first trip to church

Our first time getting dressed up!
my two handsome boys!
this is tristen's new "sign"he hits his chest and then throws the peace sign saying 'peace out' , ah the things our kids learn in school!
This was to cute! He was so tired and hungry, and sick of waiting for me while i was bringing in groceries, that he decided to 'eat' his thumb and take a nap.
Just another shot of maddie- anytime i am taking pictures she runs up to the camera and says 'meee'! so i have to get a shot of her of course!

More pictures

Here are some more pictures of Ethan with his eyes open finally !! And some pictures from the kids first day of school.

Ethan Lange Fountain

Well he is finally here! He was born on August 7, 2008 at 12:40pm, he was 8 lbs 6 oz and 201/2 inches. Mommy survived having to deliver naturally, which is still amazing to me!, I definitely do not recommend it! Here are some pictures, I need to get on the ball and take more though! The first picture is when he had his first bath- he did not like it!

Meeting Newt

On James most recent trip to Las Vegas for a convention his college was chosen to introduce their lead speaker, Newt Gingrich, and he got to meet him. He was really excited, to say the least!

A cute story

This last week my sweet son did the cutest thing! I was not feeling good and was laying on the couch. All of a sudden I hear Tristen in the kitchen messing around with stuff. I seriously could not get the energy to get up, so I asked him what he was getting into, he said- "Don't worry mom- you take a nap I am just doing something, oh and what are we having for dinner?". I told him banana pancakes (our favortie dinner) and well before I knew it I had fallen asleep and was awakened by him. "I have a surprise for you, I know you are not feeling good so I did something for you to make you happy". At this point it had been 40 minutes, so I got up and went in to the kitchen to find it completely clean! He had reorganzied everything on the kitchen counters, and surprisingly I liked it much better than how I had had it. He also had completely set the table. I took some pictures of it because of what a perfect job he had done. To say the least, I gave him the biggest hug and thanked him. What a sweet blessing he is to me!!





I would say pretty good for a seven year old! We were impressed!
He had lit the candle (which I was not happy about, but I did not get mad- I just made sure to have a fire saftey lesson with him!) and went outside and picked flowers and put them in a jar for the "centerpiece" as he put it. (well technically they were weeds, since we have no blooming flowers right now- but still beautiful)
He even has the place settings nice and neat with all the things needed for pancakes!


Now this is just a pic from Sunday- I came out from my room after getting ready for church and found them all lined up sitting in a row very quietly and patiently, ready and waiting for mommy and daddy to get their act together so we could go to church! I had to take a picture.....

Update on the fort....

Here are some pics of Fort Fountain,








Keep up the good work, TT and Daddy!!

The 4th of July

Lauren looks a bit frieghtened!
OK- I want my daughters hair!

my sweeties =)

for some reason- maddie would not smile that night in any of the pictures!
never without our bear-bear!

I hope everyone had a great 4th of July! We had a pretty mellow one, with pretty good weather! Which is really surprising for Oklahoma- it was not that hot for once! We went swimming, had a barbeque and went down to the river to watch fireworks. Then we came home and set some off ourselves. When we went to buy the fireworks I was really particular about the ones we bought- we have 4 cops that live in our neighborhood and technically it is illegal to set off fireworks (although everyone does it) but I really did not want to get a 250$ ticket, so I told James they had to be small quiet firecrackers. Well I picked a very small one out because I thought it looked fun-- wouldn't you know it was the loudest thing I have ever heard!!! Oh did I get some grief for that--all I could do was laugh. The only other eventful thing was me giving a 2 year old a sparkler, that was not the smartest thing! Maddie decided to hold it up high above her head and let all of the sparks fall on her face- barely missing her eye. She was ok though and wanted nothing to do with them after that! Above are some pics of the night......

I know what job I need to pursue...

Ok- We have to buy a new car seat and stroller for the baby because ours got molded and ruined while they were stored on my in-laws back porch. So obviously I am not to happy about having to come up with the money for these over priced items-- but to add more frustration- they are ALL UGLY!!!! Oh my gosh, who is designing these things! I literally can not find one stroller or car seat color or design that I like. They 're the ugliest colors and fabrics I have ever seen. So I think I am going to call up these companies and tell them they need new designers- and they need to hire me!

The garden.........

These are some of our watermelon and canteloupe vines
These are squash, lettuce and broccoli
Here are the tomatoes, potatoes and corn

our blackberry bushes
these are actually grapes, bluberries and raspberries (although the plants are so little you can not even see them)
green beans
more corn and tomatoes
our first little watermelon--isn't it cute!

Well this is our garden, we are having lots of fun with it and hope despite all of the flooding rains we have had, that it will continue to grow.

The building of the fort

Daddy and TT are in the process of building a very large fort. They have all of the walls up, so I thought I would start photographing their progress. My little engineer Tristen keeps getting grander and grander ideas about the houses and complexes that will be inside the walls......stay tuned!

Maddie's birthday party at chucky cheese