Finally a post!

BiRtHday's...funny KID quotes...TEENAGE rebellion. This post is WAY over due!

We went to Olympic National Park this summer with Andy's sister Aimee and her family. The kids really enjoyed beach combing at Ruby Beach and in the picture below Porter is playing Huck Finn. There was a little body of water with floating logs on the beach so he and the boys would go back and forth pushing each other and pretending it was a raft. The water was freezing and of course they didn't stay on the raft so we built this little fire to keep warm.


We forgot sticks for roasting hot dogs so Andy laid them across a log. As you can imagine the ends were slightly warm and the middles freezing cold. Good thing we had we had chips and juice! :D


Here we are in the Ho Rain forest. Who would have thought moss could be so amazing!

and so were the slugs...tons of them!

What are boys made of?? Snakes and Snails and Puppy Dog Tails....and Dirt! Scoot the rocks aside we are ready to play! Conner didn't miss a beat, he got right there in the middle of it too.

Miss Whitley turned thirteen #13...Yes I know I am getting old!! So far she has not disappointed us in living up to the teenage stigma. ;) More on THAT later. She got a Face book and is constantly taking pictures of everything from her sprung toe, to a self portrait so she can post it on her profile. She has enjoyed hooking up with friends from girls camp and far away cousins.


Sweet Conner taking a rest. He is healthy in this picture we are just trying to see if there is any difference in his energy level being on continuous oxygen as opposed to the as needed basis he is on right now. So far we are not seeing a huge difference. He does have quite a good energy level, he just takes little rests here and there. He is now an official walker!! That was big news in the Finch house hold about two months ago...I just never got around to posting it. He is our little monkey walking all over the place. Conner has physical therapy once a week and is now working on crawling up onto things. I can't quite decide if that is a good thing or not ;). He is concentrating more now on speech so he does that 2 times a week along with a sesssion of Occupational Therapy. We are also in the process of getting him signed up for swimming therapy. We stay busy and it is paying off. It is so great to watch him grow. He is starting to say animal sounds and will try to say the animal names too. We were wanting to start him in a preschool that would be great for his cognitive development with therapists and all but the Pulmonologist(lung) Doc said to wait another year before we start with group settings. He doesn't want to expose him to more germs than necessary. This means no nursery either so he is Andy's little helper during church.

Can you guess?? Yep Indiana Jones. Porter and Preston have really gotten into Indy lately. They wanted me to make them a satchel like his and I ordered them fedora's last week. Porter isn't so little anymore so his didn't fit :(. I will have to start looking around with all the Halloween costumes out now.
Looks like Steve Irkel to me...
Mr. Porter received his arrow of light this last week with his best friend Tyler. He worked hard and it was neat to see him accomplish his goal. The ceremony was amazing! There is a family in the area that performs the ceremony with costumes, props, and drums. There is a short video at the bottom of the page. They would hoop and holler and talked in Cherokee at times. They were so realistic with their face paint and garb that they even had few kids crying. :) Tanner wouldn't get too close and my big girl Whitley went and sat on the stage. It really wasn't scary except for when they were right next to you and would out of the blue let out a whoop. It was quite hilarious at times...great entertainment. Thanks Porter and Tyler for a reason to be entertained.

Tanner turned 4 while we were down in Lewiston and had fun celebrating with his cousins. He didn't seem to mind that most of the animal cookies were pink....that actually surprised me because he was on a kick saying that pink was only for girls and not for boys. We were just trying to come up with something that was fun and quick because we were in the middle of canning. Tanner started preschool this year and is loving it! He wasn't too crazy about me leaving him the first few weeks but now he walks right in and doesn't even bat an eye. It is fun to watch him grow and he loves the social aspect.
Whitley had fun with all the bugs at Grandma Finch's, she named this one kitty.
Onions+eyeballs=tears. This bowl of onions had the whole house cryin'! It sure was worth it though...we made some dang good salsa! Here is a picture of Whitley and I trying to make it a little easier on ourselves.:) I happened to have my contacts in so it really wasn't too bad for me and I was kind of teasing the others about all the boohooin'. The next day I didn't wear my contacts and just had on my glasses. Not a good idea! That is what I get for teasing I guess. So if you are going to cut onions I would definitely recommend contacts if you've got em' ;). Another lesson learned for me was that when the recipe tells you to wear gloves while handling the peppers....do it! Grandma Kristie and I had our fingers of fire for at least 12 hours,OUCH!!

While the ladies canned the boys went on a fishing trip with Grandpa and the cousins down on the Salmon river. We made salsa, peaches, and pickles. They all turned out so good!
Andy's family has a shop so it works out great! We just set up our tables, have the water bath outside on the camp stove and then everyone works together. We get so much more done together than if we were to do it by ourselves.


All packed up and ready to go!



Beautiful!
So cute of Talmadge(Sherdon's) and Tanner....it has been fun to have them so close!



Funny kid quotes:

Learning games at school-
Mason: Hey...Hey Mom truth or dare? Mom: How about truth. Mason: O.K. who is your boyfriend? Mom: Come here and I will tell you in your ear...his name is Andy. Mason: Ahh I thought you'd say that.

After we returned home from the Arrow of Light ceremony this was Tanner's prayer-
Tanner: We're thankful the Indian's were being mean and scared us. Yes we have taught our children to be thankful for adversity....


Whitley's story:


Whitley has been in Cross Country and I have had to pick her up everyday. Every time I would pull into the circular drive she would come running so that I wouldn't pull up in front of the crowd. As soon as she would get in she would slump down as low as she could and off we would go. O.K. so I knew that she was obviously embarrassed but I really didn't realized how much until the other day. I go to pick her up like any other time and she knew I was there but wasn't running, so I thought...hmmmm she must want me to pull up. So doo de doo here comes da' bus. As I pull up I look over and see this girl saying OH MY GOSH! I am thinking she must think we have a really cool rig ;) and I sit waiting for Whitley come. Next thing I know I see Whitley walking past the passenger door and then right past the front of the car! She doesn't even look over at me or anything...and on she goes down the street. I sit there with my mouth open wide and I just start cracking up.! I am thinking, are you kidding me I can not believe she just did that! Mind you the Oh My Gosh girl is still watching me. So I think o.k. I will play your game Whitley, so I turn the opposite way and go to meet her a little ways down the street. As I get closer to her I start laying on the horn and am waving at her like a maniac Mom. Meanwhile she is dying of embarrassment and I am still cracking up. She gets in and says, "stop or I am going to walk home!" I say,"Girl you need a slice of humble pie, if you didn't have to cross the freeway I would have you walk home little missy! :)" I laugh all the way home and when we get there she says, "O.K. Mom now that you know how bad it is for me what are going to do about it?" I of course start laughing some more and she huffs and puffs inside. Boy are we in for it! :)


Here is a part of the Arrow of Light ceremony
FAMILY PICTURES TO COME.....