June Update - Luke Turns 9 Years Old - The Party!

My youngest turned 9 years old on June 16th! This year Luke decided to have his birthday party at TopNotch. We did a homeschool P.E. class there this year and he really enjoyed it. TopNotch puts on a GREAT birthday party complete with trampoline fun, foam pit, tons of great games with Jeremy, the owner, and the famous sling shot!

Luke and his friends prefer donuts over cake.

This gift bag is hysterical!

THE SLING SHOT!



Getting fastened in.

The launch!

GAME TIME!

JUMP TIME!

Luke's Family Birthday Dinner 6-16-09

We always have the boys pick the restaurant they want to go to on their birthday. Luke has always picked Red Robin (he takes after his dad). This year Grandma and Grandpa Pfeiffer were able to attend his birthday dinner. We had a great time. I can't believe my baby is 9 years old! Where do the years go?


Me with my handsome 9 year old son.

Last Day of School- June 2009

The boys requested that I make Indian food to celebrate their last day of school. I served it on the plates they painted at homeschool group this year. I should have taken a photo before I put the food on the plate so you could see what a great job they did. Martin's is on the right and Luke's is on the left.

June Zoo Trip

My brother and his family came down from Spokane for a visit. We surprised my mom by having me take her to the zoo for the day and my brother showed up with his family. We definitely surprised her. It was a fun day as you can see by the pictures. My boys were SO excited to see their cousins and I enjoyed spending time with family.


Me and my brother Dan (Dan you look so much like dad in this photo)

Martin and Luke with Uncle Dan and Aunt Tina
All the cousins together.


Boys will be BOYS!

The new baby elephant.

Inside the elephant exhibit. We had fun messing around with the elephant bike.

Typical DAN!

Too funny...look at Luke plugging his nose!

My nephew Spencer, Martin, Luke and Dan

My sweet nieces, Madeline and Sophie!

May Update

Martin has participated in the Awana program for many years. He completed his 2nd year of TNT at the end of May. These were taken after the award ceremony. Grandma, Grandpa and Great Grandma all came to celebrate his achievement.

Luke enjoys building with Lincoln Logs. He was so

happy with what he made he asked me to take a picture...

how could I resist this face :-)

One thing my boys love to do is paint. We had a beautiful day in May so they decided to paint outside. Here are the results.

Martin's finished masterpiece.

Luke's almost finished masterpiece.

In the process.

Tetherball (May)

Our boys were given a tetherball for Christmas last year and in May we finally figured out where to put it in the yard. The boys wanted to dig the hole all by themselves. Grandma and Grandpa came over to put the concrete in, shortened the rope, and they have been playing ever since. When I see them playing tetherball all I can think of is the tetherball scene in the movie Napoleon Dynamite :-)

This photo cracks me up! The post hole digger is
bigger than Luke. He also has his tongue out, which
is pretty standard when he is concentrating on something.

Martin has a lot more leverage than his brother

Team work....makes any mom happy

Complete, now for concrete.

The finishing touches

PORTLAND MARATHON - 10-4-09

Today my husband ran the Portland Marathon. This was his 3rd Portland Marathon and 5th total. I took the boys, my mom, and grandma downtown to watch Darin run the final stretch of the race. It was SO fun to see all the runners come by. I am always just blown away to know that every person that passed me had completed 26.2 miles!! It is truly a great accomplishment.

Darin finished in 4 hours and 13 seconds!!!! I am SO proud of him. It was a hard run for somebody that signed up at the last minute and his longest run was 16 miles a week before the big day. My husband has a lot of determination and strength and I was so glad that we were there to cheer him on for the final stretch!!! Good job, Babe, I love you!!!!!!

As you watch the finish of a marathon you see so many things. You watch as runners achieve their ultimate goal of finishing the race. Some runners give all they have left for that final sprint, other runners are injured, yet still putting one foot in front of the other to hit that finish line. There were the defeated runners that just couldn't run anymore due to injury or just didn't have anything left. To see runners holding hamsting muscles and sides that were all cramped up yet still moving was inspiring. There was a runner who had his arms hanging on two other runners shoulders, one on each side, to simply keep him in the upright position so he could finish the race. He must have gotten injured because he was in the 3hr 40 minute pack of runners. This was very moving for me to watch. Standing on the sidelines cheering was a lot of fun and to see the smiles and tears of those that had accomplished their goal was amazing.

I love this one. The little hand in the left corner is Luke waving at his dad. He was So excited to see him!

Darin is in the blue shorts.

Going into the turn for the very last stretch.

God's Masterpiece

This video really spoke to my heart.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyOIBnExlrw