Not So Little

My kids aren't little anymore! At least I don't feel like they are when I look at pictures of them.... sometimes I still feel like they are when I don't get anything done except clean up the messes that they've made. :) Cash and Marley are getting along very well right now though, and I love it. I love how he makes her laugh and she'll let him beat up on her for a little while... She'll take him his toys and help him put things away. They look forward to seeing each other every day and it's awesome. I've been working on trying to finish their rooms lately, and it's taking forever. BUT, I'm happy to say that I'm almost done and I'll put pictures up when I am. Ryan is SUPER busy right now, but it's good busy. He just built a water feature that's 15' tall and looks like what you'd see in the middle of a subdivision, not in someone's backyard. It's pretty amazing what he can create. I can't wait to put pictures up. BUT, you all get pictures of the kids for right now. :) Man they're fun. Enjoy! (Some are from my camera phone)

Update

I wish I had more time to write, or that I was more creative in my story telling, but I'm not. We've been busy, but I'm not sure at what. We did get to go to McCall for a week and we LOVED staying in the mountains and playing in the lake. It makes me want to move. Ryan's busy as ever with work, but things are going well. Lindsay and Eli came to visit us and we loved having them here. We wish they lived here with us. Other than that, we really are happy and feeling blessed.

Adventures

So it's bee an exciting couple of weeks!

The kids and I went on a little road trip to my cousin's wedding in Twin Falls. Rachel (my niece) came with me to help with the kids, which was awesome. The temple there is really pretty, and it was an experience for me to take the kids on my own. I loved seeing all (some) of the cousins that I haven't seen in years. I enjoy my extended family. I rode home alone with the kids on the way home, and luckily they slept half the way. It was actually enjoyable!!

We took the kids to a Hawk's baseball game. It was pretty hot out, but it was still a lot of fun. Hawks won, but we only stayed until the 5th inning... the kids attention span didn't last much longer than that. I love outings with the family.

Last week my dad took us out to ride his horse a week ago, and Cash is quite the cowboy. He LOVED Thunderjet and feeding the goats and watching the cows. Marley was a little hesitant to get on at first, but then loved every minute of it. I miss riding horses in a bad way, so I'm glad my dad was able to meet us out there. (By the way, Cash is in big boy underwear and loves it!)

Ryan took a couple days to go to Scout camp last week, and last minute, I decided to go up and be "Caretaker" of a girl's camp retreat up 25 minutes past Stanley. I was leaving Saturday, and he was supposed to find a ride for the boys back to Boise and meet us up there Saturday afternoon because he was only 45 minutes from our destination. Didn't quite work out as planned. Ryan ended up coming home really late Friday night, and stayed here while we left Saturday morning. My mom and sister, Adria and her kids came as well. It was an adventure. No testosterone, except for Cash. :) 5 kids and 3 adults staying in a 700 square foot area... I slept with Cash in a bed and Marley right next to me in the pack and play. Did I mention we brought the dogs too? Yes, it was definitely a learning experience, and I learned how much I need/love my husband! It was a lot of fun though, we went to Redfish Lake for 2 of the afternoons, and just chilled out playing in the BEAUTIFUL water. We went on bike rides and hikes and enjoyed the sweet smelling mountain air. It made me want to move to the mountains... especially because we were right at the base of the Sawtooths, which are incredible. I'm glad we didn't have to stay the whole week with the 155 girls that came to camp, and that we got 2 1/2 days to ourselves up there. It was really sweet.

It's the longest I've been away from Ryan... Basically Thursday until Wednesday. And boy was he busy while I was gone... Not only did he manage to get a lot of work done on his projects, and in the office, he got to go golfing with Russ, AND got our carpets cleaned, rearranged the office furniture, put in our fountain the back yard, start our firepit, bought endtables for our living room, and bought me a sewing desk and set it up AND bought me flowers... Seriously, I'm completely spoiled, and I married the best man ever!!! I was pretty much in shock when I got home... I spent 5 days in the mountains, and came home to a new place!! He's awesome. I'm so lucky... Here's some pictures!!

Birthday and more

Marley's birthday was June 30th, and we celebrated it at 9:00 pm (which is totally late for my kids) with some cupcakes! She loved when we would sing her Happy Birthday all day.... we sang it at least 50 times. Instead of a party I just took the kids to the park and a couple of my sisters met us there and we played. We love Marley, and we're so happy that she's a part of our little family. She makes me laugh on a daily basis and is SO vocal. We love her.

On the 4th of July our friends Abbey and Tyson flew us to McCall for breakfast at the Pancake house. We had 6 plates of food... it was so dang good. It was a lot of fun spending some time with them, and very nice of them to invite us on that little outing. :)

Ocean Escape

My dad met some people who own a few homes on the beach in Lincoln City, OR and offered to let anyone stay there... so of course I jumped at the opportunity and set it up for last weekend. It was my first trip to the Oregon Coast (I know, it's pretty sad, considering I'm an Idaho native) and I found that I LOVE it there! Lucky for us, Lincoln City is the kite capital of the U.S.A. and it was the kite festival that weekend! The house was amazing, and far larger than our little family needed, but we absolutely soaked up every second we could. Unfortunately it was a short trip, but any trip that Ryan gets to take during the summer is a blessing, and so I'm not complaining AT ALL. Cash loved the kites and digging in the sand, and Marley could have lived on the beach the whole time we were there. Every time I put her down she would crawl as FAST as she could for the ocean... she's such a rascal. Here's some pictures to document our adventures... it was so much fun and I can't wait to get back!

Paint The Town

Back in April we volunteered to participate in "Paint The Town". The Neighborhood Housing Services put take applications of people who are unable to afford, or physically unable to paint their homes, and then takes volunteers and places them with each homeowner to get their home painted. This was the first year Watermark Landscapes participated, and I must admit, it was a lot more work than I thought it'd be! Not that I didn't know painting a house would be a big task, but I guess I forgot about all the prep that went into it. Remember we volunteered for this in April, and the paint day was June 13th... needless to say, Ryan has been EXTREMELY busy lately, so it was up to me to get it all put together. Luckily my dad helped me a TON.

First we went to the house to spray it off, and scrape off any peeling paint. My dad of course has a client he thought he'd ask to help out... DPC... A painting company! I kind of felt like a cheater at first, but honestly, they were volunteering and wanted to do it. So, by the time we got there, they had already sprayed the house off, and my dad and I were left with the scraping. A week later we went back to do the prime coat, and caulking... This time when talking to the owners, Kelly and Carla, they mentioned something about sod and some bushes that we might put together a bid for them on (considering we were a landscape company). Keep in mind that the past few weeks around here have been CRAZY weather with totally random downpours. Not the best painting weather. But, we managed to finish the prime coat just as it started to sprinkle then pour.

The week heading up to June 13th, I put together the missing supplies that we'd need, and got some donations put together for the owners... The Turf Co (Darwin McKay) donated the sod, and Quiznos gave us a discount on food to feed all our volunteers and delivered it... It was AWESOME.

June 13th! My dad of course got there before I even did, and started right away. DPC (Jim Doufas) decided to volunteer and help us a TON by spraying the body of the house. In the meantime, everyone I thought, plus some showed up! Lyman Belnap (Dad), Ryan, Cathryn Griffin, Dustin Pinther, Mark Johnson, Rebecca Johnson, Eric (her friend), Eric Belnap, Joe Emily Aaron Micheal and Jacob Piscione, and Matthew Ferguson. Seriously, amazing that they all showed up right around 9 am on a Saturday when there were so many other things they could have been doing. We literally finished putting in sod, planting flowers, rose bushes, removing bushes, and PAINTING THE HOUSE about 30 minutes before it started to pour rain.

Thank you SO much everyone... If just one less person showed up to help us, we literally wouldn't have finished in time. It was a great time helping out the community and spending time with people we care about!! Also, thank you Mom and Adria for watching the kids the whole time... Couldn't have done it without you either!

He Did It!!

So, life is awesome, and we've been busy, but CASH SLEPT IN A BIG BOY BED!! We have been trying and trying since around the time Marley was 2 months old, and he has refused to do it. But, last night I got him to sleep in the bed! It took me laying by him for 40 minutes, but he finally relaxed enough and fell asleep... He even stayed in bed all night until 7 this morning. I'm so proud of our buckaroo. He's getting to be such a big boy! He says and does things every day that make me laugh outloud. One of my favorite things is what he says when he wants something... We are trying to teach him "Please may I... _________" So, he says things like "Please may I have some hold you?" Or "Please may I have some open the door?" It's adorable.

Let's see... Marley is almost a year old and I can't believe it. She is simply adorable and a big huge bundle of personality. I remember when Cash was little we would tell him "trouble" or "danger" or "no" and he really did a good job of avoiding those things after just a few times... NOT Marley. She finds it absolutely hilarious to play in the dog water, water cooler, dog food, etc. She will look at me, laugh and then go for it as quickly as possible. It's so funny. She does say a few words... She says: dog, hi, dad, bye bye.... and when she plays peek a boo, she covers her ears, not her eyes. It's really hilarious.

Also, I have to brag about Ryan... He just landed a job of a lifetime!! We found out last week (on our anniversary actually), and he starts tomorrow. He's really excited, and I'm so proud of him. It was nice to see him do a drawing, he hasn't done one in awhile, and he's so artistic and talented. It's going to be a 3-4 month job, so I am expecting not to see much of him this summer, but I'm so proud of him and to see this job completed, it's totally worth it.

For our anniversary I set it up through my dad for Ryan to drive a race car at Meridian Speedway on their practice night. He didn't get to tear it up like he wanted to, but it was still really cool for him to drive in one and on the track. The only problem is he now really wants a race car of his own.

I'm going to put up some pictures of some fun things... With all the ups and downs, I really love life.