Obedience Grand Champion

Kyle showed Bosco at the Canyon County Fair on July 24th. It was a long, hot day, but what a great day it was! They got a blue ribbon in showmanship. Kyle was happy with that, as showmanship is definitely not his favorite part of 4H.

He's been working hard at obedience with Bosco and all that hard work really paid off. He earned a blue ribbon and 1st place rosette in his division. He then went on to compete against the top two kids from each division (6 kids in all) for Grand Champion. He was shocked when the judge handed him the fancy rosette that said "Champion" on it. He also won a director's chair that has the Fair logo, year and Obedience Grand Champion embroidered on it.

I didn't take pictures at the Fair (bad mommy!). It was so hot we just wanted to go home. I did take some pictures later, at least.

This is his fancy Champion ribbon. It's really pretty!

And the rest of the blue ribbons he won.
Poor Bosco was wiped out for the rest of the day. He was literally dog tired.

A messenger bag for the new computer from Grandpa Jon & Grandma Kristin. He keeps telling me he loves this bag. It will be perfect for school, plenty of room for books, binders and the computer

Sarah made Kyle's cake this year. Isn't it just too cool?!


















Sarah and Kyle

14!

Kyle celebrated number 14 with dinner at Grandma & Grandpa's house. His request for dinner was Grandma's ribs and baked beans. Yum! Sarah and Theresa celebrated with us.


Lots of computer gifts this year, starting with a flash drive.

Gotta have a few new books, too!

Eric's been teasing Kyle that he needs to start shaving (he really does!) and told Kyle he was going to buy him a razor for his birthday. Kyle didn't really believe him...silly boy...he should know better!

Kyle's favorite present...an Acer Aspire notebook computer.

Lookie Who's 17!!

Isn't he handsome?! I cannot believe he's 17 already. Seems like just yesterday he was a baby. Good thing he never reads my blog, I'm sure he'd be so embarrassed. But hey, that's a mom's job, right?!
His dinner choice was shrimp like Grandma Kristen makes :), fish, french fries, corn and french bread.
He got lots of great presents too. A couple video games and shorts from mom and dad, an ITunes gift card from Kyle, an 1.5TB external hard drive from Grandpa and Grandma B., and money from Grandpa Jon & Grandma Kristen, Grandma Pat & Grandpa Bill and Auntie Anne. He's saving that for his Las Vegas trip in August.

We had yummy marble cake and ice cream, too.

Grandma insisted on a family picture. As you can see, I'm definitely the shortest now. I don't feel too bad though, because Marc is darn close to being passed up by Kyle!

















I guess it's pretty obvious the boys didn't get their height from my family! :)

Girls Weekend!

Angie, Nancy and I are heading to Pocatello this weekend to bowl in the Women's State Tournament. That's right, no husbands, no kids...just us girls. Now I know Pocatello isn't the most exciting place to visit, but hey a weekend away is a weekend away! I think the boys are looking forward to it as much as I am :)  They have plans to stay up all night playing Guitar Hero with Dad (with the stereo cranked way up and the walls shaking, I'm sure). That's okay, I won't be here to listen to it! 

Good news!

Kyle has decided he wants to go to high school in September. We talked quite a bit about it since it will be a big change for him. He's been schooled at home since Kindergarten. We started looking at charter and magnet schools, thinking that would be a better choice than the big ol' high school across the street. We sent in lottery applications to three schools. The first one was held last week and his name was chosen! Yay! He's really excited about it. Here's the link if you want to see what it's all about: Renaissance  We're not completely sure yet if this is where he'll go, as his first choice is MTCHS  Their lottery is held in March. We'll keep you posted!

Kyle being Kyle

Kyle likes to show me how flexible he is, mostly because he knows I think it's creepy that he can do things like this. I finally had to take pictures of him. Someday I'm going to scrap them, I just have to think of a title first. He didn't think "Hail to the Freaks" was a good choice. Funny boy!

Eric's an All Star!

Eric bowled in the Ada County Youth All Star Invitational Tournament yesterday. The 30 top average youth bowlers are invited to the tournament, so it's quite an honor. This is Eric's first year bowling in it, and he was so excited to receive that invitation. The kids are placed on teams of five and they bowl each team once, for a total of five games. Eric won 3 out of 5 matches (and was oh so close on the 4th. Darn stubborn 7 pin wouldn't fall). He averaged 180 for the 5 games, bowling on a PBA shot (the Shark pattern).  He also won the high handicap series award for the tournament. We're super proud of his awesome day at the lanes!

The "Proof"

Kyle's been wanting me to share these photos for a while. His "proof" that he is now officially taller than me.  I scrapped them the other day, so I thought I'd share the layout. He liked it. I'm not so crazy about being called "Shorty" all the time, but I guess it was inevitable :)

Could it really be?

Yes. Yes, it is! The sun! We haven't seen the sun in forever, it seems. Just gray, dreary sky and snow clouds. Finally, the sun decided to make an appearance. I had to take a picture :) I hope it stays all day! Melt, snow, melt...

Will it never end?!

Woke up to snow again...UGH!  No new pictures, because really how many snow pictures do you want to see?  Marc had a run to La Grande, OR today.  Guess what?! Yep, he couldn't even get there. The freeway was closed again 4 miles east of La Grande. He sat in Baker City for 3+ hours, then his dispatcher told him to go home. What fun! At least he had company today. Bob chose today to do a ride along. What was he thinking?! :)

The dogs at least had fun playing in all the new snow. I should have gotten a picture of Copper after he did a face plant trying to rescue his favorite toy from under all that icky white stuff. He looked like a white dog instead of a red one. They don't much care for being dried off and having the ice balls pulled out of their fur, but that's the price they pay for running around like fools out there.

The weatherman is predicting a warming trend with highs in the 40's by mid week. Crossing my fingers that he's right.

Bunny Hunters, Bobo Destroyers & a Candy Bar Thief

Marc wanted to know why the blog was called "Who Let the Dogs Out?" when there are hardly any posts about the dogs. Well, it certainly isn't because life is dull and boring with them! Here's a few of my favorite recent pictures and the stories behind them:

Kyle outgrew his bunny slippers so they've been hanging out in a box to go to St. Vincent de Paul. Bosco discovered them one day and decided they looked like a pretty fun chew toy. Of course, Copper had to get in on the action, too. There was a whole lot a growling going on. I think the hunt was a success.

The second picture is of their giant 4 ft stuffed Bobo dog. They've destroyed more of the small ones than I can count. I really thought they didn't have a chance with this one. Yeah, right! Never underestimate the Dachshund. We were in Mountain Home for a bowling tournament, so Mom came over to feed them. All was well when she left. We arrived home less than 2 hours later and poor Bobo was toast! I've never seen so much stuffing in my life.

Now you may think from reading these stories that Copper and Bosco are the troublemakers (and that's true 99% of the time), however Corky is not as innocent as he appears. I had gone shopping for stocking stuffers and picked up a couple giant size Hershey Dark Chocolate candy bars. I left the bags on the bed when we went to dinner and never gave it a second thought. The little boys were in the living room and Corky never gets into anything, so no problem, right? Um...not so much. We came home to find one of the candy bar wrappers ripped off and the corners chewed off. Yep, Corky managed to get it out of the bag, opened and eaten in about an hour and a half.

Never a dull moment around here!