New kids in town....

No worries...we did not disrupt the nest and the momma has been back since the taking of these pictures....

there are 4 in the nest...

There goes my Babies....

I hate goodbyes......

Garden Update...

Thar she grows......

A little corn peeking through

(he planted a whole box of corn...should produce about 100 ears)
this was the box with the plants he bought
we lost a couple tomato plants and the peppers to the freeze that came the day after he planted...will re plant in another week.

a little red onion action...Noah helped with the tabs :)

everything is coming up in two boxes...he just planted the other two this last week so it will be alittle longer for those....

another up date coming your way in a couple weeks

Quade's Award

Quade will be moving on to the High school next year....

I got a letter in the mail telling me that Quade would be receiving an award and that we should attend the awards assembly today at the Junior High. It did not tell me what award or who would be presenting it so I'm kinda kicking myself now for not knowing ahead of time because after the fact i sooo wished i would have recorded everything that Coach Thompson (Quade's favorite teacher) said about him. But I did not know until the end that he was talking about Quade.

Basically in a nut shell he said....Quade makes him and everyone who come in contact with Quade look at life a little differently. He Talked about Quades energy and how happy and excited he is each and every day to see everyone and to come to school. He talked about how accepting everyone at the school and in the community are of Quade. It was such an awesome speech he gave about Quade and said that no one deserved this award more then Quade did.

He was given an award for

Most Popular....

and the Crowd went wild!!!

Love this school !!! :)

Brynlee's One !!!!

I can't believe our baby is almost one!

Her birthday is June 2nd but since she is moving away and leaving us

we decided we should have her party before she leaves

so we had a fun first birthday party for her yesterday afternoon

Here she is blowing out her candle on the awesome cake that her mommy made!

Taylor is helping her out and next to her is Germany Joe!

our exchange student from a few years back who is here visiting

glad to have you back Joe!

Present time...she made a haul!

but what is a first time grandma to do but spoil her!

she had to have a present from each of her uncles and her aunt

(even though they did not know what they got her it was all a ploy to justify my expenditures!)

as well as one from Grandpa and Yaya

and one from Great Granny too!!

A new bike from Great Granny


Some Beads from Uncle Hayden
Lots of clothes from the Uncles and Aunt Taylor
A "birthday girl" shirt and her 4th of july outfit from Yaya (that's me!)
Gotta love Gymboree!

And a horsey from her Grandpa

Digging into the cake

boy did she LOVE it!!

she could not shovel it in fast enough!!

A little messy....

Sharing the mess with Uncle Noah!

it was sure fun having her here with us for the first year of her life

we are going to miss her sooooo soooo much!

When Hayden left for college I was so sad. It felt like i was never going to see him again.

when he came home several weeks later to visit, it made all my fears disappear.

I hope the same thing will happen and that we will see this baby more often then my mind is telling me will....

what will we do with out her!

Exchange....

We had our closing orientation with our exchange kids and our thank you get together with our host families. I always love seeing the bonds that have been built over the year and the relationships that will last a life time.

Lina-Norway, Lisa-Germany, Max-Germany, Naomi-Switzerland, Renan-Brazil, Espen-Norway

Karianne-Norway, Guillermo- Spain

(not pictured Kevin-Peru)

Still looking for a few more host families for the 2010/11 school year. If you are interested in having an awesome exchange student in your home this next school year please let me know.

Here is our end of the year video with tons of memories

EF 2009-10 @ Yahoo! Video

Super Senior Austin....

Austin walked in the graduation ceremony in 2007 with his peers

but he has had the opportunity to keep attending Blue Ridge High school since then

and will officially receive his diploma next year.

but...every year they have a "Super Senior" ceremony to recognize the kids in the

Super Senior program.

This year we were picking on him telling him that he gets to graduate 5 times

how many graduation ceremonies do we need to go to Austin?

oh how we love to tease Austin!

dad says....5 years Austin!!!
I tried to say 5 years but he covered up my hand with his certificate!

Finally he gave in and said...ok 5 only 5 then were DONE!

He and his best friend josh!

End of the year crazy....

I am a bit behind in the posts....The end of the year is soooo crazy with all the banquets, exchange kids, awards assemblies and the list goes on and on. Austin is recognized every year for his Academic Achievements.

This is for having a 3.8 or better GPA this year!

Way to go Austin!! Way to go!!

Just call him Scar....

Ya...so Hayden had his clavicle repaired today.

2 hour surgery

1 titanium Plate

9 Screws

40 Happy Pills

and at least 3 weeks off of work....

then he SHOULD be as good as new!

The Plate and screws are similar to this...

the Doctor said that it had not healed even one bit

which he said was unbelievable for someone Hayden's age and condition.

(But We all know the truth...you cant shovel feet and feet of snow just days after the break, learn how to do a 540 on ski's (Because the doctor said you could not snowboard but he didn't say you could not ski !!) and compete in the rail jam and expect it to heal...even one bit!)

I have not seen the incision yet as its bandaged really well

but from what the doctor described it is pretty hefty.

Gardening 101

Rich has been wanting to "build" himself a garden....

this year it finally happened

first he built 5 big grow boxes

then he ordered special dirt

then he paid our boys a dollar a wheel barrow load

to get it moved into the boxes

(those boys made some good money, but in turn worked really hard for it!)

He is doing a "square foot" garden

which requires that he mark it all of into Square foot sections

his garden space is 250 sq ft

Austin, Noah and Sawyer each have their own section

we will keep you posted on the progress.

If things go well we will have enough vegi's for the whole neighborhood!

gotta love the planting attire

Noah: Indian Costume

Sawyer: Monkey Pj's (ok so that's not so surprising)

Love this Stephanie Nielson....

One Cute Track Chick!