Early Bird....

Our sweet little Amanda, what are we to do with you. Amanda has developed a little condition...it's called Early Birdism. Tee-Hee. Lately, she has been waking up when the birds in the tree outside her window wake up. And, since the sun now rises at about 4:30 in the morning, she thinks that it's time to stay up. We are so exhausted we can't stand it. Sarah won't go to sleep until 11:00 pm and now Amanda is getting up between 4:30 and 5 am. We have tried so many things to stop this...we've rearranged her room so her head is as far from the window as we can get it, she has a white noise machine and we've turned it all the way up, I've put a heavy blanket over the window to try and block out the light...and now I've gotten a digital clock in her room and taped a piece of paper to it with 7:00 written on it and told her she can't get out of bed unless the clock matches what's on the paper. Dave is a little skeptical that this will work and, truth be told, so am I. But, I thought we would give it a try. I might have to purchase a shotgun and go target shooting one morning. :0) This is just so not like her. She used to sleep from 8:00 pm until 8 or 9:00 am. Oh, we were so spoiled I just don't know what to do. Any suggestions from anybody out there? We will try almost anything.

Lori's visit

Last week my best friend Lori came to visit us. We didn't do a whole lot while she was here. But, we had fun playing with the girls. Amanda had the best time playing with Lori. She would wake up every morning looking for her. We went to gymnastics to watch Amanda, she really enjoyed showing off for us. We also went to the library, had a picnic lunch and played around the house. We had a really good time. I can't wait to take the girls back to visit Lori and maybe visit the beach. We'll see if Amanda will go in the water this time. In the past she's run away screaming. Thank you Lori for coming to visit us. We really had a great time.

First Taste Of Marion Berry Pie

No, that's not lipstick you see on those cute little lips. Grandma introduced the delicious taste of marion berry pie. She lllloooovvveeedddd it! After her first bite, she stood next to Grandma's chair with her mouth open for the next bite. She looked just like a baby bird begging for her worm.

Play Date

Last week a couple of friends came over to play. I thought to myself what a great opportunity to get some camera practice. I needed to work on my action shots and the kids were very happy to show me all their moves. Below you will see a slide show of them.

Ally and Aden are a couple of Amanda's friends and when Sarah learns what a friend is, I'm sure she'll say they are her friends, too. They had so much fun playing hide and seek, I just had to take pictures. I thought they turned out pretty well. I can't wait to practice on them again. Let me know what you think.

Check out my Slide Show!

Busy, busy, busy!

Wow! A long time has passed since my last entry. Sorry about that. We've been a little busy around here. For the past couple of weeks we've been doing some home improvements to the back of our house. Watch the slide show below and you will see the highlights in pictures. Amanda helped Dave to measure the old back deck. Then, she helped to scrape the old peeling paint off the back wall. We spent another day applying a couple layers of primer and then another day laying down the paint. She had so much fun helping us with that.

After we got the painting all taken care of, Dave tore up all the old decking. What a messy job. He was covered with grim as you can see from the photo. Then over the weekend, Dave, my dad and my brother Greg spent a couple of scorching days putting the new decking on. They worked so hard on such hot days. But, oh how beautiful the deck is now. Thanks you guys, you did great.

Check out my Slide Show!