Artificial Cousins *just like the sweetner but better*

By the looks of them

You'd never guess


That 2 of them


Live 10 hours away!


They pick up


Right where they left off.

Everytime.

Like a never ending


Game of Monopoly


Their Love


Is that everlasting.


They will be

Friends Til the END

But it sure is hard to say goodbye.

Washing Machine Disasters

It was a typical day in the Decker Home. Logan had spent the night with his Mimi & Poppy the night before & Josh had left for work. It was just me and the Beezer. I showered, made breakfast, threw in a load of laundry (because B had peed everywhere AGAIN) & swiffered the tile. I decided I would mop after I'd placed some photo orders for clients.

I was upstairs for 15 minutes when I heard a blood-curtling scream like no other!

I ran down to see B soaking wet.

Then I see a little wetness on the floor.

"Great, she's gotten into Ellie's waterbowl again," I think.

But, then I keep looking. I keep seeing more water. And more water. An inch of standing water in the kitchen, living room & the hallway is drenched!! Do you see the drenchedness!! (yes, that's a word) I panic! What the heck am I supposed to do! Call Josh. He comes home and immediately calls insurance company.

"Please LORD, Please let them pay for the flooring! PLEASE!," I pray.

First they decided to sent out a cleaning crew. So for the past week we've had NINE of these bad boys on full blast.

Yea, it's been great! The noise of a furious wind tunnel and the smell of 20 wet dogs living here for years. MmmmmMMmmm. Then there's this guy:

Apparently he takes moisture out of the air and pumps it into our sink somehow. Pretty cool huh! On the upside, we get all new flooring in both downstairs baths, new baseboards, hallway & (hopefully) bedrooms carpeted. I'm tellin ya, if they don't re-carpet the whole downstairs me and Mr. Insurance Guy are gonna have a chat. I mean, the carpets are done buddy. I'm not gonna have carpet in the hall & one bedroom matching and freshly new and old wet dog smell carpet in the other 2 bedrooms. Not gonna happen!

OH, and since our washing machine did this I'm having to farm-out our washing.

To Be Continued...

Wilderness Excursion

For some times now I've been meaning to hike some trails at the Barfield Park. And when I say hike I mean HIKE!
I had never ventured to those trails before cause I was never sure where the trailheads started and never really felt pulled enough to stop at the Wilderness Station and ask. After stepping out for my weather test of the morning I thought it would be a perfect day for The Trails. We have had rain for, I swear, about 3 weeks but not this morning. This morning the sun was shining and the air was crisp. Fall is coming and man does it feel great!
We pull up to the playground area and I notice a small path leading up through the woods. Alright, we'll start here! Unload the kids, bike, stroller, snacks & camera and off we go. As soon as we are through the first veil of trees we start an uphill trek. The path curves and winds and I can't find the level ground I'm hoping for. Round & Round and Up we go. I am now at a 90 degree angle trying to push this stroller with Logan on my heels struggling to push his bike. He wants to stop and go back to put his back up but there is NO WAY I'm turning back now! We've covered such little ground but gone soooo far! Poor kid. This has turned into a lesson in endurance.

We FINALLY reach the top of Mnt. Summit and I do a small victory dance full of whoop whoops and take that's. Just a little one...no one is around for pete's sake! Theses are serious nature trails. None of this I'll take a little stroll down the greenway. We were up and down and around almost the whole time. Logan didn't even want to ride his bike. Plus I'm pretty sure I saw a No Bikes Allowed sign somewhere along the way. I'm guessing it's just for nature walks/runners.

After our victorious defeat B & I were taking in the scenes. Our moment was distured when I heard a Whomp! And then an Ahhh...HEY!! Logan had been collecting whole acorns from the ground and was apparently spotted by a squirrel trying to prepare for winter. Yeah, he threw an acorn at Logan's head. We dropped the acorns and scurried off but, I'm pretty sure we were being watched.
Then we noticed these little plaques all along the trail that told about many of the trees in the woods. It showed what kind of bark & leaf a certain one had. Well this was a scavenger hunt in the making and a pretty good lesson on nature while we were at it! Logan loved trying to identify the different trees by their leaves. Then he would have to find that leaf on the ground and store it in the stroller to take home. "This is like an awesome treasure hunt, " he exclaimed!

Our last stop was to the West Fork River overlook that was .5 miles from our You Are Here location. We pass more plaques, spiders, squirrels and falling leaves and finally make it. We parked the stroller/bike and hiked down to the river bank. There were small stone steps for this part. It was VERY muddy from the 3 weeks of rain but Big Brutha loved it and declared it him and his dad's new fishing spot. So it shall be.

Now remember our up-hill battle? Yeah, we gotta go back down. Imagine me, back arched, heels to the ground holding a stroller carrying a 22 lb. baby with one hand and trying to help Logan steady his bike with the other. I am sooo glad we went out early during a week day and no one could witness this. Although, that also means no one was there to witness my amazing multi-tasking skills! This all happened on Monday and my legs are just now feeling the wrath! Ohhhh the pain!

We did have a blast hiking through nature though. It's nice to get back to that quiet, peaceful one with the world feeling every once in a while. I'm hoping to instill that into the kiddos as well.
This is just a shot of B from My Point of View. She loves to kick back and relax in her stroller! Must be nice;)

This NEVER happens!!

The Way That Babies Play

This past weekend some of our family from NC came in for a visit. They have a little gal, Chloe, that is a mere 4 months younger than B. Chloe is such a petite lil thing that B looks like a GIANT next to her! This is their running commentary as heard by me:

"Here, you eat that piece and I'll eat this piece."

"OK, now we're gonna both chug our drinks at the SAME time! Ready....GO"

"What's the Big Kid doin? Maybe he wants some?"

"MOM, I just don't really know about this baby."

"Bobo (logan & b's nickname for each other) do you see this kid? We're rockin together!"

"Hey, you're a really good rocker!"

"Thanks, I practice a lot"

Isn't she a doll!

And a shot of B for good measure

Baby Steps

How silly of me to forget to post about one of B's MAJOR milestones!! Well, about a month ago B decided to follow in her big brothers foot steps and start walking. They were both about 14 months. She's still pretty slow and wobbly but I just love how baby's toddle about when they're first learning to walk.

Ofcourse with walking comes the first pair of walking shoes. No others but Keds from Stride Rite will do, according to my Mema. I have to say, I thought they were hideous when I saw them in the store but oh how wrong I was! B looks superb in her new Keds! I will probably save these for my grandkids one day...oh yes, I will.

29 and feelin fine

For those that are unaware, I turned the Big 2-9 the week before Mothers Day and yes, I'm just now writing about it. Better late than never right? Well let me just say that I am not one to get hung up on age AT ALL! So what if it's my last year in my 20's. I decided to have a very fun me day and just do whatever I wanted...well, as much as I could at least. I awoke to birthday wishes from Josh before he had to go to work *sad face*

So I got up and did this:

It was crazy hair day at school and this is what the kid wanted.

Ohhhh you shoulda seen the tub! I think it looks pretty cool though.

Then I was invited to a birthday lunch with Mimi & Great Meme. So when B got up I dressed her in a pretty twirly dress because it was my birthday and I'd better dress her how I want while I still can!

Then off we went. Doesn't she look pretty.

Demos was delish aside from the fact that our crazy waiter would come check on us and then throw out random words like protractor. Seriously,

"Do you guys need any water? protractor" just like that!!

He did this at least 3 times with different random words each time! I don't know if he was confused or just wanted to see if we were paying attention. I got a good laugh out of it though.

After lunch I said, "You know what...I'm gonna use some birthday $$ and get some new flip flops and polish." And I'm talking the OPI kind! I haven't found any I like better.

Now this is the
definition of summer!

When Logi got home I got my beautiful hand-made card and I finished the day by having a Partay at Bounce U!! No not really. We had the Awana Celebration there. Josh came home and got me some delish Mexican that I'd been craving. He also got me a facial!! I'm super pumped...I've never had one

To top it all off one of my all time favorite bands was playing in town the next night. What better way to spend a birthday than with a lil Mexican food accompanied by a few close friends followed by some Fantabulous live music!!
The Food The Man The Show

A wise man once said,
"You're only as old as you think your are."
Well I will never be a day older than 19 in my heart!

So what will 29 bring?
Knowledge? Wisdom? Memories? Love? Sorrow? Happiness?

I'm sure of it!

8 is Great!

I had to share the crazy awesomeness that was Logan's 8th birthday. This post is going to be a picture explosion! I had a hard to even narrowing it down to these so Enjoy!

Invites By Me

Annual Cinnamon Roll Birthday Breakfast. What can I say,

the boy loves him some cinnamon rolls.

Of course we had to take cookies to school and the boys were sooo excited and hopped up on sugar their faces contorted. Thankfully they returned to prior form before their parents picked them up from school.
Saturday we headed to the place of Logan's dreams...Go USA. This place has been there for years. No tellin how old it is but he looooves it.

Games were played.

Tickets were won.

Go karts were raced

Presents were opened.

Logan had a blast with his friends but there was still more awesomeness to come.
We had the family over that evening for some grillin. It was a B-E-A utiful Day!!

Logan wanted a badmitton set most of all.

There was some corn tossin...

And some swingin'

And a "Show Me Your Crazy Face" picture

And a failed attempt by me trying to catch his lil pecks on the cheek.
Happy Birthday you Big 8 year old you!