Say hello to my little friend!

I can be a REAL Seminary teacher now!!!!!  Thank you Jesse and Whitney, you guys are the best! :)

People, you have been warned...

The Warriors Return

Seth and Joe played in Operation Paintball Warrior 2013 this weekend.
Everyone in their uniforms and gear, my two boys show up in shorts.
Not even camo shorts.  Just light tan and plaid shorts.  No reason to give up style just 'cause you're playing paintball, right?
Ah, I've raised them well.
One of the big stories that came home from the tournament was an "incident" Joe was in...
Joe was charging around something and came face to face with a guy from the other team.
Joe did a fast turn back the direction he came, the other guy raised his gun and fired on Joe but missed.
Joe pointed his gun backwards facing behind him as he ran forward and pulled the trigger.
Joe hit the guy and put him out.
Coolest part?  The photographer caught a picture of it!!!!...

Army Team Alpha

 Aw!  Sam and Seth got to have a nice little bonding moment before the bloodshed.

You know, I don't see my boys in this picture with the ref.
Does this mean my boys don't care about the rules?  Or that they were out sneaking around the course doing something maybe not quite, ahem, legal (in their minds this would fall under "black ops") in prep for the next round?

There's Sam the man!

 Oh man!  They got paint on Joe's shorts!  

Don't make him angry...you wouldn't like him when he's angry...

'Tis the Season

Jason dropped his first doe of the season.  He has been itchin' to get a deer with his bow.  After watching does wander around him the last couple of times he has been out, he finally just shot one today.  There'll be big bucks later in the year.  We need bratwurst now!

Now, if you are the squeemish type, you need to stop reading here...  

But this is just too cool not to share!

Jason was pretty sure he got a heart shot because the deer dropped.

It wasn't until they cleaned it and pulled the heart out that they were positive...

There was a perfect imprint of the arrowhead on the heart!

And that is how it is done, ladies and gentlemen!

(And, yes, that is MY man!)

Savannah, this one's for YOU!

Rock on monkey chick!

Katie's Bow (NOT to be confused with beau!)

Katie has been driving us crazy about getting her a bow.  She got to practice shooting bows at Girl's Camp this year and we haven't heard the end of it since.  

Well, a friend of her dad's gave her a bow.  

It is a bow that was used in competitive archery.  

It is a little older model so my husband took it down to the shooting and archery shop to see if it needed any work and have it restrung.  The guy at the shop is not an easy guy to impress but he loved this bow.  It is an older model that hasn't been used in a few years but the shop owner told us it was a very nice bow in its day.  It is in awesome condition and Katie is in love!  

The best part of the story:  The case for the bow is bright neon pink.  Jason walked into the gun/archery shop with all the guys hanging out, doing their manly thing, carrying this thing.  Jason said everyone in the shop turned to look at him when he walked through that door.  The shop fell into stunned silence.  

Finally the store owner said, "It takes a REAL man to carry THAT case!"  

The things dads will do for their little girls!

Hmmmmmmm.........

We have had a ton of humming birds in the yard this year.  They love the double-decker feeder that Grandma sent out for them.  This year I've only seen the green-with-ruby-throat variety along with their brown/grey female friends.  Last year we had a blue and yellow humming bird hanging around.
These are a few pictures I've snapped of them coming to the feeders.

It's For The Birds

This Spring we had a pair of barn swallows build a nest right on our front porch.  We had fun watching the process of them building their new home together.
Soon there were eggs and, not long after, I heard a faint chirping noise coming from the nest.  There were four fuzzy little babies in the nest.

Every time we walked out on the porch, the mama bird (who was always nearby in the yard) would fly at us and give us a good telling-off.  When mama bird got upset then papa bird was never long to follow and when he arrived he really let us have it.

As the babies got bigger they became more curious and would stick their heads over the edge of the nest to look at us.  This really upset mama bird and she would land on the babies and stuff them back down in the nest.  

We watched the babies grow until the day came that there was a huge ruckus on the front porch.  

We noticed a whole flock of barn swallows had taken over the front yard.  The birds would get into formation and fly circles around the yard making a sweep through the porch and past the nest where the young birds were.

All the young birds were perched on the edge of the nest, flexing their wings and almost jumping with excitement.  As the adults flew past the nest, the older birds would chirp loudly to young birds (hence the commotion we heard from the house).

I thought it was so interesting that when it was time for the young birds to leave the nest, the whole flock came to encourage them and show them what to do.  

We watched for a while but never did get to see the young birds take their jump from the nest.
The next morning we went out to find an empty nest.  The young birds had gone.  It was a rather sad feeling.
Later that day as we were working outside I noticed the flock of swallows diving and swooping around in the yard. (It is really nice to have a flock of these birds around, they keep our mosquito population way down.)
I looked a little closer and noticed four birds that were much smaller than the rest of the birds.
There were the babies!
They didn't swoop and dive quite so crazy as the adult birds but they were getting the hang of it.  I stopped and watched as they glided around trying to follow the adults, learning the skills they needed to be the birds they were meant to be.

It has been a cool experience to watch the process of life with these birds.  God is good.  He is always mindful of us.  He teaches us in so many ways. Having these birds at our house this Summer was just what I needed to help me with some of the lessons that I am learning.

Joe's Dream Car

Joe did something none of us every thought would happen out here
in small-town-middle-America.  

He spotted his dream car!  

Over the past several years, Joe has jabbered incessantly
about owning one of these little three-wheel cars.
 Doesn't really seem unusual for Joe to be crazy about something strange and "unusual", right?  

This all started a few years ago when Joe watched
a Top Gear episode featuring a little Reliant Robin. 

Ever since then it has been his life's goal to have a little three-wheel car. 

 Today Joe is livin' the dream. 

A huge shout out and thank you to whomever is the awesome person of great character, 

fulfiller of dreams, giver of hopes, who brought this little bugger to our neck of the woods.

So, here is a video of the report that started it all...

And as if that wasn't bad enough, then they aired this...

(How can a Joe POSSIBLY resist?!!!)

A because-I'm-bawling-you-have-to-too! post

Goin' Courtin'

We had Seth's Eagle Court of Honor at the beginning of August.  Lots of friends and family came together to make it a great celebration.  It was a wonderful evening for a wonderful kid.

 

 Our ward bishop conducted the ceremonies.

Michael sang the national anthem.

Jason gave a talk about being an eagle scout. 

Our young mens president and crew advisor presented Seth 

with his Eagle ribbon, badge, certificate, neckerchief, etc.. 

One of our adult eagle scouts in the ward talked to Seth about eagle challenges.

Baaboo presented Seth with a flag that had been 

flown over our nation's Capitol in his honor. 

She also gave him a special coin. 

Poppy presented Seth is a special certificate and a challenge coin 

sent by the National P-38 Association in rememberance of Seth's grandfather 

who was a P-38 photo recon pilot in WWII. 

Seth then presented Baaboo with the mentor pin 

for her help getting Seth's project organized and paperwork in.

Seth presented his eagle project foreman with the mentor pin 

for his guidance and help in doing the project.

Amanda led the closing song.

Sam, Joe, David, David, and Jesse retired the colors.

And the party began!

And Chelsea made it!!!!!!