Yay for Grandparents!

Well we finally convinced my parents to come back to washington for a visit :) We had SO much fun and it was awesome to have them here! Especially having them here when there wasn't a newborn, so we could go do fun stuff! :)

My favorite was teaching my mom to ride the 4 wheeler! She had fun, but didn't get to go as much as she would have liked.....that just means she has to come back again :) *hint*hint*

My dad also go to go for rides!
This is one of the packrats we caught in our shop while they were here! YUCK! Looks like a chinchilla I think....

Mom brought a bunch of clothes from Aunt Ann. YAAAAY! THANKS AUNT ANN (and Nathan :))

Lucy had a blast begging for ice from my mom....

Grandma brought some stories and lane loved having her read to him!

Aren't they cute?!

I made such a fuss about getting them ready for me to take a nice portrait and then i go to get my camera and the BATTERY WAS DEAD!!!! ARGH!!!!! So i used my dad's camera, which is a very nice camera but it wasn't what I was used too....i still got some nice shots of them, but that just means they need to come again and visit for more portraits :)

Macy thought grampa was so fun, and loved to snuggle with him, and steal his glasses :)

Lane also had a blast with grampa

The girls had lots of fun with gramma, and at least for a week after they left, Lucy would ask "where gramma go??" when she woke up in the morning...

Thanks again for coming guys!!!! we loved you and miss you!

You have a birthday.....

Shout HOORAY!!!!

Today is Macy's 1st birthday!!! YAAAY

What a fun baby she is....mostly happy, likes to "talk", really wants to walk, LOVES To wrestle

and loves to have fun!!!

Can't wait for the party tonight!! We love you Macy, HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

One more reason....

One more reason why I love my husband.....

Look at my new car!!!

Isn't he cute?!?!?! So we bought this for a run-around car so we can save our van and truck....it's so fun, and i love it. Except it needs a *little* work. Yesterday i drove it to a class, and looked at the tires cuz scott warned me they were bad.....well i could see the little metal strings that hold it together!!!! Yeah it was like coming unraveled!!! I was terrified to drive home so i found a walmart tire center......well they don't carry this size.....so down the road was Tire-rama......suprise!!! They don't have it either...BUT They put the spare on one side and then put the other abou-to-blow-up tire in the back, so at least when it blew out on the way home it wouldn't be so hard to steer....ugh...

well miraculously i made it home...with no blown up tire!! (yay for prayers!!) but needless to say i will NOT be driving my little bug until we get new tires...

just wait till you see him in Kawasaki Green!!!

Turtle Burgers!

It all started when my dad sent me an email about these "redneck" people that made these turtle burgers. I'm sure that it was a joke, but.....what can I say!! They looked too fun not to try!!! So we decided to make turtle burgers.....

aren't they fun!!??
But who wants to eat turtle burgers alone?? So we called up some friends that could handle the meal :)

She's a champ!! ha :) And i'm sure she's going to hurt me for putting this on my blog.

anyways! It was a fun night and fun to visit! Thanks for coming, Millers!

Oh, and if you were wondering why my pumpkin pie was so gross...i realized after you left that i forgot to put the SUGAR in it!!!!!!!!!!!! YIKES!!!! Good thing i had LOTS Of whip cream :) ha ha

I never claimed to be a good cook....that is a forwarning for anyone else we might invite over!

She-rah and Firewood

I would just like everyone to know that they may now address me as "She-rah"!

Yes, I stacked this entire row of firewood single handedly....
Actually I've stacked like 3 of them now!!

Lane is becoming a good little helper cutting firewood. He can run the splitter with just a little help!

Cutie..
If only i could get hime to STACK wood!

Here's how the girls helped with firewood :)

These two are so funny together. Macy is coming out of the baby stage more and more, and showing her little personality. She's just as fiesty as Lucy just in different ways. They are so funny together and love to wrestle. Macy is discovering the joys of tormenting her sister, and vice versa. But mostly they love each other and love to be with each other!

New Toy!

When my parents were out for a visit we all decided to build a sandbox! This is kind of my Dad's tradition with all the grandkids. ....how fun is that!?? His other tradition is to build them a zip-line!! Seriously. Can you get much cooler?? I don't think so...

So here is our amazing sandbox!!!! I Love having abuilder for a husband :)

This is the fanciest sandbox i've ever seen. It has a seat all the way around the outside and a roof to keep the sun a pine needles at bay! GEnious!

The kids are loving it, and it has made me SO Excited to build our sweet jungle gym next year!!! AHHHH I can't wait. I think *I* Might have more fun playing on it than the kids. Some items it will have are: Culvert tunnels/slides, pirate deck, swinging bridge, tire climbing net, some kind of monkey bar, fireman's pole......and you'll just have to wait to see the rest!!! My goal of having the MOST fun kid backyard is taking shape nicely :) feel free to come and visit anytime!

Ta-da!

Preschool

We signed Lane up for our little local preschool this year. He is having a good time, and got a really good report this morning! His teacher said that he is doing really well, and is getting a lot better at "transitions" now....i guess that's good right?! :)

Lane in preschool has made me realize that I am totally teaching my kids how to procrastinate like *I* did in school.....DARN! He has reading lists that he turns in for prizes, and i found myself with him at bedtime reading like 10 stories so we could fill out his reading list for this morning! OOPS! and he still has a little pumpkin decorating homework from last week that we haven't done yet !! UGH!!! :) hopefully this year we can work on that so my poor kids won't have the same pain and anguish that I did trying to finish literally EVERY school project and homework assignment in the wee hours of the night before it's due.....
On a happier note....look at Lane's first letters!!!! I got him a little placemat that you can write on, and he asked to "write his letters" one day, so i happily obliged. I set him down with a marker and his mat and went to cook dinner, and this is what he did!!!! I couldn't believe it! He did an awesome "Q" all by himself!

His first attempt at an "R" on the lower right...then i showed him how I draw "r"s then he did the upper left one all by himself!!!! little smartie!!

Lane is such a determined kid. I love it. When he puts up his mind to figuer something out he will sit there and work at it until he can do it. He's taught himself how to tie knots, now writing letters, how to build things, take things apart,.....all kinds of stuff. It's fun to watch him when he's deep in his concentration. Hopefully he'll keep it up! We love our little preschooler!

catch up

So remember this guy??

Well we finally went and tried camper-camping.....we call it camper-ing...

the kids loved it, Lucy LOVES sleeping with other kids...we threw her and lane up on the bunk bed, and macy in her pack and play on the table-bed. pretty sweet sleeping....

Lane had lots of fun playing with our friends kids.....they let him use their BB guns, and lane is HOOKED. He can even load it (mostly :)), cock it, and shoot it all by himself!

Lane and Lucy had fun on the hammocks

The mighty hunters. They shot a squirrel with their BB guns......So what did we do with it?

That's right. You Kill it, you eat it!!!

Scott tried it....

Chris tried it...

Chris LIKED IT

Noah tried the first (almost) bite....he wasn't a fan. Yes, I even tried it...and it was...weird.

the girls

We camped at a new-to-us place that had a fun creek through it. We made a "pirate" ship for Lane out of a bunch of sticks, and he sailed it ALL weekend!

The pirate-ship-stick-raft....

Scott had a rough weekend....first the hammock fell down while he was in it.....the later I made a sweet rope swing, and he was being a little overzealous with it, and the rope broke while he was in mid-air and he landed RIGHT on his tail bone! poor kid....

Lucy was laughing at him.....No sympathy :)

This was probly our last camping trip of the summer....sadness!!! So, cherrintons....we tried it....:) Now you guys have to try TENT camping.....

Projects

Here are some projects we've been working on lately...

Refinishing an old dresser for the girls' room

Our latest batch of meat hens.....

look how huge those chicken breasts are!!! awesome!

and canning!!!......UGH......

My brother in law saw all my cans of pears one day and said....."you actually go and BUY pears.....so you can put them in cans? WHY? " well that's a good question......i'm not sure......i don't really think it's cheaper.....and it sure is a bigger pain in the rear.....BUT at least they taste good!! :)