A Big Week...

This past week was a busy one. It was packed full of work, fun and play. Our church held their annual Soccer Nights camp. We hosted the coach and his girl friend at our house. Stella loved it. The first day was a little tough, but the rest of the week was great. Jonah loved it too. He came each day decked out in shin guards and Stella's old cleats (probably 5 sizes too big!). He was too young to participate in the actual camp, but hey, you can still ride bikes with shin guards right??! Him and his buddies, Nathan and Henry, had fun riding down the hill with their bikes and scooters, wrestling with each other, and kicking the ball around too. Ava joined in the festivities as well. She was able to play with her little friend Finn. He is a month older than her. Besides wanting to pinch each others faces and steal each others toys, I think they had a good time together. On top of having house guests and being busy with camp, I was able to work on signs and Sean and I were able to finish our table. It is finally in the house. It is far from perfect, but I think it is going to be great and serve it's purpose beautifully. Another exciting thing that happened this week was the open house for the elementary kids. Stella was able to meet her teacher and see her cute classroom. Prior to the open house, we received a letter in the mail from Stella's teacher that she had written to her students. In the letter she mentioned she would be smiling when she saw each of them. On the way home from the open house Stella says to me, "mom, she was smiling when she saw me." It was so sweet. I'm excited for her to start school so she can learn, but I will be praying diligently for my sweet girl each and every day that the Lord will protect her tender heart and mind. I think I'm ready to embark on this next chapter in our lives. Although, I'm pretty sure many tears are going to be shed on the drive home this coming Thursday when I drop her off for her first day of school.

Yesterday...

Stella had a big day yesterday. She had to go to the dentist to get her tooth pulled. The poor girl hasn't had the best of luck when it comes to losing teeth. I'm not sure what the deal is, but her new teeth keep missing the "mark" and grow in behind the baby tooth rather then hitting the root and pushing the baby tooth up and out. I've heard this is fairly normal, but this last tooth wasn't looking too normal to me. I mean good grief, the new tooth was practically fully grown and the baby tooth was getting all crooked and lodged in next to the tooth beside it. So I let the dental professionals tackle this one. The dentist isn't Stella's most favorite place, and I really can't blame her, it isn't my favorite place either. We made it though. A few tears were shed but we walked out of there with a pink treasure box to hold the tooth and the excitement that the tooth fairy will be coming to the Parsons' house again.

Here's Ava showing off a few of her new tricks.

And here's a little somethin' something for Hollie.

More Table Talk

Step number 1,001, to put on the first coat of stain, done. I now know why they charge thousands of dollars for a table such as this. There are so many steps. Seriously, when I say the number 1,001, I'm not too far off. I'm happy to say we are now almost finished. I think all that is left is another coat of stain, and then a few coats of polyurethane with a little sanding in between. Then it will be time for a feast :) Who's coming over???

In other news...

Stella got some new school clothes (thank you Nana and Papa!) and there hasn't been a day that she doesn't ask to wear them or ask if it is September yet. She's so ready for school to start... I'm still not so ready. She's quite the girl. Just last night she came up to me while I was in the office and says...
"Mom I'm not sure my name sounds good when you call it."
she then proceeds to call her name in a sing-song voice - Stellllllll aaaaaaaaaaa
"When the boy calls my name, I don't think it sounds good."
Me: "What boy?!"
"The boy I'm going to marry."
Me:"Well what name do you want?"
"Jane." she then calls out Jane in her sing-song voice

If you're wondering why Jane, it's because she loves Peter Pan. Crazy, I know. So far she wants her hair cut like Jane and now she wants to be named Jane! What a nut. click here to see Jane :) Next she'll be asking to dye her hair red!

Jonah is still the cutest 3 year old boy I know. He's growing up so fast. I wish I could keep him at this age for a couple more years. It's my favorite. They say and do the funniest things.He came and told me he was ready to go. He picked out this outfit all by himself, from the sunglasses to the striped socks....yep he's cute all right.


Ava is starting to crawl. It isn't the real official crawl, but she's close. She scoots all over the place and is at the age where she notices every little speck on the floor. She was sitting outside the other day trying to pick up red head ants. Her first tooth finally popped through too. One down, lots more to go.

What's Tiger (kitty) up to you ask?? Well he's in the fight of his life. Seriously, between the hawk that sits up in the tree and watches him, the neighbor cat that wants to fight him, and Jonah and all his "love" he showers on him, it's surprising he is still here. Hopefully he becomes a big strong cat soon.

*edit at 8pm - Ava is officially a crawler. She just crawled to me about 10 minutes ago and it was the cutest thing ever! I love it when they first learn to crawl, all wobbly and cute.

The Good Old County Fair

Austin winning grand prize for his pig Big Red
Corn dogs
Elephant ears
Rides!
Pony rides
"Milking Goats"
Wild animal guy

Watching the horse games


and of course you can't forget "fair feet"

Go Big or Go Home

We're going big and it's a good thing because we got ourselves some big legs...table legs that is. These beauties are called, the smooth farmhouse dining table leg. I think they'll do just fine. Thanks for all the suggestions! I'll keep you posted when we finish.

Our latest project...

...to make something beautiful out of old barnyard boards.
Sean was mentioning to a friend how his wife (me) was asking (nagging, pleading) him to make a new dining table. His friend was kind enough to give us some old 2 X 8" boards he had laying in a pile on his property. I've always wanted a rustic table and when I first saw the boards I had no doubt my wish would come true. They were rustic indeed. So far we've sanded, jointed, tongue and grooved, and glued the boards together. We put it in the house this morning to get an idea what it would be like. Here comes the dilemma...do we keep it at 34" wide or do we add another board to make it 41"?? There are pros and cons to both. If we keep it skinny it will give us more room in our living/sitting area. However, if kept skinny then we lose table room and basically just our plates, cups and silverware fit on the table with maybe a salt and pepper shaker in between...well maybe more than that, but not much. If we make it wider then perhaps a turkey can fit on the table and then Thanksgiving will be at our house, because did I mention it's 9ft long?!?! Although a con to making it a wider table is more work for us (Sean). So, we're up for suggestions. All you table owners out there go and measure your table and tell us what you think we should do. The first two pictures are taken of how it is now, skinny.


This picture is taken with a mock setting on the skinny table and an extra board on the right. As far as dilemma's go, I guess this is a pretty good one to be in. I'm so excited for it to be done. Our new table legs come Tuesday. We'll have lot's of room now, so come gather at our table :) Oh, and another pro for the skinny table, it'll be good for playing cards.

The newest member of our family...

Meet Tiger, a.k.a. Ty Ty, a.k.a. Kitty. He's our new mouse catcher/pet. We had some friendly little rodents try to make a nest in the hood of our car awhile ago and I particularly didn't want any of that craziness going on. So hence, we got a cat. Stella loves him and is already worrying over him. She told me this morning that having a cat is hard work. She's concerned with his every move. Jonah loves to pick him up and then put him down (in other words drop him - good thing cats land on their feet!) and Ava just wants to pull his fur. Welcome to the family Tiger.

Next we're getting a dog to take care of this problem...



and yes, this animal is a problem, they eat all my flowers!

Thursday Pond Day

During the summer Thursdays have always been open pond day at my parents for the church family and friends. Due to the craziness of summer (Tricia's wedding), and the weather not always cooperating, today was the first official 'pond day.' It's always a fun time for the kids to play and swim, and a good time for the ladies to sit and visit (with one eye on the kids of course). It's sad to think there aren't too many more Thursday's left this summer. It's even more crazy to think school will be starting soon, I get the happy-sads (a Stella term when you feel both happy and sad) when I think about it. For now I think I'll just concentrate on enjoying these last few pond days. Here's some pictures from today.

Rub-a-Dub, Splashing in the.....Sink

Now that Ava is sitting, she has graduated from the baby tub to the sink. The first thing I thought when we got this sink for our new house was - this is the perfect sink for a baby. Well, Ava finally is able to enjoy it and that is exactly what she does - enjoys it. She splashes like crazy. I attached a picture of our floor, it's hard to tell, but it is completely covered in water. Stella got a pretty good laugh watching her baby sister splashing around.