What we have been doing....

I made our dog kennel into a little aviary for the doves this summer. It is so awesome, the kids love to play with them and I think its nice for the birds to have some more freedom while they are outside.












Steve had his 40th birthday, It was a really nice day and alot of fun for us and the kiddos.
Maddie had her 11th birthday at Lava, it was a blast, a bunch of crazy girls.

Pat's wild adventure!

Yesterday we wanted to go check out a salamander pond up Mink Creek. So off we go the weather was great and no rain. Of course Pat sees a mud puddle and Oakley is in the back saying "go through it Dad!" and as fast as that Pat hits the gas and off we go, as soon as we hit the water we stop. Not surprising since it has been raining everyday for the last 15 days or so. We can't even move the Jeep is totally high centered. When Pat gets out the water goes up pat his knees. Thank goodness for cell phones. We couldn't get a signal so walked a bit and got ahold of Pat's mom and dad, and they were on their way. Cedar and I started walking back to the main road to show Grandpa and Grandma where we were and Pat and Oakley, with the help of a very nice guy on a four wheeler stayed back and tried to get out. I took pics of these butterflies on the road, Cedar and I had a beautiful walk and saw butterflies and a million ground squirrels. We ended up walking past some more campsites and a couple of guys heard about the fun in the mud and headed up on their 4 wheelers to help. Grandma and Grandpa picked up Cedar and I and by the time we got back to the Jeep the 4 wheelers had pulled it out. What a fun day.

Hike up Slate Mountain

Wednesday we all got up early and headed up to Scout Mountain. We found a really fun trail on Slate Mountain and headed up. It was such a beautiful hike, it is so amazing how green it is from all this rain. The wildflowers covered the hills. All the kids did great, it was tough going on all the rocks and pretty steep in some spots. After our hike we drove to the top of Scout and waited for the rain to come. We wanted to get wet and watched the black clowds move in. We got our wish and within 5 min it was small drops to full blown hail the size of peas. It was so great! everyone got soaked and pelted with ice. I love these kiddos so much and am so glad they will get out there and play.

One of the best days...

So here we are 3 weeks into our summer vacation and alot of rain, cleaning out closets and just getting caught up on crap, Yesterday I decided to stop feeling bummed out by the wet dog smell in our house and all the things on my list of things to do and just try to not worry about it and live for the moment a bit. Pat had to work so the kids and I were home. We spent the day playing Risk, Marathon and eating junk food. We took all the dogs out in the pouring rain, all of us got soaked to the bone, but it wasn't cold, it was the BEST! That warm wet feeling, because the sun came out a little after. So my house was totally wet and it was smelly and we were all happy. We will try to spend more days like this together.

Dog Days, Rainy Days of Summer!

Finally a bit of sunshine, all of us felt so happy.

Don't make me go out there!

This is the run off into the creek from the road. The water just keeps coming and keeps coming.

Go Frogmen! Oakley and his awesome team.














This is a new family member of Oakley and Cedar's Great Grandma Jeanne. Her name is Missy and she is a bit older than 3 months. I took about 30 pics of her and these are the only 2 that weren't blurry. She is non-stop, she is so cute and full of so much energy. We love you Missy.

I love you, babe!

So this was the second annual Brian S. Reams Memorial Basketball Tourn. It rained the entire day, it is a three on three tourn. and the teams did amazing under those conditions. Keely and Cedar worked hard all day taking orders for coffee and hot chocolate, while the parents and kids watched the games. They made good money on tips and had a great time. Oakleys team played great but didn't win any of the 4 games they played in. they were soaked to the bone. You gotta love Idaho weather.

Summer fun.

We just returned from the hospital, Teddy Bear Clinic. What a fun time the girls had. They met so many other animals that had very strange accidents that morning. They got to xray, vaccinate, cast, heart rate checks, the stuffed animals had very good check ups and both are recovered and doing great.

The boys designed and helped build these rubberband guns. They were pretty cool and lots of fun for them.

Oakleys baseball season ended on Tuesday. They ended up winning 2 games this season and kind of struggled the rest, but he had a good time playing. I learned alot about baseball I didn't know and had fun, but I am so happy we get a break from it. We lived baseball the last 2 months. Yeah!!

Pat getting a bit of cuddle time with Tucker.

Spring Break Video

I decided to post my spring break video, just for fun. It is really long (about 23 min) if anyone has the time to watch, but I loved our whole week and loved the pics we got so I thought some of you out there would enjoy them too! It is priceless to have the time with my Dad and Mom, our kids are so lucky to have them to play with and share these wonderful memories and just good old hanging out time with them.

Baseball and Acrobats!

These two are always performing and I wanted to always remember this little sign they made to start their show. It says "The Amazing Keely and Cedar Acrobats!" then there is a "caution : Do not try this at home!" and "Free Admission" I loved it and have some great video of their skit. I love having this blog so I can have a place for all these little moments that make me laugh and smile.










Oakley is on the White Sox team and has played 5 games so far. He is doing an amazing job as a baseball player, even though he has always been a soccer player. I have had to learn all these crazy baseball rules and I think it is pretty fun to watch. The third game, Oakley earned the game ball for his awesome job as short stop, we were all pretty excited. Thursday we played in American Falls, so we ate dinner with my mom and dad and they were able to watch the game. It was fun to have them there, we didn't win but it was a fun game anyway.

Finally a weekend to blog a bit.

I took these pictures in March and never got them on here so I just put a few together. The girls love dressing up and getting pics taken I think they are so beautiful and I love taking their pictures. It is so easy when they are all so cute anyway.

February 24th was Pat's 38th birthday. Wow he is getting up there! We bought a cake and just hung out all together. We all love you dad!

The kids have been very busy out in the creek, they have a little fort and are always trying to get the bridge right. with all the snow and rain they keep having to redo it because of flooding.

What happened to April?

I am sitting here after getting off work at the coffee shop and thought I better write something. We have had an amazing month and a half, spring break, good weather, baseball started, we have been able to be outside alot and just alot of fun. I plan on a picture update of some of the fun things happening, but tonight I just wanted to jot down a bit.
I am so shocked each day how fast time seems to be going, I can't keep up, I am thinking everyday how I want to contact my friends and maybe do something with them or at least make a plan to see them. Then suddenly it has been a week then months. I am freaking out. How can there be so little time in the day? I am very excited for summer vacation, then I won't be working at the school and only have three days at the coffee shop and maybe we will have a bit of down time to just enjoy our family and friends. It is bedtime for kiddos so I am signing off, I hope all out in blog land, have a wonderful week and hopefully have some down time.

BELIEVE!

The kids went to a class called Believe, it is to talk about believing in your dreams, help with your self image and esteem and how to deal with bullys. It was really fun for them and they got a great workout.

Dinner and a makeover.

Here we are having a wonderful dinner with friends. This was so fun, but we had never invited them over for dinner and they came by for a beer and happened to have all this great food in their car. So we got there food and finally had them over for dinner. Kind of tricky to make them bring the food to eat at our house. We had a blast and loved having them here. Thanks guys.



So on to Makeover.....
The girls found some recipes for lemon juice shampoo and avocado conditioner so they whipped it all up and their hair was soft and so shiny after. They surely love to mix and create stuff. it was really fun.

Nice Sunday hike.

Today was beautiful outside so we made a lunch and took a little hike up to check out the city. It sure felt good to be outside and get some fresh air. I sure love looking out around the city, its a nice new perspective. I love doing this with the kids, we had great conversation and alot of fun. Now back to the beginning of the week. here we go.