Sister's - 2-year Birthday Party

With our newest addition arriving right around Sister's actual birthday we decided to celebrate a few weeks early. We did a cowgirl/horse theme this year. We had a ton of fun with our family and Sister was still going strong at 9:00!!

Sister loves her new little dress-up shoes!

Grandma Denise made this adorable matching nightgown set for Sister and her baby doll. Precious!





Center pieces for the tables.


Sister really enjoyed hanging out with her cousins and riding around on tricycles and her new big wheel in the garage!




I decided to make cakes from scratch this year - I did a lemon cake and strawberry cupcakes - both with home made cream cheese frosting - they actually turned out pretty good. Brother was a big help!

Scarecrow Friend

We had fun putting together our first life-size scarecrow for our front porch. All the pumpkins came out of our garden.

Homeschool 2011

We started school back up on August 1st anticipating the arrival of our newest little blessing in early November (only six weeks from now). We have taken a few field trips already and have lots of pictures that will be included in our homeschool digital scrapbook at the end of the year. I may occasionally post field trip pictures on here, but for the most part I will post all of them at once at year's end. I hope to keep our blog updated on a monthly basis this year...I know some of you are thinking I have said this before, but I really am going to try.

We feel truly blessed for all that we have - our marriage, beautiful children, Daddy's job, me staying home and homeschooling Brother, to name a few! I praise God each day for his mercy and grace upon me as I know I do not deserve what he has provided.

Family Zoo Trip - September

We spent an afternoon/evening at the zoo as a family and really enjoyed our time. The kids had a lot of fun seeing all the animals (riding and feeding some of them too).




Yep - dumped the whole cup in at once - the fish loved it!

We were studying camels for our mammal nature study so thought it would be fun for Brother to be able to ride on one. We also took some time to sketch out camels as well.

State Fair Fun - August 2011

We enjoyed a very long day at the State Fair as a family! Sister had become very infatuated with cows the couple of weeks before the fair so she definitely got her fill. We did tally marks on a piece of paper marking down all the cows we ran across - I think it was 130, but don't remember for sure.


Little Hands on the Farm - Brother had a great time with these hands-on activities - planting seeds, picking fruits/vegetables - he even got a free hat.


Foot-long corn dog! Yep - he ate the whole thing.

PB & J on a stick - she really just preferred eating all the grapes.

I think it took me 20 pictures to actual get one where the tongue was sticking out - Daddy's's arm was quite wet by the time we were done.


Even after a full day at the fair - Sister was still full of smiles!

Dancing with Daddy - August

Sister had a wonderful evening of dancing with her Daddy at Daddy's cousin's wedding reception.

Family Camp Fun - August

We had a wonderful time at Family Camp this year. The weather was perfect for camping and being out in God's creation!





Daddy in the paintball field. Still not sure why this is so much fun when his body is covered with welts at the end of the day : )


Brother got to enjoy some horse back riding.


Daddy rock climbing for the first time.

Daddy on the zip line - he is actually starting to build a smaller version of one of these in our backyard for Brother.

Sister loves to swing!!

And loves chocolate : )

Swimming and Camping with family and friends in July

We enjoyed a Sunday afternoon with family celebrating birthdays!

Brother has improved so much in his swimming abilities over this past year! He loves to be in the water!

Sister really loves the water too!!

Uncle Tim and Cousin K.


Cousins T. and S.


Feeding the Ducks

We had an absolutely great time camping with our friends at Lake Aquabi. Of course we happened to pick one of the hottest weekends of the summer to go. We tried to stay cool by doing lots of water activities. I did realize that most of my pictures of just of Sister and her friend playing together. They are a couple of cuties though!!





Out on the boat, heading to the beach!!



One tired little Sister after a long day of playing in the water and sun!