Avery's dance recital

That's our happy dancer.....isn't she cute. Seriously, the tutu was adorable and I think she was just being naughty because she had about a 1000 pictures taken. Today was Avery's very first dance recital and she of course did a beautiful job. She had our ever faithful cheering section there to watch her perform and her brothers even endured the torture of having to be there. I think they actually liked it but I'm sure they will never admit it.

A weekend surprise!

Jess gave me a wonderful surprise for our anniversary with a two day stay at Mcmenamins Hotel Oregon in Mcminville. We ate, went wine tasting, ate, went to the beach, ate, went shopping, ate, read books, ate, took naps, ate, watched a movie and ate again. I'm not sure why but our anniversaries ALWAYS involve food and a lot of it. I think I must have gained 5 pounds by the time we made it back home. All in all it was the perfect gift at the perfect time.

HAPPY 12TH ANNIVERSRY

Today is our 12th wedding anniversary and I'm amazed at how fast time has gone. Jess and I met in sophomore German class when we were just a young 15 years old. He was madly in love with my best friend and I couldn't stand being around him. But Somewhere over the course of that year our hearts had changed and interests had sparked in each other. Five years later we were getting married. I guess you could say we literally grew up together and he has been my best friend for the last 18 years. I couldn't ask for anything more in husband and he is everything I would want my boys to be as a man. He is my best friend, our spiritual leader, my comedian, a wonderful father and still as hot as ever. :-) He is my past, my present and forever will be my future. Thank you for saying "I do" and loving me the way you do. I am truly blessed.

Just a quick update

I thought I would post a quick update about Bella. MY TRAP WORKED!!!! My husband laughed and laughed when he found out that I was on the computer googling how to trap a lost hamster. But after reading through a few websites and gathering items around the house Avery and I created our own trap. ( I should have snapped a picture of it but forgot to. ) It pretty much consisted of phone books for stairs with a few apple slices leading up to a bucket for her to jump into and eat the rest of her food. To my amazement when I went to check the next morning she actually fell for it (literally) and was in the bucket! She was a little dehydrated and very grumpy but is safely back in her cage again being tormented by our four year old.

Has anyone seen Bella????

That's right people. We have only had Bella the hamster for 3 days and already she has gone missing. Yesterday after playing with her most of the day Avery carefully put her back into her cage and we left for a birthday party. Sadly when we got home late that evening Bella was no where to be found. Today we set traps out in hopes of her getting hungry and looking for food but we haven't seen any sign of her. Our household is very distraught since she was on loan to us from school and the boys are sure she has died and gone to heaven. Jess on the other hand is a different kind of distraught as I'm sure he is envisioning chewed rodent holes in his walls somewhere. Please pray that Bella comes back and that one day Jess will trust us with another pet. :-)

Hiking at Mt. Talbert

It was our first "official day" of summer break and we finally had beautiful weather. We started off with a very lazy morning, cleaning the garage, water fights and then hit the trails at Mt. Talbert. The boys absolutely loved it and were about 30 feet ahead of us the whole time. Avery hung back with me and we took our time. Of course with me as a guide we ended up hiking for almost two hours since our car was mysteriously not at the trail head that I thought we started at. Thankfully Aric is more like his daddy and can actually read a map and figured out where we needed to go.

MOVING ON TO 3RD GRADE

Aric is officially a 3rd grader! His class celebrated with an ice cream party with all the sprinkles and whip cream that you can imagine. He LOVED his teacher, Mr. Fox and already is bummed that he won't have him next year. As you can see Avery fit in with both classes and even got her picture in their year book. She spent the day going around with Aric collecting signatures for their autograph books. I don't think she will have any problems starting preschool. :-)

MOVING ON TO 2ND GRADE

Cade is officially a second grader!! He finished up the first grade by being narrator 1 in two plays at school, which was a big leap for him since he is usually pretty shy. We were very proud of him.

A little rain never hurts anyone

Battleground Lake was our first campout for the year and I was never so glad to have purchased a trailer last fall! The weekend wasn't looking so great as we pulled in on Friday evening and the torential down pours started. Thankfully the kids were very excited to hang out in the trailers as we adults huddled together under our little awnings to stay dry. As luck would have it, little by little we started to dry out and by Sunday it was gorgeous. I'm ready for the next one!

Friends for the weekend

Jess and I got to experience what it would be like to be a family of 7 for a whole weekend. We concluded that it wasn't so bad except that we would never be able to afford the food bill! We had a great time and the kids all got along. We filled the weekend with trips to the park, swimming at the pool, smores around the campfire and playing at grandma's. Avery definitely wants Reese to move in.