Why Do I Even Bother??

Today, we have company coming over, so I spent the morning cleaning, and in about 5 minutes, Ava has managed to un-do everything that I spent hours doing. She continues to amaze me! The little pack rat is back. She started this trend over the summer, and I thought that she had finally out-grown this, but today, she decided to surprise me, and boy was I surprised! :)

300th Sell Out

I spend more time watching this than the actual field. What a great game!

Well, at least the camera still works after this pic! :)

I love this time of year, leaves changing, cooler weather, and of course, Husker Football!! For the past couple of years, Matt and I have had season tickets, and are lucky enough to be able to attend most of the games, and even the bowl games (when we've made it to one) and this week's game was memorable because of the fact that it was the 300th consecutive sell-out. It was fun seeing the retro uniforms and all the fans that were dressed up for this, and of course winning 55-0 was also an added bonus :) Wonder what the 350th will be like, hopefully Matt and I are around for that one. :)

An Apple a Day.......

Enjoying a ride through the orchard.

Beautiful view, lots of wind :)

My favorite picture of the day!

Ava helping me pick our favorite kind of apple! It started with a "P" but can't remember the exact name, Pinot, oh wait, that's a wine :)

An apple a day, might keep the doctor away, but it also keeps you very busy. On Sunday, we went to another orchard and picked more apples. Not that we really needed more, since we do have three apple trees of our own, but it was fun for the kids and it was a great excuse to be out and about. JD and I had to try each variety before we put them in our bag, and Ava just had fun picking every apple in sight off the tree, whether it was ready or not. Grant, well he enjoyed picking too, but his was picking every apple off of the ground and trying to eat it, and not surprisingly, he managed to find all of the really rotten ones! :) So yesterday, I spent the day baking and making lots of apple pies, custards, and apple crisp, and today, I think will be spent eating, and maybe exercising, if I eat a little too much! :)

Locks of Love

My long hair before Locks of Love.

After

In April, I cut off about 13 inches of my hair to donate to locks of love and after telling myself that I would never like having short hair, I actually love it. I got my hair cut again last night (shoulder length) and after this, will grow it out just enough so that I can donate to Locks of Love again. :) Lately, I've seen quite a few women who have lost some or all of their hair due to cancer and chemo, and it makes me realize how cutting off 13 inches is nothing compared to what they have to endure. I hope that there is a cure in the near future, and that it comes very soon.

I Love This Time of Year

Say Cheeeeese, Oops, I mean Cheeeeese --eeeeeeee

Chalco Hills

Lately, we have had some awesome weather and along with the weather, some beautiful sunsets. Matt and I, along with the kids, of course, have taken advantage of all of this and have been spending a lot of time outdoors, I just hope this mild weather continues for awhile, since I'm not quite ready for winter yet. :)

Visit From Aunt Amanda

Last week, Aunt Amanda came up and spent the day with us. We enjoyed shopping, and eating and then some more shopping and eating downtown at the old market. The kids love having their aunties and uncles visit, and after Amanda left, Ava sadly said "I really miss Aunt Nanda, I'll miss her!" And then, all last week, all Ava could say was, "When's Aunt Nanda coming back?" :)

It's Play Time

Lately, Ava and Grant have been playing very well together, which is great for Ava, since she finally has someone to play with! Yeah, for Ava, but unfortunately for Grant, she gets to decide what it is they will play with, so poor Grantster is forced to choose between playing with dolls, strollers, purses, jewelry, or anything pink. Maybe if I spray paint his trucks pink, Ava will play with those too, what a way to compromise :)

Here is a video of Grant pushing his new "doll".

Junk, No More

My soon to be new message center.

No more white chairs, these look much better in Husker Red!

Matt's mean little trick.

In my last post, I had a few old items that I wanted to restore, well, I've re-painted the chairs red, and as for the old swinging bar doors, I painted them black and on the inside panels, I've painted them with chalkboard paint, so now it's a message center. I am almost done, and will post more pics of the final product. If you're wondering why I posted a picture of a painted newspaper, well, that is where my chairs were. I left the chairs out on the lawn overnight, and Matt being his typical joking self, thought that he would teach me a little lesson, so he hid the chairs and told me that someone "stole" them and that I shouldn't leave things out overnight. Needless to say, I was a bit angry for a little while and thought that I had learned my lesson, until I went out back and saw the chairs. So, to get Matt back, I continued to "play along" and pretended to still be upset, just so he would think that he actually tricked me. :) I guess now, I was the one with the last laugh! Hee.....Hee..... :)

The Joy of Junk!

Look at all of this great stuff!

New coloring table for Grant's room, chairs below, but I want to re-paint them.

A few of my great "Flee Market" finds.

Last weekend, the kids and I took a trip to Venice! Okay, probably not the Venice you were thinking of, no this was the junk capital of NE as Matt likes to call it, but I prefer to call it the "flee market" capital. For two days, the kids and I shopped through piles of old stuff and went past many vendors trying to find the perfect piece of junk to transform, and luckily for me, I was able to find lots and lots of great stuff. I was even fortunate enough to get some of the junk for free!! :) I even skipped the game on Saturday, to shop, now, that's pure flee market dedication. I have been working on transforming my "junk" into useful stuff, and hopefully, will be able to post some pictures soon. :)

What a Beautiful Day

Sunrise

Sunset

Yesterday, as I was getting the paper, I happened to get a picture of the sunrise, and then last night, I took one of it setting. Can't believe it's already September, and Fall is just around the corner. I would say that I'm looking forward to the cooler weather, but it's been so cool the last couple of weeks, I've kind of forgotten that it's actually still summer :) Can't wait to get back to the farm for harvest time, I love this time of year!

Labor Day

Matt and the kids before our walk up the bridge. JD is off skateboarding downhill somewhere.

I guess it is possible to be in two states at once, although in this case, I prefer to be in NE :)

Ava "gripping" her shoes, she was afraid they'd fall out.

Peek-A-Boo Grant!

We went down to Nebraska City on Monday and picked fruit at Kimmel Orchard. They have a nature trail surrounding the orchards, so we walked and picked and ate and when we were finished, we ate again. (They had fresh baked Apple Pie A La Mode, and of course, we all just had to try it out.) I'm bummed though, I had my camera, and forgot to take pictures, oh well. Then, we went downtown and walked the new pedestrian bridge, and I did remember to take pictures of that! While Matt and I enjoyed taking in the views, the kids enjoyed watching the speed boats zoom by. :)

Nana's Box

"Think Pink" set that will be given away the week of Oct. 4-11th.

A few of my Etsy items are featured on Nana's Box. Nana's Box is an organization that makes and gives memory boxes to cancer patients for free. This organization was created by a young woman whose mother was battling cancer and she created a memory box for her mom to bring with her to her treatments. Her mother is now in remission, but she has continued to help others through her organization. You can check out her blog at nanasboxnonprofit.blogspot.com I donated the "Think Pink" jewelry to help out this great cause and these items will be featured the week of October 4-11th. If you know of anyone who could use one of her memory boxes, you can get all the details on her website, as well as, see some of the beautiful boxes that she has created.

Where Are the Kids??

Grant is on the sidewalk, but you can't see him.


Justun

Ava

The kids have been enjoying the sidewalk chalk, especially now, since the weather has been so mild. Ava's new thing is tracing everything with chalk, and Grant, well, he just eats it :)

Air Show

The "Blue Angels" flying overhead.

A couple of weekends ago, we went down to Offut and watched the air show. We didn't actually go inside, (we wanted to avoid the crowds) but we were able to get close, we went to a field near it and as you can see and hear from the videos, it was quite a site. The kids really enjoyed looking for the planes. (it was pretty easy, since you could hear them long before you could see them coming up over the trees) :)

The Yucky Bee's

Bring on the BEE'S. Outside of our bedroom window, there is a bee's nest, and we haven't really had any problems with them until yesterday, and it all starts with, you guessed it, AVA. She was at the window teasing them and one stung her, through the screen, right on her forehead. Needless to say, there were many tears, and many "Bee's are Yucky" screams, but eventually, Ava got over it. She still won't go near the window though, which is probably a good thing for her sake! :)



Here are a few video's of Ava after being stung and one of the angry "Bees". As you can see from the bee video, Ava must have made them really mad. And Ava's video, is well, just "priceless" :)

Another Cute Video of the Kids in the Pool

Here is another fun one for you to watch!! :)