Way Back Wednesday!

~November 1999 (Carter was 13 months old)~

Happy Halloween

Trunk or Treat

Last night was our annual Trunk or Treat at our church. Dave's been out of town all week so he missed out but the kids and I had fun!

(Trunk of the car parked next to mine...I was lazy and didn't decorate my trunk! :)

Taylor dressed up as Harry Potter...

Lauren's going to be something different for Halloween but, since it was "dress up as a Rock Star" day at school, she decided to go as a Rock Star...

There were some pretty neat costumes...

~Ellery & Eric~

(Dave & I teach the 4 year old kiddos at church. Ellery & Eric are in our class...aren't they cute?)

Lauren brought two neighbor friends with us...

~Katelyn, Lauren, & Kendall~

Taylor also brought her friend Rachel, who dressed up as a "Southern Bell"...

~Jessica, Taylor, & Rachel~

Even some of my friends dressed up... (I didn't cuz' I was being lazy, remember?)

~Janet & Colleen~

Carter went too but I didn't get any good pictures of him! So, you'll have to come back after Halloween to see what he dressed up as! :)

Camping with the Groppe's

Last Friday, we...

loaded up the truck... ...and headed to Lake Bastrop to go camping with our BFF's, the Groppe's!

Laurie & I...

...left as soon as the kids got out of school. We took the girls with us. Dave, Gary, and the boys......were supposed to join us after work. But, Dave had a really important issue at work that he had to finish before he left. Unfortunately, it took him way longer than he'd hoped. He didn't finish until 2:00 a.m. So, Gary, Carter, & Zack had to leave without him. :( Dave came up the next day and was there by lunch. We were bummed but the Groppe's were awesome and really helpful. (That's one of the reasons they are our BFF's!) Luckily, we were staying in cabins which were equipped with bolt locks, so I wasn't too nervous. Plus, I'm Annie Oakley, remember? And we brought our really vicious scaredy cat guard dog... ...to protect notify us with excessive barking while cowering in the corner, in the event of bad guys messing with us. So, it was all good.

I'm apologizing in advance because Laurie & I took lots and lots of pictures...

...of stuff like canoeing...

playing games...

Lauren's really dirty feet...

Katelyn & Carter doing silly things with fish...

and Dave making breakfast...

...for the gang.

Are you surprised? (About all the pictures, not about Dave cooking.)

Lauren and Katelyn were in their element, catching minnows...

and cute little lizards...

While Zack was quite the fisherman...

He even cleaned them himself!

I think everyone...
...had a great time! Thanks Groppe's! Let's do it again soon, Okay?

Four Eyes ::)

Taylor mentioned that she was having trouble seeing the board at school. So, we had her eyes checked and sure enough, she's near sighted. Her vision was 20/100 which sounded bad to me but the doctor said although she definitely needed glasses, it wasn't horrible. Her glasses came today! We think they're cute...

Don't you?

Way Back Wednesday!

~October 2002~

Trees, Gardens, and Camp Fires

Recently, Dave & the kids cut down one of our trees in the backyard as it was shading our gardens too much. The kids loved helping... Even if it was hard work...

(which was evident by the scowls on their faces.)

They had the time of their lives playing in the fallen tree...

Who knew that could entertain children for hours?

It really opened up our back yard making it feel much bigger...

And gave us a great spot for a fire pit...
That evening, Dave lit the stump on fire and we enjoyed chatting it up with the kids! I'm pretty sure Santa's going to bring us a fire ring for that very spot, eliminating the need for a hose near by. :) Shhh...don't tell!

We got our winter gardens planted as well. We planted broccoli, cauliflower, snap peas, carrots, several types of lettuce, arugula, strawberries, garlic, and onions. We left the peppers in for now as they are still flourishing...

This is our first shot at "winter gardening". Wish us luck! :)