Lots Going On!

I hate it when I don't keep up with blogging because when I finally do its such a huge job! (Too overwhelming and its hard to keep pictures organized.) The pictures are a little out of order but o-well here we go. I will persevere in the name of family history!

RANDOM SHOTS

These two are pretty cute together. I love how he has his arm around her. The boys for the most part are really good to her.


These babies came straight from my garden in one picking! I went overboard with tomatoes this year and feel a little successful with them. I was (and still am) able to go out everyday and get a handful of these. I had some problems with the big ones splitting but that's about all.


Mo and me getting ready to go to Uncle TJ's house to play.


Carson and I looking at each other very lovingly. Carson is a good boy he is going to make some girl one day very happy.


Here is the little man on his first day of preschool. He was, and still is, pretty excited about school. We got him into a cute little place really close to the house. I am excited about all the fun things he will be doing.


Here he is outside of Miss. Reine's house.


This is his little class and teacher coming out so we can pick him up.


This is a very beautiful thing going on in this picture. We have had 5 chickens and 1 rooster roaming around our backyard for awhile now. Can I just say crap was everywhere! They roosted on our porch so when we came out there would be all this poop right where we needed to walk. Well, Michael heard my crys and came to the rescue. Brandon and Mike are working on our new (huge) chicken coop...its almost done!

My baby girl turned two on Sunday! Is she not the sweetest thing? She is a joy to have in our home! We would not be complete with out her.


We have three horses now. One is ours and two we board. This is Bradon's 4 year old horse. He is always so sweet to the kids and takes them on rides.

For Mike growing up a city boy he has sure adjusted to living in the country for the years. He loves his horse and enjoys riding. It makes me happy to see him so happy!

This is Lily. This is the female horse that has caused a lot of drama between all the horses. I never realized how much personality horses have. She is concerned in this picture cuz Mike is taking her boyfriend away. The whole time he rides Yancy she will sit and cry after him. It is fascinating to watch.

Little Morgan walking all the way out to the corral in the back. She is a little trooper.

Here is Morgan's first day of school. I have decided to have one on one teaching time with her the days Carson goes to preschool. I can tell already she is going to excell just like the other boys. She likes to work on her alaphbet already!

So here is my new hair do. I totally went drastic. Mike and I had our 8th anniversay a few weeks back so I thought it would be fun to send him on a treasure hunt and at the end when he saw me I would be totally different. (I wanted to spice things up a bit.) Well, I got the reaction I wanted... he was totally surprised. Gone are the days of putting so much time into how I look. Granted I think I look better blonde but #1 my hair grows out dark too fast #2 I don't want to have to fork over the doe to keep up with it and #3 when its longer I have to put so much time and effort into it.

Here is Morgan playing with one of her new birthday toys. (Thank you family for the b-day money we got her some good toys that she loved.)

Mike and Yancy.

Thought on 9/11

That day almost 9 years ago definitely changed me. I was 22 at the time. I was going to college and new in the gospel...life was really good. My roommate, Liz, called me that morning and woke me up and told me kind of in a panic to get up and turn on the TV. I did what she asked because her tone was different. What I saw on the news was that the first plane had hit and just minutes into watching I watched as the second plane hit. As I type this I feel the shock and sorrow of the day.

I thought, what is going on? Two planes crashing into the same building... this is not an accident. For some reason the realization that there was people out there that would kill themselves in order to kill and hurt others really grieved me.

For the next week (at least!) I was glued to the TV. I couldn't get enough of what was being said and what new information that kept coming in. I was totally obsessed.

Now nine years later I still get sad over the evil, crazies out there but more than focus on the evil in human nature I like to reflect on how people came together. All the people from all over the country that came to volunteer was amazing, all the patriotic e-mails that I got inundated with that made me feel good, all the news stories that told of brave men and women doing heroic things to help one another survive the attack. This is the side of human nature that I like to linger on.

Its my belief that there are more good, decent, human beings out there than we think. Its also my belief that this is God's promised land and that if we remember Him and remember our neighbors in times of need we will all be okay...no matter what happens!

Where To Begin?

Parent's Visit
Mom & Randy came and visited with us for a few hours one day. We love having them come and visit. Now that we are closer their plan is to come and visit then leave, no more overnighter's which we will miss, but we are closer so we'll not complain. The boys love rough housing with Grandpa! They are always ready for mortal combat when he comes to play. And with Grandma its coloring time and showing off all the new things they have learned.




Shana & John Visit
I am so bummed! My computer crashed on me (that has never happened before) and I lost the pictures of Shana's visit. She is my 1st cousin. We were really close when we were younger. I spent a lot of time at her house growing up there for awhile. We would always think of fun things to do and always cry when it was time for me to go. To make us feel better my Aunt Kathleen would give us some Coke to drink before she took me home. Great memories so it was Wonderful to have her and her wonderful husband visit us here. They came twice and it was a blast. We hope to see them a lot more now. Hopefully, when they come again they will have fine tuned their skills in bowling so we won't have to school them again. And maybe the boys will go camping again and me and Shana can have a workout/cry-fest like last time. (I promise this next time I won't cry through the whole movie!)


Date With Cole
To get Cole ready for school I thought it would be fun to make a special day out of it. We went into town and got his school uniform and then went to Red Robin and pigged out! Cole is now in first grade!! I can't believe it. I will save how I feel all about that in his first day of school post.

The last week in pictures

Carson managed to get himself stuck in this tinker toy container.



Morgan came to the rescue.

The boys have loved just turning the hose on and having a slip-n-slide fest in the mud. Its cute to watch them but I don't care for the cleaning them up part.


Who ever has told us that chickens do not have personality I could not disagree with them more! These little creatures are really cute and fun to have around and watch. One followed Mike around yesterday out back. And I love seeing them eat the bugs in our backyard.


The goats in the backyard roaming free. When we are working back there Mike lets them out so they can eat down our weeds. Its cute to watch them but you really have to watch them. They will so quickly wander over to the garden or my trees and start nibbling!

Food For Thought

"The danger to America is not Barack Obama but a citizenry capable of entrusting a man like him with the Presidency. It will be far easier to limit and undo the follies of an Obama presidency than to restore the necessary common sense and good judgment to a depraved electorate willing to have such a man for their president. The problem is much deeper and far more serious than Mr. Obama, who is a mere symptom of what ails America. Blaming the prince of the fools should not blind anyone to the vast confederacy of fools that made him their prince. The Republic can survive a Barack Obama, who is, after all, merely a fool. It is less likely to survive a multitude of fools such as those who made him their president."

Are we in trouble?

Chicks

Mike brought home six baby chicks yesterday and the kids were getting familiar with them. Only Morgan was brave enough to hold one though.

They are really cute. True, we know nothing about them so its time to start reading. We are hoping by next year we will be having our own eggs! We shall see.

Holy Shiner

Cole in one of his hyper rants last night tripped and hit his head right on a railroad tie in the backyard! It made a horrific thud sound! It is very difficult to remain calm and not want to panic when things like this happen. I am so thankful that Micheal was there to take care of it. His little eyebrow swelled up like I have never seen before and he got a cut right by his eye.

After Mike got him washed off and the wound cleaned and bandaged he took him to urgent care just in case. (Minds well use that route while we still can.) The Dr. said he was fine nothing was damaged.

Wow but look at his shiner today! Poor little guy.