Summertime

Well, the apple sure doesn't fall far from the tree... seems Karissa has caught Joel's "clumsy" disease... good grief! This happened on Friday afternoon, not too far from our house - thank goodness! Karissa was jumping off a railway tie and her heels caught on the tie and she went face first into the gravel. Poor thing! Her nose got pretty scratched up and she has a nice bump on her head, too. It was not a pretty picture taking her home, let me tell you! I'm sure there were lots of people looking out their windows to see what was going on!
Chloe loves being a "big girl" and going on the swing! She does really well, too - hold on tight!!!
Karissa loves to spin around on the swing. It's her favourite thing right now - she asks me to do it again and again!

My new kitchen window!!! We got new windows for our house on Thursday and Joel has slowly been putting them in. Today he did the kitchen and I am SO excited!!! I can finally open the window because I have a screen! I also have a window sill, which is awesome!!! Hooray for new windows!

Bubble baths, black eyes and storms...

It's been a crazy weekend! Just when you think that you can get all of this work done around the house, Mother Nature decides to step in and put a stop to it! Ah well, we had fun anyhow... Well, Karissa has finally decided that she is not scared of bubbles in her bath anymore... so after 2.5 years, she had her first bubble bath - and therefore, so did Chloe! As you can see, they had a lot of fun!
Karissa liked blowing the bubbles off of her hands. I guess it looks pretty cool!
This is a toy chest that I got at a garage sale not that long ago. I finally moved it from the garage to Karissa's room. It is a great new toy for the girls, and a great new storage thing for the toys!

Karissa was outside "helping" Joel last weekend, and he got a great shot of her in the weeping birch in our front yard.
Ah yes, more war wounds... this was the work of a flying caulking gun. Joel said "Just toss it here!" instead of letting the guy walk around the stuff that was in the way to bring it to Joel. The tube in the gun was full, so the rod out the back was fully extended and that's what hit Joel in the eye. The kicker is, the rod actually bent from hitting Joel's head - that's how hard his head is!!!!
Crazy Sunday rain storm! I think this is the hardest it has ever rained as long as we've lived out here. There was a lot of hail, as well. It started out with just thunder and lightening, then the heavens opened and down came the rain! The pool we have in the backyard for the girls was empty, but after the storm had almost as much water in it as I would fill it for them to play in!
The street in front of our house was a lake! The ditch across the street was overflowing and you couldn't even see part of the road!
I don't think this car realized just how much water there was on the road... oops!

A visit from Bryan and Sam!

Last week Bryan and Sam came to visit! We had a lot of fun with them - even if we didn't do a ton of stuff. Joel had to work a lot, which was such a bummer. But even still, he and Bryan went out to do a bunch of shooting. (gophers mostly, although they did get something pretty cool, which you'll see at the end!) The girls went out for ice cream, of course! For some reason, Karissa doesn't smile for the camera right now - she just makes a cheesy face! What a goof...
Chloe's havin' a great old time on the bench!
I didn't catch this one in time... Karissa actually had Bryan holding the baby on his lap. What a guy!
This game tuckered Bryan right out, but Karissa could have played for hours! He hopped her from one cushion to the next. He had her in stitches! It took Karissa a couple of days to warm up to Bryan, but by the end of the second day she wasn't playing shy at all! He got her all hyped up the one night and that was it! The next morning she basically ran up to him and jumped into his arms :)
The boys were pretty proud of this kill. They were shooting gophers and then saw a badger behind them. Joel wanted me to post the pic. He was very excited about it! (sorry if anyone's really grossed out)
We did go to the water park with Bryan and Sam, too. Of course, I forgot my camera! We also went to the Tunnels in Moose jaw the one night - kid free! What a great evening :) It was so good to have them here...

Making a splash!

We've been spending a ton of time in the backyard lately, which has been so fun! The best part has been the pool, because it's been so hot - and the kids discovered that putting the slide into the pool is a fantastic idea! Chloe tries to climb up by herself, and gets about halfway up till she needs help.
Karissa tries to help... well, she's probably just trying to hurry her along so she can go down the slide :)
Ready to go!

This is my favourite picture! It turned out so good! Karissa could seriously do this for hours on end. She just goes up and down the slide - doesn't seem to matter how cold the water is! And if we happen to be outside and she doesn't have her swimsuit on, she just strips right now to her underwear and away she goes! Crazy kid :)
Hope you're all having a great summer!