Boys!!!

My SIL called today and asked if I could pick up my nephew Lane from school. I didn't have any plans so I didn't mind bringing him home with me at all, after all, Keegan loves it when other kids come to play. We were talking on the way home and this is what he (Lane) informed me of; "according to me and Jalen's calculations, the 1st hottest girl in our class is
A_ _ _ _ _ _ _ A and the 2nd hottest girl is J _ _ _ E"!
I just about lost it, he totally cracked me up! I don't remember being boy crazy at that age, only in kindergarten and the around 6th grade! So...watch out Birdie & Sara, these boys are keeping their eyes on your girls : ) I know you will be so proud of him Julie when you read this, hee hee! If your not, I KNOW Jeff will be, HA!

Kallee & Oreo

Last week Kallee finally got herself a kitee-kat (as she calls it). She absolutely LOVES this silly cat! I am NOT an animal lover by any means, but I do feel sorry for the stupid thing, she lugs it around like it is a bag of potatoes : ) If she is outside, poor Oreo had better run before she catches her, or she will be carried around all day. Oreo got a spankin' the other day because she didn't obey mother Kallee, lol! I'm sure that won't happen on a normal basis since she loves her so much. Almost every time she sees her kitee-kat she says, "thank you Mamaw", since Mamaw is the one that gave her, to her. Now I hope she "earns her keep" around here since that is the main reason we got her, lol! So far, no more mice so...keep up the good work Oreo!

Kallee & her new friend Oreo
She usually carries her up on her shoulder, with her head bobbing all over the place, behind her.

All smiles!

She had to take her to the store with her, in her car!

Weekend with Friends

This weekend we had some fun with our friends, Julie & Byron Gurnee, as well as, Rodney & Michelle Krick! After Julie & Bryon returned from Youth Challenge and Rodney & Michelle returned from the zoo (they wouldn't take Rodney off Michelle's hands like she had hoped, but...), we all had some fun! The kids did pretty good together, just wished it would have been light outside so we could have shipped them out there to play. I don't care how big a house is, with 7 kids (8 and under), it can get pretty busy : ) Anyways, the kids thought they needed ice-cream sundaes, so that is just what they got! I didn't bother to drag out all the extras (pineapple, nuts, etc.) because I knew from the night before, they didn't want that on their ice cream anyways. So we stuck with the basics, cool whip, chocolate & strawberry syrup and of course, chocolate chips! All in all, we all had a great time catching up and being with friends!

P.S. Thanks so much for this nice gift you left for me Julie, he looks very cute on my Victrola : )

This +

This =

FUN!

L to R: Keegan, Kenton, Kallee, Vincent, Steven, Ashlee & Kelcee

Kallee & Vincent enjoy their ice-cream!

Ashlee & Kelcee

My new gift from Julie!

The Gurnee Family Arrives

Yum, yum home-made waffles!

Getting their drinks off of the train!

Kenton & Keegan enjoying their pizza!
See Mom, it's all gone!
I think Kallee ate more than most of the boys : )

This is the best picture I could get of Vincent, he wouldn't let me take one of him, so after attempting 5 times to get a good one, this is all I got.

Keegan, Vincent, Kenton & Kallee

(Talon is in Tennessee with his Mamaw, Papaw and his cousin Courtney for the weekend, we didn't leave him home : )

As many of you know, our friends (Julie & Byron) from PA arrived on Tuesday evening! We have had a great time so far and we will continue that great time, when the arrive again on Saturday. We volunteered to watch their little guys, Kenton and Vincent, while they went to Youth Challenge. We are sad that Kendra and Alyssa (their 2 youngest) didn't get to come, but we understand that they are having lots of fun with their aunt. We decided since last night was their first night to stay with us, we would take them some place that our kids LOVE to go...Pizza King in Lafayette. They seemed to have a fun time watching the train bring us our drinks, as well as, watching America's Funniest Pets. On another note, Kenton lost a tooth last night, so Keegan thought he needed to surprise him and put some $$$ under his pillow. Kenton was surprised, but he also asked if it was normally his mom & dad that put the $$$ under his pillow? Guess you will have to do the explaining on that one, Julie & Byron : ) After coming home, Vincent and I played several rounds of; Candy Land, Ant in the Pants & Operation. He tried his best not to make the buzzer sound when playing Operation, but he didn't have much luck. I said oh well and let him keep trying to get the parts. --This morning we had home-made waffles and they seemed to be a hit too. We had a very fancy, gourmet meal this afternoon of -- hot dogs, mac-n-cheese and apple slices, lol! I think all their little legs will be falling off by bed time since they have ran and played all afternoon outside. God has given us a beautiful day today, so they haven't even had to wear coats out, yeah! I'm sure they will have lots to tell their parents when they return tomorrow, but for now they are just enjoying each other's company, well kind of : ) I need to go settle a bike dispute. Ta ta for now!

Hi Wendy

Today Kallee and I ran through the drive-through at Wendy's. As we waited to pull out onto 28 (there was tons of traffic), I glanced back to see Kallee waving her little hand half off. I asked her who she was waving to? I didn't see anyone around that she would know, but I noticed she was looking up as she waved. I too looked up to see Wendy on the sign and she said "I wave to her"! What a cutie!

Here Mousey Mousey

I love fall, but I DO NOT love everything that comes with fall...mice, YUCK!!! Since we are surrounded by cornfields, we have the misfortune of having mice once in awhile, especially in the fall. I absolutely HATE them with a passion!!!!!!!!!!!!! Of course my boys think it is funny that I hate them so much and that every time I see one, I jump around doing the little mouse dance and scream to the tops of my lungs! The boys have the pleasure (to them that is), of taking the mouse of the trap for me, since I can't manage to even look at the trap, much less remove a mouse from it. I have managed to learn how to set the dumb traps, but I DO NOT enjoy doing that. If any of "my guys" are home, they get the pleasure of doing that too. Anyways, last week I seen a dumb mouse run through the kitchen, so I did my little dance and sang my little song as usual (I didn't want to disappoint anyone)! We set two traps over the weekend and I was hoping that we would catch the nasty thing, but no such luck! This morning I went to get Kallee some cereal out of the pantry and I heard something as I turned away. I knew I shouldn't have looked again, but I did and...there it was perched up on a Tupperware contatiner getting ready to indulge in the many plastic wrapped foods, UGH! I once again did my dance and sang my song and then I ran to get the broom. After several attempts to kill the stupid thing, I gave up and decided to get brave...I re-peanut buttered the traps and placed one on the shelf and one on the floor of my pantry. Of course Kallee was right by my side the entire time, saying "what you doin' mommy"? I told her that we were going to feed the mousey some yummy peanut butter and told her to start calling the mouse. She was very obedient and starting saying "here mousey, mousey, come eat the butter"! It was within the hour that I heard snap and yep we caught that booger. I told Kallee to go see if the mouse was eating and she said yep, he's eating the butter : ) I'm sure since that was the first mouse of the season it won't be the last, but oh how I wish it were!

Dear Anonymous

I'm sorry you feel the need to post negative feedback on my blog, I'm even more sorry that you don't have the nerve to to post using your own name! You TOTALLY missed the point of my Thank You post to those that DID help with our school auction! We have an EXCELLENT school, with EXCELLENT teachers and helpers, an EXCELLENT administrator, EXCELLENT students, as well as, EXCELLENT parents!!!!!!!!! However, our school is NORMAL and DOES have those that don't see the need to help out as much as some others. I also know that ALL other schools have these same situations, both Christian and public! --If you feel the need in the future to leave such negative feedback, please move onto someone else's blog, because I DON'T NEED YOUR INPUT! May the Lord bless you and help you with your negative spirit!

P.S. This is me being as truthful as I possibly can be!

I'm Carrot Cake, What Kind Are You?

Ok, here is an email survey that I have never received and I thought it was kind of fun. So...read on and see what kind of cake you are : ) I promise, I didn't cheat!

Go with the first dessert you pick..
If all of the desserts listed below were sitting in front of you, which would you choose? Pick only one!
They seem pretty accurate, but don't go cryin' if you picked the wrong cake : )
Pick your dessert, and then look to see what psychiatrists think about you.

Here are your choices:

1. Angel Food Cake

2. Brownies

3. Lemon Meringue Pie

4. Vanilla Cake With Chocolate Icing

5. Strawberry Short Cake

6. Chocolate on Chocolate

7. Ice Cream

8. Carrot Cake

No, you can't change your mind once you scroll down, so think carefully what your choice will be..............OK - Now that you've made your choice this is what the research says about you..

No Cheating!!!

SCROLL DOWN---

1. ANGEL FOOD CAKE -- Sweet, loving, cuddly. You love all warm and fuzzy items a little nutty at times. Sometimes you need an ice cream cone at the end of the day. Others perceive you as being childlike and immature at times.

2. BROWNIES -- You are adventurous, love new ideas, and are a champion of underdogs and a slayer of dragons. When tempers flare up you whip out your saber. You are always the oddball with a unique sense of humor and direction. You tend to be very loyal.

3. LEMON MERINGUE -- Smooth, sexy, & articulate with your hands, you are an excellent after-dinner speaker and a good teacher. But don't try to walk and chew gum at the same time. A bit of a diva at times, but you have many friends.

4. VANILLA CAKE WITH CHOCOLATE ICING -- Fun-loving, sassy, humorous, not very grounded in life; very indecisive and lack motivation. Everyone enjoys being around you, but you are a practical joker. Others should be cautious in making you mad.

However, you area friend for life.

5. STRAWBERRY SHORTCAKE -- Romantic, warm, loving. You care about other people, can be counted on in a pinch and expect the same in return. Intuitively keen. Can be very emotional.

6. CHOCOLATE ON CHOCOLATE -- Sexy; always ready to give and receive. Very creative, adventurous, ambitious, and passionate. You can appear to have a cold exterior but are warm on the inside. Not afraid to take chances. Will not settle for anything average in life. Love to laugh.

7. ICE CREAM -- You like sports, whether it be baseball, football, basketball, or soccer. If you could, you would like to participate, but you enjoy watching sports. You don't like to give up the remote control. You tend to be self-centered and high maintenance.

8. CARROT CAKE -- You are a very fun loving person,who likes to laugh. You are fun to be with. People like to hang out with you. You are a very warm hearted person and a little quirky at times. You have many loyal friends.

Some More Kallee Funnies

Our little sweetie pie is such a doll! We went to Michael's today to buy one last item for our Soup Supper and I told the kids "let's hurry into Michael's and get what we need, so we can get on our way to our next stop". After walking in the door and down the first aisle, Kallee said "Mommy, where's Michael"?

Kallee and I were playing tonight and I told her she was nuts, and she said "no I coo-coo". I usually tell her she's coo-coo, so she thought she'd say it first, lol : )

Pumpkin Patch Fun

Yesterday we decided to head to the Pumpkin Patch after school! Well we didn't really go into the patch, but we went to the property where the patch is. The good thing about not going into the patch is, you don't get dirty and the pumpkins are already cleaned up for you, YEAH! Anyways, the kids LOVE going, so I try and take them every year! I figured if I got enough of them, we could use them for Women of Worth last night, for the Soup Supper on Thursday night and for decorating at home/school after that. Instead of "killing two birds" with one stone, I think I killed 4 or 5 birds with that one trip, lol!

Kallee all smiles with her prize punkin!
Talon loved the white pumpkins for some reason, I like the ones with some color to them.

Keegan picking the "perfect" pumpkin!

All the kids loved picking out these baby ones, good thing, we need those the most!

See my punkin Mommy!

Kallee and Mommy looking over the selection of pumpkins and gourds.

Another Busy Friday

Well Friday evening proved to be another busy one, ugh! After leaving work at 5:45, I ran to the library and dropped off Talon. He has been in an acting workshop for the past two weeks, so every night around 5:00 I had to drop him off. With not getting out of work until 5:00, he was late EVERY night, but the instructor worked with us (thank goodness)! Anyways, Friday night was the night for the kids to show us what they had learned. Of course, he did a great job like he always does! I am so proud of him when he takes stage, I get tears in my eyes and my heart skips a beat thinking of what he will become some day. Ya know, by him having good "stage presence" doesn't mean he will be an actor some day, God may be preparing him for his pastoral "stage" or his Southern gospel "stage" or his being the boss "stage", etc. --After dropping him off, I ran across town to the school to drop Keegan off to Connor's birthday/costume party. He didn't want to go, but after telling him he had to go and he would have a great time, he got excited to get into his Super-Man costume. We even greased his hair back and put a little strand down the front of his forehead like Super-Man. --Once Keegan had been delivered, it was time to rush back to the library and watch Talon's performance. It only lasted approximately a 1/2 hour, so that meant we had an hour to run and get some much needed supper. I ended my evening or should I say morning at 1:00am after leaving my friend Kathryn's house. Her hubby Scott was gone all weekend, so we took advantage of that and scrapbooked our little hearts out! Well not really, but we did get some pages complete and a lot the worlds problems discussed : ) Thanks for having me Kathryn, I always know I can count on you for your friendship and the fun that comes with it!

Connor Davis (the Dragon) AKA The Birthday Boy, Samuel Gonzalez (the Army dude) & Mr. Super-Man himself (Keegie)!
Talon doing something he LOVES, acting!
We would like to say a BIG THANK YOU to Jerry's aunt Jackie for paying for Talon to participate in this workshop! Her grandson was suppose to go, but couldn't, so they thought of Talon, THANKS SO MUCH!

Jerry & Talon spending a little "father-son time" playing video games at the pizza shop!

Kallee's "New" Potty

Today I picked Sara's girls up from school because she was in Indy and didn't know if she would get back in time to pick them up. My kids LOVE it when "the girls" (what we call them), come to play. Anyways, Sara & Tony pulled up and we were talking for awhile and I looked out the door to see my daughter squatting on the sidewalk with her dress down around her ankles, AHHH!!! Of course I ran out and said, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING"??? She said "I go paw-dy (potty)". I then gave her a swat and rushed her into the bathroom. I scolded her for going
paw-dy outside and couldn't figure out why she would have done that. Then it occured to me...Friday night on our way home from Westfield she started yelling "paw-dy, paw-dy" and of course we were way out in the country so... we did what almost all parents have probably done at some point in their child's life, we pulled off to the side and I helped her go potty in the ditch. Of course it was pitch black out and there were no cars coming, so...I proceeded to tell her after today's experience, "YOU DON'T GO POTTY OUTSIDE UNLESS YOU ABSOLUTELY HAVE TO"!!! I don't know if it sank in since she is only 2 1/2, I guess only time will tell. I'm sure glad it was only S & T here, glad it wasn't the preacher; I'm sure his little Jenny, Julie or Jody would've NEVER done something like that at 2, LOL!

The Apple Works

Today I went on a field trip with Talon's class (the middle learning center). We went to a place called, The Apple Works, in Trafalgar, IN. It was a VERY nice place and we all had a great time! Thanks so much to Mrs. Norfleet for arranging this fun field trip, the kids all got along great, no fussin' or fightin'. I took a ton of pictures (85 to be exact), but have only shared a few with you. I know, I always put too many pictures on my blog, but who cares, IT'S MY BLOG : ) What can I say, I'm just a picture takin' freak, lol! If you want to know my opinion on this place, I would DEFINITELY recommend it for your youngun's. Of course some may not enjoy it, but ya have those kind in every group, HA! --I would like to say a BIG thank you to my babysitters, Sara & Tony, for watching my little rug-rat. She had a lot of fun and when she woke up from her nap, she started crying and asking for Sara : (

This was the front of the building, very neat looking.
This was where we learned a lot of interesting stuff about apples, such as: apples have 3 parts (the skin, the flesh and the seed), the skin is the best part for you (it is loaded with vitamins, antioxidants and fiber to name a few), when picking an apple from the tree, you twist it NOT pull it (this will ruin the limb), you need to keep your temp. at almost freezing in order to keep
your apples crisp...

These are the boxes that they store the apples in, in their coolers. They have 65 different apples in their orchard, with over 7000 tress.

This is the kitchen area where they bake all their yummy stuff; pies, cakes, breads, cookies, etc. We all received free samples of their apple bars and cider, YUMMY!!! They go through approximately 30 gallaons of white sugar, 30 gallons of brown sugar and 40 gallons of flour EACH WEEK.

This is the press that squeezes all the juice out of the apples, so they can make cider.

This is the machine that puts it into gallon jugs. A gallon jug is $5.50, but oh sooo worth it :) The machine to its right, is the machine that pasteurizes the cider. It is zapped with a lazor for 15 mins.

Off to pick our free apple!

This was a really cute cut-out that they had for the kids to pose with (l to r: Diamond, Tyler, Lane, Jonathan, Blake, Caleb, David and the driver (of course) TALON

Back Row: Lane & Talon

Front Row: Janae, Britnee & Courtney

Petting zoo they had there

The play area was a HUGE hit, the kids loved sliding on this enormous slide and going through the maze.

The gangs all here!

Talon acting crazy, as usual!

Hitting the trails

Talon and his "friend" JanaeThey had them in all shapes, colors and sizes

Ridin' in Old Sally

Once again, I would like to say thanks to my sister Shirley for allowing us to borrow her baby, Sally. Well I don't know if that's what she calls her, but that is what her daughter has called most of her cars, lol! We had a blast cruzin' around in her, she was enjoyed by us all.

Mommy & Kallee had to run some errands, so we decided to find us some hats and head out. Kallee thought is was great riding with her hat and her ga-gas (glasses) on. She smiled from ear to ear when we drove up to have Daddy take this picture of us.
On our way out to the Outlook Make-Over fundraiser in Noblesville. Thanks for inviting us Cathy, we all had a really nice time!

Rhonda's 40th B-Day Party

Sunday evening we were all invited to attend Rhonda Poe's 40th birthday party. I was thinking as I sat there, how blessed we are to have friends like those that we were surrounded by. As I sat next to my boss (Steve Waggoner) and behind me sat our pastor (Bro. Mowery), how many people have this privilege of being close enough friends with their boss and their pastor to be at a party with them?!? In the world we live in today, most people can't stand their boss or don't even know him, as well as, many people don't have a relationship with their pastor. We are truly thankful we can have them as our friends. We had a really nice time, thanks so much Bev for inviting us and thanks to Kim for hosting such a nice party!

The birthday girl with her special hat on !

Rhonda's black and white birthday cake and yummy brownies!
Writing down her answers for the Trivia game!

The "troubled" side of the room (l to r: Steve Gardner, Travis Johnson, Jerry and Bro. Mowery). They kept the crowd laughing about something most of the time, boys will be boys, lol!
Trivia game about Rhonda, led by her sister Kim
Look at all those candles!

Kallee drinking out of Aunt Rhonda's sippy cup. Since Rhonda has had surgery she is only allowed to drink out of a sippy cup, so of course Kallee thought she needed a drink of Rhonda's duce (juice).