Charlie is Five!

Can you believe this little boy is five?

From Charlie's Birthday/First Day of Schoo

Can you belive he's started kindergarten? Can you believe he taught himself multiplication and how to tell time over the summer?

From Charlie's Birthday/First Day of Schoo

He got to have a real birthday party and everything! His first ever!

From Charlie's Birthday/First Day of Schoo

From Charlie's Birthday/First Day of Schoo

From Charlie's Birthday/First Day of Schoo

We had presents and cupcakes and just general fun.

From Charlie's Birthday/First Day of Schoo

From Charlie's Birthday/First Day of Schoo

From Charlie's Birthday/First Day of Schoo

I sure miss him when he's at school.
But that's okay, I have version 2.0 of him to keep me company while he's gone!

Happy Birthday Charlie Buckets! We love you!

Dear Uncle Taylor

Hey Uncle T -
We sure missed you at the water park this summer! The wave pool just wasn't the same without you.

BTW - We love our HOVENS!

We miss you...hope you had a great birthday!

The Amazing John

Here is John before his tonsillectomy yesterday morning. I was pretty worried about it...I'd heard some stories about how he was going to be in so much pain. Today I'm wondering if they actually removed the tonsils. If it weren't for his lack of snoring last night, I might really think I dreamed taking him to the hospital yesterday. He acts like nothing happened. In fact, if you ask him where it hurts, he still points to his big toe (where they had taped on the heart monitor, which he did not at all appreciate). We had a few tough moments coming out of the anesthesia, but after a good long nap in recovery (and the removal of the afore mentioned toe/heart monitor)all was well.

He's currently enjoying the new car wash toy he was gifted by his brothers and sister as a get well present. Car washes seem to have replaced garbage trucks in his affections of late. And, our own car has never been cleaner, as we have taken it to the drive-through car wash three times in the last two weeks. Because, really, if this kid looked at you and asked you in his cute little voice with his cute little smile to take him to the car wash, could you say no either?

One Of Those Days

Who ARE all these people, and WHY do they keep calling ME mom?

(and two of them aren't even in the picture!)



I guess it's just one of those days.....

Rockhounds!

I don't really even know what to say about this activity. It seemed like a good idea, an educational one even, to take 10 kids to dig for thundereggs. I mean, they each got their own pick ax! What could possibly go wrong? It started out well, we drove out to the "recreation" ranch (that term is used very loosly), we had a great picnic lunch. John and Jonas got to see an excavator up close....spirits were high.



Then we drove the eight miles of dusty dirty unpaved roads out to the dig site.
We imagined the beautiful rocks we would un-earth.
We saw goats and squirells and other wildlife.


We arrived at the site.
My nephew Sam summed up most of our thoughts with his words,
"We drove 45 minutes for THIS?"
Still, we perservered.
We dug, we chopped, we searched.
We worked.



We were disapointed, as Charlie's expression shows....



But what could be more fun for a two year old who loves dirt and trash?



Finally, we called it a day....Here's a shot of Joe closing one of the many livestock gates inbetween the ranch and the dig site. I figure I won't have many opportunities to see him doing this...if you look closely, you can see he's listening to his ipod.



It was not the most exciting day, but it was certainly memorable. And, CHEAP. You only pay for the rocks you take out....$1.00 per pound. An entire day's activity for my children was $4.00! But the memories are priceless.

Have you ever gotten so far behind in a project that you think it might be easier to just quit and start over again another day?

Well, that's where I am with my blog right now.

So, to give me a little jump start, I'm posting a picture of each of my children. I recently got a new camera and I've been having fun playing around with it. These are my best efforts so far.

Eventually, I might get around to telling you about the family reunion we had, or the 800 mile trek to Oregon we took, or the fabulous Fourth of July we enjoyed, and even my Granpda Loren's 90th Birthday Celebration. But for now,enjoy these shots taken in beautiful Central Oregon.

Joe's Mad Skills

Lakers, here we come.