Summer Time...

Yesterday was one of my bestest friends (Karen's) birthday! On Saturday early evening we went to a BBQ for her birthday and then did the Med's crawl. It was soooo much fun. Great Family, great friends, and great food and a crazy time we had as usual! We were out fairly late (or very early however you wanna look at it) and I didn't wake up until almost 10am on Sunday...that is the latest I have slept in ages and still got a total of less than 6 hours of sleep. Soon the babies were home and we had a fun, playtime Sunday with them. This week is Trista's birthday and the following weekend is my Family Reunion as well as my highschool reunion. We are looking forward to all the events coming up. Summer is such a busy time for a lot people. The boys are getting so big, Brooklynd is just over 6 months old and Braeden is on his way to being 2 years old! Brooklynd won the photo contest at Sears Portrait Studio for July...we entered his pic in a Patriotic Baby Contest and sure enough he won!! The prize is a free framed collage!! Well we hope everyone is well and will post pics of the events as they happen...

Arachnophobia..I've got it!

"The spider's touch, how exquisitely fine! Feels at each thread, and lives along the line" ~Alexander Pope

As you all know I am absolutely terrified of spiders. Now I know they are much smaller than myself and mostly harmless, but regretfully still when I encounter them, I basically scream like a baby. Well last night was no exception. At about 10:00pm or so while Darren was relaxing, carefree in the hot tub, I on the contrary was inside folding laundry when low and behold emerges a big, black, stealth like spider crawling ever so gracefully across our kitchen cabinets. Just as I moved closer to check him out, he sprung off the kitchen cabinet onto our counter and fell down to the very dark linoleum. I ran to turn on the kitchen light and after finding him crawling across the floor I started to spray him as fast as I could with the orange cleaner I had pulled out as my defense weapon from under the sink. Contrary to what you might think, I was not trying to make him smell good, I was trying to douse him in cleaning fluid so he would shrivel up and die. Now this may sound a bit harsh, but if you have ever lived with me or seen me after the initial spotting of a spider you are probably mildly amused, not at all surprised and definitely expecting the outcome of this story. Unlike most people, when it comes to spiders, I absolutely will only kill them with anything other than a limb attached to my body and I will only take matters into my own hands IF I am the only one there! So anticipating Darren's entrance at any time didn't at discourage me from my next few actions (although it probably should have). The spider (laughing at me- seriously!!), was lying there in a puddle of orange liquid, as I turned my back to continue with the task at hand, I turned back and saw him ever so calm, sauntering back towards the lower cabinets, and yes instead of stepping on him before he was vanished I just continued to spray him with cleaner. At this point, the bottle starts malfunctioning (as if it was really intended for killing insects) and the spray was more like a half mist, therefore allowing the giant spoodle to disappear out of sight. At this point I got a flash light to investigate what crevice he may have entered. But oh no, I see nothing.....HE IS GONE! So I continue to fold my laundry all the while keeping within an arms reach of my orange cleaner and the flash light. So whistling while I work, I then glance down and about 6 inches from my foot is a brown spider (what the heck?)!! Yep you guessed it, I grabbed my manlfunctioning, useless cleaner and continued to mist the heck out of this spider, which seriously vanishes into thin air. He literally was gone. There was no trace of the 2nd spoodle when I moved the stool he was resting under. I have NO idea where he went, I was really going to step on this one especially because I could hear snickers from big blacky in the background. But when I moved the stool, he was NOT there. Yes there was a small puddle (if you could even call it that) of orange cleaner, but nothing else. Close to tears at this point, somewhat from laughing, somewhat from being scared of spides.... Darren comes in and when I tell him what has happened...he laughs a little and tells meI have obviously been doing this for about 20 minutes (He calculated from the time he noticed I had turned the kitchen light on) and that I should probably give it up and quit being a baby. My hopes were crushed, he couldn't find the spider (not that he really looked) and there I was smelling like oranges and utterly defeated.

Kisses!

With nothing much going on, thought I would update you on our babies, while I had the extra minute. Brooklynd went to the doctor last Thursday for his 6 month checkup. My mom was kind enough to take him. He weighed 18 lbs. 9oz. and was 27 inches long. He is now ready for a big car seat. I can't believe it. He is rolling over easily now, I can't step away from him for a minute or he has almost completely rolled off of the blanket :-) This now means that our sweet first born is now 22 months old as of yesterday, soon to be our little 2 year old. Time has sure flown. Braeden still has outweighed Brooklynd in comparison at the same ages......For recent pictures of the babies, please click on the link to the right at the bottom, "my three bears" There are recent pictures up. Take care. Hope everyone managed to have a great weekend even with the crazy hot weather!!

Ahhh...the Hot Tub!

We have been enjoying the recent time in our hot tub. It's a good way for us to catch up on each others day. We get some relaxing alone time after the babies have gone to bed. It has been so long since we've used it, I almost forgot how much I enjoyed it. We have been going in at night for about a half hour or so! This weekend it is suppose to be over 100 degrees, we probably won't be able to make it in the hot tub, but are thankful to have air conditioning for our babies. This weekend should be a busy one. Friday with my monthly girls get together. Saturday is my friend Angie's baby shower & my boss Lori's birthday dinner. That about covers it. Hope everyone stays cool this weekend!

Sick Day...

So I am home sick from work today. I started feeling a little under the weather on Saturday evening. My mom and dad had stopped by in the late afternoon on Saturday and after quite a while of Dad and Darren working on the hot tub, mom and I decided to run some errands along with Braeden. After arriving back to our house we all were hungry and decided to do dinner with my parents, Trista & Kody to the Taco house...there was a very long wait and about an hour later after some protest (by me of course) we headed instead to the Iron Horse Restaurant. It was good food and of course great company, by the time we left it was much too late for the movie we intended to see, but we had a good time anyways. Sunday afternoon we met up with my cousins for lunch at Izzy's, Brooklynd slept and Darren, I and Braeden had a yummy time! Afterwards we got Darren a cell phone, the same as mine...just to confuse matters of course. Then we headed home for some relaxation time, stopping at a few garage sales along the way (much to my liking) :-)

Air Show Disaster...

For those of you who hadn't heard, a pilot flying home from the Portland airshow crashed his plane into 3 homes in Hillsboro Sunday early evening. I don't believe he was flying in the show (a stunt pilot) I believe he was there showing his fighter plane...here is a story on him. What an amazing man!

http://www.kgw.com/news-local/stories/kgw_071706_news_crash_pilot_son_.2193f6ac.html

The crash story:

http://www.kgw.com/mostpopular/stories/kgw_071606_news_hillsboro_plane_crash.1c697be1.html

Quiet Weekend...

Around our house this weekend, things will be fairly quiet. We have changed our weekend plans a bit and opted instead of going out with our friend Crystal and her friends that are coming down from Seattle to the Beer Festival for a quieter, less expensive Saturday afternoon/evening. We have decided to have a bit of a date night and go to a movie on Saturday early evening, probably to see Pirates of the Caribbean 2.. I have been to a movie theater exactly 1 time since I was pregnant with Braeden and Darren has been zero times...we are looking forward to it. My parents have agreed to watch the babies for a few hours for us.

Tonight we are also keeping things real low key, as Darren is working tomorrow morning for a few hours. The only other plans that we have are to go to lunch with my cousins on Sunday afternoon, and to go to a BBQ at our friends house out in Hillsboro on Sunday for a few hours in the early evening . With the Portland Air Show going on at the Hillsboro airport this weekend, this should be exciting for Darren, since we didn't make it to the Air show this year or last, he will at leat get to see it from the road a little bit if nothing else. We hope everyone has a spectacular weekend. Love to all!

Softball Pics...

"When things go wrong, as they sometimes will. When the bases you're trudging seems all uphill. When the hits are low and the errors are high. And you want to smile, but you have to sigh. When the heat is pressing you down a bit. Rest if you must, but you dont quit. Success is failure turned inside out, the silver tint of the clouds of doubt. And you can never tell how close you are. It may be near when it seems afar. So stick to the game when it is hardest hit. It's when things go wrong that you must not quit." (by Sarah a softball player)

Our All-Star!!

Last night was Darren's last softball game for the season. There is talk of getting another team together for playing in a summer league, but they are having a hard time finding a league with room for another team. They played two games last night. Tied the first and lost the second by one run. It was decent ending for a good season. They placed 3rd in their league and would have tied for 2nd with the first team they played last night, but they had some bad calls and such that added an extra inning to the game, that resulted in a tie. With a score of 11 to 11. All in all it was a great season and the boys and I love watching Darren play. He had 1 homerun last night, and several outs while on defense. He enjoys the guys he plays with and has a good time. We are glad that he got into the game again! We look forward to next year or this summer if they can get things worked out.

Ahh..Pool Side!

Summer BBQ's!

Our weekend was filled with sun, bbq's and family time. Darren started the weekend working Saturday morning. Most of the day for me was spent cleaning and playing with the babies. I finally got the floors cleaned during nap time and have been continuing with the cleaning out and organizing I seem to always do in the beginning of Summer! Saturday evening we packed up and headed over to my parents house for a BBQ with the family. This was followed by a poker game for the guys, while us girls watched Son In Law on tv...(that movie cracks me up), and the babies & Kody sleeping. After the kids had gone to bed and the movie was over, I headed out to watch the game as did Trista (after she awaked from her cat nap) and by the time it was all over and we had cleaned things up it was 4:00am! I was amazed at how late it had become. We decided at this point to stay the night at my parents house, as not to disrupt the boys. 7:00am couldn't have come any sooner for me. I was so exhausted. My mom, thank goodness was there to help get the babies up and fed...or I should say I helped her as she did most of the work. After they got their breakfast and the rest of the house (with the exception of tired little Dare Bear) were up and awake, I layed my head down while Brooklynd napped and I closed my eyes for a much needed minute. An hour or so later I heard Brooklynd making sounds and woke up to a nearly empty house of just Darren, myself and Brooklynd. My parents had taken Kody and Braeden to breakfast. I had heard them discussing this while I was fighting (not too hard) falling back to sleep....I fed Brooklynd again and Darren got up as well. It was about noon, by the time the rest of the brood returned with an array of floaties and pool toys :) So next we got into the pool and pretty much hung out there trying to get Braeden in the rest of the afternoon. He cracks me up, as my mom put it you try & try to get him in and then when he does want to go in no one wants to be in the pool :) Darren and him played for a while towards the end, while me and Brooklynd hung out! We got home at around 9pm last night after BBQing again! It was a good weekend with family. Will be thankful come next weekend, for more fun!! Have a great week all! Much love.

Happy Friday To All!

Just thought you all might enjoy pictures of our nugglies as much as we do. My sweet smiley bears. Have a great weekend!

Independence Day!

We hope you all had a very Happy 4th of July. We did a "summer clean-out" of sorts at our house this morning & afternoon. Darren finished up with the yard clean up- you know the fun stuff, mowing, pulling weeds etc. Later with the help of my dad and Kody they got the sandbox/kiddie pool & hot tub cleaned out and refilled. Braeden was so cute and soaked from head to toe. He loved holding the hose and spraying himself and others and threw a fit anytime they needed it to clean, rinse or fill up anything. Eventually this led to the real source of him being frazzled, when I layed him down for his much needed and unwanted 2nd nap.

I on the other hand with preliminary help from Darren got our bedroom mostly cleaned up and out and got Brooklynds basinett moved out of our bedroom and into his. He will be sleeping in his own room tonight :-( My sweet little baby is growing up. Alas, it is inevitable. He is very precious as is my big baby, we are twice blessed. As soon as I have some more time Brooklynd will be moved to his own crib, then he will really be a big boy on his own! In the middle of our clean up for good cause we took a break as the 4th of July is my Grandmother's birthday. Our family got to take her out for lunch, she just loves the boys and is very happy to get to see them.

In the early evening, we headed up north not too far away to Camas, WA to my cousins house. They have an annual block party/potluck/BBQ. We took the babies up and with the rest of my family got to enjoy some good food, good company and good fireworks. By the time the fireworks had started Brooklynd was fast asleep and Braeden who was up past his bedtime didn't enjoy them too much, he sat with me most of the time, snuggling and laying his head on my shoulder and less than 5 minutes into our drive home he was fast asleep as well. We hope everyone had a great holiday! Off to bed we are ourselves. Loves to all of you.

For the history of our great 4th of July go to: http://www.twilightbridge.com/festivals/independence/index.htm

Our Baby Boys at 5 months!!

Brooklynd James Latta @ 5 months. June of 2006

Braeden Donald Latta @ 5 months February of 2005

Happy Birthday Mom!

So as you can tell my moms birthday was today. We have already had quite a busy start to the weekend. First off I took Brooklynd for his 5 month pictures (a little late) last night after work, his pictures turned out so adorable. I put him in the same outfit (for one of his pictures) that Braeden wore in his 5 months pictures and we put him in one of the same poses. I am going to try and post them together here for you all to see, but no guarantees!! It turned out SO cute. They definitely look very different as you can see. I also entered a picture of him from this session in their 4th of July photo contest...of course we think he is the cutest baby around, maybe others will agree! I have decided that next month when Brooklynd is 6 months old and Braeden will be 22 months old we will possibly get them done together...Braeden spends a lot of time with him now that Brooklynd spends a lot more time playing on the floor, trying to roll over etc. He giggles with him, talks to him and plays with him even more then he has in the past. Braeden is still very good to him. He helps him and gives him hugs and kisses too!

Today was my mom's birthday (still is for a few hours). The babies and I went to visit and took her to lunch for her birthday. Then we went to get me a new phone, which took quite a while, my screen went out in my other one. Then I went home to put Braeden down for a nap with daddy and off Brooklynd and I went to shop for mom. While on our little excursion, we ran into my mom and we did a little shopping with her. Since I still hadn't found the perfect gift, instead, I let her pick out her present herself...she picked an adidas jacket. Then we went home to get ready for dinner. The whole family went to Applebee's! It was a fun day. Tomorrow we don't have any big plans. Probably just a day hanging out at home with the family! Have a great rest of the weekend!!