Austin's first "real" haircut

One Sunday, Bri and I were looking at Austin and thought to ourselves, "Our little boy is looking a little shaggy!!" So we of course got the clippers out and went at it. I was a little afraid that Austin would throw a fit and hate the clippers, but Oh, was I wrong!! He loved the buzzing sound and the feel of it on his head. The only thing he didn't like was when I tried to trim his neck. So, if you see him in person, don't look too closely at the neckline!! :0) We decided to leave the top a little longer so we could try to spike it. I love it! Isn't Austin the cutest boy (notice I say boy instead of baby, because he definitely is NOT a baby anymore with this haircut!!) ever?!? We sure think so! :0)

Ok, I have a video of the actual haircut, but it's not uploading. I'll try again later. For now, enjoy these pics of our handsome little boy!!

Our trip to Oregon

Warning: Lots of pictures of cute, silly and very, very active children (with a few mommies and daddies included.)

The slides at the playground were a hit for all the little kiddies.

Notice Brian in the background. The adults needed to try it out, too!!
Brian's score: 6.5 It was a little slow
Paige's score: 9.5 Very fast and could do it all by herself after 2 tries
Anything that Cousin Natalie did, Paige had to do.

Walking to the playground with Grandpa A.
Climbing the mountain
If Sister can do it, so can I!! He actually climbed up this by himself later. He was halfway up before anyone noticed. Crazy boy!
Grandmas and Grandpas have to have a little fun, too!!

We had so much fun with Ray, Krissy, Kate and Jack!!! Has it really been a year since we were all together?!?

Paige LOVED this little bike. She felt like such a big girl!!
Jack taking a break. He is one funny boy!!! Oh we miss them so much already!!
Umbrella fun!!
Peek-a-boo


The Deschutes River was right in our backyard at the condo we stayed in. Isn't it absolutely beautiful?!? We took a 4 mile hike by it. (We found out after the hike that it was 4 miles. Sorry, Krissy!!) We were just trying to get Krissy to have her baby so we could see Baby Hardy before we left! :0)

Rocks + body of water + throwing action = Heavenly bliss

This was the coolest tree on the trail! I love Jack in the pic. He was so exhausted from the hike that it was too much to even open his eyes for the picture!

Two of the sweetest girls I know!!

This bear was outside of the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory store and Paige and Austin were fascinated by it. It's kind of scary lookin' if you ask me!! Thank goodness it was locked onto the bench or Paige and Austin might have begged to take it home with us!! :0) (I think not!)

Thanks Ray and Krissy for everything! Thanks Mom and Dad A. for letting us take advantage of your timeshare! Thanks Julie for coming and making this vacation so fun!! What a wonderful week!!

Memorial Day 2008

Since we live back in the West we were able to visit a few family graves this year with my family. It has been a long time since I've seen my Grandma and Grandpa Nebeker, Grandpa Gifford and Great, great-Grandma and Grandpa Thorne's graves. I loved being able to remember the wonderful people they were, or in the case of my Grandpa Gifford, hearing other people's memories of him. It was neat having my children there to see where their ancestors are buried and hopefully they can begin to understand who they were. It was also so fun getting together with most of my family. We were missing two of my brothers and their families, but hopefully we'll be able to see them soon!! Enjoy the pics!

The whole gang!
What is with Austin and kissing?!? It doesn't matter if the cute girl is related or not! :0)

Where, oh where did our backyard go?!?

Here's a few pictures taken yesterday and today of our lovely backyard. So sad! At least Paige and Austin enjoy watching it all while eating their snacks.

Another little update!

So, it's been an interesting 2 weeks. Remember when we first moved into our house and we had a little incident with toilet water all over our basement....well, it happened again. Luckily it wasn't as bad and this time we actually had friends who own wet vacs!! This time, however, our landlords gave in and decided to put in new pipes since the old ones are "root-infested" beyond repair. This means, however, that we now have a HUGE hole with a very long and deep trench in our backyard. (I'll take a picture of it tomorrow to prove to you how big it is!) Can you say, "No more picnics or playing on the swings in the backyard for a while!" At least Paige and Austin were occupied by the "digger" in our backyard for most of the day!! They moved some chairs over to the sliding door and sat there watching the men work while eating their snacks and drinking their milk. (I'll post that picture tomorrow, also.) That was very nice, since I had to unpack everything from our trip this last week. We went to Bend, OR for almost a week and it was the best vacation we've had in a very long time!! We were able to see and play with our wonderful friends, Ray, Krissy, Kate and Jack again, play with cousins, Natalie, Lauralee and Ava, Aunt Julie, and Grandma and Grandpa A. The weather was actually pretty nice. It rained a little while we were there, but we still had plenty of sunny days for tennis, hikes and just relaxing. It was wonderful!!! Since it's 11 pm right now, I'll post the pictures tomorrow when I'll have more patience for them to load. But now we're back home and wondering when we'll be able to have our backyard back!!

Swimming...kind of

A couple weeks ago it was very, very warm. Brian got home from work a little early and we decided to head down the the Marina. The water was a bit chilly (OK a LOT chilly) but the kids didn't seem to mind at all. We'll definitely be taking advantage of this place this summer, especially since it's about 2 minutes from our house!! ;0)

Austin couldn't get enough of the rocks. Thank goodness there were millions to choose from! :0) He's saying "rock" in this pic. He's talking quite a bit now and is trying to copy things that we say. It's so cute!!
Paige doing her tippy-toe dance in the sand. She had to watch her shadow the entire time! :0)

Spring and Sprung, cont.

Of course, we have to have some pictures of Austin, too!!! Isn't he so cute? He follows the saying on his shirt, by the way, very well! :0) Oh, how I love this boy!

Spring has Sprung!!

The beginning of last week was beautiful. We had to take advantage of the sunshine. Here are a few pictures of Paige enjoying the dandelions. Yes, we had a slight problem with dandelions. (We have since sprayed them and they are now less numerous!) :0) Don't mind her crazy hair!

Paige didn't want her picture taken anymore so she hid behind a tree. I was standing quite a bit away from her so she didn't think I was taking pictures, but thank goodness for the zoom function!! :0) Peek-a-boo, Paige!!