Summertime Fun……at Pavilion Park

I’m going to do a little “flash back” to summer since I was so bad a blogging over the summer. I took so many pictures over the summer that I never blogged and I’m sure I won’t ever get all of the blogged but I will slowly go back and see what I can do.

One of the things that we did several times last summer was meet Ben for lunch at this pretty cool park. We are within walking distance from it so we would pack a picnic lunch, load up our bikes (we usually rode) and head out to meet Daddy. The best thing about this particular park is the splash zone! Unfortunately everyone else in Liberty Lake and the surrounding areas feels the same way. It gets really busy some days but it’s still fun. Sarah never really gets in the water, Zac usually just watches but Jake and Luke have a great time. You can’t really see my kids’ faces in these pictures so in case you are wondering who’s who……Luke is in the red and white suit, Jacob is in the gray, white and yellow, Sarah is the only girl and Zac didn’t make it into any pictures.

Looking at these pictures sure makes me long for summer again. We’ve had a very crazy winter, if you can even call that. The only time my kids have been able to play out in the snow was when Ben and I were in Cancun. Which reminds me, I need to show you pictures of that trip to don’t I? Anyway, I can’t wait for the weather to warm up. I know we have a few more months of cold but a girl can still dream right?

On Monday Becky is going to start a new WOW project week. If you don’t know what that is go to her blog and she explains it well. You don’t need to know Becky to join and you don’t even need a blog to join in. Just let her know and she will let you know how to do it. She even does a drawing for a prize at the end. It a really fun way to get a project done around the house that you have been putting off for one reason or another. I will be doing it this time so check back on Monday to find out what my project is going to be. I honestly have now idea yet what I will be doing but I have 2 days to figure it out!

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!

Swimming at Liberty Lake

We have lived in Liberty Lake for over a year now and up until about 3 weeks ago we had never been to the lake. It's a pretty nice place, not a huge beach and not the cleanest but the kids sure had fun and it was nice to lay around in the sun for awhile. I didn't get a lot of pictures because I was swimming but I got some really cool ones of Ben and Zac.

I haven't told you about my new camera yet. For my birthday Ben bought me a really great Canon Rebel with a 75mm-300mm lens. I've had so much fun with it and I think it takes awesome pictures. This first picture that I took was from so far away. I was on the beach, sitting on the blanket while they were way out in the water. Anyway, enough about my camera....here's the pictures from the lake :)
Look at the height....it was a little scary for mom on the sidelines but Zac loved it.

We've gone a couple more times since this trip and I'm sure we will go many more times.

Garden Project

This spring Ben and I decided that we wanted to put in a garden. We originally had a dog kennel in the corner of our yard but our wonderful Home Owners Association told us that we couldn't have it there so we HAD to take it down. We were going to just put in a little garden but after talking about it and planning it for about 30 min or so it ended up being way bigger then we thought it would be. It was so much hard work but we LOVED every minute of it. I took a lot of pictures of the progress along the way. Here are some....

I wanted you all to know that I did work with Ben but I also made sure that I had my coffee out there too.

The neighborhood boys sure enjoyed having piles of dirt and sod to play with. I'm not real sure what they were doing in this picture but I think there were cars involved.

Here it is, all ready for the dirt to arrive. Look at the beautiful wall that we built.

Here it is!!! Our WHOLE dump truck full of dirt. The biggest bummer of it all was that the dump truck couldn't fit back to the garden. We had to haul it all back to there one wheel barrel load at a time. We were so sore for the next week or so!

The kids thought it was cool to climb up on the mountain of dirt. They got so dirty!

Hey, it's almost ready to plant....

and now it's planted!!

Here it is a lot later after everything had some good water and sun.

This onion looked so big but when we pulled it, not so much. It was good though.

My HUGE zucchini plants.

Here's Ben harvesting some stuff....I think it's the big (not so much) onion.

And here's some of the fruits of our labors. The last two nights we've had veggies and potatoes. It's been so fun eating stuff that we working so hard for.

So there it is....our new hobby. I have learned a lot this year about gardening and I can't wait until next year to try a few new things. For now, we are just going to keep enjoying the food we are getting out of it.

Our new family toy….

I realized today that I didn’t tell you about our new toy. For Jacob’s birthday we decided to get a new basketball hoop. It’s so fun to have. With four kids, three of which are boys, we know that it will get a lot of use in the next few years. I have to admit, even I have enjoyed it some and Ben has really enjoyed it. Here are some pictures that we took the first night that we had it. As you can tell…all of the kids were getting into it.

Who knew Sarah could dunk huh?

Oh, the weather outside is frightful....

First I have to start out by saying "I'm sorry that I've been neglecting you!" I really have quite a few things to blog about, pictures to show, stories to tell but today I have to tell you about the day we had yesterday.

It all started on Wednesday mid-morning. I went to Costco and it was just starting to snow, when I came out of Costco it was actually starting to pile up a little so I came home. All the news channels were saying around 5 inches. Well, in just a little over 24 hours we had 2 feet and more in some places!! We broke records is Spokane. It was crazy....all the schools closed (Jacob got out for Christmas break 2 days early!), lots of businesses closed and they were saying stay home unless you absolutely had to go somewhere. Ben went in to work for just a little bit since we only live a couple miles away but he didn't stay long, the place was empty. I took pictures while Ben was out shoveling and the kids were playing. The thing to remember is that I took these pictures in the morning and it snow hard all day long!!

It has slowed down quite a bit now but it is still snowing a little bit. They say that we are going to have a break but then on Sunday we are supposed to be hit with another storm. We'll see what that brings our way. Hopefully the break will give everyone to catch up before it hits again.

I'm just trying to stay dry and warm in my house while my kids want to play out in the fluffy white all day.

Becky and her family are heading up here tomorrow so please pray that they make it safely. My kids can't wait to play with their cousins!! It's all they can't talk about so I hope they bring there snow cloths with them...

Fun in the Sun (while it lasted)

First, if you haven't seen or entered my blog giveaway, go check it out here. It's a great prize and you could be the winner!!

A couple of weekends ago, when it felt like spring was coming, we got the jumpy castle out for the kids. Notice the shorts?? It was close to 80 degrees that day!!

When we get the castle out, we usually get more kids too :) Several of the neighbor kids showed up not long after we got it all set up. It was quite the party.






Sarah really wanted in on the fun. She seemed to be content with just one of the balls from the ball pit. I'm sure that won't last though.

I will end this post with a video. You can really hear the kids in the background and tell that they are having a blast.