The Summer Squeeze

Our family has been trying to make the most of this last burst of summer. Here is what we have been up to...

On the 15th, last Saturday, we ate cupcakes! Gorged ourselves really. 1st ever cupcake competition in the Linen Building downtown, and we were there! Hundreds of cupcakes were submitted for judging & the public could buy tickets to eat up the cupcakes after judging. Our neighbor, Cory, watched our boys. Although, had they known what we were up to, they never would have allowed it. We will all be attending this next year, fo' sho!

These were in the Youth Competition!

Spud cupcakes.

These were Matt's picks; (we each could pick 3)Zucchini Huckleberry, Triple Chocolate, & the 5 layer Science Experiment some guy sold him on. He LOVED the zucchini one, I told you he is becoming a vegan!

My 3 picks; Chocolate Chili, Triple Coconut, & Lemon Marscapone. The coconut was the BEST.


The insane cabbage farming came to a head..haha
Parker & Kaleb participated in a contest for school, they each received a seedling.These are the fruits of our labor. There is a prize involved so we have our fingers crossed.

Kaleb's: 7lbs

PJ's: 9lbs.


Nampa PAL football started last week for Parker & Kaleb. Our boys are on the same team this year, in hopes they will help each other & we won't have so much running around to do. We are all learning to accept the new team, The Eagles.( The Wolf Pack, the team Parker played on last year, has been merged with another team from last year. They got to keep their name-BOO!) This is the team they worked hard to defeat last year in the championship game last fall. This has been hardest for Parker, & myself. I just have SO much purple/wolf fan gear! Do you know how hard that is to come by?! Now we are green/Eagles, will you keep a look out for good stuff for wild parents to sport on the sidelines? Thanks.


We made our way back to Roaring Springs for the 7th time or so. Not too great for buying season passes but it felt good. I hope we can get there a few more times.



Matt & I celebrated our 9th anniversary, again. We have 2, one is the 18th of August & the Caldwell Night Rodeo is a anniversary tradition of ours. This year we celebrated with some friends from work.


Charlie + Holly = Harley :)

Jason & Laura

The newlyweds, Martin & Andrea

Fawn & Becca


The boys got to stay with my mom for the night of the rodeo. She is a proud North-Ender so when we picked the boys up we stayed to play at Camel's Back Park. This is a year round favorite for our family & it was a perfect day for this yesterday.






Then we passed these folks on the Tour De Fat. Try explaining this to a 9 yr. old! ( The other boys needed no explanation I guess.)


This is our new favorite, Big City Downtown. Their monster sized baked goods & the ability to stalk our friend Biggs who works there, have us sold!





Wow! The end! Thanks for reading, man do I feel loved!

Happy Birthday Birdie!

And after all these years, your outfits still manage to coordinate with mine. I love you my Sista!

Eight on 8-8-09!

Eight is great! We celebrated with an awesome Robot party & a dozen wild boys. I copied the cake from Betty Crocker, Ellen painted the amazing robot photo background, Matt supplied the games & child wrangling, & the kids buzzed along on a sugar high. It was a good turnout from Kaleb's school year friends, anyone with a birthday in August knows this is quite a feat! Happy Birthday Kaleb!

Way to go Dianna!

Our neighbors are chain smokers. Well, not all of them, but most. This darling lady...

Dianna, managed to quit smoking while living with all these smokers-including her spouse! We all got together to BBQ & celebrate a whole year of being smoke free. I made a cupcake tower & the goodies to go on it. Good times.






What else says "smoke-free" but a NPD temporary tattoo? :)

Broken Heart

On Aug.2 my dear friend, Lindsey, lost her mother. Kris was a mom to so many, myself included. Nurture, support, encouragement, those were just her way. She was the sort that always made you feel better about yourself when you were in her presence. Beautiful. Generous. Gone too soon. http://www.legacy.com/IdahoPress/Obituaries.asp?page=lifestory&personid=131262690

There is a lot of grieving going on in our community, amidst birthdays & summertime visits from friends. This is the bizarre mix of life that we are experiencing. I want to feel through it all, though. To stay away from the pull to numb out. There is this great idea I have grabbed onto about not wasting your pain.

"Everyone says love hurts, but that isn't true. Loneliness hurts. Rejection hurts. Losing someone hurts. Envy hurts. Everyone gets these things confused with love, but in reality love is the only thing in this world that covers up all pain and makes someone feel wonderful again. Love is the only thing in this world that does not hurt." unknown

Falling in love all over again...

As much as I adore these 4 children, Matt & I relished every quiet moment away from them last weekend. Thank you Mom & Ken for caring for the boys while we played!

My Uncle Mark hooked us up with a company condo in Bellevue, near Sun Valley, at an irresistible price. This left us with more money for REALLY GOOD FOOD. And that is what we did, eat, all three days worth. There are no pictures because we were too busy eating REALLY GOOD FOOD.

This is where the love part comes in. Matt continually surprises me on our dining adventures with what he is willing to try. We made the drive up in time for lunch on Friday & found a spot in Ketchum called Glow. All organic, all vegan, & mostly local, place to eat. You have to understand that Matt & vegan in the same arena will always take my breath away! Not only was he excited to try this but he was enthusiastic about all the new textures & flavors when the plates of coconut meat, lentil toast & squash pasta actually arrived at the table! It is one thing to look at a beautiful menu & posh design of a place but to actually put this in your mouth! It was all good but mostly new tasting. Ahhh...this was going to be really amazing weekend.

After being sufficientely cleansed at Glow, we wandered to Leroy's Ice Cream & botched it all. 2 big scoops for both of us. Matt was left out in the cold with his poor choices in flavors. ( Cookies & Cream? Really?) But I hit the jackpot, Toasted Coconut & Lemon Bar. Ohhh, baby, top 10 of all time, for sure!

That night we went to Globus. This was a bit sentimental for me because my first job was at the Globus in Boise, when it was still open. The Ketchum Globus brought back all those sweet memories & man, was it tasty! By far the stand out there was the vegetarian Pad Thai, they do it right. We are still waiting for a worthy Pad Thai near Boise, this one put the Treasure Valley to shame.

Rolling out around 11 am, yes! I love my long lost friend... SLEEP! I was hoping for breakfast but afraid I would have to settle for early lunch when we stopped at Papa Hemi's. And we were glad we did. I had an amazing monster-sized apple pancake, the kind that is so good you want that big a portion. Out doing myself, I even sampled Matt's trout & grilled veggie omlet with goat cheese. Ten pounds? SO WORTH IT! When we were done we were asked if we wanted to try a fried Twinkie. (?)

We had an early dinner at Rickshaw, this was all Asian tapas. You were supposed to order at least 2 of their small plates per person so we got to try a lot of yummy new things. Matt's favorite was the Bok Choy. Who is this guy? I am seriously SO IN LOVE. He is busy trying to re-create this at home, he loved it that much.

Dessert at Vintage, the most romantic place ever. I am not the sappy sort but this place had me swooning. Music , lighting, even the desserts had names that were embarrassing to say. The best part about any of these places was that, except for Globus, we just stumbled across them. My Aunt Lisa said we managed to find some of the local's secret spots, all by accident!

In a spontaneous moment without kiddos, we caught the late showing of The Ugly Truth. Mostly ugly, very little truth. I want to like Katherine Heigl but she surrounds herself with idiots on screen, after awhile I just think she is the idiot.

Not wanting to leave, we had lunch at Kethum Burritos. This did not help, their fish tacos were delish. But alas, we headed back to reality... with very full bellies.

One more thing, we stopped in Mountain Home for something to drink on our way back & I caught Matt getting a sandwich at ARBY"S!!!!!!! What? There's the man I know & love.

Which Crayola are you?: Crazy Yellow!

I just took the "Which Crayola are you?" quiz and got: Crazy Yellow! What about you?

They SO got this wrong, the answer is always PINK!!! Hot pink, pale pink, whatever, but always PINK! Also, I have heard that yellow is the hardest color for the eye to process...GREAT!