WE'RE BACK!!!

We are home safe and sound and had a Great week in Branson!! We found out that condos are the only way to go--esp. when traveling with children!!!! Having a washer/dryer, fridge, and stove right in our living quarters made life a lot easier. (Plus, we also came home with no dirty laundry, which made my Monday much better!!)

We went to one of Branson's newest attractions, the Branson Landing, and fell in love with that place immediately. Shops, restaurants, play grounds, trolley... and everything right on the water. Very neat place!!! They also have a great Joes Crab Shack that served us some wonderful King Crab Legs!!!

I could go on, and on, but I know "a picture's worth a thousand words" so I'll let my photos do the talkin'. Had a great time--can't wait to go again next year (or sooner :-).


The place we called home for a week.


The kids first Ferris Wheel Ride.


Khara and Kelsey loved this ride. It took you straight up and then let you drop. :-}


Our wonderful friend Barney at Celebration City. Khara is a big Andy Griffith Show fan (the old black and white ones, that is) --she thought seeing this guy was pretty cool. :-)

Kaden with his bump and black eyes still shining!!

And then, Curious George, at Silver Dollar City.


Incredible ice cream cones at Celebration City. They didn't have a kids size cone and the regular ones were HUGE, so I think Mark got stuck with the remains of 2 or 3 extra ones.


Great kiddie pool at the condo.


Is any vacation trip complete without shopping??? Branson has some wonderful outlet malls. With two little girls starting school in a month I had a great excuse. ;-)

Patiently waiting outside of Olive Garden.

*Ta-Ta For Now*

I"ll be taking a short break from the Blogging World. Yep, that's right, tomorrow morning we head out on a much anticipated week long vacation to Branson. We are excited to be going somewhere that's not to far away but yet can be called a trip. :-) We love Branson!!! It's also very handy that we know our way around and some of the neat things to do!! This will be the longest that we have been away from our humble abode, so we'll see how it goes.

Besides sewing a skirt, cleaning, packing, and mowing the lawn, I tried to get the garden ready for a week of neglect. ( Which is the reason for me posting this at midnight.) :-{



Khara and Kelsey both love to work in the garden, esp. pick the veggies, which is a very big help.

Kelsey with a partial bucket of horticulture beans. We ended up picking 2- 5 gallon bucket fulls and only got about half way done. Thanks to a wonderful mother who will finish them up for me next week!!!

Tis' the season--I just love this time of year!!!!

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Just had to post this pic. of Kaden. He had his first bad trike wreck this week. Wednesday, he fell off the porch steps onto the concrete. His little forehead popped out so fast it scared me to death!!! I wish I could say that will be his last bike wreck. :-{

*SWEET* Corn

What I did today.....



Every year my mom and I try to "put up" lots of corn. Today we did our first bunch of a little over 15 dozen. Khara and Kelsey love to help shuck it and then in it comes for the real work to start. It takes a little time, but is fun to do and tastes wonderful all year long!! I guess you could call them spoiled, but my kids refuse to eat corn out of a can.

Getting started!!


Some of the many bags ready to go into the freezer.

CONGRATULATIONS!!!!!

Congratulations to my sister, Dana and Philip Vernon who got engaged on July 3rd. Plans are already under way for a late October wedding!!! He is a super guy and she---well, we go back a long ways....:-) We are very excited and happy for them!!!

Happy Birthday, KELSEY !!!

We are enjoying having lots of family here this week. My sister, Dana came to MO. last Friday, her boyfriend Philip got here Sunday, Vicki, -Drew, Caleb, Kaley, and Camen came Tuesday, and Kendall and Leanna flew in yesterday morning. Having a GREAT time!!!

I'm having a hard time trying to find the time to post...here's a quick one. :-)

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Kelsey turned 5 the 29th!

Since Khara's birthday is one week after Kelsey's she ends up getting some of her gifts early. Opening presents from Gr. and Gr. Englund.


Packages from Aaron and Brenda. I think all children LOVE to get mail. :-)


Modeling the headbands from Africa that Brenda sent them for their birthday. (Also probably sporting the really cool lip gloss from her.)




More gifts from Gr. and Gr. Burley. (Opened right before bedtime- hence the "outfits".) They each got their own disposable camera. They were very, very happy about that!!! :-)

**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??