The "Do's" and "Don'ts" Of A Great Day at Greenbluff

DO: Stand and watch as they shoot a pumpkin out of this cannon (called "Punkin' Chunkin'") and try to hit a target 1500 yards away. It's never been done in 7 years, by the way, but very cool to watch.

DON'T: Take your eyes off the pumpkin once you find it in the air or will you never be able to find it again and miss it as it smashes to the ground 1500 yards away.


DO: Let your kids have fun and jump in the hay.

DON'T: Worry that they will get all itchy and then paralyze themselves.

DON'T: Ever try to ride this freakishly short, fat horse.

DO: Take his picture because you know you will blog about him later.

DO: Take the hay ride out to pick the pumpkins. Go ahead...Put your family's life in the hands of a 15 year old farm boy.

DO: Take lots of pictures of your cute kids, even when they complain.

Definately DO let your 2 smallest and most fragile necked children ride "Little Toot" the "train". Made from a riding lawnmower, a few plastic containers, some wheels, and a guy with a conductor outfit and a good imagination.

DON'T: Be surprised when an attorney contacts you to file a class action suit against said conductor for whiplash.

DON'T: Do NOT under any circumstances stick your head through the mouth of these creepy pigs and have your picture taken...EVER!

DO: Invite Grandparents. Last year we took Noni and Papa. This year, Grandma.

DO: Take this awesome picture of your handsome boys in a buggy. (Even though it took forever to get them all looking at the camera at the same time.) And then DO frame it later.

DO: Let your 11 year old son take a picture of you and your sweetie. And then DO kiss your sweetie for suggesting it (there aren't a lot of pictures of us, because I am always the one behind the camera) and for being a good sport about me wanting to take so many pictures.

DON'T: Stress that your 11 year old son will either drop the camera in the mud or cut off our heads in the picture. He did a great job! He must get it from his Mom and Papa.

DO: Pose your 4 year old and take lots of pictures of him because he is the only one that doesn't complain about it.

DO: Take a nap on the way home with your new gloves and your $2.00 balloon animal...courtesy of Grandma.



DON'T: Stress about mud on their shoes, on their clothes, and on the floor of your new car.

DO: Have a fun day as a family, and remember all the reasons why we want to be Together Forever.

Arrow of Light

We had a really neat experience with Brandon this past week. We had a pack meeting where he received his Arrow of Light. I guess they hire these people to come and do the ceremony. We walked in and it was all decorated, there were trees and all types of Indian stuff (Me, being the good Bear leader that I am, have no idea what any of it is called.) and a bridge, etc. This "tribe" gets all dressed up as Indians (which, by the way, scared the crap out of Nathan) and they hooted and hollered. All the kids loved it. They had a man and woman playing some Indian drums REALLY LOUD. Nathan had his hands over his ears the whole time. I wanted to do it too, but thought it might seem rude. They told stories, and had (fake) fire. They called the boys all up, had the parents take off their Webelos scarves and put them in a basket, and then we all went outside. They said that if the boys were pure in heart, and looked into the fire, the scarf would not burn. They proceeded to set a scarf on fire, it burned for a little while, then an Indian guy grabbed it out of the fire, and it didn't burn. He said all the boys were pure in heart. We went back inside and the parents had to stay up with the boys. They gave us little gifts and then presented each of the boys with their Arrow of Light. They painted the boys face, and then their parents - fun. They then had the boys with their parents walk over the bridge. (there was even "smoke" that came out from under the bridge) Which represented bridging from Cub scouts into Boy scouts.

This is Brandon, Sean, and Corey with their new fearless leader!

It was an awesome ceremony and a huge production. Nathan was really afraid of the main Indian guy. But while we were up with Brandon, the "big Indian" came over and talked to Nathan and gave him some little stones. Nathan said, "He gave me something special for the dark. They are to make you see." Of course these special little night vision rocks were lost within 5 minutes tops. It was a really special evening and we are so proud of Brandon!

Unfortunately, we didn't take our pictures fast enough. Not only was this group really talented, but man, are they fast at clean up. We got the pictures during the clean up, bummer.

Little Doll

You all know special friends that have impacted your life forever...well, this is mine. This is Heidi. She is more than a friend, she is more like a sister...

She is the most recent member of

the "mommy club"...

This is Amelia Elizabeth Rawe.

She made her entrance into the world on

October 17, 2007.

(She even waited for mine and Todd's

15 year anniversary! Wasn't that sweet?)

She was born at 4:18 a.m. And weighed 7 lbs. 14 oz.

and was 21 1/2 inches long.

What a little doll! Don't you just love those pink little lips? And LOVE the hair!! I will have to get her outfitted with some serious hair bows!!

I can't wait to see you little Amelia!!

Fall Has Arrived.... The Sequel

Do you all remember the post about Fall arriving in Liberty Lake? Well, I wrote that I sometimes just have to take pictures of the beautiful colors, and that people probably think that I am a stalker...Well, see this picture of this beautiful red tree? Look way down in the left hand corner... See that girl there? Well, she DID think I was a stalker! I was pulling into the Whimsical Pig Apartments, and yes, you read that right, the Whimsical Pig. Anyways, as I was pulling into these apartments (my mother-in-law just moved in there) I pulled out my camera and snapped a shot of this tree and drove on. I never even saw this girl. As I pulled into a parking spot and got out of my car, I had some girl come up to me and ask if I just pulled into the apartments and took a picture. I said, "yes, why?" She asked me if I took a picture of her and her kids. I told her that I was just taking a picture of a tree, she said, "oh, that scared me, I thought you were taking a picture of me and my kids." Like I have nothing better than to drive around taking pictures of random people and their kids...If I want to take pictures of kids, I've got a whole house full of them, not to mention the 21 kids that live on our court. But thanks lady!

Then, if that wasn't enough, Thursday, Daralee called me on my cell phone. She said that she had just come by my house, that she was sorry that she missed me, she wanted to get my autograph. "What?" I thought, what is she talking about...She said that I was in the newspaper...Huh? For what? What did I do? Well, apparently I was in the Liberty Lake Splash because of my blog. I do not understand how my blog ended up in the newspaper. I guess because I did a post about the fall colors. It quoted me saying that "people probably think that I am a stalker, but I don't care..." GRREEATT! It also said that my self described occupation is "keeping the kids from fighting" Oh, that's Fantastic!! And to top it off, they ended the tiny little article with my blog address!! I guess I better be careful who I talk about huh?

Live It Up!

Today is a beautiful day, not a cloud in the sky. So, we figured we better live it up and get outside...while we still had the chance. So, this is what we did today...

Todd and Nathan washed the car after a morning of mowing the lawn.

All the moms will love this one...this is what Todd and Nathan decided he should wear today to wash the car.

Trevor and Brandon decided that drilling a hole in a piece of wood, then attaching a stick to the drill with duct tape, and then trying to start a fire, by turning the stick in the hole, would be a good activity for today.(Actually is was a pretty good idea.) And I know that was a huge run on sentence, Todd.

Tyler has had a fun day of football with his friends.

To listen to all the "rules" that they had was so funny, "poison ball", "the QB Sneak", they are serious about this game.

Trevor did just a few minutes of this....

And a whole lotta this.....

He did stay up all night long at a Young Men's church activity. But spends quite a bit of time in this very spot even on a normal day....... Teenagers!

By the way, I pulled weeds, did wash, made lunch, did dishes, made a wreath, hung up a curtain and blogged, and am trying to get geared up to cut the kids hair...Do I know how to enjoy a Saturday or what?

Just a little peak into our Saturday.....

Look Out Kenny G

We have a musician in the family...Brandon has taken up the saxophone. He played a couple of years ago and now is starting back since he started Middle School. His cousin Braden is an awesome saxophone player and Brandon is following in his footsteps...So, you better look out Kenny G, cause Brandon can play a mean "Jingle Bells"!

Fall has arrived!

One of the things that I really enjoy about living here are the four seasons. Fall has arrived here in Liberty Lake and it is beautiful! As I have been driving around, I sometimes just have to stop to take a picture. People probably think I am a stalker but I don't care...the colors are absolutely brilliant.

Why Camp Out When You Can Just Stay In?

This summer we decided at the last minute to go on a camping trip to Farragut National Park . We had not been camping as a family in 5 years!! We decided to only go for 2 nights. Partly because I hate being dirty, bugs, and only getting only a few hours of sleep. I should point out that the reason we had not been camping in so long is because our kids wake up at the crack of dawn. Not to mention that we had a child that had night terrors. When we lived in California, we used to go to Sunset beach. Well, our kids were all awake BEFORE sunrise. You know when it is still pitch dark outside? And not only were they awake, but they were loud! So, we would pack everyone up in the car and drive to Monterey (about 30 minutes away) and see the sunrise there. As we would pull back into camp, my parents and sisters family would be just getting up. It was a great time during the day, but the nights and early mornings were horrible. So, fast forward 5 years to our family campout August 2007.....

Nathan "helping" set up the tent

Did I happen to mention

that I hate being

dirty?

"The Boys" playing frisbee golf

The kids just sittin' around...shocking!

This is Beaver Bay, it was

Gorgeous!! What a fun day!!

Todd and the kids at the

lake. We actually saw

a snake on the hike to

this spot...Eeeewww

Yuck!

So, why do we do it? It takes us hours to pack up everything we are going to possibly need for the next 48 hours (which is A LOT, by the way), stuff it all in the car, drive up to the camp site while the kids are fighting, unpack it all and set up camp, have to cook outside with the bugs, sleep in a tent with all of your kids, be woke up all through the night listening to them grind their teeth and talk in their sleep, and then have them wake up so early that no one else in the camp is even up yet. So, why do we do it, just so we can live outside for 2 days? When we could just stay home? All of our stuff is already here, we have TV, and electricity, and microwaves here. Why do we put ourselves through it all? I knew the answer when I looked at these pictures. Even though is is a ton of work, we are making memories and traditions with our family. And even though we were up, had breakfast, packed our entire camp, went for a hike, and were in the car driving away at 9:34 AM., I wouldn't trade those memories for all the sleep in the world.

Out of the mouth of babes...

Since this is supposed to be a type of journal for me, I had to include this story because it is so cute and is something I want to always remember.

It started out as any other trip to Albertson's and turned into a missionary moment. My mother-in-law (she is not LDS) had come for a visit from California. Her and Nathan and I went to Albertson's for a few things. As we passed by the coffee isle, my mother-in-law turned and went down the isle and we continued on. Nathan says: "Eeewww stinky coffee!" I see him looking around as we keep walking. A minute later Nathan starts yelling through the store, "Graaandmaaaa", "Graaandmaaaa" "Heavenly Father says..." I quickly put my fingers up to his lips and said, "Oh, let's not say that." Knowing where this conversation was heading. But he took my fingers from his lips and looked at me and said, "no, mom". By this time she walks up and this is the conversation that ensued:

Nathan: "Grandma, Heavenly Father says that we should not drink coffee because it is bad for our bodies."

Grandma: "I know."

Nathan: "Then why do you do it?"

Grandma: "Because it tastes good."

Nathan: "Well, you need to not drink coffee, you just need to drink juice!"

Out of the mouth of babes...

Did I mention that he just turned 4?