A to Z

A: Attached or Single: Married 10 years this August

B: Best Friend: Dustin and my sister Kelley

C: Cake or Pie: Cake. Chocolate with chocolate and more chocolate!

D: Day of Week: Saturday. A day to spend with the whole family.

E: Essential item: Pony tail holder

F: Favorite color: Red

G: Greatest Accomplishment: Being a Mom

H: Hometown: Corvallis

I: Indulgences: Time at the spa :)

J: January or July: July- happy birthday to me! Not to mention its nice and warm outside.

K: Kids: 3

L: Life is incomplete without: family

M: Marriage date: August 15, 1998

N: Number of siblings: 4

O: Oranges or Apples: Apples. The greener and tarter the better.

P: Phobias: Swimming in a lake/river. Things that touch my feet or legs that I can't see....

Q: Quotes: Live Well. Laugh Often. Love Much.

R: Reason to smile: It looks so much better than frowning!

S: Season: Summer, summer, summer! I love the weather, the slightly slower pace, and all of the fun activities that go along with it.

T: Tag five friends: Heather, Paula, Lynn, Julie, & whoever else wants to!

U: Unknown fact about me: Thats a tough one. I'm not usually shy about stating my opinions, could there be something I forgot to say.....

V: Very Favorite Store: Old Navy for clothes, both for myself and the kids. Walmart for everything else. There isn't one close by which is probably good. I am a total sucker for the low prices and can't seem to stop myself!

W: Worst Habit: Forgetting to take care of myself.

X: Xray or Ultra sound: Never had an x-ray. Had a number of ultra-sounds.

Y: Your favorite food: Popcorn and french fries, both with lots of salt.

Z: Zodiac: Cancer

The Lake

This is one of those places that if someone doesn't know where they are going they will never find. (Not to mention it is private property behind a locked gate.) I guess its good to know the right people!

This particular place is called The Lake.

Sitting on the dock, dangling toes in the cold water.

Going on a boat ride.

Just hanging around!

Colin was not pleased about being in the cold water.

No matter what we said, we could not convince him to get all the way in and swim.

Our friend, "The Salamander"

We were invited to go with Kelley and her friends out to "the lake".

There we made friends with lots of salamanders.

Our first catch!

Mr. Salamander

The Smith Family

Complete with uncooperative children!

The whole group.

It was a beautiful place to spend a hot afternoon.

School Field Trip

We spent the morning at Heavenly Harvest Farms with Colin's pre-school.

The kids learned about what it takes to make things grow.

They saw plants in the greenhouses and fields, beehives with an active colony, and got to take a hayride out to the fields and plant pumpkin seeds.

Who knows, maybe when we go pumpkin hunting this October we will get the one we planted!

Digging the perfect hole.

Planting 2 seeds, just in case one doesn't make it.

Time to grow!

On the hayride with his friend from school.

Sleepy Head

I'm not tired Mom.....

Gardening Girls

For Mother's Day last year, we built raised garden beds for vegetables.

This year we decided to build 2 more beds and plant even more!

Her are the girls with the first batch of our veggie starts.

Janessa planting onions.

Planting a hot pepper for future batches of salsa :)

Colin & Janessa helping fill one of the new beds

that will hold raspberries and strawberries.

I can't wait to eat all of our hard work!!

Out for a walk @ Jackson Frazier Wetlands

It was a beautiful night and dinner was finished early so we went for a walk.

We kept telling the kids to use their listening ears instead of their mouths so we could find some wildlife. It was a bit of a challenge to get that concept across. But eventually we succeed in spotting a mother and four ducklings, 2 yellow racer snakes, a variety of small birds, and lots of unidentified creatures in the sludgey water.

I spotted a tadpole. Dustin saw a frog. And we all wondered what kept moving some seed pods on the bottom of the water.

These are all cat tails growing up out of the water.

It will look really cool out there when the get bigger.

An attempt at a family picture.

As you can tell, it was quite bright where we stopped and setup the camera on a bench. Too bright to see that we hadn't captured the best shot because of course my eyes are closed. UGH!

Feeding the ducks with Papa

Janessa and Papa went out on a date this afternoon.

First on the agenda was feeding the ducks at HP.

Sit. Stay. Good ducks!

They liked sprinkling the food at the edge of the water so the ducks would bob under to eat.

Family Party

Mommy and the birthday girl.

Trying on her new jewelry from Auntie Julie

This was the best reaction of the night. MONEY!!

She refused to say thank you or acknowledge any other gifts.

Janessa's Birthday

Coming from a large extended family can make birthdays a little overwhelming for tikes.

So we decided to stretch out the fun over a couple of days. On the morning of Janessa's birthday she was greeted with a pile of presents just like Christmas morning. It was a big hit and something we will probably keep doing.

Practicing her new finger sign.

A new tea party set from Mommy & Papa.

One that can break into a million pieces like the porcelain one before.

Look at all that loot! She is not spoiled or anything!!

Colin on the electric guitar

A sampling of Colin's love of rock-n-roll!

Papa's Pizza party for Janessa

Janessa is now three!

She insisted on going to Papa's with her friends this year so off we went.

We went with a Princess/ Little Mermaid theme

Getting ready to blow out the candles.

Opening presents.

We had a great time!

I can't believe she is three already. Time flies by so fast!

Baby Ducks

For playgroup this week were invited to Sarah's Grandmas

house to meet her 10 day old ducklings.

The kids were each given a towel to wrap the babies in

for their security and to keep the messes contained.

Just catching them at first was a challenge. They only wanted to hang out under the heat lamp. Can't say I'd be too excited if a bunch of little kids were going to get to handle me either!

Janessa really liked to hold Lilly. She was the littlest duckling and

seemed very peaceful being held by a two year old.

Colin also really like Lilly but I think he had a turn with each of them.

Hopefully we can go back again and see how much they have grown.

Silly girl

We have jokingly called Eliana, Elie Baba. (As in Alli Baba and the 40 thieves)
Papa put her diaper rag on her head and snapped this cute picture.

Enduring tummy time, still not her favorite pastime.