Bike Gang

Clear the streets! There's a biker gang in town!

Rally Sunday

Today we kicked off Sunday school with a hayride, treats, and singing. I was seriously considering trying another church as I haven't been happy with certain things at our current church. In the end though, I decided to give our church another try and after this morning I was glad I did. We have such a great bunch of kids that most I have watch grow up since birth, plus it is the only church my kids have known and they were absolutely against changing. This year I am teaching K-1st again, which I love, and I love my group of kids this year!

I should mention it is Sawyer's first year and we will see how it goes. He loved it today (:



Here we all are crammed on the trailer. It was an absolutely beautiful day.

Alaina and I hear how much we look alike all the time and from this picture I can see it.

Can you see Jonnie back there?
We sang a bunch of songs......
then ate a bunch of treats.
Three of the girls in my class-they are adorable!

Here's the gang that makes it all happen!
Here's to an awesome Sunday school year!

Dog lovers paradise

That's right I am talking about Prairie Pothole Day! This is the first time I have been there. I took the kids (minus Jonnie but that is a whole other blog) to check it out and we had so much fun. For those who don't know what I am talking about it is a whole day full of activities geared to duck hunting, saving wetlands, and dogs-lots and lots of dogs-I loved it! The majority of dogs were labs (which I love) and they were participating in all sorts of retriever stuff. It was definitely geared towards families and it was all free-can't beat that!

Sawyer and Alaina were in heaven at all the puppies there-I am sure there were over 50 puppies that people brought and they were soooooo adorable.


They had a whole area for kids to learn about salamanders, butterflies, look at different things under a microscope, etc. Sawyer loved all of this. Then he heard talk of a snake in the area and ran over to see...
And that little guy walked right up to the lady and asked to hold it! I kind of looked at her and she said, "sure!" He thought it was the coolest thing and I was dying over my baby holding a boa constrictor. After a little while he looks at the lady and says, "It's getting heavy." He is so cute, I can't stand it (:
Next up was a bearded dragon-he wanted to hold this one, too but the lady couldn't hear him ask.

One of my favorite parts was watching the dogs jump in the water. Not sure what you call it, but it was fun to watch.

Next year I definitely want to bring Jonnie as I think he would love it. I would love for him to try out archery. Him and I have been talking about trying to take a class together on how to do it-we'll see. Hope everyone in having a great weekend!

Sweet Little Sugar Cookie

Today, Sawyer and I made mini sugar cookies for the school kids. He loved it and towards the end he took the last ball of dough left and named it his "precious" and even kissed it at one point-hilarious! Three-year-olds are so much fun!





The best part (:

Happy Friday Everyone and remember all those who were senselessly killed 8 years ago on this day. I remember being in my Environmental Science class in college and the professor told us that he just heard that a plane crashed into the World Trade Center. We all thought it was a small plane that accidentally did and went about our class. When I was driving to my sister's house to pick up my little ones, I heard. By the time I reached her house, I was in shock and watching the news with her and my brother-in-law, we just started crying looking at all the images. It seems like just yesterday.

Budding Photographer

On my walk today with mommy and Dex I asked mom if I could take pictures. After a slight hesitation, she said yes. Here is the world from my view and it shows things that I think are awesome (a word I use a lot along with "sweet")

Here's my dog, Dexie.

Mom with Dex.
Can you guess what this is?
Here's my dad's old pick-up.
Someone's boat I thought was cool-after this I said, "NICE shot" which made my mom burst out laughing.
I had to stop and take one of this beautiful flower.
Oops, wrongs way.
See that cool truck over there?
and that awesome snow plow?

That was the finale-mom thought I did a great job and I think she's going to let me use her camera more often!

School has begun

Wow, 6am is a whole other world isn't it? I haven't had to get up that early for so long. It felt great today to get up, make a good breakfast for the kids (which they ate 2 bites of ) and start my day. By 10 I had so much done! I'm not really ready for the kids to be back in school, but I never am. It was sure quiet today with just Sawyer around (:

Here is my big girl off to the Middle School this year. She is growing up so fast. Every year the radio station plays a 5 year girl talking about her first day of Kindergarten and it is titled "I hope you treat me well" (I think) and it is a tear-jerker. I was avoiding having to listen to it this year as I was feeling emotional sending her to a big school and worried she wouldn't know where to go or what to do, etc. I didn't hear it until I dropped her off and was on my way to drop off Jonnie and of course the tears came. It seems like just yesterday I was bringing her to kindergarten. Now she has so many other worries to think about as a pre-teen. My prayers are for her to have a smooth middle school experience.

She was excited and nervous this morning, but when she got off the bus this afternoon she was all smiles and talked our ear off for about an hour and told us everything-that is a good sign! So far, so good and she really liked her teachers, too.


Here's my big boy on his way to third grade!! I used to think 3rd grade boys were so old, now I know they are not-haha. I laughed at how quiet the school was today and how all the kids sit quietly at there desks and oh, how that doesn't last long (:

He was bouncing off the walls this morning and sooooo excited to get there. Once we got there he was very quiet and serious. Once he got home again he was once again singing and bouncing around. His day went really well and he got off the bus saying, "this is going to be the best year ever, I LOVE my teacher!" I was beyond happy to hear this as Jonnie doesn't do well with change and he is going to a much bigger school this year, but he is lovin it so far!
Let's hope day number 2 goes equally as well!

Farewell summer...

Hard to believe summer is coming to an end already. Since I haven't blogged much this summer, I thought I would post a few highlights.

1. Sawyer started to ride his BIG bike. He did awesome for a couple days, had a few spills, then stopped riding it again until August. Now he goes fast and can go on bike rides with us on his own bike.

2. Our trip to Colorado. Any chance I get to travel to new places is a huge highlight to me.
3. Watching Jonnie improve in baseball and to see him really enjoy it this year.
4. My two nephews being born. This is really #1, but trying to go in order (:

Here is Liam Sidney-totally adorable.

and Levi Jack-equally adorable. I am lucky to love up and cuddle these two!

5. Swimming! We tried to swim as much as possible, but weather wasn't the greatest this summer and didn't go there as much as I would have liked.

6. Jonnie learning to swim and get over (for the most part) his fear of water. He even went down the big water slide-so proud of him!!
7. My handsome boys going to the doctor-not really a highlight, but I thought it was adorable. Sawyer is lucky to have a big brother! They are both healthy and doing great! Jonnie had his ears cleaned out and has anyone ever seen what comes out?? My mouth is watering just thinking about it-gross!
8. My other handsome boy went to the doctor, too and got on some happy pills. He is doing sooo much better and we rarely see him chase his tail anymore and his stomach problems have pretty much cleared up. He's a happy dog.
9. Here are just a couple cute pictures of dress-up moments. Yes, the kids still like to dress- up and perform shows and Alaina still likes to dress-up Sawyer-he is not as willing to wear dresses anymore and she has to bribe him with candy-it always works and the dresses come on (:Here they are as bums I guess right before a "show."

I am sure there are more highlights, but that is all I will post about. I already posted about other highlights, so I won't repeat. Hope everyone else had a wonderful summer. I know I say this every year, but this summer definitely went REALLY fast.