The State Fair!

Here are the kids doing a really cool activity where they got to be farmers!

THE STATE FAIR!

I like this picture of Kip.

We went to the State Fair this year with Kip and Linda! It was really fun. The kids really liked seeing all the animals and stuff. They especially liked this one area where the kids could go through different stages of how food is grown, sold, and purchased. It was really cool. It was neat to see all the animals, and just spend some time together!

OUR 7TH WEDDING ANNIVERSARY!

7 YEARS!!! We celebrated our 7th wedding anniversary on the 22nd! And instead of doing the same old "dinner and a movie", I wanted to find something that was new and different. So, with help from the good old internet, I stumbled across an art studio that would let you come and make your own "Glass Flower". It was awesome! It was really cool to see what it was like working with HOT glass. It was a neat thing to watch, and participate in! A very cool experience... I would totally recomend it, and if anyone wants the info for themselves, I would be more than happy to share it!

We also went out to a Pizza place, and stopped by a store for some "kid free" shopping. It was a great anniversary...definetly one that will be remembered!

A CUTE BABY!

Scott is getting so big!

These are just some cute pictures I got of Scott.

Breanne's first day of Preschool!

BREANNE HAD HER FIRST DAY OF PRESCHOOL!!!
Breanne has been SO excited to go to school, because she has been watching her big brother Josh go to, and be picked up, for two years! She went on most the field trips with us, and some times talked about it like it was "her school" too. So now it finally is! And she is so excited! She loves it! Her cousing Niamh goes with her...which is so great! She is getting so big. It is so fun to watch, as all of our kids grow up and start doing all these fun things. I love to see all the pictures of everyone elses kids, doing similar things. What beautiful children we all have.
We love Breanne, and so excited for her! She will do great in school!

No more Fish!

Biff the fish died last Saturday! We no longer have any pets. This is a picture from about a year ago, when we had three fish. The fan tail gold fish died a couple months after this photo was taken. Then we were just waiting for our enormous gold fish (Biff) to die. They told us that if they survived the initial month after being bought from the pet store...(And we had like 30 die)...that they had life spans of up to 8 years! We had 5 live for about 5 years. Then they slowly started to die off. And every time one of them died, Biff would get bigger. Some one told us that golf fish would grow to the size of thier tank, so as the unoccupied space got bigger...so did Biff. It was amazing. He was a little bigger than the width of this 10 gallon tank. Everyone who saw him couldn't believe that we had a gold fish that size in our house. They all said it was the biggest gold fish they'de ever seen. I know he was the biggest one I'd ever seen. We had this golf fish before we had kids. And we just got him from WalMart. Only paid like 10 cents for him. But he seemed to bigger than the others at the store, and we just knew he was a "survivor". We named him "Biff", because he was the biggest, and another fish, "Marty" because he was the smallest. (Some of you might recognize those names from the movie: Back to the Future.) We got these fish just after we got married, so we had them before we had kids. So it was a little sad to see him "belly up." But I knew the day was coming soon... He'd been acting "old" for a while now, and he seemed real lonely after the other fish in the picture died. (That fishes name was Tubby.) It is an interesting thing. Anyway. We are keeping the tank, and will probably have fish again, but not until we are in a more "permanent" residence. The sucker fish (that is also in this picture) was given to Breanne's preschool teacher. We don't know what his life span could be, and we wanted to be "done" with the tank. So he now has a good home with some more fish to keep him company. And we are now.....Pet-Less.

I'm just realizing that this is the longest blog entry I will have done... and it's about my fish. But I needed to document this, and here I am doing it. I guess that is what "blogging" is all about...journaling. And I really was sad when he died. Not like when a dog dies or something that severe, but it was sad knowing that some little piece of our lives was over. That the little thing we had taken care of for so long, was no longer around to take care of. I think the thing that I will miss the most, is the way the babies watched the fish with such wonder! I used to sit Joshua, in his highchair, right in front of the tank, and he would watch them and get all excited. And all of the others have had a similar reaction as soon as they could see them. Good times!

Joshua lost his first tooth!!! And by lost...I mean lost. He came into our room this morning, and sat on the bed. A moment later, and he says, "I pulled me tooth out Mom! You just needed to pull, you didn't need to wiggle, I just pulled it and...oh no, I dropped it. I droped it on your bed Mom." So I was like, "don't move!" And tried to get to my glasses, so I could see, and began trying to find the tooth. Then, as I'm going through the blankets, I hear something "clink" against the wall, and now I know it is in the floor. Only problem is... we have like "shag" carpet. It was like trying to find something green in the back yard full of green grass. Only it was a beige tooth amidst beige carpet. I looked for a while, but couldn't find it right away. So we prayed that we would find it, and a couple hours later I decided to take a fresh look, and there it was! It was great! Joshua was so excited! So this is kindof a "first" for us... our kid loosing his tooth. These kids are growing up so fast. The other day we were talking about bringing Joshua home from the hospital on Christmas Eve. It seems like just yesturday. What an amazing thing it is to be a parent!