DARE

On Monday, December 8, Ian graduated from DARE. This is an anti-drug program offered by the Shawnee Police Department at Midland. Here he is with the Officer who worked with them and below is the 5th & 6th grade class with the Officer. Unfortunately, due to budget cuts, the Shawnee Police Department won't be offering this course next year...unless the economy changes. Anyway, it was fun and Ian enjoyed the class.

NBA Dog

Our Jack Russell, Abby Jo, loves the basketball, she just is a nut when we get that out. Here is a video clip of her. If she could maintain balance on two legs she'd catch the ball, no matter how many times we throw it through the hoop she is always right there when it comes down..always in just the right spot. Anyway, no amazing trick but interesting to us!

Baptism

Sabbath, September 13, was a special day for Ian. He has been preparing for baptism and finally the day was here. Our little church was full. Pastor Robb came to perform his baptism which made it so special. It was a great service and the Pathfinders came in uniform and then all stood and saluted when Ian was baptized. It was very neat. After Ian came up out of the water, he looked out at the congregation and saw the Pathfinders and then he saluted back to them! It was so sweet! Later that night the Pathfinder Induction (or abduction, as Ian calls it...altho' he knows the difference!) was at the Lee's Summit church so Ian got dressed in his full uniform so am attaching some pics of that as well.

Lazy Dog!

Here is Abby in her bed...is this the picture of pure relaxation or what?

Vegetables, vegetables, and more vegetables...

This is some of the harvest from our garden this year! We have so many peppers. My freezer is full so I'm at a loss as to what to do...I could pickle them but I haven't taken the time to yet since many times they don't turn out like I think they should. The bugs have moved in tho' so we don't have much left now. I'm not one to put pesticides on so eventually the bugs win. The broccoli was fun and turned out pretty good. Need to go pick my basil and make more pesto again.

Laptop Lunch #1

Well we finally got Ian's NEW Laptop Lunch yesterday. So last night I stayed up and made the "Sneaky mom's tomato sauce" from "Vegan Lunch Box" book I just got. (see the blog link to veganlunchbox for more info). It is really tasty and it is chucked full of vegetables!!! Something I am having a time with getting him to eat in his lunches. Another book I recently bought is "Deceptively Delicious". Ian says he doesn't care if I sneak vegetables into his food...as long as he doesn't have to taste 'em. Silly kid. We do make him eat them at home but when we are not there to "encourage" him I need to still be sure he is getting some. Anyway, here is a picture of his lunch this morning. The pizza was a bit too big to fit in the lunchbox so I had to cut it. I put the sneaky tomato sauce on it and then sauteed some mushrooms with olive oil, garlic, salt and topped it...YUM! Smelled wonderful! He's excited to eat his lunch today. The cookies are the Wheat Germ cookies from Aunt Eleanor. So he's getting a nice balanced meal. The crust of the pizza has whole wheat flour and cornmeal in it too.

Faces

On our trip to MN we were waiting for some Chinese food and so I took some pictures of the boys making faces!

Lights...camera...ACTION!!!!

I forgot I shouldn't hold the camera sideways! Sorry! Ian wanted me to shoot this video of him. He's such an actor! This was in the Boundry Waters at a little waterfall area.

More vacation moments

Boys unloading the canoe from the car. Did I mention I love having a boy!

Vacation to MN

My attempt at flowers with my little camera. I actually think this one turned out pretty good!

Ian aka Wilderness Boy!
Ian was taking more "interesting" pictures.
We hiked to a waterfall spot and Ian got ahead of us and we found him hanging around waiting for us! :)

I sat in the middle and the boys paddled. Ian fished a little bit but didn't catch anything. We even saw a mama moose and her baby but were too far away for a great picture. Some other people were on the lake too and this lady yells to this other lady about a 1/4 mile away to look...of course that scared the moose and they went into the woods. Silly people!
Ian took this photo...I had mentioned that I'd like a different camera and I'd give him this one when I got a different one. Now he thinks he needs to hone (?sp) his skills! Indian Pictographs on Hegman Lake

Iron Ore Mine truck at Hibbing, MN

We just got back from our vacation to MN. It was so nice and cool up there. Mosquito's weren't even too bad. We drove by Hibbing so we stopped to see the iron ore mining. Ian really enjoyed that. Of course we had been by here when we were here for Matt's wedding but hadn't stopped. We were headed to Ely where they wanted to take me into the Boundry Waters. We went over to Gooseberry Falls after being at the Boundry Waters and then we headed to the Lutsen Mountains and rode the Alpine Slide...very fun! Lauris took a video of one of his rides down...will have to post that later.

Yard Work

We have been working in our yard so I thought I'd post some pictures for you all to see our progress. Lauris wanted to paint the barn red and so I also used the paint and painted my front door and shutters and spruced up my porch. I thought the red barn looked nice with the blooming Cataulpa tree. Also I got a hat for the dogs at Target for $1 so they can be all patriotic...it fits Moe better than Abby but neither really were that happy about it (actually they seemed a bit embarrassed...go figure!) My hydrangea bush is huge right now. This is my FAVORITE flower. I think they are too cool! Wanted to get some pictures of all the wild daisy's in our field but the heavy rains last night kinda did 'em in.

Tyson's Graduation

Relaxing on Sabbath afternoon!
Mindy and me.
We stayed at the greatest home...here is the deck where we ate.
Brannen! What a cutie!
The graduate with Grandma and Grandpa.

Last weekend (May 24) we got to go to MN to Tyson's graduation from academy. It was great to be there with all the family and we had a GREAT time! Ian got introduced to geocaching and he's hooked. Guess Lauris and I will have to learn about it now too.

Braces

Ian and I both have 2 years of braces to look forward to. Tried to get some pictures but they aren't too good with my camera, sorry! But you can get the gist! I've had mine since April 17. Ian got his on May 20. We just have our tops on for now. Ian already has a bracket off on his front tooth and he'll get that repaired when he gets back from ND.

Lauris and Harvey sing

Biz got a helium tank for the Christmas party December 2007. Harvey and Lauris sang a duet!

Workin' boys!

Ian and Lauris workin' hard on a Sunday afternoon!

Grandma Joyce

Got this picture last year at Vanessa's graduation at Union. Thought it was a great picture of mom!

Lincoln w Gracie and Annie April 24, 2008

This will teach them to make fun of me when I take pictures!

Dad pics from December

Dr. Cates
Dr. Szeto

Mom at the hospital
Christmas 2007 at Lauris' folks
Dad, John, Ella, Mom

Thought I'd post some photo's here from December with Dad and Mom and some of Dad's doctors. He'll come back down here in June to have some follow up tests to see how he is doing. There is also a picture with John and Ella Renk.

Dogs

Some funny pictures of our pooches. Abby badly needs a shave. Moe has been extra attentive lately. Last night it was windy and raining and I let him come in the house to sleep. I couldn't find him. He is a real sneak! Finally I looked in Ian's room and he was laying on the floor by Ian's bed...so I let him stay there and sleep for the night. Usually he likes to be in our closet. Ian had been playing with him during the day while Lauris and I napped so I thought it was sweet that he chose to go to Ian's room.

This is Abby after her bleeding ear ordeal. I finally put tape directly on her ear and we just left it. Several days later it came off and it was no longer bleeding.