Mikey and Boo

Annalyn just loves her Great Uncle Mikey. They are like peas in a pod. When we go to his doctor's appointments this is exactly where she wants to be.
We are very glad he is doing so well with the radiation, we want to keep him around as long as we can!

Happy Birthday Christopher!

We had a great time celebrating Nine years of Tuffer! He is such a joy to have around. For his birthday dinner, per his request, we made potato soup with the potatoes form his garden.
I didn't have enough time to thicken it because I was out searching the neighborhood for Nicholas. He decided I didn't really mean for him to stay home when I said it. The soup turned out tasty at least.
Tuffer went to Aunt Dee's to help make his cake. The flavor he picked was banana split cake: chocolate banana cake with strawberry filling and I think pineapple flavored frosting. It was very yummy!
For entertainment we had Nicholas and Matthew Ninja Fight (not because we asked them, they were just messing around).
Annalyn was giving free check ups with the flashlight. Weather you wanted it or not...
...And helping Tuffer get into his presents.For his birthday He got a Kindle (e-book reader) and toys.

It was a fun evening. I love spending time with our family especially when we are celebrating such a great kid!

Happy Birthday Tuffer!

Hooray Ouray!

Sherman had to make a run up to Ouray today for work. The kids and I decided to tag along.
It was a very nice day, warm but not hot and sunny. Ouray is beautiful. The leaves on the trees are starting to change. I love the old buildings and the mountains. You can feel the history there.

We stopped to eat at The Gold Belt. The younger boys got their favorite (pizza), Shermie thought he needed a double hamburger but had to settle for a single, Boo got chicken strips, I got a wrap and Sherman got a Double burger (which Shermie eyed ruefully until saw that his dad couldn't even finish it) and we all had fries.The fries were Boo's favorite! She was stuffing them in hand over fist.
She also did a nice little table dance.
On the way home we stopped in Montrose to look in the antic stores. We like to look through the old things trying to find a treasure. This time we found a whole set of Star Wars figures that the boys thought were awesome. Never the less they stayed there.
What a great day we had just spending time together.

Ponytail

I was so excited to try this today. I can finally get Annalyn's hair in a ponytail! Her first official ponytail.Well most of it anyway.

I love this girl!

...Peaches for Me

Millions of peaches. Well OK maybe not millions but enough at any rate. I helped Susan with the canning today. I love peaches but if it were not for this fabulous lady they would never get canned. I don't like canning but I do love my mother-in-law and the end product.
Now my shelves are lined with jars of beautiful peaches along with diced tomatoes, salsa (which is one jar from gone already) and plum jam.

Thank you, Susan! I literally couldn't (or rather wouldn't) have done it with out you and I'm grateful we did!

There's No Place Like Home

Treasure Hunters

Tuffer has been dieing for weeks to dig up his potatoes. Last night I finally gave them the go ahead.
They where having so much fun. It was a real kick. Just like our own little treasure hunt.
I was surprised at how many they pulled out since I only had two plants.
We are saving them to make potato soup for Tuffer's birthday next Tuesday. I think next year I will plant the whole box with potatoes

Tri Jersey

We have been designing a jersey for our team triathlon coming up on October 2nd. We decided to be Team Ava Sweet Cakes (mostly because we want there to be cupcakes when we finish). This is the Cupcake I made for the back.

Here is the logo for the front:
And Here is what we will get..
Except this will be the font for the words:
I love it! Now lets hope they get here in time. Keep your fingers crossed. (side note if you must have one they can be re-order)

Sell Out Or Ship Off...

... cause it's not going back in. After packing things and moving furniture for the carpet there was a lot I found we could do without. So naturally we had a Yard Sale.

The boys went threw their stuff and added some toys, we had old dressers and a chair, baby stuff, etc. I even decided to thin out the Halloween costumes. Which after I sold Annalyn's Poison Ivy costume my husband decided we should keep all their 1st costumes. :( Now we have all but Boo's. :( Oh well I think the girl who bought it was super excited about it and it will get a second time in the spot light.

Big Girl Bed

Well I'm not sure I like it but we moved Annalyn to her own room. She now has a twin bed instead of the crib. We moved the boys to the front of the house and put her in the room closest to us. She was very excited to help decorate and put her stuff in her room. She went to bed the first night very easily.
The next night I had to but her back in bed 50 times with in 30 minutes. After that she decided it wasn't worth the fight and went to sleep. She looks so little in her big bed.
Her Daddy but the mirror right at her level. She obviously loves it, apparent by the spit and smear marks she tired to wipe off.
I love her wall hanging and curtains. They go so well with her dressers I painted before. It is so fun to have a girl and do the cute stuff!
Little sleepy baby all tucked in. She has no problem now going to bed. But I miss having her so close in the computer room.

Labor Day Weekend

The week leading up to this weekend was a crazy one. We had furniture going out, carpet coming in, sleeping at grandma's, packing, putting the mattresses back, some clean up and work. Also Sherman insisted that we get the tires checked, which was good because they found a nail or a screw in each one...great. With that fixed we headed up to Ragged Mountain for an Alexander Family Reunion! I love Ragged Mountain it is so beautiful! On the dirt road up the mountain Sherman let Annalyn sit on his lap so she could see the deer (we were only going about 5mph). She thought she was so cool! We passed Jen going down to Delta for the night with Sam and Sydney who didn't sleep the night before. Shortly after that we discovered we had a flat tire! Which was only the start of our fun. Sherman walked the next mile to the cabin and brought his Dad back with the truck to pump up the tire.
When we got to camp they had a fire going and everyone was making s'mores. Katie lost her balance and tired to steady herself on the rim of the fire pit, burning her hand. With the excitement of seeing their cousins the boys where running around like lunatics. During this Matthew fell down the stairs and gave himself a fat lip. Because of the way the bite inside looked we thought he may need stitches so back down to Delta we went. We didn't get back until 2:00 in the morning.

But by the time we all woke later everything was good. The kids played and ran around having a great time. Annalyn loved the humming birds!
We all went to one of the lakes for a ride in the boats. The big hit was the many frogs to chase and catch. We did a little fishing with no luck.
Here we are piled in the truck go back to the cabin for lunch. My mother in-law was awesome she did the majority of the cooking. (next time we should plan on each family taking a turn with the food prep)
My sister-in-law Jen showed up with her knee very black and blue. She had fallen while at her parents house. Nic came into the kitchen cover in burs. But that was about the last and least of the interesting incidences. Until we found the bathroom wall and Katie covered in permanent marker.
The bikes where another fun thing the kids enjoyed. With the hills they had to ride down the fun was never ending. Nic was learning to ride without training wheels. What better way to learn then being sent down a big, long, grassy hill.
Time for the big boys to have a little fun. Spencer and Sarah brought up two rifles. Sherman and Steve brought a shot gun, targets and LOTS of clay pigeons. Eathan and Shermie both did good. Eathan hit 3 pigeons, which is more than I hit(zero). Sherman help all of the kids take a turn. He almost forgot Jonas(3 I think) who had been sitting waiting patiently for an hour. We had said the kids were done and he pipes up, "I'm BIG, I'm BIG"! So he got his turn too. He is too cute! The big boys had a shooting contest and of course Spencer won.
In morning of the last day I took all the kids fishing. After frantically trying to please the masses with ready fishing poles we settled down (well as much as seven boys and one girl will) for the wait. We had a couple bites but no luck, until Tuffer hooked one good. Man what a FISH!! Gavin earned bragging rights for helping Tuffer hold it while I got the hook out. They were all very excited to see such a huge fish. Beck caught the next fish and it was huge too. We had it almost to the shore and got a good look at it before it wiggled free of the line. His is the one that got away.
The Boys ran the fish back to Grandma to cook. She said, "I will cook it as long as you clean it". Of course this meant sticking it in the sink, covering it with a little soap and bleach and scrubbing it with a scrub pad...right? Needless to say it did not get eaten. We had such a great time. It was so good to see everyone. I can't wait to do it again!