What have we been up to??

Wow...time really has a way of getting away from me. I'm sure some of you have been wondering where in the world we have been and what we've been up to. So, I thought I would take a moment tonight to share what's been going on! :)

First, I have to share the new wall decor in our main bathroom. My mom found these for me at Goodwill. They look so good that I had to share. So, here is a close up...
And, here is a picture taken a little bit further back. I can't get the whole bathroom in the picture, sorry!
Ethan has been loving Preschool. We had a few days that he wasn't excited about me leaving him there and actually had tears one of those days but always had a great time and couldn't wait to tell me all about his afternoon once I picked him up. This past Thursday and Friday were his best days and didn't even have me walk him all the way in. He's growing up so fast. Any way, Friday, when we got home, he was sitting on my lap telling me all about what he and his buddy had done together at Preschool and one of the stations he was at was the computer. I asked him if his teacher helped him with the game and he informed me, quickly, that no she did not help him because he could do it all by himself now. I almost cried. You see, here at home, when Ethan is on the computer there is always a sister at his side running the mouse and he just tells them what to do on the game or site. Jason and I have tried to encourage him to do it himself but he always tells us to just do the mouse and he will tell us where to point it. So, this was a huge accomplishment. I told him he needed to have some special time on the computer at home so that he could show Daddy what he had learned. So, here he is folks...Ethan, on the computer, all by himself!!!
He was having so much fun with PBSkids.org!
And then today, we had volleyball and soccer. I'm still really bummed that I didn't get good pictures of the volleyball player but at least in these ones you can see her. So, they are brighter just grainy. :( I'm sure my camera expert will have a solution for me soon and I will have better pictures to share in a few weeks. (So, camera expert...and you know who you are...HELP!!) Side note...this was the first Saturday that Jason and I were able to watch full games for both of the girls. Finally, the schedules worked in our favor!!

Brenna has improved so much over the past couple of weeks. She was really moving around to get the ball and looked so natural out there. She was even able to serve the ball over the net once today. This is such a hard thing for these girls to do. It's so fun to watch all of them get excited when they serve the ball over. It is a huge accomplishment for them! Here she is watching the first serve of the game, ready to play!
And, here, she is taking her turn at serving. Unfortunately, this was not the one that went over but she was so close...it did hit the net, just not over.
Action shot!! Not a good one, but at least you can see that she really does go for it! It is so fun to watch Brenna play a sport that she actually enjoys and one that she chose! If you know of any volleyball camps out there, please let us know! We want to keep her involved as much as possible. We have been looking at the LHS volleyball schedule to find a game or two to take her to. I think she would have a great time watching the high school girls play.
Once Brenna's game was over, we headed over to Bender Field for Alyssa's soccer game. It was fun to see her play. It had been 3 weeks for me because I have been with Brenna at volleyball. She looked so cute out there.
For those of you wondering...yes, she actually runs up and down the field when she isn't playing defense. Here is a picture for proof! :)
And, another one!! :)
The girls were exhausted when they got home today so they had a little break before we got to our weekend chores. We got the house cleaned and then headed outside to help with yard work. Let me tell you...we had a lot to do out there! Jason got the lawn mowed and edged and then he pulled out most of our garden...at least the stuff that was no longer producing any veggies. The girls helped us keep track of Ethan, for the most part...ha! And me, well, I was the one with the electric trimmer in my hands. I actually had Jason tell me that I overwhelmed him with the amount of trimmings we have to pick up. (It had been awhile since we had pruned and there were some things that were out of control!!) We were so exhausted when finished that we just raked everything up into piles and will finish picking the piles up tomorrow afternoon.

Tonight, we loaded the kids up in the van, stopped at the McDonald's drive-thru for dinner and headed to Costco. We were hoping for no slow traffic because it was almost 5:10 when leaving McD's and Costco closed at 6:00. We made it there and were loading the van by 6:00. From there, we stopped at WalMart for a few things and then home to unload it all.

Once we got everything unloaded, I started in with the meat that we purchased. I was so excited because I was ready to get 8 meals in our freezer. This means that I have at least 16 meals that I don't have to plan for our family...we get at least 2 nights out of each meal!! This leaves me more time in my day to spend with my family!

Well, I've kept you reading long enough. Thanks for sticking with me. I realize that sometimes, when it's been awhile between postings, that things can get long. For now, it's time to get ready for bed so we can be up on time to get to church tomorrow. I'm excited to hear what Pastor Craig has to share with us! His messages have been absolutely great!!