Praying for baby Ella

Please PRAY for this sweet baby girl.

It's a boy (could we have it any other way?)

We have had a missing back fence for a while (if you'll recall, Santa knocked it over with his sleigh when he was delivering the trampoline). For lack of a better excuse, we've used our lack of fence as an excuse why we couldn't get a dog. Well, about 3 weeks ago the fence got fixed. Since our excuse had always been the fence the boys started talking about and telling people that now we are getting a dog. There are probably about a million reasons I could come up with why NOT to get a puppy... but there are 3 really good reason TO get one. So....

Here's our newest addition, Harley.

He's a purebred mutt. His mom is a chocolate lab and his dad is a german shepherd (a really big one, apparently).

Jack is beside himself to have a wrestling buddy beside Leo, the cat who is not very responsive to being tackled. Harley gives it right back (which is one reason we opted to go puppy rather than rescue dog; any dog of ours has to be accustomed to being tackled, pulled on, jumped on, etc)

This poor little guy has no idea what's in store for him.

Grant was beside himself. A few of the puppies ran away and hid when we got there (obviously not the dog for us). Harley was playful but also very mellow and tolerant. I like that in a dog.

Won't Max be suprised when he gets home from camp?!

hello mudder, hello fodder

Max left for camp earlier in the week. He has been looking forward to this for YEARS. He was ready. The rest of us might not have been as ready for him to go but he was.

We got there early which allowed time for a few "mom pictures" before we signed him in.

Hanging out with cousin Chloe (who went to camp, too) and friend Maya before the gates opened.

Claiming his bunk. We tried convincing him to grab a bottom one but he was adament about wanting to be on top.

After his swim test he allowed one more picture before he was ready for us to leave. He wouldn't even give me a hug. He merely said, "bye" as he climbed up to his bunk.

Later that night this was the letter Grant wrote through his tears.

We're ready for Max-o to be home!

tub-o-licious

My friend Lindsey gave me this idea for making a plain ol' tub look more fun. I decided I try it for an end of school teacher gift for Max's teacher, Mrs. Sandy. It was a bit time consuming (I had to spray the inside about 7 times) but if you look at it from afar it turned out pretty cute.

All it took was a galvonized tub from Lowe's, a can of spray paint, 4 pieces of big scrap book paper and some Mod Podge (which, for the record, is addicting. I was looking for stuff all over my house I could slather it on).

I filled it with outdoor things for Mrs. Sandy to play with her son. The note inside said, "Mrs. Sandy, Now it's time to spend all day with YOUR child. Have a great summer. Love, Max"

Being creative with teacher gifts makes me tired.

Get to Work!

After Max declared he was bored and wished he could go back to school 4 hours into summer vacation I decided the boys needed something to keep them busy. Now they each have their own "Responsibility Chart" of jobs to do each day.

I created my own "Attitude" magnet for each of them. Apparently, having a good attitude is a really hard job around here.

Checking out the task before them. Grant has a "Keep Hands to Self" and Jack has a "Use Potty" responsibility. I haven't decided how much allowance they'll make, but I do know that for each magnet they don't receive each day they'll have to pay me back a quarter. This is serious business people. Bring on the summer!

a visit from ava... and her mom

First, I KNOW I haven't blogged lately. I'm busy. and working. and tired. and I'd rather lie on the couch and fall asleep while watching TV than get myself to the computer and try to be creative. I know it's bad when people other than my mom comment on how I need a new post...

Last week Ava and Bekah came for an overnight visit. We did the typical: played, ate, dressed up Ava, went to McD's, went to the park, did a little shopping, took some pictures, got a babysitter so we could go watch some creepy old men put on a pretty good concert....all the good stuff.

Ava was enamored by this baby bird. Unfortunately, so was Leo, our cat.

We always try to get a picture of the cousins. Yep, this is as good as it gets.

Bekah is having a BOY in September so we filled her car with all sorts of baby things including our crib. So, Ava got a taste of the good life and rode home in the front seat watching her movie suspended from the sun shade. That's safe, right?