Bumpus' hounds

Well, I sometimes refer to our three dogs as Bumpus' hounds (A Christmas Story movie reference). Those of you that know us, most definately know all of our animal sagas. Here are a few pics of our lovelies...Syd is now 8 and is the Matriarch of our pack. She is quietly annoyed by most things including our schedule that does not revolve around her. She has an internal alarm clock at 5 am which alerts us to her feeding and is unrelenting until her hunger is satisfied. Bailey is 4 and is the martyr of the bunch. If either of the other two are in trouble, Bailey takes on the guilt for her own. Zoey is our newest addition. She is a 5 year old Golden who is soon to be Therapy Dog extrordiaire. She has a very sweet personality, but a keen appetitie for cats (much to the shegrin of our kitty, Hot Chocolate). As you can tell, by the pics, though, she is learning to deal with this adorable little calico.

Raegan's 2nd birthday

Well, our sweet baby Rae has turned two, with all of its splendor. The terrible two's came in like a lion, and probably won't go out like a lamb. She decided on the Dora the Explorer cake, after much contemplation and opted for a laid back affair with family. She was thrilled by her new tricycle and pluto remote control puppy. Since then, her new hobbies include expressing her most violent opinion to everyone (including the dogs and kitten), throwing herself on the ground and opting to be the pickiest eater this side of the Mississippi (although Peter's mom would beg to differ i.e. oatmeal incident when Peter was 2). Truly and honestly, she is a joy and blessing in our lives and a refreshing break at times from our Drama queen (Taylor) and little miss Spoiled britches (Sarabeth_

Taylor's Big Day

Well, the day that daddy and I have been anticipating and dreading for the last 5 years, 2 months and 26 days has finally arrived. Our precious baby Taylor started to Kindergarten on August 19, 2008. She was ready, (4'Oclock in the morning ready, as to not miss the bus) and we were not! She troded off into the future whether we were ready or not! Upon her return home, her only report is that Mrs. Schippers is really pretty and that she was "Absolutely exhausted." There are 16 kids in her class at Twin Cedars Elementary school and she seems to be fully adjusted. She is hoping to be the "best rester" soon and get to rest in the tent, however hasn't attained that goal yet, much to her shagrin. She is learning about the word "syllable" and how correctly form her numbers. She was excited to report that the class pet, a hamster named Angel "wasn't lazy today". More to come...I'm sure.

2008 Iowa State Fair

TAY-RAE-SAY

Needles to say, I'm very proud of our 3 beautiful girls! Taylor, 5; Raegan, 23mo; Sarah Beth, 8mo. As a dad, I love watching them interact. here are several pictures of them playing on the floor. We had fun laughing and taking pictures...you can see that Sarah only lasted so long!

Taylor will start kindergarten in 3 weeks and is very excited. She loves to tell people that she is 5. Answering the phone is her new favorite thing. If you call and she answers and says..."can you hang on a second?....ok, I'm back"...she really is just making you wait for no apparent reason other than to feel important.

Raegan will try to climb anything and everything. We are proud to announce she has been pacifier free for over 2 weeks. Since loosing the passy, she now is talking more than ever....and not the kind of talking that only Mom can understand. I will say, I believe pacifiers are laced with nicotine. The other day Kelly saw Raegan go into the bathroom, shut the door and shut the light off. Clearly something was up...and we now have all of the nail polish hidden. When Kelly opened the door, Raegan was sitting in the corner with....yes she had a relapse...she had a pacifier in her mouth.

Raegan's new thing is to have Zoey by her side at night. So much for keeping the dogs out at night!

Sarah Beth is growing everyday! You can see a photo of her sitting up. She now gets into the crawl position and lunges. She really doesn't crawl but has an amazing reach and seems to get whatever she wants. With two big sisters that dote over her...that seems to be pretty common (her getting what she wants). Her nick name is Princess and the Pea. She loves her sisters - Raegan and Taylor make her laugh all the time...except when they hold her down for a photo.

Super Sized Slip-n-Slide

This 90 ft stretch of plastic, water, and plenty of joy soap is not for the faint of heart! After some brief research I'm sad to say that this is only 1/6th of the worlds largest recorded slip-n-slide, but I would have to say this was probably the biggest in Iowa, well at least Marion County....OK so, let's just say I'm confident none of the other 476 residents of Tracy, Iowa have ever had a slip-n-slide of this magnitude in their back yard!

As the main feature for our 20's and 30's group's inaugural party (from Liberty Evangelical Free Church)...you could say this was our attempt to stay young. Well, needless to say the aches and pains of Monday morning were there to remind us...we're really not. After two nights of ibuprofen I can tell you...I'm still sore. In the words of Drew Nelson..."you know it's bad when it hurts to staple paper together".

A special thanks to our friends Drew & Jill Nelson as well as Dustin & Sarah Flaherty who organized this party and dreamed up the Super Sized Slip-n-Slide!

Garden Update

The fruit of our harvest has arrived! The nice thing about container gardens is their efficiency! We've been able to harvest many tomatoes, red onions, yellow onions...this is from our second cutting of lettuce. Not pictured was our peas, which I'm sad to say we didn't pick soon enough, green beans, and 15 lbs of red potatoes!

We're still picking tomatoes daily. The canning hasn't started just yet. The intention is to make salsa and speghetti sauce.

We've used peppers in potato salad...however haven't tried any of the jalepeno peppers yet! more to come on that!

Life in Libby Lu-ville

Taylor is now 5, and being the girly girl that she is, this year we took the big leap. For her beleated birthday bash we hauled 4 of her closest and dearest friends to Des Moines to a swanky little joint called Club Libby Lu. While there, the girls enjoyed an afternoon of pampering of hair, fashion and make-up play. After suiting-up in authentic looking Hannah Montana gear (wigs and all) they did a little ditty to Best of Both Worlds they enjoyed a health concious lunch of pizza, pop and cake. Taylor enjoyed her loot and fine company before heading back home.

The CAKE!!!!

After much research and undulation, Pete and I decided to temporarily enter the cake decoration business. After all, we have watched atleast 73 episodes of Ace of Cakes and are thus fully qualified to "save some money and make the darn thing ourselves". Well, after $83.00 at Hobby Lobby and two nights of experimentation, here are the results of our first run. Not bad, huh?

Horses & Montana

June 28th - It's a beautiful morning in Iowa! The sun is shining, the dew on the young grass in the newly planted pasture is glistening, and the horses are happy to get their morning feeding. I love Saturday mornings. After a week of waking up around 4 in the morning, sleeping until 5:30 seems quite indulgent. Our older two girls stumble out of bed and my morning Fox and Friends quickly get's turned to Blues Clues.

I thought it ws time to share photo's of our horses and trip to Montana. If anyone wants to donate a couple million dollar's to my Build a Ranch in Montana fund, let me know (this is not a 501(c)3 and would not qualify for a tax deduction). What an amazing state! We went at the end of May to pick up Star and Sugar. We really enjoyed our time.

The top pic is Kelly working Star in our round pen. Star's full name: First Star to the Left. The next picture is Kelly and Taylor waiting for the vet, with Sugar. Sugar's full name: Rising Star's Sugar Cookie.

Star is a 5 year old gelding that is 50% Welsh Pony and 50% Thuroughbred. Sugar is a 21 year old purebred Welsh Pony. We're pretty happy with these two and they are adjusting to their new home in Iowa.

Below are some of our pics from the trip to Montana.

The Girls

Here are some pictures of our little ones. Taylor is 5 going on 15. She is getting ready to start school and enjoys being the drama queen of the family! Raegan is almost 2 and is our silent but deadly one. If you can't see her, that means she has probably found nail polish somewhere (red is her favorite) and is proceeding to give herself a pedicure. Sarah Beth is our princess and the pea. She has no concept of self entertainment, partially due to the fact that she has 2 very attentive older sibs. She has the squeal down pat and is NOT AFRAID TO USE IT! They are true blessings and we are truly changed by their spirits and love in our lives!

Gardenrifric!!!

We are ABSOLUTELY MISERABLE gardeners. We have tried, and believe me, the old adage that anything will grow in Iowa soil doesn't hold water in the Decious household. Well, after two years of dwarf corn, dogs eating strawberries, razor thin carrots, grassy lettuce and tomatoless tomato plants, we heeded the advice of my brother (Bryon, you get a small amount of credit for this). With our wonderful (and youthful) friends, Aaron and Liz, we built 4 container gardens and now have garden coming out our ears. Although no one is sure when to dig potatoes (anyone???), things are looking great. All the rain has really made watering a non-issue and fairly maintenace free. Now that's my kind of garden.

Iowa Flooding

Here are a few pictures of the flooding in and near Pella. Things are starting to dry up now, but the damage is now setting in. Lots of crop damage and loss in our area and people are out of their homes due to the water damage. Praise God, we live on very high ground and just had to deal with muddy pens!