Excitment for a Sunday morning...

Well this morning we had a little excitement. We were at church, I was singing this morning and we were practicing, Ben was out in the lobby with all of the kids and a friend of mine came up to me and told me that Ben needed me. I thought "well that's weird, he knows I'm practicing and he never interrupts me" but I went out to see what was going on. As I round the corner I see Zac laying on his back, on the ground, crying, with Ben leaning over him with a rag on his head. Ben looked at me and said "we need to take a trip the to ER!" As a mom, that's that last thing that you want to hear when you have a crying kid. Let's just say that I was not the most calm one in the room. Turns out, he fell and hit the corner of a coffee table and got a HUGE gash just above his left eyebrow. He ended up needing 8 stitches....1 is kind of inside holding the "meat" together and then 7 are on the outside holding everything else together!! Here are a few pictures....

Sitting, waiting for the "stuff" to kick in and numb it all up. He's watching Madagascar and actually kind of having a good time at this point.
Here's a decent shot of the cut just right before it got closed up.

And here's the after, once we got home.

He did such a good job and was a very tough kid through the whole deal. The doctor was great and he kept talking to Zac the whole time he was stitching, keeping his mind off of what was actually going on. They say that he will have a pretty good scar when it's all over and also mentioned that if it bothered us we could see "Plastics" to have it fixed. Don't scars make guys look tough? I'm pretty sure we will NOT be having plastic surgery on our son's head! Plus, I think it will make him popular with the ladies....many, many years from now!!

First day of school....

Well this is a week late but here they are...the boys starting school!! Jacob in 2nd grade and Luke in KINDERGARTEN!!! I can't believe that I have 2 kids in school. So far it's going great. Jacob was so excited to get back at it. He is one of those kids that loves school and was totally ready to go back after summer. Luke was a little nervous but also very excited. Here they are all ready to head out the door.

Getting ready is always fun and a little crazy around our house. Oh sure, it looks all calm here but that's because you can't see me in the background rushing around like crazy :)

Here is Jacob walking down the familiar hall. Last year his room was one of the first ones down the hall, this year it's the very last room before you go out the door to.....RECESS. It's the perfect place really. And here he is, showing off his desk. See Grandma and Grandpa? They came for the big day and it was so awesome having them here. Now to Luke....showing of his desk! He thought it was pretty cool to be there. I know I've already said this but REALLY?!?! Luke in kindergarten?

The day is over and here he is getting off the bus.

Look at that smile, no tears for this kindergartner. If you are wondering how he is after his first week, he still loves it. The words out of his mouth on Friday were "Mom, school is AWESOME!! I love it!!" I'm so glad he's having fun. I have to say that I'm enjoying it a little too. It's amazing what taking 2 kids away can do for a noisy house.

Well, there they are. Sorry Mamaw and Grandma that it took so long to post these pics.

My new meal planner....

I wanted to tell you all about something new that I'm trying. My friend Cerissa told me about this last week and I am going to give it a try. It's called eMealz. You sign up for it and it will send you a meal plan and it gives you the grocery list and all!! I just signed up for it so I can't tell you for sure how it all works but Cerissa sure loves it. If you are interested, I put a link to their website on my side bar. Click on it and you can find out all about it....



I will let you know how I like it once I've used it some.

Swimming at Liberty Lake

We have lived in Liberty Lake for over a year now and up until about 3 weeks ago we had never been to the lake. It's a pretty nice place, not a huge beach and not the cleanest but the kids sure had fun and it was nice to lay around in the sun for awhile. I didn't get a lot of pictures because I was swimming but I got some really cool ones of Ben and Zac.

I haven't told you about my new camera yet. For my birthday Ben bought me a really great Canon Rebel with a 75mm-300mm lens. I've had so much fun with it and I think it takes awesome pictures. This first picture that I took was from so far away. I was on the beach, sitting on the blanket while they were way out in the water. Anyway, enough about my camera....here's the pictures from the lake :)
Look at the height....it was a little scary for mom on the sidelines but Zac loved it.

We've gone a couple more times since this trip and I'm sure we will go many more times.

Garden Project

This spring Ben and I decided that we wanted to put in a garden. We originally had a dog kennel in the corner of our yard but our wonderful Home Owners Association told us that we couldn't have it there so we HAD to take it down. We were going to just put in a little garden but after talking about it and planning it for about 30 min or so it ended up being way bigger then we thought it would be. It was so much hard work but we LOVED every minute of it. I took a lot of pictures of the progress along the way. Here are some....

I wanted you all to know that I did work with Ben but I also made sure that I had my coffee out there too.

The neighborhood boys sure enjoyed having piles of dirt and sod to play with. I'm not real sure what they were doing in this picture but I think there were cars involved.

Here it is, all ready for the dirt to arrive. Look at the beautiful wall that we built.

Here it is!!! Our WHOLE dump truck full of dirt. The biggest bummer of it all was that the dump truck couldn't fit back to the garden. We had to haul it all back to there one wheel barrel load at a time. We were so sore for the next week or so!

The kids thought it was cool to climb up on the mountain of dirt. They got so dirty!

Hey, it's almost ready to plant....

and now it's planted!!

Here it is a lot later after everything had some good water and sun.

This onion looked so big but when we pulled it, not so much. It was good though.

My HUGE zucchini plants.

Here's Ben harvesting some stuff....I think it's the big (not so much) onion.

And here's some of the fruits of our labors. The last two nights we've had veggies and potatoes. It's been so fun eating stuff that we working so hard for.

So there it is....our new hobby. I have learned a lot this year about gardening and I can't wait until next year to try a few new things. For now, we are just going to keep enjoying the food we are getting out of it.

Zac....the 4 year old!

I know it's been forever since I've blogged and so much has gone on in the last few months. One thing being my youngest son turning 4!! His birthday was on the 2nd and we had a little SUPERMAN party!! He loves being the center of attention and totally ate it all up. Scott, Kimberly and the kids were here and my aunt, uncle and cousin where in town visiting from the west side so they were also able to come to the party. Doesn't he look so happy in this picture?
Here's my Superman decorating attempt. They sure tasted good and they don't look too bad if I do say so myself...

Here the kids are playing a game that he got. You put a water balloon in the middle and as you pass it around it pops and gets you all wet if you're holding it. Turned out kinda lame but the kids liked it and had fun.

He had been asking for a webkinz for awhile so Jacob and Luke both thought it would be a great idea to get him one. He loves it and named it Kevin.

Here's the kids waiting to eat their dinner....but they still smiled for the camera. *Say Cheese*

Once more, all the attention on him as we sing Happy Birthday Zachary!

It was a fun night and he had a great time. I can't believe that my little boy is 4! It seems like he was just born and I wish I could just push pause sometimes. I guess I just need to slow down and enjoy the time I have.

Well, I hope to be posting more blogs soon with lots of picture from our summer fun!

Really?? Was it 2 years ago....

....that this little princess came into our lives??

How can it be that today, June 8th, she is this beautiful little 2 year old girl?

It blows my mind that my BABY, my very last baby is 2 years old already. I have tried so hard to enjoy every moment of her "firsts" because they are my last "firsts". I am having so much fun with her and I love the stage that she is in but also a little sad too. Today she totally understands that it is her special day. She got the super cute red outfit with purse and all from Nana Sheets and she had to wear it right away. Both sets of grandparents will be her to help us celebrate. I will post party pics later. Here's a few more of her posing for the camera.