So today is the day....

that I have been dreading for a couple of months now. Cody is on his way to Afghanistan to do whatever is necessary to accomplish this seemingly impossible task. He joins thousands of other men and women in the armed services who's job it is to protect our country. While all their families know this and understand this I can tell you right now it does not make it any easier. I believe in my heart he will be fine and return home safe and sound but as a mom it's hard to know your child is going to be facing real and life threatening danger. Cody has always been lucky, things usually seem to work out for him, and we have always teased him that he has a rainbow following him. I hope it reaches across the world to follow him now. I know this will be a life changing experience for my son and I hope he has the inner strength to not let it change who he is completely. I know there are many people praying for his and everyone else's safe return and for that I am eternally grateful.

Baker Pride

Thanks to Grandma Hailey has a brand new red & black scarf to show her Baker Pride at all the football games! Of course the first game was this past friday night and the temperature was about 80 degrees, so she wore her tank top and the scarf anyway! One thing about football season, eventually you will need a scarf, sweatshirt, jacket, blanket, gloves.......

First Day of School 2009

Well down to one kid...I was half expecting a protest from her this morning but she stood there willingly. It must be all those years of training for the "first day of school" pictures. First day of 9th grade, let's hope its a good 4 years!

The Low Rider Gang

It was not as easy as it looks to get them all to hold still up there. The puppies kept trying to jump down not quite sure what the game was.....you can tell by the look on the big dogs' faces how fun this was for them :)

Then they crash....

Wonderful Weiner Dogs....

Maxx and Macy have so much fun together! They play super hard then crash and sleep. Most of the time Maxx gets the best of Macy because he outweighs her although she is going to catch up with him in size then she will let him have it.

The Three M's and One H

Madi spent the night last night and got to meet Macy for the first time. She is naturally quite intrigued with her and was very gentle. She keeps calling her Maxx, apparently all puppies are Maxx. She let us take pictures of her with the puppy and then wanted to take a picture with Maxx although he wasnt really into sitting still at the moment. She can say Macy, it just sounds like "messy".

Maxx & Macy

Maxx got a new friend to play with! He loves her and they have a lot of fun together, she is a silver dapple with grey eyes. She did not cry at all last night, of course she did sleep in Hailey's bed with her! We woke her up this morning to go out with the other dogs then she ate and went back to sleep. she sleeps a lot, and prefers to be held (like Maxx) while she is doing so. I'll post better pics of her later but for now you get the idea.

New pictures...

of fun with family. Dave's uncle Robert sent us these photos he took while we were visiting and believe it or not he has a camera that is even fancier and nicer than mine!

Buffy's new Halter

Now Dave will know for SURE which one is hers!

New & Improved-Just add Money

Finally, we have pretty much finished, with the exception of the perfect "thing" to hang over the mantel. I am leaning towards one of those metal cut out sculpture things, they usually have a booth at the fair so I will keep you posted. After new carpet, and paint, and curtains in the living room the house feels different and it smells a lot better too. The old carpet was between 20 to 30 years old and was definitely tired! Dad, Grandpa and Dave got a wonderful ceiling fan/light installed in the office and Dad and Grandpa installed a new light in the hallway. The current one had not been working for about 3 years. It's amazing how long you can let some things go....anyway now we have decided to paint the office with the left over paint and call it a day. Maybe next summer we will tackle the hallway and bedrooms.

Fun with Family!

In July we had a ton of fun with Mom, Lee, Lisa and Troy. In August we have been lucky enough to have more family come and visit giving us more reasons to have the marinated Tri-Tip from Costco and a lot of fresh Black Berry Cobbler.
Dave's uncle Robert came to visit with his friends Lymon and Laurie, they have a friend with a beautiful home on Lake Whatcom. They invited us for dinner on saturday night and spoiled us with all kinds of appetizers from Haagen and then we had BBQ'd Salmon, which was wonderful, along with corn and salad. They purchased everything fresh from the Farmer's Market. After dinner we had ice cream with fresh peaches and blue berries and home made cookies. Did I mention we also drank several bottles of wine? But who's counting anyways :) We had such a wonderful time visiting with them, it has been more than twenty years since Dave has seen his uncle. We hope they will come back soon and stay longer!
My grandfather and dad have been here since thursday and saturday respectively. They have been a HUGE help in accomplishing so many projects. I think we have gotten more done with them here than we have gotten done in a 3 year period of time. Of course there is not one single thing that they are not capable of, so that makes it a bit easier.
On sunday afternoon Don, Cathi and 5 of the 6 kids came for a BBQ. This is where the tri tip comes in, and the cobbler. We had a blast, the weather cooperated and we just hung out and visited. The little girls had a ton of fun playing on "the park" thats what they called Madi's little play area. Then they had fun playing "catch" with their dad and riding Annie with Uncle Dave. Don rode by himself and did really well, since he doesnt have a very good track record with horses, we were all pretty impressed! Little Nick is really mobile now and really wants to be doing what ever his big sisters are doing. I think it wont be too very long before he is walking along behind them! Cathig is really going to be a busy girl, if she could possibly be any busier than she already is. It was really good to see the boys too, Dylan had a great time in France and Sean enjoyed his summer at Quadra but was happy to be home. We finished off the evening with warm blackberry cobbler and ice cream which was soooooo good! So far August has been pretty darn good.