Welcome to our family Bella!

What a day!

Yesterday (Sept. 6th) was quite a day! Steve has been looking for Mini Coopers for a while now. I'm not sure if turning 40 has anything to do with it, but he has been wanting a car to drive as his car. I have my TSX and he's been driving the truck. It will be nice to have a car for him to drive. So my Dad found a Mini Cooper on Ebay. It is an 05' Mini Cooper S with the John Cooper Works package and all kinds of bells and whistles. It Kelly Blue Books at 20,000. We didn't want to spent that much so we thought no way we're going to get it. But it was fun dreaming. Plus the car had a reserve on it and we had no idea what the reserve was. The car was in such sweet condition we figured there would be no way the reserve was much below what it was worth. So yesterday the bidding was ending. In the morning the highest bid was $12,126. After church the bid was up to $15,500. We talked and decided the highest we could go was $16,500. The reserve still wasn't met. So, at about 4 minutes left we put in our bid at $16,000. Well suddenly the reserve was met! Someone else bid $16,200 and with 10 seconds left in the bidding Steve bid $16,500. That was the longest 10 seconds! But, a message popped up you've won the bid! Let me tell you, every one of us jumped up and down screaming and high fiving! I know, I know, it's just a car, but...it's a really cool car! We head to Camano Island next weekend to pick it up.

But there's another part to the day that only a couple of people know about. As most of you who know us know, we had a dog named Molly. Unfortunatly Molly was not a good fit for us and we had to give her to another family. This broke the kids and I's hearts and we have missed her ever since. Well, recently Keith has got it in his mind that he wants a dog. The kids and I were up at Northtown Mall and there were Yorkshire Terrier puppies. I made the mistake of holding one and letting the kiddos hold one. Keith fell in love. He came home and for weeks did research. Asking Steve what his reasons were to not get a dog and then finding info on Yorkshire Terriers that would take away all his arguements. Then the praying started. "Lord please help Dad to let up on getting a Yorkie." :) I chuckled at his choice of words everytime. The thing is that Steve is a really good Dad and LOVES his kids, so how can you not eventually bend to that. So we started looking at breeds thinking this time we have to be careful so that we really like this dog. We narrowed it down to the Shih tzu and the Yorkie. So, we went to church came home got a quick lunch and headed out to look at Shih tzu puppies. Kelly fell in love but I think it was because they were ready to go home with us today. We ran home from looking at the puppies and did the whole ebay thing. Then at 4:00 we drove to see a little Yorkie puppy that was the only one in the litter. The Shih tzu's were 9 weeks this Yorkie was 5 weeks. Let me tell you, we walked into that house and I was in love with every single Yorkie she had! The Mom and Dad are 3 lbs, all of them sweet as could be. And so loving. We couldn't hold the Dad. He was in a pen with a girl friend, but everytime he saw us he would stand up on his back feet with his little front paws up like a prairie dog and watch every move we made. Sandra the breeder said every one of his puppies has done that too. The Mom was a sweetheart with a blue and brown coat Dad is the same color. Needless to say we wrote a check. :) Ours is a little girl and we have to wait 3 weeks to get her. I'm still randomly doing the happy dance! :) So bets are being taken as to how long we will keep this one. 6 months or a year? My bet is until death do us part.

Pictures to come at a later date!

Kelly and Avery

BFF

Water Skiing videos

Here's the videos from the kids water skiing. The last two are of Easton and Avery.

Week at the Lake

This summer Mom and Dad rented a cabin at Hayden Lake. Normally it's at Spirit Lake, but Dad found a great little cabin on Hayden and decided to try it out. When we were kids my parents had rented a place on Hayden Lake one summer, but I was a complete brat because I didn't want to leave church camp and my friends. So I was excited to actually be pleasant to be around for a week at Hayden this time. (No comments on that one sister!) What a great week we had. The kids fished a ton! They caught Bass, Mom caught a 22 inch Pike. (Which the neighbor said was a sucker fish so we threw it away only to find out later it really was a pike.) The gal that owned the cabin had created a fairy forest which was right up Kelly's ally with dress up, tree house, and crafts. Just a magical little place. There was a great sand bar to swim off of. It provided an excellent place for the kids to learn to water ski. That was my favorite time of the week. It was thrilling to watch our kiddos take off out of the water behind the boat. Kelly's so little she just popped right out of the water. I think it took her only about three tries until she had it. Keith was the same. One day Fay and the girls came up and we taught them to ski too. Avery got it on the second try. She's just like her Daddy. Easton got it quick, but was telling my Dad to cut it after only a few seconds. She wasn't wanting to go out far into the lake. My Mom was loving it. She would hold each kid in the water at the sand bar , kiss the top of their heads, help push them out of the water and off they'd go out to the lake. :) I don't know how many times Kelly yelled "I DID IT!" We celebrated my Dad's birthday by making him a cake that looked like cat poop in a Kitty Litter box. We all had a hard time eating it and I really thought I was going to be sick in the end. But it will be a birthday he'll never forget. :) So here are a few pictures from the week. Thanks Mom and Dad for all the great memories. It was a great week!

This picture made me think so much of my godbrother Nathan I could hardly stand it!

Cleaning a fish on his own for the first time.

The cabin had an outdoor shower we all loved!

They had kayaks that we all had fun on.

Most of the week for Keith was spent like this. My Mom has a freezer full of fish to prove it.

Getting ready.

Looks like she's going to be up but she's not to sure about it!

O.K. maybe this isn't to bad she's excited.

I DID IT! I DID IT!

My baby way out in the lake.

Kelly and Avery

Fay and I

Keith on one of his first tries.

He's headed out too.

Auntie and Kelly

The fam having dinner in the screened in porch.

The 22 inch pike.

Deep thoughts. :)

No it's not kitty litter it's a cake.

Dad's not to sure of this.

Dad eating cat poop! Gross Dad!

Scoopin' poop for Keith

Wild Waves

Yesterday we went to Wild Waves. My Mom spoiled us and took Steve and the kids and I and two of the kids friends (Easton and Avery). We had a blast! My favorite part of the whole day was watching my Mom be a complete kid. I have never seen her like this. It was hilarious. She was having so much fun. We went down slide after slide and even had a pina colada sitting in the water of the lazy river. A few times she got going so fast, she almost flipped out of the slide. I saw it, it looked scary, but she kept on going! The kids didn't stop once. When the day was done, they were starving and tired. The first picture sums the whole day up. Thanks for taking us Mom we had a great time!

Visit with Steve's Mom & Step Dad

I am blessed with wonderful in-laws. I always thoroughly enjoy their visits to Spokane when they come. Once again we had a great visit. They were here from August 2nd to the 7th. It was hot, and we spent time at Coeurd'Alene, went shopping, went to book stores, played board games, & went out to eat. They were also here for my Grandpa's funeral and were able to attend that and meet my family. It was such a great visit and I miss them a ton. Here are some pictures from our visit.

We went to "The Scoop" a cute ice cream shop on the South Hill

We spent the day visiting Lake Coeurd'Alene