Moving and frineds

Well, after 2 yrs....it has arrived. "It" being everything we left in HI. When I look back we really only had 3 weeks to store, ship or sale everything we owned when we found out John was being deployed, and we sold, sold, sold! I'm extreemly unsentimental, so I became a full-time craigslister! But there were some photo albums, and a few things that no one came to buy, that we stored in a 6x7x8 storage container in HI.
Untill now, this seemed like such a small amount of stuff....I surely coudln't have kept all this crap the movers just dropped off.....what will I do with it now?? Can anyone say yardsale?!
I might be slightly overwhelmed by the stuff, but the kids are feeling like it's Christmas in July and are loving unwrapping some old things...even a few toys!

Oh, it's always fun when Racheal comes to town, and her, Jeremy and their kids came a week or so ago. It was so much fun hanging out with them and the Guads. We took their boat out on the Snake and had pizza. Wish we got to do it so much more often!

Cool Desert Nights

Cool Desert Night's is one of Richland's funnest weekends! This year John was home so we had a parrrtyyy! BBQ and then one house down to watch the Cool Desert Nights car parade. I'm not sure how many vintage cars there were this yr. Last yr there were 800. It was a blast. We'll have to make this an annual thing!
Heather and Cassidy

Nicole and Steph, watchin' the cool cars

Two of my boys :)

Friends

Well, this week has been increadibly social! 2 parties at our house, 2 dinners at friend's houses, 2 friends in town that I don't get to see much that we got together with, a baby shower, church, BUNCO, and some friends came and stayed the night! We say we are blessed to have so many awesome friends, although John might start to want some say in next month's social calander :)

Here are pics of Lilly and Berg, when my friend Mo came to visit. Hopefully I'll also get some pics of our "cousin party", when I finally get them off mom's camara.

Father's Day

We had such a great Father's Day this year, and since John had been in Iraq for the past two Father's Days, we deserved a good one! The kids and I woke John with breakfast in bed and the Sunday New York Times. Of course, there's no way you'ld eat breakfast in bed with these kids bouncing all over you, so we moved to the table....it's teh thought that counts..right? We then made it to church, came home and watched most of Mysterious Island....one of John's childhood faves. It was a terrific day for a terrific dad!

Big Brother Luke

Luke and Chloe are real "baby kids". They have always loved babies and been very good around them, so of course, they LOVE little Zach...and Zach seems to love them. He gives them lots of smiles and sometimes talks to them, which they are increadibly excited about!

The Circus

Well, the poor economy has hit the circus hard, I believe. They were down to 2 elephants and employees must perform at least 3 different acts and serve consessions during intermission. I can't say I was thourly entertianed, but it was all worth it for the kids, who went to my parents afterwards and tried a few daring tricks. Mom finally quit watching them, I'm not sure if we should take Luke to any more circuses for his own wellbeing. Brady boo (my cute nephew) adn my sister, Carinn, went with us too.

The Multitasking Abilities of a Stay at Home Mom

John is now official "off payroll", otherwards know as "unemployed". I've been picking up a few more hours at my job while he has taken up my roll of a stay at home parent. Although he is much better with the kids than I am (in my opinion), and usually accomplishes quite a few things in one day (when he puts his mind to it), I'm often hearing, "you just really can't get very much done with this many kids". Between the two of us the basic cleaning, grass cutting, yard work, multiple 1/2 finished projects, bills, toys, boys toilet misses, diapers, dishes, endless piles of laundry, car cleaning, deap cleaning, and other typical household duties of a stay at home parent, just never seem to quite be caught up on. I think if we had maid who did nothing but cook, clean and take care of the children, we still wouldn't be "caught up".