"They say it's your Birthday...."

Happy Birthday to You

You lived in a Zoo

The monkeys that have escaped

Send Birthday greetings to You!!!

The Monkey who got his

musical talent from you

The Monkey who got his

sence of mischief from you

The Monkey who got her

sweet nature from you

And from the rest of us Monkeys:

WE LOVE YOU &

THANK YOU FOR ALL YOU DO FOR US!!

Happy Anniversary to You & You

Today, July 27th, is my parents 35th wedding anniversary!! Tomorrow will be John & Steph's 1st wedding anniversary!

I wasn't around 35 years ago, but I have been around for most of my parents marrage and as all couples have their up's & down's my parents have been faithful to each other thru it all. Which says a lot in today's society. But my parent's have never cared about what society may think, only what they think of each other at the end of the day, and I THINK that love has a lot to do with it and knowing that you married the one and only person on this planet ment for you. There love is something wonderful and I hope that as Tim and I go thru the many years that we will have together our love will continue to grow and be as wonderful as theirs.

Steph & John have been together as a couple for several years, but the last year has been as a married couple. Many people may not see the difference, but I think the difference is love and a willingness to say "I'm with you no matter what".

Again, in today's society marrage is more and more becomming not a big deal, and it's common to have a quick marrage and be divorced within the hour, day, week, month, year, etc... That's why it's so important to celebrate every year together with as much celebration as if it were your 1st. Because each year will bring you something new and exciting to enjoy that will make it different than the year before.

But I have faith that these two wonderful couples will be together for many, many more wonderful and exciting years. I look forward to all the neices & nephews (no, that's not a hint) that will come into our lives as Steph and John continue down their awsome adventure of love. I look forward to planning my parents 40th, 50th, etc. wedding anniversaries. I look forward to celebrating my 5th (in two years) with these two wonderful couples.

And so, Happy 35th Anniversary to you Dad & Mom!! Happy 1st Anniversary to you John & Steph!!

Hot, Muggy Summer Days

What do you do when it's hot & muggy and everything feels icky, and the children are cranky because they're hot, and you can't wake out your back door and jump into a pool??? You turn on the sprinkler!! It's a quick cool down and the kids enjoy it.

Sometimes I wish we were still kids and cooling down for us was that easy. Well, here are some cool photo's to help cool you down on those hot, muggy days.

Crawling, pulling up, standing....

Well, Ms. Sophie is now crawling, and crawling very fast. She's been doing it for almost a week now. She is also pulling herself up on whatever she can get a hold of. Her favorite thing is the dog kennel. Snickers like's it because she think's Sophie will let her out.

I don't have any good footage of her crawling yet. She does have a very different crawl. It's one of those you-gotta-see-it kinda things. She would rather be walking, so her crawl is more of a hands and foot and one knee kinda thing. It's really cute. I'll work on getting some video of her crawling. But here's some of her holding on to the kennel and a video of her making a phone call.

Sophie's First Swim

If you don't count bath time, Sophie's first swimming date was July 6th. We took her swimming in Aunt Mary & Uncle Bob's pool. (Ethan's first time swimming was also in their pool.) She loved the 88* water and had a wonderful time. The wind was a little chilly, so she wasn't in awful long. Grandma Shafer was there and held Sophie and fed her CheerieO's while the rest of us swam.

Ethan, who for some reason is getting taller, can stand in the shallow end of the pool (about 3 ft. deep). If he keeps his mouth closed, he does okay. However when you tell him to close his mouth, he open's it as wide as he can....

We were back the other day with Merrick and his girlfriend Tayler. Sophie didn't get in the pool this time. While the water was wonderful, the wind was chillier and her ears were bugg'n her. This did not stop the fun.

The kids had a blast, and I was able to capture some shots & video. Next time Sophie's in the water I'll get some video. But for now, here ya go:

Daddy and Sophie
The smiles say it all














This is the same pool float that Ethan sat in his first time in the pool















Our fish in training

The Parade

Our 4th of July parade is small compared to the St. Patrick's Day parade. That one is huge. This one is very political. It's also good for advertising. The shop that Tim works for TK Motorsports & Marine (http://www.tkmotorsports-marine.com/) happened to have a few items in the parade this year. Tim & Ethan were also in the parade. Ethan had fun waving to everyone and Sophie, grandma & I sat on the curb and collected all the candy & political papers that were thrown/handed our way. Because Sophie was so cute in her Firecracker bib, she got a lot of attention from the parade people.

Here are some shots of the fun:

They are pulling a boat behind them. TK had about 4 vehicles pulling things in this parade.

Okay, it has to be said a man named Shooter running for Sheriff. The horse is cool. But really Sherriff Shooter........need I say more?

Finally asleep with all her 4th of July "bling"

We got a coupon for a free kids cone at the local icecream parlor. This is the aftermath

4th of July

4th of July weekend was really nice. The weather was wonderful, not too hot during the day and just cool enough for jackets & long pants in the evening. It was also Sophie's first viewing of fireworks and Ethan's 3rd.

Tim had the day off work and we enjoyed his day off. I took the kids (all dressed up in their 4th of July best) and mom & went to the fruit market and the store hitting some garage sales on the way. Boy did I find some great clothes for the kids. We then swung by our house to tell Tim we were grilling steaks at mom & dad's. We had a wonderful meal that ended with strawberry shortcake.

Ethan spilt juice all over his 4th of July best so we had to change his clothes (we waited 'till after dinner)




Sophie in her "I'm a little Firecracker" bib that her Papa got her and USA dress that her Aunt Laurelle got her

After dinner we loaded up the kids and headed to the park for the free family activities. We parked at the Green's and walked back up to the park. This is Ethan's favorite part of the evening.

Riding the Thomas train (he loves trains!)

Sliding down a giant blow-up train play house




Riding in another train

Just hanging out waiting for brother to go tru the giant train thing again....

Every year (must be close to 20 years) we have watched fireworks at Grandpa & Grandma Green's. They live on a lake with an island in the middle. They used to shoot the fireworks from that island, but haven't in years. You could always see the fireworks from the Green's even when they moved them. This year, they shot them from the island. They were right over our heads and very cool.

Sophie fell asleep just before the big ones started. There were other houses around the lake that were setting off their own fireworks and that's like a pre-show to the big display. We enjoy those too. When the fireworks started Sophie was snuggled sleeping in grandma's arms and Ethan and daddy were laying on a blanket.

It didn't take long for Ethan to burrow into Tim and want to leave, so Tim missed most all the fireworks. Sophie slept for the first 5 or so min. before she woke up to enjoy her first 4th of July. She sat up and wanted to sit with me, but she watched the fireworks and didn't get fussy 'till the very end (it was well past dinner time). Dad & I also got to try out the firework setting's on our camara's. He had a tripod, I had a baby in my lap. We both did rather well.

Here are a few of the shot's I got:

Early in the show, you can see the tree's on the island outlined by the sunset.

I believe this was during the grand finally. You can see the smoke at the bottom where they were lit.

Here you can see some of the fireworks reflected in the water. We had a wonderful time and hope you did too!

Band Camp

Merrick played in two weekends of All-Star games and then was (sadly) not chosen for the final All-Star team. However he did go to band camp and had a blast. He almost didn't make it, he was a late entry and they already had a lot of trumpets. But they doubled checked and he was able to go.

He want's to go back next year. They had an AWSOME!!! concert on the day we picked him up. It was wonderful! We ordered the DVD and it should be here soon.... They practiced up to 6 hours a day! Merrick was 1 of 13 (I think) from his school alone. His band teacher had the most students there.

They were able to raft and do a ropes course or climb a rock wall. I wish I had gotten Merrick a disposeable camera so he could have taken so photo's. Merrick's dorm was over the mess hall so he wasn't late for breakfast. He did get some shot's of his bunk when we picked him up and I got some shots of the band as they played. I was only able to get 1/2 the band at a time, it was large.

Only 1/2 the band

Merrick in front of the "roof" access. The boys dorm was upstairs and the mess hall/camp store were down stairs.

Flood Waters

In June we had a lot of rain. A lot of rain causes lakes, rivers, puddles, etc. to rise. My parents live on a river. In 1986 this river flooded the banks and flooded out the family room (basement). Fortunatly they saw/knew it was coming and were able to get all the furniture and carpet pulled out and stored in the rest of the house.

They've had some close calls since then, but nothing as bad. Now this rain wouldn't have been so bad, but there was more on the way and we just learned that the 99 year old dam (up river) had sprung a leak or two. On top of all this, mom & dad were on vacation.

So with this wonderful news the storms hit and trees were knocked over and electricity was gone. I had gone to the house to check the mail and get water. One of the storms broke loose on the way. There was can't-see-the-road-for-the-rain rain and nasty wind and oh yes, when I was driving there heard on the raido that we were under a tornado watch. Well, I made it to the house okay a little wet but good. They had no electricity so I checked the mail, looked at the river and left. On my way back out I had to drive around a big tree that had been knocked over into the road. It wasn't the only tree that I encountered on my way home. Got home safely and went back out to check the house once the storm died down.

Well, the river flooded the banks a bit, but did not enter the house. The dam did not break, and as far as we know has been fixed.

However, the boys were able to play in the flood waters without fear of being sweapt away in a strong current. I will spare Merrick and not post the photo's/movies of him in his boxers playing slip-n-slide in the water. Ethan also joined in the fun and stripped naked (wet diaper's are no fun). So I will be a good mother and not post those.