i {heart} junk

if you know me well you know that I have an serious thing for second hand shopping.
for some reason i love finding potential in other people's discarded goods.

(well.. that and I'm insanely cheap)
here is my latest find..
lia decided she wanted a desk for her room (because she's a big 1st grader now and all). not wanting to spend a lot of $, i hit goodwill in search of something we could refinish. found this little desk...not in great shape but about the right size and all.

so for $10 i took it home and gave it a little love.

lia likes loud patterns and colors so the design and color scheme were her choice.

here is what we came up with..

watch out hannah

a little video footage of maggie singing best of both worlds by hannah montana

- the other day she sang the entire 1st verse in the middle of church.....nice!

you would think she had an older sister or something!

and of course the two of them together

it must be fall

it must be fall, because our recent activities have included watching football and picking apples.

i love this time of year (the only bad part about it is that winter is on it's way). I am finding the change in season totally refreshing at the moment. It could have something to do with the kids being in school all day I suppose....hmmm. At any rate bring on the crunchy leaves, kids in costumes, and treats made with apples or pumpkin...... :)

loving the photo...can you tell where we live?

these two have turned into quite the loyal packer fans...if they go to bed before the game ends they always want to know the score 1st thing in the morning. lia even has a Green Bay jersey on her b-day list.
sweet outfit sis

Every year we go apple picking at Star Orchard

.....and who get the most excited about this activity???

TYLER...he is insane about the fresh apples, it's so cute. The children of course enjoy it too. They like to have their own bag and eat only the apples they picked when we get home.

What is with the size of these bags? The bag/apron...nice.

pull Maggie pull

gorgeous weather...gorgeous scenery

they have a little store where you can buy such things as caramel apples and fresh apple cider. they also have this AMAZING corn salsa, which Tyler informs me I need to buy 16 bottles of ...and that can be his b-day present this coming year. :)
here are the kiddos selecting their treat

and of course someone has to do something with all the apples

that would be my job...and yes i draw pictures on my pies, no need to make fun

tangled with the van...and the van won

About a week ago on Satuday night Ty was out mowing the lawn and the big kids were playing outside (Maggie and I were inside getting her all set for bed). Lia was riding her scooter in the driveway. As she was riding she decided it would be fun to ride around and around the van(which was parked in the driveway)as fast as she could. Pretty soon she decided it would be cool to see how close she could get to the van as she was circling.....turns out she got really close. She slammed into the van and cut her forehead open...whoops too close. She came running to Tyler all covered in blood, which freaked him out a bit. He got her all cleaned up and called me down to see if I thought she needed stitches. She managed to calm down pretty easily and she and I headed to the ER. They weren't busy at all and we got in quickly, got her numbed up, cut cleaned and glued together and we were on our way. She handled it all great and was up and at'em for school the next morning.

Highlights of our ER visit: we had a cute curse named Maggie and i Carly was on TV for watching to keep her entertained...woohoo!

I happened to have my camera in my purse, so I snapped a few photos of the cute patient!

here she is ...not very traumatized you can tell :)

for the record her head is healing up great :)

school pictures 09

these are the kids school photos for the year :)..always charming

Jaxon - 5 yrs. - Kindergarten

Lia - 6yrs. - 1st Grade

crime and punishment

Jaxon...as I mentioned in my last post has been in trouble a few times at school for excessive socialization (talking during rest time). At the suggestion of my wise older sister I had him write a note of apology to his teacher...I thought it was kind of cute. Thanks Jenn for the idea.

trip to iowa (jaxon's appointment)

We took Jaxon to his first appointment in Iowa with Dr. Menezes on Wednesday September 9th. We left the girls with friends (thanks Jarell for having them) and drove down Tuesday evening and stayed overnight. We went to his appointment Wednesday morning and then drove home that afternoon/evening. The hospital is on the University of Iowa campus in Iowa City. From our home it is about a 5 to 6 hr. drive. The travel part of our trip went great, Jaxon loved having total control of the DVD player while we drove! It was kind of bizarre to be on a trip with just one child, but it was fun to give Jaxon our full attention. We did get to eat out along the way and swim at the hotel Wednesday morning before heading into the hospital - in an attempt to make the trip somewhat fun. We were planning on staying at the Ronald McDonald house but didn't get into town before 8pm - which is when they quit checking people in for the evening. Instead they gave us a half price voucher to the Holiday Inn instead - which worked out great.

All of us really liked Dr. Menezes. He was cute with Jaxon and Jax said he wouldn't mind going to Iowa to see him every now and again. The man is pretty famous in the world of Brain Surgery....just Google his name...... He was able to give Tyler and I a better idea of what physical limitations Jaxon is going to have throughout his life (we'll just say trampolines, bounce houses, football, hockey, wrestling - got ruled out). We will most likely be visiting Dr. Menezes well into Jaxon's teen years, as he will need constant checkups both before and after his surgery or surgeries. (so...if anyone know of any logistics jobs in Iowa City...go ahead and let us know) :)

He did tell us that surgery is definitely in Jaxon's future - the questions are when? and how many surgeries. Hopefully we will be able to wait a bit on surgery because the bigger children are when they have it done to better they seem to do. So it would be nice to give Jaxon a chance to grow a bit before he has anything major done. For right now Dr. Menezes wants Jaxon to have a few more MRI's done with his head in some different positions to see if some physical therapy or the use of a rigid neck collar would be helpful to keep Jax from having surgery right away. Our next rip to Iowa is on November 4th to have that series of MRI's done.

For the moment Jaxon is feeling good and enjoying Kindergarten...so much so he keeps getting in trouble for talking (more on that later). When I told my mom that he was being to chatty at school, I think she summed up all of our feelings by saying "well...to be honest I'm just glad he feels well enough to cause trouble".....spoken like a true grandma! :)

Thanks everyone for keeping him in your thoughts/prayers. We appreciate it so very much!

here are a few photos from our trip

driving...in the zone watching a movie..

ty bought him a new transformer to keep him entertained during his appointment
still in good spirits after a long appointment :)

the hospital

some pics of our cute doctor...he's the one in the middle

1st day

Lia and Jaxon were both so excited for school to start this year!

As you can see below there was much excitement and much silliness on the first day of school. Lia is in first grade this year and Jaxon is in Kindergarten. They both go all day long (8-3) to Lakeview Elementary which is just around the corner from our house. Jaxon has the same teacher that Lia had for Kindergarten and we love her...she is such a sweetheart. Lia's teacher seems great too. She is young and has a lot of enthusiasm...which is always good. Maggie wishes she could go with them in the morning and often gets teary when they leave for the day...poor thing, it's hard to be the little one sometimes.

I can't believe they are getting so big...it is fun to see them enjoy school! :)

here are some photos of the kids as they are heading out the door on the their 1st day (sept.1) I probably should have taken their pictures before they put on jackets -

then you could see that they are wearing cute shirts from grandma...oh well

(more Utah trip) fun with g. lynn and g. steve

after we partied with the king family we had some fun with my fam..

sunday my mom had a party at her house with some of my aunts/uncles/cousins etc.

it was so fun to see all of them, we miss everyone so much

here's my dad being master of the grill....sweet apron might i just add

kiddos playing a little ping pong

lots of eating and chatting...mmm backyard BBQ food...so yummy

after we ate we gathered around and listened to my great uncle Reed tell stories....

and you'll just have to trust me, he has some winners! :)

Thanks Uncle Reed and Aunt Valoy for traveling so far to come, it's always a treat to see you.

he's got our attention...can you tell

(thanks Stacie...I stole these pics off your blog)

here we are playing the bag game...good times

(thanks mom for organizing and buying all the goodies)

i noticed in looking at these pictures that all of the adults look like they're having as much (if not more) fun than the kids :)

Monday we went to the Oaks (cute restaurant up the canyon) with G. Lynn and G. Steve and to play at the park. Ty's Dad and our friend Andy (who has been Tyler's friend since 1st grade) came to the park to see us too, which was great.
a the Oaks...eating outside

my cute parents

Farr ice cream after lunch...mmmmm