sous

so my husband LOVES homemade tortillas. LOVES them.  so now that we've been married almost a decade, i thought i would give them a go:-) turns out they are SUPER easy, especially with my in house sous chef.  so chap and i knead the dough for a while, let it rest, grumpy shots below are the having to wait 15 minutes until we can play with the dough again.  and then voila,  sort of round tortillas and a happy sous. 

stop

this is my favorite little spot on the way to the grocery store. just a little picnic area on the side of 41, but  so beautiful.

first

 loved our first little tball game. hilarious.  kids running the wrong way, playing in the dirt, you name it. love my little texas ranger.  

words

so two things.  rowe's first tball game is tomorrow morning and i can't tell who's the most excited - me, rowe, andy, chap, my mom, my dad.  so an overload of pics will surely follow tomorrow.  rowe got his uniform after practice this week and just kept saying to me throughout the day, 'momma, i'm so happy.' over and over and over again.  so thankful something like tball speaks to his heart.  secondly, last night chap was fussing, so upset and rowe came in and told her,  'you know what my favorite thing in the universe is  - - you.'  i literally started crying. so thankful that He is putting a little bit of tender is this wild child's heart.  so, there's a little rowe update.  here's our sweet next door neighbors having one of their many bonfires in the back yard. 

fav

love this one that my dad took of the punkies.

swamp

so i still can't believe i let mom and dad talk me into this, but somehow i found myself on a swamp walk through fakahatchee strand.  pretty much my worst nightmare incarnate. all said and done, it really was pretty neat though.  it is just so other worldy, so so strange.  one highlight was finding my favorite resurrection fern in this really tight circle.  found some neat orchids which i'm learning a bit about and had a fun time with my adventurous parents. first two pics i stole from dad. thanks, pop:-)

blog

so wanted to give my sister-in-law a shout out. here are some old, sorry b, pics of her kiddos, sweet cousins that they are:-)   she and her husband are considering taking their crew, 4 punk-a-lunks, and moving out of the 'burbs and into the country. she's starting a blog to document their journey. she's a hoot so hope you enjoy.  can't wait to visit ya'll out on the farm, hindes fam :-) so here's her link.

another

just one more seafood festival pic i promise.  this is the kiddo's little everglades city gang taking over the teacups. poor chap and all these boys or maybe poor boys with only 1 chap:-) we'll see soon enough i'm sure

buddies

batman and robin. my goodness.  henry, we are so thankful that God placed you in our lives.  what would batman have done without you. and why yes, those are my old oakley ski googles from 1991 and yes i did just cut out the letter R without even attempting to use the sewing machine, sorry eileen, and yes, that is your leftover yellow polka dot fabric from idaho:-)

festival

so a little late, but better than never,  here's some more pics from the seafood festival.  rowe and chap loved the teacups and spun each other silly. we managed to give our "family shot at the seafood festival" one more shot. 

and a random one of chap that i love. she was riding her own harley. gotta love the seafood festival.  

 

 
and who doesn't love the old fun slide:-)  here are andy and the punkies gettin' ready to ride

family

i think that i have mentioned before that i love bad family pictures.  case in point. these just make me laugh.  thanks for trying, dad.  we had this super cute family pic last year with eileen during the everglade city seafood festival so i had in my mind that this was going to be this great tradition  - a wonderful family pic on the way to festival, every year, everyone excited, a little dressed up where you could really see growth.... and then came this year.  can't blame me for trying. 

bikin'

mom and dad brought down bikes from tennessee for the kiddos and so there has been lots of riding in ole chokoloskee.  rowe is officially off training wheels - big deal around here - and chapin loves to cruise on her princess bike.  here's miss priss