Bear World

We went to Bear World for the first time with the Smiths.  The kids had a blast.  It was really neat to see all of the bears, wolves, moose, deer, elk, etc. so close.  (That was Brian's favorite part.)  The kids' favorite part was the amusement park-type rides.  My favorite part was shopping with Jesalee afterwards!! ;0)  (I had a lot of fun at Bear World, too!!)

Aren't these kids so cute?!?

The true Smiths come out!! ;0)



And here's our family!  These are so funny!!



This swan was so big!!

The petting zoo was great.  I couldn't believe the deer let the kids pet them like they did!!

We had to get a picture with one of Grandpa Nebeker's favorite animals!! ;0)

This turkey was very interested in Bryn!!

Austin LOVED this ride!!!

Do you think Paige and Jade did too?

There was a little roller coaster

These were Paige and Jade's favorite ride of all.  They seriously went on it at least 10 times.  The poor girl in charge of running the rides!!  She was a good sport.  I don't know how the girls rode it so many times.  There's a big disc that you spin in the middle of each bear and of course the girls loved to spin really fast.  I was sick after one ride!!

Another FHE at the reservoir

We love that we live so close to the reservoir.  We go there many times over the summer just to take walks or play in the sand.  It's great!!

This is Bryn's first time in a "big girl carseat".  Doesn't she look like a big girl?!?

While Paige and Austin were playing on the big sand mountain, Bryn stayed with us and ate a jelly sandwich.  She quickly added a little (or a lot) of sand to the mix! ;0)  She didn't seem to mind too much.

Such a funny girl!

First day of school

Paige and Austin were so excited for school this year!  Paige actually had 2 "First days of school".  The 1st day of school was just an orientation, but we still had to take a picture because she's just too cute!!

Here's the 2nd day of school, Paige's 1st official day and first time riding the bus.  As you can see, ALL of the kiddos were excited to see the bus!!

Paige in line waiting for the bus

Can you tell Austin was excited for school?!?  I can't believe how big he looks in this picture.  I'm so glad we decided to put him in preschool this year!  He has done so well and is much better at being more independent.  He doesn't have to have Paige or Mommy and Daddy with him or helping him all the time.

He wanted me to take a picture of his "cool backpack". 

Flyin' some kites!!

We love where we live!!  Our house is right next to the Stake softball fields so it's like having a HUGE yard that we don't have to take care of!!  The wind was blowing just enough to fly some kites (surprise, surprise since we live in Idaho!!) so we did just that for Family Home Evening one Monday this summer.  The kids had such a great time and they both got really good at it!

Paige ended up running around the whole ball field with her kite!

Bryn enjoying the weather and just wishing she was older so SHE could have a kite to fly!!

I wish you could see his face in this picture!  Austin was so proud of himself!!

September 11th service project

Our ward did a service project at the reservoir on Sept. 11th.  It was actually really fun being there with so many families.  It looks SO much better!!

This was taken in the first 5 minutes of being there.  Notice that the kids were eagerly working alongside the adults.

Fewer children around.  Can you believe all of those weeds!!

No kids in the background! ;0)  Our friends' little girl was so cute with Bryn!

Taking weeds, dirty diapers and lots of trash to the dump

Towards the end of the project.  You can actually see the rocks and the water now.  Yay!!

This is where our kids ended up for the majority of the project.  In the sand volleyball court building sand castles.

Our cute Bryn!!

Look at that smile!!!

Boating with the Smiths

We jumped at the chance to go boating with our good friends, the Smiths, when they asked.  It was so fun to wakeboard again.  All of the adults were able to wakeboard and most of the kids were able to go on the tube-like thing! ;0)  Thanks, Kade and Jesalee, for the invite!!  It was such a fun outing!!

Bryn and me on the boat.  She wasn't so sure about the lifejacket as you can see.  It was so cute, though, so had to take a picture of it!

All the kids, except for Zoe.  I wish I could crop myself out of the picture since this is right after I finished wakeboarding!  Not sure was Austin's facial expression is all about, either.

Wakeboarding for the one and only time for over 3 years.

The kids watching Brian wakeboard.  What a stud!! :0)

Brian with Paige and Austin on the tube.  I'm not sure if you can see it or not, but the kids were LOVING it!  I was a little worried about Austin not liking it, but he proved me wrong.  He was smiling the whole time.

Paige even went by herself.  She is our brave child.  She loved using the hand signals to let Kade know whether to speed up or slow down.

The kids obviously LOVED the huge sand mountain at the reservoir.  We had a hard time getting them off of it when it was time to go.

Bryn even enjoyed it!

Buhler reunion

We went to the Buhler reunion this year in Morgan, UT at a place called Tifie Ranch.  It was a really neat place.  The facilities were beautiful to say the least.  The bathrooms, kitchen and eating areas were super-nice and updated.  They had cabins (we'll stay in these the next time we go!), RV sites and tent sites.  We stayed in a tent the night we were there and let's just say that it wasn't the most restful night we've ever had.  At least Paige and Austin had their own tent and they slept well!! ;0)

All of the Nebeker cousins.  It was so fun having all of us together.  We just were missing my brothers, Keith and Lance.  I felt for Julie and Bekah.  There were several times that I was at Brian's family's functions without Brian when he was in school.  Julie and Bekah, you were a very good sports!

The boy cousins

The girl cousins.  Bryn was very done at this point.  Maybe it had to do with the lack of sleep from the night before!!

Bekah, my mom, and Bryn.  Here's a better view of the hat I made Bryn.

I'm back - hopefully!!

Sorry, once again, for slacking in the blogging department.  Just know that we've all been busy and having fun and getting sick and having more fun and making lots of fun things (mainly me)!  I have LOTS of pictures of our adventures this summer that will be posted shortly, but here's some of the projects I've been doing the last few months.



Some ties I made my nephew for his 1st birthday

For some reason I can't make a caption for the picture of Bryn.  I'm tired of trying different things, so this will have to do.  I found the cutest hat pattern and have made several hats since then.  The hat Bryn is wearing is one of them.  I have a better picture of the hat, but I had to post this picture because Bryn's smile is just too funny in this picture!  I still need to take a picture of the matching hats I've made Paige, Austin, and Bryn. Once I do, I'll post it.





I made 13 of these babies for a friend's family to wear at a wedding.  I had to enlarge the pattern for most of them, so I'm glad they turned out so well!



More of these fun, easy booties!!  I absolutely LOVED the ribbon bows and flowers I added this time!

The last couple weeks, I've been really into making hair accessories!  Here are some that I made my niece for her 6th birthday!  Hopefully they've arrived at her house!!

I've been trying to make a few items of jewelry.  Thank goodness for kits and step-by-step intrstructions!!  Now I know a few more techniques that I'll be able to use to make my own jewelry, when I have time! :0)

More hair accessories.  This time felt.  How I love felt and these are just too easy!!  I got several ideas for these online, the main one being makeitandloveit.blogspot.com.  If you search this very talented lady's site, you'll find more ideas for these babies! 

Here are the vinyl hair accessories.  I have yet to make some headbands with this vinyl, but that will come soon.  Once again, makeitandloveit.blogspot.com.

My sister had a headband for her little girl from Walmart, I believe.  She happened to leave it at my house and I happened to use it to make my own headbands.  Aren't these too cute?!?  And they're are super easy!!

Last but not least, this scarf from makeitandloveit.blogspot.com.  This is the first time I've really used knit, so it took a little while to get used to, but it really was a very simple, quick scarf to make!!

Hopefully these will inspire you to make your own fun "accessories" of all shapes and sizes!  By the way, for those who live nearby, I'm going to plan a girl's night in soon where we can use my vinyl to make hair accessories to our heart's content.  I'll let you know when it is!!

So very lucky!!

Today has been crazy, to say the least.  This morning started like it usually does on a school morning.  We rushed to get Paige on the bus and then I had to get Austin ready for preschool.  Bryn was still eating breakfast in her booster seat.  Amid all this craziness, I hear sirens pretty close to our house.  I didn't think too much about it because it's not too uncommon to hear them close by.  That's when I got a call from my friend saying that Paige's school bus was hit by a semi-truck.  I can't even describe what I was feeling when I heard those words.  It felt like my heart stopped beating.  My friend quickly assured me that Paige was fine and that they were down at the stop sign where the crash happened.  We found Paige scared and just a little bruised up on her jawbone.  Oh, it could have been so much worse!!  The truck hit the bus as it was crossing the highway, so luckily most of the damage was to the engine and door of the bus.  There were a few kids taken to the hospital, along with the bus driver.  The most serious injury I've heard about is a broken clavicle, but most of the injuries were just scrapes, cuts and bruises.  Thank goodness!  I can't even imagine how the bus driver and truck driver are feeling right now.  Everyone is definitely in our prayers.  I am so grateful to our Heavenly Father who answered our prayers of safety and protection this morning.  I love my family more than anything and I am so grateful that Paige and the other people involved are OK. Here's a link to one of the news channel's websites that covered the story.  kpvi.com