My little princess

Doesn't my son make the most beautiful little princess? He got a hold of one of the crowns from Auntie's bachelorette party and threw a fit until I put it in his hair.

Say cheese

I asked Logan to pose for me so I could try something out with my flash and this is what he does. Can you tell this kid likes to get his picture taken? He is such a weirdo sometimes. Probably the cutest little weirdo God ever put on this earth though.

Introducing........GOLDIE!!

We got a new van!! On a rainy Mondy a week and a half ago, when the boys got home from school and we headed down to buy a new van. Well, new to us anyway. It's a 2003 Honda Odyssey. We got a great deal on it, and it's in great shape. The only drawback to getting it for so cheap, was that it already has 130,000 miles on it. But that's still better than the almost 200,000 that our Caravan had.

It is a little bittersweet though. We've had the old silver van since Brandon was 2. It took us to Anaheim and back twice, and taxied me and some friends to Reno. It has been driven through sketchy conditions on camping excurtions and many other countless adventures. That was the van that we brought both Logan and Sawyer home from the hospital in, and was the first car that Chris and I really bought together. Regardless of all of the memories, good and bad, that we've had with that old van, it was time to say goodbye. It's actually BEEN time to say goodbye for awhile now. I've been driving around with a messed up electrical system, no blinkers or brake lights, a leaky radiator, and a myriad of other problems for nearly two years. I'm honestly surprised it made it as far as it did. So even though it will always hold a special place in our hearts, we are not sorry to say "SO LONG!!" to the Silver Bullet.

I have affectionatly named our new van Goldie, due to the color of it. I've joked for awhile now that our next car was going to be gold/tan so that you wouldn't see the dirt all over it. We live down a gravel road and everybodys cars are completely covered in mud and dust, so washing them is completely pointless. It's funny that the van we happened to get really ended up being gold. I guess we'll soon see if my theory is correct.

The first morning after we got it, the boys asked if I could drive them to school. I was more than happy to oblige.

The interior is leather, which I never wanted, but it's really grown on me. I'm hoping that it will be easier to keep clean than the cloth was. The front seats are heated which I'm TOTALLY in love with.

I didn't realize home much roomier the inside would be either. I figured all vans were pretty much the same. Boy was I wrong. It has stow & go seats in the back, so the third row of seats fold into the floor. The cargo area in the back is sunk into the floor due to this feature. It's really nice because it has more of a "trunk" feel. My groceries sit nicely in there and don't roll all over the back of the van or come tumbling out when I open the back door.

The sliding doors open and close automatically with the push of a button or a little tug on the handle. It makes me feel so fancy! There is a bluetooth installed in the stereo so I don't have to do the whole "Hang on, there's a cop, I have to put the phone down" thing when I'm talking on the phone anymore! ;) There is a DVD player installed that comes down from the ceiling, but we still haven't figured out how to get it to work. The previous owner had some new stuff installed, and I think somewhere along the way some wiring got confused or something, because it won't turn on. Hopefully our technological genius, Daddy, will be able to figure it out soon.

I feel so much safer driving around now. It's been such a blessing to our family. We all love our new ride. We have wanted to take the boys to Yellowstone for a couple of years now, but due to the condition of the old van, there was no way it was going to happen. But now it's looking like we've got a plan to go next summer! I can't wait to see all of the new adventures Goldie will take us on.

No better company

Sawyer's favorite time of the day: when his brothers get home from school.



How in the world.....

....can anybody sleep like this?!!

Proper fork etiquette

I love watching Sawyer use a fork.

He concentrates so hard on making sure that the food is stabbed onto the end.

He uses his little tiny pointer finger to stabilize it and gain control.

Success!!

It cracks me up. He's so stinkin' cute!

Kindergarten, here he comes!!

So Logan had his first day of Kindergarten yesterday. He spent the entire summer asking me "How long until I get to go to school?" over and over again. He was beyond excited. His first day happened to fall on a late start day, so he had to wait even longer for the bus to come and that just about killed him. After eating breakfast, passing the time by playing Legos, and choosing what he wanted for lunch, it was time to get showered and ready for school. We headed out to wait for the bus and of course it had to be raining. That didn't seem to bother Logan though.

He was SO excited to be heading out to the bus.

Finally it came around the corner and he starting freaking out, "Brandon, it's the bus!! LOOK!!".

He went over and got in the bus line with the other kids and waited for the driver to stop and open the doors. The kids in front of him walked over to climb in and Logan just stood there and gave me a concerned look. I nodded and gave him the go ahead and off he went. He got on the bus and took a seat next to Brandon.

As they started to pull away and I saw his little hand wave to me, I got a little choked up. I didn't think it was going to bother me too much. After all, he was in preschool for two years before this, but I did the "mom" thing and had a little bit of my heart broken. Another one of my babies is growing up.

Sawyer and I spent the day out running errands and doing some shopping for Auntie's bridal shower. Then we came back home to get some housework done. I kept myself pretty busy and didn't worry too much about Logan being gone, and the day seemed to breeze by. When the bus returned home and the boys jumped out, Logan came sprinting toward us yelling "I had a GREAT day today!!" Hearing that put my mind at ease a little. I really hope this is a great year for both of the boys.

Our 4th grader

Today was Brandon's first day of 4th grade. Yes, 4th grade. I can still remember taking him to his preschool orientation when he was 3 like it was just yesterday. Now he's only got two more years until middle school!! It's insane how fast these kids are growing up.

So this morning on his way out to the bus I took the obligatory "first day of school" photo. He of course made the "I'm too cool to smile" pose. And then gave me a nice grin. Then he was off for the day.

This year Brandon is in a 4th/5th grade split class. From what we've been told, that means he was chosen for this class because he can work more independently and stay more focused than other kids his age. The school seems to think that he's one of the dozen or so kids that fit this criteria for his grade. We're pretty excited and we really hope that he can live up to what's expected of him. We're also hopeful that this means there will be less "riff-raff" in his class to distract him.

Daddy got home from work just in time to stand with me to see Brandon get off of the bus. When he stepped out and saw him with me, Brandon broke into a full on sprint to get to Chris.

Now to explain the change in clothing between the time he left, and when he got back home. We bought Brandon a school coat awhile ago at Walmart and the hanger that it was on said "Medium 8/10". Well when I went to go put it on him this morning before he left, I noticed that the tag INSIDE said "XL 14/16". It was nearly down to his knees. So Brandon didn't have a coat to wear today and he was really bummed out. He asked if he could wear his long sleeve Marvel shirt underneath his new Lego shirt so his arms wouldn't be cold. I told him that he was going to be too warm, but he didn't care. So I let him wear them both. As soon as he stepped off of the bus, I saw that the tshirt had been taken off. Just like I had predicted, he was too hot to wear double shirts. But hey, who listens to moms anyway?

Ready, set, LEARN!

We have been ready for school for quite some time now. Supplies were bought about a month and a half ago and Logan has been extremely anxious to use them. They don't require too much for kindergarten. Just a few pencils, glue, and crayons. It kinda bummed me out when I saw his short little list. I'm a bit of a school supply junkie. I LOVE buying them. I stock up on boxes and boxes of crayons, erasers, spiral notebooks, folders, pens, etc. I'm a weirdo. So here's Logan's few supplies, ready to go.

Brandon on the other hand was a different story. He had a bit more that we had to get. I was in heaven shopping for him. Brandon's first day of school was today, and I'm secretly hoping that his teacher sends a list of a few extra things that he needs home with him so I can go buy more. Like I said, I'm a freak!!

Happy Birthday, JC!

Last week was my little brother's 22nd birthday. We had him over that night for dinner and I made him a cake that looked like a drum (my brother is the most awesome drummer in the world, in case you didn't know). My sister, Geri Lynn, and her fiance, Matt, came over as well and we chowed down on BBQ beef sandwiches while we watched Wipeout. Neither JC or Matt had ever seen it before! After the boys went to bed we played Apples To Apples and had some interesting conversations. I almost peed my pants a few times laughing so hard at Chris and Matt being weirdos. That's a pretty common thing when the two of them get together. It was a pretty fun night. I hope my baby bro enjoyed it.

Nom, nom, nom!

He likes!

I don't think he really appreciated us singing to him.

What a couple of dough heads!!

Brandon's baseball team celebrated the end of their season at Farrelli's Pizza in Sumner. While waiting for our food to come they brought all of the boys raw dough to play with. They loved it.

I'd never eaten at Farrelli's before. For the price, it wasn't as impressive as it should have been. The boys barely ate anything. They weren't exactly fans either. The Rock has much better pizza and Vince's has even better.

Even though the food wasn't very good, and we ended up spending a lot more than we had planned to get dinner, it was still nice to spend some time with the team and say good-bye to some great people. Brandon got put on a wonderful team. The kids were all very encouraging and supportive of each other and the coaches were awesome. They were very dedicated to making sure that each boy got equal playing time and recogniton for their effort. Brandon was the only player that was new to the team this year and they welcomed him with open arms. We were very lucky to have him placed with such good people. It made his first experience with baseball a good one.

Sssssssssssssnake!

The boys were so happy when they found the snake on their scavenger hunt.

Just a couple of days before this, we went and saw The Reptile Man do a show at the park. Since they were hypnotized by him and hung on every word he said, they knew the proper way to hold a snake, how to handle it, and understood that they could only keep it for a few minutes before they needed to put it back. Logan was getting a little too excited over the snake and it made me nervous that he was going to drop the poor thing, so I made Brandon "in charge" of holding it.

He absolutly loved that little critter and he handled it so well. He loved holding it and having it curled up around his hand. He could have cuddled up with that little snake all day long.

After they were done with the snake they took it up into the bushes and put him in a little hidden spot where he could slither away in peace. It was a pretty exciting few minutes.