I just want to send out a few Thank Yous

Thank You Brandon for Helping me with FHE last night. Forget helping, Thank You for doing FHE last night. Thank You for always being willing to pick up where I leave off. Thank You for being such a good daddy, and freind to me. Thank You for taking the time to understand me, and working towards the same goals. Thank You for being so organized and willing to teach me how to do better and be beter. I love You.

Thank You Ashley for helping mom watch for me kids this summer, so I can help provide for my family.

Thank You Josh for always organizing the coolest acivities for us to do each weekend, keeping our family closer.

Thank You Micah, Sloane, and Emerson for reminding me about the simple things in life are where you find joy most often (last night I was able to sit on my mother's front porch just watching them cath fire flies).

Thank You Danielle for feeding us. Keeping us nutrionally balanced, and satisfied. Thank You for fixing my blanket too.

Thank You Mom and Dad for teaching us how to live the gospel more fully, and to be better parents, and examples to those around us. Thank You for helping each of us provide for our families, and taking us on many vacations so that we may see more of this beautiful world God has created for us.

Thank You Ryann and Seiler for showing me how to be more Christ like, happy, joyful, sympathetic, loving, and positive. Thank you always being willing to help with dinner, watering the flower bed, feeding the dog, vaccuming the up stairs, dusting, taking a shower when asked. All of these little things make it easier to spend more time with each of you.

Thank You to all of my other friends and family for always pushing me forward, and forgiving me when I make a bad choice. I love all of you and are greatful for all the love and support you show me.

Thank You.

Keeping busy

Wednesday I drove to Muskogee, OK to pick Ryann up from her two week stay in Texas. So Glad to have her back home. I think she was ready to be back. She just jumped right into our routine. Happily. I missed her so much, I almost forgot she had her hair cut before she left. She's so cute, and so sweet, and so grown up. Thursday and Friday I had to work, since I took off Tuesday to go to AR, and Wednesday to go to OK. Friday after I got off work, I met my mom, Ashley, Ryann, Seiler, Micah, Sloane, and Emerson at my neighborhood pool, were we swam for four hours, ordering Little Ceasars pizza, and enjoying the sun. Saturday morning we all went to Table Rock Lake, and borrowed a boat. We spent the entire day out on the lake. I was smart though, I opted to hold baby Kinzley in the shaded part of the boat for a while, so I didn't get near a burned as others. Go me j/k. Sunday was father's day, and Ryann made dinner for everone. She had to make a meal and invite people over to eat it (for Activity Day Girls). Family was a safe invite in my opinion. With my help, she made Broccoli cheese soup, fruit salad, lemonade, and Brownies. That was her menu, that is all she wanted. I bought some Sourdough bread loaves to be eaten with the soup. Luckily, it was enough to fill everyone up. Yay Ryann. You did an excellent job helping in the kitchen. P.S. feel free to help clean up afterwards. . . . lol . . .
Always so much to do, never enough time for sleep.

OOPS

Yesterday, Just us girls drove to Tontitown, AR to visit the Oops store there. My older sister Ashley had heard so many different good things about it. It sounded like something we HAD to do.We had so much fun looking around the whole store full of all things decorative. The experience with my sisters,mom, grandmother, and nieces was fabulous. However, not worth going to. Oops.

Canoe Trip

Saturday Morning/Afternoon (because I slept in until 11 due to the late night before) we loaded up some snacks and drinks. Same crew as last night, minus dad plus Seiler, Micah, Sloane, Emerson, and Kinzley. We drove down to Bradleyville. Pulled under a bridge full of wasp/dirt dobber nests. After a quick panic attack, we were off in our canoes. Not having any knowledge on what I was doing, or having been canoing in 14 years (thanks to young woman's camp) and the water was really low: the odds were against me in the beginning. The canoe I was in got turned around alot, turned sideways a few times, and tipped over 5 or 6 times, all resulting in bruises all over the lower half of my body. One time, I guess I didn't get into the boat fast enough and the current took to canoe with only one of my feet in it. I fell on my hiney right on a sharp rock and was dragged down what seemed like 10 mins. I am not the only one with marks to show for how much fun and frustration we experienced, but I do have the most. We saw a tiny turtle, many fish and far too many spiders. Fun times, but I like rafting MUCH better.

Rascal Flatts

Mom, Dad, Danielle, Josh, Ashley,Brandon, and I drove to Miami, Oklahoma on Friday. We stood in a very long line in the (what felt like) 120 degree sun waiting to get in. Luckily for me, I sweat so much that night I didn't feel a need to use the nasty port-o-potties. It had rained earlier in the day, and everyone was slipping and a sliding. Cleitus T. Judd opened for Darius Rucker, whom opened for the Rascal Flatts. I didn't think I would know many of their songs, and I don't dance well. But I sang every song (except two) out loud, planted my feet in the ground and shook it all night. I just want to add a special thanks to my babysitter: Tearnie. She was able to arrive at my house at 1:30 in afternoon on friday and stay until 2:00 in the morning on Sat. You are awesome. Want to do it again in August? Martina McBride is coming. Just kidding. . . . Seriously let me know if you want to. Good Times.

I wish she would tell me. . .

What does my big sister Ashley want for her 30th Birthday? It's tomorrow, and I need to know what she wants. . . I don't have time for guessing games.

School is almost out

Happy about this, yet sad about this.

Memorial day

Over the weekend we had the opportunity to stay friday night at a friends lake house and use his boat in Branson. Brandon, the kids and I could not make it down until after the soccer games on Saturday. Everyoneelse was out in the sun all day. When they came to the dock to pick us up, we thought the fun was about to start. The fun did start, just a different kind of fun. It started to down poor, and showed no signs of stopping. All Twelve of us were scrounging to get everyone and everything under the canopy. We were good for a couple of minutes until the rain started falling horizontally. It lasted so long we started playing I Spy. We looked around to "spy" and noticed we were the only boat on the water. A Little bit tired of holding up tarps, we slowly made our way back to the dock. Drenched. We went to get barbeque, Good times.

Soccer Season

Is it over yet?

Ashley is here

Ashley and her three little princesses came to Missouri to visit us for a few months. So far we have had lots of fun barbequeing, flea marketing, dieting, walking the five miles from my house to mom's, bathing and putting kids to bed so we can catch the late movies. I hope there is more of this to come.

Owl Moon

Ryann made a picture of an owl from different peices of brown paper glued together and on top of each other; sitting on a tree branch that she drew; in front of a moon that the used bubbles and paint and sqooshed papers together and peeled them apart to make the craters in the moon.

This peice of art was picked by her art teacher to be hung up at the Discovery Center in Springfield, then was picked by The Springfeild Art Museum to be hung up there for the duration of all the "school age" art work would be there. After it made it back to Ryann's elementary school, Ryann's Owl Moon was voted by 90 % of the teachers at her shool to be matted, framed, and hung in the school FOREVER. Along with a scholorship to take some artclasses at the Springfield Art Museum.

Ryann is soooooo excited, and loves to draw and paint, and glue things together.
She will be honored at an assembly in front of all her classmates on the last day of the school this year. Yay- Go Ryann.

Texas

We went down to Texas in April to meet my new sister-in-law-to-be. Go Lee. We stayed at Brandon's mom's lake house in Texoma. All went well. My kids took to Angie very well. She seems to make Lee a happy man. The weather was too cold for swimming, but my kids didn't care. I could swear they are part fish. Ryann would be an angel fich, Seiler a Swordfish. Angie and Ryann found a clam oddly enough and broke it out of its shell. Pretty purple shell, very stinky smell. That's all I have to say about that.

Disney Land Update

We had loads of fun. The weather was mostly perfect, the lines weren't that long, spent alot on water. Brandon made sure we rode on almost every ride at all four parks. Animal Kingdom- not my favorite. We've got a zoo here with exotic animals too. We rented a four bedroom house with a pool and a game room in the garage. Every room was decorated with tinkerbell. My kids woke up early every mornig to swim in the pool before breakfast. For more eciting details, read Danielle's blog. I can't remember all the fun we had.

A Little Silly Side Note: Seiler's prayer when we got home, he said "Thank you for not letting me sleep in a girl bed anymore." (everything was tinkerbell)