Kids First Day of School

3 1/2 weeks behind on my postings but I guess better late than never.

 

Hailey & Andrew, 1st day of school 2012

 

This year Andrew is going into 7th grade.  Hailey is going into 4th grade which is a big step because 4th grade is middle school here.

 

The kids have been in school for 3 1/2 weeks now and they are both doing great!!

 

The middle school has a new site on the computer that I can go on and check the kids grades. It is awesome.  I can see each assignment, what grade they received for the assignment or test and then also the grade average up to that date.

 

Andrew currently has all A's in all of his grades and Hailey has mostly A's and a couple of B's.  I'm sure the longer they are in school the better their grades will be.  Once they have been back into a routine for awhile will help and also getting used to the amount of work they are getting.  Andrew and Hailey are both getting much more class work/homework than what they had done their previous years.

 

Here's a couple more pictures of the kids from their first day.

 

Hailey entering 4th grade

Drew entering 7th grade

 

and of course Drew had to get a silly picture in :).

Drew being silly



Family Visits - Part 2

In the beginning of August we had more company, my sister Taren. :)

 

Taren with Bruschi & Matilda

 

It was so nice to have someone from my family come visit to see where we live and our new home.

 

Taren flew in late Thursday evening and all of us went to pick her up at the airport. Friday was a busy day of running errands.  We took the kids clothes shopping for school and we also went food shopping.  Taren wanted to try Sonic for lunch which we did and she loved it.

 

The rest of the time she was here was spent just spending quality time together.  Drew & Hailey have a special relationship with their Auntie Taren.  They love spending time with her and her with them.  We did go out to lunch once but for the rest of the time we just hung out at the house we each other.

 

  We watched some movies and the kids did some cooking with her since they all love to cook.

 

Taren & Hailey having a tea party

Taren & Drew making pretzels

Taren & Hailey decorating cupcakes they made

 

Taren was great and helped out with the chores everyday. She really loved Matilda and she said she was surprised at how nice and sweet the goats were. LOL

 

Taren meeting Matilda for the first time with Hailey

Taren & Matilda

Taren milking Priscilla

Taren doing some chores

Taren scooping poop, LOL

Taren hanging with the girls

 

Taren with Tbone

Priscilla loving Taren

 

Taren headed home on Wednesday and we had a great 5 days with her and we were sad to see her go home.  We hope she will come back and visit us again soon!!!

 



Family Visits - Part 1

We have been so lucky this year with having friends and family visit us.  In July, Jamie's family came to see us.  His parents came with also his sister and 2 of her kids. Joe her oldest couldn't make it because he had work.  We loved having them here and wish the visit was longer.

Paul, Hailey, Drew, Jamie, Vi, Lisa, Me, Russell & Alyssa

They got here Thursday evening and stayed until Sunday evening.  This was Jamie's parent's second time visiting but the last time they were here was just right after we had moved in.  This time they got to see the house all set up and the few rooms we have completed.  His parents along with Jamie's sister Lisa and her kid got to meet all of the animals for the first time.

We also showed they around town and all the places we go to now.  Also the kids school's.

We had a great time just relaxing and spending time together with everyone.  It's not often we are all together since we are now in TN and Jamie's parents split their time between MA and FL.

I didn't really get to take many pictures over the weekend but I made sure to get everyone together on the the last day to take a bunch.

Jamie's parents with the grand kids

Jamie's parents with Lisa and 2 of her kids

Lisa & Jamie with their parents

Jamie's parents with Jamie, Me & the kids

After getting the family shots I got the kids to do some posing. Girls were all for it but not the boys so much. We made them anyway.

Hailey & Alyssa

Hailey & Alyssa

Russell, Alyssa, Hailey & Drew

Russell & Drew 

Russell & Drew, little bit more even with height

I know your probably thinking that these pictures are great and came out wonderful BUT I had to take about 5 pictures of each pose to get a good one.  I'm sure that everyone is going to kill me, but I have to add the funny ones too.

So here they are.

Drew being silly

Hailey telling Drew cut it out 

Lisa can't stop laughing

Drew being silly again with Russell unaware -this picture makes me laugh so hard

I have MANY more but most of them are of Drew being silly as usual.  You know those pictures of Drew of him usually standing there and NOT smiling, well now you know that it's really not true.  This is what we go through during picture time.

We had a wonderful time with Jamie's parents, Lisa and the kids and we were sad to see them go.  We love having company and really appreciate when they take the time out of their busy lives to take the long trip here to TN to see us.



Garden -July

Well the garden this year has been a struggle.  We have had a serious drought here in TN and that combined with the fact we got the planting in 3 weeks late, some of our veggies haven't done so well and others are just plugging along.

2nd planting of green beans

Our first planting of green beans did really well.  We had lots to eat and also to freeze for the coming winter months.  Our second planting isn't as large as the first but is coming along well so far.

Some of the herbs are doing well also, including the parsley and basil which I will soon pick and dry.

Our pepper plants and tomato plants are doing great.  We are freezing the excess peppers we have left over that we haven't ate.  The tomatoes are so delicious that none of those get into the freezer.  We have just been eating them.  Not wanting to be without fresh tomato sauce, I have been going to the farmers market and buying some tomatoes in bulk.  1 box (60 tomatoes) for $10 that I have been turning into sauce and canning for the winter months.

Thai peppers - extremely hot!!

Chili peppers

Banana peppers

Cherry Tomatoes

Our watermelon is doing good also.

See the 2 little watermelons?

We also planted some cantaloupe when we did the 2nd planting of beans & corn.  They have sprouted and are growing so hopefully we will have cantaloupe too this year.

Some of our veggies haven't done so well.  Cucumbers completely died.  Thankfully we had lots of dill pickles left from last year.  I did go buy a 1/2 bushel of pickling cukes at the farmers market to make some dill chips and then also some Bread & Butter pickles since we were out of them.

Corn has done awful, our first planting went to seed which means it did grow but didn't get any ears on it.  So we did put in a second planting, they are about 7 inches high right now.  I also have picked up 3 dozen ears of corn at the farmers market that Jamie & I cut off the cob and froze.  I've found a local farm that will be harvesting their corn shortly and I'm hoping to get an additional 12 dozen ears to freeze for the rest of the year.

Zucchini's are doing okay.  Yellow squash has done awful, we haven't even gotten one yellow squash yet.

Gardening is definitely harder this year than lasts but hopefully next year will be better.  We will make sure the tiller is in working order before hand, this was our hold up for planting late this year.  We will also be able to compost the whole garden. 

In the meantime, we are enjoying what we are getting to eat and I'm loving going to the farmer's market every Saturday.  Lots of yummy things to see and try.  We go over to the large one in Cookeville so their are lots of people there selling.