Fishing Trip

At the beginning of July Wade finally turned in his birthday present I gave him (his birthday is in February!) and he went deep sea fishing with his friend Doug.  (I had found a groupon for this a week or so before his birthday so it worked out pretty great.)

The guys showed up bright and early and found out this was the name of their boat.  Would you get on it?

The ended up having a great day and good weather.  They both had a great time. I think if we did a trip again I would pick a different charter.  We did one 6 years ago out of Illwaco and I think Wade liked that one a lot better.   I went on that trip and came home with the 25 pound king salmon.  Wade was hoping to come home from this trip and have a better fishing story than me.  Good day, nice weather.  Even nice fish, but no such luck.  I still hold the record for the biggest fish.

The catch them came home with!  They aren't kings, but silver.  Still look good to me!

(This picture is of Doug.  Apparently a lot of people at church get Wade and Doug mixed up.  Courtney and I think it's funny.)

And true to the name, the boat broke down on their trip!  I couldn't believe it when Wade told me all about it.  Luckily they made it home safe and sound.

Wade got put in charge of grilling the fish for dinner.  The kids enjoyed poking the eyeballs.

And everyone enjoyed eating it. As picky as my kids get about food, they really love salmon.  I think that is strange, but I'm not complaining.

In just a few weeks the pink salmon start running again in the Puyallup River.  

We are looking forward to it!  

Sunday Photo

Reading, reading and Legos in the background.

Our Sunday afternoon.

11 Months

 Mr. Eli is 11 months old!  I can't believe that he is almost one!

At 11 months Eli is such a charmer.  

He loves to pull up and cruise around on things.  He still crawls like a maniac too.  His favorite game to play with his dad is the "get away" game.  He tries to crawl (typically to something he isn't supposed to touch, like the the bathroom, specifically the toilet, legos, open doors, stairs) and then Wade will grab his legs or the back of his pants and pull him back.  He thinks it is so funny when we drag him around!

He loves to eat.  Some of his favorite things are bananas, cereal bars, noodles, peas, green beans, peaches, pears, watermelon, hot dogs (cut up of course), any type of bread, and milkshakes that Grandma Bullard feeds him. He is such a good eater, he just eats anything I put on his tray.  Yogurt and cheese give him a little bit of an upset stomach, so since he quit nursing last month he made the switch to Lactose Free Whole Milk and he must think it is going out of style.  He loves it.  When he is done he starts to throw everything off his tray while he laughs.  Can I tell you how my floors love it!

If you can't tell from the picture below, Eli loves his blanket and his two fingers.  And it's even better if you get both of them at one time.  Silly boy. His fingers already have callouses on them.  But I'm not even ready to try to get him to stop this habit.

Eli is a great sleeper.  He goes to bed at 7 and sleeps until sometime between 6 or 7 in the morning. He can sleep through his sister throwing tantrums.  If he does happen to wake up you can rock him for a few minutes and then he goes back down.  He likes to stand up in his bed and wait for you to come and get him.  Every night at bedtime when I put him and Avery in their cribs and shut the door they sit and talk to each other and giggle. It's one of the best sounds in the universe.

One of my favorite milestones happened just this past week.  Eli started to "drive" trucks and cars around by pushing them back and forth - and making car sounds by spitting!  I forgot how much I love little boys till we were playing one afternoon and he did this!  It's so cute.  We all clap for him every time and that makes him even more happy.

He loves cars and trucks and he loves balls.  It doesn't matter what ball, he loves them all.  My favorite is occasionally when playing ball with him he will lift the ball over his head to throw it and then accidentally drop it behind him.  It always surprises him to find his hands empty and a ball rolling away behind him.  

Eli loves to be outside.  He loves to play in water and eat dirt.  He also loves bath time.  After every meal he will cry until I pick him up and take him upstairs.  There he will get down and crawl to the bathroom and stand at the bathtub and talk and point to the tub.  He loves swimming around in there!

He is trying his best to walk.  He can stand on his own for a  little bit and most of the time he does a silly stink bug half walk/half crawl.

It really is crazy how fast this past year has gone.  In just a few short weeks our littlest man will be one.  

Cupcakes

 My next goal in life is to compete on cupcake wars.

No, just kidding. It's all from a box.  We did enjoy these cupcakes for family home evening and are looking forward to having them at bachelorette tonight.  

Speaking of cupcakes though, I found these on Pinterest and think that we will have to give these a try at the finale in a few weeks.

Also, thanks to The Crafting Chicks for the cute stand idea.  Not too shabby.  I found it all at thrift stores and spent $6 total.

Sunday Photo

Happy Pioneer Day!

It's finally feeling like summer around here. Earlier this week we debated turning on the heat.  I am not joking.  My favorite line of the week was brought to us by Noah.

Friday morning when we came down stairs for breakfast I opened the shades on the sliding glass door and declared, "Yay!  It's sunny outside!"

Noah (in all seriousness) quickly replied, "OH, I didn't know that the sun could do that!"

Got to love my Noah!

Today, we spent the morning at church.  We grilled burgers and dogs.  We took naps.  Since it's Pioneer Day it was also our annual backyard camp-out weekend.  We played in the tent and watched clouds go by.  For dinner we had BLT sandwiches, fruit and potato salad (thanks to my fantastically talented friend, Erica, who taught me how to make her scrumptious salad a few years ago!)  We talked about pioneer stories and then finished the day by doing what pioneers do - going on a walk.  I'm pretty sure that real pioneers didn't get Otter Pops when they reached their destination, but I could be wrong.  Ours did.

the end.

help!

Do you remember this dresser from this post?    Well, I need help again.  Here is the story.

I've been looking for a desk.  Currently, my laptop claims a corner of my kitchen counter for it's home.  The printer is upstairs with the rest of the office stuff.  (post is here).  Silly, but computer here, printer there and no wireless connection between the two makes me kinda grumpy sometimes. (Yeah, I know I could just buy a new printer, but our old one works fine.  I'll buy a wireless one when this one dies)  Plus, I just think it's time.  We've gone 4 years without a desk and we need one again.

So my friend found a desk.  A desk I could have for free!  She refurbishes furniture and I really LOVE her stuff.  You can see it by here.  Who wouldn't want that red dresser?!

Okay, so here is a picture of my new desk:

So what should I do?  Here are some of the ideas I've come up with.

something like this:

via - allthingstrifty

I found a couple white desks in some magazines that I love.  I think it would a be a solid choice.  I like the option of adding a hook on the side is a cute idea too.

and using these draw pulls:

Or I could go for a color.  Like a blue.

via Design Share.

I like the blue of this table:

or this one:

via allthingsthrifty

Or I could mix it up and do black on the bottom and blue on the top.  Similar to this picture.  A lot of our furniture is black  or a mix.

 I'm really liking the blue option.  Until we move the desk will most likely reside in our room.  I could easily pick a blue or green color that would look good next to our bedding, that wouldn't look silly in an office when we move.

Or I could just play it safe and go with solid black.  Maybe antique the corners.

So I need help.

 I'm open to suggestions.

Ideas?

Sunday Photo

Honestly, I forgot a picture. We had a relaxing Sunday afternoon.  Watched a little Planet Earth.  Discussed the last Harry Potter which we saw Saturday night.  We entertained a rotating podiatry student for dinner.  The kids didn't take naps, so they were fantastic hosts if you get my drift.  It was about 9:30 when I remembered that I hadn't taken a Sunday Photo.  Thanks camera phone for saving the day.

During our photo shoot Wade joked with me and said, "they should warn you about this stuff before you get married."  Yeah, maybe they should.  But I'm pretty darn sure that even forewarned, he would have married me anyway and played along.  How can you not love someone like that?

A few more reunion pictures

And just because Rocky's pictures are way better than mine. Here are a few more of our favorite shots of family reunion.

Noah.

 The story of my life.  My arms are full.  People tell me this all the time.  Better full than empty, right?

My guys.

Miss Avery.  How can she not make you smile?

And last, but not least.  Noah playing the coke challenge game.   He wished they were all root beer.  No pants.  And an endless supply of root beer.  The life of a four year old.

Family Reunion Pictures

At the reunion in June my brother in law Rocky took family pictures.  It was almost a painless experience.  Unless your name is Noah and your parents made you wear pants.  Poor kid.

Don't ask what I was looking at.  Who knows.

I think this one of the kids is cute.

 But this one is more fitting.

And then we wonder where they get it from.  Poor kids, they are stuck with us forever.

Then a nice group shot.  

Two parents.  

Six families.  

15 (and a half) grandkids.  (minus the oldest two who couldn't come)

 And a goofy one just for fun.  (Nice one Evan!)

I had almost forgot to blog about our fun family song.  You might think we are total dorks, but last year Mom had challenged us to all write a song we could have at reunion.  Then at sister's weekend in December we voted.  The one my sister Kathy came up with won.  Lots of inside jokes.  Totally catchy.  We grew up singing Beach Boys.  I totally love it.

 

Bullard Family 2011 Reunion song:

    to the tune of "California Girls"

    Lyrics by Kathy Lindeman 2010

 

 

Well, the Tennessee bunch is hip

You kow they really are prepared.

And the Casper crew, with the stories they tell

We have a good time when we're there.

 

    (chorus)

        We're glad they all could be at reunion

        We're glad they all could be at reunion

        We're glad they all could be at reunion

        We're glad they all could be at family reunion

 

That group who lives in Utah,

They all love their video games.

You see these oldest kids are awesome sauce,

I bet the younger ones are the same.

    (Chorus)

 

The Bowles they live in Detriot,

And we hope they don't get shot

And the Christiansens, with their super-long name,

You know their blogging is so hot.

    (chorus)

 

The Bullards of Colorado

They have a house with a laundry chute.

And our Mom and Dad, they are the best of all

They make their grandkids eat their fruit.   (chorus)

Idaho River Rafting

During our reunion in June a group went river rafting on the Salmon River.  Besides it being really cold, the river being really high, everyone getting thrown out and Wade coming home and telling me horror stories about how he kept coming up under the boat too many times for me think about, I think that they all had a good time.

I finally got a copy of the pictures.

The Group:

Wade, Anne, Rocky, Kathy, Scott, Conner, Henry, Josh, Ben, Evan

(sorry triplets if I labeled you the wrong name)

These are a series of shots taken from a bridge as they passed underneath.  Wade says that the water was so fast and high that the trip they took normally takes 6 hours and it took them less than half of that, so they ran it twice.  (the other section they could have ran was too dangerous that day)  The pictures are from the first run.  The second time they ran it the waves were at least twice as big.

You have to click on each picture and enlarge it to truly enjoy them.  These are of the boat Wade was in.  He is sitting on the right side of the river guide.

These are shots of the second boat.  We got a good laugh out of these.  Evan is sitting in the same position as Wade in the boat.  If you enlarge the pictures the series is hilarious!  Evan is a trooper!

Fantastic pictures if you ask me.  I'm considering getting one of Wade's boat enlarged and framed.

  I haven't been river rafting since I think I was 10.  

I think I'll leave any future trips up to Wade.