Fun Mom

You all know how I struggle to be a fun mom, I WANT to be a fun mom by I get in my own way a lot of the time. I knew I was going to be in for with all these kids for a few days on no one here except us for a few days and the WHAT ARE WE GOING TO DO's had already begun when we dropped Terry off at the airport, well I had seen on Heather's Blog that she had made these marshmallow structures and I though, "hey, that's looks fun and I might actually get Brett to participate in this type of activity because it is right up his alley" Well it was fun and for an hour or so I was a FUN MOM, until I made them clean up the mess then it all went down the drain!!

It was very serious work as you can see...




Bonnie like the edible aspect of the project!


I must ssay it was a really fun project, even for me...

Peace

There is just something about a lazy Sunday afternoon up here at the ranch. I can take my rowdy wild and noisy children by the river and even though they are still wild rowdy and noisy, down my the river it just seems peaceful. I so enjoy spending my afternoons by the river just taking in all of God's creations. The most wonderful creation of all is my beautiful children. I have been so blessed with these punks and need to remember to take the time more often to think about what a blessing they truly are in my life!

Ragin' the rapids

The kids had a blast "rafting" on the river! Note the rope holding the raft in place, I definitely wouldn't let my 5 year old raft by himself!

Mill Creek and Avenue of the Boulders

I must give credit where credit is due...Terry took like half of these pictures, Isn't he awesome, he did win 2nd place at the county fair!!

Big is an understatment

Big is and understatment when talking about these amazing wonders of nature. After over 12 years of coming up to the ranch here in oregon we decided to "branch" out of our useual points of interest and take the 2hour drive over to the Jedidiah Smith Redwoods state park. I have never visited the Redwoods before and my breath was taken away at these amazing trees. The kids enjoyed hiking and climbing in and around the trees and posing for pictures.

...by the river

A Help and a Hindrance

I have the the best nieces an aunt could ask for. Rebecca and Austyn are up here in Oregon and having the time of their lives (well may by not the time of their lives but there is lots of giggling going on so what ever that means!!) I brought Rebecca up with me to help me out a bit with my punks so I can work on stuff and like take a shower with out worrying that Bonnie will end up in the river!! The girls fight over who gets to hold her and play with her, she has become their constant companion. That is the HELP part, now the hindrance...these girls want to sleep in and keep me up all hours of the night telling gruesome birthing stories. They also want me to color hair, take pictures and tweeze eyebrows, they also want to stay on my computer for hours talking to their Facebook friends. That being said, I love having them here and getting to know them better! They are so sweet and loving and extra helpful!! Here are a few highlights of our photoshoot yesterday!!

Bonnie wanted in the the photo snapping... that is until I tried to take her picture, I guess she only like ruining my other pictures!!

A Love Note

Babe,

Though I am 800 miles away from you at this moment, I feel such a great love and gratitude in my heart for the blessing you are in my life. I know that I am truly bless to have you! I hit the jackpot when you picked me!! I can't have imagined that I could be this happy after all these years. My love for you has grown with every kiss and argument. I love that we know how to fight and it is usually productive and after it is resolved we are stronger for it. You are more than I could have ever hoped for in a husband and father to my kids!! I feel so often that I fall short of being worthy of you but you always have a way of making me feel that is not true. You are my love and my best friend and I can't wait to spend the rest of eternity with you! I love you and miss you and anxiously await your arrival here in paradise!!

Love, Your Honey





OK-Enough of the cheezyness...for the rest of you out there in cyberspace...If you read the love letter above you know that I have the best hubby on the planet. Knowing we would be apart for our anniversary he surprised me with a little"stay"cation. We had 2 wonderful nights at the RedRock Hotel. If you have the chance to get rid of your kids for a few days and do this...DO IT!
It was awesome. The room was beautiful and with a mid week locals package we got 2 nights and $100 at the spa. Which means with my local 30% discount and the $100 off I got to have a massage and a facial for the price of just the facial!!! Not to mention I got to lay by the pool for a few hours while Terry went into work. I actually fell asleep by the "spa" Pool listening to my IPod. The spa has a separate pool that has these couches to lay on that are just heavenly!! I was able to relax and rejuvenate, we also laid by the big pool for a few hours (something unheard of for Terry to do, the man never sits still) and then we went to a matinee. We also went bowling which was fun, and we ate and ate, I haven't eaten like that for like.....well never mind that. But we had a fabulous time!! When I got to the room Terry had a bottle of sparkling cider and some champagne glasses so we toasted to 13 more years of bliss!

...by the river

I am once again up in Medford, Oregon. For my 3 weeks vacation from triple digits! The high today was gorgeous 87 degrees. I have been working on some photo assignments having to do with light so I took some kiddos down "by the river" and snapped a few. Despite the somber look on Colby's face I assure it was only for the split second while I snapped this picture. ( I had the nerve to interrupt his frog hunting! I think the count is up to 30 something!) Sam was a bit more willing and I discovered I LOVE OREGON LIGHT! It is warm and lovely!! So here I sit with the windows open listening to the rushing of the river in my ears and surfing the net! Don't be to jealous!


A little bit of backlighting which I suck at btw! But working on it!

Until tomorrow!

4th Festivities

It all began Friday afternoon with a trip to Wal-mart in an effort to get "decorations" for our bikes. Why decorate bikes you ask? For a bike parade! Our ward had a pancake breakfast and bike parade the morning of the 4th. Samantha's bike was decked the most, of course, why would it be any other way!! we also stopped at Old Navy to buy t-shirts for the big day! FYI, if your going to go to Old Navy to buy shirts for the 4th, do not wait until 8:00 the night before!


After our fun morning of pancakes and bikes we headed out to Logandale for the fun of the 4th out there. We swam, ate, swam some more, ate some more, swam some more and watch a rockin fireworks show. Serious sunscreen was applied, sun burns we not thoroughly avoided but fun was still had!


The fireworks were great as always and i had some fun with long exposures on my camera to capture some of the awesomeness of it all!!

NEVER

NEVER EVER leave a 1 year old unattended downstairs when there is fresh bread cooling on the center counter. Even if she has never been able to climb up there before!