Picture Monday

I finally uploaded every picture that was on my camera from the month of July (yeah, it was a lot). So, as I'm looking through them, I decided to post some of my favorites.

This is a horse that lives near my parents' house. It's kinda neat to see the variety of animals that end up on their property- we've seen deer, geese, ducks, a donkey, muskrats, etc.

You have to be prepared. The wagon is loaded with toys, he's wearing his life jacket, and he's got his sippy cup.

And no, there wasn't a pot of gold at the end of this rainbow. We checked.

Poor baby. :( There are stitches under that (I'll spare you the details). This is what happens when you fall hand first into a glass lantern.

Can you think of a better way to eat corn?

Evan wants to know why Grandma buys corndogs when she grows them fresh on the farm.

The one and only time that Uncle Bill will let Cody drive his speed boat...

He may only be 8, but he knows what the girls like.

Who are you, and what have you done with Cody?

Whack-A-Cat.

Come back, she just wants to play!

Her first boat ride, and she had to make sure that I was following along behind. That, or she's trying to find her goose friends.

Rock, Paper, Gun...

We've learned something recently. You don't want to compete against Evan, because he's very competitive. The first clue was when he learned to play Rock, Paper, Scissors. We all know how it goes- rock breaks scissors, scissors cut paper, and paper covers rock.

Evan, that beautiful, lovable boy of mine, comes up with something rather ingenious. Evan is playing rock paper scissors with Grandma. Grandma throws paper... and Evan throws gun. What beats gun? We've all stopped playing rock paper scissors with him, because we just can't beat gun...

One day, while we're in the car, the boys are being kinda loud (I think that China could hear them), and Mike and I teach them how to play the Quiet Game. We all know this one, too. It's the game people use to get kids to be quiet. Ya know, a nice way of saying 'You're bugging me.' Cody and Dylan invented Pause, which pretty much defeats the entire purpose of the Quiet Game.

But we're driving along, Mike and I are talking, Cody and Dylan are pausing and talking, when it hits us. Evan has not said one single word the entire drive. Not one. Mike looks back at him, and he's just staring at us. He was really serious about this game, and it wasn't until we stopped the car that we could get him to talk (which was to ask, of course, what his prize was). He's adapted his game strategy since then. Now he makes faces at his brothers in order to get them to laugh and therefore lose.

It's not just these games that we learn as kids that he's good at. He's also good at video games and such. It's funny to watch him tell people what they need to do in order to beat Lego Star Wars.

And in case you are wondering, rocket launcher blows up gun.

Their Horns Hold Their Halos Up

I made a new desktop last night. I'm pretty happy with it.

I love how it turned out. I'm loving the real element thing that the community has going on now. I'm thinking that I need to try it, and I'm getting better with extracting. I've even found a way around my hatred of the extraction tool- quick mask mode. So much easier to use and clean up.

I took some nice pictures of the boys not too long ago. I really like how they turned out, and am planning on printing and framing them.

This is now one of my favorite pictures of Cody. I caught him in the act of looking up, flipping his shaggy hair out of his eyes, just before he put his helmet on and hopped on his four wheeler.

And this one of Dylan looks almost professional. I cloned the grass to hide the road that was behind him.









And, finally, this one of Evan that was taken when he was riding the stone boxer at mil's house. I want a better one though, but when I tried to get a better picture of him, one that looked good, I got a funky, over done, GQ--ish, muscle man type pose. *sigh* He's going to be the clown of the family.

Mike leaves on Saturday for New Mexico, so in between cleaning my house (which I'm determined to finish this week), I'm washing laundry, and calmly ignoring the fact that he will be out of state for five days. I'm looking forward to not having to push him to get him to stop snoring long enough for me to fall asleep, and I'm looking forward to not having to set the alarm for five days, but I'm not looking forward to sleeping alone for five days.

He's taking the camera, which bugs me a bit, because it means that this shutterbug will not have a camera. I will have his car, which will be great. I'll be free! Saturday, I'm going grocery shopping, and spending as much time as possible at Mom's. If I can get the house cleaned this week, I'm going to take Jeremiah for a night.

I want to keep him overnight a few times before sis moves to Texas, because the boys have been begging for a sleepover. I'm going to get junk food, we'll watch some Disney movies, put Jeremiah to bed, and then play Guitar Hero with the boys for awhile.