Okay, I admit it....

So I was told a while back by several people that I should really read the Stephanie Meyers "Twilight Series" books. Joe remembering that I had mentioned something about it - ended up buying me first book in the series "Twilight". It sat on my desk for a little less than a month. One day, as Joe abandon his family for his xbox 360, I decided to pick up the book and give it a try? After all, I did like the movie. Within 2 pages I was hooked! I couldn't put it down! I fell in love with all the characters very quickly! I ended up rushing to the store at the end of each book to grab the next one in the series! I read all four books and the 5th book draft in 11 days (thats something like 2400+ pages!!) It was an amazing read. I would definately recommend them to anyone young and old. There is a little romance (well it is a love story after all), some action, great story lines and past tales, just a little of this and a little of that! The books are:

"Twilight"

"New Moon"

"Eclipse"

"Breaking Dawn"

and the 5th book's draft copy was leaked onto the internet - Stephanie Meyes decided that she would never finish and publish the book...However her website offers the draft copy to read. The 5th book "Midnight Sun" can be found at

http://www.stepheniemeyer.com/midnightsun.html

"Midnight Sun" is a repeat of the first book through Edwards eyes! The fifth book made me appreciate the movie "twilight" much more!!

Anywho, if you havent already - ENJOY!!

oh - I thought I would throw up some pictures too...this is Kaleb bored out of his mind taking pictures of mom reading her books and dad playing xbox 360!!!

4th of July!

What is better than a day to celebrate the greatest country in the world! And what better way to celebrate than to come together with lots of great family and food!!

This year (as is slowly becoming a tradition) we all went to Chief Timothy park in Clarkston, Washington. We brought stuff to BBQ, swim, play in the sand (we got Kaleb a big sand castle kit with bridges, towers, shovels, the works!) and lay in the sun!! It was a GREAT day!

A happy mother - As most of my friends know already, Kaleb spent many little boy years scared of little things, one including water! My parents brought him water wings and we excited him by talking about the swimming area the entire way there! When we got there, it was the first thing he wanted to do! So Joe and I walked him down to the roped off area of the river and he jumped right in!! We didnt act scared or anything!! He was all the way to his neck in the water, he fell down at one point, and still he just kept on playing! There was another little boy he found a friend in and they played and played splashing eachother in the face and rolling over laughing! I stood in the water (standing back enough to give him his "I'm cool" distance) watching him with wide eyes and trying not to cry. I knew the day would come when he would realize things weren't really scary - but what an experience to watch my baby turning into a big boy! Gahh!

Here are some pictures!

Another Storm!

The last time I took some lightning photos, I have to admit I just got lucky to get any of them! The storm was rather far off in the distant and I had to to a lot of cleaning up and blowing up to even see some of the actual lightning.

On June 19th (my birthday) we got an awesome lightning show in Spokane! It was directly above us and very close! It seemed as though the thunder was roaring through the sky before the lightning had even finished lighting up the sky! My poor friends sat patiently on the front deck with me while I "geeked" out trying to get pictures of it!!! Hehe..great friends! These are the pictures that I got:

These last two pictures were taken at 11:00 pm or later! The light is from the lightning only!! Otherwise it was pitch black!!

and some more cake!!

one more!!!

more cake!!

Here is some more footage!!
(again, not so great - but all these were taken on my little camera!!)

Cameron is ONE!!

I can't believe that Cameron is one year old now! It feels like just yesterday I was holding my little 6 pound 5 ounce, 21 inch baby girl at 3:02 in the morning! Then all of the sudden my 18 pound, red headed, blue eyed beauty is ONE!! She is so small that its easy to forget how old she is. June 30th, her birthday was a blast! I woke her up and brought her into bed with me and Joe early in the morning, we sang happy birthday and I gave her a long back rub! Then we got brother up and sang happy birthday again! Then we got dressed and went to my parents house and hung our for the day with Katie. One my parents were off of work, they came home and we celebrated her birthday with presents, cake, and ice cream! TALK ABOUT SUGAR RUSH!!!

A year has gone by - So I thought that I would mention a little bit about her and her favorites. She has red hair, blue eyes, she is 18.2 pounds, has the whitest skin, and no teeth! She LOVES the bathtub, her brother, snuggle time, cell phones, teething on anything, food (she's a bottomless pit), cartoons, remote controls, getting in cabinets, magnets, she is enfatuated with the toilet, and she loves her mom and dad! The HATES milk (not breast), her crib (if she's tired), people eating and not sharing, when we take anything from her, etc...the usual stuff! She has the funniest little "red headed" temper tantrum scream ever! If you do something she doesnt like, you will hear it!!! She is our pride and joy. She is the greatest little girl we could have ever asked for! She is amazing! (just like her brother!!) xoxo

Here are some pictures of everyone hanging out....Me, Joe, Kaleb, Grandma Smith, Grandpa Smith, Cameron (of course), and Aunt Katie celebrated the big O-N-E!!! It was a blast, there were lots of laughs, cute faces, etc...Cameron didnt really know what was going on, but every now and then it looked like she knew that it was a special day for her!

BIRTHDAY PRESENTS!!!! She got a bracelet from her cousin Samantha, clothes and a remote control car from Grandpa & Grandma Whitney, clothes and a cell phone from her Grandpa & Grandma Smith, a nursery rhyme CD player from Aunt Katie, a singing nigh night glow worm from Kaleb, and sippy cups, clothes, snacks, and misc. toys from Mom and Dad!!!

To Kaleb's surprise a small package mixed in with sisters presents read "To Kaleb - for being so helpful with your sister and such a great big brother!" He got some foam bath letters and numbers!!

Cake tim! It was delicious! We had chocolate cake with neopolitan ice cream! Cameron ate a lot of both and was VERY VERY wound up by the time we got home! We ended up letting both the kids stay up to play before bed for about an hour!! But it was so worth it!!

CAKE FOOTAGE!!
(sorry its not the greatest but you'll get the idea!)

A big THANK YOU to Grandpa and Grandma Smith who got all the food for the birthday dinner and purchased the cake and ice cream! We had a blast!! "THANKS!!"

Alicia, Woody and Addison...

So I am a doofus and the entire night that we stayed at Alicia's house I didnt get a single picture of her? I have a ton of Addi and some of Woody and Joe playing "I am man, hear me roar" in the living room!! Here are the pictures I got...(I promise I will get better ones next time Alicia!!)