Golf Girl

Wesley enjoyed her second year with The First Tee Golf Academy.  She really improved her strokes and her 9 core values golf knowledge (Grayson opted out of golf saying it made no sense to her to hit a ball, chase it and hit it again!)

She even got to play in a golf tournament with her dad!

Doggie duty

Got an email from a  complete stranger named Tonia from Florida that need help with transporting a rescue dog from Macon, GA to Aurora, CO.  She was setting up 3 days worth of travel for Blondie, a small labbie mix that was granted a one day reprieve from euthanasia at a high kill facility and was adopted by a lovely young couple in Colorado.  Tonia needed somewhere for the dog to sleep last Wednesday night and to be driven to Abilene for the remainder of her trip on Thursday.

This is Blondie, she was only here a few hours but was a sweet girl!!  We loved being a part of this rescue!!

Kansas City fun

We all enjoyed a family filled long weekend trip to KC this past weekend. 

 The kids had a great time with their cousins celebrating Chloe's (far right) 5th birthday!

Beckham was inducted into the Superman Club thanks to Luke (who bought him this cute shirt!!)

The adults even got a chance to have a night out watching a (losing) Royals game while Mimi and Papa hung out with the kids.

And then there were 4...

Hard to believe that my due date is just 10 weeks away.  We hadn't really committed ourselves to having a 4th baby...sometimes the days are so crazy with 3 but we are so excited to have her join our family!  Here's a sneak peek of girl #3, baby #4 at the last of her 12 weeks in a row sonograms.  (Won't see her again until 32 weeks!)

28 weeks

28 weeks (ALWAYS has her hand up at her face!)

Lots more updates to come about our pregnancy journey with "the misses" in days and weeks to come!

My binky boy

All of my kiddos have loved binkys (parental laziness) but this kid may be my toughest to ween!  Maybe its because he is my baby (not for long) or because he is so darn cute but momma knows its time to potty train and get that binky out!!

Gift Store Galore

I am finally done working at the Flint Hills Discovery Gift Store.  What had started out with a friend nearly begging me to layout, design and purchase for the FHDC gift store turned out to be a very challenging yet rewarding job.  Having worked in retail I knew I could handle product selection but I never knew how much work it took to completely design cabinets, fixtures, select art and work with the many contractors that it takes to make it all come together.  I learned so much and really loved the purchasing part of the job.  Sales exceeded expectations and it was hard to let go of "my second retail baby" but with 3 kiddos at home and one arriving soon...it was best and even better that I got to hand it off to a great friend that will keep the ball rolling.  Thanks to Melissa for trusting that I could do this!!  Here a few (not really great) photos of my accomplishments!

Finished the cabinets to match some of the other finishes in the center.

Had to cover what was once a wall of standards with some beautiful moveable shelving.

Selected art (with the help of other staff) that would fill some of the space-thanks Liz Workman for a beautiful photo!

All the product in the store must relate to the Flint Hills...now that is something I REALLY had to research!

Somewhat of an overview of the store!

For the dogs

As many of you know I am a huge animal lover and would do just about anything to save an animal of any sort.  While my networking on Facebook may drive some crazy, it actually has resulted in saving a few dogs lives here and there which is all I can ask for since my husband said he would move out if I adopted another animal.  Grayson and Wesley have had several lemonade stands over the past year or so and have wanted to donate their earnings to the Humane Society. I have never taken the time to drive them out to the shelter for fear I would return with a new furry friend.  When we stopped at a yogurt shop few weeks ago there was also a benefit for the Humane Society so we ran home to get their donation.  The group was so appreciative that the girls chose to donate their $45 plus change to their organization that they wanted to honor them at their monthly meeting.  So proud of my girls generous hearts!!

Games Over

Since the weather has been soooo hot....we wrapped up our last machine pitch practice with a little water balloon fun!  Man...their batting really improved!

The team conceives a plan (with the help of Jen P) to bomb the coach!!

Wes wanted to play catcher the whole season...

and did a great job at first and third bases.

Grayson loved playing pitcher or first base and made many great plays this season at both positions...

she also hit every time she was up to bat.

Here's to great coaches (and busy dad's) that mentored the Giants through out the year.  Thanks Jake, Jason, Bryce and Ramey!

The Giants only lost one game this year and by only 1 point. After splitting games with that team we rallied to beat them 15-5 in our last game of the season!  GO GIANTS!

Theses are some of my favorite girls!! Could not ask for sweeter, more driven, consistent and more caring friends.  Great job girls!!

For the love of hair ties...a life lesson

So I noticed these hair ties in the bathroom drawer the other day.  Not unusual for a house full of girls but we usually have smaller elastic ones and I sure didn't remember buying these (again not unusual, I can't remember anything these days).  I pondered a few days trying to find a tactful way to figure out (ask my girls) how the hair ties made it from Target into our bathroom drawer.  Surely there isn't a hair tie fairy that delivered them and if so...I want her to change her name to the laundry fairy or get the baby's room ready fairy and make that magic happen.  Yesterday both girls were brushing their teeth in the bathroom at the same time that I was in there so I went for it...dreading what may be exposed.  One child responded very calmly and the other one threw her tooth brush yelling that she didn't know and ran out of the room....I think we have found our culprit.  In a very forced calm voice, I entered her room an asked about the hair ties over and over as tears ran down her face.  I encouraged her to be honest (and threatened that there were cameras at Target  and I would find out anyway...nothing like a little manipulation to get the truth out).  After what seemed like forever, the truth came out that she had slipped them in her pocket without paying for them.  I empathized with her and shared that when I was little I had also taken something from a store without paying for it..."White Out" to be exact, then thinking it was eye drops, put it in my sisters eyes which caused her to scream which alerted my parents to the fact that I had stole White Out from Walmart...BUSTED!!  I explained that she would have to do what I had to do to make the situation right...take money from her piggy bank, take the hair ties back to the store, tell the manager what she had done and pay for them.  She looked at me as if I had lost my mind!!  Needless to say, she was very brave and returned to the store to confess her sins (guess she will be ready for first reconciliation next year).   Not sure who teared up more, me or her...lesson learned...the hard way!

DENIED?!?

Don't let those pretty faces fool ya!  A couples night out with these fabulous ladies and their hubbies was long overdue.  After a really long, complicated and hilarious wait to eat at a new restaurant in town  where our wait was said to have been an hour and we were rounding the 2 hour wait mark...tempers, I mean beer, flared with the hostess clan and we were denied service!!  Made for quite some laughs and still enjoyed dinner with this crew!!

The Fourth-family, friends and firecrackers

 Had to get a little crafty to keep the kids entertained the day before the 4th....I will do anything to NOT be outside during the day!

 Of all of the flip flops that my girls own (probably 8 pair each) I realized that none of them were very patriotic...so we hit Hobby Lobby for some cheap white ones, cut up some patriotic bandanas and created our own.

The morning of the 4th we headed to JC to the parade.  This has been a yearly tradition since Grayson was born.  Best part is always having my 89 year old grandma join us for these types of events!!

Wouldn't be the 4th without fireworks!  We had a few friends over for a late night swim and to play pyro for a few hours.  Think the dads had just as much fun as the kiddos...except for Beckham who spent most of the evening inside or with his hands over his ears!

A Day in the Life

Today was the first day of tennis!  You would think that given the amount of tennis that I have played in my life, that the girls would have had racquets in their hands long ago...they did take summer lessons through the city a couple of years ago, we skipped last year and they thought it would be fun to try it again.  Our Tuesday and Thursday mornings are now filled with an hour of tennis at city park.

Gonna try to be the mom rather than the coach with this sport...but it may be hard!!

Wesley does a great job concentrating on the ball and both girls said "it was fun" today when we left!

Let the blogging begin!!

So after MANY (well, 3 1/2 to be exact) years of wanting to create a blog that highlights the many glamorous and not so glamorous events of our daily lives, I am finally taking a stab at it.  Thanks so much to Dedra for her help and patience in getting me started.  Many posts will simply be great snapshots of our everyday lives and some, of course, will have deeper meaning to them.  I have so enjoyed following many friends (and complete strangers) on their blogs...sometimes laughing, sometimes crying, sometimes already knowing whats gonna be on the blog but wanting to look anyway.  After attending a funeral for an entire family tragically lost in a plane crash a few weeks ago, I saw how great it was that they had videos, pictures and even audio to help those left here remember their faces, voices and remind us that it is the daily events that really matter.  Most of this then is probably for me, I guess, so that the "busy"ness of life with soon to be four children and 10 pets doesn't keep me from enjoying the everyday gifts they give to me (and if I do- I can look back here and be reminded!). May you also enjoy these little glimpses...