She's Come and Gone

Grandma Ricki came to visit us, she arrived last Wednesday to lots of hugs and kisses. She was hoping to come up and enjoy the cooler weather but as it turns out she came during the hottest days of the year so far! It's cooling down today and she is headed home...sorry Grandma! She got to spend lots of quality time with Noah and Oliver and Joel and I even took advantage and got away for an evening. We didn't do much while Grandma was here, just lots of talking and hanging out together. Thanks for coming up and visiting us, come back soon!!

Cool Gift!!

My mother-in-law came to visit us this past week and she brought with her an incredible gift from my sister-in-law!! Now I just have to find the right place to hang them in the house. Then someday when I'm really organized and can get my act together I will hang pictures of each family member around my gift! Check it out...

Tractor With Engine Installed

Steph sent me some pictures with an email titled "Tractor with engine installed" made me laugh so I though I'd share. Joel delivered the tractor to John and Steph's on Saturday and the babies chicken nuggets got to try out their new digs right away. Sounds like they are enjoying their tractor and happy to be out of their kiddie pool brooder that was in the garage. I also included a picture of their dog, Sunshine, getting as close as possible to the chicks. She just shakes and stares at the chicks just begging for a chance to "play" with them. I also included a picture of some of the eggs we get each week from them. Their youngest hens just started to lay eggs and as you can see they have some catching up to do!

Caution! Sharks!

Who needs signs like this...When you have innocent sharks like this...
And a not-so-innocent 2 year old...
Doing the attacking...
The sign should read...

Brotherly Glove

So summer has begun which means that my boys are spending a lot more time together (whether they like it or not). They have been having a ton of fun together but they've also been fighting to the point of driving me crazy. I couldn't take it anymore today and finally had enough of the bickering, so I turned to what every good parent turns to - the Wii! I loaded up Wii Sports and set them up to box it out. Body blows, upper cuts, cheap shots, round houses, I didn't care, just get it out of your systems. Turns out that it worked pretty well and there are no bloody or broken noses or bodily harm done. Not to mention both boys got some exercise because both were tired, sweating and breathing heavy by the end of a few rounds!

Punching fast and furious!

One of them just landed a punch!

Somtimes I Luck Out

I am the person that takes hundreds of pictures and hopes for that one good picture, even with the dirty face, I really like this one.

Chicken Tractor

Joel spent most of yesterday afternoon putting together the chicken tractor that will be used for these guys. Joel doesn't just build things, he builds things to last! This should last us through many sets of broilers and Steph should be able to pass it onto her kids or even grand kids! The area at the end will be fully enclosed for the chickens to have a sheltered area. The rest will be covered in chicken wire, leaving the bottom open for them to snack on grass, bugs, seeds, etc. Joel will be adding handles so it can be moved around Steph's yard(s) easily. I'll post pictures of the tractor in use once it's done and in place.

Cute!!

Look at my adorable nephew, Trevor on his cute pony, Rubi!!

Found Him!

After a bit of searching I finally found Noah, who has been missing as of 10:50a.m. on Wednesday. All I had to do was turn on the hose and pretend to water the garden and poof he appeared. It didn't take long for Oliver to notice that I was no longer in the kitchen and poof, he appeared too! Note to self, water = boys poofing into backyard and having some fun.

It's Official!

School's out for summer...and Noah is nowhere to be found!!

Outrageous Parable Update

On Sunday, June 8, we turned in our mission challenge monies. If you missed the little blurb to the side of our blog or I failed to send you an email you can visit our other blog here to get caught up. Anyway, we are done selling soap (for now) and we turned in over $300! The church collected most of the envelopes last week but a few are still trickling in. They have processed/counted about 90% of the envelopes and so far, over $10,000 have been collected for the Good Shepherd Hospital in the Congo! Once we get a final number I will post that here. We want to thank all of you that helped us with this challenge, we hope you are enjoying your soaps!

Fathers Day Fun

We made a big yummy breakfast here at the house for my dad, I would say Joel too but he helped a lot with the making of the breakfast. I don't know if it counts??? I had fun cooking with him though so that's got to count for something right? Anyway, after breakfast we headed to The Pyryt's house to enjoy the day, meet the baby chicks (see previous post) and spend time with our friends. The boys had a lot of fun playing together, the trampoline being the big fun for the day.

Ollie liked jumping alone best.

I was sitting on the trampoline trying to get pictures of Noah jumping. Sounded so simple but it was a lot harder than I thought it would be. This one, even though Noah is flying out of the picture, is one of my favorites.

What fun is a trampoline if you can't spray your friends with a sprinkler while they are jumping on it?

Cool picture of the water splashing up from the trampoline as the boys were jumping.

Dinner Anyone?

Trying to be a healthier consumer, both for my family and the planet, one of the many things that we do is buy the bulk of our meat from local farmers. Our beef and pork come from a place in Monroe OR, our beef is grass fed and finished and our pork gets all sorts of yummy farm scraps and high quality all natural grain as well as a chance to live as a pig. We've been researching farms that raise all natural chickens for a while now but my friend Stephanie decided to buy and raise some meat birds in her backyard for us! Stephanie and her mom Karen already provide us with some of the best tasting and beautiful eggs from their layers. Anyway, I agreed to help come processing day so Steph went ahead and ordered 15 meat chickens and here they are (we actually got 16 to cover any losses during shipment). They are 11 days old now so we won't be processing for a while yet. I wanted Noah to see them and understand the process that it takes for him to get food on his plate. I've asked him if he wants to help on the day that the chickens will make their way to our freezers and he hasn't decided yet. I don't think he likes the idea but he is also very curious. When we went to John and Steph's yesterday we moved the chickens into the backyard to enjoy the warm weather and try their hand at eating a few bugs and blades of grass.

Baby Panda

We have watched this video a lot, Noah and Ollie laugh every single time!

'Nuggle Me?

"Nuggle me?" is Oliver's way of asking me to snuggle and cuddle with him and how can I resist when I come out and find him like this? The laundry and dishes can wait....

A Special Birthday Wish

For Grandma Ricki!! We know your birthday was yesterday but it's worth the wait!! We love you!

Helmet and Shoes Required!

So I've been reading a lot lately on the Bike Portland blog about the World Naked Bike Ride. This is a crazy ride if you ask me and I can't imagine it's a very comfortable ride either. Apparently, my two year old has been reading about it too. Here he is practicing, helmets required, on his scooter. I guess that technically shoes aren't required, just a good idea.

More From the Resident Orange Belt

On Saturday the 7th, Noah participated in the Kanthak Karate All School Demonstration. These are always fun to go to and watch but this time Noah got to spar a little at the end. We do have some video of the sparring matches but they need a bit of editing before I can upload them. We, that would be Joel and I the parents of the resident orange belt, need to learn to keep quiet while video taping. Because I really doubt that there is anyone that wants to listen to us tell Noah to, "45, attack and out," over and over. The sad thing is that trying to not be those parents that interfere and yell on the sidelines, it's just us that's hearing it anyway. I've got to learn telepathic communication with my child in those situations! Okay, maybe not...

Draw punch!

Stand still, eyes on point!

Mr. B and NoJo

Noah received these dog tags for sparring.

Solid Orange Belt

Noah got another belt promotion tonight, white, gold, orange with white stripe and now solid orange. This Saturday, the 7th, at Shahala Middle School from 10am to 1pm they are holding another Kanthak Karate All School Demonstration and Mini Tournament. The demo will be about an hour long then a short break. The students will then get to participate in a mini-tournament. This will be the first opportunity for many of the students to do some Ring Sparring, including Noah. We'd love to see you there if you are looking for something to do on Saturday.



Noah is looking forward to this summer, his karate school has lots of fun things planned on top of the regular scheduled classes. Escrima Stick Training will be offered and Noah is very excited about learning defensive techniques with a rattan stick. The students that take the class get to participate in the Star Wars/Light Saber Party - who wouldn't want to take the class??? There are also movie events, pool parties, picnics and water fights. I'm also hoping for a couple of day camps and parents night out events.

Crash Hot Potatoes - YUM!

I read a blog called The Pioneer Woman she takes some incredible pictures, tells a good story and shares some of her favorite recipes. I've tried a few but this one was incredible! They were supposed to be our side dish tonight but quickly became my main course. This would also be delicious, if you have any leftover, at breakfast with a fried egg on top. Go, try them now, or at least in the next day or two, I promise you will not be disappointed.

Sturgeon Festival

Back, once again, to the Water Resources Center but this time it was for the Sturgeon Festival. Information for just about every activity related to water for the taking and many activities for the kids. There was an animal lady there with parrots and a possum and another wildlife person with a hawk, screech owl, snake and chinchilla. Puppet shows, fish dissections, photo contests and crafts were scattered about the building. The boys had fun and keep asking if we can go back today.

Here they are taking turns at the safety rope toss, they got a sticker and certificate after answering some safety questions.
Row row row your cool fishing/wading boat that they got to play on and around. Oliver kept demanding that the boat be put in the fountain. "Boat in water, not on ground!"

What kid doesn't love to paint? They each got to paint a "fish scale" then hang it on the large salmon that they had. I'm tempted to go back today and see it all covered, not many scales on the fish yet when we were done.