Getting Started....

On Monday, we took the opportunity to head out to our land and stake the place out a bit, lay out where our house is gonna go....I think we found a good spot!  I also had Will hammer a stake into the edge of the property so that I could stand there and take a picture in the same spot, every day for the next 9 or so months so that I can make myself a little video out of photographs of this thing. actually. happening.

Isn't it beautiful!!!

The Half!

We did it!  We made it to CDA and we ran a little half marathon, and I tell you, it was not as fun as it looks :)  The first three miles were pretty torturous, cause I knew what was still ahead of me, and the last three were hard on a completely different scale and I felt like I really understood what killed that guy that ran the very first marathon ever.  Cause I couldn't imagine turning around on that finish line and running it over again.  Or walking it over again.  Or really, putting any pressure on the gas pedal to do it over again...

But my kids were there, and my parents were there, and my really supportive husband was there, and that is why in every picture, it looks like party-time :)

At the first mile or so:

About 8 miles in:

You can see Will back there on the sidewalk.  He would run next to me and cheer and encourage.

My hair sure looks like it's putting in a full day.  Ha!

We had time to shower and make it back to town for lunch at Red Robin with all the kids.....I love love love me a bacon cheeseburger!

My fans:

Oh yeah!  We got medals for finishing!  That was my favorite part!  I kept staring at it all day like a kindergartener  :)  I don't think I've ever gotten anything like that for an athletic event before, so yeah...

And my little Ben was so excited when he saw it, "You won???" says he.  "Yay!!!  You won!"  And yep, I didn't bother denying it :)

Kelly, the reason that I did it...really truly, I would've never done it without her.

My favorite person.  Seriously.

(Ack!  My hair!  I'm a little disappointed Joe looks so hot in this photo, or I would've totally ditched it.  I'm growing it out tomorrow....)

I cannot say for sure that I will ever do this again.  I appreciated it for training purposes, and it was exhilarating in a labor & delivery sort of way, but it'll take me a bit to get back out there.  I'm just really glad I did it!  Take that, bucket list!

Rapunzel!

She's been wishing for the super-long Rapunzel hair since Christmas! 

Thank you, Aunt Shawna & family!

See mom run.

Today, I ran the last 3 miles on my training schedule before my very first half-marathon this weekend!  I'm super-pumped!  Six short months ago, I wasn't even able to finish three miles without walking.  It looks like the weather is actually going to be good, and if I can get there without any broken bones or sickness, this might actually happen!  So I'm pretty excited and just kinda can't wait...till it's over :)  Cause pretty sure there will be a big fat Red Robin burger, with bacon, in my very near future:

Post-Bloomsday!

Last Day of School!!!

After the kindergarten ceremony, we headed over to the kids' awards assembly...I managed to get a couple of pics of the kids in their classrooms for the last time, and they both got to stand up for the awards!  Kayte landed on the A/B honor roll (I think you have to get only 1 B per quarter to end up there...) and Will scored a star for having 98% attendance this year, which is just a plain blessing on our family for not getting every sickness that went through the school!  Last year was bad!

The one picture I really wanted to get was their last-day-of-school-picture-on-the-front-porch-in-their-dress-uniforms!  I've taken it every year to show how much they've grown since the beginning of the year, so I'm kinda bummed.  But, we've also been at our old house for all those pictures so it wouldn't be the same anyway...or so I keep telling myself.  (I should really just re-enact the photo....ha ha!  They'd love that!)

We are just super-excited that school is out and we can sleep in, watch PBS kids, play basketball, ride our bikes, go to the pool (eventually!), and vacation!

The kids did spend the first 2 1/2 hours of their very first summer vacation day playing a very organized pretend school...that was how long the two olders could keep the two youngers playing along.  But it was quiet and orderly and busy all morning!

Kindergarten Grad!

So.  On Wednesday, Sara graduated from kindergarten!  Such a big day!

Mom did a speech about all the individual kids, and tears were streaming down my cheeks...I've just known all those kids forever, really their whole lives and I know all their little stories and struggles and successes....and it was just very sweet.  Mom did awesome :)

Now she is officially a 1st grader!  No, really!

Sara turns 6!

Lightning brought this little girl into the world and she's been spunk ever since!  She's grown so much this year!  A couple of inches and nearly 7 lbs!  (She weighed in at 36.6 just the other day!)  Her birthday was nice and sunny and we partied all.day.long.

She love love loves all things tangled.

The requested 'barbie' cake:

It was too windy to get all 6 candles lit at the same time, so she made her wish on one:

Both sets of grandparents pitched in to buy her Rebecca, the American Girl doll.  Kayte is already saving her little pennies so that she can buy Rebecca's cousin...I love 'em all!  :)

Sara has been such a little blessing to our family.  She is such a helper!  She loves to dust and help make dinner, and she is becoming a fantastic reader and reads to her little brother.  She's a playmate and a dreamer and a beautiful dancer.  She's just starting to give up her naps, but some days she is decidedly tired and will put herself to bed.  She still loves wearing her dresses the best, but doesn't fight the blue jeans anymore.  And she loves to dress up, and loves lipstick and blush and mascara...  She's tough and adventurous and fast.  She's very laid-back and content, and she forgives really easily.  She likes to have your full attention.  She doesn't back down from a fight but she loves her brothers and sisters a whole lot.  She is really truly beautiful, so that I cannot always take my eyes off of her, and Joe often mentions his shotgun when speaking about her growing up :)  She's never been one for sweets, and would much prefer carrots or a strawberry.  I can imagine her as a little athlete, she never stops moving.  She's always up for a trip to the reservoir for some fishing, which delights her dad beyond measure.  She's the quiet third child, but I cannot imagine our lives without her.

I am very lucky to be her mom!

Happy 6th Birthday, Sweet Sara Joyce!  I'm loving watching you grow up!

You and me goin' fishin'....

Will made a fishing pole out of a...um....another fishing pole.  Complete with a real live lure tied to the end.  Ben and he spent the better part of an hour fishing for dandelions off the back patio.  And yes, Ben is wearing shades cause it was the only solution I could think of for letting the 'boys be boys', and still cure my worst-case-scenario fever.  I'm just a little attached to his big baby blues.

I watched from the window as Will tried to teach Ben how to cast, and I swear, I could actually feel my heart grow a little bigger, crowding out my lungs.....

Ben showed up at the slider with a long dandelion dangling from his fingers hollering, "I caught the BIGGEST FISH EVER!!!"

It's just possible that I have two little Joes on my hands.

Mom's Day Adventures!

Mom's Day Weekend turned up with the best weather we'd seen in months!  We took full advantage of it!  Saturday night we were bbq-ing outside at my mom's house, playing baseball and eating burgers and racing in the cemetery.  The next morning we got up very very early to make it in time for the early service....I thought this was a bit of a disadvantage, but it turns out that getting up early means the day lasts longer!  Who knew!  After church we picked up some Arby's and headed out to Kamiak Butte for a picnic in the sun and a little hike with Joe's family.  This got all the little people so worn out that we didn't feel bad making everyone take a nap :)  Then we jeeped it out to see the bears.  We greet them every spring on Mother's Day and this year they were pretty lively and ended up giving us quite a show!  (Will said it was his favorite part of the day, but that I was definitely second!  :)  We ate pizza outside and wrung every last bit of hot daylight out of the day!  It was one of my favorite ones ever....there is something about the kids growing up that Mom's day can mean having a lot of fun with the kids, rather than just getting a break from diapers, if you know what I mean :)

I missed pics from Saturday night, but I managed to get some on Sunday:

We had a tag-along on our way to the park...

 At the top with my favorite kids:

These two literally ran all.the.way to the top.  Ran.  And in usual kid-style they'd come down a bit to see what the rest of us were doing and then run back up again.

Oh yes, more presents too!  Fun fun!

And, Will can pick me up.  He'd be happy to prove it to you too!

I have the BEST KIDS in the whole wide world.

Ben's stash...

Under any given cowboy hat, you might find a treasure...Ben stores his beloved socks there.  He'll whip one out for you if you get sleepy....or if you scrape your knee.  Li'l sweetie :)

End of the year...

End of the year always means lots of final projects...and for elementary, lots of clay:



Grandparent's Day!

Last Friday was Grandparent's Day at school!  Every year it gets a little bit bigger!  The kids all have some kind of performance/demonstration to wow the grandparents, along with a major project they've been working on....whew!  It's kind of a nice wrap-up of their school year.

State sound-off, 3rd grade:

Poems, kindergarten:

Will had a history presentation, he was Lewis...or Clark, 2nd grade:

 This kid's days from being up there!:

Kayte's class was up later for a demo of sentence diagraming....I can't believe what they learn in 3rd grade!:

Wardrobe Malfunction.

Major.

Two days running.

Yesterday, at the end of a long day of running errands in all four corners of this small town, I discovered a large rip in my only everyday-pair of jeans I own.  The placement and size was just about enough to make your grandma blush if she saw you from the other side of the street. Joe says this is the grand price we girls pay for purposely-worn-out-just-threw-these-$80-jeans-on-straight-out-of-the-laundry-pile jeans.

Today, I was climbing back into my car after strutting around Walmart for a half an hour in jeans I hate, argh, dislike, while wearing a smile anyway, cause that's how my mama raised me.  There, in the driver's seat, I noticed a big chocolate smear left from the chocolate chip cookie I inhaled on my way across town.  It was clear that the evidence was also smashed onto my backside.  The following and flailing inspection of my person will probably end up on the Walmart security highlight reel and is likely to become a youtube sensation.  That guy who got bit by the rattlesnake in the garden center last week at least left with some dignity after stomping the thing to death and saving the nearby children from further retaliation.  Me, not so much.

I think there is a lot to be learned here.  Vanity, gluttony....I just hope to learn the lesson before I'm brought down by all seven of the deadly sins.

Sara's First Tooth!

Sara's first tooth has been loose for about a month now...we were wondering if she was gonna get it out in time to get her name on the tooth in the kindergarten room before she graduated.  And on Saturday it was really giving her trouble.  With a little session of tug-of-war, coached by Joe, she pulled it out all by herself!  Instead of cashing in with the tooth fairy right away, she tucked it away in her backpack so that she could show-and-tell it at school!

Yep!  Now she is ready to be a great big six-year old!