Redwoods with Cooks

 This is what it looks like when you are running so fast from the vampires!!

 These trees are bigger than they look.  Try climbing over one!  Huh Camille!  We about peed our pants after being covered in tree mud.  When they closed the trail, we should have taken that as our sign and turned back then.  With over zealous kids wanting to get going on this hike, we conquered this tree and returned a near 4 hours later.  The deafening silence and beauty were amazing.

This was an absolutely amazing trip, to see these giant trees.  And what fun with the cousins.

 Enjoying the seafood.

2012 annual storm

Pictures from our annual winter storm.  Wade trying to clear some of the broken trees found a nice hole to fall in.  It took a tow truck with a boom and straps to lift us out.

Dory!

So much for going pet free!  Say hello to Dory!  Mostly Kaleb's African Grey.  My white noise, just so I don't feel like it is too quiet around here.  It is my boys when my boys are not around.

The berry days of summer are lingering just a bit with a touch of sun shine to warm our first few weeks of school.  I couldn't resist this little face.  The lips are from the blackberries picked first, and then we moved on to huckleberries.

Well it is hard to believe school is back in session.  I was looking for pictures to load, since it has been so long, and I was just cracking up thinking about the first day and how by the time #3 goes to school the idea of letting them pick out their own clothes and actually get away with it changes.  Then looking closer at the picture, I noticed the dirt smuges on his face, details details, when you let dad send them off.  With two different schools, three different school times, and five bus stop runs, it seems I am always at the end of the lane waiting for someone to come or go.

February

I wish I had something clever to say and post all of these fantastic events going on.  It is just all of the little things, that keep us going and smiling, thankful for the opportunities that come our way, allowing us to be parents and have each other.  Sometimes my life is filled with fighting, crying, dishes, dirty clothes, dirty floors, dirty hands, windows, walls, and floors.  But then I hear the boys playing and laughing with each other, and wanting to be together and I think we must be doing a few things right.  We are blessed, and we feel it each and every day, most especially when it comes barreling at my legs, or you hear it as shatters on the floor in a million pieces.  Then I know life is good, that's what I live for!  Pet toads, salamanders, caterpillars, worms, bugs of all kinds, and moths.

The other day Brycen kept insisting he wanted to catch a bird, he kept planning out a trap and how he was going to catch it.  Well lucky us, we pulled up the driveway and there was a woodpecker on the maple tree.
Brycen: "Mom, come on, we can get it! Just throw a rock at it and knock it out."
Mom: "But honey! It will kill it if I hit it with a rock."
Brycen: Insistent and gathering and handing me rocks, "Come on Mom, you can do it, just try again!  You have to hit it so I can trap it, I really want to catch a bird."

Thankfully the bird had the good sense to finally fly away, I mean I could only try to miss so many times.

As you know how parenting goes, occasionally you have to read or listen to a parenting book to see if they have changed the rules of engagement, well just so you know they haven't.  Kids are still fighting, and testing their parents, we are just getting experienced, and better seasoned, or learning to ignore it.  So I thought I better test my skills and see if the book really knows what they are talking about.  After listening to several spats between boys and giving them the same response that "they will need to go work it out", my little Brycen now comes to me with a complaint and says, "....And don't even tell me I have to go work it out!"  I think he is learning already.

Rollin

Well as you know school has started, it has been awhile, shortly after that we have had birthday season.  One right after the other.  I thought it would be fun to update my pictures.  I am always looking at others to see what is new, and when there are none I just assume everyone is busy, because that is the case for me.  I am still busy, in fact overwhelmingly busy, but my boys are growing before my eyes, and so I thought it would be fun to post.
I am also trying something off of another idea.  The picture for 365 days in a row.  Well I was wondering if the boys were really changing right before my eyes, so I have been taking a picture of each of them everyday.  i am not sure where this project will end, but it will be fun to compare.  I guess it is a way of journaling for me, to just remind me of all the activity going on around me.