Park in Port Orchard

We stopped by this park on our way home from a BBQ for Paul's work. They had really neat toys, most all of them could spin.

Kyle really liked getting dizzy. Here is a funny video of him trying to walk after spinning.

Fencing

I had to document this about Kohlton. We call this his "fencing" position - if only he had a sword in one hand. He makes this position almost every time I lay him down. It is so cute, it cracks me up.

Elvis Concert

So a couple of months ago my uncle Bob brought Marissa two cd's from Danny Vernon who is an Elvis impersonator. He does show out at my uncle's 50's diner. One cd was rock n roll and the other was gospel and patriot songs. Marissa LOVES them. She dances and sings them non-stop. So Danny did a free concert on the lawn out at the casino last week and we took the kids. It was really good and very entertaining. Marissa's favorite songs were Blue Suede Shoes and Jailhouse Rock. I loved his version of How Great Thou Art - which was his ending song. He does sound just like Elvis - it's amazing.

Breakfast with Marissa

I took Marissa our to breakfast last Sunday morning to "Sheila's". It was so fun to have some alone time with her. We kept the music off in the car and talked the whole time at the resteraunt. She seems so mature now and I enjoyed listening to her and all her thoughts about life right now. We had a wonderful breakfast. I love spending time with her!

Bye Bye Birdie

Well the chicks are growing up. We got all 3 of them in April so we could add them to our 3 grown chickens for more eggs. We bought them at Cenex - they said they were all hens. Well 2 out of the 3 are roosters :( I do love their crowing every morning though - it is a nice wake up call. But one of them became too mean to the other rooster although still nice to us. Luckily we found him a new home a couple days ago where he won't be meat. This is him riding in the front seat of the car. We were a bit embarrassed at the stop lights - hoping people would hear his "bocking" and see our big rooster up there. Marissa named him "Turkey" because she really thought he was going to be a turkey since he was so much bigger than the other chicks.

Bye Bye Turkey

Rooster and Tinka also know as Mrs. Elvis - They are 4 months old now

R.I.P. Lily

One of our other favorite white chickens from last year "Lily" got taken by a coyote out of our front yard in the middle of the day a week or so ago. We were sad because she was so nice.

Aunt Pat

Aunt Pat came over the other day to do some baking. She always has Marissa help out and Marissa loves it. They made a lot of apple crisp. She volunteered at Suquamish Days last week by serving food and got to bring home a lot of leftover food including a box of apples. Aunt Pat gets along with everyone - because she is so much fun and can talk to anyone about anything (I wish I had inherited that gene). The Indians at the festival named her "Yellow Hair". We thought that was funny - she got called that the whole weekend.

Puppets Please

I took the kids to a free puppet show put on by Kitsap Regional Library. The kids LOVED it. The puppets were adorable and rather than being a "show", the puppets danced and sang into the audience. So kids got to pet them, hug them, and do all sorts of things with them. They were really funny too. It was a great turnout.

Taylor, Kyle, and Vann (all cousins)

Marissa holding cousin Ruby, and friend Hannah

Spending time with Papa

We took the kids over to see Papa (my grandfather) the other day and my parents came too. He was in a great mood (thanks to his "moose milk" - don't ask) and had all sorts of funny comments and things to say. We really enjoyed our time with him and he just gushes over the kids.

Dad, Marissa, Kyle and Paul all picked a bunch of his little plums. The kids loved them.

The kids played in dog fish creek that runs under his house and through his pond.

Already....

I can not believe it. We were at my cousin Shela and Jeremy's house and I peeked in at Kohlton's mouth and there was a tooth sticking out! 2 months old! He had started drooling like 1-2 weeks before and chewing on his fingers but I just though no way was he already teething - but I was wrong. Poor little guy already having to go through it so young.

(For my own record - we noticed it on Aug 1 09, his lower right front tooth)

Before and After

I finally did it! I have been growing out my hair for about 2 years. I really wanted to cut it while I was pregnant but resisted. I wanted to donate as much as possible to Locks Of Love. And I was able to donate 13". My friend Emily from church as a beautiful in home salon. She did a great job and I got to bring all my little munchkins with me. It was perfect timing, right before our heat wave. So short hair felt great! Thanks Emily!

BEFORE

AFTER

My flowers

Here's what we have blooming. Marissa loves to cut flowers and bring them in to put in vases.

Happy Birthday Carter

We went to my cousin Shela and Jeremy's house for their son Carter's 5th Birthday! It was a HOT day. We got to see their back yard that they cleared and it looked great. The kids had so much fun with the water balloons, slip-N-slide, pool, water guns, and sprinkler.

Kyle, Taylor, Fendi, Marissa Rex, Carter, friend

Jeremy, Hailey, Paul
The big boys got into a water balloon fight that was oddly quite structured.

Jeremy and Paul hiding behind Rex. Poor Rex.

More Cousins

Our other cousins from Texas came up for 2 weeks. We had so much fun! Angie and her daughter Hailey and son Rex come up every summer. Marissa and Kyle just adore them.

Angie seeing Kohlton for first time

Taylor, Rex and Kyle played lots of badmitten

Hailey painting Marissa's toenails

Shay painting my toenails for me :) What a nice siser! Aunt Pat was next in line.

Shay, Hailey and Marissa all painted their nails the same. 80's flashback :)

Aunt Pat with Kohlton on her and Rex relaxing on the swing

Cousin Reisa, Marissa, Cassie, Hailey, Aunt Pat

As we do every summer we spent a good amount of time at the Kingston Slough. Marissa finally learned to swim (with a life jacket). She has always been a bit scared of water but she just took off this summer and swam across the slough and back several times. She was so proud of herself she could hardly keep from giggling the whole time she was swimming.

All the cousins catching crabs and fish

Rex and Hailey on Uncle Bob's new scooter

Rex and Marissa riding around