Summer Update

Despite being pregnant and only getting larger as the summer went on, the time has flown by! Below are some pictures of what we did...I'll try to give you a summary of each set of pictures.

June

When Ryan wasn't called into work on the weekends, he was busy doing yard work, shoveling pea gravel, cutting down trees and getting a garden area ready for us. Andrew took advantage of the cut down trees and became our own little grizzly bear. He certainly has the growl to go with the actions! Ryan's dad came to visit at the end of June. The boys had a great time hanging out with grandpa and we went to see Pathfinder Dam during its overflow...one of the reasons Ryan would get called into work.

July

4th of July weekend, we made a trip to Utah for my nephew's baptism and since we were so close to the family in Idaho, we decided to go see them too. We let off fire works, went to a 4th of July parade (where Andrew made a haul with the candy!) and visited friends.

A couple of weeks after getting home from our Utah/Idaho trip, we went camping in the Big Horns. This was our first family camping trip this summer. The boys LOVED sleeping in the camper, especially since they got to "sleep up high" in the bunk. Who would have thought something so simple would be so exciting?! We also went on a hike into a lake where we saw a pack goat on the trail, ate lunch at the lake and the boys threw everything they could get their hands on into the lake. Andrew ran the trail all the to the lake while Ryan tried to keep him in sight and Caleb and I brought up the rear. Part way up, Caleb had to go into the kidpack (much to his dismay), but on the way back to camp he was ready and willing to get into the pack! Andrew was a trooper and kept his little legs going. Each time we stopped for a rest he would sit down, but he was always ready to go when it was time. The hike was 3.4 miles round trip, which I say is pretty good for a 4-year-old and a pregnant lady.

August

We took a week and camped with my family in the Buffalo Bill area. What began as a camping trip with my sister and her family grew into a camping trip to include my parents, grandparents and another sister and her husband. It was so much fun to be with so much family! Andrew and Caleb spent the days playing with their cousins and loving every minute of it. It makes me wish we all lived closer together so the kids could get together more often! Ryan went on a couple of good hikes and he and grandpa and uncle Cory took all the kids fishing. Since we were camped between Yellowstone and Cody, we decided to spend a day at each place. We had a great time and look forward to doing this again!

I tried to load pictures of Ryan's hikes, but it wasn't happening. He saw some amazing country. I'll get them on another post!

A Mouse Tale

Yesterday afternoon, the boys were ready for some down time, so me being the mom I swore I'd never be went to plug them into a movie so I could have my own quiet time. Yes, at some point in the day a movie is in order to keep mom at some level of sanity. I got their snacks and drinks and Andrew and I headed down the stairs. Caleb insisted on carrying his own drink and snack, so he lagged behind. Andrew and I got down the stairs, I got the movie started and Caleb was yelling for help from the top of the stairs. Being a good mom, I went to help Caleb only to take one step up the stairs and shriek. There was a mouse in the middle of my stairs!!!! Only moments before I must have walked right over the top of him and not even known it! Anyone who knows me, knows I'm not a rodent or reptile person. Of course with the shriek Andrew comes running over to the stairs to see what's going on and Caleb starts crying because I told him to stay at the top of the stairs. So, now the picture is Caleb sitting on the top step crying and Andrew and I at the bottom of the step with me trying to keep Andrew away from the mouse that he felt he must get a closer look of. Now what to do?? I didn't want to ignore the mouse and let it have free reign of the house, but how was I going to catch a mouse...a live mouse at that? Finally, I dumped toy tools out of a bucket, had Andrew get a book to help me scoop the mouse into the bucket. So, now I have the mouse cornered in the step, the bucket trapping the mouse there and the book on the step above. I slid the bucket and mouse up the side of the step to the next landing, where I have the book ready to push the mouse into the bucket. WooHoo!!!! I caught the mouse! I truly thought this whole experience was going to put me into labor, but we made it through labor free. Andrew had to see mouse several times through the afternoon as we waited for Ryan to get home from work to dispose of the mouse, which was still alive when he got home and set free by the golf course.

I should have prefaced this with the discussion Ryan and I had when we got home from our camping trip. I was unloading the trailer, using the kitchen door to the garage so it was propped open. I was just about finished when our neighbors came by and we were visiting. Ryan asked if the door was closed at which I said it was. Well, evidently, it wasn't as closed as I thought so then Ryan said we probably had a mouse in the house. I was hoping he was wrong and hadn't seen any sign, so thought nothing else of it. Well, honey, you were right. A mouse did make it into the house, probably because I kept the door to the garage open. But on the bright side, I cleaned up my own mess on this one!

Happy Birthday Andrew!

Andrew turned 4 on April 25th! Can you believe it? As you may recall, the week before we celebrated Caleb's birthday. Everyday for another week Andrew would ask us "Is today my birthday?" The little man was excited to turn 4. Overall, it was a good day for him too. He made a haul in gifts and got sung to at church. Unfortunately, it ended on a bit of a sad note for him. By the end of the day, he was running a temperature of 101.9 and didn't touch his piece of birthday cake. Mom and dad felt pretty bad for the little man. But, we did catch the good moments of the day in pictures, so enjoy!

Opening presents

Trying out the new T-ball set.

He got a cowboy hat from Grandma & Grandpa King. Here he is trying it on and singing "I want to be a cowboy, you can be my cowgirl". One of the "great" songs of the 80's my younger sister used to go around singing. Here's to you Rach!

The dinosaur birthday cake. Andrew wanted it to be Buddy from the PBS show "Dinosaur Train". Sorry it's sideways...tilt your head and you will get the point!

Blowing out the candles. Unfortunately, Caleb got his head int he way of the shot. I guess he figured out how it was suppose to work after I helped with his own candles on his birthday!

Caleb Turns 2!

Caleb turned 2 on Saturday, April 17th! I look at that little boy and wonder how in the world he got old enough to be 2. Then he does something and I tell myself "Yep, he's 2. Not only is he 2 now, but he's been practicing being 2 for some time now." So, it's not only a wonder of motherhood, but an absolute miracle on some days that the little man survived to become a full-fledged 2-year-old! We love him and will keep him around a while longer.

Here are pictures of our big day. Sorry, there is no order to them, but blogger and I aren't getting along at the moment!

Mmmmm.....Cake!

He wouldn't get close enough to the cake or let me move the cake close enough to him to blow out the candles. Finally, I helped him get the job done.

This was the big gift. It was a big hit!

opening the big gift.

The birthday cake.

Fishing

So we had a gorgeous day one Saturday a few weeks ago and decided to take the boys on their first fishing trip. Andrew was so excited. We were suppose to go the week before, but it snowed and we postponed. Andrew had to hold his fishing pole anytime their was a line in the water. That part was fine, but he had a really hard time holding still at first (imagine that). He kept crawling from rock to rock and tangling his line up. Caleb of course has to everything his brother does, so also had to have his pole in the water, but the line was never let out...it made for one less line to untangle. And of course, mom wasn't a ton of help since I don't bait hooks. Their are some jobs that are dad's job and that is how it will be until the boys can bait their own hooks!

After much patience, Andrew finally caught a fish. It wasn't much more than fish bate itself so, we threw it back after we got the picture. Look close, its on his left side doing a good job of blending in with the rocks. I couldn't get him to hold it in front of himself.

It was tons of fun, but eventually it became more fun to just throw rocks in the water. That made fishing more difficult for the rest of us...Of course when we decided it was time to come home, the boys really didn't want to leave. We'll be back again boys!

Christmas was so Awesome

Hey it's Andrew again. Mom was going to do this blog, but I just had to do it because I wanted to tell you about the coolest present ever!

We went to Grandpa and Grandma King's for Christmas this year. It was such a long drive - it took us 2 days to get there, and I don't mean to short days, but 2 very long days stuck in the truck. It was fun staying at a hotel one night though. Anyway, we got to their house on Christmas Eve and I wanted to open presents so bad because I was just sure that Santa was going to bring me a bow and arrow. I've been asking for one since October! I even called Santa up and asked him if I could have one!

Christmas morning finally came and we kept opening presents. Everybody had presents to open, that was kind of cool. I got some fun stuff, but I have to show you a video so you can see the best part.

Isn't that just the coolest thing?! I was so excited and I spent the rest of the week shooting my bow and arrow!

So, highlights of Christmas (in no particular order):

• My bow and arrow
• Grandpa's zipper knee (he had knee surgery just a few days before we got there
• My bow and arrow
• Turkey hunting with dad
• My bow and arrow
• Playing with Grandpa and Grandma
• My bow and arrow
• Dad shooting a turkey
• My bow and arrow

Hey everyone, Andrew here. It looks like I'm going to have to take over the blogging since mom is so bad about getting around to it. Since I have like 3 months to catch up on it's going to be short and quick. And, actually, December gets it's own blog since Christmas was soooo awesome!

Here's October for you:
Obviously, Halloween was the highlight for me. I decided to be a scarecrow again. Mom tried to make me be Mickey Mouse, but I wouldn't let her put the costume on me. She said it would be a warmer costume for trick or treating, but I didn't care. So, here I am as a scarecrow. Dad took me trick or treating around our neighborhood and I got lots of candy. Mom wouldn't let Caleb go because it was to cold and windy for him. He was sooooo mad, but he had fun helping mom hand out candy to all the other trick or treaters.

Here's dad carving our pumpkin. We did the weeks before Halloween, so by the time Halloween came our pumpkin was looking pretty sad.

Dad made mom clean all the guts out of the pumpkin before he carved it. He said that stuff felt gross, and I wasn't to sure about it either. But mom and Caleb seemed to think it was fun to play in. I don't know about those two some times!

And the finished product! Mom drew the face on and dad carved it out. Later we turned out all the lights and put a candle in the pumpkin. I thought that was sooooo cooool, but Caleb didn't like the dark.

November was the best month for dad and us boys. November means hunting! We spent a week in Idaho elk hunting. Mom and dad both had tags, but the elk were pretty sneaky this year. We saw a few, but they ran off before mom or dad could make a shot. Personally, I don't think mom really wanted to shoot one. But, we went out every day for a week. Caleb and I sat in the back helping them look for elk, napping and watching movies. Once in a while we would get out and run around. I don't know how they thought they would see any elk with us out side making noise, and guess what! They didn't see anything! Guess the jokes on them!

When we got back home dad got a deer tag for Wyoming. He and I went out one day and dad shot this deer. I went with him to drag the deer back to the truck. It was a long walk, and I tried my best to keep up with dad. He was nice and carried me once in a while. Then when we got to the deer, dad got out his hunting knife and put on some latex glove. I thought only doctors wore those kinds of gloves so I asked "Are you going to be doctor?" Dad said "Yep, but I don't think this patient is going to survive." I thought it was really gross when dad started gutting the deer. But we brought it home and then Grandpa King came a couple days later to help us cut it up.

OK, so Grandpa didn't come just to help us cut up the deer. He and Grandma came for Thanksgiving. Aunt Rachel, uncle Cory, Isaac, Taylor and Brooklyn all came to. It was so much fun to have them all here and to play with my cousins! But I think Caleb was glad to see Brooklyn leave. They weren't being very nice to each other. Mom says they were just playing by the toddler rules (what ever those are).