Yesterday we headed to Lafayette with mom for her follow up doctor appointment after her surgery. The boys got to see how they printed xrays and even got to see the xray of my moms neck where they inserted the plastic discs. Owen said it was scary and Ashton thought it was cool. Doctor said everything looks great but she is still on light duty for another month.

Today before it rained the boys and I headed outside to play. They played with their balloons grandma Cindy bought them yesterday. Unfortunately both of their balloons broke after some time outside. Then it started to cool off and before you knew it, it was lightning, thundering and sprinkling. It didn't take it long before it started pouring outside but that is okay because they needed the rain. So we headed inside and watched tv with grandma before she went to bed. The boys are off to visit mamaw & papaw tomorrow so it will be boring for me but I will be gathering everything up and getting ready to leave :( Have a great rest of the week everyone!!

Nijans

3 Ninjas
Ninja Ashton

Ninja Owen

Ninja Brandon

Today when mom was making curtains the boys asked for the extra strips to make headbands like the Ninjas wear. After they put them on they went into the side yard and practiced different moves on each other. I panicked for fear of one of them breaking limb but they were fearless and kept on going. they also spent some time playing kickball, dodgeball, & climbing the tree next to the driveway. I am so glad that they got to meet their cousin Brandon and play with him. They had a wonderful time and I was happy to see him and Aunt Irene. It has been a few years since I last saw them so it was a wonderful treat. Hope everyone has a wonderful week. Miss you Justin and will see you Friday.

Dinner with Friends

Ashton & Owen
Josh, Coltyn, & Megan Shufflebarger

Last night we had dinner @ Monicals with Josh, Megan, & Coltyn! It was nice to finally catch up with them and meet Coltyn. He is such a cutie and is full of energy as any 10 month old would be. I am glad that we got to have dinner together and we definitely need to plan on another get together soon instead of waiting years :) I felt so bad that every time we were in town we never had a chance to meet up with them. It is hard when trying to divide time with family & working around everyone's hectic schedule. So I made sure since the boys & I stayed in town for 2 weeks to see as many friends as we could.

Fun on the Farm

gathering eggs out of the hen house

Aunt Bev & Mom


Uncle Frank, Owen, & Ashton petting the new calf

The boys helping Uncle Frank dig up potatoes from the garden

We went to Aunt Bev & Uncle Franks farm during our visit to Kentland. I got the pictures put on the computer finally so I thought I would add those to the blog. The boys had a blast. Uncle Frank bought a calf and he took the boys out into the pen to pet this cow. Then Owen asked if they could go collect eggs so Uncle Frank took them out to the hen house and they collected a dozen eggs. Then it was off to the garden. They learned how to dig up potatoes, carrots, cucumbers, & radishes. They had a blast and got dirty like little boys should. They both kept asking Uncle Frank if he had anymore jobs for them. After all the jobs were done they asked Aunt Bev for milk and cookies. We really enjoyed our visit at the farm.

Today was a pretty boring day for me. I got up showered started dinner for my parents in the crock pot and caught up on some movies. The boys camped out last night with Mamaw & Papaw but had to move their camp out inside because it got too windy. Owen spent the night out there again tonight but Ashton missed me so he came back to my mom & dads. Ashton & I went to dinner at Monicals with Emily, Addie, & Margaret. It was wonderful to catch up with Emily and to see her girls. They are a trip. Like a dummy though I forgot my camera. I swear I would forget my head if it was not attached. But I am not sure wether they would have turned out anyway since the power went out. Luckily we had already gotten our food so we ate and then visited for a bit in the dark:) I am so glad that we were able to catch up. Well tomorrow brings us to friday and our trip is half over :( We are getting up to go to Lafayette with dad to go grocery shopping while mom is at work. Hope everyone has a wonderful friday and a great weekend.

Lonely Wednesday

It has been a few days since I have posted something so I thought I better get on here tonight. We are enjoying our visit with the family and it is nice to be back in Kentland for a little bit. (It would be better if mom was still laid off but I am glad that she got to back to work anyway. She was worried about not having a job so for that I am thankful that she did get to return to work.) Tonight was a lonely night for me. Mom, Aunt Sue and I went over to Watseka to Marys Emporium to look around. I didn't find much but did get a new windchime and 2 yard stakes for in front of our house. Then we stopped @ BK for dinner and then headed home to watch a movie. We watched Push and it was a great movie. Lots of action and kicking ass!! My favorite kind of movie. The boys are having their camp out with Papaw Chuck so it is super quiet so I figured I would head to bed after this. I promise to get the camera out tomorrow and update some pictures. Hope everyone is having a wonderful week! Miss you Justin and see you soon!

Sunday @ Mamaw Leta's & Papaw Chuck's

Ashton
Mamaw gathering sticks for the fire

Owen

Papaw & Daddy

Sunday we spent with Mamaw & Papaw before daddy had to leave to go back to work. Justin and Chuck worked in the barn on the red truck. They switched out motors for our air compressor. Now we should be able to use our air compressor at home without blowing every fuse in our house. The boys got Mamaw, Papaw, & Daddy to push them on the tire swing and on the swing set. Then they played catch with the football. We had tacos for dinner and then we played wiffle ball. It was a lot of fun. Papaw helped the boys master their swings. I managed to hit almost everyone with ball when I was batting. We had a great time. We were sorry to see daddy go home but we will be in Ohio soon enough. I wanted to give the grandparents a little more time with the boys since they will be starting school next month. This will more than likely be our last visit to Kentland until Christmas so I wanted to spend a little time here. Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. Thanks to the Wedeking family for house sitting for us. We appreciate it and hope that the dogs behaved :) See you guys soon.

Shedd Aquarium

Sea horse
Dolphin

Budweiser Lizard

Brandon, Ashton, Aunt Irene, Owen, Mom, & Justin

Today we got up at 6:00am to haul the lot of us to Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. We got there 20 minutes early and were 6th in line. By the time we left the place the line to enter was snaked all the way around to where we had parked. We spent the next few hours walking around checking out all the exhibits. We all had a great time! My favorite exhibit was the dolphins and penguins. The kids had the best time though. They were just running from exhibit to exhibit in awe. Grandma Cindy even bought them a toy from the gift shop. Ashton said that was his favorite part. It was nice to do something with my aunt and cousin while they were in town.

Happy Birthday Mamaw Leta!!

the kids singing happy birthday to Mamaw
the birthday girl

This friday we headed to Indiana to see the grandparents and to suprise Mamaw Leta for her birthday. We got there early in the morning and had a wonderful day with Mamaw Leta & Papaw Chuck! The boys played in the pool even though we thought it was too cold. (this weather is not a typical july!!) Owen didnt want to get out of course and Ashton swam until the shivering was too much. Aunt Cathy, Uncle Andy, & Tess also came out for dinner. We had some awesome ribs & corn on the cob! It was a great day and we are so happy that we finally were able to see the famliy again:)

Today the boys went to Chuck E Cheese with Ashley, Cannin, Danielle, Emilia, Casey, Makenna, Tessa, & Keigan. They had a wonderful time and I got some much needed cleaning done. I got all my floors vacuumed and mopped. Dusted a bit and got my kitchen cleaned up totally. Yeah for me but I would have rather spent the day with my girlfriends and the kids. Luckily, all the kids behaved themselves very well and everyone had a wonderful time. Thanks to Casey for the invite and Thanks to Ashley for taking my rug rats :) I am sorry I missed it and I hope to post some new pictures soon. I have been busy cleaning the house and the pool and have not had my camera out. I promise to get it out and take some pictures. Hope eveyone has a great weekend!

The Truck

Ashton

Owen

So I know it has been a few days since I last posted to the blog..... I have been busy trying to get laundry done, cleaning out the pool, and keeping my kids wrangled. Laundry seems to be a never ending chore and one that I dislike quite a bit. But I don't do it who will :) Since the weather has been a little on the chilly side for summer and quite a bit of evening showers, I am finding it hard to keep it blue. So today I finally finished sweeping the bottom in the shallow end (Justin did the deep end yesterday) and I am happy to say it is blue and clear. Unfortunately the weather is calling for storms tomorrow :( On a positive note my garden is in full bloom so that I am very excited about. We have some beans & peppers growing. My tomato and cucumber plants have blooms. And our corn is going well also. So hopefully now everything keeps on growing and produces some wonderful veggies. Fingers Crossed!

Justin and Dustin made some head way with the truck this weekend also. They took the bed apart. Now Justin and I are regrouping and deciding on where to go from here. We are having a wonderful time working on this project together as a family and we have not killed each other yet so that is a plus :) The boys seem to be enjoying it as well. They are great helpers. Other than that is has been pretty dull around here. Same old stuff just a different day. The boys keep us busy as well as our animals.

Newport Aquarium/Hofbrauhaus

Today we got up early met the Wedeking family and headed to Newport KY. We took the kids to the Newport Aquarium and then Justin has wanted to visit the Hofbrauhaus for some good German beer. We had a wonderful time at the aquarium. We saw lots of fish, sharks, turtles, frogs, & even some parrots. Owens favorite part was being able to pet the sharks and the crabs. He wanted to take one home and put it in our swimming pool. Ashton's favorite part was petting the sharks also. He wanted to bring the piranahs home to put in the pool. I think my favorite by far was the penguins but seeing all the different kinds of beautiful fish swimming in the tanks was a wonderful treat as well.

After leaving the aquarium we walked over to the Hofbrauhaus. The Hofbrauhaus had some really great food and some really great Dunkel or Dark Beer. It was a nice treat to sit and relax and just chit chat with the boys about the favorite parts of the aquarium. They get so animated and just seem so full of life when they experience something new. I love to see them tell stories because their facial expressions and great. All and all we had a great day. I made a little collage of some of the hundreds of pictures i took. I hope you enjoy and hope you all had a wonderful weekend as well.

Justin

Ashton

OwenBaby #1 & Baby #2

Baby #1

We officially have 2 baby kittens on the move. I was in the office today and I could swear I hear them right behind me. As I rolled the office chair to the edge of the room there I saw 2 of the 3 babies sitting in the door way of the spare bedroom. Momma Kitty has moved them from the room off the kitchen to the spare room. The third baby was playing with her Momma and has yet to leave the box. I am sure it won't be long for her though.

Justin, Dustin and Ashton got the bed off the truck today. Poor Dustin got his head bumped four times. One time was good enough to give him a goose egg that bled for a bit. Owen stayed in his room looking for a toy that we have yet to find. While all that was going on Ashley & I went to Hobby Lobby and got some scrapbook stuff and then trimmed our hedges out front. They look alot better than they did. (thank you Ashley for trimming them) Well not much else went on today since it was pretty nasty and rained for most of the day. Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!

More on the truck...

Today we took off the driver side rear fender. We making progress into striping it down to the frame. The boys even helped out today. To see their faces light up when they helped was such a great sight. Watching them work together with their daddy just melts my heart. He is so great with them and teaching them so much as they work side by side. He doesn't yell at them like he does me sometimes (just kidding... he just tells me to use my big girl muscles) I am sure I will have more to post tomorrow enjoy!

Our Restoration Project

This weekend was a wonderful weekend. We had a great time with friends, celebrated a holiday, and began restoring a 68 Chevy truck! We are very excited about the up coming journey with this truck. It will be nice to have something else to do as a family. Justin & I have always talked about it doing this and now we will be able to share this experience with our boys. Ashton loves to help out and hopefully Owen will too. Today they were more interested in playing with their friends but we still tried to give them things to do to help us out. As we progress I will add new posts and pictures. I hope you enjoy the journey and wish us luck!

Our July 4th party

The only fireworks we could get here were smoking ones!

The girls (& baby boys)

The men folk

The kids

Today was our 4th of July celebration with our second family. We had a little party with some of the people that Justin work with. They didn't stay very long but it was nice to see them again. We bbqed out and had pasta salad. We ladies make cake cookies & rice crispie treats. (Dustin helped too) It was nasty all day and rained so we didn't get to play bocce ball or corn hole. That was kind of depressing because Dustin & I kicked butt last time. But we played cards and snacked on cake cookies so that is was okay! It had been awhile since we all played cards together so that was a blast. We hope that you all had a wonderful & safe July 4th weekend!

Vandalia Firework Show

Friday night we took the kids over to Vandalia Recreation Center to watch the fireworks. Casey & the kids came in from Marysville to visit. Ashley, Dustin, & Cannin also came along for the fun! The older kids played at the playground until it got crowded and became hard to keep track of them while the little ones hung out with the adults. We got to catch up with each other which was nice since it had been a few weeks since we all had been together. We listen to the bands play and walked to a few booths to gather up some free stuff! At 10:00pm we enjoyed the firework show. The kids had a blast and loved the fireworks. Canni B slept through them and Keigan slept through most of the them. But Makenna was by far the most entertaining. She got a kick out of every firework that went off!

Happy Birthday Justin!!

Owen hanging out in the pool

Ashton swimming
Happy Birthday Daddy!! We love you very much!

Well unfortunately I have not been taking pictures lately. But I had taken a few at the beginning of the week so I thought I better but those on here. Not much to report here. Enjoying the cooler weather even though it won't last forever. Today I started deep cleaning the house. Which is never fun but needs to be done. Tomorrow with bring dusting which I am also not looking forward to but like I said it needs to be done.

The boys are doing great. 2 more days of summer school and then they are free. They are doing really well and I have noticed improvements from both of them. We read at least 30 minutes a night (per child) so I am hoping that helps them as well. Justin & I are very Proud of them! Well I hope everyone enjoys the rest of their week!