**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??

Kaden Turns *2* !!!

Last Friday, the 25th, Kaden had his 2nd birthday!! Kelsey was so excited all week for his birthday to arrive. "Only 4 more days, Kaden, and you will be two...., Only 3 more days....,Only 2 more days,.... Kaden TODAY is your birthday!!!!" Very sweet. Another one of the many pluses of having "children" vs. "a child". :-)

His one request was a "pink pig cake". Not sure where/when he started saying that but that was what he wanted. Thanks to a small picture I found in one of his books I was able to grant that request.

Why are toys these days triple secured to the packaging??


Khara made a very sweet card for Kaden and even gave him some of the money fr0m her piggy bank. :-)




A lady from church heard Kaden say he wanted a pink pig cake and went all out trying to find him gifts to match that theme. A stuffed dancing pig and the Pink Ty Beanie Baby Pig- Silkie. Very sweet and thoughtful.

**Khara's Big Debut**

Tonight Khara had her first T-Ball game!! All of the practices and strict coaching really showed up. Before the game I asked her if she was nervous, "yeah, a little", she said. After the game was over, she told me that she was actually shaking!! :-) Mark saw one of the players on her team, who is quite shy, get to the game and then ended up being to scared to come play. What do you do??

She ended up having a great time. Actually hit two doubles and a single--yeah!!! Of course I might be a little biased, but I think T-Ball players are some of the cutest out there!
A little warm-up!!


Last minute instructions from the coach. The main one being "Pay Attention". If the coach catches them twice not paying attention, they do not get to bat the next inning!! Khara was proud to say that tonight anyway he never gave her the first warning. :-)


Waiting on 2nd base for the signal from her 3rd base coach.

Fun Weekend

Saturday evening we took the family out in the boat for the first time this season. Mark has gone out a few times, this was the first time for the rest of us. The kids were so excited and had a great time.

When we got back to shore they wanted to wade by the dock a little. I hadn't planned on that, but it was fine- they still had their life jackets on, and all had suitable shoes. This was Kaden's first time to play in the water at the lake and he LOVED it.

I was watching from shore as they played around. I was hoping they would only get their feet wet...somehow they managed to get all the way up to their waist. Kaden was out playing and slipped. I quickly found out that his life jacket will hold him up but not keep his face out of the water. All of the sudden he was lying face down in the water with bubbles coming up!! Very scary!!!! I grabbed him within a couple of seconds and needless to say, came home a little wet myself. He wanted to go right back in...Boys!!



We had a wonderful Mother's Day at my parent's house. Mark got me a really nice pair of Born Sandals. What a great husband!!!

*Latest Project*

Tuesday was our last MOPS (Mothers of Preschoolers) meeting for the year. I am the creative activities leader for our local group. We chose an outdoor/summer theme for this meeting. In keeping with the general topic, I decided to have the moms make flip-flops.

It still cracks me up how similar moms and kids are.... you always have the mom that needs the directions explained just one more time, the mom that has a hard time choosing the color/ style she wants, and then the mom that jumps right in and has her project whipped up in no time...lots of fun. :-)

GGGGGRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!

Have I ever mentioned that I don't really care for cops??? No, I would never say that, my brother is one. But, I do Despise items they like to issue. 'Nuff said?? No, let me explain...

Thursday afternoon I was trying to make sure I made it on time to a dentist appointment for Khara. The office had been very nice and squeezed us in for an emergency appt. I was a couple of miles on my way listening to an upbeat Collingsworth CD, my mind on a million things, when HE clocked me going oh, shall I say, significantly over the allowed limit. Kelsey was in the front seat and since I thought that might me against the law I had her quickly go get buckled in the back. (BAD idea!!) HE saw the "kid action" so also tried to do his civil duty by putting a #2. on the wonderful yellow piece of paper for no seat belt.

When I started to post about this yesterday my feelings were much different. Thankfully, I waited and you are now reading a pretty calm post. I do realize it really is their job, and if it taught Khara and Kelsey that you truly do have to be buckled up at all times and saves them from something in the future it will have been all very well worth it!!!

On a positive note, the amount was much less than I thought it would be. And, its just money anyway, right???

Another Fun Day At The Zoo

Saturday was a free admission day at the zoo in Springfield. I mentioned it to the girls and immediately that was their choice of activity for the day. Mark wanted to go to a Cardinals baseball game. The love and devotion to our children won out as we ended up at the zoo. :-)





After the zoo we went to Longhorn Grill to finish off a gift certificate we had purchased for half price. Can't beat that deal- free admission to the zoo and lunch on a half price gift cert. :-)

Mark was very impressed with the size of his triple cheeseburger.



Khara lovin' lemons while I anxiously await my delicious chicken sandwich.

***T-Ball***

My life may be changed forever...Khara went to her first sports practice tonight. Her first T-Ball practice was tonight and she is thrilled!!! Last year I encouraged her to play but she wasn't sure about it, later she wished that she had signed up. This evening after 1 1/2 hours of throwing, hitting, catching, and running the bases, she came home and said, "I didn't know T-ball was so fun!!".

She has a great coach that is going to make sure they learn the correct fundamentals of ball!! (He use to play college baseball-eeekkk, pressures on). They are still kids; 5, 6, and 7 year-olds at that, so I'm sure it will be a great season full of lots of laughs.

Mark bought Khara a new glove today. Saturday we will go in search of cleats. She should then be all set. Now, Kelsey can't wait until she can play next year. :-)

Photo Session

Brenda, here they are, finally!!!

A couple of weeks ago I took Kelsey and Kaden to a really neat studio to have their pictures taken. We had taken Khara when she was younger but never had Kelsey or Kadens done there. (Since they don't cost "pennies", it may be just a "once in a childhood" thing :-)). We had a great experience, though I was a nervous wreck by the time I left. A two-year old in a huge room full of beautiful antique props while a 4-year old is trying to give a "real" (vs. fake) smile, can be a little stressful on a mom who is there solo.

I picked up the proofs last week- 52 of them!!! Now we have the very hard job of trying to stay on a budget while choosing the ones we like the best!!

I am still so new at trying to scan and post pictures, so please excuse them being a little crooked, dark, or with a white border around them. If only I knew.... Of course a picture of a picture will never do it justice but, Gives you a little idea anyway.