Project

I found this lovely picture at good will for 1/2 off making it $4.25! I don't know if you can tell how really long it is. At first I really just wanted the frame to make a message board or something like that with it. Then I remembered this project from this other blog jonesdesigncomany that my good friend Tiffany turned me on to.

Soooo here is what it turned into:

I love the way that it turned out. I used a desktop encyclopedia that I also got at goodwill. All of the pages on the canvas have some connection to our loves. Notice the letters for all of our names. There is my birth city, all the kids name, Jeff's middle name (Ferber...was surprised to find), places we have traveled, and things that are important to us!

Stay tuned for another project or two that I am borrowing again...I hope to make the page book wreath soon!

Meet Manty

This little guy likes to hang out in our Daylillies! We see him often...or at least we think it is the same one. We have affectionately named him Manty!

A couple more things...

I forgot a few things in my last post that I wanted to catch up on. In July we traveled to Waycross, GA to visit our dear friends the Warbingtons. We all miss then so much, but it was good to catch up for a few days.



Here are our sweet friends Ryan, Tiffany, and Owen! They had to endure one of my photo shoots!

We made our first trip ever to St. Simons this summer. Unfortunately this was the only beach time that we were able to squeeze in this summer. It seems that sweet Pipi girl is always surrounded by boys. She doesn't seem to mind and fits right in!

I can't believe that I forgot to post about this precious little boy! This is my newest nephew Benjamin "Parker"! Isn't he the cutest thing? I was lucky enough to be present at the birth and welcome him to this world...it was absolutely amazing. I am so proud of my sister Jamie! She did an awesome job despite the looonnnggg labor that she had. They are both doing great, and the little booger is now 2 months old (I am way behind aren't I?)! I just wish we lived closer and could see him more.

All rolled into one

Okay so I mentioned in the last post how far behind I was blogging. I decided to just roll them all into one post so I can feel "caught up". So here is what has been happening in the Wilson household the last month (or so).

When I got home from the convention in Aug. my sweet family surprised me with a little Birthday party! I didn't even have to buy my one cake this time. I guess I whined enough about it last year. Anyway getting older wasn't so bad this year!

Disgusting I know!!! At least you didn't have to fight her for it! Cricket kept dragging this gross, bloody, squirrel all over the garage and leaving trails of blood, so I had to run her off with a stick, pick up this creature, and carry it out to the woods! Yuck!!! The following week she had a baby bunny...I spare you the pictures!

Flat as a fritter! Yep that is the flat tire that I changed...All by myself. I had no choice to because it was almost time to pick up the kids, and there was nobody to help. It is a sense of accomplishment though! Yay! Oh when Jeff took the tire to see if they could fix it they pulled an entire half of pair of pliers out. The only part sticking out was the very end of the handle...we had to get a new tire!

Raider football started a couple of weeks ago. They have not had a very good start to the season, and it may not get any better, but Jeff is still coaching up those boys to be young men, and he is really good at it!

Homegrown Watermelon...all on accident! We grew this bad boy with a seed that was probably dropped on the way to compost one day. I ended up growing right by the swing set. We had no idea how long to let it grow, so we picked it last week when it looked to be about the size of the ones we had been buying...very scientific!

It turned out to be quite yummy! Maybe next year we will grow some "for real".


The fair was in town this past week. Unfortunately we have to pass by it to get to the grocery store or anywhere else in town for that matter. Since Jeff took the big boys to the Clemson/Presbyterian game last Saturday, I decided I would take the little ones to the fair. They had a good time and rode a couple of rides (all we could afford without taking out a loan), and all they really wanted was cotton candy. We watched the Rodeo until it started pouring.


These precious cuties FINALLY started pre-school last week. They are going 3 days, and I can not tell you how excited I am to have a little chunk of time to myself! I have big plans too... most of which include exercising, so watch out for the skinny me! They loved the first week, and we love their wonderful school!

Yay! I am officially caught up! I feel so much better. Now I have to stay on the ball!!!

MOPS

I know it has been a while since I have blogged. You see I get so far behind, and I have so much that I want to blog about that I don't know where to begin so I just don't do anything!

These pictures are from the beginning of August when I went to a MOPS (mothers of preschoolers) convention in Orlando! It was a great weekend. We actually left on my Birthday and spent the WHOLE day driving. I guess I can't complain about my Birthday this year since I was the one not around. Jeff and the kids celebrated with me when I got home and it was very sweet.

So here are some pictures of the group of girls that I went with. They agreed to play along with my silly camera games! We stayed in the Gaylord Palms hotel which was amazing. I could do a post on that alone.







BORING! Anyone can pose like this! See aren't the silly camera game pictures more interesting?? It had been a while since I had played, but it was fun! You should try it!

Perfect...

...ending to the day!

4th & 1st

Here they are my big boys starting 4th and 1st grades. They had a great first week!

Just plain silly

After a hike at Ceasers Head these little ones were ready to go, but who can resist a silly face picture? Had a yummy lunch at the Mexican restaurant in Brevard afterwards. Then headed back to the cabin for more swimming fun!

A moments peace

My sweet No-Bo learned how to float all by himself this summer in the river...don't you just love the peaceful place he is in?

I have so much that I want to blog about, but have not been home long enough to do it. It also overwhelms me when I have all these blog ideas piling up in my head! We have been on the go, go ALL summer long. It is a good thing that we didn't have any plans because we wouldn't have fit them in with all that we had not planned on doing. It has been a great summer, and I am sad to see it come to an end (mainly because I will have to drag my rear out of bed every morning before I really want to)! I figured out that during the last two weeks over a 7 night in a row time span that I spent the night in 6 different beds!!!! I am still trying to get rid of the crick in my neck!

July 4th

Well here is our day in a nutshell. We spent the 4th at the cabin and had a fabulous week swimming in the lake, playing in the river, hiking, and visiting with family.

The day before the 4th (would be the 3rd)

We made our second journey to the cabin. This time we stayed for a week. Papa and Nana took the kids to do crafts and face painting. Of course the big boy didn't need to get his face painted...

...but he sure liked playing with fire that night!

beautiful sleep

I love this beautiful little angel and have enjoyed the past 2 days that we have spent together while the boys have been camping.

Huntsville visit

We left for Huntsville after Jeff was finished with his teacher inservice to visit my family. It was quite a busy weekend with lots of people in town for my sister Jamie's baby shower. Pipi got sick the morning of the baby shower that I was helping out with, so that was not fun. I think she caught the virus that L.C. had a couple of weeks ago. It lasts for about 4-5 days with a high fever and severe nausea. She was sick the whole time, but kept saying she didn't want to miss out on the fun. Since then both of Lindsey's kids have gotten it!

(Mom, Katherine, Me, Jamie, Lindsey, & Lou)

We were also lucky to have our German friends the Thimm's visiting over the weekend too. They were traveling around the U.S. and Canada visiting friends, and they stayed with my parents for about 6 days. It was so nice to see them again, and really made me homesick for Germany. We have stayed with them on both of our backpacking trips to Europe, and it was such a wonderful experience. I hope that they felt the same way, as they truly got to experience the American lifestyle with my crazy, wonderful family! We took them on a hike to look for tadpoles, and they took the big boys with my Dad to the Space and Rocket center.

Hot Air

Last week we went to Helen for this hot air balloon race. It started at 7 am, and yes everyone I was not only there on time, we pulled up at 6:30am. We sat in the car and ate our breakfast for a while. I was fascinated by the balloons. I had never been that close to one. It was cool to see the whole process of how they get the balloons up in the air.

A dozen years!

12 years ago we started our lives together! I love this picture of us right before we walked out of the church as a married couple. We have had a great dozen years!

Here we are...

12 years
11 European Countries
10 jobs (between us)
9 brothers & sisters (married in,step, & natural)
8 pets
7 cars
6 camping trips
5 moves
4 kids
3 houses
2 rentals
1 visit to Canada
(and new hair styles)

... later and still looking good!

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO US!!!

Carnival party

This weekend we celebrated Pipi and J.J.'s 4th Birthday with a Carnival theme party. It turned out great thanks to all the help that I had from family and friends. We set up our side yard to look like a carnival complete with tents, games, food, and prizes! I think the kids had a blast, and it really did run itself once it was set up...which means that I didn't have to do the entertaining.

There were so many cute pictures that I had a hard time deciding, so this is another long post. You won't be disappointed with all these cuties though!

View from the front of house. It was very colorful. Thanks to all my Friday night house guests for blowing up about 150 balloons for me. It just wouldn't have been the same without them!


L.C. was in charge of the snow cone booth. He ran it all day...not sure how many he had himself.
excited about the prizes and took the tickets very seriously.


My funnel cake man...he made these all day, and filled the air with a carnival-like smell...yum yum!


This was the lemonade, popcorn, cotton candy stand. Yes I sent the kids home with a sugar high!


Oh the prizes...they were so excited about getting their prizes! I collected and searched all over for these.


Sack races!


Tug of war...girls against boys!

The 4 year old Birthday girl.

These girls love each other, and love being silly together. I just love Lou's face here!

Pregnant people can clown around too! We were glad to have Aunt Jamie join us this year!


J-birds cake was a ferris wheel. He was sure serious about blowing out those candles.


This was my Pipi's cake...I think it turned out quite cute if I do say so myself.

I live with these two clowns. Jeff entertained with his juggling act!

Cousin Lynnlee was a trouper and dressed up with us!


My crazy hair boys!