Lewis Ginter

We went to Lewis Ginter Botanical gardens while aunt colby, lucas and grandma lynda were here. They have a really neat butterfly exhibt right now. One butterfly even landed on kaitlyns yellow hat. The gardens were beautiful.

Ryans mom project

Ryan spent the last few days in Wise VA on the MOM project. Missions of Mercy (MOM) Project. Here is a link to the VCU school page
http://www.dentistry.vcu.edu/gp/mom/

Ryan was able to get a lot of experience while doing something good for the people who need it the most. Here is also a link to the NPR story on it. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=111066576

After 4 long 12 hour days Ryan was able to remove over 30 teeth and help over 30 people. What a great thing to do for people.

Kaitlyns 5th Birthday "Chef party"

Can you believe it she is 5 years old!







We had 10 of kaitlyns friends for her 5th birthday party here on wednesday. We did a chef theme party. The kids first drew on aprons that Nana made for kaitlyn. (they are so cute), then they made chef hats. We then moved to the cooking party of the party. Each kid made ice cream in the bag, Pizza for lunch, two cookie pops (cookies on a stick-which they took home for there favors) and decorated two cupcakes- one to take home and one to eat. Gosh it was a long few hours and very busy! Thank you to aunt colby, Grandma Lynda, Uncle Steve, Amanda and Jen for helping- We were busy and kaitlyn had a blast!

Outer banks

We are so lucky to have the time with aunt colby, lucas and grandma lynda here on the east coast. We went to North Carolina (outer banks- coast). We had a great time and got to see a new area. It is fun to watch the kids play together. Kaitlyn and Caleb and just in love with Luke.

To Cover or Not to Cover

Here is our remodeled table...covered and topless.

My Joe Dirt Table

During my vacation I had a few things i wanted to accomplish, one of which was staining the deck. Jody and I moved everything off the deck so I could stain it. Two days ago as I was finishing the deck I noticed our new (two years old) glass patio table was smashed into a million tiny pieces. We are not sure what caused it. Possibly being in the direct sun for a few days, or stress fatigue from a prior small crack, apparently it did hail the other night, so who knows. We had to use the shop vac in the grass to get all the tiny pieces of glass out. What a pain.
Back to my table. We had two choices. 1) buy a new table (or replace glass) or 2) fix the existing. Rather than buy a new table and move it across the country in two years we opted to cut a sheet of plywood and set it in the top and lay a table cloth over it. I know what you are thinking, it's white trash. I agree. It's one less thing to move in two years.

Finished bird house

Here is a picture of the bird the kids and I made. Birds are actually using it...so are the squirrels. I will have to invent a contraption to keep the squirrels out.

Wow 32 years old

The kids and I made ryan a pineapple upside down cake,one of his favorites and then he opened his gift from the kids- they got him and outdoor game. The kids have played with it alot!

Bird house

Ryan and Kaitlyn decided to make a bird house. It was going to be one of those 2 hour projects that has now turned into a two day project but it sure looks great!

Lefse

Because we didnt get a chance to make it for Christmas I thought I would make it with the kids this summer. We had a great time and it turned out great!

July 4th 2009

We had a busy day. Our wonderful neighbor Amy took our kids to the kings charter 4th of july parade. They decorated there bikes and the wagon. Then they went to the petting farm and jumping toy at the club house pool- Ryan, Myself and Doug went for a bike ride. Then we went to Patty and Chris's house for a great cook out and then back to our house for a few fireworks and catching fireflys. We sure missed our family and wish we were there to celebrate the holiday with them.

Brother and sister love

So no matter how much they get on each others nerves they truely love each other and are each others best friends. It is so nice to have them get along even if it is short lived and someday they will hate each other like most siblings do.

Train Table

We decided to spend some christmas money on a used train table for caleb. A lady in the moms group sold theres.The kids are having so much fun with it. It is really the first boy toy that we have bought and boy let me tell you he is a boy. He makes all sorts of crazy sounds with the trains. The table will go up in his room because they are way to loud with it down stairs.