Field Trip Fun!

Last Wednesday, Hunter's class went on a field trip to the Children's Museum and Howard Amon Park in Richland. I offered to chaperone, but got to thinking that Cooper would probably like to go too, so he and I just drove up and joined in on the fun. It was a super day!

Katy, Cole, Joey, Eli and Faith met us there for lunch, too! Gracie was at school, but we missed her. :) Hunter and Cooper were so happy to see those guys, that they just played and played the whole time, and Hunter hardly even played with anyone from his class! The weather was absolutely perfect - not too hot, not too cold. All in all, it was a really great day, and we were so pleased to be able to spend time with our good friends, The Isley's! We can't wait 'til school's out so we can do all kinds of fun stuff with them whenever we want!

Hunter on the zip-line - so fun!


Coley, Coop, JoJo and Hunter - best pals!

Mother's Day Moments...

Okay, this may come as quite a shock to some of you, but to most of you who know me - you will laugh in agreement that this statement I am making about myself is true: I love days that celebrate...me. Namely, Mother's Day and my birthday - which this year just happen to be two days apart. Tomorrow we will celebrate my 31st birthday, but this post is about the wonderful Mother's Day I spent with my beloved family yesterday. It was one of the best, funnest days EVER!

First, I just have to brag about what my hubby did for me on Saturday. I spent all day at church having a fabulous ladies' retreat day with a bunch of really fun women. And boy, did he and the boys have some surprises for me when I got home that night - a beautiful new ceiling fan installed in the living room and a huge new patio umbrella on the deck! (Our old one had gotten broken last week during a wind storm). I'm tellin' ya...Dave out-does himself EVERY YEAR!!

Then on Sunday morning, I got some really sweet homemade cards from the boys and a Target gift card! I am so spoiled, it's not even funny. :)

Sunday morning, we took Dave's mom and family out to breakfast. We had a really fun time together and ate some really yummy food. Even the boys ate a little, which was a plus because I didn't have to yell at them on Mother's Day...or at least not at that moment, haha! We got to see them all again that night, when we went over to their house for ribs and baked potatoes! Everyone was laughing at me when I told them I'd never eaten ribs before. Seriously! And they were sooooooo good! I made such a mess! :)

Between breakfast and dinner, we went to church, and were uplifted and encouraged by Pastor Paul's great sermon on moms. Then we enjoyed a barbeque with my parents and a whole bunch of family and friends. The day just couldn't have been any better - well it could have if Ash could have been there! (Plus, mom made me a birthday cake, and we all know how excited that made me - LOLOLOL!) Oh, and Cooper gave me a mother's day head-butt and split my lip open when I was chewing him out for throwing a fit...now that is one Mother's Day moment I'll never forget!

I adore these women - my Aunt Marci, my Mama, and my Nana.

It has lately become impossible to take a nice family picture...someone either has their eyes closed or is picking their nose!

I sincerely hope all of you who are moms had a wonderful day full of blessings and laughter!

Mariners and Funland...You Can't Get Much Better Than That!

"Am I gonna get an Ichiro Bobblehead, mama?" Imagine that being asked about a million times, and try to guess which one of my children was asking this the entire way to Seattle. Yup, it was my sweet Cooper - he is Ichiro's biggest fan, didn't you know? Haha!

We really enjoyed ourselves last Friday and Saturday, and the boys were very well-behaved the whole time, which was wonderful. The weather couldn't have been any nicer, and we all came home feeling happy and joyful. (Except for poor Hunter, who was enduring some pretty nasty coughing and an earache).

The game was one of the best the M's have played this season. It didn't start out very good, but they had a big inning in the 5th, and ended up winning! We had great seats and pleasant fans around us - no one with stinky garlic fries and no one drinking too much alcohol. Coop even managed to get some peanuts from the guy behind us and some cotton candy from the lady to the left of us. He just said, "Hey, I want some of that!", and they just handed it over...the kid is too stinkin' cute, that's the problem. Haha!

We spent the night with our friends, Lee & Pam, and then went over to Funland and had the best time. Go Karts, Bumper Boats, mini golf and lots of arcade games. We were there for about 3 hours and were going, going, going the whole time. Everyone was ready to come home, though, because when the tokens finally ran out we didn't even hear any complaints, which doesn't happen very often. :) We'll definitely be going back there...in the summer when we can actually shoot water at people while we're in the Bumper Boats!

Hunter was excited until he realized he couldn't drive his own car, then his smile turned into a frown...

Handsome Coop and Handsome Daddy...

We tried to go fast, but I had it floored and it wasn't fast enough...we were passed by several teenagers, much to Hunter's embarrassment!

Hooray! Finally something Hunter could do without an adult!

Our Easter Celebration

Well, Easter Sunday could not have been any better. I am especially thankful for the awesome music and message during our church service! I am getting goosebumps just thinking about it! Knowing Jesus was beaten and put on the cross for ME...now that is pretty humbling. Saying I'm thankful doesn't even begin to express my gratitude. And just imagining the stone being rolled away to reveal an empty tomb?! How amazing and wonderfully exciting! So thank you, Dana, and Pastor Paul for a really encouraging and uplifting service. My entire family appreciated it. :)

Sunday morning brought both excitement and chaos to our house. Hunter was up especially early, and ran out to the living room to see what had been put in his basket. He kept running into our room and telling us what he got. Dave and I were half asleep, and informed Hunter he'd better not wake Cooper up...it's not every day that Coop sleeps past 7:00 AM! When Coop finally did wake up around 8:00 and asked if it was "Easter Bunny Day" for the billionth day in a row, and we said "yes", he ran out to find...his basket had totally been emptied by his big brother! Hunter had not only looted through his own basket, but taken everything out of Coop's basket, too! He got a little talking-to, and then proceeded to look like this the rest of the morning. You'll notice his lack of enthusiasm...

At least someone's happy!

As usual, we forgot to have someone take a picture of all of us, so we just have these. Remember to click on the collages and they'll get a lot bigger.



BBQ lunch and easter egg hunting in Uncle Dan and Aunt Angie's awesome yard!

Cloudy skies could not stop these kids! Jenae, Jace, Hunter and Coop made a haul! Poor Trey slept through the whole thing....he was one tired little guy! After that we went over to visit with Dave's family for a bit. The kids played the Wii and ate more candy. :)

We are so blessed to have families who love and care for us. We look forward to big holidays like this because we know we'll see family and have good food and a lot of laughs. What a great reason to celebrate - Resurrection Sunday! Thank you, Jesus...for loving us the way you do...

Backyard Blues

Well, I have been wracking my brain trying to think of a blog-worthy event to post about. It has been a LONG time! We had an uneventful spring break, and I haven't taken any pictures of anything for ages. But THIS...THIS is something I can blog about. It doesn't have anything to do with my kids, though, which is kinda wierd!

Some of you may remember the problems we had in our backyard last summer. It had to do with irrigation pipes getting plugged up in the back corner of our yard and causing some pretty horrendous flooding. Not to mention, we had it turned completely off and the people who use it and need it were upset! (It is important to note that we pay for irrigation water, but we don't get to use it - we water with city water). After contacting the city and the irrigation district, no one would claim responsibility, so some nice men who actually need the water decided to come into our yard and fix the problem....or so we all thought!

Two days ago, the irrigation water was turned on and we had flooding! Again! Only this time the nice men came back and found the entire line in our yard was being plugged up by tree roots. They brought in a little tractor and dug up the entire line and are in the process of replacing the whole thing - all the way across the back fence, and down the right side of our yard.

I am not complaining. It is a little inconvenient that our boys can't play out there right now (especially since the weather has been so nice), but we are really thankful that these men have been so diligent and kind about fixing the problem. They understand it's not our fault our house was built over these crazy irrigation lines, and they are just doing what they have to do to get the problem fixed so that they can water their cherries! They have even offered to replace our torn-up grass with brand new sod. We thought that was very generous.

Tonight is Hunter's first soccer game of the season. We'll be doing soccer every Thursday for six weeks. We're all super excited! Spring soccer weather can be a bit crazy, but it's great to just get out and do something after being cooped up in the house all winter.

I promise to be a better blogger, for those of you who enjoy keeping up with what we're up to. Tune in Monday for Easter pictures!

Two Black Eyes and the Flu

Okay, so this morning Hunter woke up with his left eye all puffed up...nearly swollen shut! I'd noticed all weekend that it was a little red, but this was waaaaayyy worse. I didn't think to take a picture, I just grabbed our antibiotic eye drops (it also happened in July, so we had medicine) and have been putting them in every three hours. After the first drops at 8:00 AM, the puffiness went considerably down! Now as I write this, it actually looks pretty good, but Dave just called me over and told me to look at the white part of Hunter's eyeball, which has a huge scratch on it...Coop probably scratched him. Ugh! Anyway, I just took a picture of his eye. You can tell it's swollen on the top lid and underneath, too. We'll continue to put the drops in for a few days - hopefully the drops will heal it up soon.

THEN - this afternoon Coop totally slammed into the front door and hit his face on the doorknob. I could tell it hurt because he did a sort-of "holding my breath" kind of cry. He finally told me where he hit and I could see his right eye swelling up pretty good. About ten minutes later there was a purple doorknob print right around his eye. OH. MY. GOSH.

All this on a day where Dave stayed home from work because he felt like he was getting the flu...he feels better now though, thank goodness! I have been doing a lot of praying over my family today...for God's healing touch in their bodies. I love these guys sooooo much, that I physically feel their pain when they're hurting! Currently they're all snuggled up watching that stupid show I despise, Monday Night Raw (wrestling). But at least they're all feeling somewhat better. It's safe to say eye'm ready for this day to be over and start fresh tomorrow! LOLOL!

Bikes and Bruises

Hunter got a new bike for his birthday. So a couple of weeks ago, Dave decided Hunter needed to learn how to ride it. I know, I know...he should ALREADY know how to ride his bike, but a few summers ago he took a spill in the park and he's been deathly afraid ever since. Hunter started off pretty scared, but with Daddy right beside him he got a little better and a little better...until he took another spill. So sad. Here are some pictures I took from the garage (our driveway was all torn up that weekend, waiting for our concrete). We are anxiously awaiting warmer weather so we can get out there and practice some more! There are going to be a lot of days this summer when we're going to want to ride our bikes over to Nana and Papa's to swim and slip n' slide!







Notice, he's stopped pedaling now that he feels Dave's hand let go of him...CRASH!

I know it's been a long time since I've blogged...we've been really busy, but I haven't taken many pictures! I promise there will be more blogging soon - softball starts this weekend! Yay!