Style

I love my daughter...

This is what she chose to school today, and correct me if I'm wrong (or don't cuz' I don't really want to know) but I think she looks adorable. And she absolutely does not care what everyone else thinks about her wearing it. She has her own style goin' on.

And yes, those are her brother's old clothes she has chosen to lay claim to (in case you didn't already have that part figured out), but the hat with the pink band was her girly way of accessorizing :)

And yes again, it was that cool out that she could wear long sleeves and pants and not get too hot. However, tomorrow it's supposed to be like 98 degrees!

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday Beautiful Girl!

I can't believe you are seven already. Time just keeps on flyin' by. You are so special to your Dad and I. We love you more with each passing day. You are so full of life and have the ability to bring a smile to the faces around you, even complete strangers. It is our prayer for you that you will never be afraid to be yourself, because in being yourself you have taught us all so much about life, and loving others.

Wishing you happiness, joy and so much more on your special day!

Love,

Mom and Dad

First Day of School

It's official... They are now in the second and third grades:

Nice cheesy smile Bethany, thanks.

They had this grand idea to stand back to back. I couldn't convince them it really doesn't work with their backpacks on.

There we go, perfect!

Standing in front of the classroom door...

and inside,

sitting at their desks.

All in all Elisha and Bethany reported that it was a great first day of school.

If Only...

If only I were a computer genius, I wouldn't have been minus one computer for a week and a half.

If only I would have realized just how much I was going to lose off of my computer and backed up my screen saver pictures too. Now I have to go through all my pictures again to have them just as organized as before. *SIGH*

If only my husband realized that when I giggle at him and how he talks with his wisdom teeth problems that I am not laughing but with him *wink, wink*.

If only he also realized how big my smile was this morning as he stumbled through the house after getting all four wisdom teeth removed and that that smile was a sign of just how much he was loved.

If only my kids would stop growing so quickly.

If only I wouldn't stumble about in my Christian walk and wonder if I'm really where I'm supposed to be. But I guess the moment I finally "arrive" at that fact I'll probably be dead and none of it will matter anymore.

If only I could put a cap on my mouth when talking to my children and really think about the things I want to say before allowing them to come out.

If only...

A Note

Just so everyone knows, I have not fallen off of the face of the earth. Our computer has been through one issue after another and we should hopefully be getting it back soon. I will be back to posting and checking out your blogs as soon as this happens. Sorry for being MIA!

Thank You Very Much

To my computer,

I am growing tired of the love/hate relationship we have right now. You know what I mean, I love it when you work and I hate it when you don't. Can you please get it together so this problem does not persist?

When you return from visiting "the doctor" I expect you to behave yourself again. Are we clear?

Thank you.

* * * * *

Dear Dakota,

You are a big dog. I cannot let you loose to play in the yard if you keep insisting on trampling through Bethany's flowers. Go around! She's getting frustrated by it and I don't really want to hear her cry.

Thank you.

Whew! Now I feel better. For more free therapy just pop on over to Kmama's, she'd love for you to join in!

Project 365 (#147 - #153)

Sunday ~ #147/365

Elisha's sunflower we planted back in May has finally bloomed!
On a side note, I have no idea why in all my flower pictures I fail to remove the hose :)

Monday ~ #148/365

Staff pictures for the school handbook. Lucky me.

Tuesday ~ #149/365

Elisha wishes it was warm enough to be doing more of this.

Wednesday ~ #150/365

On one of our warmer evenings I had two little helpers wash the car with me. This picture does not really show just how soaking wet they got.

Thursday ~ #151/365

Rite Aid carries milk?! Will they carry up to the check out for me and everything?
(Stupid joke I know, but I couldn't resist :0)

Friday ~ #152/365

I have just been tearing through books this last month. This is the latest one I am reading (or shall I say have finished because as of this afternoon I am done).

Saturday ~ #153/365

The kids earned free Six Flags tickets during the school year in a program called Read to Succeed. Since Six Flags Discovery Kingdom is nearby, guess where we were on Saturday? This is a picture of Nalin, one of the two year old tigers diving for a scrap of meat. It was a lot of fun watching these guys.

Whew! I'm getting this post up late again this week. My computer at home is having problems once again, and so I had to do this post elsewhere. Thanks Sara for hosting this project, I look forward to it each week!

Thank You Very Much

To the weather in California,

Do you not realize it's August! While I do enjoy the sunshine, the fact that it is only 67 degrees outside right now is a little disheartening. We want to go to Discovery Kingdom on Saturday and ride the wet rides. Can you warm up just a tad?

Thank you very much!

Visit KMama for more free therapy :)

Oregon Vacation - Day 5 Part 1

Day 5 of our vacation looked like this:

Cloudy, overcast and cold! It was probably in the 50's and this is in July! Because of the colder weather the kids could not play on this:

It's a water slide, a very fun water slide they look forward to each year. But such is life sometimes, right? So instead they did a lot of this:

While their daddy did a lot of this:


Talking and visiting with Uncle Ray. I don't know if you remember from my 365 post, but Yohn's brother Ray is blind and autistic. He lives in a group home in a little country town about 45 minutes from my parents house. There's not much for them to do in the house and it needs to be quiet inside for the other people who live there so we spend most of our time visiting outdoors.

Look an actual picture of me! Yep, I finally decided to hand over the camera for once :)

Because of the wind the kids decided to play in the playhouse...

...pretending to work at McDonald's and serving Daddy and Uncle Ray whatever their hearts desires. When that grew old they came back out and did a lot of jumping on this:

Until it started to rain. I don't know if you can see it but if you look carefully there are raindrops on my lens in a few of those pictures.

We took a few moments to get some family pictures...

...and then the kids wanted to go play McDonald's again in the playhouse because it really started raining on us.

This time all five of us crammed into that little tiny house and enjoyed playing and laughing together.

After a while it was time to go and we bid Uncle Ray farewell with a hug and promises to come and see him again next year. Maybe this year we'll even get a letter or two sent his way.

Then we headed to see another member of the family, but since this post is already so long (and picture overloaded) I'll leave that post for another day!

Project 365 (#140 - #146)

Sunday ~ #140/365

Packing again for yet another week (well, four days) away from home. This time our trip includes a tent and some sleeping bags.

Monday ~ #141/365

And we're off to Kid's Camp for a few days. This is Elisha and Harmony's first year (Harmony is our "niece" the daughter of close friends to our family). Bethany is still too young and stayed with her grandmother. Next year though, she gets to join in on the fun!

Tuesday ~ #142/365


Elisha and Harmony in front of Whiskey Reservoir. We spent the next few days a little further down the road from this shot swimming and enjoying the outdoors.

Wednesday ~ #143/365

Chef Yon is a favorite guest at Kids Camp every year. Normally he doesn't dress this way. Nope usually he looks like this:

But if you wanna find out why he was in rain jacket and a baseball cap this year, pop on over to Yohn's blog and watch the video. It's pretty funny, we were laughing so hard during the whole skit. Do me a favor though, if you do pop over and watch the video, leave Yohn a comment and let him know what you think :)

Thursday ~ #144/365

A view of the campers, teen helpers and adults that made Kid's Camp a success. We really had a great group of kids this year. No drama fighting or anything like in years past.

Friday ~ #145/365

Back home again and of course, there's plenty of laundry to do again!

Saturday ~ #146/365

Bethany can officially ride a two wheeler! Can you tell how excited she is about this fact?

That's it for my week, next week back to work as usual :( Hop on over to Sara's blog for more 365 participants.