Happy 7th Birthday Dylan

7 years ago Chris and I were blessed with a baby boy!

Just 5 Lbs 7.8 oz

19 1/2 inches

A small package, with a big heart!

1 Year old

2 years old

3 YEARS

4 YEARS

5 YEARS

6YEARS

7 years old, Happy Birthday!

Dylan's likes:

*He is a ham or turkey sandwich kinda guy

*Loves Lego's

*Has lost 8 teeth

*Is a Oregon State Beaver fan

*Started a new school this fall

*Is playing his second year of tackle football

*Loves swimming

* Is the oldest nephew on mom's side of the family and the youngest nephew on dad's side of the family
*Was at the highest level of math in his whole class last spring

*Collects baseball caps, and you will rarely catch him without one on his head

We really love this boy, and are so grateful that he is a part of our family!

Jet Boat's

We had an amazing weekend on the Hell's gate Jet Boat Rides. Every year we go on the dinner excursion and get hotel rooms on the river front, it's such a fun way to wrap up summer. This year there were 17 of us total, 6 newbies I think, everyone loved it and are all planning to go again next year. Uncle Dick and Aunt Hazel had to back out at the last moment, their dog Tucker got in a fight with a raccoon and the raccoon won. He is fine now but they didn't feel comfortable leaving the day it happened, so we missed them. The jet boat ride was the best and wettest we have ever had. There was a photographer taking pictures for a new book coming out ahout THE BEST RIVERS, so we might be published?!?! Anyways lots of 360s and river WATER! We are looking forward to next summer already! Here are a few pictures from our weekend:


All of us excited to get the ride started
My sister Katelynn and her husband Ryan
My brother Micah and his cute wife Kristie

Chris & Dylan in the canyon
Grandpa, Grandma, Dylan and B.
Chris & I at dinner. The food is all so tasty, all you can eat BBQ ribs and chicken, cheesy potatoes, salad, rolls, steamed vegetables, berry cobbler with whipped cream.
Nanie, Pop and the grand kids
Hannah, Me, Chris, Micah, Kristie, Ryan, Katelynn, and Seth
The siblings, and cousins.
Dylan, B, and Colton ready to swim
The boats
Dylan showing off his swim moves
Chris & I
Dylan, Colton, and Brooklyn watching the drivers get the boats ready the next morning for brunch

Colton, Dylan, and Brooklyn at the pool

Update on house

We love our house, and are so glad the construction faze is over. Now we have lots of work to do on the yard. Today we had the gravel drives finished, it looks amazing, and it's just the beginning of lot's of work to come. Thought I would post a few pictures of the inside of the house for those off you who haven't seen it.

Aunt Carlye took an amazing 3 week vacation this summer and brought the kids these cute t-shirt souvenirs home. Thanks Aunt Carlye, We are glad you had a great vacation and had safe travels!
I get comments all the time Brooklyn looks like her Aunt Carlye I think you can really see it in this picture.

Happy 2nd Birthday

Happy Birthday Georgia! Our adorable niece turned 2 years old today. We celebrated with her yesterday and think she is just about as cute as they come. She is a little Princess-Diva! Her mom (my sister-in-law) made the cutest butterfly cake, that was delicious as well. We had a great time visiting with family and celebrating such a special girl. We love you Georgia!

Georgia trying out her new shades!

I really love these kids!

Beach Day!

Yesterday was my Mom's Birthday..(Happy Birthday Mom) and my parents were going to go over to the coast for the day. I asked if we could tag a long and they were happy as ever so we ventured off to the coast. It was going to be a warm one in the valley so we thought we could cool off a bit at the beach. I always say we don't have a beach but a coast, and we arrived just in time to enjoy the usual coastal weather FOG! It was very nice, sunny & warm, inland but as soon as you got to the beach you couldn't see much just fog. The kids weren't bothered a bit by the fog they played on the beach building sand castles, playing in the water, and even tried to fly a kite.....but there was no wind. We played around there for quite a while all along losing visibility, then decided to see if we couldn't find a better place to hang out. We found a lake with a sandy area the kids got more play time in the sand and got to do lots of swimming. It turned out to be a beautiful day.

When we first got to the beach there was a little visibility, and seriously when we left you could hardly see the water.

Brooklyn trying to get her kite to fly

What a water dog! Haley loved swimming with the kiddos.

LOST SHEEP

A few days ago Dylan ran in the house and told me that there were some sheep in the yard. I was thinking about this in my head and thought "they are probably in the neighbors pasture, or something, although no one right close to us has sheep?!? There are horses all over. Maybe he is confused and its a rabbit" So I follow him outside and sure enough there are two lost sheep hanging out in our front yard. LOL it's been a while since we have lived in the "country"! We got them some water being it's been hot the last few days. They have been around ever since, munching on the pasture out front. So if you are reading this and have lost two adult sheep they are chilling at our pad and you can come get them.

Zucchini Bread

With summer comes vegetable gardens.

With vegetable garden come zucchini.

With zucchini comes Yummy delicious Zucchini Bread!

So we actually don't have a garden this year but my dad does, and he likes to share his vegetables. He recently brought us a bag of veggies, which included zucchini. As I was unpacking the vegetables I told Dylan and B we would make Zucchini Bread. After that point there was no returning, I had opened a can of worms and they were on a mission to make zucchini bread . The kids kept asking can we make zucchini bread?!?!? So after finding the cook books, and thinking about the ingredients in my head, I gave in and we were getting out bowls, measuring cups, spoons, and pans. I started hunting down the ingredients in my kitchen, I have everything except the flour : ( Sorry kids we will have to make it another time we don't have flour! A few days later and a trip down the baking isle at the grocery store, we have flour and we are getting everything out to make zucchini bread again. Well that's everything except sugar.....we don't have any sugar: ( with two disappointed kids we put all our kitchen gadgets away for the second time. A few days later and another trip down the baking isle at the grocery store we have a big bag of sugar. We are once, twice, three times in the kitchen going to make zucchini bread. This time we have all the ingredients, and are making our efforts worth while making 3 loafs. The kids love working in the kitchen, although it's much messier with their help, I love having their company. All 3 loafs of zucchini bread have a mysteriously disappeared, what can I say, we love homemade bread!

The floor was no cleaner : )

Dylan mixed all the wet ingrediants, while Broolyn mixed the dry.

Waiting for the oven to warm

Wating for it to cool off a bit

Golden brown and ready to eat!

We Moved!

This past weekend we moved into the NEW HOUSE!!!! We love it. It's amazing to have all this space. Yesterday the kids and I walked out to the back of the property and picked black berries...so yummy. Dylan loves to go explore, and Brooklyn has been knee deep in her baby dolls, Barbies, and Groovy Girls. We are not completely unpacked and settled, but getting comfortable. I will post pictures as soon as my computer gets set up, hopefully some time this week.