August 30, 2009

A great loss

This week we are headed to Portland. Lance and I just recieved the news of the passing of my sister-in-laws' father who suffered a 3 year battle with Lou Gerigs Disease. His funeral will be this week in Portland so we will pack up our kids and take off. We are going to make a little vacation out of it too. We are meeting up with Lance's parents who will fly up too and we will meet them there.
We are planning to take the kids to the zoo and then spend some time on the coast. Hopefully we can get some family pictures taken there also.
Our thoughts and prayers go out to the Norton family. May the Lord bless you in this time of great loss. We love you all! We will see you in Portland.

August 27, 2009

Laney's

I had to post this picture because they were so cute. This is my sister Rachel, her husband Jason and their sweet little girl Ava whom we tagged along with at the fair. Aren't they the cutest family?



Oh Rachel, by the way, I changed the song just for you!

August 24, 2009

Idaho State Fair

Each year we have started the tradition of taking our children to the State Fair. Even though it is expensive, full of weird people and incredible food we packed up our kids and took them this evening because today was family day at the fair, which meant that there was no smoking or drinking allowed inside the fair. My sister Rachel and her family met us there. My father came along with us and we are so glad he did. He was so fun to have around. We really enjoy being with grandpa.



The boys had a great time riding on all the rides that they could. It was so much fun to watch them get so excited over the little rides. We heard them laugh and saw them smile from ear to ear all night tonight. It was worth every penny we spent.







Lance and I took turns going on some of the rides with them. Most of the rides they were too short to go on but if they had an adult accompany them then it was ok. So we spent most of our time in the kiddie section where all the rides were just their size. They loved it!






The food was great! We ate too much. The boys ate too much, but oh well, you only eat it once a year. My dad treated us to anything we wanted so we got pronto pups (deep fried corn dogs), swirly fries (my favorite) and some sno cones. It was soooo good. Thanks dad! We loved it!
Then we headed to the petting zoo. My boys have always loved that. You can buy a small cup of oats to feed all the animals. They wouldn't do it last year but this year they did. It was so much fun to watch them. Keaton kind of hung back in the begining but then he started to warm up to the animals. Andrew, well he just had so much fun and he loved it when they licked the oats off his hands because it tickled the palms of his hands. He had the cutest laugh.








Owen was such a trooper the whole evening. It was kind of warm, so we just put him in his onsie and he was happy as a clam just sucking on his blanket. He loved looking at the animals too. I was so happy that he did so well. He is getting so big.







This year was a great year and we look forward to next year. I have always loved going to the fair. I am not sure if it is the creepy people I love to watch, the drunken carnies that we entrust our lives with once we step into those rides or if it is the great entertainment and food that is there. I love the Fair. It was a lot of fun. Thanks to my family who came with us.

Definitions

Someone in church yesterday asked me how I would define my children. I have thought about it and this is what I came up with.







So how would you describe your children in one word?

August 20, 2009

Obession

This is what it has become ~ an obession with each other. Wherever Owen is, there you will find Andrew also. Andrew just can't seem to leave him alone. I am ok with that but when it starts getting to the point where Owen can't breath or he is laying on top of him, they are always together. Andrew loves Owen adn it is so plain to see. I was worried about Andrew for awhile when Owen was born but not anymore.





Andrew is always there to hug him, kiss him, hit him and just talk to him. It has been so much fun watching them interact with each other. This afternon I caught them on camera and I just had to post it.
Obessions can be a good thing, in our case it is. I am so thankful that my boys love each other. I LOVE my children!

A picnic with our friends

That's exactly what it was. A picnic with Elijah and Kaleb. They are my children's new best friends that live near us. They recently moved from California and my boys just LOVE these two. Yesterday they came over to our home to play. They were so enteratined throwing rocks into the canal that is behind our home and just running and getting dirty. Being boys is what I like to call it.
For lunch we sat their little table out in our yard and they had some lunch. They had so much fun being together. I just loved watching them. They were all so sweet and got along just fine. Good friends are such a blessing, especially to my boys.



August 17, 2009

The Ingrams

My counsin Jennifer and her sweet family are in town for a few weeks so we took some family shots of them. They're children were so sweet. Hunter was a little more dificult to catch sitting still but little Savannah was just the sweetest to work with. This family really loves each other. You could just see it in their eyes. Jennifer and Brad are so in love with each other. It was nice to see that in a couple. Thanks guys!













August 14, 2009

A day at the park

The weather has been really nice around here lately so yesterday we ventered out into Emmett to see some family. My Aunt and Uncle's back yard backs up to an Elementary school so we walked down to the school to let them run wild and free. These were too cute not to post so here are some pictures from our day of playing...







August 11, 2009

The Harris Family

I have been taking more and more photos since I mentioned that I was willing to take anyone's pictures for free right now. My good friend Josh, whom I have known since high school and kept in touch with, his wife voluntered their family. We had so much fun. Their little boy Tyler is so cute! He was such a sport. Thanks Terri and Josh, it was so sweet to be with your family. Here is a sneak peak of what we did....















If you would like to schedule a time to get some pictures taken, just please leave me a comment with your phone number or an email and we will set something up. I am still doing it free of charge, until I can get good at this. Lets have some serious fun!

August 9, 2009

A weird year camping

Every year my family plans a huge family camp trip up to Stanley Lake. It is the most sought out campting spot in Idaho. We have lake front property on Stanley Lake and a beach all to ourselves. We love it! Every year has been great! No mosquitos, no bears, wolves no nothing, just amazing. This year we had a week of nothing but cold, cold weather and rain nonstop.
Lance and I left first thing on Friday morning to spend the weekend. It was crummy weather the day we left and we were crossing our fingers that the weather would be great until we got a phone call from my mom telling us to prepare and pack for cold weather. The mountain tips of Stanley were covered in snow and a camp site was becoming its own private lake.
We got up there and it was cold and raining, but we were happy to see everyone. Our boys hopefully missed us. They looked like they were having fun. They were all huddled in my uncle's camper watching Monster's Inc. when we got there settling down for an afternoon nap.
This is going to be long so here is our weekend summed up in a few lines:

-it rained every day nonstop. Usually the clouds give and take a little but no, this rain did not stop once. I have never seen it rain like that in Boise or the surrounding areas
-tornado warnings flashing across the news
-nickle size hail
-12 people crammed into a camper. Luckily this camper was really nice and much bigger so we could fit nicely but after a while you wonder why you are spending time up in the mountains when all you can do is sit and watch a movie. Whats the use?
-one sleepless night. We are all used to a noise maker when we sleep and no one else liked them so we had to turn them off. I couldn't sleep. I slept by the babe so I could hear his every little sound. I hated it!
-great meals! My mom plans really well and is the camp chef. We eat better camping then we do at home
-kids that get really really car sick. Holding Andrew's head out the window while we are drivng because there is no where to stop, thus causing barf to splatter against the side of our car. Barf all over him, me and our car. When we pulled up to the hot springs where we were going swimming, everyone looked at our car and laughed.
-using a whole package of wet wipes to clean my car off
-after two days we called it quits and came home.
-No more car sickness. All our boys slept on the way home. It is about a 2 hour drive throug windy roads. I get really car sick so I do the driving.

So there you have it. I didn't get many pictures taken since it was raining and we were just not in the picture taking mood but I did manage to get a few taken. Overall it was ok. We didn't get out much and we couldn't take our boys to do all the fun things we talked up the week before. Hopefully next year will be a better year. The rest of the clan decided to stay up there until Monday afternoon and they are already starting to see warmer weather up there. We just ended up going up at the wrong time. But the boys had a blast playing with cousins and just do something we normally don't do. It was nice to get out! Owen did really well. Just slept and ate most of the time, which was fine by me. I didn't do anything fun with our pictures. Maybe when I have some time to do it I will, but enjoy them!







August 6, 2009

Just one child and Stanley Lake

I can't remember what it felt like to have only one child at home. Now, today I do. It is awesome!

My family goes up to Stanely Lake every year for a week and this happens to be the week. Lance and I can't leave until tomorrow morning and my sister Rachel was taking her daughter Ava up today. Well on their way up they stopped by to get a few things at our home. My boys were so persistant on her taking them that she told me that she could take Keaton. So we packed him up and got him all ready. When Andrew saw that he was staying behind, he cried and cried. I have never seen a little guy look so sad in all my life. We both felt bad and my sister told Andrew to hop in too. So they both left this morning. Now it is just Owen and I. I am loving this free time.
My mom and her side of the family are already up there enjoying the lake. We can't wait. This has been a family tradition ever since I can remember. I just hope that Owen will do well. We get to sleep in my Uncle's amazing camper that he took up so that should help with the night time. I will post pictures when we get back.
Enjoy the cooler weather!
This was us last year at Stanley Lake