Indian Creek Festival

The Indian Creek Festival is done every year in Caldwell. They shut down part of the streets in old town Caldwell and have food, music, and fun events.

Cardboard Kayak races. The kayak had to be made of cardboard, duct tape, and paint. This kayak tipped over so if you look carefully you can see how they try to put them together.

Lincoln's mask he made at the kid's art tent.
Avalee carefully making her mask with the help of a volunteer.
Avalee and Lincoln after they got their face painted.
Avalee got a butterfly on one cheek and a flower on the other.
Lincoln's rocketship. He would not hold still so the painter struggled but still did a pretty good job.

Happenings at our house

Avalee's first day riding the bus. Her favorite part of school is riding the bus and PE. 40 quarts of peaches done with the neighbor. Yes, we process them outside so the house doesn't get hot.
Lincoln's first day of preschool. He is doing very well. The teacher said the only thing he needs to work on his using scissors.
Avalee's cute outfit from her grandma.
Lincoln was told he had to take a nap or we would not get to go to family date night. He normally falls asleep in his bed but we found him a sleep in the hall. For family date night, we went to Winger's. The kids had a great time!

Canning

The title summarizes what we have done lately.

We have canned...
3 jars of pickles
6 jars of plum jam
6 jars of peach jam
14 jars of spaghetti sauce
22 jars of peachs plus 20 other jars that went home with a friend
9 jars of applesauce

We will still can salsa, pickles, and apple pie filling.

So far all of these items have come free, so we can't pass them up. We are so blessed to live by the church orchard and to be able to gleen. And of course, the kids love the orchard. They beg to go back and play in between the trees. Next time we are apple picking we will post pictures.

Avalee's Project

Avalee was asked to create a poster about her family that she could share at school. She loves the part of daddy kicking the computer and Lincoln with his blankie.

Avalee's First Day of School

Avalee had a great first day of Kindergarten. She loves her teacher and is so excited to go everyday. Her teacher reported that Avalee is ready for school and will soon be helping teach others. I can't believe my oldest is in school.

Garden

Our garden is growing well this year except for the peppers. I have been working on canning pickles and spaghetti sauce. Tomorrow I will do peaches and plum jelly. And soon I am going to have to something will all the apples that are on the tree!

Update on Wednesday's Excitment

So my neighbor was trafficking drugs. I have decided I know of one dealer that would come to his house. Other than that, he would leave our neighborhood to make the drop.

The sad part of this story is the wife had no idea. She was in the hospital with health problems and her little kids were at her mom's house when the bust happened. The police brought her home and she found the house in shambles. They torn everything apart looking for drugs. The neighborhood ladies helped clean today. I don't know her that well to feel like I could help sort out the house so I mowed the lawn.

Amazingly enough, our neighborhood has been very quiet and I have realized that we had many undercover cops watching us. You can only wonder what they think of us with all the ins and outs of people.

Wednesday's excitement

I was sitting here working on updating the blog after being a slacker this summer, when I hear "Police, open up!" I peak out of my window to see the neighbor's house two doors down get invaded by the SWAT team. Then the SWAT team went in and the neighbor came out of the garage and was taken down to the ground. Instantly, our neighboor was taken to the ground and 20 cops who looked like they where visiting other neighbors swarmed the house. The neighboorhood was instantly sealed off so nobody could get in or out. This happened in a matter of minutes.

I jumped up and locked all the doors and shut the curtains. I got both of the kids in the room with me so I would know where they were.

It has been almost an hour. The swat team has left and the neighbor and his friend was taken away in the car. The neighborhood is still swarming with undercover cops.

I don't know what is going on but I need to be more careful about letting my kids play in the front yard unattended.

Ward Summer Party!

We had a nice afternoon playing games at a local lake. Lincoln came in second in the under 8 wheelbarrow race. I was holding him so I didn't get a picture. I was truly amazed that he could go so fast even though his head is so big. They also had a fun adult bean bag toss that Nathan and neighbor spent most of their time playing.


Bubble blowing contest!

Lincoln waiting for his turn in the water game!

Thanksgiving Point!

While the adults went to watch "The Dark Knight", Grandma Wood and Aunt Sarah took the kids to the petting zoo and the dinosaur muesum. Avalee and Lincoln both claim this was on their top five highlights of their week in Provo.

Memorial Day Events

This morning we drove to Nyssa, Oregon and visited my Brady grandparent's graves. It was a fun drive and it satisified my desire to go out in the country.






This afternoon we had neighborhood friends over for volleyball and a BBQ. It was a fun day and the life will return to normal tomorrow. Too bad we can't have holidays more often.

Family Pictures taken in Washington

Kool-Aid Mustaches

I haven't made Kool-Aid for the kids for at least a year. On Thursday Avalee had to take something to preschool that started with a K. So I sent Kool-Aid. When she got home we made the Kool-Aid and the kids loved it.

The Great Mouse Hunt

Tuesday night during my RS presidency meeting we saw a mouse. Nathan was very good and chased that mouse around the kitchen and almost caught it in a rubbermaid. I think he would have had it but I screamed when the mouse hit the rubbermaid and I think it startled Nathan. We lost the mouse and set mouse traps and went to bed.

Wednesday when Nathan got home (I was not going to do this by myself as I am scared to death of mice) we cleaned behind everything and put the kitchen back together. Still no mouse.

Thursday night Nathan saw the mouse in the computer room. He tore the computer room apart and was ready with his bat to kill the mouse. I hid in the living room. Still no mouse.

Friday night Nathan and I cleaned the computer room. Let me tell you after two years of not cleaning behind our desks this became quite the chore. We worked in the computer room for about six hours on Friday night and most of Saturday morning. Still no mouse but we add more traps.

Sunday we wake up to find that the mouse ate the peanut butter off of one trap but the trap did not go off. Still no mouse.

Monday we wake up to find that the mouse ate the peanut butter off of another trap but the trap did not go off. Still no mouse. So tonite I buy more new types of mouse traps.

The kids understand that they mouse traps will hurt them but they check the traps at least four times a day to see if we caught the mouse. We have not seen the mouse since Thursday but we no it is alive. This mouse is very smart but we will get it! In the meantime, we have done some great spring cleaning.

Kids looking at one of many mouse traps in the house.
Avalee's mouse catcher.
Lincoln's mouse catcher. This can also be called a bleezerwheezer in Lincoln's dictionary.
The mess that was created trying to catch this stupid mouse.

Any ideas on how to catch a mouse? Please let us know.

Bad and Good Day

Bad part of day--Avalee has a cold and told me her nose hurt. I gave her some cold medicine to help Then Avalee told me that it was not a cold nose but that she had put a cow sticker up her nose. I didn’t believe her. I went to the chiropractor and she was still complaining so we made a drop-in visit to the doctor’s. Sure enough the doctor pulled out a cow sticker that was about a 1 inch square. It made me cringe to see it come out. I told the doctor I didn’t plan to come back a third day in a row. Yesterday I was at the doctor becuase of a weird knot in Avalee's leg. I found out the knot was caused by the point of the needle from her Kindergarten shots and might be there for months.

Good part of day--Lincoln decided to finally poop on the potty. I hope it last because I am tired of shampooing the carpet and cleaning out underwear.

Snow

I am so tired of the snow. Caldwell was supposed to have mild winters but not this year. Today it is snowing again and the driveway needs to be shoveled again. I started to clear the driveway but it is coming down faster than I can keep up so I gave up for a while.

The good news is preschool was cancelled so I don't have to fight the snow in the van. Last time it was like this it took me an hour to get Avalee to preschool and an hour to get her home. Because of the normal mild winters we have, they are not prepared with snow plows and ice melt in our area.

I know we live in Idaho but this is not normal.

Avalee' Birthday Party

Avalee's Barbie Cupcakes!

Pin the Dress on the Barbie.  Lincoln was the last one and all the 10 girls were yelling "Lincoln, Lincoln!"

All the girls that came to Avalee's party! 

Thanksgiving

We made Turkey cupcakes.  Of course Lincoln ate all the extra frosting in his bowl.

Avalee learned all about the Mayflower compact and then had a Thanksgiving feast of cranberries and cornbread.  She loves preschool!

Halloween Events

Lincoln came home from trick-or-treating and put all his candy one piece at a time on the chair. We went to ten houses and the kids got quite a bit. I guess you can say I knew which people in Rockland would be excited to see my kids on Halloween.

Avalee and Lincoln in their costumes.

Lincoln and his pumpkin. He scribbled all over the face and then had Avalee help him draw a face. Lincoln also has a terrible cold so no smiles were present.

Avalee and her pumpkin. She drew the face.

Avalee and Lincoln decorating cupcakes at Avalee's preschool. Avalee made a special effort to ask her teacher if Lincoln could decorate a cupcake and sit by her.

Avalee's preschool group getting ready to sing "The Five Pumpkins". Avalee knew all the words.

Avalee's 24-hour flu

Avalee got the 24-hour stomach flu. She was so sad that she couldn't go to preschool. I called her teacher to find out what her homework assignment was. The assignment was to bring a circle. I told Avalee. She looked at me and said, "Mom is it ok if I bring my bowl. It is a circle." She know longer has to carry her bowl around since she got better so she decided to take another circle.

Avalee was very calm when she was sick. Lincoln was very sad that Avalee would not play with him. One time she had him come and sit in the room with her. He was counting. He counts out of order and in Spanish and English. Avalee calmly looked at me and said, "Mom you really need to teach Lincoln how to count."

The funny things that kids say!