Button, button, who's got the button

My child is obsessed with buttons. Is this every boy? I remember Colton enjoying gadgets, but this kid loves anything with a button. We gave him an old tv remote and old cell phone just to save ours, but he also like to put his treasures "in" things. As you can see the remote into the car, but we have to shake out our shoes before putting them on, or you may find a little present in there from Christopher! Here's my evidence:

I promise this wasn't staged.

He's saying "Nah, nah, nah." (Because he is NOT supposed to push the tv buttons.)
But that doesn't stop him.
Buttons on the Xbox controller,
and the buttons on the phone,
Hiiiiiaaahhhh!

3000 miles

So I'm not quite sure exactly how many miles we actually drove, but I know that I got an oil change two weeks ago and my car is telling me that it is due again. My mom and stepdad got here on the 11th and since then we've been to Yellowstone, Glacier, got turned around at the border of Canada (due to insufficient documentation of myself and children), Jesse went to Tampa and then Christopher, Colton and I drove to Salt Lake, picked up Jesse and met up with Colton's dad for his summer visit. Did ya get all of that? Because my head is spinning!

Luckily we took pictures, so I can remember all the places we went!

Colton hiding food for the grizzlies at the Discovery Center
Yellowstone

Yup, I do the old-fashioned pictures! Aren't they so cute, though!!!

Christopher waiting patiently for Old Faithful (in a hat Grandma got to keep his ears warm!)
The whole group at Gates of the Mountains
Colton at the Salt Lake City ZooColton, Me and Christopher on the Merry-go-round in the zoo. (Salt Lake)

Happy First Day of No School

At least for us. This is how we celebrate. And it's not even 11:00.




And this:





and painted pictures in the kitchen that was once clean.

This is gonna be a busy summer!

Ode to my dear hubby

So I realize that most of my blogs are devoted to the comical daily life of my family, yet one member usually gets neglected. (Probably by his preference!) My sweetie, my love, my best friend. Well on your 35th birthday(two days late), I honor you!







Ran to the store quickly and Colton picked up the camera. Here is the result:

And since there are entirely too few pics of Jesse on my blog, I will attempt to make up for it here:

Can you pick out which child takes after which parent?

Great Dad
Great Step-dad

Just some random stuff

Colton and Christopher jamming on the $15 garage sale bargain!

4 diaper cakes... 4 boy babies...
thanks Dani for the help!

Quite a jump at swimming lessons!

Live like no one else...

Live like no one else now, so you can live like no one else.

You may already know the mantra of Dave Ramsey, and if you don't, I hope that you take up the cause with me. Get out debt. Scrimp and save and sacrifice, pay off everything... everything. We are looking at our lives and what we can eliminate, sell or decrease so that one day, very soon, we will be completely out of debt. Withhold the satisfaction so that we may live like no one else by paying cash for everything... everything. New car, new house, children's education. EVERYTHING.

What is my biggest motivation, you may ask? What is driving me to choose the generic brand, do without one more, make a cold lunch for my son and husband? ...My daughter(s).

What?

Somewhere out there, there are two little girls (possibly not born yet), that are waiting for us. It is hard for me to write about it without bringing me to tears. For a long time I have known that I would adopt. For a long time I thought it was a fantasy, something that sounded nice and thoughtful, but probably something that would be out of our grasp. My heart yearns for my children. I can see them in my heart and I long for the day that I will hold them in my arms. What is holding me back? Debt. A big ugly cloud of debt, that day by day and paycheck by paycheck we are chipping away so that soon we can bring our beautiful girls home.

"And whoever welcomes a little child like this in my name, welcomes me." Matthew 18:5

Would you qualify for adoption?

More info on adoption:
Shaohannah's hope
Children's Hope International


I know, I'm kind of all over the place in this post, but this is what is going on with me. :)

Birthdays, and BBQs and Bottoms... oh my!

Ok so this may be a long one since I haven't blogged for a while.

1. Birthdays: Christopher and Eliana's birthday. Almost two weeks ago we shared Christopher's birthday party with our good friends the Cottos. I think it went really well and everyone had a good time. (considering it was a couple of one-year-olds' birthday party, which has the potential to really be torture.)




Pics:





2. Birthday #2 my sister Carrie had her birthday also and I just wanted to show off these fun washcloth roses that I made to go along with other fun kitchen stuff:
















3. BBQs: We have had a few BBQs (or Bakazoo, as Colton used to call it, and we still do), so I thought I would add a pic of Christopher kicking back in the pool:

4. Bottoms: So I just added this because it started with a B and that was kind of my "theme" for the title. I just love it when they sleep with their little hineys sticking up in the air. If I tried to sleep like this, I think I would need to see a chiropractor.

Happy Mother's Day

I hope you feel blessed this Mother's Day!

Oh the randomness of it all

So if you've blogged for a while, you can relate to what I am about to say. You get an interesting idea, snap a couple of pictures, think of equally interesting and witty comments... but then forget, run out of time or just don't post those blogs. So now I am in a quandary. Do I post them one at a time and hope that I get to each one and give them each the interesting, witty post that they each deserve or do I just end up with one large post of random ramblings. I choose random...

1. My kicky summer do'
Apparently this is the week to get your haircut. Check out Rachel and Ann's new looks!

Before After


2. Jesse's best man and his two oldest boys (from near Seattle) had a thing to do in Butte this week, so they traveled all the way up here to visit us. We had to check out the Lewis & Clark Center.

3. How do you get hot chocolate stains out of a little white hat? "Dye" the hat in hot chocolate mix. Whatever works, right?! It actually turned out a cool beige-y, tan.


4. Christopher likes to snort his boogers. Apparently I also did this (as a baby) and was lovingly nicknamed, Snortney Cortney.
5. Last but not least. We bought a tent yesterday in hopes that this summer we will break free from the remodeling that consumed our every weekend and that we will actually enjoy the beautiful scenery of Montana. Here is our test run. To include a little marshmallow roast later that evening.

Happy Blogiversary!

Tomorrow is my 2 year blogiversary. I thought that it was time to change the look. Bear with me as I experiment a little and hopefully don't get a brain hemorrhage while deciphering HTML. Let it be known that I have actually had a college class in HTML and yet still can't work my way through most of it. Tell me what you think of the new look! Constructive criticism is encouraged! Thanks for hanging around for the past 2 years!

Whatta Weekend

Our weekend started promptly Friday afternoon when Jesse got home from work. We traveled down to Helena to visit Grandpa Doug and Grandma Nicole. We had a really great time and Colton got a new fishing rod and caught his first fish (which is a rite of passage in our family)!

Colton reeling in his fish

21 inch Rainbow trout
(it was really good that night in a trout dip, yummy!)

Our results:

					CHIP	CHIP	AGE	PLACE	SEX
NO.	NAME	RACE #	SEX	AGE	TIME	PACE	DIV	OVERALL	OVERALL

1128.

Cortney

2442

F

28

0:45:48

15:16

65 / 88

1128 /1539

615 / 904

1191.

Jesse

2441

M

34

0:47:18

15:46

29 / 38

1191 /1539

532 / 635

1193.

Colton

2443

M

6

0:47:19

15:46

62 / 101

1193 /1539

534 / 635

Here's our pictures:

Colton with the Icebreaker penguin.Jesse and Colton crossing the finish line.

Holding up our finishing medals.

Lazy Parenting

'The welcome discovery that a lazy parent is a good parent took root when I read the following passage from a DH Lawrence essay, Education of the People, published in 1918: "How to begin to educate a child. First rule: leave him alone. Second rule: leave him alone. Third rule: leave him alone. That is the whole beginning." '

I encourage you to read the entire article here:
Idle parenting means happy children by Tom Hodgkinson

He's a bit rough-around-the-edges Brit, but I get what you are saying. Really. I hear it. Give yourself and your kids the permission to just let them use their brains. Imagination is a wonderful thing. Thanks for sending me this, Brent!
(My favorite is "a happy mess is better than miserable tidiness". I don't think Jesse would appreciate it put on a plaque in our living room!)

Manifesto of the idle parent

We reject the idea that parenting requires hard work We pledge to leave our children alone That should mean that they leave us alone, too We reject the rampant consumerism that invades children from the moment they are born We read them poetry and fantastic stories without morals We drink alcohol without guilt We reject the inner Puritan We fill the house with music and laughter We don't waste money on family days out and holidays We lie in bed for as long as possible We try not to interfere We push them into the garden and shut the door so that we can clean the house We both work as little as possible, particularly when the kids are small Time is more important than money Happy mess is better than miserable tidiness Down with school We fill the house with music and merriment

Happy Birthday Baby!

He survived an entire year of snuggles, cuddles, squeezes and kisses! My itty, bitty baby boy (bitties for short) is one year old today. Here are a few quick pics of our family tradition of a breakfast birthday.

Apparently now that he is one year old, he has decided that he should climb the stairs. Before today he only went up one, maybe two stairs... today I turn around and the boy is 3/4 up the stairs. Ahhhh!
This is Colton last night after watching Iron Chef America. Notice the Dixie cups for the judges (me and Jesse). He calls it Aliscorno (no clue) and I quote " I started off with the Orange juice, added a touch of wa-tah (water using a medicine dropper), strawberries, blueberries, and tiny marshmallows... (pause) Enjoy!" What a ham!

Updated Pictures

Ok. So I spent most of the day uploading 180 pictures to our familys website. Starting from Christmas to the present. I have been quite the slacker on this, so people, there you go...
Now off to take more pictures!

Atchley Family 2008



:)

Ten for Tuesday

1. I am feeling like a hermit today. I think last week burned me out!

2. Plus the weather went from 70 degrees to 40 and snowing today. I have found that I am very effected by the weather.

3. I think my son is going to be a politician or something along those lines. He has to negotiate everything. RRRrrrrgggg. This drives me crazy.

4. I am ready for spring cleaning. I lack the motivation and energy. How much is MerryMaids?

5. Next weekend I have a baby shower and wedding on the same day.

6. If you have ever met my son, you will know that he has a strong resemblance to this cartoon character:



7. So this must be me:



8. As I write, Colton is setting a trap for his bear with Pistachio shells and little bells. And it took us almost an hour to do his homework. Homework that is designed to take 10 minutes. Not because of an inability to accomplish it, but from all of the time wasted on complaining, getting distracted and trying to figure out the laziest way of getting it done.
(He dissasembled his trap. He said "I wouldn't do that to my bestest bear.")
...I can't make this stuff up.

9. A week from today is Christopher's 1st birthday. How did that happen?

10. I am so ready for some nice spring weather.

Party (me) Hearty!

So we survived another party! Due to the snow we had to change it from a Saturday BBQ to a Sunday afternoon at Jumpers Gymnastics! The kids all had a great time and nobody got injured (that was my biggest fear)! All in all, I think it was a great party. So here are the pictures:

The entire group: It's hard to get 25 riled-up kids to sit together for a picture. Unless you tell them if they do a nice smiley picture, then they get to do the pirate argghhh picture (seen below)

Christopher as a baby pirate.This is Colton's pirate face.So I had to bribe him with candy so I could get a good picture of his costume.

Secret special agent sargent

Mom, do you know that your son is a secret special agent sargent?
you or Christopher?
Me.... you know where my secret cafeteria is?
Where?
On the stairs. And my secret playroom is in the office and my secret lair is my room.
Oh.
You know that Christopher is my secret agent brother. I will share my secret playroom with him.
That's very nice of you.
You know where Christopher's secret cafeteria is?
Where?
(giggling) hee hee, your boob!!! HA HA HA