What a mom won't do for 4H Photography

It is "panic week" at the home, 4H projects due by Tuesday! Last minute color photos being taken and I get picked to be in the shot! The strain on my face shows what I will go through to get a good shot. Love that Tressa, she does a great job...

They really do get along, its a miracle! We did our summer photo shoot last night at the Harlan Church. Wesley and Shannon will be getting married there on July 4th, we look forward to that joyous time. We followed up the photo shoot with a swim at the pond, which we all enjoyed the warm water, while watching Kennedy and Joe jump off the pier! We have wonderful neighbors!!! Still watching our hair making sure it has not turned "blue."

Andon & Pams Wedding

"Honey" and "Sweetie" tied the knot over the weekend! What a beautiful time we had. As you can see the girls looked beautiful (Ash did too) and enjoyed the duties of guestbook and program director. Andon has grown to be such a wonderful guy, with a beautiful wife. We enjoy them so much! We have enjoyed the week after the wedding because Nanny came to stay with Sunny, the dog. We have her over once a night to do our chores. We have also enjoyed our ice coffee trips!

Kennedy turns 8!

Kennedy turned 8 and Dad turned 42! We celebrated for 3 days and recovered on the 4th day. As you can see we enjoyed Aunt Lisas birthday glasses. We also celebrated at Chuckie Cheese on the 15th with Raina and Lili Ann. Ryley and Tressa joined also and loved singing with Chuckie. Kennedy rounded out the night by staying all night with Grandma and Papa Janes which is her favorite thing to do. Kennedy had a great time all around and wants to go back to Chuckies soon. A big thank you to our family in giving her money to continue horse riding lessons. She is enjoying it so much and looks forward to seeing Shay every week.

Tomorrow is the last day of school for the girls, time flys by! Kennedy will be in 2nd grade and Tressa in 7th! Just a year ago I started the blog and I can't keep up like I want to, but I hope the girls will look back on it and enjoy our times together.

Kennedy starts horse riding lessons

Kennedy has started horse riding lessons and she loves it. She is only the second student to walk under the horse! Hey, they don't scare me! This is Shay the horse that she is riding and he is 17 years old. Before Shay "retired" he was an indurance racer and has traveled all over the world to race. Her favorite part was trotting, "her hinney went up and down." She did a great job riding and cleaning Shay after the session. After we were done Shay was rewarded with an apple along with her friends. After the lesson we traveled back to school to see her art project in the County Art Fair, she did a lovely painting made by dipping the paint in balloons. Busy day, but so worth it!

Aunt Mary turns 100!

Just returned from South Dakota to celebrate Great Aunt Marys 100th Birthday. As soon as I can get Lisa to download pictures I will add them. She is in great shape physically and mentally. She was a school teacher and started teaching at the Cates school which was on my Great Grandparents (James and Leah Cates) farm that was on the Missouri River south of Jefferson. This one room school house was also the school that my Grandpa Lilly taught and eventually met my Grandma Lilly (Thressa) Marys sister. The rest is history as they say. The weather was not great, but the good Lord brought us home.

Recently went to the Woodhouse Spa in Fort Wayne with Mody. Loved it! We had a great time being pampered, relaxing, laughing and reminiscing. I love the pictures!

Once again the Janes family is getting ready for 4H. Chris has the master plan in place for the pig pens this year and we will also be adding Gavin Mengs pigs to our herd. Everyone is excited and can't wait for the pigs to arrive. Tressa is also starting soccer this week which she loves! The weather is very cold so we hope it improves over the next few days or I will be watching from the car. Kennedy is enjoying school and is averaging 21 books per month that she has passed. We have seen great improvement over the year.

Pam and Andon have become homeowners just 20 minutes from our house. Beautiful home with acreage for the cows. It is nice having both boys the same distance away. Andon and Pam are preparing for the wedding on June 13th and then we get ready for Wes and Shannons wedding on July 4th! Oh, forgot to mention that Chris and I won the biggest loser contest! It was a great start for us and we home to maintain the weight loss.

Fun Winter Activities

During our recent snowfall Wes and Shannon brought over their snowmobiles and let the girls, Mom and Dad have fun. They loved it as you can see! I have said it before, but will say it again we do have the best neighbors! God has blessed us by putting us here and it takes a lot for me to say that. It was a tough transition, but worth it in the end. Once again Chris was right, but don't let him know that.

Still Winter...

Chris and I did get to escape for 5 days to St Thomas Island. Warm weather, beautiful view and crazy traffic! Lots of Iguanas running around too. The girls enjoyed time with Nanny for 4 days and Grandma and Grandpa 3 days. We were fortunate enought to be spared by Nort and his pranks (this time). Regarding the "Biggest Loser" game so far team "Heart Pants" is in the lead, with team "Zumba" in a close second. With 2 weeks to go we will see who wins. I am very proud of Chris he is doing a great job and is the only reason we have the lead!

Winter Snow

We are into our second day of "no school" due to the 10 inches of recent snow. The girls are thrilled to be out and playing in the drifts. Shannon and Wes drove over with their snowmobiles tonight which everyone loved taking turns to ride. We are very fortunate to have such great neighbors to plow us out and help us enjoy these snowed in days.

The Biggest Loser on 900 N competition is on and the Janes Family is in the lead after the first weigh in . I am reminded by my husband that this is a marathon not a sprint. We will see, but Nort is a great competitor and could take us down at anytime.

We will celebrate Papas's 70th birthday this weekend and we look forward to being with family and enjoying a good meal.

Christmas 2008

There wasn't any snow, but we were able to travel safely. The big toys from Santa were the Pet Shop for K and Spiderwick books for T. Mom received a suitcase and Dad a gun. He is getting ready for New Year of "Change."

Above is a picture of Nanny with the grandkids and Aunt Lisa peeking in. We had a great day of visiting family and it was nice to have Aunt Julie back after 6 years away.

This was the Christmas season of sightseeing. Kennedy had her picture taken with 3 different Santas, we went to the State Museum with Grandpa K, downtown on the circle with the Stumps and Wilsons, Disney on Ice with Lili and Shawna, Children Museum with K's first grade class and a quick trip home to renew a holiday tradition of helping Mody decorate cookies. It was a busy month, but I hope we can do it again next year. May God Bless all of you in the upcoming year!

The girls with their new PJ's

Family Vacation

Just after my last entry we left for Florida for 6 days. We had a great time, even though the weather was not too good. Thanks to Jane and Bill we were ablet to stay on the beach at Cocoa Beach, which the girls thought was the best thing about trip, besides the pool. The weather was in the record lows the first few days, so we kept busy by going to the Kennedy Space Center and Disney. By the time we were done sight seeing the weather warmed up and we were able to spend time at the pool and beach.

The Kennedy Space Center was great! We learned a lot and Kennedy kept asking everyone why they named it after her? Tressa took lots of pictures and was amazed at how tall the space rockets actually are.

It was a great day to go to Disney, not too cold or hot. Kennedy wanted to see Cinderella as soon as we got there and we were able to see her which thrilled K. She was so nervous standing in line as she watched the other kids greet Cinderella, Belle and Sleeping Beauty. Her greeting was a bow to each princess, which is now the greeting to everyone. Tressa was happy to go on Space Mountain twice and any other roller coaster. By the end of the day we were tired and ready to head back to the condo. My favorite part of the trip was having a van again! The whole trip was perfect every thing went right and both flights were great. This was the first plane trip for K and she did excellent.

Fall Photos

Fall is my favorite time of year. I love the cool weather, football games (Boiler Up! Ball U), changing color of the leaves, harvest time, driving home to Manchester and listening to Van Morrison, Back on Top (best fall songs) with a Starbucks in my hand. Here are some of our favorite fall photos for 2008! (In case you did not know, double click on the pictures and it enlarges them).

Midnight and Kennedy

Tressa took this picture today, great job! This may be our Salon 4H entry. He sure does love her and she loves playing with him! The days are getting colder, but this does not stop her from being outside and singing to him.

Its Halloween!

The "Dice and Princess" had a great time making the rounds on 900 N, you would have thought we had been to 20 houses instead of 4 with all of the candy, cookies, carmel apples, socks, pencils, towels...the list goes on. Thanks neighbors, we will send them your way when the sugar high becomes too much for us to handle. We also took some Halloween photos at Jefferson Pointe...

When can I get my ears pierced?

For a very long time Tressa has been asking to get her ears pierced and since I was 12 when I had my ears pierced, I thought she could wait until she was 12. Here we are just a couple of weeks away and I gave in. As her Dad and I know that since a very young age, T-Bird has been terrible about taking medicine and just 2 weeks ago she had to take eye drops for pink eye and it was an ordeal! So it was no surprise that when it actually came down to getting it done we had melt down...with a 10 minute coaxing we got it done and she looks beautiful, but I still had to throw in the picture of the tears and squeezing of moms hand. We had driven to Ft Wayne so Nanny and Aunt Lisa could be apart of this momentous occasion. Meanwhile as all of this was going on, Kennedy could care less as she was trying on the Halloween hats. It was a great day!

Silly games!

Why not try Sumo Wrestling? The girls thought this would be a fun game to play and they enjoyed bouncing off each other. Fancy and I thought they had lost their mind, but we enjoyed the laughter. Thanks girls for the silly antics.

Nanny has a birthday

Over the weekend Nanny had a birthday and Lisa and I kept her busy! She celebrated her 71st birthday on Friday the 26th, with Lisa and I by having lunch at the Scholar Inn (great food and atmosphere) and then to the Butler Victorian House for a tour. Beautiful home right by I 65, the neighborhood has changed a little since it was built in the mid 1800's. Next we were off to tour Crown Hill, one of our favorite activities to do, visit old cemeteries. I have a great picture of Nanny by the Thomas Marshall mosoleum. After pizza and a mean game of scrabble with Ashton (Nanny won), we went to the Casino in Anderson. Nanny and Lisa were the big winners! After another game of scrabble we went to bed!

The next day the girls and I took Nanny to the Huddleston Farm, with scenic drives down US 40 and the back roads of New Castle. May Nanny have many more bithdays and may we be able to enjoy them with her!

I am a good reader!

This past week has been just the girls and me and this picture shows how tired I can be by the end of the day. We read to Kennedy every night and she loves it. On Tuesday she wanted to read to me. Biscuit was the book and she read all of it with help on only 3 words. If you know Kennedy you know what an accomplishment this is! She would stop and tell me "I am a good reader!" Yes you are sis and we could not be prouder! Another accomplishment this week was the tying of shoes (I mean really tying them)! A big thank you to her teacher for the extra help.

Where was Tressa? No not on the couch with a snack in her hand, no not on the mule, no not on the computer...alas she was in her room catching up on "Americas Got Talent." She loves the show and is pulling for the 4 year old to win. Tressa loves for us to read to her to and right now we are reading "The Cat Ate My Gymshorts." It was written in 1974, and I was telling Tressa how there are some simalarities to me, I too was a Blimp at that age and my best friend was the Beauty. I wasn't too crazy about gym, mainly because I never could climb that rope and touch the ceiling, cheaters! I chewed my nails too and still do, but I am getting better. I may have been the Blimp, but I look better in the long run (although this picture does not show it) and I still have that best friend and she still is a beauty and always will be in more ways then one.

Labor Day Weekend

We had a great Holiday weekend and the weather was great too. On Saturday we went over towards Cambridge City to tour the Huddleston Farm Museum. In the 1800's John Huddleston and his family took advantage of the National Road (now U.S. 40) traffic and started an Inn/Tavern. The farmhouse was built specifically for this business and he was not only an entrepreneur in this but in farming as well. They had 12 children and other family members who had moved from North Carolina to help with the farm and business. We left there and tried to see the Farmers Pike Festival, that is east of New Castle (just follow the garage sales on St Rd 38). All of the traffic caused us to detour and head back home. I want to see the birthplace of Wilbur Wright which is just north of there, maybe next time.

Chris and the girls took advantage of the weather and went fishing down the road, as you can see Tressa caught the first fish!

Kennedy spent the night with Grandma and Papa on Saturday which she loves to do! It is a new adventure to play with Grandma's toys, help with the chickens and playing with Oscar and Snowy. Aunt Julie arrived from Colorado on Monday, we are glad to have her home and wish her the best as she prepares for this new adventure.

summer days

We are trying to get used to the schedule of homework and after school activites. It has been a hectic week, but the kids are glad to be back in school. Chris has been traveling for the past two weeks. Last week he was in Spokane,WA where he toured many farms one of them being the largest rhubarb farm in the world. A total of 51 acres! My Granny Messmore was the best rhubarb pie cook! I have never had another pie like hers. In my memory she had rhubarb growing down by the hitch post and I would go out and tear off a piece and eat it raw. If I wanted a pie she would send me off to go gather some down by the barn. Loved the stuff and still do. Her farm was the best place for a kid to play, it had a big brick house with barns, horses, pond and creek.

We took Midnight and his buddy Jack for a walk the other night so I thought I would throw in a picture of how special evenings can be.