The Last Day of August!

I can hardly believe it.....August is overwith already! Where did it go?!! :)

Scott gets home tomorrow. Yeah! (He's been in Switzerland all week.) We really miss him and can't wait to have him home! Dale and Jan are going to be here for the weekend to visit. The kids have been talking about it all week and have a lot of plans in mind to do with Grandpa and Grandma! :)

We start school again on Tuesday. We are looking forward to it....even the kids.....honest! :) We have some new things that we are going to do this year that I think will be really fun.

Well, that is about all the time I have to blog for now. I have 5 more plants to put in the ground (I went and bought some more! :)), some cleaning that needs done and laundry to do. Elle has a birthday party to go to this afternoon so Thomas and Ava will do some grocery shopping with me during it. Thomas will not enjoy that one bit! Here is the comment he put on my post titled 'Front Porch' -

"mom thw porrch looks great but I do knot like to go shoping for flowers.-tommy- "

That is classic Thomas right there. He absolutely does not like to go shopping!! Unless it is for spy gear, fishing bait, or with Grandma. Then it is ok. :) Tonight he will probably say....Mom, the food tastes good, but I do not like going grocery shopping. :)

Sweet Little Ava Mae

Front Porch

I went to my favorite nursery yesterday and they had all of their plants discounted so I picked up several of them. This is a picture of what my front porch area looks like now. I am pretty happy with how it turned out. After I got the plants in the ground I pressure washed off the porch and sidewalk. I also plan on putting a fresh coat of spray paint on my rocking chair that sits on this porch and also wash the windows and door again and then I'll be done. I went ahead a put out the scarecrow even though it isn't quite fall yet.....with the mums out and the leaves starting to turn on the trees I am getting into the fall mindset! Hopefully we have a nice autumn because I have a lot of things on my 'to-do' list before winter comes!

Happy Birthday Scott! I love you!

More Pictures of the Kids

Our Week

This has been a crazy week. Thomas has been sick the entire week with a fever and sore throat. He is on day 7 with a temperature. On Sunday we thought that he was getting better because his fever was nearly gone but then it flared back up and hasn't gone away. He has been to the doctor twice and has had a strep throat test taken (which came back negative) and some bloodwork done but so far we still do not know what is wrong. The results of 3 more tests come in on Monday so maybe we will have some answers then. Hopefully by then he will be better! The poor little guy is tired of being sick! He is a trooper though - he still smiles and laughs and makes sure that Elle isn't messing with his spy gear! He's just getting tired of having to rest so much and take medicine. He's ready to be able to ride his bike around the lake and play outside. Thankfully Elle and Ava have not showed any signs of getting sick.

Scott has been gone all week in Arizona so that has made the week seem long. He gets home late tonight. We get to spend the day with him tomorrow....his birthday! :) Then he leaves again on Saturday afternoon to go to Switzerland for the week.

We are getting some much needed rain right now. Thomas and Ava are both taking naps right now and Elle is playing dress-up so I need to get busy folding clothes and mopping my kitchen floor while I have the chance!

"Mom! There's a Porcupine!"

This is what Thomas said to me while I was organizing the basement this afternoon. I looked out the window and sure enough, there was a porcupine!! After he got a safe distance away we followed behind him unnoticed to get a few pictures.

An Afternoon on the Lake

Yesterday was such a nice day here. We spent a few hours in the afternoon out on the lake just relaxing. Thomas was still running a fever and didn't want to do anything except rest so we just brought his pillow and bear on the boat with us and he napped there. Elle swam for awhile and I pulled Scott on the tube before we came in. Ava was happy to take a nap and play in her little room. She loves the boat!

Thomas is feeling much better today. He finally has an appetite and his fever is just barely above 99 degrees. Scott left for Phoenix, AZ after lunch. He will be back late Thursday night. I miss him already! :) I plan to get a lot of projects done around here this week while he is gone though so that should help the time pass quickly.

Pictures!!!

I took these pictures this morning. I took them with our video/digital camera. Our little Sony digital camera that is easy to take with me everywhere and that we just bought off of ebay this last winter is pretty much dead. I charged it up and it still will not work. :( My Tommy Boy is not feeling well again. He started running a fever yesterday and still has it today but not quite as high. He's taking it easy in his room and catching up on some Magic Treehouse reading this morning.

four things meme

I found this little meme on a blog that I read occasionally and thought it would be fun to do -

Four Jobs I have had in my life:
1. grocery store cashier
2. piano lesson teacher
3. customer service rep for Smart Computing magazine
4. homemaker

Four Movies I Could Watch Over and Over:
1. Man From Snowy River
2. Return to Snowy River
3. Just Like Heaven
4. What About Bob

Four Things I Like To Do:
1. Boating with the family
2. Sit on the porch and talk with Scott after the kids are in bed for the night
3. Cooking and baking (especially chocolate chunk cookies!)
4. Picking strawberries with friends on the first day that the U-Pick Strawberry patch opens up....even in the rain!

Four Websites I Visit Daily:
1. Weather Underground
2. Like Merchant Ships
3. The Homespun Heart
4. Amy's Humble Musings

Four Favorite Foods:
1. Scott's Grilled Steak served with a blue cheese and pear salad
2. Mom's Homemade Tomato Soup with Grilled Cheese Sandwiches
3. Rafferty's Pizza
4. Tacos

Four Places I Would Like to be Right Now:
1. On the way home from the grocery store. :) (We are going to go there today.)
2. In Nebraska visiting our family
3. On a vacation with just Scott, no kiddies
4. In the cities shopping for clothes

Four Places I Have Been on Vacation:
1. South Dakota
2. Colorado
3. Arizona
4. Key West, Florida

If any of you that have a blog decide to do this let me know in my comments so that I can go over to your blog and read yours too!

more fun with friends

Today we met up with some friends at the Nisswa library and then had a picnic lunch in the park. It was warm and sunny....a good day for a bike ride/walk on the Paul Bunyan Trail. There were 7 kids on bikes and 3 moms following behind on foot. Ava slept in the Baby Bjorn - her favorite thing to do on walks! I guess the bouncing motion puts her to sleep. :)

After the park we came back home and read some of the new library books on the couch and Elle played beauty shop with me. I love to play beauty shop....it means that she spends about 10 minutes brushing my hair! :) She also puts her pretend make-up on me and real lip gloss and perfume.

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BTW, I'm sorry I haven't had any new pictures to post lately. Our digital camera isn't working right now. I have it on the charger though so maybe it will work after the battery is charged up completely. If not, I also have the video camera on the charger as well and I will be able to take some pictures with that one.

summer days....

Yesterday was a fun day! The morning started out with a pancake breakfast at our house with my neighbor Molly and her two girls, Libby and Kate, and another friend of mine, Lisa, and her daughter Eden. We had pancakes topped with fresh peaches and whipped cream! After the girls played for awhile and the moms visited, Elle went home with Eden to play for the day. They had a fun time together. Lisa said they played dress up and pretended to be singers. One would play the piano while the other sang songs. I wish I had a video of that! :)

Thomas got to go fishing after lunch with our neighbor, Mr. Jacobs. He caught 6 fish so he was pretty excited about that! I'm sure he will blog about it today!

For dinner, Scott and I went out on the boat with Todd and Angie and another guy that works for Hunt. We went to a restaurant on the lake called Zorbaz. Taylor and Mackayla babysat our kids, even Ava! It was their first time to have all 3 of them and they did a great job, as always! When we walked in the door Ava was smiling and giggling at Taylor. :)

I am going to miss days like this! School starts in a few weeks and the leaves are just starting to turn yellow and red on a couple of trees in our neighborhood. The nights are getting chillier, we have the air conditioning off and it feels like fall is coming. Thomas is already starting to talk about ice skating and hockey so he's more ready for winter than I am! :)

johnny jumper

Ava is outgrowing her tiny baby toys and has moved on to the Johnny Jumper. As of Friday she is now 4 months old! It won't be long and she will be trying to keep up with big brother and sister!

our week in pictures

a walk in the woods

These pictures are from yesterday. We got some rain in the morning and then it was just overcast for the afternoon so we decided to go on a 2 mile walk. Ava fell asleep in the Baby Bjorn. I don't know how much she weighs for sure but it's got to be close to 15 pounds so she gives me a workout when I carry her around in that thing!