Beautiful Flowers

All summer long, L has been busy picking me beautiful bouquets of flowers. Tonight, Dad and the three children were all outside playing while I was finishing up dinner. L came running in with a handful of these...

When my mom passed away, we found these adorable little vases in her house. My sister, Kim, said I needed them because my son (who was 2 at the time) would always pick flowers for me from his Nana's yard, and bring them inside to me.

I know these daffodils have seen brighter days, but to this momma, they make a beautiful bouquet!

Gardening

We have a small little plot in our yard that we hope to use for a garden spot next year. So, in the meantime, we are trying to prepare the ground. So far, we've ripped up weed barrier, and mulch. We plan to try to compost in this spot (leaves, grass clippings, and fruit and vegetable scraps). The children actually enjoyed this activity of digging and burying things like banana peels and kiwi skin. I heard one lady refer to this sort of activity as her "redneck garbage disposal." Hopefully in less than one year I'll be posting pictures of the children picking beautiful produce!

Little Workers

Well, we've been here in our new home for 6 weeks now. This week, we've finally gotten back into our all our "normal" routines. I have a weekly chore checklist I try to abide by. Each day of the week has a main household chore assigned for the day. For instance, if you come to our house on Monday, you will enjoy clean bathrooms. On Tuesday, all the bedrooms are cleaned (you get the point). Anyway, the children were cheerful little workers this week. I pray it continues, but I'm sure we may all have our moments. I like doing this teamwork thing because it holds me accountable to get everything cleaned every week. It also helps me train the children to be hard workers. Not just hard workers, but to also work with a good attitude. Dad and I have decided to start giving the children an allowance. Every Friday, if they have worked diligently and had good attitudes, each child will receive....get ready for this...10 cents!!!!! They are so excited about this!!! Would you clean bathrooms, bedrooms, living room, and kitchens for 10 cents/week???!!!! They're so cute:-) I'm going to love and enjoy this while it lasts!

Adventures in Babysitting

We had fun babysitting some new friends of ours so their Mom and Dad could have a much needed evening out. The children had a lot of fun playing together. All you Missouri Tiger fans who read this blog may notice the baby wearing the orange OSU jersey. His mommy is a big OSU fan. Because of MU's recent loss to OSU, we owe her and her family a dinner. Just a friendly wager between some Big 12 football fans who have found themselves a long, long way from Big 12 territory.

More Hiking and Exploring

L was very afraid!

T and K jumped right in and looked and touched everything they could!

After just a few minutes, L calmed down and enjoyed looking through this really cool nature center.



When we were done looking at things inside, there were MANY trails to explore. There was a turtle pond, butterfly garden, and beautiful creeks to look at. This is definitely a place we'll go back to again! The children and I had a picnic at this park a few weeks ago with some friends, but the nature center was closed that day. We didn't get to see much of the trails because L tripped over a HUGE tree root, and we had to cut our hike short. The children were very excited to take Dad along on this trip and show him everything.

Cub Scouts

Doesn't he look handsome in his uniform? T is enjoying being a cub scout very much! He's working on his bobcat badge right now. Every Tuesday night, Dad and T attend cub scout meetings.

This is what the girls did while the boys were at scouts this week...pedicures and manicures.

Our New Neighbors

Last Saturday we discovered we had new little neighbors - CHIPMUNKS!!!! We have had a lot of fun watching them. Their underground home is right in (or should I say under) our back yard.