the fantastic Jill

My wonderful and fantastic niece Jill came into town and watch the kiddos for 3 days recently. Together we have 7 children and they all did very well and seemed to really enjoy each others company.  Thanks a million to them for coming and hanging out with us for a few days. This is the only picture we have of them, it was not a week of taken pictures I guess. Time as always went very quickly and before we knew it we were saying good bye and thinking about the next time we will all be together again.

the new backyard

A long while ago I posted about new concrete work. Well I think we are 99% done with the backyard. We have a few more bags of rock to lay down, otherwise complete. The second picture was taken before we laid down river rock on Sunday. All in all we are thrilled with how it turned out! The sandbox is perfect with a closing lid and the patio is large enough to hold everything we need it to. The sod has rooted so we can slow up on the watering, yea!

The kids are LOVING the pool and so are we. We will not get a lot of use out of it this year as school starts soon but next summer they will likely wear it out!

special guests

A very good friend of mine from high school drove in to spend the day with us. She left her little man at daycare and brought the girls. Our kids had a grand time running after butterflies and then releasing them. I so enjoyed our time to catch up! nothing warms a heart more than catching up with a dear friend. She is definitely one of those kind that I can talk with every 6 to 9 months and pick up right where we left off.  Christie, thank you so much for the visit! it was perfect timing! The kids are asking when we get to see Cassie and Mckenna again.

Grandma sitter

Grandma came to the rescue once again and babysat for us for the week. I think everyone had a great time and talk about one productive woman! She is crazy with her abilities! I am not allowed to tell you how old she is but just trust me if I can go at half her pace at her age I will feel pretty good! My mom is just wonderful and we love her so much!! I am so pleased my kids really got a lot of time with her this summer! Memories that I and they will treasure for life. THANK YOU mom for helping us out this week! WE ALL LOVE YOU!!

fun with friends

We went to a friends house, trying to enjoy our last few days of summer prior to school starting. The little girls were thrilled to play babies and the others had a blast with Jeremy digging potatoes! It was a very nice afternoon and the company was fun as well. Thank you Jeremy and Amy for hosting a fun day!

Family Picnic

 We headed to my brothers for the 10th annual picnic. Again a good time was had by all. A few new games this year made for new fun. Brie had a blast trying to launch a water balloon, which ended landed on one of her favorite people!

 This is the beautiful lady who began our family a few years ago. We all love her so much!! true beauty inside and out!

 The kids all lined up for the scavenger hunt, little to big! cousins and more cousins....

 Brie and Tiegan making tracks with the tricycle. Many more fun things happened and memories were made but pictures were on the bottom of the list.  A huge THANK YOU to my brother Mark and his wife Carol. They always put on a perfect picnic!! The 8 hours always goes by way to quickly! THANK YOU THANK YOU!!!

County Fair

Our house has been on the fence as to continuing with Girl Scouts or changing over to 4H. I took the kids to the county fair and they had a lot of fun. They are looking at a goose very closely and suddenly it let out a big honk! My kids jumped out of their shoes! Brie was in my arms in a flash, I on the other hand was dying laughing! All of their hearts got a jumpstart because of that goose!

 They were so many rabbits at this fair! You can tell it is one of the only animals city kids can take to the fair. I swear they multiplied before our eyes! This black and white one was nice enough to let the kids pet her!

This young lady was more than happy to show off her pet chicken! The kids were impressed with how soft the feathers were.

We had to take a picture for JZ of the John Deere as this is his employer.  So here you go Jeremy, the kids look good in green!

A few random close ups of the kids with their many faces! Each of them can be worth a thousand words! By the end of our 3 hours at the fair we have concluded 4H is the winner for the upcoming year. If you know if any easy cute simple projects let me know, we will need things to enter!