What Did You Do Today?

Last night Dan and the boys slept in the tent in the back yard, so this morning (since Fern got up SUPER early) we got breakfast together and woke the boys up! This was our breakfast outside, I hope the neighbors didn't see us all in our jammies!!! :) Crazy new neighbors from Calif!!
Cheesy baby!!! I was trying to get a picture of her shirt, but yea no cooperation. This shirt is a hand me down from our great friends the Sherman's, it says Fun and then has the definition. The appropriate part of it is that it says "usually accompanied by the joyful sound Weee-eee-eee" (or close to that). Anyway Fern has this new love of hills, so every time we drive down a hill which is anytime we leave the house, she yells WEEE-EEEE-EEEE all the way down. It is too cute! :) So the shirt is that much more appropriate!! Thanks Abby!
Dan put up our new-hand-me-down chalk board from our neighbor today! And Grandpa gave us like 10 boxes of chalk (schools use dry erase now), so the kids had a blast writing. This will be quite handy this fall when we start our new school year! :) It is hard to tell, but that is one of our newly painted walls in the basement!! I got curtains up on one of the windows today, and Dan has been busy building the shelves!!! :) I'll post pictures when it is all done (aka: maybe this lifetime)!

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So that was our day, minus the attitude, a few tantrums, and not quite making it to the potty. So what did you do?

Life!

I know it is hard to see, but Fern has Riley's doll on her table, and she is feeding her pancake. It was too cute, what a good mommy she will be! :)

On fun in our house news, Dan got our basement painted and it looks great! But then last evening I was upstairs when I heard Dan come up. I then heard him say, "Danna, can you come to the bathroom", that sentence only ever means one thing, blood. I know this because a) Dan rarely uses my name, and b) thankfully he is old enough to not need my help going potty! So I go right in to fix him up, but I took one look at the gushing blood, and knew I could not fix this one! So I got his hand over his head, made sure he would not be passing out, ran the kids to the neighbors and drove Dan to the walk-in clinic. Thankfully we did not have to go to the hospital (it's 30min. away), the clinic here at the bottom of the hill was happy to see him. We actually made the P.A.'s day, something to stitch up! So Dan had 2 stitches in his left thumb, and we had pizza for dinner. So now we wait until it is more healed for Dan to build shelves for downstairs. :) And you all though we were just sitting around! :)

Also today is special because my sister Mary had her last day of work outside of home! She is now a full time stay at home mom! Yea Mary!! So congrats Mary Ryan and Novella!! We love you!

What is in Mama's Garden?

I know not the garden, but I had this one random picture, so it is here. I had run out to do a couple errands, and when I pulled into the driveway this is what I found. I then had to race out to take this picture as a big storm blew in! :)
It is always surprising what pops up! Isn't this gorgeous!
There are so many Lillis, tiger, white, and some pink ones are beginning to emerge. There is even some in another patch that are really tall, but have not flowered yet, well see!!
And the newest thing in my garden! FERN!! She has found the blueberry patch and now we can not keep her out!!! This was last night, everyone was swimming, but Fern kept sneaking off!
So proud of herself! She is actually really good about only picking and eating the blue ones, now if she'd stop picking my little green tomatoes!
This morning Dan took the kids outside, and then lost Fern. Guess where he found her!
And this is the second time today we have fished her out, and it is only 10:30am!!
Whenever I find her in there she flashes me a big smile, how can you get upset at that! Eating healthy fruit, and a sweet smile!!

How Does Your Garden Grow?

I thought I was due for a garden update, so you all will have to bear with me!!! :)Here is the broad view, we have, cherry tomatoes, big tomatoes, pole beans, sugar snap peas, carrot ts, red bell pepper, green bell pepper, Anaheim chillies, pickling cucumbers, zucchini, watermelon, pumpkin, gourds, corn, & rhubarb. In the back yard we have a couple more watermelon, and a couple yellow squash.
Here is my finds last night!! The tomatoes were SOOOO good! (no I did not share!)
A couple cucumbers!
This is the red pepper.
The first zucchini!
Watermelon to the left, and gourd to the right. The gourd was this little 4 inch peat pot that Grandma sent the kids that had the seeds in it, all you did was water it. When the sprouts got to be 5 inch or so we put it in the garden, and now we have way too many vines in that box!!
So how does our garden grow? With lost of prayer, and lots of care! :)

Summer Fun!

A couple days before the 4th we got a fire pit, and we are enjoying it!! The boys were very helpful! :)
Fern wanted to help too!
Mama and Fern chill'en by the fire! It really was not so cool that we needed long pants and jackets, we were just trying to hide from the mosquitoes!!
Then a couple days after the fourth we got a whole handful of blueberries off our bushes in the back yard! They were VERY yummy! :)

We are enjoying our BRIGHT house this afternoon! Yep that's right, we actually had our windows fixed this morning!! YEA!!!! It is like living in a real house!! :)

Sad Day.

My sweet kitty died today. Angel was 14 years old though, and she had had a very nice stay at the Grandma Jenson Retirement Home. Thanks for being the mommy today mom.

FIREWORKS!!!

Since the 4th was wet, we did fireworks in between rain storms last night! Here are some of the shenanigans! :) Our crazy pyrotechnic!
Fern is not totally sure about the sparklers, or the other fireworks!
Our gang doing sparklers!! This is what we started with...
Then we lit off a couple of theses and...
we gained a few kids! :)
We had a few really good fireworks, everyone enjoyed them, and Dan did not loose any fingers! It was a good night. But unfortunately we had to say good bye to Daddy/Grandpa, he left early this morning and flew to Michigan to see his brother. Hi Uncle Steve!!

HAPPY 4th of JULY!!!

Well as you can see I am not outside on this 4th, it is raining and cold out. They have forcasted thunder storms and a good amount of rain! :( But here is what we did yesterday and this morning!!! Grandpa and Dad dug out and twisted the tree house, so that the slide goes down sideways, and thankfully now does not launch anyone! :) They also riped the sides off the tree house!!
Fern thought this was all good fun!!
Formulating plans!!
Riley is a helper!! That evening they had the sides mostly redone, but then ran out of nails!! Opps!
Today we all headed out early to try to beat the rain! Our neighbor across the street was cleaning out and figured his 13 year old daughter did not need this car anymore, Fern is enjoying it immensely!!
Here are our super workers!! We have a roof!!! Yea!!

Dan and Daddy had ALOT of "help"! :) Isn't Jake a cutie!
Nearly finished!! They boys are enjoying the view! They are looking towards the house.
Cheese! Happy 4th of July!!

Fern is a bit happier not to have to share the slide! :)
And Fern gets something just for her!! Our neighbor next door figured her 10 year old daughter would not be using this swing! So we re-roped it with purple rope and Fern is in heaven! Her very own swing, now you all will know where I am when I do not answer the phone!! :) It is very nice to have the youngest kids on the street! We are getting some great hand me down toys!! :)
Finished!! It is hard to see but the purple bucket is on a pulley, and eventually Dan will put wood shingles on the roof. Not too long after this we were freezing to death and it started sprinkling, and so we are now enjoying the Muppets!!

Have a GREAT 4th of July!!

At the Airport!

Here we are waiting for the rental car bus to take us to the terminal!I found Fern this too cute metal lunch box while in Calif. She has been trying to steal the boys Superman boxes, she was so happy to have her own packed with snacks for the ride!
Jake was set, suitcase with airplanes on it, superman lunch box packed with provisions, and his cowboy "night-night"! He did an awesome job caring his own things!
Riley is a pro at this now, he will be our traveling salesman, he loves to ride on planes, drive in rental cars, eat at restaurants and stay in hotels! :)

That's the end!

As soon as the boys are done fiddling with the van, it looks as if we will be "fixing-up" the tree house, so hopefully there will be fun pictures of that to come!

More Father's Day!

After all our fun at the museum, we drove up to Mary & Ryan's and celebrated Ryan's first Father's Day! We went out to a great Indian dinner, and then hung out at their place. It was our last evening there, and Mary's "Eve Before Going Back to Work"!Daddy opens his Father's Day present with help!
The kids LOVE to hold Novella!! Here's big cousin Jake and Novella!
Look at that head support, awesome cousin Riley!!
And our two girls! One day they will be getting into trouble together, but for now they are too cute!!
Novella finally gets what she wanted!! No more malling cousins or a thieving aunt!! :)
Ryan and Dan are chill'en through all of this, and that is mom's arm, she is always dodging the camera! :)

I only have one more post from Calif., then I will have to take some new photos! We are enjoying Daddy/Grandpa visiting us right now so there should be some great photo ops!!
I can not believe it is July already!! Only 24 more days until I am quite old, but that is Ok, Melissa is old today!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MEL!!