First Day of 5th Grade

Looks like the beginning of 5^th grade is upon us.  Was he excited to go back to school…heck no!  Looks like we are officially past the stage where going to school is “COOL!”  Looks like we will be starting lots of new and exciting things this year.  We are doing football again, and he also gets to start band.  He wants to play the trumpet! Yeah for our ears :( 

For the life of me I can not figure out how to turn this picture, so here it is until I get more time to toy with it!

Drake and Daisy Chillin' Before School

Backyard BBQ






Daisy Just Chillin'



Drake

Hayden

Girls Rocking the Hats

Even the Big Boys enjoyed themselves

The Boys Just Hanging Out!

Drakes 1st husker Game!

This is a very blurry picture, but if you can see Drakes face you can tell that he is beyond excited!  The football player he is about to slap hands with is "THE KENNY BELL, I LOVE HIM"  I think we could have simply went home after this, as it was the highligh of his day, week....year even!

Since we have wedding all around Drake's birthday we decided to take him and a friend to the football game instead of a Birthday Party. They both enjoyed the game and than we had a sleep over!

The new Pinnacle Bank Arena was open so we got to tour it.  It is huge. 

Inside the Pinnacle Arena.  We climbed all the way to the top, but I freaked out and made them come back down.  I am not scared of height but it was giving me the heeby gebbies!  Logan even admited that it didn't sit well with him either....so of course the boys thought it would be funny to tease me about it the whole trip!  Looks like we won't be buying nose bleed tickets for any of the events!

Summer Fun

It has been a crazy week of play around here.  Logans brother and little boy are back form AZ so we had a family get together this weekend so everyone could catch up.  I think Drake and Hayden may have had a little to much catching up, as there was quite a few bickering moments between the two drama queens!  Once the slip-n-slide came out though it was all fun and games.

Hayden and Drake

Jack

Matisen

Milo

Little Ms. Sophie



The Bar

The bar is getting closer!!!  A little paint and some Husker stuff and we should be in business for Husker Football Season!!!

Memorial Day/Camping!

The summer had kicked off in high gear!  Baseball, swimming lessons, mowing and on top of it all we bought a camper!  Logan has been looking at them FOREVER, and than some!  So we finally went on a camper shopping mission!  With all the fun we had as kids, I couldn't disagree with the purchase!  So off to Lincoln, Iowa, Omaha, back to Lincoln and than over to Norfolk to find one the would fit our needs, and someone who would let Logan negotiate a little!  Of course on out way home we ran into an AWFUL storm, blew a tire and had to stop yet again on the road because we were certain that a tornado was about to take us to Kansas!

We started our little camping adventure with a trip down to Harlan for Memorial Day,  it was a much needed relaxing get a way!  We have decided though, that a permanate parking spot up at Calamus might be the awnser for us though! 

I guess we shall see how our camping adventure for the summer turns out!

Random House Projects

A random Saturday, and I'm sitting here at work waiting for the clock to strike noon so the weekend can begin!  Since I should be working, but hey it's Saturday, I thought I would update a couple projects that we have done around the house.  I sure am lucky that I have Logan to do all these little projects! I'm sure that he doesn't agree with that, but he does such a fantastic job!

First was the fireplace. It was UGLY hideous!  But after a quick stop to Builders and Logan's handy skills, it looks 100% more like us, and a lot less like one ugly eye sore!

The other project that my lovely husband had the joy of doing was a little bench in out laundry room of the garage.  I LOVE Pinterest!  So many great ideas to add a little bit of yourself into every room.  My husband, on the other hand,  is so over it!  After searching the garage for for supplies my Husband has horded from other projects we had everything but the material and coat rack knobs to get the job done.  It turned out great for a quick project!

Happy Father Day Daddy!

Even though at times he can be a man of little words, and talking on the phone can seem like I am pulling teeth, I still feel lucky to call him dad!  My dad has shown me the importance of honesty, forgiveness and compassion.  Growing up, I never heard my dad talk bad about anyone, and he has shown us that we should be grateful for what we have.  He showed us the importance of hard work, and that sometimes it may be difficult, but you should just work harder.  He proved to us that the world wouldn’t always be on our side, and that we needed to learn to deal with it and move on.

My dad was also always the one who said NO!  Which now I realize was a very difficult job!  I always have to laugh when someone says, “Alright Larry” or “You sound just like dad!” 

Dad, I love you, and I am so happy that we have you!  You are a great dad and a wonderful grandpa to Drake!  You have the perfect balance of fun and blunt honestly, that makes us feel loved, but yet keeps our butts in line! 

and a mom is....?

What makes a mom?

Is it that you can brag about being in labor for 12 hours without an epidural, or that your body has now gone down hill and you can’t get it back, and those ugly stretchmark’s….really get over it, some of us would kill for that awful morning sickness and stretchmark’s. However, in my opinion, these are not the only ways you can get in to the exclusive club of “Mom.”

While most moms get awakened at 3 p.m. with the sweet voice whispering “mom, I had a nightmare,”  mine would sound more like “Ashley, get in here, I can’t sleep,”  that would be more of a scream, than that beautiful whisper of that magically word “mom” that I so long to hear.  So maybe I am overreacting, I don’t think anything sounds sweet when it is 3 p.m. and all you want is those couple more hours of sweet bliss before you have to go work on the Monday morning. But really, mom has to make it sound better right…! 

I am a step mom…which still makes me feel like I carry the unspoken word of “evil” before it!   Let me reassure you that this, in fact, is not how our house operating.  Drake does not work as soon as the sun comes up into the late hours of the night.  He is allowed, if he wants, to go to balls and dances!  And if that shoe fits, I am more than happy to have him ride away on a white horse to the castle that he, as well as I, will be living in for eternity. 

Now do I consider myself lucky that Drake was a 2 year old boy when I started playing the “mom” role in his life, HELL YES.  I don’t think I could have dealt with a sixteen year old girl, that hates that I took her moms place…than yes, that girl would be cleaning toilets.

Now even though I don’t posses any of these qualities that automatically get you inducted into the “Hall of Mom,” I am still a mom, and a damn good one!  I am there every morning to scream “GET YOUR BUTT OUT OF BED!” and I get to use the very popular phrase “Because I Said So…” I attended almost every football, baseball, wrestling, gymnastic, track meet, school play, parent teacher conference…blah, blah, blah, and I pretend to love it.  But secretly, I really do love every second of it.  So even if we don’t share blood, he is still my son, and he means the whole entire world to me!

Happy Mothers Day Mom!

I consider myself very lucky to have the mom that I have.  I know everyone considers theirs "the best," but mine really is!  Growing up she was everywhere we were! Which at the time was not cool, but looking back I can't think of a single activity or event that she wasn't at. She was at every tack meet, one-act, speech meet…and all the other mom duties.  Now being a parent myself, I realize just how hard it is to make all those things.

She was the type of mom you could tell what was going on, and she wouldn't get upset, she would just listen without judging.  I remember telling here about the night we…..well maybe we shouldn’t go into any specific details (dad might see this…!!)  But she just looked at me and we kept on walking! I know how difficult that must have been now that I have a child of my own.  I think I would have punched Drake…hard, and grounded him for eternity! 

Even now every time I talk with her she makes me feel special and loved.  So thank you mommy, for always being there.  For showing me what being a mom means, and setting a very high standard in which to reach in my own parenting adventure. 

4th Grade Track Meet

What a great day for a track meet!  Such great weather, crazy since we just had a snow day a week ago!  We tried a few new events this year, and improved like crazy in some others.  That high jump is quite a feet when you have the shortest legs!  Drake did the 50, 400, High Jump and the 4 x 100.  I added some of my favorite pictures from the meet.  The first one is great, for the simple fact that it has some of the closet friends he has!  Blake, Drake, Aiden, Landen....

 



 

This one is one of my favorites.  I have to say I am pretty proud of myself for getting this picture.  It really show the effort that he put forth!

 

Can't have a track meet without some ribbons!

RESULTS

 

50 - 3rd

400 - 4th

4 x 100 - 2nd

High Jump - Well those short little legs did awesome but...

 



Thankful

Lately, I have been thinking a lot about what God has done for my family and I.  It seems like everyone around me is going through something that is life altering…divorce, preparing for the loss of a husband or the sickness of a child.  It makes me think back to 2 years ago, when we ourselves, were going through a very rough time and we didn’t know how it was going to turn out. 

We prayed every day and every moment that God would do what was best for Drake.  Every time we hit a hurdle it was as if we lost a bit our faith.  Looking back at all the different things we prayed for, we are very lucky that God did not grant us these prayers, as we would be somewhere completely different than where we are today.  What we have now is so much more amazing than what we could have planned for ourselves.  We are truly blessed.

I hope that God has a great plan for what we are battling now.  I know that He is with us and will help us through it.  I just hope that he hurries it up a little, that girl is getting VERY impatient!

One Fun Night Out With the Brothers!

Last weekend Logan and I decide to get away for the weekend!  His friend was having his bachelor party in Omaha, and Logan's brothers were both going down, so we thought "what the hell."  We rented a party bus and drove around Omaha.  We had a great time!  Besides the sleeping arrangments!  Looks like all 3 Belville Brothers snore...LOUD!!  We looked like a mess Sunday morning, but it was so worth it!

A Little Bit of Everything!

On our way home from Kearney the other night we got to see a double rainbow!  Watching a little longer we were able to see the whole rainbow.  Drake was besides himself thinking that this was the most fantastic thing ever, and how lucky we were to see it!  I would agree!  It's amazing how the little things can make your day, and you can still talk about how awesome it was a few weeks later!

My husband rocks!! He brought me home flowers! I love him!

Movie Date

While dad is away, Drake and I will play!  I got the chance to have an awesome movie night to watch "Wreck It Ralph" with my favorite Midge! 

New Basement Bar

Logan is doing such good work on the bar in the basement.  What started out as a long storage room has not evolved into a basement hangout.  We still have a lot of finishing details to work on, but I think the finished project will be GREAT!

Red and White Game

We had so much fun at the Spring Game!  As you can see, we def. took advantage of a less crowded stadium!