A fun surprise!

A wonderful family in our homeschool group gave us 5 guest passes into White Water in Branson. Sooooo, David and I planned a quick surprise trip for the kids. A friend kept Micah so we wouldn't have to worry about naps and such (I really missed him, but it was indeed nice to not have to worry about his schedule ) and we left town about 8am. The kids had no idea where we were headed except that Ethan figured it had something to do with water since he saw their swim bags :) LOL

This was the reaction of the kids as we pulled in the parking lot ...........this was after LOTS of guessing as to where we might be heading.
Here they are in front of the sign.

We went out to the car to have some snacks and drinks after we'd been there a couple of hours. This was the best thing we could have done, to pack a cooler full of stuff! Saved us a TON of money :)


Can you tell they didn't really want to stop and take this picture? They were ready to get back to the fun!!
They were looking up to see when the bucket in the picture below was going to dump and spill over :)
And this was the video of David and Caleb in the water spill :)


I was aiming to get a pic of the kids in front of the map and a nice man offered to take a family pic, I was exstatic but David was a little less excited about having his picture taken in his swim trunks ;)

Caleb coming down the water slide in the kid area :) He loved that this was just his size!

Ethan and David were the only ones that braved this ride! Ethan is on the left and David on the right.

After going on the previous ride 2 times Ethan couldn't figure out why his back hurt....hmm, wonder why?!?

This was David on the left, then Ethan, then Brianna on the far right. The first scream was David's, followed closely by Brianna :)
Needless to say they were all worn out on the way home and we ALL took naps today :)

All is well

Well the tubes were no problem, but I just had to post how cute he looked in that little gown and with the meds making him a little loopy :)
Here he was snuggling with daddy.
The medicine was just starting to kick in here :)
See the gazed look in his eyes.......
loopy and tucked in :)

This was just before we sent him off, he just looked so small in that bed :)

sorry I still don't know how to turn these, but this was to cute not to post!

Caleb's adventure

Caleb had his first day of pre-k last friday. It was just for the morning, to work the kids into it then he started on monday with a "full day". He was REALLY excited until the night before! That morning he clung to me a bit but he never cried and when I came to pick him up he'd had a blast. I forgot my camera in the morning so I brought it when I picked him up.......which worked out fine because he probably wouldn't have smiled for any pictures this morning anyway! LOL Anyway, he's really enjoying it now and it gives the older kids and I a chance to really hit the books :)



He was being silly here and kept facing his cubby instead of me, but I BY CHANCE caught him right in a turn......he was trying to tease me but instead I got a great shot!

Family fun

Wed after church Dad decided to surprise us with ice cream.......and Baskin Robbins to boot! My favorite! I think the kids all loved it :)

Micah just thought he was it! Sitting in a big chair eating his ice cream all by himself :)
Caleb wanted to sit up at the big chair with Ethan :)
Aren't they just a pair! LOL

Brianna got the biggest cone of all with her whooping jr waffle cone ;) This was nice, really nice. It so reminded me of some of the fun little things of my childhood.

A day at the zoo

So we had this GREAT weather the last couple of days. I just couldn't resist taking advantage of it espeically given last week it was in the triple digits! So on Tue afternoon we headed out to the zoo :) Me and the four monkeys ;)







The kids at the entrace of the zoo.......can you tell who the adventurer is here ?!? :)
Ethan seeing how he measures up to the orangatanges.
Of course everyone else had to follow suit! LOL

See, I told ya it was me and the four monkeys ;)
The kids just can't pass up this photo op, they beg me EVERY time to take their pics here.
This is at the entrance of the rainforest building.

This little fella got so close to us, he even ran right accross the rail in front of us and scared the fire out of Ethan and Brianna. But even funnier than that (wish I could have gotten it on video) was when the accuchi....a rodent type animal.....scurried accross the floor in front of Brianna and just about made her jump out of her skin! We ALL got a huge laugh! LOL
And of course no trip to the zoo is complete without a ride on the train. We usually walk to the back and ride it back to the front, passing the larger animals that have alot more space in between them such as giraffes, elephants, etc. Unfortunately this time they had turned it around so we got a nice tour behind all the buildings :( The kids were bummed. They still managed to smile as we were able to get the back seat.........a rare occurance ;)

We have progress!!

Well, we started this project just over a year ago. David got all the footing work and the floor built last year and then we just kinda came to a hault.......well, we've finally been able to get started again :) We worked hard as a family and got 3 of the walls framed!! We are hoping to finish the framing and start putting up decking material within the next week!! So say some prayers and keep watching ;)
Here are the kids with 2 walls up and laying out the materials for the third wall.

David's measuring and marking for the third wall.

Third wall is up!!! See where the window will be :) Man that was much harder than it looked.

Getting ready to head in for the night at 10pm!!

Micah's getting tubes

We finally made it in to the ENT after waiting 3 months for our appt..........to find out that indeed he needs tubes! Wow, what a surprise ;) LOL So we're all set up for Aug 22 to get them in.
He sat so big in the chair while the dr looked in his ears, it was so cute :)

Dentist firsts :)

The kids had their 6mo check up at the dentist and it was Micah's first teeth cleaning :)
Ethan having had the most dental work done in the past was used to all this and went first ;)
Next was Brianna as Caleb got scared after they had tried to do the x-rays and they hurt his mouth :( He was a little hesitant about anything that came after that!
Micah did great! The only thing he wasn't to sure about was them laying the chair back, I think he felt like he was going to tip out of the chair! LOL But he sat there and let them clean his teeth like a trooper :)
They even let him hold the paste stuff they use for cleaning.

And he loved the suction straw :)

Upon the dentist checking her teeth out Brianna had a small cavity so they went ahead and filled it. She was so relaxed she didn't even know what side of her mouth it was on! LOL