Nadam

Happy Father's Day! Love, Greta

2011-06-27T13:28:00.001-07:00

Here is a questionnaire I had Greta complete about her Daddy:

My daddy's name is: Quick Lock

He is: 77940 Rocky River Rd. years old

He is: (arms spread apart about 6 inches) tall and weighs: 67 pounds

His favorite food is: sour cream and brussel sprouts and french fries, hamburgers, tea, 697 and chips and strawberries and carrots.

My daddy is really good at: spankings, at work, driving the car when we go to church, eating a lot.

He loves his friends: Joey, Meghann's husband, Taylor, Jackie's wife.

My favorite thing(s) to do with my dad is: watering the garden and lawnmowering and going to Lowes and getting the bench all fixed up.

What I love most about my daddy is: hugging him and saying bye bye to him when he goes to work.

It makes Dad happy when: he doesn't give us spankings.

Dear Daddy, I hope you have a nice day at work and I want to make a picture for you.

Love, Greta

My 3 Beautiful Kids

2011-02-25T05:13:00.000-08:00

I got a new camera and my kids will be my sole subjects for the next ummm...16 years. Okay, I may throw in pictures every now and then of something I can find better than them, but no promises. :)
Only Greta...

Always messy-faced, but who notices that with his pretty blue eyes?

Shy boy face. He gives me this look every Sunday when I pick him up from the nursery. He sighs deeply and says breathly, "Mommy. Mommy." Makes me feel like a million bucks.

Sweet girl and little mother in training. She takes a baby, diaper bag and stroller everywhere we go. She also insists on wearing that fur shawl everywhere we go.

Teaching Wilbur how to pedal. Oh yeah, the pink gloves are part of the outfit. She wears those too.

Will loves to destroy. In this case...a leaf.

"Take my picture, Mom."- Greta

You read the title right. I said 3 beautiful kids. Here's the 3rd....

Due August 3rd. We could find out next week whether this one will be a fur wearing diva or a sweet little destructive tornado but we are keeping this one a surprise. Yes, we are those people.
Well, at least this time around. :)

Will's Happy Birthday Party

2010-10-16T06:11:00.000-07:00

Will turned 2 yesterday and we had some close friends over to celebrate. We invited just playdate buddies which made for a cheap and easy party which we as the parents actually got to enjoy also!

I have to admit, October snuck up on me quickly. I was and had actually attempted to send out e-vites, but at the last second decided to whip up something creative instead. Mind you, I'm not dogging e-vites, I love them and use them (although now I use pingg.com; much user friendly for me) but c'mon people what kind of mom can't make 3 stinking invitations? So, I hopped over to my friend Sarah's blog, Create Studio for a refresher of a construction party she threw for her little guy. Using her simple and FREE idea of using cardboard and duct tape to construct them together, I was very happy with the result. I even used painter's tape and tool stickers I had from scrapbooking years ago.

The invitation read:

CAUTION:

Will is Turning 2!

A birthday party is under construction and will be held Friday, October 15th at 6:00 p.m. Please join us for dirt cake and spontaneous bouts of singing the Bob the Builder theme song. We hope you can make it!

RSVP: General Contractor (Natalie)

Here was the front. I wrote the name in white paint pen since all I had was black duct tape.

Adam and the kids had fun by decorating with caution tape all over the front of the house and trees in the front yard. Made me a little nervous of what the neighbors might think about us...or what they think might have happened to us...;)

My mom gave me some money for Will's gift to with strict instructions to get him anything construction since he seems to be into that now. The dump truck was the perfect thing to get and put part of the dirt cake in. I layered it with saran wrap for a quick clean up so Will could get to driving his new "dig dig" once it was gone.

The kids loved the cake and had fun finding the worms I put in it.

These are the Hasty boys, Seth and Jake (with their mom and sister, Meghann and Aubrey, in the back :). Meghann is my good friend and neighbor who lives a mile down the road so we get together with these guys a lot!

I think every picture I have of Audrey, she is pushing a stroller around my house. She is quite the girly girl with all her baby dolls and hair accessories!

Baby Aubrey, the youngest at the party.

While talking out the party ahead of time with Bridge, she suggested making cars out of cardboard boxes. I took it one step further and made "diggers" that the kids could race with. Here is Will modeling the backhoe. It even had a front end loader that swiveled using brads, but every thing else was used with boxes, hot glue, paper plates for wheels, black fabric for the straps and lots and lots of spray paint.

Will and Cohen who is modeling the dump truck.

The races were really the highlight for me of the party. It was so cute seeing the kids waddle their way as fast as they could to the "finish line" which was caution tape held up by two of the dads.

Greta and Eli, Cohen's big brother, our other great buddies.

FYI: If you ever happen to try to make these trucks, a word of warning that yellow does not do a good job to cover up hot pink diaper boxes. SO, I used black as a base coat and then yellow on top which resulted in kind of a neon green. All you do in this case is play with them as the sun is setting and then no one notices! :)

On your mark, get set, GO!

When it was present time and everyone went inside, the birthday boy decided to take a cruise on his bike. I think he wanted the whole "fashionably late" title and not look to eager.

My sweet, handsome boy.

Present time!

We got him a couple interactive construction books and he loved one so much he actually left the party to go read it by himself.

Sitting in the entry way for some peace and quiet. :)

The menfolk hanging out in the kitchen. Notice anything new?! We got our beautiful concrete counter top in the day before! It was perfect timing for this weekend!

Playing with his new farm toy from Eli and Cohen with their mommy, Holly, in the background.

He loves the CARS placemat and utensils! Thanks Aunt Bridge and Gretch!

Here's a picture of some roads I made, one for the table and one for the island. I just used black fabric as a table runner and dotted it with paper backed with double-sided tape. And of course, my Cabarrus county non-prize winning happy birthday banner in the background that you will see for many birthdays to come. :)

My buddy tuckered out at the end of the night. So, I guess you could say the party was a success!

Will's Birth Day

2010-10-15T04:15:00.000-07:00

In honor of Will's birthday, I'm linking up to the blog post of the day he was born. Happy Birthday little boy! We love you so much!

http://adamandnat.blogspot.com/2008/10/wills-birthday.html

T-Ball Picture Day

2010-10-12T12:21:00.000-07:00

This was the classic move of Greta while getting her picture taken with the rest of her team. The photographer had to take multiple shots and we ended up getting one with her actually sitting for 2 seconds. The rest of the time she was doing this.

Now, 4 weeks later, although at this age I would think most of the parents would say this about their own children, Greta gets the "Most Improved" in my book. From this first day pictured above, we had the small goal of just staying on the field. The next week was to just stand when out in the field. 3rd week was trying to field the ball, etc. In any case, now she hits, runs the bases (the correct way), hustles after the ball and is the highlight amongst other parents with her batting stance which is practically the splits. Now our next goal for her to work on is to be excited for the games and not have to practically drag her every time!

The Princess and the Frog

2010-10-09T19:38:00.001-07:00

Once upon a time, there was a beautiful princess.

And a handsome, yet frog prince.

Mommy told me if I kiss you, you'll turn into a real prince.

Greta: Why didn't you turn into a prince?

Will: Seriously, you have to warn me before you do stuff like that.

Greta: (continuing to kiss him on his back)

Will: Mommmmmmm!!!

Lordy Lordy, Look Who's 32!

2010-08-03T06:36:00.002-07:00

I'm such a good sister, I even made you breakfast in bed...

...3 years ago :)

Interesting facts about Bridgette:

-She won a talent competition at a teen pageant in Kenai. We were SO proud.

-She had a "magic bear" when I lost something and she would help me find it using her "magic bear."

-She married her first and only boyfriend.

And the best news of all....

-She's expecting #4!!

Happy Birthday Bridge!

Afternoon Sun

2010-07-27T13:26:00.000-07:00

Will wasn't quite finished with his nap today and fell asleep in my arms on the couch. Sweet moment. Sweet boy.

Moose Hunt

2010-06-27T21:50:00.000-07:00

Here's a quick rendition of what we've been up to...

Charlotte airport for 6 hours

hiking mountains during playgroup

Will met Oma for the first time.

Saw a baby moose in my Grandma Kale's yard

He was quite the jokester.

Saw his mom and his sister.

Grandma pulled out her uzi. (pellet gun)

Saw some more wildlife at the childhood home of my bro-in-law.

Will snuck inside and this is where we found him...eating someone's leftover dessert.

Today is girl day so we are dropping the kids off at a baby-sitter. Someone was brave enough to take all 7 of them! Then, we are off to thrift shop and meet aunts and grandma for lunch! I'm so excited I even dreamed about it!

Greta turns 3!!

2010-06-17T04:27:00.001-07:00

I did a few crafty things for her birthday and so I posted it on my other blog. Check it out at Rocky River Farmhouse. :)

Gossett Wedding and 6 year anniversary

2010-06-14T10:57:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, June 5, was our 6 year anniversary and Adam's cousin's wedding. Adam and I celebrated the weekend before, Memorial Day weekend, going out to Cabo Fish Taco, Amelies' french bakery and then smuggled in some salted caramel brownies and an eclair in my purse for the highlight of our evening to see the musical WICKED. It was a great night and we loved the show (especially the "popular" scene,) but no pictures sad to say. I'm sure I looked awesome though. Ha ha.

Onto the wedding, Mama Ward took on the challenge of finishing off the jumper that Lindsay had so bravely attempted. I wore it to the rehearsal dinner and got a picture with my seamstress since I loved it so much.

This yawn is foreshadowing...

John and Melanie got married and had their 2 nephews as the ring bearers, John David and Hudson. So cute. Even cuter when Hudson fell asleep.

Melanie was a gorgeous bride to no one's surprise and her face is classic right before the kiss.

Greta and Bennett were so excited to see the princess, Mel.

and Aunt Leigh Anna of course.

This is Adam's great Aunt Leanna who was loving on Will. She came up to our wedding 6 years ago and I've seen her once since then. I've missed her and love to catch up with her.

My date for the night was having a blast hanging out with me. Actually, I think he's mad at me because I put the kibosh on the sweet tea.

Uncle Scott and Aunt Sandra dancing their way into the reception after being announced.

Mama and Papa Ward dancing at the reception.

Pretty cake cutters of the groom's cake. Cousins Treacy and Ali and Julie.

Greta enjoyed the wipe (white) cake.

All the single ladies getting ready to catch the bouquet. I put G in there with the rest of them. :)

Off to Hawaii! And yes, that is a blow up doll hanging out of their getaway car.

Last Girls Weekend

2010-06-01T04:07:00.000-07:00

Jackie is getting ready to leave for good, so Lindsay, she and I all got together one last time a couple weeks ago. We laugh about how our girls weekends have morphed into one big giant play date, but it's easier just to bring them and our kids love it. First thing we did was go to a petting zoo.

Ella showed us how to wrangle a goat. I think she just gave him a noogie.

Will looks like such a big boy when he does stuff like this.

Blurry or not, I love how this pic turned out.

As I was pushing the stroller, moms would pass and smile after looking at my kids. I wondered why and saw this...Greta maxin' and relaxin'.

Not sure if it was because of girls weekend or not, but G was really into crossing her legs and being so proper. Here she is hanging with her BFF's. Or her "cousins" as she likes to call them. I correct her every time and she insists they are her cousins.

Will and Jack the labradoodle were great buds.

Sweet Cole

The kids were playing in the wading pool a lot and I saw Greta run around to the front. This is where she prefers to warm up. Smart girl.

Greta took this picture of Cole. I thought it was adorable.

Will, looking a little singled out.

Love this. :)

We all met in Richmond at Lindsay's mom's house. In college we used to refer to her as Mama Wasch and now Greta has taken to calling her "Grandmudder." It is the most precious thing. As Mrs. Wasch was getting ready to leave for work in the morning Greta would say, "I love you Grandmudder." Mrs. Wasch is so kind and always thinking of others. She hooked up the hose to the garage sink so the water would be nice and toasty for the kids. She also gave us a Barnes & Noble gift card so us girls could go get coffee and cheesecake one night.

Will saying "Shishie"

Sweet baby Eden.

Greta about to kill someone.

Sitting poolside, BFF's.

Right before the tearfest, BFF's.

Jackie leaves Wednesday to go overseas indefinitely. It is such a bittersweet thing knowing the Lord is leading her and Jay, but it's hard to say goodbye to such a great friend for the past 7 years. We make each other feel better by saying we'll skype. Looking forward to "Girls Weekend 2012". Love you Jack!

Giveaway

2010-05-24T06:03:00.000-07:00

www.tatertotsandjello.blogspot.com is having a giveaway of a fabulous vintage dress. Whatever you do, don't enter. It'll hurt my chances to win. Kidddddiiiiingg.

McGill Rose Garden

2010-05-18T05:12:00.000-07:00

On Mother's Day afternoon, Mom R. and I went to a local rose garden where the admission was free on Mother's Day. It was a beautiful day. First, I woke up to a cute pair of rainboots that the kids and Adam got for me. Then, we ate lunch at home where Dad R. had made stuffed chicken breast with spinach, ricotta and mushrooms and then the guys cleaned up while we headed out.

I want to build something like this in our garden one day. Heck, I would love to have a couple rose bushes too. There's something to be said about a fresh rose bouquet out in your front yard just waiting to be clipped and arranged.

We topped off our Mother's Day with a picnic at the park with the rest of the fam later on that night. And as if it wasn't possible the day could get any better, I ended up going to bed at 7:30 and got 11 hours of sleep that night! I need a Mother's Day more often!

Mother's Day Picnic 2010

2010-05-18T04:56:00.000-07:00

Moments Like These

2010-05-13T11:57:00.000-07:00

On beautiful evenings such as this one, I am reminded of one of the many reasons of why I love our home.

Atlanta to Alabama

2010-05-06T17:02:00.000-07:00

A couple weeks ago on our way to Alabama, the kids and I made an overnight pit stop near Atlanta to visit Lindsay, Joey and their girls. Greta and Ella spent the "night" in the same bed. After being put to bed at 8:00. they finally fell asleep at 10:00 and then Joey and Linds took Ella to bed with them at 11:00. It was cute to hear them giggling and playing on their first kind of sleep-over. :)

I had bought a pattern online in hopes of Linds to help me make this Jenny skirt with suspenders. We tried for a couple hours, cutting, taping, sewing and eventually just duct taping. Ha ha. See my suspenders? Luckily, once I got back home I was able to pass it onto Mama Ward who was willing to take on a challenge.

The next day in Atlanta, we spent time at the mall while waiting for my dad to fly in that afternoon and then my mom to fly in that evening with Angie who were all coming in town to see Bernie graduate from officer training school in Montgomery, Alabama. I'm pretty sure this was Will's first time on a carosel. He loved it, but his sea-sickness stricken, swing hating, carnival ride despising mama kept her head down the entire time. :)

These two nap-skippers played up a storm until G-Pop came in later that afternoon.

Will was so sweet with Dad and kept clinging to him.

All 4 of the kiddos, including little Miss Eden whom Greta and Will took every opportunity to push her as high as they could in that swing. Sweet baby never said a peep.

Once Angie and Mom flew in, we picked them up at the airport and continued our adventures to Alabama to meet up with Bernie. He had been gone for 2 months at Officer Training School and everyone was excited to see him.

Thursday night, there was a cocktail party for all the graduates and their families the night before graduation. My dad was the man by booking a room in the same hotel the party would take place in. That way the kids and I could "attend" the party and head on upstairs once it got to be a little less child-friendly. Did I mention all 7 of us stayed in one hotel room? Ha ha. It was booked to the max and so Bern and Ange slept in one side of the suite while my parents and I slept in the other room with Greta. Never say never. Where there's a will, the Kale's will make a way.

This was the view of the lobby of all the airmen in their blues. Greta said as we were going down in the glass elevator, "I see G-Pop!" and then you could see her scanning all of the "waldo's" in the Where's Waldo room. To a 2 year old, I bet they all looked like her G-Pop.

I kind of hate to admit this, but I thought I had a pretty good tan going. And then I stood next to Angie.

Me and the kids before we got banished to the dungeon before dinner. I fed them leftover quesadillas from earlier room service while my parents were ushering up chocolate cake and cheesecake from their fancy schmancy dinner down below. To their credit, they did order me a turkey sandwich and fruit from the cafe which Mom also brought to me while I hung out with the kids.

The next day was Bern's graduation which he was voted to be the class speaker for.

I was armed with all the ammo a mom could need: sippy cups, gummi bears, gum, grandparents, camera, anything to occupy the kids so I could hear the speech.

This is where we ended up...

This is how I saw the speech...
I'm just glad I got to hear Bernie give it to us the night before. We kept trying to figure out ways for him to slip in our names in the middle of the speech. "It's nat going to be easy..." or "Our future's so bright, we could get a sunbernie." Well, I made that last one up, but you get the idea.

The kids and I took a walk around the base. It's funny growing up seeing this stuff all the time and then you see it new again when your kids see it for the first time.

At the parade ceremony where all the soldiers march.

G-Pop telling Greta secrets.

Bern in the middle.

Bern, 3rd from right.

One proud mom.

One proud wife. (and baby too! They find out what they're having May 17th!)

Dad saluting Bernie. Why? Because he has too. :)

Lemme tell you something. Bernie cleaned house at the award ceremony. He got 3 awards. One for 100% physical fitness (only 16 people got that award), one for class speaker and one I've dubbed the MVP award. Bernie described it as, "For some reason they thought I was the guy who was the best example of who they'd like to see come out of this school." These two generals on the right came right up to Bernie and shook his hand after the ceremony. We were so proud of him.

I think Will has a new BFF.

Will got a little battle scar after a fight with the bathtub. He climbed into the slippery wet tub with his crocs on and slipped. His tooth hit the side of the tub. He only cried for a couple minutes, but I noticed this chip as I was putting him to bed that night. Hope he doesn't mind it since he's got about 5 more years of it! It doesn't seem to bad, but if the doctor recommends we might have to get it filed down.

Angie's cute baby bump. They're due in October!

"Deeeeee!" (cheeeese!)

Swimming at the hotel with Kiki.

It's one thing to slosh through the hotel lobby in your wet bathing suit and towel. We all do it. However, my mom cracked me up by looking all business up top and party on the bottom. With her button up shirt and purse slung around her shoulder, she looks like she's living out someones worst nightmare where they're in a business meeting with no pants on.

And while we're on the topic, here's another crazy mom story. We stopped at a truck stop with a Wendy's on our way back to the ATL airport. My mom gave Greta a Ken doll head out of nowhere. After asking where she got that, she replied, "On the ground. It's a good distraction for the kids!" She actually stopped in the pouring rain, at a truck stop to pick up a body-less head for my kids. I had to take a picture because this was just too classic. I can't say that it worked as a distraction since I threw it in the trash as soon as I could, but I have to say that it was soooo fun to hang out with everyone for those few days. What a whirlwind and perfect opportunity for the kids to hang out with their grandparents one-on-one.

Under the Blossom Tree

2010-04-26T11:47:00.000-07:00

J. Ford Photo, where were you when I needed you? Some of you may remember this post from last year when Jake was able to snap some pics of the kids. Well, "someone" was MIA this year when the cherry blossoms were in full bloom, so I had to rely on my own awesome talent. Here are this years pics.

Don't you just want to squeeze him?

She looks so little to me in this picture.

And here are last years pics:

Playing the Anvil. Preserving History.

2010-04-26T11:35:00.000-07:00

This guy Doc is the metal worker on the grounds there at Biltmore. He says he is one of 3 people in the country who plays the anvil. He said it's harder than learning any kind of metal work. Luckily, he has an apprentice so I hope he's passing the trade down to him.

Asheville Adventures

2010-04-15T18:44:00.000-07:00

A couple weekends ago Adam took me on a surprise getaway weekend to Asheville, NC. The best part of the getaway? No kids. :)

We kicked off our weekend with a Saturday morning breakfast at our favorite Asheville spot, Tupelo Honey Cafe.

One of my favorite things to get there are the sweet potato pancakes. We always order our own breakfast and then one pancake to split between the two of us. They are so thick that we still took half of it back to the hotel with us.

Adam was so thoughtful and knew I've always wanted to go to the Biltmore Estate so he got us two tickets to the Festival of Flowers there.

This was the entrance to the estate.

Our delicious lunch we ate out by the carriage house (now turned into a bunch of shops and cafe's).

We were only into the 2nd week of Festival of Flowers so all of the summer flowers weren't in bloom yet. But, as you can see the tulips were beautiful.

I think Ms. Scarlet killed Mr. Green with a knife in the conservatory. This is the conservatory. And I always think of playing CLUE when I hear the word conservatory.

Live music in the garden.

From our house to yours, Merry Christmas. The guy that took our picture said we should put this on our Christmas card.

Well, we didn't get the audio tour, but apparently that is the way to go if you have an exra 17 bucks that you don't want to spend on another hot dog. However, my little pamphlet was more than informative and it gave us still at least an hour and a half in the house exploring all 250,000 square feet of living area. There are 250 bedrooms and 43 bathrooms at a time when most households didn't even have one bathroom. It was built in 1889 by a 33 year old bachelor, George Vanderbilt, who coincidentally ended up marrying a year and a half later which reminds me of the famous line, "If you build it, they will come." The crazy thing was in he originally set out to build a 2,500 square foot lodge. How a couple extra zeros got in there, nobody knows. The house is literally 4 ACRES of living space. My legs were tired after the walk. Maybe George V. had segway to get around on. ;)

And thanks to Mom and Dad R. who watched the kids for us for 2 nights and 2 days! The longest I've ever been away from them! Next time, I might add on a couple more nights. :)

From the Mouths of Babes

2010-04-14T18:24:00.000-07:00

A sampling of Greta's prayers recently.

Dear Fodder, dank you for da coss. Dank you for da food. Dank you for our good good day. Dank you for Daddy on the lawnmower. Dank you for da coss. Dank you for da coss. Dank you Will sleep well. (looks at me) What's the the rest of the story?

Me: In Jesus name....

Greta: No, no, no. Dank you for da coss. Amen.

She's grateful for the cross. Love it.

Sleeping Beauty

2010-04-14T12:56:00.001-07:00

I can't imagine propping my foot up on that tool bench for a nap, but she didn't seem to mind a bit.

Easter Prep

2010-04-13T12:53:00.000-07:00

Me and my girl making Easter cookies. Side note: I am not a Pampered Chef consultant, but I highly recommend these little frosting tipped bottles. They come with 3 different tips that are removable and the tubes are so great for kids. Plus they come with a little bottle brush to scrub all of that crisco laden frosting out of the tubes although I must say I threw mine in the dishwasher and they got cleaner then when I handwashed them. Anyway, they're about 12 bucks and I love them.

Dying Easter eggs with Daddy.

And Will taste testing all of them and frowning every time. You'd think he'd learn, crazy kid!

Easter 2010 Concord Style

2010-04-13T11:47:00.001-07:00

Getting their outfits ready the night before, I pulled out a few headbands Kiki gave to Greta and Will seemed to like one in particular. He was such a stinker and didn't want me take his picture saying, "No, no, no" and shaking his head as if he were embarrassed, but not quite so to take it off.

We woke up the next morning and Adam sprinkled jelly bean filled eggs in the yard and hid their Easter baskets.
For their baskets, I didn't want to repeat with more candy that I'd just have to fight with them about how many pieces they get now, put that one back, give it back to Will, yadda yadda yadda, so I bought them each a Fisher Price Little People toy instead. They were BOGO at Toys R Us and did just the trick. Fisher Price is very pc with their minorities as Greta has an African American female pilot and Will has a female Asian farmer.

I don't know about you, but I like to dress really nice on Easter. I'm talking really really good looking nice. I do what I can folks.

Awesome family picture #1.

Awesome family picture #2. Will was hungry and tired sooo we tried. I really don't mind pics like these as I can look back on this and remember, "Oh this was the age that Will was really wiggly and tempermental when hungry and Greta still hasn't really learned to pose for the camera yet."

But she is my sweet girl.

Even if she doesn't smile on cue.

Thanks Leebs. Much better.

Beautiful.

And to kick off our Easter, Concord style, we did a weenie roast in our backyard that night with our very first bonfire! We were a bit nervous having an open fire in the backyard with not exactly having a firepit, but one call to my dad and I was feeling much better.

Me: Well, I'm just worried that since our field lines are connected to our septic tank that somehow they might catch on fire and burn underground and blow the septic tank up.

Dad: Well, wow. That's quite an imagination you've got there. I would be worried about the flames getting too high. You don't want to burn down any planes.

But Leigh Anna and I gathered various bricks around the yard, made a giant circle and we were able to burn all the brush that we've collected around the yard for the past year. Our buddy, Ben (far right, plaid) even brought his guitar and we sang songs around the fire and listened to his mad skillz (as Adam would say).

We did it easy. Hot dogs, chips, soda and cake. We didn't even have any skewers but the guys were nice enough to carve up some sticks for us. Heck, for that matter I didn't even have any hot dogs since I found them still in the car from a few days previous when I originally bought them. Thanks to Dad R. who pulled through for me with a last minute stop to the store and re-stocked us.

Cousin Treacy and her boyfriend, Madison, were there visiting from LU.

I let the kids stay up late to hang out with us, but when they get tired, you don't really want them around a fire. They get a little loopy if you know what I mean.

Greta is such my child. She loved throwing sticks in that fire and just gazing off staring at it. I can't wait to do this again.

Greenville Zoo

2010-04-12T18:02:00.000-07:00

Last week, Bennett and Eden were in town and we took them to the zoo with us in Greenville, SC. Even in living in a big city, the nearest zoo's are still an hour and a half away in both directions but it was a beautiful day of 83 degrees and well worth the trip.
One of the reasons that made this trip so great was that we were able to meet up with Lindsay and her girls there too. The drive is just about the same for her from Georgia and this made for perfect middle meeting ground.

We have so many pictures from college like this, Lindsay scrunching down to my height. I have a picture of us with my tortise shell glasses and flourescent yellow hoodie on during one of our freshman year morning runs. If you would've told me 10 years later we'd still be the best of friends and I'd have a paci hanging from my shoulder, I probably would've believed it. It's just funny seeing it come to fruition.

Ella, Greta and Bennett

Eden and Will holding up my "new to me" Maclaren double stroller I bought at Goodwill for $35.00!! And no, I was not in need of a new double stroller, but these things are seriously like $300.00 normally and that was a deal I was not about to pass up.

I love Greta especially in this picture.

And the newest little member of the girls gang, Eden Elizabeth. She was born in January and was a sleeping beauty most of the trip.

Greta is pointing to the giraffes that she said were me and Adam. It must've been those long legs that made her think of me. ;)

I told Dad R. that he needed a yellow hat so he could be "the man in the yellow hat" from Curious George, Greta's current fave.

Eden Hope meets Eden Elizabeth.

Ella, Bennett and Greta made friends with some big girls under the playground set and played Barbie cards or something for a while. Either way they all came out wearing various shades of glitter lip gloss. Ha ha.

Hopefully this isn't a sign of the future, but Will really seems to like to be behind bars. He'll play back there and act stuck even when there's a giant opening next to him.

Now if only they had done this on the way there also...

I was seriously amazed at the monkeys. I have never seen them this active before and never knew that they had that amplifier on their throats. I could've watched them forever! They were so active!

G-Pop Comes to Visit

2010-04-09T11:50:00.000-07:00

We loved having my dad here for a long weekend last week. As I posted on my facebook page:

Dropped my dad off at the airport yesterday and missing him already. Of course, for his great company but also because while he was here he oiled our squeaky door, fixed my kitchen shelf, fixed the stuck bathroom door, assembled a playground set, mowed the lawn, insulated cold air leaks, ordered me Amsoil, leveled the stove and fixed the convection fan!

And true to his nature he called the next day and said I forgot two things. (rolling eyes) Ha ha!

Will helping his G-Pop fix the convection fan.

Slaving away in the garden.

The kids taking their "new to us" swingset out for a test drive.

Thanks for visiting Dad! Greta is already talking about when she'll see you and Kiki next. Can't wait for April!

We love Linds

2010-04-06T10:54:00.000-07:00

We've been hanging out with our buddy Lindsey recently and here are some classic pics of her helping me baby-sit Bennett and Eden while they were over one day. Climbing a tree to show bravery.

The proper way to ride a horse...

And learning our ABC's. Whoever can name off all of these pictures gets a cyber hug from me. Warning though...E is missing (that's your freebie) and letter G is a toughie.

Pretty Girl

2010-04-02T18:18:00.000-07:00

This is what happens when you leave your purse at Greta's level. I'm surprised she's not munching on a piece of gum in this picture too...

I can tell this picture is a couple weeks old. Know how? She's diaper free now!

Will's Kissy Face

2010-03-30T13:48:00.000-07:00

Seriously, how could you say no to this face? I love it because on the craziest of days, I'll have him slung up on my hip running around like a madwoman and hear a lip smacking sound. That's when I notice Will's face and he wants to give me a kiss. Love it.

Out for a stroll

2010-03-30T13:37:00.000-07:00

Greta taking Susie on a walk.

Look Mom! A Horsey!

2010-03-25T11:19:00.000-07:00

Look at what Greta painted today! Can you say Black Beauty? I was so impressed! That is also a tree in the background, but I'm pretty sure Adam must've helped her with that last night.

Look at this intense Van Gogh. Or maybe she's the next Bob Ross with the little "happy trees"? Ha ha.

And here's her apprentice in training.

Life With Greta

2010-03-20T17:56:00.000-07:00

Apple Jack and Jay

2010-03-11T12:22:00.001-08:00

Jackie, Jay, Lydia and Cole were our first house guests to stay overnight with us! They came in a couple Fridays ago and stayed the weekend with us. We were so blessed by them visiting and had a great time with them. It's fun having all the kiddo's stair-stepped because needless to say they got along great! Here they are watching Saturday morning cartoons.

Greta loved Lydia (or "Olivia" which is what she called her the ENTIRE weekend. Ha ha.) They came during the time of the Winter Olympics so we all got a big kick out of the girls racing and could better appreciate the pass up of Greta's as they ran around the table.

This was Jack and I tending to all 4 kids in the car. Jay and Adam woke up early Saturday morning to resurrect an old college hobby of theirs, racquetball. Adam hasn't played for years but kept talking about how much fun they had. I'm glad they were able to do it.

Adam and I knew just what we wanted to do with them when they came. First stop, Amelies. This great little French Bakery we've heard so much about and visited the week before. It's awesome and SO great for kids because of this giant room that the kids ran around in while we ate breakfast. Love that.

Our friends. They are preparing to go on the mission field to N. Africa in June! This will be one of the last times were all together for a few years. Sad! BUT, happy that we'll have an exotic place to visit our great friends someday soon!

Another favorite Charlotte stomping ground we like to frequent is the Whitewater Rafting Center which we knew our outdoorsy friends could appreciate.

Skinny-minnie Jack with 7 month Cole. Not fair. ;) She ran 10 miles when he was only 5 weeks old!

The girls "bouldering". Jay used to work at a rock climbing center so he was instrumental in their climbing skills instructing them to "find a hold" as they maneuvered around. :)

Times at the house were fun. We'd put on music and costumes for the kids and the girls loved to dance and twirl.

I don't know about you, but I particularly like Jay's move back there...

Sweet Will tuckered out in his sweaty puppy dog costume and just wanted to read his book on his Daddy's lap.

Mornin' Neighb's!

2010-03-10T13:37:00.000-08:00

Another Renstrom!

2010-03-01T04:39:00.000-08:00

Baby Mercy was born to D&D this morning at 12:49 am. She was a BIG baby weighing in at 10 lbs, 2 oz and 22 inches long. Good job Danielle!! More details can be found on their blog.

Yogurt at 16 Months

2010-02-24T10:37:00.000-08:00

Funny Greta

2010-02-17T05:19:00.000-08:00

Here's a little video of Greta lately. Such a little busybody.

Chuck-E-Cheese

2010-02-14T17:51:00.000-08:00

We went to Chuck E Cheese for a birthday party for some friends the other day. What a blast from the past! I haven't been there in forever! Remember this swing thing? The chair that I sat in when I was little I remember was orange and it was turned to the side. It's funny how you can still find the same type of games there since I was a kid including the little bowling balls and the alligator head bopping. C'mon, you guys know what I'm talking about. I'll admit too, I was trying to pull the tickets just right so more would come out then what I had actually won. It didn't work.

Our little buddy Audrey on the carousel. Isn't she the cutest?

G looks so big to me in this picture! She loved riding "Stampede". Her Poppy Renstrom used to be a cowboy and had a horse named Stamped so naturally any horse is named that too.

She was so excited to see Chuck E. She'd say to me "Look, Mommy! He's a wobot!"

Alathea on the left was one of the birthday girls. It was her 4th birthday!

The kids had such a fun time running from game to game.

Abi was the other birthday girl. She and Alathea are sisters and share birthdays just days apart. She turned 2. Beautiful little girls.

A Well Spent 15 dollars

2010-02-10T05:05:00.000-08:00

We've had some "winter weather" recently which means long days inside the house unless we go to IKEA instead! This is what we came home with recently on a rainy afternoon.

So far the kids love it. We'll see what they think in another week. ;) Now, I've just got to figure out how to remove dry-erase marker from the wall...

One of those kind of days...

2010-02-08T11:39:00.000-08:00

The kids have had a nasty stomach diarrhea bug and every day begins with hitting the ground running from changing sheets, diapers and clothes. Will has had it the worst with a diaper rash to top it off. Will had to take a bath in the sink because we don't have a working tub at our house yet...just a stand up shower. After looking at this picture though, don't you feel just a smidge bad for me? :) No shower, make-up and yes my shirt is backwards and inside out. And yes, I kept it like that the entire day so people would feel sorry for me. Is it working?

My sweet buddy didn't seem to mind and is hopefully almost done with this little bug! 6 days and counting...Greta was on hand to give him toys to keep him happy. She's been my little helper getting me extra clothes and diapers when I'm doing his diaper changes. She tells him when he's crying "It's otay, Will!" and then when he's crying a lot she'll say, "That is E-Nough Will!" (emphasis on the E). :)

5 days

2010-01-15T04:53:00.001-08:00

Countdown begins today of 5 days before we move into our new home! Before we leave the land of homemade baked goods around every corner, the land of tevo and cable television, the land of a fenced in backyard, the land of "you go back to bed for a few minutes and let us get the kids" and somehow we are still excited!

12 Days of Christmas

2009-12-31T17:55:00.000-08:00

I did this last year to force me to pick a few favorites out of million pics from Christmas. Here's another version from our quiet Charlotte Christmas in 2009.

On the 1st day of Christmas my true love gave to me:

The Christmas story of the birth of a Baby.

On the 2nd day of Christmas my true love gave to me:

Two adorable hats from Aunt Bridge in Idaho. Thank you!!

On the 3rd day of Christmas my true love gave to me:

3 sets of matching p.j.'s from there Aunt Leebs. (And she gave Will's to him too) Thank you!

On the 4th day of Christmas my true love gave to me:

Mama Ward's "4"head on Skype. She was cracking us up and talked to us almost the whole time this way!

On the 5th day of Christmas my true love gave to me:

5 takes of family pictures. (These are two of them) :)

On the 6th day of Christmas my true love gave to me:

6 beautiful people!

On the 7th day of Christmas my true love gave to me:

7 months pregnant Danielle trying to get out of a recliner.

On the 8th day of Christmas my true love gave to me:

8 hours behind Iraq, we watched a pre-recorded video tape that accompanied a book that my Dad sent Greta. She loves it and wants to watch it all the time.

On the 9th day of Christmas my true love gave to me:

9 minutes of Will sitting still on the bottom step watching his Uncle Dan fly a remote control helicopter.

On the 10th day of Christmas my true love gave to me:

10 bucks for a vintage suitcase to hold dress up clothes for Greta. (Complete with remnants of an old Air France sticker!)

On the 11th day of Christmas my true love gave to me:

11costumes to play dress up with! (Well, Honest Abe here cannot tell a lie. Who knows how many costumes are in there...probably not 11, but we'll just say it is for effect.) :)

On the 12th day of Christmas my true love gave to me:

Dozens of other wonderful gifts! A coat for me, Hungry Hippos for Greta, I Love You Stinky Face book for Will and an outfit we bought for Eden, just to name a few.

Merry Christmas!

2009-12-24T10:21:00.001-08:00

Love, The Renstrom's

And a huge thank you to Megan W. who took these pictures!!

Gingerbread House

2009-12-24T09:49:00.000-08:00

Mom R. and the kids and I went to a fancy hotel in South Charlotte to see gingerbread houses. "Hey Greta, let me take your picture by the Christmas tree." Awesome.

Eiffel tower gingerbread house. Seemed really cool until you looked closer and Homer and Marge Simpson were ice skating down below. Kind of lost its nostalgia after that. :)

They had a little Santa village downstairs that the kids enjoyed playing at. Will just loves stuff like this and giggles at every snowman.

Greta cracks me up in this picture. I think she's mimicking a mom who's trying to get her daughter to smile for a picture behind us.

This is Will's whiney face.

G was so funny in this picture too. I told her to go sit by the presents and she sat on the presents. Then, I told her to stand up and she stood on the presents. By the time she figured it out, she was way to into her apple cider to oblige me anymore.

Then, a nice lady came up to us and gave us a coloring page with crayons and a stuffed snowman! Yay for richie-richville!

Legit Crazy

2009-12-23T06:00:00.000-08:00

A friend of ours, Jake, said about Greta the other day, "That girl is crazy. Like legit crazy." It made me laugh, but I think he's right. We like her craziness and I think these pictures reflect that.

Baby Blover

2009-12-23T05:49:00.000-08:00

Greta said the other day, "My baby blover is my blest fend" (My baby brother is my best friend.) So sweet. Here are some pics of their usual way playing together, going down the slide.

Such a sweet happy boy!

Gingerbread Church with Kyle and Ryan

2009-12-22T05:39:00.000-08:00

More activities carried on the next day before the guys and the rest of the gang, that arrived later, left for Florida. I told Greta we would make a gingerbread house with them.

I think she was excited, but more so about just eating the candy. Ryan and I on the other hand got way more into it than anyone else. :)

Both of the guys were such a huge help with the kids. From tea parties to just watching cartoons, it was nice to have their help and we loved having them around.

Our house's roof caved in and so we called it a gingerbread church complete with a steeple and stained glass windows (Ryan's idea, ha! I'm telling you, we were way into it).

Thanks guys! Merry Christmas!

Tea Party

2009-12-16T19:15:00.000-08:00

Kyle and Ryan drove in tonight from Liberty to head to FL tomorrow for Christmas break. Greta was so excited for her buddies to be here that she invited Ryan up to her room for a tea party. Here she is in her apron serving tea to Ryan and her stuffed moose.

Apparently Greta had insisted that Ryan sit in the little chairs, but he politely declined because he thought he might break it. What a nice guy he is to oblige a 2-year-old little girl. She loved it.

Things I Love

2009-12-16T18:08:00.000-08:00

Greta: This girl has such a vivid imagination. She cracks us up with her stories of an elephant tickling her at night or her imaginary pet snail named Scissors. Here she is painting with water on the inside of a cereal box. She said, "Look Mommy, an umbrella!" Well, wouldn't you know! Can you see it? It's upside down and it must've been a windy day picture that she was painting because it's inverted, but an umbrella it surely is!

Then, one day she took a bite of her chicken nugget and said, "Look, a rainbow!" I realize this is not brainiac stuff, but it's a first for her to see these objects out of something and I am so enjoying this stage of learning.

Oh, and she's funny.

Will: He is in SUCH a learning stage right now. I am constantly surprised at what he knows and discovers each day. He moos when he sees the cows on the side of the road, he knows that ducks quack and can sign for "all done" and "more".

Here he is signing "all done" by waving his hands up in the air and he says, "Ah dee, ah dee".

He is such a stinker when in his high chair. I seriously couldn't ask for a better eater. He is a vaccuum and just shoves it in, but when he's done, he's done. Here he is beginning his cleaning ritual of his tray by dropping his sippy cup. The peas and corn will follow and so on and so on. Of course, we've been trying to correct this behavior by a slap on the hand and a firm "no-no" but he just squinches up his eyes and turns up his nose like he's so bummed he can't continue. It's hilarious.

Here's my buddy not doing a thing I ask from his bag of tricks, but you can hear him laugh and that, my friends, is a precious sound. You can also see his four teeth since he's decided to be such a big boy and grow up and get teeth.

I love it when my kids play together. Especially if no one ends up crying.

Fun Girls Weekend?

2009-12-16T17:40:00.000-08:00

The question mark is not about the weekend being fun rather than a question of it really being a a weekend. I'll explain later.

It began with Jackie and Baby Cole arriving Thursday night in Charlotte to spend the night with us. Greta loved "Baby Toad".

And so did Will. He was so cute, I don't think he even knew Cole was real until he started wiggling and then Will started giggling and kept going to touch him and would retract his hand to just laugh some more.

After Greta saw Cole playing on his blanket, Greta set up her dolly like this.

And here is the only picture to prove that Jackie and I met up with Lindsay Friday afternoon to spend the "weekend" with each other in Greenville, SC. We had such a fun evening together complete with tapas and gelato. We lived it up in a hotel that night thanks to Dad R. too! Thanks so much! Sadly, however, I woke up the next day with a fever and a giant headache and we all headed home! Ugh. I don't even want to talk about it. We were supposed to go Christmas shopping and do crafting the next day and even go to the movies (a luxury for a stay-at-home mom for those of you who are thinking "big whoop" and yes, I said big whoop), none of which we did because I stinking got stinking sick. And there was even an art fair that weekend along the river that we could've gone to. SO, instead we drove home and I sat at home by myself since the rest of the fam had gone to Raleigh and watched the Alabama football game and the original version of Little Women. Okay, now it's time for you to feel sorry for me now.

Thanks to You

2009-12-12T17:44:00.000-08:00

Thank you so much to everyone who participated in writing my dad a Christmas note. I know he's going to love it. Here's a picture he sent me the other day. He's been working no less than 7 days a week, 12 hour days. Please continue to pray for his safety and strength as he is being stretched thin over there.

Here's how the card turned out. After running out of tape and double sided scrapbook stickers, glue was too messy and bubbly and staples were my last resort. Needless to say, it looks a bit industrial.

You can see all the staples in the comments. Oh well. He's a guy...hopefully he won't notice. :)

Complete with a picture by Greta.

Merry Christmas Daddy-O!

2009-12-07T04:31:00.000-08:00

As most of you know, my dad is in Iraq right now and won't be back until January. We are certainly grateful for a short 4 month term over there, but that also means that he won't be home for Christmas. I'm getting ready to mail him a package on Thursday and would love to include a note from you whether you know him or not. I did this a couple years ago when my brother Bernie was deployed over Christmas and I noticed last time I was up in AK that he still has the Christmas card that you all "wrote" in. I'd love for us to do this for my dad. I'll collect all the comments written and include them in a homemade Christmas card and send it out on Thursday. That means you have until 8:00 am EST to write something!My dad in his blues holding one year old Greta at Bernie's wedding.

Doing the electric slide with my hot mama while wearing his top gun glasses.

Helpful hints while writing your note:

1. My dad has never met a stranger. With the exception of the umpires at my little league games, he makes friends wherever he goes.

2. He goes by the name Bernie, Mr. Kale, Chief, or Dad.

3. He celebrates Christmas as opposed to Hanukkah or Kwaanza. :)

4. He doesn't like tardiness, so get your comment in soon!

5. He also doesn't like it when you take long showers and drain the water heater, but you shouldn't have to worry about that unless you live with him.

6. He loves Miracle Whip.

7. He doesn't know I'm doing this so please help me with this surprise!!

Consider this your opportunity to go green and save a stamp on my dime!

Thanksgiving

2009-12-05T16:04:00.000-08:00

Every year I'm in charge of the table decorations and place settings. Between cooking and decorating, I'll take the latter any day.

I did a bunch of various sized mason jars filled with pecans, topped with tealights and wrapped with raffia.

On the extra seating table (not a kids table, they were all napping and yes that was strategic on our part) I lined mini little jars with pecans and tealights also.

A giant pickle jar for the middle with a big pillar candle in that one.

This year I said I was thankful for two homes and for Adam who works so hard on one of them.

My trusty assistants, London and Leigh Anna who helped me get the tables ready. Go ahead and put this picture on your facebook, girls. It's a cute one!

It was a Happy Thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving Day Parade

2009-12-05T15:32:00.000-08:00

On the morning of Thanksgiving, I did an "actibity" as Greta would say with her and Bennett. I had them glue on beans to strips of paper and we stapled them together and added feathers for little indian headdresses to wear to the Thanksgiving Day Parade in downtown Charlotte.

Little Eden enjoyed the benefit of their hard work. :)

We all had such a great time at the parade. It was cold though!

Bennett was cracking me up with her posed smiles. When you ask her to say cheese she really emphasizes it and gives you this face every time! Funny girl. Greta just loves her buddy B.

I got to sit next to my buddy boyfriend who was completely entranced by all the sights to see.

Mimi came with us and still had a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner waiting for us when we got back. How does she do it?? She bought Starbucks for everyone which on parade days, we literally stand in line for over 30 minutes for. It's crazy, but the girls enjoyed their "hot toto".

My favorite guys.

I am so thankful for my sweet kids.

Greta got a high five from a somewhat deflated looking Ernie.

Parades can be inspirational. For example, I solved the problem of what to wear for Christmas Day.

Obviously, I was a bit too into the parade to think about checking G's diaper. Her tights were soaked and her dipe was dangling between her knees on the way back to the car. Sorry girl!!

She is a beauty though. :)

Will Walks!

2009-12-03T13:07:00.000-08:00

Will took his first steps on my birthday, October 25th, 2009. He's now 13 months and ever since then, he has gained confidence from grabbing our pointer fingers for assistance to going from destination to destination with occasional falling in between. He LOVES being a big boy!

He uses Greta's chair as his launchpad and Greta is always quite the encourager. She's always exclaiming "Good job Will (Wheel)!" She also started walking at 13 months.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-30T12:36:00.000-08:00

Black Friday

2009-11-30T11:36:00.000-08:00

After much research and poring over newspaper ads we finally found a front loading washer and dryer set on sale at Sears for $600.00. Although smaller than what we originally wanted, we figured you couldn't beat the price and decided to wake up at the time the store opened. They only had 4 sets of that type in the store so we had to be there on time. 3:30. In.the.morning.
I've never been at the store when it opened and was surprised to see this crowd there. It was even crazier when we got inside. Apparently, Sears had handed out vouchers for the washer and dryer at 3:00 am that we were there for and sadly, there were none left. We were also interested in the flat panel tv's as they were having major sales in the electronics also. Luckily, we found one that we wanted for a steal! We were excited because our new living room won't accomodate our old school tv and armoire with all of the windows and walkways and so we were happy to find something that will be perfect to attach right to the wall. Adam plans to build a built in tv unit using one of our closets in the hallway.
And yes, I'm wearing a blanket. It was cold! More importantly, I don't regret it. Maybe Adam does, but not me. Even more embarrassing was my dress that I was wearing was from the day before (and I happened to sleep in also). It was 3:30 people! We came back home and crawled back into bed. In my dress again. :)
4 for 4:00 am. Wow, I look awesome.

Daycare

2009-11-28T10:42:00.000-08:00

I love that Greta plays with this doll. My Grandma Kale made it for me when I was little and made it to look like me with dark brown hair and blue eyes.Greta has named her Raleigh. :) I showed Greta a crib the other day for Raleigh to sleep in. After Raleigh was tucked away in her crib Greta needed more cribs for all the rest of her "aminals".

It looks like a little daycare. I love that the last four have balls to play with. I'm just now noticing that as I look at this picture. On another creative play note, Greta can play with anything with her little imagination. Yesterday she was in the shower with me playing with four washcloths and asking one of them, "What's wong?" (what's wrong?) Apparently, one of them was crying and was sad. :)

Philbur's Progress

2009-11-16T11:49:00.000-08:00

When Phil was here I kept wanting to call him Philbur. Why? Well because I call Will, Wilbur. They're practically named after each other. :) Check out Phil's progress on the house.

http://www.rockyriverfarmhouse.blogspot.com/

Ha ha. I love Phil's stance in this picture. :)

Batter Blaster

2009-11-16T05:15:00.000-08:00

Have you seen this in the store and was curious to try it? Let me save you $5.00 (or $2.50 if you're like me and got it on sale). Now, Adam has a flair for the dramatic, but in his own words he says it tasted like carcass. Sooooo, I guess we won't be buying that anymore (as if he knows what a carcass tastes like). I kind of hoped the kids wouldn't notice, but Will who eats anything but carrots immediately spit it out and continued to spit afterwards while making motor noises. Yes, thank you Will. I get it. Someone seems to be taking after his daddy.

Now, if you're thinking, "Oh no! What will we ever do? How will I ever make pancakes now?" Don't worry, I wouldn't leave you hangin'. This is something that will blast your batter.

Swedish Pancakes: thinner than regular pancakes, thicker than crepes.
4 eggs
1 cup flour
1 cup milk
2 T. sugar
3 T. wesson or vegetable oil
salt

serves 5

Fashionista

2009-11-14T07:18:00.000-08:00

It poured down rain last week and Greta insisted on wearing her sun hat in the rain so she wouldn't get wet. Looking good g-friend!

Mama Llama and Keeks McGeeks

2009-11-09T18:43:00.000-08:00

My mom came to town! Here are some pictures from her two week stay with us. We miss her already! Us in our 1 dolla hats at the Nascar race. I'm showing an M&M to showcase my mom's lovely yellow hat. It was freezing at the race!

At our usual daily visit to the house

This lady was nuts for some nuts. Seriously, her and Greta were so hooked on picking up all the pecans, I could not get them interested in anything else. Even later when I borrowed Mom's green vest, guess what I found in the pockets? Nuts.

One night, thanks to my friend Rose, we went to a fashion show, dinner and auction! We had such a great time.

Dad R. lent us his snazzy Volkswagon CC for the night and we cruised in style.

We laughed so hard till there were tears streaming down my face about my shoes that my mom borrowed for the night. I hate them because they always slip off my feet and of course they were even worse for my mom's feet which are smaller than mine so she stuffed them with tissues. We were already so out of our league at the richy-richville auction and here's Mom rolling in with toilet paper hanging out of her shoes.

My mom comes in at the perfect time each year. Just early enough to celebrate Will's birthday on the 15th and then to celebrate mine 10 days later. She made me a delish chocolate torte.

We went to the "punkin" patch.

And the Greenville Zoo which was 1.5 hours away.

My mom totally got Greta hooked on the cartoon, Wonder Pets, that Finn likes to watch with Kiki too. Mom and Greta would sing the intro song and end with, "Gooooooo Wonderpets!" I love this picture of them. They look alike in it to me.

Mom some work over at the house and was proud of all her sheetrock-ripping-off that she did in the hallway.

Our last night together, we went out to eat, just the two of us at the Cheesecake Factory and had a great time. We were on a short time limit, but it included splitting an appetizer (avacado rolls-DELISH!), dinner and ordering cheesecake to bring back home.

Love you, Mom! Come back soon.

My Baby is ONE!

2009-11-05T18:12:00.000-08:00

Will turned 1 on October 15th! He is such a gift from God and I thank God every day for him. He just lights up with a giant smile to whoever gives him attention and makes you feel like a million bucks. I pray he has that effect on people throughout the rest of his life (except girls :)). He is a good eater, a good sleeper, a cuddler, a wrestler, a giggly baby, a dare-devil, and LOVES his sister. He's low-maintence and easygoing except when he wants to walk or is being buffaloed by his sister. He loves to play wrestle with his daddy when Adam gets home from work and will butt his head against Adam's. He can wave bye-bye, say uh-oh, mama, dada, thank you (or give the inflection at least), and his sweetest word, hi, which he says over and over, hiii, hiii, hiii. Here are some pics from the day of his birthday that we celebrated with some very special people in his life.

Keeks flew in the night before from AK to wish her favorite youngest grandson a happy birthday. She bought some snazzy boots too for the birthday boy.

I don't know why, but I was a mean mom and set up Will's one year check-up on his one year birthday. That was a mistake after all those shots and having to squeeze his finger for 2 minutes for a blood sample. Longest 2 minutes ever. I'm sorry sweet boy. In better news, Will is 90th% in height and 10th% in weight (19 lbs, 11 ounces) and healthy and smart.

How big is Will? SO big!

I made these little owls out of cocoa krispie treats, candy corns, mini oreos and M&M's. Of course we had WAY too much food, but I had two ideas I wanted to do plus leftover rice kripsie treats and pumpkin cakes are never a bad thing.

Greta loved the owls so much especially the candy. She thought she was so clever eating the eyes and nose off of one owl and switching plates with her Poppy Renstrom saying, "Dat yours Poppy" pointing to the half eaten one.

Shout out to Harris Teeter (or as my mom likes to call it Harriet Teeter) for the free balloons. Betcha wondered why I walked out of the store with no kids and 4 balloons eh?

Happy Birthday Will! We love love love you!

1st Haircut

2009-11-05T17:27:00.001-08:00

Big boy turns one and he thinks he needs to go off and cut his mullet. He's also asked us to start referring to him as William. Pssshhh, think again Bubbalicious.

Here is the before picture.

While my dad was in town, I asked him to do the honors. How hard can it be when Will's got a lollipop and ice cream being shoved in his face?

Love this pic. :)

Oops. Snagged a hair.

Sometimes when we ask, "How big is Will?" he poses by flexing his muscles instead of putting his arms over his head.

Sweet handsome boy with his new haircut in his new birthday p.j.'s from Aunt Bridge.

Smile

2009-11-04T12:09:00.000-08:00

This picture just makes me smile.

Halloween Festival

2009-11-01T05:25:00.000-08:00

Our church doesn't have any fall festivals so this year we decided to participate in our new little town of Harrisburg and attend their Halloween festival. I had seen on the cover of a magazine under the title of "Easy Halloween Costumes" a little girl dressed as a pirate. Greta has been really interested in dressing up with any of my clothes and I thought of my shirt that would be perfect for Greta to be a little buccaneer. A couple of Grammy's red scarves later and little black leggings given to her from Aunt Pam, we had a complete costume a couple hours before the festival.

Will was going to be a parrot so here he is with his manly-man leggings on. Adam participated in a little dress-up at work with 4 of his co-workers where they all dressed up like their quality control manager. They all wore a pastel pink shirt and black dress pants complete with a mask with his face on it. He just shook his head when he saw them all dressed up and then gave them a hard time, but Adam said loved it. :)

It was so fun for my mom to see the kids all dressed up in their Halloween costumes. She left Saturday afternoon so it was nice that the festival was on a Friday night so she could attend this with us.

Soon after we arrived, they announced a costume contest and whoever was interested to line up around the building. We stood in line for about 15 minutes as they announced all the little kids and their costumes. They're were a LOT of people at the festival and the age groups were split up from 0-7 and then 7 and up. Here we are getting announced on the stage of the old Harrisburg post office.

I made Will's outfit beginning with a red Walmart hoodie and sewing feathers on the sleeves and an orange felt beak on his hood. Here's my sweet buddy complete with his rubber glove talons. ;) My mom gave me that idea and it was a hit! He got sooo much attention and one lady even asked to take his picture.

The pirate and her parrot.

I tried to perch Will on her shoulder for a picture, but Greta just looked at me like I was crazy. I think she's still questioning his manly man tights at this point. Or rubber gloves.

Greta and Kiki getting ready to go fishing at one of the games. This kind of shows a portion of the crowd that was here too.

While waiting for the judges to decide the results from the costume contest, we continued to play games and just listened for them to announce our names over the mic for us to come collect our prizes. ;) When they finally decided, they started announcing all the winners. 3rd place: not us, 2nd place: not us, 1st place: not us. At this point, we started walking around as they continued to announce a couple bonus prizes. Funniest costume:Oompa Loompa girl, (she was cute, I'll give her that), Scariest costume: don't know, don't care. Now we just start playing "throw the hoop over the octopus' head" game and stopped listening because I thought they were going to wind down the festivities anyway and wanted to use up our tickets before the kids got tired. Well, no sooner had Greta thrown two hoops that completely missed the octopus' head did we hear over the mic "The pirate and the parrot!" I had no idea what prize they had just announced, but you better believe that I grabbed Greta's hand and with Will in my arms we marched right back up those steps to claim whatever we had just won. I even asked the announcer as we were getting up there, "What did we just win?" and she announced again in the mic, "The best costume OVERALL!" I was SOOOO excited! Once again, living vicariously through my kids as I did my best Ms. America wave and proudly accepted my, ~~our~~, their golden pumpkin trophy.

They have no idea what's going on and I'm on a total high. This is getting ridiculous. :)

The trophy weighs about 3 ounces more than air, but we will proudly display it for all to see.

The one thing that Greta could appreciate was her Frankenstein bag filled with candy that she sorted out in the morning. That girl loves her candy!

Carving Pumpkins

2009-11-01T05:04:00.001-08:00

Funny enough, I don't have a finished picture of this jack-o-latern, but just imagine good 'ol regular triangular eyes, nose, and toothy grin. I did however take a picture of Greta's creation that she made on the other side.

Pretty good huh? Thanks to Grammy's pansies sitting nearby, Greta apparently decided if she couldn't use a knife, she might as well use something else within reach to decorate. I've never seen her draw any eyes, nose and mouth before, but we're getting warmer!!

Show me your teeth Greta! Another side note of this age: She spanked the pumpkin and told her to "obey Della (Greta)". Ha!

Trick or Treat!

2009-10-31T17:46:00.000-07:00

I love living vicariously through my kids. Whether it be an excuse to jump in a bounce house, build towers at the LEGO store or what we did tonight, trick or treating, I think I was more excited than they were. :) My precious little parrot. Don't you just want to squeeze him?

My sweet pirate giving her parrot a kiss.

Ready or not, here we come!

First stop, Grammy and Poppy's house. Okay, so we walked out the garage door and knocked on the front door. First (and best) guests of the evening.

It was raining pretty steadily when we started and continued to downpour from there!!

I held an umbrella over the kids heads as we walked, but I had to snap this picture because it was cute seeing Will with his wingspread over the sides of the wagon.

First stop, Wicked Witch of the West's house. She had the most decorated house on the block with the whole Wizard of Oz theme. Very cute, complete with the yellow brick road and Dorothy's basket filled with candy at the end.

It started raining REALLY hard and Grammy came and rescued us in her car! We had only made it to two houses by then!

Kids feeling like big stuff not in their carseats. :)

Pulling back into the driveway and admiring my amazing pumpkin. :)

We didn't let the rain spoil our night though. As soon as we pulled back in the driveway, we got into our car (with carseats :)) and went out for ice cream instead!

Happy Halloween!

Up to No Good

2009-10-31T17:39:00.000-07:00

Greta wanted to play with a bag of feathers the other day as I was crafting so I opened it and told her not to make a mess. Hmmm...I guess I should've seen that coming.

Dan's Christmas CD

2009-10-27T18:15:00.000-07:00

Dan just released a new cd, On the Incarnation, for the Christmas season. It is awesome and is already #8 on Itunes under the christian music category. How awesome is that?? Go check it out here and buy one. You will thank me. And if I'm related to you, you'll probably get one for a Christmas present. So you'll probably thank me again.

Miss Me?

2009-10-27T12:48:00.000-07:00

My computer was in the shop for 2 weeks and I finally just got it back! Not to mention my parents have been in town visiting right after a visit from Grandma and Papa Ward, so we have been busy to say the least. Speaking of missing, please pray for my dad as he is Iraq for the next 3 months. He left from here last week to Florida for training and called today to say he made it overseas safe and sound. We always love having any of my family come to visit because it just does not happen often enough that we get to see them. Here are some pictures from my dad's visit.

Bye Dad! Come home soon! We love you and are so proud of you. :)

Corn Maze

2009-10-09T10:12:00.000-07:00

Greta and Bennett holding hands running through the corn maze.

Will Work for Skittles

2009-10-08T06:45:00.000-07:00

Being the big 2-year-old she is, Greta has shown more responsibility in doing her part around the house. She loves to help Mommy by doing "stir, stir, stir" while I'm baking or doing anything for that matter in the kitchen. She loves to throw away hers and Will's diapers. She loves to help Mommy transfer the wet laundry into the dryer and the clean laundry into the hamper. And now, apparently, she's into window washing.

I think she looks like Shrek in this picture. :)

And this is how the little monkey could reach the kitchen window, by balancing on the two armrests. I'm sure by the looks of Will, she'll be hiring him in no time for her new window washing biz.

How 'Bout Them Apples?

2009-09-25T05:08:00.000-07:00

My friends and I visited a nearby apple orchard the other day. We were all so excited to get in the fally spirit and make our appley recipes with freshly picked apples so we loaded up our babies, strollers and wagons to drive 45 minutes north of Charlotte.Crystal (who is 9 months pregnant with baby boy, Augustine), Dena and Audrey, Anne and Kate, and Hillary and Zack. Here we are faking our smiles even though we just discovered that there are NO EDIBLE APPLES!

Aw, Fiddlesticks! All of the apples were hanging on the trees with giant brown mushy spots all over them! Bummer! Dena asked the lady at the front counter if they had any good apples which she promptly replied that we'd need to go to the mountains for that. Gee, thanks lady for letting us know THE THREE TIMES WE CALLED BEFOREHAND!

So we had some cute photo opps instead.

My kids never look at the camera.

Greta found one apple for her and one for the farm dog.

Sharing with Bailey

Who was happy as could be

And came back for more. :)

Note to Self:

2009-09-25T04:54:00.000-07:00

Oreos are a liiitttle messy for an 11 month old. and 11-month-old boys get embarrassed easily when all of his mom's friends laugh at him.

B is 3!

2009-09-22T11:25:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday sweet girl! We love you!

Funny Phrases

2009-09-14T11:23:00.000-07:00

Greta has been so full of new funny phrases recently. Here are a few:

After taking a sip of her Papa's Diet Coke recently, she looked at him and pointed to the drink, "I'm gonna need that."

She ran bare naked into the living room the other day and asked, "Anybody seen a wipe?"

As she was stroking her stuffed kitty cat the other day, Adam asked "Do you love your kitty?" which she responded, "Noooo, not yet!"

And because what good is a blog post without a picture?

This is from a month ago but it shows the randomness and spontaneity of Greta by dragging in the blankets to where I was in the kitchen so she could lay down with her "tovers" (covers).

Rub a Dub Dub

2009-09-11T11:48:00.000-07:00

Three girls in a tub and poor little Will is in there with them. Think he likes it?

Yeah, I didn't think so either. :)

Fanny Pack

2009-09-11T11:30:00.000-07:00

It's official people. I've jumped on the fanny pack train. Last time I had one, I was 10. It was a pink foam one for a family trip to Hawaii. Now, I have one for every day use with bedazzles on it. A girl needs to feel pampered every now and then. Seriously though, if you don't have an 80's party and invite/hire me then I might have to throw one myself to show this baby off. 2.99 VERY well spent at Sally's (thanks Dena!). In the words of Rainn Wilson, "You're welcome America."

My sweet family

2009-09-08T19:35:00.000-07:00

Oh, how I love them. :)

Ants

2009-08-29T19:57:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, I caught my little animal lover by herself on the back porch chatting away. I moved closer to the window and realized that she had a couple big black ants crawling all over her arms and she was saying in a sing-song baby voice, "Hey ants! Hi!"

I love that she has no fear of stuff like this. It is funny though because now when we're out at our house walking around she will cry "ANTS!" and rip off her crocs even if it's just a blade of grass in her shoe. I think she gets that from me because of all of the fire ants around our house.

When she was done, she swatted the ants off and said "BYE ANTS!" and walked inside. Now she loves to look at these pictures and anytime she sees my camera asks to look at her ant pictures. Funny goose.

Day in Boston

2009-08-29T19:01:00.000-07:00

I almost let this post slip by because that's what happens when your pictures go un-blogged for almost a month. However, my girl loves pictures just as much as I do and I know she will appreciate them tomorrow when she sees them.

This little guy is the reason why. Isaiah is one of our friends' sons and new BFF. She talks about him all the time and wants to pray for him when we pray at night. We only spent 2.5 days with them, but they had so much fun together. Isaiah prounounced Greta's name "Dreta". It was so cute. Here they are looking at boats on Boston's harbor.

This was all of us in downtown Boston for the day. Josh and Becky have been friends of our since our Youthquest days in college and it was so fun to see them and hang out with them. They are planting a church in Boston next spring and it is so encouraging talking about their intentions there. Josh has started a blog and if you are ever in the area or have a hankering to move to Boston, I highly recommend you check this out. They were also such gracious hosts in their beautiful home an hour away and tour guides in their soon to be stomping grounds. :)

Here we are happy as can be after our delcious lobster rolls and clam chowder.

My sweet little boy riding in his backpack.

We were in the city literally all day which got to be very tiring for the kids. They were such troopers including Isaiah who was willing to rough it when we were too tired to find a nearby bathroom. We just made a little make-shift outhouse with all of the strollers to give the little guy privacy. Ha ha.

Adam is such a good daddy and even though we walked all day holding at least one baby, this time he held two to give me a break. (Our kids aren't the best stroller babies for long periods of time hence the reason Adam is still holding Greta plus Will)

Finally! Apparently our stroller didn't do it for her, but she fell asleep in Isaiah's cadillac of a stroller.

As our day was winding down, we went and got some pizza and had a picnic on the lawn at a park. It was such a beautiful night to sit there, eat local Boston pizza, and look at all the skyrises around us.

There was a water feature there too that Greta and Isaiah loved.

The next day we had the morning to spend again downtown, but just with the four of us. We ate breakfast and then crossed the street to the Boston Commons where G just loved to explore.

Will was such a sweet, easygoing baby for the trip and for the plane ride. He liked to put his head up to his daddy's for Adam to rub his face with his nose.

I wish I had a picture but on our way to the airport we carried two sleeping babies, one stroller, two carseats, one baby backpack, one regular backpack, purse, one pack n' play and 2 suitcases. We had to check out of our hotel, ride the subway, take a shuttle, and check in at the airport. HO-LY-COW. That was a lot of work, but the key word in that is that the kids slept the entire time throughout that transport. The plane ride is always a different story...

Chillin

2009-08-24T10:06:00.000-07:00

My sweet babes watchin' Barney. Yes, you heard correctly. It's the new fave around here and Greta walks around all the time saying "Super-Dee-Duper!" Seriously though, how cute are they?

Greta's Bible Verses

2009-08-12T19:07:00.000-07:00

Rocky River Farmhouse

2009-08-12T19:05:00.000-07:00

I just posted. Check it out if you haven't already. We've been busy!

www.rockyriverfarmhouse.blogspot.com

Aaron Getting Married

2009-08-06T05:40:00.000-07:00

Our primary reason for going to Boston was to attend Aaron's wedding. Adam and Aaron are good buds from Liberty and Youthquest. Aaron was a groomsman in our wedding and now Adam got to be a groomsman in his.

Adam walked down the aisle with this bridesmaid and told me how honored he felt that he got to meet her. Apparently, in junior high she invited two of her friends to come to church with her and they both came to know the Lord through that. One of those girls was another bridesmaid at that wedding and the other girl was Christy, the bride.

Speaking of Christy, she was such a beautiful bride inside and out. She literally never stopped smiling at Aaron throughout the entire day. She's very quiet and sweet-natured and thinks Aaron is hilarious, which is good considering Aaron is quite the jokester. Here they are whipping up some drinks to relieve some stress. Haha. Well, I'm not sure what it was, but it couldn't have been oil and water either because as we all know oil and water don't mix and that's not how you want to start off on your first day of marriage.

Josh, in the middle, performed the ceremony but the sweetest part of this picture was Aaron crying when he saw his bride. We all started to tear up because we've seriously never seen that before.

All of the groomsman including Mikey on the top right who was another groomsman in our wedding.

Later, at the reception, all of the tables were so beautifully decorated and named after dates that they had been on. This one says Harry Potter and they each had a corresponding picture that went along with that date. How adorable it that? All of you brides-to-be need to right that down in your wedding planner ASAP. :) My favorite table was titled "Uncle Pete's Cookout". I should mention too that the bride Christy is an art major and HAND-PAINTED every single one of her party favor boxes to correspond by color with the table that they were at. Her mom made all of the flower arrangements that morning and were so beautiful too. There were little details like that everywhere.

These two girls and I had such a fun time together at the wedding and reception. All of our husbands were busy with the wedding stuff and I got to hang out a lot with Becky and Bekah.

The bride and groom's first dance where Aaron was singing the lyrics to Christy. I don't know what it's titled, but the words are "and I would walk ten thousand miles just to be with you". Awwwww...

Apparently, the pastor of the church and his wife have some professional dancing in their past. I overheard someone ask if they were going to do some dancing at the wedding and they said, "Oh no, we won't stay long." Looks like it didn't take much to change their mind because they came out and cut the rug with a fancy little ditty.

Okay, so you know the trick to stare above the flash when getting your picture taken so you don't get red eye? Don't believe it. I did that and not only do I still have red eyes, they also look crazy like I'm staring at the photographer's earlobe.

Aaron apparently gets all of his jokester-ness from his dad in the background.

This was Aaron's mom on the dance floor. Match made in Heaven. :) Even more entertaining on the dance floor was Aaron doing the "shopping cart" and literally (but really figuratively) pushing it and "shopping" by looking at cans and putting them back on the shelf and cashing out after two whole minutes. I think he even smiled and waved to the invisible bagger. It was awesome.

Josh, Aaron, Adam and Mikey, all the WUM guys. These guys at Liberty used to meet every Monday night at Macado's for "What's Up Man" to just hang out and probably talk about girls and theology. I really don't know since I was never allowed to come.

I love this guy. Such a macdaddy stealing a dance with the bride.

Christy laughing at Aaron again after she got cake all over his face. I think he liked it.

As usual, it was so great to see all of our old college buds and hang out again. It just doesn't happen often enough!

Hello Dollywood

2009-07-28T04:34:00.000-07:00

We just got back from our annual Ward vacation this year in Pigeon Fordge, TN. 36 people, 19 bathrooms and 17 bedrooms later, we all had a great time!

Dolly had her face plastered all over Gatlinburg. This was what we saw as we exited Dixie Stampede. Look at how tiny her waist is. I think it might be an optical illusion considering what's above it. :)

We all got 3 day passes to Dollywood courtesy of Papa Ward and it really paid off! We paced ourselves by going Monday, Wednesday and Friday. This was at the splashpark side and Greta loved the little kid slides. Between the red and the green slide, we'd always ask her which one she wanted to ride and she'd exclaim, "DEEN!"

I forgot to zoom out when I took this picture of Will and I, but I loved it because I think it shows how much we look alike.

The first time we went, it was not that warm and we did this half of the time.

When in Rome, do as the Romans. So, in essence, when at Dollywood, wear camo.

Mornings began with a coffee on the front porch followed by a Mama and Papa Ward breakfast. We ate like kings and the coffee wasn't bad either since Sharon brought her Starbucks machine and I made a latte every morning.

One of my favorite days was going on a hike to a waterfall. It was a little longer than expected and Adam and I had to turn around once Greta started asking for birthday cake. I didn't pack a stitch of food so we had to turn around just 20 minutes from the top. Even hauling both of the kids up and down the mountain, I loved it. As you can see by Kyle holding Greta, everyone was such a big help with the kids with everybody taking turns holding them.

Just a few minutes into the trail, we came upon a deer which Greta was pretty excited about. I could just picture Chevy Chase around the corner saying, "cue the deer".

Since Adam and I left early, we hauled booty down the mountain with both of the kids which took 45 minutes going down and 1.5 hours going up.

The next day we went back to Dollywood, this time at the amusement park. Posing with Smokey the Bear. Or maybe it's Smokey and his bear...you be the judge. :)

Will's first time on a carousel.

Waving hi to Bennett. They were screaming over the music, "HI GWETA!" and "HI BAYET!"

The girls had so much fun on the rides. Greta is still talking about the ducks, bumblebees, ponies and pigs. This picture almost makes me sad thinking that before we know it, they will be 16 cruising together in the family station wagon.

Edes riding on the pigs

Greta waving hi to all her fans.

Being the escape artist that Greta is, as soon as the ride would stop, she'd weasel out of the seatbelts, hop out of the ride and this time thought the easiest way out would be to shimmy under the bar instead of walking around. Nice.

Another shout-out

Taking a 15 minute train ride around Dollywood

Such a sweet messy face

Adam and I were trying to be so cool hanging out with all of the college-aged kids at night. We'd wake up at the crack of dawn at 6:00 am to Will (taking turns of course) and would stay up till midnight because we didn't want to miss a beat. We hate knowing there was a party going on without us. This night we rode a ski lift up to the top of a mountain and bobsledded down. Fun!

We divy up the meals and assign nights for families to cook for everyone. Leave it to Aunt Sharon to come up with the most creative one with a Willy Wonka theme. They were all dressed like Oompa Loompa's and served cake, candy and lollipops. The cake was a two-tiered meatloaf frosted in orange and green mashed potatoes, candy was green peas and orange carrots and the lollipops were corn cobs on popsicle sticks.

And the table was decorated with candy for dessert. Too cute huh?

And Kyle who was Willy Wonka himself. Freaky.

Will couldn't keep his eyes off of Jake's hair.

One of the most fun nights was getting together and watching the Bachelorette online. Can't you see that Adam was thrilled?

We didn't watch the Bachelorette when it came on on Monday and there was no Wi Fi in the house, so we went to a conference center at the camp we were at and picked up a signal to watch it. So much fun.

Another fun day was our ATV tour. It was 1.5 hours and don't think I'm kidding when I say I'm pretty sure Mom R. actually wore her sunglasses under her goggles.

Our tour guide had the deepest TN accent. He would say when the 4-wheeler tips to the "raht" then you move to the "layft" and if the 4-wheeler tips to the "layft" then you move to the "raht".

Besides riding in single file getting to go through only one mud puddle, we all had a great time.

The view at the top was beautiful, but it makes me wonder what exactly Jake is taking a picture of?? And why is Seth putting out the vibe? Ha ha.

Adam's cousin John and Mel, one of two newly engaged couples in the family. They're getting married June 5th, 2010!

The DeArmon's and Katie's boyfriend Jake.

I thought this was such a pretty picture of Jake and Katie.

Family picture night where everyone got a Bama shirt.

Even sweet Bubba.

I'm trying to ask Greta to show me her teeth so it can be the closest I can get to a smile. Normally she just stares at me when I ask her to smile, so this teeth thing is pretty cute!

Cute girls giggling with their Papa.

Greta was also taken with another Papa, Papa Ward. She always wanted to be held by him and talks about him all the time.

Adam and his cousins, John, Seth and Kyle all dressed appropriately for Dixie Stampede, a large-scale dinner theatre about the Civil War.

While waiting for our table, Adam decided to do an Irish/Confederate jig for us all. He insisted while cutting his jeans to make jorts (jean shorts) that the pocket lining be longer than the legs. We couldn't be prouder.

Adam and his cousin Dave.

The seating there is stadium style and we took up two whole entire bleachers in our section. The food was awesome, but they don't provide silverware to get the whole old-timey experience I guess. I was biting my corn on the cob and spitting out the kernels to give to Will. Rustic.

Jake and his pet lion (Katie) got picked to play a little horse riding game. They didn't win, but they didn't cheat either like the other guys!

A little pic with the host of the show. As you walk in, people would be seperated to go either to the north or the south side. It would be a big rivalry with hoopin' and hollerin' for "your side" throughout the entire show. As you can see, Greta was thrilled to see the horse that close up. She loved them from far away though!

Every day during the week, we'd spend all morning out and rush home for lunch and naps. Today was spaghetti. :)

Note to self: There has to be something else for a 9-month old to eat.

Dan set up a ping-pong tournament that we made a make-shift table out of plywood. Seth took all, but Adam and I made it to the semi-finals.

Kyle, Eden, Leebs and Will. It was so nice just letting our kids roam free because someone was always watching them even if it wasn't us!

Greta, Hudson (David and Emily's son) and Bennett. Hudson is such a doll and wears those little toy rings on his wrists because he sees Emily always wearing bracelets.

Sharon swinging out on the front porch with Will.

Sharon runs a fine arts school and takes a watercolor class that is offered there. She taught some of us girls a few of her signature moves. :)

It was my first time getting formal instruction, besides Bob Ross, :) on how to paint. I've been waiting for a day like this! I've always wanted to learn and this was the final product of my watercolor and the postcard that I looked at for an example. I might hang it in Will's Alaska room.

We got all of the great-grands together one morning for a pic with Mama and Papa Ward. After thinking we finally corralled them all to one area, I was barking like a dog to keep the kids attention. We were all madly trying to take pictures before one or more of them started to lose it. Only after the entire escapade does Mama Ward say, "Now all we need is baby Graham to complete the picture." We forgot the youngest of the bunch! Oh well!

4th of July

2009-07-13T10:50:00.001-07:00

This year for the 4th, we went to our new little town of Harrisburg's 4th of July parade. It mostly consisted of tractors, fire trucks and about 30 church floats. :) I have great memories of growing up walking in our Chugiak, AK parade where I would walk my dog and he pooped in the middle of the street or I dressed up like a clown and sweated my make-up off. Maybe my kids will be in this parade someday sweating their make-up off too....:)Bubba got his first dum-dum

I brought some flags which Greta loved. She and I would wave them to the floats passing by.

And they saw fire trucks

Greta loves fire trucks and always says, "one more fya tuck".

Sweating it out in the direct sun. The best thing that got passed out to us were popsicles.

My little southern girl with her cowgirl boots and bojangles cup.

This guy kept flying up and down the street and was fun to watch.