A Day with Friends

Monday we went to the park with the Smiths. Here are some photos from the park. This fun only lasted about 20 minutes. These brats didnt wanna play on the fun toys - no no no - they wanted to go play in the back yard of grandma and papa Bentley! Oh well... at least they played.

Parker thought he was top dog up there so high looking down on people. He would look and laugh and then look and laugh... it was amusing for momma too.

Gravy - you're not so tough!

Okay, I know this is probably laughable - and not blog worthy but I'm sorry this is a highlight of my lame life. I've been trying for about two years now to make homemade sausage white gravy - all people would tell me is its grease, flour, milk.... well that didnt work for me, I need a recipe. Tonight I found a short write up on how to make it.

I DID IT AND IT ROCKED

Come to find out - I was putting way to much of each thing in and it never tasted right to me. So for any of you that dont know how to make it ... let me share cause no one would share with me.

1/4 cup of grease with bits or with sasuage crumbled

3 table spoons of flour

3 cups of milk

So you put the flour in with the grease and start whisking, add milk a half a cup at a time, whisking, whisking and whisking. Let it bubble and keep it on the stove... cook for around 8 minutes the longer the thicker it will get. VIOLA ... yes it is simple - but this lady was putting oh at least a cup of grease a half a cup of flour and lots of milk. what a waste....

Here are two photos of the boys - Braden wanted his picture taken and Parker has started giving a look and I captured it.

Burnt but still cute...

Saturday we went to the lake with our Friends the Smiths. Braden hadn't seen Kasha Bear in over two weeks so he was IN HEAVEN. When we arrived at the beach I asked Brant to spray down the kids with the sunscreen - so this is Braden with sunscreen - Parker on the other hand never got sprayed - I guess Brant says he was wet so he was going to dry him off but got side tracked. So P Wayne is burnt - momma is burnt - and daddy is kinda burnt.
It turned out to be a beautiful day at the lake. When we awoke it seemed like it might rain. But when we go to the lake the sun would peak through the clouds and it warmed up. The water was colder than last time, thanks to the rain we got. So we didn't know we were burnt till we were coming back into town.
Sunday I got Braden all dolled up in his snazzy church clothes. We just love this outfit- he looks like a mini adult. He wore it once before in the Summer Time and wouldn't you know it the air conditioning broke at the church. The poor boy was soooo hot in that outfit. I had him all dressed and went to put on his church shoes and yeah they didn't fit. All summer we've been dressing him in his dress/leather sandals. So yeah gotta go find him some dress shoes. The brown tennis shoes didn't cut it for momma.
This weekend Brant started on the dishwasher install. He got the water line all plumbed. My kitchen is a mess. BUT by the end of the first week in September I bet I have a dishwasher and a cabinet built around it. Now I need him to go find the paint can from the cabinets so I can match it.
Brant is a great husband for doing this for me. It is something I've wanted oh FOREVER. I hate washing dishes, TRULY hate it. I know that I am taking some things out on him that I'm dealing with right now and I'm not that cool of a person to live with right now. I'm so thankful he loves me enough to deal with my attitude right now.
We are going to be taking things to a storage building hopefully for just one month two at the most so that we can finish getting things organized and then have a garage sale as soon as it is nice outside. Actually I would pay 20 bucks a month to keep the clutter out of my site for a long time. So we are going to do that, this week. We have friends moving from Arizona coming in on Sunday afternoon - They are going to stay in the garage apartment till they figure out where they want to locate. LOTS and LOTS of things going on!!! Wow. I'm actually excited about renting a storage building, wow, I'm lame.

Apron Swap

So I forgot to take photos of the other one before I gave it away ... I had to make another one cause we had someone back out last minute. So i switched some people around and got two wonderful ladies... I hope they enjoy their aprons.
I've used the one that was made for me several times. I plan on starting on an old fashion one next week... CUTE CUTE CUTE

Scrappin' again

Tonight was Dad's retirement party at Jack Bowker Fords, we made an appearance. It was quick, so we spent some time over at their home. It has been raining here lately so Braden has been dying to go outside and play. His favorite activity is to PLAY BALL with Papa B. Parker Wayne loves throwing the ball. He has a very good arm for a 1 year old. He impresses me.
BTW Parker has started running now. We've had alot of falls, but he thinks running and being chased is HILARIOUS! Kids are so fun.

Summer Scrapbooking

So tonight I was surfing some of the scrapbooking sites I use and one was having a heck of a sale! So I bought like 6 packages for under 10 bucks! Gotta love that.
I need to start making a list of the pages I need to get done before the end of the year so I can compile a book. I'm slacking lately! Been having too much fun this summer.
Here are two pages I did. 1. for Parkers First birthday and 2. General Summer activity page.
I need to find some baseball/softball paper package so I can do one for all the time we spent watching our Church league softball team.


I'm thinking I need something more on the summer one but I dont want to be too cluttery (so not a word) but I'm stuck on it. So it is done till I figure out what it is missing!

Lake and Friends

Saturday we woke up early to go garage sale hunting, we hear it is alot of fun and you can find some deals, as we stopped to get the paper from mom and dad Brant was asked to help dad with a plumbing issue in the bathroom. My husband is so nice. So Brant spent the next few hours working on the sink in the bathroom. But hey, mom and dad have all new plumbing and shut off valves (which weren't there to begin with). We were to meet up with some friends at 2, I think we all got on the water around 4.

Here is Parker the stuffed pig in his life jacket, he is holding on pretty good! Way to go Brant, leave the dirty lake trash the kids found in the photo! Who taught you to take photos?
Here is the boat beached at Kaw Lake with the new snazzy shade providing Bimini Top! I think she looks good! We are thinking about getting one that is alittle longer so it provides more shade. But I think this was a WISE modification we made to the boat.
Here is Kasha and Braden playing on the shore. All the white stuff, those are feathers. Guess the "mine" birds (finding nemo) loved the beach too.
The kids went to chase off the birds without telling any adults, this was them "kinda" coming back.
Lakes in the evenings are just beautiful. I love taking photos of the water. We were trying to load up and I had a husband that wasn't happy i wasn't securing all items. So this was a quick shot. Still pretty but I really wanted the sun.

We had a blast, we are so happy Nick, Sarah, Kasha and Paydon came with us. It is always more fun to have great friends out on the water with us. We hope to get out a few more times before the water gets cold. It was like warm bath water Saturday.

I just wanted to let Nick and Sarah know we enjoy having them here in Ponca, we are so happy they've moved here, they are a ton of fun to hang out with. Our children bicker like brother and sister but they love to play together and just look forward to each time we see em. Nick and Brant click pretty well, both have "unique" personalities and senses of humor (just kidding fellas), we all laugh the majority of the time, what else could you ask for? Nutten! They are headed to Idaho for a few weeks, we will miss em, but think it is awesome they get to go see family and complete some "family" goals!!!

Ridin' in Style and Shade

Before the installation.....
Brant seeing where he should put it.
easy as 123........ actually went quicker than most projects brant and I are apart of.
Lookin' good... ready for the lake tomorrow - Kaw Fest 2008 here we come.

Look for more photos tomorrow night - we are going out to Kaw Lake for some fun in the sun (and shade) tomorrow, going to take the Nick and Sarah and their two and our little ones. Gonna be fun! Hope the wind is nice to us tomorrow!

Trash-digger

So my husband had taken the sack out of the trashcan to fill it up more before heading it out to the ally. Parker found his spaghetti container from Pizza Hut.

Again, first clue Parker was quiet. DUH MOMMY