Chores

I am trying really hard to try and get organized this summer so that I am not always walking into a dirty house late at night. So I made these cute chore charts for the kids. For each thing covered the kids get a nickel...yup pretty steep in the cash department. If they do everything it is just under $20 a month. I think that is well worth a clean house.

Charlie has only made $.40 on the highest day. I know that some of them are crazy but this helps me to remember to do everything each day. (Yes, I am a little on the unorganized side.) So each day Charlie has to put her things away, brush her teeth twice a day, play, read of 15 minutes, get a shower, put her laundry away (clean or dirty), take her medicine, put her dishes away (clean ones in the cabnet/dirty ones in the sink), pray, read her bible, do her homework, cubbies, and have a loving attitude (obey, no

sassing,). She gets to get a butterfly or flower and cover the item as soon as it is completed. At the end of they day we assess. Sometimes she loses the flower/butterfly. She has yet to keep her loving attitude past lunch time. We are working on obeying. One day she will get it. She is doing pretty good. We had to count the money in her piggy bank and exchange $1 bills for her nickels. I ran out of nickels. At least my house is staying a little more picked up and I am remembering to give my kids their allergy medicine daily. :)

Father's Day

We took a day trip to Guthrie. We had a great time. We went to the International train museum. It was kind of depressing b/c it only had one of the 7 model trains running. We went to lunch at a bar-b-que place. And my kiddo, you know the strange one, ordered ribs and okra. How many three year olds eat ribs and okra. She ate everything.

Here is one of the models. We liked the fact that there was a headless mummy climbing out of the grave. And if you look closely you will see a man dangling from the open door of the read truck.

We love this picture of Charlie. She likes how you can see her reflection.

We went to visit his grandfather in Kingfisher, ate Mexican food for dinner and then had Orange lime aids from some drug store. The perfect day for Dusty!

Brantley

He is getting so big.

Dusty laughs at me.

I had to take this picture of Brantley

b/c I had this picture of Charlie. Silly I know but I just love them.

My room

Dusty and his parents have been working very hard this past week. They finished sheet rock, finished electricity ( I have lights on the light switch, hot plugs and air conditioning ), and did the first round of drywall. All that is left (1) another coat of drywall, (2) painting (3) floor and then I move in. I am so excited!

Happy Birthday to Me!

How great is this guy? He brought me strawberry shortcake Olive Garden style. He even remembered a candle! Thanks sweetie!



I have been trying to post this all day...It didn't happen. I am glad that the time stamp here is different than the time at my house. Here is my birthday present from my wonderful husband since my room is not finished yet. I love it! Thanks Dusty. I will add more birthday photos later.

Leap Frog Letter Factory

As a teacher I have been working with Charlie on letter sounds, I don't know maybe before she could talk. Well, I have to say that she can watch Letter Factory as much as she wants. In three weeks of watching this show she is saying all the letter sounds and recognizes most of the letters. I am not one to do flash-cards with her yet. So this is so exciting. Bad parenting....Oh I don't know maybe. Go on leap now get her to sound spell. She is already working on that! Not that I am a pusher. She will learn it when she is ready. I can't wait to see all that she will learn this year in pre-K.

princess hats

I can't decide...

flowers or no flowers?

Before kids

Dusty and I have had this conversation many times. What do you miss about it just being us...you know before the kids? Is seems silly but we miss the 3 am trips to Denny's (Taco Bell). So, Friday night when Dusty got home from work and my friends left from scrapbooking we went and ate at Denny's. We are old now (32 next week and 34 in December) so it wasn't quite 3 am. 11:30 was late enough for us.

I know Denny's seems a silly thing to miss. Really we have decided that it is not so much as the food but the ability to say "Hey lets go to..." and then walk out the door.

With Charlie being almost 4 she is pretty easy. You just have her get in the car unless it is late, then you need a blanket and a cup. But with Brantley you still have to remember diapers, cup, blanket, passifer, formula...the list just goes on. That is what we miss. Decided that you want to go somewhere and walking out the door the next second to go to the destination.

Birthday's

I know, I go overboard when it comes to birthday's. I know, Charlie's party is over a month away. I have been shopping for two months. For some reason, like Christmas if I start a few months out I can afford to do what I want. This year Charlie decided that she wanted a princess party. But there was a catch, it had to have knights and dragons, too. What a girly girl I have! So instead of the traditional party favors we decided to dress all guests as a knight.
I started these last night. It took me 5 hours to make 24 knight vests. I think they came out really cute. Charlie wanted pink for the girls and blue for the boys. The left over costumes will go to my dress up box at school.

Dusty took these photos of me while I was working. He did a really great job. Thanks honey!

The beach (vacation part 2)

My kids loved the beach. The last time Charlie was at the beach she was Brantley's age (9 months). She hated the sand and the ocean. She cried when we sat her down. She kept trying to get the sand off of her. This was not the case this time. She cried every time we had to leave. She wanted to stay forever.
Brantley loved it. He crawled right into the ocean. He loved it until we missed a big wave and it covered him. He wanted to be held after that.

I love this picture. It shows Charlie walking her body board "Boogie". Notice that even at the beach my little guy is following his sister. He just loves her.

This was the only picture I was willing to get of myself on the beach. I am just way to uncomfortable in my swim suit. But I sure LOVE our shadow family.

We kind of spoiled Charlie on this trip and bought her a boogie board. She named her board boogie and had the best time. She actually caught a few waves and road them into the sand. It was really cool. She bit it a few times. But just look at that face. She had the best time.

And then there is Brantley. Look at that great big smile. He just loved it.

Billy Bowlegs Pirate Festival

Each year Ft. Walton Beach holds this great festival, Billy Bowlegs Pirate Festival. The Blackbeard II is really hazzy b/c of the smoke from the cannons they were firing. http://www.fwbchamber.org/Billy-Bowlegs.bowlegs.0.html
We attended it two days. We had a great time. The kids dressed up like pirates, played games, ate snow cones and corn dogs.

Charlie and Dusty hunted pirates. They had a wanted poster with four pirates on it. If you found all four pirates and got their signature then you would get a prize. We did not make it for the first day of the festival and the treasure hunt. We were only able to find three of the four pirates on the wanted poster but we sure had a great time trying. The cannons were really loud. We had a great time.

Missing Family

We had a great time with my sister and her boyfriend Chase. As you can see we played pretty hard. B is out cold. We took all of B's old stuff (cradle, clothes and many other baby things) to Tonya. She is due to have my nephew two days after B's 1st birthday. She is going to be a great mom. Chase will make a great dad also. They were very patient with my kiddos messing up their beautiful home.
Here is B in his seat. He did not like it too much by hour 16 of our trip home.
Thank you technology. Charlie was great on the trip. She had a MP3 player with 12 books on tape, she had a DVD player w/ an assortment of movies. She had a back pack with books, notebook, and crayons. She also had a leapster. She was so good on the trip.
I really hate that I only see my family once or twice a year. Here is me with my sister and my mom. We had a great visit. I just wish that they lived closer.

Brantley Lane

I figured that I needed to put a video of B up. We are just playing with him. I could listen to th is laugh forever.

Fireman

At first I am watching the wrong girl. When she turns towards me and I realize I find Charlie. She is so distracted by the "smoke" that she can't even think about dancing. The last part of this just cracks me up. Listen carefully and see if it will make you laugh too?

Candy man

Charlie is the one on the far right. She did so great until she got distracted by her lollipop. Her recital was Saturday the 30th. This was rehearsal Friday night.

My scrapbook room

This is Dusty's Dad Ben, he is the greatest. They came over Memorial Day and worked for a little while. They got the last of the insulation up and started on the ceiling.
Linda, his mom, also helps. Charlie just loves having them over.

Here is my fantastic hubby. He is adding screws to the ceiling.

They worked a little bit on Saturday too. I have half a ceiling up and one wall of sheet rock. We will get another work day when we get back from my mom's in Florida. We are hoping that it will be finished by my birthday. I am just happy to see that we are able to work on it again.

Flowers for Mom

I have pretty bad allergies. Most flowers and trees make me sneeze. Charlie has always been told to leave the flowers growing for others to enjoy instead of picking them for me b/c they make me sneeze. The few times she has brought me a weed (flower) or two I have ended up sneezing and we have to take them out of the house. Monday morning Charlie, Brantley and I went for a walk when we woke up and enjoyed God's beautiful wild flowers. Every time Charlie smells a flower this is what happens. It just makes me laugh.

Red Rock

I love going camping. I hate the bugs and the walk to the bathroom. I hate it when the air mattress gets a hole in it but I love going camping. I think it has something to do with getting to bed early, hearing nature, just enjoying family. Yeah, it's that...getting to spend time with just the family we are just enjoying each other.

We had smores' went climbing on this great tree. We also got snowcones from the snack shack. Brantley loved it. He kept trying to grab the cup. Charlie loved roasting hot dogs and marshmallows. We love going down to Red Rock.