Here's a cute little Surprise for ya.

Last weekend Greg and the 4 older kids went back to Solon for Homecoming. We did this last year too. So much fun seeing all of our friends! Sadly tho, Lily and I stayed home as I was fearful that she would get lost in the massive crowds during the game. Solon always has a huge turn out for homecoming.

Anyway, while Greg was there he stayed with our friends Allen and Keela Harrington. Allen gave Greg a CD he made that has tons of pictures of our boys together at scouting events, birthday party's, and other outings. And as I was looking through the photos last night. I got a kick out of how much the boys have changed. Some of these photos dated back 3 years ago. And as I was looking through them I stumbled upon 4 videos. Allen took them during our last visit to Solon, October 2007. The weather was unusually warm and we all hung out by their pool. I was so thrilled to see them that I just had to share them with you all too.

Mostly of Lily...she's a year and half old. Seems like that was ages ago. She has changed sooo much.

Thanks Allen and Keela for the special memories and for hosting my family once again! Love you guys!

OH SNAP!!!

Greg snapped a picture of me and Lily in our whirlpool tub!

Since we moved into our new home I've taken only a couple of baths in this tub...and really didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. But NOW...I love it! Lily and I take a bath together most every night. If she's not in here with me...then she's in it with Tess or Leia!


So much fun to watch the bubbles grow! Lily loves to blow them over and over again to watch them fly in the air. This is just a fun and specail time together...one day she will out grow this...or I should say... out grow baths with me!

Short Video of our vacation in Wisconsin Dells

I took more photos with my camera then I did with the FLIP. But here is a short video of Lily, Seth, and Leia by the pool.

The Lazy Day's of Summer...

It's finally Summer! Well...almost! It's still a little chilly here in Wisconsin but with the sun shining so brightly it's getting warmer and warmer each day. We still have 40 degree temps at night and the days are in the low 70's. I can't wait for Summer to really arrive!

I happened to look outside and found these 2 basking in the sun. Tess knows how to enjoy the season at hand.
















Do you remember days like this? I do! I remember laying on the cold green grass outside looking up at the clouds above..."see that cloud? It looks like an elephant...oh there that one, it's a turtle...and that ones looks like a bird!" And my all time favorite thing about summer...GRASS BLOWING...where your hands became the instrument by putting a blade of grass between your 2 thumbs and blowing really hard to make a whistling sound...always tickled my lips...I can feel it now...those were the days!

Here's to Warm Summer Days!


Here Tess and Lily are enjoying the outdoors
The Girls are so sweet together!















Look who else decided to join in the fun...Zippa!
She's such a lovey dovey girl!

Another new video

I hope all of you will check in frequently to see my NEW video. Today it is Lily getting ready for bed. She is talking so good now. In this video she says the word DANCE, HUG, OUCHIE, and Night Nite and probably alot more that I don't understanding yet. She's such a sweet baby and growing up way too fast.

Tonight I will be making a new video of Tess. She is in The Mary Poppin's play at her School. She's playing the part of Mrs. Banks, Jane and Michael's mother. Her teacher, Miss Olson, says that Tess is perfect for the role and asked if she has been watching the movie cause she has her (Mrs. Banks) mannerisms down pat. Tess has only seen the movie once with her class as the Teacher showed it to them months ago as a preview before she assigned them roles. I can't wait to see the Play and as soon as I can get the video posted on YouTube I will email you all to see the play too. Sure hope I can get good seating.

Oh please leave a comment. This way I know you all are getting my email updates. Thanks!

Awww isn't this sweet!

Look at those lips!

In the south we call kisses...sugar...you know it's such sweet stuff! It's by far the best word to use!

I've been scrapping away while Greg is gone. Found some of these old photos taken back in July. Actually, these photos were taken on the 4th. Lily was 15 mos old...and for the first time gave up a kiss to her daddy! I've made 10 layouts in the last few weeks and this is by far my favorite! So Sweet!

So what word do you use for sweet kisses?

Now off to make me a new slideshow of my latest layouts! See ya later!

Happy Halloween!

From Lily!

Well today is the day when all kids love to dress up and get hoards and hoards of candy. Can't get any better then this! haha

So what is the Boyd Brood doing for Halloween?

I'm handing out candy at our house and Greg will walk the kids around the neighborhood banging on doors. It's raining here right now so I hope the weather gets better for their sake.

Halloween is Seth's favorite celebration.

This is the first year that we've allowed the kids to be a little more spooky.

He has the most scariest costume...a ghoul with blood dripping around his face! Can I say YUCK!

Tess and Lily are gonna be a cute lil' witches.

Leia is Payton Manning#18! Go COLTS!

Beren decided not to dress up this year...but I did buy some masks for him in case he changes his mind.

We'll get photos tonight and post as soon as I can.

But in the meantime everyone have a Happy and Safe Halloween!

Well it's Fall here and the most busiest time of the year.

Trees in our backyard are now turning yellow and the leaves are falling to the ground. Yeah! I love Fall but not all the running around we do!

Yes, for the Boyd Family, the beginning of school is OUR most busiest time of the year.

With the start of school comes all the activities. And the biggest one right now is football. Both boys are playing this year. Seth having practice 2 days a week and games on Saturdays. Beren has practice 4 days a week and games on Monday or Tuesday. They both are doing very well and actually enjoy it.

Seth on Game Day!"Tough Guy" look!

Beren in gold getting dragged around by his opponent.

Leia is cheering now. WOW! She's often said that cheering just wasn't her thing. But now that we are in a new town, new school and making new friends that's all changed. She totally surprised me one day after school when she showed up in this uniform. Originally she said she was gonna check into cheering and the next thing I know she's ready to go. Frankly, I like it. I think she looks great and she says that cheering is funnier than dance.

Leia looking snazzy in her cheerleading outfit!

Beren and Leia also have had their very first experience with Marching Band. During half time at Tomah High School Football game the Middle School Band went on the field with the High School Marching Band. I wasn't able to go because we had very unusual weather that night. (freezing 29 degrees...burrr) So I stayed home with Lily and Greg was in charge of taking pictures. Well they're not the greatest but you can get an idea of what's going on. Leia and Beren said it was fun but they were just too cold! They have a couple more parades to do with Marching Band and then they are done for the year and back to indoor concerts.

Leia in front playing Trumpet.

Beren in the line up...with his big Tuba!

Tess loves school and soon will join another girl scout group here. She wants to play soccer but I was told that soccer is better in the spring...not the fall. Thanks goodness cause I don't think we could add another thing to our plate! So Tess goes with us to football games and hangs out with new friends.

Tess with a new friend at a school picnic.

Now little Miss Lily just hangs out with mom all day. She's now able to eat with a fork and can say a few cute works like Zippa (our cat), What's that, ByeBye, Okay, and my all time favorite...shut up! No not really...not sure if that's what she's really saying but it sure sounds like it. She is full of energy and has so many expressions now. I'm so proud of all my older children they are so loving and helpful with her...she is one lucky loved baby!

Love this smile on her face. This was the day the temperature dropped. Lily and I went for a morning walk and her little nose is red from the cold.
Big girl eating with a fork! On her plate chicken, mac and cheese and tropical fruit mix! Healthy eater!

Now for Greg...he's just received a "Time Off" award at work. He's done such a great job that he was put in to receive this award...he was to get 20 hours off and in the end was awarded 40 hours off from work. So we are taking some of this time to go to back to Iowa to see our old friends and our oldest daughter, who I miss terribly! So watch out for us Solon gang! Oct 5th! Yeah! We can't wait to see everyone again!

Dog pile...after this load Greg will need those 40 hours off! ha ha

As for me I've joined in on an Explores Bible Study group. Which has been lots of fun...especially meeting new friends. I also joined the PTO group at Tess' school and looking forward to helping out when I can. Already I'm in charge of the free book program and Staff Appreciation Week. So finally I'm getting involved and getting to make new friends.

One thing I must share with you all is my recent purchase of a Bushel of green boiling peanuts! Yep, that's right I ordered peanuts online and had them delivered to my house...just so we can eat peanuts and watch football...they go hand and hand at our house.

It's hard to take the southerner out of this southern girl!

2- 20 lbs of green boiling peanuts from Hardy Farm in Georgia.

One last picture...kids were in the backyard playing and I got this great shot of them!

Love it!

So this kinda wraps up what we've been doing. Hopefully I want go this long with out an update!

Thanks for looking and remember I love your comments!

Jozzie Blog Challenge: #12 My lastest purchase

**Just a quick note: I belong to an awesome Scrapbooking website called Scrapbook Chalet. And each month one of it's members (Jozzie) gives us challenges to post on our blogs. So in the future you will see me posting to these challenges. So get ready for some very unusal posts from me as I try to meet these challenges. Cool thing is you'll learn a lot more about me and my family. Hope you enjoy!

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Last Thursday Leia, Lily and I all had dentist appointments. I can't believe how long we ended up staying there.

The dentist and his staff were very nice and I can't believe how thorough our new dentist is. He taught me some new ways to take better care of mine and the kids teeth.

However, I was shocked that they wanted to see a baby as young as Lily. With all my other children I took them in for their first dental appointment when they were 3 years old. I asked why they wanted to see her so early and they told me, that they have found the earlier children start coming to the dentist office the easier the transition is for them. The dentist took time to brush her teeth and even used floss in her mouth. This dentist doesn't even charge for these visits...it's less then 15 mins long and it's just to get her use to having her teeth looked at. So that went well.

But what did take along time was the new computer and software system the dentist and he saff were using. They had NEVER had computers in their office before. Leia, Lily, and I were there for 3 1/2 hours! I thought I would go crazy! Lily wasn't very cooperative either. It was her nap time and boy did she let us know it.

So after being there for 2 hours and when it was Leia's time to beseen I decide to take a walk with Lily. I stumbled upon the cutiest children store ever. The prices for the clothing was way more then I wanted to pay but I did see this hat and just had to have it for Lily. I think lil' girls look so cute in hats like this. Here she is sporting my newest purchase for her! Isn't she adorable in that hat?


A lady from around these parts crochet this little hats and sells them to the local children store called "Little Stars." Lily's my Lil' Starlet!


But you know how hats go with little ones...they don't stay on for very long. There she goes trying to take it off!


Even thought this hat was more $$ then I would normally pay ...it was well worth every penny. It kept her occupied while we waited yet another hour for the dentist to finish up with Leia.

The things Mom's will do for a little peace and quiet!

Wow! It's time to catch up!

So what has the Boyd Brood been doing all summer? Not much really...it's been totally boring lately. The kids and I went to the Tomah pool alot. That is until all the rain came and the air turned a little cooler. This gal has to have 80 degree weather or warmer to get in that cold butt water!

Greg's mom and dad came for a visit. They stayed with the kids while Greg and I went to Dallas for the trip that I won for Premier Designs Jewelry. It was fun but long! We got up each morning at 6am and didn't get back to our room until 11pm! Needless to say we were dead dawg tired when we came home!

Greg's dad, also known as Poppi, bought the kids this cool pocket motorcycle. And looks who's having the most fun on it!

Looks like a big gorilla ridin' on that thing! ha ha

He's such the HOT ROD...isn't he? haha

Both boy's had their birthday while Mamaw and Poppi were here. Seth is now 11 and Beren 13! Beren's showing off his strength! They're so cute!

Tess just been hanging around... thinks she's a monkey! Wish I had that kind of energy!

Leia's been working on her culinary skills...she made both the boy's B'day cakes...it was totally yummy!

Lily's learned to conquer the slide in our backyard and the one at the Pool...it's a Polar Bear slide and I've deemed her Queen of it...wish I had a picture to share but don't.

and me...well all I seem to do is laundry and clean up the house! So much fun don't ya think? Mom's have all the fun!