Live so that when your children think of fairness and integrity, they think of you. The highest courage is to dare to be yourself in the face of adversity. Choosing right over wrong, ethic over convenience, and truth over popularity ... these are choices that measure your life. Travel the path of integrity without looking back, for there is never a wrong time to do the right thing.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Cali October 2010

In October we made a spur of the moment road trip {ummm...21 hour road trip} down to Cali. My Grandma & Hal's Aunt are both in very poor health & Hal had already taken some time off for my surgery which ended up being cancelled. So he decided we better make a trip. After much paper bag breathing I agreed. I am NOT a spur of the moment anything. I have lists for lists, so I was freaking out. We had a great time, seeing lots of friends and family we hadn't in years. The kids were awesome. There were countless hours spent just talking and spending quality time with "OLD People" so I am sure it was beyond boring during those times, but they were so good.
Drew had no memory of Bakersfield at all. It was hilarious, we had just started the descend into the central valley on I-5 when Drew asked, "Ummm, Do they water here?" LOL, he had never seen such desolate land. He later added, "I'm so glad we live in Coeur d' Alene, it's like dead and kinda ghetto here." Yep son, we know. :)

I was so glad to see one of my long lost besties from high school & beyond and her 2 babies which were 8 mos. and not even a thought yet when we moved. I am so sad we took no pics :( We were so caught up in catching up, we forgot. :( And one of my bestest cousins Jill and her family. We do have a pic of us all when we were leaving, but...she still hasn't sent it to me...UH HMMM...JILL...???

We spent quite a bit of time with my Grandma & Hal's Aunt whom I seriously didn't want to stick a camera in either of their sweet sick faces. Hal's Aunt & Uncle live on I think like 15 or 20 acres, I can't remember and have a ton of animals. Right away Drew was over the moon & was dying to ride a horse. Uncle Don took him out and taught him all about being a "Real" Cowboy. It was hilarious some of the conversations between the 2. Every once in awhile Don would look over at me, like are you kidding me...don't you teach this boy anything important. LOL. I grew up very near Don & had horses as a kid. I am pretty much a city girl now, I mean, I could easily meet in the middle say maybe a horse with a heated coach saddle??? LOL, but my kids haven't been around anything livestock related besides the fair in years...so ya, they aren't really educated in bein' cowboys. I kept waiting for him to tell me to go to timeout for not teaching my kids about cowboys, lol. Haliee was completely freaked out. She was so apprehensive about riding a horse. He kept saying, now when I put you up here, you cannot scream...ok Haliee. I'm serious... I was cracking up. Look at her facial expressions in these pics, priceless...


Ok Mom, I know you said it was safe...but...

Are you sure??? Like SURE sure?

Ok, you're right, it's FUN!

Next stop, Uncle Sids...Now Sid is a kid who will never grow up. He was having straw wars, putting salt in peoples drinks, amongst other things in the restaurant during dinner. Haliee said, "This is the most fun I have ever had in a restaurant in my life." He got tickled and asked her why. To which she replied, "Ummm...We are NOT allowed to act like this in a restaurant." {NOPE}

He has all kinds of toys for his grand kids and my kids were so excited to ride dirt bikes and quads and go carts. Now again, I grew up here so I got my 1st 3-wheeler for my 3rd birthday. I have grown up like this and it is not at all new to me. Well, ummm...it is very different being a Mommy. I like to had not just 1 but about 30 panic attacks. Hal just fired everything up and away we went. I was freaking out, ummm...we need to teach them. He said, I taught them how to give it gas, brake, and to steer. They have to do it to learn. UGH. So Drew takes off in the go-cart 1st...the only way he knows how...FULL THROTTLE. So I am screaming at Hal while riding this little 50 motorcycle (looking like dumb & dumber) trying to catch up and make my son STOP. So we stop, I yell at him to slow down or we are finished, Hal is dying laughing at me, and what does Drew do, he agrees...and floors it. OMGOSH! I was so freaked out. He is literally driving down this dirt road bouncing left to right off the tumbleweeds on both sides, full stinking throttle. *SIGH* So now I am getting ticked. He comes around the corner & there is this HUGE I MEAN HUGE mud puddle covering the entire road, lol, so Drew goes barreling into it full throttle. Now, I am a few seconds behind Drew & Hal because Haliee & I am not driving wide open, so when I see Hal stopped, my heart sinks, I just knew Drew had wrecked :( So I come around the corner & LOL...hilarious, Drew gets out & Hal is standing next to him he gives it some gas to try and get it out of the puddle & it flings muddy water all over him. LOL, it was awesome! So again, I lecture the this is your last chance to slow your butt down or we are finished, I am griping at Hal too, so Drew gets in, agrees, and floors it...UHHH HHHOOOEEE HHHOOOEEE HHOOOOEEEE, I am ticked. So we get to this area we called "The Playground" growing up. It is a huge hole with all kinds of different trails, and jumps. I tell Hal, you are nuts, NO. I am serious, NO. I am going to throw up at this point. I am praying for God to protect my babies, and freaking out. I say at the very least Drew and Haliee need to switch as the quad went much slower than the go cart. So Drew gets on the quad and immediately barrels off the side of the hill crashing into a tumbleweed because the steering is quite different. I hear him as I race over telling himself, "Drew, slow down, just slow down." I help him get situated, he goes down the hill & can't get back up, I ride it back up for him. Then he wants to try the motorcycle. OH GEEZ, I am ready to beat my husband. He tries it, lays it over, and I finally flex my Mommy muscle enough to go home. I am so not even cool with my kids on motorcycles. What happened to me, I am an old Momma. PHEW, we were back unscathed. Thank GOODNESS!

We slept at Auntie Casie's the whole time & unfortunately didn't get to spend as much time with them as we wanted. But we had a great time nevertheless. The boys and girls had grown up so much :( We spent Halloween with Mark & the boys as it was his Halloween. It was nice to see him too. Broke my heart we had to do it separately.

A last minute thrown together Halloween this year.

Casie would beat me if she saw these pics, we were lounging all day with no showers. :) Notice her new found obsession with Angry Birds thanks to Hal!

My girls all grown up~

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

These Girls...

A few minutes ago I uploaded some bow pics to list them & several mystery pics popped up to be downloaded as well...GOOFY KIDS!

Saturday, February 19, 2011

Drewy the sportaholic!

It's Saturday's which means Basketball games for a few more weeks. But...this morning Drewy had a Baseball Camp before his basketball game. It was pretty cute put on by the High School Baseball team & coaches. When we got there we learned Haliee's teacher last year & who she currently TA's for {Mr. Drake} is coaching JV this year so he was there. Haliee was excited & took his pic :) Drew says he is so going to CDA High if Mr. Drake is still coaching there! There were a ton more t-ball age kids there than I expected but they broke them up for the majority of time & they all had fun. Drew was in heaven playing with all those older boys! He is so ready for Baseball season.


The girls who insisted on coming with me, found ways to occupy their time...I swear they are regressing!

Brodie's Shower...FINALLY!

Whooo is a psycho party girl??? Tabby! Tabby! Tabby!

This was the most fun, exhausting shower I have ever thrown. I had about 5 things I ran out of time to do...but only I noticed. I love how it turned out. I could have never pulled it off without Haliee my trusted sidekick who took every single one of these pics for her Momma, my sweet husband who put up with my "ridic" OCD and helped me anyway even after I kept making him re-do things because they weren't "perfect", & my sweet friend Karlene who spent countless hours scrap booking and showed up a few hours early & rescued a psycho Tabby trying to make everything "Perfect". I wanted to have everything together & pics all taken before anyone arrived, have had time to finish everything I planned, have been a little more put together myself, but guess what...I'm not perfect. WAH...it is hard to say out loud...good thing HE and life are teaching me to deal with the truth!

I kept the entire theme a secret from Erin {which was so hard let me tell ya}. I told her to come 30 minutes early with the girls in white shirts & black leggings. She was freaking out because I just kept telling her how excited I was but I wouldn't let her know the details!

When they drove up, this is what they saw...


Now this sign was so AWESOME! Hal & I spent wayyyy to much time in a power struggle on the way it should look. He wanted to whitewash the boards, I wanted them old & natural. I told him there were no white washed boards in the forest, he pointed out there were no perfectly painted & glittery ones either. He went out in the forest & found a broken sapling for the post, fashioned the boards, distressed the edges, saved the rusty nails to renail the finished boards to the post (cuz I love him & he's ocd like me) and seriously down to the bitter end we debated the painting, lol. I finally said, "Hal, this is my shower." He was quick to point out it was "HIS" sign, he made it. ROF! Notice, I WON! {Just sayin...}

I loved how this sign turned out! If you notice the owls on the left, there is 1 owl for each member of their family!! :)

I made the girls all tutus, fairy wings, sweet fairy headbands, & light up magic fairy wands because every big sister deserves a special present & because they matched my theme & looked adorable! They were all so super excited (well my Zoe was feeling a little babyish, & wasn't real impressed with matching her baby sisters, but she wore it for her Pabba). The babies were in heaven. Erin was crying lol! Sorry for the million pics, but look at these girls..aren't they precious, I couldn't narrow it down. I loved their expressions & just their plain ole' cuteness!



I so so loved how this sign turned out...it is hanging in his room now!



These were the game prizes & the thank you gifts.



The flowers were a gift from Erin to me & thank goodness because I bought fresh flowers but ran out of time to make the arrangements I wanted. She was freaking out they didn't match. They were beautiful & perfect!


The "Family Tree" Hence the photo shoot I did before the shower...remember the pics...way back when??

I decoupaged Erin her own glass~

The clothes pins for the "Don't say baby" game

Playin' games~

We played the clothes pin game, celebrity baby name match, Whoo knows Erin best, the left & right story game. I wrote a story for this about Erin & seriously had to keep myself from crying when I read it. What a NERD! I can't remember that special place I put the copy, so I'll scan it in when I find it. We played 1 more game too, but I forget...LOSER!

The food...I am all about food! I love love love how the little markers and straws turned out. I am telling you I could have never pulled this off without Karlene! And...believe it or not, I don't have pics of all of them or all the different food. :( You have to notice the sweet little acorn cookie/candies Haliee made all by herself. SO Stinkin' Cute.

The present table. I didn't get the best pic of the inside but it looked super cute. the ball was moss covered and have some sweet crepe paper roses on it.