Luke's First Day of 3rd Grade

Ready to go and wishing Mom would stop taking pictures of him.

His breakfast of choice was bacon and pancakes.

His face in this picture says it all.  We pulled up to the school and I told him I wanted a picture of him standing outside the school.  His response was, "Really?!  Mom!"  Then he was horrified when I made him do it. I'm not sure why he was so embarrassed.  There wasn't anyone outside.  :)

At his desk and ready to start the day.  Also, hoping Mom would leave.

******

So, I've decided to make some changes around here lately.  For one, I recently deactivated my Facebook account.  There are many reasons behind my decision, but the main one is it is a HUGE time suck.  I would find myself on Facebook when I really needed to be doing something constructive with my day.  I was also finding it to be more and more negative on a daily basis and finally decided it was time to try it.  I told myself that I would give it a week and see how things went.  Well, I am now on day 3 and so far I don't miss it.  I have spent more time talking on the phone, spending time with my kids and trying to get my house clean.  I say trying to get my house clean because no matter what I try to eliminate from my day I still have 4 kids at home and that leaves me with continuing messes. My brother, Dave, also jumped on this bandwagon and we are now challenging each other to see who reactivates their account first.  I'm pretty sure I have him beat on this one!  :)

We are also in the process of two boys starting preschool very soon. I'm having a very hard time wrapping my mind around that reality.  Nathan will go to preschool in the morning and Matthew in the afternoon.  So, before they start this new adventure I am spending as much time with them as possible.  Luke just started 3rd grade and seems to really enjoy it so far. 

We are also in the process of moving Jake to a toddler bed.  We have tried this before and Jake ended up trying to sneak outside, so it makes me a little nervous.  Wish us luck!!

Lorens family reunion

 This past Sunday we attended the Loren's family reunion.  We had a lot of fun meeting family.  Of course it started out as Mom introducing me as,  "Missy, the one with all the kids."  We all laughed about it, but it didn't take long to realize we weren't the only large family there.

 

The family of Pat and Flo Lorens.

The family of Melvin and Delores Huss.

The family of Don and Mary Lou Vrbas.  In case you can't tell- that's us!

The family of Loretta and Ron Sandberg.

The family of Rosie and Jerry Owens.

Rosie, Loretta and Grandma Mary Lou.

Aunt Denise and I don't like our picture taken, so this is how we worked that out.  :)

Abby was trying to run away.

The next three pictures are from my Dad...

Dad said he likes this picture of me because I was actually smiling.  I'm not sure that is a good thing.

The three Abby's.  They all look like they could be sisters.

Fun at the county fair.

Jake and Sawyer were ride pals for the evening.  The older kids went with Joe, Sarah and Jared to enjoy the bigger rides together.  Well, until Luke freaked out on a ride and they let him off.  Then we all met up again and let the kids go all together.

This is a scary sight.  Fast forward 13 years...  YIKES!!!

They went boating...

Then stopped to pick up a few more friends.

Matthew enjoyed this ride way too much.  He was figuring out how the tire came up and I can see him trying this on his own.  Now I'm going to stick him in a bubble.

Luke, Sarah and Joe.  Luke freaked out on this one too.

We always have to end the evening with a funnel cake.

^^^^^^^^

The last few weeks we have just been enjoying the last few days of summer.  Luke, Matthew and Nathan went on a short camping trip with their Dad.  They caught a few trout and had a good time getting dirty and "roughing it".  I stayed home with Jake and Abby and got to spend some quality time with them.

Jacob, Luke, Nathan, Ben and Matthew having lunch.    Ben and Luke have been hanging out as much as possible this summer.

The boys getting ready for a ride behind Grandma Joyce's 4-wheeler.  We tried to give Abby a ride, but she didn't want anything to do with that 4-wheeler.  Grandpa Dave saved her.

And they're off...

Abby was happy to see them go.

Then she didn't want Grandpa Dave to let her go.

Jared and Gary made their annual salsa.  Here are some of the goodies from my garden and my Mom's.  I had an over abundance of peppers, and well, tomatoes too.  I'm willing to give them away.  I have canned tomato sauce and Jared made 3 1/2 batches of salsa.  So, if you need peppers or tomatoes let me know.

Gary and Jared with the final product.

Freezing Corn

We froze corn this past weekend.  We started Saturday night with over 600 ears of corn.  We did almost half that evening and then finished up Sunday morning.  We ended up with 126 quart bags, 2 gallon bags, 10 gallon bags of corn on the cob and 5 quart bags of corn on the cob.  It was a lot of work, but I know I'll be loving it mid-winter!

Jared washing corn.

Jake... well I would like to say he was helping, but odds are he wasn't.  Grandma Joyce was working hard though.  We were very blessed to have Grandma Joyce stay the night with us and help us out.  We also had help from Grandma Elaine, Tori and Charlie!  Thanks again guys!  We couldn't have done it without you!

Working hard.

We also dug our potatoes last week.  We are already enjoying them.  I love fresh produce!