we're still here!!

my apologies... it's been a busy summer! right after we got back from tennessee, we were off and running with more to do.

saturday (the 24th) we drove up to my parents' for ted's birthday. actually, shannon and brooke came up too, so it was kind of like old times. since ted and shannon share a birthday, there were quite a few joint celebrations when we were younger.

sharing the famous birthday hat...

... lighting the candles...

... and is that tedly looking sadly resigned to the fact that he's now a quarter of a century?

(kidding- i have no idea what he was doing there)

little mister cole got a cupcake... although here, he looks like he got caught swiping it.

"sawah!!"

madison tried on my helmet before kelvin and i took a spin out on the four-wheeler.

then she moved on to grandpa's boots.

she has this "thing" about sticking footwear on her hands and crawling around on the floor that way. strange little lady...

playing with pillows... she calls them "buh-lows".

i guess it's THAT funny!

mom and dad left for vacation the next day, and per our joint gardening effort, i'm doing the garden while they're gone. last week i had kelvin home (he took a week off before leaving for south carolina) so he was able to watch the kids while i worked in the dirt.

one of the days that we were up, i was putzing around by the asparagus patch and heard what i thought were baby birds. the sounds were coming from the tall grass, so i started looking... i found what i thought was a bird nest upside-down; i figured that if i was careful enough, i might be able to flip it upside-right so the poor things wouldn't suffocate and starve.

these are the strangest looking baby birds I'VE ever seen...

yes, i know- they're baby mice. i felt so bad, wrecking their little nest and sending the rest of the litter scrambling blindly into the grass. now i'm not a fan of mice- if they're outside and not causing trouble, i'm fine with them. but these little guys were SO tiny and helpless. guess it's the mommy in me that took pity on them. after all, they ARE just babies!

cole got to see a baby mouse up close (we all washed our hands afterwards, of course!)

they were so tiny and delicate and just plain helpless. i'm sure these two probably didn't survive after i put them back. poor little babies!

the weekend found us back at mom and dad's- even though they were still gone, ted and suz came up and we grilled out for supper.

cole "drove" the gator around the yard...

with a little help here and there from daddy.

(fear not: daddy was running the gas and brake!)

before supper the guys did a little close-range target practice. they got me out there, and i took a pop with kelvin's 7mm mag.

he filled this jug with water and told me to aim.

so i did.

this is the garden... i used the hand-cultivator on the entire thing. it took two days, but i did it. maybe it wasn't necessary, but the rain and storms had packed the dirt down SO bad, i thought it wouldn't hurt.

suz keeps tedly in line, hahaha!

cole got a quick ride from uncle ted...

does this look like a sick face to you?

if you said "yes", you'd be correct.

the poor little man barfed in the van not long after this. we had no indication- he didn't eat much for supper, but given the fact that he'd been running around all day, hadn't had half of his naps that week and well, who wants to eat when they can play outside, we didn't suspect anything.

ted discovered it, actually... kelvin and i were in the house looking high and low for madison's giraffe (which we came back the next day for and found under the willow tree, soaked from the rain); all of a sudden we heard ted saying, "umm, guys? come here...".

puke is my phobia.

but when you're a mom, you do what you have to. thankfully kelvin, ted and suz jumped in to help and between the four of us, we got it cleaned up in no time. kelvin rode on the floor next to cole's seat all the way home with a bucket handy, just in case. poor cole fell asleep within minutes, and by the time we got home, he was acting slightly perkier. he was chipper enough to sit up and listen to his bedtime story, then promptly fell asleep. he didn't move a muscle for about an hour, then woke up crying. fearing the worst (as in, more puke) we went into the kids' room- he was clean, but had a raging fever. we moved his mattress down to the living room, where i stayed on the couch next to him. sleep was elusive- he was restless, waking up every hour, and i was worried about him so i wasn't dozing much. he was better in the morning, had a low-grade fever for a few days, and now has congestion and some coughing. probably the same bug madison had- our last two days in tennessee, she had a fever, one really bad diaper, and then the runny nose and cough. they're both on the mend, so all's well!