what do you chew gum for?

Serenity: mom can i play cookie.com?
me: sure
Serenity: ok, i need a pillow to sit on and gum so i can conserate (concentrate)

thankful thursday

We haven't done as many Thursday movies as I thought we would this summer but i still think we have done our fair amount. i think we will skip again this week and try to knock out some other items we still have left on our summer bucket list since my daughter starts school 11 days. 11 days and my first baby starts school. granted it's just pre-k but she's going to be there all day every day and it's school. I already had my first mental break down when we were at the store to buy her school gear i can't wait to see what fun i am on her first day. so with us only having a little time left before we should be done with our summer list we need to get cracking on the remainders. I already know we aren't going to finish it all due to time and budget but i'm ok with that. i was just a fun list to see what kind of things we could do. plus we actually did a few things that were really awesome that weren't on the list at all.

but first before we do any of the bucket items i'm gonna try something new. i'm gonna try to remind myself every week to do a thankful thursday. I have seen a few other blogs here and there that do this and i'm sure there are more than i could ever find. i'm not linking to any blogs just for the fact that my blog is more for my friends and family :)

1. I'm thankful for God saving my marriage. my hubby and I had a good thing going but let it turn to crap, then we had a horrible thing going, then we had nothing going. I'm happy that things now are better than the good they ever were before. Things are actually great :)

2. I'm thankful for my daughter getting into the pre-k program through our public school. although i'm going to miss her terribly every day it will be good for her to not only learn new things but to interact with other kids besides her 2 year old brother.

3. once again i'm thankful for my daughter going to pre-k because this will give my son and i our own 1 on 1 time like my daughter and i used to have before he came along

4.i'm thankful for air conditioning. with it being a crazy hot summer we had 1 day a couple weeks ago that the air broke. it was only down for a few hours but it's amazing how quick your home can heat up

5.i'm thankful for our foster puppy daisey. She brings such joy to my kids and my hubby (which i haven't seen with him since his Ginger passed) i think it's gonna be hard on the 3 of them when it's time for her to go home again.

camping trip

my AWESOME family at baby land general

aww nothing says camping like a hot summer day :)
i actually didn't think it was that bad the whole time we were gone, the other 4 in the party would probably disagree. We (skip, me, the kids and my mom) went to Unicoi State Park. there were things that we ok about it and there were things that i just didn't like at all. it was one of those places that we can say we've been to but probably will never go back too. (at least if we have to pay for it we won't) The kids had a fun time and i guess that's all that really matters. We did a scavenger hunt, went on a hike, the boys went fishing, we went to black forest bear park, took the kids floating down the river with cool river tubing

xavier was "hiding"

i LOVE this picture of her rocking her new baby

me and my kiddos at black forest

taking her oath during her adoption process

love them

                   

helping grandma inflate her air mattress  

helping prep dinner

no paparazzi while i potty

the lovely music performed by serenity and xavier while we await our dinner 

fun time at the playground after camp was set up

time for a scavenger hunt

xavier was more interested in the bear than looking at the camera

Miss Daisey

last week i was packing for us to go camping and in the midst of this i saw a friend post on facebook that a dog needed a temporary home. the owners had to give their poor baby girl up and she had a family waiting for her in texas but didn't have anywhere to go until she got her ride there. so of course without even thinking i started asking where she was and how long she needed a home for. before i knew what was going on we had become a foster family for miss Daisey.

snuggled with xavier at bedtime

She is the sweetest little girl ever. When Skip went to pick her up he went with the intent of her only staying with us until august 8th. well after he met her "mommy" and talked to her some he then realized that what we needed to do was keep Daisey until they could take her back. they were having to move and were not able to take her with them right now but don't want to lose her. skip and i both no what it's like to lose dogs we aren't ready to let go of so of course he told her that we would keep her until they got set up to take her to her new home. the kids are in love with her and although i've explained numerous times that Daisey is just here on a puppy vacation and will go back to her own mommy and daddy soon i know it's still gonna be hard for them once she does leave.
I'm just so thankful that God put us in their path so that they are able to keep their baby girl instead of having to permanently give her away.

seasonal or yearly

I have a friend who has already created her fall bucket list and i've been thinking of starting one. but over the past few days (when realizing that we just won't have the funds to do some things still on our list before school starts) that instead of doing seasonal bucket lists i'm gonna just work on a bucket list for all of next year. we had a list of 50 on our summer list so i'm thinking 50ish for each season so then we will have around 200 items to do all of next year. i'm thinking i can do this. especially since i have so much time to come up with ideas. 

bucket list time-excavating toys

one of the items on our bucket list for the summer was to excavate toys from ice and we did just that the other day. well more like Serenity and Xavier did it while mommy took pictures (until my camera died b/c like a crazy lady i didn't make sure it was charged)

our dinosaurs (with a few rocks)
the happy kiddos ready to dig

 and away they go. We decided to see what ways we could come up with to get the ice to melt. we used some screw drivers and then there is Serenity going for that salt. It was like magic mommy :)

 both of these faces trip me out. it was sooo fun watching them get so into this little activity

brrrrr, it's cold
Serenity's first discovery is a rock.

 she thought the first huge chunk of ice she got to break off was so amazing.

fun fridays at callaway gardens

We LOVE the freebie fridays at Callaway Gardens and are trying to get as many beach days in as we can :)

My little Diva :)

So I'm always complaining that everyone wants seedless watermelon. My argument is that when you buy watermelon with seeds that's when the fun happens because you get to spit the seeds at each other. Well, my mom and skip decided ok then and started covering me with seeds. needless to say when they actually land on you it's really kinda gross. I guess as a kid we laughed and ran to much that we never actually got hit with them.

This was our little guest while we stopped swimming to grab a bite. Luckily he didn't grab a bite

Jumping off of grandma's knee

Of course I'm biased but if these aren't 2 of the cutest kids you've ever seen than I don't know what kind of kids live around you.

Some good quality brother sister time hanging out in the water.

My kids were born to live on the beach. I know my hopes and plans would be to have us live near the beach one day I just pray it's in God's plans too :)

crazy boy and my dancing queen

summer 2012 bucket list

1. Go to a zoo
2. Go swimming
3. Go fishing
4.Blow bubbles
5. Have a water balloon fight
6.Scavenger hunt
7.go to the movies
8.have a picnic
9.make tie dye shirts
10.watch fireworks
11.feed the ducks
12. Go to a new to us park
13.go camping
14.make cookies
15.fingerpaint
16.go to dauset trails
17.catch lightning bugs
18.camp in the yard                                                                                                                                       
19.take a hike
20.go geocaching

21. Mail a card to someone
22.plant flowers
23.make seashell wreath
24.find and make craft from pinterest
25. Go to our normal park
26.roast marshmallows
27.Go to Noah’s Ark
28.Have tea party
29.Lowes Build and grow clinic
30. Excavate toys from ice
31. find and make craft from pinterest
32. Go to Yellow River Game ranch
33.Go to lazer show at Stone Mountain
34.play board games
35.Go on a boat ride
36.Sit outside under a tree and read
37.play miniature golf
38.go to a museum
39.Make a raised salt picture
40. Marble race
41.make father’s day presents
42.help daddy build something
43.find a new snack to make and try
44.go get fresh homemade peach ice cream
45.help cook dinner
46.go to the flying high circus
47.watch a parade
48.make a messy painting
49.spend a day with grandma (each separately)
50.lay and watch the clouds

summer fun

In an awesome twist of fate we were able to meet some cousins last year and have had a great time getting to know them and be involved in their lives. Took the kids to the park a couple weeks ago so they could all play and they had a blast. Made me happy to be able to see them together and having a great time. 

we've also spent the past 2 fridays at callaway gardens for their fabulous fridays. after 4pm the beach is free and the kids sure have been enjoying it 

July 4th

We've been having a very, very hot summer and to make it more hot the air conditioner died today. thankfully it was only out for a few hours before being fixed. besides that almost catastrophe, summer has been going pretty good. We had a good 4th with family and friends. We went to see fireworks on the 3rd 

Then on the 4th we had a cookout with family and friends. we made some watermelon cookies :)

 and then we did sparklers. Xavier had already crashed before we got to them though. but serenity had a blast. this was my heart :)
and then Serenity made 2 circles. actually she made lots and lots and lots of shapes and "pictures". she really had a blast with it