The dancing duo

Callie knows how to get her brother to dance with her when she wants to. :)  He acts like he doesn't want to, but then she grabs his hand and will make him start dancing with her.  He gives in and dances along.  She even gets him to dip her!  It is so funny and precious at the same time.  I think even though he likes bugging her, when they get older, he will be there in a second to defend her (or I hope at least!).  They definitely can argue and fight, but sometimes they are the best of friends and get along great.  Callie has even said Harrison is her best friend and when she needs help with something and everyone is volunteering to help (like saying prayers for example) she will usually pick Harrison over Morgan or Tyler.  Although I must admit, she has a pretty special bond with Tyler too.  And she loves to be just like Morgan and do what Morgan is doing.  So, all in all, Callie loves her older siblings and has a unique bond with all of them in different ways.  She is so affectionate, smiley, and her laugh just makes us all giggle.  We are so blessed to have her as part of our family!

What a sweetie!  Love this big smile of hers!  Too bad I didn't get the other side to show her cute little dimple.  You can slightly see it on her left cheek in the first picture.

Makin' Grandpa proud

Tyler had to give a speech on a famous African-American who has been an influence to others, so he chose Colin Powell.  He had to dress up like the person he was reporting on and give the speech as if he was that person.  I called my dad up to see if we could borrow his army hat, and of course, he gave Tyler his army coat to wear as well.  I ironed it and we rolled up the sleeves for him to wear.  Too bad we didn't get the smell out - it was very musty and old smelling, but oh well!  It was kind of cool because my dad served in the Vietnam War and Colin Powell did too.  Tyler's teacher said he was very creative and did a great job.  I was impressed that he memorized his entire speech and knew it very well!

 Here Tyler is giving his speech to his grandma, grandpa, aunt and uncle.  They were all very impressed that he had memorized it so well. :)  Way to go, Tyler!

Morgan's Beauty Shop

 My Grandma Elzer was a beautician for as long as I can remember.  She had her own beauty shop in her basement and I used to love meeting all her customers and playing with all her beauty salon gadgets.  We loved spinning in the chair and pumping it up high then letting it slide back down.  We loved playing beauty shop because we had the real things to use!  When my mom was going through all my grandma's stuff after we moved her to an assisted living home she gave Morgan a bunch of my grandma's beauty shop stuff.  The tall glass container where she kept her combs, a couple capes, some combs and the name tag that was on the door to the shop.  She had that name tag for forever.  Her name is Dorothy, but a lot of people called her Dot or Dotty.  So we put it on top of Morgan's door, like the entrance to her "shop".  Morgan had her first customer!  And boy was Callie excited for that!  It was just so cute to watch them, especially since they were using my grandma's supplies!

Miss Independent

 Callie is definitely showing her independence lately.  Some days she'll choose something to wear and WILL NOT put on what I picked out.  Or other days, she WILL NOT keep her clothes on!  It was hilarious watching her try to undress herself!  Once she got it, she was very happy and you could tell she was very proud of herself. :)

 

 

 

  

 

A big chore, but someone has to do it!

 I raked up all the fallen leaves on the biggest side of the front yard and was worn out, so I told the kids I would pay them if they would rake up the last of the leaves, so they got right to work.  Morgan was the most motivated, but it was a bit slow going.  They couldn't help but play in the piles they were making a little!

Once Kent came out, he said they were too slow, so he pulled out the leaf blower and showed Tyler how to do it.  You should have seen Tyler's eyes light up!  Now he was feeling like a man!  Of course all the other kids had to have a turn too.

And you can't rake leaves and not expect to jump in the piles you just made!

 

 

Fruits of my labor

 Here is some produce that came right out of our OWN garden!  I was so excited to have a garden again this year, and after a few mishaps (namely by the DOG!  Grrrr) we were able to have a fairly successful garden.  We even had a watermelon pop up, BUT due to my lack of knowledge on how to grow watermelons, we picked it prematurely and it didn't have time to ripen.  It was creamy white with a hint of pink here and there and VERY bitter.  Dang it!  I was so looking forward to eating a homegrown watermelon!  Oh well, maybe next year.  Anyway, I DID do some canning over the summer, which was very satisfying.  The inner homemaker really came out. ;)  I felt so self- reliant.

 I canned homemade salsa, tomato juice, tomato sauce, tomatoes AND

FRESH PEACHES!!!! Yum!!!! (not out of my garden - from a local orchard)

Can't wait to use them this winter for fruit smoothies and peach cobbler and pie!

Callie's new favorite past time . . .

Callie is SO PROUD that she knows how to get up on the stool and open the drawer to find  . . .


 

minty flavored toothbrushes to suck on!!!



Look at me, mom!  I am such a big girl!  All I can say is - it keeps her occupied and happy and I'm just glad it isn't MY toothbrush she can reach! :)  Tyler is never happy about her doing it, but when he's not home, he won't have a clue, right? ;)  Actually, when she is being a pill while I'm trying to get ready, I sometimes let her suck on mine too just to keep her happy.  Maybe I should get one just for her that has a tiny bit of minty flavor to it.  Or just splash a bit of peppermint extract on it so it is safer than flouride toothpaste.   Hmmm... not a bad idea at all!

 

A fun afternoon!

There is nothing more fun or refreshing than an afternoon of playing on slip n' slide (or just in the water!), popsicles, and a picnic on the deck!

I tried to keep Callie out of the water, but there was not stopping her!  She LOVED it!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

No, this is not mud or dog poo (thankfully!) - it is chocolate pudding!
 

Yummy snacks.

This little girl LOVES blackberries!!!

And this little guy LOVES pistachios!

Tree Climbers

The kids have figured out how to climb this tree in our front yard. The branches don't start until at least 6 feet up, so Harrison can't get up himself, but they like getting up in it. It reminds me of my childhood. I was ALWAYS climbing trees and we had a lot of great trees to climb! I had such an imagination back then - of course the trees were always my house and I loved pretending different parts of the tree were the kitchen, bedroom, bathroom , etc. And I would make soup out of water, leaves, berries, "sour pickles", and sticks. Good times.

Even Callie enjoyed the view!

Wishing I had time to blog . . .

It's been over a month since I have blogged, and it is still going to have to wait a bit longer until I can feel satisfied enough with the unpacking and organizing to take some time to blog. Maybe once the kids get back in school I will be able to take some time to catch up. At least the move is over and we have almost the whole house unpacked. Still some things to go through in the garage and a few odds and ends boxes, but I can see an end! I'm exhausted by the end of the day and the kids are so stir crazy to get out and do something. I've tried to get them to play in the sprinkler, but they don't want to. We are going to my parents' house on Tuesday, so that will be a welcome relief and break from the whole moving process. I just hate leaving something undone, so it kills me to go to bed each night and not have the whole house unpacked, organized and decorated! Obviously it is impossible to do that in one day, but if I could, I would!

Update . . .

So here is what has been going on the last couple weeks in a nutshell:

We thought we were going to close on our house June 6th, but found out 3 DAYS before closing that they wouldn't give us the loan until Kent started working, so we moved it to June 24th.

Had a nice Father's Day.


Picked 7 lbs. of strawberries and made a few jars of strawberry jam - YUM!


Morgan turned 7!



Kent started work at Cummins and stayed in a hotel for a week while I attempted to hold down the fort by myself for a whole week - EXHAUSTING AND STRESSFUL! Still trying to do that.

ALMOST didn't close on the house on the 24th - loan officer asked for more last minute information, which made me have to search, email, fax, and call people like crazy! The lady seems a little airheady and forgetful - SOOO not going to recommend her to anyone! BUT we DID close at 5 p.m. on the 24th, ordered carpet and then spent Saturday cleaning and washing walls to get ready for all the painting we will be doing.

So now Kent is living in the house (he calls it his bachelor pad!) and we will be making trips down there to paint before the carpet gets installed.

Gave our 30-day notice to Richfield this week. Yay!!!

Laminated chore charts for the kids (got the cute idea from my cousin-thanks Angie! I need some kind of organization this summer!).



Started shopping at CVS again to load up on ECBs.

Haven't cooked a real meal except spaghetti and chicken with rice since Kent has been gone.

Started Callie on rice cereal and now sweet potatoes. Think she likes the sweet potatoes better. Still getting up with her 3 times a night, but the last one is around 6 a.m. and I just feed her and make her go back to sleep until 7.



Tyler tried having Kent pull his super loose top tooth because his permanent tooth started to come in above it, but it didn't come out - poor guy felt a lot of pain for no reason!

Finished the summer reading program. Kind of hate doing it because I feel like I am FORCING them to read instead of them reading because they enjoy it.

Scouring the internet, library books, ideas from other people, and remembering things we have done in the past so that Morgan isn't CONSTANTLY bored and needing something to do! Morgan and our neighbor decided to have a lemonade stand - she earned $7! We went to pick something out, but decided to wait and have another stand at our new house so that she can get something a little more expensive.


Signed Morgan up for swim lessons to help with her boredom!


Remembering how cute and adorable Harrison really is when he sits down with me at night to listen to a book and being able to forget how endless his whining, pestering his sisters and tuning my requests out during the day can be!

Trying to find fun things to do that are fairly easy to do with 4 kids! We went to the Clegg Botanical Garden on one of the chilly days. The kids loved it and so did I!

Taking pictures of Callie and her cuteness!

SOO excited to get going on all the improvements I'm planning to do to the house!