A great day

Today was a great day!  We have all been so consumed with losing our dog Roscoe, we all needed to get our minds on something else for a little while.  Sheldon and I ran a 5k (his first) and he placed 3rd in our age division.  Luke, Rhett, & Gabi ran a gobbler race.  It was so fun to watch them.  Halle watched with Grandma Bette.  Who would of thought this would be what we would choose to do for our 11th anniversary!  But it was a great day!  Thank you Sheldon, I love you more each day!  And thanks to mom for coming to watch and help out!

Gabi took Mason's hand in the line up and did not let go until they crossed the finish line!  It was so cute!

It's taken me a while....

to feel like I could post this.  Miss Gabi started her first day of preschool last week.  (I know, I know where does the time go.)  But this was a positive thing.  I had no reservations of posting this, but some time was needed for me to em cool down to post the rest of the story.  I unfortunately was sick on her 1st day and I missed it.  Sheldon was able to take her to and from.  He took pics too.  (this wasn't his 1st time - as we have always made it a point to do it together)  She did wonderful!  Loved it!  I was miserable, hated it!  I so wanted to be there with her on her first day of this new experience.  So I  have pouted about it enough and now trying to view it positively.  She is such a well rounded girl (ok so she's ornery), but she is very comfortable with who she is and secure in her surroundings.  I had to have a hand in that somewhere, right?

Miss Gabi

My lil go getter Gabi is 4yrs old today!  Happy Birthday Gabi girl!  We love you to the moon and back!  You always keep us on our toes and are constantly making us laugh.  What a blessing you are!!!

Here she is with her castle cake.  We had lots of fun making it, it's an ice cream cake!

FOOTBALL

We had our first football game this weekend!  We didn't win, but what a great time we had!  They played a good game against a good team.  Luke is enjoying football.   Mom and Dad are enjoying watching!

                                                Great job Luke and Tiger team!

New Niece

Tenley Janelle

Of course we all took our turns lovin on this sweet baby girl!

The kids were "pretty" good, considering we left home at 5:30AM to make the trip to Grand Island.

Ms. Gabi has really become interested in taking pictures.  She took my camera and here are some of her shots!  It brings the phrase - if you give a kid a camera.... to mind.

She took  a pic of her Aunt Sarah (Tenley's mom)

She looks great!

Gabi's close up of Grandma Jo

Colby (Tenley's daddy)

Nope she's not zooming, just REALLY close!

This one is HILARIOUS!  I think he is stretching???

I think I'm tying shoes when she snapped this one.

Tenley's socks

The bathroom (just glad nobody was in it )

She really likes her new shoes!

She had quite a few pics similar to this one, her shoes being the subject.

Gabi's view for the 3 hour car ride.  She took so many pics.  She looked them over with me.  She seems to remember each shot and what her purpose was!  I was impressed!!!

*RUBY UPDATE*

I think she has nearly tripled in size.  Still loves the kids!  Still very much a puppy (chewing, clumbsy, noisy)

AND ALWAYS HUNGRY!  (just like a fifth child)

Back to School

Today was the boys first day back to school.  Both were bummed that summer is over, but still excited to return to school. 

Rhett is happy to be a big 3rd grader at Lincoln.   His teacher taught Sheldon and I, in junior high!  He is also in my same 3rd grade classroom.  (If you know Rhett, you know that he just simply shrugged his shoulders after hearing those interesting facts.) 

Luke is excited to be going to a new school.  He is now a 4th grader! He also has a great teacher!

Gabi will get to start preschool in a few weeks.  It is all she talks about!

MOOOOVE!

This morning I finally got my hubby to run with me!  I was so excited he agreed.  Now I should of been excited he agreed because it meant that he would be taking interest in improving his own health or perhaps wanting spend more time with me.  But I was just excited for him to be there for protection!  I keep telling him that I'm almost scared to run on our road because of the abundant wildlife. Not to mention the tall corn it can hide in.  His answer has always been take Roscoe (our dog) and you'll be fine.

Well today we are running down the road with Roscoe.  Roscoe does as he normally does, stays out in front and occasionally veers off into the fields.  I can't remember what exactly we were talking about, but  Sheldon looks towards the field and then back to me.  "MMOOVE" he says.  (Ok if any of you know me well at all - you know at this moment I'm ready to pee my pants and frantically looking for a pole, a tree ,anything or body that I can climb)  I was not sure what was coming, but I knew by the tone of his voice I'd better move and do it quick.  At that moment a buck jumps out of the field right at us!  Roscoe is of course chasing him!  Thank goodness Sheldon had gotten a glimpse of him coming thru the corn heading straight toward us and managed to get out a quick MMOOVE. We kept running and watch as our dog (who is half greyhound) chased this buck off into a tree line.

Now I do have to give Sheldon credit, he was right!  Sort of right, Roscoe will search out any threat of wildlife.  However he just might chase them right out of that corn and closer to me!

Cheap Entertainment

This morning our neighbors provided us with great entertainment!  Most of the kids were awake when we heard a LOUD noise! (the others were up quickly) The boys were outside in an instant.  This is what we spent rest of the morning watching.

Gabi says she wants to spray corn fields with a plane when she grows up.  Fits her personality, doesn't it...

Most kids might not of been so amused by this, but mine sure were.  And I'm sure Sheldon will be upset that he missed it, as he is the biggest kid of them all.

WORLDS OF FUN

On a short notice last week we decided to go to Worlds of Fun.  It was great!  With the exception of the bigger roller coaster rides, there were no lines.  The majority of the day we could just stay on the ride and ride again!

Rhett was a great help on this day.  He is still short enough that they will allow him on all the rides at Camp Snoopy.  So he was able to "help out" with the girls.  I think this may be the only photo that you see him enjoy his "helping out".

Gabi just ran up to Snoopy & Friends!  She hugged Linus!  Halle was absolutely terrified of them.  And of course the boys were too old for Snoop.  This makes me sad, I remember when the boys loved Camp Snoopy!

Perhaps we should not of made poor Rhett get on this one with the girls.  His poor knees are hitting the dash!

Gabi giggled & squealed all the way through this ride!

Ya, Sheldon's favorite ride is Camp Snoopy Bus! 

(Really the kids are in there too, somewhere)

Sheldon and Gabi are in the corner of this pic.

It did sprinkle a little on this day.  So we spent quite awhile in the Ball House.

We try to take a pic of all the kids in this spot every time we visit!

It was a fun day!!!

Ruby

Our newest addition to the family is here!  We got Ruby last week.  She is so adorable!  She is a purebred bloodhound.  She is constantly loved on by two lil girls and the boys like her too.  So far mom has not had to let her out in the mornings, feed or water her at all.  The kids are still fighting over who gets to do what.  Do you think I could be so lucky for this to continue into week 2 and possibly 3 or 4????   Yeah - who am I kidding!  A entire week of helpful kids is impressive, but two...probably out of the question!

STORMS

We have had quite a few thunderstorms come through the area this weekend.  There was a lot of strong wind gusts involved.  Saturday mornings storm came and left pretty quick.  It also left us with a mess.  It took our smaller shed and the kids trampoline. This is our third time of trying to have a trampoline out here.  There probably won't be a fourth.

We still managed to have a great Father's Day weekend.   We took Dad for ice cream on Sunday.  It left us with a different kind of mess.  Yes we have four kids and still can not figure out that ice cream in a car is a no-no!

It was gooood!!!