what's been going on?

this past week has been a busy one. first, we celebrated hunter's 11 b-day. i can't believe my baby is a pre-teen!! it is amazing. i am so glad that hunter is a good kid and pretty easy. he works hard in school, is reliable and responsible and is fun to be around. he is a great example to his younger siblings, too! thanks hunter for being, "YOU!"

we celebrated hunter's b-day on the weekend, with his favorite dinner, sweet and sour chicken stir-fry with rice and apple crisp for dessert.
on his actual b-day, we made him breakfast in bed, french toast, muffins and hashbrowns, some of his favorites. he also opened presents from all the grandparents and from the family. he got some wonderful gifts, thank you everyone!! also, ned and i are getting him a REAL backpack for some backpacking trips this summer.

william celebrated being 9mo. he is a growing boy. he weighs almost 26lbs and is 30 1/2 in. long. we often mistake his name for "fatso." i know, not nice!! but, he doesn't mind. he is so close to crawling, but not quite there. he stands great all by himself and can even move along furniture a bit. he can go from his back to his tummy to his hands and knees to sitting, but he can't seem to figure out how to do that crawling thing, yet! i am not complaining because with the little bit of bum scooting he is doing he gets into quite enough!!

we spent memorial day weekend outdoors, of course. the weather was fabulous, not too hot and not too cold. just perfect! we spent saturday up at kamiak butte, hiking and picnicking.

sunday was spent at church giving our "moving away" talks, on faith and scripture study and up at our friends home for some game time and a walk.

monday, we went canoeing, swimming and picnicking at lyons' ferry. it is a fun place where the snake river and the palouse river meet. we went with our friends the cole's and we had a blast. it was a memorable day.

here, the boys are having fun swimming in the beach area.

william loved the water. but, i had to keep my eye on him because he loved to dig up the rocks under the water and put them in his mouth.

ned, jess and wick went on a long canoe trip up the palouse river in an attempt to reach the palouse falls. they didn't make it, so instead we drove the 10 miles up to the falls...AND BOY WERE THEY WORTH SEEING!!

the pictures do not do them justice. they were beautiful. the landscaping surrounding the falls was breathtaking. it was amazing to find these falls out in literally, "the middle of no where." they were well worth the drive!

emma had her a-day recognition night. it was a wonderful night, with displays of things the girls had made, a taco bar dinner and a fun video displaying the activities the girls had done during the year.

hunter graduated(is that the right word?), from cub scouts. he earned his webelos and his arrow of light awards this week and has officially bridged over into boy scouts. yeah! he had great scout leaders that worked really hard to help him meet the requirements. way to go, hunter!!!


finally, ned has closed the spokane chapter of his life! he was laid-off this past week due to lack of work and yesterday we went up and emptied out his apartment. he is officially unemployed and looking for work! on the up-side, he is home all the time now, YEAH!, and he is still getting paid, even though he isn't working there anymore(at least for awhile). hopefully, we will find a job before the paychecks stop coming.

how are you guys doing???