Courtney's Ear Piercing

August 30th will be a day to remember for two reasons. Courtney got her ears pierced at the mall and she doesn't suck her thumb anymore. We bought the Thumb Guard (a clear plastic tube that fits over the thumb) for Courtney and she has been wearing it for four weeks. We told her that after four weeks that if she has stopped sucking her thumb then she can get her ears pierced. I'm excited to say that she did it. She doesn't wear the thumb guard during the day and she doesn't suck her thumb.

Courtney has been counting down the days for two weeks now to get her ears pierced. She was very brave. She sat in my lap and never moved, pulled away, or said anything about stopping. She never even cried or complained. After the initial POP of the ear piercing guns, her face was red and her eyes were a little watery but she had a smile and she didn't cry. She did awesome. We were really proud of her. Now, she can't pass by a mirror without checking out her ruby earings.

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Spirit Lake

We went to Spirit Lake this weekend with the Rogne family. We had a great time. It was filled with relaxing, boating, and fishing. The girls really love to fish. Courtney caught nine fish and several of them were from her own doing. She would cast and then wait for the bite. Ashlyn caught a real nice rainbow trout too. It was absolutely precious to see their excitement when they would catch a fish. I really enjoyed our time on the dock fishing. They caught whoppers too--mostly four and five inch long perch and one sun fish about two inches.

Well, I'm sorry to say that I brought the camera but I forgot to bring it out. I have a couple shots (thanks to a guy on the beach with his PDA camera phone) of me and the kids canoeing up a creek that feeds Spirit Lake. The quality is poor but at least it captures the moment. And yes, that's me in my new cowboy hat. I'm taking the advice of my Uncle Tom. I need an ugly hat to give my wife something to focus on. It helps her to see only one problem with me...the hat. ;-)

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Ashlyn's 4th Birthday Party

Can you believe it? Our little peanut is now four. We had a nice evening party for Ashlyn at our house. There was no real theme like most birthday parties her age. It was really rather random. She wanted cake with pudding--not ice cream. She wanted the cake to have Scooby-Doo and pink flowers on it. And to top it all off, she wanted a surprise party. That's right. She told us she wanted a surprise birthday party. She said she would go to Meemaw's house (Gary and Dee's house) while we set things up. Then she said that they would bring her over when everybody was there. Well, we did just that. Meemaw and Peepaw took Ashlyn for the afternoon while we set up. When everyone got here they brought her over. Ashlyn came around the side to the backyard and everyone said surprise. I think she really was surprised. We had pools and a slip-n-slide set up for the kids. We also ended the evening with a campfire.

After everything was said and done, Ashlyn had a great time and loved her presents. Thank you everyone for the gifts and for joining us on Ashlyn's special day.

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Our Backyard

I finally took some shots of our backyard. I know a lot of you have been asking for some time to see some pictures. I'm sorry it took so long. It's actually better that I did because the grass looks much better now.

Our future plans include adding a few more shade trees and adding a couple more fruit trees. We also need to fence one of our side yards. We plan to fence the front as well but will be using wrought iron to keep the flowing front to back look. We also want to add lighting and more patio furniture. Lastly, a hammock, barbecue, and riding lawn mower would be the icing on the cake.

Here's our grass stats. We now mow twice a week. We let it go a full week once and we ended up taking 300 lbs. of grass clippings to the dump. It also takes several hours to complete the project. We have about 9000 sq. ft. of grass being watered by 10 zones.

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The Good Life

I hope you all are doing well. I stumbled across this file on my Activedax web site. I thought I would post it because I really enjoy watching it. I thought you might too.

The Good Life

Our summer with the Scotts

Well, our time with the Gary, Coby, Maddie, and Nate is coming to an end. We really enjoyed our time with them. It was great to meet Nate for the first time and enjoy his sweet personality. And, the sound of one flippy wrist, continuous ball of laughter, "Unka Dax" yelling little girl will surely be missed. Furthermore, our girls have truly enjoyed spending time with their cousins.

Thank you Gary and Coby for the pictures and the memories. We miss you already and love you all very much.

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