hmmm, how can you always think of a new title for up here?

Not to much has been going on around here. Just trying to enjoy the last few days this amazing weather we have been having!
Last week I tried to spend as much time outside with the kids as I could - going to the park, walks, bike rides and the like. It's been nice - I think sometimes I just don't do that enough with them...
This past week was Brian's dad's birthday and our (Brian and myself) birthdays are this coming up week, so today we had a nice little gathering over at Mom and Dad Englers. Saturday night we went over to Joan and Billie's for an outdoor "movie night" - it was really great to see them!
I hadn't seen Joan in several years. It was fun to see our kids play together (the movie night was more of a "play" night - I think we saw maybe 30 seconds of the movie!!!). The kids had a blast and it looks like Brian found a new golf buddy!
The last few weekends we (well... Brian) has spent trying to finish up the little patio area we are adding to our backyard. We have a small paved area just large enough for the grill and a table, so we doubled it by laying pavers - it's looking really really great! Brian is doing a splendid job and getting a good workout as well! It's taken numerous (10 maybe?) trips to the Home Depot to get the crushed rock, bags of sand and the pavers (the rock/sand is like 40 lbs/bag and the pavers are about 20lbs/ea.! it's really heavy). Something we thought would be pretty quick has taken a few weekends more then we thought it would! But I think it will be worth it next summer! So maybe by this time next year we will actually be ready to have company??? hmmm, maybe. We will probably have something else ripped apart by then I am sure!
We also had another garage sale last weekend. It's seeming to become annual - by September of every year, Gina and I seem to acquire enough crap that we can't stand it anymore, then we get rid of it all, only to pile it up again over the next 11 months and do it all over again. But you all know that neither of us is going to stop garage sale-ing! All the fun is in the hunt ; )
In the quest to better my life by clearing my house of junk I am trying to do the same to myself. I have been trying to eat better and spend more time exercising (and by that I mean dance around the house with the kids with children's music blasting! It's the improvised "mommy workout"!). I actually sat and read a book about eating better - and in the process, decided that at least for right now, I am swearing off meat. I wouldn't necessarily call myself a "vegetarian" - but just the thought of meat makes me sick. Maybe it's for good, maybe it's not - we shall see how I feel in time. I have never been much of a meat eater anyway, but I haven't had any for about a week or so now, and I actually feel pretty good. I am surprised at how much better I feel really. I was reading about how horribly the animals are treated and what is actually in the meat - well, it was enough for me to stop it. I wouldn't say that I am gung-ho for animal rights or anything like that, and I obviously know that they have to kill the animal in order for us to eat it, but I was really (really, really) sickened at how many horrid things they did to these animals to kill it. Not to mention the disgusting things that are in the meat and how many chemicals and nasty things I have been consuming in all these processed foods. I am an eater for sure. I LOVE food - especially food that is not good for you. But I HATE how these things make me feel after I eat them - so I am glad that I was so disgusted in "educating" myself about the foods I was eating, to want to not eat it anymore. While I was searching for vegetarian information, I ran across this video. It was hard for me to watch actually (and I do not agree with the part about you being gross for eating meat, seeing as I just ate it last week...), but I thought that I would share it.
Send me a shout out (is that from 1995 or what?!?) if you are a non-meat-eater, I would love to hear how you feel about it.

Please be warned - do NOT watch this video with your kids - it is very graphic on the treatment of animals at slaughterhouses.






Watch more videos at PETA.org

3 and 1 Year Pictures

I finally got the kids 3 year and 1 year pictures taken (at least they are only 3 months late right?!?)
They did pretty good I think, besides the fact that Kaylin's bangs are in her eyes (growing them out) and Isabella's hair is all wacked out - but I kinda like it that way, it's "her" and I love it!

The many faces of a lil' stinker!

I love this picture of Isabella, this totally captures her sweet little grinning face!











Every now and again, this little 5 minute show comes on between 2 shows that Kaylin likes. It's called "Go Baby" and it's kind of creepy actually! It's a real baby's face and sounds, but put into some sort of computer animation type thing. Anyways, she LOVES this show!!! As soon as she hears the music, she whips her head around and runs over to the TV making this hysterical laugh and saying "ohhhh, bebeeee!!!"
















These next two pictures crack me up! She is making the silliest faces! She is sooo much like Brian, and these capture a little taste of that!



























Since Uncle Tim travels often, the kids receive lots of wonderful postcards from all over the world! When I brought the mail in one day, Isabella had gotten one that day and I said "wow! look Isabella, you got a postcard from Tio Tim!" She ooh-ed and aahhh-ed over it for quite some time!

Summer Fun

Kaylin has really been into catching worms this summer. Since catching the very first one months ago in the spring, she has been looking for her "friends" in the dirt every time I went outside to work. Since finding out that they don't bite, she would walk around with them all day - in her pockets, in jars, in her sandbox - you name it! Here she is with her friends - one of their names was Socky and I can't think of the other...





A day when Amanda and Gina came over to play. L to R: Kaylin, Cheyenne, Dillon, Gabriel, Jack and Ruthie.
I still can't believe how many kids we all have when we get together...
They had a blast playing in the little pool and digging in the rocks.






After all the kids left, my babies passed out cold within a few minutes on the couch!














For our wedding anniversary, Brian got to choose a gas grill for the new "patio" we were going to be working on this summer. This is the night he was attempting to put it together.










Just a nice afternoon in the pool one day

Playing Catch Up

Elizabeth's Graduation Party
(Brian's cousin)
I cannot believe it, but when I looked through my photos, I didn't get one shot with her in it!
Here's everyone enjoying the celebration.





Rachel and Kaylin on the see-saw swing
















Kaylin and Thor on the same swing (Brian and Isabella in the background













Brian holding Cannon and Isabella












Daddy and Isabella on the swing