First time in the Pool!

Our friends the Leas invited us to join them in celebrating Robert's college graduation so we put on our suits and went for it! 

Ethan was a bit apprehensive and one dip in the cold water was enough for him-- Daddy took him to the hot tub where he splashed with the boys.

Brookie, on the other hand, really seemed to enjoy the water.  No crying, and by the end she was talking and trying to pick up the pictures on her floatie.  I must say too. . . I love the pink ruffle-bum swimsuit!! - so girly!

Take THAT Macaroni Grill!

I just finished the book "Kitchen Counter Cooking School" by Kathleen Flinn, and being thus inspired made this for dinner! 

It's grilled shrimp brushed with lemon butter sauce; pasta in that same sauce plus a little pesto, garden fresh tomatoes and basil, and parmesan cheese; along with spinach, strawberry, and bleu cheese salad in homemade vinaigrette.  I modified and improvised both the lemon butter sauce and the vinaigrette for the salad.  It was super easy and AWESOME!  Could easily pay $20+ at a restaurant for this dish, but made at home it was maybe $5 a plate at the most [insert evil laugh here!] 

I love fun cooking books!   I would recommend this one to everyone-- sooo practical and fun to read-- includes lots of recipes and ideas to get the most from your cooking and give you confidence in the kitchen.  (I also used up leftovers and made flawless omelets for the first time yesterday morning with tips from this book!)  Hope you guys snag it at the library next time you go!

Bray-Bray Talk

Braden loves to repeat whatever Jacob is talking about.

Last night, as we were driving to grandma's house, Jacob was singing "na-na-na-na! na-na-na-na! hey, hey, hey! Goodbye . . . Mylie! [or insert a name]" And then Bray would repeat "You say Mylie ?! [name]"  They both thought it was so funny.  Jacob and Braden went through everyone in the family, friends, and then started making up random names.  This lasted for the ENTIRE drive-- about 20 mintues!  It was so funny and cute . . . and got very old after a while. But all I could really do was laugh! :) Love my kids!

P.S.  This goes on in different forms on a regular basis in our house.  Jacob will call/sing Braden a silly name and Bray will run over to me (5 ft. away) and report a.k.a. tattle, "Jacob call me [insert randomness]."  I respond, "Okay Bray."  Then he will run back to Jacob for the next report.  It's hilarious.  Although I must admit it can kinda makes me crazy after a while!

Family Night Out... Thanks Ava!

Today was Ava's last day of school - and that meant that REPORT CARDS came home today...  Well, of course Ava did well.  So well in fact that her report card was completely covered with "S" (which in Kindergarten = "A")  Hooray for Ava - straight A's!  To celebrate her success, we loaded up the family and headed over to Krispy Kreme for a treat.  It turns out that they will give you free donuts for every "A" on your report card.  So I expected we would get enough for our family to enjoy tonight...  Any guesses on how many she actually earned?  

 10 FREE DONUTS!  And Ava ate 3 all by herself tonight.  

Live it up kid - you deserve it!

Spring Training...aka More Demolition

So far, we have hauled out over 12,000 pounds of rubble!  This place was built like a fortress.  The top 2 feet of every wall is solid concrete with two strands of rebar!  I managed to catch a nasty cough from breathing the insulation.  I had a good respirator but must have sucked something in during a break in the work.

 This one little 2x4 is holding up the roof...not really...It just made Sue feel better...

 Jay came over Wednesday and helped me measure out where the floor needs to be jacked out for drains and said a jack hammer wouldn't work horizontally for these darn wall headers.  So...Thursday after a particularly stressful day I managed to get them all down with a sledge hammer.  Sometimes, after 20 or 30 strikes with the hammer the wall would just look at me and say "Huh?"... then finally with persistence it would begin to crumble.

 I think when this last one finally fell, the roof took a big sigh of relief.  It's pretty well opened up the place...too bad we have to carve it all up again with walls.  But it's going to be nice when Drew get's done... :o)..

Break-Dancer?

So after a family movie-night - Brycen decided to show off his moves during the song that plays during the credits.  for 3 years old - I was impressed!  Enjoy!

Beautiful Day

We've had some nice weather lately so Matt and I decided to spend some time at the park. We put Riley in a swing for the first time and she loved it!

Ava's Kindergarten Graduation!

   Today was Ava's Kindergarten Graduation Program.  They started out with a musical program - and then came Pomp and Circumstance and a line of graduates complete with hats and tassels.  Ava got to play the drums, dance and sing with her class.  It was quite a show!  Then after a brief intermission, all three kindergarten classes came back into the gym ready to receive their diplomas!  SO CUTE!  She is VERY excited for 1st grade!

   I can't believe she is almost 6 years old.  How did this happen?  She was my Little Miss Ava not long ago - and in a few short months she will be attending school ALL day as a 1st grader!  We are so proud of her and all she has learned this year!  Her teacher is awesome and she has made some great friends!  I guess it's not all bad after all!  Congratulations Ava.  We love you.  

My Little Graduate - oh what we have to look forward to!

Thank you Grandma DeAnna for coming tonight and bringing Ava these beautiful flowers!
(Drew came but had to leave early for class.)

Mother's Day S'mores

It was a beautiful day today so Matt and I brought out our fire pit and had some s'mores! Not a bad way to kick off the summer!

Brooklynn and Ethan @ 9 Months

Brooklynn:

• Has two sharp little teeth
• Is finally army crawling around-- it's kindof a funny sidewinder scoot with her right leg doing all the work and her left just kindof dragging along.  I can tell she wants to crawl on all fours sooo bad, and keep up with her brothers.  She is getting up and rocking back and forth all the time.
• Loves to do raspberries, growl, squeal, and fake cough on command
• Does "Sooo big" and/or "ta-da!"  she responds to both and puts her hands out with a big smile
• Has figured out buttons and how to push them with her tiny fingers
• Is already aware of her "princess" status.  It's so funny-- if we're in another room and she crawls to us, and then we get up and move she gets sooo insulted!  Instead of crawling after us like Ethan does, she'll sit there and protest for someone to pick her up!

Ethan:

• FINALLY has one little snaggle-tooth on the bottom and another coming in on the same side on top-- looks kinda funny, but I love it!
• Is becoming a fast little crawler and loves to get into things!  Loves nothing better than a basket full of random toys for him to rummage through
• Eats EVERYTHING!
• Watches his brothers' every move and wants to keep up with them so badly.  He also has figured out where the boys' room is (a place with LOTS of toys) and makes a b-line for it every morning!
• Pulls himself up all the time now and is starting to figure out stairs!
• Loves to giggle and is extremely ticklish, especially when he's tired. 

Beggar #1 and Beggar #2

This picture makes me laugh.  It's become an often occurrence whenever Matt and I are eating.

Master Bedroom Remodel Demolition

Oh the joys of demolition!!  Swing a big hammer and hope it doesn't take out something you wanted to keep.  At least I can look at this as good spring training ...  For the past few days I have been removing rubble from our bedroom to the tune of about 5,000 pounds as measured at the dump and likely another 4,000 pounds before I get it all ready to begin construction.
Drew is going to come in late June and do his magic on the tile and hopefully by the middle of July we will have a bedroom again.  Right now we are living in the living room... it works but can't wait to get this project finished.

Well, here are some of the photos to show our progress.  I'll try to share a few at a time as things progress.

Father-Daughter - Priceless!

Since the weather has been nicer, and since Ava learned to ride her bike... she has requested that she ride her bike to school in the morning.  While I would LOVE to walk with her, my current condition makes me too slow for this speed racer.  So Drew has been the one to go with her.  

This morning was a little different.  Instead of walking, Drew mounted the unicycle and the pair headed off to school together.  It was no surprise that Drew got a lot of looks and comments from friends along the way.  I thought this was so fun, I had to take a picture!

Drew and Ava headed to Kindergarten!

Post Falls Dam

It was a nice day on Sunday, so Matt and I went over the Post Falls Dam along the Spokane river. It's wide open this time of year so it's always fun to see.

Ava's Bike Video

Vinyl!

Matt's sister, Lacey, did some vinyl projects for me and I am so pleased in the way they turned out!  The orange one and the Zirker family rules one will go in the kitchen...

This one will go in Riley's room

This one will go in our bedroom.  The blue matches our bed spread and I am in love with the color!

Update on Ava!

Fair warning...this is a long post!

  So Ava has been up to a lot in the last week!  She has recently been asking and asking to take dance lessons.  So a friend of mine, who teaches ballet and tap in Nampa, invited us to come to her studio and sit-in on a few classes.  Needless to say, Ava was in HEAVEN!  Even Brycen got in on the action.  Now I just have to find a program that is affordable and closer to where we live.  (I still think Nampa is too far away.)

Such good form!

I love all the PINK!  

Then on Sunday - Ava decided that she wanted Daddy to put her pedals back on her bike.  (Note: we took them off about 3 weeks ago to help her learn balance without training wheels.  Worked like a charm!) So he did, and it only took about 10 minutes of practice and she was riding on her own.  Then she rode all night, and all afternoon the next day, then rode it to school today... you get the idea!

I am so proud of her!  She was so brave and listened to everything Drew said, and it paid off.  She looks like she has been riding her bike forever!  She's outside riding it right now actually!  A huge thanks to the Rowley's for the idea to take her pedals off!  It made ALL the difference!
Brycen was VERY helpful and encouraging!

That brings us to today.  Like I said before, Ava and Brycen are playing outside right now.  We had all just finished dinner, and Drew and I were relaxing in an unusual amount of "quiet" in the house, when all of a sudden CRAASHH!  Yep...Ava said she was trying to "throw a rock in the bushes" but she missed.  Our 1st rock through a window!

Ava instantly knew she was in trouble and just started bawling uncontrollably!  But she told the truth right away, she apologized and then continued to sob!  Poor thing.  I honestly felt bad for her, but she knew she had made a mistake!  Drew was a rock star and just held her and talked to her about it.  Now we have to come up with a punishment and a way for her to "help" fix the window.  So I am open to suggestions!

This is the window to the playroom - it only broke the outside pane, thank goodness!

It's times like these that make me so thankful to be a Mom.  Even in the bad times...I am so blessed with wonderful kids who challenge me each day, but also fill me up with so many hugs and kisses and laughter that I can't help but love-em to pieces!  They are my joy everyday!  I am truly blessed!