Row, row, row your boat....

Our church had a family picnic at Cougar Lake at the Southern Illinois University of Edwardsville campus....much fun. Even if "scared the death of me" according to Kimberlyn in the canoe. I was quite content waiting on shore with Tommy. Then Kimberlyn got nervous and Tommy too, so I had to go and be "brave." Problem is, I like to be in water I can see my feet...and prefer bodies of water that don't have all that green stuff on top and look like perfect alligator habitats...if it didn't get so cold in the winter, they'd LOVE it up here ;)

Tommy feeling lost and calling Daddy.

Kimberlyn striking a pose.

If you catch this before 3am CST....PRAY....we are under a tornado watch and WORSE yet the older two kids are at church camp and are under same tornado watch....there's not been any fun in them being away...I rather gripe about them fighting than worry about them!!!

Robby had been excited to go... Kaitlyn got a burst of I-DON'T-KNOW-WHAT and decided to go at 3:15pm the day before?!?!?! Thankfully there was room in her friend's cabin/group...I've heard back she's doing fine...she's only slept away at two people's homes before....my aunt's home and a dear grandmotherly-type friend's home.

Kaitlyn and Ruby Rose's First show together!!

Kaitlyn snuggling Sweetie very early this morning right after she woke up! Jealous Ruby!!

If you don't believe in prayer...if I had the time to type out the whole ordeal about getting a trailer ride to the show today...you'd believe in prayer. I seriously couldn't have handled the stress of if we'd get a ride and whom it'd be from even at 7:15am this morning without prayer!
Prayers were answered and the owner of the stable that was hosting the show sent her stable manager to pick us up...in a brand new 4-horse trailer!!! For non-horsey people, that's about like taking a limo ride ;)

All ready, waiting before her first class...

Walk/Trot Open Equitation (all ages)
Riding past the judge's stand all eyes on her! Looking pretty!!

THIRD PLACE out of 8!!!

Tommy visiting the other horses, killing time while sis showed!

Walk/Trot Equitation (12 and under)
Another looking good shot with all eyes on her!

Kimberlyn and her stick horse Bella that she made in 3yr old preschool watching Kaitlyn!

The Line Up!

SECOND out of 9!!!

Yes....mama is very proud of both of them!!! AND Robby was there for most of it, but hiding in the van playing Gameboy :)

PS....yes sassy pony likes to pretend to be bored and SLEEP during photo ops!!

Mother of the YEAR

For certain, I long ago outgrew my desire to play with frogs. And I am the first to tell you I let out a big "ewwww" when the kids play with them or worms and such.
When Tommy opened the sandbox that I JUST closed in preparation for some rain he CRIED! I thought hmmm, delayed reaction he's upset as mama said no sandbox. NOPE, he found a very unwelcome friend!! This frog was in the sandbox and you'd thought it was an alligator!! (oh, Maria...we don't really have those here)

So after trying for many minutes to convince him frogs are cool -aren't all boys supposed to feel this way?- I decided to take said frog inside to get the camera, I mean a girl needs proof to her hubby that she really tried her best to make her boy like frogs! I seriously brought in my trash cans from the road and toted this guy around...so finally I got the camera.

Tommy touched it once and he kissed my hand when I asked him to kiss it, he'll kiss almost anything!


But...here you see he freaked when he realized I set the frog free! I think he felt secure and comfortable knowing I held it captive, but now he's probably fearing a frog invasion in his sand box!

Lazy Summer Day...

Can't wait for more days like this! Saturday was just a casual day full of fun here!

Tommy reading...he loves books and this scene happens at least once a day!


Kimberlyn seemed lost when I called for her, only to find her locked in her room with her best-est pal ever!
No question as to who Rascal still claims as his owner!

Ruby and Kaitlyn having some laid back fun...


And while Kaitlyn and I did horse stuff, Larry was mowing the lawn. I'd say he can multitask fairly well!



All this fun made for tired kids....Kaitlyn and Tommy sleeping together on a recliner, of all the places to sleep- a recliner???
Tommy woke up screaming a few hours after and then squished me the rest of the night in my bed. The joys of him being out of the crib :( I'd say the transition went well until a couple weeks ago. My sheets are in the wash now, we'll see if I can get him to nap in HIS bed since mine isn't made up yet. May make for an interesting post later.

Tonight is Kaitlyn's first Tap Dance class. She's so excited! Last week when we went shopping for her attire she had to try it all on, in fact I do believe she's tried it all on every single day since!

Our summer schedule is getting busy...not so sure how many Lazy Days we'll have....but we'll savor each one as they come in between tap class, guitar lessons, basketball camp, church camp, riding lessons, horse shows, play dates-- not to mention vacations....

Random stuff....

Random things to make you chuckle...

Here we have Rascal helping Larry take measurements on the hole in our ceiling due to the water leak damage. Didn't you know cats were anxious to help measure??? Kimberlyn was fearing he'd get stuck in the ceiling forever, somedays this doesn't sound all that bad! Aren't they cute!



Here we have Doodle (I mean Kimberlyn~ and you wonder where this name came from) claiming ownership of our home. This statement of ownership is just below my bathroom window, she stood on the retaining wall to do this. Later I took away a pencil, with a broken tip, she was doodling with it in water, making water art on the table out there...I figured it was safer resting above the basement window, look closely and you can see the pencil there!



Tommy was being a drag queen today....oh, goodness this will haunt him forever I do believe!



Kaitlyn had a few moments of not being a sassy brat this evening and let Tommy piggy-back on his hopping ball. Best toy ever I think!

Country Living Gone Wild....

Here we have what I'd call the "cons" to owning a hamster. I don't know all details, BUT I do know hamsters store food for later. Stormy had a bit saved up! I even felt it as I often do, YUCK!

Here Stormy's unloading his second batch of YUCK....ON KAITLYN!


Here's his up close n' personal shot...
He's cute huh??


Every hamster needs his very own convertible, right??


My beautiful front door area...I told my Aunt about that beautiful bush...now is the perfect time to show you it...


See we had a special guest this morning...on that very porch! I'd say she has four legs and weighs around 300-something pounds...she's super sweet hence her name SWEETIE!!







Grazing our carpet...didn't work well.

Kimberlyn decided to go for a ride as Sweetie browsed around. Sweetie was quite disappointed with that empty gumball machine.

Exploring the kitchen...at which time we realize Ruby was quite upset about her pal being treated like royalty, okay she was probably thrilled to not be in our home, but rather quite upset her pal wasn't by her side!

YES, two HOOF prints on our Turkish rug Larry brought home from Turkey a few years ago!!!!


All I have to say is what I was saying at the time, "GLAD IT WASN'T ME" ~ it was all HIS idea as he invited the sweet thing in. Honestly I'm not sure he really thought Sweetie would come in.

Wildlife...we're in the country now!

With show jumping in our backyard too!!
These two opossums ran straight in between our yard and the neighbors yard...for a slow moving animal, they ran fast!

Kaitlyn painting her jump poles...

Ruby is a known food hog, it is flooring us to see she allows Sweetie to share her food! If she hogs too much Sweetie simply pulls the bucket away and Ruby tolerates it!!

JUMPING...we finally have the jumps built!


And now HIGHER



Larry caught this neat shot and claims Ruby is smiling....Not so sure on this :)

A cute shot by Kimberlyn....of Kaitlyn riding Sweetie. Kimberlyn wanted to take pictures of Kaitlyn jumping Sweetie....KAitlyn did jump Sweetie a few times before the camera lady arrived, she also bit teh dust a few times and was DONE being dumped! Sweetie doesn't have MUCH of anything to hold on too! She had fun though!

Another cute shot by Kimberlyn...something about her angle, it's sweet!