A Little of This . . . A Little of That

I just had this conversation with my two (okay three in a couple weeks) year old son. I look over and see Coleman and Teegan playing under the kitchen table, and Coleman is holding his hands together kind of funny.
Me: Coleman, what are you doing?
C: I'n holdin' the baaalloons.
M: Oh, you have balloons?
C: Sure, at the zooo.
M: You are at the zoo?
C: Yeah, Teegan the monkeys.
M: Teegan is a monkey.
C: Yeah Mom. Uh oh, the baaalloons all gone.
M: Where did the balloons go?
C: I let go in sky.
M: You let them go up in the sky?
C: Sure Mom.

I can't believe his imagination! It just makes me smile! This whole scene sounds like it is from his book "Curious George". Anyway too funny . . . I had to share!

On to more updates, we have been meeting up at the park with friends lately and having lots of fun.
Todd was nice enough to bring water balloons and his launcher to keep the big boys entertained!
He was also nice enough to share with the little boy-who was told by the big boys to "go get your mom". Nice.
I found Teegan sneaking into the picnic basket while waiting for our dinner to finish grilling.Don't worry, he scored! He found the warm biscuits and started digging in . . . literally!
And to finish off . . . I moved over to the dark side . . . as in I'm now a brunette. For those who don't believe me-and for those who haven't seen me-here are a couple pictures to prove it. (This is for you Jennifer M.!) I am still having a hard time getting used to it, but I'll live with it for now. I haven't said anything to my mom, yet, and would kind of like to keep it that way until she sees me in a couple days. She has warned me not to do it, so it will be interesting to see her reaction in person. Anyway, here you go:

Oh, I almost forgot, Phil is graduating on Friday with his Masters in Nurse Anesthesia!
I sent out some announcements to some family . . . sorry other family and all friends . . . I ran out of time and money. Anyway, everyone is welcome to come join us at the Chester Fritz in Grand Forks on Friday at 3 pm. We will also be having a small open house for him on Saturday night at our house. Bring a dessert to share if you would like to join us!

Celebrating Summer . . .

. . . or at least what summer we can get. Last week was really nice. Sunshine and in the 70's. This week it is cloudy, rainy, and a chilly 65*. I have already seen a few leaves begin to change colors. As much as I love fall, I really would like to enjoy more summertime! We have been trying to take advantage of the warm days and head to the park. Coleman and Teegan trying to climb the tree (without success)!


One of the parks here, has a church group (I think it's a church group) that comes Monday-Friday and provides a free lunch for all the children. The other day, they also had the firetruck come, and boy was Coleman excited! He had the biggest smile on his face. I didn't ever get a picture of him checking it out, but it was still fun to see!

I'm not sure if this is because of our crazy summer schedule or what, but every time we get in the car, it seems like Teegan is always falling asleep. The other day, he fell asleep in the shopping cart at Walmart. Right as I realized he was asleep, he did the bobble head thing, and smacked his face on the front handle bars. It left a bit of a mark above his eyebrow, and I felt so bad. No pictures of that event, either. Just him sleeping in the car!

Since we don't live in Utah, our ward had a picnic at a park on July 24th to celebrate Pioneer Day. A member of our bishopric read a pioneer story, and then after dinner, we played pioneer games.
Here is Phil winning a game of stick pull against Dusty Butler.

Here is Phil losing a game of stick pull to Kevin Thomas.

They even let the kids try and Coleman loved it. He played this round with Jake Wood.

Another game they had was water balloon baseball. Not exactly a pioneer game, but still lots of fun!

Phil was holding a water balloon and trying to get it to pop on Coleman. However, he missed, and it totally soaked Teegan. Teegs was such a good sport about it though, and hardly even whined!


Anyway, that's a little update of our summer happenings!

Oh What Do You Do In The Summertime?

Some of our favorite summer activities are enjoying Phil's dutch oven cooking. A few weeks ago, he did a pot roast, and it was delicious! Just an FYI, Phil wants me to start documenting his cooking, so you'll probably see lots more food pictures in the future!
Before:

After:


If you live in North Dakota, you get to enjoy baby birds in the Summer time. A swallow built it's nest right in the upper corner by our front door. At first I was annoyed, but now it has been a lot of fun to see the little babies.


We also LOVE the fresh produce we receive (it doesn't happen very often this far North, unless you want potatoes or sugar beets!) Here are my boys lovin' the watermelon!



And one of our most favorite summer activities is to go CAMPING! We went this weekend with some friends and had a BLAST!

Coleman and Teegan on our LONG drive to the campground. We had planned to go to Warroad, Minnesota, but when we got to there, we weren't very impressed, so we continued on down the road for another 45 minutes, and we found this FABULOUS campground called Zippel Bay State Park.

By the time we arrived, both boys had peed through, so we had to sit in the car until dad could get the tent set up and our bags out for clean clothes. I was doing my best trying to keep them occupied, because they were going CRAZY!

Enjoying the great outdoors (and some cookies)!

The park was right on the bay of Lake of the Woods, which was a HUGE lake on the border of the U.S. and Canada. It had a nice beach, and the boys just LOVED playing in the sand.

Phil and Teegan playing on a Big Rock!
The boys digging in the sand.

Dusty trying to wade out to the rock, but he chickened out! :)

Our beautiful campsite with the bright sunshine on Saturday afternoon!

Coleman had so much fun spending all day and all night outside.

Teegan taking an afternoon snooze in the tent.

Anna and baby Samantha!

Phil making us a delicious BBQ Chicken dinner with Potatoes, Rolls, and Blackberry Cobbler for dessert! Yum!

This is what happens when you give a 13 month old some licorice . . . a very sticky mess!

Dusty was nice enough to let Coleman watch "Cars" on his laptop. I think this might have been one of Coleman's favorite activities of the whole trip! He couldn't take his eyes off the screen!

There was lots more happening, but my camera died, so I don't have anymore of our little outing. It was great to go camping and enjoy time with friends. Thanks Butlers and Piersons for letting us join you! We can't wait for the next one!

Drum Roll Please . . .

We FINALLY have decided where we will be moving to in a few months, and couldn't be more excited! Our answer came today, and Phil and I are CELEBRATING! And now, drum roll please . . . . . . . . . . . . .

























St. Alphonsus Hospital in Boise, Idaho!

We are so happy and so excited. This interview truly was a miracle. Phil had been calling this group for months, and the last we heard from them, just last month was that they weren't even accepting informal interviews. As in, they didn't even want Phil to spend his own money to fly out and just stop in to say hi. Then, two days before he was supposed to fly out to Boise for his St. Lukes interview, they posted a job opening, and called Phil to see if he was still interested. Of course, he said yes, and the next thing we knew, not only did they want to interview him, but they wanted to take him out to a nice dinner. Phil and I definitely feel that this job is a blessing from our Father in Heaven and are so grateful for this opportunity. Let's just hope, now that everything else runs as smoothly!

More Interviews and other Updates

Right now, Phil is here:
(Boise, ID)
going through the interview process again!

Yesterday he interviewed at St. Alphonsus Hospital

and Today he interviewed at St. Luke's Hospital

It sounds like both interviews went really well, and Phil was especially excited about St. Al's. Now we have to play the waiting game until we hear from them. This part just puts me in knots. I shouldn't be too worried, seeing how Greenville, NC has already offered him a position, but Phil and I have started to really feel like Boise is where we should go. I guess now we cross our fingers and say lots of prayers! :)

Also, here is an update of our 4th festivities!

We started our celebrating by meeting up with some good friends from Fargo, the Webers. We headed to McDonalds for breakfast and then downtown for the Kiddie Parade.

Here are our parade watchers!
Brodie, Maggie, & Coleman

It's not a very good picture, but here are more parade watchers: Webers, Piersons, Bartletts - Justin (sorry JB!), Roylances, and Valarie Wood who was waiting for her family (who were in the parade)!

Phil and Teegan

Coleman playing in a Bounce House

Phil enjoying a Snowcone and apparently not sharing fast enough!


After enjoying the sites of downtown, we headed over to the park for a big BBQ with friends. The food was delicious, the weather was PERFECT, the company was superb; you just can't ask for more!
Phil enjoying some football . . . maybe a little too much!

Our family with our cute Old Navy shirts!

Teegan at the Splash Park

Coleman with his buddy Austin warming up on the cement!

I forgot to bring Teegan's swimsuit, so he just got to wear his onesie! He didn't care though! He had so much fun in the water!


After all the food, sunshine, and water, we headed home for a much needed shower and relaxation before heading out again for fireworks.
I took some popcorn with us, and Teegan thought he was in heaven! He would grab huge handfuls and try to stuff it all in his mouth! So Cute!

All the kids lined up to watch the pre-fireworks show put on by Dusty and Phil.

Me and Teegan, still enjoying the popcorn!

Coleman and Maggie playing with their glow necklaces while waiting for the big fireworks to start!


Phil with both the boys, enjoying the fireworks!


And to finish off, yesterday, Teegan went in for his 1 year check up.
His stats are . . .
Weight: 26 lbs. (85%)
Height: 31 1/2" (90%)

What a chub!