Summer Zoomed By!

Oh my! Here it is nearly August and I haven't blogged since April! Well, it's been a little busy, though, with what I sort of forget!
In May, we celebrated Clayton's 2nd birthday with a tractor themed party...still have to get pics from my sister for that one. We did Mother's Day stepping stones, which I need to make a few for my own garden, and Dennis traveled quite a bit for work.
June and July, we've spent playing. Really, we've been to the zoo a few times, the Tulsa Air & Space Museum, Muskogee Water Park, a movie, visiting my grandparents at their cabin, Fourth of July cookout, Dennis's birthday, visiting friends, and I can't even remember what else other than lots of outdoors time. The weather has been fantastic this summer with pretty mild summer temps and rain...yes, rain...in late July!
Our garden continues to make all sorts of great produce for us, so this summer, I have cut our grocery expense quite a bit on the produce part. The kids enjoy getting out in the yard with me and helping out a little.

That about wraps up May, June, and July for us. Clayton starts Kids' Day Out on Monday and Cooper starts homeschool Kindergarten with me the same day. We are super excited (and a little nervous) to start this new adventure but it will be amazing!

Summertime 2012

Oh my goodness! The summer has been a whirlwind, but we've had lots of fun! The boys and I joined a Mommy & Me group and joined some fun outings every week. We went to Blue Hole, once with our group, and once when we camped over the July 4th. We went to the zoo, Bounce U, Gentry Drive thru zoo, and swimming.

Dennis started a new contract job in Tulsa so it's been great because he has normal hours!! That's a big deal if you know anything about his schedule and having your own business!

Coop helping me cook (:

 It's been a gazillion degrees most of the summer! Pretty sure we broke the record and hit something like 117! The garden didn't do as well as I'd have liked because of the heat, but fall will be here soon and we'll be cleaning out the old and getting ready for the next year.

I love this picture- garlic and carrots from my garden

purple hull peas from the garden

Clayton hanging out in the washtub reading nook

All these toys and he plays with a box!

First day of KDO for the boys

Clayton is full out walking and getting into everything and they are both growing like weeds! This is Cooper's last year in the preschool program/ Kid's Day out and Clayton's first year in KDO. Next year, Cooper will start Kindergarten at what I refer to as "Mommy School" (aka homeschool) so I am looking forward to that and getting myself prepared this year.

We are ready for fall and ready for some camping and our trip to Wyoming!

Summertime Bucket List- Zoo & More

The summer is in full swing! We've been having lots of fun adventures at home and out and about. Our garden is growing, our kids are growing, and we're enjoying the summer.

We found a nest of baby rabbits in one of our raised beds....they didn't stay long after we discovered them, but we had fun peeking in on them.

First sunflower of the summer along with orange poppies from the garden

This is the view from our yard looking out the front of our property across the road during wheat harvest....pretty cool to watch them.

Homemade popsicles

Mommy and the boys

Cooper at the Tulsa Zoo

Cooper Monkey!!

My little zoo rider...he did great riding around and taking it all in!

Ok, this was just funny....first of all the lion is usually not out when it's hot, but we were early enough to see him, second, he was out and playing, then look to right and notice the keg....think he might've had a crazy night!? (:

The Boys

Clayton laying sideways in his bed...no, I didn't do it, he wiggled around that way

Cheesy grin (:

Oh, yeah, we are hay farmers now! Our second cutting ready to be delivered

I could not, for the life of me, get a good picture of both of them...but this one was cute...it looks like Clayton is trying to "comfort" big brother who is pretending to be a baby

Chilling out with Daddy

Hangin' with Mr Cooper

Still Kickin'

It's been quite sometime since I blogged! It's been just a little bit crazy around here! We have been in survival mode this summer. Dennis has worked practically non stop since May and I was just beginning to feel like I was recovering from having a baby, though very sleep deprived, when I began having gall bladder problems mid-July. About 2 1/2 weeks ago I had surgery and I am now feeling MUCH better. In fact, I don't think I knew how bad I felt until this week when I feel like myself again. We celebrated Dennis's 35th birthday on July 16th and other than that, we've just been trying to stay cool during this record breaking hot summer. Cooper started 3 year old preschool program two days a week at the church a couple weeks ago and we are finally getting into a routine, which is really helping me keep what little sanity I have left. And, I never would've made it to September if it wasn't for my dear, dear grandparents who have been amazing helping me with the boys all summer by taking Cooper home with them or staying with us here when I felt bad and after baby and surgery. I truly don't know what we'd have done without their help. Needless to say, the Rains' family is ready for fall vacation!!!

Summertime Fun

Living in the country is all kinds of fun...especially when your neighbors have cool farm equipment and...teepees?

6 weeks old!

My little laundry helper

          The summer is already upon us and around here, it's been a lot of work! Dennis has been really, really busy and I've had my hands full keeping up with the boys, who are growing like crazy! We are beginning to get the hang of having a family of four!