Date night :) :)

David and I enjoyed a wonderful date last night. We haven't been on one since our vacation to Aruba so we were very pleased to finally have a chance for a date. David is having his knee surgery this coming week so the timing couldn't have been any better for us. :) We enjoyed a yummy dinner at Applebee's (his fav), a quick stop at Lowe's (I know not so romantic but not so bad when it's just the two of us), and then we picked up some coffee drinks from McDonald's (we love the coffee's from there and a bit cheaper than Starbucks) and listened to a band playing a bluegrass type music in the park. The best part of the evening was having conversation without kids!! I talked David's ear off but he didn't mind to much. Once we arrived home the sky was so clear and there were so many stars out! Gorgeous!!! A highlight of living in the country in the stars are so clear and so bright! We saw a few shooting stars but then we both looked up and saw the most incredible shooting star. It had a long tail and was amazing.. like nothing we've ever seen before!! I'm so glad I saw that incredible shooting star with my husband! A memorable night with my amazing man! :)

Picnic in the woods :)

The kids have discovered an awesome rock cropping in our woods. They have spent many many hours in the woods over the last few weeks. They are building a cool fort too. Since David has a knee injury the fort won't be to it's full potential until the spring since he can't build it for them right now. Dakota has put scrap wood and used a tarp to build a neat fort right now. :) What fun memories and adventures they'll have in this new discovery place!

Today we finally were able to have a picnic in the woods on there rock fort. It was fun! We brought lunch up in the picnic basket and enjoyed eating on a blanket. I love having fun times like this with my kids and I have to remember to keep taking the time to do special things like this with them because busy times happen to prevent fun picnics in the woods with the kids. Glad we got this picnic in before school starts in just 2 short weeks.

Blueberry picking

My family LOVES blueberries!! A favorite among us all. I was determined to find a place where we could all go and pick blueberries this year (last year we missed it and we missed strawberries this year). I took the kids to a wonderful you-pick farm earlier this summer about an hour away. (Matt's U-Pick in Amanda, Ohio). We had the greatest time and came home with about 24 quarts of blueberries (the kids were a huge help in picking this many berries)! :) We've eaten a lot of them, frozen some of them to use for our favorite whole-wheat oatmeal pancakes, berry cheesecakes, muffins, and any new yummy blueberry recipe that I'd like to try out this year, and I made some delicious homemade blueberry jam. I love to can! Making homemade jam is one of my favorite things to do and I love to hear the "pop" that all of the cans make one by one after they've been taken out of the canner. I tried a new recipe (less sugar blueberry jam) that used juice and honey but I prefer the sugar jam (a lot sweeter). I also made the best blueberry blackberry jam too (Dakota and I picked wild blackberries all over our land (I love that wild blackberries are so abundanct here)... that was a great time spent with Dakota except for the few thorns that dug into my hands). Picking blueberries will now be on our yearly traditions list because that's a memory I want to make every year with my children! :)

*The bushes were covered in bird netting and the kids loved picking the berries from underneath the netting especially Wyatt. :)

Goodbye Chloe :(

Today was a sad day in the McGee household. Our cutie pie miniature schnauzer Chloe died. :( We aren't sure what happened to her but by the time we found her she was struggling for each breath (very sad to witness a dog struggling to breathe). This morning we thought she was just sick but by the time we got home after running errands in town for a few hours we found her on the brink of death. The kids are very upset and sad. They were so sweet and covered her little grave with flowers after we laid her to rest and I said a prayer after we each shared some favorite memories of her. How much fun she was, the time she killed a groundhog (she's little dog but had a big bite), and how Sweetie our beagle will miss her so much too because they were best friends. We all shed tears over her sudden death and she'll be missed! Rest in peace Chloe! We love and miss you so much already!!

(this was the last picture I took of Chloe. She needed groomed so badly but she didn't mind the long hair look and she was one good country dog!!)

Time to get back to my blog....

Oh my goodness my last post was over 4 months ago. Yikes! The summer has flown by and been a busy one for the McGee's. The #1 highlight of the summer was our wonderful vacation to Aruba! I took many many photos (thousands) but the one above is 1 of my favorites ***plus you'll be seeing it again around Christmas time. ;) More about our vacation in future posts but I wanted to get a quick post in while I have a few minutes so that I can get back on the blogging kick. The kids are up from there rest time and naps so until next time keep enjoying your summer!! School for Dakota will be here in just 3 weeks.

A nice ending to a very difficult day!

Today was NOT an easy mommy day! The morning was so hard and the kids were very cranky, arguing constantly, and it was rainy outside. The day really did not get any better and David of course was at the firehouse. All the stress of the day was washed away as the kids prepared for bed. Dakota is sleeping with me tonight and to Emma and Wyatt's delight Dakota is allowing them to sleep in his bed. I decided to snap of few pictures of them as they were looking so cute in his bed. They all got together and gave me these precious smiles!! They can make me batty at times but then there are these moments where I just feel like the most blessed mommy!!!!

(I have not been very good at blogging lately! Dakota is 6. Wyatt is 2. Emma is 4. They just grow up so fast!)

Happy 4th Birthday Emma! =)

Happy 4th birthday to my princess Emma! I can hardly believe 4 years has gone by since she came into our lives. She's such a sweetheart and she's truely one of my best friends. I love spending time with her.

Her morning started off by her daddy bringing her home pink roses. She LOVED them to pieces! She has been saying how much she would love to get roses and today was a perfect day for her to receive them. She had a Strawberry Shortcake Princess party. I made her a strawberry Oreo crust ice cream cake and strawberry cupcakes wtih strawberry icing. We all enjoyed a very yummy brunch... gorilla bread, egg sausage breakfast casserole, banana bread, and Emma's favorite french toast. We played pin the jewel on the princess which was a hoot... all the kids were blindfolded and they had to stick the sticker on the princess. The kids had a blast with the princess crown pinata too. She received many wonderful gifts... dolls being the main thing she was very happy to receive from several guests. She had a wonderful day! I'm so thankful for the 4 wonderful years my Emma has been in my life and another fun birthday party I was able to put together to celebrate her!! =)