My First Grader

Summer is officially over. Katie had her first day of school today. She is a big first grader. I can't believe it. Where has all the time gone? It seems like just yesterday I was taking her to work with me when she was a just a baby. Now I'm taking her to school. She was a little nervous about her first day but extremely excited as well. She talked nonstop on the way home about everything that had happened. She felt so "big" to actually have homework. She told me that she loved having homework. I will have to remember that a few years from now when she's complaining about all the home work she has.

My Big 1st Grader

Vacation

It seems like it has been forever since I have updated our blog. Summer is almost over, and it seems like it only just began. Katie starts school in two weeks....unbelievable. Where has all the time gone? We have been spending most of our summer hanging out at the pool and going to the park. We did head down to San Angelo, TX a couple of weeks ago to visit my sister and her family. Katie had a blast playing with all her cousins. Here are some pictures from our trip.

Aaron, Katie & Josh

Katie and the boys.

On our way back home from San Angelo, TX we stopped off at my grandparent's house in south Arkansas for a visit. The kids had a blast playing outside on the bales of hay and in the garden. Here is a picture of the kids with the "scarecrow", Joe. I personally think Joe looks more like Jason from "Nightmare on Elm Street". Jeremy and my brother-in-law, Matt, invented a game called "hay tag" that the kids absolutely had a blast playing. They played tag while jumping from one hay bale to another. If you were tagged you were "it" or if you fell off the hay bales you were automatically "it". What could possibly go wrong with this game?

Jeremy after falling flat on his butt during "hay tag".

Katie leaping from one hay bale to another.

Other than a bunch of scratches and a few bug bites no one was seriuosly injured. Thank God.

AND I'M PROUD TO BE AN AMERICAN....

As many may have guessed, the Annual Thompson/Langham Fireworks Extravaganza was not included in the Obama Spendulus Plan. Due to lack of funding we had to reduce the sparkler bomb size to a mere 330 sparklers, tightly wound together with duct tape. It still turned out pretty good. Enjoy the show.

Happy Father's Day!!!!

Jeremy I just want you to know how much Katie and I love and appreciate all that you do for us. We are so proud of all that you have accomplished at work, and we know that God has so much more in store for you. Thanks for a being a wonderful father and husband. We love you so much. We hope you have had a wonderful Father's Day weekend.

Leaky Windows

For those of you who don't know I am terrified of heights. I hate them. I refuse to ride on ferris wheels because I cannot stand being stuck at the top of the ferris wheel while other passengers are being let off the ride. I love to hike in the mountains but will not get close to the edge and peer over the side of a cliff because I get dizzy, nervous, heart palpitations, sick to my stomach, feel like I'm going to puke, begin hyperventilating etc.... So there is no way in the world I would do what my husband did today.

We have been needing to recaulk our windows because some of them have been leaking due to the heavy rain we've been getting. We have a two story family room in our house that has a ton of windows in it. These are the ones that needed to be recaulked. See the picture below.

Jeremy had to get on a ladder 20-30 feet off the very unlevel ground in order to fix the windows. It's bad when your husband has to find a rock to stick under one of the legs of the ladder in order to try to get the ladder level. Did I mention that he really hates getting on this ladder?

I was outside keeping an eye on him while he was working. He was muttering things like, "This ladder is going to be the death of me"....."I'm about to crap my pants"....."Please make sure all the pictures you are taking are in black and white so no one can see the urine that is running down my leg right now"....."I hate doing this". Needless to say I was very entertained.

Notice the tongue sticking out of his mouth. He's extremely focused right here and trying to keep his balance 30 feet in the air.

And of course, he has to show off his manliness.

Lacy and Maggie

He's still out there right now working away and hasn't fallen off yet. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Hopefully he's got everything fixed so we won't have anymore leaky windows.

Katie: The Snake Hunter

This weekend Jeremy, Katie and I went on our first camping trip together. We have been wanting to go camping for the past several weeks but the rain has kept us from being able to go. Since the weather man was calling for a beautiful weekend we decided we'd head to Lake Fort Smith to go camping. We had an absolutely amazing time. I would highly recommend going camping there. They have an awesome playground area for kids and a swimming pool that has waterslides and a special area designated for toddlers. And their bathrooms were so clean--which is one of the reasons I loved the place.

Saturday, morning after we made omelettes for breakfast we headed out to go hiking. We hiked for almost two hours without any complaints from Katie or our new puppy, Lacy. They both were real troopers and kept up with us the whole time. I think we hiked about 4 miles with Katie leading the way most of the time.

We were really looking forward to seeing the waterfall that was on the Ozark Highland Trail....unfortunately the waterfall was pretty much nonexistent. See the picture below and you'll know what I mean.

The highlight of the hiking trip was when Katie found this green snake on the trail. Jeremy had to move it out of our way before we could continue our hike. Katie was a little sad that she wasn't able to play with it. The child has a little bit of a fascination with snakes.

After we got home from camping while we were unpacking she came across another slithery creature in our front yard.

This time her daddy let her play with it. She's much braver than I am. When I was a little girl you could not have paid me to play with a snake. She's started calling herself a "snake hunter."

Tooth Fairy

Over the past several months my child has pleaded with God and begged Him to let her lose a tooth. I'm not sure why it's such a big deal but she has been chomping at the bit to be able to say that she has lost a tooth. I think she may be the only child in her class at school who hasn't lost a tooth yet. Well.....she finally got her wish last night. You would have thought the child had won a trip to Disney World. It was like Christmas morning in our house last night. She screamed, she squealed, I think she may have even jumped up and down she was so excited to finally be able to say she lost her first tooth.

Jeremy pulled her tooth without letting her know that was what he was doing. He acted like he was just playing with some dental floss and seeing how loose her tooth was. As Katie said her prayers last night she did pray that her daddy wouldn't try to trick her anymore because that just wasn't very nice. I think she forgave him though because now she can proudly display the gap in her mouth. I'm sure everyone she comes in contact with over the next few weeks will be told the story of how she lost her first tooth.

Katie quickly forgave the tooth fairy for taking her tooth when she realized that she had left her $5.