July 4th at the Lake

I'm so thankful that my kids can experience celebrating July 4th at the lake. I love the family time, the fireworks from the boat, the true feeling of summer, the 'everything is red, white and blue', the yummy food, and of course, celebrating this great country of ours!

This year we were in our first ever boat parade. It was pretty fun, but the water was super rough (could be the fact that is was 4th of July weekend and 90+ degrees so everyone was at the lake). We had the idea of putting my mom's planters full of red geraniums on the front on the pontoon. Parade = success - 1 pot of geraniums. At one point in time during the parade, the front of the pontoon went under water (a bit scary) and we were down one pot. We all watched it sink.

We watched fireworks from the boat again and the kids enjoyed a few fireworks of their own.


Funny how even a sparkler can be a lightsaber if you will it to. It looks like he's holding the broom, but it's in the background...kind of funny.
The first fish Millie ever caught all on her own. She's really been enjoying fishing this summer (last year she mostly used a pretend fish weight and just practiced casting). She was so excited!

My brother loves to fish. Hayden loves to fish. Hayden would fish all day if we let him. This weekend Mark took him out on the pontoon to fish since he's usually just fishing off the dock. That evening he didn't catch a thing, but he still loved it-the mark of a true fisherman.

The next day Mark, Hayden and my brother took Bella to some shallow water to expose her to it. On the way home, they fished off the pontoon. This time, they caught a couple of fish. I love these next two photos because they have almost the same expression and big fish/big guy, little fish/little guy...
Still fishing. I don't know my text has turned green, but I'm very annoyed by it and cannot fix it! Agh!
Another one of Hayden's catches. A huge catfish!Bella warmed up to the water.



We were bribing Conner to try skiing. He's pretty content just to tube and kneeboard. He got up for a bit, but hasn't had the fun experience of just skiing around the lake.
Hayden went from being apprehensive on the kneeboard, just barely trying it, to attempting and almost completing a 360 on it. I was proud of him for trying! .Looking forward to many more!!!!!

She's Here!

Bella is finally home with us. Mark and I drove to Wisconsin on Saturday to pick her up. I'm really tired and on puppy duty tonight, so for now I'll just post a few pictures.

I feel like we're in mourning...

Ok, maybe just me. We found out last Friday that the dog we were supposed to get a puppy from only had one female. She had eight puppies, and only ONE female. We were supposed to get female #3. We've been counting down the weeks and now, I'm sad. I think I can say I've moved on, but it really was hard at first. I thought the kids would be so upset and they are sad, but seem content just knowing that we ARE getting a dog, just not the one we thought.

I loved the breeder we found. She posted on the blog she had about her dogs (I almost wrote her 'dog blog' but for some reason couldn't bring myself to do it) a happy birthday to Conner message from the dogs. We've been emailing back and forth a bit and I know we would have kept in touch.

So, we've been calling other breeders and have widened our search. We've contacted breeders in Georgia, South Carolina, Arkansas, Ohio, Wisconsin and Michigan. We're on a list for a breeder in Ohio. We just filled out a 'puppy prospect form' for a breeder in Wisconsin. That's no lie. We had to tell about our family, where the dog would stay, if we planned to hunt the dog, if we were willing to get the dog this certain certification...etc. etc. Most of these breeders are passionate about their dogs...thus the puppy prospect sheet. Several of the breeders I've called have ended up talking with me for almost a half and hour. Trust me, some of that is due to my many questions. The more I talk with people the more I'm convinced this is the breed for us, despite the fact that we've never seen the dog in person, which is a bit weird.

Anyway, we're still hoping to bring a puppy home early the summer, but we'll have to see. I had it 'all planned out' and the Lord is reminding me that my plans don't always prevail-nor should they.

Looking forward to the first warm Easter that I can remember in so long. Happy Easter.
He is risen, He is risen indeed!!

Surprise!!

We had a surprise party for Conner's 10th birthday last weekend. I never considered the challenges that come with planning a surprise party for a child that I homeschool. He is with me so often that much of my planning and executing took place in the evenings...and late into the evening on a few occasions.

I thought of several options for his 10th party. Normally he is involved with the planning, but since it was a surprise, I went with what I thought he would really enjoy.

"Camp Conner" was the theme with camping food, camp t-shirts, a mocked up 'camp ground' (inside since it's March and unpredictable), a campground-looking cake, and a camp out with the kids from the party sleeping over in the basement...in a tent and sleepingbags.

Here are some photos of the evening..
'The camp ground'
A picture of Conner with each of his cakes from his 1st birthday to his 9th

The 'campers'

My friend Carrie had the idea of making camp t-shirts like you often get when going to summer camp or something. I loved the idea and made these for each of the kids...The cake...

I saved his candles from his other cakes and used one from each year (plus a new one for this year) to make the 10 candles for the cake. You can sort of see them in this photo...
Dodgeball and other games...

In the morning (early morning since they came upstairs at 5:15 ready for the day) they watched a movie and had a camp-like breakfast of eggs and bacon. I added sweet rolls, not typically found at camp-outs, because they are one of Conner's favorites. As a side note, if you are looking for an amazing sweet roll you make at home, get Rhodes Cinnamon Rolls from the freezer section. I like them as well as, if not better than, anything I've purchased from a bakery. They are delicious!

A special thanks to my parents for coming down and helping with the set up and clean up and for sleeping right above 7 boys who were up very early. Another special thanks to the Beth and Pete. Beth helped me set up, decorate and took tons of pictures. Pete, thanks for helping with the games!

My next post will be about the celebrations with my family, his actual birthday and with Mark's family. Nothing like dragging it out.

Guess Who's Coming to Our House...

Conner, Hayden and Millie are very excited about the little one that will soon be joining our family.
A new puppy!! We have been talking about getting a dog for quite some time now and the time is fast approaching. We have put a deposit on a puppy - a Wirehaired Pointing Griffon. We had never heard of it before either. We've been researching dogs for quite awhile hoping to find a dog similar to a lab without all the shedding. Here's the kids holding a toy from each of them for the new puppy.


The mother is due March 24th and we can't wait. The puppy will come home the third week of May. We're still talking about names, but so far we all like Bella. Any other cute girl dog names you've heard lately?

Here are a few photos of the breed. These are all from the breeder we've chosen. The mother is the one on the left. These dogs are a bit scruffier than any breed we've owned, but I love what I'm reading about their personality, intelligence and lack of shedding!!

So, so, so cute!!

A Trip to the Hill

My kids really enjoy the sledding hill by the lake on campus. It's steep enough, but not too steep (as you're making your way back up). I enjoyed today too...from the van...sitting with my friends...while we watched our kids sled, eat snow, wrestle in the snow, and make snow angels.

The two pictures I captured (from my annoying, barely working camera).


The snowflakes were incredible today. Like, take your breath away, stand in awe of God, incredible. They were especially intricate. I had on a black coat and just couldn't get enough of watching them fall and land on my sleeve, appreciating the variety and detail. Then, you look all around at how many have fallen to make inches and inches of snow. Wow. And when the sun hits the fallen snow and sparkles like diamonds, another wow.

I am one of the rare people who likes winter. I actually love all the seasons. I look forward to each change. I will admit, winter gets very long and I want a quick and warm transition to spring. But if winter is here, I want snow. I like bundling up with hot chocolate and getting 'snowed in' every once in awhile. I love the beauty snow brings to everything and how it clings to the trees. Growing up we used to snowmobile and ski quite a bit. I don't love being cold-at all. So, as I mentioned I watched my kids sled from the van, I enjoy it in spurts.

Other than sledding, the kids played a bit of Wii and we sat down and watched Dreamer. That is a great movie. I forgot it was inspired by a true story. Of course I cried. It's still snowing so I expect schools will be canceled tomorrow. Not homeschool-lucky for my kids... :)

Off to watch The Office re-runs or last night's episode of The Bachelor. Even though I know who is chosen, I still watch it. Is that sick or what?

Saturdays...

Mark and I are not morning people. We like to sleep in. Saturday for us usually means waking up around 9:30 or so (especially in the winter). Somewhat pathetic...I know.

These days, however, we have our boys playing Upwards basketball, which means most Saturday mornings start with a 9:00 am basketball game. The boys are really enjoying it and, despite having to drag ourselves out of bed in the morning (did I mention we're late night people?), we have liked starting our Saturdays this way.

This is our first experience with basketball, and they seem to like it. The program is very well done with a weekly memory verse and devotion during each practice and game. They have magnetic holders for the verse cards-nice- and a reversible jersey so they always were the same jersey and just switch it depending on if they are the home or away team.

I've included two short clips of the boys playing... Conner's first...



Here's one of Hayden..