Obsessed

I have been obsessed lately with looking through pictures. Partly because I have been trying to clean up some of my picture files and also because I am currently obsessed with scrapbooking again. I do not know why on Earth I quit doing it for long periods of time because it truly brings me joy, but I guess life gets in the way!

Anyway, here are some recent pictures that I have taken lately that I love. They are not posed but I love the personality that they captured.


I love this picture of my "twins" It amazes me how much Hope is looking like Kyle these days and I love their sweet relationship!
I love the expression on Hope's face in this one! She loves the moon bounce and here she was playing in it:)

Here is my attempt at capturing one of the bazillion butterflies that have been hanging around our huge butterfly bush in our yard. We have really enjoyed watching these beautiful creatures this summer and I just had to take a picture of one!

We are off to the doctor for school physicals this afternoon. I cannot believe it is time to do this again, but we must! My grandfather is holding his own in the hospital as of today and he MAY get to come home to my parents house this weekend sometime. They are getting a hospital bed brought into their house today as well as lining up the oxygen tank to be delivered. I cannot believe we are at this stage already, but I am so thankful for everyday he is still with us. We will go there tomorrow to see him again:)

I just wanted to journal a little bit about what we have been up to lately. The last few days my beloved Grandfather has taken a down turn in his fight against COPD. He is now hospitalized after a very scary episode at his house on the lake (in the country).

I took the kiddos (I still type boys often in reference to my children and just did it again) up to the hospital to see him this morning. I was nervous about taking my less than obediant David to the hospital, but I am SO glad that I took them all.

We ended up at the hospital the same time that my mom, grandmother, and my brother were there. We actually got in big trouble with the nurses for having too big of a group, but frankly I could care less what that nurse thought. Often my grandfather did not have the air to talk with us, but he just laid there listening the best he could with his inadequate hearing aids and just smiled and jumped in the conversation when he could. If he tried to speak, we all clammed up and allowed him the floor.

I know that our days with him are numbered but this morning was such a gift to us all. My kids waltzed into that hospital room without any hesitation. They kissed his cheek around his oxygen tubing and they were never phased during one of his coughing jags.

I want my kids to not be shielded from the harder parts of life. Unfortunately fighting COPD is a crappy part of life. (Sorry for the harsh word, but that is all I can think of that describes this dreadful and scary disease).

They have asked to go back to the hospital tomorrow, and if that nurse nazi is not on duty then I will drive them back to the hospital to spend time with PawPaw.

On a fun note, yesterday I had to take Kyle to the pediatric dentist and we would probably be gone about three hours roundtrip. I hired our beloved babysitter to play with David. Hope was so enamored with her that I let Hope stay and she made it three hours with a cute, teenage babysitter while I took Kyle to the dentist! My little girl is finally getting over her "mommyitis!!"

Slipin' and a Slidin'

Unfortunately, we are on the back end of summer, and I am getting super sad about it. We have been trying to work all the "fun" stuff in and this week we got out the new slip&slide that Dave got for his birthday!

All three kiddos loved it, and we were so lazy that we did not even put on bathing suits to enjoy it-that is how summer rolls around this house:)

We even took it a step farther with our "redneckness" by bringing outside a bottle of shampoo with us. I unhooked the hose, stripped the wet clothes off of their grassy bodies and we took a hose bath outside right in the driveway!! You are welcome to nominate me for "mother of the year" for that one! HA! I had just mopped the floors and the thought of three grassy-legged children running through my house brought out my OCD tendencies!
It was fun to see Hope get her slide on!

David had difficulty staying on the actual slide, and bless his heart, his belly is all scratched up today!

Look at that little grin on that baby girl!

Hope may be our biggest water baby yet and she loved sitting beside the slide and getting wet by the spray:)

David broke the "no carrying Hope rule" to carry her back up the hill to slide again.

This picture makes me laugh so hard! David has been a wee bit of a challenge lately-perhaps the lack of structure is catching up to us, but anyway, I told David that he had some grass on his nose and he insisted to try and lick it off!!!

Today we worked in a big, long trip to Hungry Mother with some friends in our effort to suck the life right out of the remaining days of summer. Despite David's strong will these days, it has been a fun and active summer. Hope will miss her little playmates when they go back to school.

Hope is talking like crazy these days and we are all enjoying teaching her new things everyday. Kyle has been asking daily for ANOTHER baby, preferably a boy. That shocks me so much, and we have tried to explain to him that we feel that our family is complete right now. Today he shot back at me and said "Uh Mom, you and I both know that only God knows big stuff like that!" Yes, baby God does know everything, but this tired, sunburned momma definately feels that her plate runneth over at this time!