Do you swim in a pool to make yourself cool?

As a way of beating the heat, my sister, sister-in-law and I all decided to take our kids to the local rec center. We are members and go quite frequently. The others are not, but they are trying to get their little ones adjusted to pool life. We met there right when they opened, to beat the crowd, and spent some time indoors in the lazy river and water slide. Then we all decided to move outdoors and get some fresh air. It was hot, but the water felt really good. I think that all the kids really had a ball. Elizabeth and Isabella were pretty tired by the time we left (about 3 hours later). But I think they did pretty good considering all the people, the heat, the noise, and the accidental trips which sent them under. My kids are like little fishes. We strap Elie's life jacket on and she just floats around and around the river. Trae has gotten pretty brave and will now go down the water slide all by himself. I think that we all had a great time, and I look forward to doing it again before the summer's over!

The fruits of our labors....

Really it is just Jordan's labors. I can't really take any credit for this. Me and him spent most of our free time last week at either Lowe's or a local nursery. Lowe's had lots of trees and plants on clearance and the other nursery had their big annual pioneer day sale where they put everything 1/2 off. We picked out a few trees and pines and some boxwoods at Lowe's and bought the rest at this other place. They only do the sale on the 24th and seeing as I had to work, Jordan spent a good couple of hours in the morning there with my mom. She is really good at knowing what to plant, so it was good.

He came home almost every night last week and weeded and prepped and pulled and planted. I offered to help, but I think that I was more in the way. He said that I had already worked outside so it was his turn (pretty thoughtful, huh?). Anyways, this is our reward:

By our front patio

The front yard
And last but not least, the parking strip

We still have some more planting to do, but I just wanted to acknowledge all of the hard work that Jordan has done. It is awesome to look out our window or pull out of our driveway and see some plants-not just weeds and our neighbors non-pretty rock wall. And we have done it all on a really cheap budget.

Going, Going, Gone

Thursday was quite the day in our house. Not only did we have company and chaos, but Traedens' tooth became really loose. He wiggled and wiggled that thing until it came out about 6 hours later. It was quite gross if you ask me. At one point, he had that thing sticking straight out, so that with the blood was alittle more then my weak stomach could take. So, you would think that the tooth fairy would have visited by now right, WRONG. She must have taken the holiday off. Heck, she must have taken the whole weekend off cause he has had his tooth under his pillow for the last 2 nights and wakes up to nothing under his pillow. Trae is convinced it's because he hasn't worn his pj's to bed. He's fallen asleep in his street clothes the last 2 nights. I'll just let him think that for the time being. Hopefully I can get my act together tonight and get a hold of the fairy and let her know that she has a little boy down here that is getting very curious........

24th of July adventures...

For those of you that weren't able to join us yesterday, all I can say is that you really missed out. Both me and Jordan worked in the morning. After he came home, he just wanted to work out in the yard. We have bought a few plants (this blog coming later) and he was just itching to get as much done as he could. So after laboring in the 98 degree sun all day, he decided to take the kids to the pool (I can't for for a couple more days-lets just say that I was sick and don't want to start the crypto virus!) for an hour or so. While he was gone, my SIL and her fiancee, Lisa and Art, showed up as well as my friend and her son Leslie and Conner and my FIL. We just ordered pizza and sat around and talked until it was dark enough to do the fireworks. My dad decided to join us at this point. Art had bought some fireworks and we had some left over from last year. Plus our neighbors across the street was doing theirs so it lasted about an hour. There were some awesome ones, and so not-so-awesome ones. But I have to say that my favorite part was seeing the kids with the sparklers. Last year I ended up doing all the sparklers because the kids were so scared of them. They were really timid at first this year too, but they eventually came out of their shells and had a riot after that. Once they figured out that they could write in the air and that they weren't going to get burned, they wouldn't stop. The other highlight was seeing Art stand in the middle of the road holding one of the fireworks in his had. He was holding it like a torch and standing like the Statue of Liberty. It was so funny. I had good video of it until Trae knocked the camera and it fell to the ground. Of course I screamed his name and of course it was on the audio so I won't be showing it-Sorry! To end what was a really good night, we all came in and had homemade ice cream with brownies and chocolate sauce. We finally put our cranky kids to bed at about 11:30 pm. But it was all worth it. We had a really good time. So to everyone that came-Thank You, it was awesome and you all helped to make it that way. To those that didn't come-There is always next year!

Trae and ElieLeslie and ConnerJordan (his mug shot) and Grandpa RayJordan (a better shot) and Grandpa RayLisa and ArtElie

Art-he's trying to show offArt again

Welcome!

Welcome to our new website. This is the place where we are going to post pretty much anything that has to do with our family. Since I am going to be taking care of 3 blogs now, I will try to update as often as I can. Maybe I can even get Jordan to post something every now and then.