before pictures

Jake found the laundry shoot

Ever since we moved here and one of the older kids put some toy in the laundry shoot and I got hit when I opened the shoot, I always stay off to the side. Well good thing I guess since it appears Jake has found the shoot. All of this fell out. No laundry just toys! Yes, those would be my children...the ones who won't throw there dirty laundry down the shoot but will throw toys by the basketful!!!

First Day of School

the first day of school
Ash missing a tooth but has a new backpack that isn't really a backpack after all
this was how she just had to have her hair with different colored rubber bands
the new "school shoes" very sparkly
Caleb finally got his shocks

Living History Farms pictures

This isn't a very good picture but if you look close in the top middle is the deer Ashleigh spotted through a bunch oh trees.
Caleb, Ash, Jocee, Jake....oh wait those aren't my four little piggies. Those were the cute but very stinky baby pigs
Caleb Ash and Jocee pumping water
Jake and Jocee
Caleb and Ash
riding the tractor to the farms
Caleb wanted the very back
Ash wanted the very front
the teletubbies house
The kids scraping a buffalo hide to make there tepee

Camping

My little frog catchers!!!
you can take a boy out of the eastside but you can't take the eastside out of the boy!!! With Andy utensils are optional!
The sleeping kiddos...Jake and Ash
Daddy and who else...daddies girl Jocee
Mr. C

How are boys automatically attracted to making mud puddles?

The big spray!
The big boys thought Jake should partake
Crazy Man JAKE. Any time there are big open fields this is what Jake looks like!

We have some friends with a son Caleb's age and daughter Ashleigh's age and there GPA owns 300 acres in Peru, IA. Every year they do a camp out and this year it actually fit in our schedule to go with them. Yes, I actually slept in a tent all night long. Unbelievable I know! We all had an awesome time and I'm sure we will be going back again! There was a creek and the big kids played in that most of the time. Caleb and Ash caught 30+ little frogs and Ash found a snake that Caleb caught for her.

I'm a coupon mom!

Yes, I know yet another thing that my mom did that I swore I would never do. USE COUPONS! I pretty much would have told you it was like the worst sin ever! But, I found this great blog and thought gee I can do that. So I have been clipping and printing coupons. So I'm not as good as some of those moms but I'm getting better every week. I got all of this stuff for $8.00. Yes I was so impressed with myself I thought I had better take a picture and blog it!!!

All I want for christmas is...

Ashleigh came downstairs last Thursday so excited because her front tooth was loose. So she started the morning off insisting that she eat an apple because she was soooo sure that would remedy the situation and she would be the proud owner of a $1 bill by morning time. Well that didn't work so well after the first bite hurt, so she just continued on as normal. That afternoon she went to GMA Joanne's house and was eating a popsicle and all the sudden realized that her tooth was gone. GMA J picked up the rug in that she was sitting on and shook it out and they look all over and could never find the tooth. So we are pretty certain that she ate it!!! I told Ash where she could monitor and get her tooth back...she of course opted to write a note for the tooth fairy instead!!!