Vacationing

So I left late last month and meandered my way up home spent a week with the family then came home on my birthday. It's official I'm 29 with 18 years of experience. Had a great time watching Pullman's fireworks once tha camera cooperated.

here are some photos from all the fun I had on my vacation. Gray was blessed on July the 6 by his Daddy. He looked so cute in his little white suit. Tracy and Eric have a very nice home and it's just perfect for them.
Emil learned to walk more than a few steps fall then keep crawling. Thanks to Marquel who has a ton of patience. She just kept playing with him and working at it over and over, he was getting around really well the other night. Thanks also to her for sleeping on the couch all week so Auntie Vic had a bed. Emil also got a haircut thanks to her because his hair was so long she put it into ponytails
Emelia had her 1st day of swimming lessons and didn't drown or get kicked out.She also got to see a Buffalo in Yellowstone stick his bum into the window of their car. Which she had to tell everyone was only inches from Caralee's face.

Chayla and Cherise are looking more and more alike as they get older and turning into absolutely gorgeous young women. Cherise is busy with her job and getting ready to start her sophmore year of college. Chayla has been busy with Basketball /Camp and will be a HS Senior this fall. They liked the BAB I brought them too! They are both waayyy taller than me too. Matter of fact even Marquel is a bit taller than me.


Maren has been working for her grandpa in the fields pulling rye and was looking forward to going to the American Idol Concert over in Seattle last weekend.
Best of all Heidi was doing really well getting around on her new shoes. She shared my hotel room last weekend ( I wonder why she didn't want to squeeze in with Emma and her Mom and Dad?) and rode with me the 5 hours from Pullman to Boise last Sunday. She showed me "the Infamous Bridge". We had the best time singing along to the CD's she brought to listen to. i didn't get a really good photo of her or Marquel except in the group shots so I guess I'll just have to go back. LOL

A Superior Housewife.....

According to this test from the 1930's standards. I score BIG!! a whole 65.

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65 As a 1930s wife, I am Superior http://www.magatsu.net/maritaltest/">Take the test!

Unfortunately there isn't a test like it for today. Some of the questions are pretty funny. I had to laugh about rinsing the lid of the milk jars before opening them. The Frog always thought it was weird that I rinsed the tops off on canned goods. Especially soups and tuna fish...totally skeeves me out when I see someone open a can of something without rinsing.....especially if it's canned fruit that doesn't get cooked.. UGGH!!

More of Alaska

I thought I'd post a bit more about our Alaska Cruise. Blane and I flew to Seattle where we met up with Aunt Ilene and Uncle Denny. Carla and Gaylen drove up visiting on their way so they had a car that took us all to the Docks...it took 2 trips to get all of us and our luggage there but the hardest part was standing in line. We did that alot on boarding day.

Once all the waiting in line was done we found our cabin and settled in. then we found a stowaway. Somehow Chloe sneaked into the bags.

She was made to feel welcome right away though. Our cabin Steward brought her a playmate.
we got underway about 4pm and it was off to our adventure. We were through the sound and at sea all day Monday. We explored and found our way around the ship. Then it was Formal night. Chloe was so excited to wear her new dress.

The Maitre'd of the dining room came over to show me the items I could have GF and he saw Chloe and brought her an off menu dinner too.

Good Gifts

I just got a call from Heidi Bug who turned 14 just last week thanking me for her B-Day gift. What a good kid she is! All of my nieces and nephews are good kids in fact. But she is special. I've been around her and Em alot more so that may be the reason I'm so partial to them.

I so glad she liked the book and she's excited to be getting the next one in the Twilight series in August that I pre-ordered for her too.

She told me she is going to her first Stake Dance tonight. I told her to be careful of her foot, we don't want to undo all the progress she's made. So NO Polka's, Bunny Hop, Conga Line or Swing for a bit longer. In just 2 years she'll be driving and dating. Where does the time go?

I love these photos that Caralee sent me of the girls at the park. Despite Em being a pesky pill sometimes and almost a 9 year age gap they do love each other and it shows in this photo.

They are so very funny and cute together.

In other news this week Little Gray got some help and built his very first Snowman on Tuesday. Pullman got a pretty heavy snowstorm .....in June!!

Tracy said she didn't get him a coat or anything because you just don't think of things like that for a summer baby.

So at one week old Gray saw snow for the first time.

Big News

I made COOKIES!!!!!
The end of the world as we know it is now much closer to the end.
I know this because I never ever baked cookies when I did do alot of baking. I baked Brownies or Lemon Bars but never ever cookies. In fact the last time I recall baking actual cookies was having Heidi help me make Snickerdoodles. Since I think this was during a trip long before Emelia was even born, it was quite some time ago. Hence the title of this post. After all Em is now 5 1/2
But I had Bananas that... while not too bad...... looked truly awful. Someday some one will figure out a way to keep bananas from going brown and growing hairy mold where they connect to others in the same bunch.
But I digress
Back to my story
Since I haven't baked in awhile it took a little bit of brainpower and quite a bit of effort to bring forth my culinary creations. (When you eat Gluten Free you get a bit experimental when it comes to baking without traditonal flour) It also took TIME.
Which is why I've never liked baking cookies. You plop spoonfuls of the dough on the baking sheet, pop it in the oven and then wait for 10-15 minutes for the timer to go off. You then remove the baked cookies to a rack to cool, scrape the burnt on bits off the pan into the sink only to plop some more dough on and jam it into the oven to hurry up and wait for the timer to go off once again. You then continue to repeat these manuvers until you run out of dough, time or patience. Since I had 5 bananas that needed to be used I doubled the recipe. Only one pan fits into the oven at a time.....It took 2 1/2 hours to bake all of the cookies and I was using heaping spoonfuls of the cookie batter.
Which is why I don't see alot of cookies in my future........unless there is a fire.
At which point I expect you all to back me up and swear to the insurance adjuster that my oven was a definitly a convection oven with gas burners.

Which is why I don't bake cookies.....except for the other night.

Welcome to the World!!

I have a new nephew!!

After many hours waiting for something to happen after she was induced on Friday, Baby Sis gave birth by C-section last night. Gray arrived Sunday. He was 22 inches long and weighed 7lbs 4oz.

Baby Sis is doing well and says he has a bit of Strawberry Blonde hair and bigger feet than she expected. Daddy kept us all well entertained by the frequent updates he posted to the internet. I think all the attention Baby Sis was getting and the sheer boredom of all the hurry up and wait really got to him about Sunday morning because he sure gave us quite the laughs. If you don't believe me, you can check it out for yourselves. Welcome to the World Little Man!