Sli-ip, SLIP-N-SLIDE!

Friday June 19th, 2009

It was almost 90 degrees today! WHEW! Since we haven't even seen weather in the 80's during this "summer" of ours yet, we weren't sure how to keep ourselves from MELTING! Couldn't stay INSIDE with the air on and waste this BEAUTIFUL day so Parker suggested getting out the ol' SLIP N SLIDE!! Whomever invented this thing is AWESOME! I remember how much fun I used to have playing on these...now, I'd just dislocate my hip! HA! The kids played on it for HOURS...didn't seem to bug them that the hose water was FREEZING!!

Man, Parker is LONG! Savannah usually slips on down on her knees...she doesn't like her tummy touching!
Full steam-ahead, Aiden!
Yes, I MADE THEM pose like this!

Welcome to the Family Baby Avery!

Thursday June 18th, 2009

So, there may be too many pics in this post, but I've tried THREE TIMES to upload them to a rotating window thing (you know, like Laurie does!!) and it won't accept it so I'm DONE trying and am just gonna post them 'ol school! ha, ha, ha...
Anyway, my cousin Brady and his cute wife Angie had a BEAUTIFUL baby girl on Wednesday! We are SO EXCITED!! Had to go and crash the hospital to see this little darling and the kids were PUMPED to go! So without further adu...meet the newest addition to our family ~

Baby Avery Ann Nelson

So SweetYou are looking at some PRETTY PROUD cousins here!

Savannah was very insistant that she get to hold Avery FIRST! She hogged her the longest, and then after the boys had a turn, she had to hold her AGAIN!
Parker is such a good boy...he's so sweet and caring. He asked if we could unwrap her to look at her feet and kept saying, "Mom, her hands are just SO SMALL"! Plus, he LOVED the way she smelled!
Aiden was enamoured with how small her hands and feet were and he kept giving her Eskimo Kisses (rubbing noses)...it melted my heart how soft and gentle he was with her. He also had MANY questions that he had to WHISPER to me ~ such as:
* How did the baby get out of Angie's tummy?
* Who took the baby out?...Did Brady?
* (I had told him they made a cut in Angie's tummy) DID IT HURT!?! (quite concerned here) and then
* Did it BLEED?
* How did they get the bleeding to stop?
At this point I had to cut him off because I had been patiently answering his questions very honestly and I was afraid he was going to ask next to SEE the incision!! It was really VERY cute though!

I love little baby feet! I love this picture!
Avery had her eyes open for quite a while! What a treat for us!
The CREW! Angie & Brady and my kiddos! How CUTE are they!!?

Little League

Parker is very excited that he has moved up from T-Ball/Coach Pitch to LITTLE LEAGUE! They have practice twice a week and have games twice a week as well so he gets 4 days of ball a week! This is a GREAT thing for this boy - he LOVES the sport. Another really cool thing is that there are 18 boys from his class alone that play - that's about DOUBLE the numbers the other teams have had that we've played against! I have to admit, I was a little worried at first because this is a traveling team so they get on a bus and travel up to an hour+ away for some of the games! Gotta let 'em grow up sometime, eh? The only bummer is that his games are on Monday & Wednesdays at 1:00 in the afternoon...shoot, won't be able to make them all!

My little man plays 2nd base! He's had a couple of "MLB grabs" (that's what the team calls them!) - SO FUN!!

Parker and his buddy Nicholas! I love team shots from the back!

Pretty good form there, Bubba!!

Nice stance...

BUDDIES ~ Sam, Austin, Parker & Nick

Uh-Oh!

Well, we knew it was gonna happen sooner or later...I just wish it wouldn't have happened during an episonde of the dog getting loose and wreaking havoc on the 10 kids playing in the backyard, while Savannah was on her way down the street CRYING after being sent home from a neighbor's house (you could hear her for MILES), and Chad wasn't in Canada fishing!

This is my newly remodeled kitchen window!!
A close up of the spot the rock hit after being throttled against the window from being swung at by a metal bat!

The amazing, and almost PRETTY mosaic of the tempered glass that shattered...you could hear the crackling for AT LEAST an hour after impact! Good thing this baby was DOUBLE pained!And, last but not least...THE CULPRIT.

I see your smiles...this is not a shock to you AT ALL, is it!? At first he wouldn't confess, but after I got him to admit he did it, he felt SO BAD, and cried SO HARD, I just COULDN'T be TOO upset. After all, it's not like I wasn't expecting it to happen at SOME POINT!

First Fishin' Trip of Summer!

Sunday June 14th, 2009

It's FAMILY FISHING TIME! The kids "voted on" (this is their latest thing..."voting" on just about EVERYTHING!!) going to Turtle Lake for the afternoon! No Barbie pole for THIS girl! She's HARD CORE!

We had live bait and these two goof-balls FREQUENTLY checked on them in the live well! It was a race to see who could get there the fastest when a hook needed new bait!
Only the COOLEST of the COOL get to drive THIS boat!!

I wasn't really helping him fish, I do actually have my own pole in my hands! Doesn't this look peaceful?
Sorry! But I HAD to post this one!! Obviously, the person who invented boats was a M-A-N...where are the girls supposed to pee?! In the OTHER live well, OF COURSE!! We had NO LUCK in the sweltering sun out on the lake; however, we STRUCK GOLD at the end of Grandma & Grandpa Cottrell's dock!!

Looks like we're having Rock Bass for supper! It actually wasn't bad and the pride that was served on the side was TOTALLY worth it!

Sweet Faces

What precious gifts I have received...

Rub a Dub Dub...

two little boogers playing in mommy's tub!

Love those toes

Minnows

Chad came home from fishing with a live well FULL of minnows! There was only ONE of the Juntunen kids eager to help him unload them (with bare hands, I may add)....

dah, dah DAHHH!! You thought it was gonna be AIDEN, didn't you?! tee, hee! Daddy rewarded Miss Savannah by letting her bring some in the house. Nope, I was NOT impressed...at ALL...oh well, what 'cha gonna do!?

Hat Girl

I just love hats...

I am especially fond of this little face in a hat!

Father's Day Early This Year

So, Chad is going on his annual fishing trip on Tuesday. They are going back to Rainey Lake (near Canada) to fish on houseboats. Last year, there were 10 foot waves on this lake and a couple people nearly drowned and they got stranded on an island until help could arrive...but I digress. The point of this post is that we usually get Chad fishing stuff for Father's Day since it always falls near his fishing trip! We had to celebrate Father's Day a little early since he's leaving in 2 days. This year he got a new rod and pole,

some jigs (the kids like to pick them out!), a fish weight (you know the ones you hang the fish from - it's even DIGITAL!), some bait spray (you spray it on the bait to make it smell REAL), line for the rod/reel and...wait for it...

SUNGLASSES!! We are SO WEIRD! For the past 4 or 5 years we get Chad the fishing gear that's on his list and then we try to find something EXTRA (for fishing) that looks FUN that he doesn't already have. We are starting to run out of ideas!

He's gotten a flashlight that you shake & is waterproof, a couple of "cute" tackle boxes (his new reel matches the orange one we got last year!), some pliers that float (do you see the theme here? Things that can fall into the water and survive!?! ha, ha,ha!), a filet set with a cutting board, etc...This year the kids happened to notice that all the guys in the pictures at the "fishing and hunting store" - aka Gander Mountain - have HUGE fish and they are ALL wearing SUNGLASSES!! It was settled...Chad had to have a pair of sunglasses so now he can FINALLY catch the BIG ONE!! Ha, ha, ha...good luck honey, we will miss you!!