kept forgetting!! argh!

you know those big important things that you do during your days that you think I want to have a camera for this. but then you get busy, and busier and busier? and then you leave, and only as your back on the freeway remember "OHH, I wanted pictures!" I've been having LOTS of those moments! and I'm very sorry for this post full of not-pictures. the even sadder part is that the camera was always in the car waiting for us to take it out! Argh! oh well, eventually I'll plan to remember WHILE I'm doing these things. Last Wednesday we went to my hometown and raked her yard. My family(me,nate&boys) have done this for Grandma for 3-4 years now. Since we found out that my sisters and parents weren't, even though they live less than 5 min. away. It's become sort of our tradition and it's good for our boys to learn about service and how to lovingly perform it. The dificulty with raking Grandma's yard is the fact that not only does she have a walnut tree but the neighbors on BOTH sides have one as well. and it doesn't matter whose tree they came from cuz they're in her yard. now her place is a small place with a decent sized yard to go with her decent sized home. But it's hilly. you know you're in for a back-breaking time when you pull up to the house and you CAN'T see any hills! That's how it was this time. but we had a little help on our side, thankfully! Grandma's neighbor was finishing up raking his leaves and blowing the toosmall bits out to the road when we'd pulled up. After 20min. or so I'd gotten over to his side of the house and started in on one of the "hills", well he came out of his home and said to me "I should have used my leafblower to help clear out those bushes over there!" I said "that's OK", but was thinking it sure would have been nice. 2 seconds after I'd thought that what does he do but start up his leafblower! He walked along the fenceline blowing the bottom of the leaves and I was on my sidetrying to lighten the load of leaves so he could blow more up and out of the bushes. we were a great team! After I'd cleared out the "ditch" part of the hill there was a pile of leaves longer than Nate on the ground and at least 3 1/2 feet tall! Now don't think that Nate was just sitting inside staying all warm and cozy, because he wasn't, he was up on the rooftop, clearing the gutters! about halfway through the hill he'd gotten done and had come to help me. Grandma had wanted the walnuts that were from the tree, so Joe, Ben and Cole(my nephew, who Grandma watches) went out all bundled up to find walnuts under the big pile of leaves. After we'd raked the covering leaves off, of course! We started around 3 and didn't get done till about 5:30, which is pretty good timing! A couple of years before we hadn't been able to rake all the leaves up and had to leave a huge pile(which ended up killing all the grass under it) because it got too cold for us to work! So it was good to get all the leaves up and out and consequently fill 3 LARGE bucket/boxes overflowing with walnuts! The day after I came down with ??? only waht I can think of to be the h1n1 flu! Though the only reason I can guess at that diagnoses is because Joe got it too, but I took him into the drs. and had him tested. they put him on medication and even before he'd had a chance to take it he was bouncing off the walls feeling not at all feverish and just a little runny/stuffy nose-ish. the punk. i was down and out for 4 DAYS! and all he gets is 1 day of (relaxation)staying in bed! NoT fAiR!!
oh well, and yesterday being thanksgiving I should have thought to bring my camera out of the car. but no. I think my camera puts a fog over me when I go to take it out of the spot its in to keep it safe. it doesn't want to move or get bumped or something. So there's all the things that could have had pictures taken of them, if the camera hadn't been elusive or technically me being forgetful. We had a fabulous thanksgiving with lots of food, family and love. with a few coughs and noses blown here and there. Thanks Kris & Joel for your beautiful home to host Thanksgiving at, Thanks Dad & Mar for cooking all the food, and then bringing it all down here so we could all join you, and thanks to you all again for not minding us "sick-Os" coming! It was D-licious! Mmmm I want leftovers!

Halloween

We haven't really had anything to blog about personally so here's photos of Joe in his "handmade" costume. I was going to be doing Ben's as well but...you know how time flies!
for the faint of heart: I didn't make the hat. though looking at it, maybe i could have made a smaller one out of felt for our gonna be mario, maybe i still will. I do have all the supplies!

Fall Carnival

Joe's school had a back 2 school carnival last week which we went to and it was a BLAST!! There was a bouncy house, inflatable slides, popcorn, cotton candy, snow cones, dinner, and games!
The girls helping with the bowling game didn't have any prized so if you got all the pins knocked down they'd give you a hug! it made so many little boys blush!!!

We had dinner there and ate cotton candy as we walked home into the sunset MMMM...yummy!

To Infinity & Beyond!

After the first week of school I thought we needed some rest and relaxation, and while looking on our news website found that there was a kite and balloon "stampede" on a little island "near" us. So after lunch we packed up and since it was just the boys and I we hurried off to the island, with our kite in tow. well not really behind our car, cuz that would ruin it, but it was in our car ready to use. the atmosphere was great, there were plenty of lite breezes, and LOTS of fair food. We were excited to see the hot air balloons and many professional kite-fliers there. unfortunately there weren't any balloons up, apparently they were waiting for nightfall to blow them up, because of course you can see something in the sky at night when it's pitch black outside! but besides that, there were lots of kites there being flown by kids and adults alike, pros and nonpro alike.

Pro

Not so much
There was a band and people racing with kites tied to them, we watched for a few times and some of the little girls wearing the kites looked like they would be lifted off the ground if the wind was just a little stronger
After flying the kites and (me stepping in a mound of red ants) kicking buffalo dung around we went off driving to find THE buffalo, and guess what?! We Found THEM!!!then it was off home to make dinner, bath and bed cuz we were DIRRRTTY!

Make sure you click on the photo so you can see Ben upclose!

FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!

well we've gotten through the first week of school and other than a few innocent blunders, the prognosis about school is?? "It's long" maybe I shouldn't put that in here in case his teacher stumbles on here, but I thought you'd all like his honest opinion. :)
SATERDAY: to celebrate/commemorate this momentous occasion we went shopping at Sam's(you know the one) for school snacks & goodies. Get this; 4 big boxes of "treats" and I only spent $30?!!!! AMAZING DEAL!! I hope those prices keep up cuz I saw alot of things I could use through-out the year. anyway this isn't an ad for Sam's so I'll continue. Thought you'd like that.
SUNDAY: we went to church, came home and sat around being bored. sounds fun. well around 4pm I got a little stir-crazy and since we had some bagels I wasn't going to eat, I said we should go to the campus by us and feed the ducks. so that's what we did. Me and the kids have been there before during the summer when Nate's worked late hours, and they've never had the fountain on but that day...WOW. we threw bagels to the ducks for about an hr. then decided it was time to run down the hill.Once we were convinced that the hill was steep enough to run down we decided to roll down as well. then Joe and Nate pretended to be Lewis and Clark for a min or two while I snapped away, then we were off for dinner and Daddy's Famous Chocolate Peanut Butter Milkshake, bath and bed. While Mom and Dad stayed up late into the night worrying if their first born would be ok, they set out his first day outfit, and gave him the best lunch a kid on his first day could want. then exhausted we finally conked out.
MONDAY: we all got up around 7(which even though we'd been "practicing for weeks still felt incredibly early) I made a great breakfast of homemade waffles, we got dressed and since Nate had the day off, we all set off for the FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL! We got to cross the crosswalk with a real crossing guard, and arrived to stand in line for what seemed quite a while. We found out that Joe had a friend from church in his class as well, so right away he felt quite comfy. Here they are walking into the line of classmates, and then finally into the school without even looking back! Ben was the one who cried when Joe went into school, but both Nate and I knew that we'd given him all he needed for him to be ready for this big day. Though looking at these pictures still kinda makes me blinky. Thankfully soon after Joe's lunch it was time to go home. Ben was SO excited to see his brother, and we were excited to hear about the first day("it was boring"), of course I forgot to bring my camera so there's no shots of then but ohh well. i hope i remember it next year.

whewww what's that!

well since it's been a while since updating I thought I'd do just that. I don't have any funny photos, stories or anything from me. BUT?!?!?! Joe said a pretty funny thing to Nate the other day about him having gas. he said "Dad, I had to fart so my BRAINS wouldn't pop out!" it might not sound funny if you don't read it in a kids voice, so try that and get back to me.

Touristing at Home

We went back to our old home town for a bit of touristing the middle of June, and came up with a few reasons why we'd like to go back again, at least once more.

the wide open spaces

as far as the eye can see

to go on a walk in our campground and spot this and this is only after it ran away. when we first came upon it, it was right next to Joe then saw us and went bounding away but only to see that we weren't dangerous.

to go on a walk anywhere you'd want to go

and always feel at home.

Then we went and spent time with our friends and

while we got pictures with some of them,
with others the camera was simply forgotten SORRY! We just had such a good time talking, playing games and watching movies that we didn't even think of it!

We went to the park and chased squirrels

slid on slides

climbed on ladders

swung on swings

pulled friends in wagons

pulled other friends around
but for some reason forgot a family photo! Oh well maybe next time!