a happy place

We have not been to the lake ALL summer long. Seems like every time we decided to go something would 'thwart' our plans.  Karl said if we get this yard cut we'll go. The boys got busy on Friday, then a thunderstorm came up all of the sudden, and stopped the grass cutting for the evening.2ach and Shek started back on Saturday and by the afternoon, it was all cut. The boat was pulled out of the shed, only to discover that the battery was dead. The battery was placed on charge and we waited.

Jolie found her swimming suit and was ready to pose.

The boat is waiting at the dock for all of us to get on board...Karl is in his happy place on the lake in a boat.

The oldest and the youngest, it's hard to believe that at one time Jolie was afraid of 2ach and wanted nothing to do with him...as you can see she got over it. 

Shek enjoying the water...it was nice and warm

The hubster and me

We stayed on the lake till the Sun started to set.

I loved this shot.

2ach drove the boat a long time.

Jolie wanted to drive too, she helped dad drive, but here she's just posing. Shek even took a turn helping dad drive.

Jolie wanted to swim like 'mermaid'.

Here they are enjoying the lake...JOLIE fell asleep at one point during the boat ride.

It was a great day at the lake...it's such a happy place let's go back and not wait too long before we go back again.

A Berry Good Day for Berries and Pies

Today my friend Shannon's girls came over to play for the day. 

We decided that since it was such a pretty day, we might just pick some berries in the front yard.

Yep! We found some berries.

We looked high and low and picked every ripe berry we could find.

 We knew we needed at least 4 cups of berries for 2 pies...so we were desperate to find all the ripe ones. AND we kept a watchful eye for snakes that could be lurking, but did not see any, Praise. The. Lord!

It was such a beautiful morning to pick berries with friends.

 Yes! Jolie had to pick berries with her lipgloss!

Look at all those feet in the berry patch, even one in a cast, but that cast didn't slow her down.

We headed home with buckets and bags of berries.. 

We decided on our way back to the house that we really needed to make those pies...

With a little help from Pioneer Woman's cookbook  and her website we made a list for the ingredients we needed and headed to the store to get them.

Before heading to the store, we always tell dad bye, when he's working from home. Jolie told me that I couldn't kiss dad bye, because it was her turn. LOL...so I snapped this photo really quick...and got my bye sugar when she wasn't looking.

When we got home with the ingredients we started to work. We made the crust from scratch.

I found every rolling pin I own, and put the kids to work. Shek and "K" even recited the roll it, pat it and mark it with a B nursery rhyme. They were having a fun time laughing, giggling and rolling dough.

Jolie thought this was "play dough" play to the extreme...

Look! I really was there, supervising.

Chelsea was awesome at rolling out a thin top crust for the pies. She even got fancy with it and used some cookie cutters for a little extra cuteness for our pies.

Karlie was snapping photos and slicing butter for the pie.

ta-da! pie number 1 complete.

I told ya she got fancy with it, this one has mickey faces.

Pie Aftermath! Fun is usually messy.

Here's the cooling pies. I heard more than once, "When can we eat some?"  Finally,we scarfed down one whole pie,and it was finger lickin' good,to quote Col. Sanders, if we do say so ourselves.

My berry pickin' pie bakin' crew.

We had a Berry good time today.

I am Participating in Favorite Photo Friday at
The Long Road to China and back...

My favorite photo is the one with all the kids' feet with the berries. I did nothing fancy with my photos, it was just a special fun day with friends and family that was just too special not to share with others. I love making sweet memories with family and friends.

A whole lot of culture going on up in here...

This past weekend was jam-packed with recitals, choir and band performances and even a baseball game. In fact we had so many different performances involving all of our kids, that Karl went to one performance on Friday night and I went to the other. We both hit the one on Saturday night (after Shek's baseball game) and then dashed to a battle of the bands, where Zach had been asked to be the headliner...

wow...we couldn't have put another event  on our calendar to attend last weekend...

BUT

at least

we 

experienced a variety 

of

 performance arts this week...

We listened to a 'concert' of recorders, (yes, recorders!)

Those students played in between the dance performances...

we saw numerous dances

very entertaining...

and then

we 

experienced 

bands

hard/rock to contemporary worship...

My senses were on overload this weekend..

SO  there's nothing like a little 

waffle house afterwards

to 

help balance it all out.

Shek's choir

This is a photo of one of the dance instructors dancing with her oldest son. I thought it was special to see them dancing together before the performances. It seems that one of the dancers had a family emergency so Mrs. Jennifer was stepping her son through the dance steps (tango) so that he could fill in at the last minute. They danced so beautifully together, and the fact that it was a mother with her college-age son...well, you know I  am all sentimental and all that so I snapped a few shots. Don't you know that their mother/son dance will be awesome when ever he gets married !

Lyrical ballet

There's my Karlie doing the tango

The high school early morning tappers...something about teenagers and early morning just doesn't seem  to go together...My applause to anyone who can function as well as dance at 8 am!!!

Rushed over after the dance recital to see my son and his band play as the feature band at a battle of the bands. Just going to say it and step on my soap box, battle of the bands audiences, should always hush during a prayer~ it's not only common courtesy to those around you, as well as to the person praying, but also it's courtesy/reverence to the LORD. 

Life is beginning to settle down now...just a few school weeks, a few finals, and a few field trips. and then we 

celebrate

with 

summer

vacation...

and 

maybe 

a

lot 

of 

spring/summer

cleaning!

Love yo momma

This momma needs hugs

Here's some love from my kiddos captured with the camera over the years ...

Karlie and I both have the squint/blink problem when photos are taken. If it's not me with the eyes shut, it's karlie...It was my turn in this photo.

baby sugar~slobbery baby kisses are the best

A squeeze from the Shekster is always pretty cool!

Here's an old photo of zach and me.

A momma and her babies...pretty sweet!

Cookin' with the kids...

Karlie's favorite show is Paula's Best Dishes. In fact, we record them all. The other day they made a Key Lime Mousse Pie...and Karlie announced that we should make that for her birthday on Thanksgiving. Since it has to be made 24 hours in advance and placed in the freezer for a whole day...we got busy this morning. And I took Paula's advice and got in the kitchen with my kids...so basically they made this thing with little assistance from me...and if it tastes as good as it did when we all 'licked the pot'...it's gonna be mighty fine!

Crushing up the Graham crackers...cause Kroger was out of the boxes of already crushed crackers.

 Melting the butter

 IT took a lot of Graham crackers to make the crust.

 Some of the ingredients! Any recipe with 3 packages of cream cheese has got to be good!

Jolie enjoyed the graham cracker crumbs.

 Shek mixing the butter, sugar and graham cracker.

 squeezing limes

 squeezing limes is a workout...

 Who would have thought that 21 years ago when I used the red and white checked Better homes cook book that now, I would be using a  recipe on my iphone?

 Melting white chocolate in the gelatin key lime mixture...a recipe with white chocolate and cream cheese...will be awesome.

 where's the zest.

 Smilin' and zestin'

 lime zest, it's hard work

 had to beat the cream with honey's mixer because my mixer was busy

 folded in the cream along with the white chocolate, keylime mixture....

 Pouring it in the spring form pain.

 to the freezer it goes...for a whole day.

 Lickin' the pot is the best part of any recipe creation.

 Look! I was there, frizzier hair than usual, cause I'm outta hair mousse.

Now to deal with the aftermath...cleaning up! UGH

24 hours later...

YUMMY

Happy real 16th Birthday, Karlie!

Happy Thanksgiving, y'all!

Pray for us...it's now time for the Christmas Card photo taking marathon...my family is always so over it...before we begin...BUT I am praying we get the awesomest Christmas card photo ever...after all it's Jolie's first Christmas...