WARNING..... It's VERY long.....

Ya.. ya.. I know it has been a long time since I have posted anything. My friend Becky gave me a hard time about it yesterday so I thought I better get on the ball and let you know what we have been up to. I promise there is a good excuse why it's been so long, we have been BUSY!! as you will be well informed if you continue to read this whole long!!! post. My garden this year. as always keeps me from being lazy and makes me go outside even when I don't want to, like when its 100 outside! I DON'T like it that hot!
Finally got some new blinds for the patio door. They are so nice, besides giving us some privacy they help to keep the house so much cooler!
This has nothing to do with being busy, but my sister-in-law sent this shirt for Emree and I think it is adorable!!! Love it Lana, thanks!!
Making applesauce, this is definitely not for the faint of heart, holy cow!! talk about a lot of work!!

Of course the annual kids block party, the kids riding the piggy train. Brady is hiding andEmree wouldn't have anything to do with getting on it.
Brady riding around the obstacle course given directions from Mr Policeman.
Swimming lessons. Brooklyn's first day of swimming lessons they did 10 laps!!!! in the deep pool and she had never even been in the deep pool before!! I was a little nervous to say the least!! Talk about a big jump from one level to the next. I was glad she swam right by the lane divider cause she stopped to hold on to it half a dozen times. She did really good and is getting to be quite the swimmer. Brady was a nervous wreck for his first lesson. He was crying, dare I say screaming, cause he didn't want to get in the pool. I talked, coerced, bribed, yelled pretty much anything I could think of to get him into the water. Finally with like 10 minutes left he finally got in. After class he was all grins and said, "Do I get to come back tomorrow?" Don't ask me what his problem is!! Frustrating though! That's how he is with anything new, has a fit until you make him try it and then he loves it, crazy kid!
Emree watching swimming, she did really good considering we were at the pool everyday for 1 hour for 2 weeks, she was a trooper.

Good thing Emree wasn't in swimming lesson, here is her normal reaction to our pool!
This is much more her cup of tea! Relaxing in the sunshine.
This was the greatest 30 dollar investment ever! The kids have played for hours out here and have had so much fun. Chas has went in a couple of times and believe it or not I even got in, (once.)

Of course what would summer be without wood hauling. This time we ventured out by ourselves to see if we could get a load without any help. Never will we attempt this again! We usually go with friends of ours and fill our trucks, which is nice the kids keep each other entertained and there are four adults to help get the wood, not one to watch the kids and one to do all the work! It took us six hours, one split open head wound, lots of crying and whining and we were finally done! talk about a days work!

We were all soooo tired by the end of the day. Here are the girls sleeping on the way home.

And last but not least SOCCER! Brooklyn had so much fun playing this year and was leaps and bounds better than last year. I coached her team and had a great time! We lost one game all season and loved every minute of it. Brady even got in on the action for 1 minute, he is excited to be able to play next year for real!