Mikayla's Photo Shoot

It's amazing how fast the kids are growing up. Mikayla is only 14, but she looks so much older and more mature. It seems like only yesterday that the girls were having tea parties and playing Barbies. Now they are involved in sports and friends and worst of all---boys! Where has the time gone? I certainly don't feel any older than when they were little! I love taking pictures of Mikayla because she is the only one of my kids that will pose and let me take pics. If she sees a camera, she will say, "Wait." Then she poses with a beautiful grin and says, "OK- ready." It's fun to have someone that is willing to take the time to get good pictures! I'm hoping to get the last shoot of Braquel done within a few days depending on her work schedule.

Chelsey's Photo Shoot

I think these pictures of Chelsey turned out really well. She looked through my camera at them and of course there are only one or two that she likes. I guess it's always easier to look at them and pick out your flaws than to see the beauty in them. I think she is so gorgeous. She is my child that usually doesn't want her picture taken- I can't tell you how many pictures I have of the back of her head. She's quick and I keep telling her that she will like the pictures much better if she will just look at me and smile rather than hiding. Someday she will be glad that she has pictures.

Treven's Photo Shoot

I gave Treven a bath this morning and got him all handsome for some pictures. Of course he was too busy playing with his friends to really care about pictures. I had to keep reminding him what we were doing and why. I got a few shots that I like, but I think it was too early in the morning or I have too many trees in my yard that give off too many shadows. Anyway, I got enough that I told him he could go play. No less than half an hour later, he came in the house with mud all over him and his clothes. I'm so glad we got the pics before he decided to dig a six foot deep hole in the backyard!

Ellie's Photo Shoot

I decided to do a little photo shoot with Ellie yesterday. She cooperated for awhile, but then she decided she would rather take a nap! She is growing and changing so fast. She has such a sweet temperament (mostly) and is an absolute joy. Last night while I was at work, the girls said she cried for about an hour straight (she wanted mama) and while she was crying she would say mama. I'm thrilled that she would say mama first because all of my other kids said dada first! Smart girl, huh? Anyway- I am going to try to do a similar photo session with each of the other kids this week as they think all of the pictures taken are of Ellie. Treven got his hair cut last night so I think he'll be the next victim!

Victor's 40th Birthday!

We went out to Victor and Michelle's to help celebrate his 4oth birhtday. Michelle did all of the decorations in a Mexican Fiesta theme and she cooked chicken and beef fajitas, rice, and beans...wow was it yummy! Victor took this pic with Tage and Treven and called themselves the "Three Amigos"

We played the funnest game- there were teams of two ( a thrower and a catcher). The catcher had shower caps on their heads and garbage bags over their clothes. When it was all ready, they had shaving cream put on their heads. At one point, Victor for some reason thought it was whipped cream on his head, so he took a big old taste!!! Not so good!

The thrower got 2 mintues to throw Cheetos at them. When the time was up, the cheetos that stuck to the shaving cream were counted and the team with the most Cheetos won. Gary and Victor got the most with 31 (although Mikayla says they cheated)!

This is Angelina and Mikayla with their Cheetos stash. They got 24 to stick. Braquel and Talia got 22 I'm not sure how many the other two teams had. I was rushing around to get pics and missed the counts. All of this was done at 10:30 at night so it was pretty dark. Braquel told me as she was throwing Cheetos to stop taking pictures because the flash was blinding her and she couldn't see!!!

When Michelle got done counting Cheetos and I was talking to Victor, the kids all rushed him and got shaving cream amd Cheetos all over him! He didn't see it coming at all so it was really funny! We always have such a good time when we are all together. Our kids have pretty much been raised together for their whole lives and love to see each other.

Easy Strawberry Pie

Cut 1 pint (2 cups) of strawberries and place in either a graham cracker or shortbread pie crust.

Mix 1 1/4 cups apple juice, 1/2 cup sugar, and 3 TBSP cornstarch in a saucepan; cook on medium heat for 2 minutes or until thickened, stirring constantly. Remove from heat.

Add 1 ( 4-serving size) strawberry gelatin to the thickened mixture. Stir for about 2 minutes or until all of the jello is dissolved.

Pour gelatin mixture over the sliced strawberries.

Refrigerate 2 hours or until firm. Store leftovers in refrigerator . Garnish with more strawberries and Cool Whip. This is a really easy, really yummy strawberry pie that we make when strawberries are plentiful. When I make this pie, I usually make two or three so we can eat one and share the others!

Another Rag Quilt

I made another rag quilt for a baby gift this week. This one is one of my favorites. The pretty pastel colors scream baby girl! I don't know if you can really tell, but the main squares have little pink and purple castles and unicorns on them...so stinking cute! This one if for our friend Matt's baby girl, Niah Rhaney. We saw pictures of her on Mikayla's friends MySpace page and she is absolutely gorgeous. Matt told me the whole time that Kiera was pregnant that their baby would be the most beautiful baby ever and I have to say that aside from my own, she is one of the most perfect babies I've seen. I feel sad that she will never know her dad, but I hope that his family and friends can help her know what an awesome man he was. Hopefully she inherits his love and passion for life and people!

Albion Idol

After being asked to do karaoke at Annie's many times, I decided it was time to give it a go. I wanted to do a clever name instead of just karaoke so I called it Albion Idol! Unfortunately, there weren't a lot of people that participated, but we had quite a few people that came out to listen and suppport the few that did sing. Poor Shirley Clark ( the lady that brought all of the equipment) was the one that spent the majority of the night singing. She sounded really awesome and we appreciate her willingness to do what she did. This pic is Todd and Kathy Adams, some good friends. I couldn't get them to sing, but we always have fun when they come in!

This is Elaine, Shirley's mother. Years ago (before we moved here) she had a little cafe called Elaines and she and her husband, Harvey started this karaoke at the cafe. From what I hear, it was quite the hot spot. Everyone loved going for her ymmy breakfasts and burgers, but they also went for the karaoke. Elaine had a cold that night, but she was such a sport and sang a few songs for us.

Emily came down from Boise to do Albion Idol. Talk about excited! She came in to Annie's Friday and was so excited for Saturday. She looked beautiful and she sang really well. She did some Patsy Cline numbers that were pretty neat. She sounded just like her! Thanks to everyone that came to Albion Idol whether it was to sing or just to watch- what a blast!

Four-Wheeling Fun

Mom called Friday night and asked if we wanted to go 4-wheeling with her, Jeff, and Tori. Of course, the kids were thrilled and Treven couldn't stop wanting to know when we were going. Chelsey had a car wash for 4-H so mom came and picked up Mikayla and Treven and the bikes. I waited for Chelsey to get home and then Braquel called and said she was almost off work so I waited for her, too. We got up to spot around 1:30. It was so hot with no shade whatsoever! Treven discovered that he can drive our 4-wheeler (as long as someone is on with him) and boy did he want to do that over and over! When none of the girls would go with him anymore, he talked grandma into riding with him. He also found a handful of used shells that were left there. That's like going to Jackpot for a 5 year old that loves to hunt!

Braquel got brave enough to try to ride the dirt bike. Mikayla warned her to let out the clutch real slow and she thought she was, but when the bike took off on the back wheel only she was quite shaken. When she got back from her little trip around the trruck, she said she almost decided to jump off the bike and run for it! We all thought the wheelie was hilarious, but I think it shook her up a bit. After that, Chelsey had to prove that she could ride, too. After killing it a few times, she got it going and only had a little tiny wheelie when she let out the clutch!

This is Mikayla coming back from a trail ride when we first got there. She is a lot like her dad and loves speed and anything dare-devilish. She makes me a little bit nervous and Braquel tells me I should never let her have a driver's license. By the end of the day, you could see the ring around Mikayla's eyes where her sunglasses went -everywhere else was covered in dirt!

Treven giving his big sister a ride on our 4-wheeler. She wasn't too sure about letting him drive, but he actually does a good job as long as they leave it in first gear! We had a great time even though every one of us got sun burnt!

Nature Boy

Yesterday, Treven caught a huge monarch butterfly. Apparently, when he caught it, the wing got torn slightly so it couldn't fly anymore. He decided that he needed to make the butterfly into a pet so he got a big shoe box and filled it with grass and sticks. He got the poor thing out every chance he got. He says he has even trained it to walk up his arm! He thought it was pretty cute to put it on Ellie's arm, but the butterfly kept falling off onto the floor. Of course it also was tickling the heck out of her!!

Happy Birthday Kylee and Whitney!

Jason and Sally threw a combined birthday party for Kylee's 1st and Whitney's 6th birthday. They had hamburgers, hotdogs, steaks, salads, and homemade french fries. What a treat! Then they had homemade chocolate cake and raspberry cheesecake for dessert. I'm pretty sure I gained 5-10 pounds just by showing up! There was a big bouncy house in the backyard for the kids along with one of the most awesome swingsets I've ever seen. Braquel picked out a little baby for Kylee and she absolutely adored her new doll. It was really cute the way she packed her baby around and patted her just like a real mommy. Hope both girls had a super fun day!

Baby Rag Quilts

We had 4 babies in one week! I made two John Deere rag quilts, 1 outdoor rag quilt, and 1 tropical-ish rag quilt. It seemed like that's all I did last week. Congratulations to all of the new mommies and daddies out there!

Happening Soon

I stopped by mom's work today and she showed me how to add pix to the blog, so this weekend (maybe sooner if I can find the time) I will definately catch everything up and put in some 4th of July pix and some other new things Keep watchin!

It's Official

Well, we are finally on-line. I have wanted to do a blog for our everyday type things for awhile now. I finally got a nice digital camera that will hopefully alllow me to download some fun family pics and I decided it's time to get goimg on a blog. Mikayla set me up and hopefully soon we will have everything figured out and up and going.