Young Life - Kingman Arizona

I had the amazing opportunity to be a Young Life leader at Lost Canyon Camp (Williams, AZ) during July. We had a great group of Kingman kids go...and it was a blast. I had so much fun getting to know the girls and guys! I felt really old and ancient at first, but I got over myself pretty quickly. (with the help of some stellar ladies like Linda Ann and Amy Smiley!) Here are some shots of the facility itself. Gorgeous. They really thought of everything! I feel so priviledged to be a part of such a stellar organization GO YOUNG LIFE!

July was a blast!

We had such a great time in July...time with good friends, good food, family 4th of July! It was great...especially because we didn't think it would work out this year!

These are some of my favorite shots from Haskells Beach in SB.
CALLAN

CAMO

CALLAN

PANINI

It's been a while since I have posted...I have been soooo busy. I did just want to take this opportunity to let everyone know that my Paninis are better than Dom's. Everyone says so...they just won't say it to his face. :)

Funny Farm

I thought I would introduce you to some of the inhabitants of the Funny Farm...25 Chickens, 6 Turkeys (not including Dan), 1 pony, 2 dogs, 2 pigs and 4 cats (3 of them short). Never in my wildest dreams did I ever believe I would be living this life...what did I do to deserve this? Dan took the boys today to look at a cow. The cow is where I draw the line...He is trying to convince me we'll save money on milk...why am I having a vision of me out milking the cow?

Short Cats

Some how or another I ended up with more cats. I figure they will keep the yucky things away...so that's how I justified it. Camo is really excited about it because he "always wanted some short cats". Too cute.

My second home is Home Depot.

So, anyone that knows me...knows that I spend a lot of time at Home Depot. I think I almost gave birth to a couple of my children there. We have been remodeling homes for many years now and its just a given that I will spend at least 5 hours a week at that store. Everyone knows me by name...and I have a personal relationship with the Store Manager, Phil. Now, I am not bragging...I am just setting you up for our trip to Home Depot yesterday.
Dan and I go to Home Depot yesterday morning for a few items...and halfway there we hear a "meowing" noise. Great. The cat is in the car. With gas prices the way they are these days, there was no way we were turning around to drop off the cat...so we continued on. We shop, check out, and are loading our purchases in the back of the car...when all of a sudden this man comes up to us to notify us that our cat is in Home Depot. How embarrassing. I chased the cat through the lumber department before finally catching it and throwing it back in the car. It was pretty funny.

El Pollo Locco

I caught my husband out feeding the chickens a few mornings ago like this...I don't really know what to say about it...other than he has some serious issues. At least the kids thought it was funny...

The Stuntman of the Year Award

Cameron...or Camo as we call him had his final day at preschool last week. He was awarded the Stuntman Award. That was a huge shock to us--Just kidding. We hope to keep him out of the Emergency Room for a while longer...

Future Triathletes...

Last weekend 3 of the boys participated in their first Triathlon. It was a great event, well organized and a lot of fun for the kids. The boys finished first in their heats. Camo participated in the 2-5 age group and the other two participated in the 6-8 age group. They can't wait to do it again! Camo swam 50 yards all by himself! That's 2 lengths of the pool! I was impressed.

My Mom is an incredible painter...she painted this one is from a photograph of my first born son and me sleeping. The one below is a photo of my boys #1 and #2 at the side of a small lake feeding the ducks. She painted it for my birthday...almost one year ago. She says its not finished yet...I wonder when she plans to let me have it??

Monster Fish.

This is what a 15 pound 35 inch Striper Bass looks like...just in case you were wondering. We took the boys fishing yesterday for Memorial Day and our friend Mitch caught this huge fish. Frankly, I'm not sure how he even got it into the boat. The boys caught about 36 fish in about 3 hours. It was amazing. I was of course watching from a safe distance from shore. It took them an hour and a half just to clean the fish. I guess its fish tacos for the next month...

Yummy Cake!

Callan enjoyed his Birthday cake tonight! And we turned Grandma's white bathtub brown after!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LITTLE CALLAN

You are such a sweet little baby...I love you lots! Happy 1st Birthday to you!-Love MAMMA

If this isn't scary-I don't know what is...

Ok--I know what you all are thinking...1-It's only a pelet gun. 2-He was shooting an inanimate object. 3-There was adult supervision. (If you call my husband an adult). And 4- Yes, we have a gun safe.

Keeping the ER in Business...

So, I guess this is life with boys. While We don't have to worry about paying for prom dresses, highlights or weddings...we do have to worry about stocking the fridge and paying for emergency room visits. Christian (my oldest, mature should have known better son) was playing in the shower last night with Cameron (#3). Christian thought it would be a good idea to try and swing from the shower curtain bar. And you can imagine what happened next. The shower bar and Christian fell down on top of Cameron who was crying for about an hour...I thought he might be really hurt...but I checked out his arm and it was fine. So I put him to bed.
Fast Forward to this morning...Dan decided to take a look at his arm and I noticed from accross the room that there was something seriously wrong with his shoulder...I assumed he seperated it--Well the X-Rays confirmed HE BROKE HIS SCAPULA! Of course there is nothing they can do for his injury...so he is in a sling. Poor guy!
So far we have had 3 hospital visits in the last three months...(not including the visit to the Disneyland hospital)!

Good thing my parent's are rich!

Familee

Well-
Here is my Fami-Lee. Katie Moos took these really cute photos of our family for our Christmas Cards. We took these photos at the Camarillo Ranch House in Camarillo. It's right off the freeway and an amazing location for an event!

I have had the most amazing week to myself...Dan took the three oldest boys to Colorado to Pearl Lakes to go snow mobiling! I have had a quiet and clean house for almost a week! Heaven. Now I can remember what it was like when I only had Christian!

On another note...I just finished filling out an application for "Wife Swap" on ABC. The casting director contacted Events of Santa Barbara looking for an Event Planner for their show. We'll see what happens! Random.

The boys return tomorrow...so I must go and enjoy my last quiet moments alone...little Callan is fast asleep.