more s’mores

First of all, no whooping cough here in the Austin house.  Whew!  I knew we had all been vaccinated, but I’ve heard that doesn’t always protect you.  Anyway, that mini-crisis was averted.

It’s been a crazy week with 2 visits to the doctor and another possible one tomorrow, depending on how Rose’s oddly swollen eye does tonight.  After a looooooooong time on the phone with the nurse today, it looks like we all are just five more victims of this crazy allergy season.  We have a plan of attack and are hoping that the next few days will find us coughing much less.

In spite of all the coughing, the girls and I have been busy having fun.  Here’s a few more pictures of our s’mores.

The jiko is patched and it’s working great.  I think it looks a little like a giraffe–appropriate since it came from Kenya.

Here’s to more sticky fingers in the near future.

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sailing and a birthday

Today is G’s birthday.  We celebrated by going sailing.

OK, not really.

We went sailing with some friends a couple of weeks ago.  It was really fun, and quite chilly out on the lake.

G and Kait went sailing once last year, but this was the first time for me, Rose and Pendo.  Unfortunately my camera battery died about 10 minutes into our outing.  Oh well.

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It really is G’s birthday.  Happy b-day, babe.

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The girls and I may or may not have whooping cough.  I was tested today at the doctor’s, and we’ll know soon.  YIKES!

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lunch with my littlest lady

G and I try to get alone time with our girls as often as possible, which isn’t usually often enough for me.  We take them on little dates as our schedule allows.  A few days ago, Pendo and I took a picnic lunch and explored an old caboose while the older girls were busy elsewhere.

Pendo was a mostly-willing participant when I asked her if I could take her picture.

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caterpillars

We spent part of Mother’s Day with our friends J and S also.  The girls enjoyed their hammock.  This was when we had our caterpillars, and the little ladies really liked pretending they were curled up in their cocoon.

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park pics

A few weeks ago, when we still had to wear jackets, we went to a park with our friends J and S.  They took some cute pictures of the girls and graciously allowed me to share them here.

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three in a row

We’ve had three special days in a row.

On Friday we celebrated the last day of school and welcomed in the summer schedule with (what else?) our first s’mores of the season.

Yes, the jiko is working!!  I might post more pictures soon, but for now here’s a couple.

Also on Friday we went to a Cash and Cari sale not far away, and the little ones were filmed.  Who knows if they will be in that episode or not, but it was fun to go to another sale.

On Saturday we celebrate Pendo’s Gotcha Day!  It’s hard to imagine life without her in our family now that she’s been with us for 2 years.

And today, of course, was Father’s Day.  The girls (really just Kait) planned a treasure hunt for Daddy to find his gift, and as soon as he got home from church, Rose started  pointing out the clues to him even though we weren’t going to do the hunt for a couple more hours. She was more excited about it than anyone.

Happy Father’s Day, G.  All of your girls LOVE you!

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the collector

From the time she could walk and hold things at the same time, Rose has been a collector.  She’s ALWAYS on the lookout for little “treasures” to carry around in her hands or in her pockets or in a purse or in any old bag or in a bucket or really in anything that will hold something else.  She is rarely empty-handed.

She has a habit of loading her treasures until there is no. more. room. for. anything.

Take a closer look.

I count three large baby dolls, two small babies, and two stuffed animals.  I think there’s even a baby bottle or two tucked in there somewhere.  Whew!

Maybe we should encourage her to pursue a career in designing new ways to pack things together tightly.

Even when she’s riding her trike, she’s collecting things and carrying them along.

That’s my Rose.  Quirky, fun, collecting Rose.

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lucky 13

On Monday G and I celebrated 13 years of wedded bliss.

To honor the special day, I dug out the scrapbook that I put together to commemorate our big day.  Notice this was during the era of Creative Memories and the fancy scissors you could use to “fancy up” your snapshots.

It was so much fun to show the pictures to the girls.  I kept asking the little ones, “Where are you in this picture?”  “Why aren’t you there?”  Pendo didn’t have a guess, but Rose is certain that Betsy was babysitting her during our wedding.   Kait wanted to watch our wedding video, which I gladly would have done until I realized that we no longer own a VCR.  Oh.  How times have changed in 13 years.   To those of you who have gotten married in the past few years and to those who are about to, please take a moment to be thankful for digital photography and photoshop.   And also be thankful that it is no longer popular to cut the edges off of your photographs with fancy scissors.

To my man;  I am incredibly thankful to be married to you each passing year.  Our love and trust grows deeper and stronger, and there is still no one on earth I’d rather be with that you.  You know me better than anyone, the good and the bad, and you still choose to stick around.  Through the craziness of the past couple of years, YOU (and Jesus) are the one I’m so thankful to have by my side.  I love you, always.  Here’s to another 130 years together!

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farm favorite

When we took the girls riding a few days ago, we were able to see some more of the animals on the farm.

the foal

the roosters and hens

the dogs

(of COURSE the dogs–Rose is still a huge fan of anything related to dogs)

But I think this particular visit to the farm produced a new favorite . . . kid goats.  They are quite adorable.

Even Pendo, our cautious, reluctant one, wanted to get up close and personal with these cuties.

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back in the saddle again

Now that the weather has finally decided to stay warm, we wanted to take the girls back to the farm to ride B’s horse.

She has a new saddle that we were all excited to try.  It attaches to her saddle, and Kait tried it out first.

Then Pendo took her turn.  That lasted about 40 seconds.  Then I got waaaaaaaaaay too nervous that she’s let go and land on her head or break and arm or leg,

so we switched her to a safer (in theory) way to ride.  I felt much better about it at least.

Kait was able to learn some more about riding on her own,

and she wore a smile as big as Texas when Kenya trotted.

We are so thankful for B and her willingness to let us come and play with Kenya as often as we can.

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