Sprinkler Fun

It seems that any day warmer than 60 degrees, the girls are asking me if they can use the "slippy slide", aka the slip and slide. And I always say no. 1. It's usually not warm enough. 2. I am simply too lazy to put it all together.

So last week when it actually was warm enough, I agreed to turning on the sprinklers for them to run through. Simple as turning a switch.

Each girl got her own suit on, and they decided they needed goggles, too.

It was thirty minutes of fun and laughter!

  I think it was cooler than she expected it to be.

 Maisie was the one who was the most wet at the end of their fun.

This was just a teaser of the fun things to come this summer!

AWANA

Our year of Awana has come to an end. And as much as I love helping with it, I admit I am glad to have another night at home.

Maisie and Sadie were in the same group all year. They loved it; I loved it. They always had a good time, even though sometimes they didn't want to go. And I am learning that Maisie simply has a different learning style than the other two. I hope to learn her style soon. :)

I love helping with games, and I enjoy having Brandon there, too. He missed a lot of Wednesdays this year due to work, but we managed without him. :) This was our last year with Analise. We will miss her, but we look forward to having Maisie next year. 

We had our award's ceremony last week. All three girls did a nice job on stage with singing their song. Here's Analise raising her hand because she completed her book this year.

And here is our annual Awana picture with the cousins.

I'm thankful for a program that promotes memorizing Scripture!

Lunch Outside

The girls enjoyed a nice lunch outside, but it also came with some challenges. :)

Life

No pictures for this post. I am simply going to try and remember some things that have gone on around here.

A few weeks ago it was nice enough to let the Awana kids play their games outside. I planned for the 2nd graders to play kick ball, and it was a blast! I chose to be the full time pitcher, and I felt like I was back in 5th or 6th grade. Playing kickball at recess was my favorite, and I have SO many fun memories. I had a dear teacher that went above and beyond and put together kickball teams/schedules/tournament and all sorts of fun things. I was a co-captain my 6th grade year, and we won the tournament. I digress...all that to say, Awana was fun that night.

Last week Brandon and I were able to go to the banquet for our local pregnancy center. The girls were excited to have Twin 1 stay with them, and I was excited for a night out with my man. We sat at a table with good friends and also some new friends, so I enjoyed getting to know them better. The speaker was Abby Johnson, a former "higher up" in PP. She was really good, and I loved hearing an inside perspective. And we love supporting a ministry that supports life and healing.

Two weeks ago I was on a MOPS panel. Go ahead and laugh; I did when they asked me to be on it. I wasn't too nervous, but I didn't feel qualified either.

I just finished another semester with my favorite Bible study ladies. We went through a book by Jim Cymbala on the Holy Spirit. Very good! I will miss those mornings being encouraged and held accountable.

Brandon went turkey hunting last weekend. He had a great time with his dad and brother and came home with two birds. The girls and I had a pretty good day at home. We did get to the mall for a bit to help pass time. The night before the big hunt, Brandon went and scouted for birds, and he took Analise with him. They had a fabulous time together. I gave myself a pedicure after the girls were in bed. Felt good but not quite like having someone else doing it for you. :)

A couple of weeks ago I had a girl's movie night with my MIL and two SIL. We watched "Incredibly Loud and Extremely Close." I thought it was very good, moving, funny and heavy.

When I walked into the backyard this week at 10:30 to let Caramel out, I saw a big orange glow in the sky. I began to wonder if I was seeing things. I quickly hollered for Brandon to come look, and he caught the end of it. He informed me it was the ISS - International Space Station. It was really neat to see! We went out again last night to see it, but it wasn't an orange glow this time.

My van just turned over 100,000 miles this last weekend. I told my dad I wasn't sure to be proud or sad.

My Grandma isn't doing well, and I wish I could see her. Long distance just stinks.

We are closer to a dream coming true this winter. More to come on that.

I think that's a wrap. To celebrate several posts in one day, I think I'll go enjoy a cookie. :)

Baby Shower

The Tuesday evening after Easter, my sis in law, S, and I hosted a baby shower for our other sis in law, S. With S and  I both being simple women, we do well planning and working together. Thankfully, it still turned out nice...or so we thought. :) It was a nice evening with friends celebrating the arrival of another nephew.

Maisie helped me make the cupcakes.

I let Analise come to the shower with me. She had fun, and she and Grandma Muriel even "won" the game. :)

 And here we all are. Analise showered and put on her jammies while we cleaned up. Though she didn't get to bed until 10:00, I am still glad she came with me. Thanks for letting us shower our love on you S!



Caramel Four Months

Our little pup is growing so quickly! I think she was about 10 lbs when we got her, and now she weighs about 24. She is a good puppy (most of the time. :)). Her crate has been in Analise's room the last few weeks, and that has worked out well. Some nights Caramel curls up with Analise in bed, and they sleep together before we move her to her crate.

Some of Caramel's favorite things are ice cubes, bacon, empty milk jugs, Brandon, and bacon.

Once or twice a day Caramel goes into a mode that we refer to as "spaz mode." She runs, darts and is crazy. We read once when Vizslas get in these modes, they make Nascar drivers envious. It lasts a few minutes, and then she's done. It's quite entertaining!

We think it's funny when she lays like this. 

Girl with Style?

Maisie is happy when she can wear a skirt, or leggings, or tights. A skirt with either tights or leggings makes her really happy. So when she came out like this one morning, she was happy, and I was chuckling. I did have her change before we went shopping. :)

Easter Weekend

We had lots of fun Easter weekend. Friday morning we went to the egg "hunt" at the mall. It's basically more like "grab the candy off the floor."  Regardless, it got us out of the house, and the girls had fun. We even ran into the Easter bunny!

Friday afternoon ended up being a family day since Brandon was blessed with the afternoon off from work. Yeah! After lunch we went south 40 minutes to our Twin 2's house on the farm. We were able to meet her parents, and have lots of fun. Despite the cooler temps and strong wind, we went through the pastures. Brandon and Analise were on a four wheeler, Maisie and Twin 2 rode a four wheeler, and Sadie and I rode with her dad in the Gator. We rode right next to cows...big cows and new, tiny calves. So simple, so fun. The girls then each got to sit bare back on a horse. Another new experience!

Friday evening we went to the Good Friday service at our church. It's one of my favorite services each year because it's about nine churches coming together. Setting aside their differences and focusing on what Christ did for us. Love, love, love it!

Saturday morning was slow and relaxing. I was able to finally shop by myself for some Easter baskets. Nothing like waiting until the last minute.

That afternoon we went to a new egg hunt. A church put on a big family celebration. Fun times! The girls loved the inflatables and the egg hunts. It was even more fun having Aunt S and Uncle D there, along with his parents and grandma.

Saturday evening we colored eggs. I thought two dozen would be plenty, but we ended up dying some raw eggs, too.

Easter morning the girls woke up excited to find their baskets. Since I shopped and packed the baskets, I let Brandon hide them. See where he put Analise's basket?

And it wouldn't be the real celebration of Easter without going to church! Again, it was another good service of celebrating our risen Savior!

We went straight home from church so I could quickly throw together three batches of carrot souffle. Oh my. I had three pans of carrots boiling. I finished two batches; Brandon was so kindly making the topping when I smelled the smell. Carrots burned to the bottom of the pan. Grrrr...so frustrated with myself! Now we are down to a double batch. I put foil on top of the pans, put them on the van floor, and we head to Brandon's parents for dinner. A couple of blocks away, Brandon brakes (or as the girls call it "urch") and carrot souffle oozes onto the floor mats. We may now have 1.5 batches.

Orange souffle on the van mats can look a lot like vomit. Just ask my nephew.

(Side note...I had the unused topping on my counter in a container. Analise comes home from school, sees the container and says, "Cool! You got meal worms?") Oh how the saga continues.

Thankfully we still had plenty for everyone to enjoy. Thanks, D, for sacrificing your serving. :)

Here are the girls with their baskets from Grandma and Grandma!

Analise was excited to get a gift card.

After a delicious lunch went all went to a local park to walk and play. The weather was beautiful, and the kids had fun playing. And I enjoyed walking my dog and talking with family.

I'll end with a couple of funnies:

We loved doing the Resurrection Eggs with the girls again this year. It leads to laughter and a meaningful time of discussing the true meaning of Easter.

One night I read the story of Jesus before Pilate. I asked, "Does anyone know who Pilate is?"

Analise answers, "He's the guy who drives the plane!"

One Year Older

Don't let my husband's good looks fool you; he's another year older. :)
We celebrated with his family a  couple of days before, and like always we had a great time.

He let me select his meal this year, and I think he was pleased. I made a pork pot roast that is super easy and just as yummy. I also made roasted veggies, rolls, and his mom contributed strawberry pretzel salad. For the kids, I included fries and green beans.

The new tradition this year for birthdays is a mad lib. His mom created one, and boy did we ever laugh.

Here he is with his parents.

And these little munchkins wanted a picture with dad, too.

For dessert this year he wanted chocolate pie. And again, for the kids I made cookie bars.

And now I am feeling kind of lame because those are the only pictures I have from his birthday. Poor guy...

He got some good gifts from family. He chose a few gifts for himself, and then I also surprised him with some new shirts and a gun rope. And yep, lame again, I didn't even wrap them. We all sat on our bed while he pulled out his gifts from the store bags.

On his actual birthday, he and I were able to go out for lunch as his favorite BBQ place. And that night for dinner I made biscuits and gravy.

Brandon, though I didn't take time to wrap you gifts or take many pictures, I chose each gift with love and made your meal with you in mind. We are always thankful when we can celebrate another year of life with you.We all love you so much!

March Madness

If you know me at all, you know I have a tradition of filling out a March Madness bracket each year. It started many years ago with my dad. And I now I pass along that tradition with my nephews and Analise. (And Brandon knows now he must fill one out, too. :)

Here we are filling out our brackets.

 I loved Analise's reasoning for picking a team to win. "That's a big state." "Dad's been there." "We've been there." "Pops likes that team." But you know what, she did well. Really well.

She chose KY and KS in the final game with KY winning. Just like it happened. I told her the next morning that her team won, and she said, "Does that mean I won a million dollars?"  (And on a side note, I had KY winning, and Brandon had KS winning. It was fun having a team to cheer for that night!) Million dollars or not, we had fun. Let the tradition continue!

A Walk in the Park

One thing I love about having a dog is that it forces us to be active.  Not that I think we were real inactive before, but we are even more so now. I bet we average at least two walks a day - sometimes more. And if Brandon doesn't go into work early then I have time to squeeze in a quick, at my speed walk with her in the morning. I LOVE it! If I could get myself out of bed at 6, then I could enjoy a longer walk...

Many days after lunch we take a walk, at a little slower pace with the girls. :) Sometimes Brandon joins us as well. And some evenings I take her for another walk.

A Saturday not too long ago we went to a park and found a great walking trail. It's the simple things in life that I love the most.

My crew...it was a hot day, so I have no doubt Maisie was loving the shade.

Do you see what I see? The two older girls holding hands!

Caramel loves her walks. She loves to prance ahead, sniff what she can and chase birds.

But even she can get worn out. :)

This has nothing to do with walks, but it makes me smile. For some reason Sadie needed to change clothes in the middle of the day, and before her new clothes were on, I spotted her looking at Caramel through the patio door.

A Dog and a Sock

We had left Friday open as a play day and planned on getting out of town to spend time at a park. This way Caramel could go with us. Oh how quickly some things can change. Friday morning Caramel was going to the vet to get her vaccines. However, I had other news for the vet. Caramel had swallowed a sock the night before...

The vet wanted to keep Caramel to see if she could get her to throw it up.

I came home dogless, and the girls were sad. But I knew I didn't want to go to a park anymore, I wanted to go shopping! It was like we had free dog sitting! :) Thankfully I am blessed with a hubby who understands my ways, so he was on board.

We had not even backed out  of the drive when the vet called me to tell me Caramel had indeed thrown up the sock. Yeah! And so I asked if they could keep Caramel a few more hours.

Here she is right after she threw it up. What a sad yet funny picture.

We headed east and ate lunch at their new Panera. Oh yummy. I really do love eating at a good restaurant, so this was a treat for me. After Panera we went back to the same Kohl's I was frustrated with three days ago. They must have gotten a shipment in, because they now had two of the Nike sandals! I was also able to get some other things the girls needed. Success!

We came home by 4:00 to pick up puppy. She was so excited to see me, and I was just as happy to see her. :)

After dinner we went for a family walk and tried feeding fish from a bridge. It turned out to be a great family day!

Spring Break

I think my blog name should be changed to "two weeks behind." Let's see how much I can remember from our spring break.

The weather was wet the first couple of days. So three girls and a puppy trapped indoors made it rather interesting. Once it finally stopped raining, we went for a walk. I even let them go puddle jumping. It was completely worth the changing of clothes by all the fun and laughter they had.

Sadie learned how to pump herself on the swing. Yeah!

Caramel loves all the sand toys.

A lot of nights the girls will put both legs in one side of their jammies and wiggle and giggle down the hall. Analise decided to take it to another level by switching the tops and bottoms.

Tuesday morning we met friends at the local fun center to play in their Ballocity. Got to love half price Tuesdays. The girls had a great time!

After lunch Grandma picked us up to take us 45 minutes east to see both Great Grandmas. We spent time with GG and decorated her room for Easter. The girls did a nice job of helping and keeping GG entertained. We went from there to see the other Grandma for a few minutes. After there we went to Kohl's since we had good coupons. And I learned that 30 minutes at Kohl's just doesn't cut it. I left very frustrated, and that doesn't happen often. (For example, they only had one shoe in my size; the match was nowhere to be found. And one Nike sandal wasn't going to do it for me.)

We got back into town around 6:00, and after inhaling fast food for dinner, I took off for church to see Gunger in concert. I had listened to his cd a few times and knew a couple of songs from the radio. Other than that, I didn't know much about him other than several people had said his concerts were amazing. And I liked it. Completely different than anything I had ever been to before, but it stretched me, and I appreciated his style of worship. I'm glad I went!

The girls with GG

Brandon took Thursday and Friday off from work. I was thankful for his sake that he took time off; he really needed a break from all the hours he's worked. Thursday morning we did some spring cleaning. In fact, Brandon spent a majority of the morning vacuuming all the bedrooms - moving furniture and deep cleaning. He was so ready to get a break from work that even vacuuming was good. :) Thursday afternoon Grandma came and got the girls to take them to a tea party at her house. They were excited to go, and I was excited to get things done while they were gone.

While they were gone, Brandon got some things done at home and then did some work. I sorted and filed things. Things I don't enjoy doing but need a good chunk of time to do it.

We then went for supper to a new Italian restaurant in town. The food was fair but the company was great!

Brandon found this note from Analise at the end of the day. Sweet, isn't it?

This is a picture of the two of them playing the Wii.

Friday...well, that deserves a post of its own....