So I had to veer away from the Thankful posts for a minute...sorry Mom. :)

In case I don't get back to them, yes, I am thankful for you and all you do for me. xoxoxo

BUT...I just had to share this...I got the Pottery Barn holiday catalog a few weeks ago and immediately tore this picture out and hung it on my fridge.

I was THAT in love with the picture.
Not sure why this is labeled 2009, but who cares.

This is my happy place on this UGLY Pacific Northwest Day.

Someday my front porch will look like this...fake snow and all :)

Enjoy!

Still Thankful

Yep, still thankful for this guy.

Poor thing, after 20 years of taking care of us, this

is usually where we find him in his

spare time.

One of the hardest working people I have

ever met.

Great Dad.

Great friend.

Love this guy.

November Thankfulness

I am seeing a trend in blogger world this month...

What are we thankful for?

Why don't I jump on the bandwagon and do my best

to see how many times this month I can post

about what I am thankful for?

Hey, not promising too much...I can't seem to stay

at my computer for very long these days

before someone/something pulls me away,

but I will give it my best shot!

I will start with something easy and obvious, I think!

Even though these three cause me to wonder on a daily (OK, hourly) basis if

I am sane or not, I cannot imagine my life without them. REALLY.

They make me laugh, cry, grumble, growl, smile and be proud.

Emphasis on that last part. REALLY.

They all have their own strengths and weaknesses, and they are

becoming their own "selves" on a daily basis.

They don't "need" me as much as they used to for most things,

but I think I can say that deep down, they kinda like me.

I am trying to embrace this new phase of motherhood,

and trying not to be sad that they are inching out the door SO fast.

But, being their mother has been the BEST job a girl could ask for.

THEY ROCK.


Today, I am thankful for these guys:







Love you guys!

Catch Up

Wow, it HAS been a really long time and I am a little behind on this whole blog thing. Ooops. So, just for my mom, here is an update.
First, I forgot to mention County Fair.

Both boys did really well with all of their projects. Poultry went good for Justin, but Jared ended up NOT showing his chicken...uh, due to it's untimely death the day before. Seems the trip to the fair did not set kindly with her and she decided it was time to go to chicken heaven. We were sad to see her go, but her and her lovely sister were great starter 4-H projects for Jared for the last few years, and quite frankly we were expecting them to exit alot sooner this this! AND, he was happy to not have to show...poultry has never been one of his favorite project areas!


Rabbits went fairly well this year too, the boys both got blue ribbons for their market pens and got good prices at the auction. Justin did well in showmanship and conformation with his little bunny, and Jared did great in showmanship....but conformation was an intersting time! Now that I think about it, Jared seem to have one mishap after another this year. :) When it came time for showmanship, the judge took a look at his bunny and asked him whether it was a buck or a doe...he replied buck, as that was what he thought (and bought)...she proceeded to let him know that she couldn't tell whether it was a buck OR a doe!!!! GREAT. We all got a good laugh, and now we have another pet to feed. :( Actually, hopefully his 4-H leader will replace it with a rabbit that IS a buck or a doe...NOT both! STRANGE.

All in all, a good time, with great weather. The boys are excited to try their hand at the pig project next year.

September arrived and school began with a bang.

Little dude, first day:

Middle dude, first day:

Oldest dude, first day: Haven't tackled him for the obligatory picture yet. Stay tuned.

We are off and running with school activities and busy, busy, busy. AND, fighting our first colds of the season. Bleh.

3 Rivers 2011

After fair was over, we hopped in the buggy and headed to 3 Rivers, which did not

disappoint this year with questionable weather.

No sir, we sweated the WHOLE time.

Yay!

You never know about dear Central Oregon, she can be a little testy at times,

but this year, she gave us a good show.

We spent almost the entire time on the boat, which is always fun.

Jeremiah and Desiree got some skiing in, and all three boys spent time
on the tube.

We also spent a considerable amount of time in the swimming
area...laughing and jumping and throwing mud, etc.

When we weren't down at the lake, we up at our place STILL swimming,
thanks to Gma, who hired the water guy to come and fill the pool

from home! FREEZING, but FUN.



We all ate our weight in marshmallows and chocolate.
AND, did some rousing Karoke, thanks to Angelia and James.


So, until next year, Central Oregon...
We thank you for your sunny days, lizards and rattlesnakes, cold lakes and gorgeous skys.

Soooo....Have you seen it?

OK, have YOU seen it?

Have you READ it?

Don't wait.

Read it in a little over two days. Major page turner that may or may not have caused me to ignore many household chores.

I have now seen the movie twice. Yes, twice. And I will definitely

buy it when it comes out.

I found myself aching at the injustice that these women experienced...racism and segregation are still a mystery to me. Just don't understand them at all.

And, having grown up here in a small Pacific NW town, I have never experienced the normalcy of having "Help" like those in the South.

I just can't imagine treating another human like that.

This author has a bright future. I hope she continues to write stories just as good as this one. I love books that I can walk away from changed.

Thought I would share a tidbit of a review I read. It says the purpose of the book perfectly. These women had so much courage. Something I lack sometimes...well, alot of the time.

Courage creates change.

Courage changes lives.

Courage causes the very reason God created us to come forth and causes fear to take the back seat.

Sometimes we have to be willing to lose everything to discover the reason He created us.

Sometimes (a lot of times) friends will not agree with the thing that you are called to do. Do it anyway.

GO SEE IT!

READ IT!

Shootin' match.

Well, Saturday was the big shooting competition for County Fair this year.

It's quite organized and a little boring to watch (sorry boys), but all in all a fun event to participate in.

The boys both shoot BB Gun, and Justin does Archery as well.

They have to shoot in 3 positions...standing, laying down (Uh, I think there is a fancy word for that, just not sure what it is), and kneeling.

From what I gathered, neither of the boys prefer this kneeling position...a little awkward they say.

They both did well, and I think they look so grown up with GUNS in their hands...even if they are just BB guns.
They just look so man-ish.

And, VERY at home...they are ALL boy.

I had to laugh at the Bow...it was almost as big as Justin!

Can't wait to get the results and see how they did!

My BABY.

My little man turned 7.
So much "grown up" packed in such a little body.

We celebrated 4th of July style..poor guy....his

birthday will forever be linked with that holiday!

Oh well, at least its a fun one!

There were only two things he REALLY wanted.

ONE: "big boy" Nintendo DS...we were officially DONE with the VTech "little kid" DS.

TWO: Transformers. Child has now developed an attachment to them...not sure where that came from. The other boys never wanted anything to do with them!

Both goals were met, much to his relief! And, he got plenty of games to play on his "big boy" DS, such that we shouldn't have to bug big brothers for games to play for quite awhile...in fact, I heard middle brother actually asking to borrow one of HIS games to play. Thankfully, he was in a sharing mood. :)


Hilarious Transformer side note: Birthday boy had a meltdown after opening"Optimus Prime" because he in no way could figure out how to get the darn thing to "transform"!!

Thank goodness for a certain party guest who actually sat at the kitchen table for an HOUR and read the directions and figured it out. WOW. No toy should be that involved. Oh well, now, a week later, the transformation takes seconds. Phew.
Bring on the FIRE!
HaPpY BiRtHdAY little man!

We love you SOOOO much and you are growing up WAY to fast. May year #7 and 2nd grade be the bestest ever.

xoxoxoxo

Momma

Cousins are SO cool

We had a wee bit of cousin fun this last week, in addition to celebrating the 4th...

A small portion of our family from Missouri visited this last week, and it was great to catch up with them. I always enjoy visiting and hearing about all of the happenings in that neck of the woods. It's also VERY gratifying to compare parenting/relationship notes and find out that you are not crazy/overprotective/under disciplining/heartless/psychotic ....really...we are just mothers and wives trying to do the very best we can. :)

We took a day trip to the Coast, which was great! Lunch at Mo's on the waterfront and a trip to the Aquarium, followed up by the kids soaking themselves in the frigid Pacific and Ice Cream at the naked Mermaid place...otherwise known as Eleanor's Undertow. If you have not been there, it has marvelous Ice Cream, but they seriously need to rethink their decor. Uh, just a clue for the people that run that establishment....mermaids are WONDERFUL, but really, could you just display the DRESSED ones? From the mother of three boys....PLEASE. :) We have been going there since the boys were little, but let's just say that they are starting to NOTICE those naked mermaids!!!!

Brrrr!

This picture cracks me up...two 7-year-olds absolutely EXHAUSTED. LoVe. IT.

The 4th was spent at the family picnic, followed by more food at home, followed by a marvelous firework show put on by hubs, courtesy of Wal-Mart.

Late night jumping on the trampoline...just in case they were NOT already tired!

All in all...AWESOME cousin fun. So glad we were able to catch up!

Now, to make our plans to go see them next summer! CAN'T wait!

Misc. June Fun

We strung out the fun in the month of June.

Two trips back to back was a little exhausting, but worth it.

We started with some serious guy time on the bikes in Eastern Oregon.

My job was to cook, clean up what was eaten, pick up sweaty, gag-inducing gear and help find various lost items at record speed before anybody got left behind. What did I say...I wouldn't have time to ride even if I wanted to...it takes WAY to long to get everyone else ready. Pit Mom.

We had a great time with some really nice people and this is such a well run event. I love how they really make time for the kiddos and to see all of the Dads and sons out enjoying this hobby together...well, it almost makes me tear up. I'm such a sucker for boys and their Dads.
It also happened to be Father's Day weekend, so we celebrated while we were there. The boys filled out "All about My Dad" posters...hilarious that between Jareds and Travis' Jeremiah lost about 50 pounds but grew a few inches! Travis also claims that Dads favorite show is Transformers and that his favorite food is Top Ramen...hmmm...I am guessing that he was thinking of....himself. Too cute.

As soon as we got home, I had to unload the laundry and tackle it, because we left for the beach just a few days later. My washer was NOT happy.

We were totally blessed to have three days of AMAZING weather (for the Oregon Coast)...AND, the Kite Festival was going on, so we got some really cool shots of the kites.

The little two got some hot tubbing in...put the water smelled really WEIRD, so consequently, so did they when they got out...HOT showers and much soap seemed to cure that.

We went through about a gajillion Saltines on the deck railing, most of which were swallowed whole by the local seagulls...that was strange....then they started stalking the house, waiting for more. Kinda creepy.

We played lots of games, and sat around alot, which was nice. We did do some playing on the beach as well....MAN oh MAN is the Oregon Coast windy.

SO, now that exhausing June is over, we can focus on July, which really has nothing on the calendar. YAY! We have one short weekend trip planned and thats it for now...besides some fun company coming and celebrating Trav's 7th bday...can't forget THAT.
He is growing up WAY to fast.