Mans Best Friend

So a few months ago we went to Oerschlins to get some flowers and they had the most incredibly cute dog we had ever seen there. So of course I don't even think I got any flowers but we did end up bringing this dog home. He has become Connors best friend. Connor has to go outside 20 times a day to check on him and pet him. He sleeps in the garage and stays in the yard (minus going to my neighbor shelley's house occasionally and eating her cat food). So all in all he is a pretty good boy. (Minus chewing up everything he comes in contact with. Including the seat on our golf cart and some Reebok flip flops that don't belong to us. Hopefully none of you are missing any. Hehe. I guess that is part of him being a puppy.) This is the first dog we have ever had and I am not a dog person (at all). But he has become part of the family. My friend Beth has taken over the Animal Control for Washington and she was telling me about how they have to put down all the dogs that don't find homes. That just makes me sick. Just think if we wouldn't have adopted Raylin he would be there in that situation. Yuck. Next time you get the itch for a dog adopt one. There are so many that need good homes. Maybe I will even get a second one someday. Doubtful but maybe. First I have to replace everything in the garage that this one has chewed up.

Vacation Success!!

Last week we were brave and took our children on vacation. We went to Gatlinburg with my parents, sister, and her family. I was a nervous wreck thinking of being in the car with the kids for 7 hours. Surprisingly it went incredibly well. I don't think we had a single melt down in the car. Somehow we ended up 20 minutes in front of everyone else on the way so we stopped at a church parking lot and let the kids run around for a while.

It felt awesome to get out and stretch our legs but not that awesome that it was 100 degrees! We were sweating to death. We meet up with our crew and ate lunch and continued on our way. It was such a nice and calm ride. I would have never dreamed it would have gone that easily.

First thing we did was go to the aquarium. Here are a few pics of that.

This is in our cabin one morning before we went out. Sam loves coffee (Actually all of my kids do. For this reason I never make it except for a special treat!!)

The whole gang together. I wonder if we will ever get a pic of all of them together and looking. Maybe in a few more years.

This was the view from the deck on our cabin. Pretty yes- Scary absolutely!! I went into serious panic mode when I took my kids out there the first time. They were not allowed on the deck without an adult ever.

This was at wonder works. Mag kept trying and after a couple attempts she made it to the top. I was so proud of her.

Sam absolutely loved to run on this piano.

Connor and Jack wanted to go to a dinosaur museum and Maggie and Luke wanted to go to this Titanic place so we ended up taking the little boys to the dinosaur place. It was awesome. We were the only ones there so we went thru it like 5 times and took our time. Dont they look cute in their safari hats??

I on the other hand- not that cute in the safari hat!! Lol!

After the dinosaur place we took the boys on a helicopter ride. It was short and sweet but still pretty cool for the boys to say they got to ride in a helicopter.

Connor as the helicopter was going up!! Looking a little scared at first but he ended up really liking it.

At 2:30 in the morning the night before we left I got up to use the bathroom and found this guy right next to the toilet. I killed it and then tried to go back to bed. I couldn't sleep all night thinking one of them was going to get in my covers. That was my first and hopefully last Scorpion experience. Yuck.



That is the highlights from our trip. Can't wait to plan a trip for next year.

Summer Catch-Up

I am struggling with the fact that summer is almost over. Am I ready to be done with 100 degree heat? Totally!! But at the same time am I ready for school to be starting again? Not really. I can't believe Maggie is about to start 3rd grade and Connor is going to pre-school already. I am a little nervous about him going. Hopefully he will like it. I guess we shall see. Here are a few pictures of our summer happenings.
This is my dad. How cute is he???

For some reason all of my pictures seem to have at least one naked little boy in them. They go outside dressed but it seems like one of them is naked and playing in the hose all the time. Oh well there is nothing cuter than a naked baby booty:)

Maggie and my niece Brooke.

Mags at the Splash park.

Maggie joined the YMCA dolphins this year. She loves to swim and she has improved so much since the beginning of the season. She won the most improved swimmer and she was so proud of herself. It has been so good for her. This is her before her last meet.

Keith and Connor at the Splash Park/City Pool.

4th of July at my mom and dads house. They are building a new house so this was our last year to celebrate at their house and watch the fireworks from the park. It will be so sad for them to move out of the house we grew up in but they are so excited about their new house and it is going to be so nice. I will have to post some pics.

Sam and his Pappy.

Connor getting a haircut at Uncle Dennis' Barber Shop before Emily and Joel Thompsons wedding. He was the ring bearer in their wedding. Well sort of. My husband had to hold his hand and walk with him. He was so terribly handsome it didn't even matter. Hehe.

We have done a ton of jumping on the trampoline with the sprinkler underneath it. What a great way to cool off and have fun. My kids love it. Here they are with my sisters kids.

Connor and my nephew Jack posing for a quick pic.

Well that is only a fraction of what has been happening here but it's a good start. Life has kept me way to busy to think about doing much blogging lately. Maybe having 2 boys 18 months apart wasn't the greatest idea. Lol. I wouldn't change it for the world but it does make life twice as crazy as it was before they were here. We are going to Gatlinburg in a couple weeks with my sister and her fam and my parents. This will be our first real vacation as the parents of 3 kids so wish us luck. The kids are really excited and the boys are positive they are going to see a bear. Lol. Hope you are all doing well and hopefully now that summer is over things will calm a little and I will be able to get back on the blogging bandwagon.

Catching up!!

So I have taken a serious blogging break. It just seems like recently anytime I would sit down to work on it something else would come up. So I am going to catch you up on the highlights of the last few months. As you can see we have been hanging out with our friends the Clintons. Lol. Actually at the end of April Keith and I took our first no kids trip to NYC for the weekend. While we were there we went to a wax museum and these are a couple of the pics we took there.

This was taken at Battery Park which is where you go to get on the Ferry to see the Statue of Liberty.

This is the bull on Wall Street.

Here we are at the Subway. The second day there we braved it and took the Subway. What an experience. It is a little scary. Thank god my husband has a great sense of direction. We didn't get lost once. (That's bc we asked for directions every 3 blocks. haha)

This is Time Square. Our hotel was just 2 blocks from there. We had such a nice trip. It was a nice get away. It definately made me appreciate my 2 acre yard (that I complain about mowing all the time), the cows I watch in the pasture behind our house, and being able to walk down the street all by myself. It was amazing to see though. I am definately a small town girl. While we there my husband won us front row tickets to see Wicked. It was the coolest thing I have ever seen. I have officialy downloaded the soundtrack and listen to it and try to relive it all the time. If you ever have the oppurtunity it is so worth the money.

Remember that bomb ordeal in NYC that was the weekend after we came home and only one block over from where we stayed. Thank god for keeping us safe. That would have scared me to death if we would have been there for that.

Here we are at my parents house after church on Easter.
We were like that's a pretty good family photo and then we noticed our family had grown by one. Did you notice my niece to the right. Well needless to say she is getting cropped out before we print it out. At least you got a chance to see how cute she looked at easter in her dress that matched maggies. Hehe.

This is Keiths grandma at her birthday party. Doesn't she look fantastic. She is doing so well. We have been doing some shopping. We have went to Kohls this month two times. She loves to shop and we have been having so much fun. It is so good to have her back to feeling well and being able to do things. I think she really had a good 90th birthday party. She got a lot of nice gifts and we had good food and company.

This is from Connors birthday party. (For some reason my pics are always out of order. ) This was his big gift. He loves to drive this tractor all over the yard. When I mow he gets his tractor out and tries to help me.

My mom, Maggie, and Connor pre-party. Doesn't Connor look handsome in his sweater? I love him in that sweater.

This is Keith, his brother Kelly and Sam with their Grandpa Mel. I love this picture of all of them together.
Keith was driving Grandpa around showing him things in the yard. Did you know Keith's grandpa grew up in the house next door to ours (where Keith grew up) and he used to milk cows in the barn you can see in the background of this pic. It must be so weird for him to see how things have changed.

This is just a quick pic from Maggies party. I can't believe I have an 8 year old daughter. Where has the time gone.

Here are a few pics of my kids all decked out for Easter. I thought they were way too cute to not share.

Anyways that is the highlights of the last 3 months. I have also done a lot of landscaping work around my house. I am so proud of how it has turned out. I will have to post a picture of that soon. Maggie has got me running like a full fledged soccer mom. She has tutoring, swim team, cheer camp, and Camp Illiana in the month of June so we are always running I feel like. Connor is going to be the ring bearer in Keith's cousin Emily's wedding next weekend. So I hope to get some pics posted of him. Even if I can't get him to walk down the aisle he will still be so handsome in a tux (but keep your fingers crossed he does it.) Hope you are all doing well. Until next time.

Lindsay