May I Introduce...

"Regular Fish"

Yes, that is his name, capital R, capital F...Regular Fish.

I've been taking our dog, Reese, to the vet ALOT. It's probably a blog post in itself to explain all of the things wrong (but thankfully getting better) with the dog...but I'll betcha if I put pen to paper about it, I'd convince myself to leave the side gate open and not worry if the furball came back. Ok, I seriously wouldn't leave the gate open...well maybe HAHA...but darnit, he's drained our savings account of ALOT of our fun money the past couple of months with all of his ailments. So no blog post on the dog...Oops...I digress. So I've been taking Reese to the vet, which is at Petsmart, which means that Carter requires a tour by the fish tanks to dream of one day having a pet of his own. (Remember, Emilee has birds and Trevor has hermit crabs...) Well recently, Em and Trev offered to pitch in together and buy Carter a fish and the necessary supplies (not that I in ANY way wanted another pet in the house, but the sibling love thing did tug at my heart!)

So after being carefully selected from dozens of betas at Petsmart, Carter happily hung onto the little cup of blue water and his new pet for the drive home...


So how'd he get THAT name, you ask? Well on the drive home we all were asking Carter what he'd like to name his fish. Bob, maybe, or Nemo. Nope, he wouldn't hear any of our suggestions. He would say "he's just regular fish". We thought that he was not exactly finding the right words and just telling us he didn't want to name him Bob Fish or Nemo Fish...that he just wanted to name him Fish. We kept trying to suggest cute names for his fish and he kept telling us "just regular fish". So one of us said, "OK Carter, Fish is a nice name, we'll call him Fish" and he gave one more try at getting us to understand him. "NO!! His name is Regular Fish!!" AH! Duh, sorry Booga! And so it stuck hahahaha!

Regular Fish gets a weekly bath and here's Carter poised and ready to help scoop him out into the hold cup while I scrub his bowl. And of course, what is an important event like cleaning the fish tank if you don't dress up in your finest suit and tie all by yourself?!

PS. I have to add a last comment here...do you know how HARD it is to photograph a fish?!?! I seriously spent three different photo sessions trying to get a decent pic of this fish. He is soooo wiggly and swimmy! Every time I'd get in close to take a shot of him when he was splayed out nicely to the side, he'd get excited that I was close to the bowl and turn to face me and dance about! And the curve of the bowl was NO help in focusing the camera. The monkeys thought I was nuts as I danced around the kitchen island, going round and round trying to snap a shot before Regular Fish jetted off to another corner of his bowl. Seriously, all you fish owners...try to catch a nice shot of your water friend and let me know how you do! :-)

4th of July!

This year we decided to do fireworks at home so I gathered up several coupons (you knew that was coming, right?!) and hit the deals at the local fireworks stands. We ended up with quite a collection that required some serious organizing...

The monkeys were hilarious. They knew the name of almost all of the 40ish larger fireworks we bought...The Unicorn, The Witch Doctor, The Pyro Tower, The Star Blaster, The Jade Flower...

Of course you always want to catch pictures of these pretty sparkly displays actually going off, but they NEVER turn out...so here's the next best thing...my four favorite people, smiling in anticipation of the fun about to be had!

Hope everyone had as much fun on The Fourth as we did!!

Their first time in Idaho!

Joshua's Grandma, Aunt and cousins came to visit us in late June. We had a great time visiting with them and showing them what we love about Idaho. I know I've said this before, but we LOVE Idaho weather...and that means it's beautiful in the evening to hang out on the back patio and light the chiminea. And of course, when the fire dies down a bit, you MUST make s'mores!


Two of Carter's favorite things in the world are chocolate and graham crackers...so you can imagine the bliss of this picture...

I've also said before that the reason we originally moved to Idaho was the Snake River Gorge. So there was no question that when Grandma and Aunt Cindy wanted to "see the sights of Idaho" we took them straight there.

Eeeeks, don't lean too far over, guys!!!

Woohoo, we had someone with us so ALL FIVE of us are actually in one picture!

Kudos to Cindy for thinking of taking this shot where you can see the river too!

This is a super fun spot too. I don't think it has an official name as it's just sorta there, and unless someone tells you about it, you'd never even know when you drove by. We call it "That Place On That Road Where You Can Pull Off By The Concrete Barrier And Walk Behind The Water Fall."

Say CHEESE, Lexie!

I snapped this one when Cindy, Tyler and Lexie were posing for Grandma's camera...

We also took them to Shoshone Falls, which is sometimes called The Niagra of the West because it is actually higher than Niagra Falls.

One more family picture...

Last stop on our trip was Carmella Winery. Joshua got his love of wine from Grandma so it was a must to stop and let them do a little wine tasting together. CHEERS!

We had a wonderful visit with you guys...come back soon!!!

EASY dinner!

What do you do when you have a bunch of leftover rice and leftover chicken staring at you in the fridge? You make EASY fried rice!!

You can make this dozens of ways, but here's what I had on hand and how I threw it together.

Saute shredded or julienned carrot in some oil (throw in any other veggies at this step). Add 2-3 eggs and scramble into veggies, breaking apart well as they set. Add in meat (I also threw in some shrimp with the chicken) to warm. Then throw in 3-4 cups of rice and stir and toss to warm through. Add some soy sauce to taste. SERVE!!

SUPER EASY dinner!!

Ice Skating!

Emilee and her friend, Allie, enticed me with a coupon...you know how I love my coupons...so I took the monkeys plus one ice skating and we had a blast!

Carter took right to it with the help of the little skater thingy.

And like normal, the only picture I got of Trevor was one of the back of him as he zoomed by...almost too fast to catch!

Here's a video of Carter and I cruising around the rink, and you can catch a glimpse of Trev in there too.

And then later in the day Emilee enticed Carter to give up his skater thingy and just hold her hand so here's them taking a lap...

Since we had a friend with us, I actually got to get in a picture with my kiddos...

And here's the monkeys with Allie...

picture fun

Had a little fun with a photo editor...took these pics...




And did this...

A Water Family Again

OK, here I go again!! I started last month, promising to catch up my blog with a daily post and I got pretty far, but then we had company and swimming lessons and summer just pulled me away from my computer! But I was so excited to share today's post that I'm back, and vowing again, that I'll get a daily post up until I'm all caught up. Cross your fingers with me haha!!

So our most current family news is that we bought a boat!! We had a Bayliner for several years back when we lived in California and LOVED going to the lake. But the economy in CA and then our decision to move sadly led us to decide to sell it back in 2005. But things have fallen into place and hip-hip-hooray, we are boat owners again! So here's some pictures and video from our first weekend out on our new boat!

We got out on the water and everyone settled into a comfy spot to sit back and enjoy the cruise...

Daddy loves to drive the boat FAST...and looky what happens when two siblings who normally can't stand each other get a tad scared at top speed...

Of course everyone wants a turn as captain...


The boat has a tower to wake board off of...which means there are nice sturdy poles to hang on to so Joshua and I stood up and enjoyed the feel of the wind while a smaller captain was handling the wheel.

You also have to drop anchor somewhere quiet and drown a few worms...man do our kids love to fish, for a little while at least.


I LOVE wakeboarding so I was first out on the rope and after just a couple of crashes, it all came back to me and I was up and having fun. Even got brave enough to try with just one hand!


And check out which monkey got the hang of the wakeboard first!! Go Trev!!

We also hooked up the tube and pulled that along for a while. Here's Trev hanging on for dear life as Daddy teased him with 360s and such, trying to toss him out!

And here's a Emilee and Carter getting a bit of a calmer ride...

Emilee gave wakeboarding a very good try, but didn't quite get it just yet. She's sooooo close!

Say cheese, girlie!!

And yes, Reese had to go along too...

And per Joshua's Boating Regulations, all furry passengers get tossed in the drink...