I had the BEST WEEKEND EVER! I can't really explain why though. The kids were whiny, the weather was hot, I had to cook and clean. Sounds like fun, huh?

But, really, it was fantastic. The five of us went up to my parent's cabin on Friday and stayed until Sunday evening. I got to enjoy one of my FAVORITE luxuries, hammock time. Not just any hammock time, but hammock time with a good book. While we were up there we went 4-wheeling, mountain biking, geocachining, hiking, swimming, napping...and I even finished my book for book club! (Can you tell I was worried?)

The kids were in heaven to be out of the house. Their days started with the breakfast they request EVERY day of the week, pancakes and pigs and syrup and butter. But most of all, they got to go for long rides on bumpy trails. They even braved the ice-melt creek water!




But the dog. He was blissful. He happily ran along side us as we biked (even let me fall on top of him once.. oops), he rode in the "box" on the 4-wheeler as we drove, and loyally waited on the porch for us to emerge from the cabin during our rest stops. He chased sticks, swam against the current and hunted in the brush. True dog euphoria.



And then we had to come home.

It's kind of been busy around here and I haven't found the time to post about Annabel turning 6! But I'm here now, and that's what counts, right?!


Annabel had big plans for her birthday to go to the zoo, take the dog to the pond, go on a long bike ride, and go to the "peanut" place for dinner (Texas Roadhouse). Unfortunately, the weather had other plans. It was cold and overcast and rainy. We ended up going to see the movie UP and then took her out to dinner, and then came home and played board games for the remainder of the evening. I love that her expectations are small like her!

On Friday Eric's work had a "team-building" event for the IT folks. We had a BBQ up at Lucky Peak and got to take out the boss's very expensive boat. After watching Eric wakeboard, Andrew decided he should have a turn as well. So, out they went! Andrew did AWESOME! He was scared, but once he was done he couldn't wait to go back out.

Annabel was more than scared. She was petrified! She whined and cried and moaned and groaned... but deep down she really wanted to give it a try. After all, if her brother can do it, so can she!
At the end of the ride she was VERY proud of herself! (But also VERY ready to get out of the frigid water!)

This is our puppy. And our soon to be 6 year old. Why do our babies have to grow up so fast!?

Okay, so some of you that know the story of our LAST dog are probably wondering how we are faring with our latest dog. Wellllll.... someone once made a joke that labs must be ridiculously neurotic chewers because of all the inbreeding that goes on. We laughed and are still hoping there is something to that. Wall-E hasn't started in on our siding yet, and hasn't destroyed nearly as many things as Abby did in her short time with us. So far he's only chewed up a couple of kid toys (good riddance), the strings on the weedeater (they were old anyway), and he's started in on the lawnmower bag (caught early while the holes are still small). Very minor! Just don't try to pet him, because his main chewing problem that we can't seem to rid him of is trying to chew on YOU!

My parents gave Anna and Andy squirt guns. Super Soaker squirt guns, to be precise. Well, today Eric went out into the garage to discover poor Wall-E locked in his kennel super-soaked. I don't think we even need to comment on whether or not that was an "appropriate" use of their new toy.

So, the part that makes me chuckle comes when I discipline Annabel for her poor choice about how to treat our newest member. I decided that she needed to come up with a list of "offenses" and to counter that list, a matching list of acceptable behaviors. Here are her lists:

Acceptable Actions:
Unacceptable Actions:

Who says kids can't be For-Profit?

Last summer we chopped Annabel's hair off. I was completely prepared to donate her hair to Locks of Love, but no, she wouldn't allow me to give it away. She wanted to keep her hair. Why? Well, in case she ever needed it herself.

Well, the other day I found her little braids sitting high up in the closet, completely forgotten about. That same day I ALSO conveniently happened upon a website where you can sell hair! Hmmm...
Within the first day of these little braids being posted I was offered $130! Although I have not yet sold her hair (because I'm afraid I might have seller's remorse), I cannot say that I haven't been incredibly tempted. I mean, $130 is some serious spending money, right?!

On Sunday we decided to take a bike ride. Andrew learned how to ride on his 2 wheel bike without training wheels a couple of weeks ago and has been begging us to go on a long bike ride. We packed the bikes and trailer (for Ava) into the truck and took off to Veteran's Park for a picnic lunch and a leisurely ride on the Greenbelt. Apparently 1/2 of Boise had the SAME IDEA! The Greenbelt was packed.

Andrew got lots of little chuckles and comments from people passing us. It's really quite humorous to see him on his tiny little bike pedaling as fast as his legs will go, trying desperately to keep up with us larger-wheel-diameter people! Besides, he's just so little. And how many barely four year olds do you know that don't have training wheels on their bikes?! He was a great sport and never tired out. We rode all the way to Ann Morrison, where Ava decided to take a swim in the Boise River (not entirely intentionally, but not accidental either... she had no idea what she was getting herself into, literally). Then it was back on our bikes and all the way back to the truck. Fun times!

Here's a picture of our picnic before the ride.

In my previous post about our terrible dental experiences, I forgot to mention that those experiences are just those pertaining to little Annabel! But this morning I was taking some pictures of my beautiful girl, and I thought I'd mention that we've arrived back to the same toothless smile that we found ourselves with 3 years ago. And I think she's still a beauty, teeth or no teeth.

Andrew is now four. We all made it... phew! People keep telling me (ahem, Molly) that four is when they overwhelm you with sweetness. While Andrew can be VERY sweet when he wants to be, most of the time he's out causing trouble and looking for stuff to destroy! But when it's time for bed, no matter what kind of day we've had, he always insists for me to be the one to tuck him in at night. He always hugs me as tight as his little arms will allow, kisses me and tells me how much he loves me (and then puts in his order for breakfast). His little heart is really quite big, and if you haven't been privledged enough to experience his sweet side, you'll just have to take my word for it! I'm thankful for my little man who keeps me on my toes and as I've said many times, will definitely be the source of any white hairs. Happy birthday, Buddy!

This dog is dumb. He's a whiner. He's needy. He poops a lot. But we love him anyway. Who couldn't love this face??

A four year old does NOT understand when his birthday is. We took advantage of this fact and celebrated Andrew's birthday on Sunday the 5th (his birthday is really the 7th). And, it all would have worked out just fine, except for Annabel. In her most honest state she just had to let him know that his REAL birthday isn't until Tuesday. Birthday party vs. REAL birthday? Andrew was so confused! But we celebrated Sunday anyway and he had a good time even though he'll never admit that he did. We started the day by going to Occasionz to get him a Darth Vader mylar balloon (FABULOUS selection, btw). Then it was off to PoJo's for some bumper cars, carousel riding, ticket winning and shooting games. Then we had lunch at Cafe Ole where he got his picture taken in the community sombrero (ewww). After that Andrew had a hard choice to make. Ice skating, movie or flying a kite. He chose to come home and fly his kite. It ended up not being windy enough for kite flying so they rode bikes and waited for his party guests to arrive. It was a great day for him. I kept thinking that he would be disappointed with the lack of kite flying. But then I realized that 4 year olds have REALLY low expectations and for me, that's golden! Here are some pictures of his big day.

This is my rant. If you don't want to read my negative sentiments regarding dental offices, this post is NOT for you!

Everyone knows about Annabel's accident when she was 3. Since then we have had a whirlwind of experiences with dentists, and MOST of them have been bad. Here's my list of examples, and it's definitely not all-inclusive (my memory isn't THAT good):

1. waiting over an hour to see the dentist for a 2 minute "exam" (with an 18 month old)
2. being told sealants cost $15 a tooth to later be charged $25 a tooth (for 8 teeth) and told I was wrong for ever thinking the cost would only be $15
3. cavities conveniently discovered needing immediate filling where cavities did not and do NOT exist
4. receiving NO discount as an uninsured cash-paying patient (when you know darn well they're writing off significant chunks for the insurance companies)
5. being told your daughter needs a space maintaner to hold her molars back, but that it can't be put in until she's 4 (and by then her speech is already adversely affected)
6. being told that the needed simple space maintaner (think plain wire) and partial dentures (wire with teeth attached) cost the same amount of money, and that amount is $400
7. later being told that it made no difference whatsoever having that space maintaner in there, as the space was already compromised
8. going to a dentist with a broken partial and having the dentist take the appliance out, superglue the tooth on, recement the partial and charge you $200 (which was unsuccessful as the tooth fell off again less than 3 days later)
9. taking my children back into the exam area without me and performing x-rays or fluoride treatments without any consideration (or simply asking me) whether or not they'd be covered by insurance (which they weren't)
10. being treated like a criminal for admitting to a receptionist that we were switching dentists and that I needed our x-rays
11. being given a crappy print-out of aforementioned x-rays
12. BRIEFLY LOOKING IN MY 2 YEAR OLD'S MOUTH AND CHARGING ME FOR A CLEANING AND EXAM!
13. AND LASTLY: NOT BEING IN-NETWORK FOR MY INSURANCE COMPANY! Are you too good to accept only $27 for an exam instead of $41? Or $47 for a cleaning instead of $52? C'mon!

Meet our newest member of the family-- WALL-E!

We LOVE him already and are excited for this repeat adventure (especially now that we know what to expect and what we are getting ourselves into)!

I am ridiculously excited about the amount of energy this puppy is going to burn out of my children!

But mostly I'm looking forward to the chewed up toys that will end up in the trash (or the dog's stomach), decluttering my home. And, the accidental piddle spots that will finally justify the need to have my carpets professionally cleaned. And, I am REALLY excited to turn him loose in the middle of the night to chase the tree scratching, screaching, territory marking neighbor cats out of our yard!

Ahhh yes. Puppyhood. Everyone should try it at least once. Twice if you're crazy like us!

Annabel is swimming! It only took 2 months of private lessons before she was finally able to get up her courage to try hard enough to be able to succeed. Now that she knows she can do it she wants to swim swim swim all day long. Of course, this major accomplishment comes right when we have had to say our goodbyes to swimming lessons thanks to our sinking American economy. Goodbye formal swimming lessons.... hello bathtub practice sessions.

For some reason my memory is linked to my digital photo album. When I found Ava reading to herself underneath the piano this morning, my first thought went not to a fond memory, but to a similar picture I'd taken of Annabel 4 years ago. How random is that??? Annabel has always been a "closet reader," as is evidenced in the picture below (if you can't tell, that's a closet she's in, and her age is 17 months for those that like to compare my girls' faces).

And, now Ava is showing similar tendancies at 21 months. Only her favorite locale is under our piano (all our closets are full).

In other exciting news, Miss Annabel participated in a school-wide spelling bee last Friday. She won 2nd place! She went up there like an old pro and rattled off those words like there was no 2nd guessing to be done. Even though she came home without a ribbon, we are still very proud of her just for wanting to participate. For our very timid daughter, this is BIG news!

Even Eric took a few hours off of work to attend. Then we went out for milkshakes to celebrate her participation. We went to Iceberg Drive In, and let me tell you... if you ever want some serious milk-shakage, that's the place to go. For $2.99 we ordered a "mini" sized shake and it was seriously HUGE! Oh, and yummy, too.

This last weekend I decided needed to be a family weekend. I didn't give Eric any time to himself to play around on his computer and the kids didn't have any spare time on their hands to make messes. On Saturday morning we decided to head up to my parents cabin to play in the snow. With almost 2 feet on the ground, I'd say there was plenty to go around! Andrew just LOVES the snow. He loves to roll in it, punch it, jump in it, eat it, throw it, wear it... he just can't get enough. Ava also enjoys snow -- when it's not over her head anyway. She spent most of her time inside napping while we went sledding. The kids didn't want to leave and are already begging to go back!