Our Weekend Away!

We had a wonderful weekend with our cousins!! We spent all weekend at my cousins house while Tom helped her husband put siding on their house. They worked all Friday evening, all day Saturday and then Sunday after church until we left around 8PM. They got two sides of the house done. They did a great job! My cousin and I looked after the kids while the daddy's worked. Their son is right between our boys' age and their daughter is about a month and a half older than Hallie so it's alot of fun having them so close in age.

The boys slept in a tent in the backyard with the Daddys and the girls slept inside the house with the Mommys. =)They loved that of course! The kids enjoyed playing outside in their big yard. My aunt and uncle came over for dinner Saturday evening and it's always fun to spend time with them too.

Sunday we went to church with them and all the kids got to be in the same class and had a great time there. After lunch the guys went back to the house to get to work while we surprised the kids with a trip to see Veggie Tales Live!! It was SO good. We had such a great time. The kids all did wonderful and loved all the music. It was really cute.

I put together a slide show of our weekend. I took a few pictures at the Veggie Tales Live and with the lighting they didn't turn out really good but it gives you an idea of what it looked like and I wanted to be able to show it to Tom.

Story Time

Today we went to storytime at the library. They brought in a Llama for the kids to see. It was pretty exciting. She came into the library and heard a story with the kids and then we went outside and she did some tricks for us.

Silly Boys

We put the boys to bed in three separate beds in their room last night, but this is how I found them when I went to bed last night. =)

Silly Tyler

Tyler and his silly straw!



Some more of his paper creations.

The things she says....

Hallie just asked me to help her put on one of her dress up princess dresses. She's so cute! I said, "Who made you a princess?" She said, "Jesus and God" then she said, "That other guy is a snake!"

Our Day at the Zoo!!

Yesterday was $2 day at the zoo. Tom took the day off and we all enjoyed a day together. I'm not sure it was worth the savings to go on that particular day because it was VERY crowded. When we got there the parking lot was full and we had go an exit past the zoo and park at a church then catch a shuttle bus to the zoo. There was a huge line waiting for the shuttle. We were kind of in a hurry cuz we got there later than planned and had to leave in time to drop Tom off at his 2nd job to work that night. Once we got to the zoo it was a good time and we did have enough time to see most of it. All in all it was a good day.

Our Artist

If you were to come to our house...you'd see lots of art hung up all over the place. It's on the walls, on the cupboards, and on the doors. They are everywhere! Tyler has a niche for making things. He is so creative. He can spend hours with just some paper, scissors and glue and he is a happy boy! He comes up with the neatest creations. This was one of his from this week.

Right now he's working on making our family. He's got four kids made and now he's working on the parents. He's so cute.

Daddy's Girl

Hallie's had a cold for a few days and one night was having trouble sleeping. I put her in bed w/ Daddy. I was still up working on things. We'll when I went to bed..this is what I found. Precious!!

Go Beavers!

Tom and the kids watched the Beaver Game on TV today. Bradley asked if I'd paint his face with Beaver colors. He gets really into it like his daddy. Once the other three kids saw what was happening of course they wanted to join in.

Later tonight Tyler decided to make a piano out of a box and a few of the kiddos were putting on a concert for us. I love their creativity.

Prayer Request

I wanted to share a prayer request for my friends family: This from my friend Heather, who was my roomate in college and who I lived with in Spokane after college. She and her husband Don and their four kids are dear friends of ours!!

Please be praying We received news this afternoon that Don's brother Cliff was killed in a motorcycle accident in Utah this afternoon. Please be praying for the family he leaves behind a wife and two kids.


Update on the Gullett Family

I think all of us are still in shock over the death of Don's brother Cliff. I felt like I needed to mention that Cliff was 47 leaves behind his wife Leann, daugher Nicole 15, son Casey 10, mother Mary Plum, father Dennis, grandfather Steve Nusser, sister Paula (Doug, Lisa, Rachel), brother Rick (Cindy, Michael, Amy, Tracy), brother Doug (Mona, Jennifer), brother Dale (Carol, Chance, Colt), brother Don (Heather, Morgan, Cale, Ty, Brock) many many great nieces and nephews. We all appreciated your prayers and support. Cliff died doing something he loved and was supported by his friends and family in all he did. Please continue to pray for healing, comfort, and peace for everyone involved. Go to http://teambullett.com/ it might better explain what he had been driving and some of his achievements on his motorcycle. He owned his own motorsports store in Bozeman http://team-bozeman.com/

Don, Heather and thier kids will be leaving Sunday to drive to Montana to be with the rest of their family until the funeral which will be next Saturday. Please also be praying for their travel.

Feeding the ducks

Today after I got off work we took the kids on a picnic and then we fed the ducks. It was so much fun. They had a blast. Tyler asked me if we could buy one of the ducks. Silly boy. By the time we left, Bradley had names for many of them.

Tom got a call from his 2nd job while we were out and they asked if he could come in tonight because a co-worker was sick so as soon as we got home tonight he took a nap and then he headed out to work tonight at 8PM and should get home around 8AM tomorrow morning. It's been a busy week for him. After this shift tonight he'll have put in about 42 hours this week at the 2nd job on top of his regular full time job. We're looking forward to him getting home tomorrow and get back into our regular routine.

Many of you know we've been on Dave Ramsey's debt-free plan "FPU" for a year now and after this busy week we have met our goal for the year Sept 07 to Sept 08 and starting next week we plan to slow down and have him just work the two nights a week at the 2nd job. We were just talking about it tonight and it's truly a blessing that the Lord provided this extra job for Tom. I never would have imagined so much could have been accomplished in a year. It's truly been a blessing! Tom really does enjoy the work he does when he's there and I really see it as a ministry as he works with people in need. He's got such a heart for people and I can see the Lords hand in all this in so many ways. I believe the Lord not only provided a need for our family but also for the people he's been able to help. I see the blessing on both sides. God is good!

We have a fun day planned for Tuesday. Our homeschool group is taking a field trip to the Zoo. Tuesday is $2 day and Tom took the day off to come with the kids and I. It will be so nice to have a day away. We hear there's a baby elephant there now so sissy is really excited to see that.

Hallie's Big Day

Today was Hallie's first day of Preschool. I'm still in shock that our baby girl is really old enough to go. She watched her brothers all get to go to Punkinseed and she's been ready a long time.

The boys and I took her this morning and hung out with her for about a half hour and watched all the kids play. She did wonderful. She walked right up to the fort they have and climbed up the ladder and went down the slide. Made herself right at home. When the boys and I left, each of the boys gave her a kiss and then I did and we told her goodbye and headed out to the door. She watched us go and just looked so grown up. Not a worry in the world.

More Funnies....

We've had such a fun time getting back into our homeschool routine. I'm thrilled that all the kids are enjoying doing their schoolwork. It makes teaching really fun!! They all amaze me at how quickly they learn. Ryan and Tyler are both taking off with their reading and it's such a blessing to get to watch them from the start and get to be a part of the whole process. I love the look on their faces when they read a word, look at me to see if I say, "yes that's right" and they get the biggest grin on their faces. It's so cute. It's such a joy to get to be home with them.

One day this week I was explaining a lesson to Ryan and Tyler and I was talking to Tyler and I called him Ryan and then said, "I mean Tyler, whatever your name is". =) We'll a couple minutes later Tyler said, "Mommy, I have a good idea. Maybe you should make name tags for all of us to wear at school." Pretty sad huh. =) I had to chuckle.

Hallie

Hallie's at such a fun age. I keep catching her saying the cutest things. I thought I'd share some from this week.

Last week I was talking to Hallie about her going to preschool next week and I told her I was going to miss her. She looked at me with much confidence and said, "Mommy, I'm coming back!!". =)

I went to check on her last night at bedtime and I saw her little eyes were open and she said "Mommy, the doggie said ruff ruff and woke me up". Our neighbors next to us are deaf and they have this little dog that barks and barks. Many times late at night it keeps some of us awake and some mornings it wakes me up super early just barking and barking. One morning it was for an hour straight. Anyhow, this particular night, it was keeping Hallie awake.

Yesterday I was in the kitchen and Hallie was outside riding her bike. I just had the screen door closed so I could listen to the kiddos outside. Hallie called for me and I went out there and she said, "Mommy, do you have to go to work today??" I said, "No, I get to stay home today". She said, "Ok, I'm happy now" Oh...what a sweet girl. I tell ya. Just me working one day a week...I miss the kids so much when I'm gone.

Here's a picture just to remember her cute lil' face. =)

Our Anniversary

Saturday Tom and I celebrated our 11 year Anniversary. It's amazing to look back over those 11 years and see how much the Lord has blessed us. Not only was it a dream come true to find Tom all the way in Florida, but to fast forward 11 years and find ourselves with four wonderful children and to find Tom and I both in careers we've always hoped for. His in counseling and mine as a stay at home mom and a bookkeeper. I feel truely blessed that the Lord brought us together and that he knew before we were even born that this is where we'd end up. We are SO thankful for God's blessings on our lives.

We had a great day with the kids. The morning Tom spent cleaning out the shed. It looks so nice. The boys had a great time hammering some scrap wood together. They made a treasure. =) They wanted to hang it up in their room but Tyler ended up discovering it worked great for a stage for some of their toys. I worked on organizing the house and all our homeschool and craft supplies getting ready for school again this week. Later in the evening we took a trip to the library and then picked up Subway sandwiches and went and had a picnic at the park.

Our library had a reading program this summer. The first part of the summer, Bradley had to keep track of how many hours he read. He did a wonderful job. He loves to read. We got to count any time he read to himself, we read to him, or anytime he listed to a book on tape. The later part of the summer we had to fill out a slip with every book Bradley read and put it in a drawing and anytime I read to the three younger kids or they read to me, I'd write down each book we read for each of the kids and put their names in a drawing for the preschoolers. They had a drawing this month for the 2nd half of the summer program and three of the kids won. Bradley won two coupons for a Subway sandwich or a kids pack and Ryan won a coupon for a Subway sandwich or a kids pack and Hallie won 2 tickets to the Kuhn theater here in town. When I took the kids to pick up their prizes, the ladies at the library felt bad that Tyler was the only one of the kids that didn't win so they let him pick out a little bag of M&M's or Starburst. He picked out the Starburst. When we got to the car he asked if he could open them and I was SO proud of what he did next, he passed out two to each of the kids and himself. Then he shared a piece with Mommy, Tom and Grandma too. He's such a sweet boy. He had one piece left and he asked if I could cut it into four pieces when we got home so he could share it with his brothers and sister. Melt my heart....what a sweet boy!!

So, our picnic last night we got to use the kids' Subway coupons. What a treat!!

Here's some pictures from our day. I was hoping to get a picture of Tom and I together on our anniversary while we were out so each of the kids tried to take a picture for us. I put a couple of those pictures in the slideshow.