Who Doesn't Love the Fair?

We promised the boys we'd take them to the fair, so we went this Saturday...and what beautiful weather we had! We got there first thing in the morning, so it wasn't crowded at all. Here are some pictures of the day!

They were both afraid of a cute little piglet!

Coop kept calling all the rabbits "little guy"...it was hilarious!

Not afraid of a HUGE python, but afraid of a little piglet?

This dude clearly wanted out of his case

Hunter thought this was a tad bit boring, but he rode with Coop anyway.

Daddy & Coop on the airplanes! Hunter chose the pretty pink one in front of them...he got made fun of for that :)

I rode with Hunter on the Wacky Worm...

...and Coop rode with Dave! Coop had his hands in the air the ENTIRE time! It was too funny!

Be sure to scroll down and take a look at what we did on Sunday...another really fun day!

Football at Grandma & Papa's

Sunday we went out to Dave's mom's house after church to help her celebrate a big birthday. I cannot say how old she was, I don't want her to get mad at me :) We all had a lot of fun. We wore our Seahawks jerseys (even though they didn't have a game), which inspired a touch football game in the yard. Dave's team won. He picked all the kids to be on his team; our nephews Taylor and Rykker, and Hunter. Coop couldn't decide whose team he wanted to be on, so he was occassionally on his daddy's team but mostly on Uncle James' team. I love how he's lining up in the above picture - he looks like he's a real linebacker! The ladies went out and cheered them on, and laughed our heads off. Dave and his brothers are extremely competitive (go figure)! They have been known to play football in the sunny, rainy, windy and even snowy weather. I'm sure they'll be out there on Christmas wearing their coats, boots and stocking hats!

Scrapbooking Fever!

My best bud, Katy, plans a scrapbooking weekend every year at her grandparents' cabin. And it is coming up in just a couple of weeks! Yay! But in all the excitement that comes along with this, also comes a sinking feeling of where to begin...again.

Everyone who knows me knows that I love to scrapbook. Sadly, though, I haven't done it for TWO years! (Last year I couldn't go to the cabin because we were headed to Hawaii the very next weekend, and I couldn't bear to leave the boys). So I've begun to drag out all my stuff, trying to get organized. I took out all of the paper that is outdated or that I know I'll never use, and I found A LOT of things that people have bought me for Christmas that I forgot I even had, so that's been fun. Then yesterday I took out my albums to find out where I left off. And I was shocked to find that I am only through May of 2006! That isn't even to Coop's 1st birthday! So now I feel whiney and sad because I've got so much work to do, but the really sad thing is that I'm afraid if I get those pictures developed from 2006 and 2007, I won't remember where we were or what we were doing! (My memory is fading, folks - sad but true :)

So I've decided that I'll do Coop's 1st birthday pictures first, then I'm going to do this entire year - starting with Hunter's 6th birthday party. If I have time (I just might because I plan to stay up VERY late), I'll go back and do the rest. That's the plan people. Let's just hope I can get those creative juices flowing and bust out some good pages. I'm determined to get caught up! I can't wait for scrapbooking weekend!

Meet Kora

This beautiful little girl is Kora. I am babysitting her this school year! Her mom is a friend from when I used to work at the middle school, and she was in a jam so I said I'd help her out. And I am so glad I did! It took some adjusting - we haven't had a baby around here for a long time, let alone a girl baby! But Kora is such a sweet little girl. She is smiley and good-natured and lots of fun.

The boys ADORE her! Every morning Coop wakes up and says, "Towa coming today mommy?" When I say no (she doesn't come Fridays), he gets mad at me. Hunter is so good with her. He is very quiet and gentle and loving toward her. He is very careful to not be too loud or move around too quickly so he doesn't scare her. He is just a very considerate little guy for only being six years old. Anyway, just had to share these pictures with you all. Meet my Monday thru Thursday 7:00 AM to 3:00 PM daughter!

I Must Be Nuts

I just had to sit down and take a break. And vent to all of my closest buddies about how stupid I am for having a yard sale tomorrow. Oh believe me, if half my garage wasn't being taken over by all of this junk, I WOULDN"T be having a yard sale, but I can barely fit my Durango in there, so it's time. I have been pricing stuff every day for 5 days! I have used over 800 little yard sale pricey sticker thingy's. My whole left arm is asleep. Okay, that's neither here nor there, but you get the picture...I'm TIRED & CRABBY.

While Hunter was at school, Coop & I ran around and got change, a permit, and poster board to make signs. I filled my entire Durango up with stuff that's already been priced, and we'll probably fill up the entire truck, too. Thank goodness my mom has agreed to let the yard sale be at her house. She is much more cool, calm and collected about these kinds of things than I am.

On a more positive and sentimental note, it has been bittersweet to go through some of the baby clothes. With each outfit I've priced, I could actually hold it up and SEE my kids in it - way back when, when they were teeny little guys. I can remember who bought it for them and everything. Some things I have looked at and thought, "Okay, I cannot let this go." So I've started a little pile in the corner of my bedroom of things that I can't sell. Each of those things had such strong memories to go along with them that I simply could never imagine letting someone else buy them for a quarter.

So I'm hoping, after I've had this little break, that I can finish all of my pricing. I hope I have time to go through my kids' toys and clean some of them up to sell. I'll let them keep the money for those things, of course! That way they won't cry and scream when they see some kid carrying it away tomorrow. :) And I'm hoping that my garage will be nice and clean and straightened up now that those things will be out of there. Oh, who am I kidding? We'll just find some other junk to throw in there in about a week, I'll bet! I know I'll be able to get to my exercise bike now! I don't quite know if that's a good or a bad thing.

I'll let you know how much I make! Wish me luck!

PS: This is my new favorite song by tobyMac...I love the line that says, "I'd rather burn for You than fade away, I'd rather burn for You than go my way." AMEN!

Ash's New Adventure

My baby sis just got a great new job doing payroll for a brand new Costco opening up in a few weeks. Too bad it's in POCATELLO, IDAHO! Mom and Dad moved her there on Friday, got her settled and came home yesterday. They said it takes about 8 hours to get there.


That's pretty far away!

We are so proud of her, though. She was hand-picked by the guy who'll be the manager, which says a lot about what he thinks of her. We know she'll enjoy her work and do a great job. It will be hard not to see her at holidays and things like that, but we're trying to plan a little trip over there sometime very soon. She's only about two hours away from Yellowstone, so we'll definitely go there, too.
But for now, we're just praying she has fun, adjusts to life in a different city, and meets lots and lots of great people! (And if I say the word 'great' again, please shoot me :)

Here are Ash and Kris

"Always my sisters, forever my friends"

Soccer Season Starts with a Bang!

Well, we know what we'll be doing every Thursday night for the next 5 weeks - SOCCER! We kicked off the season this past Thursday with a "win" over Prosser. I know we're not supposed to keep score, but PLEASE...do you know who you're talking to here? I'm only the loudest, most competitive mom on the planet!

It was a long day, start to finish. We had a little trouble getting to school on time because...well I don't remember why, I just remember we barely made it. Then Hunter had a dentist appointment that afternoon, which Dave took him to. I found out WAY later that he did great! No crying or whining, Hunter just bucked-up and took it like a man. (It was only a cleaning, but if you only knew what we've gone through during prior appointments...)

Anyway, Dave & Hunter never came home! I kept thinking, "Oh boy, he's really giving it to them this time. I'm sure glad Dave took him and not me." Finally, about 20 minutes before the game was supposed to start, I called Dave and asked him if he knew Hunter had his first game. And guess where those two were...Mabton! Dave had taken Hunter there to finish up a job he'd started earlier that day. Can you say ANNOYED?

Okay, so I hung up the phone and realized, "Oh crap - I have the snacks for tonight, but no drinks! I'll just call Dave back and tell him to meet me there." I quickly changed Coop's clothes, and ran to the bathroom to put a little hairspray in my frizzled hair, and I heard a dripping sound. I turned to my right and realized the toilet was overflowing! And no one had used that bathroom for like, 3 hours! Can you say FREAKING OUT?

I quickly mopped up that mess and then I heard a crash outside. Then another crash. I ran to the window to find our neighbor boy and about 20 friends all gathered in the street. Apparently there had been some sort of accident but they were all laughing and it wasn't life threatening, so I ran back inside to gather all of our junk for the game. Meanwhile, in walk Hunter and Dave, non-chalantly, as if they have all day to get ready. It is now game time. And I still have no drinks. But hey, we may not even make it there, so...whatever.

Dave dropped Hunter & I off at the field and he and Coop ran to Safeway to get the drinks. The game hadn't even started yet because we didn't have enough players. I don't know, maybe everyone's toilet had overflowed at that same exact time? But the very BEST part of the day was this: Hunter scored not 1, not 2, not even 3, but FIVE goals! We were absolutely shocked! He was aggressive, he went after the ball, and he was the star of the game! His coach and teammates even dog-piled him afterwards, which I sadly didn't get a picture of. We had snacks, we had drinks, and our family went to Dairy Queen for dinner and ice cream.



All of that trouble during the day did not even compare to the joy and pride I felt while watching Hunter excel in soccer - something he is not all too familiar with. AND knowing he'd done a great job at the dentist - wow! He really is growing up! I thank God EVERY DAY for my two awesome sons and my wonderful husband...life is good.

A (Literally) Lost Tooth

About a month ago my sister Kristal looked into Hunter's mouth and said, "Have you noticed Hunter has this tooth coming in?" WHAT?

Yup - one of Hunter's permanent bottom teeth was coming in, but the one in front of it wasn't loose yet! So he started wiggling. And wiggling. And wiggling. Then on Saturday at the softball fields Dave asked to see it, but instead sneakily stuck his finger in and pulled it down really hard.

So there the tooth was... hanging there by a thread and bleeding. But Hunter wouldn't pull it out. ALL of our softball friends were saying, "C'mon, Hunter! Just pull it out! You can do it!" So he sat down and tried, but he couldn't bring himself to do it. He just didn't know exactly what to do...it was his first loose tooth, after all! Anyway, he ran around for awhile, playing with his little friends during Dave's last game and all of a sudden he comes running over to me, opens his mouth and grunts. The tooth was gone!

"Oh my gosh, Hunter, you're tooth's gone! Did you pull it out?" I asked, thinking he had it in his hand. But his eyes were full of tears and he cried, "I LOST it!" So all that running around and it just fell out...he'd lost his first tooth...literally. But apparently the tooth fairy doesn't need an actual tooth to bring money, because she left $7.00 under Hunter's pillow that night! Plus, the Papa & Nana tooth fairies brought Hunter a $10.00 check! Also, the pitcher from Dave's team, our dear friend Paul, gave Hunter a $5.00 bill after the game!

So all in all this first lost tooth has been worth $22.00. Now I'm wondering what the next one will be worth...