saying goodbye

today we had to say goodbye to our dog sydney. :( we'll miss her!
she was a part of the family for 11 years. a big, smelly, dirty, rotten, annoying part, but a part nonetheless.

Allen kayaking in the pool at The Adventure Summit

Allen and Doug Jackson represented Extreme Grace in the kayaking competition at the Adventure Summit at Wright State. The kids and I had a blast watching and cheering them on!

updated purse pics

i just realized the pics on my make-it-mine photo purse were from easter, and it's almost easter again, so i had to change them! i cropped some ploppers down to 5x7 and now have a new purse, kinda! new pics at least! (yes, there's an 8x10 size too, i just never can fill even my small one!)
i love being able to show pics of my kids without opening my purse! AND telling people what i do for a living. well trying to tell them, they usually don't get it, but they always think it's really neat. :)
now let's just see if i can update my pics before next february!!
here are the original pagess i cropped down to fit my 5x7 purse! and i'll still do the full 12x12 sized pages for my album too!

Forgotten Photo Friday

it's forgotten photo friday on my friend liz mccoy's blog, so i thought i'd play along. my (rotten) cousin michelle posted this old photo of us. check out the big hair, boy were we stylin'!!! :) cool chicks with big hair in our lettermen jackets. *blush*

happy 9th birthday josh!

today is josh's birthday! he's the big 9! lizzy was sad that her month and a half of being the oldest was over. (they still don't understand that she's always older, but then it *is* confusing being that close in age!) but josh was very excited and ready to celebrate. we took cookies into his class, then had a fun party here. the trick candles got him again! (see the pic!) he was very surprised when he saw his new skateboard. it's sic! (really, it says so right on it). :)

when life throws branches at you, make a teepee!

we had a heckuva windstorm here (yet again, seems to happen often). check out the branch beside the pine tree, it's sticking into the ground. we're just glad it wasn't the roof (or a kid)! lots of branches were lost, but no worries, we have plenty where those came from. :)
but i loved what the kids did with some of the branches. they made a great teepee! lundys are good at taking what life throws at them and saying thanks, this is fun! :)

enjoying the everglades and alligators!

on our trip to florida, since we were freezing and had planned to warm up, we drove to the very bottom of florida, and it did get up to 70° one day. not the heat we'd hoped for, but we took it! we explored the everglades, one of allen's favorite places, because it's beautiful, uninhabited, and untouched, well that and all the alligators! the kids LOVED finding them and getting up close.

the second day we took canoes out a few miles into the everglades and explored in peace and quiet (well, except for the kids!) and it was so much fun. the trip started a little unnerving for josh when an alligator ducked under their canoe, but he relaxed when he realized it wasn't hungry and the kids loved every minute of it. allen, josh, and lizzy even saw a manatee! we got up close to some american crocs too (they're more scary than alligators if you were wondering!)
then we went to the everglades alligator farm and saw animals, watched shows, and took an airboat ride. it was a really impressive place! all three kids volunteered for anything anyone asked (of course) and lizzy got to feed fish to alligators and josh got to pull out a snake. all 3 got to hold a snake (and mommy was happy to just stand back and take pics). airboat rides are always fun and we all got a bit wet from turns and spins, especially the kids as they saw up front, and we spotted lots of gators too.
then we headed back to the grands and the colder weather in northern florida!