Tracen Nicholas Thorn

After a very long day full of labor, Josten's sister Karen and her husband Travis, welcomed their seventh child, Tracen Nicholas Thorn last night around 7:45! Those boys sure give Karen a run for her money! Her labor with her girls were always super-quick, but her boys just seem to want to stay in a little longer through the labor! Anyway, from what we hear, Karen did great, and both mother and baby are doing well! We are so excited to meet you Tracen!!!! And congratulations Karen and Travis!

Mother and Child

Daddy and the Tracenater

His oldest sibling, Shyane, who was there the whole time as a support

A beaming Grandma

Nana's Annual Tea Party!

Another year of the annual "Pride and Prejudice" Tea Party has come upon us, and it was sure fun this year! Once again we found ourselves dressed in our best Pride and prejudice attire, while Mama Cornett hired a carraige driver to come pick us up at the church in Post Falls, then over to her house! It was just like taking a good ol' ride up to Penberly to see Mr. Darcy! We arrived at her house, and were escorted back to the backyard where we enjoyed a wonderful breakfast and fresh squeezed orange juice from Gary! The food was of course exquisit as usual, Mama C. and Gary did an AMAZING job (they always serve breakfast, lunch and 3 tea times)! We switched up the movie-watching this year, though, and instead of watching Pride and Prejudice, we watched "North and South". It was a great movie; a lot darker than the frivilous and excited gossip scene of Pride and Prejudice, focusing a lot more on realities of life during an industrious period in Northern Endgland. There was of course, a romance blossoming in the midst of it though, and the ending...oh so romantic! It was just nice to be able to spend time with sisters, and have good old fashioned girly time! All in attendance were: Mama C. Shasta and Kaelynn Baisden, Shawnte' and Vance Morton, Amy and Mylie Reynolds, and of course me...kidless! Josten was so kind to take over the kids for the day, while I relaxed and enjoyed good company! Mama C. sent us off at the end of the day with soaps, candies, and a copy of the dvd we watched! Thanks Mama Cornett for another great tea party!


The invites made by Mama C.


They were even sealed with a wax seal!!!


The carraige


Coming to a stop

TERRIBLE Twos???

Now WHAT is so terrible about this???


Oh boy, having a two-year-old ROCKS! He is SO helpful! This video doesn't even do justice to his helpfulness!

Breck LOVES to:

-Sweep the floors whenever he feels like it
-Grab a wet cloth and start wiping down the table after we eat
-Retrieve diapers for Sienna when needed
-Throw away garbage, and knows EXACTLY what is garbabge and what isn't
-And of course, vaccuuming

I'd love to take credit for his tidyness, and tell you that I thoroughly taught him how to do all of these things and when to do them, but I didn't! He just picked it up on his own, and has become such a helper around the house because of it!

Coeur d'Alene, Family Fun and Drill

Having Josten home again has been so great. With him being gone, we realized there was a lot we wanted to do once he got home. Josten was of course eager to see his family again, and with him being gone, we hadn't been to the temple in awhile. Then, of course, Josten got a phone call telling him that drill weekend (in Post Falls) had been moved to this last weekend, so we decided to kill 4 birds with one stone and make a trip out of it! We saw Josten's family, went to the temple, Josten went to drill then visited with my family!
We were able to spend some quality time with Josten's family, and have a little belated birthday celebration for him at aunt Shawnte' and Uncle Cameron's house! Shawnte' and I worked on a clever little army battlefield cake for him! The kids were able to play in the pool and I think that Breck made some monumental steps toward getting over his fear of Koda, the dog. The morning that Josten went to drill, Mama Cornett made a big breakfast for all of us, including Cameron and Shawnte' who were able to come over, and we ate to our hearts' content!
We went to the temple early friday evening which was of course, so great. I always love the feeling I get when I go there, to get away from intruding thoughts of the world, and to focus on things more pertaining to our true goals in life. It's also nice to be able to be alone with Josten, not to mention it being just he and I in the most holy place on earth!
On saturday afternoon, I headed over to my parents' house, and we had fun just hanging out and relaxing! As usual, my mom and I decided to take a walk around our neighborhood after dinner with the kids. Breck is really into pushing Sienna around in the stroller, so he enjoys the walks as well.
Sunday, Josten got back from drill, and we had a belated stake birthday dinner with him. It was the first time my parents had seen him since he'd been back, so more happy reunions!
We came home Monday morning, happy to be home, but happy about the trip we had had.


At Cameron and Shawnte's house enjoying company



Breck and Sienna following TaPa around in the garden

I got Sienna's hair to go into a fairly triumphant ponytail, of course I had to document the momentous occaission


Breck helping Nana clean

A pretty heated fight between Breck and Sienna, it was pretty even, but we had to step in and break it up shortly after.

Breck with his newest prized posession: a Lightning McQueen backpack from Grandma. He carries it everywhere!

Bathtime at Grandpa and Grandma's!

Daddy Comes Home! Just in Time for his BIRTHDAY!

Well it's true... DADDY IS FINALLY HOME!!!!!! YAY!!!!!!!!! It was so good to finally see him again! The kids were so thrilled to see him, and anxious to go and start playing with him, even though it was 11:30 at night! It was so fun, and it's been SOOOO nice having him back home! He had an interesting time, to say the least at his training, which he promised to write about in a later post. But just to give you a small preview, they actually had to go into a gas chamber for one part, and take all protective gear off, and TRY not to freak out and endure the pain. Sick. Hearing some of the things they did made me feel guilty for having pity on myself for being home alone without him. He definitely had it worse off! I was completely comfortable, got a full nights sleep every night and full meals, which is WAY more to say for his conditions! Well, I won't say too much more, I'll let him tell you.
So anyway, Josten came home on the 31st of July, and his birthday is the 30th, so we celebrated his birthday yesterday. He's the big 2-7 this year! We celebrated by going to Robinson County Park just outside of Moscow. We cooked hot dogs over a fire, and let the kids play around for awhile. We played ball, and enjoyed the beautiful sunshine. We went back home afterward for cake and blueberry shakes (which shakes we didn't have until today because we were so full) and presents. It was a fun carefree day, and mostly fun because we were all together again! Thanks to everyone who sent gifts, cards and messages wishing him a happy birthday! We love you all!







And this picture below is just a fuunny random picture I caught of Sienna the day Josten came home. She had gotten into the refridgerator and helped herself to some grapes.