Purple Rose or Ben the Toad

Okay, okay, okay. I know it has been a very long time since I have blogged. Well, our old computer died on us, and we just got a new one. So now I think you are all caught up on what has been going on here. But now for the "Toad Saga" are you ready?

So here's what happened. Justin went to Mexico for the weekend and I painted the girls room. On Saturday night, I was finished with the purple so I went outside to wash off the paint brush. When I moved over to the light on the porch, I saw something move on the rocks. At first, I thought it was a mouse, then said to myself "No way!!! Is that a toad?" . When I got closer, I realized it was actually a toad!!! And it was HUGE!!! The size of a softball. So then I first ran in to get my camera to take a picture without getting too close. My solution to get rid of the ugly thing was to spray it with the hose, but it just jumped down the side of my house. I didn't want the thing to get into my backyard with Lucie, so I called my dad to come and get the thing at 9:45 at night.

So then my dad came and captured the darn thing. It did put up quite a fight, though. The kids wanted to go with my dad to let the poor thing go around the corner, so I let them. They came back about a minute later. The dang thing had jumped out of the bucket in the back of the truck and jumped into a small hole that led him between the bed liner and the truck itself. I couldn't believe it. Didn't he want to be free? So my mom and dad spent the next half hour trying to get the thing out. The only thing to do was to grab it, but the kids were too scared to grab the thing. So we decided to leave it until the next morning to see if it left on its own. But it hadn't, so we had to wait until after church. That night we thought of a name for it. If it was a boy, it was Ben the Toad. If it was a girl, Purple Rose.

So after church we went over to see if it was still there, and it was. So we kept trying to get Rhett to stick his hand in there with a glove on to grab the dang thing. But he just couldn't do it. As we were trying to figure something else to do, Rhett started to tell his friend who lived a couple of houses down from my parents all about the toad. So I went over to see if her kids would be willing to touch a toad, and it turned out all of them would. So a couple of her kids were taking turns trying to get the toad. She took a turn, but when the toad moved, she realized she couldn't do it. Her husband even tried, but the way the toad was positioned, you couldn't make a fist and pull the thing out. You know, the whole monkey with the nut in the jar thing? So after an agonizing hour in the heat, my friend stepped up to the plate and reached in, grabbed a leg and gave it to my mom, while she reached in again to grab the other leg. And voila!!! The toad was free!!! You think that would be the end, wouldn't you?

Well, then my friend took the toad over to her house to show her daughter and husband the illusive toad. When she got into her garage, the toad jumped out of the bucket and jumped under her car. So then the kids had to get the toad to come out from underneath the car. That took another few minutes or so. Then it got loose on her lawn where her husband took pictures and video of the toad that just didn't want to be free. After that, we put the toad in a bin with a lid on it so it couldn't get away again to save it for Justin to see. After Justin got home he saw it and my dad took the kids to go take it back to the wild. So farewell, Purple Rose or Ben the Toad whichever is the appropriate name for you. May you never come back to my yard again. My crickets aren't that good.

You are my...blue eyed girl?????

My mom got some blue contacts when she went to her last appointment, so she put them on Kaylee. Doesn't she look beautiful? So this is what she would have looked like with blue eyes, except they wouldn't say "demo" like these do.

Tag

So I guess when you get tagged, you have to answer a few of these questions.

JOYS:
1. My children
2. Crafting
3. Helping people

FEARS:
1. Something bad happening to my family or someone close to me
2. The world running out of chocolate
3. Gaining back all of the weight I have lost, so maybe it would be a good thing for the chocolate to disappear. ;)

GOALS:
1. Always be a mother first
2. Start my business
3. Go back to school

OBSESSIONS:
1. I like things to be organized
2. Owls
3. Making my own stamps

SURPRISING FACTS:
1. I hate cilantro--so gross!!!
2. I love dinner for breakfast and breakfast for dinner
3. I love to weld and want to learn to do it better

So now the rules go:
TAG!!! YOU'RE IT TO ALL WHO HAVE READ THIS AND HAVE A BLOG. So do the same thing I did and tag more people!!!

Broccoli Monster

Ethen LOVES broccoli! He also loves cookie dough. I was making some cookies one night after dinner, and I placed the tray on top of the broccoli --that is just out of sight of the camera--that hadn't been eaten. The next thing I know, Ethen is right up there. So I promptly told him no and to get down before he gets a spankin. Then as I got closer, I noticed that the cookie dough was untouched. He had moved the sheet with the cookie dough over a little bit to get into the broccoli!!! I still can't believe it!!!

Pure Joy

Justin bought Transformers in high def, so he watched it with the kids. What is better than this?

Chip Flower

One day Brey was eating her sandwich with chips and she made this beautiful chip flower, and I had to share it with all of you.

Mia

Here is cute little Mia taking a ride on Ethen's car

Going For a Ride

Uncle James came over and had a little bit of fun with Ethen.

Here's Justin

Back to School Cupcakes

Grammy came over one night after school and brought some yummy cupcakes for all of the kids to enjoy. Here are some of the best pictures.

Water Balloon Fight!!!

On the second day of school Michelle and I thought it would be a good surprise for the kids to have a water balloon fight on such a hot day. So we slaved over the balloons. I think we made around 400? We filled two big plastic containers for them. They were so excited!!! Here they are going out the door to see what the surprise actually was
And here they are loading up
Kaylee and Rhett having fun throwing balloons at each other
Here is Ian throwing a balloon. He never really let go. Does that count as throwing?
The kids all going back for a refill
Kaylee and Abby throwing their balloons at each other. I don't think they even got to the other side. They bounced off of each other.
I liked this one just because Rhett doesn't see this one coming.

Michelle getting in on the action and Kaylee catching some air
I really like this one, because if you look real close you can see the pink balloon popped on Abby's shoulder. I caught a shot of the balloon popping!!!
And I had to put me in, I guess. Of course I had to take the opportunity to throw some balloons at my kids. What mother wouldn't?
And at the end of it all, here are all of the kids squeezing into one of the containers we used to hold the balloons.

First day of School

So here we are on the first day of school. I can't believe the time has come!!! I was so excited, and so were the kids. Well, Kaylee more than Rhett. So here are a few pictures from that day.

Here is Rhett putting his socks on while getting ready

Here is Kaylee already ready patiently waiting to leave. She can't wait!
Rhett and Kaylee walking to school together for the first time!!!
And here is Kaylee sitting in her chair at her table on her first day of Kindergarten. I am so happy that she is finally in school! But it is bitter sweet. I loved having her at home, but I think I love it more now that she's gone!!!
And here is Rhett in his class through the window. I was so caught up on taking Kaylee to make sure she was okay in her class, I totally missed Rhett! So this is the only picture I could get.