Blackberry Heaven

Here is our little friend we have tried to use to keep the birds out of our fruit trees. And actually he didn't really work. But fun to have him in the back yard. We wish he were a little meaner, cuz the birds really liked the fruit. And the frustrating thing is they don't even eat the whole piece of fruit they only peck one side of it and leave it to the birds, oh I mean leave it to the humans. :)
Abi found this leaf in the blackberries. We thought it was original, but we did find a couple other during the year. Kinda cool.
That is the fun thing about blackberries in our yard you and eat as you pick. Glad the kids like berries!
Some of the blackberries get so big.
We probably got 4-5 gallon bags of blackberries this year. We flash freeze them and store them in the freezer for yummy treats all year long.

Kids and Camera

I got a new camera for my birthday and I love it! The kids think it is great too! As I look at the pictures I see that my kids get hold of the camera on occasion. They are too cute!

Abi's ankle never ending

So I realize that I am really behind in the blogging world. Abi had her screws taken out the day before school started. They had to put her out again and treated it just like a surgery. Things went well, but a week and a half later she had a infection and we ended up back at the ER. Poor thing! They started her with some antibiotics and things cleared up.

In the ER

The $1400.00 screws.

The Yellow Chello

David is quite into music and loves to play instruments with strings! This year he is learning to play the upright bass. He is really enjoying it! This has been inspired by Brian with the Bar J Wranglers.

biRthDay TriP

David took me on a little trip for my birthday. We had a great time together!
We saw this car and thought it was cute!
We got to see Jody, Brandon and Anne! A highlight of the trip!
We got to go see a Shakespeare play at the Shakespeare Festival. Something we will definitely go to again. It was great! Thanks to Jody for hooking us up with some tickets! We saw "The Comedy of Errors". It was so well done! Very funny and entertaining! Thanks David for the much needed alone time! Loved every minute of it!

gRaPe JuiCe

So here is the grape juice that we made. It was very interesting we processed the pink juice in the water bath, which is what it calls for. Then the red juice we processed it in the pressure canner since the taller jars were too tall for the water bath canner that I have. Anyway the hotter processing turned it red. Very interesting.

Grape Juice Anyone?

The wasps are going to suck our grapes to raisins if we don't pick them ourselves.

David decided to pick them or at least most of them. There were lots that the wasps already sucked all the juice out of too. Still we got a few though.

They are pretty tasty grapes! At least the kids think so. We will make grape juice out of them. David thinks it is the best grape juice ever. Yes we do drink it before it sits too long. :)

School Begins Again

Crazy to think that school has started again. Summer came and went and we hardly noticed. This is David's shopping list of things he is going to need to start school. Note the boxing gloves. He is funny! He started 7th grade which is the beginning of Junior High here. I hope he doesn't need boxing gloves.

My 7th grader

The 7th graders go to school a day before the rest of the school so they can get a feel or a fill for the school and find their classes with out the rest of the students there. So David started school the day before our other kids. On this morning Abi was having surgery to get the two screws removed from her ankle, so mom wasn't home to take the pictures. I gave dad instructions and he did a fine job! He was going to be funny and take 120, but only had time for 26 before the bus came.

Running to the bus! I thought of going around to all of David's 8 teachers and taking pictures but thought that might be a little embarrassing, but maybe we will do that on parent teacher conference. :)

Back to school night was the night before school started, so we snapped some pictures of the kids with their teachers. Abi will be in 6th grade, her teacher is Mrs. Carter. (I bet teachers love blogs!) Notice she has her hospital bracelet on still. She was on lortab that day, but didn't want to miss meeting her new teacher. Mrs. Carter has been David PE teacher the past two years. William will be in 2nd grade, his teacher is Mrs. Jenkins.

Spencer is my goin' all day 1st grader, his teacher is Mrs. Crawford.
I can't believe my baby is this old!

So for the first day of school. The boys had to wear almost matching shirts. They were so excited for the school year to start. A few nights before William said, "It is going to feel so good to be back in school!" He is so funny! I hope that saying will last all 9 months!

We are at a brand new elementary it is close enough for the kids to walk or ride their bikes. They choose to ride their bikes. It will be so nice and think of all the extra exercise we are going to get!

Abi in the afternoon was finally feeling good enough to make it to part of the first day. That lortab was making her nauseous then I remember we had anti nausea medicine from her first surgery so she was a little doped up but went with a smile.

Home after the first day with cookies waiting for them to eat. Everyone had a good day.

Abi survived her half day. She went back the second day and made it the whole day. Good Luck kids hope we can all make it a great year!!!!!! Love you guys!!!!

Our Crazy 12 year old

David is such a funny kid! He is always making faces and doing silly things. His latest discovery.
























Now I am all caught up on my blogging. For some reason I do it in masses. (Nine new posts this time.) I guess when I have a minute I just get it all done at once. Summer has been fun and school starts next week for all the kids. All my kids will be in school all day. I have mixed feeling about this, but they are all excited about getting back to school and meeting their teachers.

Abi went to Clear Creek

Abi went to Clear Creek Summer Camp for a whole week. The top picture is before she left on Aug. 3rd and the bottom two are when we picked her up on Friday Aug. 7th.

She looks pretty Happy doesn't she? She did have a great time and survived even with a sore ankle. She only wore the boot part of one day. She took a little medicine on one other occasion, so over all pretty good. She took some pictures I just need to get them developed.

Cooper at the Hospital

Poor Cooper had a couple nights in the hospital, but doing well. We brought him some things to do while he was tied down and of course made him a get well card.

He never woke up while we were there, but we still had a good time in the halls of the hospital and we had some yummy frozen yogurt at the cafeteria.

They all thought Spiderman was cool!

As we were walking out one of the kids noticed the nest on the EXIT sign.

Then there was a nest made right on the side of the concrete wall.

Thank goodness they put a orange cone underneath the nest. They will save many people from having to wash their hair an extra time during the day they visit the hospital.

Visit from Grandma Evelyn

Grandma Evelyn (David's Grandma) came to see us! She is such a fun grandma and always spoiling the kids!

We decided to take her to Cabela's. The kids love to go to Cabela's! So many fun things to see.

Watch out Abi has a gun!

Spencer and William really working the scopes on these little guns. I guess I should have got a picture of what they were shooting at.

After walking around they wanted to try these cool chairs out. Cute kids I got huh?
The next day they went to the Gardens, but all those pictures are on David's phone, maybe I will post some of those later.

Carnival

A stake close to us did a carnival for Special Needs people and their families. So we went and took part. What a great idea to make so many people so happy! It was really fun! The kids had a great time and ate LOTS of Cotton Candy!!!Becky doesn't enjoy cotton candy much, but she loves Popsicle!!

David had his gone before I could get the camera out.

Becky was so excited to see lots of her friends there she couldn't even look at the camera long enough to get a good picture. Note both of these pictures. Funny girl!

Thanks to those who put it on it was very nice of you all and so much fun had by all!