06.23.2009 Completely Random Photos

Photo's taken by children are always fun to see! Like today, whilst uploading my photos of this fun packed weekend I came across this.....



Which would be a shot taken at a weird angle from the living room toward the hall. With part of ME?! showing (ha, well only half and some funky ponytail action or something, yikes!)and I am probably saying something like "put mommy's camera down before you break it" or "Don't waste all my battery life taking random video of the cat(s)" (which is a pretty frequent sentence used in my house actually).
Aren't you loving the huge brown and blue flowered dog bed (which came out of my master bedroom when they cleaned the carpets last week) and the lone navy tennis shoe. Oh yeah, my house is sparkling. Ya, don't miss the tapestry hung crooked from the key holder or that straw hat from the last visit to the garden....oh but there's more.



Then he/she must have backed up to get a complete shot of an avergae "day in the life" kind of living room. Laundry basket full of folded clothes, box of Geo-Trax, Katie the cat, and probably a bill of some sort just laying on the floor. Ya great. Beautiful...and i posted this why?!



'Cuz it was apparently important to my 5 or 7 year old to get the North end of the cat heading South. Yep, photographer in the making those kids! Gotta love 'em!

06.21.2009 Future Fun Times!!!

Ok, so I am at home, doing laundry...minding my own business. Here comes the man with a big box. He proceeds to assemble the contents on my front lawn. I wonder what it could be ??????



The best part of this is that we had been looking and looking (online) for a nice professional size one of these babies - not the cheap Walmart special - though that is what our budget would allow! Anyway, needless to say it was too far out of the realm of possibility. Well, low & behold my husband is working with a buddy, then drops him off at his house and sees this thing. Well this other guys' kids are like 20 and 24 yrs old so he asks him what he is using it for. He said he just never got rid of it and these days his dogs just use it for shade! Then he said we could have it - - like for FREE people! Talk about being blessed. Did you guess what it is yet?! Yeppers...a TRAMPOLINE! Woo-Hoo!



So hubby gets some shorts on and proceeds to school the children in how it is done. Though to be honest, i think it comes natural, kinda like eating and breathing. Like a fish takes to water, my kiddos took to this trampoline.



Oh wait! That's one BIG kid doing a flip! LOL. Well as you can see the WHOLE family will be enjoying this one. Sorry the post dates are out of order, I had video to show and was waiting to upload that but it didn't work out! Me & my camera video just don't get along.
Well, I better get going, I have a trampoline to go jump on ! Buh-Bye.
Oh and a big shout out to J.B. You are the greatest man THE GREATEST!

06.22.2009 Erick gets his 1st Car!!!!

Ok, so the day has finally arrived. Erick, after about 6 solid months of searching, has found a car. Sadly, he found it in California so we'll have to drive it all the way back here to Montana. Not a biggie. Now all he needs is the drivers license to go with it eh? First thing when we get back home! So we head out for California soon, some r&r, drive it back, then back to work!
Isn't it gorgeous? In such nice shape! It's a 2005 Mitsubishi Lancer.



You think the boy could look a bit happier in the photos?! I guess it's the I'm almost 18 and too cool to smile thing!

More Grad Photos 06.06.2009

April's House where we had the party is soooo gorgeous, she had ponds, beautiful mature trees, a bridge and a full flowing creek that runs behind. The cloudy day was perfect and it stopped raining long enough for us to get pictures of Erick with just about everyone in the clan. Here are some of my favorites (in no particular order).....


Me, Erick, his dad Jim, and Grandma Heier


**PICTURE REMOVED BY REQUEST** p.s. doesn't mean it never happened LOL
Erick and Rachel =)


Friends of his dad that have known him forever...flew all the way in for this! Mark, Erick, Loreen, and Tom


**PICTURE REMOVED BY REQUEST**
And more of Erick and Rachel


Wendy (the cake maker!), Erick, and Wendy's daughter Britney


April and Erick


Me and Wendy


Me and my sis Lynnette (thank you sooo much for all your help!)


Auntie Lynnette and the Grad

**PICTURE REMOVED BY REQUEST**

More fun with Erick and Rachel (How cute is that necklace she is wearing-Erick got it for her Sweet 16-Birthday!)


The Boyz-couldn't get a good pic so this will have to do! Rich, Erick & Robert

A HUGE CONGRATS TO THE CLASS OF 2009! YOU DID IT!!!!

06.06.2009 GRADUATION PARTY

Can you say PARTAY?! After the glorious morning of Thunder Showers, we retreated to my friend April's house for the graduation party. It was great, mellow, awesome scenery for pictures, and food galore. MMMMMM. Can you say CAKE? CUPCAKES?

My BFF Wendy made the cake, and the awesome cupcakes!

Look at the detail! She rocks! Everyone loved them! And the cake..ohh the cake was the bestest. Thanks for the vanilla cake, and yeah 1/2 choc for the weirdos. yummy!

Typical Erick, when we ask him to do the honors...haha funny boy!

In all seriousness...is he not the most handsome kid? Someday he'll be cutting wedding cake! Oy! Not anytime soon...i can wait ten more years!

He DID IT !! Erick Graduates!

 

Can a momma be any more proud?! Nope. I'm pretty sure i am proud up to the moon...even though I should not be prideful, this is a different kind. The kind that makes you wanna sit back with that little conversation bubble over your head with stuff like "He actually passed English" floating in that little conversation cloud. Woo-Hoo! 13 years in the making people. And it seems like yesterday when he would recite to anyone and everyone "I possess a great deal of knowledge". He was 4. He knew, and we knew he wold be going to college someday. And that someday is nearly here. He was accepted at the University of Montana and starts in the fall.

 

Here is his graduating class. Sorry for the so far away shot...we were sitting,...well standing actually up in the balcony with the band. Never enough seats in the Inferno.

 

There go the CAPS, yay, almost over.

++PICTURE REMOVED AT THE REQUEST OF EX-GIRLFRIEND (?!!)++
(apparently moms can't document times in their childrens lives without offending someone ....2years later.....sheeesh

And the day wouldn't be complete without a picture of Rachel and Erick. Young love - awww! Rachel is his girlfriend who has been around since the days of stomach flu on the speech bus back from the tournament. She let him use her blankie. The rest is history. She is wonderful and we hope she'll be around for a long time to come!

And these are THE BOYZ. The same boys that raid my cupboards on a daily basis and play video games in my basement after school so frequently.

Erick's best bud Richard (the one NOT in the dorky cap & gown) transferred to Hamilton 2 years back, and graduated from that rival school 1 week earlier than our boys. Erick has known Richard since he first came to Corvallis in 8th grade - the boy who brought his bible to school with him, and had the long hair. He's in a band, it's cool. When Rich moved on to Hamilton, Erick and Steven became the inseparables. Steven and Mike are best buddies so we inherited them all as our own. After all, they did COLLECTIVELY eat us out of house and home!
The last of our gang -not pictured here - is Robert. We couldn't find him for the pics but if you look close he is walking right behind in the picture of Erick and Rachel. That pretty much was the normal gang around these parts. Congrats Boyz! We are all so proud!

05.31.2009 Just another day at...church?

Well Auntie Lynnette came into town to help us with the graduation preparations and to see Erick graduate. And we brought her along to church. We warned her first. Our church is a huge warehouse, it has a skate park, it's worship music is a live band somewhat like going to a concert. She was game! We had fun. And afterwards, due to much BEGGING we let the kids play on the ramps on the skate park. Then came the begging for a skateboard. Luckily, those were $45 at Target so no go!


Aww, don't they look so cute? Let's just say they were totally filthy when they were done playing around.



The kiddos snapping a picture of Auntie. Oh, don't look so annoyed!



Hang on Bubba!

 

And what had to be the funniest was after church deciding where we were going to go eat lunch. Bubba wanted to go to Hooters...cuz owls are cool i guess *wink* Luckily they weren't open yet so we mosied on over to Johnny Carinos instead. But momma thought it sould be cute to get the obligatory picture in front of Hooters. Bubba didn't know what all the fuss was. He was grouchy and did not want to get out of his car seat to pose. I'll keep this one for blackmail later. =)

05.30.2009 IT'S A BOY !!!

It's official, the newest member of our family is a BOY! No, not a baby sillies...everyone knows this factory is closed! We got a new KITTEN.
He is just the cutest thing ever. I am just a sucker for a cute kitten. I know they grow up too, but baby kitties are too adorable.

 

Here is Sis and the newest member of the family. The name he came with was PUMA, but we quickly changed it! Mainly bcuz we kept calling him "her" or "she" since our other cat is a girl.

 

He is really beautiful. All grey, no tail - just a "stub". He has green eyes, and the coolest thing is that on the OUTER edge they are blue. Not inside by the black part, but on the outer edge. Hard to capture in a photo but just plain awesome!

 

So his new name is JACK. Jack is so very masculine, and truth be told, since his mama was part Manx he has these long back legs like a jack-rabbit and he actually hops around. Jack was perfect for him.

 

So here he is all cute and cuddly and sleepy...ha! He can play and scratch with the best of them though, don't let that cute exterior fool you! He's a mini demon.

05.24.2009 Memorial Day Parade!

It's a family tradition! One of the many perks of living in a small town are the fun things like watching the Memorial Day Parade down Mayberry...oops i mean MAIN Street! We do it every year. It is small but great. Every year the kids bring their flags and honor all the Vets by saying Thank You to everyone they see in a uniform. Sis and Daddy pose for the traditional flag photo.

 

This year was extra special because Bubba's daycare had a float in the parade. The WILD THINGS! There he is right below those white ring things! That is Miss Shannon in the Pink, and Miss Jackie - his 2 preschool teachers at daycare.

 

Miss Jackie and Bubba (the wild tiger) at the end of the day!

Later we walked to the High School (where big brother goes) and they have a mini-carnival type atmosphere. Bubba had Funnel Cake for the first time ever. YUMMY!

05.23.2009 Now the Planting Begins!

Well Grandpa came this weekend to help us out with our garden. He must have felt sorry for us and all the time we've been spending to not have anything in the ground yet. I (mom) got a whopper of a sunburn the day before. Wearing a halter top so the entire top half of my back got nearly 2nd degree burns. Apparently sunblock was not in my vocabulary.

 

Making ROWS for the new strawberry plants.

 

Sis and grandpa making the little holes for the strawberry plants.

 

Sis patting the plants down into the soil. Lovin the spongebob garden gloves!

 

AH~the finished product! 2 and a half planted rows of strawberries.

And MORE Garden Work

 

Derell and Derell Sr. fixing some sprinkler heads for the garden.

 

Erick enslists his friends Steven and Robert to help with picking rocks out of the garden.

 

Erick warns me to get back and stop taking his picture..or what?! He'll clobber me with a rake? LOL