This year we had a big decision to make about school pictures. I am tired of paying the high prices for some company to come in and take pictures of my kids with the same old background and the same old choices of packages but the prices seem to keep climbing for such poor quality and if your lucky they are centered. Oh and don't forget they might be in focus and they might be okay enough to send to family and friends.

Lucky for us we have a photographer in the family. So even though Ashley was withing weeks of delivering baby number 4 she was willing to meet us at the State Park in Ontario and shoot some pictures of the kids.

That morning was of course a normal morning, Mom!!! Stetson did this!!! and of course I did not but Baylie said this!!!, and of course the peace maker in the family says lets just get ready for pictures and get them done so I can come home and play with my Legos. That was the morning and on the way there Stetson of course made the comment "I am NOT having my picture taken with her!!!!" and of course Baylie responded with "thats fine I dont want my picture taken with you either!!!" ENOUGH!!!! I said of course.

When we got to the park Ashley had already been there scoping where she wanted to place the kids. First she did some individuals of each of them then she had them do some all together. She even did some of just Bay and Stets (yes they both did it and even had smiles on thier faces), and she did some of Chase and Bay and then some of Chase and Stets.

That afternoon she called and said that she did not envy me at all and i asked why she said that she was glad that she wasn't the one who had to pick poses. I soon got my copy on cd and had to burn multiple cds to send to family because i couldn't pick either so i left it up to others to pick the ones they wanted.

So if you are looking for a really good photographer give Ashley a call she is incredible!!!

BACK TO SCHOOL!!!!

BAYLIES FIRST DAY OF 2ND GRADE. SHE WAS SO EXCITED TO GET BACK TO PLAYING WITH HER FRIENDS. SHE IS REALLY EXCITED TO HAVE MRS. BAUER TOO AS HER TEACHER.



CHASES FIRST DAY OF 5TH GRADE LAST YEAR IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL. NEXT YEAR IS MIDDLE SCHOOL!

STETSONS FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL FOR MIDDLE SCHOOL.

THIS IS HIS LAST YEAR OF MIDDLE SCHOOL THEN ITS OFF TO HIGH SCHOOL!

FUN IN THE SUMMER

THIS SUMMER WAS PRETTY BORING UNTIL THE LAST MONTH. WE STAYED HOME MOST OF THE SUMMER UNTIL IT WAS TIME TO TAKE STETS TO SHRINERS IN CALIFORNIA. WHEN THE TWO OF US LEFT CHASE AND BAY STAYED HOME WITH LONEY. BEFORE WE LEFT CONNOR AND AUSTIN CAME UP WITH RYAN FOR A COUPLE OF WEEKS SO THE KIDS HAD SOMEONE TO PLAY WITH. THE KIDS HAD A BLAST RIDING 4 WHEELERS AND MOTORBIKES AND JUST HANGING OUT.

CHASE RODE BACK TO POCATELLO WITH RYAN AND THE BOYS AND STAYED AT AUNT AIRONNS. AFTER A COUPLE OF DAYS GRANDMA LARSON DROVE UP AND PICKED HIM UP AND TOOK HIM BACK TO UTAH. CHASE GOT TO STAY WITH GRANDMA FOR A COUPLE OF DAYS AND THEN WAS SENT TO OMA AND OPAS. WITH OMA AND OPA CHASE GOT TO FLY ON A PLANE FOR THE 2ND TIME IN HIS LIFE TO LACKLAND TEXAS. THEY WENT TO SEE MY SISTER EMELIE GRADUATE FROM AIR FORCE BASIC TRAINING. WHILE THERE HE VISITED RIPLEYS BELIEVE IT OR NOT, THE ALAMO, AND SOME OTHER MUSEUMS. HE HAD A GREAT TIME AND EVEN GOT TO PURCHASE A UNIFORM LIKE WHAT THEY WEAR. HE LOOKED PRETTY SHARP.

BAYLIE WAS STUCK AT HOME RIDING IN THE COMBINE WITH HER DADDY. SHE HAD SOME FUN BUT IT GOT PRETTY BORING SHE SAID AND SHE DEFFINITLY GOT CAUGHT UP ON HER LACK OF SLEEP. SHE FELL ASLEEP IN THE COMBINE.

AFTER STETS AND I GOT BACK FROM CALIFORNIA, WE PACKED UP ABOUT 4 OR 5 DAYS LATER AND DROVE TO UTAH TO PICK UP CHASE. WHILE WE WERE IN UTAH WE DID SOME FUN THINGS BUT SILLY ME FORGOT OUR CAMERA. WE WENT BOWLING AT FAT CATS AND PLAYED VIDEO GAMES, WENT SWIMMING AT OMAS FRIENDS HOUSE, WENT AND SAW A SHOW ON THE 3D IMAX SCREEN AT THE GATEWAY, WENT TO BOONDOCKS WITH GRANDMA KATHY, HAD A BBQ AT GRANDMA KATHYS WITH ALL OF MY COUSINS AND THIER KIDS, WENT SWIMMING AT GRANDMA KATHYS. THE FUNNEST THING OF ALL WAS WHEN GRANDMA KATHY TOOK THEM TO BYRONS WORK AND LET THEM SEE THE HELICOPTERS AND THEY EVEN GOT TO SIT IN IT.

AFTER THE TRIP TO UTAH IT WAS TIME TO COME HOME AND GET READY FOR SCHOOL TO START!!!!

Shriners Hospital II

Today is another day!!! Stetson has been released to walk with me on the floor whenever he chooses. Yesterday and this morning he walked about 50 to 60 feet. Yesterday he went for his tennis lesson and had a great time. He also learned new techniques to work on. I guess we are taking up another sport!!! never thought that it would be tennis. Today he has left the building!!! Our good friend Jeff came and got stets for a guys day out after he got out of football practice. What an awesome young man he is to come all the over from Sierra College to take stets out. I guess they were going to the new batman movie. He is also going to come and take us to Six Flags tomorrow since there is no therapy tomorrow. The weekends here are soooo boooorrrrriiiinnnngggg!!!! We are hoping to come home by friday next week. more updates to come!!!

Shriners Hospital

Just to update all of you, we flew to Sacramento California on Monday and arrived at Shriners Hospital. The first couple days were rather frustrating for me and a little for stets. Our plane was late leaving Portland and late getting to Sacramento so we were late getting to the hospital and didn't get to try his new brace until the next morning. I have consistently told the doctor that we want stetson loaded up with physical therapy but due to the number of kids here they only can do about 45 min. to an hour with him a day. He is also required to attend school while he is here. He is not thrilled with that at all. He is learning a little spanish and doing math mostly so far. Jeff, one of our friends from Oregon is attending a junior college not far from here and so he came to see stets today that was really cool. They are going to try and go do something this weekend since stets has a pass to leave the hospital for up to 6 hours. Tomorrow he is going to have about an hour tennis lesson from a guy who is a sanctioned adaptive tennis instructor so that will be lots of fun for him. Today he didn't do any walking at all just alot of stretching which is helping him with his standing. He is making a lot of progress. The doctor and pt (physical therapy) told us that he would probably take about 2 or 3 days to get used to the brace and to learn how to use it and the first day he had it on took about 4 steps and knew how it worked. We are looking at being here about 10 working days which is about 2 weeks, unless he plateaus and then they will just send him home since he can do most of this at home and at therapy. Stetson is not in a private room his roommate arrived on the 15th and believe it or not he is from Oregon too!!! He is paralyzed from the neck down due to a vehicle accident in which he was driving but no one else was hurt in the accident just him. In the past couple days I have really been reminded how lucky we are to have stets and that his injuries could have been a lot worse than he is. We are truly greatful. I have also gotten the priviledge to share a room with Alex's mom and gotten to know her. More to come later.

ONTARIO YOUTH BASEBALL

While we were busy with Baylie playing softball we also had Chase playing baseball. He had practices on Mondays and Wednesdays and games on Tuesdays and Thursdays. His team also traveled to different towns to play. The furthest we had to go was 45 minutes away in a town called Adrian. The closest game we played was here in Ontario. We were happy to play at those ones. Between the weather not cooperating and the traveling we had our time on the baseball fields this year. We had weather that felt like it should be football season and then the next week would be high 90's to just right with the cloud cover. His team did okay but not great this year but we keep telling him its not the winning that counts its if he had fun that counts. He did a great job batting and this year he played left field and caught some incredible balls this year. We are so proud of him and how well he played. He also got to go to a baseball camp that the local community college baseball team puts on and he learned a lot at it and even got to watch and help that team practice. He is looking forward to playing again next summer too.

GIRLS SOFTBALL

Starting in June when school got out Baylie started a new season of baseball only this year she wanted to play softball. She was a really good first baseman. She really wanted to catch and at her last game the coach let her be catcher and she did an awesome job even though she is tall for the position. They basically worked with the girls on the basics of playing softball but she still had fun. She was on the same team with her cousin Taylee. They had the brightest shirts of the whole league. She is looking forward to playing again next year.

WHEEL CHAIR SPORTS CAMP

Stetson participated in a wheel chair camp for kids ages 6-21 years old. He had a great time and met alot of new people. He learned how to play tennis, canoe, kayak, rock wall climb, played power soccer, basketball and so much more. He set the course record for the day on the obstacle course, shot air rifles and was invited to shoot with a trainer possibly for competition because he shot so accurately. He also met a lot of really neat people. It was an awesome experience for him and he plans to attend again and possibly in the past be a coach or a volunteer at it. He also recieved the award for the "MOST COACHABLE ATHLETE".

This year we had more snow fall on us than we have for the past few years. It was a welcome sight to the children. It even brought the kids a snow day from school. The snow had fallen since the day before and left the roads really icy. Chase and Baylie learned how to somewhat snowboard on cheep plastic snowboards that i found in town since all of the sleds and tubes were sold out. Chase is a natural at it. Baylie took a few times to figure it out but finally got it. Stetson would also tie a rope to the back of a 4 wheeler and pull the kids around on a shovel (they come up with the craziest things), a tire tube and so on. They spent hours playing outside and building tunnels in some of the drifts too.

PINEWOOD DERBY

In January Chase with the help of his dad at the last minute built a pinewood derby car. This was the last year either of the boys would be participating in the pinewood derby, so Loney really wanted this car to win. It was built as a replica of Loneys White Chevy Silverado. It was down to the last race for 1st and 2nd place which was between Chase and his best friend Wyatt. The two dads waited down at the finish line as the two cars passed and it was then that Chase won first place.