Spring Break Recap

Our Spring Break has been filled with so much fun I don’t want it to end! I have truly enjoyed this time with my family. It allowed me to do lots of fun things with the kiddos, actually talk with my hubby for more than two minutes, and the time to get a few things done around the house.  I also got to spend time with my grandmas, my parents and my mother-in-law and a good day of scrapbooking with friends. You can’t ask for much more!

On Wednesday, I went with my family and my mother-in-law to Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Co. We had a great time! We bought several packs of vegetable seeds, some onion starts and some dianthus and morning glory flower seeds. We enjoyed walking around the little town and seeing the animals and vintage and antique items. Then, we made a little trip to Springfield. John went to a flea market. The rest of us went to DAV and then we headed to Hobby Lobby and Braum’s.

(Several times on this trip I noticed John and Cole standing the same way or looking very much like each other. I think the first two pictures show this very well.)

On Thursday, Cole, Audrey and I went to my friend Kim’s house to scrapbook. Shelly and her kiddos came, too. The kids had a great time playing inside and out and eating Kim’s brownies and the big girls were able to scrapbook a few pages. Cole & Audrey played hard! 

When we got home from Kim’s, we worked out in the field and driveway. Cole was cutting down cedar trees and Audrey and I were cleaning up the fence line in the driveway and at the road. It’s amazing how overgrown things can get.

On Friday, we took it easy. It was super windy outside, so we didn’t work as long as I’d expected us to.  John drove his pick-up down to the road so we could throw lots of limbs in it to be burned.  He and Cole did all the hard work while I broke the rake and only did about an 1/8 of what I needed to do. We still have a lot of work to do in this area.

Saturday was my Dad’s birthday. We spent the morning at home cleaning up the house and then headed to town to pick up my grandma. We went to three drive-thrus to get everything that everyone wanted for supper and then we headed to my parents house to celebrate. Cole & Audrey absolutely love showing off for my parents and they also like to get rowdy. They were having a great time! Dad decided he wanted a cake, so Mom and I headed to the store to pick up a German chocolate cake. After we ate and visited a bit more, we headed home.

Sunday has definitely been our day of rest so far. I’m still battling a cold that makes me cough every time I lie down. Needless to say, I haven’t gotten much sleep the last week. Plus, with the time change, I seem to be getting up even earlier.

It’s going to be hard to get up tomorrow and get back into our routine. However, each school day gets us one day closer to summertime and I can’t wait to have some more time off with my family!

Rosewood Farms Christmas 2010

After school yesterday, we loaded up my van and made several stops to pick up a car load of friends to go to the annual Christmas Open House at Rosewood Farms. I am pretty sure I could live there. It’s such a cute place!  Plus, it is a family owned business so you always see the same smiling faces working. Their customer service is excellent.  I have even seen them hug customers. How sweet is that? 

They don’t allow pictures to be taken inside, so I had to settle for outside pictures. It’s the kind of store you have to go through twice to make sure you didn’t miss anything.

This year was even more fun because John gave me money for my birthday to spend specifically at Rosewood. He’s so sweet!

I got lots of new goodies, but I will have to wait until I start decorating for Christmas to show them.

The best part was going with friends. It has become a yearly tradition. We have now gone together for the last three years. The fun, conversation, shopping, atmosphere, free chocolate, mulled apple cider and caramel mudslide coffee were pretty great, too!

 

I can’t wait to go again next year!

Trick-or-Treat

This year it seems like Halloween festivities spanned the entire weekend. Friday we had class parties at school. Saturday, we went to Leah’s to get the kids pictures taken in their costumes and then we picked up pizza before heading to my mother-in-law’s house. We had fun raking leaves and letting the kiddos jump in them. It was totally counterproductive, but Audrey especially had fun! On Sunday, we went to my parents house and went trick-or-treating throughout their neighborhood before heading to my grandma’s. It was a very busy, but fun (and candy) filled weekend!

Cole couldn’t decide what he wanted to be this year. He decided to go as the scariest thing he knew—a politician. :) One lady threatened to put a rock in his candy bag. Others thought it was totally fitting for this year.

Here he is writing his speech. His cards said, “Trick-or-treat or a political speech.” I thought he should say, “Trick-or-treat. I’m Cole and I approve this message.”

I had Audrey’s costume made this year. She was Laura Ingalls from Little House on the Prairie. I absolutely love the outfit on her. The dress and pants themselves are cute enough that I think I may have a Christmas dress made for her in the same style.

 

 

Labor Day Weekend 2010

This weekend has been wonderful! Despite the fact that I have been sick almost half the time, I have managed to get things done around the house and have some wonderful quality time with my family.

On Friday, I got home later than usual from school and I wasn’t feeling well, so John watched the kiddos and I took a nap and slept for several hours. It was nice to wake up feeling halfway decent.

Saturday, I cleaned out my side of the garage. I’m not quite finished, but I was in complete simplify mode. John will have to haul off several truck loads of stuff for me, but it was so nice to begin making a dent. I would like to go through all my seasonal decoration bins sometime soon, too. I may be able to park in the garage again soon! :)

While I worked in and out of the garage, the kids played outside. Cole worked on pricing toys for Granny’s yard sale and Audrey kept herself busy playing with the cats and dog and rummaging through all of Cole’s old toys. John also cleaned off the bouncy spring horse for her to play on. It was cute! Cole use to bounce himself silly on it.

Today, we went to Granny’s for lunch. I looked through old photo albums with John. It was cute watching him reminisce. After that, we headed out for a scenic road trip. We ended up going to the Windyville store, several yard sales, Bennett Spring, McDonald’s for fries and back home. I had a migraine from about 4 PM until almost 10, so I was ready to get back home.

Here are some of the pictures from today.

We had to take pics at the Windyville Store again since Cole’s eyes were closed last time. :)

When we zoomed in on this picture, we laughed and laughed at Audrey's expression when she was looking at Cole. If we only knew what she was thinking.

Doesn’t eating a Sugar Daddy from a general store just scream childhood?

John wanted to show the kids where the spring at Bennett Spring met the Niangua River. Can you see the color difference? The lighter blue in the front is the spring and the brown in the back is the river.

This was John’s first weekend off since he was laid off. I hope that the next 4-5 months go by slowly. I want my family to be able to spend lots of time together before John has to go back to work. There is nothing I like more than spending time with my family.

Enjoy the rest of the weekend!

Food, Fun, Family & the 4th

Since the 4th of July was on Sunday this year, we were able to attend several different fireworks festivities throughout the last week. Saturday, we went to my mother-in-law’s house to watch the fireworks in her town.  I’m pretty sure we talked about all the way through them this year.

John does all the barbecuing on the 4th, so Cole went with him to help this year. Audrey and I headed to church first. She insisted on wearing her hair in pigtail braids minutes before we left. It looked cute on her, but I had not planned for her to wear her hair up which meant no cute matching 4th of July bows.  What??? I took this picture at church just to document the fact that she is WAY too young to have hairstyle opinions already, right? :) I love her independence.

The church presented me with bibles for Cole and myself for being baptized on June 27. I hope to get some of those pictures posted this week. I wish that Cole would have been at church to receive his bible and to shake hands with everyone after the service. It was so sweet!
After church we went to my mother-in-law’s house for BBQ hamburgers and hot dogs, soda pop, homemade ice cream and lots  of other goodies.
 

After lunch, there were lots of water balloons waiting to be filled and thrown.


John was lucky not to be a recipient of a wet shirt from all the water balloons flying around.

Sarita and Claudia and their sisterly love…

A little ballet demonstration

Audrey doing her famous Cole-taught-me-how-to-pose-like-this pose

Cole got soaked by his own balloon ( I’m a huge fan of physical comedy, so things like this or pants splitting just crack me up!)

No one is safe from Audrey’s water balloons, not even Uncle Tom.

Getting their feet wet


Feeding Granny’s chickens

After the kids ate and played for awhile, we brought Claudia and Sarita back to our house so the kids could swim and play. The first time the kids got in the pool, it started raining.
Audrey enjoyed all the attention she got from Claudia in the pool. Sarita was snuggled up asleep on the couch, so we let her rest.

Patriotic swimsuit

After we finished playing, napping, and eating strawberries and Cool Whip, we headed to the fireworks stand for more fireworks and then back to Granny’s.

The kids with their Uncle Phil and some of their fireworks loot

I spent WAY too much money on sparklers because I thought it would be the one thing that Audrey enjoyed doing since she was too small to do much else.

No such luck. She had one sparkler and that was enough. She was too scared that they would hurt her. It’s not like her to be this cautious, so it really caught me off guard.

Audrey enjoyed popping bubbles.

I think Granny enjoyed blowing them, too. :) She is a very hands-on grandma. She really enjoys playing with the kids and she comes up with such creative ideas.

Audrey didn’t like that Uncle Phil was sitting in ‘Mommy’s chair’. She made it a point to tell him that it was my chair. He didn’t say anything, but when he got up, he got in one of the blue ones. Oh my goodness! Where does she get her boldness? We weren’t even sitting in the chairs.

Cole spent the majority of the evening lighting fireworks. In case you are wondering why there aren’t many pictures of Cole it’s because he wouldn’t let me take his picture. He made it a point to do something goofy in each one or he would intentionally hide. I guess he is now at that stage where everything I do is going to drive him nuts. Maybe it’s just the fact that I tend to take pictures like a Mamarazzi. Nah, couldn’t be me.

Audrey was done with the fireworks and wanted to go inside. I couldn’t be in both places at once and felt like Cole was too young to do fireworks by himself. So, Wanda got Audrey a bucket of water and let her water the plants.

It was a very busy day, but one filled with lots of great memories. We are so very blessed to have the freedom to live, love and worship by our own choice. I’m very thankful that others are willing to sacrifice their lives to protect the lives of my family and friends. I hope everyone had a great 4th of July!