Face Lift

 After several years of sitting around with no love & no one living in it our house finally got a face lift! It was in dire need of some new paint & a few other updates. Couldn't be happier with how it looks & continues to feel more and more like home. Here are some before and after pix of our house. 

Our house when we first bought it two yrs ago:

Our house this summer:

Soaking up the last bit of summer

Almost forgot to add pix from our 2nd year of attending the camel farm safari, Braxton & Shane fishing, B's first time finding a real geo cache at the park, beach day, & chuck e. cheese.

Family Hike to Mt. Baker

Last weekend we took a hike with the Vissers to Artist Point up Mt. Baker. It was a gorgeous day & couldn't pass up the invite to go. I foresee many more family hikes. 

First day of 1st grade

It's official we have a 1st grader in the house! To top of the year Braxton's kindergartner teacher, Mrs. O'Connell moved up to 1st grade and B is in her class!!! He was thrilled to know his teacher already & to have a handful of kiddos from last year in his class as well. I'm hoping that with each year he'll become more and more comfortable with the school & making new friends. He's already made some sweet friends & couldn't be happier. Ty is going to miss his big bro & keeps asking when is he going to school. So, to help him out we are going to call MOPS "school" & give him a little backpack to carry so he can be just like his big bro. 

Swim Meet

Move over Ryan Lochte because there's a new swimmer champ in town! B did an AMAZING job at his first swim meet. He's come a long way from the beginning of the summer and it was really fun to see all the kids (ages 3 & up) try their best. He placed 3rd in his first heat & 1st in the second. Looking forward to next summer for sure. 

Happy Birthday B! Turtle Power!

Braxton's new found love is Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles!! I can't say that I mind it since it brings back memories of growing up with Loren. Of course Shane remembers playing with the turtles & thankfully I remember enough to be viewed as a "cool" mom. Of course we had to have a TMNT theme birthday party & treasure hunt/make shift geo caching game. Can't believe he is 6 yrs old! 

 Given that I only had a day to put together a 

last minute theme I think the decor turned out ok

 Some old & some new friends

 Happy after finding their "geo caches"

Birthday boy

 Happy Birthday Braxton

 Ended the weekend with fishing for Bluegill

Our fishermen

 Lost his first tooth! Didn't even know it was missing. It's somewhere in the neighbors yard. Wasn't happy @ first, but making a tooth fairy pouch helped. 

Thankfully I had extra felt around! Exciting day!