No I'm not expecting but I'm one of the few because it seems to be going around but I think the baby bug has bitten Paige. 
The other day I found her trying to feed her "Baby"and then would hold it on her arms and rock it and put it down on the blanket and said "night night baby".
So either my little 18 month old just has a really strong maternal instinct or she sees all the babies or prego mommies around us and is feeling a little left out of the club. Sorry Paige, you're too busy for mom to be ready for another one just yet!
The other day I found her trying to feed her "Baby"and then would hold it on her arms and rock it and put it down on the blanket and said "night night baby". So either my little 18 month old just has a really strong maternal instinct or she sees all the babies or prego mommies around us and is feeling a little left out of the club. Sorry Paige, you're too busy for mom to be ready for another one just yet!
She goes 3 day a week for 2 hours and is lucky enough to have her friend Sadie and her cousin Mandy in the class with her ( maybe not so lucky for the teacher, we'll see ) Anyway she had to go shopping for schools clothes and a princess back pack and now is ready for anything. 
I asked her about her first day and she told me some of the things they did but the highlight was that they had to go to the bathroom and "there weren't big potties or a big sink... they just had little potties and a little sink" (imagine that being said in a "little" voice) So my kids favorite part of preschool is the little potty! 
I didn't have a hard time leaving her nor did she have a hard time leaving me but Paige did enough for the both of us. She asked "where's Rory?" the whole 2 hours she was gone. Hopefully she will begin to look forward to this time and not be sad. So I survived my first experience of my babies leaving the nest and I'm so proud of her and know she is ready to take on the world!
Mike didn't really want her to cut her hair but after hearing "my hair makes me frustrated" for the hundredth time I decided to take the plunge.
I wanted something done with mine too so it all worked out. My friend Jill does hair out of her home so all three of us girls went there to get a new do. Rory likes her new look but still wants it shorter because it still makes her neck hot, I told her that unless she cuts it short like Daddy's it will always make you neck hot at least in the summer!
Paige got hers trimmed too. She didn't really loose any of her baby hair which was a lot and so once the rest stared growing in she had a million different lengths, we just trimmed the back and evened it out a bit. 
I decided to go short and put in a few highlights, I even have some bangs now but I'm not sure what to do with them yet.
It's a nice change though and we all give Jill two thumbs up!
This ensemble is courtesy of Rory's friend Chloe, who was kind enough to let her borrow this fairy princess costume. Rory had a blast dressing up and prancing around in it but once Paige saw how much fun it all was she had to get in on the action.
We put a skirt on her too and she was excited about it for a second but she does better with the hats and accessories. At least we got one picture with them both dressed to impress! It won't be too long before Paige is just as much a part of the show as Rory. I love little girls! 
This year was Rory's first year being thrown in and she was so excited, that she actually got thrown in twice! 
Mike is now on the team of throwers but that wasn't without him having to baptized into the family first 5 years ago and he even had the honor of throwing both of my parents in this year. This pic is of my mom.
This next one is of my dad. I can't remember the last time he was thrown in. Way to go Dad! 
As well as me 4 or 5 times. My youngest sister Joanna is usually the go to girl that get thrown in over and over when ever there is a lag in people to go in but this year she and her husband weren't able to come so some how I was nominated to fill in her place. 
So instead of hearing the mob mumble "Hey how 'bout Joanna" it was "Hey how 'bout Rachel!" but don't you worry Joanna will pay dearly for this!
wild flower picking,
butterfly catching, 
wild strawberry hunting, target practice,
animal tracking, (that is coyote, raccoon & turkey right in a row) 
marshmallow eating 
and chopping down a tree for firewood. Rory loved everything and Paige loved to try and eat deer poop! 
I know gross, she had like a poop radar and would walk right too it and pick it up, thankfully I got to her before she got it in her mouth but still too close for my comfort!
It was a lot of fun and we all did better then our usual and that is to say we all at least broke 100 so no we are not professional bowlers here by any means but we still had a good time.
Although I do have to mention that both Greg and Bethanie did get a turkey, which is 3 strikes in a row, way to go guys!
Rory had her own lane with the bumpers up and did pretty well even if it did take forever for the ball to actually get down to the pins at the end of the lane. She was pretty proud of her newly acquired bowling skills and then took it upon herself to teach the rest of us how to do it and continued to give us tips the rest of the game. 
Anyway it has been a while since we went bowling but whenever we do we always have a lot of fun and now we have a little junior bowler in the making so I guess we'll be back again soon!
I had all these apples so I thought I would do some home canning and make applesauce,( 20 quarts)
then I got a little more adventurous and tried some apple pie filling, which by the way we had at our 4th of July bbq and was delicious! (7 quarts) 
and if that wasn't enough I had to try making apple butter too! (12 pints) So needless to say with 3 crockpots going all the time my house has smelled like apples for over a week now! I quickly used up the apples Natalie gave me once I got into it and had to go over to my Uncle Lowell's house to get another whole laundry basket full and that was just from him shaking the tree and had fallen off! 
Thankfully though I have had the help of my sister Heather and of course Rory loved doing the peeler/corer/slicer! 
Paige wanted to help too but her idea of helping was going to get the apples out of the basket and see if they bounced like her ball or just taste testing one bite each! Anyway I know it is important to be prepared and have some things in reserve but I have to admit I LIKE doing it and am having a lot of fun seeing the "fruits" of my labors! So if anyone is interested in doing some apples I'm sure I could go get another load from my uncle and I haven't even done fruit leather or dried apples yet! I know I'm an addict...happy canning!
My family and Mike's parents and Aunt came over to our house at about 10:30am to go swimming and then about 1pm we got out and had a BBQ back at our house. It was a lot of fun and there was a lot of food and I even had an All American Apple Pie for desert! We hung around until about 4pm and then people cleared out and I cleaned up then later that night Mike's parents came back over at 9pm to go with Rory to see the fireworks. 
Paige had already been in bed for a couple hours and we were going to wake her up to go too but Mike decided to stay home and I went with Rory. 
We just drove about 2 miles down Southern and pulled off the road, I don't know where they we shooting them off from but we had a good view and Rory was so funny, she just kept yelling out with excitement and asking each of us if we saw it too, man you gotta love holidays with kids!
