Friday Fill-Ins

1. It's time for the other half of my 3 musketeers bar. All I've had for sweets today is a free piece of cake. If your cake is free does that mean it's calorie free too?

2. Pass creek; it's not a bad place for throwing rocks.

3. I must be crazy for trying to convince my hubby to take me to a concert in September. Come on honey! It'll be fun!!

4. Family is the best thing I have ever known. I have the best family in the world!

5. My house is simply a disaster. I watched a movie last night instead of cleaning. Oopsi!

6. The last time I laughed really loudly was when Carlee was wearing Collin's underwear on her head.

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to going to check out the Mackay fair with my mom and my kids, then cleaning the house, tomorrow my plans include cleaning out the camper, maybe going to the Arco Duck Race, and then heading over for a BBQ and Volleyball with friends and Sunday, I want to hopefully teach a good lesson for the 10 yr old class I'm substituting for and doing some relaxing!

Wanna play? Go here.

Pioneer Days

I missed half of our pioneer celebration because frankly, I forgot about it! My sweet friend Tara was gracious enough to let me steal a few pictures that she took of the celebration. Her daughter is in the polka dot apron pictured below. Tara sewed all of her families pioneer clothes. Wish I was that talented!

Tara rode with my kids on the wagon while my dad and I waited behind. She got some cute shots!

Collin with his buddy Zane

Sweet Carlee and Collin pics

Here's a few pics of the parade we missed.

The robust pioneer men.

The beautiful pioneer ladies.

Pioneer children sang as they walked, and walked, and walked, and walked, and walked!

How cute is this wagon and baby!

The rest of the pictures I took. Collin was glad he got to participate in some races.

He ran three total.

He said he was exhausted by the last race. That's better than mommy can do!

But at least he got a prize after each race!

He just had to pick out an airplane for each prize. He was even gracious enough to give one plane to his sister. She didn't want to run any races.

The kids couldn't wait to get a ride in the wagon!

Carlee absolutely adores horses.

We had yummy pork BBQ sandwiches for dinner. Carlee only wanted to eat the top of her bun and then nibble on my sandwich. She also thought that my drink tasted a whole lot better than hers even though they were the same. Silly girl.

Collin shared some of his sandwich with the flies and then a roaming mongrel, I mean dog, finished it up for him. My kids never eat much. If only I could take half of my appetite and share it with the kids! Too bad it doesn't work that way.

A peek inside the teepee. I pretended to be a bear outside and they kept running away from me. ROAR!!

They were sneaking in and out from the bottom instead of the door.

Grrrrr....I'm gonna get you!

This is my adorable neighbor Kailey. She is way too precious.

Snarl! I'm gonna get you too Kailey!

Collin poked his head out but quickly ducked back inside when he saw my camera!

Bridger and Collin had to check out the Indian wardrobe.

Bridger tried to tackle me for taking his picture but I managed to get some shots anyways. Ha ha Bridger!

Next year I'll have to get some pioneer clothes for the kids. Everyone was so adorable! The kids had so much fun that they didn't want to go home. We'll definitely have to go again next year. Who knows, I might even remember next time!

Happy Birthday Collin!

Collin is so spoiled that he got two parties again this year! It's more work but he's worth it. I'm just posting the family party on this blog. The crazy kid party will be posted on his blog.

This year Collin wanted to have a Pokemon themed party. I really don't know how he started liking Pokemon so much in the first place. Anyways, he wanted grandma to make him a pokeball cake and this is what she came up with.




Isn't it cute! She made the pokeballs and lightning out of white chocolate and candy melts. Collin thought it was the coolest. Like my grandma Brewer said, "We're so lucky to have Rhonda in our family!" My mom is very talented.

Since the birthday boy gets to pick out what is served for dinner we made homemade pizza - one of his fav's. I should have taken pics of us making it. I was really scared to make the dough since I always ruin everything asking for yeast but it actually turned out great! Yippee!

Thanks fam for coming over and celebrating Collin's birthday with us. It meant a lot to us and to Collin. We even had all three of my brothers together again for one last time before Ryan left to go back to Florida and warmer temperatures. Yea for family get-togethers!

Love you Collin! Hope you had a memorable Pokemon birthday.

Friday Fill-Ins

1. Having a few pieces of wilted lettuce in my salad is not the end of the world. I'll just eat around it.

2. Sitting here, listening to the sound of rain falling, I want to grab my umbrella, head outside, and splash!

3. A twice-baked potato tastes so good! Thought I was going to say chocolate didn't you!

4. Sometimes, putting others first is the best thing you can do in a relationship.

5. Coming home to a clean house is breathtaking, really. Too bad it doesn't happen very often.

6. Well, maybe there is one more chance to get all my brothers together before Ryan leaves. I'm hoping so!

7. And as for the weekend, tonight I'm looking forward to finishing Collin's last party details for his (TWO, spoiled boy) parties this weekend, tomorrow my plans include surviving his kid's party with his friends and possibly checking out the pioneer activities going on this weekend and Sunday, I want to have all my family over to have a celebration dinner for Collin turning six! How is it possible that he is six!!!


Wanna play? Go here.

Our hike out past Mackay.

Tell me what you think. Was this picture worth a four mile hike up and treacherously across the slippery hillsides? Worth crossing streams? Worth enduring stinging nettle plants scratching your legs and hands?

Well, in my opinion: Yes!! I love hiking though so any cool view up in the mountaintops is worth it. Being out in nature is so calming and peaceful. I've really got the hiking bug and can't wait to go again.

(Kaitlyn loved this tree.)

Larry, Tina, Eric, me, Collin, Carlee, Levi, Cher, my brother Ryan, my mom Rhonda, and Kaitlyn all trudged up the mountainside. I'm so glad that my mom went too although I don't know if she'll ever go hiking with us again! We thought it would be a simple quick hike but it took a lot longer than we were expecting, and it was a lot harder.Plus we got rained on for a bit. It was refreshing though!

The kids favorite activity is throwing rocks into the river to see the big SPLASH!

Not to be outdone here's Larry joining in the fun.

We saw these wires with lumber inside all throughout the hillside. Definitely an interesting way to get wood down the mountainside!

Pretty posing.

We all (I think...well, for the most part) had fun that day. Thanks Levi for suggesting the trip. SO much fun!