Moving to Bill's Berry Farm ;)

Well, first off I will mention we have moved. I don't like the moving process but I LOVE that we can call this place our own. 3 bedrooms, 2 baths, a large backyard, and close to town so I can walk everywhere, which I quite enjoy doing. We are first-time home buyers, woohoo! I do have to say, it is an exciting feeling :).

Jeremy went to Boise this weekend so my sister Jessica came and joined me at Bill's Berry Farm. I am the biggest fan of blueberries and do believe they are my favorite fruit! And today they had a u-pick berry festival that we went to. I'm alittle frustrated because while getting this post ready I accidentally deleted a couple of pictures, but overall I think you'll get the idea of what we did:
1) picked, bought, and downed piles of blueberries!

2) pet tons of animals, such as alpacas and other farm animals

3) rode a pony/horse

4)played on their tree fort

5)went on little tractor rides

6)and ate deliciously fresh blueberry donuts!

We are definitely coming back to Bill's Apple festival :)

Jammin' Time!

Every year Jeremy's dad comes up and brings us some of the best strawberries around. Hood Strawberries! Oh we love them, and we love to make freezer jam out of them. So to continue with our tradition we jammed our strawberries for the year. :) Cami and grandpa de-stemmed. Alex used Jeremy's 'revolutionary' method of mashing them (aka, the Bosch:). And then Jeremy quickly got them all stirred in with the pectin on his lunch break. What did I do?? Well, someone had to take the pictures, right? Haha

Carson was our biggest strawberry muncher. He was sneaking them all day... I believe we have discovered his favorite fruit. Although he is a 'fruitatarion', so it's only natural to have an unresistable desire to devour any fruit in sight :).

Splash Pad

There's a new Splash Pad by my parents house and thought since Granpa Steve was visiting we could all go and try it out! We grabbed some take out and enjoyed a delicous evening. :) I love splash pads because I don't have to stress out about anyone drowning and of course, because the kids always have a blast running around in the water... and it's free!

The kiddos got alittle cold so they curled up on the bench for a moment to try and warm themselves up. Haha, this has been a nice little break for all of us. It's been busy here, but you still have to make some time to play to stay sane :).

Riverside

Yesterday the kids and I went to the Columbia River and had alitte bit of muddy fun while waiting for Jeremy and Grandpa Steve to bring the new (actually older, and recently spruced up by Jeremy's handy dandy work and effort) fishing boat that Jeremy's ex-step dad gave him. The kids were itching to at least put their feet in the water, so I gave in (despite my ridiculous fear of the water, mainly rivers and oceans) and it was quite refreshing!

The kids had so much fun making and tossing mud balls. Then digging in the ground for gigantic rocks to throw. Little did we know, and later we found out, the mosquitos (that I did not see) had gotten Alex a few times.
I absolutely love how the simpilest things can be so fun for children. :)

The boat ride was wonderful with perfect weather for it. And I do believe that this will be a frequent family outing. It was funny because Alex wanted to jump in the river, so we let him... his face was in total shock, lol. It was c-c-c-cold!!

What does it mean?

Fantastically
Amazing (what can't he do?!)
Terrifically

Heroic (he is always saving the day)

Excellently

Rambunctious (he is full of surprises)

To us, this is what father means. We love you Jeremy! Thank you for being a most wonderful Dad!

BONFIRE!!

Last night I called up my family to see if they wanted to join us for a small bonfire and smores. Our house is about a 45 minute trek for their place, but they came anyway, even on a last minute notice!! It was so much fun to visit and watch the cousins down, oh I don't know how many marshmallows and hot dogs! But I will have to say, to me the best way to have a smore is with a Reese's Peanut Butter cup, hands down!

I love and appreciate family so much. We enjoyed the time around the fire, and then had the cousins sleep over, woohoo!! We only have a few more weeks in this home and will soon move to another place. So it was wonderful to have one last get together. :)

Last Day

Today I let the boys pick the things we'd do this morning while Cami enjoyed her last day of school. I will have to say, I have absolutely loved having one on one time with my boys. It has been the best thing for us. So today they went outside with flyswatters and tried to smack any insect in sight. Then we played a little baseball, had otter pops, and then grabbed our picnic blanket and had lunch outside.

Alex and I have had our differences in the past, but this last year, for some wonderful reason, we have grown much closer. He constantly melts my heart with his genuine sweetness towards me and his siblings. He is so into star wars these days that is makes me laugh! He'll grab the markers, stack them on top of each other and pretend they are his light sabers, then go pull some Jedi moves in the living room, haha! Hes my big bud!

I feel like Carson has grown 6 inches in the last 2 days! He's been getting so big, and his little personality is growing so fast! Carson is our little ball player. It's almost routine that right before scripture time, he pulls out a ball and starts shootn' hoops in his little tykes basketball hoop. He makes us laugh so much and its so fun to watch him try to wrestle with Alex. Most of the time they play great... but sometimes I have to step in as a referee and break it up. Boys!

They have been the highlight of my year! We are so excited for Cami to be home and play with us now. :) They all grow up too fast... time for another one right?? Haha! Well, until then I will soak up all of their love and craziness! I love you Alex and Carson!!

In Memory

On my side of the family, every year on Memorial Day we go visit my Uncle Chick's grave. He was my mother's brother, he served in the Vietnam war and died in action. There is always an overwhelming sense of respect and reverance that overcomes me when I think about those who have served and fought for our country. My mother has very fond memories of her brother and his particular kindness towards his little sister. I am so grateful for him. For his memory, his legacy, and his love for family and country. (For some reason I couldn't get this pic to flip)

When we went to visit Chick, I was touched by the sweet acts of my children. Cami wanted to come in a dress to show her respect. Alex knelt down by the grave, kissed his hand, and gentley touched the grave with his fingers. And Carson, well he kept squishing the little bugs that were crawling all over the gravestone. :) But those sweet guestures made my heart and eyes overflow. We said a prayer of thanks and love and then went to go find his flag. I never want this tradition to fade, because then we will never forget Charles Dee Green, and we will more fully remember those who have honorably served our country.

Hula Champion!

This last weekend I have come to realize that I am one of the WORST hula hoopers in the world! Haha, I guess I just don't know how to swing my hips just right to get the darn hoop going... lol. But I was impressed with some of those that could. First off, my little sis turned 20... 20?!! (Sigh... sniff, sniff). And so Jess came home from Eastern for the weekend and we all gathered in celebration.And THIS little girl is what got it all started. She brought over her little hula hoop and impressed us with her neverending skills. Seriously, we timed her and she hula-ed for 7 whole minutes and only stopped because it was getting boring! Quite impressive little Kate!

So I went to the store with Jess and bought her two hula hoops for her birthday... (I know, kind of an unusual gift for a 20 year old, but she let me get them for her anyway:). But then Jess showed us her mad skills, (this is when I discovered how horrible I was at hula-ing). So there was a small competition between Aunt Jessie and little Kate! Who won?.... Sorry don't remember... lasted too long and I think I got side tracked... haha.

And then Jess wanted to see if she could do 4 at a time!? Successful she was!

We all enjoyed some family time and got a couple of pics of some of it before my camera died!.... of course.

Happy Birthday sis, auntie, and friend!!

I saw the Sign

As I was coming to pick up Cami from after school I saw THIS down the road! We officially have a sign at Jeremy's Chiropractic Office! I kind of laugh at myself because most people would think, "Uhhhh, sure, cool." We've had a sign before, a portable one, which has worked great. But now after a few years of being in business, a fire to push us into another building, and actually signing the papers to own it... we have our very own sign. :) So please excuse my over-excitedness, but this is BIG! (In kind of a literal sense too :)

The Newest Member

No, this adorable little boy isn't ours, but I am just as excited as if he were! This is little Mick, our newest little nephew. He is so tiny and precious it almost made me cry when I first saw him and held him. He's a lucky little guy because he has 2 older sisters ready to smother him with a little love and care. Congratualtions Hayley and Ezra! He's beautiful!

Little Brookie couldn't be more proud!!

Mother's Day Bouquets

So my most wonderful sister-in-law called me up and asked if I could help her out with alittle Mother's Day Gift for my mom. She wanted to give her an edible bouquet and wanted me to make one up for her. FUN! So of course I said yes, and went about experimenting. This was my first idea...... Then Jeremy thought it would be a good idea to do that for the mothers at work, and he came up with this....... Way cute JER!

After some conversation with the my sis-in-law, and alittle more experimentation, we had our final bouquet put together for my mom. It was so much fun to play around with it all and be creative with fruit! Jeremy had the cool idea of swirling a lime on a stick for alittle more color. It turned out pretty cute! Thanks Crystal for giving me the opportunity to be creative. :)

Butterfly Experiment

The other week the kids wanted to do some kind of craft. So after a little research and figuring out what kind of materials we even had, we came up with these fun and personalized little butterflies. We even had some other friends try it out, and I think it was somewhat successful. :)

Under the Weather

We have been feeling alittle ill at our place. Some kind of cold that comes with a fever. Poor Carson, he has been feeling miserable, as you can see. He fell asleep like this!Cami was the one who first got hit and even after a week she is still falling asleep in the middle of the day all on her own, which is completely out of the norm for her.

Alex on the other had has been feeling just fine! Him and Jeremy passed it up.... the rest of us had to sweat it out.