We are off to a good start

            We have been in Kansas for about 2 weeks now. We have been in our house for 1 week tomorrow. I must not have had very much stuff because we are pretty close to being all unpacked and put away. I am loving the new house. I have so much more space and storage. I love waking up every morning and opening my curtains to the beauty that surrounds us. We are on my dream property.


In our contract we own 6.5 acres but we have full use of the 70 acres around us. We had the owner take us out on 4 wheelers and show us all his property so we new what was ours to use. It has been so nice not to hear the kids saying "I am board" It was such a nice day out today that all the kids woke up and headed out to fish. (that was weird)   Then to make it more weird. Matt threw the paddle boat in and let them have at it. They never caught any fish but had a blast backing the boat back and forth around the entire pond until all the ice was broke up. They will all be stiff tomorrow.  I think the paddle boat is going to be my new workout...but I am going to wait until the ice melts and temps are a little higher.

Slush fishing

Breaking up the ice ! 

They were all loving it

Avri is loving it

New adventures up ahead!

This is our new house in Tecumseh Kansas. It is very sad to leave behind loved ones and all the good people we have met over the years. We are very excited to start a new adventure.  Not shown in the pictures... We also have 2 big cement rooms in the basement. (safe rooms in case of a tornado) We also have the house wired for a back up generator.  2 car garage with a 3 garage on the lower level of the house.

Formal living room as you walk in, wood burning fire place. French doors to go out on the deck.

Formal dinning room off back side of the formal living room.

Kitchen. 

Another view of the formal living room

Master bedroom, also has a door out onto the deck, and built in shelves

I have my own separate laundry room. Has a huge wash sink.

Screened in porch.

Part of our 6.5 acres

View of the back yard

More of the pond...it has ducks

lower level of deck

Another view

Back of the house

View from the upper deck

Wood burning fire place and french doors from lower level family room.

Guest bathroom

Master bath.

Third bathroom in lower level

Family room...Pool tables ours 

Another view

Twins room, Boys room is the same size but only one window. 

Avri and Hatties room. Nice and big

 

Summer 2011

            I thought keeping up on this blog was going to be easier than this. It has been a crazy summer...    


                                                   Although, we have not really done much, besides our 2 week trip! 

We did go to Texas for 2 weeks. We spent 3 of those days at south Padre Island.  We stayed in a hotel on the island that had a board walk off the back of the hotel. It also had an amazing swimming pool right in front of the beach.  The kids kind of bounced back and forth between the pool and the beach all day.

        

FYI: South Padre Island is only 10 miles from the boarder. We had to go through a check point to leave.

My favorite time. Was waking up at 6:00am and walking down to the beach.  I can not explain the feeling.  I walked out to the beach. The sun had not come up yet. There was a layer of fog in the air. There were a few joggers running by every once and awhile, but for the most part I was the only one out. There is a soft breeze that was coming off the ocean. You have the sound of the waves coming in. Then the sun starts to come up. The feeling that came over me was a wash of emotion. It was so serene. I could not help raising my arms in the air and closing my eyes to feel it.  If you want to feel close to heaven go sit on the beach all alone on a perfect morning and watch/feel the sun come up! 

I brought Avri, Hattie and Belle with me the next morning.

Although they did not feel what I did, it was neat for them to watch and I got some cool pictures of them.

Fog before the sun came up.

Love that face!

We found some cool seashells! 

We all played in the sand! The kids dug up so many tiny clams...that the next day I told them "today we are going to go dig as many clams as we can, then we are going to take them out of their shell and microwave them for lunch" So funny all the kids were ready to go catch some lunch!

Trying to make a face in the sand.

Avri

Matt and His dad hanging out in the shade

Me and the kids making sand sculptures

Back In Houston...Where grandma and grandpa live. The kids were entertained by the dogs! I am not sure who had more fun..the kids or the dogs.

Kids swimming with aunt and uncle in Houston pool

The twins celebrated their 8th birthday in Texas.

Friends mom wanted to make up the twins and take pictures. 

Kyle started football. He has been practicing 6 days a week for 2-1.5 hours.  He is loving it...Maybe not as much as I wish he would! I have always told him he is going pro...He may play and act like he enjoys it just for my sake!

The twins got baptized August 6th.  It was a very personal day. We only had a couple family members show up and a few neighbors, but the lack of people did not make the big day any smaller. The spirit was so strong...I just wish everyone else could have felt it.

 So thats our summer!  





             

New Puppies!

Some how!

Long story short!

We promised Hattie a lizzard for her birthday.

Matt is a softy and we ended up with two NOT one.. but two miniature poodles.

They are sisters. They were 8 weeks when we got them. They are now 11 weeks.

Aside from all the potty training and keeping them out of the boys arms they have been very good puppies. 

Yesterday they found their way to a tray of strong D-Con we had in our garage.  Luckily I was outside and saw them eat it. We got them to a vet within an hour and a half. The vet induced vomiting and then gave them a charcoal treatment. They are also on vitamin k for the next 30 days twice a day. The vet said we were very lucky to have caught it as the puppies both would have been dead by morning. The vet also said to do follow up blood test every 10 days for the next 30 days to make sure they are not going into organ failure and that their blood is clotting normally. We are to watch for bruising and blood anywhere else on the body.  

That being said.. an after hours vet clinic on a Saturday night YA!  Lets just say we have some golden puppies!

It makes you think!

I am the one who says put them down! BUT in the moment....where do you as an owner draw the line on the measures you are going to take to save a pet.  The bigger question...Your children's pet?  It is weighing heavily on my mind. Blood tests another couple hundred dollars....and if they come back and say it is not looking good!  Then what?  IVS lots of medications LOTS of $$$... Where do you draw the line especially if you have already spent more than you ever swore you would on a pet or pets!!!  

Bats or Fireworks?

            Happy forth of July! We were in Austin Texas this year for the 4th of July. We were planning on watching the fireworks this year but due to the dry weather in Texas there were no fireworks.  We decided to walk down to a bridge across the street from our hotel and watch the bats fly out from underneath a bridge instead.  There are around 1.5 million bats that fly out from underneath the bridge every evening around 8:30pm. They are said to consume between 10,000 and 30,000 pounds of insects every night. 

            It was a pretty crazy sight, creepy if you think about it.There were so many of them you could hear the wind with flight.  Defiantly something I will never get to see, hear or smell again.  The crowds of people in the park and boats below faces all watching the sky and waiting, did make the evening feel a bit patriotic.  The bats take about 45 minutes to clear out from underneath the bridge.

Our first family flight!

              " Flight destination Austin Texas"  We got to the air port 2 hours early to get through security. Security was a breeze, leaving us 1.5 hours to wait for our flight. We waited an hour and then we were told our plane had mechanical problems and would not be going anywhere. We were able to get rerouted onto a different flight that landed in Houston and then on to Austin, but we were left with another 2 hours of waiting. I do have to mention my kids were being so good. On any other day sitting in an airport with 6 kids I would say "you are crazy, I would rather walk"  they were so good.  So we finally land in Houston rush across the airport to make it to our next flight. We make it with an hour to spare but then a huge storm hits. Apparently they have not seen it rain like this in 3 months. DELAYED AGAIN! We waited an extra hour for the storm to pass. After a really long day we arrive at our destination. We are all so exhausted and ready for bed. my 4 hours of sleep the night before had caught up with me. We wait for our luggage to come around in baggage claim. ( we only checked  Matt's bag) when the planes got switched we ended up on this tiny plane and they had to put my carry on and two others under the plane. So every ones luggage shows up except for mine.
I was so tired and proud of my kids I could not even cry at this point.  The airline said someone took it and they were calling her to tell her to bring it back. This other bag was left behind so she must have mistakenly picked up mine.
So long story short...I got my luggage back around 1pm the next day. So other than our bad luck we made it through 2 flights and 3 huge air ports without losing any of the kids. No one threw up or cried and no one was injured. I would say we did pretty good!  Crossing my fingers that our flight home goes a little smoother though.

Kids comments Tallon "are we flying yet"?  "when are we going to fly"?   Response "we are already flying"
      Avri "lets do this again" She loved flying

Abby looking out the window says "there is a storm ahead"!  Belle...She puts her stuff away as fast as she can and grabs my hand and braces herself.  I say "there is not a storm ahead we already flew through the patch of clouds".  Belle gets her book and crayons back out.   Abby "there is a big storm ahead" Belle puts all her stuff away again, grabs my hand and braces herself.  Me "Belle ...we are flying around the storm, you are fine"  Belle gets her stuff back out!
We did go through a storm on the smaller plane before Abby began to forcast. I thought I was going to get my arms squeased off between Abby and Belle.

Tallon " we are so high, are we going to get to see Jesus?"