snow and more snow

Two days of snow and two days of no school. They are not used to snow where we are so the little bit that we do get....everything shuts down. Of course because Tiger works in Saint Louis he has to work..... rain, snow, sleet and whatever comes. So looks like I will driving to take the girls to their orthodontist appointment to get their fitting for their braces.

Finally got a base doctor to set an appointment for my root canal and just my luck...."snow day".

Happy Birthday Tiger

My parents came to visit and Tiger and I had a weekend out. They surprised Tiger with a bbq birthday lunch when we returned. What a wonderful surprise.

The little boy you see at the table is the one that I have been taking care of since September.

Giraldine's Birthday

Happy 13th Birthday Giraldine

Sorry it took me so long to post. My girls are growing up and I am so proud of them.

Happy Birthday!

BIRTHDAY SONG...

BIRTHDAY WISH...

Dad had to remind her...you only get one wish.

BIRTHDAY BLOWOUT...


Happy 14th Birthday Breana!

Since Giraldine was sick we all were not able to go to the homecoming football game. Bree and her dad went and we were able to finally do her cake on Monday night. Gifts for this year were dinner, cake and a check. Keeping it small from now on. If anyone who knows Bree it isn't always that "small". :-)

We love you Breana!

Mascoutah HS Homecoming Parade

The day of Breana's birthday was also the high school's homecoming parade. If you look closely you will see Bree on the truck representing the High School Tennis team.

I happened to be at the park across from the middle school with my daycare children awaiting the parade when.....I got a call from the school that Giraldine had a sore throat and fever. It was convenient that I could just walk over and sign her out. Poor Giraldine had to wait untill after the parade to get home.

Peach and Apple picking with Daddy....

There is a farm that has peach and apple picking then of course during the fall months there is pumpkin picking...

The one Saturday that Tiger finally has off we went apple and peach picking .... just like he promised.

First day of School and Seminary

Breana waiting for her ride to Seminary. The boy's mother that lives on the other side of our housing comes to pick up Bree in the morning one week and I take them the next week. Which is awesome. Another mother then picks them up from seminary and she catches the bus near their house off post. Bree is gone from 0530 untill 1730 every day because she is on the High School tennis team...can you believe "High School". On game nights she isn't home until 9:30pm.

First day of School

Giraldine and Emilee waiting for the bus. Since Bree is now going to seminary it is just the two of them at the bus stop this year.

Emilee's 2nd grade teacher. She is still getting to know her. Everytime I ask what she thinks about her teacher, she changes the subject.

I later found out that Emilee has been placed in an advanced class. So the teacher I suppose has to be a little stern. That is something that Emilee is still not used to.

In the arch

In 1804 Lewis and Clark began the journey to the west. Many years later, the idea of the Gateway to the West was coined. The other day the family took a journey to the Gateway to the the West.

The very top of the arch stands 630 feet from the ground. Although we were pretty high up, the view below was spectacular.

Thanks to modern "zoom" buttons on cell phones, we got some pretty decent pictures. The green top building is the very old St. Louis court house and of course, the baseball field is a picture of Busch stadium.

We took a ride aboard the "Tom Sawyer" riverboat, where we were happy to catch a picture in front of the Arch from the river.

*Yet another post created by Bree, from a mother's view*

Fourth of July

This year we decided to go to Six Flags for the fourth.

I got sick after the first ride and stuck to the water rides after that.

Giraldine's Talk

Elder Orson F. Whitney qouted:

"The Lord's plan is perfect, his commandments have inviewed the salvation of the body as well as the spirit, for it is the soul that will be redeemed from the grave and glorified. God has commanded us to care for the spirit as well as the body, and gave it food in due season and He set aside the Sabbath day that man might rest from his temporal labors and go to the house of the Lord and be fed with the influence which nourishes the spirit of man. That is why we meet on the Sabbath day. Our spirits need their food, the same as do our bodies and if we neglect them, they will starve and dwindle and die upon the same principle that the body will die when deprived of it's proper nourishment."


What an awesome talk she gave.

Joon, the Before and the After

You have seen the before of Joon (which we decided to name her). Finally after two weeks wait after her spaying, we got her groomed.




BEFORE:

AFTER:

When she came home Sparkles thought she was a completely different dog, but after a few weeks they began getting along. We are finally beginning to see the other side of Joon as they play more together, before she was sooo mellow but it turns out that she is not as mellow as we thought.

Ducks, Ducks, and more Ducks

I decided to take the kids to a duck pond to feed the ducks. There were a lot of ducks and very little bread. Even when the bread ran out, the kids still enjoyed watching them swim back and forth.

Such pretty Ducks.

Watching for ducks.

Of course the older girls chose to stick around the baby instead.

*Created by yours truly, Bree*

Lions and Tigers and Bears, Oh Yeah!

My children, daycare children, and me at the zoo. The zoo was a blast, but we didn't enjoy the extremely hot temperature.

We saw bears of all sorts, penguins of different sizes, and the petting zoo for children. After the day at the zoo flew by, everyone was exhausted and decided to take a nap afterwards.

*created by yours truly, Bree*

Sink or Float

Grandma and grandpa came into town and one thing on our list was to learn to swim. They took the kids to the pool and we had a blast trying to stay afloat. The neighborhood center here offers an indoor pool. Nothing here is nearly as nice as Fort Bragg. We have to remember we are on a very small Air Force Base.

The girls take a dive into the pool and race off against each other. They had so much fun, so did grandma and grandpa!

Giraldine and Breana enjoyed their time to swim and would not stop for a break until the time came to leave.

Emilee decided to join in on all the fun and decided to learn to swim herself. She starts off simple with the classic doggy paddle. Of Course with the additional help from grandma and grandpa. She works real hard to keep up with her sisters.

*created by yours truly, Bree*

Addition to the family

The girls and I went to the local kennel and adopted what the vet say is a Shih Tzu/Lhasa Apso mix. We knew she had to be mixed with a dog that was pretty long in body. She is about 2 years old. We were told that she was seen being thrown out of a car. After a long hard search for a small breed dog and almost purchasing from a breeder we decided to adopt and help save another animal. She needs a bath but because she was just spayed we have to wait for the long needed grooming appointment.

Sparkles is still getting used to sharing her space but is doing pretty good. We wanted to give Sparkles a playmate but the dog we adopted is soooo mellow.

Car Wash

We spent most of our Saturday doing a car wash to raise money for girls camp. We weren't so busy at first untill we got our first three white cars. The cars had done much traveling as we could tell from the much needed scrubbing on the front bumpers. By this time we were exhausted because we got the extremely beautiful day that we had prayed for after the golfball sized hail we had gotten the evening before. Only we didn't expect it to be so hot!
Breana got a tan believe it or not....

We weren't getting much business at first so I called Tiger to bring his car out. By the time he made it out there with Emilee, we were swamped with cars. So needless to say he got a quick wash and there was no time to dry. "LOL" Emilee even pitched in to help.

Giraldine working hard on the tire.

By the end of the car wash, we couldn't keep people away. One guy left and brought two of his friends back to get their cars wash. We finished an hour and half after the time we had planned.
What a great job the girls did!