Beau & Miki's Wedding

Congratulations for Beau and Miki! We love you, and we had a fabulous time at your wedding!

 Cousins make the best friends!!

As you can see, Blake knows how to bust a move. 

These kids had such a blast dancing and running around, they didn't want to leave and talked about how fun the wedding was for days afterward. 

The happy, adorable, precious, amazing couple! Best wishes to you!!

Summer Swimming

Fun in our cheap-o backyard pool!

Calvin took diving lessons this summer and loved it!
He probably got in 20-25 dives for every half hour lesson.

Abbey really improved her swimming skills this year, she was really proud of herself for
passing her swim test at the end of the session, it was really hard!

Blake decided that he is a fish and should spend more time underwater than above it,  even though he can't swim more than a couple of feet. It doesn't even matter if he can't touch the bottom and an adult is nowhere within reach-he jumps right in and scares us half to death! Luckily, he is not scared at all! 

The Beautiful Olympic National Park

We love Olympic National Park-awesome beaches and beautiful forests make for a great spot to camp and enjoy the best of the Northwest. 

 Plus, becoming the a Junior Ranger is pretty fun, too.

It's even more fun when cousins and best aunt ever come with us!! 

Yep, it's beautiful!!

Just look at that face!

This is my baby. I love him. I mean, isn't he adorable? 

There are lots of reasons why I adore this little guy, and I am just so happy to be his mama every day. Here are just a few.

1. He gives me about a hundred smiles a day.
2. Sometimes he calls me mom, but usually he calls me mama.
3. He once said, as I was leaving his room and saying good night, "I love you SO much and SO happy."
4. He is hilarious.
5. He doesn't throw fits.
6. He gives me lots of hugs.
7. He likes to give me "lots of kisses" which means he manically kisses me all over my face as fast as he possible can.
8. Sometimes when he is sad or hurt and I ask him what's wrong, he says "I cryin"
9. He was the easiest kid to potty train EVER.
10. He has blue eyes like his mama!!

Oh, one more silly picture, he makes this face when he thinks he is being funny.

Blake is 3!!!

It was a Toy Story birthday for Blakey this year! All the kids put on their Halloween costumes so we had Woody, Jessie, Buzz Lightyear, and even Davy Crockett. It was great fun, and Blake got lots of fun stuff to celebrate turning 3.

This is his new PaperJamz guitar, as you can see he knows how to rock!

Blake was so cute this year, it was his first time he really knew that it was his birthday coming up and he was excited about it. When he came into the house and saw all his presents and birthday cake, he wanted to sit at the table and not move. As I was trying to get him to come over to the family room to play, he insisted he needed to stay, "I want to stay with my birthday!"

Summer Fun: Phase Four-Lincoln Rock State Park

The Marlers were kind enough to invite us to go camping with them and entertain us on their boat. The kids loved the tube rides and they even tried some water skiing! I tried a little of it, too, it wasn't too bad with the boom bar. I also tried wake boarding, and thanks to Linda's excellent coaching I was able to get up on my feet and take an actual ride on the wake board while being towed by the rope behind the boat, not bad for my first time ever, it was fun!!

Here are some shots from the boat:

Abbey, Kaleb and Brycen having a grand time.

Calvin and Eric trying to hang on for dear life. Wade had fun whipping them around, and they loved every second of it!

Abbey and Calvin were really proud of themselves for waterskiing, they hung on to the boom bar off the side of the boat. They think they are pretty cool now. 

Summer Fun: Phase Three-Utah

Utah is great every summer, we have fun with cousins, swim lessons and an all around good time visiting with Grandma and Grandpa.

Plus the kids had some new stuff going on this year, Calvin got glasses:

Abbey read her first chapter book (the Magic Treehouse) (and got her front tooth kicked out of her mouth by Blake)

Blake got potty trained!! He was actually the easiest kid to potty train EVER.