Trampolines, Makeup, and Christmas!

It's that time of year, and I decided to write a post!! Hooray! The house has kept us so busy, that I've out of the blogging habit....maybe this will start me up again :D We've been staying busy, and hope to be finished doing the major home improvements by the end of Januart, haha. We shall see. I will start posting pictures, before and after, soon, I PROMISE!! We are liking the new place though, so much more room!

My mom bought the kids a trampoline, since we now have a more permanent abode, and room for it in the yard...might I say that they LOVE it!! Putting it together was...interesting. Never have I found that the instructions are 100% trustworthy, so good thing my husband is handy!! We only had to take it apart once, and yes we had to take it completely apart :D Fun times. We took a break for hot chocolate before we made the second attempt. That helped.

So, pictures, here we are on the first attempt, setting up the frame, with the kids "helping" :D And of course one must wear butterfly wings while helping, it's so much easier then.

Daddy was so kind and patient the whole time, put up with my "suggestions" :D and even when we had to take it all apart, didn't complain...he's so nice! This was the first attachment of the springs...

Finally we had it all together, although we did run into a problem that will require us taking the mat off once again, but that can wait a bit, we were not in the mood to do it right then :D

So of course Trav had to test it, and make sure everything was kosher.

Once he gave the all clear, there was no stopping the kiddos, they have been doing flips already, and so far no major injuries! They aren't allowed to get hurt :D

Both Grandma's have said so :D

For Christmas the girls got silly string, they went out on the trampoline and had a silly string fight, gotta love being a kid!!

oh, and by the way, if you are having trouble with your office chair sliding around while you are sitting in it....we've got the solution.

That's a free extra :D

I don't have many Christmas pics yet, we celbrated our Christmas on the 23rd, so we'd have the next two days free to spend with family. Greg got his favorite, Legos.

Space Legos. The Best Legos. Tiny Legos.

:D Mom's favorite toy!

He's happy though, and so was Daddy, and that counts a lot!

Kay and Carolyn got play makeup from Daddy, they wore it well...for five and two year olds :D

And Kay being the ham wanted to get closer and closer, and closer...

And that ends my post for today, Merry Christmas!! Hope you all have a great holiday! Stay warm, and have some hot chocolate!

Sand, Swimming, and Hiking

Why all those words? Well, we took a family vacation to McCall, ID, of course. Which is up in the mountains, and average temp was around 65 while we were there. Hmmmm. Well, it actually went better than I expected, we had a fun four days. It was our first official family vacation where we just went and spent time together, instead of visiting someone. Not that that is bad of course, but....this was something we'd wanted to do for a while!

And this handsome fellow made it all possible :D That's Travis, my wonderful hubsand. I like him.

This is Greg, digging a trench in the sand. Why not? He is such a guy, which is good!

The girls are making sand slushies, yummo. As you can see it was a nicer day, probably the nicest while we were there. The sun felt good, now if we could done something about that cool breeze from the lake....I'm a lizard, I feel sure. I'm not happy unless it's above 85. But I live in Idaho. That was my husband's fault :D Actually, I'm very happy here, it's a beautiful state! And the mountains are so close, and the summers are hot, but we still get a little snow...and the shopping is decent. It's really a great place, thanks Travis for re-introducing me!!

It just makes me tear up, sniff. Oh wait, that was sand in my eye!!

The girls found....ROCKS!! What a thing!

Me and the two oldest of my offspring :D and my coffee.

Kay Leigh, lagging behind as usual, maybe it was the handful of rocks slowing her down.

That handsome guy again, a rock in midst of chaos!

Oh, and he also has coffee. It's necessary if you are going hiking with 4 kiddos under the age of 8. Trust me. And get the biggest size they have :D

Beka ready to swim at the hotel. Doesn't she look grown up?

Carolyn WAITING! Can't you tell she's the biggest-stinker-whole-tribe??

Kay, trying out the goggles. They didn't last long, but she LOVES swimming! They all loved it, and may I say that I wish all pools used salt water instead of chlorine? It is so much nicer than chlorine, and doesn't make you feel like you are dying of bleach inhalation after an hour. We spent a lot of time in the pool :D

A really cool dead tree. They climbed all over it of course.

My two nuts. They resemble each other, yes?

A picture together.

Another one. Kay had lost interest by this time. Rocks were more captivating than saying cheese.

Hey, there's me! And the kids. And Beka has her eyes closed :D And Kay still isn't interested.

Ever wondered what it's like to get four kids all together for a decent picture? It's impossible. Well, not totally, but watch, and imagine a good five minutes elapsing.....

rocks...they are so cool...

Is your butt getting poked too? Get closer together...

Hey, what happened? Sit back down, I don't care if it hurts, sit and smile like it doesn't! Oh, don't fall off the edge behind you either. Kay, quit crying!

Ah, yes, there's a good picture!

And one more :D That's all folks! Our trip in a brief nutshell!

Restaurants, Creamers, and Hugs

So, every once in a while, before we made our new budget :D, we'd take the kids to our favorite family restaurant, Shari's. It's our favorite because they have kid's menus, crayons, and good coffee. All you need for a happy breakfast, right? And their food is good too, which is always such a plus! They have these stuffed hashbrowns....mmmmm. Anyway, the kids of course always find great ways to entertain themselves. Carolyn the last time discovered cutting up crayons with a butter knife...notice the intense concentration. I was going to give her a steak knife to help out with the job, but Travis wouldn't let me....I'm kidding of course, I wouldn't really do that :D

Greg and Beka were looking at all the food, Beka reading the names to Greg and he's commenting on all the yummy looking stuff in there that mommy never makes :P Because it's laden with fatty calories....and unhealthy hydrogenated oils....etc. But I don't bother explaining that to them, they just wouldn't get it.

And this little imp, loves the creamers. I used to, as well. Travis thinks it's disgusting, but it's super cute, and keeps her entertained for quite a while :D She's even learned how to open them herself, without splashing everyone in a ten foot radius. That's a milestone to remember!

This departs from the restaurant, but....how can you resist these teeny baby toes :D I painted Beka's toes and mine, and Kay Leigh had to get in on it. Then when I took pictures of our toes, hers needed to be in there too. Her nails are so teeny, it's hard to get the polish on them, go ahead, you know you want to kiss them. Ok, maybe not, but I did :D

A side note, Carolyn does NOT have the patience to sit after I do her toes, so most often, her's go undone. She prefers having her fingernails done, in DARK colors, except I don't allow that :D

Her shirt says I love Hugs, wanna give her one?? With that face??? All covered in who knows what, you should see her when she's had chocolate :D

Ants, Apples, and Creativity

So do your dogs like apples? Ours does, and he entertains the kids while he eats them.

They think he's funny, I think he just ate part of an apple I paid for...

anyway, he didn't eat one.

It sat on the floor for some reason.

Then I noticed the kids doing this. They were not fighting, they were quiet, even the dog.

Then they crowded in even closer...

what in the world was this that was captivating them so?

Ah, the ants are back :D And he likes my apple apparently. I don't think he'll break my budget.

So that was our science project for the day, talking about ants and how much apples cost...

then we moved on to arts and crafts.

Greg likes fusebeads, and works very studiously on them, and finished whatever he has started here, but of course I forgot to take a picture of it. I was mostly interested in his face, his daddy looks JUST like that when he's working on something. I mean JUST! We call him daddy's little clone.

Kay Leigh was coloring....her fingernails. Hmmm, maybe she takes after me? She did a tolerably good job too. She also paints legs and arms if you're interested!

Beka was writing words and dreaming of horses...how do I know? Because that's what I used to do, I'd do my work (sometimes) and dream of horses running in the wind, and letting me pet them, and on and on and on. She's does draw horses too, and very well, I'll have to post some of her artwork on here, maybe it's just me that thinks it's amazing :D

Carolyn counting things in a jar, looks like. She's not really an artist type, but she loves those activity pages where someone has drawn a picture and hidden various objects in the picture, she'll sit for a long while and find things, and she loves doing mazes. A future detective I'm thinking...

Kay, Poses, and Pigtails

This post is all Kay. First of all we'd like everyone to know the arm is completely healed, and back to normal, would never know she broke, just three little dot scars on her elbow. Amazing! Thank the Lord all went smoothly and bone growth was phenomenal her doc said!

Here she is showing everyone :D

I had a few pics of just her, so I thought I'd put them in their own post. One of these days I'll do one for each of the kids. Here she is demonstrating what to do with a wad of stickers...

And if you run out of stickers, lunch meat will do.

Just has a bit more of a drapey effect :D

When we go out for breakfast (which isn't that often) she loves to drink the creamers, and can open them herself. Here she is concentrating on opening one...

And she LOVES ice cream!! I love her eyes, and her impish little face. And her cheesy smile. She's my baby girl. Melt.

Dad, Graduation, and Carolyn

Travis has officially graduated college! Which means he is officially a Mechanical Engineer, and we have ended our eight year journey. Now to begin a new one :D

Pictures of this event were disappointing, due to weird lighting, a point and shoot camera, and inept photographer (me). But you get the idea.

There were just over 2000 students graduating, and they are all seated in this picture. You can see Travis in this pic....

Sorry, but they are all quite blurry.

Greg, couldn't see a whole lot, being short, and the ceremony pushed 2 and a half hours, he was a little bored I think :D But he actually did really well considering.

Beka did considerably better, but she's older, and could understand a little more of what was going on.

Travis walking back from getting his diploma...

Spangles bursting from the lights as all the graduates are finished, and ceremony is over :D Yay!! We were all very excited !!!

This pretty much sums up the emotion we were all feeling!

The new graduate, very proud with a double major and a bright future! Congrats to you honey, you did great!!