Abi and the garbage man, Ben and Maggie, flannel sheets-what?

Abi has a new found love for the garbage man. When she hears him coming she runs around screaming "the garbage man is here, the garbage man is here, mom come look!" We sit and watch him out the window and he always waves and smiles at us.

This morning I thought Ben was preoccupied with toys so I thought it was safe to feed the dog and turn my back for a moment. When I turned back around Maggie and Ben were sitting side by side sharing the bowl of dog food-yuck!!!!

Got this text from Brad the other night when I was at work:
"Really!? It's the warmest week of the year and we have flannel and fleece on our bed. Really?!"
What can I say I'm always cold, I think it's rubbing off on Abi because she always says "Mom I'm FREEZING can we turn up the heat?"

Ben and Maggie

Abi on the trampoline



Don and Jen!!!! and my sweet husband

We got to see our long lost friends Don and Jen this weekend! Abi pretty much had Jen cornered in her room or followed her around the whole time she was here. Abi woke up this morning and the first thing she said was "is Jen still here"? Surprisingly Abi took a liking to Glen this weekend too, only surprising because she typically doesn't like guys. Abi and Glen played outside together all morning on Monday.

 Ben enjoying a whole piece of watermelon.

My sweet thoughtful husband got me a new camera for our Anniversary. As you probably know, I love photography and taking pictures of the kids and now I can take really really good pictures with my new camera! The first thing I thought was this is way too expensive we can't possibly afford this but I'm getting over that and am looking forward to capturing every moment of the kids being kids. I'm looking forward to making it even more of a hobby and once I read the manual I will share some pictures soon :)

Best summer yet

What a great summer! Certainly not referring to the weather (although this weekend has turned out pretty nice), but simply the amount of fun we had, places we went, and friends we saw. We traveled all over the state to Orondo, Chelan, Pullman, Union Town, Lewiston, Spokane, Washougal, Stevenson, Lake Roosevelt, Twin Lakes, and Leavenworth. We had several weddings where we got to celebrate with family and friends. We went to the zoo, water park, fair, boating, swimming, and spent hours enjoying the sun. I took the kids to the park or we played in the yard almost everyday. The Larson's came to visit us, and my sister and niece Evie, and the Maynard's are visiting us this weekend. I worked less this summer than I have since I graduated college. I worked a full time job and part time job for many years and then two part time jobs after children and now I'm down to one part time job I get paid for and the most rewarding job, being mom. Working less has given us the freedom to have so many adventures and I'm so grateful for that. Now we are looking forward to Cougar football and taking the trailer over for games. Abi starts preschool in a week and she is so excited. Ben will be walking any day and has his first b-day later this month. What can I say besides life is good are we are blessed.  

6 years

6 years of the old ball and chain, oh I mean marital bliss. Happy Anniversary, love you!

Silly times two

Abi made me laugh this morning by saying "it's 6 o'clock time to rock" and "that's not cool Ben" when he was messing with her train tracks. Other silly Abi sayings include "does that sound like a plan mom?" and "I'll be ready to ____ in 1,2,3,4,10 minutes". Silly Ben just discovered how much fun it is to gnaw on his crib.

Abi's first hair cut

Took my baby girl in for her first real hair cut today. My first time at the Country Village.

She wouldn't smile for the camera, as usual, but she really liked sitting in the car to get her hair cut. Her hair doesn't look that much shorter but they took 2 inches off.

Giant rooster wandering around outside the hair salon making lots of noise.

 The hair salon gave us a ticket for a free ride on the Country Village train. The whole time Abi said how much fun she was having, brother enjoyed it too. 

Today happiness is having a fun morning with the kids and a pretty flower arrangement on my table. I was in need of some happiness after Ben decided it was morning, time to get up, at 12:30am. Finally got him back in bed at 4am only for him to get up again around 6am. Ben is sweet as can be all day but won't sleep or nap well, Abi sleeps at least 12 hours a night but is a pill all day-hmmm figures. Good thing I love um so much.

Little bean

He's such a sweet little boy, I think he'll be our sensitive one. We love him to pieces!

Chickens WTH?

What the hay, no one told me chickens were so loud! They squawk and cluck all morning long, sometimes I'm worried all the noise will wake the kids up. I'm pretty sure when the house next door sells our new neighbors are not going to like us. I have found though that I actually like the noise they make, it helps drowned out the noise of cars going by. The fresh eggs are yummy too, only problem is when hard boiled they are hard to peel. What a thing to complain about -our eggs are so fresh they are hard to peel :)

Camping

We spent the weekend in Leavenworth (Barvaria) camping in our new trailer. We stayed at a KOA which was interesting. When we arrived we were thinking what did we get ourselves into because there were kids, craziness, and people everywhere. I guess our camping style is usually out in the wilderness quiet and peaceful. But we adjusted to the craziness and really enjoyed ourselves. It was a bit of a challenge to have two kids, two adults and a dog in the trailer we weren't totally familiar with yet but we managed. We thought the screen door on the trailer was more durable but Ben proved us incorrect when he managed to force the door open fell out, did a flip and landed on his back. I thought he died but he was fine not a scratch. Also there is a pop up counter in the trailer that I didn't realize had to be secured underneath before use so a huge spilled cup of coffee later we got the kinks of the trailer figured out. I called the weekend "controlled kaos" which really could be our overall parenting style too. Ben woke up both mornings at 5:30am on the dot, which sucks in the trailer because you can't keep him quiet and there's not anywhere for him to really play. I don't remember Abi waking up so early, she is our good sleeping child. Abi barely wanted to get out of bed at 8am. I would call KOA camping "supervised family camping" because almost everyone had kids and in the evening every two minutes a golf cart would go by making sure everyone was behaving. We met some really nice people and shared our camp fire with a nice couple next door.

 Abi loved the pool! She actually swam for the first time (with her life jacket) all by herself across the pool and back. A huge milestone for us! Ben and I enjoyed the pool as well, Ben fell asleep while I was holding him in the pool, silly boy. There was also a large park with swings and slides that Abi really liked.

 The river was beautiful, and freezing cold. The KOA had tubes you could use to float the river then they pick you up and drive you back-if the kids were older that would of been fun.

 It was so hot out (mid 90's) Brad and I had to take a dip in the river.

 Ben slept the whole time we were at the river.

 Yes, that is Ben sleeping in the wagon.

 Cute little Ben bean. We've been calling Ben "bean" lately or "green bean" or "beaner"-which is a term we found not always appropriate to use in public.

Ben's sweet bed head.

We had a super fun weekend (but exhausting). No traffic either direction and we got home early (11am) on Sunday so we got yardwork and laundry done and went for a swim at the McCollum park pool right by our house. The pool there is so fun, it was really warm and they have a water slide and diving board. 

It ain't easy being cheap

Looking at my grocery list -most things are cheapest at Winco, but some food is better at Fred's (like produce, meat, milk), some items we buy in bulk at Costco (diapers, formula, TP), and some items are cheapest at Walmart (contact lens cleaner, cosmetics, cleaning supplies). So in a week, I pretty much have to visit all these places at least once to save the most money. Clothes are a matter of finding what's on sale and having coupons to use on top of sale prices, buying a season ahead when stuff in on clearance (I already have snow pants for both kids-if we get snow?), and going to my favorite children's consignment store. All this is exhausting to think about much less run around to all these places with two unpredictable/unruly kiddos. But it is my mission in life to save money and be a bargin hunter -it ain't easy being cheap.

Go Cougs!

My lil' cougars (Ben was a little grouchy)-still haven't gotten a picture with both smiling.

Ben will get to experience his first coug game in just a few weeks!

Happy Ben B

We are working on a "pretty" smile, this is the I'm trying too hard smile.