giggles!

Since I am on the Alexa video kick, I thought I would throw this one in from this afternoon.

yucky bananas!!!!

Sunday boredom

Ainsley has some CRAZY idea that Sunday we are supposed to totally entertain her completely. Nobody else gets any attention. Naps are not on her approved list of things to do. Whatever. She doesn't rule this roost (currently Alexa does!)

BUT, I did tell her I would make some hair accessories with her to appease her craving for attention. Here is the bounty we ended up with.


She's sporting one of the headbands she made for Alexa, too.




And here is Alexa with one of the MONGO flower headbands. Her head is so small it looks especially weird. I can assure you this will not make it out in public. Ryan did suggest she could wear it as a potted plant on Halloween!

Flashback Friday

I told you I loved this month of Fridays!!!
Ryan's mom always made them really cute Halloween outfits. I thought that not only was this darling, but he looks a lot like Brandon.
ahhhh. So cute.

Packages!!!!

I haven't been posting a lot lately. We've been so busy, but not with anything in specific. And, to be truthful, things have been kind of depressing around here. They had lay-offs at Ryan's work, so he's been in a mood. Lukckily, he's okay, but a few good friends aren't. It really gives me a sad heart.

SOOOO, I thought I had better post something a little uplifting. It's definitely needed. Just in time, came a package from Grandma Joy!! I LOVE packages. Any kind is good (amazon or ebay included!), but ones from people who love you are even better!

The kids were absolutely thrilled. They received tons of goodies, including mini-pumpkins and gourds from their garden. That was the biggest hit. They have spent all night coloring on them.

Hopefully this is the beginning of a happier autumn...It's always been my favorite season!

Flashback Friday

Oh, I am loving this flashback Friday month already.
This is like the only halloween we had costumes. Usually my mom let us fend for ourselves. My dad was a junior high teacher and would often bring home confiscated items. For like 3 years in a row my sister and I would wear roach clips in our hair. They had feathers on them and we thought we were Indians.

What I love about this picture is my sister's "prncess" costume. Remember how cheesy the bought costumes back then were? Man! That is bad!
Joe's mustache is classic, too.

And BY THE WAY, I think I would love some wallpaper like that in my house!!!!!!!

I can't wait to show more cotumes next week....

Another Scout Camp...ugggghhh

It has taken the leaders a few months to recover from our last scout camp, but we couldn't put the boys off forever, so Saturday was another adventure. In the spirit of letting the boys be more responsible, we let them plan it. They insisted on mountain biking at Four Peaks. Since none of the leaders had a clue where that was, we let them decide where we were camping. Right HERE! they insisted, a few miles up the dirt road. Where they chose was the intersection where every car, truck, quad, and motorcycle passed by ALL NIGHT LONG! (It didn't matter much, because I've long since given up trying to actually get any sleep on campouts.)

There was a really fun loving group camped next to us who boosted their bass bumping music until 4 am. It was the first time in years that I've actually heard Vanilla Ice...Ice Ice Baby...Nice!

Of course when you take that many scouts biking in Arizona, someone is going to crash into a cactus. Sure enough, one of our scouts couldn't quite seem to keep his bike on the two-lane wide dirt road and ended up in the prickly pears with about a 2 inch cactus thorn in his thumb. It took two leaders to hold him still (my job was to pin his arm against the trailer and keep his thumb still) while a third leader pulled the thorn out with a pair of pliers. The tweezers were no match for that thorn. You would have thought we tore his whole thumb off judging by how bad he screamed, danced, jumped around, etc. (Some of our scouts are such babies.)

Now for my biking experience. First, it's been YEARS since I went mountain biking. My brain still knows how to go as fast as when I was racing in High School. My body knows how to rebel against the wishes of my brain in a big way. It was a bit uncomfortable when my muffin top belly kept getting in the way while I was pedaling. That didn't used to happen. I can still out-ride a 12-year-old but it's not a gimme. I was hammering up one little hill (after about 1/4 mile) and darn near passed out. Luckily, I broke a piece on my bike, so I had an excuse to limp back to camp and sit there before anyone saw me throw up. Gotta love the scouting program!