Shoot. She can spell.

We were in the car the other day and Sean and I were talking about what it would be like to have a dog (I would rather not, Sean would love to). I said jokingly "If we got a puppy, Smooches (our very protective cat) would try to k-i-l-l it! (If you didn't catch that, I spelled the word "kill" so Reagan wouldn't hear me say it.). From the backseat, Reagan says " Mommy! Why would Smooches try to kill the dog?!"

Dang. Maybe teaching her to spell isn't such a good idea.

Bella Beach Part 1

Here are some pics from the first 2 days of our vacation to the Oregon Coast. We got here on Wednesday and are having a blast! We LOVE it here!

It is only the end of day 2 and I've taken 215 pictures already.... so believe me when I say this is just a sampling! :)

Tomorrow is shopping day for the girls! YAY!

Ring....ring.....ring....

Last night after putting the kids to bed, Sean couldn't find his cell phone anywhere. We decided that the easiest way (duh) was to call his phone from mine and listen for the ring. We'd be sure to find it, right? We kept hearing the faintest ring, but couldn't find it. So we kept calling and calling.... until finally it dawned on me. I was hearing the ring through Ian's monitor. It must have fallen out of Sean's pocket when he put Ian to bed. Sean tip-toed into Ian's room to get the phone, hoping it hadn't woken him up. The picture below is what he found when he got into Ian's room. Apparently he had fallen asleep in the middle of a very important conversation. We laughed really, really hard.... and we couldn't believe that he slept through our many calls attempting to find the phone. It was literally ringing in his ear!!!

(and... yes, he sleeps with all of those animals. No matter where they are in the bed when we leave the room, they end up circling his head as he sleeps. Hey, whatever works, right?!)

Beating the HEAT!

We went to Spokane this past weekend and boy was it really toasty. In fact, when we left on Sunday it was 103 degrees. Sorry people, that's TOO HOT for me!

On Saturday we ventured to Coeur D'Alene to play outside and do some shopping. The kids got really hot.... so we found this little mini "river" with a fountain in it and let them get completely soaked, clothes and all! Thankfully we had a change of clothes in the car.

We were in Spokane celebrating 2 big birthdays (I won't name the numbers...) for Grandma Kathy and Grandpa Bob and also Great-Grandma Anna's 92nd birthday--- Happy Birthday everyone!! We also got to spend time with Uncle Ryan- as well as Uncle Don and Great-Grandma Kay from California. It was a great weekend with Sean's family.

On a side note.... it is only 63 degrees here today. 40 degrees cooler than we were yesterday. I'm thanking God a lot today.... as 63 degrees and rain feels fantastic!

It's a big night!

Here is Ian.... asleep in his big boy bed for the first time!

I'll admit I was a tad hesitant about this night, but he did great! We keep pretty strict bedtime rules... no getting out of bed without calling for Mommy or Daddy first. He didn't get up once! Yay Ian!

His room looks HUGE without a crib and all the baby paraphernalia in it.

I wonder what he'll do when he wakes up in the morning?

Gotta love new panties!

I heard giggling from the bathroom this morning when Reagan was supposed to be going potty.... I went in to investigate and found this:


She got some new princess undies the other day and they were finally washed and ready to wear after her bath last night. She was pumped! These are her favorite pair because she has a big Ariel on her toosh. She was attempting to see the big Ariel by standing on the bathroom counter. Too cute!

These are a few of my favorite things...

We got to do one of my all time favorite things this weekend.... We went to an Air Show! Since my Dad is a pilot, we grew up around airplanes, going to air shows, and I even got to "fly" an Air Force flight simulator (for the record, I was very young and crashed almost immediately)! My Dad flew the F-4 when he was active duty and I am so proud of his accomplishments. When we're at the air shows, I love imagining him in the cockpit of his plane rolling and pulling Gs. When I was a little girl, I always said I wanted to be a fighter pilot, just like him. (I like to use my poor eyesight as an excuse for not following that dream... :) )

Anyhow, this was the first air show since 2005 for our local Air Force Base. It was worth the wait! The demonstrations were fantastic-- they included flights by an F-16 (who at one point flew in formation with a P-51 Mustang--- Amazing!), an F-18 (LOUD!), a C-17 (a massive airplane. The assualt touch and go was awesome!), a spectacular Pearl Harb0r reinactment, and the best part of the show....... the Thunderb1rds.

Sean, the kids and I met my Dad and Asher at the show. We had a wonderful time. Asher and Ian have yet to put down the F-16 models they got there.

I did, unfortunately, learn a very painful lesson. Wanna know what I learned? The "better late than never" rule does not apply to my skin when it comes to sunscreen. I'm pretty sure that "late" looks the same as "never" today. You can just call me Lindsey Lobster right now. OUCH.

Here are some pictures...

This is the F-16 and the P-51

They're both mesmerized!

Wouldn't this be a great picture if they had found a different place to park the school bus? C'mon people!

6 Thunderb1rds

Realizing just how loud it is.... Reagan LOVED the earplugs after this!

Boy, that F-18 is LOUD! I think this is the high speed, almost supersonic, pass. Crazy loud.

The C-17 touch and go. More like "bounce" and go.

Cool dudes.

The line to exit the parking lot was VERY long. An emergency, inappropriate, bathroom break was necessary. What you can't see is how hard Reagan and I are laughing at this point. It was hilarious!

Just kickin' around

We went out and played "soccer" tonight. Actually, we just went and played and we happened to have a few soccer balls with us. Reagan and Asher start a soccer class tomorrow so we thought a little warm up session wouldn't hurt. I also happened to have the camera with me.

(This is Sean contemplating a pink soccer ball...)

Need a good cry?

Well, here you go.

This, my friends, is a beautiful example of unconditional love.

A son asked his father, 'Dad, will you take part in a marathon with me?'. The father, despite having a heart condition, said 'yes'. They went on to complete the marathon together. Father and son went on to join other marathons, the father always saying 'yes' to his son's request of going through the race together. One day, the son asked his father, 'Dad, let's join the Ironman together.' To which, his father said 'yes' too. For those who don't know, Ironman is the toughest triathlon ever. The race encompasses three endurance events of a 2.4 mile (3.86 kilometer) ocean swim, followed by a 112 mile (180.2 kilometer) bike ride, and ending with a 26.2 mile
(42.195 kilometer) marathon along the coast of the Big Island. Father and son went on to complete the race together.
Soak in the joy on the son's face.



Read the whole story of Team Hoyt here

A-hiking we will go...

We went hiking on Saturday with Alicia, Keven, Asher and Tatum. It was an especially warm day here (hey, it was in the upper 80's, which is HOT for us!). Keven found us a great hiking spot that was almost completely in the shade. It led us to the White River, which was running very fast and was beautiful! The kids loved throwing rocks into the river and had a good lesson on river safety (in simple words.... stay back).

We ended our day out with a BBQ and running through the sprinklers! It was a great day!



Wanna see my walking stick?




We stopped to "read" every sign pointing out different types of trees we encountered.




This is what Reagan was saying in these pictures: "I will NOT sit on that log because there are bugs. I will sit on Ian's lap instead."




4 crazy hikers!




Daddy, Ian and their walking sticks.




Lish and her babies




My walking stick is almost taller than me!




Throwing rocks into the river.... don't they look like twins?