Summer has been busy! Here are some pictures to get you caught up.

Kelsi and Karli had swimming lessons.

Did a little fishing. Kelsi was the lucky one!

Nathan making us laugh!

I am taking a nine week photography class on line, The Photography Workshop by Karen Russell. I am loving it and learning some awesome stuff!

Our little helper likes to go to Grandma's house and help her with all kinds of things since her back surgery. She spent the day doing laundry and garden stuff.

Karli learning to ride her bike without training wheels.

Rob got to ride in a helicopter, right in our back yard!

My mom and dad took the grandkids camping, a yearly tradition. So Rob and I spent a few days in Chicago. We went to Taste of Chicago, road on an architectural boat tour, and did lots and lots of walking!

We had a few days until the kids came home so we got a few projects done.

Kelsi went to Grandparent's Camp with my mom in Ohio, while Nathan went to Ohio to stay with his cousins.

And... Karli got her tonsils out!!

Registered at 7:15.

Waited....

and waited....

10:00 went into surgery

11:30 out of surgery and sleeping

4:00 ready to go home!

Ice pack on her neck, popsicle stained mouth, and ice cream bear in the background. She has been a trooper.

The other two come home tomorrow and only 3 1/2 more weeks until school starts! Not ready!

Father's Day Weekend

The start of the weekend we had a fun Small Group pool party at Jeremy & Jesse's house. Well... we got some swimming in before the storms hit (the first weekend of the storms, that is!) I wanted to go in the basement but Jesse thought I was nuts! ;) Here are a few shots of the kids.

Kelsi & Karli

Ali & Kara

All the girls!

Seth & Nate (all the boys!)

This is when we should have been in the basement!

This isn't the best shot but I loved how Seth had Nate in a nose lock.

We ended up leaving soon after the storm went through because we knew our electric was out. Thankfully, our electric came on the next day around 10 a.m.

Father's Day - Rob did something fatherly! He and Nate went out and did some shooting. Then, who showed up??? The "City Slickers"! Our nephews, Jordan and Niall!!! They were all in heaven??

Niall was a natural!

Jordan....... not so much! :)

But that is okay because Jordan wants to be a youth pastor and Niall wants to be a cop!

This picture below, Jordan did nail that one! You can see it blasting apart in the sky! He was so proud.

Here are all three of the boys shooting against each other.

Then Rob got out the handgun. Scary! But look how cool my picture is!! You can see the smoke! Look at Niall's face, he is smiling!

The other kiddos!

This one couldn't handle the noise! :)

Then the cops came!!! Guess the neighbors didn't like the noise. :(

Just kidding. It was only Rob's cousin, Curtis.

Boys will be boys!!

Patio Update

Well, I'm sad to say the patio is not going to happen right now. :( I'm bummed!

Karli's tonsillectomy on July 19th is going to cost us a little more than we expected. So we are just trying to be wise with our money. Rob and I actually felt a little relieved when we made that decision. Money can be so stressful sometimes!!

We are trying to fix a water line that goes from the house to the shed. That has turned out to be a pain in the butt! With all this rain the hole has been full of water.

(Can you tell that Kelsi had been at Lorene's on this day??)

Just have to add to this blog what an awesome husband, father, son, and friend that Rob is!! He would drop anything to help anyone out. I love that about him!

These little monkeys love him, too! We had a fun Father's Day weekend, will post more on that later.

i heart faces!

Saturday I went to Chicago with my friend, Traci, for the first i heart faces Photo Walk. If you have never heard of i heart faces it is a photography site. Each week they have a photo challenge that anyone across the world can enter.

Well, this was their first organized walk in 20 other cities across America where other photographers were meeting and taking pictures of all sorts of things on their walks. Our Chicago group had about 12 (?). It was funny, 4 of us were teachers (2 others had been in education). All of us were amateurs, except Traci and our leader Randy. We met at the fountain there at Navy Pier and got acquainted. Then off we went! Snapping pictures....until it started to pour!! Luckily we had some shelter. We spent about 2 hours walking around and then the rain finally quit. By then we were famished! So we walked down to a market called Fox & Obel and had some yummy food.

I'm glad Traci talked me into going! I really went to learn more and have some fun! Here were some of the pictures I took.

I wasn't quite ready for this one, Traci! We were just checking out some lighting issues. :)

That's better!

Catchin' Up

School's out for the Summer!

The first week of summer vacation I usually have a hard time adjusting. I don't have a schedule or an agenda, somewhere to be, paperwork to do..... well I do.....but it just changes. I am just not quite sure how to manage my time! I'm much more efficient during the school year.

But this year is different! I think it had something to do with my group of first graders. They didn't suck the energy out of me this year! Really! Sometimes you just have a group that takes everything you have.

Not this year! They were a fun-loving group of kids that gave me plenty of hugs each day! They "filled up my bucket" so I have plenty for the summer!

So my first week off has been pretty productive! I have spring cleaned and now I am ready to work on landscaping! Soooooo happy (and thankful) it's summer!

I have neglected my blog but other things have been happening. Take a look!

Nate and Kelsi had their piano recital.

Kelsi played "Chinese Painting", without the music in front of her!

Nate played two pieces, "Pink Panther" and "The Ballade".

Kelsi finished 1st grade this year and Nate is moving on to 7th grade next year! (Karli has another year at the babysitter's :)

Now it's time to spend summer the right way, swimming!

Look out pond, here we come!

Creative Cuties!

Kelsi begged to have Chloe over today after church. (I was told life would not be fair since her brother had a friend over Friday.) So dramatic!

Well, look what these two cuties decided to create! They went out "exploring" and brought in a bucket of "wilderness" treasures. They put them each into a baggie and decided to write a book about each thing they found. You should hear them working together! They are going to take them to school and share them with their classes. :) Love it!

Here is a piece of wood, labeled "wildernis ecsqlores" (wilderness explorers) :)

Can't forget this cutie! ;)

1 Down, 1 To Go!

Okay, Kelsi's gardenette is planted! She is happy! It has a strawberry plant, jalapeno plants, tomato plants, and some flowers. We may get a few more things like peppers and onion. Then we could have a salsa garden!

Kelsi's face is painted from her field trip to Curious Kid's Museum. Rob went as a chaperone. He had a group of girls! He thought it was rather interesting. It wasn't that bad though, I think he would do it again. :) He is such a good dad!

We will see how it goes! It is Kelsi's responsibility.

Mom, here is my first iris!! I didn't think it would live. It is in an area that water sits if it rains alot! It did better than the other iris on the other side where water never sits!

The next project is the patio! Stones are picked and layout is decided, just need to pin down the measurements and get started excavating! :) We worked hard on the other yard work this weekend and our bodies are sore. We used the sod cutter from the shop to make wider edges around the trees and landscaping. It was a lot of work but will be helpful in the end.

I will keep you updated.