We went to a backyard back-to-school picnic at a friends' house and Curtis fell in love with a little kitty who had been hanging around.
Our last night with the Meades.
Saying good bye just before bedtime because we knew the morning would be pretty busy with our kids getting ready for school.
The Meades left on a Tuesday. By Thursday, that kitty from the picnic had become ours. Curtis got the honor of naming our new pet. If it was a boy, the name would be "Cutie Pie" if a girl "Salty Cat". I have no idea where these ideas came from. When we got the cat, we were under the impression that she was a girl, so Salty Cat it was! A few weeks later at the vet, we found out that Salty is definitely not a girl. We also learned that he is about 4.5 months old. We are still unintentionally refer to the cat as "she" and "her". He lived in our garage until we got all of his shots and had him neutered. Just this past week, we finally moved him out to the front porch. Since Andy is allergic to cats, we could only get a cat with the understanding that it would live outside.
Curtis is playing soccer. He has improved so much since last year. He is much more aggressive and seems to know what he's doing. He has even scored several goals!
Bella moved up to the red level at gymnastics.
Graydon got a new boomerang. Such a simple toy, but he's having a lot of fun with it!
Sometimes, Bella and I are really silly together. This was before school one morning. I found it as the wallpaper on my cellphone a few days later (Bella must have done it while fiddling around with my phone) - now I see this photo multiple times a day!
Some friends from church gave us tickets to a preseason Colts game.
Fun family night and a great addition to my birthday weekend.
Curtis really wanted this hat. We ended up with a mini football for everyone to share.
It was a close game, but the Colts lost to the Ravens 18-19.
Bella made me a scrapbook for my birthday! The apple doesn't fall too far.
Curtis made me this box and inside was a homemade card.
Graydon also made me a cute card.
I'm thirty-six! Andy and Bella made me a homemade ice cream cake. Soooooo good!
I love my birthday.
Our neighbors made me some cupcakes!
I caught him doing homework outside. When the weather is nice, you've got to take make the most of it.
All summer long, we read B.F.G. as a family with a promise to the kids that we'd see it in the theaters when we finished. We finally did!
Remember Graydon's boomerang? It curved around and got stuck in this tree. Andy threw a ball at the tree to try and get the boomerang free. The ball got stuck. Three or four more balls got stuck after that. This tree eats things. A few days later, Andy climbed the tree to retrieve all of our stuff. Can you see him? He ended up with a really uncomfortable, itchy case of Poison Ivy after it. :(
The last weekend in August, the kids and I went up to Kenosha to celebrate my parents' 40th Anniversary. Our first evening in town, we spent down by the lake at Grill Games.
Graydon was wiped out by the end of the night.
We went on a trolley ride the next day.
And that evening was the official celebration. Jodi made shirts and wine glasses for our parents. I put a slideshow together. It was such a fun family night.
And the next day, we got our puppy! She is a Staffordshire Bull Terrier and was born on May 20th. It took us several days to agree on a name for her. Some of the contenders were Mae, Mabel, Olive, and Vega (her given name). Then there were a few randoms thrown in there like Super Dog and Curtis Jr. After we got to know her a little bit, she just seemed like a Mabel. And, here she is!
She did so great during the five hour drive back home. I think she slept most of it!
Checking out her new home.
Suddenly, we have a lot of pets!
More Mabel. :)
Graydon and his faces.
My favorite Mabel picture to date.
Peeked in on the boys one night and both were up and reading their Bibles.
Oh, and this is pretty big. Ahhhh. . . this month has been so busy! Bella got her braces off! We had no idea that she would be getting them off. We just took her to a regular check-up and she came out with no braces! This is the end of Phase One. Now we have to wait for her eye teeth to come out. We're hoping that by pushing the front teeth together, it made enough room for those teeth to come down straight. If so, then she's done with braces. If not, then we'll have to move on to Phase Two which would involve more braces. We just have to wait and see.
Our crazy three!
Found this beauty on our deck. I don't love spiders, but I love that they eat other bugs. So I let them stay. :)
We're trying to get Mabel and Salty to be friends. They seem OK with each other at first - just sniffing each other. But after a little bit, Mabel starts looking like she wants to pounce. And then she starts barking at the cat. I have never heard Mabel bark - except when she's around the cat. So that's when we separate them. I'm not sure if she's just trying to play, but it makes me nervous. So, we'll continue to keep our interactions brief, hoping that they will eventually be able to be friends.
This pretty butterfly landed on our deck.
Labor Day picnic in our back yard. I love spending time with my people.
We spent today at the apple farm. I have lots of fun pics from that, but this post is already so long. We have officially said goodbye to summer and hello to fall. My favorite!
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