i had to dig up this pic; this was back in 2006 - our first summer in the house. keinan was 5 & he got into the same bucket as kirin did today! man, our lawn has come a long way...all due to eric's hard work.

Summer

I let Kirin be free & have some fun this afternoon. Ahhhh, summer!

Our 1st Train Ride

First Day of 2nd Grade

Keinan - 7 Kirin 17 mos.

keinan's big test...

Dude, easy on the clutch... :)

4-wheelin'

finally got the 4-wheeler out...it's been a while again. i guess i shouldn't give ec so many honey-do's & maybe we'd enjoy our summers more... :) anyway, we also finally got keinan to drive. he struggled a little with shifting, but did a great job. he also brought along of personal belongings & set them out in the back of the truck so we could play store. makes sense - i buy him a box of gobstoppers & then have to buy them back for a penny a piece. smart young man. kirin had a ball as well and her bath water that night was filthy!!!

Kirin LOVES being outside

on a walk in Bozeman with Gma & Gpa


on the slide at the park

Keinan & Kirin on vacation in ND

Miss Kirin & her cousin, Alli


Alli giving the kiddos some love


Seriously...how cute are they?

Just a cute story: Gramma Shirley is beyond excited about having the kids for a week ("Only a week?!?!") and they seem to be having a great time. I asked how Kirin is sleeping and Gramma said that she hadn't cried at all that first day and did not want bedtime to be the start of tears so she opted to rock her to sleep. Now we don't typically rock her; we lay her down & leave the room. Pretty simple. I don't want another Keinan-esque sleeper (long story...). Anyway, so she rocked her & she fell asleep in about a ten or so minutes. (according to Gramma). She tells me, "So I rocked her for another 20 minutes or so & her binkie popped right out of her mouth so we just knew she was sound asleep! (laughs, pauses, then continues) So I rocked her for another...oh, I dunno...a half hour or so." (i'm thinkin' wow...she got some serious lovin') So she finally goes & lays her down & asks Keinan, "How did I do?" "Well...." Keinan says, "Mom sometimes rocks her. But NEVER that long" and just shakes his head. I don't know why, but it made me laugh so hard. Kids say the darndest things, huh?

The Shed

wow...that's a lot of lumber


and it begins...


daddy's little helper


I call this "Ohhhh, no...I can't look!"


we have a roof & doors & everything

kinda lazy...

I haven't posted in a while and I feel a little lazy, but that's really not the case. Kirin had her surgery last week & it went reallly well. She is an absolute trooper! She's doing great & she & Keinan are looking forward to their trip to North Dakota starting this weekend. :) I'm going to miss them, but they'll have a great time.
Eric's been building a shed in our backyard & I must say - he is quite handy. It looks great. I've been taking photos of the progress & I'll try to get those posted today. It's going to be WONDERFUL having a garage again!