Summer Fun and Random Pics

I can't believe that it's already the end of August! Where in the world did this summer go? I've only made it up to the Lake 3 times but it seems like we've been ever so busy! I've taken the boys to the swim center twice, once on a play date with Madeline and once with Steph and her nephew Anthony, both times it was a hit. We've done a few park days, hit up the nice and cool library and lots and lots of just hanging out around the yard. We even did a day at Wild Island with Steph and my sister-in-law and my niece and nephews! I have to say, this sumer has been a lot of fun but I am looking forward to winter again, a little slower pace, although Steph and I were talking last night and there's only like 2 free weekend between now and after the Holidays, it's insane, so hunker down folks it's about to get even crazier!

For the random picture portion of this update is just a few of my favorite ones of the boys in the past month or so. They are getting a little easier to photograph, they'll actually smile and cooperate a little so it's fun. Enjoy...

God's Grace

Poor Waylon, he came down with a fever on a friday night a few weeks ago and fought it for 4 days. It spiked at a 103.6 but remained right in there all 4 days. It seems we always get sick on a friday night, right before the weekend where I can't get into the doctors office. We battled out the fever all weekend and I was able to get him in on Monday afternoon. The doctor thought for that he had strep but tested him anyway and it wasn't, it ended up being a virus that looks and acts like strep but doesn't respond to antibiotics just needs to run its corse. At that point the fever had finally broke so she gave him a throat numbing medicine to make him a little more comfortable. I feel so bad when the boys get fevers. They are just miserable and I just bug them to death with the cold wash clothes, yucky medicines and constant temperature checks. Thankfully no one else got it, just Waylon and by the end of the week he was much better.

I titled this post God's grace because not only did He get us through that week with Waylon and it was nothing more than a simple virus but He had his hand on Mason and my Momma that day too. Susie kindly took Mason for me the day I took Waylon to the doctor, she had to run to reno to pick up some material for our business and he tagged along with her. She called on her way back and said she had to stop at Trader Joe's for a few things and then she'd be home. A few hours had passed and I was so occupied with Way and dinner I hadn't really noticed, Ed too wasn't home and I had sent him a few text with no response but still wasn't by any means alarmed, it all was pretty normal. Around 7 pm Ed, his mom and Mason all walked in, I still assumed nothing other than they all got home at the same time, but then Ed asked Mason to "Tell mom what happened"... Turns out there was some ducks crossing a road and the lady in front of my mom stopped on the HWY for the ducks and mom crashed into the back of her. The Lord had taken 9 lives within 3 weeks of their accident on that HWY and he ever so graciously spared my little boy and my precious mother-in-law from nothing more then a tiny bruised neck from Mason's carseat straps. I could hardly believe that they were in an accident and fine, I just hugged Mason and had an abundance of thanks to the merciful God I worship! Moms car had to be towed away, she cracked the radiator or something so it didn't run but I was still just ever so thankful! Mason wasn't scared or shaken up at all, in fact he went and grabbed a little race car toy he has and a tow truck toy too and showed me what happened, and was very animated!

Puppy...Kittens...Who am I?

We started talking about getting another dog, looking at pictures and prices and seeing what's out there. We really weren't all that serious, it more like something that sounded like a good idea... Well I stumbled across this adorable little year and a half old Beagle/Hound dog on the incline animal shelter website. I called to see what it would take to get him, found myself filling out the adoption app, getting our animals current on shots and two days later driving up to incline to pick up our Henry boy! I don't know what happened exactly, I fell in love with this little guy, and if you know me you'd know I'm not a huge animal fan, but he was so sweet I couldn't resist. Plus, I wanted a pal for our dog Bailey to have in the yard with her, and I wanted a smaller dogs for the boys- They just love him, way calls him "hungry" and mason calls him "honey" so we're working on that. He dug out of the yard within the first few days, but I fixed that problem and he didn't listen at all and he's already gotten a lot better at that too! I'm pretty happy with Mr. Henry and Ed secretly loves him too.

Then just last week our cat had kittens. Like all the litters we have around here there was of course complications. She ended up having them in the litter box and when I opened it I saw one had died, one was roaming around and then there was a clump of four trying to separate but couldn't. I picked them up to put in a cleaner environment and the four were still connected by their cords and after birth. It was a mess, it was covered in litter and I think that's why she wasn't eating it off. So, after a phone call to Ed he came home to help me do some surgery lol. We had to cut them free and I honestly didn't think they'd live. The internet said to tie the cords if you have to cut them but it was such a mess and they were so tangled that we were barely able to cut them free at all without almost giving them another belly button! And then I thought momma kitty was going to just reject them after that, she wasn't getting in the box with them, but Ed put her in and she's been nursing ever since ha! So, now we have 5 kittens and I have one maybe two spoken for so....

Trenches

We have an amazing back yard, tons and tons of grass, a nice concrete area/basketball court but there's just this one area that we've always grown our goat head stickers that we finally decided needed to be grass. I should back up a little bit though because we've always wanted grass there but never really had the push to do it, my aunt gave me a few boxes or plants and oak tree to plant and I didn't have anywhere to put them. I wanted just a little planter over in that sticker area but we decided it was probably a good time to start this project. Before grass though you must trench and put in sprinkler lines! The saturday we started, or I should say Ed and Dad started, (july 16th) I had a few errands to run and a Birthday party to attend and after seeing the great progress Ed was making we both thought that by the time I got home it would be mostly done. Well, we I got back I found Ed about six feet underneath the concrete trying to repair a water line that he broke with the tractor...I can happily say that 3 weeks later the sprinklers are in and done! Ha! Poor guy, he was working late nights during the week and really only had Saturdays to work on it, so it was quite the process, and thank goodness for his Dad who was just a tremendous help! In the midst of it all, the boys were probably the happiest they've ever been, we had a huge sand mountain that they just loved and couldn't get enough of running through those trenches!

4th Of July Week

I'm a little behind I know...but here's my 4th of July post! We didn't do anything to exciting this year, we didn't even take the boys to fireworks (we figured they're still young and don't know any differently) so we went to my side of the fam for a BBQ during the day and then barbecued some hamburgers with ed's parents! It was a nice day and even nicer because we didn't have to fight the crowds and be out super late! Also that week our church held it's annual 4 day club. It's like a VBS and this year Mason was so into it! He did really well too, he sat with the other children and listened just great. Waylon was still to young be we hung out in the back and made it through. This year was even more encouraging because the little school behind our church brought over 12 or so kids, so we had a nice sized group which was just awesome! Also that week we were able to have Diane and her lovely grandkids over for a lunch and slip and slide play date! That was very fun, it was sort of overcast that day and ever so slightly cool so I filled up the pool with warm water and that was a hot spot for all.

Lots of Little Things

Boy oh boy, was June a busy month or what?!? I almost don't know where to begin. We didn't do anything extravagant just a lot of little fun summery things that have kept me too busy to blog haha! Let's see if I can give you a little recap of where I've been the past month...

Fishing! We've been wanting to take the boys fishing for awhile now and we finally made it happen. Carson Valley Day's weekend we decided that we'd boy cot the parade, carnival and crowds and see if we could catch some fish. We, along with Jeremy, Steph and Trent headed out to some lakes about 45 minutes away but once we got up into the mountains we realized that everything was still frozen over, so we headed back down the mountain and stopped off in Hope Valley a long the river. It was beautiful out there but no luck with the fish. After a few hours there we were hungry so we went out to markleeville and had lunch at a little burger joint there and the went out to another lake close by and met up with Nate and Jen and Amanda. Another hour or two there and still no fish. The wind was getting to be a little much and mine and Steph's patience were running out ha! Our biggest catch of the day was a tree branch, but fun was had by all, hopefully next time we'll have better luck!

Jeremy and Mason

The trophy branch :-)

Steph and I

Ed, Trent and Mason

The next big excitement was the library puppet show! Now, I know to most, going to the library is no big deal, unfortunately for me I've hesitated really doing much with the boys on my own outside of my home, I think the thought of it just overwhelms me, so it's really taken a lot of prayer and help and persuasion of Stephanie to get me and the boys out :-) So a few weeks ago we had a library and park lunch date that went well! It was so nice to have the extra help out in the world, ha ha, Waylon got a little restless at the library and Steph had to go sit in the car with him while Mason and I finished up. With that said, I signed Mason up for a summer reading program that they have and part of that is little shows/activities they do throughout the summer. The first one was a Puppet show! I wasn't sure what to expect but I grabbed my niece and we went down to the farmers market and got some ice cream and then checked out the little book fair they had and then watched the puppet show. I was impressed by the turn out, there was a lot of kids there! The puppet show was really cute too, the boys really enjoyed it!

Next up was the purchase of the slip-n-slide! It went from the dead of winter to the dead of summer in the matter of a day or two! I thought about getting another pool for the boys but Stephanie dropped the idea of a slip-n-slide and that sounded like fun! I got my other partner in crime, my niece Amanda, and we went and got one down at Big 5. It was a lot of fun, it was a two laner, so we could "race" down! The boys weren't to into it at first but they came around. We ended up popping the first one so a few days later I returned it and got a smaller Cars one that the boys seem to love!

Alright, we're getting there, hang with me! Rodeo and date night is up next. This year Ed's parents wanted to take the boys to the Rodeo in Reno. We weren't really feeling up for all that the rodeo entails so they took the boys up there and we went on a sushi date! We had such a good time, the restraunt was pretty much empty so that's always fun, we joke around with the chefs and take our time, it was nice. Then afterwards we figured to had some time yet to kill so we went miniature golfing! That too was a lot of fun, I totally dominated on the course but then afterwards Ed killed me in air hockey and redeemed himself! It sounded like the boys and papa and grandma had a good time also at the rodeo!

In between all this, I've started going to water aerobics with Stephanie. It's really fun, we weren't sure what to expect the first time we went, but we had a good time and got a nice little workout (I'm down playing it, it kind of kicks my butt ha ha). The first time we went we were the youngest by probably 20 years, and those ladies were pretty impressive! The second time I went there was a few teenagers there taking it too. It's pretty intense, ha! I enjoy going though! I also took the boys to the swim center for the first time. My friend Lauren talked me into going, she wanted to take little Maddie (the baby I watch) so we did it. It was packed, but the boys seemed to like it. Waylon went under, by falling, a few times and never cried in fact he recovered well each time I couldn't believe it. We lasted there about an hour and a half and then had a McDonalds lunch and ice cream cone date. Fun times! And I can't forget the cornhole! Yes, I said cornhole! It's a beanbag toss/horseshoe type game, Lauren't parents have it and Ed loved it so we got our own cornhole and it's been a lot of fun! Ed's dad is pretty pretty good, so whoever gets to be on his team always win, but Ed and I played Nate and Jen the other night and I have to say we kind of dominated :-) It was their first time so we'll give them that lol.

Mickey D's

Ice cream cone!

Cornhole

Last but not least, tonight we attended a quincinera (sp?). There's a mexican restaurant right down the street from the office that we visit often and have gotten to know the owners of the years. Their daughter turned 15 and they invited us to this party. I've never been to a quincinera so I wasn't sure what to expect. It was beautifully decorated, I felt like I was at a wedding reception, but the music was so loud we were litterally yelling as loud as we could to be heard! I saw a few of the ladies I worked with at McDonalds, back in the old days, so it was nice catching up with them, and saw a girl I used to dance with and it was nice to see her too. We had a good time and now I can cross of quincinera off my bucket list ha ha!

<3

Waylon wasn't really feeling the quincinera lol

Summer finally came and I can't believe that Monday is 4th of July! It's going so fast so we're trying to do as much as we can before the snow comes and buries us in for another 9 months! Hopefully I can do a little better job at keeping up with the post, for those of you still with me, thanks, you're a trooper!!! Happy Summer!!!