All American Baseball

We're well into baseball season and having a great time.  Ethan is playing T-ball for the Mustangs.  He's learning how to catch and stop the ball.  He has a pretty mean throw, we just have to work on his aim a little bit.  In his last game he got some great hits too.  We're so glad he's having fun and best of all he gets to play with his cousin Creed.  Well, maybe the best part is stopping for ice-cream after the game!  Actually I love to watch them play.  They don't keep score, worry about how many outs they have or anything like that...they just have fun.

Different but Good

It has been a little over a month now since we left Texas.  We're fairly settled in getting back to somewhat of a schedule.  While I was driving around the other day running errands I was thinking about the differences between Texas (big city life) and Idaho (down home country, for the most part).  One of the first things that I'm still adjusting to is the fact that everyone I go to church with lives somewhere in my neighborhood.  Our church building is about a mile away and there's probably another one a mile in the other direction.  Some stores are still convenient to get to, but we do not have the variety and excess of malls every 10 miles or so.  We do have restaurants around but "restaurant row" doesn't exist everywhere either.  We have a couple of movie theatres in the area, but I think only one has more than 20 theatre rooms.  While we live in a nice neighborhood which would appear to be suburbia, less than a mile away there are farms with horses or farmland springing up with crops all over.  A few local items around here are alfalfa (hay), sugar beets, mint, corn, wheat, mustard seed, sod, etc.  Not everybody drives fancy cars, some are probably older than the person driving it.  While we do have a few highways around, they're pretty straight and two-lane roads and you don't have to get on one to get some where.  I think my auto insurance is about half of what it was in Texas with more coverage, which I'm really excited about!  One of the biggest differences is that within 1 to 2 hrs you are in the mountains, ready to hike, camp, boat, float, relax, ski, just about whatever you'd like to do.  There are beautiful rivers, streams, lakes, hot springs, wildlife and so much more.  The temperature has been great too.  We've only seen a few days thus far around 90 degrees.

So, what's the point of all this you say?  While I did grow up around this area, so I may be a little partial, it's amazing how two places can be so totally different.  I've been away for about 16-17 years and things have changed since then, but I still find it to be a welcoming, relaxing place to be and raise a family.  I'm grateful that I've had the opportunity to experience different parts of the world, both to visit and live in.  I admit, there are some conveniences that I miss and friends that I miss too, but I'm glad to be back.  I'm grateful that Woody's employer was gracious enough to give us this opportunity and look forward to making this area our home for now (hopefully for a long time).  So come visit when you can!  We'll have lots of fun!

The Do-Rag

Alys, we just love her and her style of fashion!  She found a handkerchief that I had and it was pink of course.  She wanted to know what it was used for, so I showed her how to wear it.  Now if it's not called a do-rag you can all tease me..., since I wear them all the time!?  NOT!  This is not her only fashion statement.  One day, we were all going to Lowe's to get some items.  Everyone except Benjamin and I were in the car already.  As I was putting Bejamin's shoes on I noticed one of Alys' shoes that I thought she was wearing.  I didn't grab her shoe because knowing her I'd figured that she had just changed her shoes again.  As we're getting out of the car, out steps Alys with two different shoes on.  Dad was obviously embarrassed.  It still makes me laugh, I wish I had a picture.  

Memorial Day

Well, I'm a little behind on what we've been up to.  For Memorial Day weekend we spent some fun time in the mountains in a small town called Cascade.  My parents have a house near the lake where we all hung out and had some fun.  The original plan was to go camping, but it was a rainy weekend.  Some of my family members and their children were able to come which made for more festivities.  We all had a great time.  I think we all brought enough food to feed an army.  I don't know why but we always seem to overpack!  I feel like we're packing the family for a week long vacation in Europe or something when we're actually only about 2hrs from home and only gone for a couple of days.  No complaints though, we had fun watching movies, playing games, and even got in a little baseball game with the kids.  We enjoy going to the mountains and taking in all the beauty that God has created for us to enjoy.  It's even better when you're surrounded by family.  We look forward to more adventures in Idaho!

Happy Birthday Alys!

  

Wow!  Our little girl is 4.  We love her to death and she is definitely a girly girl.  She had a great time for her birthday.  I think she missed some of her friends, but enjoyed having her grandparents and some of her cousins over to celebrate with us.  This year her choice of cake was a castle.  She loves to dress up like a princess and her favorite right now is Cinderella.  Alys loved all of her gifts and wanted to play with/use them right away.  I just love to watch how excited the kids get over such small things.  To see there face light up is priceless!  Thanks for bringing so much love and joy to our home.  Happy Birthday Alys!

The Castle

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!

Happy Mother's Day to all you wonderful mothers!

We Have Arrived!

Well, we finally made it to Idaho!  We've been here for almost two weeks and are almost settled in.  It was a loooong trip but the kids and the dog were real troopers.  Even Mom, Dad, Grandma and Grandpa made it through without too much stress.  I think the only things we suffered from were TBS (tired butt syndrome) and movie withdrawals.  Thank goodness for those portable DVD players!  The drive without them could have been quite crazy.  It even took a couple of days before we got our first "Are we in Idaho yet?"  Ethan and Alys also had a great time taking turns riding in the rental truck with Dad and Grandpa.  Our journey took us through a few states...we left Texas and headed for Oklahoma.  The following day we hit Colorado, then Kansas, Wyoming, Utah and on up to Idaho.  Anyway, we're glad to be here and everyone's enjoy the much needed space of our new home.  The kids want to go see their cousins everyday and are enjoying the weather and playing outside.  Woody's trying to get the kinks worked out at the office and I'm trying to get us all back to a routine.  We miss our friends and family in Texas and hope ya'll are doing well!  Lots of love!