As the Autumn Leaves Fall....

.....how much more does God's Grace fall on us each day???? I looooove Fall!!! Although this year it feels like we went from Summer straight to Winter....oh please fall, come back to me!! Well, lots of stuff has been going on...hence the absence of my writing on this thing! First we took a vacation to the Coast, my beloved hometown, the beginning of September. We had so much fun!! We were blessed to visit with many friends and friends that are like family! I got to see my Beloved Ocean!! And we had beautiful weather!!! I don't think I would change a thing about our vacation. And then, the day after we got back from vacation the boys and I packed up and went to Baker City for a week. We had a lot of family coming to town there that I hadn't gotten to see in ages! So it was like a week long family reunion! It was great! The only downfall was the flu bugs that we came home with from my mom's daycare...oh well, it was worth it! Should have pumped us full of Airborne but I did not think of it in time!

The week after we came home from my Mom and Dad's I went to a Woman's Retreat at Ritter Hotsprings! So much fun!!! We had the whole place to ourselves! And the Guest Speaker was Your's Truley!! Yep! God did a little stretching on my heart! I have always said I am not a speaker, I like nothing about getting up in front of people and talking! But my God is sufficient for ALL my needs and when he asks me to do something In His Name, he promises to provide. Well, as it turns out....God spoke through me and all the ladies said that they couldn't tell that I was nervous at all. And guess what......I didn't speak once.....but twice!!!! He is soooo GOOD!

Then the next week we spent a few days in Redmond getting the house ready for winter! Fun fun!!!! Last weekend Norman's best friend and wife and kids came to minister at our church. Even though it was a short visit, it was so much fun! The kids led worship and did AWESOME and Norman's best friend delivered the message! God is good to us! I thank Him so much for the blessing of wonderful friends! Anyways, so sorry about the length of this! I am going to post some pics of our vacation......hope you like them! Sorry there are so many pictures but I couldn't pick just a few!! There were so many good ones! And FYI they go from the end of the week to the beginning of the week in order :0)

Me and my Bestest Friend Linda Lou at the Scrap store! We spent all day there scrapping together! It was so much fun!

Death of the "Ducky Shoes"! Did you know that when heated these shoes do not melt, they shrink!!

My proof that "Yes, I was on this vacation too!"'

It was 80 something degrees at the lighthouse and the flies were horrible! I kept swatting them off of me and Sammy but when you stop for one second this is what happens! It was so gross!

Lighthouse....sorry for the sideways pictures...forgot to turn them before I posted!

This is my artsy picture. Lighthouse with woman painting it. I can't wait to make it cooler in Phootshop!

Levi with his BEEnoculars! :0)

A visit with my friend Sheila!

The family building a sandcastle on the beach...we had so much fun!

Sammy splashing!!

Levi took this pic of me and Norman on our anniversary!

Yaquina Bay Harbor

The boys imitating the Sea Lions

My MAN! ;0)

Sam was afraid at first to be on the dock so he peeked at the Sea Lions through a hole!

Benny Benners!

Oops! I got the blurry one! Oh Well, he is still a cutie!

Sam had just woken up

Benny

Another Benny shot

Sam....look at that face!! We must be camping!

Oh my!

New friends

My friend Alison and her son came to the beach with us for a visit....wish we had more time together!

The art of builing sandcastles.....Alison makes part of a wall and Sam knocks it down....over and over and over and over.....it NEVER got old!

Learning how to make sandcastles

Goofin off around the campfire.....probably not the smartest thing!

My handsome boy!

Good buddies! Oh, and the ducky shoes before they died!

A gathering of friends!

Superheros

Thank you Christie for introducing me to Picnik!!! I have been having soooo much fun! And I really enjoy that I can save them to my computer and print them myself! I've been having a blast! Here is the first one I did....the pictures are a little old but I thought they were fun anyways! If I keep this up I may have to upgrade to the premium package!

Our week at Camp Elkanah

This last week we have had the pleasure to serve as staff at Kiids Camp 2009 at Camp Elkanah. We had a BLAST! Levi got to sneak in as a camper and Ben and Sam were there with us also. I was privilaged to serve as kitchen help in charge of the salad bar. It sounds easy, I know, but you have to understand we were serving roughly 300 people! And boy could those kids eat!! Norman got to be a cabin inspector. The kids were rewarded each day if their cabins were clean and up to par. He also helped out in a lot of other areas. God was so amazing and did some awesome things in kids' lives this week. We were able to grow relationships with several of the kids and leaders and Pastors. It was so neat getting to know more people. Highlights of our trip were the trips to the LaGrande swimming pool, the red hooded sweatshirt song that I now get to hear my boys sing at random during the day (Ben loves to sing it in the bathroom!) thanks to Pastor Dan!, the giant slip-n-slide! (Sam actually went down by himself several times!), and the many new games and songs we learned. Even though we returned home exausted, it was well worth it. Sam met a girl at camp. I know what you're thinking, he's only 2, right?? Well, you can't stop love at first sight! Sam met McKayla and loved her instantly. Now when he see's her picture on Facebook his face lights up and he says "My Tayla" Well, as it stands Sam is McKayla's main squeeze right now. Although she does not promise that she won't meet someone else and get married. But she has promised that Sam will always be her main squeeze. I love it! She is an awesome young lady and we are glad to call her part of our family. You can never have too much family, right? So I will have to post pictures of camp later because I didn't have my camera with me and will have to bum pictures from a friend. The pictures of Sam below are the only pictures I have of camp and these were taken by McKayla while she was playing with Sam on the playground. Can you see the love in his eyes??

Pics from our 4th of July trip

Here are some pictures from our 4th of July weekend. I don't have many pictures of our activities because I didn't want to take my camera by the water. I hope you enjoy the ones I did get!

Somewhere between Omak and Tri-Cities

Between Coullee City and Soap Lake

The long road home

Sam getting tired of Levi and Ben invading his space!

The three amigos

The Grand Coullee Dam

Sam by The Grand Coullee Dam

Silly Ben by The Grand Coullee Dam

Spiderman Levi by The Grand Coullee Dam

The Soyster Family by The Grand Coullee Dam

Grand Coullee Dam

The Grand Coullee Dam

Why do these thing amaze boys??

The Grand Coullee Dam......again!

The back of my sister-in-law and one of her 5 yorkies

My hubby

From State to State

Boy do we have a lot going on!! I guess it kinda makes up for the winters being so slow. Well, first things first...Ben is scheduled for a Tonsilectomy and Adenoidectomy on July 15th. I am trying to reschedule so that Ben, Sam and I can participate in Kid's Camp on July 20th-24. If it can't be rescheduled then we are going to stay at home for his recovery time. That will be a big bummer for Ben, he was looking forward to Kid's Camp.
For the 4th of July weekend we took off for Omak, Wa to spend the holiday with Norman's family. His sister and brother in law has a home there. It's only 45 min from the Canadian border so you can imagine how long of a drive that was for us!! But it was worth it! They have a big pool that we got to swim in whenever we wanted and a big trampoline. We all had a great time. On Friday more of the family showed up so we ended up with 3 of his 4 sisters and their families. His mom and her friend. And his Ex-Stepmom. It was quite a crowd!! On Saturday we got everything loaded up and headed to the lake. Norman waterskiied for the first time in 25 years! He did pretty good! I went tubing for the first time. It was great until the tube decided to dive under water because it didn't have enough air in it. And then, silly me chose to get back on it to bring it in and of course it did the same thing again!! That time was scary because the swirl from the boat engine sucked me under water. But I made it out alive!! And I even went out again after we aired it up!! Levi and Ben went out on the tube with Norman. Benny thought it was a little scary but felt better after Norman put his arm around him. Levi LOVED it! He went out again with a couple of his cousins. He held on really good and wasn't scared at all! We ended the day at the park on the Indian Reservation in town. Washington + Indian Reservation = really cool fireworks!! The boys loved them! Then Sunday we spent relaxing and playing in the pool, resting up for our long trip back the next day. It was so much fun! I don't know why we don't get together more often as a family. It was great.
On the way home we stopped at the Grand Coullee Dam. I guess it is the eighth wonder of the world! It was really BIG!! The boys loved it! I have pictures but they are not on the computer yet.
So, there is still a bunch of stuff planned for this summer. Hopefully I can remember to keep up on my blogging it all!!

The perfect Father's Day for Mom??

Yesterday was a GREAT day! The only thing I regret was that I didn't have my camera with me, at all! Grrr...pictures would have been great! We started out the day with a fun Father's day service. Norman actually rode a quad into the church!!! We had a great time of worship after a short sermonette. The worship was our Father's Day gift to God. Then we had a yummy Father's Day BBQ. All the foods that the guys like....plus lots of desserts. Man was it good!. After that we came home and I got to nap while Norman spent a couple hours on the phone talking to family...literally!! HE was suppose to be getting the nap but I couldn't help myself! Okay, then we loaded up the kids and their bike helmets and went to a friends ranch. I had never driven a 4 wheeler before so Norman gave me a quick lesson on a 6X6 and I set off by myself. Norman loaded all the boys onto his 4 wheeler and took them for a ride while I got use to the 6X6 and had a little fun. Then because the 6X6 has a better holding area for the boys to ride, I took the boys and let Norman have a little fun! It was a blast! We took a little road up to the top of the hill and had an amazing view in all directions. It was amazing! I just wish I had my CAMERA!! Then we loaded back up and went down to the ranch where we got to practice shooting the 22 and 20 gage for a little while. Lots of fun. (I know, I am such a tomboy! But I live while 4 boys! If you can't beat them, join them..right?) Then we were invited to stay for bbq dinner. Authentic Mexican style. I hope that was politically correct. The friend cooking is from Mexico and he made some yummy food for us! So not only was it a perfect Father's Day for Dad....it was a perfect Father's Day for Mom, too! I think I had more fun than I did on Mother's day!! SHHHHH Don't tell! :):):)

My life lately......

has been horribly busy. Guarenteed to get even busier as the summer passes us by. Thankfully we have some fun family things planned! My sister Kim just came for a visit on Friday and left this evening. That was fun!! I love having company! We even had a photo shoot. It was raining off and on all day so we set up our little studio in my living room. I kinda like the soft lighting it gave to the pictures when I left my flash off. Anyways we had bunches of fun and I got to have some girl time. Sometimes I feel like all I talk about on here is getting girl time. But you have to remember that I live with 4 boys so girly time is important to me!!

But first, these pictures I'm posting are from our recent trecks down Waterman Rd. You never know what you are going to encounter in that 25 mile stretch down Waterman Rd.!! :):)

The rest of the pictures are from our photo shoot today. I hope you all enjoy.....especially you Sarah!! This is what has been going on in my life:)

Lookin' for wildlife on Waterman Rd.
Ummmm....everything seems so far away!

Buffalo....yes, buffalo on waterman Rd.

More buffalo. Doesn't that look like a tractor operating in the field?? It's the buffalo trying to get the fleas off!! No joke!

And we see elk.....

And we see antelope.......

And more elk jumping the fence...we scared it!

And more buffalo closer up.....

And we also get to see eagles....so cool!

Okay.....these next pictures are from our photo shoot today. These are the MOST recent pictures available of my family. Norman wasn't home so he's not in here. lol!

Sammy Sammers

Three goofy amigos

The three stooges

My baby

Such a cute guy!

My Levi

We'll be beatin' the girls off, I'm sure!

Benny Benners, getting so big and handsome!

Awesome guy!

These guys obviously didn't want to get their picture taken with MOM!! Are we teenagers yet?

Me!

Me again.....

Amberli

Cutie....

Ami....

Kim and Ami

Kim and Ami again

My big sissy, Kim