stuff

It seems like this time of year I am keenly aware of how much STUFF we have.  The prospect of adding to that pile of stuff makes me somewhat ill and so I clean through the house to get rid of some STUFF (just to make room for more?)

This is the solution Miss Baby has come up with:

To keep her stuff close to her (in case her mother comes by and decides to clean out her toy box I suppose) she stuffed her stuff in her pjs.

However, having all that stuff around can make one a bit uncomfortable. It can feel a bit stifling and makes it hard to move around. 

AND you want to be able to find your phone in case you need to make a call.

I {heart} fall too

There has been some technical difficulties going on around here on my blog.  My picture storage has reached it's capacity and some previous posts lost their pictures.  (ugh) I have fixed most of them, but it takes for.everrrrrrrrrrr. 

Now I am kinda hesitant to post something new because what old pictures are going to vanish?  So this will be a bit of a trial and hopefully it will all just stay put.

Anyhoo.  I have a self proclaimed deep love of summer.  However, I must confess that each season has it's benefits and beauty.  We had a great fall.  Warm temps, only snowed once. A fantastic show of leaves (which are all picked up now... phew!)  Fall also brought great photo ops.  I took each girly girls pics over the past couple months.  To narrow down the massive amount of pics I could post I made a collage of each.  (family beware, new pics will be coming your way to grace your fridge or drawer, wherever you might keep them! ha ha)

My eldest in her double digit glory:

Then my photogenic second child, seriously this girl can take the best pictures, as long as she is in the right mood that is:

Miss J, Miss Sassy, Miss Ball of Energy in constant motion, the challenge was to catch her smile instead of chattering:

Miss Baby, my most challenging for sure in the picture taking department. She is two going on 15 much to my dismay.  I would like to keep her little forever thank you very much.

Now we speed onward toward winter.  Enjoying mild temps and no snow.  Yay!   Anticipating Christmas when the kiddos are young is so precious, no?  I love it.

Double Digits

So my eldest had her first "double digit" birthday.  A bit of a worrier by nature, she told me she was quite nervous to be turning 10.  "Never again will I be just one number."  I imagine she was mourning her childhood past?  Thinking that with two digits she was a quasi-adult?   There were even a few tears shed. 

On her big day I asked if she felt okay with it, now that she was officially 10.  She said "Huh, it really doesn't feel any different than 9."  Imagine that.

She had her ears pierced on her big day and then on the weekend she hosted a slumber party with some of her besties.   

looking a little worried... glad they do both ears at the same time!

ready to open gifts

a few handmade party details including rolo cupcakes

a couple weeks later she got to open her gifts from Grandma D

happy birthday dear girl.  even though you are in double digits you are still my little girl and i pray that all your double digit years are blessed beyond measure. here's to reaching those triple digits!

i {heart} Skype

My mom took this pic of Miss J talking to her on Skype.  As much as I struggle with the Internet being a big time waster in my life I am so grateful for things like Skype to make it just a bit easier to living far apart from much of my family. 

First Day

No need for many words today. 

Just a couple pics of the first day of school. 

I have three in school this year! Miss J is over the moon excited to be in preschool:

The eldest is in 4th and DD#2 is in 2nd grade: 

I never look forward to the first day of school, but once it rolls around and the girls have left for the day I realize that "huh, it's a bit quieter and a little easier with less of them running around and needing things."  That's kind of nice too.

I will say it again

I {heart} summer. 

It 'tis my favorite season. 

So it snowed today.  The first snow of the season.  Sigh.

My girls were beyond excited as I hauled out the appropriate gear that had to get drug to school.  Miss J started running about the house proclaiming that "we must decorate for Christmas!"  Whoa, little girl.  Let's not get too far ahead of ourselves.  This mama does not decorate for Christmas until December.  Sorry.  So at her request I drew shapes for her.  She labeled them "Christmas shapes."  Did you know a hexagon is a Christmas shape?  In Miss J's world it is apparently. 

Well on to the point of this post.  A summer recap.  It does my heart good to look back on pictures of my favorite season.  I can almost feel the warmth of the sand and sunshine on my face.  Almost.  Well okay, not really, but it sounds nice, no?

Summer highlights:

We went to the lakes a few times.  This was the first outing there and the only one I remembered our camera for.  The water was a bit chilly still as it was early June.  These two are testing it out to see if they dare swim in it.

Miss J went right for it.

The swim was short lived and building on the beach seemed a better option.

Miss J got a new sprinkler for her birthday so we tried that out.

I so wish these pictures weren't blurry!

A favorite past time:  jumping on the trampoline with the sprinkler underneath.

Chad and I went to New York City on a service project with our church youth group.  It was an amazing life changing trip.  Our group of 48 people were hosted by NYSUM (New York School of Urban Ministry).  I can't begin in a picture caption to describe it all.  Maybe someday I will write a post just on our trip.

My sister and her family took a road trip this summer.  They rented an RV and drove Route 66.  Once they reached the end they headed over to our area and spent a few days in our neck of the woods.  

Then comes our Road Trip 2012 

Another big thing this summer was we bought a summer pool pass to our local city pool.  One of the best decisions we made for sure!  This summer lovin' mama was ecstatic to take her girlies to the pool as often as she wanted and the extremely hot and dry summer was the perfect weather to enjoy it to the max. 

Chillin in the shade during break time.

The eldest and her bff.  They spent more days together at the pool then apart this summer.

Don't let this picture fool you.  She was notorious for stealing other kids' toys.  I'm pretty certain she is handing back this boy his ball after snagging it from him previously. She even would sneak off and rummage through other peoples bags looking for snacks.  (now THOSE are proud parenting moments, I tell you. ugh.)

Her regular pool attire:  swimsuit, life jacket, floaty, pool noodle. Only a monsoon could drown this girl.   

Lastly, I have to throw a couple of these in here.  My nephew is a senior in high school this year.  My sister and I took some pics of him before school started, hoping for some good ones he could use as part of his senior pictures.  I think we got some!

My eldest, the night before school started, declared this "the best summer ever."  I have to say I agree it was pretty awesome and like her, was sad to see it go.  Fall has been pretty nice too though.  Here's to hoping we have a wonderful winter as well.  If not, that's okay,  God is faithful and carries us to the next season.  Summer will come again.

winner winner chicken dinner

her prize was *much* better than a chicken dinner (in her opinion!)

 

the story:

this girl has struggled with reading.  the library summer reading program has been a fantastic incentive for her to pick up a book rather than stare at a screen.  at the beginning of the summer she set a goal for herself to fill up three tracking sheets.  she surpassed her goal and filled 3 and a half of them.  (woot!)   this gave her 7 entries for the big prizes being offered.  she put all her entries into the prize she wanted most:  a brand new American Girl doll, the "Girl of the Year" Makenna.    

now her next younger sister was also signed up for the reading program.  she reads fine but has declared reading is "just not her thing."  it was a battle all summer to get her to read and even when she did she often forgot to fill out her tracking sheet.  apparently a little less driven then her sister when it comes to prizes, ha ha.   she managed to squeak out a little over half of one sheet. 

part of the reading program also earned them "book bucks" to spend for small prizes and at the carnival being held the day after we left on our road trip.  the girls were a bit miffed that they would be missing the carnival but the library allowed them to spend 20 book bucks (the eldest had earned the max of 50 and her younger sis had earned just over 20) on some prizes before we left on vacation.  so despite the vast difference in how much time each had spent on reading they had the same amount of prizes. 

well fast forward to our road trip.  while speeding down I-90 somewhere in the midst of Montana the carnival was taking place in our home town.  we received a text from a super sweetheart librarian who also happens to be a fantastic babysitter dearly loved by all of us letting us know that our eldest had won the American Girl!  YAAAYYYY! this mama was so excited for her daughter and to see the look on her face was priceless.  she spent a lot of time on vacation studying the American Girl catalog to see what else she could save her pennies for to go with her new doll.  she had to wait over 2 weeks before we would be back in town and she could pick her up. (a bit torturous for her)  as soon as the library opened the monday we were back my eldest zipped on over there to claim her prize. 

congrats girly, you are my star reader. 

and dare i say, all that reading this summer has actually instilled some habits of reading into her and she actually seems to be enjoying books?!?  thank you, thank you, thank you reading program!

Homeward bound

the last vacation post.

the trip home. 

we left in the evening again after dinner so we could go through the night. 

all ready to hit the road

with the traveling gnome (one of these trips he is going to actually travel in the van, along with the green man -inside joke between my sisters)



wishing Grandma D could have traveled in our van too.

saying good bye makes us a bit crazy

the trip went super smoothly again.  the girls loved going through Seattle at night (as did the parents, such a beautiful city!)  we drove straight through until mid afternoon the next day when we stopped in Buffalo, Wyoming.  Buffalo boasts an amazing and huge city park and free pool.  while we did not utilize the pool we did hang out in the park while waiting for our cabin to be ready. 

there was this cool tire swing thingy

which they all loved

talking on the phone to Grandma D, she misses her.  A LOT.

no fear in this one

so the cabin we stayed at was "interesting" to say the least. nothing like our KOA experience.  the girls thought it was pretty cool.  the parents were less than impressed.  i will refrain from naming the place cause maybe i was just over-tired and a smidge cranky.  the important thing is that it functioned for us as a place to rest our heads and that is what we needed.  i just wouldn't recommend it as a "vacation destination" as i would the Missoula KOA.

anyhoo, moving on.

the next day we promised a trip past Mt Rushmore.  we figured our lunch stop would be there and we could eat our packed picnic lunch nearby and view it from the road. 

wrong.

this was our view:

yep.  we are the lame-o cheapy parents who didn't want to pay the money to go in the parking lot to get the full view since we would be staying only for a quick bite to eat.  we did drive by it three times hoping to find a place to park along the road with a better view. that state of South Dakota is rather smart though and has almost all of it blocked off by cones and the places that could maybe work were filled up with Sturgis attendees on motorcycles.  we managed to get a few pics from our moving vehicle.  nice, right?

i promise someday we will allow our kids the experience of actually going in and seeing the whole thing up close.  this particular day was just not that day.

onward through South Dakota we drove, amongst many motorcycles and RV's hauling motorcycles.  that certainly makes the drive across what could be a very boring state much more entertaining. 

and then

home sweet home.  the last pic of vacation:

time of arrival

can't wait for Road Trip 2014!

I {heart} Swummer time

If you watch Phineas and Ferb then the title of this post will make sense to you. 

If you do not watch Phineas and Ferb (a.k.a. the funniest cartoon on tv right now and possibly ever) I will explain:  in one episode the brother duo decide their "to do" for the day involves winter activities but in the fabulous warmth of summertime... behold, Swummer.  Now go watch the show. 

On a gorgeous sunny warm Sunday afternoon we headed up to the mountain with the fam.  (a real mountain that stays snow capped all year long... everything else is a "hill" in my book)

The highest point one can drive to is called Artist Point and that area does not open each year, depending on snow fall and melt.  This year it had just been opened that week we went up after three years of not being open.  (yay!)

WARNING:  reeeeeaalllyy heavy on the pictures on this post. 

proceed:

miss baby had a hard time at first walking on the snow

 

but she caught on quickly and was loving the snow (i do believe she may have thrown the first snowball)

this is what i get when i tell her to smile for a picture. niiice.

secretly she is not loving swummer and sort of stays off to the side and away from the upcoming snowball fight

 

this girl loved swummer. and fully embraced it.

 

straight to the top

 

so i asked my sister to take our picture and she is "snapping away"  later i look to see if the 10+ pictures she took were any good and this is the ONE and only picture she actually took.  thanks so much yvonne.  ha ha.  (and again, Chad with his inability to smile normal)

 

 

cousins and Grandma D

"INCOMING!"  (that would be a snowball flying in overhead while we are forcing them to sit there nice for a picture... yeah, that's what kind of parents we are)

 

snowball fight... i tried to use my camera as a defense, my sister is not buying it.

 

picnic lunch

sledding! my eldest is finally getting a little more accustomed to swummer

 

double trouble

this girl didn't even bother with the sled.

 

breathtaking views that move your soul

i love my family.

oh yes i do.