Katie and Mecco Summer Reading

Mecco and Katie (Ty and Amber's little girls are having fun participating in the Buhl Library's summer reading program. They're learning all about bugs. The big white creature behind them in the picture isn't a bug, but a bat played by their Aunt Reba.

Brandon

Yeah, Brandon passed his swim test. He starts his next class on Monday. He loves to swim.

I added some VERY old pictures of us as kids on the side bar - enjoy!

Blowing out the candles

Little brothers just don't quite understand about princess sister's birthdays.

Alena's Birthday

Boyd and Alena in one of her new birthday outfits.
Alena gives grandma a hug. She's seven years old today.
Alena shows off her red shirt.

A yellow shirt too.

Alena modeling one of her new outfits. She likes the s hirt with the butterflies made out of sparkles.

Calton didn't want to be left out of the picture taking. Besides he's Grandma's boy these days.

Brandon learning how to swim

Today, Brandon had his 6th swim lesson. Today they were working on arm movement while swimming. At the very end, the teacher had them try to get something on the bottom of the pool. This is one of Brandon's attempts.

Father's Day

See Boyd's new chef apron. Steve and Lezlie's kids made it for him--with a little help from Mom. Jayden and Christopher are in the picture too.


Gues where Rob's Economic stimulus check went! At least we'll expect him to add great pictures to our blog.
Bob tries out one of the new lounge chairs we got for Christmas.

Esther gave Bob a Wii for his birthday. Here Nathan is trying out the guitar game.

Sharon and Janice put away the leftovers.

We celebrated Fathers' Day and five June birthdays together with a backyard cookout, three cakes, and by trying out Bob's new Wii games. All four of the kids who live close to us and their families were here. Mary Jo and Brandon both wished Boyd happy Fathers' Day over the phone.

Birthday's and stuffed animals

This is what happens when a stuffed animal falls apart (with a little help.) I'm still finding white fuzzies everywhere.

Chris' Birthday

David's birthday. Do you recognize the cake?

International peace gardens

We've decided to try out some different parks in our area. Today we went to the International Peace Gardens. The kids liked the statues and monuments. Calton especially liked the drinking fountain and the lions. We were climbing a little hill when Alena started screaming SNAKE!!!! She ran down the hill and hid behind a bush. I looked where she had been standing and found a little snake. Jason caught it so we could take a few pictures. It was pretty fast. I think that was Spencer's favorite part. Alena kept her distance. She's not a fan of snakes. I think Spencer was a little annoyed that it was Alena who found the snake - and not him. We were on the Swiss alps playing peek-a-boo with a chipmunk when Calton suddenly had to go potty. We couldn't find a bathroom in the park so that was the end.
It ended up being a fun afternoon. It's just too bad that they don't have any of their little ponds filled. It would have made it perfect.

Flag Day

Boyd working on his watering system for our flower barrels.
This is the clematis Janice and Jason game me for Mother's Day two years ago. It has huge blossoms.
In the middle of this picture with a rock beside it is the pumpkin I planted for Brandon so that he'll have a pumpkin plant when he comes. It's in the middle of my flower garden.
Here I am standing beside the side gate. Click on the picture to enlarge it so you can see how pretty the flowers are and the roses are starting to bloom.

We have two flags up and I'm wearing my USA flag shirt! I've spent most of the morning moving a couple of plants and doing a little bit of housework, nothing terribly patriotic, but I guess that's what our flag represents; a place where people can own property and putter in their houses and gardens without fear or asking permission. Here are a couple of pictures of us. Boyd is putting in a watering system for our barrels and I've been doing a lot of weeding this week.

Notes from Jennie's Desk

Mary Jo created a blog for me and Janice added it to my web page. You can access it from this page by clicking on Notes from Jennies desk on the right side of the page or you can access it from my web page www.jennielhansen.com It doesn't have much on it yet, but I'll add to it to let people know when my books are coming out, my signing schedule, and other news.

Calton's haircut

We got a lot of rain overnight and this morning, but nothing as bad as Mary Jo and Rich did. It's actually quite nice now. We had dinner with Rob and Sharon's family last night to celebrate David's birthday. I forgot to take pictures, but Rob took a few. Hopefully he'll post some of them.

Yesterday we attended McKayla's school program and today her awards program. The program was excellent and she did great both singing and with her speaking part. We were so proud of all the awards she got today. The first picture is of Jayden watching her sing and trying to copy the actions. The second is McKayla giving a little talk on her feelings for this country. The third one is of her getting an award from her teacher. She was recognized and received an award in the main assembly, then received more awards for academicss and citizenship in her class.

It got a little windy here in MD

Do you remember a while ago when I showed you this picture. How lovely my yard was. I might have posted it on my other blog (brandonbear-mj.blogspot.com). Anyway, we have had several storms lately and this is the product of the latest storm. The news had reported that a storm was coming but Brandon wanted to play outside. Rich took him and the cat outside with our dog. The cat was the smart one. He ran back in the house and hid. A few minutes later Rich and Brandon came inside too. Rich then decided to go outside and get the mail. I decided that since the lights were flickering I would turn the computer off. As I am sitting at the computer turning it off I hear a loud sound and look outside. I see the tree in the upper left corner break off and come towards our house. BRANDON!!!!! I ran out the front door yelling for Brandon and Rich. Taluma comes running. She went with Rich and Brandon to get our mail. sigh.... Next Brandon comes running across the street and then Rich. I tell him to look out in our back yard....this is what he sees. This is our sliding glass door. We were very lucky that the tree didn't go through the window. He then tells me to look out front - I do! The mail box is covered by two trees! We then check out the backyard a little more and discover that we had two trees come down. One on our fence and one against the window, sigh.

This is walking around the house to our backyard. Yes the fence is flat on the ground.
This is the tree (big tree) that lost the brances on to the fence.
Our whole backyard.
Looking through the tree branches to the little tree that we noticed first.

The swing, dog kennel, and our sliding glass door.
This is the mail box....the wind hit the first tree sending it into the second tree all of which landed on the mailbox. Luckily Rich and Brandon were under the carport in the driveway you can see.
More of the trees on the mailbox.
The guys on base cleaning up our yard.
This is the result. The yellow spot is were the tree used to stand. The other tree is half gone. I didn't want to go outside and take anymore pictures. I might later.

Chuck and Vada spent a couple of days at Murtagh Lake near Burley. Chuck took a picture of a rainbow to share. Vada's garden is gorgeous and she wanted everyone to see her irises.

Update on the Anderson's

McKayla had a "Character Museum" for her class. She picked a character from a book (she loves the Rainbow Fairies) and then made a poster. Each child was to stand by thier poster while the school walked around the "Museum." It was fun. She was "Katie, the Kitten Fairy"

Connor graduated from Preschool last month and got new glasses. He and McKayla are also playing soccer again this year.

Jayden's pic is a little older but he hasn't changed much. He loves to help with everything--except picking up his toys. Go figure!

Calton's haircut regrets

Calton didn't want his hair cut but it was getting so long, it looked like little horns sticking up all over on his head. (He won't let me comb it either. When I hold him down and comb it, he immediately messes it up again.) Since he refused to cooperate while I cut his hair, I cut it really short. This video shows how much he loves his new hairdo. He thought his hair was sad because it wouldn't ever grow back.

I have a video I've been trying to post, but I can't get it to work. I'll try again tomorrow. Maybe I'll email it to Mom and see if she can get it to work. It's kinda funny.