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ASL (American Sign Language). When Bodie and I would say our ABC's sometimes I would sign the alphabet to him. He would also try to do the letters with me...alphabetically. One day last summer, to my shock, he signed his name by himself. He extracted the letters to his name and signed them.

The other day he was helping me figure out if some sidelighting would work with my new photography backdrops and it dawned on me that it might be a perfect time to get this talent of his documented! So here he is doing his thing!

Love you B o d i e!!!

She takes after me!

Avery has become quite the gymnast. She is super flexible and as you can see she can do a pretty mean cartwheel. She is constantly in motion and does random cartwheels all over the place. One day we were in a store and she had to stop herself from cartwheeling right there in the middle of the store. One day she was heating up her lunch in the microwave and I told her it would take about a minute and a half and she said, "That's ok Mom, I'll go do 100 cartwheels in the living room!" And she did. If only adults did that with their spare time they would all be fit and trim!

I love the last one above!

That's my girl!

Three Hundred and Three...

Plane tickets to Hawaii for family of 5....a lot of $
Car rental for a week with carseat rental....a lot of $

Rowdy getting an Ukelele lesson from Grandpa in Hawaii...Priceless!



Plane tickets to Hawaii for family of 5....a lot of $
Car rental for a week with carseat rental....a lot of $

Rowdy getting an Ukelele lesson from Grandpa in Hawaii...Priceless!

Two Hundred and Ninety-Six...

Avery has been preparing for her Holiday dance performance. She has been a little bit different this year about her enthusiasm for dance. She will tell me once in awhile she doesn't want to do it. She even got a little snippy with her dance instructor when she was told that she would need to sit down if she wasn't going to participate properly.

She is a different person when the older dancers are around. As the performance gets closer she gets to share her practice time with the older girls. She just soaks it all in. After she gets to practice with them she is doing her best to copy some of the moves they do around the house.

She performed three dances on the night of the performance. County Cuties, Kool Kitty Kat, and Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. She did great and I personally think that the Kool Kitty Kat one was my favorite.

Two Hundred and Ninety One...

Rowdy is really good on his bike and is daily thinking of new stunts and tricks to do. The wheelie is one of his best tricks and he always wants me to try to capture him mid-wheelie. The top photo is a good example of his skill...but when I actually layed down in the driveway he really showed off and he thought it was pretty cool that I was going to such lenghths to get the action shot.

These photos also highlight our brand new paved driveway...it is heaven! The kids love it and Avery is riding without her training wheels now because of the new smooth blacktop! I need to get some rollerblades.

Two Hundred and Ninety...

Rowdy James bringing home the hardware at the end of his season in football. He had his last game on at the end of October and he had fun but he says he wants to try soccer next year.

Two hundred and eighteen...

I overheard Ron and his brother's talking about the "amber waves of grain" that Ron planted and how there were indeed nestled among the "purple mountains" and were in fact "above the fruited plains". Never a dull moment around the Shinkle boys and their ability to take a singular topic and run with it.

See amber waves of grain...

Rowdy got to spend a day working the field of wheat with his Dad. He had a hard time deciding between staying home and swimming and going to the field with Ron. He decided to go to the field and when I went pick him up he didn't want to come home. I think it is funny that Avery's hair blends in with the wheat. It looks the same.

One hundred and Eighty-Eight...

This is my nephew Evan at his concert that we attended in July. Evan is very talented and they played beatifully. He is pictured with my brother Joel and my sister in-law Cathy. It was a very fun evening to get to hear Evan play and see my brother and his wife. Cathy and Joel were beaming with pride.

One hundred and seventy-one...

I have been finishing up an editing job that has been on my to do list for awhile. I needed to reward myself for finishing that big job and play around with a photo of one of my favorite subjects. How fun is that! I never ever thought I would say this in a million years because I love to cut and paste and play with paper, but I can see the benifit of digital scrapbooking. No mess and no supplies.

One hundred and sixty-eight...

Ron has always said that he likes fish tacos. They have never, ever even sounded the least bit appealing to me. That was until I went to Baja Fresh with my sister in law and she got the Mahi, Mahi fish tacos and they looked sooooo good. She even told me they were good and I still didn't try them. After seeing hers I went to Baja Fresh the very next chance I got and tried them. They were so good!

Usually on the fourth we eat your standard American meal burgers, dogs, chips, salad (potato and macaroni)...you know the drill. Well, I had bigger and better things in mind. I was on a mission to recreate those tacos. I had a huge steak of tuna in the freezer from my brother who brings me fish from Alaska...so I went to work! They turned out so good I ate three!!!

Lesson learned: Don't knock it until you try it!

One Hundred and Sixty-four...

There is an article about Ron on the front page of the Sports Section of the Statesman Journal...Article found here.

Ron's friend wrote it and his name is Bill. But there aren't too many of Ron's friends that don't have a nickname...is it any surprise that Bill's is Scoop!

I tried to load the video of the wreck but it just wouldn't work.

One hundred and sixty-three...

I didn't ever post any photos of Avery at her spring dance recital because the photos were stuck in my camera. I accidentally had the camera on the wrong setting. I was finally able to get them out of the camera yesterday. The top photo is Miss Avery and her cousin backstage before their bunny number. They performed three dances in all. The recital includes the older dancers as well. Avery is just absolutely enamored with the older girls and several times throughout the night I caught her just starring at them as they warmed up or practice their routines one more time...it is so cute to watch her look up to the "big" girls.

After her first recital earlier in the year she even came home with a couple new dance steps that I know for sure she didn't learn in her class. I asked her where she learned them (I knew the answer, I just wanted to see what she said)...she said from watching the older girls. I think that I will keep her in dance for a long time! She is very good at it and I love the fact she is motivated to learn from the older girls example.

Ears positioned properly...check!
Waiting, on deck, for her turn to go on stage. See the little girl to the right...now do you understand why my Avery has "pony-tail" envy...it must be torture! If you don't know Avery has only had two trims (not actual hair cuts, just trims) in her life. Someday sweetie!

One hundred and thiry four...

While I am posting photos of the kids and their activities and goofy outfits, I thought I would post these. The words above the photos are the words that Avery's dance instructor uses to prompt the girls about what move is next. Avery is preparing for her recital next week.

I can't wait for summer and a more relaxed schedule....whew!

One hundred and sixteen...

Ron was asking Bodie to pick up the balls on the ground and put them in the bucket. Picking up things and putting them into a container is a very big thing for a almost two year old. So naturally I thought I would get some cute shots of him doing just that...well, to my utter shock he did this instead...

...are you kidding me! Way to go Bodie! Do you think I should contact the Major Baseball League now?

One Hundred and twelve...

There is definitely some advantages to owning a tow company and Ron having some awesome skills with the slim jim...

Eighty-six...

The boys went ATVing yesterday for just a bit. That is one of the best things about Ron having his work at home. He can carve out little pockets of time to fire up the ATV's and take Rowdy for a spin. Ron can pop wheelie's like he "is a stunt man" (that is Rowdy talking, he is looking over my shoulder as I type). Maybe Fox Racing will stop in on my blog and offer to send me a million dollars for the cutest model in their gear...if not Fox, maybe John Deere.

Below, is one of my new favorites of Rowdy Boy!

Sixty...

I feel like I haven't posted much about this young man that lives at our house. He got this ukelele for Christmas. I have to say that his is pretty good even though we have not signed him up for any lessons yet. He has a natural talent for playing. He comes up with all these little beats and rhythms on his own. I took these photos of him in his Aloha shirt maybe because we are ready for some warmer weather too!

Fifty-five...

I used to be into learning how to cartoon. And I used to wear scrunchies.

Forty-two...

Because this is blog entry number 42 I have decided to write about my husband's need for:

Everyone has a thing that they do to take a break from the daily grind. Everyone has a place they like to go that is a retreat from the everyday pressures of life. Some people play a round of golf, some may read a good book or take a walk. My husband straps himself into a stock car with a 5 point safety harness and speeds around a quarter mile dirt track.

This is how the car generally looks at the beginning of the season:

Sometimes it comes home looking like this:

His #1 fans are these two:
Last race of the season 2006 - Medford Oregon

And this little guy, who didn't want to get out of the driver's seat!

I have to tell a funny story about Avery in the photo above. I will never forget that night. We were sitting between turn 1 and 2 and Ron was racing on the track between turn 3 and 4. Basically, he was on the opposite side of the track. He was gaining quickly on another driver and Avery must have been watching her Dada race very closely, because all of a sudden she shouts "My Dada is passing that guy!"
Mind you, she was 2 1/2. These were her exact words. I was so impressed that she...

• was able to recognize her Dada's car that far away on the track
• was able to articulate what she saw in a full sentence
• was able to actually commentate the action on the track correctly and
• was paying that close of attention to her Dada's racecar considering it was among many other fast moving cars.

Here are just some oldies but goodies...

Although Ron has sponsers that help fund a small portion of his racing. I still claim to be his number one sponser because I hold down the fort when he is racing.