It's true, he's TWO!

My little man is big!

 I don't like that he is growing up so fast, but I love the little boy he is. Keaton has been such a blessing in our home. With three teen/tween girls that tend to take everything too seriously, Keaton makes us all talk like fools sing songs about going potty and ask for endless hugs and kisses from him. If any of us dosent make it home before he goes to bed we are devastated we didn't get to tell him goodnight. When he wakes up there is a stampede up the stairs to see who can get him first. 

We all can't get enough of Keeter boy!

He scored on the gifts. He got a Thomas train starter set (he calls the Choo choo). He some little airplanes, and a base ball stand from the Nearons (he's quite the hitter).

He also got an oot ball! He loves watching oot ball with Daddy.

Lucy and Ruby made Elmo cupcakes for his birthday (he is a HUGE fan of Elmo).

He really didn't eat it much at all, but thought it was an awesome face paint!

Happy Birthday...

 Keeter

Keets

Keeter boy

Keatonator

JuicyMango

Bubba

Little Dude

Keaton!

We love you!

Whippet Reunion

Two of Penelope's litter mates (Wally & Lawrence) came up to visit and spend time with their sister and their Mom (Charlotte). Wally and Lawrence were both adopted buy Mike Christa Beebout. They all drove up from Elk Grove Ca to clock in some whippet family time.

(Mike holding Wally and Lawrence. Haley holding Lala, Ruby holding Penelope, Jaime Sage holding Charlotte and Indy)

After Lala watched how the boys played with frisbees, she literally jumped right in. We learned that Lala has some seriously mad frisbee skills!

The dogs had a blast chasing each other and running all over the property.

It was pretty sad when it was time for them to go home. They definitely remembered their family members and were so happy to be back together... it was hard to split them up.

The first day of school!

Lucy is starting 5th grade and will be home schooled this year for the first time. She is super excited about being home schooled, I hope it stays that way!

Ruby is starting Seventh grade (middle school) and will be starting at a new school. I have NEVER seen her so nervous about school as today.

Haley is starting tenth grade. She seems happy and relaxed about school.

Kinda funny watching my two mormon girls walking into their Catholic school. We have really loved this school for Haley so we can't wait for Ruby to have this experience.

1st Time "Official" Camping

Ruby has been begging to go camping for some time now. We went camping in KOA cabins a year or so ago, but she said that was not real camping. Eric and I are not big fans of camping so we were not too excited to purchase and plan a tent camping trip. Ruby told us that she was an abused and neglected child because ALL her friends go camping with their parents. We explained that we like "camping" in a big ship in the Caribbean... she did not find that funny.

 The last time the girls got their teeth cleaned at the dentist, the hygienist came up to me and told me how much Ruby wanted to go camping. Then she gave me a little speech about how good camping is for kids and she suggested some great places to camp nearby. This was the moment I realized we needed to take Ruby camping soon or we would be paying for her therapy. So we planned a camping trip with our good friends the P family.

Other then a tent and sleeping bags we have no camping supplies so we stopped by Phil's Frosties for dinner on the way to the camp site. 

It took us a little time, but we got the tent up without any drama.

We actually had a blast camping , except for baby in a tent with no crib. I was told it was too cold to have Keets in a pack n play, he needed to be in a sleeping bag to stay warm. I was worried all night that he was either going to suffocate or freeze to death so I could not sleep. Every time he moved I had to check on him. It was a very long night. I felt so relieved when the sun started coming up because the end was in sight.

The 6 girls were in a tent next to us. They did not want to fall asleep at night then in the morning they did not want to wake up. Once they couldn't ignore my singing and walking on them, they woke up but would not get out of their bags because it was "too cold".

The P family (hard core campers) came with all their gear and cooked a gourmet breakfast burritos for everyone.

Then we all headed to the Rogue for a day of rafting.

I always love rafting, even with no sleep.

There were three families rafting in 2 1/2 boats. We love everyone that was there but I have to say some of the adults (the ones that are camping masters) were rafting woosies.  As soon as the squirt guns cam out they paddled as fast as they could and we did not see them until the end of the ride. 

a groovy kind of love

Haley's Happy Happy Happy Birthday

For Haley's 15th birthday she wanted to have a Duck Dynasty party. We came up with tons of ideas and had the party planned... then Haley had an emergency appendectomy. 

So we changed things around to make it less physical so she could participate in everything.

First thing as guests arrived we gave them a camo t-shirt to wear (although some already came with them on). 

Of course if you are doing a Duck Dynasty party, you gotta have beards. So the girls all designed and cut out their beards, blackened their cheeks and got their redneck on!

The each designed their "hubcaps" (aka silver frisbees) then we had a hubcap throwing contest off our deck out into the goat field. 

We watched a a clip from the episode Frog in One. Then we had a Frog diving contest. We hid four small rubber frogs in the bottom of a container of chocolate pudding. They could only use their mouths to find the frogs. A couple of girls started gagging saying that the texture of the putting and the rubber frog were grossing them out. Sounded successful to me!

For dinner we had Bayou Bowels (aka Hawaiian haystacks).  We had maggots (rice) Frog legs (chicken) for toppings we had yuppie food (corn), Mrs. Kay's sauce (sour cream), koon turds (olives), fungus (mushrooms), worms (chinese rice noodles), frog eye salad and of course we had Si Sweet Tea (root beer).

Tie dye cupcakes with some worm bait on top.

 We painted fish and made fish prints. The girls were grossed out when they saw the fish on the table, but once they started doing the prints they LOVED it.  They kept asking if they could make more.

My younger daughters just wanted to dissect the fish. They were in heaven showing the other girls the tongue, and eyeball. I was glad they were happy, but it totally grossed me out. I guess I'm just yuppie girl at heart.

We watched a clip from the episode about the wild hive and then went out and hit a beehive pinyata.

 Later we made mallow dogs. We were all surprised at how good they are. We actually liked them!

 Of course we had to do some photos of the girls getting their duck on!

Happy, Happy Happy!

Our Co-Pay Summer

A broken leg

A chipped tooth

an appendicitis 

This was the first year we actually met our medial deductible.

Let's hope it never happens again! 

Haley's surgery

Haley is not a fan of camping so she was less then thrilled when our church organized a huge Stake Youth Encampment. I was involved in creating the logo and posters so I had seen first hand how much work was going into this activity and I really wanted my girls to get to enjoy it.  The day before the activity Haley told me she didn't feel well, but she was acting fine so I was not worried. The day of the camp she begged me to let her stay home and I told her she was going no matter what so so save her breath. I was positive that she just didn't want to go camping and if she was really sick, Eric was going to be at the camp as a leader and the camp doctor. I knew she would be fine.

When the camp was over I drove two hours out in the middle of nowhere to pick up my girls and a few of their friends. When I first got there Haley was acting fine, but the drive home she was being totally dramatic acting like she was going to die. Because I had seen her walking around, smiling just a few minutes earlier I knew she was faking and trying to "get me back" for forcing her to go to the camp. I was not giving her any sympathy. When we got home she went upstairs and threw up.  

I FINALLY realized she was sick, but I thought she was dehydrated from the heat and hiking. She drank a ton of Gatorade and the next morning was feeling better so she went to her drivers training class. For  a couple of days she went to her class, but then came home and slept the rest of the day and night. Eric and one his friends Joe P. (also a doctor) examined Haley to see if it was her appendix, they both said they did not think it was. The next day I took her to our doctor to get blood work done. He did a full physical, and checked to see if it was her appendix. She was non responsive to all the tests so he said he did not think it was her appendix but wanted to get an ultrasound to be sure and see if it was ovarian cyst. They did the ultrasound and we walked across the hall to have her blood drawn. Right after her blood was drawn, my cell phone rang and it was Joe P. He had just read her ultrasound and said he was wrong (the day before) it was positive and she needed to have an appendectomy. So within a very short period of time she was checked into the hospital, scrubbed down and ready for surgery.

Lala FaceTimed Haley at the hospital so she could tell her good night. 

The Nearons sent this super cute flower arrangement of a puppy with a band aid. Haley had Tons of visitors come to the house to visit her bring her gifts and see how she was doing. The Bishop brought by some fudge(her favorite thing in the world) for Haley. I thought she was going to cry. It was probably a combination of how thoughtful he was and how happy she was to receive fudge.

A few days of crazy (nothing new)

My niece Larkin flew in Tuesday night to stay with us for 11 days. My girls kept asking me "Why does she want to come here? They are the ones with Lamas". So once she arrived I asked her what she wanted to do here and she said just hang out and learn something new. She added that her mom was hoping I would teach her how to quilt and teach her how we take care of all our farm animals. She has been here for 6 days now and unfortunately all we have done is swim, shop, and she got a makeovers at the mall with Ruby and my sister. We only have 5 days left so I need to step it up fast. 

Speaking of my Sister, Tiffany drove up on Thursday with her daughter Ali so she could play with Lucy. While she was was here the girls played while we looked at potential houses for my Mom to move here. We found some good options, but we had reservations about everything we looked at.  Then we went on a tour of this house. 

It was absolutely perfect for my mom. It had perfect spots for all her furniture and paintings. As we walked through it just kept getting better and better. Everything that she was looking for this house had and more. When we walked out of the house I said to Tiffany "So what do you think?". She said it was perfect and we needed to buy it for mom. I totally agreed that it was perfect and mom needed to live there but financially we had just paid off a chunk of our student loans and committed to an expensive buy in for Eric's work. My mind and heart were racing as I was trying to figure out how we could make this work. Tiffany called her husband and after a lot of discussion, they decided that they would buy the house as an investment and rent it to our mom.  

Its obvious to me that although she was not planning on driving up and buying a house, that's what exactly why she needed to come up here. We are so excited for our mom to move into this amazing house and become an oregonian!

Haley is legal!

She passed the test on the first try!!!!

Congratulations Haley!

I am so excited about having another driver in the house.