Fourth of July festivities

July 3rd marked the beginning of the 4th of July festivities. A lot of the Widdowson family came to Mom and Dad's for the weekend. It was nice to see everyone. It had been a long time. That morning we went to the Gibbon parade and sat in front of the church.

Aunt Gigi with the two ornery 2 year olds! ha ha!

Grown ups chatting while the kids wait for candy!

Carmyn, Delanie, Lily, Guire, Caden, Levi, Mav

Guire sharing the candy he found! Lily got a lot of candy thanks to her cousins. By the end of the parade, she was really good about hustling to the candy!

Since her mommy loves 4th of July, we had to get her a wonderful outfit!

Cheese!

Hugs!

How much candy do you have?

4th of JULY!!!

The Widdowsons came back out to mom and dad's. A lot of the men went golfing, the kids went swimming, Ryan and Julie prepared cream cans, and the rest of us visited with a cold drink in hand!

Two tired girls after swimming and playing!

It had rained the night before, so Dad had water at the end of one of his fields. The kids brought their mud clothes and dove in!

Delanie, Riley, Edie, Tess

It was hilarious to watch. I think Edie had just tackled Tess in the mud.

Yuck!

We wanted Lily to try it, but she was not a big fan! So, we thought we would try the front yard.

This is as dirty as she got.

Maybe next year, she will get in Grandpa's muddy field!

Fireworks!!!!

Virgie, Mav, Lily, Matt and I drove to Shelton to watch the fireworks. They were very good! After the first firework, Lily hid her eyes into my shoulder. By the end of it, she was asleep!!!

Our New Home!!!

We are loving our new home! We officially moved in on July 5th with the help of Dad, John, Mav, and Maguire. It is so much fun living in a new home. I am really enjoying all the space and starting off organized! Each room is pretty much finished except for pictures and decorating items. I am still brainstorming those. Matt took some days off last week (he didn't have to go to Oklahoma!) and we got some things done around the house. I don't have a very long 'honey DO' list anymore. :) We hung shelving, blinds (they are all in now!), organized garage, started deck, Oasis' kennel, ceiling fan, microwave, and more. All three of us enjoy our new home and are looking forward to making Doniphan our home!

Lily is showing off her new home! We are waiting for the address block, but doesn't the stone look good? How about the grass? ha ha! I am going to spray it this week to kill all the weeds. Our goal is to seed and landscape this fall along with putting up the fence.

View of living room from the kitchen. Our room is to the left and the front door is to the right along with Lily's and guest bedroom.

Kitchen and dining room.

Living room.

Front foyer with Lily's room to the left and the stairs to the right.

Master bedroom.

Master bathroom.

I didn't take a picture of our closet, but it is one of my favorite parts of the house. Matt and I have all of our clothes in it and its ORGANIZED! :)

Guest bathroom (Lily's bathroom).

Lily loves to show off her new pink room!!!

Lily's room

Lily's room with her new white dresser. Her night stand came in, but it was brown. So, we are waiting on the white one. Lily absolutely loves her room. Since living here, Lily has only had one accident and it was at night. We have officially stopped using pull-ups!!! Yay!

Guest bedroom.

Chris came on Friday and helped Matt start the deck. They got the footings done and some of the siding off. Our deck will be pretty nice sized. All the wood is in the garage. Matt and I got it the other night and I helped him unload it. Goodness!! I can't wait to chill out on our new deck! :) Thanks Chris for helping us.

They poured Oasis' kennel on Saturday morning.

Lily wouldn't do a hand print. She doesn't like to get too dirty. So, Matt and I did ours and then we convinced her to do her foot.

This is where Oasis was staying. She wasn't too happy there. She would get wrapped up in her wire, her kennel would flip over, and she was digging! Urgh.

The new kennel!! Do you see Oasis laying flat in there? I think that is a sign that she is happier out there in her new home! We will still need to get her dog house from Grandpa and Grandma's.


Matt just left for Oklahoma again, and this might be the last week. We hate to see him go. He has such a long drive all by himself. Since the summer is winding down, it will be nice to have him back home to do summery things! There are a few things I want to do before school starts.

Happy Birthday Grandpa Brad!

Happy Birthday Grandpa Brad!!!!!
We hope you have a wonderful day. Don't work too hard laying pipe!


We love you,
Matt, Abby, and Lily Jo (and Swiper too!)

5 years!!! and Birthday

July 2nd! Happy Anniversary to my wonderful Husband, Matt. We have been married 5 years!!!

July 3rd! Happy Birthday Laurie Lynn!!!!

July 4th!!!! Happy 4th of July!!! Woo hoo!

It is also Amy's birthday. She was a great friend this week, she helped me clean our new house. Thanks Amo!

Pictures Long Overdue!

Alrighty, I figured out how to put pictures on a Dell computer vs. my good ol' MacBook. So, here are some pictures to capture the last month. I have many more, but I didn't want to overdue it!

One of the hardest things to leave at our old house was Lily's measurements. We had them on her bedroom wall by the closet. I hope we can start another one somewhere in our new home. It was a little weird to walk through our house with it COMPLETELY empty. One chapter closed in our life and other one is starting! :)

Off to live on the farm!

Lily and Oasis love water!


Delanie's Birthday celebration!

3 cousins getting ready for the pool.

Big cousin, Caden!

They kept dumping water on each other's heads. It was quite comical.

Virgie, the claw!, is going to get Syd and Lily.

Delanie's yummy strawberry birthday cake!

Our effort on a pyramid! :)

The Cosby move! Where are they?

Ta Da!!!!

Now, all the rain came!!!!!!!!! My oh my!

Matt was excited to take his jeep through the water! This was by the cabin just past the creek. The water has finally went down but the Platte River may be a little to full to go jeepin' anytime soon.

Oasis sleeping on Grandma's patio chairs. She is lovin' her freedom! I hope she adjusts well to Doniphan. She will be kenneled up there. :(

Lily and I get to hang out a lot! I am really enjoying this time with her.

We went swimming in Gibbon at the baby pool!





I have been telling many people about Lily's pink room. She absolutely loves it and I think it might be a lifesaver when we are trying to get her to sleep well at our new home.

Check out the Pink Room!!!

Wow, huh? There is carpet now, so it actually looks really cute. It will match the pink in her bedding. So, it will be a nice little girl's room.

Tractors!

Grandpa and Grandma's Anniversary!!!! Happy Anniversary on the 18th!

Lily and I rode with Grandpa when the fields were finally dry enough to cultivate.

I like this picture. She is having a hard time walking with the tire tracks and you see pretty corn with Dad's nice tractor.


Daddy's home! He has been going to Oklahoma for 3 weeks now and gets home on Friday evenings. Lily and I can't wait! Daddy taught Lily how to drive the jeep!

What do you think she wants to do all the time now????

Lily is the only one looking at the road, ha ha!

Another storm is coming! (It actually missed us, but it was looking bad for awhile.)

Happy Father's Day!!!!!!!!!

We went to the Starostka lake to celebrate with the Springers.

Lily loved the Bana (thats what she calls it). Matt pulled us on it behind the jet ski. It was Carson, Amy, Lily, and I. We were on our last pass back to the shore and Matt dumps us. Lily got a little scared, but we all had life jackets on and were fine. She got back on later, so I think she will be like her Daddy, a water lover!!!

Happy Father's Day Matt!!!!!!!!!

After another rain, we saw a beautiful double rainbow!

Our cabinets and countertops are in!!!!

Aren't they beautiful! This is an old picture, so now they are finished. :)

Lily worked on a painting for her room.

Beautiful! We did another one with just handprints. We will see if they look good in her pink room with her bedspread!

ReNae Mitchell had her third baby girl a few weeks ago, so Lily and I went to visit her. Londyn is so cute and I got to hold her almost the whole time!

Lily, Londyn, and ReNae.

Libby, Laney, and Lily! What a mouth full. They had fun playing together. We need to get together more often.

Daddy's home again!!!

We took the jeep out to the cabin so Daddy could cut thistle, Mommy could get sun, and Lily could have fun! We saw an orange Butterfly! They always remind us of our precious Mullen John. He is looking down on us and smiling!

"Where should I sit? I know, I will sit on Oasis!"

Daddy took Lily down to the creek and went swimming. It took some convincing, but I did join them. It was fun! Daddy even went all the way under. That realy worried Oasis and she jumped in after him. :)

Outside pictures of our new home!

We are so excited! We will move in next week after the 4th of July weekend! Finally!!!!

Happy Anniversary Mark and Jackie!

Jackie, Chantele, and Emily came to visit us on Sunday (on their Anniversary). Chantele came back from Chicago for a couple weeks. We ate in GI and then went to show them the house.

Lily getting tickled by her Aunts. Notice the carpet!! Its finally looking like HOME!

So, that is my catch up of the month. Hopefully our internet is installed soon in Doniphan and I can continue with my college courses and update Elsbury Clan!!!!

We hope everyone is having a great summer and HAVE A WONDERFUL 4TH OF JULY!!! That is my favorite holiday!!!!!