A day at the Carousel in the Mall/1st Day of School

My friend Julie invited Logan and me to go to the Cool Springs Mall where they have an indoor Carousel.  So, we decided to go.  Who can refuse a chance to get out of the house and to go to an indoor mall where it's airconditioned! I remembered to take my camera, too!
The kids had a blast.  We'll have to take all four boys and all of the Gates family there some time. The best thing was getting lunch in the food court right after that.  I was finally able to have a blizzard from Dairy Queen.  Ahhhh!  Nothing like them!

I've finally gotten the pictures put together from the first day of school, too.  Given it was the 11th of August...a bit late is better than never, right?

Ok, so I threw in a few other pictures.  We've also got Logan sacked out due to waking up at 6am (bleh) to get the boys ready and off to school, Mater kickin it on his new pillow/bed, and a view from the house between rain storms.

In Memory

Well, I'm afraid I've come to the conclusion that our sweet cat, Angel, has joined the angels up above. I haven't seen her for at least 4 days now and I've stood at our back door calling for her more than I ever have before. My heart is so sad. We got her in October 2006 at the animal shelter. She was a feral kitten, but when Will picked her up she just laid in his arms, calm as could be. We knew she was the kitten for our family. It took her a long time to get the wild out of her, but she became the most loving and calm cat. I even loved her after she had lost control of her bladder (peed on me) on my head while I was sleeping at 5:30 in the morning. Now that's love!


This hurt brings other hurt up in my mind, too. This is the second cat we've lost out here at our house (coyotes). Chai, a strangely wild cat we took from our great friends, Krissy and John, also went missing after escaping out of the house. She had just started coming around to me, being more loving and calm. I may have been the only one in the family sad to see her go, but I was sad. Both these sweet cats went missing right after we spent a good amount of money taking them to the Vet for a sore (both of them had something wrong above or in their eye). I even said while at the Vet with Angel that she'd better not disappear after taking her there, after that had happened with Chai. At this point, I blame the Vet. Well not really, but it would be nice if there were someone to blame. Adding insult to injury, when we were selling our house in Utah, before moving here, we had to find homes for our 4 cats. One cat being the most wonderful cat you will ever come across, Muffin, who found a home with KC and Sarah (KC had once said that if it was possible to clone a cat, he'd clone Muffin and I totally agree with him on that one). I love cats so much, and I have a amazing connection with them. I feel that some day I'll be an old maid with tons of cats hanging around. Like I said, my heart is hurting for the most likely loss of Angel. I just want her to come home!

Wii!!!!!!

Our family decided to get a Wii. We love it so far, and so do our friends. What a great way to have the kids stay home and have their friends come over to play...we can keep our eye on them. Haha! Speaking of friends coming to play, I've got some great footage of our friends Krissy and Becky boxing each other. It's hilarious!!!!!

At church today they both said they were sooo sore. I just laughed. I remember at New Years when I played and how sore I was from playing. There's been no complaint from the kids. How is it that when you get a bit older and bigger that you end up getting completely sore after a tiny bit of exercise, and it never phases the kids? It's no fair!

These past few weeks we've been potty training Logan. It's gone great and he stays dry...as long as we aren't at home. What is that all about? It's so frustrating at times. He knows how to take care of business and knows when, but just doesn't make it. So, I'm staying out of the house as much as possible. :) I really do think it's just awesome that he is basically potty trained before he turns 3, that's not until March 8th. I can't believe my baby is going to be 3!!

Talking about growing up, Mater has really grown big. That tiny red automatic feeder bowl, in the picture below, used to be bigger than he was, now he's towering over it. He's so fun to have around. He's about ready to graduate from Puppy Training. He's really responded to the techniques of the trainer, and so have we. :) I recommend training to anyone with a dog. We've learned so much with how to have a loose leash walk where he's not pulling on it the whole time, how to get him to sit and stay for a long period of time(as we work with him more), to lay down, and just how to handle all the fun things that dogs bring into our lives. He seems like a much happier dog since we've started the training. Definately a must (unless you're already well versed on how to handle a dog).

The boys love playing with him, and once he's been out of his crate for long enough he starts to calm down and is really enjoyable to be around. It's fun to watch him grow. He's got an appointment the beginning of March to loose his man-hood, poor guy!

On to the next topic, Derek's Basketball season has come to an end. He had his end of the season celebration after his game. He got the "Push-Up Pro" award. At the beginning of the season Derek could not get the ball near the rim, so he asked his coach what he should do to help him get stonger. Coach Allen told him to do push-ups and it will make him stronger. Well, I'm not sure how many push-ups he did, but by the last practice he was making tons of baskets. It was so exciting!

Kaleb and Tyler's seasons are going to be over next Saturday. It's been fun watching them improve and enjoy the sport so much. It has also been frustrating having all the practices (3 days a week for 3 boys) and nearly every Saturday for the last 4 months taken up. I figure this is just the beginning of all the craziness, so I'd better get used to it.

Well, I think I'll end this Saga. Till next time, may you all have peace and the Lord's hand in your life to help you through whatever may come your way!

How fast does time fly?

I can not believe how much time has gone by since our last blog! Where do the days go? I guess all the basketball games and holidays have been keeping us on the go. I hope that Thanksgiving, Christmas, and New Years were all wonderful times for you all. Ours were amazing! We stayed in SLO Town for all holidays and had family come to us. That's what we get for living near my mom and dad and for living in paradise! No point in traveling to a colder climate! Maybe in a few years we'll be ready to visit the snow, but it's so fresh in Will and my memories that we don't have much desire to return to it for a little while. Playing is fun, but it's hard to forget the cold that comes with it!

I guess I'll throw on a few pictures from the holidays that are worthy of sharing. Here goes:



Here's one of Derek and Logan before we went to Gramma and Grampa's house for Thanksgiving. Derek made all the get up at Kindergarten and was willing to share with Logan for the picture. Just too adorable not to share!




Cute little Mater near the end of November. Still small and relaxed...


And here he is with Logan a few days after Christmas...not so small and not so relaxed. He loved the bounce house as much as the boys did.
It has a great obstacle course that they all loved running around, along with the bounce house in the middle of it all. It made for many hours of fun, Will and I were able to watch "Spiderman 3" while they were outside playing. It was GREAT!


Here's all the boys after all the present melee infront of the (not so put together) tree (since it had been up for a month). I thought it would be fun to try to make it a tradition to get a shot of them infront of the tree each year to see how tall they grow throughout the year...we'll see if I remember to do it again next year!

For those of you who didn't receive a Christmas card from us this year, let me first say I'm sorry I didn't get one to you, but I'm going to make it up to you and share the picture collage that came with the card.

We hope you all had a wonderful Christmas and a Fantastic New Years! We appreciate and love all the wonderful people that have been a part of our lives, and still are. We love you guys!!!

Family Fun

We have a new addition to our family...a tiny little puppy! He is so adorable! He is now a little over 4 weeks old and thriving amazingly. We've named him "Mater" as in "Tow" "Mater". :)

Alison's Brother, K.C., and Sister-in-law, Sarah, came to visit San Luis for a couple days. We've missed them SO much since we moved from Utah. It was great to play with them while they were here. We can't wait to see them again!!