Fabulous Four

I think this is what I should start referring to my girls as the "fabulous four". They bring me so much joy with their wonderful personalities and I can't tell you how much I enjoy spending an evening with them all together as a family.

I would of never thought 8-10 yrs ago when I was in my early 20s and hanging out with my friends every Friday night, thinking that life revolved around being with them, partying and just having some good times, that now my Friday nights consist of hanging out with my kids, and I can't be happier!! Not that I don't mind an evening out with friends, but I'm quite content hanging out at home too.

This past Friday was another "pizza and poker" night at the Auffert house. It was a ton of fun. Both Rachel and Amberlea play with Tim and I and Josie "helps" Tim by putting in what chips he needs and then Cailyn sits with us making patterns and shapes out of her chips, very entertaining for her.

Let me tell you a little about Rachel and Amberlea. First..... Amberlea, as I mentioned before or any of you know Amberlea, she is often in her own little world. (a world I would like to visit just once...ha) But during a fast moving game of poker, this could be a problem. Every time she is dealer, we have to remind her, that she is the one dealing, after each card she flips over. And then we have all placed our bets, and she will just bet or do whatever, not really knowing what is going on. It is pretty funny!!

And then there is Rachel, who bets, just cause she knows she is going to "get lucky and win". Half the time she is right too. Drives Tim crazy! It's so funny. I was cracking up from her on Friday night. We all laughed and laughed the entire night.

The girls' favorite song right now is "Poker Face". So we had the music going while we played poker and heard this song several times. The girls and I were trying to perfect our own Poker Faces, but we weren't so good at it. Here's a few picture of some of our fun!!

This is rachel's not so good poker face, she couldn't quit laughin'.

She got her dad's hat and sunglasses...... and then realized that she couldn't see with the glasses on to know what cards she had or the chips. lol


Here she is getting serious.
Who do you think she learned it from.
"Why do I have all these girls on me?? I'm trying to play poker here"....lol

Saturday evening was a nice date out with my hubby to see The Proposal. It was very good! It was a nice evening just with just Tim and I , well, those 2 hours we went to the movie that is. We just ran the girls to my sisters and went back and got them afterwards, but I'll take what I can get.

I also got almost my entire list of "to dos" done this weekend. I am proud of my accomplishments! I'm dreading my last task, and it still might not get done for another week cause I and the girls all have VBS this week and I'm off on another float trip this weekend, adults only. That's exciting. I won't be a big baby this time when we leave, I hope, this time both Cailyn and Josie will be staying with Grandma and Grandpa, and I won't feel so bad about leaving my kids behind.

Hope everyone has a nice week!! Thanks for checking in on us.

Blah....

That pretty much tells you how I've been feeling lately. Unmotivated and just plain lazy. I haven't been to work out for 2 months now. I'm starting to see and feel the effects of that too. So, I plan on heading in for a good workout this week.

It's all Tim's fault too, he kept me going for so long. Then he got hurt, and as I mentioned I seem to always have trouble getting in there when it's summer time. He joined up again last month and has been going again. He has been going in the mornings after he gets off work, so again, I'm missing out on the opportunity to go with him. I don't make a special trip to town just for this reason, but I'm going to have to start to.

I've put back on 2-3 lbs and my energy level isn't great, and then I seem to be a snacking fool these days. I really need to just jump back on the wagon and get the right mind set again. I saw some pics of me from my float trip this past weekend that were a huge motivation. ha.

Here's a picture I found on a blog a while back, I thought it was pretty funny and is how I feel sometimes about getting on that scale. Thought I'd share it with you all.

Have a great week, I think I'm done blogging for the week (unless I add more pictures) but between my blog and updating facebook, it keeps you real busy, no wander I don't have time or energy to work out. ha.

Oh happy days......

I made my Josie Posie's night on Monday! Her reward for improving her swim times was to get her ears pierced. I took her to Wal-Mart on Monday to have it done.


She did AWESOME!! She was nervous, but never fought the lady there. We had to wait for someone to come back from break so there would be 2 girls to pierce them at the same time.

Josie sat right down and I was taking pictures waiting for her to have a big meltdown and......... nothing. She made an awful face, but that was it. I had to look to see if they had even done anything yet, and yep, she had flowers in her ears. I was so proud of her!!


I had another motive on the ear piercing. She has been asking for over a year now. She is pretty excited about being able to change them in time for her bday now, and I am hoping we can get some new earrings for her bday then. Amberlea and Rachel thought it was so unfair they didn't get their done until they were like 8. I thought Josie was ready and so far, she has taken good care of her ears cleaning them and turning them. Now I just hope she does as well when the day comes to change them. I remember Rachel and Amberlea.... big ol' meltdowns when it came time to change them. I'm going to guess she will be ok with it, she's a tough cookie.

Where to begin??

I can't begin to explain the great weekend we had with the kids. We started it off with night up at the Fair. As always, it was a wonderful time riding rides and watching the kids enjoy themselves. We ran into friends and got a chance to chat also.

The night ran longer than I hoped since we still needed to get home and load up the van for our trip to the river. It was a late night and an early morning, but the kids were great. We stopped for breakfast and didn't actually get on the road till around 8am. The girls were very well behaved and we passed the time with a very exciting car game of "cow poker". If you have never played it, it's a great game to keep the kids entertained on a long trip.

We got to our campsite around 1 and unpacked, set up tents, and were off to show the kids the river. We were within walking distance to the river, it was wonderful. The kids said the river wasn't anything like they were picturing it to be. Amberlea was really nervous and the whole thing, which was odd since she is our dare devil. Rachel took me by surprise and was at home playing in the river. I thought she might be too girly for it, but she LOVED it. Josie was a little nervous in the beginning, but then jumped right in playing with the other kids. The Niangua River is a beautiful river!! Shallow enough to usually walk across. Like any other river, it can be dangerous, but for the most part, it is very clean and safe.


It only got into the mid 80s all weekend. It wasn't bad when the sun was out, but if we lost the sun or by evening time, it was pretty chilly. Camping in our tents was pretty cold, but no one complained we just bundled up.
Saturday we got up and made breakfast and headed out to the river. We had to wait 45 min. for our bus, and that was probably the worst part of the whole weekend. We got bussed up river to where we get in, and then float the 10 miles back down the river to our campsite.

The river was full of people. More than any other year. Our raft was very comfortable and we had a great time. There were many watergun fights that we got ourselves into, or I should say the kids!! We were a good target for many people. Rachel figured out the paddling right away and was great help to us adults. Rachel showed me even more this weekend just how much she is like her dad, they had a great time hanging out together

Sunday morning Tim and I were up early and headed home. It was Rachel and Amberlea's mom's birthday and we needed to get back by early afternoon so they could see her. We made great time and were home by 1:30. Tim and I worked on unpacking real fast, I had a nice warm bath and then my sister came by and we headed to St. Joe to the Circus with some friends. I know... I'm crazy, but I couldn't pass up the chance to take the girls to the circus. Mom and Dad took us when we were little, but I don't really remember it. The girls have never been and we had free tickets, so why not? I wasn't sure what to expect, and I was very pleased with it. There was comedy, and stunts, and animals, it was a good time. I can't complain at all for it only costing my $10. It was well worth the money.

So, it was definitely a busy weekend with Fairs, Float trips, and a Circus. Cailyn stayed behind with Grandma and Grandpas..... and had a wonderful weekend too!!

Here are some pictures for you to enjoy!!

I have plenty more pictures that I'll add at another time.

Lots to tell.....

I have lots to tell..... been a while since I blogged, but I thought I'd wait and put it all in 1 post.

Swim team is finished for the year. The girls all did great!!! (of course) We had our last meet last Saturday in Neb. City. It was a long day. Leaving at 6am with 4 kids, is going to be a long day, no matter what. There were over 45o kids swimming in this meet. Between every event there was a good hour and a half wait. Thankfully it wasn't really hot that day, we actually had lots of cloud coverage and a chance of rain, so it was bearable. No big awards at this meet. Rachel did win a the heat in her back stroke and got a ribbon for that, Way to go Rach!!

The end of the year picnic was last night. Josie won the trophy for Most Improved in her age group. She was so excited cause she has always wanted a trophy for something. And she did it!! Her back stoke improved greatly, by 2 minutes (had no real clue how to swim the back stoke the first time she tried..lol) and she improved the rest of her stokes by over 45 sec from the first meet we had. She got all but the butterfly down under 1 minute, and she was close on that one too. I stood there last night knowing that she should win this medal, with my fingers crossed, hoping and praying. I was a proud mommy when they called her name. -- Josie and I also worked out a deal if she would improve her times.....a little reward, something she has been dying to have.... I'll post that at another time, I'll make you wait and see.

Last weekend Tim and I taught the girls how to play Texas Holdem. Amberlea (our 9 yr old) already had an idea from playing at a friends house and she knows her Dad loves to play, so she has been asking to play with him. So we did one night before he went to work, and Amberlea was thrilled. So I came up with last Friday, "Pizza and Poker" night. Oh she couldn't of been happier!!! We played Friday night and taught Rachel the game. She did really well for never even playing before. We had a really good time.... well, most of us. -- Tim was getting "frustrated" at us girls' betting. We would always bet every time cause we'd want to see the flop, just in case we'd get lucky and something came up that would help us out. According to him, this is not the smart way to play if you don't have good card....ha. We didn't care, so we continued to play this way and were making some risky bets/raises when we really didn't have anything. Well, to someone that plays often with the guys, he was annoyed with us, in a good way of course!! Amberlea ended up winning that night!! I can't believe it. We had another game Saturday night cause it was so much fun, and Tim and Amberlea battled it out, until Tim took the pot. whew..... he would of never lived that down if Amberlea beat him...again. *oh and I should also mention how very happy it makes to have some more poker players in the house and the girls want every Friday night to be "Pizza and Poker" cause they had so much fun!

Saturday we attended Sydni and Lexi's birthday at my parents. We enjoyed a wonderful bbq and the kids played in the bounce house and they also had a silly string fight. It was a lot of fun!!

Tonight we are headed up to the Fair!! The girls are pretty excited about this. I am looking forward to taking them, like always. Thanks Larry and Penny for the tickets!! I'll post pictures later.

Tomorrow we are up early and headed to the Niangua River in S. MO with the kids, all but Cailyn that is. I'm really nervous about leaving Cailyn behind. Not that she will be any trouble, but for the fact that I never have left her by herself and she keeps getting upset already about us leaving her. And then Josie starts in crying that she is going to miss her sister, it's a whole big drama thing. So I know there are going to be plenty of tears shed tonight when I drop her off at Grandma and Papa's. I'm not looking forward to this part of our trip. I would take her with us, but as I've said before, she isn't a big fan of the water and so for this being the first year for the other girls, it will be better off if she stayed here. I told her next year she might be big enough to go. (cailyn says she doesn't want to go either... she just doesn't want us to leave her)

As I said we will be leaving early in the morning for a weekend of camping and floating down the river. This will be the first time really camping with the girls. Our idea of camping before this was either in the back yard, or at Papa and Grandma's camper with AC and TV. Not really roughin' it considering we were only about 5-10 min from home if I really needed anything. We are all pretty excited about the trip. We even made up family shirts that I will take some pics of and post later. I'm not only excited about going with the family, but by best friends family is also going along. May sound corny... but I'm excited to get a whole weekend away with just our family and her's. It's never happened before. We rarely get to spend time together without others, which I don't mind of course, and that doesn't happen often anyway cause of both of our busy schedules. Thank God for free nights/weekends or we'd never even talk, well we would, but I would have to get a second job just to pay that bill. ha

I think that just about catches us up for now...... no, wait, I forgot, Josie has lost both her front teeth. Big excitement!! That second one hung on for a good week before I pulled it out. We are having corn on the cob tonight and I already have instructions that I will be cutting that off for her to enjoy too. I should make her try to eat it and take a picture of it, ha.

update....Rachel is now supposed to get her bottom braces off on Aug 20th. She is counting down. She has had TONS of compliments on her teeth and how wonderful they look and just how grown up she looks these days. Rachel is luvin' it..... but not Tim so much.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend!!

Today's the day!!!.... well sort of ;)

Rachel was about to bust this morning waiting on her mom to take her to her final braces appt, she gets them off today and gets fit for a retainer. She could hardly wait!!!

So I did a little searching it wasn't hard to find a picture of Rachel before the braces, I went back thru her school pictures. This is her school picture from 4th grade, usually taken at the beginning of the year, she had to have had the braces put on shortly after this. Rachel thought it was end of 3rd, but it hasn't been as long as she remembers. I must admit just seeing the picture made me laugh, not so much because of her teeth, which obviously needed work, but just cause she has matured and changed so much in the last 2-3 years, it's unbelievable.

So, shortly after starting this post, Rachel texted me and told me they didn't take off her bottom braces. I thought she was pranking me cause it had already been a morning of pranks, so I replied, and told her I didn't believe her, but she told me that she had 1 tooth on bottom they thought was a little crooked, and wanted to wait a few more weeks for the bottoms. Let's just say she wasn't happy, to say the least.

I told her to look at the good side and at least she got the top off instead of the bottom, cause you can't hardly see your bottom teeth anyway.

So here is an after picture, kind of. The school picture you can't see too well, but her teeth were really spaced apart and crooked. Now they are straight and beautiful. It's taken her some getting used to, but shes happy that they are at least half way gone....forever.
And on similar note, I have been waiting for Rachel to get these braces off for family pictures. I scheduled an appt for the first part of August and we need to pray she gets them off by then. BUT, my Josie Posie might not have any teeth left for family pictures. She lost one of her front big teeth on Sunday night and the other one is pretty much just hanging there, ready to be pulled any day. She has a huge gap that she thinks is way too cool!! I know it should be cute, but I like teeth.

Fun Fourth

We have been so busy over the last few weekends, it has been a really good time. Last weekend we went to the St. Joe pool with my sister-in-law. It was a great time!! The kids enjoyed playing at a different pool and it was very reasonable for us. I took my 4 girls, plus Tatum and Brenda has 3 girls, so it was kind of crazy, but we handled it. After swimming all the girls went different places and Tim and I took out for an evening out with some friends of ours. We saw a movie and headed over to their house to play cards.

This weekend has me exhausted again..... holidays for us are usually a day of running from here to there without a time to stop and rest. Friday I headed to St. Joe to pick up some things from Sams and do a little light shopping. I came home in time to head to see Ice Age with some friends of ours and their kiddos. I wouldn't say the movie was great, ok, we really liked the first 2 Ice Ages, but this one wasn't quite as good. We came back to our house after the movie to play cards and the kids played together.

On the 4th we were up early and headed out the door for a long day. We picked up Rachel and Amberlea and head over to Linda's for lunch, homemade icecream, and fireworks. Tim loves this holiday with his kids, ok, well we both love all the holidays with the kids, but this one the girls get so excited about, even the older girls!!! They have a great time shooting off fireworks with their dad. They are all so much like him, it just cracks me up to sit back and watch them. It also scares the crap out of me. Rachel is into blowing things up..... her favorite firework was the "little dynamite". She went thru about all we had at Linda's and so we had to go back and buy more, 8 boxes...lol. If you aren't familiar with those, they are pretty loud and you can throw them in water and watch it blow up. Hours of fun!!!

Amberlea also liked those, but she enjoys shooting off multiple things. Meaning, she ties together 6 smoke bombs, or fire crackers, or whatever she can find to lite all at the same time. Very wasteful if you ask me. She finds it very exciting to see how many she can light at once. Josie and Cailyn mostly watched. That was good. Cailyn did her share of poppers. We still have some left over, so that probably means another night of fireworks here in our future.

After Linda's we ran up to my parents for a couple hours and then we headed to Mike and Ruth's for a bbq and the kids played together. They always have a good time together. Rachel and Trent were up to their usual sneaking around trying to scare Amberlea and Nicholas. They played a game of softball with Tim and gave us adults a good fireworks show. We headed off to Mozingo for the big fireworks later that evening. Here is a few pictures of our good times!!

The girls playing with the Dredge's.

Rachel trying to blow up Linda's tunnels.

Amberlea and Josie dancing in the smoke.

My Firecrackers....... aren't they so cute!!