Our Summer Bucket List

Our good friends Josh and Jenny Solar of The Happy Family Movement are back for the second year of The Summer Bucket List. This is also our second time around doing the challenge. Last summer, we didn't accomplish as much as we wanted to. BUT our goal this year is to cross off as many items as we can. And we are off to a good start. We've already crossed two items off our list. I'll be blogging the photos and sharing a bit about our adventures.

Here is our 2012 summer bucket list:

Build a sandcastle

Do a geocache

Go to the beach

Slip and slide

Shaving cream slip and slide

Go to a movie

Flashlight tag

House warming BBQ

Backyard camping

Camping with friends

Build fire pit

Ice cream from ice cream truck

Learn to swim

Breakfast for dinner

Find the best chocolate chip cookie recipe

Coffee can homemade ice cream

Eat a whole meal of foods we've never tried

Build a garden

Make some new friends

Go screen free for a whole week

Berry picking

Get sno-cones

Make banana splits

Make your own pizza night

Go to the farmer's market

Go out to dinner to a sit down place as a family

Explore the creek

Catch some tadpoles, toads, frogs

Go seining

Make popsicles

Play mini golf

Play a family football game

Family game night

Buffet night

Go to a drive-in

Go hiking

Summer reading program at the library

Lazy day

Build a kids picnic table

Build a new dining room table and benches with help from everybody

Save for a trampoline

IHF - Pets and The Paper Mama - Furry Friend Challenge

I couldn't pass up the challege this week from i heart faces or The Paper Mama! The photo category on i heart faces this week is "Pets" and The Paper Mama is "Furry Friend" and we have a lot of those. And I work with a lot of those. I work at Kansas City's largest No-Kill Shelter. I love my work.

Meet Ellie aka Ellie Bean! She is our 92 pound, purebred Newfoundland who was rescued from a puppy mill with 1200 other dogs. That is what happens when you live smack dab in the middle of the US. Sadly, Kansas and Missouri are the leaders in the puppy mill industry! Thanks to some heartless people, we are the puppy mill capital of the US. Not really something I'd like us to be known for. Thankfully Missouri passed a Puppy Mill Cruelty Act, but sadly some of the original bill has been changed. For the most part, it will still help the thousands of dogs suffering across Missouri. It's a start. I'll climb down from my soap box now.

Ellie is about the sweetest dog you'll meet. At 3 years old, she sometimes walks with a limp due to her bad environment before she was rescued and no doubt, bad breeding. Even though Newfoundlands were originally bred for water rescue and typically love the water, our Newfie won't go near the pool for a swim. We love her anyway! :) She has the softest fur and a giant neck to wrap your arms around.

Photo Challenge: Friendship

Week after week, I get the i heart faces photo challenge in my inbox. Usually I think, "maybe next time," but this time I decided to go for it.

So here is my friendship submission. This is Hana and her best friend, Waffle, then foster kitty - now forever kitty.

Let's Get This Party Started

I thought this was cute! He is saying, "Let's get this party started!"

I Need to Lose Weight

And I have for a while. My friend, Courtney, is having a contest over on her review blog to win a SlimFast gift pack. (On another note, my husband always teases me about "using the word friend fast and loose" when I refer to my blog friends! Whatever, he is silly!)

I'd love to win, but I know you might too! No matter what happens, I do need to suck it up and finally lose weight. We'd love to add another baby to our family, but in order to do that, I need to lose weight. I'm not sure how it would feel to actually look pregnant and not just fat. You know those cute pregnant woman? I'm not one of them, and I never have been. But that is the goal.

My Top 5 Photos from January - March

I found this blog recently, which I love, and through that one, I found this one, and this one. And I found this cool contest. Here is the actual blog post to add your link to. And I'm always up for winning stuff, and what a fun way to show off my adorable kids, right? Right! :)

One of the first nicer spring days. It doesn't look particularly nice out, but we were out in short sleeves. A much needed warm day after lots of snow. I love Hana's expression while she swings!


This wasn't much of a snowball fight since the snow wouldn't pack. And it was too deep for good sledding. Jonah made the best of it by throwing snow at me!


I love this one of Hana and Jonah. They are best friends when they aren't trying to kill eachother. Anybody else know the feeling?


I love, love, love this one of my hubby snuggling Lucas! He looks completely content while he hugs our little guy!


This is Lucas. We call him The Evil Genius. Doesn't he just look ornery and completely adorable?


I'm linking up to post my quarterly top 5 photos. It was hard to narrow it down to five because I have had lots to choose from lately and a love a bunch. I thought this was a fun way to show off my photography, it is most definitely a work in progress, and to help me improve. Join me!

Come and play along with me...

So I'm joining this contest, and I've never done anything like this. I figured if nothing else, I'll get some blog exposure which will hopefully motivate me to keep it up. AND in addition, I can practice some photography! So if you feel like linking up, do it! :) Fun!!!!