I Love My Friends!!!!!

I was going through some pictures and found this one. It was taken last New Year's Eve. Don't we all look so happy? It must be because we had just finished eating at Richard's Farm.......

Ohhh!! Mama Mia-Homemade Pizzeria

Tonight, my lovely assistant Maren, and I prepared supper.
We fixed one of our family's favorites. Homemade Pizzas!!

It is one of the few things that everyone will eat. They were delicious.

Now everyone is lounging around watching Shrek 3 for the second time in one week. We are relaxing(some more than others)-referring to Missy, who's sound asleep, on the couch. I tried to take her picture to show you all but she heard the sound the camera makes when it comes on, opened her eyes, uttered the words "very funny", and then promptly went back to sleep. I better not push my luck!

Anyway, heres a few pictures of our "masterpieces" to tempt your taste buds.

The Milbourn Elves

All day today we've worked on a special Christmas dance for you. We had Will run the video camera...click here to watch it. It might take a little while to load, but trust me, it's worth the wait! Hope you enjoy!!!

Fall Fun

Yesterday we did something that I have not done in years.


BURNED LEAVES!!!


It was awesome!! I know, your probably thinking it doesn't take much to keep us entertained-Your right it doesn't!!


Normally I just mow them with our tractor into a zillion little pieces and be done with it.Our kids have never even had the experience of burning them. What sheltered lives! Josh had mentioned yesterday morning something about playing in the leaves, but somehow burning them got brought up and you know what happens when the Milbourn boys here the word "fire". Will was right there with a lighter and fire starters in hand ready to go. Josh was hot on his heels looking for anything he can get his hands on to throw in as well.


We were at Shane and Kathy's last weekend and they had a campfire. Josh literally went from person to person, sitting around the fire asking non-stop "Are you done with that?"-just so he could have their paper plate, cup or whatever they were holding to throw in the fire. When cousin Michael arrived home shortly after we started, he was right there helping out as well.

Anyway it didn't take long for the leaves to be piled up, and we commenced with the fire.
Nothing like the smell of burning leaves on your clothes, and it took me back to my childhood days of raking and burning them to earn money when I lived in town. Back then, there were no laws stopping you from burning leaves, and some days I think you could have identified Marshall from a satellite map, just from the smoke that was blowing around throughout our neighborhood and town.


While we were burning leaves we also had another fire going where we cooked up a pot of ham and beans, and the day ended with Papaw and Nana(Sam and Darlene) coming out for supper. So here's some pictures from our Saturday.




Joshua-really pumped about the leaves!

Mo even enjoyed the day outside,although

we kept her on a leash--didn't want to serve any

hot dogs!

OH LOVEY, L-O-V-E-Y!!!!!!!!
I think you might want to get the hose or call 911!!!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO JOSHUA!!!!

Today our baby turns 6 years old. Wow! Where does the time go??

Last night, with some of our family, we indulged in a little cake and ice cream and just spent some time celebrating Joshua!! So here's some pix of my favorite little 6 yr old.

Love ya, Buddy!!

Pix of the Day

I took these on my way home from work tonight. I thought they were pretty cool!! The 2nd picture was taken from our subdivision. I'm not sure what's going on in it. It kinda looks like the clouds are vertical instead of horizontal. I was just waiting for them to start spinning and then I was heading for the basement. :)

LOUNGIN' AND GAZIN'

THE HEAVENS DECLARED HIS GLORY TODAY AS I LOUNGED IN MY LAWN CHAIR GAZING UP AT THE SKY

Up....Up.... and Away!

OK! OK! I'm changing my blog!!


I have found that in the past 3-4 weeks, I don't get a "Hi" or "How are you doing?" from alot of people when I see them, instead I get "YOU REALLY NEED TO CHANGE YOUR BLOG." I have even had some offer to give me ideas of things to write about. So here goes, if any of you still stop by regularly. I haven't really had any reason to not post for the last 2 months, I guess I have just been on a little blog posting -vacation. I have still been reading everyone else's blogs, I just, for some reason, haven't felt like posting. So I am sorry and I will try to do better.

Anyway, since thats taken care of , I just wanted to show you some pictures, of what we did last weekend. A month or two ago, I had seen a magazine advertisment for a Hot Air Balloon Festival in Lincoln, Illinois. I cut it out and hung it on our bulletin board thinking it would be something fun and different to take the kids too. Soooo... last Saturday, we headed out to the festival. It took about 2 hours to get to Lincoln and we had alot of fun. They had an arts festival in downtown Lincoln, in conjunction with the balloon festival, which was held at a very small airport. We didn't attend the arts portion, instead we went straight for the balloons. It was kind of like a fair with rides, and alot of food booths. There were approximately 50 balloons or so participating, and needless to say it was awesome and C O L O R F U L . I think I enjoyed it more than Missy or the kids. You could walk out among the different balloon teams while they were preparing the balloons, and baskets for take off, which also was very cool. You really forget how BIG these things are until you see people standing next to them, as they are inflating.















































I will stop there, I have alot more, but I know you've seen one balloon, you've seen them all.

See ya in a couple of months! : ) Just Kidding!!!!!

The Trophy

Another t-ball season has come and gone for our youngest, Joshua. Overall, I think he has shown quite an improvement over last year's games. This year he actually went out and played without me being on the field by his side continuously. The first practice was a little rough, though. I took him up to the dugout and his team was already out on the field practicing. I thought I would go out with him and get him adapted to things again, but he refused to leave the dugout. When I tried to reassure him that I was going out with him, it still did not matter. Then he burst out crying inconsolably,which he did the same thing at the start of the practices last year. I think part of it this year was he didn't know anyone on the team except for his cousin Logan. We ended up finding out when the next practice was and left. He was crying and I was mad. I had thought at that time- GREAT! another fun year of t-ball is on the way.

So after a week of coaxing, by Missy and myself, and telling him how he was going to have so much fun, we made it back to the 2nd practice. This time it was as if we had a totally different child. He took to the field immediately, without shedding a single tear I might add, and practiced like there had never been a problem the prior week.

It was amazing to us, how much Josh and his whole team had improved since last year.
This year they were pitched balls by their coaches, and only used the tee as a last resort.
Of course, they were still a lot of fun to watch. On many occasions, when the opposing team hit the balls, practically the whole fielding team would all converge upon the ball, and try to fight over it. There were also still the occasional players, Josh included, who became sidetracked easily by the alluring wide open expanse of DIRT, or the occasional bugs, birds, cars or trains who happened to pass by at just the right time, leaving them oblivious to the line drive heading straight for them. Missy and I decided Josh was a professional at looking busy and ready to catch the ball. He was usually in position and waiting for the ball to be hit, but if it came in his direction he would kind of run towards it, but never seemed to quite gather enough energy to get there 1st to pick it up. We called him an "official ball guide". He kind of ran along beside it, "guiding and protecting" it, until it was finally picked up. Oh well, he still had a lot of fun.

His best asset was hitting. He rarely had to use the tee, and was a strong hitter. Thank God, they wear helmets. One occasion he swung so hard, he missed the ball, but hit himself in the back of the head. Ouch! It didn't seem to bother him though.


Of course by the last couple of weeks of the season, Joshua's whole focus turned to the coveted
"Trophy". As you probably know each member of the team receives a trophy at the end of the season. We heard more than once, "When do we get our trophy?" This year they had the official ceremony on a Friday evening, where all the t-ballers got together after a game and received their trophies.

Josh was so proud of his and we had to make the rounds to show the grandparents the prestigious TROPHY after the game! I wanted to say a special thanks, to the Beltz family-yes even Beth, who shoved my head into a water fountain at church Sunday-while I was getting a drink, for their excitement they expressed to Josh over his trophy. They were the 1st ones we ran into as they were on their way to the band concert, so of course Josh had to show them his prized possession.

When we got home, we had placed the trophy on the middle of our dining room table.
The funniest thing was the next day, it wasn't where we had put it. I started to ask Joshua where he had put it, but then I went into the living room, and had to laugh. Joshua had placed his trophy in the window, for the whole neighborhood to see. :)


Waiting in line.






Josh, with his cousin Logan.

The TROPHY on display!

Rain Drops Keep Falling........

Yesterday afternoon, after I arrived home, the kids and I were outside messing around, when the sky started to cloud up-like it could rain, and the air was thick with humidity. The kind that makes you sweat just by walking around in the front yard. It wasn't long before it started thundering off in the distance, and then here came the rain. It started out intermittently at first and then slowly proceeded into a regular ole"gully washer."
It rained so fast that it poured over the gutters, because they couldn't drain the water away fast enough.

We had retreated to the front porch, and then the kids asked to do something they hadn't done in a long time. They asked if they could play in the rain. What an ingenious idea! Since we have a pool and all, they usually get their needs to play in water quenched there. I told them sure!! Why not?

Your only kids once, your Mom's not here, and that occasional lightning bolt flashing from the sky looks like its a LONG way away. It's not like they asked to go SWIMMIMG submerged in 4 feet of water. I also justified my answer by looking over toward my sister's house and seeing my 2-yr old niece Hannah doing her own little rain dance in their driveway. They would never let her outside if it wasn't safe.

Watching the kids reminded me of the times when I was young. We lived in town and whenever we would have big downpours, my friends and I would take our plastic boats about 2-3 blocks west of our house, behind a grocery store and turn them loose in the ditches.I can still see my tugboat, which was red and had yellow life preservers hanging on the sides of the deck. There was a gradual slant in the layout of our neighborhood that was perfect for boat races. The best part was when they would go through the culverts that went under the streets, and you wouldn't be able see them for a few minutes. It was a tense time, wandering if your boat was going to make it through the torrential river racing by. It could get snagged on those nasty" log jams"-twigs or trash that might be caught in the middle of the tunnel. I can remember just when we thought we couldn't take it any longer, the boats would emerge and we would run along beside them, as they hurriedly headed for the next tunnel.

Oops!! sorry I digressed. Anyway here are some pix that I snapped while the kids were having fun.