At the Pool

The kids spent most of our Branson Vacation in the hotel pool. Bryan said "We didn't drive all the way down here for a pool!", but the kids sure thought that was what vacation was for!

It was a pretty small pool but the perfect size for a bunch of cousins to play in. The first day we were only at the pool for a short time before it decided to rain on us, and everyone had to run to the bottom of the big hill in a downpour.

Grandpa and Bertus taking in an afternoon siesta

M
Badger Boy
Little Buddy aka "Captain Goggles"

Bean Pole

Mouse
Big Cousins
Little Cousins

10 candles

She is only an "e" away from being a teen! Get it? Ten, Teen, "e"!?! LOL!! That was on her card she got from us, and according to the older girls it's not funny, but I thought it was cute!

What 10th birthday would be complete without the relighting candles? Only thing is she has a bit of a temper and was not at all happy about it. We thought it was hilarious though!

Broken.....again!

Miss Brainy is destined to be in a cast and on crutches all summer. She broke her ankle again, in a different spot, on 4th of July. We went to see the specialist today and he wants her to be in her walking boot for 4-6 weeks or get a cast next week. She has plans to go with her dad's family rafting and boating next week so the Dr. suggested a gortex cast. I will call to see what that is exactly and maybe get one put on so that she can swim on their trip. Poor girl was only out of the boot for 2 weeks. The dr. said that being in the cast before made her bones weak and she was probably walking different than normal when she stepped off a curb which caused the break. I asked again if he thought she had brittle bones or needed more calcium and he said her bones looked fine, but I think she will be taking a supplement (as will her sisters) just to be cautious.

We leave on wed. to go to Branson for a little R&R with Bryan's family. His family from Arkansas is coming up to meet up there, so it should be a good time. Plenty of cousins for the kids to play with!

It's a Bird. It's a Plane. No it's...

Not so Super Bryan! I did not tilt this image at all, it is of Bryan jumping on the trampoline and then falling down. He is such a goof!

Father/Son Silhouette

I finally got the chance to get a silhouette of Bryan and Little Buddy yesterday on Father's Day (how fitting)! I took some of Bertus and AlleyCat also, but I think they might go on my new website so I will wait to share them.

Fireworks

Homestead Days Fireworks weren't nearly as exciting as previous years, but Little Buddy really liked them. Normally they are held at Chautauqua Park, but this year due to flooding they held them at the fair grounds. This sounded like a great place to have it, but there were races going on at the same time. So instead of being able to sit on blankets and in lawn chairs and watch them in complete darkness, we sat with behind power lines and sheds in front of us, and street lights shining right next to us, while everyone in the race stands was able to sit in complete darkness and see them perfectly. Oh well there is always next year!

Fu Panda... is fa weet

Yep you read that right no typo there! We are heading out to see Kung Fu Panda (aka:Fu Panda in Little Buddy language) tonight with the fam! Upon hearing this Sawyer announced very loudly "Fa Weet", or Sweet in Little Buddy-ese! What do I get out of these deal? A clean van!

Gone Baby Gone

Miss Brainy got her cast off this past week. She is now in the boot for 3 weeks, she is suppose to put weight on it slowly and by the end of the three weeks she should be walking on it with her crutches. The Dr. will re-xray it and hopefully she will be back to normal, or as normal as she gets!

The nurse asked if she wanted to keep the cast and we both agreed that we didn't want that stinking thing anymore. I could not believe how bad it smelled, YUCK!
Miss Brainy requested that I not share the details of the funk and hair she had grown inside that nasty thing, and since I am such a nice mom I choose not to. OOPS!

P.S. I love you

I had been hearing so much about this movie and how great it was I decided to buy the book on Wednesday while shopping with Miss Brainy. I came home and started reading it at bedtime (Bryan had control of the t.v. watching a cubs game). I didn't put it down until 3 a.m. when I finally finished. I love this book, it may not be the best written book I ever read (the author was only 21 when she wrote it) but man did it suck me in and make me cry! Bryan acted slightly surprised when I cuddled up to him at 3 a.m. and bawled like a baby, but by now he knows how much of a sap I can be. Well yesterday I decided that I had to go rent the movie, but the stinkin rental place was out of copies. So I told Bryan that I was just going to buy it since I knew it had to be a good movie since the book was so great. I even went on to say that even if it had horrible actors it would still be good. Bryan said, "Well what if it had a horrible director that didn't follow the book?" I couldn't even fathom the idea that someone would do that! We sat down last night to watch it, WHAT A DISAPPOINTMENT! Bryan was right the director butchered the book it was hardly the same, maybe a few a names where still the same but what about the 6-7 people he cut out, the setting was different (although he did use Ireland for some of it), the story line was different, the characters were so drastically different it was hard to accept some of the scenes of the movie, even the letters were different. So my point is that if you are like me and like to read the book before seeing the movie, you will be sadly disappointed by this one! I think I might have liked the movie if I hadn't read the book!

Models

My niece stayed the night this past weekend and I told the girls I would do a little photo shoot. I posted some of my niece's on the business blog, but wanted to post a few of my girls too. I saved my favorites to put on the new website which should be ready within the next month!

Don't worry there are no more zoo pics

But there are some aquarium pics!! I am almost done posting from the trip to the zoo, but needed to add these from the Scott Aquarium. I wasn't able to get as many in the aquarium as I a had hoped, but I think I got a few keepers.

" I think I will name you squishy, and you will be my squishy!"

Name that movie!

Little Buddy, Bryan, and Badger Boy in the bubble at the penguin exhibit.

More dance images

I tried to do a mini session with The Chatterbox after she had her hair done and before the recital, but it just didn't work. We were way to rushed and she had a problem with her face! She forgot how to smile normal! She occasionally does this thing when the camera comes out where her face just does not work, she bats her eyes, puckers her lips, and makes the strangest faces. I thought we had cured her of this and she had been doing so well, but for some reason during this session she had a bad case of "Fake Face". This is why she is not smiling in these images, sometimes I take what I can get!

It's not Ace Of Cakes

(click on the image to see it larger)
Bryan surprised me with this beauty of a cake for my birthday. Although it is not a Duff creation, I thought it was pretty cool! I love the expressions on Little Buddy's face, I wonder what he was thinking?

Dance...it's serious stuff!

This year was The Chatterbox's first year in dance, and will not be her last. She loooooooves it! She has an awesome instructor and the director of the studio (who I had never met before last night) takes things very seriously! We were to start rehearsal at 4:00, The Chatterbox is in 2 dances and according to the schedule we should have been done by 7:30, but we didn't get home until after 10 p.m.! They ran through almost every dance twice, sometimes 3 times They would stop and Mindy or Ellen would go help the kids through the the problems, show them the steps. Although it did take forever it was nice to see good instructors who took their time to get it right and the kids were having a blast.

It was nice to not be "that mom with the camera", it seemed every mother there had a camera. I even saw 5-6 expensive digital SLR's, but I can be happy to say that from what I could see they were still set on Auto!

More of the zoo

Finally a shot of Miss Brainy on her crutches, less than a week left and we will find out if she gets the cast off. While we were at the zoo I overheard a funny conversation from 2 women behind us.

Lady #1 "When I was on crutches I could barely navigate my own house, let alone the zoo!" Lady #2 "If that was my child she would be in a wheelchair!"

I just turned around and gave them my fakest cheesy grin, just to let them know I COULD hear them. But what I wanted to say was something more like this "Yes if your child is the 5 year old in the stroller that looks like he weighs 90 pounds you probably would have him in a wheelchair. Don't YOU think HE can walk? " What they didn't know was that we offered her a wheelchair, but she didn't want to use one, and she didn't complain the whole time!

The eyelashes on this little beauty puts my kid's lashes to shame!

Look at the monkeys in the window!

The Zoo

We spent a couple days in Omaha last week, went to an Iowa Cubs/Omaha Royals baseball game and the zoo. If you ask Bryan he will tell you that it was for my birthday, but if the truth be told it was really his early Father's Day present. I mean do I look like someone who would ask to go to a ballgame for my birthday?? Geeesh! We had nice weather for the ballgame, a little chilly, cloudy, and windy, but I would prefer that to 90 degree, sweat dripping down your back, sun burnin weather. The zoo trip had a little more clouds, a little more wind, and a few sprinkles but the nice weather sure made the animals in a good mood. It was as if they were posing for the camera. I could have stayed in the big cat house all day if the kids would have let me.

Here's a shot of my little monkey's!
I have a ton of images to share so I will post again soon.

Today marks dooms day in our household!!

We officially have 2 teenagers in our home!!!

Happy Birthday Miss Brainy!

(sorry I don't have any new images to share I will have to work on that!)

Care for a Fudge Bar?

I'm sure he would have shared. He is definitely my boy, he would rather have any other sweet than ice cream. Bryan on the other hand could eat ice cream for every meal, and occasional he does have it a couple times a day.

Coachpitch Baseball

Badger Boy is playing coachpitch baseball this year, which he loves. He has a pretty cool coach!

Little Slugger!
Here he is sitting on the bench pouting because he was forced out at second base. He still doesn't quite have the grasp on good sportsmanship.
Most of the time he throws rocks and dirt clods up in the air or plays with grass and dandelions in the outfield.
Although he does have a good arm if he is ready when the ball come to him.
Safe!
He runs so fast his feet never touch the ground!!

At the park

Little Buddy and I ran to Lincoln today to scout out locations for an upcoming session. We went to Sunken Gardens, which are not the prettiest yet, but the tulips are in full bloom. Little Buddy loves to watch the goldfish in the ponds, and the little turtle we found. He asked to take pictures today so I couldn't pass up the chance. For this image he earned himself a new car!!