Not Normal

 Its 8:47 PM and we are gazing at a rainbow.

Actually, its a double rainbow.

We are also watching the lightning strike all around the rainbow.  Crazy.

Can You Guess?

Can you guess the Letter of the Day?

What do all these pictures have in common?

A little sister pours some tea in little pink tea cups for her brothers.

(oh they are going to be terribly mad in their teen years when they see this)

 More please!  Thank you!

A night camping in the tent with Dad.

 Two brothers having too much fun!

A terrific night for camping.

And to top it off - Cormac lost another tooth.

Have you guessed??

tea party

tent

two brothers

terrific night

tooth fairy time

YES, the Letter of the Day is "T"!

This truly blessed momma is tired.  Good night all!

Grandpa's Birthday Song

If You Build It, They Will Come

 If you build it, they will come.  

They will sleep.  

They will smile.  

They will have the best night ever.

 They started to build this, but needed a little engineering help.

Surprise, surprise it was their mother who helped them.

 Rex under the card table.  Blase between the playpen and the little couch.

Cormac is sleeping between the end table and long couch. 

Stephen is under the piano bench which is holding the blanket between the long couch and coffee table up.

And this is what is going on outside.  The camera only caught the extra bright flashes.  I am not exaggerating when I say that there are flashes constantly.  I hope someone gets rain and I hope no one has a fire.

UPDATE - we had rain and lightning and thunder and some hail in the night.  It kept me awake off and on until after 2 AM.  All the plants look so green this morning.  What a blessing!!

Happy Birthday Blase

When did I get so old?  My oldest turned 11 today.  That's a short two years away from a teenager. 

 He had a great day filled with gifts and fun.

Did he get enough presents?? 

From Gianna 

 S'mores and M&M trail mix from Brech.

 Star Wars Legos from Rex.

 Rocks and Minerals cards and 100 Paper Planes to Fly (100 papers you can fold

 into 4 types of paper airplanes) from Cormac.

He also received Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory from Stephen.

 Shirts from Mom and Dad.  He opens this presents and says "You've got to be kidding me!"

You see, last night he picked out this shirt at Cabela's.  He was going to pay his dad back for the shirt, but instead received it as a present.  "You've got to be kidding me!"

 

 A new, quite nice Bible and a missal for church.

 The whole enchilada!!

 He put the Star Wars Legos together right away.

 I folded some airplanes for his brothers.  He was such a nice young man to share.

The boys had me hook up the computer to the TV and watch Kung Fu Panda

 "Secrets of the Furious Five" on Netflix.  And since it isn't good enough to watch

 it on the TV alone, Brech had to watch it on the computer TOO.  He's a goofball. 

 Good birthday memory.  There was a lot of laughing during the movie.

 Happy Birthday Blase!

 These cool cupcakes had rings on the top.  I cheated and had Wal-mart bake.

 Happy Birthday to you...

 Someone get a bucket of water - its gonna start a fire!!

Everyone picked their "Avenger" tonight.

Oh Where Oh Where Has Our Blogger Gone?

Oh where, oh where has our blogger gone?

Oh where, oh where can she be?

With five busy boys, and a sweet little girl.

Oh where, oh where can she be?

Where have I been?  In the last 2 weeks I have been busy, tired, lazy, visiting, laughing, playing, and a bunch of other things.  Last Friday we jumped in the van and headed to South Dakota, again.  We arrived late at night (or early, early in the morning).  Saturday morning found Blase and Darren helping move cattle at the Gebes Ranch.  Saturday afternoon we attended the Brech Family Reunion.

 You didn't see Brech at the Brech Family Reunion.

Well, maybe you did see him.  He didn't sit still very long so hopefully you didn't blink.

Mental note - when attending a family reunion make sure that Darren attends WITH you from the beginning when its HIS family reunion.  Mental note number two - do not attend family reunions on 110 degree days with a bunch of little, tired kids.  Mental note number three - remind Cormac NOT to Kung Fu fight NO MATTER WHAT!!!!  As soon as Darren arrived I took everyone but Blase back to the ranch and out of the heat and temptation to start any more problems.

Sunday morning we hung out with Darren's parents.  We attended Mass in Spearfish in the afternoon.  Then we booked it to the Mark Park for dear Shelby's 8th birthday party.  Volleyball, lasagna, cake, swimming, and LOTS of playing.  It was a good day.

Monday we spent a lazy morning catching up with my family, including Peter, Mauri, and sweet Bella Kay.  We made it to Darren's parents in time to have lunch with them.  Then we began the 6 plus hour drive back to Fargo.  It was a long, frustrating drive home.  I pretty much decided I'm not up to doing any more long trips until John's wedding in November.

Some other things I accomplished in the last couple of weeks have been:

Figured out school for the 2012-2013 school year AND ordered books.

Worked on MY herbal school course (learning about eating well and its impact on our health).

Laundry.

Ordered pictures of Gianna and put them all in order, waiting to buy a photo album to finish that job.

Figured out an Azure Standard order.

Weeded some more of the garden (getting closer to being 100% caught up).

Mailed pictures of the kids to aunts and uncles.

Downloaded some audio stories for the kids for school.

Chiropractor appointments for all the kids and myself.

Listened to a few webinars on essential oils.

Don't forget the daring attempt to take all the kids to the fair by myself.

And of course the normal cooking, cleaning, dirty diapers, etc.

So hopefully you understand why I haven't posted much lately.  We haven't really taken many pictures to share.  We haven't really done anything overly worth posting about.  We have just been living live one day at a time.  Probably boring by most people's standards.

I will have to say that it has been a change having Blase back with us after being in SD for a month.  I am having to cook more at lunchtime, set out an extra place setting, and wash more laundry.  Who knew one kid could make such a difference - unless that kid is a growing almost 11 year old boy.  We are glad he is home.  Darren said he has noticed a change for the better in Blase.  Personally I haven't noticed that much difference, but I am attributing that to him having to establish himself as the "one in charge", pecking order kind of thing.  He has been better in some regards, but in others he is still the annoying big brother causing trouble.  Who has to deal with that - Mom, who is home with him all the time.  All that aside - it is still great to have everyone back under the same roof.

This weekend we have NO major plans that I know of.  Probably some yard work.  Most likely gardening.  100% sure church on Sunday.  Maybe a trip to Grand Forks if I can talk Darren into it.  I haven't been very far north since we moved here.  I'd like to say I've been at least that far north.  PLUS, there is a Cabela's up there.  It shouldn't take that much arm twisting to get Darren to take us up there one of these weekends.

Regardless of what we do this weekend it will be a family weekend.  We need one of those.  I hope your weekend is full of fun and family!!!

Fair Time at the Fair

The kids and I spent a good portion of yesterday at the fair.  We showed up around 1 PM for the free admission and stayed until around 7 PM.  We visited the 4H building, the FFA building, saw lots of animals, ate giant freeze pops and met some new friends.  Want to see what else we did??

 We saw a bear show.  This is Ginger.  Her and her brother Fred are European brown bears.  

They were used as inspiration for the animations on Brother Bear.

 This is Fred.  See Fred sit.  See Fred pretty much beg for honey or dog biscuits.

 This is Ginger showing off her balancing skills.

 And this is her dancing.  Pretty good dancer.

 And finally Ginger can play basketball.

I didn't take too many pictures of Fred.  This is Fred doing somersaults.

Getting a kiss from Fred.

 Next we spent a bit of time in the petting zoo.  Not the best picture by any means.  Cool zebra though.  They also had some zebu, a macaw, a few other special animals.

 They also had an African Spur Tortoise.

 We fed some very greedy goats.

 "Mom they spit on my hand.  YUCK."

 The boys were lucky enough to sit inside this.  

We couldn't take any pictures of the inside - secret stuff you know.

 Suckers are yummy and sticky and wonderful and sticky and most of all sticky.

 Watch out for the gator show.  Scary stuff!

 Getting the 8 foot gator out of his hiding spot.

 tail splash

 twisting around

 sitting on the gator

 Caught.

 We were very close to the action.

 They got to pet a little gator named Wally.

 Farmer Cormac

 Sunflower Rex

 The little ducks slipped down and then...

 climbed back up.

 Petting a little chick.

Holding an even SMALLER chick.  It was super tiny. 

 These are Stephen's hands.

 A fun cage for the chicks.

 Ummm, didn't know they sold Easter poultry pre-decorated.

 Milkin' a cow.

 Milkin' a cow.

 Milkin' a cow.

 And you guessed it, milkin' a cow.

 Needing some sleep.

 

RIDE TIME!!! 

COOLEST.  Ever.  wow. 

 How fitting that they were in the General Lee.

 Rex and Stephen on the motorcycle ride.

 Oh, oh, oh, ok this is fun.

 Reserved Stephen.  Maybe half a smile towards the end of the ride.

 Brech Earl did NOT want a picture.  Get this show on the road already.

 Cormac's rocket.

 Brech and Darren in the silver, Cormac in the green right behind them, and Stephen right behind him in red.

Stephen in the red, Cormac in front of him in green and you can just barely see Darren and Brech.

We had a great time.  It was hot.  It was dusty.  It was a fair.