School pictures are here!

Ryleigh and Landree!

1st day of school!

Don't know why I can't keep up with blogging, but I am caught up and my friend just introduced me to the blogger app, so I am hoping to stay on top of blogging. School recently started and so for a couple of hours in the mornings, I am by myself. And, although I have stayed plenty busy, I feel like I need to be working or something. I guess when you are so used to doing something for so many years, you get used to it. The summer didn't feel like that but that was because I had three little ones here keeping me busy. And, boy, did the summer go way to fast!

School started on September 10th and all were excited about going to school, so it made for an easy day!! Here they are:

I love these girls so much and I can't believe how fast they are growing up. SLOW DOWN girls!

Remembering Grandpa Ray

Grandpa Ray finally went to meet up with Jesus and be with Grandma Leora again after praying for it for 4 years. He passed away on August 22nd, 2015. He was an amazing man and was such a big part of my life. I grew up and lived the first 13 years of my life only 9 miles from him and my Grandma. My brother and I spent so much time with them. I remember certain books that he specifically read to me, probably while my grandma scratched my back (she had the best nails for it)! I remember him tickling my feet and saying, "it's just a fly!"  I am pretty sure that none of his grandchildren have ticklish feet because of him doing this. Haha! My grandma was an great cook and he always praised her for everything she did. I don't know if I ever saw them mad at each other! He treated her with so much respect. I do remember them always together hand in hand....now they are holding hands again. They were great dancers. They both enjoyed baseball, she liked the Braves, he the Cubs. They were an amazing couple and loved by many. Every year during the summer, they rented cabins in Nebraska for themselves, their children, grandchildren and great grandchildren when they started arriving. I heard they started this in 1982 when I was just 2 years old and I'm hoping it still continues this next summer.  It still makes me teary just thinking of them as I write this. I am one lucky lady to have had them in my life as long as I did, but it just doesn't seem quite real yet.

The picture inset is at Ponca State Park, Ponca Nebraska. 

He had a military funeral and is was one of the most memorable funerals I have attended. He fought for his country during WWII and what an honor this was!

Legion riders lined the sidewalk leading up to church entrance.

My brother thanking the legion riders for their service. 

Three Marines saluted as they drove Grandpa by and the held this pose until
all family and friends were parked. 

Two Marines folding the flag. 

The family coming out to see the legion riders.

Here are some pictures of my Grandpa:

visiting grandpa

Grandpa and I when I was just a little baby.

He loved to play with the kids.

Then                                                          Recent

My grandma and grandpa and I when I was a little girl.

My grandma and grandpa on their wedding day

A bunch of August!

August was a busy month. We bought some books from Drew "the bookman"! I love these books. We bought some from the same company when I was pregnant with Ryleigh and so they have withstood three children using them and they have learned so much from them, so we decided when the salesman came to the door that we would buy some for the next phase of our the girls' learning. These books are a little old for Reese, but she will soon grow into them! And they are perfect for the other two right now. We took the two little girls to Ribfest one evening while their big sister was at a birthday party.

Then the girls saw these bad boys at the mall at the beginning of the summer. I finally caved after they wanted to spend half of their spend money to ride them. We actually went to the mall on a day where it was not busy and the girls rode these things well over an hour, but we only paid for 15 minutes. Reese was a little scary and kept running in to things at first but after finally getting the hang of it, she got it down. I am just really REALLY glad that it was not busy at the mall that day. 

Diva

Reese learned to ride her bike without training wheels. You tell this girl she can't do something and she'll prove you wrong! She was whiny about it one day and so I told her I'd put the training wheels back on because there was just no way she was ready. 2 hours later.......riding her bike without training wheels or me!

These tree frog decided to spy on us watching a movie one rainy night. Isn't he cute!

I can't tell you from the beginning of August until the end how much we visited Sibley park to make sure mama donkey hadn't had her baby yet. She was due the beginning of August and of course the little baby girl donkey finally decided to arrive while we were in Nebraska for my Grandpa's funeral. So, of course, when we got back into town, this was the first place we had to go. She is an adorable little donkey and had no name the last time we went to visit her a couple of weeks ago. 

They had baby pigs, too. 3 weeks old. 

Landree loves the baby goats. 

Then we hit up an awesome fun filled birthday party for our friends: Taylor and Paige, who turned the big 9. They picked up all the girls at each of their houses with a party bus. We rode the party bus to the Children's musuem, then to Dino's pizza where the girls had a pizza party and made their own pizza's. FUN TIMES!