Make your own Biore!

Kids!!! They do the funniest things!!

There are times that Mark and I will put on a Biore Nose strip to get all of the "Trees" out of our nose pores! (And we've got LOTS of Trees.......let me tell ya!)

I found the boys like this earlier today...Creston had taken a baby wipe and had torn it to fit right over his litle nose bridge! Not to be outdone, Mackie hollered until he got his own nose strip! This pose was Mackie's idea! I said "Say Cheese!!!" and Mackie folded his arms, poked Creston to do the same, and thus, this picture was born!!!

Gotta love 'em! Such cutie-patooties when they aren't trying to KILL each other!!!

And it ALL came tumbling down...

(THIS ONE'S FOR YOU, JOHNNY!!!)

THIS was the Sugar Cane just a week or so ago...........sooooo pretty and tall and straight and nice!THIS is the Sugar Cane now! All flopped over! Oh me!

It was looking soooo good, but this last bout of wind and rain on Sunday caused it to all topple over in a big heap!

Mark turns 34!!!!!

Today is Mark's 34th Birthday!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY, Honey!!! Usually, he doesn't like too much fuss over his birthday, and the last 2 years, his day has fallen on a work at the FD day, so this year, we had him at home, and tried to keep it low-key!

We got excited last night and went ahead and gave him the pictures that they boys had drawn and also the Fire Book that we had found for him!! He seemed to really like everything!!

This picture was taken before Church this morning!

Not the best picture, but we work with what we have, and what we had this morning was a lot of antsy kids and a husband that wanted to get in the car to leave for church!!!

Mark's parents took us all to the Mayflower for lunch and while there, my Aunt's brother was also there and apparently told the waitress that it was Mark's b-day and that they should sing for him! After John left, all the waitresses came over and sang and Marks' face got sooooooo red!! I only wish I had the camera out while they were singing!!! Heee Heee! This is him hiding from the camera after it was all over!!!
This is the party at our house! Nana & Paw-Paw came up. Mark is unwrapping his presents!!

SOCKS!!! :o) He really did ask for socks! It's a sure sign that you're getting older when you ask for Socks for your Birthday!

I made him a German Chocolate Cake! No Ice Cream....Mark isn't big on Ice Cream...

And.........here........is Creston sooooo excited because he blew out Daddys' candles before Daddy could do it! Mark is playfully looking disgusted at Creston. Creston just hollered something to the effect of "I got them before you did" or "You weren't quick enough!" He thoroughly enjoyed himself!

Happy Birthday, Sweetie!! I hope that you had a good day this year! We all LOVE you!!!

Happy 21st Birthday, Melissa!!!

My niece, Melissa and my husband share the same birthday! September 20th! Mark will be 34 this year and Melissa Lynn turned 21!!! Whoo Hoo!!! Mom was in for Melissa's birthday this year, so we got together to have her a little party complete with Hamburgers, Hot Dogs, and some Wii Fun!!! Whoopee!!!

Mom, Megan, & Melissa!!

Blow out those candles!!!
Meg, Melissa & Me!!
Meg, Me & Mom!!
Melissa & Mackie!!
Here, Mom is showing us how it's done!!! Whoo Hooo!! Sexy legs!!!

Ron is gloating over his wonderful score in Archery!!! :o)

Megan shows up how to hold the "Bow" for the archery game...

Melissa getting ready to shoot!!!

Bowling fun!

Shooting chickens!!
Am I shooting a bow or getting ready to punch someone??? Hmmmmm????

Ron is showing Creston how to drive the Mario Kart!

We had a really good time eating and playing! Now I know that the Wii can be a LOT of fun for us "Old People!!!" :o) We LOVE you, Melissa!! Hope that 21 is the best year yet!!!

Wally...

I found our little Wally lying outside in front of the house in the driveway this afternoon. He apparently got up in Mark's truck earlier in the day, and when Mark went to drive down to the wood shop, the fan blade must have been the thing to end Wally's life. I feel really badly about this...I actually feel worse about this than when my cat Alexis died this past year after living for more than 22 years with me. This may be due to the fact that I will not allow myself to ponder on the fact that Alexis is gone, but I actually saw Wally's body and that image won't leave me. I hope that he didn't suffer and that he liked living here with us. I hope that we were able to make him happy the little time that he was with us. He wandered into Wal-mart in Boone one morning a day after we had told a friend of Marks that works there that we were looking for a kitten. Poof! there he was! Answered prayer!! Now.....it just seems like a bad thing all the way around! I'm not sure that we need any more pets......with all of the wildlife around here that seems to like to eat Cats and our own bad luck with animals, it's just kinda looking like a bad idea. I hope that Wally is in little kitty Heaven and that he's a little happy booger. We'll miss you, Wally!

Diggin 'taters, 2009

Here we are, once again digging up the taters that we planted back in the spring! I think I pretty much take the same pictures every year, but we are getting older, so at least that much is changing! :o) This year, Mack put cow manuer on one of the fields that he planted. This resulted in some VERY large potatoes! You will see the picture below. I think we were able to dig up 20+ bushels of 'taters. I think that was quite a few, but I'm sure that there are people that grow TONS more than that!! :o) More power to ya! That's all I have to say!! :o)

The Banner Family Renunion 2009

We attended the annual Banner Family renunion this afternoon. It was very nice as usual! There were several people there, and LOTS of good food to eat!!! YUMMY!! Here are a few pictures from the day! Mackie, Creston, Lynn Church and his little boy Eli...

Creston looking plum' tuckered out! (note his little tongue stuck out there!)

A good Crowd!

Mark helping Ross hand out the tickets for the drawings!

Billie gave all of the little kids a "special present!"
Billie Church! Such a Sweet Lady!!!

Mark, Creston, Mackie, Mack, & Dorothy!