County Fair and Iphones

So my heading isn't exactly 2 things you would say together that often huh. :) Well that is pretty much what sums up our past weekend. I have been in need of a new cell phone for awhile and Joe has been at me to get the iphone. I am not really a huge technology person and thought I wouldn't want to fool with all that it comes with but finally I gave into him and looked at it in the store. It seemed pretty cool so last weekend I ended up getting one. And after a few days of he and Maggie hogging it I finally got my hands on it and I must say I now LOVE it. I have yet to figure it all out, but it is quite a handy phone. All the pictures on this post were taken with the phone so you can see it takes pretty good pictures as well.
After getting my phone we headed to the Shelby county fair with Nick, Neila, and Carson.







It was.....interesting. Let's just say it makes the Putnam County Fair seem like Disney. :) The kids watched some horses race and then we went to let them ride a few rides. All of the ride workers looked like, well.."Chesters", if you know what I mean. (And I DON'T mean my former pastor) Joe became quite the protective father at this point and insisted on taking the kids into each ride and strapping them in himself and finally walking away once the worker had gone back to his stand. One guys said to him, "I really prefer to put the kids in myself" to which Joe replied, "yeah, I bet you do. But I will be putting my kids in and getting them out."











The kids were not overly impressed.....I am sure Maggie was thinking, "what the heck is this" after riding all the roller coasters at Disney.

We let them play a few games where Maggie actually won and got a stuffed dog. (Which no, we did not keep. My lice fettish is WAY to high to keep a county fair toy) The kids then wanted to go back to the church parking lot across the street where they had FREE face painting, snow cones, cotten candy, etc. So that is what we did. Josie didn't have much fun at the fair as I kept her locked up in her stroller the whole time.

Here are some pictures from our evening...











Saturday I cleaned house all day while Joe took the kids swimming. That evening we all went to Walmart and the kids all got little bowls of dippin dots ice cream. Well, Joe of course let Josie have her own and in the short 10 minute drive home here is what she managed to do.....

Father's Day

So somehow I forgot to get a picture of the kids with Joe on father's day. He had a nice day I do believe. I let the kids go to Target and pick out what they thought he would like. Maggie picked him out a pair of comfy lounge pants and a golf club cleaning set. Owen went straight to the candy isle and got him more candy and gushers than one should ever eat. So we loaded up his bag with his gifts (minus half of Owen's candy) and the kids made him cards. They woke him up Father's Day morning before church and gave him his gifts. He of course loved them and they all 3 began on the candy. :)

Here is my gift to him.......





















It is a framed collage of the kids for his office. He had one from last year that he really like so I got him an updated version which he loved.....although he didn't like how old Maggie looks.

Missin' Disney

Guess Josie was just missing Disney a little.

West Virginia Fun!!

Joe had to go out of town to Mexico for about 10 days this month so the kids and I headed to West Virginia to visit Mimi, Jaja, and all the rest of my family. I had scheduled to finish up my orientation at the hospital on Saturday and Sunday, so I met Mom halfway friday afternoon and she took all 3 kids home with her for the weekend. I was a little anxious I must admit. I knew Maggie and Owen would be fine since they had stayed before without me and prefer Mom to me most of the time anyhow! But I wasn't so sure about Josie....I told Mom I wasn't so sure about it and she assured me she would be fine. So I spent the evening by myself in Lexington and wasn't really sure what to do at dinner alone! It was very nice.
I worked a 12 hour shift all day Saturday and finally got a break to call and see how everyone was and they were all great. Josie had slept great for them and was hapopy as could be. That evening my Aunt PK was in town so she came over and spent the night which thrilled me. We stayed up late talking and both agreed it was soooo weird to be in my house without the kids. It was too quiet! But I was so happy she stayed with me as I grew up next door to her and spent LOTS of time at her house and miss seeing her lots. I also slept great having someone else in the house! Thanks Patti K! Come back soon and bring Jim!
I had another 12 hour day Sunday and must admit I was missing my kids quite a bit by now. They were not missing me so much though. They were having fun washing cars with Dad, going to Dairy Queen, getting toys at Walmart, and just getting spoiled. I left work a bit early and drove in to Mom and Dads. I told her to keep Mag and Owen up so I could see them, but I didn't get there until about 9 so I knew Josie would be asleep. When I got there I heard Maggie and Mom in the famly room playing and went in to see them. Owen was sound asleep on the couch sitting up.







He looked so sweet. The next morning when he woke up he looked over at me and said, "mommy!! I didn't know you were here!" Josie was equally as happy to see me too. And I was sooo happy to see all of them. I am just not a big "break from my kids" kind of person I suppose. I prefer the craziness to the quiet. :)
My cousins from Virginia had come in this weekend as well and had planned to have all the 3rd cousins over (3rd is right isn't it???) to Liv's house (parents house) to slip and slide. Now this just wasn't any old slip and slide party.....Olevia's house in on a HUGE hill and they bought 4 slip and slides and her husband, Durell hooked them all together coming down a hill. He was as excited as the kids I think about this....Liv says he has been wanting to slip and slide down it since he saw their hill for the first time. I wished Joe had been there as he would have loved this too. So all the little cousins came over and had a blast all day playing the the slip and slide and having water balloon battles. Maggie and Owen thought the slip and slide was soo neat and once they got the hang of how to do it they flew down the hill. Owen was so small that he got alot of air when he would hit the ramps. It was so fun to watch them all. Josie just played in the water at the end of the slip and slide a little. She spent most of the day with Uncle Jim (who she loved) or letting PK rock her to sleep. Here are some slip and slide pictures of all the kids.....





















And here are all the "little" cousins....biggest to littlest.

Gwen, TJ, Gracie, Maggie, Owen, and Josie.













We spent the whole day outside playing so it really wiped the kids out. Here is Maggie and Owen when we got back to Mom and Dad's.








We spent the rest of the week visiting with family and went swimming one day with TJ which was fun. I got a night out with Tab to shop and eat which was fun as ususal...I wish she lived closer so we could do it more!! Although Joe and Josh would probably limit us to just eating!
Several friends that I grew up with that lived on my street have now moved back into their parent's homes so one evening Christina (who lived next door to me growing up) and Josh and Tab (Josh was my 1st friend, and his wife Tab and I are now friends!) brought their kids over so they all could play. It was so neat to see my kids playing with my childhood friends kids. Here is a picture of them all.




Our week flew by and I didn't get to visit with everyone I wanted to but it always seems to go by quicker than I expect it to. We headed back Friday afternoon....Owen and Maggie in tears, as well as Mom. :) Every little bit one of them would say, "mommy, I am sad. I miss MiMi." When we got home, Maggie dissappeared to her room to play for several hours and Joe got home a little bit after we did so it was nice to all be back home together. He said his trip was way too long and he doesn't ever plan to be gone that long again. The kids played with Joe that evening and I thought Josie was going to bust she was so excited when she woke up from her nap and saw Joe. It was very cute.

That night we put the kids to bed, and I could hear Maggie in her room crying. I went in to find her sobbing into her pillow. I asked what was wrong and she said, " I miss MiMi. It made me sad to see her so sad so after a few minutes of talking and me getting no where I let her call mom. I told mom she was really upset and wanted to talk to her, Mom said she didn't know if she would be any help....she missed her too and might start crying. :) Well, they talked a few minutes and Mom cheered her up after they planned out Maggie's next trip there. (Maggie wantes to go by herself for a few days before she beings Kindgergarten so she can have MiMi and JaJa to herself) So I got Maggie back in bed and settled and asked her if she missed Mommy like that when she was at Mimi's and I wasn't there. She said, "No Mommy, why?" :)

After everyone was alseep Joe and I had a date night of our own in the basement. We ordered PaPa Johns and bought a pay per view movie. Joe picked out the movie "Taken" which was great. Although I spent the entire night checking on the kids to make sure they hadn't been stolen and sold on the black market in the middle of the night.

We have now just continued with out normal summer schedule....pool, free lunch, pool, naps. I LOVE SUMMER TIME!

No big news...

Today was a rainy day so we didn't go to the pool. Owen and Josie had dermatologist appointments this morning so we got up and headed there and then off to the mall for some lunch....and a little shopping. We got home later in the afternoon so I didn't lay down Owen or Josie for a nap since they slept in the car and I figured I could just put them all down early. (which I did, at 7) I was making dinner this eveing and the kids were watching a show, Josie climbed up in Maggie's chair with her and just watched along. I got the camera out and she began..."CHEESE" Here are my 2 girls smiling nicley for the camera
























And here is Owen, having no interest whatsover in getting his picture taken. I thought he looked so cute in this picture though...




















Josie followed me around the rest of my dinner cooking saying, "cheese." Not sure if she wanted a picture taken or really wanted cheese....here she is under my feet.




















I cannot believe I caught this face on camera. Josie has quite the.....personality, for lack of meaner words. :) When you tell her something she doesn't like, she either lets out this shrill scream, or gives you this face, which is "I am not happy with what you just said/did to me."

















Anyhow, she was bugging Owen tonight and I told her several times to stop. Finally I went over and told her more sternly and sat her across the room. She got this face and sat like this for several minutes. How funny!

Weekend fun...and Happy Birthday JaJa!

So I hope you have all enjoyed reading my catch up blogs. Joe has been out of town this weekend on a golf trip so I don't sleep much when he's away so I took the opportunity to use those late night hours to update. Anyhow, I am not updated to the current time and hope to keep it that way.

First I want to wish my Dad a very happy birthday!!! I was a horrible daughter and totally forgot to tell him today when I was talking on the phone to him. I love you Dad!

So a cute story about the kids.....

Maggie and Owen were fighting the other day over a little blanket for their pets. I walked in and told them they needed to work it out and I was giving them 2 minutes and then I would intervene. Two minutes later they were still having a knock down drag out so I went in and took the blanket and said it was now mine. Maggie sobbed thinking I was going to throw it away, but I assured her I was not. I just was keeping it until the two of them could come to an agreement about the blanket. About 20 minutes later we were into something else and Maggie says, "Mommy, I have decided I want Owen to have the blanket." I told her that was very big of her and I was very proud. She interrupts me and says, "But I want you to know why I am doing it.....it is because I am a christian. And christians are supposed to act out God's word here in earth. So that is what I am doing, I am acting out God's word and beign nice to Owen."
Owen pipes in at this time. "Well Mag, I am a christian too!" Maggie says, "Well now Owen, what have you done latley that is acting out God's word on earth??" Owen says, "Mag, little boys that are christians just pray and stuff. Right mom???" I was trying to not laugh while listening to the two of them so I told Maggie that it was a great thing she did and Jesus, and myself, were very proud. And told Owen that right now he could just pray and "stuff" and work on sharing and being kind to others.
Maggie says, "Mom, we have to tell everyone what I did. How I acted like a christian and did the right thing. everyone will be so proud of me." I told her that when we do good things we aren't supposed to go tell everyone that we did them....we just do them because it is the right thing. She said, okay. But I still just want to tell like Daddy and Mimi. Okay.

I love the things they come up with.


As I said, Joe was at a golf tournament this weekend so Friday I took the kids to Dairy Queen to get ice cream and then to the game farm to let them use up some old bread I had and feed the geese. We got there and a good number of ducks/geese come up to us and the kids begin feeding them. Well, the longer we stood the more there were and before I know it there are, what seemed to me, to be hundrends of us all around us. I have said it a million times...I am not an animal lover....so I was not big on this, especially since they are making this hissing noise, Josie is pinching me and trying to climb on my head she is so scared (she feels the same way I do about animals) and one nips Owen's finger trying to get some bread. So I start tossing pieces of bread in the other direction to get us a path to our car and I heard the kids into the van. Well, maggie was all torn up because we had alot of bread left and she was loving it out there so I compromised and let them feed the ducks out the window of the car.











They were happy with this and I felt much safer. (by the way....this is not even a fraction of the geese that were surrounding us when we were outside, this amount I could have dealt with)









Josie liked watching them out the window and kept pointing at them and would look at me and grin.


















All was well until one of them made an extremely loud goose noise and scared the snot out of her....this is what she looked like then.
















We stayed there a bit watching all the baby ducks and then headed home to get ready for bed. Saturday we went to the pool for a few hours. The water was sooo cold though the kids didn't really get in the pool much so I took them indoors and let them swim some.








Here is Josie with her friend Molly soaking in the sun.











Nick was with Joe at the golf tournament so Neila-Susan and I went out to eat at Chedders together (and with our 5 kids, and her mom) since we both really like that restaurant but the guys don't. It was sooo good and then we went to Build-A-Bear to let Maggie get one with some money she has been saving up. Carson got one as well but Owen didn't have any interest in one. He got a lego race car from Walmart (for about 1/4 of the price) and was very happy with that. I felt bad when Maggie and Carson were making theirs and asked him if he was sad and wanted a build a bear. He said, "no mom. I don't really like them...well I like them but I don't really care about them, ya know???" So I am not sure what that meant but he didn't seem too stressed out about it.

Joe got home about 3 this morning. He drove straight through last night so that I didn't have to take all 3 kids to both services this morning since I am on this month as nursery coordinator which means I have to be at both services. (Wasn't that sweet. :) He got the kids to the 2nd service and after that we came home and everyone napped....expect Maggie who was playing build a bear. We went to the pool again this afternoon and it wasn't nearly as cold so it was much more enjoyable. Maggie went off the diving board for the first time and liked it. I am putting she and Owen in private lessons this summer to let them get the correct swimming technique. Well, I am off to bed. Tommorow is probably just another pool day and Neila-Susan and I are going to a pharmacy rep dinner tommorow evening which is always fun.....well I mean the nice free food and hanging out with NS.