Were You Raised in a Barn & More.....

Have you ever been asked or asked your own children the question: Were you raised in a barn?
Now our boys can answer YES!

Here are pics of the boys playing in the creek that runs in front of the house. Our house sits on 1.5 acres of yard, and the boys love exploring. We are so happy to have such a fun, big yard to explore.
The weather here is very hot, and humid - much like Iowa was, so we've commenced the summer haircut program yesterday with the electric razor! Nice buzz cuts, huh?

Finally pics of Lyv - She is such a beautiful baby! We wish we could show each of you what a good smiler she is. She is growing so fast, and getting super chubby. We've counted 4 fat rolls on her thigh alone, but we love her more each day.

Swimming in the Hudson

Last Saturday we decided to go adventuring and ended up in Saugerties, NY. It is a little town with a lot of antique stores, and it sits on the Hudson River where a lighthouse has been done over as a bed and breakfast. There's a 1/2 mile nature trail to the lighthouse, and then the boys decided they wanted to take a dip - but we didn't have any swim trunks! Sam got down to his tightie-whities, and Jack borrowed a swim diaper from another little boy there. It is amazing how big the Hudson is!

Here is one of thousands of old homes that we are loving being surrounded by. They are beautiful, and they just don't make these Victorians back West.

Sleep Over

Sam had his first official sleepover when we were in Iowa with his friend Carter, and I finally got around to posting a picture from it. Carter we miss you!!! Jack also was able to have his first "date" with Claire - Carter's little sister and I thought this picture was so cute of the two of them.

Things that are Sweet ....

#1. My boys went out in the yard this morning exploring, and came in with one of every kind of flower they found. It really made a beautiful arrangement, not to mention the sweet boys who always think of me when they see flowers.

#2. Lyv in her newest outfit (sorry I'm not every going to get sick of putting new outfit on this little lady). Our sweet little watermelon!

#3. Uncle Jake: We had Shawn's brother Jake out with us for almost two weeks and loved every minute of our time with him. He is such a great guy, and we hope he comes back soon.

(Okay, okay so the picture doesn't really send the "we love Jake so much" vibe - but the kids all really do.)

Lyv's 2 Months Old & Bambi

Our sweet girl is 2 months old! I can't believe how time has flown, and what a beautiful happy girl she is. She started smiling at about six weeks and we often hear her cooing and awwing. She is very loved by her brothers - sometimes too loved, but we are loving having a little lady in our home. She is all girl already and when she is hungry, tired, sad - she will let us know immediately and with all the volume she has (does she get this from me?) Here are our neighbors the friendly deer! So far we've seen four and right in our back yard. We've also noticed rabbits and everynight enjoy an awesome fire-fly presentation outside. We feel like we are in the woods, which I guess we are, but wow - this is really up close and personal.

The boys are taking full advantage of the HOT weather and having been swimming everyday.

Rosendale or Bust! We almost Busted.....

I know that it has taken a little while to post pictures (sorry family) but it has been a CRAZY two weeks to say the very least. I have to record this for future posterity to be grateful for the efforts it took to get out to the great state of New York.

We left Idaho Tuesday, June 8th and stayed in Denver at Shawn's sister Brigit's home. It was great to see their family before heading so far away. We traveled to St. Louis (13 hours) the next day and the kids did really great in the car that day. We saw the Arch in St. Louis for about 4 minutes as we drove by - so we can now check that off the list of things to see. Day 3 is when things started to get hairy. The kids started to get sick of the car, and between frequent potty breaks (once where Sam had to actually pee in a cup because we couldn't get off it time) we started to notice a tire going flat. (Now if you know the history of the van - it has these PAX tires that NEVER go flat - in reality they do, but you can still drive on them for up to 125 miles in order to fix them or get new ones. So we drove to Youngstown, Ohio on the border of PA and stayed, deciding to go in the morning and get the tire fixed, a quick hour right?? WRONG! We ended up finding out that the PAX tires can only be replaced at a Honda dealer (which couldn't get us in for another 5 days!!!) and that two of the tires needed to be replaced immediately and each tire costs a small $650. After a lot of driving around, "heated" discussions with Honda, and pure frustration we decided to replace all the tires with regular tires - but had to also purchase new rims for because of the special PAX tires (did I mention I HATE these tires!)

In the meantime, Shawn and his brother Jake had left for the house, because we were supposed to be there by 3:00 p.m. to meet the truck with all of our belongings. HOWEVER, the moving company called and said they didn't have any drivers, so they wouldn't be able to drop it until the next day!!!! AHHHH.... we had to find a hotel room (which was super expensive because of a Horse Show going on that weekend - our luck right!) and finally my parents, the kids and I arrived Friday night at about 9:00 p.m. to an empty house. Saturday we moved in with help from our ward Young Men, and all seemed to be looking up. My parents had to leave that night to catch an early flight Sunday morning (I was SO sad to see them leave - this was by far the most difficult move we've made) and then they started on another fun filled day of delays, cancellation of tickets and flights, and didn't get home until Monday afternoon to Idaho! So now that this saga has been written down I can finally take a deep cleansing breath and move on to bigger and better things!

Here are some pictures of the house - which by the way - we LOVE! The yard Rocks my socks and the kids are going to have a ball here. The area has a lot of small little villages, each with its own unique shops, etc. We are excited to go exploring and take advantage of this beautiful area. Enjoy the pics - sorry there are ALOT!
Front of the house

Kitchen

Kid's Project Area - my dad made them this table!

Family Area

Dining Area - my mom and dad's old table painted black!

Our Room Front room - turned into a book nook

Boy's Room

Lyv's Room

Hill Family Camp-Out

Literally MINUTES within graduating from DMU - we rushed to the airport, boarded the plane and headed back to Idaho to make it to the Memorial Day camping trip. For the past three years we have missed this event, and we were bound and determined to make it this year. Then we found out that graduation was on the same weekend! Needless to say, we took the earliest flight home and made it to the last two days of camping. It was great - the food as always was divine (all the Dutch Oven fried chicken, potatoes, scones, and cobblers you could ever ask for), and I was able to see my entire family one last time before we leave for New York. Now those of you who have large families know how difficult this is - so I'm grateful to have been surrounded by them again.Master Chefs - Mom making scones; Dad manning the dutch ovens

2 Wonderful Parents

+

7 Strong-willed Children

+

6 Wonderful In-Laws

+

25 Crazy Grandchildren

=

?You do the math!

Dr. Summers

It has finally happened! We cannot believe how quickly four years has come and gone. Graduation from Medical school was such a great moment in Shawn's life - and we all felt so proud of all of his hard work over the past four years. It really hit me while we were sitting there in graduation what a monumental day it really is, to have Shawn moving into the "real" part of being doctor is such a huge accomplishment and I'm so glad that we were there to see him hooded, and recieve his diploma. I also was very impressed by the number of times that is was mentioned on Podiatrists being recognized as being Physicians. So many people don't realize this, but one speaker said that their scope to diagnose is unlimited - their scope to treat however is limited to the foot. We are all so proud of Shawn, and hope that he will also know how much we love him for his willingness to work so hard for our family.

Podiatry Banquet

John-Jenn Humphers, Bryan-Autumn Hall, Kylin-Laurie Kovac, Christian-Jennilyn Tolboe, Shawn-Megan Summers

Des Moines University

Dirty Mouth

Here's our newest suggestion for the Orbitz Gum "Dirty Mouth Campaign" - picture this......

You are walking down the stairs to find your 1 1/2 year old boy, and you find him walking out of the bathroom with a plunger in hand, sucking on the black rubber "I've been in the toilet to unclog you nasty, nasty" part ... Dirty Mouth - Clean it Up!True story by the way, how Jack has survived without coming down with amoebic dysentery is beyond me

OR

You are on the airplane about ready to land and everyone is silent. A 4 year old boy turns to his dad and says, "Oh SH**!" as loud as his little voice can. Everyone around you starts to laugh and you sit there mortified, but trying not to laugh too, and wondering how to explain to your son that we don't say words like this. Dirty Mouth - Clean it Up! Also a true story!

Also a little post about Lyv, our little lady! She has started smiling! Our earliest smiler to date - and what a beautiful, content baby she is. We love you Lyv.

Fun in Iowa

Because we might not make it back out to Iowa soon, we decided to go to Shawn's graduation early and see some of our favorite PEOPLE and PLACES. As we flew into the airport both Shawn and I had that "home" feeling - we are really going to miss Iowa, and loved that three of our best years were spent there.

Centennial Park in Waukee - one of our families' favorite places to be on a nice summers' day.Shawn's Sand Box Masterpiece - do you see why it is so hard to compete with him as far as being the "cool parent" goes? Who else would do this? A little Dirt Never Hirt . . . . (you really should have seen Jack after the sandbox!)

We also got to spend time with some of the wonderful friends we made while living here. We loved being with the Freeman's - and I wish I would have had pictures of our night at Racoon River Beach when all the kids decided that swimming in their clothes would be a really fun idea! We went to the Blank Park Zoo and the Waukee Ice Cream Shoppe. The boys loved visiting with them - Sam and Carter were best buds while we lived in Iowa, and Sam even got the special treat of spending the night at Carter's house. Thanks Dana and Jeremy for all of your time with us, we had a great time.

Jack and Claire

Sam and Carter

We also met up with our friends with school at Maple Grove - it is amazing to see how much all the kids have grown in just a year, and also to see the three new additions to our little families. We feel so blessed to have had all of these people apart of our lives.Landon Tolboe, Sam, Lyv, Jack, Kassius Janke, Brooklyn Tolboe, Claire Tolboe, Javien Janke, Lennox Janke, and Tytus Janke