One Year Ago

I was just looking through some old pics today and came across my July 2007 folder, opened it, and lo-and-behold, found these:




Taiter found the bottle of chalk dust and went to town. Fun times.

I just thought I would share my walk down memory lane. Thankfully I wasn't mad enough to forget to take pictures! The best part is we were still remodeling and I didn't have a washer and dryer at my disposal. *sigh* I am so thankful those days are over.

Whatta Weekend

Whew! Usually Mondays seem to be the hectic day of the week but today it's actually quite the opposite. Our weekend was jam-packed and it doesn't look like the next few are going to be any better. This Saturday we went to CDA and bought an air conditioner. We had to get the portable kind because our windows are the old 70's crank-style and a regular AC won't fit. Now I am anxiously awaiting the set up of this lovely invention. This will open up a whole new world for me. I will be able to cook without my house reaching 90 degrees! Yay!
Next we wandered into the Valley and did a little shopping. And I might add that I got some awesome deals on some new duds for my two little cuties. Oh yes, I also found a pair of boots that I just absolutely love. But of course they cost MORE than everything else I bought combined. Plus they had a two-inch heel and that doesn't really work with a short but very manly husband. So my sad and lonely feet will just have to be content to be clad in flip-flops and vinyl for now.
After that we headed over to Wallace and bought a plow for the 4-wheeler. It was actually quite the steal. They cost something like $400 new and we got it for $130. Look out! Sorry, it's just in my hubby's blood to find amazing deals. Did I mention that the AC is about $400 new as well and we bought it for $170, and it was only used a couple of months? Well, yeah, that too.
Anyway, moving right along. Sunday we went to church and got to see my long-lost cousin from Alaska and his family. Afterward we meandered on home and had a lazy afternoon. In the evening Lyle & Terah came over. While the guys and the three oldest boys went to look at a snowmobile us girls and Rowster played outside and picked cherries from our tree. Then we visited until they all had to go home.
It was a great weekend and it seemed like we got a lot accomplished that we had been wanting to do for quite some time. This next weekend we have a BBQ and a wedding reception to go to. The weekend after is our church volleyball tournament which I will sadly have to miss as I plan on doing my yard sale then. And two weeks after that it's my birthday weekend! And the week after that we leave for Colorado! Woo-hoo! But more on that later.

The other exciting thing that happened was I received a package on Saturday and in it was this:



Wanna see it again?






Now, I was very excited over this. Because this:

...is my boys' new bedding. We are going to put it on the beds today and Taiter is so excited he can hardly contain himself. I have been procrastinating because it's also served as a very useful bribe for good behavior!


Huh-hmm! I almost forgot, Jay bought the snowmobile!

Goodness Gracious

I've heard a saying that goes something to the effect of, "Living happily ever after requires falling in love many times over...with the same person." I know it may sound cheesey but I fully understand this since meeting my amazing husband. There is not a day that goes by when I don't fall in love with him or some aspect of him all over again. The same goes for each of my boys. It's incredible how love grows. And yes, absence does make the heart grow fonder!

So how many times can a person fall in love with the same face?

I will confindently say THIS many!













I almost forgot that this precious face made me fall in love an extra time yesterday when he asked me, "Whatcha doin, Princess?" My heart melted and dripped to the floor to form a gooey love puddle at my feet. I was getting him a snack but between that and his daddy calling me "baby-doll" I am really going to have to watch my ego!

Baby Love

This is a series of pictures that I took rather quickly one day because these "lovey moments" don't happen often when my camera's within arm's reach. I thought it was so cute and that it captured the relationship between Daddy and Rowster quite well. They are always playing and laughing together and whenever I ask Rowster for some lovin' he more often than not, runs to love on Daddy instead.

I am not the photographer that all of you are and my camera cost lees than a quarter of just one of your lens, lenses, lensies... however you'd say that!
So, please cut me some slack, as I am not a photo touching freak either, and don't judge them too harshly.








I don't know what happened to the happy boy in these pictures, today he seems long gone. He is cranky and hard to please which is pretty abnormal for him. Whatever the problem, I hope it soon subsides and brings my baby love back.

Taiter is very compatible today, however. I guess he realized that one crank-pot was enough for Mommy to handle. I long for the day when they realize this at the same time!

Obie-one-kanobie

After getting married I aquired 5 brothers-in-law in addition to the one I already had making it a grand total of 6! I never had an older brother growing up and now, since they are all older than me, I am over loaded. Thankfully only two of them live around here. Well, thankfully and sadly as I wish they and their dear sweet wives were all close by. Anyway, out of the two that are here I really only feel like I know one of them very well. That's Lyle, my sister's husband. Then there is of course Matt, my husband's brother, in Colorado. These are the two that feel more like real brothers rather than brothers-in-law. I can joke, laugh, insult, cry, have fun, and be myself around these two just as well as I can anyone. They love the Lord and are amazing husbands and fathers. I admire them and love them dearly. However, they could never take the place in my heart that is reserved for one special guy. That is my real-life blood-brother, Beaux.

As you may have realized, he is not only my younger brother but my only actual brother. He was born just before I turned five. I pretty much can't remember life without him. I spent the first ten years of his life tormenting him and he's spent the last ten years of his life tormenting me! What goes around comes around, right?

You may be wondering about the title of this post, so let me explain.
Growing up my brother got a lot of flack because of his name. Kids would taunt and say, "Hey Beaux, B-O, get it?" They were retarded and didn't know how to spell his name which means "handsome" by the way. I might add that this was all in fun, my brother never really got offended. Well, for some reason I decided to reverse this and call him O-B which became Obie and due to Star Wars, Obie-one-kanobie. Although I usually just stick to Obie, and still call him that to this day.

My brother has got to be one of the funniest guys alive. At family functions, we all laugh until tears roll down our faces at his jokes and antics. He is quick with comebacks. I don't think I have ever met anyone as good at it as he is.

I often feel sorry for my little bro when I think of him growing up with three sisters but then I see that he is for the most part very respectful of women and I don't feel so bad. Even he says, "I have to be nice because if I'm not my mom and sisters will kill me." And it's true too! I really think we'd gang up and slap the tar outta him.

Anyway, no one will ever have the place that my brother has. He is truly one of a kind and I am proud to call him brother.(Or you know, Obie)








Today is his 21st birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY BEAUX/OBIE! We love you!

-isms

Taiter-isms:
pig-win = penguin
eye tacks = contacts
lellow = yellow(this is very common among 3-year-olds)
skebbie = spaghetti(he's outgrowing this one)
credible = The Incredibles

He loves to holler, "Jesus died for your sins" as we close his bedroom door.

Yesterday he told his brother he could not look at a book because,"No, you can't have book! This is not a library, this our house!"

Daddy delivers for UPS and we saw a FedEx truck in town and he said,"Look Mommy, there's a white UPS truck!"

He really likes to tell people they're scrawny.

He is a live wire all of the time and has an energy that I would be thrilled to have only a fraction of.

He is funny.
He is cute.
He is crazy(as his cousin "Cam" says about the slides).
He is my firstborn.
He is the apple of my eye.(I guess you could call him my Adam's-apple.)
He is everything I ever wanted.

Rowan-isms:
ma-mame-oes = tomatoes
bapes = grapes
mer-kycle = motorcycle
choo-train = choo choo train(obviously)
hunny = hungry

Rowster loves to say "amen" after prayer time.

He loves to kick things. He maneuvers a ball quite well with his feet(no jokes please) and is a soccer player in the making.

He is now speaking two-word sentences: "Drink milk." "Get down." "Hunny nack." this means-hungry snack. "Up please." "Bye-bye lud ooo." These are his most common.

One of his favorite things is jumping only his feet never really leave the ground.

He is the messiest eater you have ever laid eyes on.(Yes, he even puts Anrew a.k.a. Slobberchops to shame.)

He loves grabbing Mommy's cheeks, arm, whatever and saying, "Chubby chubby chubby." with a huge smile on his face.(I prefer Taiter's "scrawny" but this is just too cute to be offended over.)

He is happy.
He is adorable.
He is a climbing monkey.
He is my second born.
He is the sunshine in my day.
He is all I ever wanted.








Taiter is getting quite good at building silly monsters with his bristle blocks






"Guy! Guy Mamma!" Rowster was saying.






"What's this? Can I touch? Come a little bit closer..."


For those of you who have not seen a picture of my dad as a kid, this looks like him to me. The shape of his face, the expression, I just see Dad.




Hey you. You wanna piece a me?



Um...whatcha doin buddy 'ole pal?


Whoa! Oh no! Aaaah!




That oughtta teach the little pipsqueak.



Ahhh. It's good to be king.



Here's lookin' at you, kid.

Family Fun

Well...Hello.

It's been quite a long time, hasn't it? I have just been really busy and didn't have anything interesting to post for the last week or two. But now I think I finally have time. Oh yeah, and "postable" material too.

Saturday, we took the kids up Schweitzer Mountain. The resort was having some kind of a spring\summer celebration BBQ. The lift tickets were free so we all hopped on and took a ride. The boys loved it, but I had a mini heart attack every time they so much as blinked. You might say that I am a paranoid mom but you have to realize that my boys are scared of nothing. Seriously, they are little midget adrenaline junkies. So when I am terrified for their lives it is only because they have no fear of their own. Anyway, we got to the top all in one piece and walked around for a little while. We found a snow patch to play in and that was fun. Then we tried to get our kite into the sky but there just wasn't enough wind so we gave up and rode back down on the chair lift. It really was quite a relaxing ride.
After we came off the mountain the boys were sleeping and we drove to CDA. Costco was our biggest reason for going. Well, Taiter woke up and had a little accident so we had to drive back to Target to buy him some clothes. At Costco once again, we looked around and just enjoyed the air conditioning. We got busy grocery shopping after a while and realized that there were hardly any people around. 6:13p.m. Costco closes at 6:00 p.m. on Saturday. So we rushed and grabbed about only half of what we needed to get before flying to the register. That was a bummer.
Our original plan had been to go see Jay's sister but they were at a bluegrass festivel so we just came home.
There were a few dissapointments along the way but all in all it was a really fun day as a family.








Adam was saying,"I really need some skis," when this picture was taken.