Helping

He is full of helpfulness. This was at school while I was doing AR tests with first graders.

Whistling away...

She lost her first top tooth on a Sunday. Sadly the tooth fairy did not make it that night, we're pretty sure it was due to the crazy rain we had going on.

 Then, the following Sunday she lost her second top tooth.  Love these grins! Again, the tooth fairy did not make it that night. We now suspect that Sundays are either very busy or she takes the day for rest.

With her friend and classmate from Sunday School, they're a matching pair! He lost his second top tooth Monday, following Sweetness.  The tooth fairy made it to both homes that night!

However, Eric and I are thinking this parent has the genius idea, if only we all had these talents!

Run or Dye!

 Pre race, pictures and prep.  CJ elected to go to a three hour gymnastics practice instead of a quick 5K color run.

 He went as a ninja! Sweetness declared she wanted to "win" the race. In that case, we should have started in an earlier heat. And practiced running more.

 Pre race fun with our color packet. I got marked.

 So did Doodle. He was not a big fan of the pump up and dance music in the corral waiting for our heat.

Some time after the blue station and before the green station, he was out!

 An action shot of yellow. At the first station, blue, Kman stopped and started to help toss the powder. A heart stopping moment as Sweetness continued on her quest for "winning" and Kman not making it through the powder station. We got all back together very quickly.

We didn't "win" the race, but we all finished the race! We all had fun and the only one allowed a ride was Doodle.  Another fun family 5K in the books!

4AM wake up calls

 Last Sunday it was the judge's critique meet. Not your typical meet, but a good one to start the season.

 She has some great lines on the beam. Pictures do not do her justice and are usually in motion blurry.

 This weekend was the Monsoon Madness in Apache Junction. Doodle thought his 4:30AM wake up call was early, napped on the way up, fell asleep during floor, slept thru vault and woke up some time during awards.

 Waiting for awards. Look at her hair. I learned about hair glue...amazing stuff, I did her hair the night before, she slept on it and this is after her meet, looking good! It will be a love-hate relationship with this stuff, I think.

 Showing off her bling. She placed 3rd in vault and 4th on uneven bars and 7th overall for her age group and level. The team placed 2nd. A great start to the season!

 Then Doodle thought a nap on the way home was in order. It meant he missed this quick stop. We had just traveled thru a tunnel -always super cool-and CJ wanted to stop and take pictures of the scenery.

 Just goofing around after the meet on the drive home.

 The scenic drive. Not worth it when it's dark o' thirty in the morning, but it sure is on the way home.

We have a three week break...so very happy for that. My prayer, the rest of the season we have the 11:00 session and no more 8:00 ones! Join me in prayer.

Swinging into fall

 As the evenings are cooling off, slightly, we get to swing! Looks like we need one more spot.

Here is a quick Sweetness story.

I read the following to myself online, and laughed out loud.

 I began to read it out loud to Eric, Sweetness was playing in our closet.  As I read, "name something that follows the word pork" There was a pause from Eric with a quizzical look, then without missing a beat, Sweetness says, "upine"....yep she said, Pork...upine.

Fini Flight

When leaving a base or an air craft, air crew (mostly pilots, but not limited to pilots -he didn't have one when leaving the tanker as a boom operator) have a fini flight, or a final flight.  It's a big hooray for time on the air craft or at the station.  This time, it was really emotional for me. 1. I may still have unusual amounts of hormones since I'm still nursing and baby is only 10 months old. 2. Eric has worked really hard to be a pilot and live out this dream of his. The fact that he'll not step onto a plane as a pilot again, makes me so very sad. What the future holds though, we don't know, and that could change. I'm not holding my breath though.

 He had great weather. A wonderful crew. Got to do Air Refueling one last time --full circle.

 Girls hosed him down. Everyone enjoyed that part.

 One last look inside and out of the plane.

Long hours. Long days. Long deployments. But he loved what he was doing. He loved flying this plane.  All I can say, thank goodness for big dark sunglasses!

Big boy

Our little man, is really not so little! He's a very good big brother.

 Driving him anywhere he needs to go.
The boys and I went to the boy scout rocket day, it was a blast! (har har, but really it was!)

 Filling station

 Pumping the air into the bottle

The rocket returning to earth, after it traveled, all the way to out space. Really, I saw it!

Now, look at this young man,

 "First Communion" day.

 He has actually been receiving communion since his sisters started, about two years ago. However, he now went through the class, with 4 other energetic young men, and was recognized in August in front of the congregation.

Following services, we had a quick meal with the other families, then went off to our last bowling league afternoon.  He loved the bowling. He and Sweetness, may or may not have beaten me a game or two this summer.

Foster family

I have 2 posts to write and it was a toss up as to which one to post first, decided to take the advice of scrapbookers, start where you are.  So today we had some big changes. We became a foster family.  Crazy right!?!?! Well, it gets even crazier, we're a foster family to six, yes SIX young ladies.  The kids are beyond excited and everyone is learning to make friends.

However, on Friday when our friends and wonderful neighbors presented the opportunity and we found out this weekend it was going to happen, we had a bit of work to do.  First, we had to prep and gather supplies.

 Pick a spot and clear it out. Got the little supplies we had out and ready to go.

We all helped in some way. It only took a couple of hours and everything was nearly ready to go! We labored on Labor day.

Sweetness checked out the structure and gave it a thumbs up.

And here are the six beautiful ladies.

CJ is excited but not confident around the hens. Kman has just squatted outside their coop watching and watching.  Panther, well, in the past she has been terrified of chickens, today, while a bit curious, not enough to stay outside if I was inside. We'll see if she becomes protective of them or if it's not a good match.

Our neighbors have, or I should say had, 20 hens and were crowded in their coop and set up. They came up with a plan to expand their coop and run, but it will take time as it involves moving TONS of dirt, yes TONS.  In the mean time, they needed to create more space, thus came in our opportunity to foster the chickens.

I have wanted chickens. My dear husband until this past spring had put his foot down with a sound, No. He finally warmed up to the idea, but I knew Murphy's law would kick in if we invested in baby chicks. (I am presently working on him about honey bees, one day, one day.) Eric has actually jumped on board with this project, for 2 reasons. We're not moving them and we all know this is just for the next several months, and 2, he leaves soon and I think secretly he believes this will be the end of our chicken adventures.  We shall see.

I will admit, that I fully intend on returning all six when they are ready, but terrified that -disease, children, dogs, or other could change the number. It's a little bit of pressure for sure!

*come back for the other post, and future fun we have.