Tuesday, July 7, 2009

Two Surprises

The first arrival!!

The big boys' long awaited Dodge Ram Charger.
Robert's parents gave this to the boys for Christmas, and have been getting it road worthy for them. New paint, new tires and all that good stuff. They shipped it up to us this last Friday, and the boys are so excited to be getting it!

Delivered to our driveway, all the way from Florida.


Checking it out.

As usual, the boys wore their best clothes for their pictures.

Note to self: Next time, evaluate the condition of Daniel's t-shirt BEFORE you take his picture.

Note to self: Next time, evaluate the condition of R.G.'s jeans BEFORE you take his picture.


They love it! Thank you, Mamaw and Papaw!



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A Birthday Present For Sam and Joey




A package arrives.
Trying to figure out who it's from.

Wow, is this for us?

Anticipation!


Daddy gets to work.

It's like a water park in your own back yard!
(I sound like a commercial)


They had a great time!

Fun for all the little ones...sorry big boys! Besides, y'all have a brand new truck to drive around in!


Thank you, Grandmama and Granddaddy!


Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Enjoying Life

There's not much rhyme or reason to this post, but I had some good pictures that I wanted to share of us just enjoying life...so here goes!
We have some friends with creekfront property that let us come down and swim. The creek moves enough that you can float down on tubes and then walk back up to go again. It's alot of fun, especially when it's 99 degrees!
The Gold Dust Twins

Dan the Man

R.G. standing straight and tall, as usual.


Mommy and Sammy.


My sweetie.


Matthew the Miserable. He doesn't like swimming in cool water, so he blew up rafts for everyone instead....which made him sick and gave him a headache.


Joey loved that the water was only waist deep.


Well, he was here a minute ago!


Rachel with her deflated float.
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The Dischers sent down some birthday presents, and I thought y'all would like to see the ugly underbelly of the Frodge clan...


Actually, this was a wonderful present. Rachel loves glass dolls!

You can't actually see what Aunt Beth sent Sam, so I'll just fill you in. Sam is holding an electric toothbrush, which he adores. She also sent him some Tom's of Maine natural toothpaste. So, what's the big deal? Well, see that package beside Sam, it's filled with gummy candy shaped like fast food...you know, gummy french fries, gummy hamburgers, gummy coke bottles.
HE LOVED IT.


This one is even funnier. Poor Joey didn't even get a toothbrush, but he did get bubble gum shaped like balogna and hot dogs. (It tasted like bubble gum, not balogna and hot dogs).
You can see from the look on his face that

HE LOVED IT.
I guess the irony of Tom's of Maine natural toothpaste in the same present as junky candy cracked both me and Beth up. Aunt Beth knows that she is the "fun aunt" and I think she works on keeping up her reputation.
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I thought this picture was sweet.

Robert loves to cook breakfast. I love that he loves to cook breakfast.


That's all for today. So long from the Millers!
posted by Mama

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

Exciting Garden Pictures!!!!!!!

Yes, folks, I have some boring garden pictures to show off. I just changed the title so my so-called-friends and family would actually take the time to look at my boring pictures.



Our garden is doing better than we expected. We have very hard clay for soil, and it needs humus added to it to keep it from packing up tight around our little plants' roots. We were able to get cow manure, leaves, and the litter from our chicken pen into three of the gardens, but one of the gardens-- you know, the one way down at the bottom of the hill that no one pays attention to--it didn't get anything, not even one shovelful of manure. It's doing its best in this 97 degree Arkansas summer heat, and we are getting lots of squash and zucchini out of it (I think squash and zucchini would grow on a four lane highway).



The other gardens--you know, the ones that get showered with attention and get weeded, watered, and manured (is that even a word?)--are doing pretty respectably considering this is our first real garden here.



Anyway, we're pretty happy with the results, and we thought we'd share a little bit of our joy with you.





Also, if you persevere to the end, there is a story in pictures of our not-so-little-baby Sam.




I am desperately awaiting home-grown tomatoes!



Our first broccoli head...well not really our first, those were greedily consumed by our rotten chickens.




Some of the "We Grow Anywhere" zucchini





The cabbage heads are huge! We are thrilled with how they're doing and can't wait to make lacto-fermented saurkraut.



This is the (weedy) cabbage patch. We probably have 30-35 heads.



We planted cucumbers soooo late, but they're doing really well.



Our onions. We have red and white.



EVIDENCE. CRIME SCENE. DO NOT CROSS YELLOW TAPE.


The chickens have excellent taste. As soon as a tomato even thinks about turning yellow, they are johnny-on-the-spot pecking away at it.


By the way, the date on my camera is obviously wrong. It was probably 40 degrees on that date.


Jalapenos.

I don't believe my keyboard has the capability to put a tilda above the "n" in jalapenos, so y'all will just have to pretend it's there.



I think this is a poblano pepper.




Unscathed tomatoes.





We had just picked the collards, squash, banana peppers and zucchini and then I remembered to take pictures, so here the left out veggies are.


Also, we just finished picking green beans. They're doing very well, and we are enjoying them immensely!

Sam -- the Sad, Sleepy Boy.


Meet Sam. Sam is sad. He's sad because he has to take a ...shhh... a nap.

Sam tries. He tries hard. He tries oh-so-hard not to take a nap.



Sam is wearing down. He cannot hold on. It is too hard. The pillow is too soft.


Sam has failed. The job was too hard for this little almost-three-year old. He thinks this job is better for Joey.






Meet Sam. Sam had a good nap. He had a good nap and a change of clothes. Life is better when Sam has a nap.

FOR ALL OF US!

Monday, June 15, 2009

More Visitors!

In late April, some of Robert's family came out to Arkansas for the wedding of Robert's cousin. While they were here, we invited them over for a cookout.



Meet The Hosts

The grill king and his wife


Let the bluegrass begin! Meet Robert's cousin, Daniel. He loves playing banjo, but doesn't get to play with others very often.


Meet Robert's son, R.G. Since we moved away from the Country Cousins, he hasn't had much chance to play with others, either.

It was a match made in heaven.


They played....

...and they played...


and they played.
(Matthew looks a little tired of it, don't you think!)

Robert's mom (in a rare moment of silliness) with her sister, Cathy.


Robert's Mom and her brother, Jimmy.



Robert's sister, Tonya, with Rachel.


Enjoying the hamburgers and everything that went with them!


Benny feeding his cousin, Glynna.


The younger folks got kicked outside to the picnic table.



Later, Jason and Ashley and Savannah graced us with their presence!


...and they played.