13 years

So blessed to have spent the past 13 years with this man!  Praying for many more! 

Making Chocolates

My mom, sisters and I had a chocolate making day!  Some to use as gifts and some to take for family gatherings.  So much fun!  All these photos are from my phone, so, not the greatest quality! :)

 Ali keeping busy making things with Grandma's Cricut machine while we worked in the kitchen.

 Owen snoozing away

 Three lovely ladies (with some major glare from the windows!)

Admiring baby Owen

 In between his eating and sleeping Owen needed some entertainment.  He is very amused by peek-a-boo! :)

The finished products look something like this!

4

Happy 4th Birthday Trae Michael!

In case you can't tell, he was pretty excited about his Under Construction cake! ;)

More of sweet Owen

Baby Owen was a hit with the cousins, as expected!  And poor Ali just keeps getting more outnumbered around here.  We just call her the queen bee! :)

Kayla took this one - I love it!

Owen Scott

I am so in love with this little guy already.  And how could I not be? Look at that adorable sweetness!!!

Owen Scott Furrer

born to Luke and Danielle

10/01/13

7 lb. 8oz. 20 in.

A Before and After

We are very thankful for the mature landscape this house has, but some of it is getting a bit overgrown.  Such as a few of the trees in front of the house. :)  After some hard work this weekend, we've cleared them out and now we have some great natural light to the rooms at the front of the house! 

Before

 After

And here's some pictures during the working phase!  It didn't take as long as I thought but it was certainly some heavy work.  We also moved some more furniture into the house that night which added to the heavy lifting of course!

Paul claims that after we removed the Japanese Maple from in front of the windows he had a moment of "What have we done?!?!" thinking, but it passed fairly quickly and we are both happy with the results!

Ready or not!

Ready or not, it's that time of year again!

 2nd and 4th grades

Trae was really wishing he could go also!  

Praying they will have a wonderful day in their new (much larger) school!  That their teachers will be kind and that they will make new friends easily!

It's Official

We are officially home owners again!  We are "moved in" but still working on the "settling in". :) A big thank you to all those of you who helped pray us through this decision.  We haven't moved all that far from where we were but far enough that it's a new neighborhood, new school and new church so it'll take some getting used to!

4-H

This was Ali's first year of 4-H and it was certainly a learning experience!  Paul and I are both 4-H alumni but that was quite a while ago!  She took several projects and did very well.  Her best placement was a Champion in her Foods Division!  Which means we will be baking again for State Fair!  :)

Working hard on a project!

Practicing those cookies!  We practiced and practiced and practiced!  The morning we turned them in for judging I commented that it would be a long time before I wanted to see another chocolate kiss cookie! Paul's co-workers enjoyed our efforts though because I needed someone where for all those practice ones to go.  So off to work with Paul they went!

All that practice paid off!  Pointing to her champion cookies!  She claims "I know where I get my baking skills from...... Grandma Kathy!"  Apparently, this mom doesn't get any credit for all that practicing help. ;)

 Talking with the judges during Fashion Revue.  She loved sewing her skirt with Grandma but she was very nervous for this part!  She did great!

July 4th

A little late (okay, a lot late) but we've been having internet issues here, resulting in me having internet access very little of the time.  And when I do, the service is often going in and out, making it pretty frustrating to attempt to blog or email, etc.  In the grand scheme of things, doing without internet is really no big deal, but it's amazing how spoiled I've become with having it and how annoying it is when I don't have it! :)

On to the fun stuff!  We spent July 4th at a pond with friends.  Our kids had a blast in the water and the adults appreciated the fact that the weather was quite cool for this time of year!

 The boys enjoyed jumping off the dock

 The pond owners have installed a zip line that goes across the pond.  You can choose to ride all the way across to dry land or drop off  into the middle of the pond.  Ali was ecstatic because we had told her she had to be 10 before we would allow her to drop from the zip line, so this was the first year she was able to do that!

Trae with his good buddy E.  And yes, they are just as much trouble as they look like they are! :)

Taking a break from swimming to blow some bubbles.

 On Saturday we headed to my mom's for a belated 4th of July gathering. Trae and Austin had lots of fun spending some time together!

 I think riding Grandpa's mule is the kids' favorite thing to do on the farm.

Trae thinks the fireworks are cool but way to loud!

Those Pesky Haircuts

Our boys are not fans of getting their haircut.  I'm pretty sure that's normal for little boys. :)

 Dakota bravely goes first, with a towel around him to keep as much hair off of him as possible. :)

 Trae hides in the tree, claiming "You can't cut my hair if I'm up here!"..

but eventually he has his turn too!