Dog for a Day

 Last night while Kylee, Brooks, and Charlie were playing outside, up runs this precious little puppy.  Kylee immediately runs in to get him some water.  We ended up staying outside for quite a while playing with him and we even fed him a few hot dogs.  We walked around the front yard trying to find the poor thing his owners.  Kylee was really concerned and wanted to keep him.  She wanted to go across the street and ask the neighbors if we could have some dog food.

 As much as Brooks loves dogs, he wasn't wanting this dog to come near him.  Brooks took off running and "fake" cried as the dog approached him.

 Kylee and Brooks didn't want the dog to leave.  They followed him down the street and were both thrilled to see him/; come back as we filled the bird feeder.

 That's about as close to the dog that Brooks would get.

 I felt guilty leaving the dog out on the porch last night, so I brought him in the garage, made a pallet, and put the fan out there for him.  As Charlie and I were laying in bed discussing what we were going to do with him in the morning, we both started to feel even worse for leaving the cute dog in the hot garage.  We ended up letting him sleep in the laundry room. He was so good all night.  I didn't hear a peep from him.  He didn't chew anything up, and he didn't have an accident.  This dog is obviously house trained and well behaved.

 When we woke up, I let the dog out and took the girls to vacation bible school.  Brooks and I were shocked to see that the dog was still sitting at the garage waiting for us when we returned.  I just couldn't pretend he wasn't there.  It melted my heart every time he looked at me with his cute little face and wagged his tail.

 When I left to go get Kylee from VBS, I loaded up the dog and we then went to Pets Mart. I was hoping this adorable pup would have a microchip and we'd be able to find the owner.  As the gentlemen was scanning the dog, Kylee and her friend Isa, both had their fingers crossed that he didn't have one.  They were sure we were going to keep him if we couldn't figure out who he belonged to.

 We made an appointment for the vet and had to wait an hour.  We decided to go home to the neighborhood and knock on doors to see if he belonged to anyone.  No such luck. Once again, the girls were secretly excited! When we were on our way to the vet, I got a text from a friend who wanted to come see the cute little guy.  I had the vet check him out, give him a shot, and loaded him up with some flea medicine.  Just as I was proceeding to check out, Allie comes in to save the day.  I am so thankful Allie was able to adopt this loving dog.  She already has one Shih Tzu, and I know she will take great care of him. 

 

Kylee has always wanted a dog...  At least now I can say she has had one...for a day!

Ham's Orchard

One of our summer traditions is going to Ham's Orchard to pick blackberries.  Unfortunately, we missed the time frame to pick the berries.  However, we still enjoyed the fresh produce and of course the yummy peach and strawberry ice cream.  We were happy to have the Judds, Flanagans, Drewrys, and the Helms all join us.

 Brooks was in heaven being surrounded by all the pretty girls.

 Kylee and Brooks dancing!!

 The kids were doing their "gangsta" moves!!

 Totally not planned, but don't they all look so cute in the purple!?!

 Look at the size of those blackberries.  We couldn't leave that place without returning home with these. We also ended up with peaches, strawberries, and somehow Kylee talked me into buying pickles.  Oh, and I also bought some homemade peach cobbler for Father's Day!!

 Sassy Pants 1 and Sassy Pants 2!

 The gang!

 Yes!  This is Kylee and Emma!  This picture describes these two perfectly!!

  This pretty much explains what this house normally looks like.  Kylee and Emma are always making us laugh, putting on a show, and being silly.  Brooks gets a kick out of it all, but I'm sure he wonders what in the world is going on!!

Exploring & Learning

 Now that Brooks has learned to walk, he is all over the place.  He likes to make circles around the kitchen, circles around the couch, and he loves going up the steps.  He often goes into the office and closes the doors.  When he wants out, he will knock and babble.  Another funny thing he likes to do is crawl into my bedroom and shut the door.  He then waits for you to come get him, and he giggles, giggles, and giggles.  I often find myself reminiscing about when Kylee was Brooks' age.  She loved to pull the tupperware out from the cabinet and crawl inside.  The other night, Brooks pulled out some bowls and was making a racket in the kitchen while Daddy was cooking.  I immediately thought of Kylee.  Some might ask why I let my kids play with the dishes on the kitchen floor, but what other way to explore and learn, than playing with the things around you?!?

 Same goes for Charlie.  What other way to learn to cook, than to get in the kitchen and cook!!!  It isn't very often that Charlie prepares dinner.  He was being a sweetie last night and made hash browns, eggs, and sausage.  Bless his heart.  He burnt the hash browns, microwaved the sausage, turned off the wrong burner, melted a spatula, etc...  He tried, and it was a delicious dinner.  I think he needs to step into the kitchen more often.

 It's so hot already, so I let Brooks hang out in his diaper. 

 Kylee can't get enough reading this summer.  Since Daddy was making eggs, Kylee decided she wanted to read, Green Eggs and Ham, by Dr. Seuss.  She read it aloud so we all could enjoy.

 Event though I love summer time, it can get a little boring.  Kylee and I, neither one, like to sit at home for too long.  Thanks to Pinterest, we found some really awesome science experiments.  Kylee choose an experiment that we could do right then.  I asked her questions, had her explain her thinking, and little did she know that she was learning.

 The purpose of the experiment was to see if the water could travel from one cup to the other.  It's called, walking water.  Kylee's prediction was right on.  A few minutes after we placed the napkin in both cups, we could already see the water walking up the napkin. 

When we woke up this morning, this is what we found.  The water had walked to the second cup.  The once empty cup, was now filled with a little bit of green water.

What other way to spend your summer, than exploring and learning!!

Friends

 I can't say it enough...I love the people that I have become friends with ever since moving to Shannon.  Leigh and her family are precious and I am so blessed they are apart of our lives now. 

 Just being able to hang out and visit, not worry about trying to entertain each other or the kids, is always a pleasure with the Judds.  I love having friends that are "friends" for no other reason than to just be friends.

 Natalie was in my third grade class last year, and will be a big 4th grader next year.  I am going to miss her sweet smile every day.  Even more so, I am going to miss her cute giggles.  She has the most contagious laugh.  Kylee is going to be in first grade next year, and the funny things is, these two girls are just about the same height.  They wear the same size shoes and clothes.  From behind, they look like twin sisters.

 Emma Judd is a sweetheart just like her sister, Natalie. 

Kylee is always finding creative things to do.  Here she is looking for lice in Emma's hair.  Of course Emma has no lice, but we sure heard a lot of giggles.

Smile

 I love all the smiles I get to see from my babies every day during the summer.  This week, Kylee has been going to VBS with Emma.  They are in the purple group, and Kylee has been chanting, "Purple Power!" every evening. Brooks is loving his mommy time!

After the first day of VBS, we ate lunch at McDonalds with the Flanagan family.  Kylee and Emma are always so silly when they are together.  I couldn't get one "normal" picture of the two of them.

Brooks had an absolute blast climbing and sliding on the equipment.  He didn't want to get down.

 I'm pretty sure he is laughing at his crazy sister here.

 Kylee is such a big helper.  She is always wanting to hold Brooks, carry him around, help him, and play with him. 

 My big boy is a walkin'.

 One of our favorite things to do during the summer is go to the public library.  For one, it's not scorching hot, and we can all enjoy what we are doing.  Brooks loves to play with the puzzles, walk around pulling book off the shelves, and of course talking to everyone that walks past him.  He is still not familiar with the rules of a library! ;-) 

I chase Brooks around and try to keep an eye on Kylee.  She's running back and forth showing me all the books she can't wait to read. 

All I can do is SMILE!