rodeo.

This little rodeo is one of our favorite family traditions. We didn't go the year that I was 8 months pregnant with Gretchen, but I think we've gone every other year. Click here to see a sweet little 11 month old baby enjoying her first rodeo. 

Gretchen still wasn't a big fan of the wagon ride to the gate. She loves horses and cows from a distance. 

This might be my favorite picture from the whole evening...

Somebody looks pretty cute in their little boots. They have pink sparkles on the other side.

I think momma needs some cute boots...

I'm noticing in these pictures how sparse the crowd looks. It really is a well attended rodeo, which is pretty crazy, considering it's in a teeny tiny little town. This side of bleachers fills in more as the sun goes down. 

The clown this year was really funny...

Sophie had fun keeping track of the cowboy's scores...

Cotton candy sky...

Love these messy little pigtails...

The clown cornered this mom and little boy on his way to the bathroom.

And then it was too dark for pictures.
And I was holding/wrestling a wiggly, silly little girl with messy blonde pigtails.

(Lawson saw me working on this and grabbed our 2010 blog book to look at the rodeo pictures from that year. Now he's looking at every single page saying "Remember this?! Mom! Look at this! Hey, I forgot about this!" Told you we love those books.) =)

blog books.

In the middle of the all the craziness this summer, I somehow managed to get these done... 

I set a goal to get them done and ordered before we moved. I knew once we moved that there would be no time to work on them. And I was right.

Oh, how I love these books and the memories that they hold!

I'm up to 7 books now. My first one started in June 2007. I've had to do a Summer and School Year book the past two years.

I still love every single thing about these books. Zero complaints at all.

I have a friend that works on hers throughout the year. That's a great idea, but I've never been on the ball enough to do it that way. I just wait until the year is over to start on it.

So fun to go back and look at my blog headers... (and yes, I've been lazy with the Back to School header. I've just changed the year for the past 2 years. It's a busy time of year, you know.) =)

These memories are even more special to me since we moved. I love being able to go back and look at the faces of these friends and remember the fun times we had!

These books are pretty popular with my little people, too...

One of my most treasured possessions. All 7 of them.
Blurb.com is amazing.
The cost breakdown, since I know some of you are wondering...

My school year book is 381 pages. (You are allowed 440). I always get the ImageWrap cover option (the most expensive, but totally worth it!) and just the standard paper. The total was $101.95, but I found a coupon online for 15% off. The total with shipping came to $94.65.

My summer book is 169 pages and came to $70.94 with shipping. (And their shipping is super fast! They always come sooner than they say they will!)

If you're thinking about making one, you should absolutely do it!
You can take as long as you need to while you're working on it!
I promise you... you will not regret doing it!

the friendliest flower.

18 days old. 

And still just as happy. 

Daisies will forever be my favorite flower.

weekend progress.

This was all actually accomplished last weekend. 

During my crazed attempt to organize this house. 

Apparently I'm running about a week behind on everything in my life right now. Seriously. 

Craft room before... 

Craft room after... 

Playroom before... 

 Playroom after... 

This was actually all Sophie's doing. She can be a great little cleaner when she wants to be. She does like things clean and having empty floor space. But she's a great little "stasher," too. I remind her often that picking up means putting something where it actually goes, not just sticking it somewhere. (Ex: look under the art table...)

I really do love this space and am so glad we have it. 

(Although I do need to figure out an alternative to the giant mural on the wall...)

Spray painted a frame and finally got my happy little print displayed. I really love it. And it's the perfect reminder for me right now. This is HOME. It might not feel like it right now, but it is.

I have it hanging in my laundry room (right off the kitchen... which I love!) along with one of my favorite pictures of us on our honeymoon. I envisioned framing this in a white frame, with a fun, colorful mat. But white frames don't look good on white walls. (All these white walls might be getting to me a bit. I miss my colorful walls.)

My happy little laundry room. This is the first time I've ever had laundry on the main floor and seriously... I am loving it. I am way more efficient with laundry now. (Plus... our basement is a tiny bit creepy. So I'm thankful I don't have to go down there every time I do laundry.)

Wishing this was a 3 day weekend.
I hate feeling behind already on a Sunday evening. Blah.

kiss on the cheek.

"But he said to me, 'My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.'
Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, 

so that Christ's power may rest on me." 

2 Corinthians 12:9 (NIV)

I have a sweet friend that would call this "a kiss on the cheek." 

God sending me a little reminder... just when I need it. 

His grace is sufficient. 

His power is perfect. 

I am so, so weak right now. 

But I can do this. 

Through Him... I can do this. 

Thankful for that little kiss on the cheek. 

weekend.

I have big plans for this weekend. 

Not plans that others would consider big, though. 

Maybe more like big goals for this weekend. 

Goal #1: Organization. 

This house is making me crazy. 

It's time for some serious organization. 

Between this house and school, I'm still feeling overwhelmed. 

But I'm past the "this makes me so overwhelmed, I just want to cry" feeling. 

Now I'm at the "this makes me so overwhelmed, it just gives me a headache to look at" feeling. 

So I'm hoping to use this weekend to conquer the chaos. 

As soon as I finish this post, I'm starting by making myself a list. 

It's been a couple weeks since I made a list on my cute little clipboard. 

That's crazy, right?! You know how I love my lists. 

I have a new system for school lists, though. 

It's been a life changing thing for me. Seriously. 

Check out my Stickies... 

If you have a Mac, you must discover these. Different colors... you can make them just little strips and stack them up... and they are always right there on your desktop. No little pieces of paper to keep track of. I love them. Love, love, love. 

But I still need my cute clipboard list at home with my weekly to-do-list. 

I have started a few Stickies on my Mac at home, but it slows me down and distracts me to open my computer to look at a list. But I do have a few lists going... a random to-do-list (things that I need to add to my clipboard list), a Walmart list and a blog post ideas list. (Obviously not doing too well on that list lately.) 

In other randomness... (because that is how my brain is working right now)... 

* Corey caved and subscribed to Netflix through the Wii. We were trying to save $$ by only getting basic cable. We went ahead and got a DVR so that I could record the shows that I like to watch. (I hardly ever watch anything live.) I also figured I could have several kids shows saved so that they could always have something to watch (Arthur, Kratt's Kreatures, Super Why, Little House on the Prairie, etc.) 

Lawson loves it. (He's our techie kid. I have no idea how he figure out some of the things he knows how to do.) His favorite things to watch are "Phineas and Ferb" (which Gretchie says as all one word), Billy the Exterminator and the old school Power Rangers tv shows. (Wow. Some of those special effects are... I don't even know the word I'm looking for. Pretty special, that's for sure.) =) 

The Wii remotes were never getting put away though, because they were out so much more often. Happy I kept this cute little box from my favorite 1st grade teacher next door to me. (Who just had a baby yesterday!!) (fyi... Abby was my favorite, too. Just she wasn't next door. She was my favorite 1st grade teacher 2 doors down.) =) 

And just for those of you who think I am exaggerating about the disorganization that we are living with right now...

Isn't this just what you want to see when you first walk in the door? Ugh.

(fyi... that used to be a fountain under the stairs. Isn't it pretty? We're hoping to figure out a fairly easy and inexpensive way to make it look a little nicer and use it for storage.) 

Some of these pictures found a home last weekend. Others got packed into a Rubbermaid container for the basement. (Which has never made it to the basement and is still sitting in the exact same spot it was a week ago.) Ugh. 

Then there's the craft room...

and the playroom... (which quite honestly will probably never look much better than this. It's pretty much completely off on it's own in the house, so I'm okay with it staying somewhat messy. I'll do some work in here, but I won't expect this room to be organized all the time.) 

Ok... off to make my list! 

And feed these darn kids.