9/11

"May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you a spirit of unity among yourselves as you follow Christ Jesus, " Romans 15:5

A day to take the time to enjoy and celebrate family and friends and the blessing we have of living in these United States. God Bless The United States. Not just a phrase but be with us, Oh Lord.

I contemplated how to tell my children about the importance of today. Dressed in their red, white and blue we prayed for God to protect us throughout this day as they headed off to school. It is not unlike any other day that we pray this. But today we made sure that "the bad guys" did not win. I shared that there are some guys that want the people of the United States to be mean to eachother and we don't want them to win. We want to show kindness and love to others. May this be every day.

I love each of you and am so blessed with family and friends.

Bubble Bellies

No, this is not a post referring to the extra lovin' that some of us carry around the middle. But it is what we call the thing we did one August afternoon. So we all remember the Dog Days of Summer, right? This year summer didn't start til mid July and that was only the 80 degree days. But we had a couple of weeks in August that were worthy of spending some time pool side. That is how I kept my "cool" during those days. Dustin is now comfortable swimming around in the pool with no life jacket. We realized that although he could have done this for the past two years, he was too dependent on the life jacket. So we made an early decision this year, no life jacket for Dustin. He did great! By half way through the summer Skylar was ready to try swimming with no protection. Of course, she was reassured the protection of the parent standing in front of her coaxing her. She is able to swim 2/3 of the way across the pool before that look of panic sets in. But she loves it. By the end of the summer she was swimming from the ladder to the "pole", about eight feet. You go, girl! Kamden follows quite well to the Garrison childrens' liking to water. We could not do enough to keep him out of the pool. If the others had their suits on, or he saw you grab his, he knew it was time to go in. He even understood the question, "Want to go swimming?" And would head for the door.

So now back to the "Bubble Bellies." It was getting a little cooler at the end of August and the bigger kids were insistant on going in to the pool. But since I was not as willing, I grabbed some bubbles to keep Kamden entertained in the hopes that I would not have to go into the pool per his request. The rest speaks for itself.

I would have to say that it is one of my favorite sets of pictures for the summer. It is so nice to take the time to treasure the tiny moments. I thank the Lord that I am fortunate enough to be able to be with my children during the summers. I am also blessed to have a husband that understands and supports that need.

In case you missed it, each belly is covered with bubbles. Notice there are not shots of mine. Ha.

Woodstock Fair

Monday September 6, 2009

We kept in with family tradition, and went to the Woodstock Fair with my mom and Jeff. The kids really do look forward to any extra time with their Nana and Papa and hey, at the fair is even better. I can not say it is just the kids that enjoy it. We missed out on going with my mom last year due to her move and I have to say, I did not know how much it was going to effect me, going without her and Jeff. But now things are back on track and we had fun. The weather was beautiful for us early birds. Cool at the open and sunny and beautiful skies til we left 61/2 hours later. The kids were troopers. They walked the entire time, minus the little guy. But he hung in there with Skylar for the elephants, cows, playing in the cow corn, and fair food. He took a real liking to petting the bunnies. Although he thought they were "keys". That's Kamden for "kitties." Skylar's favorite were the guinea pigs which I will add we are not getting anytime soon.

An expert animal feeder. She even showed some of the other children how to do it.

Look at Dustin's face as he inspects the goat "kiss" on his hand. Ewww.

Dustin, of course, could not get enough of the racecars (go-carts). I think he could have stood there all day. It is always his favorite thing to see when we get there and then to catch a race before we leave.

As for Adam and myself, our favorite is by far, watching the kids and seeing it all through the excitment in their eyes. I particularly enjoy capturing those pictures of the family enjoying eachother. What a fun time.

I liked the sign behind this one, "Connecticut Grown." True for mine.

Wonderful Husband

I am so thankful to have a husband that has the patience that he does. It was so nice of him to take the time to check into getting my computer and camera to be one with eachother for my blog. I know I said, "I'll get to that." But what I really meant was, "I'll work on Adam for that." Sure enough he has gotten it so that I can pull a few pictures at a time from the camera to display on my blog. Boy are we in trouble now. I am so excited to be able to have the pictures added at the same time as the posts. I did add some of the back pics, if any of you are following and want to check in with Skylar's school pics and Dustin's lost tooth.

Thanks and Love You Adam.

"Oh No, Oh No"

Well let's start with the title of this one. I tried to decide what to title this one. I had many cute ones like, "No need crying over spilt milk" and many others. But let me tell you why I chose this one. It was all I could say as the event unfolded. Not to mention if you don't find yourself saying the same as you read this, I will be surprised.

So I got the little girl off the bus, we played for a few moments, checked out the cool spider webs that are so wonderfully made in the corners of our climbers, then began to round the kids up to head in for lunch. Right on target, I think. Then we realize someone's shoe has found a cat's messy present in the yard which has now smeared to the child's leg. No big deal we can wash that. So we come in and bath in the bathroom sink. Task completed.

The girls begin to play babies as I prepare lunch. My little helper in tow, I head to the kitchen and try to make up for lost time. Moments later Kamden reaches for a sealed can of Diet Pepsi that is nicely sitting on the top of the box. You can hear yourself saying it can't you? He begins to walk it over to me, standing by the table. I reach out to grab it saying...you guessed it, "Oh, no". Startled to hear one of his not-so-favorite words, he lets it go. You guessed it. It hit the leg of the table then the floor and burst open. All the while I am saying, "Oh no, oh no." The can hisses and whizzes itself around under the table, spraying everything in it's path and then some. Kamden is crying and reaching for comfort as this can chases him under the table. The whole time I am just standing there in the shower of Diet Pepsi repeating those 2 words.

As the can finally comes to a stop and the girls come running out of the room, I just stand there not knowing where to start. Do you start with the puddle on the floor, the stream down the nicely cleaned windows (from yesterday) or the walls? I started with the camera...A smile on my face, I grabbed the camera off the counter behind me and took some shots of the floor then the baby sitting in the high chair holding his head crying, "I'm hungry, what's the hold up on lunch?"

Needless to say, all is cleaned and so far I have not heard the sticky soda floor sound yet. I just laughed and said, "someday you're gonna miss this." I do have to say it was quite a funny sight. I do believe, to the flies on the walls, it was both funny and inviting. I think the hardest part of the entire feascle was trying to find someone to share my story with and laugh with me at that moment.