Belle and her tennis balls

Belle is staying with us this week while my Mom and Don are in Canada.  She is such a good dog, the only time she's been in trouble so far is when she ate my chicken burrito (paper and all) off the coffee table.  Yes, she likes her food.  And garbage.  But she'll stay with you in the yard, and loves to be outside with you...she'll follow you all over the place.  She's a sweetie too, she loves when I get in her face and kiss her...she'd like to be in your face at all times LOL. 
Tonight she was playing with a ball (ha) and it went under the fence.  She sat at that spot for a good 15 minutes trying to figure out how to get that ball.  I finally stuck a big stick under there and knocked it back so I could grab it.  Sissy saves the day :).

And one of Lucy, because she's so cute <3

Tim the turtle and cheerleading

This is a video of the girls cheering....it's cute!  Grace is the one in the middle...her friend Mary is on her left and friend Zoey is on the right end. 

The neighbors found a turtle in our yard, and the kids all named him Tim.  He was pretty good sized...maybe 8 inches long.  I think he was a Western Painted Turtle.  We kept him in a bin for a couple days, then let him go in the canal. 

Tuesday Grandma and Don came through and stayed with us for a few days on their way up to Canada.  We had a lot of fun!  We went to Grace's cheerleading practice, Grandma did lots of my laundry for me :), Don and Rich did a couple projects, and we went to some garage sales.  We are keeping Belle for them while they are gone...she blends right in with our dogs!  They'll be back through on Thursday to pick her up and catch Matt's tennis match.  Speaking of tennis, Matt won his first match!  He and his teammate Scott won 2 doubles matches in a tournament in Fargo.  Very exciting...and thanks to Uncle Joel for the sideline coaching and cheering on!
Today was Grace's first official cheerleading game.  She's cheering for the Bismarck Midget football league.  It was really cute!

Labor Day in Daglum

The kids and I spent Labor Day at Grandpa's over in Daglum with Joel & Heidi and the boys.  We watched the Iowa game, redecorated Grandpa's house, went to church, went to Wal-Mart a couple of times, took Matt driving to practice for his permit, and spent lots of time exploring.  The weather was perfect and the kids had a great time!  A few pics:

Entryway makeover

I think our entryway is finally done!  New paint, new laminate floor, new decorations and new hall tree.  Yay!
Before:

Newly painted.  Old floor removed, moisture coming in under door :S.  Got that all caulked and dried up...storm door ordered.

New laminate in!

And after:

First day of school

Yesterday (the 25th) was the first day of school for Matt, Ben and Grace.  B & G were really excited, they met their teachers early and they both really like them.  Matt was stressed out to start 9th grade, but he found lots of his friends in his classes and seems to like his teachers, so I think he'll do fine.  Tennis started up again for him...tonight they played Williston.  The days get pretty long for him between school and tennis.  He's happy todays Friday :)). 

The monkeys in the tree

We took a family zoo trip the day before we left for Iowa, and got a good shot of the weird monkeys in the big tree.  Crazy, crazy monkeys.

Tyler goes to college

We took a trip down to Iowa last week to take Tyler to college.  How is that possible?!  He was just born, right?  He was super excited to finally get there and get classes started.  He likes his classes so far, so that's good.  His roommate is from China, so I think he was a little bit apprehensive about that at first (the language barrier), but they have gotten along great so far!  He speaks pretty good English and he has the same major as Tyler (political science), so I'm sure they'll have some classes together next semester.  Tyler's girlfriend Rachel is at Iowa, as well as some of his Ankeny friends, so I know he'll fit right in.                                                            

                                           Tyler and Rachel  in Tyler's dorm room

                                            



Tyler's dorm room door.

Rachel, Xu, and Tyler :)