I just couldn't help myself....Sorry honey.

I have a feeling Royce won't find this as humorous as I do. Sorry, Sweetie!!


West Virginia coach Bob Huggins comforting an injured player in the Final Four tournament.



Master Gardener Royce Purinton comforting his lettuce plants, willing them to grow.

Girls Weekend

This past weekend Chloe and I went with Royce's mom to visit her side of the family. Chloe and I were excited to go along and we had a nice girls weekend. Friday Chloe and I drove to WaKeeney and got in with Sandy then we drove south of Dodge City to Englewood, KS. Saturday we met up with Shelly and Kat (Sandy's niece and her daughter) and ALL WAS WELL when Chloe got to be with Kat. We talk about Kat all the time because Chloe just adores her. We had a nice day shopping. The weather was great and I think everyone had a successful day at the stores.

Sunday we picked some fresh lilacs from Aunt Carol's lilac bushes and took them to the cemetery. Kirby and Katherine (Sandy's parents) passed away in 2008 and their birthdays were April 18 and April 23. So you can see in the pictures that Chloe helped arrange a nice jar of lilacs to take out there.

After visiting the cemetery we want to Shelly & Kevin's for a nice turkey dinner. It was great, Shelly! (I'm sure most of you can read about Shelly's turkey adventures by reading her blog that is linked to mine titled "It Bothers Me".) So after a filling turkey dinner and Chloe playing with Kat a little more it was time for us to hit the road back home. Chloe slept the entire way from Bucklin to WaKeeney, literally to Wayne & Sandy's house. She was exhausted. But it was a nice relaxing weekend and we had a lot of fun catching up with Sandy's family. Thanks for hosting us Carol & Shelly!

And for those of you who were worried about the boys, they had fun too. They went out to the farm with Royce's dad and Dan. And Royce even left Isaac with my mom on two different occasions so he could hit the golf course. So, no sympathy there:)





Feeding strawberry scraps to the chickens at Shelly's


Baby kitties! Can you see "happy" plastered on Chloe's face?


Chloe and Miss Kat.

Staining the fence

I had some days off last week so I tackled staining our fence. Our fence was brand new when we bought the house last fall but it never had any product applied to it. So it was pretty in the fall but quite gray already after one winter without sealing. I knew we'd better get it sealed pretty quickly before it was beyond recovery and I'm so glad we did. It looks GREAT. It took me just under 2 work days to do it and I was exhausted. We've got a large back yard and to do both sides took a while. If you look back at the 'nice weather' post from April 7th you can see just how big it is. But complaints are behind me because I'm so thrilled with how the fence looks now. It will be much easier to maintain after this first coat was put on so I know the up-keep won't be so tough.


You can see behind the rose bush what the fence looked like before. The entire fence was that gray and this product restored it so well! And by the way, it was NOT fun staining behind the rose bushes. OUCH!


The finished fence!

Extra Easter Picture

Chloe's new bath towel

Okay, maybe this is a "had to be there" video but Royce and I have been cracking up at Chloe. We had a wonderful evening playing outside, eating outside, laughing all evening with the kids. So after baths, which I might add were much needed as Isaac had sand in his diaper most of the evening, Isaac went to bed quickly and Chloe got to play a little more. Well, by play I mean she got to wear her new bath towel around a bit. Grandma and Grandpa (Sandy and Wayne) had this towel in Chloe's Easter basket and Chloe loves it. So tonight she was modeling it for me and was just so darn goofy. Striking poses, making funny faces, and being so silly. So I took a video of her with the towel falling down (don't worry, it stays above the waist and is just too funny) because this made Chloe laugh so hard. But the absolute funniest part of our night was when I had Chloe watch the video off of the computer. I HAVE to get a video of Chloe watching the video. You would not believe how hard she laughs. I wasn't able to get the 2nd video tonight but I'm going to try my hardest to do it. It is so funny, she laughs so hard. And I know for a fact that there is no better sound than a child's laughter. (other than the sound of children sleeping I guess!) Oh--sorry the video goes the wrong way, I didn't realize I wouldn't be able to rotate it.

So, here is the original video, along with pictures of her modeling her towel. You can tell on her face how funny she is trying to be.

Easter Pictures

What a beautiful Easter weekend! We were so happy to (again) not have to pack and travel for a holiday. Well, we did actually stay in WaKeeney on Saturday night but we were happy to do that. The Purinton's had their dinner on Saturday evening. We had nice weather and great family time. We stayed at Royce's parent's house so Sunday morning we woke up there and the kids had fun with their Easter baskets. They went outside in their pajamas and found eggs. It was cute. Chloe was so excited she even slept in bunny ears the night before:)

Pictures below: We actually wore Easter outfits last weekend to church in Hays since we'd be going to church in WaKeeney for Easter (I'd hate for the kids to be seen wearing the same outfit two weeks in a row, lol!). So I made a big deal out of wearing Easter clothes last week(Chloe has been waiting for WEEKS to get to wear her pretty dress) but Isaac paid attention also. I had said that I wanted to get pictures of the kids. So we got the kids out of the bathtub and I got Isaac in his diaper and pants when he ran to his room and got out his Christmas PJ top. He was very cheerful and wanted very much to put it on, so I let him. He ran out to the two places that we took Christmas pictures in PJ's, the fireplace and where our tree was. It was so sweet! He posed so nicely for pictures and was so proud. What a handsome boy!! Chloe got in her dress and posed nicely as well. She's just getting so big and acts like such a big girl. *Note, Chloe especially liked her Easter dress because it had 'little sleeves', actually it was sleeveless. Her jacket came with the dress so it worked out well for both of us!* I wish I had a pic of all of us, but on actual Easter Sunday Royce's dad and my mom took pictures. So I'll try to snag one sometime to put on here.

More pictures

These pictures are from the Easter Egg hunt at church. Chloe had fun running in the gym and finding the eggs. Isaac picked up his first egg and threw it (really well I might add!) across the gym floor thinking it was a ball. Another kid just swooped right in and took it himself. Isaac didn't care and it was really funny.

Also a picture of Troy's dog, Elton. Elton lives with Wayne & Sandy but my kids love him because they can walk him on a leash, put necklaces on him, play with his ears, etc. He is a very good sport. But Elton was just pooped after all of the Easter festivities! Funny dog.

Nice weather

We sure do enjoy nice weather. We have been spoiled in college and in Prairie Village by having covered patios. Now we still have a great back yard and patio but it's not covered. Someday. But we still love eating outside and so do the kids. We had our first meal outside a few weeks ago (Yes, I'm behind on posting) and Miss Chloe insisted on eating her hot dog using my plant stand as a table and eating in the middle of the back yard. Don't ask why because I have no answer. The answer is that she is a very imaginative 3 year old.