End of the School Year, Caleb's 7th birthday, and Good-bye to Truck

Well I have some sad news to start off with. Josh's K-9 partner, Truck, was put to sleep on Sunday evening, June 7th. His health has been deteriorating for the past few months and he was having trouble jumping in and out of Josh's SUV. But things really went downhill this last weekend. He threw up in his kennel on Saturday night a few times. Then on Sunday morning we had to go to Driggs for Gemma Bollinger's baby blessing (Ben and Heather's daughter.) Josh had asked out neighbors, Brittaini and Jay, to keep an eye on Truck while we were gone. Around 4pm they texted Josh and said they had tried to let him out to go potty and he couldn't even get up. He limped over to a patch of grass in the shade and laid down. When we got home at about 6pm, he was still laying there and didn't look good at all. He even threw up a couple more times while we were standing there. Josh and another neighbor, Ryan Hemsley, managed to get him moved to a blanket. Then they carried him into the back of Josh's K-9 SUV. It would be his last ride. :( I didn't even have Caleb or Gabe say good-bye to Truck because I wasn't sure what was going to happen and they were out playing with neighbor kids. But sadly, once they got him to the shelter, the decision was made to put him down. I don't think it was the wrong decision, but it was just sad the boys didn't get to say good-bye… :(
Josh will be getting a new dog in July. We have heard it's a yellow lab as well, but a girl this time, named Piper. I wonder if Truck realized he was officially retired and wouldn't be going to work anymore with Josh and decided that was it. He was giving up.
We will miss you Truck!

A happier thing that happened just before Truck passed away, was that we celebrated Caleb's 7th birthday! We went back and forth a lot about what we were going to do. At first we were going to take him and two or three friends just to Squealers. (We had taken Gabe and two friends to iJump for his birthday so we thought that would be fair) But then Caleb was having a hard time deciding which two friends would be best to take. So we ended up convincing him that a family day trip to Jackson to go swimming would be better. Berrick, Wylder, and Asher and Micah (and Ava and Gemma) all came with their parents too, so he had lots of cousins to swim and have fun with. It really was a fun day. We ate at Pizza Hut for dinner and then drove home. (And then went back to Driggs the next day for the baby blessing… and then Truck died…. so the weekend kind of ended on a sad note.)

But hopefully Caleb had a Happy Birthday! It was lucky that Truck didn't die on his birthday! :\ Oh and he also picked out an ice cream cake, which we ate on Saturday night.


I am kind of working backwards here…
The last day of school was on Friday, May 9th. the boys had such AMAZING teachers this year. It went SOOOO fast. I am so sad it's over. I just can't imagine they would ever have two such wonderful teachers at the same time again. It was just an awesome year. The last week of school was filled with partying for the boys. They had a field day, reading camp out day, game day, pajama and breakfast day! I mean, Mrs. McCoy was even wearing an apron as she waved good-bye to Caleb. Come on, it just doesn't get more picture perfect woman than that! lol Mrs. Burt actually cried when she said good-bye to Gabe. lol These teachers were amazing. I just loved them. Now they are all mine for the Summer and I am already half way to crazy town. Caleb is going to be the death of me, I swear. If I can get that kid raised to be a responsible, happy, well-adjusted contributing member of society, I will just feel SOOO relieved. lol He is so smart in school and can be so sweet when he wants to be, but I already know he will be my most difficult child.

Here are some pictures of some other Summer fun! We have been outside with neighbors TONS and doing other fun things like going to parks, Josh took the kids horseback riding, etc. I have also had a VERY busy Etsy month (I am pretty sure my busiest ever. That is the stack of envelopes in that picture - that is two day's worth of orders.) I was getting like 20 orders a day…. yikes!

Beautiful Spring Weather, Tiff's Utah Trip, Mother's Day, Pinewood Derby, Redoing Avery's Room, Avery starting Preschool Again, Caleb's Piggy Play, Mom and Jesse's Visit, and More!

Well, my mom and Jesse just pulled out of our driveway and headed towards Utah. They were here visiting for the past three days. But before we get to  that! Here are some things that kept up busy from the second half of April and into the month of May!

April 18th, 2015 Josh turned 35 years old! What an old man. He had to work on his actual birthday - so we went and saw a movie ("The Longest Ride" - about a bull rider) a few days before his birthday. Diane babysat our monsters.

I went on a little trip to Utah to visit Stacey and Kamrie. I took the shuttle down there and then they picked me up at the airport. Then on the way home I rode back up with my neighbors, Brittaini and Jay, who had been down there for a wedding. While I was there we did lots of shopping, went to Ikea, the Park City Outlets, and ate lots of good food (Zuppas - lobster bisque… my favorite soup).

While I was gone, I had hired a girl named Miranda to start painting Avery's bedroom mural. All together, she worked on it usually three days a week (M, W, F for about three hours each day) starting on April 22 and her last day of painting it was on May 15, so about 3 and a half weeks. I think she spent about 35 hours on it total. I am still going to add a couple of things to her bedroom, including a little table and mushroom "toad" stools, but I will have to post some pictures of the mural. I even added a tree all by myself after she was done with the main wall. ;) It's really cool - there is a castle and trees, a river, and a cute little bridge. I love it. This was the first mural she had ever done, but I think it turned out really well!

Avery started her second session of "Toddler Lab" on the BYUI campus the first week of May. She also attended this from January though mid-April and loved it, so I quick signed her up for the May-July session. She has so much fun at this. It's the highlight of her week! I just wish it was longer than twice a week - an hour each time!

The cub scouts has their Pinewood Derby on May 6th. Gabe is our only "official" cub scout (they have to be 8) but Josh helped caleb make a car too just for fun. Both of the boys finished somewhere in the middle (there were about 15 boys total and I think Caleb got about 4th and Gabe got about 6th over all) but they both had a lot of fun. They actually both helped Josh with their cars a lot, which is what it's really supposed to be all about. ;)

Mother's Day was May 10th, and Josh even had the day off! Yay! At church, I participated in the little game during the kids' singing time. I had to wear a paper bag over my head and a robe over my clothes and go in there while the teacher read some clues about me. They included my favorite color (purple), favorite food (pasta from the Cheesecake Factory), and the city I was born in. Finally, after that last clue, when she asked, "Does anyone have a mom that was born in Wisconsin?" Caleb slowly raised his hand. (I think people were actually looking at him like, "Caleb! Isn't that YOUR mom!?" haha Stacey had also come to visit for Mother's day, since I am her unofficial mom.

The next thing that consumed some time this past month, was getting our yard in shape again. Spring was so nice this year, we really lucked out. Usually it doesn't get warm until about June, but this year it was already getting green around here in April! But that also meant we had to start mowing our grass earlier, get some flowers planted, and replant some bushes. We have had a lot of rain this Spring also - it is actually pouring as I type this. It's so unusual for Idaho, but the farmers love it and I love that we are saving money on running our sprinklers less. There are houses going up in our neighborhood like crazy. Surprisingly though, there is still no one building right behind our house. I'm sure its only a matter of a few months, but I am enjoying it while I can. We are hoping they start building our community clubhouse (with indoor swimming pool and fitness center!) by next Summer.

Caleb had a very cute little "Three Piggy Opera" that he perfumed in at school this month. He was one of the narrators. He had a little stage fright at the last minute, but we convinced him to go on and he did awesome. It was also his "spotlight day" at school, where they honored him for his birthday, even though it is actually June 6th. They made sure to give him a special day!

Caleb also had a field trip to the zoo on May 19th,  and Josh went along on the bus as a chaperone. Avery and I did NOT ride on the bus (little siblings are not allowed) but we did drive our own van and get there at the same time so we could enjoy the zoo trip too. ;) I also bought a new printer while we were in Idaho Falls that day, which I have yet to hook up. But the one that I have been using for about the last two years for my Etsy shop is starting to act weird, so I was going to give this new one a try and see how I like it.

Last but not least, my mom and Jesse came out to visit! They got here on Wednesday, May 20th, and they just left today (Saturday) to continue their little road trip. They are visiting lots of people in between here and Utah, and then heading down to St. George and doing Zion's National Park. It was Jesse's first time ever visiting Rexburg so we had to give him the whole tour of the town. After that hour was over… (hahaha) we did other things such as go to the temple, walk around campus, went to Squealer's Fun Park in Rigby, and got cupcakes at the Cocoa Bean. They got to sleep in the newly completed "princess room", so that was fun for them I'm sure. ;) We are hoping that they decide to move out here permanently in about 6 years when they both retire. Since we went to Disney World in March, we told them we probably wouldn't visit Wisconsin until October, so it was nice they were able to come out here for a few days and visit.

This weekend is Memorial Day and then they kids only have school Tuesday - Friday! After that, i may go crazy trying to run my Etsy shop and take care of all three kids all day - wish me luck!

Well that's all the highlights for this time!