Summer Shorts!

I made the girls' some shorts for summer by cutting off their jeans and pants and adding either fabric on the bottom or ribbons. On one pair of Abby's little shorts, I tried some embroidery (which I don't know how to do, but it was fun to try!). I even made the girls matching hair clips to go with their shorts that I put fabric on the bottoms of. The hairclips I made for Caitlin's two shorts got lost pretty quick, but Lizzie's is there in the picture with the pink shorts they match:

And here are their ribbon cutoffs...these were a fun and cheap project!

She had a Birthday Shout Hooray!

Summer birthday season is upon us, with Audrey's 7th kicking it off. Troy had to be at a conference in Spokane, so he wasn't able to be there, but he wanted to get her something special and Skype with her so he could watch her open it. In the morning he watched her open her Tangled tower. She was so happy. She has spent months thinking about it, trying to create make-shift towers out of paper, which she would spend hours on. So she was pretty happy with a real store-bought one :)

I was feeling a lot of pressure, because well, Audrey is hard to please sometimes, and she has been planning this party for a long time. I am learning that she does have a genuine knack for decorating and loves to be festive, so I pretty much let her take over, which she is good at. She decorated 3 days before the party, which was a bit stressful since it was hard to keep it looking as perfect as she wanted it with Alex around, but she did a very good job. We did a hula party, with hawaiian music, tiki torches, hula skirts, hawaiian haystacks, smoothies and a little hula dancing. It turned out pretty well, I didn't hear any complaints from her so I'm assuming in her mind it was successful. Sigh.

A must read...

Read this book!! It is seriously incredible. I love how Laura Hillenbrand writes-Seabiscuit is one of my very favorite books, and she delivers in this one, too. Although her subject matter in Unbroken is what is so riveting. It's about a man, and his life growing up and surviving WWII. He is now 93, and I watched some youTube interviews with him, he is just an amazing man. So, if you find yourself looking for a good book, you won't be disappointed!

Introducing Haley Suzanne!

Finally, our baby has a name! Haley was suggested by Caitlin at dinner last night, and, as we tried it out, it just seems to fit her. Suzanne is Rod's mom's middle name. Haley is so precious, sweet, and wonderful. Her sisters are excited about her and love to hold her or just watch her. Abby loves getting me diapers and "helping" change them. Rod has been a superdad as he's juggled laundry, Abby's accidents, arrangements for the kids to go to people's houses, dishes, yard stuff, and working for a few hours from home each day. I'll admit, I do have a TINY bit of satisfaction when he comes in and just crashes on the couch or bed and declares how spent he is! ...and it's not even lunchtime yet! He's taken great care of everything, though, so I can just take care of Haley and me.

We are all SO excited for mom to come tomorrow! Whoo-oo!

(by the way, go on Facebook to see more pictues of her, we just posted lots there so I'm not going to repost them all!)

Beautiful Washington/Oregon

Our waterfall hike!

We did enjoy our trip to see the Whittles.

The hike was spectacular! So fun to see

the kids - they are all growing up. Thanks

Brooke and Troy!

Whittle weekend

We had a fun Memorial weekend with mom, dad and Travis. Thanks for coming! Alex was distraught when they left. They think it was the awesome remote control car dad brought up that Alex was going to miss, but I think it was them :) I didn't take very many pictures, I am in a slump right now as far as taking pictures and putting them in albums. We went to Audrey's dance recital then for ice cream afterwards. She did a good job and loved getting all dressed up. I can't believe I didn't take any pictures of food! We had chocolate chip cookies, There's No Such Thing As Too Much Chocolate pie, and scotcheroos. I know all of my sisters would be anxious to know what we ate. :) mom- remember how delicious those maple bars were in the Safeway parking lot?! On Saturday we went up to Sunnyside so mom and dad could check on their house, and I met up with some friends at the park. Monday we went on a waterfall hike and drove dad's cool remote control car. It was a great weekend!

We've been busy busy with baseball. Almost every night we have practice or a game. I feel like we've been living out of the car. Bringing food, uniforms and entertainment for Alex & Audrey get's tiring. It's fun to watch the boys, but exhausting keeping the other 2 entertained and listening to then whine about wanting something from the consession stand every two seconds gets really old.

I Love Lemon Bars!

I just had to make some. I rationalized they
were healthy because I used lemons from
Grandma's tree and eggs from our chickens.
I did have to give a plate away, or I would've
eaten the whole pan!