Your 9 year old hearts desire...........

Oh Sawyer, our Smed. You have become such a big kid over this past year. I think that as much as your body grows, your heart grows twice that. You are my child that is so like your Dad AND Me that it is crazy. You have wanted nothing but a pet for the last four years. When really pinned down you admitted that a fish just wouldn't do because you can't cuddle it. I think we got the bluff on you this year, the scavenger hunt for clues to your hearts desire was fun and ended with 'happy tears' when you realized that you were going to get a kitten. I knew you would cry and I knew I would cry when you did. I am excited to see how you nurture and love this kitty, you will make a great 'steward' of a pet. I love the age that you are, you are learning every day and creative in your projects. You are a good big brother and will learn patience because of your siblings. God has such good things in store for you Sawyer, Happy Birthday.
~Mom



Meet Theodore.........

Captain Insano..........

Craig sent me this picture from the job he is on up by Smith's Ferry. He was about fifteen feet off the ground when he cut this off. The text with the picture he sent read, 'Captain Insano shows no mercy'!

Let's Go Fly a Kite, Up Where The Air Is Clear................

We had particularly fun prize box this week! Grandma scored these sweet sea creature kites up in Grangeville and brought them down over Sawyer's birthday weekend. I had to put a token price of ten on these and (I know this is horrible) they also had to come up with five tokens to actually go and fly them. We got a whole lot of cheerful, willing cleaning out of these kites! Thanks Grandma!!

The afternoon that we decided to go and fly them we had neighbor kids show up so they were invited along for the fun (Sidon didn't think this was fair at all! 'Shouldn't they have to clean something at our house or something?'). Just as I was wondering how I was going to help seven kids get kites in the air (the very reason they had to pay tokens to GET to go) Christy Cole walked over with extra kites and a willingness to help. It was a lot of fun and the kids had a blast, we stayed for about two hours, just long enough for one of the kids to let Christy's kite string come undone from the reel and float (ever so gently, I might add) over the elementary school and sent screams of panic from every child there! After some time we saw the kite flying back our way so the rescue was successful!


Sawyer and the dolphin.......


Tallis, Molly, and I took our turn together.......

Maggie did great with this little kite that Christy brought over........

Sidon doing his best to help the breeze out............

Sweet Moments......

I do catch my kids in some very sweet moments with each other. I wish there was audio to go along with this post. Maggie was asking Tallis all kinds of questions and Tallis was answering all of them with 'Yep, yep, yep'!

Spare Time...............

It is too bad that coupons cannot buy spare time, I would stock up! My porch needed cleaned, so I taught Maggie a very valuable lesson in the importance of paint. I took what was left of my trim paint and 'cleaned' the porch. It made my face happy every time I opened the door!

Labor Days................

We made the trek to New Meadows for the Labor Day parade and logging show. It was even more fun because we had the Ward clan joining us from Oregon! The kids were able to bungee jump and the little guys had fun sliding down the big slide. Craig and I were able to enjoy BBQ with just each other for company (thanks Mom, Dad, Lori, Greg), and it was awesome! I'm not sure which was better, the uninterrupted conversation or the food. I think it might have been the conversation, but food took a close second! We watched a little bit of the logging skills competition and finished the day off with some fresh kettle corn, a good day indeed!


Kettle corn is GOOOOOOOD................

Sidon on the bungee trampoline..............

He got it down and was able to flip front and back..............

Sawyer on the bungee.........

Papa Derry and Ginger..........

Asher on the bungee.........

Molly watching the boys jump........

Eli, Sidon, and Ashers legs...........

First Day of Fancy School.........

We went to Krissi's house and made plumed pens and personalized notebooks. Tallis and Walker wanted in on the action but plumed pens were taken by the 'teachers' after one too many not so loving taps at each other! It was a fun day and when kids get through being sick we both have more fun 'fancy' projects planned for school!!


Maggie, Walker, Piper, Molly, and Tallis...........

Corn Girl............

I was invited to a corn husking party at Krissi's house and brought home this tote FULL of corn! It was quite the party! Keeping kids out of the alley and little guys (Tallis and Walker) in sight, big kids occupied (Maggie and Piper and their counting lesson), and Molly from screaming, it was quite the party! I went to work on it and Molly was the lone child that would not fall asleep so she got to be the 'corn girl'. She counted out the corn I needed to blanch before I ran out of bags for the vacuum sealer. She had fun and posed for pictures so it was a very blessed day! Thank you Hansens for the corn!!

Logger Practical Jokes..............

Bo and Marcus Lucas work together on Mahon's crew. Bo had been telling Marcus for weeks that he was going to give him a pink hardhat. Today was that day. Bo bummed the rest of my pink spray paint and a set of pastel acrylic paints to add finishing touches like a beautiful daisy and a rainbow. I'm curious to see how this stunt is repaid. For the record Maggie said that she would love to have this hardhat!

First Day of School 2010.............

I was not ready for school to start but the boys were happy to get back in the swing of things. Sidon looked so much bigger this year when they rode off down the road. I have decided to keep my Maggers at home with me for one more year so we are doing 'Fancy School' at home with just the girls, I think it's going to be really fun. Future posts to come........


Sawyer helping Sidon get his shoes untied..........

Ready for school.........

The gang on their way............

Striking it Rich...............

Craig has been wanting to take the boys (and girls) to the creek and pan for gold so we took this fun excursion not far from town to try out our new pans. We found a little bit of color and had a fun day! Days like this remind me of how truly rich we are.




text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; heigh


Maggie wanted to pose like this tree, I think she did a great job...........

The Last, Last Hoorah...........

As our summer dwindled and the countdown to school became not weeks but days, every adventure or excursion was referred to as the 'last hoorah'. We went up to McCall and enjoyed the lake with Grandma (with just a little couponing thrown in). On our drive up Sawyer asked, 'Mom, is this the last, last hoorah?!'. And it was a fun 'last hoorah'!!!