Camping with the Kohl's

Our family vacation this summer was in the Pecos Wilderness of New Mexico. Mom and Dad lent us their 5th wheel, which made "camping" a little more bearable with 3 year olds. Some of our good friends came up to stay a night with us.

Meet Brianne and Andy.... she's a labor and delivery nurse, and he kicks... really... he kicked for NMSU and now does kicking and punting camps in the summer. He also is a teacher, and just became the college minister at the church Russ attended while in college.

We took a little hike with the kids along some questionable trails. Russ was leading us to the perfect spot to have our "church" on Sunday.





Here's Hud taking his guitar playing very seriously during church.
We were all trying not to giggle at him as he tapped his foot and raised the right side of the guitar up to hit a few notes.
A couple of camping princesses.


Here are the knights saving one of the princesses.


The Kohls taught us to play our latest favorite game... Settlers of Catan!
We really loved having them come see us!

A Couple of Socks and a Cardboard Box

Amazing how much entertainment a cardboard box provides for kids!

First it was a clubhouse, then a canvas for markers, and finally, it became the stage for puppet shows.

Happy Birthday Dad!!!

After clicking the "play" button, and allowing it to load, click the "Party On" knob to see the slide show.

Click to play Make your own Smilebox

We're raising a Fashion Diva!!!!

Here we have the latest in summer apparel... Lets start with your favorite tee that says, "Rodeo Girl." Pair it with a floral pink skirt that doesn't really match the pink rodeo shirt, but that doesn't matter, because it won't show when you're done with the outfit. Next, add a little lavender leotard number that has some purple toole for a skirt and on top tie a cute little grass skirt. For some extra "BAM," wear your winter blue with red and yellow striped tights, and a versatile and comfortable pair of hot pink moon boots!!! Oh, I almost forgot, accessorize with red beads, only found at Crab town restaurant.
Poor Hud, he's been swamped with what he calls his "papuhwork." He likes to carry it around in buckets, seems to be easier to manage this way.
Yes, he insisted that he had all of it with him in his seat, so he could get some of it finished.
Apparently, thanks to Bob The Builder and Handy Manny, my kids know what to do with this pipe wrench they found in the garage.

The Tanganyika Wildlife Park

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox

A 7/7/07 Wedding

We attend a church with the word "Community" in it. I'm proud to say that the body of believers we live life with really does "community" well. When I was on bed rest for 8 weeks before the twins were born, I lost count of how many times someone from church came to clean my toilets. And I think we got over 4 months of meals during that time as we transitioned into parenthood.... All that to say, it's been my turn for awhile to repay the body now that our lives are much more manageable.

This weekend I (along with a friend from my Bible study) was blessed to get to serve a couple by doing the flowers for their wedding.

Their story is really sweet, as they just "happened" to meet while working overseas for one of our affiliate companies. Both were working in separate highly restricted areas, and met at a general meeting for all the workers.

The ceremony was extremely special! One of the best... but the wedding as a whole was not without its major hiccups!! ...

Thursday when I went to Sam's to pick up the flowers, they did not have any of the flowers we wanted. This was despite the fact that we had been reassured multiple times that there was no need to special order, as they always have plenty of what we needed. Needless to say, I was scrambling, and ended up cutting a lot of greenery from neighbors and friends.

The day before the wedding, the bridesmaids dresses were nowhere to be found... the seamstress had disappeared! The bride had to make a "last minute run" to David's bridal to buy new dresses, and several ladies stayed up half the night to alter them. The next day, the original dresses arrived, FedEx'ed... the seamstress had gone on vacation and taken them with her to finish them.

Lastly, the wedding cake was delivered to the wrong country club, but was apparently located and tasted great!!

Good thing flowers, dresses and cake aren't really that important to a wedding when you're marrying the person God has for you!

(the pics are a few I shot after we finished. It was so much prettier with the candles lit, and all the wedding party in place!)

Great day at the zoo!

Yesterday we went to the zoo with Han's friend "Co-wah".

We got to see the new penquin exhibit.

Great pic of Hud, except for the accidental bird that flew into the shot.
No birds here, just my adorable little boy!

The weather was nice and cool, so the animals were a bit more entertaining than usual. This hippo swam over to say "hi" to the kids and opened her huge mouth right under their faces. No kidding, only a small barrier (which was safe), and about 2 1/2 feet from their faces. We also saw a gorilla race toward us and hurl his whole body at the plexiglass. Splat!!!

A fun time was had by all!

Goin' on a bear hunt....

Russ took the kids on a bear hunt this week in the deep woods of our basement.

Hud was shooting a PSE X-Force and Han was using her 300 Win Mag.

They managed to kill and bag 6 bears together.

Unka Pat, eat your heart out!!!

Spending the weekend with Bwake and Ash-yee

Click to play | Make your own Smilebox

Hud's quite the fisherman!

Almost without fail, when the family goes fishing in the neighborhood pond, Hud manages to catch the biggest ones. This last time, he was running around playing and wasn't even paying attention to his rod, when a 2 lb. catfish went for his hot dog bait. The catfish had a little fight in 'em and Hud wasn't there to fight back, so off went the catfish and the fishing pole into the middle of the lake. They thought all was lost until later they noticed that the handle of the rod had floated to the surface. Russ was able to cast out to the rod, hook the handle and reel the rod in...with catfish still on it!!

Learning Spanish

The other day, Han was on the phone with my Granny. She was trying to tell her something that neither Granny nor I could understand. She kept repeating it over and over, trying to get us to understand. Finally she gave up, and said, "It means SHARK in Spanish!"

Happy Birthday to Me!

I had another birthday roll around in April. Russ and the kids really made it special! They sent me away for 2 hours to go get a pediure while they made me dinner. When I got home, there were cards, leis, party horns, candles and pink roses on the table. We ate grilled steaks, asparagus, salad, and scallopped potatoes. (Russ even called my mom and Granny to get our family recipe for the potatoes). Han insisted that I have a cake, so they made me a strawberry one. It sure was a great party!!!

Apologies to my faithful readers... (MOM!)

Han picked out her outfit today (as usual) complete with hair accessory, but not complete with something to go under her new grass skirt. I explained the necessity, and she obliged. Here she is posing a "huu-ya" move. (Helps to stick your tongue out when doing such difficult dances!)

"How I look Mom? I comb my hai-uh myself!"

We've been really busy with all kinds of fun stuff lately, and I haven't taken the time to post. Someday I'll try to catch up. For now, here's a few shots of this morning...

Happy Easter!!

This year's Easter promised to be easy on the hunt, as the ground was covered in about 4 inches of snow. The kids jumped on Russ' shovel for a little sledding.

By Sunday, the snow had mostly melted off, but it was still cold. We all headed off to church to celebrate Jesus!

After church, we headed home for an Easter egg hunt in the backyard. Dad sure does know how to hide them well!

Artsy Fartsy (an art gallery in the bathroom)

I've been wanting to proudly display some of my kids' artwork for awhile, but have put it off because it is so expensive to have them framed. Their playgroup teacher at the local school gave me the idea to buy frames at garage sales and spray paint them black. I'm pretty excited about the results! (I bought mat board at the local craft store and cut it myself). They look sooooo awesome in their bathroom and my living room!

Done by Hud at age 2.

Painted by Han (age 2).
Another piece by Han at 2 years old.

Of course the pictures don't do them justice. You have to view them up close to appreciate the artists' expressions, and understand the true message they were trying to evoke from their paintings. You're probably wanting one now, huh! We'll maybe you could commission these famous artists to do a piece for you. I'm warning you though, these fetch a pretty penny at auction!