Our summer in a few random pictures

Here, in no particular order, (definately not chronological) are some pictures from our busy busy summer. I wish we had the internet at our house, I'd be much more on top of all the blogging I wish I could do! My birthday is coming up, thats what I really want for my birthday, internet at my house!
At Spencer's after baptism picnic, some of the Clinger girls.

Marleigh, my BFF Emily's baby. Isn't she so stinkin' cute?

At "Hog's head" or something like that, a fun place Jen introduced us to. The kids had a blast!

I figured out how to get my shy husband to loosen up and have a fun time at social events!!

Teresa's beautiful wedding, it was perfect!

I'm sure he gets the funny face making gene from his dad.

So much fun with my boy this summer. I love spending time with him, he's my favorite!

Polix on a fishing trip.

Nat says this is the tallest guy she met all summer. I wonder if she met anyone as tall last winter?

Playing at McGrossy's playland.

Cutie Cute beans. We went school shopping for special "aunt/niece" dates.

Wowza, goofy kids. I love them!

Davey and his Dad at camp.

Nataloo and her Dad at home. I think she looks most like him out of all the kids. Their cowlicks' are even in the same place!

Much much rock painting happened at our house all summer. We entered many painted rocks in the fair. Many ribbons were won! When Karissa was around much skin and hair and clothes got painted too! She's very artistic!

4th of July parade. This is the 4-H club that Spencer is in this year. He had a great time and did so well at the dog show! We're so proud of him and Molly!

We were suprised to see David and Tia in the parade on the 4th. We didn't even know they were in town!

Getting ready to be in the parade.

Officer Clinger trying to figure out what to do with these hooligans.

He arrested them. Probably a good idea.

Handcuffs. Not something I'd thought of using as a parenting technique before, I wonder if it'd work? Isn't it the same as tying them up and locking them in the closet? I hear that works too.

Koolaid kites rock.

Future buckle bunnies? No. Taylor and Abby watching the rodeo where Spencer and a few of his buddies rode calfs at the fair.

And after the real riding there was mechanical bulls to be ridden.

My rodeo boy.

We've had a fun summer. It ended much to fast as always. I'm already dreading snow. I am looking forward to more time to get some sewing projects done from my 'want to do list'.

I asked the kids what their favorite parts of summer were. Natalie LOVED any time she could spend with her best friend cousins Sydney and Makaylyn. Sami said her favorite was being with her cousin Lena. I'm really glad the kids were able to have so much time with cousins this summer. I think it is so important, and so much fun for them. I love that they all have cousins near their ages that they get along with so well.

A few memorable things this summer:

~Sami checked out EVERY non-fiction book about dogs from all three libraries in our area.

~Natalie and Mak got their first "bras" (short t-shirts that they called bras) they were so excited that they wore them OUTSIDE of their shirts to show that they were wearing them. Silly girls!
~Natalie proved to be the "grasshopper whisperer". No matter where we were she could catch numerous grasshoppers.

~Spencer was sure that there were werewolves near our house and didn't like me going outside in the dark, he was not hesitant at all to let John go brave the night though.

~Natalie believed Spencer about the werewolves but also thought there were people with knives and hooks in the closet. (We are hoping her mom doesn't let her keep watching the movies she watches there.) All in all we slept with lights on, oh, 90%of the time!

~Hegit~is Natspeak for Headache.

~The road we live on is the best walking, bikeriding, fishing, crashing road around.

~No matter how little the popsicle it still gets sticky all over everything.

~No matter how little the kid it still gets mess all over the house.

~As I'm writing this trying to figure out what else happened this summer I realize that mostly I learned how to send kids off to opposite corners and naps (not a skill a mom of an only child uses much). I spent tons of time emotionally and physically and mentally exhausted from trying to tame my step-children (and thier dad:). Good thing I love them all so much!

Happy Birthday kid beans!

And because it is his birthday, here's looking back at another birthday this boy celebrated. Wowza I love love love that kiddo!
Time seems to be speeding on by much too fast. My husband is trying to figure out a way to stop time so we have more time to hang out. I hope he gets that "to do" project finished this weekend!

more scrapbook pages

Here are a few scrapbook pages I recently put together. Halloween 2004. How cute is my 4 year old? That wonderful little boy is now 9!! How crazy is that?? Happy Birthday Skunkie!!

The cowboy that lives at our house

Spencer was in his first rodeo!! Here are some pages I did about the day, there are more pictures (some great ones of our fashion conscious Natalie and her goat chasing event) I'll post them later as I don't have those pages with me right now. (again, moaning about no internet connection at home.)
Anyway, Spencer LOVED it and is excited to participate in more rodeos in the future. He feels that he has a great start on his bullriding career! I'm a little baffled at how my tiny baby is almost 9 and beginning a bull riding career, crazy growing kids!

how does your garden grow?

The garden finally is living outside instead of in my living room!
I had such excited eager helpers that things didn't end up in the nice rows I'd imagined in my head but thats ok, everything is growing anyway!

We won!

We won we won we won we won we won (sing that to the pink panther music).

I was so excited about my husband being the week's winner at this little bookstore in Evanston I almost called my Evanston friends to have them drive by and see his name in lights! ( I controlled myself and didn't....mostly).

It was so much fun spending this gift certificate. John thought it was cool because he's never won anything, too bad he's not oh so excited about books. Luckily though, his wife is!

My new Hair

I quite like the change. What do you think?

Presentation time

A couple of the kids are in dog 4-H this year and we've been getting geared up for presentation time. A lot of thought has been put into which photos they want to use for their posters for the presentations. Spencer has decided to not only include info and photos of Molly (his project dog) but also to tell about the other dogs in the family (including Toj who passed away a couple of years ago.) It has been fun to go through the pictures. It is so crazy to me how much I can still miss Toj.
Anyway, 4-H is going so well and it looks like Molly is going to learn enough that we won't have to label her "special". Haha, she really is a smart dog, puppies can just be so ....annoying!
We've been watching a lot of The Simpsons (as always) and today caught the episode where Santa's little helper has to go to obedience school. John was cracking up at how like our dogs Santa's helper is in that episode. Like Corie would say, the line between The Simpsons and reality is oh so thin!!

Oh shoot

These are some of Spencer's favorite times. Out shooting with Grandpa and Uncle Stanton.
I'm so excited that the snow is gone! Now we just need leaves on trees!

Storms are my favorite!

Why can't it be stormy or just after a storm everyday? Sigh, I love those skies.

Happy birthday everyone, and happy graduation!

A visual update of our graduation/birthday celebrations a few weeks ago! Amazing how many adorable kids in one family hu?