Slippin' and Slidin'

This last tuesday for mutual, we set up a huge water slide. Apparently you can buy the signs off of billboards after they're done with them, so we had six huge billboard size posters lined up to make the biggest water slide I've ever seen! Add to that some soap and water, a pretty steep hill, and we were moving pretty fast!





See look we're having a pretty good time!


But along with all the fun came some not so fun too! Like a slip right onto my tailbone, YOW! And a kick in the back (see second picture), and an elbow to the throat, plus a lot of road rash (see both pictures)! Still, it was worth it, totally fun!

For you Pa

I just may have the cutest kids in the whole world--now wait!--you can argue with me all you want, but you will not be able to convince me that your kids are cuter, thats just the way it is!

Let's start with Bethany. Bethany loves Harry Potter and so do I, so we went to the new Harry Potter movie the other night. The entire movie Bethany was whispering to me, "So, does that mean that Malfoy's a DEATHEATER?!" (she whispers VERY LOUD) and then she adds "Thats bad! Deatheaters are BAD, RIGHT?!" And so on, and so on. Sure at the time it was pretty annoying, but when I think about it now, its pretty doggone cute how interested she was and how she wanted to know exactly what was going on and she's just so funny!


Then there's Maddie. That kid has a mind of her own, she is just doing her own thing. She loves to wear dresses every single day if she can and she loves it if they have pockets so she can put some sort of treasure in them. She recently found a dime (and calls it everything--quarter, nickle, penny--but a dime) and has been carrying it around with her, so I told her I'd do a magic trick and I pulled the dime "out of her ear", she LOVED that, thought it was so fantastic! So now when she comes up to me and says "I think I feel something funny in my ear..." I know she wants me to do that trick.


Sam right now is so full of curiosity and learning, he does new stuff every day it shocks me! He's starting to say words now... special words. Words like "MINE!" and "NO!" and "HOT!" and "Wa-dee! Wa-dee!" which I have no idea what that means, but its cute all the same. He walks around all day with his tongue hanging out of his mouth, probably feeling the lone tooth thats finally broken through. He's also learned how to spit (you know like blow raspberries?) and decided to do that at all the very quietest parts of Harry Potter and then laugh hysterically when I'd put my hand over his mouth to make him stop! He is the most happy-go-lucky baby I've ever met, he thinks everything is something to laugh over and everything is a joke!


So there you have it, just a few examples of how my kids are the cutest ever! Tune in next time to hear even more about the cuteness that never ends!

(Hows that Pa, a little better?) :)

This and That

So I have a few things I can update you on, it hasn't been a really eventful week, mostly because I am still SO TIRED from Girls Camp, but there has been some stuff going on.

The biggest news we got this week was:
David didn't get the police job he applied to in Washington.
Sad day! :( But we still have faith that things will work out and the Lord is aware of us and it will be just fine!

Anything else going on kind of pales in comparison, but in the next couple days you can look forward to pictures from us being in the Steel Days parade (for the daycare), look for us and we'll be waving!

I've been reading a ton of books lately, I just finished reading the last Harry Potter book (again) and now I'm reading "My Sister's Keeper", which is insanely sad. I'm hoping we can go see the Harry Potter movie sometime soon, I'm really excited to see it! Other books I've been reading: All the Fablehaven books (FANTASTIC!), The Candy Shop Wars, and the Uglies series.

Before I went to Girls Camp I started painting a mural at the daycare, I need to go take some pictures and also finish it, but look forward to seeing those someday, hopefully soon. If you've read "Where the Wild Things Are" then you'll know what I'm talking about, but thats the theme for the room I painted, its pretty fun! And I'm really excited to paint the other rooms too, whats in my head is going to be so awesome, now I just need to get it done!

Okay, I think thats about it! So how's your summer been so far?

What I learned at Girls Camp:

*teenage girls are CRAZY.


*if you get a bunch of adult women together without their kids, they're crazier than teenage girls.


*giant spiders apparently like the taste of my elbow.


*I don't like to be woken up by crazy, giggling, door slamming teenage girls.

*but I don't mind keeping said crazy, giggling, door slamming teenage girls awake myself.

*there are some faces you should never make.






*sometimes teenage girls will pee in a trashcan. I don't know why, I just learned it, doesn't mean I understand it. (don't worry, no picture for that one!)

*never let a teenage girl do your hair.


*potguts are little rodents like prairie dogs.

*girls from other campsites like to stomp on the baby potguts at your campsite, because they are sick (the girls, not the potguts).

*teenage girls are still sensitive about killing baby potguts and will hold funeral services for the poor squished creature.


*you should bring more than one blanket to sleep with when you're camping up in the mountains.

*you get really emotionally haggard by the end of a week at Girls' Camp.

*you are a bad person for teaching your crazy, giggling, door slamming girls "bad" camp songs that all revolve around death--in a funny way-- (but secretly love it).

*sitting around a campfire singing to a guitar is pretty awesome.


*shockingly enough, grown women will still play favorites.

*if you sit in the sunlight at noon for over an hour you will get sunburned on half your face.

*hammocks rock.


*hiking uphill sucks.

*teenage girls do not know how to pick up their trash, or drink a soda all the way gone or throw that soda can away.

*you won't physically die on 4 hours of sleep every night, I was certainly surprised.

*everyone starts their period at camp.

*fire stinks really bad.


*your kids don't miss you nearly as much as you miss them.

*your husband will NOT clean your house fantastically before you return.

*I can do a zip line challenge course in 1:30.


*if you leave Mountain Dew out all night, and then stick it in the fridge to get cold, it still won't taste good.

*if you eat a whole bag of marshmallows, you will get canker sores so bad you can hardly eat.

*I LOVE MY YOUNG WOMEN!!!

FINALLY!

I can finally add pictures! Oh I am so happy! I might add some more pictures next week when I get back from Girls Camp, but for now you get to see pictures from the 4th of July! Which was so much fun, I just love our family, with fireworks and bubbles and games and singing it was all fun! Enjoy the pictures!

Still!

I'm not sure what to do. Blogger still won't let me post pictures, and without the pictures I don't really have much for ya! I feel bad too because I've hardly posted at all this month, it has been insanely busy, and we've also had a lot of fun too!
Yesterday was David's birthday (Michael Jackson also died yesterday, David I blame you.) so we celebrated by seeing the new Transformer's movie--fantastic!! Goodness, I love those movies! Then I went to a staff meeting at work, and after that we went to dinner at Tucanos and ate and ate and ate a lot of meat. David was just proud of himself that he didn't get sick.
The kids have been driving me nuts, it doesn't help that the weather teases us by being gorgeously warm outside one day and raining the next. It still hasn't felt like real summer's started, hopefully soon. Bethany and Maddie are at eachother's necks all the time too. No I mean that literally, they hurt eachother constantly! Sisters...
Sam is always curious, getting into stuff, playing in the trash, pulling out all the food he can find in the pantry, its great fun... He also has about five teeth about ready to come through, every day I expect to see them, and they have yet to show themselves! Anytime teeth, anytime.
And the next big thing coming up for me, is Girls' Camp! I'm really excited to be up there and have a really great experience with the girls! So fun!
Besides maybe painting some murals at the daycare, and Bethany whining like you couldn't believe, I think thats all I got! Oh, and some pictures...!

Sheesh!

Oh for goodness sake! I've been trying to post since last week, but stupid blogger won't let me add pictures! At all! I tried to post for Father's Day, I've tried to post about our trip to the zoo, I promise you guys I've been trying to post!

So this is just a quick little note to tell you I'm still here, and I'm still blogging, just have to figure out why blogger won't let me post pictures! Are any of you having that problem?

Hmmmm, maybe I have a funny story or something to share instead...ummm, nope, no funny stories...

Let's see, I think I'm pretty much going crazy. David was gone this last weekend taking the test for the Tacoma Police Department, so far as we know he passed, we'll find out in the next week or two! Whooo! But while he was gone, my schedule didn't ease up very much, Thursday was pretty much insane, Friday was good, but Saturday I did NOTHING and still didn't feel very recovered. But I am so glad the sun is starting to shine, and we can spend some more time outside doing fun stuff! Because honestly, my kids are driving me nutso! :)

So hopefully I can add some pictures soon, be looking forward to those!

Hodgepodge

I haven't been too good about keeping up with pictures and what we've been doing since summer started. :( Sorry about that, but I will say its because summer has kicked off with a busy start and thats part of the reason I'm behind (the other part is that I'm just lazy).

This first picture of Maddie is from the Young Women's fundraising breakfast, I thought it was too cute not to share!


This next one of Sam is from his run in with the concrete steps at the daycare. Hey, atleast it wasn't on my watch right! It actually looked worse in person, I don't think this looks very bad, but man his face was messed up for awhile! haha


These last three pictures are from our hike up to Battlecreek falls, you may remember us trying to do this hike last year and failing, but we did it this year without Dave and made it, although I thought I was going to die (but not from any animal, just from the hike itself). :)


Carla carrying Sam (although I did almost make it the whole way carrying him myself.)


Britin and Maddie, awww buddies!


So, those are some of the things we've been up to for the summer, I'm sure once these thunderstorms start to wear off and we get some nicer weather there will be lots more trips to the pool and the zoo and wherever else we want to go! Yay for crazy busy summers! :)

Cousin Love

My sister and her family stopped here on their way up to Washington and back, and we loved having them! Bethany and Isabel just love eachother so much and have so much fun together! My sister made these sweet dresses for my girls and Isabel which they loved, but we wanted to take pictures of Isabel in her dress while Kristie made my girls'. I have more of just Isabel but I LOVED these pictures of my girls with their cousin! Aren't cousins the best?!

Fun Pics

So I finally finished Maddie's skirt (hopefully you can see it in the pictures) and stayed up until after 3am to finish Bethany's, but alas, my sewing machine was not cooperating. So I wasted all that non-sleep for nothing. Boo hoo. Thank goodness my sister made Bethany a super cute dress last week or I'd have been so depressed. Shanna and I (and her cousin Megan) went out to the salt flats this morning. I've been wanting to go for a long time, but they're sort of far (about 1 1/2 hours) and I didn't really want to go by myself. So Shanna came up with the awesome idea of going all together and having a super fun photo shoot (say that five times fast!). The only hitch in the plan is that it's been raining in the evenings, we thought the flats would stay dry, but they weren't. So we couldn't drive out far onto the flats like we wanted to, but we still made things work so that was good.

I wanted a really specific look for these shots, just really vivid bright colors. Here's what I got:












Here's just a couple extra with their friends:





Fun, fun, fun! Hopefully we'll go back in the next month or so when its all dried out and white and sparkly, I'm so excited!