Happy Birthday Dallin !!!!!

Dallin is 7 :) Well, on the 31st, but I wanted this posted before Sunday morning :) Here are some pictures honoring Dallin :) He had a rough go when he first came to us, if any of you knew us then, you know some of the trials Dallin had in the beginning.

When Dallin was 2 weeks old, 911 happened. When Dallin was about 2 months old, he quit breathing and turned blue... thankfully Kaylyn was just down the road and came to help out. When Dallin was about 6 months old, he weighed only 10 pounds. From the time Dallin was 2 months old to the time he was 6 months old when we had our fire, Dallin had to be on a nebulizer for his breathing. He had a really hard time breathing since he was 2 weeks old and we went the rounds with the drs...

We are so blessed to have Dallin in our lives and in our family. He is a pure joy and a delight to have around. Dallin absolutely loves learning and reading. He also enjoys being active and playing with anyone and everyone. He's a very friendly kid who loves and is very easy to love.

This year Dallin is looking forward to reading more books and being in second grade. He's now counting down the days until next year when he turns 8!!!!!

First day of SCHOOL

The first day of school was tuesday the 26th...it's been a very crazy busy last few days.Monday night before school, we had our Back to School family home evening...this is where we have our first "school" lunch for the year. I got these trays like they have at school and we eat a traditional school meal. This time is was turkey gravy with mashed potatoes, green beans, fruit cocktail, fruit pie and juice. The boys love this annual event. For the lesson, we talk about rules of school and why it's important to keep learning. Then we have the EXTRA special event to finish off the night :)

Aaron started high school and rode his bike to school. He enjoyed his first day of high school...this is what he said about Ag science "It's yummy" I guess they did a bubble gum experiment on which gum gives you bigger bubbles... I'll let you know what they decide so you can get the biggest best bubble for your buck :D

Brandon started seventh grade and has decided to play the trombone for band... too bad we're not closer to Ferrara's so he can get some pointers from Bro. Ferrara :( He needs them, so if you want to send any our way, that would be much appreciated :D

Josh had his grid kid football sign ups on tuesday and the draft tonight. It was so funny to watch him get his gear for football...there's no way he could have played last year, even if he wanted to :) He's super tiny. xs for everything, even the helmet which is too big by the way :) He's really excited about playing "tackle football" I got the paper about grid kids and he said he wasn't playing football ever again, then I told him it was tackle. He then quickly changed his mind :D He LOVES tackle. There are a lot of boys Josh's age playing, whom he knows, so it will be good whatever team he's on :)

Dallin started 2nd grade and loves it. He had to miss his second day of school to go to the dentist in Tri-cities. He was sad, but excited that we could go shopping after wards :D At the dentist, they had game systems everywhere in the waiting room so the little boys could play while they were waiting for Dallin to be done :D It was so nice to not have to worry about josh and Kyler getting bored while they were waiting.

Kyler started kindergarten and was SO excited. He woke up bright and early and had a great attitude. He got his clothes and got dressed before I could even get downstairs :) socks shoes and his backpack :)

I took Dallin and Kyler to school and walked them to their classrooms. Once the door was open for Kyler's class, he was gone...no hug :( but I did get a HUGE hug when he got out of school. Today, he didn't even want to hold my hand, but he did give me a good bye hug :)

Today was Josh's first day of classes and things were so crazy. I'm glad that he only had 4 classes to do today. He's learning about Oregon history this year and has new curriculum with ORCA so it's a new learning process for a while.

We'll get the hang of these new schedules one of these days :)

Time?

Where has the time gone? I can't seem to find it? We went to Aaron's band performance tonight for his marching band.... is it at all possible that I could have a child that old? NO WAY!!!!! My baby can't be old enough to be in high school :(

It was so nice to see him marching and doing so well. I looked over at him a few times and saw him having a great time with the band and getting into the drumline beats :) It was so great to see him getting into it and having fun. Even this evening when we dropped off some socks for him before the performance, he was talking to people and visiting :) It was wonderful.

I know, i sound shocked. I just can't phathom that I have a child old enough to be in high school... I know, I sound like a broken record.


Well, the boys start school next tuesday. I'm still having mixed feelings about it as I want them to go to school, but I don't at the same time. I want to be able to go to the school and help out, but I've got a homeschooler :) I am happy about that. I'm excited to work with Josh this year. Josh is really excited as well. This year is going to prove to be a challenge with the new schedule changes for everyone and Kyler's half days.

These are pictures of Aaron growing up on me..... The one above is my oldest and my youngest. One starting high school and the other starting kindergarten. Thank goodness for memories.

I was just wanting to post something about our goings on. I didn't take my camera tonight for Aarons performance.... My mind was gone....sorry. I will get a picture of Aaron in his marching uniform though...he looks quite nice. This year will be a good one for Aaron to get to know more kids and do more things...drama and swimming and golf are things he wants to do :) Wooohoooo!!!!!!!

"A Lesson for today"

Okay, today is Sunday and I was reading the talk for my lesson next week. The talk that I'm giving a lesson on next week is Pres. Uchtdorf's talk "A Matter of a Few Degrees"

This was a talk from the priesthood session of conference.

Pres. Uchtdorf tells a story of a sightseeing plane bound for Antarctica. The pilots had no clue that the settings were off by 2 degrees. This altered their course and they were bound for an active volcano that rises about 12000 feet. By the time the pilots became aware of this problem, they were already doomed :( Pres. Uchtdorf likens this to our path and journey in life... when we falter ever so slightly.

In reading the talk this morning, my heart just ached. Things have been a struggle for us here lately. We've never struggled so much spiritually in our lives. I'm not sure what the Lord is trying to teach us, but it seems as though we're resisting the teaching. hmmm..... Some things we know NEED to be done and happen, but why we're still here waiting for the house to sell...we're not sure. There must be a purpose, but what that is, well, only the Lord knows. Thank goodness He knows.

No matter how much we struggle or ache, the Lord is right there beside us....feeling what we feel and routing for us. Back on track is the key...what are we doing or not doing in our lives to limit the Lord's blessings coming to us.

I guess this is what I've been struggling with. I want so badly to do something or be somewhere and it's just not happening yet. We were hoping to be moved before school started, but again, that's not the plan for us...so we're starting school here. Maybe the reason we're still here is for one of our boys and school....don't know.

I'm grateful that the Lord is in control and not me. I'm grateful that I can turn to my Father in Heaven and have peace in knowing that I'm loved and that He's watching over us. I'm grateful for each day that I have to cherrish my boys and their love. I'm grateful that the Lord has blessed me with the wisdom to know what is best for my boys and the ability to do it :) I love my boys.

My picture of the footprints in the sand is a very fitting picture that i'm so grateful that I did when we were on the coast :)

I do hope that everyone has a blessed sunday.

More going COASTAL!!!!

Okay, I can't remember which pictures I put on our first slideshow, but that's okay to see them again.

We are still enjoying the feelings that we brought back from the coast. It is so exciting to think that we actually were able to stay on the ocean for so long :) It is one of our favorite places to be. I think I may have said before, but not one minute of that time was wasted. I enjoyed every wave that came in and every sound that I heard.

When I was younger, the drs. said that I would be blind by the time I was 8. I found this out by my mom telling me and then that dr. became my dr. when I was married and lived in Idaho. He saw me that first day after I had grown up and was amazed at how I still had my sight. So each day and each of Heavenly Father's wonders is a blessing to me and to all of us. I don't want to waste any of my time missing the opportunity to just take it all in. My favorite sites to see are the ocean and the stars. On our first night in the hotel, the sky was so clear. We could look out the window and see the waves on the water and the stars in the sky. It was so magical.

Okay, so more sites that we enjoyed....Brandon loves seaturtles and they had a statue of them at the aquarium. Brandon saw this statue first and went crazy "MOM!!! take a picture quick" We let Brandon be the tour guide that day since he had been there just a few months earlier with school.

At the aquarium, they have the "Creatures of the Deep" It's this building with tunnels that you can watch the sharks swim overhead...WAY COOL!!!!!! The music they had playing in the building was so fitting...no it wasn't JAWS!!! They do sleepovers with the sharks as well, in this room of to the side of the tunnels. It was so crowded in the aquarium but it was the time we got there too.

Before we made it to the aquarium, we had just finished seeing the Yaquina Bay lighthouse and found that we had locked the keys in the suburban. LOL silly us huh? Well, thankfully Kyler had rolled his window down just enough for Tim to be able to reach in and get a fishing pole. He played with it and rigged it to that the door was unlocked.whew!!!!! I'm so grateful that we didn't have to spend our trip money on getting the keys out of the car.

We really didn't do a lot of expensive things, we really just enjoyed the ocean and playing on it. We found these really cool kites and Bi-Mart in Lincoln city for under $5 !!!!!! They're normally more expensive than that so we got a few for the boys to enjoy. There were enough days that the wind was blowing for them to enjoy the kite flying and they didn't even have to run to get the kite up ":)

At the state park we stayed at "Devil's Lake" there was a little road to walk down to the docks and fish. We did that a few times. This one time, the road looked just like the road you see on the "Andy Griffith" show. Just look at the picture and think of the song...it's quite funny to think about it that way....I had Josh help me with the picture.

We did have a wonderful time at the coast and can't wait to go again. We've been scoping out places to stay and things to do. I hope that next year I can take one of the boys deep sea fishing with me. Tim decided that he can't do it anymore because he gets too sea sick :(

Anyway, here are some pictures.....enjoy, we sure did