4th of July Weekend

On Friday, we ventured to Shelbina to spend some time with Jason, Gina, and Kale. We ate lunch and spent most of the afternoon visiting. Then, the kids and I went to Kirksville. Allison was going to spend the night in the camper with grandpa Rayburn, but storms moved in so they came home. Saturday morning was mom's daylily open house. Since it was cold and rainy, we just hung out at the house and we all got to take naps! :) Later in the afternoon, we went in to the fairgrounds. We played games, ate some good dinner, and enjoyed the fireworks. Well, at least we enjoyed ours. Due to the rain, there was a large cloud where the city fireworks were being set off. We mostly got to watch the clouds change colors. Oh, well! Sunday, we were back in Shelbina. The kids spent almost the entire day on the golf cart! It was a busy weekend, but very nice to spend it with family and friends.

4th of July pic (a few days early)

Sweet kisses

Big man, Rhett & lil' guy, Kale

The first of many kisses!

Aunt Gina helping Allison hold Kale for the first time.

One happy girl!

Kristyn & Allison. Grandpa tied her pants in a knot...Allison was happy because it was a heart! Go figure!

My lil' monster!

Rhett playing ball with Haleigh

Rhett loves to play ball!

Mommy & Rhett...what a sad face!

Cooper & Rhett

Mommy & Allison

Alisha with our boys

Allison being goofy.

Allison playing polish horseshoes.

Daddy & Rhett

Daddy helping Allison with her poppers. Thanks, Kristyn for all the fireworks! :)

Justin & Weston playing polish horseshoes.

More fireworks!

Allison "talking" on her cell phone firework. How cool, Kristyn!

Allison was very excited to do the sparklers all by herself!

Uncle Jason, Allison, & Kale

Uncle Justin and Kale. Justin absolutely adores his new nephew!

Sweet baby, Kale

Mom's Daylilies

On Saturday, mom had her annual daylily open house. Unfortunately, the weather was uncooperative and it rained the entire time. The good news was that we had a delicious breakfast and mimosas! Below are some pics of individual daylilies (she has over 400 varieties) and a few of the gardens.

Dad's garden

Allison was dead-heading some of the lilies! She has been taught well!

Mom's new gorgeous gazing ball from the Amana Colonies.

My Little Ballerina

June 25th was Allison's first day of dance. She has been prancing, leaping, and dancing around the house for quite some time, so I thought it was time to try dance. She is taking dance in Kirksville at The Dance Studio. She is lucky enough to have Marcia Taylor as her instructor this summer. Miss Marcia was my dance instructor when I started dance many moons ago. Allison did fantastic at her first practice and said, "It is cool and awesome!" She has had a lot of fun so far and I now anticipate many years of dance ahead of us!

Allison's first day of dance

My little ballerina

A picture requested by Allison

Branson Vacation

The last weekend in June, we took our family vacation to Branson. My grandparents have a timeshare on a condo and graciously let us use 2 nights. Thank you, grandma & grandpa!!! Although the ride to Branson was long, both kids did great! We were really surprised how well they did traveling so far. Thank goodness for portable dvd players and my brother lending us Karmin (his Garmin)! ;) The first evening we ate at Hard Luck Diner. It's a diner where all the waiters and waitress are trying to "make it" in the business. Therefore, they sing and dance while serving. It was a lot of fun! The food is great diner food and the atomosphere is top notch! Saturday we spent the day at Silver Dollar City. It was 97 degrees and that wasn't including the heat index! It really worked to our advantage because there really weren't a lot of people there. After resting back at the condo late that afternoon, we headed to Branson Landing. We ate dinner at Allison's favorite restaurant, Famous Dave's Barbecue. We walked around for a while, watched the spectacular fountain show, and shopped at Bass Pro. Sunday morning we began our trip back. We stopped in Springfield to go to the original Bass Pro. Then, we ate lunch at the Incredible Pizza Company. It is like a Bonkers or Chucky Cheese, but better! Of course, I had to get some shopping in so we stopped at the outlet mall at the Lake. And, we got some Cold Stone! :) The last stop was Arby's in Columbia for dinner. We were all exhausted when we got home, but it was a very enjoyable trip for everyone.

Daddy & Allison at Hard Luck Diner

Mommy & Rhett at Hard Luck Diner

Daddy and his kiddos

Allison enjoying her strawberry milkshake. Yum-o!

Our waitress, Brooke, serenading Rhett. She asked Allison if she liked Taylor Swift. Of course, Allison said yes. Then, she asked what her favorite Taylor song was and Allison replied, "Love Story." Brooke then got her mic, put in her music, and sang "Love Story" for Allison. How cool!

Allison posing with Santa

Somehow, we were given the penthouse condo. It was incredible! The condos are really nice to begin with, but the penthouse was fantastic! Justin estimated that our "tiny" condo was 800 square feet. WOW! Lots of room for Allison and Rhett to run in and that was exactly what they did! This is the kitchen and it is fully stocked. We made breakfasts at the condo and Allison thought that was really cool.

The bedroom. The doors open up to a balcony patio.

Rhett in front of the ginormous bathtub. We called it our "indoor swimming pool".

Right across from our condo was the playground. Allison and I played for a while after dinner on Friday night.

Then, she wanted to go swimming. :)

Allison and Rhett had lots of fun just playing in the empty cabinets.

Two thumbs up for Silver Dollar City!

Family Vacation 2009

Mommy & Rhett watching daddy & Allison on one of the rides.

This was the only ride Allison did not like. She sat on her daddy's lap and cried the entire time.

Allison's favorite ride was the roller coaster. We're in the 4th cart.

Daddy & Allison in the teacups.

Surprisingly, Allison wanted to ride this and she liked it!

Allison picked out a purple parasol for her SDC souvenir. I also had a purple parasol from SDC when I was a little girl.

Splash Harbor was the perfect place to be on this hot day! Allison had fun playing in all the different places, but she especially loved walking over the water fountains that would spray sporadically. All over SDC there were misters and sprinklers. We would drive the stroller through them and Rhett loved it. It did help keep us cool!

This picture cracks me up! I think Rhett is saying, "It's too hot and you people think this is fun?!"

Daddy & Allison

After a nice lunch in air conditioning, Rhett was all smiles again.

Allison liked both of the water rides that she did. She rode the first one with Justin and the second one with me. We were all really wet when we left!

The High-Low Silos. They (Justin) had to pull themselves to the top. It was definitely his turn to ride with Allison on this one!

We stopped and enjoyed a magic show and Rhett got to take a little nap. The magic show was good, but the a/c was even better!

Allison & mommy after riding the log ride. It was a blast!

Peek-a-boo! It was Kid's Fest at SDC so there were lots of bright colored trains, tractors, and other things for the kids to play on. Here they are sticking their heads out of the caboose. Cute!

Silver Dollar City was hard work! They are wiped out!

Our trashcan lid from Famous Daves. Delicious!!!

Allison LOVES ribs!

And, Rhett LOVES corn-on-the-cob! We even had to order more!

The fountain show at Brason Landing.

Sprinfield Bass Pro. Read the sign and look who's going in.

Allison spotted this and asked me to take a picture. It is very cool. Justin asked where it was because he missed it! Good eye, Allison!

Daddy & Allison playing a game at Bass Pro.

Playing a quick game of air hockey.

Daddy helped Allison play putt-putt golf. Notice she even has a pink golf ball!

Allison did pretty good at this game!

Daddy & Rhett winning some tickets

TAG!

I've been TAGGED!! Tagged by Gayla at Oatmeal & Whimsy to list 6 unimportant things that make me happy. Actually it is an impossible mission because everything is important to me!

1. Turning on some music and dancing like crazy with my kids.

2. Going for family drives to look for wildlife and enjoy the great outdoors.

3. Tanning...I know all the risks, but I really enjoy those 20 minutes ALL to myself. (And, I only get to go once a week, if that!)

4. Coffee drinks...sweetened lattes, hazelnut coffee, McDonald's iced coffee...I love it all!

5. Blogging and Facebooking

6/7. (I couldn't decide!) Naps and Watching tv...I love Grey's, Private Practice, and TONS of reality tv shows and also soaps during the summer!

Six tags go to:
Leslie
Gina
Karen
Alane
Jessi
Tanya

Basement Blues

As most everyone knows, we are dealing with a huge problem in our basement. The week that we closed, we were told there was water in the basement and it was the first time ever. Justin checked it out and it seemed, at the time, legit. Well, the basement has NEVER been dry after a rain since we moved in. Long story short, we started having more and more water and the dreaded mold. A lot of our furniture had mold damage and had to be thrown away. This includes Justin's gun cabinet (what I got him our first Christmas as a married couple), filing cabinet, computer desk, and others. When Justin had enough (the day before Allison's birthday party), he put his hand on the wall and it went straight through the dry wall. The boards were completely rotted and we found cracks...lots of cracks in the foundation. After tearing down the dry wall, we were stunned at the amount of damage. Come to find out, there had been repairs to the opposite side of the foundation. In order to correct it, a metal beam was installed and it over-corrected, pushing out the other side. None of this was disclosed to us when we bought this house. Everyone on our street even knew that work had been done to the structure. This is what has been the most frustrating.

We are in the process of fixing the foundation. It is all being done from the inside. Clarence Walker has done a tremendous job and it looking like things will get better soon. We just have to wait for rain in order to see if the injections held. So, at this moment we are at a standstill. Justin and I decided that since this happened, we might as well gut the basement (not including the utility room) and fix it up. He's going to knock out some shelving and build a wall to have a large room for storage, which is much needed! I have spent today packing, rearranging, and moving things in the basement. It is now done and Justin can begin demolition on the other side. I guess there is light at the end of this very long tunnel...we are going to have a FIXED basement and a completely remodeled basement! :) We also guarantee, that when it comes to sell this house, the next owners will be informed of all of this. We don't want anyone else going through what we have gone through this summer.

Just as we finish one project on the house, we begin another. This seems to be a vicious cycle! If any household task comes up, Justin just says, "Add it to the list!"

The first cracks we found

The ginormous cracks

You can't tell me you never had water in the basement until the week of closing on the house!

Unbelievable!

This is the east side of the house. The crack continues into the garage.

Heater to dry out the cracks and in the process of injections and seals.

Ceilings removed (now even the metal is gone).

Crack leading into the storage under the stairs and into the garage

Wall in front of stairs. We're even taking out the stairs and redoing them. (Again, we is really Justin.)

The shop-vac is where the tv used to be! That dry wall is now gone, too!

Clarence Homecoming

Clarence Homecoming was held recently and of course, we went over to join in the festivities. Friday night was the Eli Young Band. We watched for a little while and then took Allison to ride some rides. Saturday night was Gloriana. Allison and I had already seen Gloriana once with Taylor Swift. Before the concert began, Mike (one of the group members) was outside the bus. Allison and I went over and he took his picture with us. He also talked to us for about 10 minutes! Mike was really nice and I wish him and his group all the luck in the future. The best part of Saturday night was getting the phone call that Kale had finally arrived! After the concert, we headed home so we could get up early to go to Illinois to meet Kale!

Eli Young Band

Grandpa Ed with Allison & Rhett

Daddy & his kiddos

Driving the cars

Rhett and Grandma Lola...we were riding the ferris wheel.

Allison & Mommy on the ferris wheel

Up high on the elephant

Rhett was groovin' to the music!

Allison and me with Mike from Gloriana