Let's back up to May, shall we?

Where does the time go? Let me think back and see what we were doing this past May...oh yes, that's right...sports. Racheal finished up track and soccer. The girls track team took first place at districts this year. Yeah! I don't have any pictures of spring soccer because the weather never was nice enought to get the camera out. We froze and had winter jackets on the whole season. Anyway...Alissa finished up cheer. They competed in the regional cheer competition and if you have ever seen that movie Bring it On, then you know how the whole day went. It was fun to sit and watch all the school compete and our girls did great! They also had an end of the year banquet with an awards ceremony. Alissa earned her varsity letter in cheer and there were three awards given out that night that the team voted on, she received one of them. She was awarded the 'Best Example' award. Then all the team members signed the cheer wall and said their goodbye's to each other. Sarah finished up soccer and took 2nd place in a local tournament. She has decided to play in a more competitive league and has moved up from rec soccer to a traveling competitive team. So now we will travel every Saturday for games and get to play other teams from other cities. The competitive season starts early and ends late so we jumped right from spring soccer into fall soccer with no break. Colby is the assistant coach for Sarah's team this year. I will update on June and July and add pictures for that soon.

RUN, Racheal, RUN!!!

Racheal decided to join the track team this spring and she is really enjoying it. She runs the 100m and the 200m and is practicing the hurdles too. She is too afraid to try the hurdles in a meet because she doesn't want to fall during a race, and well let's face it...if it were going to happen to anyone it would probably be Racheal eating the track. But she likes the 100 and the 200 and we just found out today that she has qualified for districts. So her track season is not quite over yet. I thought track was a warm weather kind of sport, but around here they run the kids rain or shine and yesterday it was hailing during Racheal's 100m. But she still came in 1st and still had lots of fun. I, on the other hand, should have brought the umbrella.

New little adventure

I have been bitten by the sewing bug and I have started my own little business. I really just needed something to do to keep me from having to work out in the yard this year and sewing is it. It has been really fun to go shopping for fabric, there are so many cute things out there! So here is my link to my business website and for the face book page. It is still in the early stages, more items and photos will be available once I complete more things but thanks for looking!

My baby is 12!

I really can't believe that Sarah has turned 12. What a sweet girl she is, she loves to hang out with both Colby and I and loves to do what ever we are doing from sewing or cooking with me to fishing and yard work with dad, she loves it all. She has turned out to be quite the little helper around the house and loves to try new recipes. Her favorite thing to bake is banana bread and she even labels the banana's with sticky notes so we know not to eat them because she is saving them to make bread. She has really enjoyed middle school and is the only one of the three girls that wakes herself up in the morning. For her birthday she wanted to go to Wahooz's so we had a quick party after dad came home and off we went to play. So here are some pictures of her little party and the picture's from Wahooz's are below.

Wahoo!

We went to Wahooz's to celebrate Sarah's 12th birthday. It was a nice night out and there was hardly anyone there, the kids got to ride the go carts as long as they wanted all night long. And we played miniature golf and laser tag and played lots of arcade games. Sarah kept saying all night that it was her favorite birthday ever...she really had a lot of fun. Ashlee, Haylee and Ethan came with us and they had lots of fun too. Haylee played golf for the first time, she rode in a go cart and we eventually convinced her to drive her own and she did really good. So here are some pictures of our fun night and of our sweet birthday girl!Sarah scared for her life and Racheal loving every minute of it!


Racheal riding by herself because no one was crazy enough to get in a go cart with her after seeing what happened to Sarah.


Sarah driving her first go cart.

Haylee driving her first go cart!


Haylee and Alissa cruising around the course.

Sarah at the miniature golf course.


Sarah playing a round of golf.


Ethan waiting for his turn to play golf and trying to stay warm.


Sarah and Haylee hung out most of the night and had lots of fun together.

A trip to the cabin

We were able to sneak away for the weekend in January and play in the snow up at McCall. It was during their winter carnival so there was some fun things to do in town and at the golf course they had a fun tubing hill. It was just the right size for everyone in the family to have fun. We took Ashlee and Gerrit and the kids with us of course and they had lots of fun too. Ethan didn't want to walk in the snow but he enjoyed sitting on the sled at the bottom of the hill watching everyone sled down. So here are some pictures of our weekend in the snow and at the cabin.

Do you know what 400 cupcakes look like?

Well...let me show you. Alissa and I volunteered to decorate 400 cupcakes for a friend's wedding, we had good friends that baked most of them for us and then we spent all day Saturday decorating. It was a lot of fun and they turned out soooo cute! We made rich chocolate and golden vanilla cupcakes and the bride wanted homemade cream cheese frosting and we made red chocolate 'W's for the tops. And we even made it over to the church with all 400 cupcakes in one piece, but we drove about 5 MPH though. Here are some pictures of our day.

Christmas 2009

Christmas was very laid back this past year, Ashlee had her inlaws in town so it really was just our little family. It was so nice to have the weekend to rest and be with family after Christmas. Sarah helped make our traditional Christmas morning cinnamon rolls and then they opened their pj's on Christmas Eve.



















And then we all slept in the master bedroom (a Christmas tradition that the kids have grown to hate because they can't sneak out to see if Santa came) and watched movies until we fell asleep. Then we enjoyed Christmas with each other.

Camping Trip to Ensign Ranch

One of our favorite places to camp is Ensign Ranch...unfortunately it is 6 hours away but we were able to go in August. We had so much fun. We camped back by the river and there was no one else back there. I just love having 300 acres of river front property all to myself. We rode horses and all the girls did really good, they loved it. We walked all around the different girls camp sites (they were empty) and tried out every rope swing we could find. The girls danced on every amphitheatre stage we found and Colby even gave them rides in a hand cart, they loved that until it was his turn. Haha. We spent afternoons at the lake and used the canoes they have and Colby tried out the rope swing they have that goes into the lake. We enjoyed perfect camping weather and most of all we enjoyed spending time together. We can't wait to go back!

Fall Soccer

Sarah had a fun time this season playing soccer, she played goalie a lot and scored plenty of goals as well. It's so fun to watch her play because she has so much fun with it. She always has a great attitude and loves every minute. Here are a few picture from this past season. And one of Racheal too.

Another surgery

My poor Racheal had a second surgery on her foot in August, she was in a boot for just 2 weeks this time and it is looking better now. She had to sit out all of fall soccer and the first winter session for indoor soccer but she is now playing indoor with a group of girls that will be her team mates for next year at the high school. She is glad to finally be back playing soccer and she is also in a fitness class in school to help her get ready for high school ball. She is pretty excited.

New show!

I just wanted to spread the word about a new fun website I found, it looks like fun! They are starting a new DIY crafting online show and also giving away 2 Janome machines. Check it out.

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Homecoming weekend

Alissa has a busy week for homecoming, the cheerleaders had something to do every night plus we were running around getting her things for the dance and dress fittings, etc. Anyway...we all survived and everything turned out great! Here she is cheering at the homecoming game and trying to stay warm. It ended being about 40 degrees, Brrrrr! Thank goodness their warm ups came in that same day and so they were able to wear those.
























Then Saturday was the homecoming dance. Her dress was done Saturday morning so I picked that up and went to have it steamed. Then we went to get her hair done in the afternoon. 2 other couples met at our house for pictures and then they all met up with 4 other couples at Red Robin for dinner. Then it was off to the dance. She said everything turned out great and they had a fun time.

Football games and cheerleaders

Colby and I went to the HS football games last year and enjoyed it, we watched some friends boys play football and just had fun and they are cheap date nights. Anyway, this year we are enjoying not only watching the football games again but also watching Alissa cheer. She has been having a lot of fun and working hard. She did a great job at her first game, it was so fun to watch her. This picture is actually of her 3rd game when Grandma Jill came for a quick weekend visit to watch cheer leading and soccer. I am so glad Grandma brought her camera, she got some great pictures.

Canning peaches, plum jam, peach jam, pickles, salsa, spaghetti sauce, canned tomatoes

My camera took a little swim in the river back in May, so I will just link to Ashlee's blog so you can see what we have been up to the last couple of weeks. We are looking forward to getting apples soon for apple pie filling and applesauce, we are also going to try to can an apple cinnamon syrup.

No more bootie!

HaHaHa, that is what we called Racheal's boot that she had to wear for 8 weeks, but she is officially done with her bootie! She had x-rays taken and it is looking great, she still has to wear tennis shoes all summer, no flip flops, until her next appt and then we will see how soon we can start back up with soccer. The season starts the week after her next appt, so we are hoping for good news. But for now she is just excited to be able to walk without her bootie! Yeah!

Driver's Ed is a lot like the first day of kindergarten

You drop them off at the front door, you hope they like their teacher, you hope the teacher likes them. You also hope they make new friends and pay attention when they should. You think about them all day long and wonder what they are doing now as you look at the clock for the one hundredth time. You can't believe she is old enough to be doing this. You worry about them and get so excited when it is finally time to go pick them up and then you pick them up and ask them all about their day and all you get is "it was fine". LOL

Goodbye's are hard, especially when you are 15.

Alissa's boyfriend moved to Texas a few days ago. She had a little going away party for him at our house last weekend, they sat around the fire pit and ate desserts and had fun. So anyway, here is a picture of the two of them that night of the party.

Surgery Day

Racheal's surgery went well, they decided not to put the metal rods in her bones because she is allergic to metal and they didn't want her bones to reject the rods, so she will have longer in her walking boot and a little bit longer recovery time. She had a rough few days after the surgery but is finally walking on it and starting to look more like herself. She had her follow up appointment yesterday and the Dr says it is looking ugly and that is just the way it should. LOL He's a funny guy. So he said it looks like it should and all is well. Hopefully she will be back to school on Monday. Here is a picture of her before they wheeled her away, trying to be brave.