Monster Mash

Staring Mark, Rachel, Tommy, Sam and Megan...

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"Head-bandaids"

A couple of months ago, Jessica kept asking me for a bandaid. When I would get her one, she would say, "NO! I want a BANDAID!" Frustrated, I finally said, "Show me!" So, she took me by the hand into the bathroom and pulled out a headband. I smiled and said, "Oh, a headband!" She smiled too and said, "Yeah, a head-bandaid!" Since that day, she asks for a "head-bandaid" almost everyday. And I think it's so cute that I don't even correct her, and probably never will!
Today she even got creative with her "head-bandaids" and used one as a belt to accessorize her outfit... I actually thought it looked pretty cute...
...so she wore it like that all day! :)

P.S. Pictures from my hard drive crash are recovered and I coming back to the blogging world to record our family life. There's so much to post, but I'm taking baby steps! :)

CRASH!!

Yesterday, my mac crashed and none of my pictures were backed up! I took it to the Mac store, they couldn't get them off, now it's with a computer guy who is trying to save my pictures! Aghhh! I'm almost embarrassed posting this because I should have known better and backed them up. Lesson learned! For anyone who doesn't back up their pictures, the computer guy said, "ALL hard drives will fail! It's not a matter of if it will fail, it's just a mater of WHEN!" So, go back up your computers!!! :)

California...

The last week of our kids Summer break, we went to Newport Beach to enjoy our favorite place...the beach! This year we were able to enjoy it with my niece Kristin and her kids who just moved back from Omaha!! We are so glad to have them close by again! It's kinda crazy that my niece and I have kids the same age! Well, she never really felt like a niece to me anyway, more like a little sis! It was her kids first time at the beach. I think it's an understatement to say that her oldest girl LOVED it! She didn't waste any time, she was out boogie boarding the minute we got there. This is her after her first ride in...
I think her parents need to move closer to the beach!! :)
and her other girls loved the sand...



Speaking of sand....here's Jessica...I don't know how kids can have sand plastered all over them and not even care!

As usual, Rach was on the boogie board the whole time.
and Sam caught his first wave!
There's nothing like friends, cousins and the beach!! (Thanks Harps for meeting us there! :)
Julia (my other cute niece) pretty much just enjoyed the view listening to her music. She's not really a big fan of the sand. But she was a good sport and it was fun to have her there!
I love these next pictures of Tommy and Ammon! I think it was a mud fight that turned into, "Let's make ourselves into mud monsters!"

TOTALLY PLASTERED in mud!!

Friday we went to LegoLand! Lots of lines and lots of people, but there were some good times.



And now here we are, school is in and those are only memories...but oh are they ever GREAT memories!!!

Tommy turns double digits!!

Last week Tommy turned 10!!!! Doesn't he look happy???

Well, it started out happy, but after a long day at school and then homework and going to his tournament game and not feeling like he played his "best", and losing the game by one, he came home refusing to crack a smile! Since he doesn't like frosting (or cake) we served him his favorite Cheesecake from Cheesecake Factory.

But that didn't even bring a smile.

So he went to bed thinking this might have been his worst day ever. :) Thank goodness for a new day because we all woke up happy and better the next day! And last night he had a birthday party which made up for all the sadness on his real birthday. It was at our house. Here's the crew we started with (it doubled by the end of the party)...

A bunch of silly pre-teens!

We played the present game....

The winner...Jackson!!

Then we went to the park (don't have pictures) and played night games.

These kids ran and ran and ran.

I'm sure they slept great last night!

Then we came back to the house for brownie sundaes (remember, he doesn't like cake)

And then played some more games. Here is the group at the end.

Happy double digits Tommy. We sure love you a ton!!!

(but I don't love my dirty windows!!) :)

Preschool....a first and a last...

This week Jessica started preschool for the first time. She's my last one to start preschool...

She did great!She absolutely LOVE it!!

My little girl is growin' up!
I'm not sure if I'm happy or sad! :)

First day of school...

We've been gone the last couple weeks, enjoying the last part of summer and staying out of our house while our flooring was replaced. But we returned last night, just in time for the first day of school. I have SOOO much to do around here and a lot to post about the last couple weeks, but I couldn't let today pass without posting the annual first day of school pictures!
Here they are...

My kindergarten girl....

My 2nd grader....

My 4th grader...

and my middle school, grown up 7th grader...
Jessica starts preschool next week. Man, I'm getting old!!