**Our Newest Addition** (4-legged that is)...

Wow, What a week!! Mark has been on vacation all week, which was wonderful!! Due to Khara having a couple of ball games,we didn't go away but rather tried to get a few big tasks accomplished!! (power washing our house, washing all the windows-- inside and out,...) Poor Mark, he's probably going to be glad to go back to work to get some rest. ;-)

We did squeeze in a couple of fishing trips with my parents which were an absolute blast. I think Mark and my dad limited out both times. My mom and I were not too far behind, we just had some "little people" we were trying to help catch a few. :-)

Mark does get another week of vacation in July that we already have our condo rented for. (More details on that later.) :-)

On Friday, we made a purchase that thrilled two little girls!!!! We are now the proud owners of an adorable, seven week old, female chocolate lab, lovingly named---MOLLY! Khara has wanted a dog for many, many, months and the timing just seemed right for us to get this one. With Mark home we were able to get the kennel all set up and she now has a beautiful home under our big apple tree.

It's so much fun to watch a 6, 4, and 2 year old play with a little puppy that is just over flowing with energy. When Kaden woke up Saturday morning Khara and Kelsey had Molly inside the house wrapped in a blanket in their little recliner. (The "inside" part was never suppose to happen in our house???) He got right in her face and said about 12 times" Hi Maw-we, Hi Maw-we...". Just too cute. Khara told us Saturday that she is now "completely happy"!! :-) I know, the new will wear off but we are going to enjoy it while it lasts.

The pleased new owners of their very first puppy!!!!


Huggies Baby Wash to the rescue!!


Clean and content in the new kennel. The kennel is a whole story in itself. Does God care about little girls wanting a puppy and helping their Daddy to find an incredible deal on a 13'x 7' kennel?? YES, YES, YES!!! We have had more than one person tell us that we stole that kennel.


Our "completely happy" precious little animal lover!!!


Kelsey, happy as can be, that Molly fell asleep on her lap. I wonder if she was tired from chasing two girls and a little boy around the yard again, again, and again??

Nine Years and Counting!!!!

Wednesday, June 13, Mark and I celebrated 9 years of "WEDDED BLISS"!!!! Time flies when you're havin' fun!! :-) I am so very thankful that God gave me such a wonderful spouse!!

I was thumbing through some of my wedding pics. and was surprised at how many of my fellow bloggers were either in attendance or their spouse was. Many wonderful memories!!!



The attendants and children.

My miniature bride--who is now in nursing school!! Now that could almost start to make me feel old. :-)


The musicians: Mark's brother-Gene, my now b-i-l- Aaron Herring, the happy couple, Dorcas, and Phil Bishop (who were only dating at the time).

**notice the step that I was able to take advantage of for most of the pictures, standing beside 6'7" everything helps ** :-)

What A Difference A Day (or two) Makes....

One of the many things I love about summer is having a garden. Not only is it enjoyable for me, but great for my children!!! This year because of the wet weather we ended up planting much later that usual. Everything grew so fast!! We don't have a huge garden by any means, but enough to keep us busy. Tomatoes, corn, okra, beans, onions, beets, cucumbers, squash, and this year I planted 4 blueberry bushes!!!!!(we are very excited about those) We also have a small strawberry patch, grape vine, blackberry bush, and 3 apple trees, sooo- my kids can go out hungry and come back in full!!! :-)

Planting on a very windy day!! The Greenhouse gave me several bags of onions, so Kelsey and Kaden got to plant those as thick as they wanted- I think everyone of them came up. :-)

Trying to finish up before it gets dark.

Now, only a few weeks later...the plants are up and thriving!!!

*Enjoying Our Night At the Game*

Last Saturday night we enjoyed a fun evening at the Springfield Cardinals. It was designated as El Dorado Springs night. A local doctor threw the first pitch, an ElDo senior sang the National Anthem, our dental assistant carried out the flag, and we were surrounded by "ElDoradians". We all really enjoy watching baseball (actually, the kids probably enjoy all of the "seat vendors", cotton candy, popcorn, sno cones...that would make a child happy) anyway, Mark and I enjoy watching baseball and having seats on the 10th row made that even better. :-)



The girls got a quick picture with one of the Corpus Christi players.


Kaden was not impressed with this Cardinal.


Happy little girls!!!!

Fun Friday!!

Fridays around our house are errand days!! A little tiring, but lots of fun! Now that Khara and Kelsey are out of school for summer break (WOOO-HOOO) they got to join in on the "running".


Our day in review:

Went to Nevada to pick up the pictures ordered of Kelsey and Kaden. They were finally in!! The studio kept an 8x10 of each of them to enter in a national "Little Cutie Contest" held later this month. We're keeping our fingers crossed. j/k ;-)



Enjoyed the beautiful summer weather by playing for a while at the park.


Mark's UPS route is in Nevada, so we were able to meet him for lunch at a neat little restaurant, "Cowboy's Grill". Used another discount gift cert. :-)

Anytime we see Mark in his truck the kids want to "tour" all over/through it.
And, always ask the same question, "Daddy, what's in this box???" only to get the same answer, "I have no idea, I don't know what's in the box just who they go to". :-)


When we got back to ElDo a very nice business man gave me 4 tickets to the Springfield Cardinals game on June 2. Just another big benefit of living in a small town where..."Everybody knows everybody, everybody calls me friend...:-)"

Guess where we were Saturday night??