Extra Company

The last few nights Blake has been coming into our room in the middle of the night and slipping into bed with us. He is pretty sneaky at it. He doesn't say a word or make any kind of noise so to not wake us. Then in the morning when we wake up, there he is.
Well last night he woke me up before he slipped into bed with us. So I picked him up and gave him a hug, then took him back to his room and put him to bed. I asked him why he came in bed with me and Dad and he said "I dono mommy" So I said he needed to stay in his bed at night b/c it was too squishy with him in our bed. He said "ok mommy". We said our goodnights and I went back to bed.
This morning I woke up and opened the door to leave our bedroom and there was Blake with his pillow, blanket and stuffed toy sleeping on the floor infront of our bedroom door. It was a sight that would melt your heart! I then felt bad for kicking him out of our room, but not bad enough to let him continue sleeping with us!

Our Backyard Entertainment

Life has definitely slowed down since the summer. No more wild vacations or crazy visitors. These days our wild new adventure is finding ways to jump off the back porch.



The Pretty Fly for a White Guy jump


The Flying Angel jump


The Toss



The Backyard BMX


The High Fly


The Hopper



I would of LOVED to do it myself, but of course SOMEONE had to be the photographer... maybe next time.

You know you're a redneck when...

Someone asks to see your ID and you
show them your belt buckle


Your wife has ever said,"Come move this transmission
so I can take a bath."


You think the stock market has a fence around it.


You hammer bottle caps into the
frame of your front door to make it look nice.

Rednecks don’t live near beaches. But that doesn’t stop them from surfing. All they need is a pond, swamp, or creek, a rope, a surfboard, and a truck!

We had a TON-O-FUN when my brother Jim came to visit with his family!


Hanging with the nieces and nephews



My Brother Jim

The Last Blast

We just got back from our last vacation for the summer. We rented a huge beach house in Outer Banks, North Carolina and we LOVED it! It was the perfect vacation to end the summer. There were 5 awesome families that came with us. There was a lot of stuff to do and see but the best part was just relaxing. Oh and the food! Each family took a turn cooking one night. All the meals were fabulous. I am sure Mike loved having a change in the regular menu. Here are a few pictures from the trip.


Our classic tower picture


Mike with his awesome moves


Stacia, this one is for you ;)


At the beach


Coming in after I got thrown down pretty hard by a massive wave



Mike is a pro



Blake taking a swim


The group


In real life this was a cool view of the ocean.




On our last day Hurricane Hanna blew in.


Right before we left for home.

Good food, good friends, good fun

We took a day and went to Atlantic City. The weather was perfect! Not much else to say but that I have now been informed that it is NOT called the beach out east. It's called the shore! So there you go.



My hobo son




Mike was buried in the sand


And Blake was worried that he would never get out
So he began to dig him out.


Ending our day right by feeding our hungry
tummies at Gino's pizza.

If the vans a rockin' don't come a knockin'

Ummmmmmm, yes! My husband bought a VW Bus, pop top and all. What a funny guy I know. It's actually been pretty fun to have around.

Mike's brother Robbie taking it out for a drive.


Make Love Not War!


returning from the drive

Monkey Joe's

Monkey Joe's is Blake's new hang out, which makes it our new hang out as well. It's a big inflatable playground for kids AND parents can join in the fun too. Which we think is pretty great!
While playing on the slide with Blake, another Dad turns to Mike and says "Can you believe they make us get in here with our kids" Mike turns to him with bit of a confused look and says "uh, ya" then runs off toward the slides like a little kid himself.
We thought it was the greatest thing that parents could join their kids on the playground. The slides are incredible! Even Mike and I get butterflies in our stomach when going down them.
The best part of this place is that it's $5 for the whole day (for kids under 3) and parents are free. We always spend at least 3 hours every time we go.

Mike and Blake going down what Blake calles the Waterfall


This slide was only for kids 3 and under


Taking a spill


Blake taking out his friend Lily with a pillar

COMING SOON...

A post by me.

I promise I will not slack so much on the blog - after our summer holidays are over. It's not that we are doing a ToN of stuff or are SuPeR busy, but we are enjoying Mikes short time off from school. I will update on all our summer adventures soon.
Peace out!

Carcassonne in the House!

Pretty much our fav board game - Carcassone. A game we played every weekend with the Newells in UT and every other day with the Johnsons in PA. We finally got it yesterday - yeah! Thanks to the Flinders!

Back to D.C

We had our friends Matt and Brittney and their 2 kids (Nautica and Luke) come and visit us from Florida. They helped us start our summer holidays off right with a little trip to D.C and some good times right here in PA. Here are some pics of our adventures together. :) We had a lot of fun!!!

At the Zoo

The 2 Nicaraguans

Nautica, Luke and Blake. Such cute kids!

Blake and Luke

Slumber Party!!!

The Thomas Family with Abe

Milk'n it for all it's worth or until daddy's done

While on a little vacation in D.C with some friends, Blake scrapes his knee. Now this was the FIRST time he has drawn blood. So this whole experience was something new to Blake. Well, you would have thought it was the end of the world! After it happened he gave me very stricked orders. He wanted me to carry him like a baby cradled in my arms into the hotel room, when we got there he needed me to lay him down on the bed, get him a towel to lay accross him and then feed him his dinner without him having to sit up or even move at all. He adventually fell asleep like this on the bed.



The next morning as we were getting ready to go out for the day Blake would not walk. He had his leg bent as if he had broken it - limping. He cried to ONLY sit in the stroller around town (which was fine with me) and would not walk. Well Mike was not having it - he would not cater to his "needs" I, on the other hand, thought it was pretty funny and just let him sit in the stroller while the other kids got to run around (I felt that was punishment enough) and eventually by the end of the day, Blake was up and out of the stroller running around with the others.

Now that was the first time Blake drew blood; but he has had many bumps, bruises and bLooD bLiSTers. Here is a picture with all three in one hit.
This was a really bad one actually. I am a bit embarrased in showning the world this picture of Blake (It exposes my great skills as a mother).



There's nothing a little ice cream can't fix.