Don't let my sis-in-law watch your kids!

My sister-in-law took my boys to her house yesterday after we finished the flag pole project and look how she takes care of them!
** No children were harmed during this photo shoot**

The flag pole area is done now too!

OHHHHHH YAY! It's done! It's done! It's done! Do you know how good that feels?? My sister-in-law offered to come over today and help me out, so I let her! She brought her 3 youngest kids over (the other 3 plus Kaylee & Natalie, are out backpacking with Grandpa & Grandma ) and we got this all done. Here is a close-up: And here is one with the flag too - it's a little crooked because of the wind yesterday.
And here is one final one of Eastyn & Colten at the school lunch today - soooo cute.

Our Morning Project

We've lived in this house now for a year and a half and I finally decided that I'd had enough of the weeds growing around the front of my house and around our flag pole. (That and we have family coming for Nat's baptism this weekend and I wanted it to look nice!) So on Saturday the kids and I bought a few shrubs and a tree and planted them! We also layed down weed blocker fabric. Then yesterday my awesome neighbor Sandy drove me to a nursery in Grandview where I bought a "yard" of bark. Don't ask me why they call it that - it was basically 2 buckets full. Colten helped un-load the bark out of the pickup yesterday and this morning at 7 am the fun began. It only took Colten and I an hour to get it done. He was a really hard worker! This is Colten cranking the ez-loader to get the bark out - what a handy device!
Ye Old Pile of Bark in front of my garage.
What it looked like before bark . . if you want to see the pre-shrubs et al you'll have to go back to the "I didn't mow my lawn yesterday" post from June 27 - the picture with Andrew on the slide.
AHHHHHHHHHHHH! Man that feels looks good!
Here's the next project . . the flag pole area. And yes, there is something planted in there so I can't just take a roto-tiller to it.

Lowe's free build day

It was another great bulid at the Pasco Lowe's Home Improvement store last Saturday. The project this week was a table top tetherball game. My brother-in-law Chris showed up with 5 of their kids! It really surprised me! I was thinking to myself " Wow, they drove all the way to town to do this project - that's dedication" and then it dawned on me that I probably drove farther than they did to get there! I just never think that driving to tri-cities is that far for us living in Prosser. It used to take me an hour from where we used to live in Othello, so 30 minutes is a cake walk now. Yeah, I know we've lived in Prosser for 7 1/2 years now, and that I shouldn't think of driving times as though I still live in Othello, but oh well. Sometimes I feel like my kids should still be as old as they were when we lived in Othello too, not that they should be old enough to do things like go into middle school or get get baptized, or go into kinder . . . ok I will get back to my regularly scheduled post now . . . Here are some pics from Lowe's: Cousin Brenden, Colten, Bro-In-law Chris, cousins Kianna, Tyrelle and Maeson
Andrew with his completed (by me) project.
Natalie, Kaylee and Brenden. The only cousin not to make it into the pictures was Haiden - he was standing right next to me. I'll get him next time!

We Have a Winner

The contest is officially over and we officially have a winner!!! 3 people had the correct answer which was 7 members living at Sun Terrace. Stefanie, Kari & Amanda all had it correct so I put their names in a hat

and

drew

out

the

name

. . . .

Kari!!!

Congrats to Kari ( I will hunt you down with your prize) and thanks to everyone who played. I'm thinking up a new contest already, so stay tuned.

PS - Kari can also name each of those members!

Contest Update

Well, I've quite a few entries for the contest I started last week. I will keep it open til Friday and then I will choose a winner! all you have to do is leave a comment on the "stampin with the beehives" post guessing how many members of the Prosser, WA ward live at Sun Terrace. Remember the prize is 5 hand stamped cards with envelopes!!

Trip to Hayden, ID

This past weekend we got to go, as a family, to Hayden, Id. There is a Holiday Inn Express there that has a water park attached to it! It's called Raptor Reef - there are 3 big slides, a wave pool, hot tub and kiddie area with mini slides! Then there is also a Triple Play place that has go carts, bowling, bumper boats, golf, a rock wall, and a Chuck E Cheese type arcade area. We had sooo much fun!! Of course what trip through the Spokane Valley would be complete without stopping at The White Elephant and Cabela's?!?! Here is a slide show of some of the things we got to do. Enjoy!

Stampin' with the Beehive's

A couple of weeks ago, the beehives in my ward asked me to bring some of my stamp supplies to their Wednesday night activity. They wanted to make cards for the members of our ward that live in Sun Terrace (an assisted living complex) It was really a fun night getting to show others how much fun it is to create things with stamps and I loved getting to know the girls!

contest!!!! Guess how many members of our ward are living at Sun Terrace. Leave me a comment with your guess and the person with the correct # will get a stack of 5 cards w/envelopes!

Heeeeere's SarahAlana & Sierra

Claire & Deborah - apparently Deborah HATES to have her picture taken . . which of course means I HAD to have it! Thanks Claire for helpin' a girl out!

Pickin' Raspberries

Yesterday we picked raspberries up at Grandma's & Grandpa's house. (Monte's parents) We met Aunt Amy, Lyndon & Emily up there and we picked for about 2 hours. Aunt Maria, Brenden, Tyrelle, Haiden, Maeson, Kianna and Eastyn also joined us after a while and the kids all jumped in the pool together to cool off. All in all it was a fun day with only one mishap - Colten got stung by a bee. Thank goodness he is not allergic like Monte is or we would have been at the hospital! Kaylee had to pose for me - I forgot to grab the camera while we were all out there!
We ended up without about 4 of these pans full. Guess what I'm doing today? Yep - making raspberry jam!

Lowe's Kids Activity Day

By now you all know that I love to find cheap things for my kids to do. Free stuff is even better! We found out that Lowe's home improvement store has free kids classes every other week thru the summer. Today we made Dune Buggy's. It was pretty easy for them (even Andrew) just nailing and stickers for the most part.

Here are Kaylee, Natalie & Colten hard at work: Andrew was at the other table:
Here they all are with their finished dune buggy's. They also got free aprons, safety goggles, completion certificates, and a patch with a dune buggy on it. They'll get a new patch each week they go.
Andrew made a "garage" with hammers for his buggy. I love how this kid's mind works!
Here's the crew inside Lowe's. With them is our friend Jessica. She wheeled the kids around the store while her mom, Coren, and I shopped for boring exciting things like light bulbs, cabinet brackets and hose repair kits.
We decided they were the worst customer service workers ever. They didn't know where in the store we could find what we needed and they kept hiding whenever we had questions. Maybe they could get jobs over at Michael's - they'd fit right in there.

4th of July!

I love living in a small town!! It's great to be able to show up to the 4th of July Parade (or any parade that is) 2 minutes before the start time and be able to find a great spot, in the shade, with your friends! This year was no different - we sat in front of the PMH Physical Therapy Office with our friends the Cliffords. It's a great spot because it's at the start of the parade & the people on the floats are VERY enthusiastic about sharing their candy! Hehehe - ya, you know that's why I go - FREE candy! The other great thing about this particular spot is that you can pack up your stuff when the parade is gone and follow it down the street. Dress your kids up like this and the other parade watchers will think you're part of the parade! From the left - Colten, Kaylee, Sydney, Andrew, Natalie & Ethan
Colten & Ethan Lagones getting ready for the 3-legged race.
Natalie & Kaylee in the 3-legged race with their friends Eliza & Hayley Buttars.

Kaylee & Hayley won!

Look at Kaylee's crazy-long stride!!! We need to get her in track!
Here's Colten & Andrew in the pie eating contest. Colten stuck his face right in - he had the best technique. But he discovered it was blueberry and didn't like it at all. Andrew got an apple pie - but his technique was to nibble all the edges first, then he was too full to start on the actual pie! It really was a fun day at the Prosser City Park. We finished off the night at a friends house in Pasco with a BBQ and fireworks.

** Special thanks to the Cliffords for remembering their camera so that I could have some great pictures of my kids!

Bugged out at the Library

Last night we went to the Prosser Library for a performance by Joy Aronson. She was the Singing Bug Lady! She was so entertaining and interacted with the kids. My kids loved her! This is Natalie & Colten (Andrew is on the side) wearing bug masks made out of kitchen utensils. They were part of the bug band. Andrew got to wear a headband with springs and silver balls attached - like antennae. We call them deely-bobbers, but I don't know if that's what they are called.

I know this picture is a bit small, it was taken on my cell phone.