Can't stop me.....

Even with a broken foot I managed to still take this pic of the great grands on the beach....my mom and I made the shirts for them before we left, unfortunately David, Leslie, and Charlie couldn't make it to the beach, so Charlie is missing, but there's always next year!

I may or may not have cut and pasted a few faces.....but for 8 kids 4 and under, it wasn't bad. I'll have to share the out takes, otherwise known as why my older 2 children can't keep their hands down! I also with the help of my Dad managed to take Alicia and Reid's engagment pics. I'm photographing their wedding in December and and I am so excited! They are a beautiful couple! They got engaged on the beach earlier this summer, so it was perfect!

I was hungry.....

So after watching the 3 hour bachelorette finale Jeremy and I decided to go to the "food house" to get a snack.....which is why the view of the beach now looks like this...




I missed the last step, didn't do a good job of breaking my fall and now I've got this beauty of a splint, crutches, and an appointment with an ortho surgeon on Monday. Let's say July has been a bad month for me. The good news is I'm still alive, still at the beach, and I will get better eventually. Lesson learned: Don't eat after 8 like they say!

Travel Bags....

I know, I'm that blogger that hasn't blogged in forever. But I've had a lot going on, and I'm starting to get my bearings again! We are headed out tomorrow on the family trek to Destin, FL, and since the kids will probably choose to ride with my parents I didn't want them to have to listen to 100 rounds of Spring is Here on their current favorite video I put together some other options. We'll find out tomorrow how they go over! Here is is in photos!

 Their travel bags, Cooper's is green cause it's is favorite color, Maddie's is pink cause she's a girl...

So in this magic bags are puzzles with magnets, dry erase markers, twist up crayons, stickers, a lap dry erase board, and a few coloring books, and the binder!

 The binder contains different games, mazes, hidden pictures, and letter tracing, with a map of where we are going.

 The idea for the puzzles is I've glued magnets to the back and they'll stick to this pizza tray so they should stay together!

They can earn "car bucks" for good behavior and trade them in for one of these surprises on the way. Guess I'll have to stock up on the way back!

Just about all my printables came from this site, and the whole thing probably cost me about $25, besides the printing and the sheet protectors my mom already had. Oh they can use the dry erase markers on the sheet protectors for endless amounts of fun! Hopefully this will keep them well occupied until we get to Florida!

just keep running.....

This is how I feel when I get on the scale. Although I'm in no way the shape I was in say pre-Cooper, I figure if I keep working I'll get there. This morning I went running with my new friend here in town, or I tried to keep up with her. She kicked my booty, but I'll get there.

Oh well at least this is true:

I know I slowed her down big time, but I also think it's good for me to run with her, I am way more likely to push myself to keep up with her then say the hubs, cause let's be realistic, I'll never be fast enough for him! So in 2 weeks I'll do the Color Me Rad run, mostly just for fun and to see what it's all about, luckily people go in waves, and it's not timed, so surely I won't come in dead last, and that's always my goal beside finishing, is not coming in dead last.....

Great Wolf Lodge....take 2

So since this summer is already flying by, and we're about to temporaily move to Edmond we thought we'd do a little family get away! Don't get me wrong, I love the beach vacations with my entire fam, but I also want our kids to have memories of just us going on vacation. So since are schedules are so flexible we went on Sunday to Kansas City and stayed at Great Wolf Lodge for 2 nights. I love the area of KC it is in, there is a really nice outlet mall and several good eating choices about a mile away. I will say we liked the Lodge in Grapevine better then this one, but everyone had a good time. Hopefully next time we make this trip all the kiddos will be walking, it makes things a ton easier. Cooper even rode some larger slides with Jeremy, and Maddie stood under the 10,000 gallons of water that fall every 5 minutes. (Truth be told, my parents are on an amazing trip through Europe to study more Bible places and I was totally jealous I didn't get to go, I needed to go somewhere!)

Newkirk Range Riders

So while Jeremy was at ORU camp I took the kids to the Rodeo. Expose them to some local culture if you will. I may have been a little crazy for taking all 3 by myself, and some real mature adults broke out into a knock down drag out fight at the rodeo not far from us; but the kids had fun. (After the 2nd fight I thought it might be time for us to go.) Here are a few pics, I had to put my camera away cause Maddie got a hold of it and actually dropped it, but it survived the little fall. I know, the Rodeo isn't really our style, but thought it would be good for them, and for me to get out of the house!

So that last photo, they let kids run around the arena and chase some cows with bows on their tails, Cooper wanted to go, but I wouldn't let him. Neither of them were wearing approrpriate shows for that activity!

New Friends....

Well it took me a year, but Friday night when we were out celebrating some of Jeremy's co-workers (now former co-workers) marriage I met the 1st grade teacher at Newkirk. She's got 2 boys 4 & 2! Yesterday we joined them at the park with 2 other moms with younger kids. It was so nice for me and the kids! Then today we met them at the library for story time. Cooper was a little confused, sadly he's never been to the library.

He wanted to buy something, but I explained to him that's not how it worked. So as much as I love high school boys & their moms (who are awesome!) I really enjoyed meeting some women closer to my age with kids my kids age. Hopefully this is just the beginning of our times together!