Meet Oliver!! Our new Weimaraner Puppy!

Chuck and I decided to get the boys a puppy for Christmas back in the summer. After alot of research we decided that the Weimaraner would be a perfect dog for our family. They are hunters, retrievers, loving companions, and protective. It just sounds like the boys would love a dog that is going to play rough and tough with them. Along with that, I wanted a big dog that would protect us if needed. Also, they don't shed much and are pretty clean dogs. That is a huge plus! I found a breeder and she had a litter that was going to be ready in mid-December. We were going to have her keep it until Christmas Eve and give him to the boys that night. But as of Friday night, I couldn't wait. So we broke the news to the kids and they were so excited! We left early Saturday morning to pick him up. It was a 31/2 hour drive there. Finally, we got there and had him in our arms. Yes, I know this sounds like I'm talking about a baby. But it really is like adding a new person to the family. Weimaraners live 10-15 years, so hopefully, he's around a long long time. We already love him so much.

Kurtis and Oliver this morning in the backyard.
Oliver biting Kurtis' ear.

Blake and Oliver.

Jared totally loves Ollie. He climbed right in his bed and wanted me to go get his pillow so he could sleep with him. No, I didn't let him.

Jared says, "Awww, he choot". (cute)

picture catch up time. Aug-Dec 2009

they swam all summer long. small pool, but we loved it!

okay this is a money booth!! it was a new bank and they had all these festivities. we showed up for the money booth. you had to grab the money in the air and cram it through this little slit in the wall. somehow, i crammed $100 out!!!! great day for me!
this is what i found blake doing while he was suppose to be picking up toys in the backyard.

jared and his bumba(grandpa, my dad)

CHEESE!!!

blythe and jared. see, he makes kurtis faces.

jared

jared and kurtis after a football game.

Halloween church party. the boys were mad cause they couldn't wear their masks in the church.

poor blake, the one on the side is from when someone opened the door and of course his head was in the way. that one looks great compared to what it did look like. then, the one in the middle is from the park. a kid was throwing huge rocks and blake's poor head caught one. split it right open. so they glued it closed. needless to say, his head looked terrible for a few weeks.

kurtis is #40. chuck calls this one, walking with a purpose.

boys in an air force helicopter.

jared and cousin alex in texas.

the 2007 cousins. all born that year.

blythe and jared

i love this pic of alex. so sweet.

carly and abby

blythers

cousins

i said he was imaginative.

blythers! chubby cheeks!

lauren and i at new moon.

mom, carly, lauren, me and faith. dinner before new moon!

dad and our family. weekend before deployment.

blake and his faces. the kids decorated gingerbread houses last week. it was really fun. lots of icing and candy.

carly, blythe and alex.

kurtis and austin

kurtis' gingerbread house. the gingerbread people are sword fighting with candy canes on the roof. that is a red OU to the left. :)

jared's house. i helped with his.

blake decorating grammie's Christmas tree.

It's Always Something

well, i know i haven't written in forever. that's just how busy we've been! like the title says, "it's always something". the semester did finally start for chuck. it went well. i say went, because he's taking his next to last final right now as i type. after this, only one more semester left!! the other night we were thinking what it might be like to have thanksgiving and christmas without the stress of finals. how wonderful that will be! i don't know if i put it in my last post, but chuck was offered to finish out the internship throughout the school year. so it' been great. we don't see him all that much, but we are so grateful that's he is working so hard at school and work.

as for kurtis, he played football again this year and was awesome! it's like the game really clicked with him this year. he made some awesome tackles. he plays right tackle on defense and left tackle on offense, or vice versa. he played so well. yes, i'm bragging, but his team came in 2nd place in the finals. some of the games were so exciting and very fun. 3rd grade is going well. he says it's hard and has too much work. thing is, that kurtis can totally do the work, he just doesn't want to. but he has a wonderful teacher this year that is right on top of it all. she is a loop teacher. meaning she will keep this class for 3rd and 4th grade. i love that. there won't be a big adjustment next year. and she'll already know kurtis and his tricks. :)



blake is a great kindergartner! he loves it. he's reading and writing and doing so well. he's very excited about reading and i am so glad. he can spell all the colors and many other words. his teacher does alot of songs that go along with spelling and math. he can memorize anything if it's set to music! he is our imaginative child. always pretending with his toys and singing all kinds of songs. when we walk into a store or some place playing music, it's blake that breaks out in a dance. not a little foot tapping either. i mean a real dance. he gets to start football next year. he wants to play so badly. it will be fun to watch the difference of kurtis and blake on the field. blake is less intimidating looking. he's tall and thin. kurtis has a huge build. people look at him and know he plays football and plays on the line. but he's not super aggressive out on the field. kurtis also weighs too much to carry the ball. you have to fall into a certain weight bracket to carry/run the ball. blake will be able to carry the ball. he's also fast and more aggressive in sports. so we are excited for that too. and then there is poor little jared. he wants to be one of the big boys so badly. he likes to do a 3 point stance and have one of his brothers say, "down, set, HUT!!" then off he goes running and tackles you. it's pretty cute. so far, jared is a good mix of kurtis and blake. he very imaginative as well. as we walked through target the other day he imformed me that he was baby rogue and i was a jedi master. our soda bottles were light sabers. we had many light saber battles in target that day. i got some funny looks. he likes to open his arms and pretend that he's flying and is constantly playing. and then he's like kurtis in the way that he makes the exact same faces and looks. kurtis is def his snuggle buddy. if they are watching tv or a movie, he's right there all snuggled up. jared calls kurtis and blake, "his boys". he'll say, "when are we going to pick up my boys from school?" their cousin blythe calls all 3 of them her boys. i think they are officially, "The Boys". all 3 of them get along so great. chuck and i are truly happy with all of them. yes, they are rowdy and loud...alot. but they are boys and they love to play and have a good time. they also each have their quiet sweet times that they are so loving and caring. i enjoy being a mother of boys. like the title says, "it's always, something".

AWESOME NEWS!!!!

well, for us anyways, it's great news. chuck is entering his 3rd and last year of law school this fall. each summer, you want to intern somewhere. paid internships are even better. we were blessed last summer for chuck to intern with an immigration lawyer. he learned a ton and enjoyed it. then this summer, not wanting to drive to the city each day or be away from us for parts of the week and travel, he wanted to find an internship here in town. well, he was offered one at a great firm downtown. and he's been there all summer. again, he's learned alot and made great contacts and networks. the internship was offered only for the summer. but we were hoping that they'd extend it throughout the school year. extra experience and money is always good. so, last week, his boss asked him if he could talk him into staying for the school year!!! we were soooooo relieved!! money will be extra tight this last year, so anything helps. plus, he enjoys working there. so we were on a high about that for a few days. then, a few days later, some of the attorneys pull him into their office to talk to him. he was pretty nervous he said. they told him that they want to start an immigration dept and would like him to basically run it!!!!!!!!! since he's not an attorney yet, he'll have to work under his boss still. meaning chuck will do the work, but his boss' name will be on it and he'll go to court with him and so forth!!!!!! nothing in writing for a permanent position after school yet, but we have our fingers crossed for sure!

exactly how long does it take to clean your room!?!?

so, kurtis and blake share a room. it had been a mess since last sunday. each day this week, i sent them in there to clean it all up. each day, i would walk by and check on them and find them laying on their backs playing with bionicles and legos. all of which are strewed all over the room still. so on thursday, i went in there and helped. i did about half of it. then, i told them to finish up. guess what, never happened! so, yesterday (saturday) i told them that i am going out for pizza in one hour. if they want to eat, they have to have it done. an hour came and went and still......you guessed it, not done. chuck was getting after them and so was i...all afternoon. i don't know about you, but things like that just wear me out so fast! i give myself a headache from all my griping! i was going down the hallway and i see chuck going to tell them to get up and clean. i stopped him before he said anything. i went into the room and told them they didn't have to clean anymore and that i would finish it all. they immediately perked right up and darted out of the room. nothing else expected, of course. well, i cleaned and cleaned and cleaned. i cleaned so much, that there weren't any toys left in the room after i was done. i packed it all up. they have books and they can color. but other than that....nothing. and to tell you the truth, i don't feel sorry for them right now. they weren't taking care of their things, so i don't think they need them. today, i heard blake ask kurtis if he wanted to play star wars. kurtis told him yes, but they don't have anything to play with. i then heard blake say, "oh yeah." chuck and i were evil and were laughing quietly in the next room. now i didn't throw them away. just packed them all up. they earn tickets for good behavior each day. and at the end of the week, they get to buy stuff that i have in this big container. well, i'm going to save money for the next few months. cause i'm not buying anything for the box. i am putting their toys in there and they will have to earn enough tickets to purchase their toys back. i'm just fed up with toys. i don't think my kids have a ton of toys. but the ones they do have are all over the place all the time. well.....not anymore.

summer 2009

well, it's been a few months since i updated the blog. i thought i'd post some pics and let you know what we've been up to. obviously, it's summer. you'd think that things should slow down and be more calm since i'm not running the kids back and forth to school. but no. kurtis and blake have been in little league. i'm not complaining, but i guess i am in a way too. with all the practices and games, it just really kept us busy during the week. luckily this is the last week of games. both the boys did really well, and enjoyed it alot. one of the more exciting things that happened is kurtis' baptism! it was really wonderful. my extended family was there and then chuck's parents and brother and his family came out for the event. it was totally a parrish event. first, the library was locked. the key we were given didn't work. so we couldn't make copies of the program. then, the air conditioner was on, but it was stifling in there!!!! then the program starts......time for the actual baptism. chuck and kurtis go back there and we are waiting for them to walk down the stairs into the water. instead, we hear a muffled voice telling us the font door is locked. it was chuck on the other side. again, the key wouldn't work. so the bishopric member had to ho over the font and unlock it and then hop back. other than that, it went really really well. chuck and i are so proud of kurtis and his accomplishments. afterwards, we had a big party at my house. and yes, like a parrish event, there was lots of food and good times. jared and blake also had great birthdays this summer. blake is 5 now. he will be starting all day kindergarten this fall. yes, you read right. all day. i will have only one child with me!!!!!!!!!! i've already decided....i'm napping when he does!!!! jared is now 2. he thinks he's one of the big boys now. he's talking a ton and putting sentences together pretty well. i waited way too long to take the binky away. it was after his birthday. i know i know. but he's the third kid. and lets face it, ya just don't care as much about those things with the later kids. just how it goes. he'd need braces anyways. kurtis did football camp last week. the draft is sunday, so monday we'll know what team he's on and stuff. since he's a 3rd grader now, they won't play other people in the district. they will be playing other towns and traveling for games. we will be very busy with all of it. now that he's older, they allow the teams to practice more a week. they are allowed 4 events. so 3 practices and 1 game. he'll be a tired little man, that's for sure. but football season is lots of fun!
we've done lots of family things all summer. you know us, we like to get together and eat and play. it's been fun. school starts here in 3 weeks for the kids. i'm so ready for them to go back. they are just around each other so much right now and fighting way too much. plus, it's harder to keep the house clean too. so anyways, that's just a little update on us. we're hanging out and trying to keep cool in this terrible heat!!

this was a fun day! ben and dori came for a visit to tulsa! they live in texas now...just 3 hours from us! we had a blast! of course ate lots of food and the kiddos played and played.

emma and kurtis. i took this pic while dori was telling to make all these funny faces. i love this one of emma.

lola and jared eating their popsicles.

okay, the Hill's kids and my kids. you see, i've had this problem with bunnies eating the fruit in my garden. even though i had already put up a fence to keep them out.....the kids took it upon themselves to make rabbit traps. they picked all my spicy peppers first. then dug holes and placed the peppers inside and covered it with leaves. this way, the bunnies would fall into the hole and then eat hot peppers and never come back again. no, i didn't get mad. i have lots of peppers again, and hey, the bunnies are gone. :)

brooke and blake. they were having so much fun.

the boys on the carousel at an amusement park.

blake didn't want to get on the log ride...can you tell?

everyone else did though!!!

my mom and sister and then kurtis and his cousins...we all went to the amusement park that day. lots of fun...waiting in line.

jared was super excited to get on the log ride. he loves all the rides actually. he raises both arms and loves it!

kids at the aquarium with their cousin abby.

birthday at Ted's Escondido!!!!