I got an e-mail from one of my Partylite regional leaders today, and most of the time I get really annoyed with the over the top motivational mumbo-jumbo constantly spamming my inbox (thanks partylite!!) But apparently this is what I needed to hear today....

"Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle."

I should have that on a sign in my house somewhere...

My good friend Maren was in town with her hubby and adorable twin boys and they stopped by to see me last week! I didn't get any pictures of them because I struggle in the thinking department but I did take a picture of this rockin' bib she got for Ashelyn!!! It's so nice to have friends who know just how much I appreciate Dirty Dancing.... she got lots of other great goodies for my little miss, too. I miss you already Maren and I really think you should look into moving to Kearney... it would be a great option... the lady across the street from me is trying to sell her house you know!!! :o)

So Saturday Jacob was running the vacuum and Gideon went to the pantry, got out the broom and proceeded to chase Jake around the house beating the vacuum to a pulp. He is most definitely 100% boy. It was probably the funniest thing I've ever seen him do because it was all his idea and he was SO excited about it. I just love how much personality he has!

Happy Birthday Sarah Beth!!!
WE LOVE YOU!!!

I tried to find an adorable picture of you to put up, but I seriously scrolled through all of Picasa and only found one and let's just say it wasn't adorable... anyways, I hope you have a great day!!!

I can't believe my little girly girl is already a month old! Time definitely flies... She's so sweet and is growing way too fast.
Somebody, I'm thinking Gid, messed with the settings on my camera and every picture I've tried to take lately has come out blurry.
Speaking of Gid... He's become an absolute ham! As if he wasn't adorable before...he's now VERY aware of the camera and puts on this big cheesy grin. I love it!
He just loves to hold his sissy! He's a great big brother, even when he tries to wrestle her. :o)

We've been so busy it's a little ridiculous... I have nothing really exciting to update besides the fact that we're all doing great. Gideon is jabbering all the time and I'm pretty sure only I understand his language. Ashelyn is getting so big all ready with her chubby cheeks! My mom pulled out some of my baby pictures last night while we stopped by and oh my does my little girl look like me... I probably shouldn't be that shocked, but I was. It's crazy!

Onto other business:

Jake, along with some help from my Dad and his wonderful connections, is throwing a Skate Jam on September 6th. Things are really starting to come together but I would really love if you would all cruise over to the website and e-mail us any bugs you find so that we can get it all smoothed out for registration...

Go here : http://lemonfreshclothing.com/skate_event/

Thanks guys! We appreciate it!

So for any of you that have heard my long drawn out saga about trying to get internet, I'm sorry and I'll spare the rest of you. But here's the gist of it....

We waited two weeks while AT&T gave us the run around only to tell us at the very end, "Oh we're sorry, we thought we provided service there, but we don't." It took that long to figure that out??? Spare me...

So then after leaving 4 messages at the local place, the last one being not too nice and complaining about their customer service, I finally got a call back and signed up for cable and their high speed internet. She told me the soonest they could have any one come hook it up was Friday (today) at 3 in the afternoon. Sounds great I say.

So imagine my surprise at 9 this morning while I'm doing dishes in my bathrobe and the doorbell rings. I peak out the window to see the Cable Company's van. I'm totally mortified to answer the door knowing full well my hair resembles Medusa's and well...I'm in my ROBE. So I argue with myself for about 20 seconds and eventually say "Self, if you don't answer this you're not gonna have internet 'til next week sometime." That would obviously be a huge travesty, so I opened the door.

I got that shocked look I expected, told him the office sucks for telling their customers to expect someone at 3 and then sending them 6 hours early... then I feel bad for complaining, after all I really would have rather had him come in the morning so I had the rest of my day free I would have just liked to have been prepared/fully clothed.... I then went to my room hid my head in my hands for a good while and then quickly got myself dressed and smoothed my hair.

The guy was nice and hooked everything up quickly so now I'm happily blogging and Gid is loving him some Little Einsteins again. So what's the moral to this story you might ask? Don't give your kids baths and get them looking cute before yourselves. It's perfectly okay for a 19 month old to run around half dressed. It's a no-go in the mom department.

So my best pal/cousin who I'm pretty sure is really my sister in some way, Jade came to visit. I love her, she is the easiest person to please and is just so much fun. I know these are just about the lamest photos going, but they pretty well portray what we did the whole time. We just hung out and watched movies (a lot of our time was spent between our house and RedBox.) Both Gideon and Ashelyn just loved snuggling up next to her and Ashelyn loved to snooze on her little pregnant belly. She had to fly back to her hubby (Jake was so bummed Tim couldn't get off work to come visit too.) on Wednesday and I missed her before she even got through the airport doors. I can't wait until they have their baby in November so I can go visit and see their new house! Love you Jadie!

I had to steal these pictures from Sarah because go figure, mine are all blurry. It's a good thing I have her or the really important events in my children's lives would be remembered in ugly fuzzy photographs instead of the gorgeous ones that she takes. I would feel bad for sneaking them from her blog, but I still don't have any of my dang disks of the ones she took... so I couldn't even pick different ones to put up! Come on Sarah, help a sister out! haha

It was so awesome to have so much of our family here for the blessing and to have everyone over to our house! We love all of you, thanks for being there to celebrate with us! We missed the rest of you and hope to see you soon!

I know, I know... It's the 11th now, I'm a little behind but we FINALLY got our internet hooked up today... which is another story completely. Anyways, we had such a great 4th this year I had to put some pictures up!
We got up bright and early (which I wasn't too thrilled about) to go to Far West for breakfast. The weather was absolutely perfect. I honestly cannot remember it ever being so cool on the 4th of July in Missouri! We definitely weren't complaining.
Gideon was loving him some sausage!!!
Later on we went to the parade in Cameron with Ron & Jenny, Natalie & her fam, & Sarah's gang. Gideon loves to play with all of his cousins. Didn't Hannah look so cute with her face paint and crown!
Me & my man.... gotta love the shades!
Ashelyn's outfit was so cute! I thought she looked very festive and girly. But amazingly even with the huge heart that says 'girl' inside it on her chest , lots of ruffles, and a bow in her hair some crazy lady still asked me if she was a boy. I just looked at her with that "You've got to be kidding me.." face.
My dad and his buddy Mark decided to run a fireworks stand this year. So we stopped by to visit them... it was crazy busy!Jake had to wear his old school Black Cat shirt that he dug out of his drawer... just talking shop with Zach & Tailor.We made a fort for Gid out of the box that our Range came in... He loves it and it's still on our front porch. The nice thing is it's hidden from the road by our enormous bush... so we don't look too white trash, haha.
Jake was having way more fun with the little fireworks we got for Gid than he was. Gid thought they were loud and scary, pretty much he was only into the snakes.
Sparklers and LOTS of leftover trash... Our neighborhood was like a war zone that night, we just hung out and watched from our driveway. It was a blast!