Here are some shots we took of the back yard the other morning. It was just so beautiful with the hydrangeas that had bloomed that we had to shoot some pics.

And here is our last weekend project. We took this whole swing apart, slat by slat and sanded, stained and clear coated the whole thing. Then put it back together. Whoah, it was a HUGE project! But definitely worth every minute. Plus we spent some great time together while enduring the time constraining project. It was great. Now we can have our quiet time and coffee on the swing in the front yard and it feels so good and pretty now!

MOM... ARE YOU PROUD? he he he he

Summer is finally here!!! YAY!

Amber with her little summer dress in the front yard all ready for a friend's bday party...

Jimmy showing off his guns at the beach...

Amber refused to bring a bathing suit on Memorial Day to the beach because it was cool in the morning when we left. So she decided to just get in with her clothes on... silly doodle...

here is Kaiya soakin up the sun in her little pool at the city park

Ash was sportin her cute little bod, you can't even tell she just had a baby 9 months ago...

Kaiya finally got all tuckered out, I just love how she lounged out with her legs kicked up...

Here is a pic I shot of Memorial Day at Coeur d'Alene city beach. The beach itself was just littered with people, it was a perfect sunny day!

It seems like forever since I have posted anything to this blogsite. My doodlebug is home sick today so I am staying home with her. I will more than likely be cleaning and doing laundry for the majority of the day. Here is her and me last night cuddling when she fell asleep in my arms. Poor little buggy.

Anyways, I guess a lot has been going on, yet I have been to busy to take pics. But finally after 3-4 months of full weekends, we have finally had some down time to breathe. 

I guess the biggest haps in the last few months is that Amber got new specs. She is so happy now that she can see!!! Here are some shots of her and her cuteness.

Last weekend we went to the "Lost in the 50's" which is an old car show in downtown Sandpoint that they have every year. We have some friends, Todd and Shawna, that we just found out lived in Sandpoint, that Jim went to school with. We went with them and had a fun day. After looking at the cars, we went down to the Sandpoint city beach, it is so beautiful there.

 

notice Amber digging for treasures while the boys skip rocks in the water...

We also took the kids to the beach at Lake Pend'Orielle a couple of weekends ago. That was a blast, it was the first time that Marlyie has been in the lake. She wasn't quite sure what to do. She loved it, but it was a little too cold for her still. Not Buddy though, he could have swam all day if we let him. I am guessing that the water was somewhere around 40 degrees. Brrrr....

Here is Doodlebug feeding a Canadian Goose,

Here are my 3 favorite peeps soakin up the sun.

Here are just a few miscellaneous pics from recent days. My neice, Kaiya, is getting so big now. She is almost 7 months old now, and she is such a happy little thing. I just love lovin on her and squishing her and smooching her little chubby cheeks. Here she is playing with her little mobile.

 

Mamaw loves her baby girl...

Here is Papaw with his two oldest grand kiddos.

The puppy is getting so big too. Here is her and Amber goofin' off.

It has been such a long time since I have blogged on our family blog... if you haven't had a chance to check our mission trip blog, you can switch over and view it through our complete profile. It is called Kenya 2009. Or you can just go straight to it by going to www.Nairobi2009.blogspot.com

So anyways, our family has been trying so hard to get back into the swing of things since our trip. We both hit the ground running as soon as we got back. With work and just the normal routine of everyday life, we are still trying to recoup our sleep patterns as well as our household duties. But Lord willing, we will have a relaxing weekend to try and catch up on some sleep.

Yesterday was my birthday. woohoo for me. yes i am now 33 and when I went to renew my license today, I noticed that I look a lot older in my picture than I did in my old license. I guess that is what happens. 

Anyways... it was a really cool day. Jim took me to lunch at Beverly's which is a pretty fancy schmancy restaurant on the 7th floor of the Coeur d'Alene Resort. I only wanted to go there for old times sake, because my mom used to take me there for my birthday when I was younger. But for some reason, I almost felt humiliated at the treatment that they give. Don't get me wrong, this is a 5 star restaurant in a 5 star hotel and everything is done to the nine. But after spending a week in one of the most poverish areas in the world, it made me realize how petty and spoiled we are as Americans. I mean, good grief, they even scraped the crumbs off of the tablecloth after we ate our rolls so that it would be clean for the main course. I have to say that this kind of living is definitely not for us. I would rather spend 2 months back in the slums of Nairobi, eating the rice and chipattis that they serve, than to have one more meal like that.

Anyways, we left work and it was snowing like blizzard style. What a bummer, snow storm on my birthday. Here is a pic of the drive home and a farm that we pass on the way home.

 

We made it home safe and sound. When we finally got home, Jimmy made us all chili for dinner and Amber baked me a birthday cake.

  

I was so proud of them. It was the best dinner and dessert I have ever had, especially after that lush of a meal we had at lunch. The greatest part besides the taste, was the fact that I didn't have to lift a finger to cook the whole night. What a treat. As my family knows, my love language is Acts of Service, so for them to do that for me was such a suprising treat, and the best gift I could have got. Jim even did the laundary for me. I was totally spoiled!! I love my life and my family so much.

 

Yesterday was the 3rd best day of our lives! (1)wedding day, 2)Birth of our children)

The kids got BAPTIZED!!!

What a special day! There is no greater joy than knowing our children made an open expression of their faith. The nice thing about our church too, is that they encourage the parents baptize their children, so Jim and I were able to baptize Jimmy & Amber. 

3John 1:4 "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth"

As of today we are creating a new Blog which is attached to this one. It is called Kenya 2009. To get to it you can go to "View my complete profile" right next to our Profile Picture. Then once you are on our profile page, go to the Kenya 2009 Blog. This blog site will be the one updated as we prepare for and are on our Kenya trip next month. We leave on the 17th of Feb and come back on the 26th. We ask that you keep us and our friends that we are going with, Tony & Jill, in your prayers as we seek Gods will and trust in Him during this mission trip. Unfortunately, our kiddos won't be coming with us this time, my mom will be staying with them, so we also pray for peace in their little hearts and minds that they just remember that our lives are in God's hands.
We hope you are blessed by this blog as our journey begins here at home, on our knees and proceeds 9000 miles away......

CONGRATULATIONS ~ TRAVIS & MAELLA PETERSON!!!

Our best friends, Travis and Maella, just got married and all 4 of us were in their wedding. It was a beautiful wedding yet so simple. We just love these guys. I had to post some pics, because this is one of the rare times you will ever see any of us dressed up. That is why we take pictures, because they last longer...

Here is Doodle bug getting her hair done, she looked so beautiful!

Here we are, the 4 of us... all dressed up and ready for the wedding.

My 2 favorite men...

The ladies,

again...

Mommy & her boy (mini me)...

I was so happy to see when my sister came to the wedding...

Here is the happiest couple this side of the moon!

The kiddos

Amber with Maella, they had matching dresses, it was so adorable (Amber had her sweater over hers in this pic, she was a little chilly)...

And here we are, the three stooges....

Just the beginning to an awesome story! Love you guys!!! Congratulations!!!

MORE AND MORE AND MORE SNOW.... WILL IT EVER STOP???

This storm is taking it's toll on the bodies of us North Idaho folks.

Jim and I have been shoveling, almost everyday for about 2 weeks straight. At least the kids are enjoying it...

Notice Jim standing in the door way... we just got done shoveling the driveway after work.

Here are the kiddos playing in the snow down by the stop sign. That fence to the left is a 6 foot privacy fence to one of our neighbors house. The kids get so excited when we get home from work so they can go down and play on this hill... as if we don't have enough snow in our backyard to play in...

Yesterday was Jimmy's 11th birthday and we got the suprise of our lives. My mom gifted him (and us) with a one night stay at the Holiday Inn Express, which is attached to TriplePlay waterpark. The package included:
~dinner for 4 at an awesome Italian restraunt,
~movie tickets for 4 at the Hayden Cinemas,
~4 tickets for all day waterpass at Triple Play waterpark and
~a one night stay at the hotel.
So we got off work, ran home, packed everything up, took the puppy to Mamaw and Papaws house, cause they so graciously offered to watch the pup, and headed for Hayden, Holiday Inn Express. Since it was kinda late we just checked into our room and went to dinner and had an AWESOME dinner at Ciao Mambo's. We did our usual, go around the table and tell your highs and lows of the day... of course everyones highs was this awesome gift. We ate way too much and went back to our room and watched a movie and went to sleep.

Here is the kids anticipating the day to come...

But then the next morning we woke up to another 10 inches of snow and Jim had to go home to get our other truck, ol blue, because it is 4wheel drive. Plus he had to let Buddy out of the garage. The kids and I went down to have an awesome continental breakfast of biscuits & gravy and scrambled eggs, cinnamon rolls, bagels, fruit & juice. Then Jim got back and the waterpark opened at 10... we were there waiting like the Macy's commercial... "Open, Open, Open". We had such a blast of a time. Jimmy kept saying over and over and over again... "this is the best birthday ever"!

Here is the birthday boy and sissy having the time of their lives, he does indeed have swimming trunks on...

Jim and the kids enjoying the spa. BTW it is snowing like a mad dog just on the other side of that wall...

We went down every waterslide there was, and then did it again, and again.

Here are a few videos of all of us having the best time ever...

First we have daddy and Amber coming down the slide together...

Then we have Jimmy and mommy together, yes folks, I did get in the water...

The kids wore themselves out so much that finally we had to leave :(

But the day wasn't over, we went straight to the movie theatre and watched 'Bedtime Stories'. It was such a cute movie & very clean. When our day was over, we got home to another 16 inches of snow... here we go again... but this time it is a very wet snow, which means very heavy. That took us a good while to shovel.

Super pup to the rescue...

We finally got into the house by 7:30 and are running out of places to put the snow. The Lord heard our cry (of pain) when he gave us rain today which washed away a ton of our fresh fallen snow. And now we have a place to put the snow from the next storm, cause we know itsa coming. Yay, we can drive safely again too! Thank you Jesus!

It has been a very cold and snowy few weeks. Good grief, we can barely keep up with the shoveling. But I wanted to share a little about Christmas. It was a great day. In the morning (mind you, Jimmy woke everyone up at 5:30, YAWN) we did the usual, read the story of our Lord & Savior, Jesus' birth, drank our coffee & opened stockings and presents.

Then at about 6:30 we looked outside. Lo and behold there were another 18 inches of snow on the ground and we had family coming over at noon. And to top it all off the weather was calling for another storm to come in, a wet storm that would weigh down all of the snow we already had, which was about 3 feet. Soooo, Jim hopped up on the roof and started shoveling.

Here is Jim with a brief message...

Jimmy was up there for a short time too. Then he decided to go down and make a snow fort instead.

I was down below shoveling off the sidewalk and driveway what Jim was throwing off of the roof. What a beautiful way to start off Christmas. The best part was that when Jim was up on the roof, he was sweating so bad that we had to get him another shirt to wear, so I went to the door and asked Amber to bring another shirt for daddy. When I threw it up to him, he noticed that she had accidentally grabbed one of my shirts, which is too small for him. So he is standing on the roof with no shirt on, waiting for one that fits. During this time of waiting so patiently(lol), a huge gust of wind came by and blew all the snow that was in the huge pine tree at our neighbors house straight onto Jim (half naked), so much snow that when I came out to give him the other shirt, I couldn't even see him through the white out of snow. Haaaah.... God does have a sense of humor. Jim forbid me to put the picture of him half naked in the snow on the roof on our blog, but it was a really good one if you ask me. Tee, hee, hee...

So anyways, at about 11:30 we finally got done shoveling the roof, driveway and sidewalk for our family that was coming at noon.

I didn't do such a bad job if I do say so myself...

We jumped in the shower and got ready as fast as we could. I threw some yummy food on the stove and in the oven and we (believe it or not) were ready for my family before they got there. I still believe in miracles!

We had a great time with family. My dad, Sandra, Ashley(sis) and Kaiya(niece) came over and we had such a nice time. We ate yummy food, had great conversation and of course played Chicken Foot (a dominos game). It was a blast!

Here is Mamaw with her two granddaughters...

And Papaw with his one and only grandson...

Here we are playing Chicken Foot... By the way, Amber won and I am thinking by the look on that face that she cheated...

Kaiya was totally zonked out by 5:30...

After everyone left, we were all so pooped... even the puppy...

I hope everyones Christmas was as joyous as ours,

Merry Christmas to all!