Fathers Day

Fathers Day is a wonderful celebration of men that are blessed with being called a father or dad. This day used to be so special to me because I couldn't wait to give my dad somekind of weird gift to let him know how special he was to me. That all changed 2 years ago when my dad passed away on Fathers Day. Now this day is very bitter sweet. I still celebrate the fact that I had an awesome father but it is so very very hard to deal with the fact that he is gone.


I still have wonderful men to celebrate Fathers Day with though. My husband has been able to spend a lot of time with the kids ~ since he has NO job!!! The kids have LOVED being with him so much. My father-in-law has been helping with the boys baseball team, which they think is pretty cool. So we decided to go find a baseball field and take our very own homemade team. It was fun, and pretty cool that we can actually play a game with just our family.

I think this picture is kinda cool of the boys!

Then Macey had to get in on the action of being a catcher. TOO CUTE!

And so did Max.

And look we actually got a good picture of the whole team.

Happy Fathers Day!

3 little kittens!

Alright ~ what is going on! A few weeks ago our cat that our entire family loved was hit by a car... devastating to all. We have an older cat that we love too ~ Jingles!! We aquired a stray (Louise or Little Cat), which none of us really bonded with UNTIL it had kittens. She became our new family cat. A few days ago, she was hit by a car...devastating to HER kittens! OMG - baby kittens lost their mommy. How sad is that! We don't really do cats inside. Litter box, scratching, and LIVE mice outside ~ I don't like any of those things. Outside cats are wonderful to a country home!

Well needless to say - the kittens have made it in our house, PART of the time. How stinking cute are kittens. They even get to sleep in our room in a baby play pen (ok so in a rubbermaid container but hey they still get a BABY bed).

Check out the extra toes on 2 of the kittens. This little one has to grow into her feet!

So on top of our crazy life, I get to bottle feed kittens and clean them and try to litter box train them!!!

Life has been... CRAAAAZZZZYYYY. We are in full swing with baseball and softball ~ gone every single night. I haven't been able to take new pictures. A while ago I was playing around with my kids pictures and decided to focus on their... EYES. Again anyone that knows me, knows I HATE HATE the discussion of eyes. But these little eyes make me smile, can you guess who is who??

Daughters, Grand-daughters, Moms, and Grandmas

Mothers Day is such a NECESSARY day... Don't you think? As a mom ~ I get breakfast in bed, TONS of homemade cards and projects, and best of all, lots of hugs and kisses. As a daughter ~ I get to kiss my mom and thank God for her. As a grand-daughter ~ I get to kiss both of my living grandmas and thank God for allowing them to still be here. I spent the day with some beautiful woman today and I am so thankful for each of them.

My girls had a fun day together. I got to watch them through my camera lens and realize how fortunate they are to have each other. Ok so they don't always feel that way but someday they will, I hope!!! It was nice to see them acting like little girls without a care in the world.

This grandma is 98 years old and still healthier than any of us. Wish we could have taken her out to enjoy the gorgeous day.

This grandma is going to be 90 this year and WOW has she lived a full life! We grew up spending soooo much time at her house. She honestly spent 100 percent of her time teaching all of us... stuff.

We LOVED every minute we spent at their house ~ well when we had to roll the hay in the fields, and mice and snakes would be nested there - HATED HATED HATED that. They just recently sold the farm but they live right next to it so they can still enjoy the land. The white barn is where the cousins grew up. My kids don't understand why my favorite animal is a cow. (They just don't get it) My grandparents were able to give so many of us the best memories in the world.

So thankful for being able to spend the day with my most important woman in my life. (minus my mother in law) She was able to spend the day with the boys. I am very thankful to her as well. We will have to get a photo session with Steves parents... SOON.

A day at the ballfield

Tanner and Tyler had their first game today with the 10 and under team. They are just "fill ins" on this team. They were kinda nervous because they haven't played with the big kids before. (even though they are physically bigger than the entire team) So here is Tyler trying to look cool, and Tanner trying to look good!

Tanner is trying to soak it all in so he doesn't mess up! So when it came time to bat... they were pretty nervous. That is weird to see with both of them. Tyler was up first... he was in the "stance" and the very first pitch went behind him and hit his bat. Everyone including the coaches thought it hit his helmet. The moms were all gasping and kinda feeling bad that he was hit in his FIRST game. THEN the ump yelled FAIR BALL, so all of a sudden all 4 coaches start screaming for him to RUN!!!!!! So he ran and ran and ran all the way to third base. It was so funny. He made a triple play off of a backwards bunt.

Tanner was up next and he really gets nervous. I KNOW he really wanted to prove himself, my heart was beating for him because I know he was so scared. The kid pitched and he wailed that ball all the way to left center field and brought Tyler in. It was pretty cool that they didn't "mess" up. I am sure nobody would have cared but at least they proved that could hang a little bit with the big kids.

Of course I had to get some nature pictures cause it was so pretty there.

I wasn't going to add this picture cause Tyler looks so funny but they were being silly and I thought it was cute. This is the beginning of what is the busiest time of our lives. All the kids are on a team and we have somewhere to be every night of the week. Crazy but we all enjoy it!!

Rainy Rainy Day

Before we had kids, we owned 2 absolutely awesome dogs. I LOVED these dogs to death. Yes I even dressed them up ~ and they were NOT little (how embarrassing!!). However, since we had 5 kids in 3 1/2 years, the dogs kinda became much less important. We were living in a very tiny house with 5 babies, 2 adults, 2 dogs and a very evil cat. Needless to say - after certain circumstances, we ended up with no dogs and no cat.

Well again after dad died (sorry to keep bringing that up) we just needed something. My kids were sad and I was sad so what better way to cheer us all up... PUPPIES! AWWWW look how cute.

We all LOVE these dogs to death. They really helped us heal a little. My girls took over the role of dressing them up. HOWEVER, reality kicks in when you have to deal with things like: POO or them deciding to go through the garbage, or when they decide to become a nick nack and sit on our end tables, or when they tear around the house when kids are sleeping, or when they bark at birds or a leaf moving outside, or when we find a dog on TOP of our counter eating a pot of spaghetti. Funny now, but let me tell you - that dog had a red face for quite a while! and we had NO left overs for the next day. I could go on and on but when you love something you just do it, right? RIGHT???

One more thing we get to deal with is what we call yucky wet dog. You know the deal... towels, sitting by the back door till they are a little dry, and worst of all the smell. EWWW! He is so proud to be slopping around in the rain!




We all still love them, and we just deal with it cause we LOVE them, RIGHT????

So even though it isn't sunny and beautiful out, I still wanted to take some pictures. So I opened my back door and this is what I see. I suppose with no rain we wouldn't see those beautiful trees turning greener every day or the buds on those trees coming out. I feel the urge to try to brighten the tree shot, but let me tell you, there is NOTHING bright about this dreary gorgeous day.

Thank you Lord for GREEN trees and grass, this means life just keeps going on... No matter what.

A Day at my moms

My mom definately makes up for my lack of ambition ~ holy cow, I don't think she has sat down for more than 5 minutes in the last 3 months (well 40 years!!). She is a very driven person, she makes me look REALLY bad! Anyways, she INSISTS on US having a garage sale. I am a firm believer in GIVING everything away. AND do you know how much energy and sweat a garage sale takes!! Garage sale means lots and lots of sorting and going through stuff. YUCK. But my mommy said I have to so - OK we'll do it! SO now that I am on my photography kick, I grabbed my camera and I went to moms.

On the way - I noticed some more beautiful flowers. Actually I am quite obsessed. I am sure this phase will pass but bear with me while I take a gabillion pictures of every weed, flower or leaf.

If you went down to moms house while dad was alive, there is a HUGE chance you would walk in to the sound of machines going, hammering or sawing. He loved woodworking, fishing, and just putsing around in "his basement". SO guess where we got to spend time today. It is almost haunting to go down there. Every inch of it SCREAMS him. He had tons and tons of tools, nails, wood, machines etc. That isn't what bothers me - it is the home made organizers, the color coded hammers, the drawers and bins that sorted every single nail, screw, hinge etc. There was a place for EVERYTHING. Pictures really don't tell the whole story but thought I would try. He could use anything to make an organizer!

So after that we got to go outside to look at my moms pretty flowers. I couldn't help but take a picture of her. Isn't she beautiful!!! (just think if I knew how to use photoshop!!)

So I am so obsessed with nature shots right now - so very very pretty. Thanks Bea and Angie for teaching me a little about my camera.

I guess this blog is my therapy right now. Maybe I will start taking pictures of actual people soon, we'll see.