We gathered with some friends the other night for Tylers birthday! Tyler is the son of one of Chris's friends and he is also a friend of ours. We've spent far too many late nights playing video games with this kid for us just to call him the son of a friend. It was a lot of fun hanging out with everyone. Poor Logan decided to play with their cat and he's allergic so his face got all puffy. You can see his eye all squinty in the picture. Brett loves Tylers girlfriend Brittney so he spends most of his time chasing her around. It was fun and I enjoy good friends who are real friends. They're very rare to find and I'm thankful for the very few we have.

Tyler turned 20!

Poor Logan shouldn't have played with the cat!

Tyler Brittney and Brett trying to get away

Russ and Brett

Brett & Brittney

Emily Gayle

Dan & Nikki

Check out The Purple Pickle!

Brett had his cast taken off the other day. I video taped it for Chris cause he couldn't be there and it's just so cute to watch how good Brett is for the doctor. I wish he would be that good for me all the time :p

This is hillarious. For anyone who doesn't know my son Logan is a huge Star Wars fan... all my kids are actually. This video is of Logan building a "blaster" some kind of gun they use on Star Wars. He's building it out of his lego blocks and you tell me if you recognize the tune...

Our little birdies have grown so fast! I took the first picture on the 11th and now three days later the second picture is what they look like. There is no longer four in the nest, it seems one has decided to leave and I'm sure the rest will follow in a day or two. I would have left too that nest is crowded!

Poor Little Brett! On Wednesday him and Logan decided to play Superman and they climbed up on the top bunk which is a NO NO because that's Emily's bed... Well Brett finally learned why it's a NO NO because he fell off the bunk bed and fractured his forearm. He has been so good about getting a cast and going to the doctors. He even got to pick the color of his cast! We're going to take a sharpy with us to church Sunday so everyone can sign his cast.

Today was a good day. My StepDad (Ken) and StepBro (Jake) and Sis (Sarah) came to visit for a while. Ken is here doing some training before going to Iraq. Chris got him some fishing lures and we wandered around checking out all the stuffed critters and the fish. We went and got some food afterward and got to visit for a while. It sure makes me miss my mom even more. Emily was a little upset when we talked about Ken going to war but she has such strong faith she knows if she says her prayers God will be right by his side. We'll be praying and waiting for him to come home. Pray for my mom too as she's going to be facing difficult times being away from him for 15 months. I love you Mom & Ken.

The birdies have hatched!!! I've found out that these are little baby Robins. So far it looks like there are three of them and one of the eggs hasn't hatched yet... it might be a dud but hopefully it hatches soon. The mamma bird is getting really protective now. Whenever we get too close she flies away but lands on a branch of a tree across the yard and watches us till we get far enough away that she'll come back.

We have a cute little birds nest in the little tree on the side of our house. This bird family built their nest right at eye level (to me) and there's four little blue eggs waiting to hatch inside. I haven't been able to get a picture of the mamma bird sitting on the the eggs cause whenever I walk outside she flies away. I can't wait till the eggs hatch so the kids can see the little birdies. We'll have to keep a good eye on them to make sure they grow up into big strong birdies.

I think I posted once about my neighbors before... I can't remember how long ago it's been but I do know that I am getting tired of looking at this out my front door every day...

Chris and I plan on putting our house on the market soon and I dread thinking of anyone coming to look at our home with this next door... Scripture says to Love Thy Neighbor and I start feeling guilty whenever I get upset over the horrible mess next door... but to love thy neighbor means not to with hold good from someone when you can give it to them. I suppose being annoyed over looking at their junk every day isn't not loving...

What about complaining to city officials to try to get the mess cleaned up??? We've complaine twice and both times were told they would be notified to clean up the mess or be fined... I know that the neighbors rent their house and I'm sure the landlord isn't going to like to have to pay fines because of their mess so I wonder why after they've lived there for over three years the city doesn't enforce the rules of clean property.

I'd like to hear other people views on the situation. Do I just keep ignoring it or go and file another complaint? Keep in mind that we now have snakes around our home when we've not had before they moved in and cluttered up the neighborhood. We also have had mice this year worse than I've ever seen. We never had mice before. Now I don't know for sure that the neighbors are to blame but they also have little dogs that they let roam the neighborhood and their dogs carry trash into my yard. I am always picking up nasty food wrappers, cans, diapers and other such trash out of my yard because the wind or their dogs bring it over. What would you do?

Ok everyone prepare yourself now because this is probably going to offend someone. Just know that if I tick you off I love you and I'm not trying to be rude just honest.

Here it is. My soapbox issue for the day. I am sick and tired of people making God look bad. I know it's impossible for anyone of us to be perfect. I know I screw up a lot and I am far from perfect. HOWEVER I do know that what I represent to the world as a Christian reflects upon God and every other Christian person in this world.

I will never be perfect but slowly God is molding and changing me to be more like Jesus Christ every day. Sometimes I move backward in my walk with God instead of forward but the progress is more forward than backward I can say this for sure. I fight temptations and lose a lot of battles but with Gods grace I win a lot more. I am learning that every day the way I conduct myself reflects who God is and what it means to be a born again believer of Jesus Christ.

Ok here's the really mean part so you might want to take this with a grain of salt. I am sick to death of all the fakers in the world making God and Christians everywhere look bad. You're either in or you're out! You can't be both. Be honest and be who you are. If you're truly a follower of Jesus Christ then don't EVER EVER be ashamed of him and pretend to anyone that you're not. This means quit cussing with your friends and drinking and ignoring God. YOU'RE MAKING THE REST OF US WHO TRY LOOK BAD. I know we will never stop sinning until God brings us home to Heaven but you can at least TRY!

If you're at all confused in what I've just said read the book of JAMES. It's in the Bible yea I know you might have to dig to find it or dust it off but you'd know how to live right if you'd read it. Most important of all I'll list this one for you so you have no excuse... James 2:17 EVEN SO FAITH IF IT HATH NOT WORKS IS DEAD BEING ALONE.... If you didn't understand that because of the confusing language... It means that you can say you believe in God all you want but your faith is DEAD if you don't have any good works to prove it! You can't lie to God and you can't lie to the world. So quit being liars and stop making the rest of us look bad and just be honest.

Ok I'm done now. Stone me if you want.

This is a special post dedicated to Grandma Pam. Emily, Logan and Brett each got their very own brand new bicycle today from Grandma Pam. They got helmets and pads for safety too. Thanks so much to Grandma. She misses them so much living all the way over the ocean in Hawaii and they'll be thinking how special she must think they are every time they ride their bikes. Thank You Grandma!

Emily got to climb up on the roof with her Daddy and Grandpa the other day. They were checking out different spots to find a leak and decided to put shingles on the whole North end. Emily was very proud of herself up there on the roof as you can see from the pictures.

We went to the Discovery Center in Springfield today. It was really fun. The kids enjoyed checking out all the different stations they had and they learned a little bit without even knowing it. Emily liked the big echo tube. She already had it figured out when the girl was explaining it to us. Emily said it was like a big cave. We had a really good time and went with a homeschool group from church. Great fun and great company.

Emily doing some weighing..

They're having a Japanese tea party...

They got to do a little grocery shoppin...

Emily gettin' some practice brushin' teeth...

Logan crawlin' around...

Brett drivin' the dumptruck...

The firefighters are gonna go put out a flame...

We worked on our garden yesterday! Crystal came over and helped it was great we're going to have twice the garden as last year. I can't wait.

This was so funny. Emily and Logan were playing Karate kids and Brett just had to join in...

Today was such a nice day. The weather was warm and the wind wasn't too strong. It's been crazy windy here for like a week and brrrrr cold. Yesterday was nice and we went to the park so when we woke up to another nice day we again went to the park. Today we went on a nature hike if you can call it that. We took a lap on the jogging trail at the city park. Yesterday at the park the kids found someone's kite that had lost it's string. We repaired it with the tail to fly it with. It can only go so high but it's fun for the kids. They flew the kite yesterday and again today. We tried spotting birds on our walk and I got a couple pictures. We think the picture we got was of a robin. It's cool too because we must have got him right as he was getting ready to fly off because his feet aren't touching the tree limb. Emily searched for pine cones and found a couple that Brett later threw in the creek... We had to fish them out down stream. It was really a great day and it's a day I never would have had if we hadn't decided to homeschool. I'm so thankful for all the days like this we'll have together and I'm just sorry about all the one's I missed having them in public school.

Poor Logan... Today was a bad day for him. He was being such a good boy playing one of his video games when along came little brother! Brett had gotten one of the paintball gun barrels out of the box we keep some stuff in and he whacked Logan right across the face with it. He gave Logan a bloody nose and cut his eye up real bad. I'm not sure if you can tell from the picture but there's a big bump and the cut is pretty deep. We decided he didn't need stitches, hopefully we're right. Brett got in a lot of trouble and Logan really has been soaking up the attention. Chris keeps asking him if it still hurts but Logan says it doesn't. He keeps touching it though so I know it's still pretty tender. Hopefully he doesn't get a big black eye to go along with it. Logan has a scar on his other eyebrow from a fall when he was about two so I'm sure he'll now have a matching scar on the other side. I'm sure he'll be proud of them when he gets older though... boys always are aren't they?

Today was Volunteer day for the Homeschoolers at the Nursing Home. It was the first thing we've gone to for the Homeschoolers co-op and we really enjoyed ourselves. We got to meet two other families and Emily was excited about seeing other kids. Everytime she meets more homeschool kids she gets excited because when she left public school she was worried she'd never get to play with kids. We met three nice ladies that were sitting at our table. Miss Maxine, Miss Myrtle and Miss Emma. The kids all helped put together a little flower craft. Emily did one with my help and then her and Logan helped Miss Maxine do one. Miss Maxine let Emily take it home with her and I think we're gonna get a picture to put in it and bring back to her sometime. I think it's so great that people go and visit folks in the nursing homes. I'm really glad we went today and it was great to get to meet more homeschooling families.