"We're going to make and example out of you"

Every other time I've heard that in my life it usually meant I had done something atrocious and my antics were going to be told to others as a warning on what NOT to do.

But this week? This week someone wants to use THIS BLOG as an example. A sample even. Like "hey, your blog could look like this too!"

I entered my blog on a little Facebook shout-out from this company that was looking for blogs to make sample books to show off their product and I was selected! I just finished submitting the past few months of posts and am excited and anxious to see what Blog2Print comes up with!

A boy turns 8

There was tree climbing, burping, stick sword fighting (and dead bird poking), and remote control car racing. I think it was a success. At the least it taught me to know better than to drive around town with 6 - 7&8 year old boys. I don't think I'll ever be quite the same.

The differences between boys and girls

Last night we rode our bikes over to Morries with the Campbell clan. On the way there and back I noticed that Erin (with Ashi in the bobike seat), Brady, and Christian were significantly ahead of us. I thought at first it was just because Natalie is still on training wheels and just isn't quite as fast as the big boys.

Then on the way home I noticed that the boys were racing home, whereas Natalie was taking her sweet time and singing show tunes the entire trip back... songs from the musical Oliver! to be exact... the world that this little girl lives in is completely separate from the rest of us.

Oh yeah... and this little guy here?

He turns 8 in just a few hours. Happy Birthday B. I love you.

Dum Dum Da Dum

My cousin Amy got married Saturday. It was a "destination" wedding in Winthrop at the Sun Mountain Lodge (gorgeous place). The nice part about weddings that you have to do some travelling to get to is that it forces you to stop and take a little mini-vacation yourself.

Childcare arrangements prevented us from extending the weekend (by the way a HUGE thank you to Erin...) which I really wish we could have because this place just made you want to relax. Made you want to do nothing but sit on your private deck and sip your coffee while watching the fog roll in... it was nice.

Besides the beautiful ceremony and the joy of watching two people professing their love to each other for the world to hear, it was a weekend of reuniting my cousins and aunts and uncles. Hearing stories for the 10th time about "do you remember the time when..." and hearing new stories about scandalous family secrets and some heartbreaking news that you wish hadn't been kept secret. It was good and healing and fun and a wake-up call to put more effort into nurturing my relationships with my family.

I couldn't go the whole weekend without some paparazzi... but I didn't paparazzi my own family. This time. Her pinky toe starts like 2 inches behind the others! It was creepy. And my apologies for the lack of quality paparazzi shot, but I was handicapped with a camera that only had a 3x zoom...

Most of the Borton girls (minus of course the bride and a few others unable to attend): my cousins Dianna, Mary Jane, Laura, Allison. And me and mom of course.

Me and my super sweet boyfriend... I could gush on here about him for days, but I'll save that for book club ;) (Please ignore my knock-knees... Mike couldn't, but I'm asking you to. Please.)

We couldn't help ourselves... it just screamed "mock me!" And luckily my mom is just as rotten as us and took our photo. Maybe we should have waited until the Sunday service was over, but we had to get back home...

Weekend Warriors

One of the 10 or so obstacles we encountered in the 3.15 miles of mayhem was also the grand entrance to the Warrior Dash. Some of the more memorable obstacles: The Breathless Bog (climbing over floating logs), the Junker Jump (a series of junkyard cars to climb over), Knee High Hell (about 100 feet of tires to hop through football-style), the Warrior Roast (jumping over fire!) and of course the finale: Muddy Mayhem (crawling, sliding and swimming through a giant barbed-wire covered mud pit!)


Kate got photo bombed while showing off her flat abs, buff biceps, and, oh yeah... her muddy armpits!

Kate donating her shoes post-race along with thousands of others for project Green Sneakers.

My super sweet warrior and me... we even scored a couple of "awww's" as we ran most of it holding hands (well until I got too tired to cooperate and play nice).

We saw all these people bathing in this pond on our way into the race and thought "gross. Are the lines for the shower really that bad?" Um, no, the lines weren't bad because there were no showers. This was the communal bathing hole. And yes, we joined the masses. We ain't too proud. But we were too muddy.

Mud. Sweat. Beer.

I'm with McStupid. Er, I mean, I'm standing just to the right of McStupid. :)

Why we really compete: For the love of BEER.

Just wait til you see our costumes we've got planned for next year.

"Dan" and his coffee.

I got caught in my warrior helmet (I didn't think anyone was looking).

K2

Well this post has been sitting in my "to be edited" folder instead of being posted like a good blogger would do.
I sent my little girl off to Kindergarten on Tuesday, and my boy is now a 2nd grader!
Brady returned to Northern Heights and has Mr. Lingbloom, the only male teacher in the entire school and exactly who I'd hoped B would get.
Natalie didn't get into the full-time Kindergarten program at N.H. (don't get my started on WHY) so she is attending Bridgeway Christian Academy (the same one Christian and Isabella attend) where she is doing great and has been enjoying math and science.

B sat down and got right to work.



Reunited and it feels so good... Aiden, Brady, Cameron, and Cole.

I actually got some sugar from my little fella.

Natalie is very excited to be coloring

Is she not the cutest thing ever?

I almost made it tear free, until Ms. Rose started talking to me about having my baby grow up...

Love you two...

A window in her smile

Natalie lost her very first tooth last night... well technically she lost half a tooth when she was 18 months old (on the exact same day 4 years ago... kinda weird, right? Or is it just weird that I remember that?)

My mom's dear friend Judy Martin (owner of Island Fabrics) heard that Natalie was at the age of losing teeth and made her a custom tooth fairy pillow... Natalie received it yesterday afternoon, just hours before she needed to use it!

Natalie is recounting the tale of how the tooth fell out...

"I was sleeping at nighttime on the floor and I was still awake and I was wiggling it and I feeled something in my mouth and I spit it out and I thought it was my tooth and it was my tooth! I ran to my mom and Boo yelled "Natalie lost her tooth!" and she was right! I put my tooth in my new pillow and put it under my pillow and got extra kisses and hugs from my mommy and she was so happy and proud of me. And I woke up in the morning and my tooth was gone and I had Five dollars! And a pack of bubble gum!"

I love you Little Miss. Love watching you grow up.