Haircuts

122408-01 Aimee Before Haircut
Originally uploaded by momjeeps.

While we were in Arizona the boys got some much needed haircuts at Grandpa's barber.

Aimee made a significant change to her hairsytle. It turned out adorable!

Curt and Gennies 10th Anniversary cake

122008-02 Curt and Gennies 10th Anniversary cake
Originally uploaded by momjeeps.

The day we arrived in Arizona there was a little shin-dig at Curt and Gennies house for their 10th Anniversary. All that stuff was just as tasty as it looks!

Good time was had by all, including some American Idol shenanigans on the Wii.

On our way to Arizona

121908-03 Three year olds view out window in Texas
Originally uploaded by momjeeps.

This was a picture taken by Ryan on our way to Arizona. I believe this was taken in ther west of Texas. And then he fell asleep!

December Boxes!

121708-01 Boxes have arrived
Originally uploaded by momjeeps.

Today our boxes from Doug and Donna Bates arrived! It's always a great family fun time finding all the goodies that have been carefully picked and sent with love!

Snow???

121608-21 Girls on sled
Originally uploaded by momjeeps.

This is actually accumulated sleet, not snow. But the kids managed to have snowlike fun with it anyway. AND it got them out of school for the day. So it had all the benefits of real snow.

Daddy made them a tobagon/sled thing out of an old ladder from some bunk beds and let them tow each other around with the lawn tractor! Included in these pictures are our neighbor's kids Dakota, Laura and Jackson.

Cupcake fun

113008-01 Cupcake fun
Originally uploaded by momjeeps.

Aimee had been wanting me to make all different colors of icing for her to play with for a long time. I finally broke down and made a box of lemon cupcakes and we frosted them with all different colors.

New Scarves and Hats from Great Grandma

112808-17 Girls in Scarves and Hats Model
Originally uploaded by momjeeps.

Not only are Grandma and Grandpa visiting this week, but we also received these beautiful handmade items from Great-Grandma Eva! You can't tell from the pictures, but the girls' are sparkly.

Parkin Archealogical State Park - Arkansas

112808-03 Grandma Robbie and Aimee play in school
Originally uploaded by momjeeps.

While Grandma and Grandpa were visiting we took a drive with Grandma and took her to Parkin, Arkansas. When we arrived there was a park ranger giving a presentation at the old restored school house. Then we got to play with some of the old time toys.

This state park was the site of an Indian community that was discovered only recently (1960's I believe). The Indian community was here in the time of the explorer DeSoto.

For many years this site was home to a saw mill operation. This old school educated the workers children. So most of the children that attended this school were extremely poor and most of them were African American.

When we were done visiting the old school house, we went over to the visitor center and watched the film about the history of this site. The kids then had an opportunity to play with some artifact replicas with another great ranger.

Pecan Picking

112208-16 Dad and girls pecan picking
Originally uploaded by momjeeps.

Today we went to the neighbor's house to pick pecans. I have pneumonia so these pictures are taken from the van.

Aimee's Photoshoot by Ryan

111508-06 Aimee close up
Originally uploaded by momjeeps.

The really neat thing about these pictures not only is the posing subject, but that our three year old Ryan took all of these pictures! He is quite the photographer. And what a lovely subject!

2008 Fall School Pictures

Here are the kids school photos for this year.


Robbie - 4th Grade


Ashlee - 3rd Grade


Aimee - 1st Grade

1st Grade Fantastic Friday

110708-04 Happy Cheery Aimee
Originally uploaded by momjeeps.

Aimee's class had a program today. We received a note home saying that she would be an ant in the program. She could be a red or black ant, but we needed to come up with some kind of simple costume. I of course forgot until the day before. But we managed. What I thought was neat was that although the ants were given freedom to choose red or black they ended up with exactly four black and four red ants.

The program was super cute. It was about who took the cookies. The went through the song several times, each time accusing a different animal. It ended up being the ants that took those cookies! And guess who brought home a big cookie off the wall as a souvenier - my little ant.

3rd Grade Family Farm Day

101108-04 Farm Day Ashlee at a corn machine
Originally uploaded by momjeeps.

Today, just a day after the 1st grade and two days after the 4th grade field trips, was Ashlee's classes Family Farm Day. Her teacher grew up on this farm. They had a ton of activities planned. I encourage you to click on the picture above to see lot more pictures. There was kettle corn, pony rides, face painting, cow milking, hay ride, bon fire, marshmallow roasting, walk through the creek, sheep wrangling, go home wet and muddy... Lots and lots of fun!

In fact, Robbie wasn't thrilled about going. He said when we leaving to go there that he'd rather stay home if we'd let him. But guess who was the last one in the car when it was time to go home!

But mom was TIRED! Three days in a row of field trips, whew!

1st Grade Field Trip - Career Week

101008-07 Aimee silkscreens her shirt
Originally uploaded by momjeeps.

Today was 1st Grade Field Trip. Yes just one day after 4th grade field trip. Mommy is going to be tired!

It was a fun day. They went to the hospital, the fire station and a company that makes marketing materials. They showed the kids how shirts were silkscreened and then each one got to silkscreen their own shirt to take home. That was a hit with the kids!

4th Grade Field Trip - Parker Pioneer Homestead

100908-01 Sorghum Tasting Robbie
Originally uploaded by momjeeps.

Today was the 4th grade field trip to Parker Pioneer Homestead. It was one of my favorite of the kids field trips. There were people dressed in the clothing of the time period and giving demonstrations on how things were done on the homestead many years ago.

Above is a picture of Robbie after tasting some Sorghum Molasses after watching how it was made. If you click on that picture you can see more pictures of the day.

My Toothless Girl

092408 Ashlee toothless
Originally uploaded by momjeeps.

Ashlee pulled out her other top tooth today at school! Isn't she so cute! My big girl.

Preschool Field Trip to the Fair

091908-01 kids at fair
Originally uploaded by momjeeps.

Today was Ryan's field trip to the district fair. Since the big kids were out for parent teacher conference day they got to go along on his field trip.

Click on the photo to go to flickr and see more pics from the trip.

Doghouse Building

OK, so after 11 years I decided Rob needed a respectable dog house to actually go to... Not really. We worked on dog houses for our three adorable mutts. We decided the design that we were using was too small for O and he will need a larger house. But we got the girls' houses done this weekend.


Drawing the pieces on the board.


Unbuilt doghouse.




Starting to look like a doghouse...


The final step, a roof! Not to be confused with a WOOF! (Corny!)

Labor Day Weekend Mini Vacation

We went to visit my Aunt Dana and Uncle John in Cape Fair Missouri. They live right near the lake. We went on their new pontoon boat on Sunday. It was a blast! Dana also took the kids and I to the Roaring River State Park. We enjoyed it so much, we took Rob back to see it on Monday morning before we drove home. I was so excited to have taken 157 pictures of our trip. But then I was disapointed when I got home and most of them were too blurry or hazy to use. I looked and my camera lens was horribly dirty! UGH! I salvaged what I could for memories sake.



Here is a link to the whole set of pictures from the trip.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/vrraar/sets/72157607067587771/

Girls' Room Remodel

Girls' Room
Originally uploaded by momjeeps.

Long story short we have decided to do a complete remodel of the girls bedroom. This picture was actually taken in March of 2006 before we moved in. But other than having a bunch of little girls clothes and beds and other paraphenalia in it, it still looked the same upon start of the project.

The below pictures were taken today before demolition of their closet and built-in shelf area. The closet is dark and small and icky. The built-in shelf area is oddly deep and in disrepair. Inside that whole mess also sits an old chimeny that the insurance adjuster requested be removed. It is unusable and dangerous. So the chimney will be coming down soon.