My last week and a half of craziness!

Just to clarify, the reason I haven't posted for a while is I've been really sick. I past the week mark yesterday and I still have this rotten stuff. I have fluid behind my ear which causes my throat to be really swollen on one side. My ear has been pounding, I haven't been able to swallow, sleep, talk, think, and for four days, I was so dizzy every time I stood I nearly passed out. I am feeling better now that the dizziness is gone, most of the time, and I can talk pretty well again. (And for someone who enjoys talking, that's a plus!) My throat still hurts but not near as bad and the pounding has reduced as long as I stay on plenty of meds. So other than feeling a little buzzed, I'm doing not too bad. I don't remember a whole lot, which causes my husband a little stress. (Now he knows how I feel!)
As I have said in the next post, I have been helping my parents out at their store during rental season. It's for a couple weeks a year and only a couple hours a day. I pick Lylli up from Verda James and then she and I go to work with Grandma and Grandpa. She thinks it's pretty fun, most of the time. (I'm trading out babysitting with a friend for the other two, so that works out well too.) I enjoy getting out of the house a little and I like to be able to help out!
I've also been plenty busy with garden stuff. I have a nice garden this year and it is producing stuff! (Shane wouldn't let me have one after Seryn was born because he was afraid I wouldn't keep it up. He was probably right.) I have corn, potatoes, zucchini, beans, pumpkins, bell peppers, banana peppers, jalapeno peppers, raspberries, asparagus, and I have a ton of tomatoes (so hopefully they'll turn red before it gets too cold!) I'm loving it!

This is what I picked one day. I often get up to 10 raspberries a day! And this was one of my first cherry tomatoes! I'm getting handfuls now!
I've also been canning! Peaches! I love peaches! I canned 12 qts. of peaches and 12 1/2 pts. of peach jam. Mmmmm. I love home canned peaches in the winter!
Lylli got an inflatable guitar from a birthday party she went to and she jams on it all the time!!!! The sunglasses help her play better and she makes her own plinking noises. She really gets into it! You can't help but laugh!
This is Layla trying to make faces like Seryn. She has the nose scrunching thing down. (I have Seryn's scrunchy face a couple of posts down.) I just have cute girls! What can I say?

First Day of School

Lylli's first day of school was August 18th. She is in first grade and likes it most days. She does think it's pretty boring because she knows everything already. But she says the Promethean boards are her favorite, though I haven't quite figured out what they do on them. She has been helping me out in the store for a couple days now (it's rental season at my parents' music store and I help out of a couple weeks in the afternoons) and that makes her pretty tired but she loves that she has homework some nights! (Strange child!) Anyway, here are a couple pictures of the first day of school!

Aren't they simply adorable! They actually look like they might like each other!!
Layla says she goes to 'baby school.' That mostly means she feels left out and wants to be just like her big sister. So if she says she goes to 'baby school' it not only makes Lylli really angry, it makes Layla feel a little more special. She's so cute with her little backpack. She didn't take it off all day!
Such a goof-ball!
Leaving for school
. Layla in her new clothes and backpack, still, and her silly sunglasses with her mouth full of cheese!

Fun things to do in August!

August has been a crazy month!!! And it's not even over yet! After our family reunion, we went to Northern Colorado for a friend's wedding. It was fun! We spent the day hiking and Shane and Lylli went in the paddle boat while Layla and Seryn took naps. And we just had a nice relaxing time!

Lylli and Shannon Nelson get along great and this is Lylli wearing Shannon's jacket and sunglasses.
Aren't the girls so cute?! These flowers were part of the centerpieces and they stuck them in their hair. Everyone thought it was so cute that all three girls were wearing matching dresses, but I really did it so that I only had to look for one dress three times (rather than three dresses one time.)
No matter what anyone says, it's always nice to be home. And Shane and the girls definitely made the most of it! One of the favorite summer activities at our house is to take the sides off the garden wagon and ride it down the street!!! The kids (Shane included) had a blast! Although, at first, Layla was a little scared and instead of watching Shane and her sister go down the street, she ran after them screaming because she thought they were going to crash!


Shane was looking into buying a new car, an Infinity. But we decided to pay off school loans instead. And he's been looking at a new bow for sometime. So we didn't get the car and got him a new bow instead. (A much cheaper option.) It actually blends in with the trees behind it! (Of course, when the car dealership called with a new number a couple days later, Shane considered it again. But he didn't get it.) He really likes his new bow and hopefully he'll be able to catch something with it this fall!


I know this isn't the best picture of anyone, but I still love this picture. The girls love to play at Grandma and Grandpa's house! And sitting on the couch is always a fun thing to do! (Seryn keeps pointing to this picture and saying Grandpa and smiling!)
Lylli making a sandcastle at Grandma's park.

We really didn't do much school clothes shopping this year because I'm poor, (I just bought Shane that bow!) and they haven't had great sales yet. (Besiedes, the girls have so many clothes it's tempting to just wait until Christmas.) But we went downstairs and pulled out some boxes of clothes for Layla. She and I go shopping for her downstairs! She fits into a dress now and Lylli has one to match too. They are so cute! Lylli wasn't thrilled because she wanted to read her book!
And here is my sunshine pulling faces. Note: she's not mad in any of these. These are just silly faces she pulls all the time. She is so cute! (Seryn loves these pictures. She will point to the picture and then to herself and smile. If you ask her if it's her, she nodds. She's so cute!!!)

Lylli started school today and don't worry, there are pictures. But I thought that perhaps I should see how the day went before I posted them and said how excited she was!

The Dark Knight

Shane came home tonight and insisted that I needed out of the house. So he took me to go see the new Batman movie - The Dark Knight. FABULOUS! I really enjoyed it! And not just because Christian Bale's in it. (Or Heath Ledger - who by the way is pretty creepy in this.) But the story was good and message was good too. The message that sometimes we have to sacrifice what we want in order to help others around us.
Lylli asked me what this movie was about and I told her it was about a man who wanted to take over the world and he did it by using fear. By instilling fear into people, even the most honorable men can turn bad. And that is what the joker tried to do. Get the people to turn on each other. Of course, Lylli didn't quite understand the entirety of that, but it is an interesting thought. Are we strong enough that when things change, we will be able to stand up for what we believe in? Or will we allow fear to rule our better judgement? Just a thought. But an interesting one.