July 2022

Lots of time spent in the yard trying to get caught up and make plans!

Only Spencer could fall asleep at Roaring Springs!

He must have been really tired this day!

Brooke did Emma's cute hair. We have fun with these girls when they're over. Sometimes they fight over William's time but they have a great time together!

Washing car time

I love the sibling bonds so much

Spencer helping dad with some drywall. They are a great team. Spencer has had some pretty great ideas on how to fix things.

Had a fun kid lunch date! Went to McDonalds, Cafe Rio and Panda. All right by each other. All happy.

Snacks and shows

Baklava for life

Real 4th of July at our house. We can see a lot all around us!

We recreated the chicken and waffles with peach cobbler that we had in Atlanta. Wasn't as good, of course, but it was fun!

Fun at the Katseanes!

Brooke, Olivia and Naomi put together a sale to earn some money. Quite good business ladies!

Brothers, Diary of a Wimpy kid and pizza. Perfect life.

Summer exhausts all of us in the best ways!

I think one of the kids got this picture. Lovely and looking forward to more flowers and less weeds! It has been so so much work trying to overcome all the thistle, piles of leaves and pine needles and a bunch of other things. But we're doing it and learning together!

Fixing the bathroom some more!

Monopoly Deal partner

Some chickens died. Always a sad day but we made them a special spot.

The bathroom is nearly done! So much work but also cool to design it how we like!

Came home to find River and Brooke hanging in our room. They call each other cousins and it's basically true!

Spencer kicking butt at Destiny, Army jacket in tact.

Someone's birthday party Brooke went to

The before of the bathroom. Yikes!!!

Tilling and tilling. This garden area was covered in about 5 inches of leaves. We had to clean them out so we could us it to plant.

So grateful for everyone's help!

Musical group In the making.

More fireworks because we had leftovers!

Hailey went to girls camp with her friends in our old ward. She had a fantastic time! I was going to go but then I couldn't and it was a good thing because our air conditioner at home broke on the hottest day of the summer, 105 degrees! So it was a good thing I was around!

Magnetic mud masks, soothing and satisfying. Good thing Brooke reminds me to take care of my skin.

One of our smaller chicks was getting beat on so we had to lock her in chicken jail and spray her wound until it healed! Spencer was good to help take care of her and check in on her.

We tried out a new library where William bought a used chicken book and Spencer found the Wall Street Journal.

Finally painted our own garden stones. This was actually super fun!

Spence and I got up early one morning and hiked Table Rock with friends. Well, I hiked. He ran.

Then he came home and fell asleep like this.

Us with our buddies

More skin care!

Ice Cool is a hilarious game!

Hailey and I went to Lumineers. We got some boho dresses and had a fantastic time! The first half of the show was the quieter songs and the second half was a total party! It was an amazing concert. Made me want to go to more!

Summer bucket list and smores!

The wave pool is their favorite.

The kids bathroom. What a pain!!

Hailey and Gideon Went to the pond in Kuna to kayak.

William and his buddies set up another lemonade stand!

Spnecer and William came to exercise class with me and ended up having to battle with other ladies in class. It was pretty entertaining to watch!

William was at Lucy's birthday party.

We went to a fun exercise relay on Friday's. Honestly, it was hard to get the kids to go in the morning but then it was a good time!

We were asked to join a neighborhood farmer's market so we all tried it out! We sold a lot of things and Spencer's cookie dough sold out first. Brooke made a ton of bracelets. They all had fun chatting with new people. Hailey sold macarons and people were really excited about those!

Shoe shopping with Brooke is always an adventure! Actually, any shopping with Brooke is always fun!

Tons of apples and apricots from our yard!

I took the kids to the Oregon coast. Blake had to stay and work which was a bummer but we had to get out! We stayed at a pretty stinky airbnb but we were glad we found it! The downstairs had a pool and poker table. We couldn't figure out how to play poker for Spencer! It is more complicated than it would seem or I am bad at reading instructions.

The airbnb was right by the ocean. This was a beautiful walk down.

Spencer brought his metal detector and had a good time with it.

Spent a lot of time building and digging in the sand.

Always so much to find at the ocean.

All of Brooke's treasures. She is the ultimate treasure finder.

The kids had a great idea to get tollhouse cookie dough so we could have fresh cookies. Ingenious!

A message for Blake.

Hailey made this for Gideon. She is a good girlfriend!

Boots in the ocean!

Brooke took a ton of pictures of this basically, Hailey was running at me like a psycho. Nothing new!

In her happiest place!

Tillamook dairy museum. Such good cheese! It changed our views of cheese and has encouraged me to try new cheeses.

Naturally, Spencer found a book in a shop. Always learning!

He ordered this burger, biggest thing on the menu. I said you better eat all that! He did!

Beauty everywhere here!

Finished the castle and found a pair of undies on the beach that Hailey picked up with a stick to become the flag. Gross.

We went over to the rock from Goonies! Haystack rock. It was pretty great and we met some people from Germany who were very friendly! Meeting new people is so great.

Ah, textures

Old school toy at a museum we toured

Stopped by the Goonies house for fun! There are times we are allowed to take pictures. It was funny to see people walking up there just to take a picture. We made sure to watch Goonies before we came. Fun to pass that tradition on to the kids.

Found this note when we stopped at an outlook. Reminded me of the goodness of people!

Such great places all through Oregon. We really missed Blake and wish he were here but we are grateful he will work for us! And I am grateful I have the umph to get us out on my own! 9 hours is a long drive. Grateful Hailey could help!

Hooray! Spencer took his boots off!

Chilly ocean time!

We met up with Sherise, my old college roommate, went to some food trucks and a plant sale. It was fun to connect!

Always spraying wasp nests!

Brooke colored her arm and I was just hoping it wouldn't leak onto everything, thought it is pretty cool!

Another Table Rock hike

Always reading. Always laughing really loud about what he is reading!

Nana came to town and took Brooke to get fabric for the quilt she always makes the grandkids.

Just another night on the roof! Best views ever!

Our irrigation pump broke. Happily, Stan came and helped Blake fix it. He even got us a great deal with the irrigation shop. It was so hot out there and they worked so hard. Grateful they could make it happen! Stan volunteered me to make cinnamon rolls for the irrigation shop guy. It was the least I could do after he saved us$1,500!

I went to Las Vegas to spend some time with Michelle. We were able to have some good sister time together, go on drives and chat. I am glad I could come.