Puppy dog cake

We have had a lot going on this month including Cody turning 2! He is such a sweet little boy and so fun to be around. He is in love with puppy dogs so of course I had to make a big puppy dog cake for the occasion. It took a little while longer than I thought it would but it turned out so cute it was worth it.

Apartment Living

Our apartment days are about to end and I am counting down the days. I can't believe we will have been here for 6 long months. It has been a big change for all of us - Bill had to go to the office, rather than work from home, the cat and the dog are confined to the apt. all day and all night, I have had to find different things for the kids to do to keep entertained and the boys have had most of their toys in storage. We managed to survive the process so far, but I can't say its been a ton of fun. Here are the 5 best things and 5 worst things about living here.

5 Best things

1. THE POOL - I have no idea what we would have done without the pool, it has been a lifesaver. The kids have LOVED having it right across the street.
2. Lower rent = more spending money
3. Vacations - I think we took 5 major vacations this summer to get away and all of them turned out to be great times with family and friends.
4. Maintenance men - I call and they come fix anything.
5. No visitors means no cleaning. I think I can honestly say I have really enjoyed not picking up so much, it helps that there is no place to put it once it gets picked up.

5 Worst things

1. No dog door - walking the dog 4 or more times a day and picking up her poop has been crappy.
2. Kitty litter - not only do we have a kitty litter inside now (thanks to the no dog door), but its in the laundry closet which is in the kitchen. I can honestly say that I never want to have this problem again. Oh and the cat's food is in the boys bathroom on the counter - eewww, gross.
3. "Where's my _______?" And the answer to this question is always - "In storage, in the back where you can't get to it."
4. Lack of space - I was able to get the biggest apt. I could find and thank goodness for that because everyday it feels like it shrinks a little.
5. Noise, cars and privacy - car headlights peering in your window at 2am, noisy dogs barking at all times. Not having a garage has been a major adjustment getting the kids in and out of the parking lot safely.

Here is the scorpion that I almost touched one day while reaching for the remote control. Shortly after killing this one, I found another alive one on the way to Cody's room.

The boys helping me sand the new baby's furniture on our patio.

Brayden's 1/2 birthday

Brayden turned 4 and a half today! We celebrated by going to the Icecream festival, which was WAY too hot, even with icecream. Then we had hotdogs and cupcakes by the pool.

Idaho - BBR

Bill and I had never been to Idaho but that all changed last week. Some friends and I planned a trip for our husbands to see some bands play that they love. This is the 5th year for the Braun Brother's reunion and they finally got go. We flew into Boise and stayed the night there before driving 4 hours into the mountains. Idaho is very pretty but there are not a lot of people there. Once we got into the mountains it was pretty rustic, there was no cell phone coverage, no hotels and no restaurants (or at least none I want to try again). It was A LOT quietier than my house at home but we managed to make a little noise while we were there - or at least our car did :) We hit a rock while driving home one night from the concert - it had hailed on us that day and the storm knocked a bunch of rocks off the mountains into the road, one of them was larger than we thought and long story short, our car suffered. The weather was a little nicer than what we have here, it rained everyday and if you didn't like it hot no problem it got cold in a couple of minutes and if you didn't like it cold, no problem it will be hot in just a minute, or raining or hailing. I think we got a little of everything.

I missed not being with the kids, leaving them was really hard this time but they had a great time with our parents and I am not sure but it seems like they didn't miss us at all. a little stop on our way up the mountain
when you walked out the door of our "5-star" cabin this is the view.

The river was COLD!

We learned how to fly fish one day - I caught a cut-throat trout and Bill caught a white fish.

The group in all the fly-fishing gear outside our cabin

Bill fly-fishing

Checking out the damage to our minivan

One of the many "lovely" places we ate. At this one Parker ordered "finger steaks", when they came out they could have been steak fingers, or egg rolls or fried shrimp by the way they looked. I didn't dare taste them but I heard they smelled yummy!

Brothers

Sometimes being a brother is even better than being a superhero!

Potty time!

Who knew Cody was interested in sitting on the potty all day. I think he just likes that he gets to be naked but whatever the reason I am happy that he likes it. On the first day we bought the potty he was able to go 3 times. Such an over-achiever!