We're up to no good! ;)

as usual. :)  Just Kidding!!

Well, Mike's building's survey is over.  YAY!!  We have a Daddy and hubby again. :)  They did well, relatively speaking,   So thanks for all the positive thoughts and prayers.  It was a long week and a half of late nights,  early mornings, and lots of stress.

the rest of us are just pluggin' along with our fall!  J and A are finally swimming well, like really swimming!  YAY!!  We are so so happy, it really relieves some of my stupid and irrational fears with living in an area surrounded by water. :)

The other day I picked the kids up from school, the sun was shining, and it was gorgeous.  We had 3.5 hours until we needed to be somewhere, so I decided we needed to go to the pumpkin patch before the rain hit again.  I suggested to the kiddos that they put their sad puppy dog eyes and pouty lips as we stopped by Mike's work to see if he could come with us.  He wasn't able to right then, but he could in 30 minutes.  We went home real quick and ate snacks and then went back and picked Mike up and then off to the pumpkin patch we went!

and they are off 

D quickly claimed his pumpkin!

S did too, they were both super excited.

D taking a rest on a pumpkin.

Here, D is "cha chink, cha chink, cha chinking" at me with his imaginary camera. :)  hahaa!

S and J running to a section with BIG pumpkins.

D is off wandering, and singing!

another pumpkin break!

D has officially found HIS pumpkin

He is lovingly admiring his bright orange pumpkin.

Dad standing by his pumpkin pick!

A is chilling in the wagon with the pumpkins and my camera bag.

S has discovered the Cinderella pumpkins.  She was caressing it. hahaaa

This is HER pumpkin pick!

pumpkins

So, sometimes one has NO idea what awesome true to life treasure one captures on film. :)  These next set of photos are some of my favorite. :)  but you have to watch the series closely....  Can you guess what happened? I'll tell you on my next post...  (if you read FB, hush!! )

OK, so look VERY carefully at the next few photos.  Look...

Look...

Keep looking...

Finally, they are all happy and messing around. :)

Heading back to the barn.

The pumpkin loot.  We also went home with about 20 ears of fresh picked corn!  MMM!

The state has arrived at Mike's building, so some extra prayers on for him and his staff and the surveyors would be much appreciated!!  Thanks!

A few more pictures:

Our neighbors cut down a tree this last year and opened up a bit more of our view. :) 

Picking blackberries with our neighbor.  They have really missed them while they have been away this summer. 

 D has decided that he prefers to sleep in J's bed with him.  J has decided that D is a bed hog. hahaa!!

Just wanted to fiddle with the awesome lighting that was hitting our deck. :)

need to work on back lighting a bit more. :)  But S looks cute!!  we were about to take off for swimming.

D got a ...

"fur cut".  He has an Elmo book that talks about Elmo getting a fur cut, so that is what he calls it.  I think it is right on considering how long I always let his hair get. :)

and here it is. :)

yep he's cute!

(and healthy)

I have a little beach bum...

This week I spent an afternoon at the beach taking family photos of some good friends.  These friends have watched our children on more than one occasion when Mike and I have gone out of town.  D came with me and we had loads of fun.  He came fully dressed in a sweat shirt and pants, however, by the time we left he looked quite a bit like different...

 D's super happy to be at the beach.

Loving the sand dollars and shell (notice still fully clothed)

Hmmm, off come the rain boots and sock.  I asked him to try and NOT get his pants wet.  hahahaa YEAH RIGHT!!  and shortly after this picture he got knocked over by a wave and landed on his bum.

so.....

YEAH!  no words necessary...

the lack of attire didn't slow him down... right back in the water.

jumping, and more jumping

... and then, of course, a little falling, and then off comes the soaking wet jacket.

I'm thinking he was excited...

His little buddy (I was taking pictures of his family) decided that he wasn't happy with his clothes on,

so... and they continued the happy water dance splash!

and a little faux surfing.

Some serious feet (and hand) dragging about it being time to go...

Wait!  Something ended up getting him excited about making it back to the car...what could it be???

hmmm.....a promise of some time playing the much loved itouch. (and probably the removal of the sandy wet clothes)

Needless to say, we had fun!!. :)

And I managed a few good shots...these are the only ones I have edited and cleaned up so far... but me likee...

Thanks R & R for inspiring me to go to the beach on such a lovely day!!

Movie night!

We love a good family movie, complete with popcorn, loads of snuggles on the soft recliner sofas,  warm blankets, and special popcorn containers!!!

Mike especially LOVES the popcorn!

hee hee!!  Really, it was the BIG family popcorn bin before it was distributed to the smaller kids sized ones.

Have a great weekend!!

Happy Birthday to D

we only had a short 15 minutes that we'd all be home after school and before bedtime, so we did a quick song and cut the cake and the kids and I ate some while Mike watched, cuz then he took off for a volleyball game. :)

We celebrated with cake, ice-cream, streamers, hats, annoying blow thingies, whistles, happy birthday glasses, etc.  The kids were worried that we didn't have any presents for D... and I informed the kids that he doesn't need anything.  But they weren't having that, so they went into a fury of making things...A made a pillow, J made an alien thing out of socks, S made a punching bag out of a sock.  And then A decided we needed to make a sock monkey.  So we are mid projects, they are planning on finishing today.  Which was fine, because we didn't have time to do presents on his actual bday.

Today we are planning on running off to Wal Mart to buy a movie with his bday money.  Ahh...goodtimes.