end of summer blues

the summer is officially over for us now that raylee has gone back to north carolina. we had such a sweet time with her and miss her so much already.

we're back to the usual routine here. dame is working and i'm home with the kids. today is raining so we're having a pretty laid back day. i'm glad the kids and i went for a walk to the park yesterday while the sun was out. i think it's supposed to warm up again soon, though. we'll see. the weather is definitely changing already, cooling down and gearing up for fall.

maddie had a dentist appointment today (which she's been looking forward to since her last check-up six months ago). unfortunately, her teeth are in great shape so she won't have to go back for another six months. ;)

and that's about it! oh yeah, pregnancy news: i'm still pregnant. ha. :) perhaps i'll finally get damian to take a "belly pic" so you all can see how fat i'm getting. then again, maybe not. we'll see. ;)

thanks for reading!

some silly kids

apparently, damian and i aren't the only crazy ones in the family. the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. or should i say, apples . . .

the county fair

during one of the hottest weeks this summer, the county fair rolled into town. damian and i decided in advance that, yes, we would take the kids to it this time around. thankfully, the morning we went turned out to be slightly overcast which cooled things down quite nicely. by the time we were leaving, the sun was coming out and it got hot fast. so praise God that He made our day there so special --even down to the perfect weather! :) here are some pictures i took:

they had to stop the ride to let madeline off. she's not as brave by herself. but that's perfectly fine for a little girl her age. especially since she's extra brave when raylee and dad are with her! here they all are on the kiddie roller coaster:

this is what kept noel preoccupied the whole time since he was too small to ride anything. no, it's not pepsi. it's a slushie. :) he's always happy as a clam to be out and about in his stroller. so with the added treat, it was an extra fun day for him.

damian had to actually signal the guy operating the 'tilt-a-whirl' to stop the ride. it just kept going and going and going . . . and everyone riding (except madeline) kept getting greener and greener and greener . . .
and finally, the highlight of any fair for me --the animals!! we spent most of our time there looking at the cows, chickens, goats, sheep, rabbits . . . it was great.
noel loved the animals too. every one he saw he pointed saying, "aah, baby!" so that's it --our day at the fair '09. i hope it's really memorable for the kids since they probably won't be back until the fair of '19 (SO expensive). ;)

Oak's Park

alright, i'm back. ;) let me take a look through my camera's memory card to see where i left off. . . hm. . . oh, my mom and i took the girls to oak's park. actually, i should give all credit to my mom since it was her treat. i just tagged along. :)
madeline was so very excited to go on her first roller coaster. there's a spongebob episode where he and patrick go on this insane roller coaster where they lose their spleens and maddie has been wanting to do that ever since she first saw it. go figure. i'd be freaked out, but not our maddie! but first, she went on the 'tilt-a-whirl' with raylee and my mom. she loved it so much, she and ray rode it two more times before we continued on to other rides (my mom was a real trooper to do it with them the first time).

next, the girls ran to the roller coaster. thankfully, it's a small kid-friendly coaster. but it overwhelmed poor maddie and she cried through the entire ride. after she got off and came to me for a hug, she immediately said (with tears still in her eyes) that she wanted to go again. so go again they did! and again! i guess once she knew what to expect it wasn't as traumatic for her. that and the 'tilt-a-whirl' where her favorite rides. here's a pic of raylee on the roller coaster (i forget why maddie isn't with her):here are some more pictures from our time there. maddie loved the slide until she got in trouble with the guy monitoring at the top. apparently, kids aren't allowed to go down head first and maddie didn't handle it well when he stopped her. ;)

thanks, grandma, for the fun day!!

blagh!

eeeew! i just sat down to do some catching up here on the ol' blog with a cup of coffee i prepared for myself this morning --yuck! too much cream! not enough coffee! (normally damian makes my coffee for me. it's pretty sad that i don't know how to do it "the way i like" myself.) anyway, i must remedy this before i continue...

lemonade for sale

here's a picture of our little entrepreneurs. raylee asked if she could set up a lemonade stand last week so, after a moment of hesitation (last time the girls did that i ended up doing all the work, so i was having flash-backs of the numerous lemons i squeezed for them to get bored with the idea by the time i had it all set up for them anyway), i remembered that i had some kool-aid brand lemonade packets in the pantry and then agreed to the idea. so there wasn't as much for me to do. they made four dollars. one dollar was the "change money" i put in, which ended up being maddie's share in the profit --raylee kept the rest for herself claiming "i did all the work." ;) they both had a really good time and i enjoyed watching them have so much fun together.

and the baby is ... *drum-roll, please*

if you haven't already guessed by the color i'm typing in . . . dame will soon be the father of his 4th daughter! :) we're calling her emma so perhaps it will stick and we'll write that on the birth certificate. no middle name yet, so let me know if you can think of anything that goes well with that name. much to raylee's disappointment, though, we've already decided against the names roxy, bella, and flossy. so if you can think of something other than those names. . . :)