End of Summer 2014

This week has been the last week of a lot of things here in our family. As I reflect on the summer and the many things that happened for our family, I realize that no matter how much we want things to stay the same, they never do. People get jobs or move away, kids grow up, new skills are learned, habits are formed (good and bad). I love my kids so much and was very grateful to be able to spend so much time with them this summer. Last summer I was working while Mike went to school so I missed out on a lot. Some of the things we accomplished this summer: Mike got his first per diem job at St. Josephs Hospital in Tacoma,Brandon learned how to ride a two wheeler, Dallas had his first scout camp, Elijah had his first Faith in God camp since starting scouts and Cody can finally dive:) We had lots of cousin sleepovers, bike riding, swimming, trampoline jumping, movie watching, x box playing, ice cream eating times. It was only fitting to do something fun today since it's the last weekend until school starts next week. I took the boys to Trampoline Nation in Federal Way. It was super fun. The boys had a great time. I think basketball and the half pipe were the favorites of the boys. After our hour was up they were definitely tired and ready for some food. We ended our fun day by going to Red Robins. It's been sort of a tradition to go to Red Robins when school gets out or is starting again. When school starts on the 3rd, Dallas will be in the 7th grade, Cody-5th, Elijah-3rd, Brandon-1st. We attended their open houses and got the kids all registered on Tuesday so they are good to go.

New Arrival

My niece Haven Rae, was born this evening. She weighed in at 8 lbs. 1 oz. and was 20" long. She is a cute little thing and the boys adore her. They kept saying they needed another turn. Desi ended up having a c-section as her blood pressure has been very high for a long time and the medication wasn't helping. Happy birthday Haven!

(Just for the record, the new mommy didn't want any pictures of her posted so we'll try for another tomorrow)

Catching Up Again

Thought I was going to be better with my blog posting but alas it wasn't meant to be right now. Since my last blog post, Dallas has gone on his week long scouting adventure which he had mixed feelings about. He enjoyed the canoeing,shooting and being with his best friend Dane, but he didn't like the classes.

Also had the opportunity to shoot some pregnancy photos for Desi and Nick before Haven is born. Here are a couple of my favorites:

The boys have been having lots of pool time at grandpa, grandma and Aunt Tammy's house.

The boys had fun sleeping outside on the balcony for about a week. Every morning about 5 am I would find most of the kids inside, but it was nice and cool outside when they went to bed which was nice since it was so hot in our house. The boys enjoyed looking at the stars at night.

I got a job at the Best Western Premier Plaza in Puyallup as a guest services attendant (front desk). It was okay but not my ideal job. It was fun seeing my sister for a while until she went on bed rest though. Maybe at a different time it would have been okay but not right now.

(for the record, that swollen hand is not mine;) lol Elijah had his pack meeting for August-it was on honesty. They made boats out of juice boxes and got to race them. I think he had fun:)

Cody, Elijah and Brandon had their annual well child visits at the doctor. They are all doing really well. They didn't like the physical part but I made it better with ice cream drum sticks afterwards.

Mike had a gig he was playing at the 4 Seasons Hotel in Seattle, it was a wedding, so I took the boys to the Pierce County Fair for a little end of the summer fun. We had lots of fun on the rides and saw lots of cute animals. I think the dog barn and the rabbit farm were our favorite animals.