First Day of School in August

Trying to catch up.... my first attempt at a photo collage. I am working on it :)

I am no good at this :)

I am probably the worst blogger out there... but I am hoping to do better! The kids had a wonderful halloween and loved being able to trick or treat in beautiful weather. It was unseasonably warm for this time of year. Our children were so cute in their Halloween get-up. Matthew was a vampire, Shelley was a Witch (but a pretty one), Nick was Mr. Incredible (for the 2nd year in a row.. he loves that costume :) and Holly was going to be a ladybug, and at the last moment informed me that she wasn't a bug she was a princess. So we dug through the dress up and found a little dress her Grandpa Roger had got for Shelley years before in Mexico. So, we put that on her and a crown.. and she was basically a Mexican Princess, and since she kept losing her shoe the entire night trick or treating, I called her the mexican Cinderella. It was pretty funny. However, she got a lot of complements on her little dress. I have had a heck of a time staying out of their Halloween Candy.. don't know what my deal is.
Winter feels like it has arrived officially today though, it is cold, cold! And will probably snow just a little tonight. Welcome Winter.... ugh :) I am excited for the Holidays though. Oh the joy that will be found!!!
I will post pictures as soon as I get them uploaded.

Fourth of July

Shelley helping with the little ones.

Cory, Sarah, and Krysten

watching the fireworks from the front yard, yes I am the geek posing:)

snug as a bug in a rug!

water ballon toss game





Holly in all her patriotic glory!

The kids had such a great time during the fourth of July! We had Cory and Sarah's family down from S.Dakota, and had our friends over for a BBQ. A lot of our neighbors were involved and we had yummy food, fun games, and had a great fireworks display. All the kids agreed it was the greatest fourth of July to date!

Nick fell asleep on a blanket on the ground during the fireworks, he was pretty wore out at the end of the day. Holly had a great time playing with all of her cousins and being outside. The older kids played with the Cornhole Game (a.k.a. beanbag game) that Richard built the day before. All in all it was a fabulous holiday, a real memory maker :)!

192000 firecrackers

We had a great 4th Cory and his family came down from S.D. and spent it with us. This video is of 192000 fire crackers going of and last about 45-55 secs. I am shocked that the fire dept. didn't get called because of the smoke. We filled 3, 30 gal. garbage cans.

Scary Clouds

This is the Wall Cloud right behind our house on Wednesday, June 11th. We were talking to our neighbor who was also on his back deck. This is the same line of stoms that went through the Little Sioux Scout Ranch 45 minutes north of here in Iowa. You can't see completely how the clouds were just turning above us. It looked like someone had a spoon and was just stirring the clouds. It was a little creepy to see this in the back of your home. That night 7 tornadoes were confirmed in the area.

Holly's Birthday in April