thirTEEN

 

(here's a picture of clay with his favorite aunt, mana, me)

How can it be?

Clay's 13 today!

Happy Birthday Clay, we love you!!

Ashy Washy

  Isn't she just so stinkin' cute!

This is a post all about Ash.  I sure do love this little girl, my buddy.  As the first day of school is quickly approaching I'm so very excited for her but so very sad for me.  It's so hard to let her go, really people I'm having a hard time with this, but at the same time I rest in the fact that she knows the Lord as her personal savior and it gives me peace knowing that He is always with her.

I brushed her teeth the other day and realized she had an adult tooth coming in behind her baby tooth.  This has happened before but it was the dentist who pointed it out to me, at least this time I found it on my own.  We tried bribing her to wiggle that baby tooth and lose it on her own, but that didn't work.  So, off to the dentist we went, they pulled it and the other baby tooth on the other side.

Ash has recently fallen in love with horses.  This happened during our Oregon trip.  Auntie Krista has horses and Ash loved going over there to 'help' with them.

Since then she's started collecting horses.  Jessy gave her a couple, Ash bought a stuffed horse on our way home in Sisters, My sister just went through Michayla's room and gave Ash a couple she had, we bought 2 from the missionaries at church and she bought one at garage sale, plus she's acquired all the horses Abigail had.  She even found a wooden box with a horse on it at a garage sale.

One day Ash couldn't find her box. (side note: she loves boxes, loves to hide things away, currently her wallet is a little jewelry box) She asked Abigail and I if we'd seen it and neither of us had.  So Ash drew a square on a piece of paper and then taped it up ... it was her missing box sign.  I laughed so hard.  She had a dozen of these papers taped up.  

I asked Ash if she was my nut and she said, "no, you're my nut."

Ash and I went to the free showing of Princess and the Pop Star.  It was fun to hang out, just the two of us.  We then stopped for a happy meal at McDonalds and got a smurf.  And last, we hit the mall and found Ashy's first day of school outfit and bought matching bracelets so when she's gone all day the bracelet will remind us that we're thinking of each other.

I just remembered, I have to write about how much Ash loves the pool and what a crazy good swimmer she's become.  This year Ash learned how to float on her back, all by herself and ... drum roll please ... she can swim all the way over to the deep end. We're so proud of her. We definitely have another fish in the family!

I luva, luva, luva you Ash!

Camp Out Day!

Add up

A hot summer day

5 crazy kids

games

(just dance, water balloons, stepping stone, bowling)

food

(sno cones, bbq dinner, s'mores) 

a pool

(coin dive, chicken fights, glow sticks) 

a huge tent

and you'll get a fun camp out day!

{Everything Friday} on a Monday

Last week was a whole lot of fun!

Michayla spent the night with us 2 nights in a row.  I did the girls hair before bed so that when they woke up they'd have Taylor Swift hair.  It's the no-heat way to get curly hair.  

We meet my sister and Clay at the theater and saw the Judy Bloom movie.

Tuesday

J and the girls headed to a park and had a picnic lunch while I cleaned at my grandparents house.  

Next we used our PoJos groupon.  J hit the Jackpot and on one game and won 1000 tickets. 

We also made a stop at the fish store (before we left for vacation Abigail had been asking to get a frog to add to her fish tank) to pick out our newest member of the family, Spot, an African dwarf frog.  He's pretty cute for a frog, small, with lots of spots all over.  He's favorite game is playing dead.

We stopped by the Library to pick up 4 weeks of prizes from the summer reading program.

We also Tie-dyed shirt with the boys so that they could wear them for their camp out day.

Wednesday

Camp Out Day!  This will have to be a post of its own.

Thursday

We went to roaring springs.  Ash wasn't into the rides but did have fun in the lazy river, wave pool and kid area.  J and Abigail rode all the rides together, multiple times.  After we came home and tucked the girls into bed Jason told me about how sweet Abigail had been all day with him.  She held his hand all day and told him many times how much she loved him and how much fun she was having with him.  Isn't that just sweet.  I tell you, there's nothing like a little girl and her daddy.

Friday

Went to a couple of garage sales.

I did a much needed grocery shop, I hadn't done a normal grocery shop since the end of June.

We played at the pool twice.  Ash finally let J throw her around in the pool.

Saturday

We biked around the subdivision looking at the neighbors garage sales.  We came home with a bunch of new books, Ash found a horse and Abigail bought a heart bracelet.

My mom watched the girls while J and I went out for lunch, we tried a new Hawaiian restaurant (new to us) in Meridian. J really like it!

After running around we headed back and had dinner with my parents.

Oregon 2011

What another fun trip to OR, this year 

the girls got to meet and get to know their cousins Ollie and Liam

go to VBS with their cousins

Dave, Tim and Jason built an amazing fort out in the woods

our girls, Jessy, Kami and Bode even got to sleep out in it one night with Uncle Tim (it was pouring down rain all night but they stayed out there, we didn't see them until 7:30 the next morning, I was surprised)

We got in a couple of nice days down at the river and then the weather changed and it started raining.

We meet Beverly and Amy in Salem for lunch.

To help entertain the kids (due to the rain) and get rid of some of their energy we were invited to Bill and Jill's to let the kids swim in their indoor pool and one night Rick and Julia brought over a big blow up bounce house.

There were many cousin sleepovers. 

Jessy and Abigail were joined at the hip, it was a lot of fun to watch those two together (I hope they end up as college roommates).

Ash feel in love with horses.  She'd hang out with Auntie Krista and Emily while they took care of the horses.

The cousins did some rock painting in their new cool fort.

Of course there were zip line rides, mornings spent in the hot tube and motorcycle rides.

We took the kids bowling.

We celebrated Tim, Amy and Jason's birthdays.

Abigail got water balloons from us for reading an entire book on the way to OR.  So, Abigail and Jes spent all day filling them up for the cousin water balloon fight.  (note to self, don't forget ... the bucket full of river water)

I loved playing basketball with Bode.  One morning when the sun finally decided to come out, Bode asked me to move the hoop to the shade.  I was like what you want it in the shade and Bode said, "yes, I don't like the sun."  Well, he's perfect for OR. 

It was really hard saying goodbye.  Every year it is.  We can't wait to see everyone again in 2012!

*so I have more photos from our trip but I still haven't downloaded them. we got back home and are now enjoying our last week with J at home.  we only have 7 more days of his 26 day vacation left.  i had to get this post done so that I can share all the other things we've been doing.  maybe i'll get back and add those pictures later.  hopefully.*

Everything Friday

Where to start.

First off, I had such a great time hanging out with Hamilton clan on Monday at G's bday party. I just love them all and could spend hours laughing with them, and so, that's just what I did.

Ashy, Jason and I have been missing our sweet Abigail.  I mean really missing her like crazy.  On Thursday I got a picture text of her, it made me so happy and then later that night I got another text from Summer saying she had just seen Abigail and gotten a big hug from her.  I screamed and called Summer immediately.  And then I got to hear my little girl's voice. Oh how I felt so much better seeing and hearing from her.  I didn't know it was going to be so hard on me to send her. Jason and I think camp should have an internet cafe so kids can skype home.  Ha!

While Abigail is away J painted a wall in her bedroom green.  Her new favorite color is green.  We can't wait to show her the surprise.

I got my family pictures. I love them.  Thanks again pal.

Fireworks with Friends

7.4.11

We had a fun night celebrating the 4th with the boys.

*I love that the boys all had red mustaches

*Abigail's favorite firework was the torpedo, I think (I'll check with her when she gets back home)

*Cody knew all the names of the fireworks

*Ryan would use his sparkler to catch fire to other fireworks

*Ash had a smoke bomb land at her feet

*The new neighbor boy shared his fireworks with us

*Ash said her feet hurt and so she needed a drink, an excuse to go inside Melissa's house

*Luke couldn't wait to light the blood sucker, their $20 grand finale firework

*We didn't tell the kids we were lighting off a string of black cats, you should have seen all their faces. (Melissa and I both tried to get a picture of their reaction but missed it)

*Jason would just all of a sudden set off a fire cracker, scaring us half to death

*Ashy loved the sparklers, Abigail didn't

*Ash covered her ears a lot

*Fighting tanks were a big thing this year

*The kids enjoyed every minute of it!