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Rowdy called me into the living room this morning to tell me he had spelled the word racecars...and sure enough he had. Although, you must sound it out from right to left and know that he only had one of each letter from the alphabet to work with. I think he did a pretty good job!
Then he spelled his name. He next picked up the letter "m" and said mmmm....Madie!!!! (She is one of Rowdy's good friends who moved away recently) So we spelled her name. How could I not take a picture of that especially since they will be getting married if Kim and I have anything to do with it. We miss you guys. The kids play on-line on this fantastic website called starfall (thanks for telling us about it Kim). Well there is this song on there about the silent "e" at the end of the word and Avery is always pointing out the letter "e" everywhere and saying it is a silent "e". It reminds me of the Adventures of Letterman from the Electric Company on PBS from my childhood. By the way you can find videos of that show on youtube.com. And if I knew what I was doing I could of had a really cool link to it on my blog but I don't know how.

E-I-E-I-O

I haven't posted pictures of our little calf "Lily"yet. Rowdy named her. She is so cute and she has white eye lashes. She is getting more and more used to us coming out and feeding her and talking to her. She won't let you pet her very much. But we are working on it....I can't wait to scratch her behind her fluffy ears.

Anyways, last night Rowdy and Avery's cousin Tamar spent the night and we went out to feed Lily and as I was putting hay in the wheelbarrow to take it out to her Tamar looked at Rowdy and said "Is your Mom using a pitch fork?" It just struck me so funny! I guess I have been fully initiated into the classification of farm gal!

Ouch!

Rowdy took this photo. Although, you can't tell from here, Ron got in a pretty big wreck on Saturday night. He said he was going pretty fast. The track was super fast because of the rain we had earlier in the week and new clay had just been added to the track. He hit the wall so hard that it knocked over the cement filled tires that line the inside of the track. See my Memorial Day Weekend post for a photo. Needless to say he came home with a concussion. He was a bit dizzy and had a headache the next day.

Rowdy didn't like that the race car got smashed up.

People ask me all the time if I worry that Ron will get hurt racing. For some reason I don't worry. People do get hurt sometimes. We have seen drivers break their arms when they get caught in the steering wheel. I have seen some car fires that look pretty scary. There was even a death several years back. I guess I just figure my husband has taken every safety precaution and that is all we can do. Oh and he is a very skilled race car driver and good at what he does. He is smart on the track!

Pink Cowgirl Boots!

The only time in our lives as women that a little "pudge" on our thighs is ohhhh so sweet!

Avery loves these boots! When I saw her kickin' back on these haystacks with her pink cowgirl boots on I had to run and get the camera! Grandma Linda has been calling her "Pinky" since she was born because she was always wearing pink. Not much has changed. Although, Avery has the kind of skin tone and coloring that whatever color I put her in she looks good! We were on our way to Dallas Summerfest to listen to Uncle Joey sing, so we had to put on our cowgirl boots. I need to find a pair for Rowdy! By the way, the other day Rowdy told me that I have become a pretty good farmer. He also, told me since Dada is the farmer I am the farmer's wife.

Honeyman State Park

Ron bought Rowdy a new bike on our camping trip. It is bigger, heavier and much faster. It took him just a bit to feel comfortable with it. He still needs to practice starting and stopping but he has the hang of riding. The kids enjoyed riding bikes too! There was a loop for them to ride on in a circle that brought them right back to the camp site. Avery's bike is so loud we could hear her all the way around the loop. I have a hard time relaxing when the kids are not in sight.
Me and the "three" kiddos!

Look at this...Doritos and a blue Gatorade. Rowdy asked me "is this lunch?" I said "no" he asked "is it dinner?" I said "no". I said "this is camping." That is one of my favorite parts of camping is the relaxed eating schedule and the "rules" that are flexible and change because you are not at home and on vacation.

Cookin' Up Some Fun!

While Rowdy raced cars in the sandbox Avery made pies and cakes! She was adding cups of this and spoonfuls of that and mixing it all up! She was following a little recipe of her own and I am not kidding when I say they were in this sand box close to the entire trip!

I love this little boy!!

In an effort to look as though I have some skill behind the camera I took these two photos of Rowdy. I was hoping that one would turn out. Well to my surprise and quite by accident I got two shots that I just adore. He put the car up on the flat bed truck while he was playing! Obviously, doing what he has seen his dad do a million times. I took the photos hoping I would get a shot like the second one. But I actually love them both. This sand box was the highlight of the camping trip we just returned from. The kids played in it all day. Hmmmm...maybe the farm needs a sand pit. They played well too! Not much fighting or bickering!

This is a good action shot too! The cars are smashing into each other and you can tell Rowdy is providing the sound effect.

Dada always takes the checkered flag in our hearts...

We went to the races on Saturday night. The kids had fun watching Ron race. Ron was in the lead most of the main event however, there was a caution flag thrown and all the cars have to slow down and wait for the green flag again. Therefore, the cars were all bunched up again and two cars got pasted him. He finished third. The number 22 car was the first one to get past Ron and Rowdy said "that 22 needs to smash into the wall so my Dad can be in the lead again!" He doesn't like to see Dada in anyother place but 1st! The races were done pretty early and the weather was great. We even got to go into the pits after it was over...Rowdy was excited.

Happy Birthday America!!!

Although the kids didn't get to bed until midnight, we had a fun filled day. We started with a flag raising ceremony at the church, a parade in Monmouth, listened to Uncle Joe at main street park, home to rest for a bit, BBQ at our place, ATV rides and finally some fireworks. Whew!

100 things about me...

I have seen these on other blogs and wanted to post mine. I encourage you to do the same it was harder than it looks.
100 things about me:

1. I eat eggs for breakfast almost every morning
2. I loved the beginning of each school year and shopping for new school supplies (I hope I get to go buy some for Rowdy this year)
3. I love, love, love cake or cupcakes
4. I enjoy lifting weights
5. I wish I was more flexible
6. I had a great childhood
7. I was baptized when I was 25
8. I have super curly hair but wish it was straight sometimes
9. I have two kids that are the absolute most perfect, adorable, smart and beautiful kids in the universe
10. I hate to lose and I am embarrassed when I win…I just like playing the game
11. I order the same thing every time I go out to eat breakfast (two eggs over easy, hashbrowns, bacon (crisp) and pancakes) I know it’s a ton of food
12. I love soda pop
13. I am a good cook and enjoy cooking (not cleaning up though)
14. I love to take photographs, it is the only way to freeze time
15. I met my husband one day in college when my car broke down and he was the tow truck driver that came to tow my car
16. I love any art supply/scrapbooking supply but am trying to decide if I like collecting them or using them more
17. I love things to be in order and consider myself organized but by the looks of my house and minivan that does not appear to be the case
18. I had a c-section with my first child
19. I have a pillow that I sleep with that a 25 years old (probably TMI)
20. I can usually find anything in our house if my husband asks me where it is he hates that and thinks I have special powers
21. I am the youngest of five
22. I love to listen to dance music when I workout
23. I have never broken a bone
24. I have never traveled overseas
25. I was a cheerleader in high school and college and miss it sometimes
26. I love to be fit but it take so much work and dedication for me and I have a lot of bad eating habits that I will never break
27. I hope to have twins someday
28. I love my mom so much but sometimes don’t show her the respect she deserves
29. I have anxiety
30. I consider myself high strung
31. I have a silly song that I made up for my kids that tells them how much I love them
32. When I say goodnight to my son I always say I love you one million trillion billion zillion fillion tillion etc. or I love you to the moon and back!
33. When I say goodnight to my daughter we decide what she is going to dream about. It usually involves all happy things castles, rainbows and anything pink.
34. I have had several experiences in my life that I wouldn’t wish upon my worst enemy but I wouldn’t trade them for the world
35. If I could be a super hero I would be Wonder Woman
36. I don’t have very many close friends but the few I have are so special to me
37. I am married to a stock car driver
38. I feel sometimes I have not matured past the age 16
39. I love to take naps but ever since I had kids I am such a light sleeper all I can usually take is a 20-30 minute naps
40. I am a pretty good golfer
41. I was a party animal in college
42. I have attended AA meetings because of #41
43. I am German
44. I will probably never have a child that potty trains in one day. I hear stories about those kind of kids but I don’t have them
45. I love to be tan I wish the sun wasn’t so bad for you
46. I don’t like reality shows
47. My favorite place to eat dinner is The Outback…I always order the same thing there too!
48. I think I could benefit from anger management classes.
49. I think I am more like my Dad than my mom in some ways
50. I always offer a disclaimer when I make a home cooked meal. Just ask Ron. For example this is a new recipe and I didn’t have all the ingredients so I improvised or I think I cooked the meat too long…is it ok? I don’t know why I do this because he would eat anything I make and not say a word.
51. I am the glass is half empty person.
52. I can’t believe I am going to have three children
53. I love to swim
54. I was a gymnast when I was in elementary school…I revisit the sport every once in awhile.
55. I wish I knew how to dance… ballet/tap/jazz
56. I used to line dance in college…how stupid
57. I am a child of the 80’s
58. I had a best friend growing up that lived on my street and I don’t have very many memories of weekends and summers that didn’t include her
59. I spend too much time on the computer
60. If you log onto bodybuilding.com and enter the supersite and do a search on my name there are pictures of me when I competed in my fitness competition in 2006
61. I call my husband “Mister”
62. My brothers and sister all have names that start with J…Joey, Joel, Jennifer, Jeffery and Julia
63. I would like to consider myself and athlete and would like to try just about any sport once…not skydiving
64. My husband and I had a bad experience playing Racquetball shortly after we got married and we haven’t played together since
65. We also had a issue playing Monopoly one week after our honeymoon
67. We need to take a second honeymoon…we both agree that our first one sucked we will have to share the story with you sometime
68. I used to have a 1997 Jeep Wrangler and it was the best rig ever! Including payment and insurance it cost me over $600 per month to own it…hence the two jobs at the time…but it was sooooooo fun!
69. My jeep was the only car I have owned that I washed on a regular basis
71. I am 31 weeks pregnant and feel like my body is being invaded
72. This list has taken me months to work on I started it in January
73. I am a horrible speller…I don’t like to write things by hand because I am so used to spell checking everything
74. When I am writing something and I can’t spell a word I think of another word that means the same thing that I do know how to spell
75. I used to love busy work when I was in elementary school
76. I compared my self to others in elementary school so much and that there was this little girl in my class that I idolized so much that I tried to wear the same outfit in my 6th grade picture that she wore in her 5th grade picture…I was obsessed with her…she was so cool to me…her name was Kari Lynn
77. My favorite pizza is Pepperoni, black olives and fresh mushrooms…Yum!
78. I didn’t like pizza in high school
79. I lived on Capt’n Crunch one summer in college because it was on sale and I was broke.
80. My husband I still dispute who asked for who’s phone number first.
81. Being a mom and a wife is the hardest job I have ever had
82. I can’t tell you what my favorite movie is because I like too many of them
83. My husband and I have seen every Seinfeld Episode that has been released to date on DVD
84. I need to learn better budgeting habits
85. My Dad died when he was only 68
86. I was really young when my grandparents died and I don’t know what that is like to have grandparents
87. I miss my Dad and I am sad that he will not be able to watch my kids grow up. But Rowdy seems to have a connection with him because he talks about him all the time!
88. My friend Kim and I both have really curly big hair and we look a little bit alike…so much so that her son confused me for his Mom and my husband thought Kim was me one day in Church!
89. I have really strong religious beliefs but have a fear of sharing them with people because I don’t want to offend someone
90. My brother Joey is so awesome and funny, my brother Joel is so stinkin’ smart it is scary, my brother Jeff is Mr. Fit and health nut and my sister Jennifer is the most charitable person you will ever meet
91. My mom is the hub and glue of our family
92. I have 16 nieces and nephews (I think that is right…and there are 3 new little boys on the way including ours)
93. I am a live in the now person I have a hard time preparing for the future
94. My favorite indulgence, that is not food related, is a really really hot bath with candles lit and a good magazine to read and an ice cold glass of water to drink. It only happens maybe 4 times a year and I usually am at my mom’s…she has a really nice tub at her house.
95. If someone is trying to make me laugh, for some reason I fight laughing in fact I get kind of mad…and you know what…Avery is the same way…hmmmmm!
96. My idea of vacation is a sunny location, pool side during the day and shopping and eating at night
97. Although most people describe me as outgoing…I am really kind of shy and such a nerd about conversing with people I don’t know
98. I am so glad that I am almost to 100
99. I absolutely love animals and when I was a kid I thought that I had a special kind of connection with them
100. I like comedies but don't laugh out loud during the movie even when I think something is funny because I am too busy trying to figure out how they filmed it
101. I won’t be doing a 100 things about me list again any time soon (OK somehow I did 101 something happened when I did the copy and paste from the word document that I was making the list on)

Peek inside the birdhouse...

Mama bird telling us to go away...

There are at least 6 eggs inside. Everyday includes several trips to the birdhouse to check on the baby birds. Rowdy discovered them when the Mama bird came flying out of the little house right at his head and when I looked inside this is what we found. We have had several deer on our property lately also. They are beautiful, but they have eaten all of our strawberry plants. Argghhh!

I am not a Green Thumb!

A friend of mine stopped yesterday to drop of my niece. She had not seen the new house yet so I gave her a tour. As we were walking around the outside of the house I told her I don't have the first clue about gardening. She was showing me a few things really quick because she had to run. So today I thought well I can go out and at least dead-head a few things. See I use the word dead-head like I know what I am talking about. Anyways, I was just outside and I popped a total of 10 heads off and was so flippin' bored out of my mind I had to quit. That was only one little plant that had about 100 more heads that needed to be popped off. Blogging is much more fun! I don't know how I will maintain this beautiful yard we have if I can't even stand dead-heading for 10 seconds without having attention deficit and coming inside to do something more fun!

Baby Bump!

Kim, if you have seen Amy F.'s blog lately this is where I got the idea. I'm such a copy cat! 10 weeks and counting. The "nesting" has finally kicked in. About this time with both of my pregnancy's I went into ultra organized mode, cleaning house, getting the baby's room ready, buying diapers (man those size 1 diapers are small!), doing weird projects around the house that I have been putting off (you know the ones, like cleaning out the junk drawer). It has something to do with when I am not in control of something in my life (when the baby comes) I have to be in control of everything that I can control. Anyways, we are getting so excited about meeting this little guy...hopefully he will have a name by the time we leave the hospital. Some names we are considering are Bodie, Cody, Casey (that's new). By the way both of my sister in laws are having boys too! How exciting is that! My brother in law Aaron has already issued a challange to our son by his son on the football field. Oh there are good times to be had in the future. It is the year of the boy!

Juicy!

Avery can't get enough watermelon. My sister in law brought some over the other night and Avery has asked to have it with every meal since.

Down on the Farm!

HAY!

We have been busy on the "farm"! Rowdy and Avery got to help Dada cut some hay on the Fat Alice! Fat Alice is the name of the Tractor. Rowdy rode around with Ron for quite awhile and Avery took a couple turns around the field. Ron says the hay looks really good, better than he thought. Just a side note...My dad was such a silly goose he used to shout "HAY!" whenever we were in the car and we saw a hay truck drive by. Then he would say "what? I saw some hay." Then I would say "Oh, Dad".

A Sneak Peek!

We have been painting the baby's nursery and here is a sneek peek of it so far. I will post more photos when it is done! Hope all is well with everyone!

Kim did you notice that Ethan and Rowdy have the same little red shirt from Target.

Happy 5th Birthday Rowdy!!!

Rowdy turned 5 today! We spent the whole day in Salem. One of our stops was the "train store"...actually the Learning Palace. We went so he and Avery could play with the trains and so I could buy his present. He wanted Spencer one of trains from Thomas the Tank Engine. I had to trick him and tell him that the store was all out of Spencer so that I could buy it and he could open it later. Ron unfortunately is out of town until late tonight...ya gotta love when someone wants a car towed to Sacramento?!!! ARRRR!!! Anyways we will open some presents tomorrow and we are having Rowdy's actual party later this month. Just my style I love dragging birthday celebrations out. His cupcakes look green to me in the photo. However, they are blue his favorite color!!!

Here's a question for y'all! Do you think it would be a terrible thing for 6 month pregnant lady with a 5 and 3 year old in tow to park in the "special senior citizen" parking spots at Walmart? I considered it today because it was not a planned stop and I was totally overstimulated at that point. My brother-in law, who just passed the bar, said it will be the first law he wants to pass...what a guy!!!

Computer Nerds!!

Yes, it is true, I have to share our computer with the kids. We actually have to take turns. There is one rule however, when Mama is working on the computer you do not ask to have a turn because to answer will always be...NO! How is that for teaching them to share.

Rowdy is trying to be patient waiting for his turn.

PreSchool Graduation

Saying the Pledge of Allegiance (sp?)

His super special fabulous teacher Ms. Dianna

Proud Mama and Son!

Rowdy will be a Kindergartner next year...wow! Last week was his graduation. It was really nice. It was sad to say goodbye to the kids we have been seeing for the last two years. No one from his preschool will be going to his new school. He told me "Mama, I'm really going to miss that school"!