THE BASH

Birthday time!!

Birthdays should always begin with a few french fries!

Pretty birthday girl!

...and supportive brother who is always willing to join in on the fun!

Dinner is over and I'm comin' for that cake!

Flowers always have little lady bug friends that hang around.

What a perfect little cake for Kate to rip into!!One handed taste testTwo hands!All in now!

Time for a little ice cream!

Ethan was feeding her HUGE bites that she could barely keep up with!

You can see the brain freeze setting in!

Will we ever be able to get off all that frosting?!

We were headed for Awana in about 40 minutes at this point.

Time for PRESENTS!!

Her chubby middle finger wearing her sweet new baby ring!

She loved it (actually she never noticed it, but I loved it!)

She made out pretty good!! Surprise, Surprise!

Happy Birthday, Baby Girl!!

September

August

July

June

May

April

March

February

January

December

November

October

Newborn

This has definitely been the fastest first year of all my babies. I just want to take her back 6 months and keep her there forever.

Sweet Kate, I love you and have enjoyed all the coos, kicks, smiles, and cuddles over the last year. You have given my heart a squeeze whenever I needed one. I can't wait to watch you grow up. I am resting with confidence and hope in the Lord that you will grow to be a young lady who serves, honors, and fears our great God.

Happy Birthday, Baby Kate!

LUKE'S BIG DAY! Potty Training = DREAD

I PLANNED to potty train Luke this summer, but the months passed, diapers kept making their way into my shopping cart, and I (the biggest hold out) was DREADING the task. Well, I determined that the box of diapers under the bed was the last box of diapers that would have Luke's name on them...until I used the last one this morning!! Oh no!! So after work, we went to the $ store and purchased supplies to make Luke's Big Boy sticker chart.

So here it is, calling Luke's little name!
So how did we do our first attempt???

Well, here is a picture of Luke's success...


1 pee on the bathroom floor

1 pee on the bedroom carpet

1 oh so disgusting poo

and...

1 more pee in the bedtime pull up!

Ahhh, potty training!

Tomorrow is another day and we are hoping

for a few stickers!!

UPDATE ON KATE...

crawling and climbing and exploring on the WILD SIDE



And a few pictures of her new doo!!

Cute, cute, cute!!!!

How SWEET the fruit is!

(However small the crop may be)

My "green thumb" has once again turned to a pale shade of...brown!

Ok, so this is one of the 12 pea pods TOTAL that I actually got from the peas I planted. I had to pull out my cucumber plant because it just shriveled up and died. Just yesterday, I pulled out my pretty, but NON producing zucchini plants. and our pumpkins...well, we are on a bit of a rescue mission. The vines look ok, but there are no actual pumpkins yet. At this rate, we may have a pumpkin by Christmas! I guess we will have to trick the boys and buy a few pumpkins to set in our "patch". They will be sooo disappointed if we get nothing (so will I - whaaaa)! We are, however enjoying our tomatoes and peppers that we planted in containers. And my flowers are blooming beautifully...finally!! My little cutting garden looked much like a overgrown weed garden for most of the summer! I have learned MUCH from my first planting attempts and feel a little more prepared for next year's endeavors.

This years totals:

lots of yummy tomatoes and peppers

12 peas

3 1/2 cucumbers

1 zucchini

and...

0 pumpkins (so far...everyone cross your fingers!!!)

Eyes closed, enjoying a freshly picked tomato and pepper - note: Ethan would not touch a tomato until this summer, now, as you can see, he eats them like an apple!!

These are the pumpkin vines - lots of vines, few flowers. The flowers we do have fall off. Any green thumbers out there that can tell me where the flowers are??

This is what is happening to the leaves. The plants are up against the house and get pounded by the sun all day. I think they are just getting fried. We wheeled the grill over in front of them to try to shade them a little.

Any great ideas for my pumpkin rescue???

And as for the rest of my gardening pursuits...

Better Luck Next Year!!

So much for the strawberry sorbet! Our family was out the other night and popped into Baskin Robins for a little treat. I ordered for everyone - 2 scoop Reese's cup for Ben in a bowl, 1 chocolate scoop for Luke in a cone (you can just imagine how that one went!), and 1 scoop of strawberry in a cone for Ethan (a surprising choice for him - he ALWAYS chooses chocolate, but decided he wanted to be like mommy who recently ordered a strawberry cone). Then she looked at me and asked "Is that all?" "No", I replied. "I would like"...then it goes fuzzy. I thought I heard myself say: "1 small scoop of strawberry sorbet in a cup please". That is what I meant to say...BUT, what I really said was "I would like a heath bar premium sundae please!" I said it quick and quiet as to try to conceal my impulse. I turned and looked at Ben, and he casually asked,..."What 'd you get?" I told him sheepishly. He said nothing, but gave me a little grin that said..."of course"! The lady handed me my sundae that held seemingly more ice cream then my entire family combined - and I was soooo happy. Hot fudge, carmel, and crushed heath bar on the bottom, heath bar ice cream (loaded with MORE crushed heath bar), then another layer of the good stuff, more ice cream, yet another layer of the good stuff, more ice cream, then a final layer of...the good stuff topped with whipped cream and, again, more crushed heath bar. Perfect, over the top, and all mine (except I did share a few bites with Kate - gotta train her young!) These premium sundaes are glorious! I wondered after I scraped the cup clean if it was worth the 600 or so calories MORE then a small cup of strawberry sorbet...I don't know, but I do know that I'd do it again!

All Things GROWING!

Pumpkins

TomatoesPeppersCucumbersFlowers


And...





WEEDS!!

There's TROUBLE brewin' "What?... am I in trouble?"

CAUTION: "Sweet" Kate is on the move!