Our Little Man

The kids were playing with their cars today. Marcus was driving Olivia around when he noticed Emma was stuck. He stops his car and says "Olivia, I need to get out and help Emma". He gets to Emma and says "Emma, are you ok?" Then he proceeded to pull her back.

Then he ran to the front and started to push. Emma just sat there and encouraged him.

He really was pushing. Emma said "He's really strong; he's like Daddy!"

Then Marcus says "Ok Emma, is that better?"..."Better" Emma replies. Mission accomplished! (and yes I know Emma's helmet is on backwards...she hasn't quite figured that one out yet)

Preview

Look what we found at Fred Meyer today. Marcus is going to be a race car driver for Halloween. Do you think he likes it?

"If you're not first; you're last" according to Ricky Bobby.

Of course you can't wear a race car driver outfit without going to the track :-)

Pumpkin Time

We went to the Spokane Boys (local fruit stand that our friends the Starks own) this morning and ended up with 3 pumpkins to start the fall season. The kids really wanted to color their pumpkins so out came the markers...Marcus had a great time!

If you look really close you can see the face Emma drew on her pumpkin...pretty good Emma!

Olivia drew a bunch of faces all over her pumpkin and even wrote her name on the bottom. These will be the first of many pumpkins this year.

Baby Shower

After the birthday party we went across town to a baby shower for my friend from work. My plan was that the kids would fall asleep and nap on the way...didn't quite work out that way of course but they did great. There was an awesome playroom at the house where the baby shower was so that kept them pretty busy. Marcus was so cute; he was literally the only boy in the house and he kept coming in and socializing with all the ladies...he's definitely a ladies man. The baby was early so she was at the shower too. At the end of the shower, Marcus walked up to the baby and gave her a little kiss. All the ladies responded with "Awww..." and Marcus left with a smile on his face. Of course I didn't have the camera ready. I'm not really sure what I was doing...we were there for over 2 hours and I didn't take one picture of baby Caia...what was I thinking!

Happy 5th Birthday Mateo

Saturday morning while Poppi and Daddy drove to Montana, the kids and I went to a daycare friend's birthday party. Olivia was dressed like she was going to Montana though...so cute!

We got to go to a Jumping place! We still love Jumping places!

WEEEEE!!!!


Here is Mateo, the birthday boy, hanging out with Marcus.

These kids have been together at daycare for a long time now. They were all together when we started there; that was about 2 1/2 years ago! They all have such a great time together!

There have been a few new additions since we started daycare there. Here is Hunter, the daycare teacher's son, with Olivia and Isabella who will be 1 in November.

Group Photo.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MATEO!!

Friday Night

Poppi came over Friday night so he could go with Marc to Montana Saturday morning to deliver a trailer we sold to someone over there. Poppi was in charge of story time for Marcus.

Emma made sure Daddy got his head rub for the night. She's pretty good at those head rubs.

Then Daddy did story time with the girls. What a great way to start the weekend!

Glimps into the future

We went to Courtney's soccer game this morning. Chad was the coach. Marcus thought he would be the assistant coach today. He did a pretty good job.

Here's Courtney at half-time getting ready to become the goalie.

Here she is at the goal.

The kids really wanted to play too...go Marcus go...he's pretty good with the ball for a 2 year old!

Go Emma Go...she's not so bad either. I see soccer in our future for sure!

Uh Oh! He's down!

Get it Emma (look at that determination on her face).

Watch out! Here's Olivia!

VICTORY!!!

There were bleachers to play on too.

Olivia was watching the bigger boys play football in the next field (imagine that!). Actually Marcus was pretty interested in the football too. I even caught him trying to warm up with one of the teams that was waiting to get on the field. I'm sure it won't be long before we are seeing him playing on these fields!

As we walked to the car we noticed Marcus was lagging behind. He really wanted to stay...after all, there was baseball, football and soccer being played and it was far from over. Poor little guy; can you blame him for wanting to stay? Soon enough Marcus...we'll be living on these fields...I'm pretty sure of it!

What we've been doing

The kids love the new camera as much as I do. They seem to be pretty cooperative for group photos lately. They even request it!

Emma is Mommy and Marcus is Daddy. We caught them dancing in our shoes the other night.

Marcus spent tonight watching hunting with Daddy.

While the girls played in their new playroom.

We sold our sectional that was downstairs and made the room into a playroom. Most of the toys are down there now which gives them more room in their bedrooms. It's been quite nice; the kids love playing down there and it's finally a little quieter upstairs. Only problem is we are having a little trouble getting the girls to let Marcus play with them and we are having trouble with Marcus being a little too rough without our constant supervision. We're working on it though.

New Camera

Zoom...I'm on the back deck, they are in the middle of our field. I could NEVER do this with my old camera.

More zooming...she had no idea I was taking a picture.

I can even capture moments like this without it being blurry.

It is rare to get a photo of Olivia lately, she rarely cooperates and moves to fast...Not anymore :-)

I was spoiled with a new camera last night. It is a Cannon SX20 IS. Our good friends, Jordan and Kallie (the bride and groom from the wedding on Aug 7th) gave it to us as a thank you gift for everything we did for their wedding and honeymoon. I was totally blown away by their generosity. They even got me a beautiful camera case to carry it in. THANK YOU JORDAN & KALLIE!

Labor Day Weekend 2010

A group of us try to get together for Labor Day Weekend every year. We've been doing it for the last 13 years now. This year the destination was Raymond's house. The biggest treat was meeting Raymond's new puppy, Bella. Isn't she so sweet?!?


Here's baby Bella with her Daddy. Bella is only 8 weeks old. Raymond is already doing a great job training her. She is going to be a great dog.

The boys went salmon fishing first thing Saturday. I should have given my camera to Marc to take pictures...but of course we didn't think of that! When they got back, Chad decided it was time for a swim in the river behind Raymond's house...it wasn't very warm outside and the kids got soaked! Hopefully we won't end up with colds as a result.

Chad is such a big kid! The kids love hanging out with him!

We woke up bright and early Sunday morning. The kids were begging to go in the hot tub, so that was our Sunday morning activity.

Then we went for a short hike to the river. Daddy tried to show the kids how to skip rocks...they just liked finding the biggest ones to throw in the water and make a big splash.

Hi Emma! Having fun?

Here are all the girls. The twins thought it was so cool to hang out with the big girls. I remember when these girls were the twins age! We now have a total of 9 kids amongst us. We realized at one point during the weekend that the kids now out number the adults...we have 3 families each with 3 kids and Raymond...total of 7 adults to 9 kids! Where did all these kids come from??? I actually got a great group photo too, but my camera was having issues so it turned out really blurry :-( Seems to be happening a lot lately...I think I need a new camera! Regardless, we had a great weekend with great friends!