July Rewind

This last month has been busy.  Lots of things going on around the community and with the family.

A local church had a Back to Basics day with demonstrations on soap making, canning and how to process a chicken.  They also had lots of water for the kids to play in.  Sweet Pea loves playing in the water =)

Junior decided he wanted to try biking down the hill to Grandma's place.  He didn't quite make it.  Just a few scraps and bruises.  He was back to feeling like himself in no time.  Although he's a bit disappointed he might not have any scars from it...

My parents came for a visit.  It was great spending some time with them and hearing about their trip to China.  It also meant that we no longer have to run an extension cord from the pole to the camper.  My dad was nice enough to help us run a wire.  Now we can actually run the air conditioner without blowing a circuit.  

She's just too cute =)

My sister- in- love and her family came for a visit as well.  We took a Girls' Day and went and had our nails done.  Sweet Pea was disappointed that she didn't get hers done.  Maybe next time.

And we took them all to the drive- in to see Monsters University and The Lone Ranger.  It made for a late night, but it was lots of fun.

Spent some time at the local splash park.

Not as big as some of them around Dallas, but you can't complain about the price... FREE!

After taking a semi- break from schooling, we're starting to get back into it.  Grandma has taken over the art department.  I think she's having more fun with the art projects than the kids are ;)

Over the next few weeks I hope to have lots of pictures to share.

Go pick up your room!

Things have been busy around here.  Which is really becoming the norm.  I'm not sure my life will ever settle down...  Not that I really want it to lol!

The weather has been absolutely beautiful here the last few days, so the boys have been spending a lot of time outside.

Giving this mama brief moments of panic...

And we had our spa day at our MOPs group.  

I made chocolate roses for the ladies.

This weekend I threatened asked the kids to help me clean up their room.  It went much better than I expected.

This is only one corner of the room.  The rest wasn't much better =(  I've been ignoring afraid to tackle the room...

And the after picture.  The boys' clothes are organized, all the broken toys are gone and a bunch more donated.  Girly's side looks as good.  

I also ran another virtual race this weekend.  The race was the Heart Throb Virtual 5k.  The non- virtual version was run Saturday morning in CO.

It was a bit tougher to get it in, because Sarge had drill, but the mutt and I went out (in the semi- dark and mist) as soon as he got home.

I was glowing when I finished ;)

It was an interesting run.  Usually when the mutt and I go out, he meanders around for the first mile and then we start running.  But, this time we started running right away and he didn't get his usual chance to leave a message for all the other neighborhood dogs lol!

My other project, Mom 4ce, kicked off this last week.  My friend, Kelli, and I wanted a place that we could encourage other moms to take the steps needed to get fit and healthy.  And to have their families join them.  We have been completely blown away with the response to our endeavor.  

And, I can't end this post without a random cute picture of Sweet Pea.

Jiggle It, Just a Little Bit...

Another week has flown by.  It's hard to keep track of where all the days are going.  It dawned on me the other day that Sweet Pea is going to be 2 in 4 months.  How did that happen?

It's been a pretty quiet week so far.  Last Friday was our MOPs meeting.  We had the chance to have a car seat technician come in and talk about car seat safety.  She presented a lot of good information.  I learned about some of the new car seats and how much they've changed since my oldest was a baby (don't worry, I haven't been using the same car seat for 8 yrs =)).  She also gave us a link to SafeKids so we can find places to have our car seat installation checked.

Saturday I ran a race with my friend- The Jiggle Butt.  I won't recap it here...  The full write up is here if you're interested.

Monday afternoon, my friend and I sat down to talk about an idea that we've had rolling around in our brains for awhile.  We're excited to be putting things in motion to get a business idea off the ground.  There's still a lot of work to be done, but everything should be ready to launch by February 1st.  I know that was just a bit of a tease.  You'll just have to wait to find out what it's all about ;)

Yesterday Girly and I made our own toothpaste.  I ordered the kit from the Bulk Herb Store so I wouldn't have to find a recipe and track down all the ingredients.  I'm lazy like that lol!  We mixed up the dry ingredients, simmered our spices and then mixed everything together.  So far, I'm happy with it.  Everyone else in the family is so- so.  The recipe needs a bit of tweaking for our family's taste, but overall it's a winner.

That's about it from here for the week.  We have a fun family trip planned in a couple weeks, so we're trying to keep things low key until then.

Our Vacation Land...

Sarge is pretty excited about this.  The country boy in him is tired of city living and wants to get back out there...

View from a couple miles away.  Yup, we've got a mountain =)

The road to the land.  It was just like driving through a green tunnel.

Guess we need to do a little clean up.

One of 4 or 5 dry run creeks

The picture doesn't make it look as steep... 

It's a little thick in the summer

 plenty of room to shoot a deer

 gas line trails good for hunting or grazing animals

 plenty of run off water to dam up for a pond

 the hill begins

 love nut shells, means animal food 

 further up the hill rock formations abound

 oh ya, did we mention the view? 

 could look at it all day

 rock overhangs incase you get caught out in a hail storm

 rinsed off the sweat from the hike here

 views

 more views from our 37 looking at the 40 ac below

 the parking pad where we will park the RV's, that dot is Junior

 this and the gas line trails are the only open areas

in-active part of the gas well on the 37 

the active relay, hope it means they must maintain the driveway

Two hundred

So here it is.  Post #200.  It's only taken me a couple years to get here =)  And in honor of 200 posts, I'm going to post pictures of the cutest kids around (okay, I'm a bit biased).

Sweet Pea is 10 months old already.  She's been told by multiple Dr's that she is "overly healthy."  Not sure exactly what that means, but I'll take it =)  

Sweet Pea and daddy

Only 10 months, and she's already trying to get my phone...

Squish Bear is such a goof.

When did Girly- girl grow up?

Junior Ace had to wear his Vikings shirt in front of Cowboy Stadium...

Taking Flat Seth around town. 

Lots of things have been happening around here.  Big things are in the works, but not going to share quite yet...  And no, it is not another baby =)  

And Fight!

 Junior had a TKD tournament this morning.  He decided he just wanted to spar (no kata for him!).

Bowing in...

And fight!

Nice hit!

Waiting for the rankings/ awards.

Junior tied for third!

Bowing out

My lil' fighter and my black belt =)

And no post would be complete without a goofy picture of Squish Bear.  He decided he wanted a goatee, so he made one out of toothpaste =)