Be prepared

for lots of pictures!  I was just telling Monte the other day how I would someday like a new camera, one that took more professional quality photos.  Two days later, the Amazon Deal of the Day happened to pop up on my facebook newsfeed (their deals of the day are never on my newsfeed!).  It just so happened that their deal of the day was the Sony Nex-F3 camera that was around 40% off if you ordered that day!  Since my birthday is coming up in a couple of weeks, Monte said that could be my birthday present.  I am so excited about this camera!  So far I've really only used the automatic settings, I can't wait to read more, and figure this thing out better!

 

This was taken today, our cold weather and snow is REALLY getting depressing.  :(  We got 14 inches of snow last night, and Isabella has her second snow day of the week today.

 

 

Her beloved doll.

 

This picture doesn't exactly scream "Spring"!

 

Being goofy, look how grown up she's getting!

Sweet Girl

Well, I've considered giving up the blog, but I just can't do it.  Maybe someday I'll get back to posting regularly.  I've had tons of posts written up in my head, if that counts!  :)  So for now my posts are few and far between, but maybe one day I'll decide to get back into it. 

 

I took this picture of Isabella today, and I just love it!  Her smiles have been awfully "cheesy" as of late, and here I caught a genuine smile, I think that's why I love it so much.  I don't think I've even posted on here about our cat.  We got him as a tiny kitten last June, and he turns one this month.  As you can see, he's not so tiny anymore!  His name is Simba, and the kids absolutely adore him (and I admit, I do too).  It's been great having a pet for the kids, and seeing how well Isabella takes care of him!

 



It's been a while!

Obviously it's been too long since I've posted!  This was the view out our window this morning, a little different weather than the pictures in my last post!!  Monte worked for 3 hours to get our driveway cleared out this morning, we got Isabella to school just in time for her late start.

 

Family Pics

In August, my whole family spent the weekend together to celebrate my parents' 40th anniversary.  My sister, brother, and my gift to my parents was getting family pictures taken.  It's nice to update our family picture on our wall, which was taken when Jaymes was only three months old.  He's grown just a little since then!

 

I had the photographer take some pictures of just Jaymes since he had just had his second (!) birthday that week.

My whole family!  Four little boys UNDER the age of three!  Honestly, it was a disaster, and I am amazed we got a good picture!  The almost three year old refused to be in the majority of the pictures, another little nephew was just SO not happy the whole time, and Jaymes was scared to sit on Grandpa's lap during the grandparents/grandkids photo!

 The three granddaughters, all the same age!  They are the best of friends!

 I love this picture of all the grandkids! 

Out of the mouth of a five year old

Last night Isabella and I were talking about how God gives everyone different talents.  She told me that she thought God made me a "good cook, good cookie baker, good singer, good at playing piano, good at teaching piano, and good at taking care of people."  I asked her what she thought God made Daddy good at, her response - "Um (long pause), he's good at backing the vehicles out of the garage."

I couldn't help but laugh, but then I helped her come up with some more, because Daddy's good at lots of other things, too!

Sometimes the best things are free!

One highlight of our summer was getting a "new to us" swing set for the kids.  I advertised our old metal swing set on facebook, and it was literally sold with in two minutes!!  Monte's sister's kids had outgrown this one, so they offered to give it to us!  Monte borrowed his dad's big trailer, and hauled it 60 miles to our house, that was quite the big load!  It has gotten SO much use over the summer, and I know it will get so much more for years to come.  The whole upper part of it Isabella uses as a play house, she's got a phone attached to the wall in there, and a chair.  Monte filled the bottom part, under the play house, with small rocks, so now the kids have a rock box to play in.  Since he made that, they hardly ever play in their sand box, and I love it, since it's so much less messy than sand.

Here she was being Rapunzel up in her tower.

Jaymes loves the rock box!

This was taken after I spent hours of precious nap times staining it!

Jaymes can't quite master the big slide, so Grandma and Grandpa got him an early birthday present.  I think I'm going to move it inside for the winter, too.



Trying to get caught up

I've got a long way to go to get caught up, but I'll give it a try.  As a side note, you might notice my blog is not private anymore, some people were having problems viewing it, so I'm giving going public a try again. 

Over Memorial Day weekend my brother and my dad came to help Monte fence in our back yard.  This is seriously a dream come true for me, to have a fenced in yard.  We love it! 

Monte got his Dad's loader to remove a lot of the bushes that used to line our yard.  His parents have a similar picture to this one, only it's Monte instead of Jaymes in this same loader.

Monte also brought back his old pedal tractor from his parents' house.

Putting up the fence.

                                                                The finished product!

It also makes a good back drop for pictures!