A day at the track

A few weeks ago Dan had the opportunity to race his car in a Rich Christensen Arm Drop Live Drag Race. These pictures are from that event. If you aren't a drag racing fan (most of you I'm sure), you may not know that Rich Christensen is the host of "Pinks" a tv show in which drivers race for pink slips. I guess he also does these Arm Drop Live events too. I don't know if they are on tv, I think they are, but this one wasn't (bummer). Would have been fun to see Dan on tv, expecially doing something he loves. The event was pretty fun to watch, but unfortunately Dan didn't win. :( He raced really well though, and the car and driver both performed perfectly. The other car was just faster (had nitrous, Dan's doesn't). The Arm Drop Live event is like drag racing in "Grease", Rich stands with his arms up and when he drops them, you go. First one across the finish line wins. Dan did really well off the line (good reaction time), in fact he was about 2 car lengths ahead of the other guy, but once the other guy hit his nitrous that guy passed him-only beating him by about 1/2 a car length! It was a good race, but it is all over so quickly! A quarter mile at 100+ miles per hr doesn't last long! Anyway, here are some pictures to commemorate the event. This one is after the race, where Dan is teasing W.

Dan is the Black car on the right. (center of picture)

Afterward with the girls, his cheering section. (Don't know why T was making a weird face)

Here is Dan and the "celebrity" :)

Rich and the girls.

Flower Garden

Here are some pictures of my flower garden that I am so proud of this year. In the spring the front row is lined with tulips, but fall is actually my favorite time to view this flowerbed because of the beautiful orange mums. They were planted last year as just a little 8gall pot (I think) and look how huge they are this year!!! Beautiful . I love fall colors. The lilac colored plants in the middle were transported from MI all the way here, they came out of Dan's grandma's garden. Its amazing they survived, especially since I didn't replant them for at least 4 months. The little red mums in the corner and the orange daisy thing I planted this year. I also moved my cannas all to the back and added 2 trellises for my morning glories to grow on (they should come in next year). Do you like it?

The huge mums above, and the daisy (forget what kind) below. However, I made a mistake and got the daisies thinking they were perennials, but the tag said annuals and I got confused during my purchase. Maybe I'll get lucky and they'll come back next year. If not I'll have to find something that is a perennial to put there instead because I don't like having to plant every year.

And here's my little cutie pie striking a pose. She's wearing her pink cowgirl roper boots that she loves... what a country girl!

Pumkin Patch

Here are more pictures from the pumpkin patch since I can't fit them all on one post. The girls had a ball driving these little tractors all around the place. Then they began towing each other with a wagon attached-of course it was W's idea! The little instigator!

This was a gourd (I think) that I thought was really cool. Doesn't it look like a swan? It even has a brown spot for the eye!

T holding her mini pumkin and haybale with the funny gourd. W below is my picture poser! I have to beg T to take pictures, but W jumps right in with a big smile--hope this lasts! :)

Pumpkin Patch

During fall break I took the girls to the pumpkin patch in town. It was fun, they picked out a pumpkin to bring home, they went down the slide, balanced on pumpkins (T below), climbed haybale towers, W rode a pony, and they drove mini tractors around the tent laughing all the way. It was a fun time. Here are a few pictures from it.

It was really cute, when they were in line for the slides W would stand so close to T that u couldn't fit a slice of bread between them. In this picture she is holding her jacket, but half the time she actually held onto her leg. She was sort of scared by all the people I guess so she got as close to her big sis as possible :)

Wheeeeee! T coming down the slide.

Aren't they sweet? Love fall pitures!

Look who's 4!

T 's gift to W for her birthday was "breakfast in bed". She had the idea herself, and made the scrambled eggs herself. What a nice big sister!

Here is a picture of W getting ready to blow out the candles. I made the cake myself :)

This is a shot of W giving the "thumbs up" sign because she like the fishing pole, tackle box, and hat her grandparents gave her :)

My littlest sweetheart turned four this week. I can't believe it. Time goes by way too fast. I know they have to grow up , but I so enjoy them being "little". They are so sweet. I love it when W wraps her arms around my neck for no reason and says "I love you mommy" aaawwwww. Can't get enough of that!

We went to the mall for her birthday to let her ride the trampoline jumpy thing she has been asking to ride for 2 months. However, when we got there it was gone (internally I was regretting not letting her ride it sooner). Replacing it was a carosel, which of course I let her ride since the trampoline was gone. Then she played in the mall play area which she loves. Then of course I had to go into Children's Place to see if there were any good deals-walked out of there $75 later with a bunch of cute clothes for both the girls {on a side note, I buy WAY too many clothes for both of them. They have more clothes than some adults I'm sure, yet I can't stop myself, if its a good deal they are just too cute to pass up. I think its that whole Barbie-doll dress mentality that I spoke about with the laundry. I love getting them cute clothes.} Anyway, after leaving that store W says let's ask the carosel guy if the moved the jumpy thing. I honestly don't think they did. I am sure they just replaced it with the carosel, but sure enough when we ask, he says they moved it to the other end of the mall! So we head down there only to find out that after we are all ready to get strapped in, W is too scared to do it after all. :0 She says maybe she'll try it later if her sis does it with her, but for now she just clings to me and won't do it. (After literally 2 months of her begging me to let her do it everytime we drive by the mall!) silly goose! These were a few pictures to commemorate her actual birthday. She is having her first birthday "party" with her OWN friends on Sunday, so I am sure I will post more pictures after that :)

Fall Fun while camping

Here are some more pictures from our camping trip. I love fall leaves, so I can't get enough of pictures that have fall leaves in them :) Here's me and T & W & our dog Lucy in the leaves. The next one is of me and my hubby with our dog. It was a bit chilly on our camping weekend the first day and a half, but Saturday was beautiful and sunny. We played lots of uno, yahtzee, rode bikes, played catch, walked in our wading boots up the creek, got ice cream (several times- 50 cents a scoop how can I pass that up?!), plus I even ran 2.5 miles one morning with the dog so I even got a bit of exercise. It was a fun relaxing weekend. Plus facebook somehow got on Dan's blackberry, so I could do facebook posts while away-ha ha.

This last picture is in the creek. Most of the year this creek that runs next to the campsites is dry, but every fall (and probably spring) when its been a rainy season it flows, and it is so pleasant to listen to and the girls and I love walking up and down it in our boots.

posts for my faraway family

This blog started out with a lot of health and fitness stuff, but when I took a "break" from that focus this summer it veered into more family/kid/every day life stuff. It would make sense to have 2 blogs, one for fitness, one for family (like my friend Jen) but I don't, and I don't think I have time to maintain two. So, for those followers who began following because they liked the weightloss stuff, I apologize that it is more life-oriented now. (Even though on my quiz, the only 2 people who replied BOTH said they prefer fitness blogs), this blog is veering off that path, at least for awhile. Plus I am using it as a tool for my mom who lives far away to be able to stay more connected with our goings-on and see more pix and videos of her grandkids. I know she'll love all the camping/bday etc pix, but if the rest of you get bored . sorry. Things change, we'll see what happens next. I still love getting "comments" from any of you who read them though, so please keep dropping me notes about your thoughts on the entries. Thanks, have a great day!

Fall leaves continued

Here are the girls playing in the leaves while we were camping. Pretty fun.

This one is of W trying to chase me with a pile of leaves to toss on me :)

This was supposed to be another leaf picture, but I uploaded the wrong one, so u get to see W getting ready for a (no training wheels) bike ride. :)

Fall leaves

Here is a cute video of us playing in the leaves while we were camping last weekend. The second video is of Lucy going nuts as the girls try to throw leaves on her!

Modest Mom

Ok, I'm not sure how to organize this post to make it coherent and make it all make sense to you, but these thoughts have been running through my head lately. A couple of things probably triggered them, so I'll explain those things as well. First off, this is about dressing appropriately and modestly. Not like a hooker advertising the goods for the world to see. As you recall, I took T, along with some other moms and their girls to the Secret Keepers event which talked to young girls about body image and dressing modestly. When dressing myself for this event I wanted to make sure I was setting the right example too. And I began to think to myself, if some of my clothes in my closet wouldn't be the wisest choice to wear for this event, why are they in my closet in the first place? Now don't get me wrong, I don't think you've ever seen me wearing something "way out there", but some tops are cut a little lower than others so u have to be careful bending over and such (I wish they weren't, but that's the way they are made, so I deal with it. Usually a tank underneath solves it, but even the tank isn't as high as I would prefer it to be, so I wind up "pulling it up" in the front throughout the day to make sure I'm not showing any of my (almost nonexistant) cleavage (ha ha). Anyway, one thing the lady mentioned at the even was that if we raise our arms our tummy shouldn't show-gosh, all my t-shirts show my tummy if I lift my arms! and they are simple v-neck or crew neck solid colored T's. They aren't super short, but they do "lift". I honestly don't like layering clothes, so I'm not one to wear a really long cotton tank underneath (which would probably solve this--also solves the lowrise jean issue for all those out there who wear those). But I'm thinking to myself, gosh I'm not even meeting the criteria that I am hoping my daughter follows.

Then my friend Jen (I forgot how to do the link to show u her website) posted a comment about dressing your age and dressing "hip". So again it got me thinking about it. Lots of things in stores are cut "sexy-ish" instead of simply cut normal. So whatever u buy it often has this cleavage problem.

Then I changed my photo on Facebook with a funny shot W had taken of me. I didn't think it was sexy, infact, it was kinda goofy because my 3yr old took the shot and I was doing a "model pose". Well , anyway, someone commented that it was sexy, then my friend/brother, Chris said the same thing to me and he's like "I shouldn't look at a picture of Rene' and think its sexy, that's just wrong". He's right. I was embarrassed that it came across that way. (By the way, after the first friend commented, I changed the photo). I don't want to be "advertising" a "sex symbol" mentality to anyone. [Now don't get me wrong, I don't have a big head thinking I'm all sex goddess of the world or anything-not at all!] But my point is, its good to be sexy. But I think you should be sexy for your spouse... in private. Not for the world to see. I believe that whatever is under your clothes is for your spouse to enjoy, not for the world to look at and then consequently think about. In fact, here is an example... I used to enjoy watching Nick and Jessica on the Newlywed Show. I liked Nick alot because he reminded me of my husband Dan. He seemed down to earth and pretty basic--I especially liked the episode where he tried to rid their yard of bees himself instead of hiring a exterminator-hilarious! Anyway, when I saw some of the horribly revealing outfits Jessica would wear to red carpet events with him on her arm (and her boobs hanging out for EVERYONE to see), I lost respect for him. Because my thought was this. .. This is your wife. You should want to protect the private areas of your life that are just for the two of you. Not for the whole world to see and drool over. He seemed to like the fact that his wife's boobs were garnering so much attention-like it made him a better man for "catching" the prize. But I thought it just showed poor taste in that instead of keeping that part of her body for "his eyes only", he and her were galantly showing everyone.

So this is my point, I don't want to portray an image that causes anyone besides my husband to think anything about me, except that I am a wife, mom, and person. Not one of those "whoa, double take" moments like when I saw Jessica. Even if another woman sees a lady's boobs hanging out, you are like "whoa". I just think it should be kept between husband and wife the way I believe God planned it. We are to be a pleasure to each other. Two become one.

It also seems that I usually don't have a problem with this, but sometimes if I am around ladies who dress a little bit sexy I start to feel frumpy so then I start dressing a little bit more revealing. Wrong I'm sure. I don't want my girls to think its ok to wear a "playboy bunny" outfit for a costume party (for example) instead of something (ANYTHING) that would not be advertising. I'm sorry, but I think swimsuits are for swimming , not wearing out and around. Gymnasts wear leotards in the gym, not to the mall. Get my point.

So I want to set the example to dress appropriately, so that when my daughters get older and are more influenced (probably) by society's fashion, that they can still be cute without being revealing. I hope I do the right thing. They seem to already be aware because at home when I am tucking them in at night and wearing my nightgown they have commented "isn't that short?" (it goes to my mid thigh!) My thought was, gosh I'm at home, no one is seeing me but my family (and I don't have sons!) this shouldn't be a big deal. But it seems like I need to wear a robe or something because even in my nightgown I think they are learning that it shows too much(for public of course) I just didn't think it showed too much for home. Guess I've got something to learn. Anyway, so these are my confusing thoughts for the last several days... setting a good example and being happy and comfortable with my ensemble, not trying to "keep up" with the rest of society who are "showing it off", and all the while still being fashionable and not dowdy. I know it can be done, I guess I just need to make a better effort at it, and only buy things that really fit my "modest style" instead of caving in and buying stuff that isn't as high-cut as I would prefer it to be, just because I think its the only thing out there. I bet if I keep looking , I'll find the stuff I'm looking for and won't have to alter my principles in the process.

I love laundry

Ok I admit it. I love doing laundry. I know this makes me weird. But I don't care. Yes, one of my friends upon hearing this invited me to her house (probably to stay indefinately), but its true...I enjoy doing laundry. I even enjoyed it as a kid growing up. My mom gave me the choice of what household chore I wanted and I chose laundry. Its pretty easy really, u just stick it in and walk away. Yes , ironing is bad, and I don't like that-but since my husband and I don't work in office environments, I don't have to do too much of that.
Then, once babies started coming, I REALLY started liking laundry even more. Who doesn't love looking at all those cute little clothes and booties?! As they get older it doesn't get any less fun, I still like pulling their clean clothes out of the dryer and hanging them up. Strange, but true. I guess its my transferrance of how much I enjoyed playing with Barbies as a kid. But they are life-size now and I still get to dress them up-how great is that?! :)
Anyway, this is the preview to say my new washer and dryer (and replacement dishwasher) got delivered last week. Unfortunately it was the day before we left on a camping trip so I didn't get to "break them in" too much. Dan laughed at me, because while we were camping I told him how much I was looking forward to doing laundry in my new w/d once I got home--ha ha, isn't that sick? oh well. I still haven't had time to read the manuals (which I will do soon), but I've done lots of loads of laundry and LOVE my new set. The best part is that there is a "delay start" option. (which possibly all front loads have but I didn't know about) For years I've been saying how great it would be to have a delay option on the washer so u could set it to wash the clothes right before u got home from work and then u could toss them in the dryer when u walked in the door (instead of them sitting all day wet in the washer and winding up smelling like mildew). Anyway, mine has this option and its cool. Of course I had to use it, so I set it to start the laundry at 5am so it would be done by the time I got up and I could toss it in the dryer. However, I didn't tell my husband I had done this, so one morning when he was leaving for work, he heard water and he was searching all over for a leak until he realized at last that I was doing a load of laundry on the "delay start" ha ha. Too funny. Anyway... love the new appliances and love the salespeople who helped me and gave me such a great discount!
I have LOTS more to write about and say, but time has left me and I still have to hop on the treadmill, get a shower and make dinner and head to church to teach the nursery... so I will have to save the rest for future posts. Have a great day....I am, I've already done several loads of laundry ;)

appliance shopping

Well, I haven't written in a while. I do have some pictures to upload, but that requires me to be on my desk computer and not this laptop, since they are all on that harddrive. So, instead you just get a note from me about what's been going on lately. To update you on the mouse situation, so far no other indicators that we have any more mice in the house. Think and hope we are ok. However, bad news about the dishwasher. Evidently the tub is not a replaceable part so the dishwasher is toast. So I've spent the last several days dragging the kids to appliance stores and checking out new dishwashers (and washer/dryers, since I was planning on buying a set at Christmas for our upstairs laundry room anyway, I might as well use my time at the store to look at both so I don't have to go through all this again in a few months). So anyway, I always say I LOVE looking at and getting new appliances...but the truth is I LOVE it when I'm not really in the market to buy one. When I really need to buy one and make a decision I get all stressed out trying to figure out which one will be right for me. The reason for this problem is that the first time I bought new appliances I got perfect ones and loved them. The second time I bought new appliances I've had bad luck. For example... my old washer was fine, my new one tangles my bras horribly even on the gentle cycle. What a pain. 2. Loved my first fridge, but when it was in storage when we first moved here, the heat in the storage unit did something to mess up the ice maker so it had a small leak that caused all the ice to freeze together in a clump(that was a GE Profile by the way). Bought a Whirlpool a few years ago- got great shelves and set up organization-but it freezes my fridge food in certain places in the fridge even though I've turned the temp on both the fridge and freezer lower than the recommended "normal" level. Drives me nuts and makes me mad. In fact, just yesterday I pulled out my container of carrots in water and they were frozen in a block of ice! ugh! So anyway, I'LL never buy a whirlpool fridge again, and I hope u don't either. Then #3, I had a small leak on my dishwasher (which was actually great) . I told my husband about it, hoping he would just look at it and tighten a nut or something to stop the leak. He told me to just buy a new one (I think he wanted to change to stainless steel anyway). Well, I usually don't say no when given the opportunity to buy something new (ha ha) so I went and got a Fridgidaire. Horrible! Did not clean the dishes. Was so discouraged I called Lowe's and asked what their policy was on returning installed appliances. They were great, they actually let me get a different one and they exchanged it out. (ps. don't EVER buy a fridgidaire dishwasher-afterward when I'd mention to salespeople they'd all say "oh yea, frididaire's never clean well" [why didn't someone tell me this during the purchase?!}) Anyway, exchanged it for a GE and its been pretty good. Only annoying thing is that my bowls don't fit on the top shelve where I would prefer to put them. But anyway, this is the one the mouse ruined so now I have to replace it. So all this to say, what was once a fun, enjoyable shopping experience, has now turned into a wretched requirement that is wrought with anxiety and frustration. I would really like to be able to run a load in a dishwasher before I buy it and stack it with MY dishes to see if they really fit. And most importantly will it clean them, and secondly will they be dry? I am a firm believer in the fact that a dishwasher is meant to WASH the dishes so I shouldn't have to pre-wash them in the sink. Sure, I scrape off the food chunks, but I don't rinse or wash them unless they are super stuck on there. So anyway, that's another issue, because all new dishwashers came with built in food disposers, but now I've learned some of the high end brands which u would expect to be the best(Bosch) don't. U actually have to clean the filter manually. YUCK. Who wants to clean out gross old food from the bottom of your machine? Not me. So I've been doing lots of research on drying elements, and cleaning issues, only to not find much that is helping me.
But to cut this short (not really but I still have alot to say), Dan is getting ready for bed, so I need to turn this off and go to bed too so he doesn't get grumpy. (that was for u Dan-but u know its true!) :)

Anyway, tomorrow the girls will be at grandma's so after I finish work (early I hope) I am planning on heading to the appliance stores again to brave the overload of information and try to choose one and be done with this. Wish me luck.

Oh, by the way, my stupid scale says I gained 5 pounds. I'd say "what's the deal with that?!" but I know the "deal with that" is all the cookies and ice cream I've been eating lately. ggggrrrrr! Wish I was naturally skinny like high school and could eat ANYTHING all the time and not HAVE to work out (just do it when or if I wanted to). But I guess age, babies, and a slower metabolism have changed all that. Such is life.

screaming till my throat hurts

It all started on Thursday.

I woke up in the morning to find that my dog, Lucy, (who doesn't like to go potty outside when its raining) had pee'd on the floor again. Ugh! However, in finding the pee (right next to the doggy door!) I was confused as to why the dog door cover was lying askew on the floor and her crate was all cockeyed crooked, and that when I did finally let her back in the house after kicking her out, she was sniffing all around the edge of the dryer which is right next to her dog door, and which is where her dog door cover is usually stashed when the dog door is "open". I thought that odd, and I peaked back there but didn't see anything.

Then I started finding what I hoped were not (but actually knew they were) mouse droppings in the house. In the entryway tile, in the kitchen, in the pantry. So for about a day I sort of pretended we didn't have a mouse, because I really didn't want one. I also was reminded of that Friends episode where Phoebe lets the mouse live in her apt and sets out food for it and it does not harm anything. I'm thinking, maybe its not really here, and if it is , its so tiny it can't do much harm, right? (WRONG).

Friday Lucy goes to the vet all day for shots and a teeth cleaning, when I pick her up and bring her home she starts going nuts sniffing along all the bottom edges of the kitchen cabinets. (You do know there is a gap between the kickboard and the cabinets, right?) So I KNOW that would be a good mouse hiding place, and based on Lucy's behavior I KNOW its in there. (Plus I had just picked up some more mouse turds off the kitchen floor, so it had to be near!)

Well, Dan is out of town (hunting in KS) and I do not want to have this mouse get out of control, and I am getting more anxious by the moment. So that evening I head out and buy some mouse traps. However, I don't really want to deal with the snap kind, so I buy these super sticky things. (Not realizing that if it catches the mouse, it will still be alive and THEN what will I do?!)

Anyway, set them out along the base boards and one in the pantry that night. No luck. Saturday morning I load the dishwasher , turn it on and head upstairs to do some work. I come down later because something the girls and I are baking is ready and I find the floor covered in water. The dishwasher (which is only 2years old!) is leaking all over the floor and its leaked through the back of the cabinet into the carpet in the living room-GGRRRR! What's the deal???!!!! Of course Dan is still gone and I'm thinking this is just great (of course that was sarcasm). So... clean it up, turn it off, can't pull it out to look behind it so leave a msg on Dan's phone telling him we have a dishwasher problem now too(last night I left him a msg about our mouse problem).
Still no mice in our traps either.
Well, Dan comes home that evening and he pulls off the kickboard on the washer and lo' and behold, what do we find????? That stupid mouse has chewed TWO HOLES in the plastic tub of the dishwasher. Reason for leak ... found!! GGRRRRR!

Go to store, buy more mouse traps. This time the kind that SNAP!

Set them out, one in the pantry, one under the dishwasher (I don't want to set them out in the open because I don't want Lucy to set them off sniffing the peanut butter).
I go to sleep dreaming about getting that mouse. All the while hoping it is just one, and that it gets caught asap. I don't even want to get a new dishwasher or get it fixed till he's gone because I don't want him to chew thru the fixed one!

First thing Dan and I both do when we wake up is check the traps. No luck.
Then I notice Lucy is sniffing at the couch. So I go and check it out. Our couch is a sectional that latches all together, so its not movable by one person and its actually a pain(I'll never buy another sectional-too hard to clean underneath it, which I didn't realize when I bought it). But I peer behind it and I don't see much, except one of T's magazines has fallen back there so I reach in and pull it out. Only to see that its been chewed through and there is poop on the carpet right next to the couch, and the light cord that runs back there is semi-chewed through too. AND the dog is still going nuts sniffing at the couch!

So... I get another snap trap and set it (this does take awhile because I don't know what I'm doing-I even had to go look at the ones Dan had set so I could figure it out ha ha). Anyway, I set it and put it behind the couch where I found the magazine and poop. We then put the dog outside and leave for church.

We come home and check all the traps they are all empty... except the one behind the couch is flipped over and appears to have a mouse in it. We pull it out only to find no mouse! Crud! We were very excited, only to be let down...how could he have gotten out?! Those things snap so quickly and so hard it should have certainly caught him!

Well, Dan decides we better pull the couch out and see whats under it...he starts to pull out the other end and "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH", T and I scream as we see a HUGE, and I mean HHHHUUUUUGGGGEEEEEE field mouse laying there dead. Ick, gives me the shivers just thinking about it. Yuck! However, Hooray for it being DEAD! :)

I was expecting to find little 1-2 inch long tiny mice. NOT a giant goliath that was at least 6 inches long! Dan teased me that I was scared of it running across my face while sleeping, which I really wasn't because I figured it was so tiny and probably was just in the kitchen. Little did I know that it was this HUGE MONSTROSITY that would have suffocated me if it had run across my face at night-ick!

The only thing we can think (since we set out no poison) is that he got hit in the head when it snapped and he was so big he didn't really fit in it, so he ran off as far as he could but his head injury was fatal (ha ha) and he died six feet away from where he was struck in the head by the trap.

All the other traps are still set, but I truly hope that it was the only one and we are done with this fiasco.

Looking back, I think it must have come in the dog door Thursday night and maybe Lucy had chased it a bit and that's why her door and crate were all askew and why she was sniffing behind the dryer, because she had chased it back there. Then it moved into the kitchen where she sniffed it and it made itself a bit of a bed under our couch. Hopefully this is the end of this story. However, I DO need to call a repairman and find out how much it will cost to fix the dishwasher, or if its almost better to just buy a new one. The thing that stinks is that this one IS a new one (I had it installed exactly 2 years ago, so it really stinks that its now broken) Can I say "UGH" just one more time?... UGH!

The only positive thing (except that the mouse is dead) is that T and I did the dishes together last night, and it was really fun. Reminded me of doing the dishes every night with my brother when we were growing up. Anyway, I hope this is the end to my mouse story. Oh, by the way, the title is true, because my throat is now killing me after screaming my head off when we found it. (I consoled myself with a nice cool coconut popsicle-kinda like tonsilitis right?) :)

W bullriding

Here is W on her turn on the bull too. She is smiling her camera-smile the whole time-too cute! They sure do look like little cowgirls don't they? Well, maybe not, but still cute :)

While we were there we saw baby piglets that were one day old-they were so pink and cute! We also saw a sow about to give birth, but she didn't do it while we were standing there-I really wanted to see that newborn piglet, oh well. Maybe next year.

at the fair

Just got home from the fair. We had front row seats at the Disney ice show. It was very good. W is at the perfect age for it now, she sat there completely enthralled by it all. So cute. Very good costumes and choreography, and good show all around. We've gone every year since Nemo (about 4-5 yrs now), and enjoy them all. Last year it took us an hour (!) to find parking, and we were late for the show. This year I planned to give us plenty of time, but left later than hoped so we only had 1 1/2 hrs till show time, traffic was BACKED up, I was fretting, but praying "God, please give us a good parking spot quickly so the girls don't have to walk a mile to the show and we aren't late". I almost pulled out of line and went to park in the driveway of a house that appeared to have a condemned sign on the door (no one lives there right?) but thought better of it and said, no that wouldn't be the right thing to do, and I need to put my trust in God, not this illegal driveway. We get all the way in, and it looks bad, however, I see a car pull out (but I can't drive over the concrete barracade to get to it (although I did contemplate it)) and there are 5 cars in front of me so I'm thinking there is no way that spot will still be open. Then we get to that area, and the worker asks if we are there for the ice show, I show him my tickets and he lets us in that special parking lot (!yippee!) (previous yrs this wasn't reserved for ice show people, u just had to hope to find one before the show started) so I pull in and get the spot in the front row that I had seen ! THANK YOU GOD! we were even 15 minutes early! (and believe me as I was sitting in traffic for the last 45 min, I was counting down every minute and block, thinking how I had wished I had left the house sooner) but God provides-(even parking spaces) thankyou!

This video is of T riding the "bull" check out her face, its hilarious!

No training wheels!

Here is W riding her bike for the first time with no training wheels! woohoo! So exciting. She wants to go riding almost every evening after dinner. She is FAST too-kinda scary almost. She did fall really bad last week though and scuffed up her chin a lot, but the bandaid is now off and she is doing much better. Still riding :)

flying kites

Here is a video of my girls flying kites in our front yard. It is so precious---I love living in the country so they can do things like this right in our yard :) Every week W asks to fly her kite some more, she loves it! Actually they both enjoy it alot, but W REALLY seems to get a kick out of it. Hope u enjoy the video as much as I do :)

Sept 09 Secret Keeper, by rene holcomb

I'd like to share my Snapfish photos with you. Once you have checked out my photos you can order prints and upload your own photos to share. I uploaded this from my snapfish album. If you click on the photo it takes u to snapfish's page where u can see the whole album. Its free, all u have to do is create a password if u don't have a snapfish account already.

These pictures were taken as we were getting ready to go to the Secret Keepers event. Then more pix at dinner prior. You'll notice W striking a pose with the big girls while still at our house-she wanted to go so bad :( We had a lot of fun and it was a great event to talk to young girls about dressing appropriately and modestly but still cute and "fashionable". It taught about loving yourself because God created YOU just as u are. He thinks you are perfect, so you should too :) I plan on taking T (and W when she is older) every chance I get-hopefully they will come back every year. It was a very fun event and I got to meet some more friends of MY friends Rachel and Jen. So it was fun to have "lady-talk" while the kids ate dinner :) Gotta love some adult conversation once in a while :)