Rosa

Real Men Wear Pink.

Sassy Daughters Wear Pink. And Pink Bows.

Good Daddys Wear Pink, Too.

But Second Graders Stick To Black, Blue, and Red Mostly.

Handsome Devils.

My 2nd Grade Boy!

Slade's 1st day of second grade today! He's in Mrs. Greak's homeroom and has Mrs. Johnson for math and science, which is his teacher from last year that we love-she moved up.

He really has grown in a year. He looks like a big kid now! And he acts so old. He's such a good kid.

Emma and Kaleb came over for our annual in the yard pics. Finley and Emma-can't believe they can start school next year!!!! I cannot even think about that business.

Slade and Kaleb.

We all walked to school this morning. Slade didn't really act like he needed our assistance in any way what so ever, though. He just went into the room like a pro and started to visit and put away his backpack.

Yes, don't even say it-my lips look like a blowfish in this picture. They don't feel giant. I'm really not swollen at all or at least no other body parts-which is great seeing that it has been 100 degrees every day here. I did my glucose test and they called back today and that was fine, but I'm a tad bit anemic. So I just have to take some iron for that. On Wednesday, it will be 8 weeks left. Yay!

So today, I sent my firstborn to second grade. I just can't believe how quickly life passes. When you are a kid, it seems like you spend your whole life wanting to be older. After you become an adult, you spend the rest of you life wanting it to slow down. Your memories become precious. Have a great year, my second grade boy!

Growing Up

When did they get so old?

Apple Pickin'

A few weeks ago we took a trip to the Idalou Apple Orchard. We had never been, even though I've lived here 14 years. It's never too late.

Slade and Finley set out to pick some apples right off the tree. I followed behind. It was hot and I'm pregnant. I followed slowly and sweated a bit.

Finley claimed to be Queen of the Bucket. She likes to be in-charge. Kinda like her mom. She thinks she's in-charge, but I'm the bigger Queen. Don't tell her.

There were beautiful green apples. They were tart. Good for cooking with.

Slade picked.

They hugged and acted like they never fight. I trained them well to pose for the camera.

Finley continued to be Queen of the Bucket. She's very driven.

Slade picked even more. And continues to pick this old shirt to wear, even though it's old and has a hole in it. Comfort means alot to him. And to his mom for that matter. Have you seen my seven year old gown? Pathetic.

We walked down rows and rows.

There were beautiful reddish ones, too.

Slade just couldn't stop picking. He was enthralled with the whole idea that they came straight off the tree, into our bucket, and on our sweet little lips.

Finley picked, too. She left the bucket long enough to pick her favorites. She loved it.

I told them we had to stop. We had lots of apples. We had so many that we had to give them away. White buckets hold A LOT of apples.

Then we went home and made a pie. And muffins. The End.

Ruidoso-4th of July

Seeing that we are going back to Ruidoso again next week, I thought I'd get these posted of our 4th of July trip to the cabins. Lots of Kyle's family goes on the 4th every year. We really missed Ramma-it's not the same without her.

The Brownlow Clan

Finley-3, Tate-5, Slade-7, Jake-1

The infamous sling shot-we broke several and Kyle went back to the store at least twice!!!

Dragon Tattoo!

Just finished this and it was fabulous! There are three in the series and I cannot wait to read the second. All are on the NY Times best seller list and you must get your hands on them if you like thrillers. I will tell you it was a bit hard to get into at first, but after about 40 pages I was hooked and could not stop reading because I had to know what happened. The story is disturbing as the characters uncover the truth, but by then your curiosity is running wild. The author was Swedish, so there are references to landmarks in Stockholm & all over Sweden and vocabulary that was unfamiliar to me but it just didn't matter once you got into the story. Here's more if you want to check it out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Girl_with_the_Dragon_Tattoo
P.S. After using the spellcheck, I just realized that I have been spelling tattoo wrong my whole life-never knew there were 3 t's!?!