I was going to do this earlier but we ended up spending most of the day raking leaves. There were a ton and we ended up making 4 trips to the dump! It's all done now though and the yard and flower beds look very nice. Ricky had a strange work schedule the last two days so he had this afternoon off and was able to help. He also had yesterday morning off and went hunting and got a deer! I am so excited to be getting venison back in the freezer. It was a 7 point buck and he had quite the ordeal looking for it after it had been shot. Chase was very excited to see it but Joanna, not so much.

Ricky said it was the 13th buck he's killed.

In the afternoon yesterday I had to run out to get some chicken feed and saw two hot air balloons outside. Well they ended up floating right over our town! On the way home from the mill I decided to go chase them in the car and see if we could watch them land. We went down lots of country roads and stopped at one point and they floated right over top of us, it was so cool. I got the kids out of the car and we stood and watched them for a while. One of the people in the balloon said "Hi buddy" to Chase and didn't even have to yell. Chase was thrilled of course. I didn't get a picture of when it was really close but you get the idea.

Sunday was Dominic's eighth birthday! Patty and Dexter were out pretty much all day but still wanted to have cake and ice cream for him at night. So we all went over and sang to him.

It's so hard to believe that Dominic is eight! When I first met Patty she was pregnant with him! Just look how cute he was...

I'm glad to see my kids aren't the only one who run around without pants on.

here I believe he was about Chase's age. I'm so thankful that we are able to live close to family and I can spend time with my nephew. He is such a joy to have around and Chase and Joanna just love their cousin so much.