Ahh... Tis the season!

Wow has time flown by since the last post!

We have had and exciting fall!

We had a fun Halloween! Clayton was Buzz Lightyear and his friend Danny was Dracula! I'm still trying to find a picture of Tyler! He got to spend the night with his cousins so I didn't see much of him.

Clayton got to go to the pumpkin patch with his class. He's the one on the end!

Tyler's 6th grade class got to have an awesome fall party outside at the recreation area by our house! They played games and roasted marshmallows, but boy was that wind cold!

Thanksgiving was TASTY as always! We got to enjoy a visit with Doug's brother and his wife, Eric and Sarah! We miss them when they are gone!

Last spring, Doug bought a 1948 Red Ford pickup truck. We drove from Hastings, NE to Lee's Summit, MO and he turned around with a couple of friends and drove to Denver to pick it up. Then turned around and drove back to Lee's Summit. Whew! He's been working hard on his truck. Lots of good pictures there too but I think I'll have to start a new blog for that!

We also have some exciting news about Doug's job! His boss said there was a position available at their job site in Johannesburg, South Africa. Wow! That was a lot to think about it. Doug new at some point he would have to go visit but a long-term job assignment, 12 months, what should we do???

Well we did some research and talked with some folks there with families and PRAYED! And as Doug said, "We've tossed our hat into the proverbial ring!" Now we have to wait on the head honchos to tell us yes or no! We are really hoping for yes. After all the agonizing we are so excited and just can't wait to find out!

I hope everyone has a WONDERFUL Christmas!

Happy Birthday to Clayton-A Month Late!!

I am so behind! It' seems like we've been soooo busy lately that time just flies by!

Here's Clayton's first day of school!

Tyler's doing great! He made it into ASPIRE, Lee's Summit's schools gifted program. This is the third program he's made it into. We are so proud of him!

Here's some shots from Clayton's birthday! He had it at Dave's Gymnastics factory! Lots of fun! I think that we wore out a few kids!

Clayton finished up Itty Bitty Football! He's been steeling lots of flags and he got a few touchdowns!

Oh Holy Cow!

Wow, what in the world happened to summer? It seems like it flew by!

So what have we been up to this summer? Well lots of trip to the neighborhood pool.

A trip to the KC Zoo with old friends. We bought the extra ticket and that gave us unlimited rides on the train, tram and carousel.

It was such a beautiful day that day! All the animals were out and we got to go in and see the new rain forest exhibit.

Tyler went to Boy Scout camp for 10 Days all by himself. Clayton sure missed him! It was the second session at camp and they kicked it off great. The first and second night they had to "evacuate" their campsite to the mess hall because of severe storm with high winds and lightening. The middle part wasn't too bad but they had heat index over 100 the last part of camp. They still had a blast!

Doug finally finished his coffee and end tables. They turned out beautiful! Doug always likes to do a big project over Christmas. This year he got started on the tables but since we were back and forth from KC to Hastings he didn't have a lot of time to work on them in between moving.

Clayton got pumpkins off his pumpkin plant. I know it's a little early for pumpkins and I think that's because they were planted so early but he was sure proud of them.

Did I mention how much he loves this Kool-Aid days tank top?

We also went to St. Louis for vacation this year. The kids were dying to go and did we have fun! If you ever get there you have to check out the City Museum. We spent all day there last Monday and it was worth every penny!


Whew! I think that will do it for now! I'll have to post anything I missed!

Urban Farmer

Our new neighbors seem to think that we should have stayed in Nebraska because Clayton is turning into quite the "urban" farmer. This year at school they planted a pumpkin seed and he's been tending it faithfully since before Mother's day. This little plant made a 300 mile car ride to Kansas City and WOW has it grown!

They had extra pea plants at school so thinking originally that it wouldn't make it a week at home I picked one up too. So here we are a whole month in a half later eating peas off that plant! Clayton is so proud he can't wait to send Ms Becky

pictures.

Happy Birthday Tyler

Yesterday was Tyler's birthday. Wow how do they grow up fast! Tyler is turned 11 this year and that means that he is officially a pre-teen. Any word that includes "teen" is scary!

He had all of his old friends over and his cousing and grandparents. We had a beach theme party and they got to swim at the pool, a pinata, and beachy cupcakes. They had lots of fun!

Did you ever wonder what the inside of the stovetop looks like?

If you were ever wondering what the inside of a smooth top stove looks like, here you go.

Yikes! Don't every drop a large acrylic cup on the glass. This was the stove that came with the house and boy was I MAD when I broke it. Luckily the other 3 burners and the oven works so we have been making due.

My husband loves me enough to let me purchase a new stove as long as I continue to make tasty dinners on it. Not to big of a price to pay!!! Thanks hon!

Toto, I don't think we're in Nebraska anymore?

So the big move went well. Or as well as can be expected with the way our luck runs. We had a lot of great help on Thursday evening packing up and great company while we cleaned the carpets.

We hit the road Friday morning and all was going good. About 20 mile north of St. Joseph, Missouri, I kept thinking we're almost there, Doug calls me and tells me that he's glad the guy at the Budget place circled the roadside emeregency number on the pamphlet. He had a rear tire blowout on the moving truck! UGGGG! I could not believe it! Clayton and I were about 5 miles behind him because he left a little earlier than us and I was slowly catching up. So as we come around the curve on I-29 highway I see the giant tire peel laying on the middle of the road.

Luckily nothing to bad happend other than Doug being a little shaken. So we pull off the highway exit, in Oregon, Missouri, and that's when the big waiting game began. Luckily it was by some nice woods and a really cool pond. (Insert sacasm here!)

Two and a half hours later we hit the road. Our now 6 hour trip has turned into 9 hours! We could have driven to Denver in that amount of time. Somehow we survived and arrived to my sister and her crew of moving kids! We emptied about 85% of the truck out Friday night with just a few dressers and the deep freeze left for the strong men on Saturday.

(New definition of "hot dog")

So we are here and I am edging towards exhaustion. We are glad to be home!