so far behind

I have really let this blog get behind.. I have been so busy with things that this was the last thing on my mind...

I hosted Thanksgiving dinner here, so that had me occupied for a while..LOL

{Carter & Peggy on Thanksgiving day}

then Black Friday began Christmas preparations... shopping, decorating, church functions. .you get the idea!

{our Christmas tree}

{the homemade stockings out of an quilt that I made}

So you can see why I have forgotten about you, dear blog, & I am sorry!

decorating for fall

Today the kids had off from school so we went to a lil farm up the road to buy pumpkins.. they also had lil chihuahua puppies(had they not been 350 bucks I woulda brought one home), a lil kitten that Callie fell in love with(I did NOT as it was ate up with fleas..eww!!) But this little kitty let Callie tote it around in any old way!

Soccer photos

Owen's collage


Carter's collage

Carter's Team:

U-8 team Spain

Owen's team: U-10 select

Carter's Action Shot

Owen's Action Shot

both boys 3&17

feild trip

Callie had a feild trip with her preschool to tent city @ the Ephrata fair.
Here are a few of my favorite snapshots

Denver Fair.. kiddie day

When the fair was in town the kids had off school that day & we went to the fair.. they had a special from 1-4.. buy an all you can ride bracelet for 10 bucks.. Mom went along with us.. While I was watching the 2 younger ones she was watching Owen ride the "big kid" rides. I can't believe he is transitioning from the kiddie rides to the cool rides already... Owen is growing up waaayy to fast!

Callie with her beloved Dora

Nana & Betty boop

Callie riding the dragon ride

Owen on the pirate ship

The boys doing the bumper cars

me & my mom

batter up!!

Back in the beginning of Sept we went to see the local baseball team. The Lancaster Barnstomers.. The kids got freee tickets from completing the summer reading program through the library.

The game started out fine but we went into OT and Callie started become a real handful so we left and didn't get to stay to watch the fireworks.

Carter, Owen & Ethan(owen's buddy)

the diamond

Me, Jason & Callie

Carter & me

the old man turns 88!

Ya know the old sayin.. the good die young? Well, I guess he ain't good! I'm just kidding.. or not...LOL~
Clifford G. Landers, aka.. pawpaw, celebrated his 88th birthday today. Callie and I took him some cupcakes, a card, and a lil happy birthday bear. He was elated to see us walk through his door. (I wish I would've remembered my camera.) He was just finishing his lunch when we arrived.
He has his moments but for the most part the man is still sharp!
He is always complaining how he doesn't have any money in there .. so today we he complained I asked him what he wanted to buy. He says " I like to get a travel trailer, my sister lives about 90 miles out yonner way" as he is flicking his head to the right. Oh, Pawpaw.. your sister lives in the south and we are in Pa... it's a lil more than 90 miles.
Then he says how he thinks dad is pullin the wool over his eyes about not being able to drive... He had a stroke about 8 yrs. ago that left his left arm paralyzed along with his bladder and a few other things. So he can't drive. So I asked him.. can you use your left arm, "no" he says.. can you walk?? cuz you have to be able to do all those things to drive.( he can't walk... i think it has something to do with muscle deterioration in his back , but not sure) I then said, " as we get older there are things that we just can't do like when we were younger, even though we want to, like driving. It's just part of getting older. .. He says.. well then don't ever get old! I told him I want to grow old.. I wanna watch my children grow, get married, have grand children. That led us to counting his great grandchildren.. he has somewhere around 16 or so..
I'm proud to call him my Pawpaw!
love ya old man!!

first day of the 2010-11 school year

The start of school is here! I have never been more excited for school to start. Why you ask? I will tell you.. the last 2 weeks were very strenuous on me. There was constant fighting and bullying going on in our home.Yes! It's true!! The boys needed more structure than what I was giving(which wasn't much..LOL) I so grateful for yesterday, although our morning didn't get the best start. Owen had some issues staying on task with the morning routine.

Callie and I walked up with our neighbor(she has a lil girl in afternoon Kindy) to the school to meet the boys at school & walked home together. Callie is already asking if we can go for our walk again. Carter was pretty tired after spending all day in school and then the walk home. He is gonna be even more tired today, as he has soccer tonight.

So all 3 were at school yesterday and this busymomy spent the my morning shopping.. I went to Kmart & Goodwill.. I had the most pleasant time.. No one yelling to get out of the cart. No one to keep nagging at to behave.. No one asking for something.. No one asking to go potty.. You get the idea.. nice and quite!!

Today, day 2, was much much better!!

1st day fo preschoool

Today was Callie's 1st day of preschool! She was so excited to go that we started getting ready lastnight ..LOL! We painted her fingers & her toes, picked out her outfit & her shoes.
This after she got dressed we put in a pair of pearl earrings and put on her favorite perfume & put in a princess crown her pretty!

ready for school

outside her classroom door

in front of the cubbies

tobias lake

We wanted to do one last fun thing before school starts so we went to Tobias Lake in Halifax, Pa!What a neat place. The kids really had fun walking around looking at all the animals. The safari ride was the best! There was a couple of guys in front of us from Italy and they were kind enough to share their crackers that they bought (they were just for the animals)

(yawn) he was soo bored!

The zebras was funny!! they kept chasin a poor ostrich around their pen!

a joey! Carter said he was super soft

a beefalo( a cross breed a cow + a buffalo)

a zedonk (zebra + donkey)

Tourist!!

ya either love em or hate em!! most of the time they get on my nerves but last Saturday we played tourist in Intercourse,Pa... Owen didn't wanna go so it was just Jason, Carter, Callie & me!

We had fun and I truely felt like a tourist with my big ole camera draped around my neck..LOL

so.. which is yours???

whoa!! Amish girls painting their nails!

love the many colors of the scooters!

my lil amish crew

surprise!! it's a 60th birthday party

My mom turned 60 this year and I wanted to throw her a big party.. Peggy & Eddy, Jr. helped as well! I invited mom's family in from Oh.. Aunt Carol & Don, Granny , Carissa & Terry (and the kids) came in. Peggy's got a DJ and we danced & had a fun!

We thought someone let it slip to mom about the big surprise but she seemed to be really surprised when she pulled up in the drive way!

::Here are a few pics from the event::

food tent

Jr... grill master

mom and her gag gift.. 60 stool softners

Carissa, Terry & Granny