Photo op!

This evening, Sam and I decided to take some pics.  Alex did not feel like posing for any photos so I let her slide this time, but I did inform her that she was going to have to let me take her pictures in the next couple of weeks so I have something to use for this years school picture.  I no longer buy the pictures that the school takes, I am usually disappointed and over-pay!

Happy Birthday Clara!

Happy 16th Birthday, Clara... From your family in the U.S . 

We Miss you!

Alles Gute zum Geburtstag

Wir vermissen dich!

Poor Zoey!

The girls have watched me give Zoey a bath thousands of times and for some reason, this time, they decided that they wanted to do it... I don't think Zoey appreciated this much!

Brutal Punishment!

Today Alex decided to drag out the tub of dog food and play with it in the middle of my family room floor. Well, needless to say, there were dog food crumbs everywhere.  I informed her that since she made the mess, she was going to have to vacuum the entire room.  She responded with, "YEAH... I love to vacuum!"  I guess that backfired on me.  When she got the family room done, she asked if she could vacuum another room!

Thank you Clara!

Sam was so excited today because Clara sent a birthday package to her from Germany!  We have missed all of the wonderful German chocolate so now we are restocked for a while!  Thanks so much for all of the gifts, that was so nice and the girls were very happy to get them.  I love the pictures you made, I have them sitting on my desk in the family room.  We miss you!

Building the loft

After unloading 2 trailers full of stuff into the new garage, we quickly learned that there was not enough room!  So, BJ and I decided to build a loft in the back part of the garage.  We spent Friday and Saturday afternoon working on it and with the help of our neighbor, we finished it today.

The girls spent their time nailing all of the scrap pieces of wood together.  They made their dad a key holder for his garage out of some of the scrap lumber.

One of the beams that BJ built to support the loft was 24 feet long and weighed about 350 pounds.  I didn't think they were going to get it lifted into place, but they managed!

Alex thought that the loft was finished at this point and informed us that we did a terrible job building a floor!

Being the over-protected mother that I am, I forbid the kids to get in the loft, so the second that I walked in the house to get something, Sam climbed into the loft to help her dad.

THE FINISHED PRODUCT!!!

We got the plywood lifted into the loft, which wasn't easy, and got it all nailed down.  Even after getting all of the stuff that we needed to store into the loft we still have plenty of room left, I'm sure BJ will collect more junk to fill it soon!

Sam's new bed

Sam has been wanting a day bed to put over her trundle and we finally found one on Craigslist.  It is a really nice bed and we only paid $100 for it and the people delivered it  for us.  

A day at the pool!

I had to go to Shelbina today and list a house and I had heard that they have a new pool so I thought I would take the girls and hang out at the pool after I got my listing taken care of.  They have a really awesome pool and the girls had a blast!  Since I usually take the girls to a friend's pool and sit in the shade, working on my laptop, the 3 hour exposure to actual sunlight gave me a sunburn!

Sam, being the adventurous one, loved the rock climbing wall!

She was one of the few kids there that made it to the top every time!

The lazy river is more Alex's speed!

Sam wore out the slides... Alex went down once and decided that was too scary for her!

Concrete Day!

BJ decided to put concrete in half of his garage, so today I got up early and cooked a huge breakfast for our "volunteer crew."  The concrete truck came at 7:30 a.m. and I managed to take a few pics before I had to take the kids to Swinkey Days.  Now BJ  just has to wait a week for it to cure and then he can put all of his "man junk" away.

Has it really been almost 2 weeks?

I cannot believe that it has been nearly 2 weeks since I have blogged!  I guess I have just been so busy that time has been flying by!  We had a great fourth of July weekend.  I held 2 open houses, did the photography for a family wedding and we went to a bonfire at our neighbors and shot off fireworks.  I was extremely nervous about doing wedding photos.  I have never done wedding photography before and you only get 1 chance to get good pictures!  Fortunately, they turned out well and the newlyweds were pleased.  I will post a few of my favorites.  We have spent the entire weekend preparing the garage for concrete.  They are going to deliver it at 7 a.m. Monday morning and BJ has a few of his buddies coming to help him with it.  

I had framed 8x10's made of these 3 prints for them as a wedding gift, but there are so many more really good ones

Here is Alex supervising BJ while he frames up the steps for concrete.  I really wish the girls were gonna be her to put their handprints in the concrete, but they have a church activity to go to for the next 3 days.

BJ spent last weekend running electric to the garage and this weekend working on the concrete.... hopefully next weekend he can put everything away and have a functional garage again!