September

September started with a trip to Montana over Labor Day weekend.  Roasting marshmallows, fishing, the fair, rodeo and parade filled up the few days we were there!



  

The week after we got home Weston started preschool.....he loves his new friends, teacher and fun things he does there.



 




















In the middle of the month Dani was baptized at our church, and we were lucky enough to have been surrounded by many friends and family the entire weekend!

July & August

I've been falling behind again, so here are some of my favorite pictures from the end of July and August! 



Dad's helpers!

Everyone needs a bath!

Picking blackberries!



Bbq'n and Tyge helping me prep!

Crazy kids!

It was a hot day.....and our air conditioner was broken for about a 48 hour period!  No futher explination needed. 

 Yes, that is Batman and Robin riding around in that Jeep!  And then there is what they do with their toys.  Tyge tries to feed his cows everything, strawberries, crackers, grapes, popcorn.....anything he is snacking on, he will put some in a "feeder" (sometimes our coat rack/umbrella stand) for his cows.  I found poor Woody strapped to the firetruck.  And then while I was mowing the lawn and though he was playing innocently, I found the entire contents of Tyge's piggy bank, out on the back patio, with all of his cows arranged on top of the coins.  The excitement never ends around here!

Life on the farm

On Saturday we were up with the sun (literally....out the door by 5am!), heading north to move cows back home.  A few of our pairs, in addition to Donald and Heather's cows were up at a his dad's place near Molalla.  In all there were six trailer loads back to Brownsville.  Lucky for us, the day was coordinated by super-planner Donald and he had extra trailers and drivers lined up so everyone only needed to make one trip!  The boys had a great time, while I just tried to keep them and the two little girls (Dani slept almost the whole time) out of the way.   

 

 

 The other evening we were headed to check cows at the neighbor's place....I loved the way the sun was hitting Carol's barn and couldn't resist the picture.  I also liked both pictures I took of our bull, and one of Gracie trying her hardest to pull some leaves off the tree.  Cindy's horse is also out there, the boys keep asking to bring him apples or carrots and I keep forgetting.

 In other happenings.....within the last two weeks Weston has become a pretty good quad rider.  He is actually quite good, easing into the gas pedal, putting it into reverse to back it into the barn to park it, etc.  He wants to go faster, but we won't let him out of first gear.  He typically only goes in circles around the house, but every now and then I will let him take a trip around the field.  Tyge kept wanting to go with him, so I already had to buy him a helmet too!

4th of July

Just as we did last year, we spent 4th of July at Jacob and Tabitha's house, bbq'ing burgers and dogs.  Later that evening we went into town to watch Brownsville's awesome firework display. 

 

You can't help but think of all the trouble those three boys will get into as they get older!!

 Earlier that week we got our hay cut and baled.  This year I didn't get many pictures, since I was either driving the truck or loading bales onto the trailer while Madison drove.  I only manged to get one of Tyge passed out on the way back to the house with a load, another of the boys taking a break, and the kids dancing on the trailer because the last load for the day was almost stacked in the barn. 
























One afternoon that same week I found a slip'n'slide for five bucks and brought him home.  Weston and Tyge had a ton of fun, and Madison and Lexie even joined in.  Dani and I got to watch it all sitting under the nearby tree.

 
 

My backlog of pictures from June....

Things are busy and I don't remember very often that I need to update this blog!  I had to go back to the middle of June to pull some pictures that were post worthy. 

 

We are renting a new pasture from some neighbors about a mile down the road from us, and it is right next to the old schoolhouse.  The boys loved to play around it while Danny was working on some fencing.  I also thought the snapshot I took that same afternoon of all of the kids, including Flo in the truck was worth sharing.

 

 

Tyge stepped on a bee and walked around with a swollen foot for a few days.....Weston then got it on the ear last Saturday, but I forgot to take a picture of that one!

 In June we also had Pioneer Picnic!  This year Weston wanted to ride his bike in the kiddie parade so we joined the parents and pals group.  Weston finally fits in his yellow shirt from two years ago, but neither kid would put on their pirate bandanna.

 That Saturday included the pancake breakfast down at the park, followed by the grand parade and then fun and games back down at the park. 

 
 

 We learned that Tyge likes to cheat at all the games....good thing he is young and cute enough to get away with it!

 

June happenings

 We had a lot going on the last two weeks of June outside of the boys' daily swim lessons.  Uncle Scott was working at a pit close to us and so he stayed at our house a few nights.  One afternoon we were lucky enough to get invited to see them blast where he was drilling.  Might be a little hard to see in these pictures, but I got a before, start of, and after picture.  The boys got a big kick out of the loud "boom". 

The next week we went to an Emeralds game with the crew from my work.  This is the second year we've done it and I think it will have to be a summertime tradition.  Uncle Scott got to come with us since he was back in town.  Dani got passed around quite a bit, Tyge ran around talking with anyone and everyone who would listen, and Weston stuck close by me because he was terrified that their mascot might come visit him.
 

Swimming update

After two weeks of lessons, Weston continued to do great and Tyge continued to get worse and worse.  In week one, Ty would sit in the pool and whine a little.  In the second week he started climbing out of the pool, and by the end of that week he didn't even get in it at all.  I figure since he is only two I'm not going to fight him.  Weston wants to swim all the time now, and really wanted people to come watch him to do it.  Dad came with us one day, and on the last day of lessons (which is a "free swim" day, Darlene joined us and watched Dani so I could get in the pool.  On this last day Tyge got in a few times to sit on the steps, but never wanted to swim around with me.  Weston got really brave and jumped off the diving board.  Once he found out it wasn't so bad, he did it again and again.  Now we have a two week break and then we go back for our second session of lessons.  It can't come soon enough for Weston....every morning he asks if he can go to swim school.

Swim lessons!

Yesterday we started summer swim lessons out at Malpass' pool.

 

Tyge had to have a pair of goggles just like Weston, but he wanted to keep them on top of his head the whole time.  On day one he did pretty good, halfway through he got a little nervous and climbed out of the pool after another little boy did.  We put him right back in it and he was fine.  Today he fake cried/whined through the whole thing, but never tried climbing out.  Their instructor Brittney is awesome and doesn't let anything phase her....she is so calm and just keeps going with the lesson, making them do what she wants with what looks like incredible ease. I know Tyge will get better as the week goes on. 

Weston is doing incredibly awesome....loves the lessons, is excited about doing whatever Brittney says, and says that next time he is goind to jump off the diving board instead of the side of the pool. 

 

Strange that my bold, do anything kid is the one being the scaredy cat in this situation, and my shy, never-do-anything kid doesn't want to get out of the pool.

Favorite pics

The other night I took some pictures when we were playing outside...these are my favorites of each kid.

Dani's first trip to California

Last week the kids and I flew down to California to visit everyone.  It was my first trip with just me and three kids and I'll admit I was a little nervous about the flight.  At this point Weston is a veteran flyer, however this would be Tyge's first trip in his own seat (now that he is 2 and can't be a lap child).  Even after we were delayed three hours, they all did really well (I was actually surprised at how great they were).  I think it helps to start a week before in prepping them on what do do on a plane.  Now whenever you ask Tyge what happens when you get on the plane he will scream, "put on my seatbelt!".   

Fuzzy cell phone pictures.....but they were so happy to be getting off the plane finally, and so cute with their backpacks! Tyge and Dani were pretty comfortable taking a nap on Ava. 

One of Tyge's favorite things to do is go to the feedlot or dairy.  He checks on the calves, helps Uncle Jan breed heifers (gets right in the pen and walks with him) and rides around with Avo.  Weston just likes yo drive the mule or gator around.  We spent most of Saturday just hanging out around the place, and then the boys got to go to their first movie at the theatre with Uncle Jan, Aunt Lisa and cousin Alexx.

We spent Sunday afternoon at the Manteca Festa, where upon arrival Weston promptly pointed out to Avo which auction item he liked (which of course they purchased for him).  Tyge made made buddies with Gil Fagundes, wanting to know what all the buttons did on his new scooter.

On Monday we went to the train museum in Old Sac with Grandma and Papa (who had flown in the night before), Aunt Tami, Kash and Karli and Aunt Jennifer and Colbie.  The boys thought it was really cool and we finished the afternoon at Joe's Crab Shack.  We headed back to Aunt Jenn's house where my boys were introduced to the ice cream truck....I don't know who was more excited, them or Papa and I when we found out the truck had soft serve.  Tuesday consisted of a brief trip to the fair and a bbq at Aunt Tami's.  Overall it was a good, fun trip, but it was also good to come home!

Three weeks old pictures

As I mentioned in my last post, I'm still trying to figure out my new camera.  So instead of risking not having any great shots of Dani, I had a friend of a friend take some of her last Thursday.  Here's a preview of the amazing job she did.

 A few more pics from Dani's first week.....

Couldn't help but take a picture of Grandma and Weston, both playing on their Ipads/Kindles.  Weston got to ride in the neighbor's dump truck with dad one afternoon.  Picture three is of the back seat....pretty crowded with three car seats.  Weston finally asked to hold her when she was five days old....Tyge is always wanting to be around her and brought her all of his cows one night.

 At Dani's two week check up she weighed 8 pounds (even) and was in the 50th percentile for height, weight, etc.  With the sudden influx of pictures I've been taking lately I started thinking about a new camera again (the thought has been on my mind for some time now). 

 After attempting the above pics with my old point and shoot, I made the leap and purchased a Canon T3i camera, with three different lenses thanks to the recommendations from some friends.  I've had a lot of fun playing around with it and can't believe the increased quality of the shots....even when I'm just using the auto focus modes.  I still need to figure out how to take good indoor photos, as you can see by the pic of the boys with Alexx, who stayed with us a couple of nights on her way to see friends in Forest Grove.

This week started with a trip to the dentist for Weston....his first time getting x-rays.  His teeth are all healthy and no cavities!