Sunday...I should be resting!

The craziness just doesn't stop at this place, not even on Sunday's! So today I hear Maia screaming and find her head stuck in the rocking chair. Does this even happen to other people? Seriously! So I tried to pull it out in every direction possible...nothing. I try pulling out the rod holding her head in...it didn't budge. (By the way, Casey had just left for a meeting so we're talking me and Luke tugging at the chair. I guess I shouldn't have expected much!) Then I took out the drill to take the chair apart but the batteries were dead. So it came down to either letting her stay there for awhile or just cutting her out. So I pulled out my handy dandy hack saw that I bought me for my birthday (See! I knew it would come in handy! lol!) and cut her out. I love the pitiful looking Maia in the first picture. In the other she thinks I'm going to take the saw to her! I didn't think I was that mean of a mom?

And then our family just wouldn't be complete without Indiana Jones running around! Luke was proud of how good he looked and since I was taking pictures, "Indiana Jones girl" came to pose too! Luke promised these pictures to grandpa so here they are!

He's....SAFE!

It was a hot one today! And since it was hot, we decided to go to the water park. The kids loved it! Most of the pool was only 1 1/2 feet deep so it was perfect for our kids to just splash around and get wet BUT Luke decided to go on the waterslide without us knowing (where it's around 4 feet) and next thing I know he's getting dragged out of the pool by the lifeguard. Can you even guess who the lifeguard was? It was my cousin Mitchell! I knew he was a lifeguard but I didn't know he worked there until I saw him pulling Luke out of the water! I'm thinking Luke needs a few more swimming lessons. He was alright, though, and spent the rest of the time diving into the water and practicing his dead man float. Ironic, isn't it? And he's good at it too!

We're Still Alive!

Yeah, I've been a little out of the blogging mood lately. I actually did try last night but Blogger was having issues and wouldn't work! So I have alot of ground to cover! First off, Luke and Sadie went and spent a week in Pocatello. They had a blast! Luke wants to go back and see Laci and Colton, Sadie wants to go back and live with grandma. =) In the meantime, we were amazed at how easy it was to only have two kids! And Katie Belle LOVED being able to do whatever she wanted. She did miss them, though, and was happy when they came home. Casey took some time while they were gone to start learning how to draw. He's done a little bit but is going through another book with different projects to do and his first one was a self protrait. So here it is for all to see so when he draws his portrait again you can all see how much he's improved! I hope you'll all be cheering him on! (It didn't really scan very well but you get the idea.)

Sadie and Katie Belle have swimming lessons right now and are loving it. Katie Belle doesn't really get that she's suppose to be learning how to swim but she loves playing in the water. She says she loves splashing. And that's the truth!

And just for fun I had to share this video of the kids learning Chinese with dad. Katie Belle especially liked repeating all the words. They went through some Chinese, Spanish,Greek and Russian. Katie Belle is surprisingly good at it. She sat at the computer going through words herself and quizzing dad for quite awhile! She's good at languages! We went to a Chinese restaurant the other day and when we sat down Katie Belle started saying "Ni hao! Mom, I said Ni hao!" She'd learned to say "hello" in Chinese from one of her games and somehow made the connection when we sat down that it was a Chinese place! I was impressed and so was the Chinese lady that worked there!

And The Lucky Winner is...

I'm sure you all remember how we had to take Dash and another kitten to the animal shelter lately. Well, I failed to mention who the lucky winner of the kitty lottery was! It was Odette!!! The newest member of the family was named after Barbie in Swan Lake which is an honor I'm sure she'll come to appreciate. Maybe.

The Moment You've All Been Waiting For!

Yes, I'm finally posting a picture of my lovely garden! I think I've held you all in suspense long enough. =) Not to mention I really only got it in not too long ago. But it's beautiful and I love it!

Just for comparison, I decided to show a picture of the area that was my garden last year. If you notice the really dark section on the right, that's where I had that landscaping fabric down and it saved my strawberries from complete and utter destruction! You can see how I had a bit of a weed problem last year. But now I have tomatoes, onions, peppers, pumpkins, watermelons, strawberries, herbs and flowers growing in my garden and spinach and carrots growing in containers. We'll see how they do. It's been unusually cold lately. What's up with that? Oh, yes, it's Idaho. I forget occasionally how that works. The other day I was moving my strawberries from their weed infested bed to my sparkling new, weed-free garden (yes, I'm very proud of it. Is it obvious?) and when I came inside this was the face that greeted me. I think she likes butter. Of course, I've heard I did something similar at that age. Mmmmm....butter is good. That's probably why I didn't destroy her on the spot, I know where she's coming from. That butter's hard to resist! =)

My contribution to the holy blog.

Yes! For all of you fans out there who have been dying to know what I am up to the answer is.... nothing. But here is a cute picture. Yep. That is Luke after I gave him a wedgie. And as they say in Arabic, "Ouch!" Now he wants revenge. Just as a side note, Noah Webster dropped the –k in words like “musick” and the –u in words like “honour” and reversing the –re in words like “centre” in 1806. I don't know why.
On a different note, Luke and I watched Kung Fu Panda yesterday and loved it. Now he wants to be "Tigress" for Halloween. First it was "Iron man". Then it was "Indiana Jones" now a female feline. Weird.

Graduation Day!

Here's Luke at his graduation, which was actually yesterday. He went around the house singing this all the time to "practice for graduation". The video isn't amazing but you can see our little nerd giving it his all. (He's the one in the middle with the yellow shirt.)

And here he is with his teacher. He's learned alot and we're proud of him!

Sad Day

It was a sad day today. It was Casey's last day teaching and he had to say goodbye to alot of students and then we had to take Dash and another kitten we found (their sister) to the shelter today. Poor Luke and Sadie cried and cried. We did decide to keep Odette and she is currently sleeping in Luke's room tonight. I think she's missing Dash, too. It was also raining all day so we couldn't go to the orchard tonight. Something about lightening and standing on metal ladders in trees... But on a lighter note the kids ended the day splashing in the puddles and getting completely soaked! So at least we ended it having fun and tomorrow should be better!