Noah reciting ABC's

Here is Noah saying his ABC's. You'll notice he does great until he reaches r, then instead of s, he goes to x y z!

New pond

Well, the pond project is almost finished! After we add some rolls of rock to the side walls, and some blue solar tube lights, it should be done. I laid out the heart shaped scheme, and started digging(with a flat shovel to boot!). I got pretty far, but I'm glad Shawn came to my rescue and helped finish digging it. A cheap roll of 4ml plastic, doubled, from Tractor Supply, that we used as our liner(regular pond liners run around $300 +, this was $29.99) with river rocks gently laid out in a single layer, and larger rocks put at the edge of the different levels(there are 4 altogether), lighthouse put on the top level, pump to circulate the water, turn on the garden hose, 12 little goldfish, and voila, we now have a nice fish pond!

Red,white, and blue, clubhouse too

I thought this was a neat picture, of the white, red and blue flowers. Below is a picture of the kids clubhouse, one of my summertime projects. I sealed it, and this year I used a red based stain, I thought it turned out pretty, and country like!

My newest project is digging a pond. I spent3 hours digging on it yesterday, I made it heart shaped for Shawn. I told Hannah, I love her Dad so much, I'm out here sweating in the 90+* heat, felt like at least 102* with humidity, just to surprise him with the pond. I finally stopped at 1:30p.m., because I still needed to mow the grass, give the boys haircuts and baths, and shower myself after all that sweat so I could go to work and make it home in time for meeting...Ah, I love summer, and the long hours and great weather to work on projects. I'll post pond pics later, I am on my way out to spoil Shawn some more, and wash our Suburban!

Lake pictures

Roses for Momma, today's her birthday

I was blessed with the greatest Mother a girl could ever hope to have. Although I thought I was young to lose her when I was only 28(29 a month and a half later), at least I had more time than many others had. I'm sorry for Josh and Noah, who will never know their maternal grandmother, and sorry for Hannah and Zach, who miss her and tell me they are starting to forget what her voice sounded like and what she smelled like, and for Dad too, who I know struggles with the pain of separation, but I'm so thankful to know Mom is safe from fighting with the devil, and she is at peace with the One she served. I'm thankful she and Dad brought me up in the truth, thankful to have God loving parents who left me an example how to raise my children. I miss being able to call Mom with questions, glad I know One who knows the answers. Today was her birthday, remembering and missing her.

Animals

I haven't updated on the mini farm we have here. The animals we have right now are 2 miniature horses, Beauty and her 2 year old colt, Peanut, who is only 28" to his shoulder, 34" to the top of his head. His mother is 36" at her shoulder, and 42" to her head. 3 goats, 2 dogs(border collie Lucy, outside, and Rusty inside), 6 cats(Eli, Cassie, Minnie, Tiger,Penny, and Ali), 2 guinea pigs(Gage and Sydney) and 2 birds, Quaker Parrot, Rileigh, and parakeet, Tweety.3 year old Tinkerbell2 year old Coco an d his brother SnowEliPenny, now an outside cat! Ali, our newest addition

Garden

Weedy watermelon, I ran out of mixed gas and couldn't finish tilling this patch of the garden. That old saying kids grow like a bad weed, well, bad weeds really do grow fast. I had some helpers on Monday, 5 small sized ones, and today I told them the garden needed weeded again, for some reason, I get the feeling they really don't enjoy weeding. I also have planted, but didn't get pictures of, winter butternut squash, spinach, 2 types of lettuce, onions, carrots, and cantaloupe.
tomatoescucumbers
lettuce
corn that washed with a downpour, at least it came up!
peppers

Hannah birthday pictures

Aunt Diana played a little joke on Hannah and got her spider killer, seeing as how Hannah loves spiders SO MUCH!!(that is me being very sarcastic! She jumps around and screams loud enough I'm sure the neighbors hear her!)

Summer dryer

I love sunny, breezy days when I can hang out the laundry. We had a perfect laundry hanging out to dry day on Tuesday, with a nice strong breeze and warm sunshine to dry the clothes in only 30-45 minutes! I enjoy being outside, and this is a fine excuse to get out there, mowing is another one! On Wednesday, we had meeting here, and Hannah and Zach helped me out by taking the laundry off the line, while I mopped the floor. I don't know if they enjoyed it as much as I do, but,,, thanks guys for your help.Notice the schoolroom in the background :)The green bench is my basket holder.

Moved in!

We have officially moved into the schoolroom, however, we haven't actually done school work yet! We LOVE our new room. Thanks so much to Dad,(Grandpa), for all the labor and love he poured into our room. I spent several hours this afternoon unpacking boxes and trying to find a spot for all the books. I didn't freeze while I did it either, which was our number one reason for moving out of the basement. Dad is going to add an additional homemade bookcase with a custom built toy box under it for Noah, so during school time I can keep track of him and we won't have to carry toys in and out all the time. Looking forward to putting the room to use, but I'm not rushing summer. We are enjoying our vacation. On Monday we took a field trip with my sisters to a local water park. It was fabulous! Very cloudy day, in fact, it ended up raining for about an hour of our time there, but that keep the crowd down to only a few dozen people or so. We had a great time, I think I enjoyed going down the water slides,(both with and without tubes) as much as Hannah and Zach did. We even talked Aunt Diana and Aunt Angie into trying them out! A huge thank you goes to Aunt Diana and Aunt Angie for paying for breakfast, our admission, a snack, and even our supper! Thanks Angie for finding this great spot, we'll be sure to return.