Tuesday, August 26, 2008

"tree hugger"

Can you find JB in this picture?
This is a tree that Max eventually had to cut down because it was a danger to the swingers. We also eventually got JB unstuck from the tree.

Tropical storm Fay...fun?

Gloria with her pink princess "berella".
It kind of defeats the purpose of rain boots when you fill them with water from the pool and dump them on your head.
Although I'm sure we didn't see the ugliest side of Fay (like Florida did), we sure are getting a lot of rain from the tropical storm and yesterday some tornado activity that didn't quite make it to Prattville...whew...although we did spend some time in the storage-area basement. No escaping tornadoes even after leaving KS!

Sand tent


We are using the old collapsible pool as the sandbox. Max bought lots of bags of sand from a home improvement store and JB helped poke holes in the bottom of the (former) pool so that the water would drain through...should water "happen" to get in there. We bought the tent to keep out some of the water, some of the bugs, and most of the leaves that fall from the many trees. Isn't my husband resourceful and creative? I think so.

Outdoor fun


Swings on Steroids

Max has built a kid swing, an adult swing, and a baby swing out in back of the house where the land slopes down so that we are swinging high over a valley...what a rush! The adult swing is the one that JB swings on in this movie. The kid swing has strong rope hanging over a high tree limb (all limbs are high here) with a plastic/rubber kid swing rated to 150 lbs whereas the adult swing has 100 ft of chain hanging over an even higher limb with a plastic/rubber kid swing rated to 350lbs. One of these days we will video the full potential of each swing because they can go a lot higher and further than you see in this movie. The big dead tree that you see in the foreground as you are watching the movie Max cut to a stump about four feet high and we can now use that as a launching pad, which makes us go really high up in the trees. The kids are not allowed to use the adult swing without our supervision. Their swing goes high and far, but if they are playing on it by themselves they are not able to get themselves out far or high enough that it would be a significant danger.

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

And Another...


Here's a small lizard of some sort that also likes to "bite" onto ears and fingers. The bites don't hurt, as you probably guessed. Just call it "live jewelery".

Happy Birthday #4!

Gloria on her decorated princess throne with her much-loved balloons.

Gloria eager to open her presents


Books from Great Gramma Gloria!


Gloria got a box full of princess dress-up stuff, including hawaiian crown with lots of ribbons, a butterfly wand, a feathery boa, a feathery princess fan, a hawaiian princess skirt, and more! She also got the princess slippers, all from her loving king and queen! She's also wearing a very nice real piece of jewelery that her Aunt Kristin (Gramma Shell's sister) gave her that is silver and has a beautiful pink stone in it...she must be a real princess!


Gloria blew out her candles one at a time and it was driving JB crazy he wanted to help her blow them out so badly. We kept reminding him that it will be his birthday in four months!

Bremer Book Club

Of course Benaiah has the chapter book.

Monday, August 11, 2008

A beautiful scene

Lake Swimming


JB and Gloria had lots of fun swimming with their dad in the lake. At first Gloria jumped in not realizing that she would go under and that she wouldn't be able to stand. I rushed onto the dock from my spot on the bank because Max was still fishing on the other side of the lake and Gloria was panicking in the water. Good thing she had her life vest on! This is when Max decided he would get in and swim with them and she starting jumping into the water no problem.

Max brought his bathing suit, but I forgot the kids (as you can see) and my bathing suits.

Fishing


JB is getting very good at casting and reeling in.


Gloria holding the bucket of worms.


The lake on the Brenners' land is lots of fun.

Visit to the Brenners!

Max's family has some long-time friends (the Brenners) with whom he grew up and homeschooled with in Colorado...the Bremers and the Brenners. They are well established in Mobile, AL, which we are happy about this year because they are only three hours away! We miss Nathan and Stephanie and their kids who now live in Washington State, but we get to see them in Colorado every so often...not enough!

Here's a picture of Ben Brenner playing with JB and Gloria.

Another "pet"


There are tree frogs all over the place here. We took pictures of this one because there is a debate in our house over whether the frog that JB keeps catching is the same one every time or if he catches different ones. This one is about 2 inches long without stretching out the legs. The one of the frog on its back makes me laugh, not in a vicious sort of way, but because I think its cute.

JB's Accessory


If you ask JB what he's wearing he'll either say a "Gecco", a "skunk" or an earring. It's actually a baby skink, but he'll get it one of these days.

Monday, August 04, 2008

Okay, something not so fun about the forest....

My first encounter with yellow jackets happened yesterday as Max, JB, and I were clearing out some brush that Max had cut down and we were piling into a ditch. Clearing out the place of brush makes it more usable and nicer looking. However, there are risks involved in living and enjoying a place like this, insects and heat (and the occasional falling dead tree). We were all sweating yesterday after moving just a few branches and Max had heat exhaustion the day before after going for several hours of work in the heat and humidity without eating. This kind of "taming of the wild" is his (and sometimes mine too, although sometimes shopping sounds better:)) way of de-stressing. Outdoor work can feel so good sometimes...I know, strange coming from a city girl.

Anyway, I stepped in a nest of yellow jackets. I didn't know this until I felt an acute stinging pain on my temple underneath the bandana I was wearing on my head. I ripped off the bandana and held my head, then started feeling the stings other places, like my lip, leg, and wrist. Max yelled, run for the house! Max, JB, and I all ran. Fortunately, JB only had two stings, one on his chest and one on his forehead and he took it very well...all he said was "man, those hurt!" We stripped inside the house to get all of the yellow jackets out of our clothes and killed any that were still alive.

I can't speak for Max (who also got bit...or stung... on the head, including near his eye) but my stings hurt like the dickens (what are the dickens?) for a few hours after that. I looked like I had lip enhancement on my upper-lip with the swelling, and my temple pounded. Max immediately went out and sprayed the hundreds of yellow jackets that were angry and flying around and then went to the store and got more spray as well as yellow jacket traps. They are mean insects! I took two Benadryl and some aspirin and felt "out of it" for the rest of the day (probably due to the anti-histamine).

I'm thankful that we found it before one of the kids stepped in it and got bit all over, especially Benaiah, who doesn't tend to wonder in the forest anyway, but does spend time walking outside around the house. Thank you, Lord, that it wasn't worse!

Friday, August 01, 2008

Monkey Boy




Here is one view from the back deck. The kids decided to try out the swing set today. Benaiah decided to try out the grill tools.

Benaiah reading

"Devouring" his book


Doesn't this make you just want to eat him up? I do that several times a day....