why do i do this to myself?

it all started out nice, which then led to.....

okay, just one more smile....

then they give me this look.....

and this is where we ended up...


all i know is, it IS hard work to take pictures of kids. one kid, not too bad, two, kinda manageable and three girls, out of the question!!! remind me never to want to do this as a side job! can you tell from my expression and my obvious hand signal how i am feeling????

girlies

just a couple of my three favorite girls....

feather

no rhyme or reason for this picture, i just really think it looks cool of mark and his "chi chi" hat he wears anytime his very pale self is outside working! as for the feather, i found it in the yard and mark thought it would be funny to stick it in his hat {and he did in fact call it macaroni}! good gracious this heat is getting to me!

garden visitors

today was the day for visitors in the garden. while out i was sitting and "talking" to the garden a couple of friends stopped by to take a break and get out of the sun. can't say i blame them, it's hot out there!

we are not alone

so in the jungle we call our garden we have these little friends we like to call afivids of another kind. for some strange reason these little guys love to hang out and live on my one zucchini plant. i don't know what to do with them, they grose me out to no end yet i can't bring myself to kill them. i know, such a strange post but i thought it was one worth sharing...

ahhhh, shade!

this past weekend mark and i worked on the deck by screening in the westward facing side. a couple months back mark made the door with the darkening screen in it and we have been waiting for it to be a little cooler to do the large screen. so in the mean time we had bought one of those roll up bamboo type to keep the sun out and it worked pretty good. well wouldn't you know it one windy day {i know, it's hard to believe that the wind blows here} i forgot it was down and next thing you know mark is screaming like a girl seeing a mouse to come and help him with the shade. it had actually bent in half and blown inside the post, needless to say it is junk- so off to the dump it went and we were forced to do our little project. it all started out innocently enough, have the screen made, put it up, frame it in. but wait, what if we made and put in these nifty panels to keep the wind out of the bottom part too? well, one thing lead to another and it turned into a two day project. we made the panels, cut like a thousand pieces of pressure treated 2x4 into pieces and dado cut them to hold the panels, then decided that it looked so good we should replace the other 2x4's and the top caps too. this weekend we are slated to do the right side of the railing to match. as much as i complain about standing in the heat, it looks awesome and we lost a couple of pounds too!

jessica payton

oh jessica, what more can i say about you than..... sometimes words escape me. i love you more than life it's self, yet to be perfectly honest there are days when you drive me nutty. i guess there is always one in every family {and no i wasn't it in my family, although i'm quite sure my mom would beg to differ}. jp, you have the heart of an angel and the attitude of an only child or is it the middle child? jess, you mean well most of the time, but you are quick to judge others as well. the more i type this the more i realize that you, are alot more like me than i once thought. i guess one never want to think of themselves as having these type of characteristics, but when you put pen to paper you find that maybe you are sometimes what you thought you weren't. but i must say, i wouldn't trade you for all the swedish fish in the world, because to be honest, i love you too much! you are a beauty and will one day find your place outside of our home to become what you dream and i can't wait to see what it is. i love you jp, keep on rockn' the way you do!!

josie jade

just a couple random shots of josie... most of the time i just can't resist her beautiful freckled face and her 4 going on 14 attitude! she is such a good kid and is always there to help you with whatever project you have. she reminds me alot of jordan at this age and looks a lot like jessica at four. she is growing up too fast and before i know it she will be on her own. hey, i know i am jumping the gun a little {she is ONLY 4} but it sure seems like time flies and the older i get the faster it goes! i love you josie jade!

daily dose

just figured you could use a dose of the trixie boston on a hot and sunny afternoon! she's loving life in the house while it's 100+ out today and hopes you are too!

i give you....

brace face! jordan had her braces put on {much to her delight} yesterday morning. the child has been so excited for weeks about it and mark kept telling her she was gonna hate it. yesterday wasn't too bad for her, pretty much just getting used to talking like she should be riding the short bus and trying to eat without sounding like a cow chewing it's cud. well, my fellow friends in bloggerland, a whole new beast awoke this morning. she looked like she had pulled an all night'er at the bar. she was in tears telling me that "every single tooth in my head hurts and feels loose." all i could do was stand there and chuckle to myself and then kindly remind her that just yesterday she loved them :)! as she was eating her yogurt this morning before swim practice she was whining about not even being able to use her tongue to eat, because "everything" hurt! hahaha is all i'm gonna say! {i know, such a bad, horrible, mean and cruel mom}

AWESOME STUFF

sometimes in life a product come along and changes your life... well this my friends is it! i LOVE the sprayway brand glass cleaner, it works awesome. never a streak, smudge or left over finger {or tongue}print. so when i came across this at costco the other day i all but did a cartwheel {i know, stop trying to imagine me doing one....cause it's never gonna happen}! i told mark if the glass cleaner works like it does, this stuff should be awesome. much to my delight it does!!!! because if you know me, i know a thing or two about cleanliness {or so i think}! you apply it with one rag and sort buff with another and waaalawww- clean stainless steel that doesn't smudge too bad. so there you have it, if you have stainless steel go out and get yourself a can, you'll be glad you did!

cook out anyone?

i just wanted to share our newest addition... is she a beauty or what? it's mark's belated father's day gift from all his ladies.... we've been wanting a new grill for sometime and came across this one which runs on natural gas and since mark ran an extra natural gas line to this side of the deck {when he installed the fire pit} it was a perfect choice. it cooks awesome and it's nice to know that we won't run out of propane during the middle of cooking a steak or a big family bbq. so if your in the neighborhood, head on over with some cow, pig or chicken {josie always wants to know what animal she is eating} and grill king mark will glady help you out!

harvest

one morning's bounty from our garden

you know your bored when you are photo shopping a tomato

one enormous tomato

showing the huge size of this guy... he is sitting in a 29oz sauce can!!!

last one, i promise....

pumpkin anyone??

a cantaloupe hidden among the vines

a honeydew melon growing up a piece of metal and just hanging out

a future pumpkin fresh from it's morning shower

pretty kitty

no real reason for this post, but fatty the putty was in the mood for a little photo shoot this morning and was working the camera pretty hard. so i thought she deserved her moment in the spot light! work it girl!!!!!

summer time

i think the only thing around these parts that is loving the heat is our garden! in the last couple of days {since the heat has become unbearable} my veggies have doubled in size and my tomato's are FINALLY turning red, yeah!!! and since i have a bet with our old neighbors the reynold's about who would have the first red tomato..... ummm excuse me garry- I DO! I DO! also worth noting- the last picture in this post is of our pear tomato plant. it is hard to get the jest of how tall this thing is without seeing it in person, but let's just say it is over 7 feet tall. are tomato plants supposed to be this tall? i am so glad we planted our garden, it's been a fun learning experience and it's awesome to go out there and pick the veggies and then eat them- what could be better than free food?