It's that time of year again!

Rachel loved the train ride!

Rachel looking...

Kyler looking....

Got em both!

Last Thursday we took a trip to Walter's Farm at Greenbluff with Kyler's preschool class. The got to tour the cider house, ride a little tractor train, and pick out a pumpkin. Too bad I didn't get any pictures of them in the actual pumpkin patch picking out their pumpkins. I must have been too busy looking for the perfect pumpkin.........

The joys of fall......

We love having a bigger yard, but the pine trees are a pain in the rear end!

Rachel woke up with a runny nose and cough this morning. Fall is officially here at our house!!

Wow, two months! That's crazy!!

Well, it's been an interesting couple of months at our house or should I say houses. We moved last month to a bigger trailer around the corner from where we were. We still are still managing our little trailer park here, but now we have a little more space and a lot more yard. We're most of the way settled in, but we've gotten to the point that I hate. There are just a few more things to find homes for, but alas they sit in a box in the middle of my bedroom. The kids rooms are done, the family room is done, the living room and kitchen are not quite and my room isn't even close! I'm ready to take these boxes, put them in the storage and wait a year to see if I need them because they are just full of the random crap. I hate the random crap!! Enough about that......
So, what else is going on? Trey started kindergarten this year! I feel like it's the beginning of the end.....I can't possibly be old enough to have a kid in school, can I? Well, I will be 30 this year. Two months and four days to be exact. We'll talk about that later as it gets closer I'm sure. Trey is only going to school part time. He goes all day Tuesday, Thursday and every other Friday. Yeah, it's a pain, but I just wasn't ready for him to go all day every day. Somedays I wish he did, but not yet.


I suppose I had better get Trey off to school. I'll post soon about Trey's birthday yesterday and what ever other pictures I might have on my camera.

The best part of swimming lessons........

is jumping off the diving board!!

Kyler's first day of preschool.....

Kyler has been looking forward to going to preschool since Trey started almost two years ago. He's been talking about it being his turn since Trey graduated last month. He was super excited and chatty in the van on the way there last Monday. Everything changed when he went to step out of the van. A look of horror falls over his face and he says, "Mom, I don't want to go to school." I walk/half drag him up the steps. He slides past Miss Shira without speaking despite the successful role play in the van of how we talk to our teachers. Once inside the building he starts to melt down. Miss Shira scoops him up ignoring the shouts for "Mommy!" I walk out the door hoping the screaming doesn't last too long, but really thinking to myself, "Two down, one to go!" By the time I got home, Miss Shira had already called to assure me that by the time they were around the corner he had stopped crying and was talking about what he had eaten for lunch. So today we are going to start another week and he's pretty excited! I can't believe I have two kids old enough to be in school and my Trey is starting Kindergarten this fall. I so proud of their smart little brains and desire to learn. Kyler is really trying to keep up with Trey and Miss Shira has already told me that since he knows his letter sounds that they are going to teach him to read. Great, just what I need, another kid who thinks he knows everything! I love you, Kyler!

Bellingham Part I: Breakfast and Boulevard

Deborah and Bill were kind enough to meet us for breakfast at the Little Cheerful Cafe (my favorite breakfast restaurant ever!) It was very good despite Kyler surprise vomit attack. He actually tried to tell LeRoy, but he didn't get it in time. Luckily I had kind of prepared for the possibility of them getting wet at the park and had extra clothes in the park. After breakfast we went to see Auntie Lisa at the antique mall and then we were off to Boulevard Park. We met up there again with Deborah and Bill. I was so glad to be able to spend more time with them. There's nothing better than an afternoon on Bellingham Bay! The kids had a blast looking for crabs under the rocks........


I wanted to take a family picture in the same place that we took our Engagement pictures nine years ago. Too bad I kneeled down in some mud or 'something' and so in all the pictures I have a nasty knee.

I tried to fix it and this is what I got out of it. What a difference nine years can make!!

Hoopfest

These are all the pictures I have of Hoopfest. LeRoy played with new guys this year since Vincent moved to Georgia and Victor has a new baby. He played with Vincent bro in-law Jacob and some of his friends. Despite the new team, the end result was very familiar winning the first game and losing the second two knocking them out on Saturday. I have to say it was an answer to prayers because I really needed LeRoy to help me in Primary on Sunday. I wasn't going to go in early on Saturday in case it was gonna be a long day, but at the very last minute I changed my mind. I figured if this really is the LeRoy's last year playing, then I wanted to experience as much as I could. So the kiddos survived an 11 hour day with very little whining actually. We had lots of fun, ate yummy food, watched some good basketball, and everyone slept really well that night! I love Hoopfest!

Father's Day Present

I've never really been one to reinvent the wheel and so I found this super cute idea online and I am so happy with the way it turned out! We took tons of pictures and itwas so hard to decide which ones to put in the frame. I feel so lucky to have three kids and a super dad for them!

Grandma Rusti is home!!

It was a long two months but we all survived! The kiddos were so excited for her to be here. Rachel didn't let go of her for the first 20 minutes or out of her sight for the whole time she was at our house without crying hysterically. I'm so glad that my kids are able to have a Grandma so close and that I have my mom for all the support I could ever ask for. We missed you, Mom! We're so glad you're back!!

Grandma Bushnell came to visit.

Last week my Dad's mom and two of his sisters stopped by on their way to Montana. None of them had met Rachel yet which I feel awful about! We really need to do more traveling to the other side of the mountains! We had a lovely visit and I'm so glad they were able to come. My grandma is going to turn 90 this September, so hopefully we will be able to go to Longview for the party!

It's never good when things are quiet........

As I was rolling up some Turkey Meatballs, I realized that I hadn't seen Rachel for a while. I have been hating cooking dinner lately because Rachel just stands pulling on my legs. I decided to just enjoy the moment only to find her later like this. That's her cheese face!!

Cupcakes!

Despite the fact that I am having the weirdest stomach pains today, I decided we better do something fun so that maybe my kids won't notice my laziness. What is better than cupcakes? The boys were excited and Rachel pushed everyone out of the way to be able to see. I wonder if she was thinking all along, "I'm gonna taste some of that!" I gave up stopping her knowing that I would never be able to scoop them all if I did. Silly kiddos!

Why did I wait so long?

Just a little background....When I was 18 the dentist told me I had the wisdom teeth of a ten year old. I was pleased to hear that and hoped it would stay that way. Unfortunately, a couple years ago I started to feel one of them begin to break through the skin. I was not looking forward to having them out because I had no idea how much money it would cost. In my mind it was going to be like thousands of dollars since we had no insurance. Well, I finally got insurance through LeRoy's work and I went to the dentist today for the first time in years. Sure enough, the dentist told me 3 of the 4 wisdom teeth need to come out. They gave me an estimate of cost: $700 before insurance and about $230 is my expense. I was shocked!! I've put this off for this long over less than 300 bucks!?! Bummer! Either way, I'm happy to finally having it all taken care of. Oh yeah, and surprise my 15 year old fillings will have to be replaced. All in all, I'm pretty pleased considering how long it's been since I've been to the dentist. Let's just say I don't intend to go that long again. Moral of the story: Things usually aren't as bad as you might think!

I love reminders!

Do you remember this? A couple of friends have recently posted a video of Elder Uchtdorf's talk that originally inspired me. You can check it out on my facebook profile here. That is, if the link works. I am grateful because I have now been remotivated to do more creating. I was also given encouragement by the dress I finished, too.

Now I'm looking for a new project. I wonder what it will be. I'm taking suggestions if anyone has anything to offer!

Confessions of a blog slacker.....

So, this last month has been a classic case of I don't have enough time to blog about everything I want to blog about so instead I just won't blog at all. Yeah I know, dumb.....Let's think about what we've done this last month. Easter came and went without anything too crazy. I cooked my first prime rib on my own. It was pretty good. I'm excited to try it again sometime. Spring soccer has started. It's been fun to see how far Trey has come since last Spring. He's really getting big. I can't believe he's going to be in Kindergarten this fall. That is if I ever actually go down and register him. I also participated in an Enrichment activity in which a woman portrayed each of the ten virgins, five wise and five foolish. I had never really thought of these women in a present day context which is odd since that is really what they are supposed to represent. It was pretty powerful to realize how easy it is to get caught up in the world. For most of us, it isn't the big sins that will get us. It's the little things. It was on the day of this Enrichment Meeting that I realized we only had two weeks until we were supposed to put on our roadshow that we hadn't really gotten going. I spent the last two weeks of April working on that. It was so much fun!! I got the opportunity to attempt my very first solo sewing project which I ended up very pleased with! My mom is in Alaska for another six weeks with my brother and his kids. I miss her terribly, but I'm plugging along. I'm starting to get ready for Girls Camp. Our 4th year Adventure is the end of this month and I'm super excited. I've also decided to try and 'run' a race. It's a 3.6 mile Happy Hoofers Fun Run here in Cheney in July. I started training slow and steady, but fell off the wagon last week when it was cold, windy and rainy. No thanks! I started back today and hope to be tougher if nasty weather comes along again. I've got to get back into shape before I turn 30 at the end of the year. I've heard it's harder after that. Well, I should probably go get ready for Activity Days. Someday I am going to find a name to submit for this calling, but in the meantime I am having so much fun with the girls! I'll post pictures when I get home tonight.

Rachel is such a girl.

Thanks to Grandma Rusti, Rachel has a love for 'pretties.' She'll stand by the little necklace holder and yell, "Pretty Pretty!" This morning she was in her diaper waiting for me to get dressed and I just thought it was too cute to pass up the photo op. As soon as she saw the camera she started cheesing!