I am going to ask you to hold me accountable. Something must happen before I raise a little holy terror.

4th of July Camping Excursion

Camping at its best. Our family went camping along with my Sister-In-Law, her Husband, and their two children. We really had a lot of fun. The boys just loved every aspect of it, including bugs, dirt, rocks, peeing in the woods, swimming in the lake, sunburns, eating like a horse, camp fire, smores, sleeping in a tent (or "kite" according to Monkey), picking off ticks, looking for deer, terrorizing Alice (our dog), and of course doing all of these things with their cousins right by their side...24/7, the entire time we were there. The adults really had a nice time together too. We stayed up and played cards, and some nights the guys went off fishing. My sweet husband was bound and determined to provide a top notch fish dinner one evening. It's a good thing that Kari (his sister) and I knew better, and packed an extra meal just in case the fishing wasn't good, and it wasn't. Those poor guys only caught one singe fish that was worth keeping. Our late night card games ended up being hysterically funny! Kari, I will never forget you "Sweetening the Pot." It did rain while we were there and both of our tents leaked, our clothes out on the line drenched, and children that just couldn't resist playing in the mud and rain. I have to admit hat it was a lot of work setting up and breaking it down. I'm not sure that I would be up for it more than once a year. Oh, and I learned that you can actually cook biscuits on a grill! Who would have thought? They turned out great too! Two more things, for the baby book, Monkey caught his very first fish. A very cute little brim. Also, Tinker likes to swim all of a sudden and we could hardly keep in the shallow water. We had to get some floaties just so he wouldn't drown!

Festival

Once again, I failed to take pictures. Well, not completely. I did get just this one. What an insane event, so I am going to blame it on the massive amounts of people there, and my inability to function because I was a nervous wreck trying to keep from crashing into the back of strangers heels with Tinkers little push car. Now, to get on with the explanation-our town is really big into peaches, peach parades, peach queens, peach monuments...and this happens to be one of those peach festivities they have once a year. It includes vendors, live music, dance, food galor, and of course this big fire truck. All of which takes place in he streets of downtown. Big Poppa and Momma Beth came, with the cousins, specifically for this event. The next morning there was a parade, and naturally, I forgo my camera. Sorry guys.

Spoiled Rotton

My, my, my. So, we go to visit my parents and they have this brand new Jeep power wheels thing at their house. A gift of course, for their forever adored grandchildren. Their forever adored grandchildren really really really love this thing. Thank you, Mom and Dad, for buying this new obsession for the kids. They just can't wait to ride it again (the agreement is that it stays at their house). We had some trouble getting Monkey to slow down so that his little brother could get out. What was so funny about the whole thing is that Monkey started to make believe stuff. First time ever he pretended to go and pick up Pizza, then deliver it to one of us, in which we most certainly had to pretend to eat it right then and there. Speaking of his favorite foods; We asked him what he wanted to each for lunch one day while driving down the road, and his response was "BBQ sauce, french fries, and ice cream" -sounds good to me!

Birthday #1 and Birthday #2

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We had two Birthday Parties in the same day. Whoa, that was a chore. Both parties were a lot of fun. You can tell that my energy level was up for the first party because I took lots of pictures. The second part was just as much fun but I was totally pooped. Both were a double party as well so the pictures are probably confusing, and I am just too tired to go through and explain what is what. Oh, but I will tell you that my Monkey road his first horse. A total shocker. I was across the yard, not paying him any attention, until I look over and realize that he was mounted up and having a good 'ol time. For those of you that don't know him well, he is an incredibly cautious child. Sometimes, out of frustration, I substitute that word for a "chicken" (what a mean Mommy). I spoke with the gal that was walking the horse around, obviously her own horse and pride and joy, and she said that he was following the horse and pulling on it's tail! Once again, what a total shocker, and at the same time how was I not paying attention enough to miss all of this?

The Great Flood

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So we have had tons of rain lately, and a particularly heavy storm this delightful evening. Super Daddy had a grand idea-lets build a tent in the middle of nursery. Many quilts and dinning room chairs later we had a grand tent set up. So I thought to myself, "Self, this is a good time to really try to relay the story about Noah, his ark, the animals, God's covenant..." OR NOT! I tried, the kids could care less. Hmm, I thought I could turn it into one of those...what's it called? Ah, a teachable moment. Nope. Something about that tent had them bouncing around like wild monkeys. None the less, we had fun playing. (Maybe next time)