Trike A Thon

Last week Ellie participated in the St. Judes Trike A Thon with her preschool class. We (I) set a goal of $35 to be raised so she could get the t-shirt. I sat Ellie down on my lap and we found St. Judes website and I explained to her how this hospital takes care of sick children and uses money to help them. I told her when she did the trike a thon that she was raising money to help those kids and the hospital that takes care of them. We asked our Family and friends to donate and support Ellie and boy did they ever. Ellie raised $175.00 for St. Judes Hospital. After it was over and I asked her if she had fun she told me I loved helping those kids to feel better. What can we do now to help others.
I am so thankful that she has a kind and caring heart (even if she likes to pick on her sister). I am researching more ways Ellie can help St. Judes and other charities in our area. I would love to foster the art of giving in her so she loves it as much as I do.

Finally.....

It has been ordered. Since I heard about the Kindle I have wanted one. Reading is my favorite hobby. I love the way my imagination can paint a picture of what I am reading. It calms me and I often find myself rereading books off the shelf I have read several times because I dont have a new book to read. Well thanks to swagbucks I will now have the capability to read just about any book I want by a quick download and it is much cheaper than buying the book. Plus they have hundreds of free books that can also be downloaded. I went with the $139 Kindle because my Phone can be a Hot spot so I should not need the 3G network on the Kindle, plus if I do go anywhere I can plan on having enough books to keep me busy!

And because I am a girl and I still had left over Amazon gift cards from my swagbucks I bought this too make it prettyAnd this to protect it in my black hole, I mean purse. Arent they pretty. I love the whimiscal patterns. And I cant wait to get it!

After it was all said and done I paid 10.99 for everything. I joined swagbucks in Jan. 2010 and have been using it as my search engine to go to blogger, my emails, facebook, and any other site I deccide to visit daily and randomly I will win swagbucks. As I accumulate the swagbucks I have been redeeming them for Amazon Gift Cards because my heart has been wanting the Kindle so badly. Jess told me I should use them to get something I wanted so I decided to do something for me for once. Well this week I should be receiving my long awaited winnings in the mail! If you have not already you should try swagbucks out. There is no gimic there is no trick. You just use it as your search engine and win randomly. If you refer people you can win up to 1,000 swagbucks along with their winnings and that is how I built up my swagbucks so fast.

I have refered many family and friends who were very hesitant and did not see the point but after trying it out they love it too. My referral link is www.swagbucks.com/refer/sampooh If you are interested you should check it out. I am sure glad I did!

Trike A Thon

Ellie is going to be participating in her preschools Trike A Thone for St Judes. if you would like to donate and help her reach her goal of $35 you may follow the link to her page. She would love to surpass her goal and help kids at St judes. I hope that starting young in charity work will give her a giving heart. :)

Ellie's 1st day of Preschool

Yesterday Ellie started preschool. She is in the Mon & Wed Am class. Both Jayce and Thomas are in her class as well so I am a little nervous that she wont make new friends. I was hoping she could make some girlfriends as well but she is one of 4 girls. :) But nonetheless she should make some great friends (outside of the people we already know)Jess took the day off work and we packed up the van and headed to Tiger Tots. she was more than eager to get there. She found her hook right away and hung up her bag and coat. went it an found her name and put her girl on the train. The picture is of Thomas but you can see Ellies name right next to Jayces.

My big girl walked right to the circle time rug and never looked back. I did get a kiss in and a good luck but Jess did not. We didnt want to push it because she did so good so we just turned around and walked away. This is where I have to admit that although I did not cry I was very nervous. I have never left Ellie (or Hadley) with anyone besides family or very close family friends. We tried to have a baby for so long that I have been so over protective of them. And with a family as big as ours you dont have to rely on outsiders help as much!

I went to pick her up and I was glad to see they were out on the playground. Ellie has been wanting to play there since they put it in. The picture shows her class marching to the gate to go home. She is the 3rd one back. Right by Jayce once again. :)

She came running to me with a big smile on her face. she said she had so much fun! I asked her if she cried and she said she bumped her head once and cried but that was the only time. She made a straw necklace that she gave to me (and then later took back, LOL) and used scissors and cut a picture. She told me they had goldfish whales (I think it is cute that she 1-noticed they were the generic goldfish from walmart that are in the shape of whales and 2-she knew they were supposed to be like goldfish.) and juice.

Although I am a little sad she is growing all too fast I am looking forward to seeing her blossom to a much more independant preschooler. She loves LOVES learning and I just know she is going to love school.

Oklahoma

Jess's football team made the National Championship Game in Oklahoma on July 31st. We packed up the van, picked up Tanner, and headed to Tulsa. The girls did awesome on the 8 hour trip. No crying from either one and Ellie had no accidents!

We arrived in Tulsa about 8 pm and it was 100 degrees! We quickly checked into our hotel which was a very crappy hotel. Our air barely worked and one of our beds was leaning. But we were tired and the rest of the team had yet to arrive.

Although we were hoping for a great game, Jess unfortunately ended his semi pro career the same way he ended his high school career. They lost 52-10. We have met great friends through his days of playin g football and I am so glad he decided to do this but I must admit I am more than happy that this part of our life is over. it took so much time and we had NO time for any family time. He had practice 2-4 days a week and then the games pretty much took up most of the weekends.

I look forward to all the things we will be able to do next summer, including watching the team with him sitting next to me :)

Pictures to come

Shrine Bowl

My brother Louie was selected to play in the Shrine Bowl this year. This is a great honor as it is an all star game for high school senior football players. And becasue he is the "baby" of the family we went all out and made shirts, tailgated and all that goes with it.

I was disappointed that the coach would choose him to be on defense hoping he would intercept the ball and the other team did not pass theentire time louie was in. So he had 3 big hits for losses and then they NEVER ran to his side again. You would think the leading rusher in the state of Iowa in class A would get to play running back but whatever! Even though his team lost we are proud of him.

He is now off to college at Grand View and will play football this fall. I am excited to watch him in a new stage of his life but sad he will no longer be a Madrid Tiger. Words cannot describe how incredibly proud I am of him of him with every accomplishment he has received. And I am looking forward to all of the future accomplishments :)

Happy Late Birthday!

I didnt post then but I want to make sure I document their birthdays.

On July 17 (their actual birthday) we had a big carnival birthday party. We had games set up and had lots of prizes to be won. We rented a cotton candy machine (yummy!) and borrowed a popcorn popper. The kids loved having these treats. (ok mom and dad did too!) Well in true Iowa fashion it was HOT and HUMID! So after lunch we broke out the water toys and cooled off a little. Ellie had a blast and her and Jayce talked about it for days afterward