So Cute...

I just took these last week, I thought they were cute so I had to share!

NO Training Wheels.....

Braiden decided that he was going to ride his bike without training wheels and he did just that! When he informed us that he was ready to ride his bike like a big boy (this is kind of my doing, because he was asking me one day for a motorcycle and I told him that he could maybe have one when he learned how to ride his bike with no training wheels, I thought I at least had another year to wiggle out of this), we took his old bike and took the training wheels off. The thought was that if he fell from his big bike he might not want to try again so a shorter distance to fall would be less discouraging and scary, and he did GREAT, he even worked himself into riding Kyles big boy bike. Jeremy was right there to catch him but soon Braiden didn't want him to even be close because he could do it himself. Jeremy and I are so proud of him, he set his mind to something and he did it. We had a mini party afterwords, by going out for ice cream and he called as many people as he could to tell them he was a BIG boy. Because Trevor has now seen his brother ride on two wheels he thinks that maybe he needs to as well, and when we were at the middle school practicing Trev decided flat pavement wouldn't be as much fun as going down the wheelchair access ramps and off stairs, can you say all boy and NO self preservation. The top pics are of his first time on a 2 wheeled bike and the bottom are from the last time we went. He has become quite the professional!

Animals on Parade.....

Feeding the birds.
Poor Aunt Tana's back, she was such a good sport!
Brilee and my kids are a little heavier than Tana's!

Feeding the giraffes

Do the kids still have to obey the signs if they can't read?

We took the kids to the Zoo!! How fun, right? Why yes it was, for the kids, it was a little stressful for the adults. Let me paint you a picture, 7 kids ages 6, 4, 4, almost 3, 2, 1 and 3 months with 4 adults to watch them. We thought that because we were going before school started and on a weekday it wouldn't be vary busy, WRONG. It was vary busy, we didn't take into consideration that every day camp in the Seattle area would decide that this would be the day they will take a field trip to the zoo. All in all the kids had a great time, we only lost a child for a moment, and besides the few grays we now have to get touched up, it was fun. It might be a while before any of us brave this again, and when we do I have decided we are going to get the most fluorescent, obnoxious matching shirts to put on all of our kids.

Taking up the trade...

We have been wanting to buy a swing set for the kids for a while now, but we keep looking at the price and we decide maybe next year we will have Jeremy just build us one. Well, I love craigslist I check it at least once a day to make sure there isn't a screaming deal I can't pass up, when I saw this swing set I was so excited, it wasn't exactly what we wanted but we couldn't even buy the wood to start a set like this for the amount it was so we bought it. We have had it setting outside for a few weeks now because Jeremy hasn't had a chance to put it back together, but last week he was able to help the boys put it up. Braiden needed to wear his tool belt just like his dad and because Braiden had one Trevor felt he needed one too, a big problem because we only have one and it is Braidens (can you guess what Trev might be getting for his birthday?). They were so cute measuring, hammering, tightening bolts, Braiden would measure something with his tape and then he would blurt out "Dad you need to cut me a 4,5 7,6, OK". I love having little builders!!

AUTO MECHANICS 101...

(You might want to turn the music off at the bottom of the page)

Trevor, LOVES helping his dad! Jeremy has been working on his work truck, but he has been a little frustrated because all of his trucks have been a little temperamental lately and he just wants one that runs good. Trevor wants to be right in the middle of auto repair 101 class, to learn everything there is to know about mechanic stuff (soon we are going to have to do something drastic like remove the spark plugs out of all our vehicles and hide them, because he will figure this stuff out and we will be in trouble. So, if you see a small child driving a big truck, RUN, and call us).

Anyways, Jer is in a hurry to get this motor out, but with Trevor you can't hurry you have to watch every little move this kid makes because you turn your back and he could; unhook something, drop the jack that the engine is on, eat oil, or take a hammer to your fenders, DO NOT PUT ANYTHING PAST THIS KID!!!

Family Reunion 2008

We just got back from a family reunion for Jeremy's mom side of the family just outside Helena Montana. The trip started out by us leaving at 4:00 in the mourning on Friday and we came back on Sunday. There was a lot of driving that I can't say I want to do again, but we got to see a lot and hang out together so what more could you ask for, right!

We pulled into Helena at about 2:00 Mountain Time. We walked around downtown Helena and sight saw for awhile, then we went to camp. It was a little overwhelming to pull into a camp full of people that are related to Jeremy, because I didn't know he had this much (I have learned more about Jeremy's family in this last year than I had in 10 years). Jeremy's sister's and brother were all there . His sister Missy and 3 of her boys came, and Tammy's kids Jake and Josie, so all of the kids got to play together, which doesn't a happen a lot. They had a lot of activities for the kids which was nice, they got to play on the playground, they had Carrot Okie (Karaoke) which I am pretty sure that Tammy and I had the loudest kids there, I think they come by it vary naturally! The kids also got to make homemade Ice cream, swim in a beautiful but cold creek, and roast marshmallows. And for the adults we got a authentic chuck wagon dinner, it was some good food (Okay I didn't really care about the food it was good, but the cobbler was awesome, can you tell I LOVE desert)!

All in all we had a good weekend, we only had a few near death experiences, but surprisingly they weren't from the kids. One included Jamie and a tree and and the other came from me getting bucked of a teeter totter, but that was about it.

We packed up Sunday right after breakfast and slowly made our way home, and after 2 cups of coffee and 6 shots of espresso we made it. We stopped a few times along the way to take in the scenery and let the kids get out of the car for awhile, but we made it home at about 10:30 p.m. Braiden stayed awake the whole ride home right until we pulled off the Kittitas exit, silly kid.

The kids had a lot of fun, and it would be fun for the kids to do something like this again, but maybe just a little bit closer.