June 2010

Okay, I'm gonna have to take this a month at a time, or I might never catch up. Let's go back to June. June was busy. Crazy busy! The month consisted of three fabulous events: Keralyn's baby shower, Relay for Life, and Girls Camp. And a few other fun days, including a train ride from Blackfoot to Shelley on the Life Saver Train with some of Blake's friends, and Aunt Myrtle's 100th Birthday Party. Betcha never been to one of those huh?

Relay for Life was the weekend before Girls Camp, so that week was pretty much mure chaos. But oh so fun. Who wouldn't want to stay out all night with your friends, walking, playing games (my mom and I's teams teamed up and won the Quest game at Relay), and chatting, all while raising money for such a wonderful cause. This year, I relayed for my Grandpa Campbell and Uncle Jed, who are both fighting cancer right now. My team raised about $1500 and the Bingham County total was over $100,000! Year after year, we'll keep Relaying for Life, until they find a cure.

As for Girls Camp, a little stressful, I won't lie. But I had a wonderful assistant, Marci, and the YW Presidency was great to help with whatever they could. The theme was "Stand Strong and of a Good Courage." We camped at Pasa la Coma and took 12 girls to camp with us. The stake had us going every minute we were there, so we got to do lots of great activites, and then stayed up late to enjoy eachother's company and the outdoors. We did an amazing activity called the Lifeline. Going into it, I knew it would be a ropes course, but I had no idea it would be such a spiritual experience. After I went through the lifeline, I was able to be a leader and help our girls and the other leaders from our ward go through the lifeline. I won't give it all away, in case you get to go through the Lifeline sometime when you're at girl's camp, but know it was by far the coolest thing I've ever done at a girls's camp. It put my life in perspective and has taught me to keep those things that are most important to me close to my heart.

What a busy, but great month!

Let's start at the very beginning...

A very good place to start. When we read we begin with ABC. When we blog, we go back to May?

Boy, when I let me blog go for a few months I always wonder... Do I pick up where we are or go back and catch up. I guess since this is the most faithful "journal" I keep right now, I better catch up. I'll start back in May and tell about our Memorial Day weekend trip to the cabin, as promised in an ealier blog post.

We took our awesome friends Misti and Chad and their girls, Bostyn and Kamree. We made it to the cabin in time to send the boys out to cook hotdogs, and then after the sprinkling, and before the snow, we had time to roast marshmallows.

We spent Saturday in West Yellowstone, we went to the IMAX and walked around town. Picked up some fudge and taffy, had a picnic at the local park and headed back to the cabin. We played games, ate way too much food and enjoyed a nice quiet weekend away (and great company of course) before the choas of summer began.

Man time flies when you're....

Busier than heck! I swear I just updated my blog yesterday. I clicked on it, and it was.... yep. A month ago! Where is this year going? Time: please slow down so I can snuggle with my baby more! Okay, now that you've read my thought process and you're thinking I'm wacko, I'll continue on with my post. Be warned that it just might be the most random post ever! :)

Let's start with Boston's recent 6 month well child visit to the Dr. Bo weighed in at 13 lbs. 14 oz. and was 23 1/2 ish ( i can't remember, let's be honest) inches long. At that appointment, he had 2 bottom teeth and doc said he was looking great and they giggled at eachother for a few minutes and then proceeded with the check up. Dr. Soucie is so great with the boys. He told us a few things to try on the little rash behind his knees and now-(ta da) it's cleared up! He now has 4 bottom teeth and is working on two top teeth. Not the two in the middle on the top, I think they are his kanines. The poor kid might look like a vampire for a bit. Quick teeth story: All of Doug's siblings and parents had a little Memorial Day bbq at Mike and Sheila's. I was helping fix dinner and my brother in law Jeff was keeping an eye on Boston. (Blake and Boston have so many great uncles!) and Jeff says "So he only has the 3 teeth then?" And I answer, "No, he only has 2."Jeff says "No, he has 3!" What? My baby got his third tooth and my brother in law notices before I do? What kind of a mother am I? Don't answer that... I'm just going to say that I'm sure Jeff is just becoming more observant of babies since their own little one is on its way! :) Maybe if new teeth smelled as bad as dirty diapers, I would notice them sooner.

As for other updates with the boys, Boston loves watching Blake and giggles at him when they're in the car or at home. Blake pokes him in the face and Boston laughs. Brothers. So sweet to eachother. And let's see, Blake was assigned to give the scripture and prayer in primary the other day. Guess who praticed all week and then chickened out in primary? Blake. Who said the scripture and prayer? Doug. On the same sunday, as I was subsituting in Primary I noticed Blake on all fours being a Tiger on his way to get a drink. :) I couldn't help but laugh out loud. This kid is hilarious!

Other than keeping these cute kiddos in line, we've been busy getting ready for Girls Camp, Relay for Life and Keralyn's Shower, which was yesterday. Our awesome friends Mike and Keralyn are adopting a baby boy due the end of this month. They have been waiting so long for a baby of their own and we were thrilled to throw this shower for her! You can read all about it HERE, on their blog. I'm sure her rendition is much better than mine could ever be. And... she has pictures! It was such a fun night and I'm so excited for her to be a mom!

I'll have to make another post of our Memorial weekend trip to Island Park with our friends Misti and Chad another time, after the pictures are uploaded to the computer. It probably deserves a post of its own anyways.

Wish us luck in the next few weeks as we "Find a Cure" and "Stand Strong and of a Good Courage." There may not be another post till the end of June, I know you're all VERY surprised. Hoping you're having a crazy and fun summer, too!

For your viewing pleasure...

We all know that when we look at blog, we scan the pictures, and then read if we're interested. Well, i'm sure its true for those viewing my blog as well. It's okay, don't feel bad. The words are just for my kids, grandkids and so on. You don't have to read them, I won't be offended. With that being said, he's a bundle of pictures from the last few months that didn't fit into any of the other posts. And can I just say... Is Boston the cutest thing ever or what? His smile is ear to ear and so contagious. We just love this little guy!

Living Room Remodel

For the 3rd year in a row, the day after Chirstmas consisted of taking down Christmas decor and getting ready for another remodeling project. This time (the last time for this house) it was the living room, finally! Our poor living room had these not so beauiful wood floors, dinged up walls trim and mis matching doors. We installed the last few doors and textured and painted the walls. We had the new floors installed just after New Year's and then Doug finished up the trim work and we touched up and moved back into the living room.

I picked up that beautiful window pane "The Secret to having it all, is believing that you already do" at Traditions in Rigby (love love love Traditions) and found this cute fabric up in I.F. to put together some pillows. Don't worry, I didn't piece it together, it came looking like that. :) I still need to get some curtains hemmed and convince Doug to hang up a sign that I made at Super Saturday, but for now, here's the latest pics of the living room. (And yes, I did pick upws2x all the toys and cleaned up before taking pics, there's no way my house is this clean on any given day!) Do you love the new floors? I do!

Doug's Graduation

This is one of the last posts to get me all caught up and I've been most excited to write this post! Doug graduated from Idaho State University on Friday, May 7th 2010 with Bachelor's of Business Administration in Finance. The College of Business held their own seperate Graduation ceremony in Frazier Hall and the boys and I attended along with my mom and Doug's parents. It was a nice, short ceremony, and after snapping a few pictures we headed to a BBQ at Mike and Sheila's with our families to celebrate Doug's achievements. Doug will never brag about himself, and because of that... I must do it for him.

Four years ago, Doug was accepted to ISU and was offered a full ride scholarship because of his scholastic achievments in high school. He was also awarded other scholarhsips from businesses that put money towards College of Business students.

At the end of Doug's junior year, he was invited to be a member of Beta Gamma Sigma because he was in the top 5% of his College of Business class. In the fall of 2009, the beginning of his senior year, he was invited to a "College of Business Fellow," which consists of 12 students chosen by the college's executive committee to represent the very best of undergraduate business majors based on academics, leadership and attitude. Of 1200 business majors at ISU, the 12 fellows represent the best one percent of undergraduates.

Doug was one of six College of Business graduates with High Honors, a 3.90 GPA or higher. And just a few weeks before Graduation, he recieved a letter from the Dean of the College of Business stating that he had been chosen as the Department of Finance Outstanding Student of the Year! He was given a nice plaque at Graduation, and we can't wait to hang it on the wall along with his diploma when it arrives soon!

I am so proud of Doug and all he has accomplished the last four years. He has put his best effort into his classes and has worked hard to keep up his grades. Not all college students raise familes and carry on full time jobs while excelling in school. He is intelligent, hardworking, and always has a great attitude. We are so excited that he is finished with school and Doug is excited to use what he's studied to good work on the farm. Thanks Doug for all you do for Blake, Boston and I. We love you so much and appreciate all you do for us! Congratulations babe!

April 2010

The first weekend in April brought Easter and all the festivities that go with it. We colored eggs. Did an easter egg hunt and had a yummy Easter dinner, complete with an bunny carrot cake. I got the recipe from my friend Kaylynn a while back and had been dying to try it. It has applesause instead of oil and no other fat. So with the applesauce and the fresh shredded carrots, I'm pretty sure you could count it as a serving of fruits and vegetables instead of dessert if you wanted! We enjoyed listening to General Conference and I was glad to get the Ensign in the mail yesterday so I can read through the talks again.

Back in January, Doug was asked to be a soloist for the Snake River Community Orchestra concert. He went to practices here and there on Wednesday nights and performed with the Orchestra and the other soloists on April 24th. He sang "Toreador" from Carmen, as his solo and he also sang in a number of other songs as the chorus. His song was amazing as always, and guess who remembered to take the video camera, but forgot the memory card.... me. Bummer, I know. I'm working on finding a video of it and if I come across it, I'll post it. But here's a few pictures from the night of the performance as well as the poster with all the details. If you live in the area and didn't attend, you really missed out!

The last weekend in May was the Concert for the ISU Camerata Singers. Doug has been part of this community choir this semester to pick up an extra credit for school. They practice on Tuesday nights from 7:30-9:30 p.m., which meant late night Tuesdays for Doug this semester. They did the concert 2 nights, and were accompanied by the symphony. They performed a 70 minute requim by Brahms, in German. Quite impressive! This first picture is of Doug in his tux starting a pivot on our way to Pocatello for the concert. He's obviously a farmer at heart. And the next is a picture of the orchestra, soloists, conductor and choir. Can you see Doug? He's on the right hand side of the picture about half way up. In all honesty, this was the only elective class Doug has taken in all of his college. He's always been filled to the brim with business classes, so it was fun to see him make some time for something else.