Back to School--Aug 2014

We have had an exciting August!

Our foreign exchange student arrived at the beginning of the month. She will be here for the school year.  She is a perfect fit for our family.  She has red hair and likes music. :)

Ryan, Meg and Yuliya--DM airport Aug 2014

You can tell by this picture that she fits right in with the Carson kids...

I'm calling her my long lost daughter.   :)

We have had fun showing her what life in Iowa is like. We have taken her to the Iowa State Fair and our favorite restaurants. We like sharing our favorite movies with her as well. 

But then school started and schedules filled up for the three high school kids:

First day of school--Aug 2014
Yuliya 10th grade, Meg 9th grade, Ryan 10th grade

The are all in marching band...

Yuliya is in volleyball as well, so her schedule is pretty full.

These two kids are at Iowa State University. Its fun to have them on the same campus this year.
(Ellyn transferred to ISU over the summer after spending her freshman year at University of Iowa.)

First day of classes for the Cyclones!  Aug 2014

I'm keeping busy feeding people...

Hope you've enjoyed August--its almost over!!!

Wait...it's December? What happened in November?

I did not write ONE blog post in November. :(
It was a full month.
How about a summary of November in one post...


The girls and I started November off right with a night out with friends to see Wicked.
It was my third time to see it and the second time for the girls, and we all loved every minute of it!
It just never gets old.

On the tenth, we celebrated the birthday of my oldest son. He turned 21 and is OFFICIALLY an adult.
(I know this because he recently asked for underwear and socks for Christmas.)
This picture was taken on his birthday. He's a great big brother--you can tell his sisters adore him. :)

Happy 21st birthday, Brandon!

Deer season is a big part of November if you're a hunter. Brandon took Meg to Missouri for deer season, and she killed her first buck. You can tell by her expression that it was pretty exciting. The weather was frigid, so I'm glad the thrill of the kill distracted her from the cold.

Nov. 24, 2013 -- Meg's first buck

I love having my oldest and youngest making memories together!

The rest of the family joined them in Missouri for Thanksgiving meals with all the extended family. It was nice to hang out with everyone and have some extra time with Ellyn, who had a week off from school.

The dogs thought it was nice to see Ellyn too...

In preparation for Christmas decorating, my mom and I went out on Thanksgiving day and cut some fresh cedar. It was a crisp, sunny day and the smell of the cut cedar was so fresh!

Thanksgiving Day -- Nov 28, 2013

Ellyn, Meg, myself, my mom

We headed back to Iowa for the remainder of Thanksgiving weekend and managed to take in a movie as a family. We went to see Hunger Games: Catching Fire.  

Much of the month of November was spent decorating my house for Christmas. Our home was part of a Christmas tour of homes in our little town, sponsored as a fund raiser for our local food and clothing pantries.

I will be posting pictures of my house decked out for Christmas very soon. I thought life would really settle down once the tour was over, but it hasn't at all! Besides the usual December hustle and bustle, Meg was diagnosed with mono and needs some extra time and attention when she's not sleeping.

Friday Five

1. A friend shared all of these huge, beautiful tomatoes. Meg and I are thrilled to have so many to use in salsa. We made some fresh salsa with the tomatoes from her little garden but plan on canning a batch using these.

2. Ryan got his school permit and drove himself to school every day this week. I am glad the school is so close, so I don't have to worry about his safety. He enjoys leaving for school when he wants, rather than waiting on everyone else to get ready.

2. Meg is a manger for the eighth grade football team. They had their first game this week. Brandon was hired as one of the referees. It was a little odd to watch a game that none of my kids were playing in. I was still entertained watching them do their jobs.

3. Ellyn is getting settled into college life. I love to hear from her and get random picture texts like this one fairly frequently:

4. I hatched my first swallowtail butterflies this summer. They are much different than monarchs, but some things about them are much the same. They have a very short life cycle like the monarch, which makes it so fun to bring them inside to observe. It is always a relief when the caterpillars get done eating and make their chrysalis. They eat a lot by the time they are this size:

Hello world...
(note the green and yellow chrysalis at the bottom of this photo)

5.  Now that school has provided some structure and routine to my days, I have been walking with a friend at a nearby county forest preserve. I don't know who enjoys it more, Mandie or myself. We had some super hot weather to walk in, but today cooled off and felt like fall. I am excited for cooler weather.

Hope you have a great weekend! It is going to be fall-like here in central Iowa!

My baby is THIRTEEN!

This girl turned thirteen in June...

I can't resist posting a few of my favorite pictures of her.

And a favorite story from when she was four years old...

Meggan was outside playing with a neighbor girl. A while later, when we were all inside except Meggan, I asked if anyone knew where she was. No one had seen her for a while and the neighbor girl was back at home and didn't know where Meggan had gone. We started searching the house and the yard. I was starting to get concerned since five of us hadn't found her yet. (We had probably been looking 5-10 minutes.)  I decided to check the playhouse for a second time and climbed the ladder to check the loft. There was Meggan, sound asleep. She hadn't heard anyone calling her name and was snoozing away in dreamland. :)

March 2005
Meg age 4

And a brand new picture of the beautiful teenager:

Friday Five--November news

1. A few weekends ago Brandon, Ryan and Meggan went to Missouri for youth deer season. Ryan and Meg were hunting for the first time, and Ryan killed a doe. It was fun to get to see a picture of the boys together with Ryan's first deer shortly after it was killed. (We weren't in the same state--love phone cameras and texting!)

Earlier this week, Meggan had a chance to get her deer--with Brandon again. He is earning major big brother brownie points!

2. A couple of weeks ago, we went to Ellyn's senior football banquet. She is sad to say goodbye to Ballard football. She has made so many great memories working on the sidelines as a manager and cheering from the stands with friends.

Then & Now (first game 7th grade and  last game 12th grade)

3. Ryan made honor band and recently had the performance. It was a great concert of 7th and 8th graders. He spent a lot of time preparing for the audition and learning the music. We're really proud of him for putting in the time it required. (Shame on me for not taking my camera!)

4. We have had several evenings this month to take care of our native friends while their mom worked.
This little girl just couldn't stay awake any longer...

5.  We had the last of the 4 fall birthdays--Brandon turned 20. It's a busy time of year with four birthdays within 3 weeks, but it's fun to combine celebrations. We took him to Hickory Park for the traditional bbq/ice cream family meal and bought him a tool box for his truck. We spent part of his birthday weekend doing fall clean-up in the garden, yard, and garage--so nice that he never minds helping outside with yard work.

Now that Thanksgiving has passed, I am actually looking forward to dragging out the Christmas decorations this weekend--I've been ready to start for a couple of weeks. I can finally play my Christmas music without being hassled...then again, probably not.
Enjoy your weekend!

Wordless Wednesday

2007

Randomness from the past week...

Praying mantis in the driveway...coolest insect ever:

It was so great (NOT) to find this truck and the parking "situation" it created when I came out of the grocery store. I was thinking about some really awful things I wanted to do to this person and the truck as I got in the passenger side and crawled through to my driver's seat. I'm over it now.

Rainbow of corduroy at Target...happy:

I fell in love with this pillow and can't wait to try to sew one at craft day.  (I need to confess that it gave me the urge to re-do my entire bedroom. I'm trying to suppress the urge.)

I have a helper hanging out with me today.
You can probably tell by her big smile that she likes to help do laundry:

Retro Light-Bright...yay!

Meg is getting pretty good with her bow...and hunting season is just around the corner:

I LOVED finding these darlings on my computer today, taken by one of Ellyn's friends:

Compare to these two pics taken one year ago. Ryan has changed sooooo much:

End-of-Summer Fun

We've done our best to squeeze in lots of fun in the last days before the start of school.

We made a trip to the farmers market in Des Moines.
(We're planning on a couple more trips during the fall.)

Each of the girls had a slip 'n' slide party, using a big roll of plastic and dish soap. We heard lots of squeals, screams, shrieks, giggles, and laughs. Ellyn's had her party after dark, so the whole neighborhood probably heard them!
These are pictures from Meg's party:

We made another trip to Missouri and had a fun time getting dirty with the relatives.
I will post more about this soon. (It was an adventure to see an eagle nest.)

We went to the Iowa State Fair for some fun and food. It was a beautiful evening with no lines.

Ellyn always gets a turkey leg:

This gathering of people, black suburbans, and fancy tour busses is due to a "surprise" visit from President Obama to the Iowa State Fair. Apparently he shook some hands, ate a pork chop on a stick and drank a beer. Ellyn (who was on Byron's back) and Byron saw him wave and get on the bus to depart.

Ellyn and friends saw "The Band Perry" at the grandstand:

And then school started! They have two days under their belts and its going well.