Ava can sit up! She wobbles and falls over sometimes, but she can hang in there without props holding her up.





















Ava and her dancing shoes from Aunt Jocie.











Ava had a fantastic time checking out the dry ice in the rootbeer. She was seriously possessed and had baby-style iron grip on the cup you see here.
The flash washed out the cloud of dry ice smoke so you can't really see it. Jake was not to be deterred from getting his rootbeer, though.

An eyeball picture of our very curious Ava.

A QUICK VIEW OF HALLOWEEN AT THE WOOLLEY'S

Ava (8 1/2 months old) was Tinkerbelle and I was Princess Leia. Not much of a connection, I know.



Here, we have Jake as Superman, Spencer as Peter Pan, and Zach as Skeleton Capt. Jack Sparrow or Capt. Hook if we're going for some sort of theme. The end result was a ton of candy. Yay!!!






Ava wasn't sure about everyone being dressed up in costume, so the parade at the boys' school put her over the edge at one point. She survived.

SPENCER FLIES SOLO - October 8, 2006

Spencer said good-bye as he left for the airport on a birthday trip to see Grammy Alice and Grandpa Bill in Vancouver, Washington.





At the airport, Spencer prepares himself for flight with a few Junior Mints.









Spencer's "Unaccompanied Minor" neck badge and boarding pass.










Spencer's airplane is in the background of this picture. Spencer spent his wait-time watching the luggage get loaded, the gas filled, etc. The word "luggage" was added to his vocabulary



Spencer and "The Boss" (as we described him) or Captain. Spencer's boarding pass was handed in and he was ready to get going.







It was official: Spencer was on his own now, meaning he wasn't with is mom anymore. We thought Mom would be able to walk him on the plane, but not so. The captain took him to the plane. We heard later that Spencer got to visit the cockpit and met the other pilot. He also got to see the captain flip the "missile" switch in the cockpit, which of course was turned off to keep the people safe who were outside. Spencer loved it.

RECAP OF THE PAST COUPLE MONTHS


July 15: The boys set up shop outside and sold $40 worth of lemonade and cookies in two days. They put it toward buying real lightsabers.




July 18: Zach got his Bobcat badge at his cubscout pack meeting. Yay!





July 22: The boys went with their dad to make s'mores up the canyon.





August 4: Each kid got to choose 10 pieces of salt water taffy at a candy store in Seaside, Oregon.




August 4: At the beach in Seaside, OR Uncle Ryan is flying a huge kite and the kids search in the sand for treasures.

August 11: Ava enjoys a summer day at the park in her baseball hat.









August 23: The first day of school. Zach started 3rd grade and Spencer started kindergarten. Yay!








September 3: Jake dresses up as a scary monster with his dad's help.










September 6: Spencer chose to go to lunch at Chuck A Rama which is his favorite place to eat.

SOCCER SEASON

Jake has come leaps and bounds in soccer this year. He can play "all by himself" - meaning not being carried down the field by his dad. This is Jake as part of his team's defensive line. He likes this defensive stance so much that he assumes it regularly during the game, even when the ball is in the far corners of the field :)

Spencer is a soccer star, running at lighting speed, knocking kids over (one of his main goals), and scoring goals. His team is called the White Dragons.

Zach is a tough soccer player who is one of the strongest kickers on his team. He is having fun and gets to play in several positions including fullback, midfield, and goalie. His team is the Silver Thunderbirds.

HOUSE UPDATE WITH PICTURES


We reorganized the cabinetry, etc. Some places still need doors. It will probably happen some day, but we've still got bigger projects that need to be done.
We knocked out the wall between the old dining room (where the pantry and far window are now) and added the half wall and cabinets. Also, you can kind of see the tile in this picture. Tons of work. Have had a few problems with it. It's okay for now. The "island" is the old kitchen sink cabinet until we get a real one.

The living room is waiting for couches until we find the ones we want/can figure out where they should go.




Picture taken from the entry stairs. It's a good view of the new arch and remodeled dining area.


We've put in light fixtures, but the interior painting is still being done. The dark trim didn't look so good, so we're painting it cream. Looks better.





Ava's room is still in progress. We have a window waiting in the garage that will replace the old one here in the picture. Then after some paint touchup, installing a closet door, and adding trim around the new window, it will be done.

Matt and Ron did the final grade with a load of topsoil (that's a future firepit area on the back corner).


We had a sod laying party with some helpful neighbors.

The boys tested out the new lawn with a wrestling match.

The retaining wall was the finishing touch - Matt gathered the boulders himself from the Bountiful bench. We love it!

If you can tile the floor, why not try the wall? That's what we thought, at least. Many of these projects were all-nighters...this was one of them. This was about 2 or 3 a.m. We continued on and tiled the area in front of the fireplace, too. Finished a little after 4 a.m. So happy those days are behind us :)

With Home Depot as your friend you, too, can learn to build arches. These were another proud moment, as you might have guessed. We widened the entry to the eating area and put matching arches there and in the passage between the kitchen and living room that is pictured here.

The moment of truth: once you take the window out, you're committed to getting the new one in. This was our first. We were quite proud. Oh, you see those lights up there? We put those in too!

NOVEMBER 2005 - Molding and everything else you can think of came down.
The kitchen/dining room wall came down - believe it or not, the microwave took took longer to unhook than it did to bust the wall down.

Bill helped provide more of a view by getting rid of trees, bushes, etc. that were in the way.




After ripping up as much we could of the subfloor and two layers of linoleum we began to lay the 500+ sq ft of tile. Let me tell you, that's a lot of tile for people who've never done it before.

Matt and Bill amazed us all by widening the staircases which helped open up the entryway. It made getting up and down the stairs interesting for a few days.

Jake and Matt installed a new floor in Ava's room - the previous owners leased to animal-loving folks who gave Ava's room to their cats, dogs, and birds.....it neede a new floor.




The demo continues. We knocked out the wall dividing the kitchen and dining room. This made one large kitchen with plans to build a pantry in the corner of the "old dining room" by the window. We also rearranged existing cabinetry and added a few more units to round it out.








October 2005 - We put the kids to work right away - demolition crew, what a dream.