Warm Wishes

Sorry, we have no pictures to post today. We just wanted to take the opportunity to tell our OLD Auntie E and Uncle Bucky HAPPY 32nd BIRTHDAY! The sad thing is that they are Mom's younger brother and sister. We think they are old, so that makes Mom really old. We hope you each have a great birthday and we will see you soon!
Also, we would like to tell our 17 year old cousin Matt that we hope he gets better quick. Matt had to have emergency surgery late last night in Chicago for a bacterial infection. He had an infection that settled into his hip which had to be cleaned up. The surgery lasted longer than it was supposed to because they had to go into the sack around his hip and clean it out as well. He will be in the hospital for 3 or 4 days and will have to work with a pain management doctor. We hope he is okay and makes a speedy recovery.
Check back late Wednesday night for some new pictures (which cannot be released until we get the okay from someone...we'll explain when we post them)!

Introducing...

Our new puppy, Kurt Cobark (yes, he is a tribute to a certain deceased singer). We got our puppy last Wednesday and he is so CUTE! Sorry our pictures aren't that great, but he likes to wiggle around a lot.

Kurt is a Miniature Schnauzer. We had to give him a German name and Jake came up with Kurt Cobark. Mom says it's kind of funny and appropriate because Honey and Daddy Earl had a Schnauzer when she was little named Kurt.

This dog is so spoiled! Did we tell you he has his own jacket and snow boots? He also has a ton of toys and treats. Mom and Dad even let him sleep in their bed at night. He's such a good boy.

He is just a little lap dog who loves to sit with us and have us scratch his belly. Dad is taking him to the vet this morning, so we will be able to tell you how much he weighs and everything later. Kurt can't wait to meet everyone!

First Snow of the Year

We are getting our first real snow as I type. We had a light dusting of snow Sunday morning when we woke up, but it was all gone by 10:00. These pictures are views from Mom's windows at school. Do you think her kids are getting much done today? Not only are they back from break, but they have snow to distract them as well.

It is pretty. To our loyal readers, be sure to check back tomorrow for information on our early Christmas present. Mom and Dad gave us our present early. We got it last Wednesday (the day before Thanksgiving). Check back to see pictures and hear all about it!

Dad Breaks Up A Family

I'm sure you are familiar with the movie Bambi. You know, cute little woodland animals playing and happy until the big, mean hunter takes Bambi's mother out. Well, here is a happy family picture before Sunday morning's bloodbath.

Jake checks out Bambi's father and his uncle, laying dead in Jeremy's truck.

Jake is holding the rack of the one Dad killed. Check out his tongue. Doesn't it make you hungry for a nice, juicy piece of deer meat?

Kenna wants nothing to do with the deer. She realizes that a woodland family has been torn apart.

Just so you know, Dad and Jeremy are not so bad after all. They donated both of these deer to feed the poor.

We Promise...

If we have any loyal readers left, we promise that there will be an "official" post this weekend. We have enjoyed our time off, but need to put our nose back to the grindstone. We will let you know what we've been up to by updating you this weekend.

Technical difficulty

For some reason, we aren't able to upload any pictures on our blog!!!! Mom says she will have to try again or try another computer. We promise that there will be photos soon.

We're back...

After taking the remained of the summer off, we are officially back to our blogging duties. Sorry that we disappointed our loyal followers with our brief vacation. We now accept updating our blog as part of our weekly homework. Anyway, Mom's camera is dead and pictures cannot be uploaded at this time. Mom said she promises to help us put some new photos up this weekend.

The rest of our summer flew by! The highlight of our summer was our photo shoot with a photographer from Iowa. Mom tried for six months to book our pictures. They turned out great! If anyone is ever looking for a great photography, we highly recommend Kathy McCloy. She travels all around the country and may end up in your neck of the woods sometime. Check out her photography website at www.kathymccloy.com. The site also has her calendar and contact information on it. She also has a blog and is much better at updating it than we are. Her blog is www.kathymccloy.typepad.com. Mom will try to post some of our pictures from our session here as well. She is truly worth the money. She spent approximately two hours with us and took about 700 pictures. She then edited those down to 40 some for us to pick from. Of course Mom is a sucker for a good picture and bought all of them (well, the digital negatives).

We finished summer school and had a week of rest time before school started again. We hung out at home all week and celebrated Jake's 10th birthday. Mom baked a cake for our private family party. We also got to go out to eat at Red Lobster for the birthday celebration. Good times.

School is off to a great start. Next week is ISTEP+ and Syd gets to take it for the first time. Jake is trying to see if he can maintain his past record of obtaining pass plus status on both sections. Keep your fingers crossed. Syd's teacher is Ms. Jane Tennis and she is SO FUN! Her room is right across the hall from Mom's and she loves to sing and teach us silly cheers and stuff. Remember Schoolhouse Rocks? Ms. Tennis has taught us a lot of the songs from it. Jake's teacher is Mrs. Susan Pickard again this year. In case you are wondering, no I did not flunk the 3rd grade. Mrs. Pickard loved her whole class (especially me) so much that she looped with us. That means she moved to 4th grade with us. Kenna and Owen have started going to daycare for the first time ever. Grandma said she couldn't watch us anymore. We guess that's what happens when you get old. Miss Donna is our new teacher and we LOVE her. She is Dad's friend Brian's (who he works with) mom. She has had a daycare forever. Dad's friend Gary also takes his little boy Ben to Miss Donna's.

Well, stay tuned for more from the Funkhousers. We promise to be better bloggers.

All We Got Were...

Cookies! At least Auntie E was thoughtful enough to pack these cookies from Josie's reception for us. Believe it or not, but Mom was able to get them through security, in a carry-on, on both of her flights, the car ride home, and to us in one piece. Good job, Mom!
Mom also thought she would torture us with this picture of Henry and Caroline. They got to go to the toy store and play with the life size Lego man. All we got to do is sit around the house with boring, old Dad and go to Grandma's while he worked Colts Camp. Oh, did we mention that the fire department had to come to Grandma's house while we were there on Sunday? Her stove caught on fire while she was trying to bake us brownies. That was the highlight of our weekend.

Cleveland Rocks (except when we aren't there)

Here we are happy because we thought Mom's plane trip to Cleveland would involve us. We were very wrong and very disappointed!
Mom crept out of the house at 6:00 Saturday morning to go see the Holman family. She doesn't look like she misses us very much. We know she was crying on the inside. Nana, Auntie E, and Josie miss us too.
Pretty baby! As Uncle Rob said, "Catholics 1, the Dark Side 0". Welcome to the church, Josephine.
Henry is smiling, but Josie knows we aren't there to celebrate her baptism. This makes her sad. Caroline is starting to figure out that things would be more fun if we were at her house.
Henry finally is missing us. Oh well, we'll see him again soon.

Wheels

It was a great night to show off our wheels. I'm such a big boy (even though I still need training wheels on my ride).
Grandparents, take note. My bike is just on the verge of being too small for me. It is about time for some new wheels.
I got this new bike as an early birthday present from Grandma and Grandpa Funkhouser. Now I just need a new belt so my boxers won't show.
Please, Bucky, can I drive your new car? I don't have a big girl bike, but I would look great behind the wheel of your new Nissan.
Uncle Bucky, you finally made it to our blog! Congratulations on this important accomplishment. We think this is more exciting than any old car!

A side note: Mom is leaving us tomorrow to fly to Cleveland. She thinks going to Auntie E's house for Josie's baptism is more important than spending Saturday and Sunday with us. She promises to take lots of pictures for us and to even post a few on our blog when she returns. Look for an update Monday evening.

4 + 2 Friends = 1 Mom Over the Edge!

How crazy is our Mom? She let Damon and Crimson come over to play after summer school. It made for quite an interesting afternoon. Here they are swimming in the pool with Syd.
I couldn't handle all the Hannah Montana karaoke and splashing, so I hung out on my swing set alone. Smart boy!
Since Mom doesn't let us have friends over very often, I decided to do something I don't do very often as well-- SMILE!
Ooh, nothing like a Popsicle after a hot afternoon of running around like a mad man.
Needless to say, I got a bath after my afternoon snack.

Get In Gwen's Pool!

Thursday after summer school, we went to Mom's friend Gwen's house to swim. She needs our help stirring up the pool because she doesn't get to use it very often. I was more than happy to swim a few laps and do a few cannonballs for her!
I didn't really feel like swimming today. Instead, I enjoyed playing with Gwen's grandkids' toys. Don't tell Jackson and Emerson that I touched their stuff. Boy, Jackson's life jacket is a perfect fit. Mom, can I go off the diving board now?

Please note that there are no pictures of Mom, Gwen, or Mom's other friend Deb in their swimsuits. They did get in the pool and splash around with us though. You also won't see any photos of Jake due to the fact that his swimsuit kept "accidentally" falling off every time he went off the diving board. Poor thing. I guess he needs smaller trunks!

Busy Tuesday

After summer school, we had lunch with Mom's friends at Cheeseburger in Paradise. When we are in 5th grade, we want Mrs. Henry to be our teacher!
Ms. Mains is enjoying our company as well. She got to spend some rare time without Ryan, her precious 2 year old.
Mrs. Massey and Mrs. Glendening were happy to have lunch with us too. Mrs. Massey was enjoying her last lunch with us until she has baby Ethan on Saturday (c-section at 6:30 a.m.). We can't wait to meet him!
After lunch, we picked up Owen and Kenna. We went to see Buddy and swim in his pool.
After we got home, Dad had to put a new alternator on the van (Mom even had to help). Dad was yelling about having to spend $300 he didn't have on a part. He is so handy! Just think how much money he saved on labor.

Work Then Play

After we got home from summer school (well Mom, Jake, and Syd had school and we went to Grandma's), we dug into our toybox and rediscovered some old favorites.
This is almost better than Christmas!
After a rough morning of school, I lounged around all day in the pool.
Dad says that I am going to grow fins. What do you think? Syd the Human Fish has a nice touch.
I just walked the dog. Walking is a great stress relief (especially when Mom is my teacher).

Sneezy Funkhouser

I have been known lately as Sneezy due to my allergies. So I went to Dr. Ponogoti to find the culprit.
Ragweed and grasses and trees, oh my! I'm also allergic to cats and dogs. I guess it could be worse. I have to go back in 6 weeks to see if allergy shots are in my future.

Kenna's Streaking

Shhh! Don't tell Dad, but my clothes are in a pile on the porch. I'm up to no good.
Yup, I am quite an exhibitionist. All the neighbors have seen this naked butt at least once.

Meet the Cousins

This is baby Josephine Elise with Auntie E. Her parents call her Josie.
Meet Miss Caroline Paige. She is a very sassy 2 1/2 year old. Uncle Rob calls her Little Erica.
This is Henry Robert. He is a very independent 5 year old (and quite funny too).

We have had lots of fun playing with our cousins this week. We don't get to see them very often because our mother does not think seven hours in a car with us is very fun (that is without restroom stops, which are a frequent necessity for at least one of us). We're glad they came to stay this week!

Summer vacation (so far...)

Owen loved his coconut bikini top. He was the prettiest boy on the beach.
Kenna didn't follow the pool rules. I think after she fell on her face "don't run" finally sunk in.
Syd loved boogie boarding. Here she is waiting from the balcony to hit the waves again.
Owen wasn't big on the ocean, but he did love the "little water", aka the pool.
Unfortunately, Jake ended up with mom's fair skin. This is what a day in the sun does to him.

We have been out on summer break for 5 weeks now. The first week of break, we spent at home. Then we headed to Florida for a week of sun and fun at our condo. Thanks, Mrs. Hicks, for recommending it to mom. It was great! We haven't done much else yet. Syd did get to go to spend the week with Auntie E, Uncle Rob, and the kids by herself. She got back yesterday evening. Auntie E, Henry, Caroline, and Josie are here for the week visiting. Tonight we went to the fair, but mom forgot her camera. She promises that she will be better about capturing our adventures. We will probably be busy this week entertaining the cousins. Stay tuned to see what else we get to do this summer.