April

Happy 14th Birthday Ani!! Mint chocolate icecream cake and family...top that!
Good ol' game of dodge ball on the trampoline after Ani's party. Grandpa Hogg and Jared were having as much if not more fun than the kiddos. However Gus was enjoying it more than anyone trying to steal their loose balls. - Mom

Brennan's favorite hairstyle the past couple of weeks has been the slept-on triple french braid. Each night I put Brennan's damp hair in 3 french braids before she hits the hay. This method is more comfy than sleeping on flexi rods or curlers.

After a good night rest... it looks like she crimped her hair minus the heat damage. Beautiful! Ani liked it so much she had me braid her hair as well. She received numerous compliments at school. - Mom

 Burt passed away in June 2016. After a long winter his head stone was finally placed at the Bramhall Cemetery. The cemetery is on a hill in Emmett Idaho with a beautiful view of the valley. - Mom

My friends Luptia (Also known as Little-Pita, Pita, Pita-Pet) and Emily kidnapped me the Saturday before my birthday. We first went to Emily's house and they gave me wonderful gifts. We then went to the farmer's market and we had orange soda, crepes, and octopus dumplings. They spoiled me. -Ani

A leopard picked up Corbin and Brennan from the bus stop. Don't they look terrified!? My friend Carol King is quite the artist and loves to face paint. I am always more than happy to be her model. - Mom                                                                                                                                                                                                                        

While Jared was in Coeur d'Alene these guys were my companions after the kiddos went to bed. - Mom

Dad was in Coeur d'Alene and found this telephone booth. I think it is pretty sweet. When we go this summer I want to go check it out, maybe call someone on it. I have never seen one before. -Ani

We heart-attacked Grandma and Grandpa Hogg for their anniversary. We had a system where we would sneak around the house one kid at a time and put our hearts on the door. We went unnoticed until Brennan's turn. When Grandpa came out to talk he said that he saw a little kid outside in an orange shirt. When Campbell went to put her hearts on their door they were outside on their doorstep looking for the kid in the orange shirt. Good try! -Ani

Caves that Jared and his co-workers stopped at on their way to training in Coeur d-Alene. - Mom

Happy 84th Birthday Valene! This was the first birthday and Easter Valene spent without her eternal companion. We got together with Michelle, Debbie, and Kirk and had a ham and potato dinner. We all know that Valene likes chocolate cake which resulted in 5 chocolate cakes. Not knowing she had already received four cakes we brought the fifth...Texas sheet cake. - Mom

Corbin's friend, Asher Adamson, invited Corbin to his church's performance of the Easter Story. It was professionally done and very touching. Corbin's favorite part was the live camel, donkey, and lambs. - Mom

 

My science teacher asked me to take care of the eggs during spring break. Not just eggs but chicks too. The chicks smelt so bad, were so loud and annoying, and drove our dogs crazy. None of them hatched but if you look at the one on the top left corner you can see one is starting to hatch. He couldn't hatch on its own so they had to help it hatch by carefully peeling away little bits of the shell. Unfortunately it died a few days later. -Ani

We had gotten Aunt Michelle's recipe for her amazing cheese and onion dip. We had just made it and took it over to Grandma Fluckiger's house. It was dang good but not as good as when Aunt Michelle makes it. -Ani

Nampa 35th Wards YW Girls Camp fundraiser. They had a yummy tropical dinner, talent show, and bake sale. Campbell performed a song from "Phantom of the Opera" on the piano and Ani played a duet with Abi Syphus.

The Tuikolovatu's are a family in our ward whose parent's are from Tonga and Samoa. They preformed several authentic island dances. All the YW were invited to come up for the last dance. HeeHee...Campbell hid behind the curtain.

"King of the Fruit" Candy

Today I gave Dad a candy that I had gotten from my Sunday school teacher. It was from Singapore​ and was made from a fruit considered the "King of Fruit" that is called something like a Derain. He popped it into his mouth , stammered, took a step back and said "Wow!" He didn't know  what to think. He didn't like it at first but then he said was getting better and it tasted like buttery cocunut. One dad's friends tried it too and said it was getting worse. 

Earlier I had one during Sunday School. I smelt it before I tried it. To me it smelt like urine or a port-a-potty. It was bad. Cautiously I tried it. I didn't know what I thought about it at first. Then it started to not be very friendly to my taste buds. It tasted just like it smelt. I ran to the garbage can and spit it out.

I had also given it to Mom but didn't watch her eat it. Apparently her reaction was like Dad's. It wasn't what she was expecting.

-Ani

A Few Summer Happenings

Jared took us to Swan Falls to do some fishing. I got a little bored and frustrated trying to entertain three kids while Jared took one fishing so I instigated a photo shoot. I probably took one hundred plus pictures but here are few of my favorites.

On our way to Swan Falls we stopped at a garage sale (Jared loves garage sales). We found this cool tool bench with tools for Corbin. Poor Corbin had to wait all day to try out his tools. He stayed up until 11:00 playing with and organizing his tools. He even had Bob the Builder pajamas on to match.

We all had to try on the goggles.

We went camping in Cascade with my parents. Due to all the rain, Cascade Dam was releasing a record amount of water creating this awesome rooster tail.

View from our campsite. Campbell woke up so early she was already down for a morning nap.

We decided to hike to Blue Lake, but there was still several FEET of snow.

A brief dip into the lake with Aunt Kamille.

Building sandcastles with Grandpa Hogg. He came prepared with a real shovel.

Brennan loved her first beach experience.

Campbell played t-ball this year and it was very entertaining. She had a hard time staying focused so she would keep herself busy by performing gymnastics in the middle of the field or by pretending she had a ball and tagging all the runners out when they ran by. The runners did not appreciate her role-playing.

Hey, batter, batter, batter, swing!

Brennan has four teeth coming in so she has been extra snuggly.

Our next camping trip was to Featherville. We had tons of fun with my mom and Aunt Kamille. On the final night I took Corbin for a bike ride until he fell asleep.

Jared took the girls to the Snake River Stampede. We forgot to take naps so Campbell slept through half of the excitement, but they had a great time.

Happy Birthday Brennan! I can't believe my baby is already a year old. Here are a few of her favorite new toys. Do you recognize the bear Aunt Ilene? Thank you!

We love you Baby B!

We had a fun filled evening at Grandma and Grandpa Fluckiger's home for the 4th of July! The fireworks are not as exciting as I remember them but our kids had a blast.

Here a Chick, There a Chick, Everywhere a Chick Chick

So HEAVY.

Since I went private with my blog only those with a Google account can view my blog. Many of our family members do not have a Google account but my sister-in-law discovered a cool Blogger feature that allows my updates to be sent to you through email. So this post is a test to see if it works.

About 5-6 weeks ago Jared had the crazy idea to get cute and cuddly chicks and raise them for supper. The kids love having chicks, Doc (our bird dog) really loves/hates having chicks, and I am plum tired of all the bird potty. When we bought the chicks we did not know if they were hens or roosters. Can you tell from these pics? Now we know that we have one rooster and one hen. Once the rooster starts to crow he will have to go (city ordinance). We'll have to see if anyone will actually eat them.

Our hen at 1 week.

Motherhood is SCARY sometimes!

I am writing this mainly for my sister-in-law because she decided to move away and have a long distance phone number. Now I can't call her and tell her everything that happens, but others might find this interesting too. So...we were at Campbell's tee ball game when I looked over my shoulder to see Ani with a panicked face and Corbin laying on the ground in convulsions. I ran over to him just in time to see his eyes roll back into his head and to watch another episode of seizures. Remember my brother had numerous seizures a day, so when Corbin started doing this thoughts of my brother started running through my head. Jared was the 3rd base coach, so I yelled his name over the crowd. I think he could see the fear in my eyes because I didn't have to say anything else. He came running and took care of the next minute like a super daddy. I don't really remember the sequence of events but there was more seizures/convulsions and lack of breathing. I started asking if I should call 911 when Corbin sat up and started tattling on Ani. For the next minute or two he would lose consciousness for a second, but then he was just fine. Corbin sat on my mom's lap for the rest of the game and appeared to have no lasting affects of his incidence. After I was confident that Corbin was alright I pulled Ani aside and learned that she had kicked him while playing. I don't know if it hurt or just scared him, but this proceeded him falling to ground. Talking to my mom and Jared I am getting the impression that this can happen when someone holds their breath to long or experiences a traumatic event. All I know is he better not do it again because it freaked me out!

We had plans to go camping this weekend, but due to the crazy amount of rain we canceled our trip. The girls understood the reason and that we would get to go camping some other time, but Corbin was very sad. He was walking around the house carrying his packed backpack and wearing his camping boots. He was super excited! So, to accommodate the little guy we packed up a few items and drove over to my parents for a camping experience. It was raining here too so we set up our tent under their covered patio. We played games until 9:30 when everyone started to get tired. A few chapters of Junie B. Jones and Ani was asleep. About 11:oo Campbell fell asleep. Corbin fell asleep about the same time, but when I had to get out of the tent to rock Brennan, Corbin woke up. Now Brennan would not sleep. She had fun climbing over her sisters and playing with their hair, ears, and nostrils, but when I would stop her she would throw a fit. If I tried to get her to lay down she would cry and cry and cry. So eventually I took her out. About 12:00 she fell asleep, but so did I (and Corbin). I was afraid I was going to drop her - we were sitting on the porch swing over the cement patio - so I took her back to the tent. Of course she woke up and when I went back to get Corbin she threw herself into another tizzy. So, long story short we all found some very unrestful sleep about 1:00 a.m. But Corbin had a very fun time!!!!

Oh, I love this little girl to pieces. After her shower she came out in this creatively cool outfit. This is one of many hilarious poses.

Ani earned a free pass to Givens hotsprings by completing her homework for the month of April. We spent about five hours there until we could not handle any more chlorine or steam. Both Ani and Campbell spent the majority of their time jumping off the edge of the pool and learning to dive. Ani experienced quite a few belly flops and Campbell ended up learning to flip instead of dive, but minutes before leaving they succeeded. Brennan slept in her floaty for an hour and Corbin spent most of his time playing on the stairs.

I had the privlege of being one of Campbell's preschool teachers this year along with 5 other moms. This week Campbell graduated and will be moving on to the exciting world of kindergarten. Congratulations, Campbell!!

Ani's tooth has been loose for a long time. Everytime I offered to pull it out the fear of pain would take over and she would decline. Yesterday Grandpa Hogg told Ani about his tooth pulling strategy. After grocery shopping I convinced her to let me try out Granpa's technique. Reluctantly she agreed. Within seconds the tooth was out and Ani looked like she was going to faint. I thought it must have hurt, but she said it didn't hurt at all, but was surprised that it came out so fast. When we returned home Ani told Jared that she bought something at the store and surprised him with her tooth. So cute!

Ani's 1st Piano Recital

Ani was so nervous for her 1st recital. Thankfully her teacher agreed to go up with her and that was all she needed to find the confidence to perform her pieces beautifully. Great job Andison!!

Catching Up - January to March

Corbin left his breakfast on the floor - the picture tells the rest of the story.

Campbell enjoying an unexpected snow. Zoom in on her face - she is so funny!

Corbin's masterpiece - A castle taller than himself.

Jared, Campbell, and Ani lovin' the jumbo slide at Monkey Business. They went down again, and again, and again. So did Corbin.

Feeding the geese and ducks at the park.

Swimming at the hotel. Campbell is a little fish!

Celebrating my 33rd birthday with my family!

Gotta love thrush!

Ani ice fishing with dad and grandpa.

Ice Skating

This is my first experience posting a video. Wow, it was really easy!