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Exterminator service?

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There are videos that you take that should not be shared with other people. Especially if they are of your spouse…. and especially if it would appear to other people that you both have been drinking. 
So it might be hard to believe after viewing this little video that we weren’t drinking, in fact we don’t drink at all, it was just well into the early morning and we were ( I can’t believe I am going to admit this….) watching reruns of The Blue Collar Comedy Tour, hence the “hold my beer and watch this.”
You see, right outside our side door is a little closet where we keep our garbage cans, if the door is not shut all the way critters get in and tear the garbage half way to Dallas. So upon hearing something out in the closet we decided to go investigate. 
Also, please pay attention to the protective hand device my husband grabbed on the way out the door….

Yes, that is an oven mitt he is using, and yes, he tried to throw an opossum at me.
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Happy 4th of July!!

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The start of the parade it is only 90 degrees at this point. Gotta love Texas!
This girl can really sell it! She will have twice the candy as the rest of the kids by the time it is done.
Now, this is what you look like at the end of the parade when it is 102 degrees with a heat index of 112 and it is only 10:30am. I think the baby has melted…

Have a safe and Happy 4th!
Love, The Ivanovsky’s

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Season's Over…

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Not only is the baseball season over but it appears that blueberries are done as well. What a sad day. Not enough rain and over picking have ended it early 🙁

Even sadder is the end of baseball season for us. Regular season was done a few weeks ago and all-stars finished last night. Everyday practices are done, every night games are done, and the stress of a double elimination tournament is over. 
I love my little ones getting filthy dirty at games and practices, playing in the dirt, and falling asleep on the way home.

I love my bigger girls making new friends with the other players little sisters, and playing for hours during the summer evenings, outside.
I love watching them help each other, the older ones running the littler ones to the bathroom, and making sure they don’t get too far away.
I love watching them make up new games, like ‘what kind of treasure can I find under the bleachers. ‘
I am sad to see how big they are getting right before my eyes, but how much they are learning watching other kids play and how much better it makes them as ball players.

I love my little boy running and playing with his sisters, and watching his big brother.

I love watching my son get better.
I love watching him get stronger.
I love the handsome coach/score keeper extraordinaire.

I love how hard their team worked.
Congratulations 11 year old major all-stars! You guys are awesome!

See you next fall, I can’t wait!

I had children to keep me humble.

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I have just enough self esteem left to share this story with y’all. Then after this I am done, no one look me in the eye I am just too embarrassed! The thing that I love the most about 3 year olds is their honesty. They don’t lie or beat around the bush, if they have something to say, they say it.

The following is a true story, it happened to me yesterday morning…

Because I am a Mother and have no privacy, as I was getting out of the shower my favorite 3 year old walked into my bathroom. I was drying myself off with a towel when I noticed her staring at me with a questionable look.

“What’s going on Storie?” I asked.

Staring straight at my breasts she says, “why are they so long?”

Speechless, I manage to mumble, “because I am a Mom.”

Without hesitation she replies, “you look like an elephant” and walks away.

So thats it. I look like an elephant and I have long breasts. I wanted to scream down the hall at her…  “yea well, hey there little girl, I just got done nursing for 11 years in a row, sometimes two children at a time and a few of you ungrateful children till you were two!” But I didn’t think she would care. The damage is done, I have no self esteem left!

Does anyone know a good plastic surgeon?

Campin’ in the rain, what a glorious feelin’, just campin’ in the rain!

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We are back, a day early! Your choices are severely limited as to entertaining 9 children, in the mud and rain, and preserving your camping equipment when it has been raining for 12 hours and the forecast calls for 48 more hours of rain.

Thank goodness for DVD’s, SUV’s and Redbox! Back in the olden days my parents would have made us play cards or actual thinking games in the tent while it rained, spending some quality family time fighting and yelling at each other!

I hate to even tell anyone where we went, it was soooo beautiful that I don’t want to advertise for them! I want to keep the place a secret!

They had this beautiful, I mean horrible, spring fed pool. You wouldn’t want to swim there the water is really cold and clear, it would be miserable in the Texas summer!

They have wonderful LARGE campsites, but who likes that? I like to be cramped and camping on my neighbor.

Look at this happy boy… I mean miserable child. What little boy likes to play in the water with sticks?? Keep them at home with video games, don’t bring them here.

I will be honest though… this is the face of a child that is unhappy about not being allowed to go down to the river unsupervised. Horrible parents aren’t we??

Just in case you wondered what you swim in when you forget your swimsuit… here it is, tada, your clothes!

Now, all Mother’s out there can appreciate this one… I sent my husband back to the campsite to do a few things and sent the baby with him.  A COUPLE hours later I could not find him. So I went wandering around the campsite looking for the two of them.

I found this beautiful spot in the butterfly garden, this wind chime is NOT in the foreground, it is directly above the hammock. It must be about 10 feet long, it has the most beautiful sound. I have never seen anything like it. Imagine my surprise when I find this below the wind chime:

My husband and baby asleep in someone else’s hammock! How cute are they though! Yes, the baby did wake up with hammock marks across his face.

This is the large spring fed pool that you wouldn’t want to waste your time visiting… Not very pretty huh? 🙂

The kids under the waterfall that is directly below where we camped. Geeze, this place sucked, gorgeous waterfall and all… you sure wouldn’t want to visit this place. I must have 20 pictures of this pose over the past 11 years, with all the kids on different trips. Paul with the backpack and a sleeping baby. Why don’t they make these things for adults?

Tucker’s nick name is El Tortuga, The Turtle. He puts it on all this baseball stuff. True to his name he spent most of the time catching turtles in the water. It was pretty amazing how he swam up under them and caught them.


Another view of this miserable place… 🙂

My crazy 9 year old daughter flying through the air on the rope swing. Yep, thats her in mid-air!
I wish I had a wide enough angle to capture all 6 asleep on the drive back. But here are 4 of the cutest kids on the planet. Isn’t it fun to be a parent? We wore these kids out!

So this horrible place is called Krause Springs in Spicewood, Texas. I can understand if you want to come out and see how bad it is for yourself, just make sure we have reservations first!

An Ode to Ike and other things!

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A small request… We will be camping a few times this summer and I am having to prepare a menu and do the shopping for an upcoming camping trip, and I am out of ideas for food! Can anyone please leave a comment and suggest what your kids will eat and like while camping? Also, any easy to prepare and inexpensive ideas are welcome!
Aren’t they cute? The little frogs.
Not when they are in your swimming pool…

Our pool has been damaged since hurricane Ike. It has been 8 MONTHS. We are still fighting with our insurance company, and are submitting for the third time three different estimates on repairs for it. I am furious! Not only are we usually swimming by now, but it has become a health and safety hazard. Anybody know a good lawyer?
Miller however is loving “Lake Ivanovsky” behind him. He drinks from the pool all day and eats tadpoles as appetizers. 
I wish you could see Storie’s face, she is the happiest kid alive. This is her favorite thing to do, aside from catching tadpoles.
This is my little house with the lawn grown in from the new sod. It just isn’t the same without my two big trees that we lost. I am going to replant something in the fall. Any suggestions?? I was thinking maybe a red maple.
This is the morning after Ike. I am going to miss all the shade I had in the summer. Trees really are a blessing, they just can’t pop up overnight. They really change the feel of an area, my house seems naked without them.

Any big plans for the holiday weekend??

Guest Blogger, The best Aunt ever ~ Anna Tew!

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So Tiffany is letting me be a guest blogger today… Woooohoo!  In case you couldn’t tell from the title (which I didn’t write, by the way but will totally vouch for), I am by far the coolest, bestest Aunt EVER! And one of the other bestest things about me is that I am totally humble about it. 

 Friday night Jeff and I came over and slept in Tiffany’s play room so we could watch their kids in the morning while they went to the triathlon.  I woke up five minutes later to Miller eating Avery’s tiara.  I took it away, but apparently I wasn’t quick enough as there were little pink feathers all over the room.  At 6 I woke up to Paul yelling at the dog who was trying to escape.  At 6:15 I rustled Emma and Paige out of bed so we could bike over to the park where the tri was taking place.  They were awesome and totally woke up the second I poked them, they had even slept in their clothes they were so excited.  At the tri we got to watch Mom and Dad (aka Tiff and Paul) participate in the whole thing from start to finish.  It was a blast.  The real fun came later when I called Jeff to see how his morning was going.  Apparently Avery woke him and everyone else up because she was screaming at Miller for destroying her tiara.  I don’t know what Miller was thinking…. Anyway, we drug Jeff to the tri and he brought all the other kids.  Wanna know another reason I’m so awesome?  I got the Houston Chronicle photographer to get pictures of Tiffany and Paul crossing the finish line.  Then for some reason, as if this wasn’t enough fun I thought it’d be more fun to just bring the girls over to Grandma and Grandpa’s for the day.  So they came over and helped us paint the front porch, watch TV and scout a place out to go canoeing.  
Grandpa and I hauled the canoe down to the duck pond.  I wish I’d had a camera for Storie’s face.  She was very excited about the idea of going on a boat, and when she saw the canoe it was a look of pure joy-even better than the “Christmas Coke” face.  
Emma was at her softball game and Uncle Jeff went to go and pick her up, so we just had the three littlest ones.  They were hilarious.  Rush had never ridden the tricycle before now, and he was totally infatuated with it.  He was so happy to just sit on it in the grass that we left him there for quite a while.  *Lest y’all think that I left him ALONE on the edge of big pond by himself… he was there with his Grandma… who took pictures.  See, I think of EVERYTHING.*
Meanwhile, Paige, Avery and Storie got to hang out in the canoe.  Paige and Storie were a little iffy with the water-rats, especially after Grandpa told them they ate small kids.  But Avery kept trying to get in the water.  I finally had to just push her in… 
It was hilarious to see Avery in the water.  I can’t even tell you how brave that little girl is, all she wanted to do was jump in the water and swim… do little pirouettes in her life jacket and sing to the “alligator.”  Paige, on the other hand wanted to go in but was scared that she was going to get eaten alive by some sort of lochness monster.  She did get in though and had a great time swimming… after I pushed her… 
When Jeff brought Emma all Storie wanted to do was sit on his shoulders and enjoy watching her sisters.  She loves Uncle Jeffy.   Emma saw Avery in the water and couldn’t get her shoes off fast enough to jump in and swim.  They were hysterical.  I’ll post the video when we get it off the camera.  
I doubt that Rush even realized he was wearing a life jacket, in a boat, surrounded by water.  All he wanted to do was lounge in Paige’s lap.
After the canoeing fiasco Grandma threw the girls in her shower, cleaned them up with clean underwear and some of her shirts.  And then she even let them spend the night.  Lucky girls!  Jeff and I took Rush home cause he puked on Grandma in his sleep… 
So Sunday morning the girls woke up and got to make pancakes, ride bikes and watch a movie.  Could they seriously get any luckier??  
Anyway, sorry this post isn’t as funny as it should be-I’m short on time and I have to rescue Avery’s webkinz.  Miller is eating it.
Love, 
Special Thanks To
Paige, Emma and Avery, who read over my should the whole time
And special thanks to Avery’s request to type in her rap about the pink alligator who wanted to eat her-it was respectfully ignored… 
A Note To Tonia
Sorry I am lame and haven’t babysat your kids a whole weekend! But just know that you get a turn next… but not til we come back from Euuuuurope!!! 

Race Report!

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So I couldn’t actually find a worse picture of us, but I tried!  The race today was great! I wasn’t sure I was going to even make it to the start line, the kids that were sick had gotten better and two more started throwing up last night, and continued all night! We went to bed at midnight and I was up at least 3 times with a sick baby. We had to get up at 5:15am to get to transitionso we could set up our gear.
But once the race started and I was in the water I had a BLAST! I smiled the entire way! Paul cut almost 25min. off his time from last year and unfortunately at this time I am not sure how I did, my number isn’t listed anywhere?? But I know I cut some off also. 

My little bike is the red one… someone else had the same bike a few down and grabbed mine after the swim, realized it wasn’t theirs and put mine back in the wrong spot. Hmm, that bugged!
Thanks to my sister and her hubby for watching the kids! We are off to a softball and baseball game, then onto the best part of the day… The FLEETWOOD MAC concert tonight!!

An Astrolicious birthday surprise!

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We go to a number of Astro’s games during the season, but this one was particularly fun. It was Emma’s and Owen DuBois’ birthday. So Suzanne set up a fun night for the kids.
We got there early for batting practice, and the kids took their places along the foul line in hopes of catching some foul balls. Owen caught a beautiful one right smack in his glove, later that night one of the ushers recognized him as the kid that caught the ball, it was that good of a catch!
Paul played baseball and football in high school with one of the Brewers players, so we said “hi”  to him and he threw us some more balls. No one left empty handed!

But the big surprise was after the 6th inning when they displayed this message across the jumbo screen!
This was Emma and Owen’s reaction!! They thought it was pretty cool!
Have you ever wondered what pure JOY and HAPPINESS looks like?

This is a picture of it.
Early Saturday morning we ran by a garage sale where they had a Astro’s foam finger for $1. I said “No way” and walked on. Storie talked about it all day. When we got to the game that night and Storie saw all the “finger foams” she completely lost it. Storie cried through 7 innings about how she needed a “finger foam”. She gave us many convincing arguments in between bursts of crying why her very happiness hinged on having a “finger foam”. Finally, Paul couldn’t take it anymore and went to find out how much they were…. $9!!! Are you kidding me, and I could have had one for $1 earlier in the day! I said “no way” again. 
By this time the people around us were taking up a collection themselves to buy her one so they could enjoy the last few minutes of the game without her crying.
Paul finally caved into her cuteness and bought the darn “finger foam”. I have to tell you, the pure happiness and joy that child felt almost made it worth it, but now I have visions of a little red sports car in our driveway for her 16th birthday…
She did sleep with it that night and still hasn’t put it down.
All in all a really fun night! Thanks to the DuBois’ for a fun birthday and great night!

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