Ahhh Summer

Ahhh Summer has finally arrived in Southern Illinois. We endured one of the looongest winters ever! Ok that might be an exaggeration but it was long. Spring was pretty pathetic temperature wise  but now hotness is back and I am one happy lady. Kids are out of school so I have been busy trying to keep them busy and I gotta say it has been more difficult then I thought. I thought I would be one of those cool moms who do crafts with the kids everyday but I just stink at crafts. And the girls want to do ALL the crafts in one day. I tell them we have all summer to paint, cut, glue, glitter and so on. They just can't get enough craft time. Grisham is playing baseball and seems to enjoy it for the most part. We are making trips to the library and hoping to get to the pool, if not I know where there is a great place to hook up a sprinkler. We have a couple trips planned for the summer. One weekend in June the kids and I are heading up to Iowa to plan a baby shower for my big sister. Yep she is pregnant and not just with one but two babies. Two baby boys!! She is due in September but hoping to carry them until August sometime. End of June the whole fam is heading south back to the beach. I can't wait for that trip. I love the ocean and the relaxed atmosphere of the beach. July will be busy too and before we know it we will be getting ready for another year of school. Grisham in 3rd, Genevieve in 1st and Carolyn in another year of preschool.  Scott signed up for another marathon. End of October he will be running for The Wounded Warrior project in Washington D.C. So incredibly proud of that man. Well the house is now quiet, all family members are asleep. That is until the loudest sound in the world happens...my head hitting the pillow.

Howdy Folks. So it has been a long time since my last post. So much has happened. Frankly I had given up on the blog because of Facebook. Just recently I have thought about my old blog and how much I enjoyed it so once again  I am going to give it another try. I love being able to go back and see pictures and read about what the kids were doing. It is a scrap book of sorts. So here we go...

Finished Project

Here are the shadow boxes with the completed letters inside. Pretty happy with the outcome.

Art Project

We have been in our house for one year. I think it is about time that I start or at least attempt to put things on the walls. I saw this great art project article in my Parenting magazine. It appeared to be very simple. You print of  letter, in my case I printed two G's, one C and one H. Then I measured the crayons to fit all around the letters and used hot glue to set them. I started with the H, because I thought it would be the easiest letter. It was:) I cut the crayons with a sharp utility knife. I chose a multi color palate since I am planning on displaying them in the kids' playroom. The whole project did not take long, I did it while the kids were napping. I found some great shadow boxes at Hobby Lobby to finish of the project.

Back on the Wagon

I have wrestled with my blog for months now. Continue or erase it. I have decided that I would regret it too much if I erased it so now I just need to get back on the blogging wagon and post more. So much has happened since my last post. We have now been in Southern Illinois for one year. We have experienced one of the warmest winters ever. Don't think Scott will ever want to live anywhere else. Grisham finished kindergarten and Genevieve finished her first year of preschool. Scott is very busy with his practice, we are slowly making friends. At least for me. We found a wonderful church to call home. Hadley is on the move. She is crawling like a crazy person. She is so fast I have "misplaced" her a few times in our house. Carolyn is a very busy and cooky 2 year old. She wants so badly to keep up with her brother and sister. The dogs are doing well. Janey and Carly are starting to show their age a bit. Poor Janey gets so stiff and sometimes seems confused about where she is. Carly has some nasty growths on her that need to come off. Dolly is now  a 140+ pound horse. She is so gentle and sweet. The biggest baby ever!! We are so happy at this point in our lives. We have God to thank and praise for His never ending love and guidance. With out Him we have nothing.

It's About Time

It's about time I updated my blog. I can't tell you how much guilt I have over this blog. I literally think about it every day but don't always get the chance to do anything about it. Well, In-laws are here so they can distract the natives for a few while I blog. Life has settled into a nice routine. Grisham amazes me every day with his improvement in school. He is learning to write, spell and read new words almost daily. He will be continuing speech therapy after the first of the year. I think he will enjoy riding the bus over to the public school with a couple of his classmates twice a week. Genevieve is still going to preschool in a different town. There are only three other kids in her class so lots of one on one attention from teacher. Carolyn is talking so much. It amazes me that she is not yet two and has quite the vocab. Hadley is sucha sweet sweet baby. I truly could not have asked for a better kid. She sleeps through most nights and gets fussy only when hungry. She is starting to make noises, laughs and giggles. She smile all the time. Big brother and sisters just love her. The dogs are great. Janey and Carly are getting old. Janey has difficulty doing up and down stairs and definitely shows her age when she gets up in the morning. Carly can surprise us by running and playing with Dolly for short periods. Dolly is the size of a small horse. She is filling out and starting to look like a Mastiff. Although she is sucha baby. Her own shadow or reflection in the window scares her. She loves to sleep on our king size bed and she takes up most of it too. Scott is staying busy at both hospitals and I believe is enjoying his job. He has been struggling with a lot of back pain over the last few months. Exercising and some physical therapy seem to be helping a bit. I am staying busy with the house, kids and laundry. I can not believe how much laundry I do. It literally never ends. So starting on the first of the year I am going to count all the loads of laundry I do in a month. I will have that answer for you in a few weeks. I haven't made too many friends. Friends never really stick around any way so I haven't made too much of an effort. We are still trying to find a church that fits us. I didn't think it would be this difficult but it is. I have found a couple churches in Sparta that I think we will try out. I really want to get established in the right church. We are really looking forward to this Christmas. Scott's parents are here and his sister and family will be arriving on Friday. We love having a house big enough to accommodate our family. Now that the kids are on break from school we are planning another trip to Iowa. My sister Sarah is having surgery on her back today so we are going to spend some time with her and of course see my new niece baby Emma. Of course the rest of the family too. Hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. See Y'all next year!!

Beautiful Fall Days

We have been enjoying some beautiful fall weather here in Southern Illinois. The kids and I went on a walk through our neighborhood and took some pictures of the beautiful fall foliage. I really do love fall!