Back from our cruise

We LOVED our trip!! LOVED LOVED LOVED it! It was great to be with my whole family.

Here are a few pics I will do more some other time.

all of us in the ocean in the Bahamas!

Girls Day

Rose and I enjoyed a girls Day today. Here is a very blurry picture from my camera phone of Rose at the nail Salon. (Thank you Jody for my gift certificate) We then went to lunch and then home to do some girly activities and crafts. Rose you are such a joyful little girl and a true blessing.

(sorry about the photo quality, but you get the idea)

Cheerleading

Rose's (4 and 5 year olds) squad cheered at the 1st and 2nd graders flag football game at church on Saturday.
Mommy: "Did you have fun?"
Rose: "yes"
Mommy: "What was your favorite part?"
Rose: "When we were allowed to take breaks."

Make an on-line slide show at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I can read!!!

On Saturday night Rose yells for me with much excitement. I thought daddy was in her room reading her bedtime stories....so I was unsure why she would be calling out for me. I get in her room and she is just about to burst with joy. "Mommy, I can read this BOOK!!" "Do you want to hear me read it?" She reads the book to me. (part reading, part just memorizing) I was so happy for her. She said "I can read! Thank you God for giving me this book so I can read!!"
In her school work she has been learning to read blends and small words, but no books yet. This was a big step for her.

Freeze tag

with some DASCH kids after co-op on Thursday.

Mosquitoes!!

We have enjoyed our yard, but not near as much as we'd like.....b/c of all the MOSQUITOES!!!!! They are awful! You walk out and they attack like trained dogs. It is bad.
Well you know me.....I do not like to use chemicals at all. And we have been spraying ourselves with a natural deterrent but it hasn't worked that well. So I asked around and the only suggestions I rcvd was chemical based. So I search the web and found Mosquito Barrier that you can spray on your yard and is natural and safe, etc. So I ordered it and we are giving it a go. Here is Rose and Chad spraying our yard and trees with it. It is 100% safe non-toxic. It is garlic!
I also ordered some organic, natural, safe bug repellent lotion and spray from California Baby to double up our protection. Hopefully we can now enjoy our yard without the unwanted pests. If it works, we will be spending a lot more time out there!!
Here is a site I found informative yet very funny during my mosquito research: http://www.squidoo.com/mosquito-protection-society

Tie Dye Pumkin Shirt

We got the idea from the Family Fun Magazine.

First we gathered and put rubber bands all over a white tee shirt.Mix some orange dye.
Add the Tee
Rinse then Cut off the rubber bands
Put it in the dryer
Hang it out to dry after dryer doesn't get it completely dry :P
Color in the Jack-O-Lanterns that mommy drew (I thought she might grow weary of this step after the first few, but no she had a blast all the way to the end!)
Back
Front......Yes you can see a big boo-boo. (Mommy was talking on the phone during the coloring step and smeared Rose's creation :( At first Rose was using fabric paint to color before we switched to permanent marker and I wasn't paying enough attention and smeared it...then tried covering it.....made it worse....maybe some ribbon or a bow can hide it???)
A close up

We had a lot of fun making this shirt!

Backyard Campfire

On the way home from church Wednesday night Rose asked if we could have a campfire in our backyard. We started to say 'no, it's late, maybe another night, yadda yadda yadda.' But we decide sure why not! We have a whole half an hour before bedtime. So daddy made a fire. Mommy made a cooking stick out of chopsticks to make some smores. After enjoying our snack, we sat on the swing and enjoyed the fire. It was a fun and relaxing way to end our day.

Cute Rose

home after church Wednesday night

Welcome Sophie

Wednesday was Sophie's first day at our house. It was such a joy having her here. She was here for 7 hours and did not cry! She is a very happy baby. It was nice having three kids in the house.