I immediately thought of Sophia...

The title above was in the subject line of the email I got from our friend Mike McMullen with this comic. For those of you who know Sophie, it's perfect. She should wear a shirt that says, "My parents told me I could either stop eating bacon or move out...I sure will miss them."

Good Friends+Good Families=GREAT MEMORIES

Dan and Josh are in the middle of a massive side job. They are constructing and installing a big shelving project for a friend of mine. On Saturday alone they built 52+ shelves and I as I type they are assembling and installing. Over the weekend we all hung in their with the dads as they swung hammers and saws for over 10 hours...the kiddos helped where they could and tried to stay out of as much trouble as possible. I love this picture of Sophia and Averie. The history of these two is so incredible. They are both such vibrant, strong little girls and they are either a team of might or practically killing one another. Don't get me wrong....they may fight like cats and dogs but they will protect one another like no ones business! I have come to realize after seeing my kids engage with other kids that their unique relationship to the Hurley children is much more of a next of kin kind of relationship. At times any one of the 5 could be in massive frustration with one of the other and you would think that they were ready to write each other off but just then the tide will turn and it will be all tears at the thought they couldn't have dinner together. We truly have been blessed to have such great friends to connect to here and they have literally become family to us. I have had the privilege of watching Josh and Sarah's kids for the last almost 2 years and it has been so incredible to see how much they can change in that time. Averie's potty training and very little hair and almost no words to gymnastics, ponytails and lengthy conversations....Logan's growth in reading, math and eventually growing into those long legs...he has become quite the runner in soccer this year. I am saddened that my almost daily contact with these two ends tomorrow, thankfully they are our closest friends so I will not be far away...and the new baby is almost here ....yea...Hurley's! Can't wait!

At long long last....Sophia's FIRST program!!

There have been a few things in the last 2-3 years Sophie has been constantly complaining about. "when am I going to get an invitation to school friend party?", "when do I get to play soccer?" and lastly.... "when am I going to be in a school program?" Well we let her go to the very first party she was invited to in the fall and she finally accepted that she will get to play soccer this fall and she had her very first school program last Thursday. We made sure to get their early enough to get in the front row and she was smiles the entire time. Lately, Dan and I have been throwing around the idea of enrolling her in some acting classes in the children's theater...I think she confirmed that for us at the program. She was not a bit nervous and was all smiles and having a GREAT time. It was really fun to see her engage and enjoy being on stage. The theme of their program was "the whole world in our hands" so each student made a paper doll representing themselves and below is her hers. She worked very hard on this with her Grandma French while she was in town. They did a fantastic job!

Family Time

Dan and I have been wanting to have a back yard fire place for years...The previous owners left a really nice pile of unused bricks and finally after 3 years it donned on both of us that we didn't need to buy a pit we could spend some time with the kiddos building one. We had a lot of fun coming up with a design that we all liked and then on to the labor. They all worked very hard and after we were done we roasted hot dogs and 'smores. This was a great end to a first all family day in a long time. Early in the day we stopped by the hospital to see Spence and Jax and the new baby and then off to Deep Creek Canyon for a hike and then we drove around checking out campgrounds and then onto building the family fire pit. We are looking forward to having some great family time and memories around the fire pit this summer.

Baby Koonz

Congratulations Spence and Jackie! Baby Keenan was born Saturday May 31. He is so cute! and the has the cutest longest little toes! The kids were all excited as oon as they heard the news. Our Spencer has special place in his heart for babies! He was all over this little guy.

Margarita Mothers Day/Memorial Day

The French Family began a Mothers Day tradition many years ago...Margarita Mothers Day! We would all get together and have a fiesta! Good food, drinks and conversations. We have taken a break for the last few years with Jenny and Jake being in Australia and us to Spokane. Now that my sister has moved back to the states we have reignited the tradition. Though, schedules allowed us to not get together until Memorial Day it was all about the moms! We a great reunion! The kids all had a blast. The girls and Spencer made up a little program. Was really cute. The kids also were in Webkinz world with many a lap top linked together!

Lilac Soccer Tournament

Maddie had her very first soccer tournament. It was really neat seeing her team grow so much this year and what great talent they have. They did middle of the road on wins/losses but they had some tough and a wee bit older teams against them too. Unfortunately, it was 90 degree weather both days so the girls were a little sluggish.. and the rest of us did what we could to stay cool. (hence, the spray bottle)

Grace&Grandma come to town

Cousin Grace & Grandma French came to visit for a few days. We had a lot of fun. We took them to see the infamous Spokane Falls in down town. The falls were crazy but not as crazy as they are now with all the snow melt from the mountains.

Mother's Day 2008

I had a great mothers day this year. After church we went to lunch at David's pizza and thank goodness every other mother was at some breakfast place having brunch with their families...because there was no wait and we had the place pretty much to ourselves. We had a great time. After that we went to REI and I bought some clothes. While Dan showed us all the cool stuff that he has been learning about in his back packing school that we will need to eventually get for our family back packing trips! I can't wait. It will be a lot of fun~!

This picture makes me laugh...they kids all got beer cups for their root beer!

Garden 2008

Again this year we planted our joint Vegetable garden with the Hurley's on Mothers Day weekend. We had a blast and are looking forward to some really good food this harvest season! Maddie and Logan, of course were the hardest workers of the the kiddos but the rest put in some time as well!

And of course this was our little puppy the entire day!

An emotional end to school

After my last night of clinicals and passing my last exam I came home to my family celebrating my "gradulation" from NAC class. I am now ready to take my state Exam for Nurses Aide Certification. I really enjoyed the class a ton and even more so my residents that I was in charge of at the nursing home. I had 4 people I was responsible for on my shift. And a handful of people that I helped the NAC on duty with. I actually wept on my drive home on my last night. The connection was so neat to have even though, most of them had some degree of dementia or Alzheimers and may not remember me, there is a level of connection that happens when you care for people in the most personal ways possible. We had great conversations, laughter and even tears through some of nights! It was one of the most emotional moving times I have been able to experience. I look forward to my certification and being able to apply myself to this type of work soon! This picture makes me laugh, because I look so dazed.....I was...it was a long 5 weeks of long days each day.

Bloomsday and lake cruising

The Bloomsday race was a lot of fun this year. I walked it in under 2 hours~! 1 hour 56 minutes to be exact: (15 min 37 sec miles ) I walked a little slower pace with my two VERY pregnant friends for the first two miles and then ditched them at the mile 2 post. (sorry girls!!!) Even still with the slow start I shaved more than a minute off each mile. I felt great the entire time and could really tell how much stronger this year I was than last. It was far more emotional for me as well, I have been working on overcoming some personal emotional things that I have been toting around with me since I was a kid and finishing this year with a such a great time and essentially on my own was a HUGE milestone. If you know the course, the last stretch of the course is a good one and at the very end you make one last turn and head down this little hill and you can see the finish line in the middle of the Monroe Street bride, as soon as I hit the turn I was just overwhelmed with emotion and began to cry. So thankful that I made it and finished so strong! My goal for next year will be to actually run. Looking forward to it! After the race this year-Dan and I dropped the kids off with the sitters and met up with friends at the Coeur D' Alene resort for a brunch and cruise on the lake. It was an excellent end to the hard work that morning. The weather as fantastic!