A first....

You may want to avoid watching this if you use dial-up, everyone else - enjoy!

Time to catch up

We've had a very busy June. Being busy is good, right? We went to IL for the Bacon Family Reunion where we got to see and meet members of Mike's family. It was Libby's first car trip and she did really well. Luke and Abby would even fall asleep in the car which was nice as well. A car with 3 sleeping children is a wonderful thing! After a full few days in IL, we took off for MO. We stayed just outside of St. Louis. We visited the Arch which was pretty cool (we went to the top) and the next day we went to the zoo. The zoo is ranked #1 by Parenting magazine. We got to see a lot of cool animals and each of us had our favorites. But the zoo is kinda like Thanksgiving dinner. The first part is fine but after awhile, you just wish you hadn't. :)

So we got back from our trip and had some people over that Saturday for dinner. Monday started a week of VBS which was fun but took up our mornings. On Thursday my brother Michael, his wife and two adorable kids came for the weekend. We took in the Science Station (word to the wise, it really needs some sprucing) and a parade and a Fairytale Festival. We ate good, even making s'mores one of the evenings. It was so nice to have them here!

If I included all the pics, it would take forever to download so the pictures here are just a sampling.

Blogger Tag!

I'm it! (thanks Karen) Now, I was always HORRIBLE at tag in grade school. I was always a little too slow and not nearly aggressive enough. The good thing is that I have no need to worry about running after any of you and I'm calling a couple additional rules to the ones listed below: There are no safe bases and no touch backs!

1. Each player starts with 8 random facts/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged write a blog post about their own 8 random things and post these rules.
3. At the end of your post you need to tag 8 people and include their names.
4. You may need to leave them a comment and tell them they're tagged and to read your blog.

8 Random Musings/Facts about Garden Girl (aka Tanna)

1. I'm 100 percent German (or Russian German if you are particular) and know how to cook several German dishes that you can't find on any German restaurant menu outside of North Dakota.
2. I grew up hating working in the garden.
3. I enjoy Mexican food - even the corn smut tacos I had in Mexico
4. Secretly, I have ambitions to make a livelihood entering and winning recipe contests.
5. The most grating sound in the world is someone scraping their teeth on their fork as it exits their mouth.
6. My first "real" job was as a waitress on a riverboat.
7. I DVR Martha Stewart's talk show.
8. The sheets MUST be straight before I can sleep in bed.

Okay, as is obvious by the things that came to mind, I have a thing for food - LOL!

Here's who's tagged and please, don't be surprised!

1. Holly P. (you have a grace period because you are gallivanting across the country)
   
2. Wanda M.
3. April A. (you have a grace period of 45 days due to just moving)
   
4. Noelle F. (are you there?)
5. Any other friend that has a blog that I don't know about and YES! please tell me about it!
   

Sword

We talk about swords a lot in our house (due to Luke's fascination with them). But let me tell you, I chuckle every time Abby tells me her legs are "sword" as in sore......lol

Grill Debacle Update!

Yes, we did it. Check out the Greek tragedy and comedy pictures.

A New Look

Yes, I've decided to "update" or "remodel" or "change" the look of our blog. It all kinda started when I discovered how to add a picture to the header and kinda snowballed from there. It is fun to be able to play around with technology and utilize some of the software that Mike has given me for presents. The header picture contains photos from our backyard that I put into a program called Roxio in a collage format and added the text. I'm no graphic designer but I'm happy with the output. Hope you all are happy with it too!

Park Day!

It has been raining cats and dogs here lately. So when Friday morning came and it wasn't yet (hear the word "yet"), I loaded the three munchkins in the van and we headed to a nearby park. We hadn't been to this park yet so we had a fun time exploring! We hope to go back soon. To quote Abby as we were leaving:

That was a fun trip Mom!

Curly Q

Okay, I've noted that I haven't seen dimples on Libby yet BUT she certainly can put out some curls! Check out her after a bath picture.