Not a girly girl

Sophia got a darling pink and gray skirt and

sweater from her Ganah and Booboo for her birthday.

We attempted to put it on her for church......no go!

That night she said our family prayer...........

First words were..."Please bless that Ganah will take that dress away"

The tele

Emma and the phone are best friends...she talks on it all times of the day...and night.

Last night her other best friend called, Duff picked up at the same time and waited.

"Hey if your parents pick up, I will just hang up"

"Okay" says Emma, "I am going to the kitchen to get a banana"

Duff whispers "don't go to the kitchen.....don't get a banana" he hears a gasp, then a laugh.

Duff sings, "Good night girls....go to bed!"

Duff then reminisces with me when he started talking on the phone...also in the six grade. He said once Dano opened his door late one night, Duff hid the phone under the pillow after his dad leaves, he whispers, "you still there?" Then his dad pages the phone!!!

Our baby is four!!

Sophia turned FOUR on October 3rd

a kiss and a lick of frosting

notice:

the ballerina on the rainbow (thanks kjrst)

pajamas, mismatched..the only way

Alex Call gave Sophia a present after her birthday....when she was opening it she said,

"MOM am I five?!"

Then when we picked up the girls she told them that it was her birthday again!

For the beauty of the earth....

Banks Lake...steam boat rock, little piece of heaven

The first star at dusk...it looks a little like a U.F.O...but it's hard to hold the camera still
How about the other star?

I had forgotten how beautiful the sunset is in the country....can you hear it?? Ahhhhhhh!

Never pulled one of Lilli's teeth

This man has....Lilli's Grandpa, A.K.A. Booboo.

He has pulled all but one of Lillian's baby teeth (the other by her sister Bella)

We may not even know she has a loose tooth until we go to Sunday dinner and Lilli (who goes early to help set the table) says...Booboo pulled another one!

Her last one was yanked at Banks!

Duff doesn't know how Dan gets his big fingers on those little teeth!

Pregnant

This is my DARLING cousin...Rachel, awaiting their baby boy, do you just want to squeeze her? When looking at her picture, I know she making a funny face...but you can just feel her excitement and joy and the anticipation of bringing a new life into this world.

Her face isn't big enough to hold that huge, darling smile of hers.

This reminds me of my Bella when she said out of the blue,

"I would be so sad if I could not have my own babies.

I could adopt but I would want to have my own babies in my tummy!"

I remember also thinking this mature thought as a kid and looking forward to being a mommy. I always looked at pregnant woman in awe...thinking that is the most amazing thing I have ever seen. I wondered if I was also just 8 years old when I had these thoughts. Oh my sweet Bella I am equally excited for your little ones, and being a Grandma.....I will wear that name proudly....but let's get you through the 3rd grade first...Bella girl!

Velcro

In the car one day Lilli jokingly asked Sophia....."Is it Wizard Of Oz or Biz Da Boz?"

(this is how Sophia used to pronounce it)

"Lilli, it's Wizard of Oz, and there is a Lion and a Velcro!"

babysitting+cute boys= entertainment

A house full of girls could not resist
say cheese

say cheese and macaroni

my babies!

I don't know what it was about this year...but I had a sinking feeling the day before school and the day of. I always hate it when school starts and I have to send them into the big bad world, and they are gone all day everyday. I would rather have them home with me. I don't have the mental ability to home school...and not sure that is even the answer. I cried after we dropped the last one off, it's just another benchmark that tells me they are another year older.

wakie...wakie....eggs and bakie!

Now that I am passed pregnancies and nursing (i know...three years ago!)...it's easier to take more time on the water. I am just getting out of the wake this year, but in my defense the first time i got up on the wake board was last summer.....late in the game?

No way.... look out for the oldie!

Duff couldn't wait to dive in and wake board

He recently learned to do this....



that is my HOT husband.. my Duff Dyer!


over the whole wake




You have to click on this to see Lilli's face. She was whining, "I can't do this Dad...I'm not ready!" Duff speeds up and says, "Yes you are.... stand up!" She popped right up and continued to whine until she realized that she got up her first try on the skies.
"I can't do this....HEY I'm doing it!

Wake board also comes easy to Lillian

Emma has really enjoyed wake-boarding and is getting good...she was

so happy to get outside of the wake! Yay Emma!

Mar! Look at you!!!!

Bella complains about getting in the cold water...but is really a natural!

Master Duff..my handsome Duff Dyer has made a huge effort to get the girls to the lake during the day a lot this summer...but still has to work while doing it. He is such a good daddy and husband!!....we are

all so lucky to have him. I love you honey!

body surfing

We have had so much fun taking the boat out "a-tons-a" this summer at American Lake. Our favorite time is early morning cause no one is there so the water is "glass"

(ya gotta click on this pic...to see their great faces bigger)

I love the girls faces!!! I need to get pics of girls on wake-board and knee board. Our older three have all gotten up on wake board (we are lucky if Sophia wants to even get in the water) So fun to see girls trying new things...I was too in-awe and happy to take pics i guess.

Andee, Emma, Lilli, Bella

They love to let go and float in the wake


Ar...matee!

WANTED!

This man is dangerous...known to carry his own explosive gas...leads a pack full of crazy girls...and trains puppies to bite said girls...please contact your local authorities if you see this man......note: his piercing blue eyes known to make his wife (also armed with explosives) to swoon....

known to make his enemies and friends laugh.....





goes by the name...officer Duff Dyer...shameful!





Warning...this next one will frighten the wee-ones

(perhaps cause a large belly-ache in the not so wee-ones)









We believe he has also gone by "Pepi-la-pew"

Or Inspector "the pink-panther" Clouseau

That's my handsome Duff Dyer

Finishers!

WE DID IT!

We were so happy to wake up to cool, overcast weather as the whole week had been VERY hot...in the hundreds...and VERY humid!!!

So mom and sisters (margaret, eliza and chloe) dressed alike on purpose...and

I just happen to match! I am totally running again next year...it gave me the itch. And Eliza and I got a LITTLE itch to do a full...not so sure about that. SO much running to train...who has the time for that??

Clowning around...

Cheney Stadium
I found myself feeling sorry for the elephants as the circus workers did not have any patience for the kids waiting in line, or the parents with questions. So how did they treat the elephants when no one was watching?? The kids had fun (all $8 worth) on their 30 second ride.

Lillian, Sarah Nickel, Sophia. Circus was fun...going with

great friends Nickels and Rosengrens made it totally worth it!

Banks Lake M.J. tribute

While we vacationed at Banks Lake we decided to give a little shout out to Micheal Jackson. We had so much fun dancing around in our afros and blasting M.J. music....the kids also had fun while dancing on top of the "party barge". This is after the adults had taken the fros off and stopped dancing....but not the kids! I think us adults were beach dancing for....what?...20 minutes or more? It was so much fun!

What did you do to honor the king of pop? :)

Sophia is happily chasing me at the end of this...sorry for the shakiness

Halloween comes early at our house

Bella painted her face on the last day of her art class

Emma found Halloween face paint and decided to be creative

Small town run

I went to Idaho for a visit and knew while I was there I needed to run about 9 miles to stay on track for training. I emailed a childhood friend of mine to see if her and her family would be in Lewisville over the 4th. She said yes and that she was also training for a 1/2! Perfect! I was so excited to catch up with her and have the chance to run with her. She is way faster than me...but she pretended that we were the same pace! Love her! The only time we could run was after the fireworks....which ended up being about midnight! We ran around the main part of town a little more than 2 times....mind you, this is only a town of about 4oo people, so it was totally dead at midnight, but we had a great conversation and it was really great to be with Megan. I was staying with my 89 year old grandma, so when I opened the creaky front door at 1:30 I woke her up. OOPS! I ran to her room as I heard her moving her walker....it's me grandma just coming back from getting some air. So the first thing she said in the morning was....sorry you were uncomfortable last night. (shoot!) Oh, grandma I was actually out running with Megan, i didn't want to worry you. I explained the reasons for the run....She looked at me with a frown and said...."Keirra is that using wisdom!?" I laughed and assured her I was fine. I am not sure if she didn't want me running that far, or running the 1/2 or if she didn't want me to be out so late. Either way...I am totally using that on my kids....."Is that using wisdom?" Grandma is a faithful, strong person who I can learn from. In December she will be 90! She told me that her patriarical blessing said something like..... if you remain faithful you will be blessed in your short life, she laughs at that and can only assume that "short" meant short in an eternal perspective.