Leaving the past behind....

Life comes with problems

"For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin -- real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be got through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life."

-- Fr. Alfred D'Souza






The first requisite of success is the ability to apply your physical and mental energies to one problem without growing weary.




Nothing in the world can take the place of persistence. Talent will not; nothing is more common than unsuccessful men with talent. Genius will not; unrewarded genius is almost a proverb. Education will not; the world is full of educated derelicts. Persistence and determination are omnipotent. The slogan 'press on' has solved and always will solve the problems of the human race.


Calvin Coolidge (1872 - 1933)











"You can't leave one foot in the past while moving forward into the future"


*Our whole family had the privilege of watching this little cicada emerge from it's "old skin" into his new body & we all found it fascinating (I forgot to grab the camera in time to get pics of him half-way in his "shell"). It got me thinking...isn't it funny how the simple things in nature can be so profound sometimes :-)
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Because you NEED to see more pictures...

...of my kids/family!

Maya is turning into such a "ham".

Saturday night we got to watch "baby Z"...Maya LOVES her cousin SO much!

OK...he has got to be the cutest baby EVER!


Maya and Zion learned how to work the "Sit-n-Spin" together!

WHEEEEEEEEEEEEE! (Ignore that sweaty hag in the background...she was to lazy to shower after she ran Saturday morning).



* I forgot to add a little "side note" a few weeks ago. Last month my Grandma made a surprise visit to KC, and we got to have her over for dinner. Of course, this called for a "4 generations" photo!

28

This past Friday I turned 28....what a weird age. I think the only thing I'm feeling at the ripe old age of 28 is....."older". I've done lot in my 28 years, most of which I'm pretty proud of :-). Most women my age are still "thinking about" getting married & don't plan on having children for another 5-10 years. Because I've been in the "trenches" of motherhood since my early twenties I think I feel "older and wiser" now :-). Of course, considering that most people who pass me on the streets think I'm 35 or so...well, I guess I'm finally starting to look as old as people think I am! Let's hope the thirties are kinder to me-LOL!

Can you believe I don't have a SINGLE picture of my birthday! Nope...not one! Maybe that was a subconscious thing, because I wasn't too excited about this birthday. I did have a great weekend though. On Thursday Tricia scheduled a pedicure for the two of us, and after the pedicure we grabbed a bite to eat together. It's such a rare thing for me to get to spend any time alone with my sister(s), that I was just in heaven getting to do that with her. On Friday Jonathan took me out to dinner & I had the most amazing salmon (at the "mystery" restaurant).

* I think 28 is a great age to "stop" at! Most people want to stay at 21 forever...but 28 seems like a good stopping place for me. So, next year on July 20th I'll still be 28...alright?

Vacation Pictures!

Last week we took our first "real" family vacation to Branson. I'm sure future vacations will include more "interesting" places...but those sort of places require more than 3.5 hours in the car & we have learned well from past "long-trips" that Chandler just isn't ready for that kind of adventure yet. So...Branson it was! We were there for 4 days and three nights & every one of those days was full of amusement park fun from sun up to sun down! We skipped White Water this year, due to the fact that I'm fairly sure we wouldn't have been able to assign a private life guard to each of my three children (that's what it would take to make it out of there with all of them still alive....I'm not even kidding!). For the most part I think everyone had a great time. It was cute to see the kids get SO excited about all the little things like cotton candy, free 3D glasses, and junky little dime store toys, you know....all the stuff adults no longer think is "exciting".

Here are a few pictures of our Silver Dollar City/Celebration City fun!


I have to admit...this was the s-l-o-w-e-s-t carousel I have EVER been on. In other words...it was just right for Maya :-)

Chandler and Maya on the bumblebee's.
*Yes...Chandler is all wet (he found a "trick" fire truck that shot water out every time you pulled a certain lever...wheeeee!)

McKenna and Maya on the planes (notice the absence of Channy...he was banned from these planes after he JUMPED OUT of his mid-flight...talk about fun!)

McKenna's all time favorite ride at Celebration City...the "up-y - down-y" ride. She rode this one AT least 20 times during our visit.



This giant rocking chair was a hoot! Everybody wanted their picture taken in it.

We got to meet "Bob and Larry" at the Veggie Tales sing-along show! Chandler thought that was SOOO cool to get to meet his idol, Larry!

My three little monkeys!

At Silver Dollar City McKenna got to make her very own rag doll. She wore her little rag doll around her waist, just like the little pioneer girls used to...how sweet!

My little "slide addict". She had to climb TWO flights of stairs to get to the top of this slide & she must have gone down it a dozen times that day. She slept very well that night-LOL!

Watermelon!

4th of July Fun!

We were a little worried at the start of the evening because it was raining...no...POURING! But the rain eventually cleared and we got to go outside. Maya was still worried the rain might return, so she "covered up" before heading out!


The kids watching the black "snakes" grow.

Maya was quite surprised at how loud fireworks can be!


We had a GREAT view of the fireworks display this year & Maya loved every minute of it!


Sparkler fun....

fun...

fun!


Blueberry pie...a 4th of July favorite at our house.

Well, McKenna likes the whipped cream :-)

Channy even tried it...but he's not as big a fan as the adults-LOL!

Chandler's Birthday Party.

A few quick pictures of the "Spiderman" party :-)


The Cake! Always my favorite "gift" to my kids (this one took me nearly 3 hours to decorate...darn web costume!).


Chandler was so excited about the cake! ALL DAY long he asked me is he could have cake yet!


BUT... "someone" paid Chandler a visit right after he blew out the candles on his cake & he completely forgot about eating cake! (*I LOVE the look on his face in this picture...forget cake....)


It's SPIDERMAN!!!!

It's not every day you get to see the "real" Spiderman-LOL!

*Thanks Uncle Jeremy....um...I mean "Spiderman"!

A happy ending...

A few weeks ago Jonathan had a going away party at the 810 zone (very cool place) & I thought I'd share a few pictures. We had a great time visiting with everyone who dropped by to say goodbye. Jonathan was really touched that so many people came by to wish him well. We will miss all the awesome people he got to work with. It really was like being part of a "family", & leaving felt pretty sad because of that.












Mark: I'll frame this picture for you to put on your desk ;-)



Dave: THANK YOU so much for organizing the going away party. You're awesome (but you know that-hehe!). We will have to drop by and say "Hi" the next time we are in the neighborhood. The kids miss the loading dock-LOL!