Camping

We went camping while we were in Colorado. I forgot how much I love to camp in the mountains. It's cold, it smells wonderful and it's just fun. It was strange to wear coats in the middle of August. I don't know what the temperature was at night, but the next day when we left it was 52 degrees at 11am. I wanted to stay forever.

Samuel aka SamSam

Brenalee and Kayleigh

Tyler and Brenalee

This was right before we went camping, aren't they so cute??!!

This is a wolfum. We first had these 6 years ago on a camping trip with our friends Kate and Travis. You can see the stick in the right bottom corner of the photo. It's a refrigerated biscuit that you put on that stick, then roast in the fire until it's cooked. Then you take it off the stick and it's got a hollowed out middle that you put cherry pie filling in (or whatever pie filling you like) and then spray whipped topping on the top, then you wolf it down. They are soooo yummy.

Kim and Kayleigh

The s'mores

Derek and Tyler roasting some hotdogs

Grandma, Derek and Brena

Random posts

My posts are pretty random right now. I just got back from vacation and have lots of photos I want to upload. But, Kmart was doubling coupons again, so you know I couldn't miss out on that! I got some pretty sweet deals, and I am getting ready to go back today and do it again. I only paid $3.58 for everything pictured above!
(8)packs pudding
(2)softsoap body washes
(2)softsoap hand soap
(2)scrubbing bubbles toilet gel
(1)pack bic razors
(1)pack chinet plates
(4)boxes rice krispies
(2)Ajax dish soap
(2)boxes honey bunches of oats
(6)boxes Kellogg's cereal
(2)chef boyardee
(1)Renuitz air freshener
(1)Clorox wipes
(4)trident gum (should have been 8, they were stuck together and I pulled them apart - then today realized they were supposed to be stuck together because they were buy one get one free! I hate it when I do dumb things)
(4)Nabisco snack cups
(2)Revlon Hip eye make-up (forgot to put them in the pic)
(2)Dove Deodorant

Family

I LOVE Colorado. We stay outside all day and play. It's not hot like Florida and sitting in the shade you hardly know it's summer. Brena rode this stick horse all day, when she wasn't on the hammock or swing.


Tyler always gets a haircut by Grandma when he's in town.

Brenalee, Tyler, Analise, Levi, Anthony.

The best corn on the cob ever, Olathe Sweet!

Brenalee is 4!

Because Brena's birthday is in August (9th to be exact), she gets to sometimes spend her birthday in Colorado. She got to do it this year. She was so excited to have a birthday with her cousins. Of course Kim ended up working that weekend (she's a L&D nurse) and so her kids weren't there. But, the rest of her cousins were.






I didn't even realize we were dressed alike.

I'm sure you can tell, I didn't make the cake this year. That's Stephanie's job when we are in town.

Happy National Cheesecake Day!

YIPPEE!!! It's National Cheesecake Day! My sister Kim flew into visit me for a week (LOVE HER!!) and she has never eaten at The Cheesecake Factory. Then we found out that it was National Cheesecake Day! So, we went and got our cheesecake today :) She got the new kind, Red Velvet - yum-o! I had my same Chocolate Mousse and the kiddos got Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip cookie dough. And, Tj thinks he gets to come visit this weekend on a training flight, so we picked him up a piece of Oreo Mudslide just in case he gets to come home tomorrow.

Frame

And we have a house...sort of. It is so exciting to see it go up!


This is Brena's room - she has a huge walk in closet! Not as huge as mine mind you :)

This is our Master. We have nice views of the lake out our windows and a lovely trey ceiling, that you can kind of tell is there.

This is the view of the kitchen and the "cafe" which means dining room.

Obviously the back of the house.

And the front!

Foundation

We have a foundation!!!!!!!!! Maybe we will have a frame of a house next week.

Tae Kwon Do

Tyler started Tae Kwon Do back in June. He is my kid that we haven't really found "his" sport. He tried soccer and t-ball and he didn't really care for them all that much. He wanted to do something else and the sport that was currently available was Tae Kwon Do, so we gave it a try. I can't believe he actually likes it! He really, really likes it.

4th of July

The kids had a wonderful 4th of July. I have been sick all week. So, TJ took them to the church party on the 4th. They had horses for the kids to ride! Brena came home so excited to tell me what they had done. They also had a bike parade for the kids. When it finally got dark we enjoyed some sparklers in the backyard and were treated to a display of fireworks from all the neighbors. It was a good night! Hopefully I'll feel better soon!

Doing something...

I finally tore myself away from my husband's side to do something other than watch House Hunters. House Hunters is our new favorite show while Biggest Loser isn't on. Anyways, ignore the really ugly picture of me - I woke up this morning with pink eye. So, I had to wear my glasses all day and no make up, that was really hard to do! TJ went to the gym and took the kids with him, so I decided to work on a quilt.

And, the County finally gave our building permits to the builder! We have the beginning plumbing! YEAH! And, for those of you who are concerned, no there are no alligators in the pond. I keep trying to get a picture of all the turtles and fish, but every time I take my camera over there, they aren't there. For some reason that I'm not really aware of, these retention ponds are ALL over Jacksonville. We have one right now in our backyard. You really can't walk more than 10 feet without seeing a retention pond, seriously, they are everywhere. They are actually a good thing, and a coveted spot, because then you have no neighbors in the back of you.

The best Father's Day ever!

As most of you know, TJ left for Maine earlier this month. He completed SERE school on Thursday (if you don't know what that is...google it...) and I didn't think we would be seeing him until the end of next month when we closed on the house. Well....the house is of course delayed. Only our house though, no other house is delayed. Something about building permits being lost by the County or something like that. Anyways, I know there has to be a reason for all of it. One of the reasons is that TJ got to come home! Yep, he flew in yesterday. So, we got to spend Father's Day with him, and it's his 31st b-day today too. It was a pretty sweet day. And, he gets to stay with us for 3 WEEKS!!!!!! Can you see the smile on my face? :) If we had been closing next month, he wouldn't have been able to come home now and again next month. So now he's here for 3 weeks, and he'll be home again at the end of August. YIPPEE!!! He is doing great after SERE, just a few minor issues that should resolve themselves in time. He did eat a rabbit eyeball...raw! EWWW! And he is only at 17% body fat, but we'll get him beefed up in no time!

He requested his favorite, red velvet cake made from scratch...I'll have to share that recipe later.

Single Mom

WHEW! Being a single mom is not for the faint of heart! I am exhausted at the end of every day. All I can do is fall on the couch at the end of the day...I am afraid my little blog is going to be very neglected for the next year, along with any other hobby I have! Being Mommy and Daddy and raising my two babies is all I have time for now. Thank heavens I don't have to work too! Maybe once fall starts and they are both in school I will have some free time. I really, really hope this next year without TJ passes very quickly.

New dress for Brenalee

When we got back from Pensacola, all our accumulated mail was waiting for us. In the stack of mail there was a package from Grandma (my mom). We opened it and found this beautiful dress for Brena inside. Thanks Grandma for the dress and the Magic Treehouse book for Tyer! We are already on Chapter 3. Brena is getting quite spoiled with all the dresses that her Grandmas keep sending her!

I didn't even dress them - Tyler put on a green shirt all on his own to match his sister.

The back

Pensacola Blueberry Pickin'

I feel like I have been in hibernation or something from my blog. I needed to get my mind off the fact that my life is somewhat different now. So, I headed out to Pensacola and stayed with my wonderful friend Kim. We had a great time at the beach, picking blueberries, baking, baking and baking some more! Thanks for a great week Kim!

House update

Our lot finally got cleared today! You can imagine how many times we drive back there hoping to see some progress. Well, finally we got some satisfaction! 2 months to go...

Front of lot.

Back of lot

Tyler got stung by a bee...

Brena taking some pictures