First Day of School

The boys anxiously await the school bus. Since it was raining, I drove them down the driveway. Mason is in preschool and goes full days on M,W, and F. This allows him to ride the bus with his Logan. Mason loves it and feels like such a big boy. Logan is in first grade and he too feels like a big kid. This year he gets his very own desk filled with his books and supplies. He loves it! Avenue City Elementary school is just a couple miles down the road and is pretty small. Both of the boys have just 8 kids in their classes. Mason's class is all boys, while Logan's has 5 girls and 3 boys.

Here the boys get on the bus at the end of the driveway. They really like their bus driver, Mr. Zimmerman!

Fishin'

Mason caught a huge catfish from the pond and boy was he proud.

No Girls Allowed!

The boys built a fort out of branches from a tree that we cut down. Although they set the rule of No girls allowed, they did say that they would make an exception for their Mom and Nana.

After receiving some teasing from their Dad that he was going to destroy their fort, Logan set a trap to catch him before he could do any damage.

Jake will never notice the 4 inch hole beneath these sticks and leaves. The boys are convinced that as their Dad sneaks toward their fort, he will fall in this hole and be trapped!

Colton's first tooth...or teeth!

Our little Colt has got his first teeth. Both of his front two bottom teeth have grown in at the same time, and at just 4 1/2 months. He is just such a cute and happy little guy and I'm so grateful that we get to have him him our family!!!

Logan turns 7!

Happy Birthday to our little Logibear! Although he isn't so little anymore. His birthday celebration was full of surprises. Days before his birthday Logan kept reminding me of how on his 5th birthday there were "Happy Birthday" banners hanging on the wall, and he really wished we still had them. So I dug them out of one of our still unpacked boxes and had them hanging above the windows. That was a pretty easy request to fill.

He also had another surprise in his cake, ICE CREAM! And not just any ice cream, it was his favorite, cookie dough. The last surprise was best of all. After opening up some small gifts. He opened up one that said go look inside the barn . . .

It was his first brand new bike! Logan loved it because it looks like a motorcycle dirt bike and it has real shocks which come in handy on the rocky driveway. Isn't Walmart great!

Celebrating the 4th with Mitch & Jess

Mitch and Jess were kind enough to host a 4th of July party at their new house, which I might add is gorgeous! Jessica has great taste. (I'm sure Mitch does too, but I just can't see him actually decorating). Here the host and hostess prepare lunch!

Jake, Colton, and I enjoy the nice weather on the porch swing that Mitch had installed earlier in the day. It works great Mitch, good job!

The two grand kids pose for a picture. However, Ike and Colton are heading for some competition because Jessica is expecting! We are sooo excited about the news. Mitch and Jess will be such great parents. Although we are a little sad to have to share the Nana. Ha! Ha!

And then it was time for the fireworks. Uncle Mitch helps Logan with his sparklers.

If you look closely at the picture below, you will see that while watching the fireworks, Mason is soaking his left hand in a glass of ice water. The repeated warnings of "Don't touch that, its hot!!!" didn't get heeded.

Wii Time

Aunt Rita was kind enough to bring her Wii over for us to play. As you can see, all of the boys enjoyed some Guitar Hero. It was a little hard for them to learn and as most people have probably noticed, they have a bit of a rage response to things that they cannot master in a small amount of time, so we soon changed over to the sports games.

Mason's favorite game was boxing. He could even beat most of the adults that challenged him!

It is yet to be seen if Jake liked it enough to switch from his Xbox over to the Wii. I would love to switch over! Maybe at Christmas?

Critters

Moving out to the country has been a bit of a change for us, some good and some not so good. It seems that everywhere I turn there is another animal or insect of some kind. I've been busy killing spiders and ants while the boys have been busy catching fish with their dad. Here are the boys with one of their treasures. This one is a catfish.

The other day I opened up the house door that leads into the garage and found this little guy lounging around.

And then there's that annoying problem of a certain raccoon that insists on climbing up the stairs of our deck and taking his daily crap right outside our bedroom door.

Some of these critters have a better chance of surviving than others. We'll keep you posted.

FINISHED!!!

Jake's FINALLY finished!!! He graduated and celebrated at the Resident Recognition Banquet on Friday June 19th, 2009! Here he is getting his certificate of completion and yes it is signed!

Jake and I all dressed up and ready to celebrate. I still can't believe that he's done. Ever since I've known him (11 + years) he has been preparing for this. And it feels so good to finally be done. I look forward to us being able to spend more time together as a family and him working less weekends.

My parents were nice enough to make the trip out to support Jake. He has really worked so hard for this and we are so proud of him!

Jake poses with his favorite mentor, Dr. Griffin.

Here are the three graduating residents:

Dr. Christian (Chief Resident), Dr. Ryan, and Dr. Sandmeier.

Here Jake is presenting his "Fleeting Impressions" where he roasts all of the younger residents and some of the attendings. He had us laughing pretty hard. Although, when Dr.Ford (next year's chief resident) roasted the graduating class, she had some pretty funny comments about Jake as well. My favorite was when she was giving suggestions as to what Jake should name his new farm with "Paranoia Place" at the top of the list. Anyone who knows Jake knows that this was so fitting. I couldn't stop laughing!