Our little Family

Taken on a warmish day in December at the bottom of a creek!  Crazy huh?!  Our goal was to take some pictures of my parents' five grandkids.  Four of which are boys.  You can probably guess how well that went!  For trying to take pictures with these goofy boys, I think they turned out pretty good.  At one point there was a big ruckus.  Claysen was faking that he was going to fall.  Or so I thought.  I went to him as he's waving his arms backward and put my hands under his armpits.  Just as I barely touched him he fell butt first into a small puddle.  "Mom!  Why did you push me?" he screams.  Of course my back is to the rest of the crowd and they all believe I pushed him!  Not really, but they sure gave me a hard time.  The little incident didn't help with the smiles or goofy boy faces at all.  

Photo Bomb!

Wow, it has been too long since I posted.  Sometimes I wonder who I do this for anymore.....  Above you'll see the ladies that participated in the second annual Cada Girls weekend trip!  I feel very blessed to be part of this family, I feel welcomed like I was born into it.  Love these ladies!

We spent two separate weekends in the Wallowa Valley of Oregon this summer.  We went for business reasons for Rusty, but the kids love to go and spend time swimming in the hotel pool and playing at Wallowa Lake.  The scenery is amazing, always breath taking.  I would live there if it wasn't so far from other cities.

The day before school started we took the boys to a local amusement place.  We spotted Napoleon Dynamite there!  He was missing his moon boots but otherwise intact!  The boys played laser tag, rode and drove go carts, played arcade games and mini golf.  Then they left crying!  Fun was had by.... I'm not sure.

The first day of school for Callen was the 22nd!  Seems so early, but you have to do what you have to do.  He looks very excited!  The first couple of weeks were an adjustment for all of us, but now we are on a good schedule.  He enjoys his teacher and seems to be liking school a bit better this year.  He is excelling in math and still working at perfecting his reading.  

Over Labor day weekend, we spent some time at the family ranch.  We fished and the boys went coyote hunting.  It is always so peaceful out there and so quiet.  We enjoyed the company of some family.

Claysen started his third year of pre-school this year.  He is in a pre-indergarten class, so that he is a bit more challenged.  He barely misses the school cut off for kindergarten.  Academically he is ready, but the emotional/social maturing needs a little more time.  He enjoys school and we carpool with some friends, so that makes it more fun!

Claysen turned five in September.  He wanted a Raptor birthday cake.  You might recognize this cake in a different color from a few years ago for Callen's 5th birthday.  Claysen was please with the cake, so that is a win!

 The face you wonder about?  Oh, that is Karma bitting me!  Earlier in the day I was teasing a dad friend of ours that his little girl's hair was still not combed at noon.  Well Claysen wanted to write his name on his cup with the sharpie pen, so I let him.  This is not unusual behavior in our house.  When he came back 30 minutes later, this is what he looked like.  He was drawing his spiderman face on.  Needless to say, I got teased by that same Dad when he attended the birthday party!  FYI, this isn't the first time he has had sharpie on his face that was self-inflicted.  Choose your battles!  This is not one I care to fight.

 The big birthday gift was a bike.  He is still mastering the strength for pedaling fast enough to balance and get those training wheels off.

 Rusty and I all dressed up going on a date!

A new haircut, the stylist gave him a little faux mohawk! 

We are caring for and riding my parents horse while they are out of town.  Callen is enjoying the availability of the horse so he can ride more.  Claysen rode for the first time unassisted.  He is learning and luckily the horse is patient.

just a little bit....

The boys are continuing their Tae Kwon Do studies.  Claysen is in the Little Ninjas class so he progresses differently than Callen.  This is his second belt promotion.

 Callen is now a full Yellow belt.  Also his second promotion.  He is not too thrilled that I am making him pose for this picture.  

On July 3rd we went with Rusty to ship cattle in Halfway, OR.  We made a mini vacation out of it, stopping at the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center.  There is a lot of information there.  So much so that you really need to go without young kids.  They don't have the attention span for it.  They did love the stuffed ox and horses and cattle. 

We stayed the night in Baker and then rode the Historical Sumpter train.  It is an steam powered train that has been restored and a volunteer crew runs it on weekends and holidays.  It was neat for the boys to ride and see the old dredge mining along the way.

I got to enjoy a visit with two college girlfriends recently.  I appreciate that my kids are past the diaper, nursing and napping stage.  I enjoyed holding the cute baby boys and snuggling them too.  We will have many years of getting the kids together, the fact that we all have boys will make it easy!  Soon we'll have the freedom to leave them home, cuz boys don't want to go shopping with their mom and her friends!!

Callen is really getting good at shooting.  He enjoys the BB gun Santa gave him.  This is not his kill, but a lesson that needed to be taught.  See what guns can do, even a BB Gun.

 We also lost our dear Grammy Weiser this last week.  She was an amazing women that loved everyone she met and welcomed everyone into her home.  She was the strongest woman I knew physically and mentally.  I hope I can be like her.  She went peacefully, our prayers were answered and we will carry on her legacy of family.

Graduate, again....

Claysen graduated from Butterflies and Bullfrogs Preschool today.  This was his second year at Maga's school.  I think he liked it and has shown improvement academically.  Since his birthday falls after the cutoff for kindergarten he will not go this fall.  We have him enrolled in a Pre-K class three days next year.  I hope it takes him even farther.  He loves to learn and do school work stuff.  The other day I caught him counting to 100.  We've worked on that a little bit, but man he picks stuff up quick!  I am a proud Mama!  

High-Ya!

Callen and Claysen have been taking Ta Kwon Do classes at a new studio here.  We have really enjoyed watching them advance with their self control.  The school's motto is "Courtesy and Respect."  I really like that alone!  Below you will see each doing their stance that they had to learn for their next belt promotion.  

Both boys earned their white/yellow belt.  The next step will be a solid yellow belt.  Callen learned the first eight steps of ChungChee (no idea if I am spelling that right).  

Spring is Finally here!!!!

Over spring break we decided to have a couple of adventures.  Our first stop was to the aquarium.  This is new within the last year to our city.  It is great for our town, small and hands on, but perfect since we don't live in a big seaside city that has access to so much more.  The kids were able to fee and pet baby sharks, rays and fish.  They also got to feel and see many other sea creatures.

We also visited the World Center for the Birds of Prey.  This is a neat place too.  Callen has not ever been so he was pretty excited.  The boys know a bit about Peregrine Falcons from watching Wild Kratts.  They got to see several live birds an dress up like an eagle.

Callen turned 7 on the 9th.  He had a shark birthday, I think inspired a bit by the aquarium.  His favorite shark is the hammerhead.  I hope you can tell those are hammerhead sharks on his cake.  He was pleased.  He got a new bike and had to go on a treasure hunt to find it.  My plan was to get him excited to read the clues, but his more advanced friends read them for him.  Oh well, still fun!  My video camera died as I tried to film the hunt, so not even a picture to post of the exciting journey around the house.

We spent Easter with the Cada side this year.  Our boys and one other little cousin were the only egg hunters this year.  Callen raced around trying to get more than Claysen and then sweetly and generously gave all his eggs to T.  Kinda melted my heart a bit.  I was asking him not to make a contest out of it so he wouldn't brag and made Claysen feel bad.  Guess I got shown up when he gave his loot to her.    

School is almost out for Claysen only one more week.  Callen gets out in about 3 weeks.  I can't believe it!  

Both boys are taking TaKwonDo at a new local studio.  They are really enjoying it.  I have a video of Claysen doing his stance.  I will try to post it another day.  It is pretty fun and good lessons for them.

An Update......

Callen really enjoys horses.  He is getting really good at riding too.  He is getting practice more and more lately.

Claysen joins in the fun too!

A beautiful sunset over at Mom and Dad's.

Claysen visited the World Center for Birds of Prey in March with his preschool.  They got to see lots of birds and try on wings and bird costumes.

 These are vultures.

We recently went to ship cattle with Rusty to Hereford, Oregon.  The drive was pretty.  On the way back we got to see a small flock of Big Horn Sheep.  We didn't see any really big horned rams, but is was still neat to see these.