Family Fun Fest

Family Fun Fest in West Bend.....

Jeremiah got to break a board!!!!

bowling!!!

jump house with a slide - they actually had about 5 other regular jump houses for the kids to rotate through and jump in.

Tori driving a police car...  :)

The kids had a great time!  And everything was FREE!!!!

My baby boy turned 5!!!

October 1st, 2004

1 year old

2 years old

3 years old

4 years old

5 years old

Favorite pics from this year's church picnic

Tori LOVES hot wings!!!

My little girl hot wings, just like her daddy!

Gotta take a drink between bites - careful not to get the cup all messy (she gets this from her mommy!)

living in the city!

We spent a few hours with our neighbors yesterday.  One of them was getting rid of a couch, and had it by the side of the road incase someone wants it.  The kids are having a blast with it! :)

Tori....

such a tough girl! she's "grrrr-ing" at me here. Notice her glittery gold "dancing shoes"? LOL!

The kids LOVE the train at the zoo!

My favorite is Jeremiah's laugh at the end after he waves and says hi to complete strangers!

garage sale finds!!!

I went to Jackson this last weekend to the town rummage sales. Here are the great deals I found on Saturday. I still ahve to take pictures of my deals from Friday, too!



ALL of this for just $2!!! 8 pairs of pants (including one pair that still had the tags on and one of the jeans was from Old Navy!), 14 shirts (one actual Christmas outfit!), and 3 pairs of winter pj's, plus they threw in the Care Bears puzzle!
All this for only $7 total. A few of the things that I let the kids pick out while we going from house to house...they have so much fun garage sale-ing! I got 2 pairs of jeans for 50 cents each - Old Navy and Levi brand, and they are both in great shape! Jeremiah has a new pair of Scooby Doo swim shorts for 25 cents, a baby blanket I really don't need, but it was really windy out, so I bought it for 50 cents for Tori to wrap up in, and 2 more pairs of pants for her for 25 cents each! Tupperware container and Shape-O-Ball for $1 each!
And THIS is all the stuff we got for FREE!!! mostly toys - it seems a lot of people like to give toys to kids as they come to rummages. The last sale I went to for the day was ready to get rid of stuff - they were bringing stuff to my kids and telling them that if Mom said it was ok, they could have it! The Strawberry Shortcake tin has a puzzle in it, too!

I love garage sales in the summer!!!!!

A SPECIAL thank you to my Aunt Jan, My Grandma Smith, and my mom for teaching me a t young age the joy of garage sales!!!

Alabama, Day 3

On our 3rd day in Alabama, we visited The Track Family Recreation Center. We all had a wonderful time, and the kids really had a blast!



There were a handful of "kiddie rides" that the kids really enjoyed:



The "kiddie swings":
Daddy watching the kids have fun:
Uncle Nate watching the kids, too:
Riding the "kiddie train":
There was even a bell that Jeremiah was able to ring - it was a little hard for him to do at first, but he got the hang of it pretty quick:
Riding the "kiddie ferris wheel":
Uncle Nate on the race track:
Daddy & Jeremiah on the race track:My favorite thing at The Track was the bumper boats. You get to bump each other while driving in circles, and also squirt each other!

Crazy Dad trying to get me and Victoria:

Grandpa & Jeremiah got pretty wet. I think the rest of us might have been gaining up on Grandpa just a little bit:

After a fun day at the Track, we did some swimming and relaxed. We all got just a touch of sunburn, but not too bad.


Sunset on the beach is beautiful!!!

Alabama, Day 2

Day two.....


Poor Victoria was just exhausted after being awake all night traveling, then playing and such the day before. She woke up because she heard all of us talking, and she didn't want to miss anything. She even took a bite of breakfast, but she just couldn't stay awake!

After sleeping a bit more, Victoria was up and ready for the day!
We went to the beach to fly kites ($1 each at Wal-mart!!!)


Jeremiah thought it was just great!
Victoria had a hard time letting Daddy get her kite up into the air. She wanted to hold it and have it fly all at the same time - kind of like having your cake and eating it too? :)


When we finally got it up in the air for her, she held on to it for all of 2 minutes.....maybe less!

The kids' kites:

More Alabama.....Day one

The view from our patio.....



Nobody we know - oil rig off shore....
Grandpa & Tori on the beach
Uncle Nate
On the beach on the way to the water....The kids were a little nervous about the waves.....
Daddy went in...maybe it's not so bad......Jeremiah is braver with his sister next to him
Jeremiah ended up tripping once he did get into the water, and his shirt got soaked. The water was a bit chilly, and it was windy, so we had to take off his shirt.


Look up there, mommy!!!
A kite!!!!!!

We made it to Alabama....

We left for Alabama at 1 in the afternoon on Friday, and made it there by 6:30AM on Saturday. Both kids took about 2 hour naps in the car. Jeremiah fell asleep around 8, and woke up about 10, then stayed awake the rest of the way down, until about 5 minutes from the resort! I still can not believe that he stayed up until almost 6:30 in the morning! He then slept for a few hours once we got there, which gave me & the hubby a chance to catch up on a bit of sleep. Victoria had her nap earlier in the evening, then stayed up only until 2AM!!!!! Then she slept the rest of the way there, but woke up once we got there, and stayed awake the whole day!


Victoria and mommy needed a morning snack - I had Mountain Dew and some Jelly Belly jelly beans, and Victoria had some water and cereal snack with a couple jelly beans mixed in (I give her the ones I don't like!)

Zoe needed a snack too! :)
Victoria helped Zoe see the view from our house....

My life.....

I read this on GirlTalk today, and it reminds me of my life (except mine would be chocolate milk, not coffee!!!)

The "mommy version" of If You Give A Mouse A Cookie:

If You Give A Mom A Muffin

Original Author Unknown

If you give a mom a muffin,
She'll want a cup of coffee to go with it.
She'll pour herself some.
Her three-year-old will spill the coffee.
She'll wipe it up.
Wiping the floor, she'll find dirty socks.
She'll remember she has to do laundry.
When she puts the laundry in the washer,
She'll trip over boots and bump into the freezer.
Bumping into the freezer will remind her she has to plan for supper.
She will get out a pound of hamburger.
She'll look for her cookbook ("101 Things To Do With a Pound of Hamburger").
The cookbook is sitting under a pile of mail.
She will see the phone bill, which is due tomorrow.
She will look for her checkbook.
The check book is in her purse that is being dumped out by her two-year-old.
She'll smell something funny.
She'll change the two year old's diaper.
While she is changing the diaper, the phone will ring.
Her five-year-old will answer and hang up.
She'll remember she wants to phone a friend for coffee.
Thinking of coffee will remind her that she was going to have a cup.
And chances are...
If she has a cup of coffee,
Her kids will have eaten the muffin that went with it.

girls.....

I'm babysitting today & tomorrow, and my kids just LOVE playing with this little girl. This morning, Victoria had me help her and her friend get dressed up:

birthday party at Noodles & Co

My dad put his business card in the bowl at Noodles & Co, and his name was drawn. We celebrated Mom's birthday and got to have a free tasting of anything off the menu. We figure we had more than $150 worth of food, plus drinks for 8 adults and 2 kids. It was a lot of fun!


Uncle Nate's so silly! (Plus Kelsey is hiding behind him!)
Victoria LOVES her mac & cheese!
Grandpa wants Jeremiah to share his food!

We had quite the crowd - us, my brother and his girlfriend, my parents, their neighors, and my 2 kids: