Princesses and Superheroes

Happy 7th Jacob!

2012-02-12T14:51:00.000-08:00

I love birthdays but I hate to see my kids getting so old. This is my baby boy and he is no longer a baby. He is such a gift to have around. David took the day off and we went to Krispy Kreme for breakfast (my kids look for any excuse to go there). Then we pretty much just spent the day hanging out as a family. He got a video game that morning and spent the bulk of the day playing it with dad. It was a very nice relaxing day.

He waited to open the rest of his presents till Mike got home that night (my kids have loved having Mike stay with us while he was waiting to move his family here).I love this pic. You can just see how happy Ben is singing "Happy Birthday"......Katie, as well.

Mike just makes everything fun and happy.

This face cracks me up. If you can't tell he is puzzled over why the "one" candle didn't blow out.(He quickly remedied that).He has been asking for a big magnifying glass for a while and Grandma and Grandpa were happy to acquire one for him. He has had tons of fun with that thing.Ben and Jake both love this Ninjago Lego stuff. Nana has a "gift" for gift giving.

They have also been found sneaking around with these awesome walkie talkies. Life would be boring without little boys sometimes.Then we had a fun movie night with his last gift. Joelle and I were the only ones who got to see this movie in the theater so it was a real treat. I love just being with my family. They are the best!

These kids definilty know how to party!

Let's "Partay!"

2012-02-12T14:15:00.000-08:00

We spent New Years Eve with some very good friends of ours, and it was a blast! We had great food and played a bunch of games.
We love glow sticks at our house, and have them frequently around for holidays. David came up with this fabulous necklace which the kids loved! (It takes a real man to wear something like that.. don't ya think :-).I love this little guy. He is just a "happy go lucky" kid.

And who couldn't help but love these two. These are the older girls of our friends that came. They are such sweethearts and we are so happy to know them.

It is a tradition of ours to go out on New Years Eve and do some fireworks.Somehow we forgot to save anything big and all we had left were a million flowers, some sparklers and a couple of very small fountains. We will be more prepared next year, although the little guys didn't care. They thought it was great anyway (especially Jake and Katie).

Then we came in and brought in the New Year with some great Sparkling cider in our new wine glasses (bought specifically for this occasion and in which Emma is always drinking juice out of now - so cute!)

What a crowd!

I know that this is a horrible picture and probably won't look very good to most of you, but as we all know how much I love food... this picture just makes me happy. It was a very yummy night :-).

I can't believe it has been almost 2 months since Christmas (and I am just now getting around to blogging it :-)

2012-02-11T19:52:00.000-08:00

We had a very merry Christmas at our house this year (even though it was our first ever ALL alone). On Christmas Eve we got up and had breakfast and then got dressed and went out for a day of fun. We started out by going to lunch at McDonald's (so the kids could get the new Alvin and the Chipmunk toys). Then we went to see the new Alvin and the Chipmunk movie "Chipwrecked." Last year we decided that we would start doing the whole movie thing on Christmas day and we loved it even though it was insanely busy. But, since Christmas was on Sunday this year we went on Christmas Eve. It was AWESOME! There was no one there. We got there a little early and since no one was in the theater we all played hide and seek while we were waiting for it to start. We had a blast! There are a lot of places to hide in a theater! After the movie we came home and took a little nap. Then we opened our Christmas Eve presents...

The kids play a game on the PlayStation called Little Big Planet, so we got them some of these little dolls they love and collect called "sack boys." They were all super happy. After we opened the presents we all decided we were finally hungry (we had had so much popcorn and candy at the movie that it took a while for us to get hungry). So we went to the only place that was still open (we now know that nothing really stays open past 7:00 on Christmas Eve :-), Shari's. It is kind of like a Marie Calenders but with much better pie. Again, we had so much fun. Then we spent the next hour driving around looking at Christmas lights before we came home and went to bed. We have decided that this is our new Christmas Eve routine. It was one of our best ever.
I loved that Christmas was on Sunday this year. Our meeting didn't start till 1:00 so we had plenty of time to do all of our gift opening. It was such a relaxing day. Our kids were up early this year, but we didn't hear them (this house has great walls and thick doors and they were in the room all the way at the other end of the hall). They didn't wake us up until around 7:30. Thank goodness it was cloudy out so it still felt dark. I love to open presents while it is still somewhat dark out :-).

As always, I love pictures and took tons. So I am just going to stick them all on here just for the purpose of my own kids remembering some of the things they got for Christmas.

Emma, Ben and Joelle have wanted Harry Potter robes forever so they were pretty happy with their Santa gifts.

Nana and Papa got the boys some pretty fantastic science projects in a bottle. We have had a blast making vomit and veins and snot and all sorts of other fun things. These were great gifts.They also gave the girls these fun little knit dresses, and scarves. I am so happy that my girls are finally getting into clothes. These dresses are nice and warm for living in such a chilly place. They have really enjoyed them.

Look at this Guy! His is so cute!!!

I don't know if you can see her face or not, but she was not super happy about getting snow gloves as a present. Luckily she opened these really early on so she kind of forgot about it :-).

Katie loves books and this little guy responds when you read his story out loud. It is a fantastic toy! Thank you Nana and Papa.

Benjamin loves science. David found these awesome kits at Barnes and Noble and they have been having a blast learning about electricity and who knows what (I am not usually around for the science part of things ;-}.

Grandma and Grandpa gave Ben, Jake and Katie these fun little gold boxes filled with little treasures for them to discover and a little bit of money to spend at Target. It was a gift that kept on giving. Thank you too!!

In our home Santa always brings another gift sometime later in the day. It magically appears whenever we aren't looking. It is one of the best traditions ever. Then there is always that one last thing to look forward to.

It was a great holiday! We missed our family immensely and can't wait to share holidays with them again.

Simple Things

2011-12-18T17:57:00.000-08:00

Sometimes it is the tiny little things we get to do as a family that I love so much and end up meaning the most. Like sitting here with Jacob making finger puppets of the Nativity that he got from church today. Or like making a gingerbread house together for our ward party. They gave us the house and we just had to put it together. It was the one from Costco (which is the one we buy every year so it ended up being free for us this year. Yay!). David had the idea to make the little men look like missionaries. Everybody loved that :). David really came up with all the ideas. The neccos for the shingles, Andees mints for the door and shingles (on the side windows), Andees mints and tootsie rolls for presents. The icicles were the "topping on the cake" - in my opinion. I thought it turned out really cute. They were using the houses as centerpieces for the tables at our ward party. We ended up sitting at the table with ours so it really didn't get viewed by that many people. But we can tell you, it was one of the best :).
See the shingles... so cute!

Another fun thing we do a lot is the science museum. No matter how many times we go we love it. The boys had a blast in the chemistry lab this time. Anything with goggles and test tubes is fun. They were learning about vitamin C and how it works in our bodies.

Then of course it is always fun to play in the water.

Grandma and Grandpa had I-Max tickets they got with their membership that they hadn't got to use yet so they sent them to us to use for Christmas. It was Awesome! We went and saw "Tornado Alley." It wasn't quite what David and I expected but it was super fun just the same. Now Emma is terrified to ever live in Tornado Alley :).

Katie kept saying she was "Freaking Out" because of how the seats have no wall or railing in front of you and it is such a sharp decline. It was pretty funny. She (and most of the other kids) really were freaking out about the drop. That is all part of the experience, right?

That night David dropped me off at Domino's to order some take out pizza and took the kids down to Krispy Kreme while we were waiting. They LOVE Krispy Kreme. We got a bunch of Christmas shaped doughnuts. It was a very fun and simple day of just being together.

This was just a random picture Jacob or Katie took of Samson, but I thought it was cute and decided to throw it in.Our little fake tree we tried to use this year ended up dying so the kids and David went to Home depot and picked out a beautiful, big, real tree (cheap since we live here where most the real trees come from :). We love it. I am glad our fake one finally gave out so we can go back to real ones. I have missed that (though I love fake ones for the ease of putting them up whenever you want and no watering :). Hopefully next year my back won't be out so that I will be able to go with them all to get our tree. Again, it is those little things we do together as a family that mean so much.

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-11-27T18:22:00.000-08:00

This was a great Thanksgiving. David and I got to spend a lot of quality time together ALONE in the kitchen thanks to Grandma and Grandpa (and Grandpa's iPad). It was so fun to see the kids so happy playing with them. Most of the day was spent playing games (thank you again Grandma and Grandpa). Even David and I got to play a game or two :). I love to watch David cook. He has such a way with food. Everything he touches turns out so good. It must be nice to be so talented.
I don't know which was played more, games or Grandpa's iPad. Jacob and Joelle especially loved it. It is definitely handy to have around.Katie and Grandpa were the best of friends. She took a great nap on Grandpa's lap that day.These pics are so similar, but I love Katie's face in the first one and Grandpa's the second one, so I had to put them both on. I love how much the kids adore Grandma and Grandpa. I am so glad they live close enough to have holidays together.This was my favorite part of the day. Playing "Ticket To Ride" with David, Grandma, and the girls. It was a great game, although I just realized we never figured out who won because the food got done, and David and I had to rush to it at the end of the game. Oh well, it's all about having fun and being grateful. I am so thankful for everything that I have been blessed with. I am so grateful to have such wonderful family members and that David is so blessed with a good job and we are able to support our family. There is always so much to be Thankful for!

Our new house!

2011-11-27T17:05:00.000-08:00

Here are some pics of our new house. This first pic is a little dark, but I love that Katie was in it, so I threw it in. This is the living room (obviously). Right behind me is our dinning/school room which I forgot to take a picture of :). I love that room. They left a big long table there which we use for school and we love it.
I love having a gas fireplace. We still have to light it with a match, but it lights up so easily and there is nothing to clean afterwards. It is pretty great.

This is the family room. The door in back leads to David's office. I didn't get a picture in there because it just wouldn't work for some reason.

The kitchen is a little smaller than our last house, but it still works pretty well. I am just so happy to have a gas stove again. Not to mention how handy double ovens are :).

This is my favorite shelf you see when you are standing at the top of the staircase. It is such a fun shelf to decorate!

This is our huge toy room. This was a big seller for the kids. They love that the roof is lowered, so that David and I never want to be in it. They spend a lot of time in this room.

This is the boys room. In this picture the paint looks almost purple to me, but it is actually a very pretty blue. It is a perfect little boy room.And finally a bathroom that can hold all five children. Brushing teeth at night is no longer a big issue.

There is even this great vanity for the girls to get ready at, and not be in the way.

This is the girls room. I was amazed that it took them a whole week to get their Harry Potter posters up. They are quite pleased with this room.

The master bedroom and bathroom are just the right size (not too big and not too small), the only thing missing is a walk-in closet. We do have his and hers closets though, and that works well. Although the house is pretty old it has been well taken care of and we love it. We hope we never have to move from it :).

Getting ready for the Holidays

2011-11-20T17:23:00.000-08:00

So, once again it has been FOREVER since I blogged. I am so happy that we had stake conference today and I was able to have the afternoon to rest and now I am ready to blog :). Since we have afternoon church and I have recently been put in YW I was thrown off my normal routine of Sunday night blogging. We will be going to 9:00 church in Jan. so I am hoping that will help. I have missed it. I just spent the last 2 hours looking at all of our families' blogs. It has been a couple of months for me and it was great. I was going to comment on them all, but I got so excited to blog again that I am going to forgo that for now. Just know that all of your blogs were wonderful and I had a blast reading everything you all have been up to.

As most of you know, we moved this month. We were blessed with the opportunity to rent a home from a couple we know who were going on a mission. They were so good to give us this opportunity. At first they thought they might want to do a rent to own, but then they changed their minds because they thought they might want to come back. We decided to go ahead with the deal hoping in the end they will want to sell it to us. If not, we are going to have a very fun two years. We have been in the house for almost a month and we LOVE it! I will take pictures in a couple of days (since every room will be clean because Grandma and Grandpa are coming for Thanksgiving :).

This has been a very busy couple of months for us. David got called to the Elders quorum and I am now the 2nd counselor in YW. John and Tim (and their wonderful families) came to visit, the YW were in charge of a bi-ward Halloween party, we moved, and David and I went to our good friend Kim's wedding all in a matter of a month. It was a crazy, hectic, wonderful month!

Weird, I just went to add pictures and apparently I took no pictures of when Tim and Katy and John and Tiffany were here. I also apparently took none when we were in Boston either. I am so sorry to all you wonderful people. We loved being with you all so much and had such a blast. I know Dave took some pics, so if I can find them and figure out how to put them on here I will :-). I will however post the few Halloween and misc. pictures I did take. Sorry - kind of boring compared to all that other stuff.

Halloween was a blast this year, although it was very cold. We went trick or treating with a few friends which is always fun. The kids all figured out their own costumes. Joelle made hers. She was "Ribbon Girl" (a superhero of her own creation). She got a bunch of different ribbons and pinned them all over her clothes. She also got a cape and pinned ribbons on it for Samson and he was "Ribbon Dog". It was pretty funny. Ben has had this Superman costume for 3 years but this is the first year it actually fit. He was so excited. Our friend's little boy also came as superman. When he showed up at the door both boys looked at each other almost like "how dare you!", and then Ben said "you look awesome!" They were both happy after that and Ed never left Ben alone for the rest of the night. So cute! Emma was cold and decided she didn't want to dress up, but Joelle told her she couldn't trick or treat without a costume so they made some cat ears and put on some face paint and called it good. I think it worked out well.

David found Jacob's costume after Haloween last year. I think we payed around 3 bucks for it. AWESOME! I love good deals. He had been asking to go as Boba Fett for a few years so he was so excited (although you wouldn't guess that from this picture :).
Katie changed her costume at least 5 times that day and ended up in this dress up that I have had since Joelle was 5 years old. It has held up well and it was cute to see it on her since I think we will be getting rid of it this year. She loves to trick or treat and is always the last one asking to keep going. Emma and Joelle had done this kind of eye makeup for a bunch of the different Halloween parties we went to and Katie loves it. So even though she was a pretty princess she wanted the "dark eyes".

It ended up being really cold after we were out for a while. So even though I told Ben to take a jacket (which he didn't) he ended up with David's. Dave said he wasn't freezing but I could tell he was cold. He is such a good dad.

The kids loved having a graveyard last year so we stuck with the same thing this year. The pumpkin in back is Ben's. He designed and cut it out himself. He was pretty proud of it.

The girls did this whole pumpkin by themselves. They were proud of this one too. They named it Mrs. Norris (Filch's cat from Harry Potter - of course).

2 weeks after we moved in to our new house Emma's best friend Mikeala came to play. All the kids were outside when she said "hey, we should rake up all your leaves into a big pile and jump into them." -I love this girl :). So they all got out rakes and made a fantastic pile. They played for hours out there. (This is about a quarter of the leaves our tree has lost, and it still has a ton of leaves on it - crazy!)

They would all take turns running to the pile while everyone else would throw leaves up as soon as they jumped.

I don't think anyone loved it as much as Jake. He would have kept going all night.

They really had a blast. I love this girl. She is a great friend to all of my kids.

We were super early with our Christmas decorations this year. We just didn't want to move the Christmas tubs twice. So we emptied them, put up all our stuff and then stored the empty tubs. The kids were so happy. We even went out and bought some new fun decorations for this house. Since we are on the corner of a pretty major street, we really wanted to make it look good. I will try and get a picture of the outside to put up with the other ones, since I apparently forgot to do that when I was taking these pics. I seem to be forgetting a lot lately :).
David really got into decorating this year. I loved it! It was easy too, since there were already hooks everywhere we needed them. It is a very fun house to decorate. This is my David. I love his smile here, it is very "David".
This was an hour later because we ran out of lights and had to run to Costco to get some more :). Believe it or not it is 5:30pm at this point. I hate that dang time change thing (although I get that people like to have light in the morning when they get up for work or school - one of the best perks of homeschooling is not having to deal with that :). We did end up meeting a lot of neighbors this way. So many of them stopped to talk to us about how early we were getting started. They all said they loved it - I hope that is true :).

Can it be true? This girl is really twelve?!

2011-09-25T18:15:00.000-07:00

I can't believe that I have a "young woman" in my home! Joelle turned 12 on Thursday and it has been a very fun birthday week. Emma and Benjamin made this little banner for her Wed. night while she was out with David getting her birthday doughnuts for the next morning.

She was so surprised when she got home that night to see her banner. Emma worked very hard on it, and was so happy to get to surprise Joelle. It has become a tradition for Joelle to have Krispy Kremes instead of cake on her birthday. She loves these doughnuts, and since we found out that you can get them half price Mon. - Thurs. after 9:oopm the kids are always asking for them. She went the night before her birthday because she wanted to do her little party in the morning and have the doughnuts for her breakfast.

All of the kids have been dying for Joelle's birthday. The maple bar is her favorite and we were so happy we could fit 12 candles on there. She is so pretty! I love her. David worked from home so we celebrated as soon as we were all up and dressed.

She has wanted a time turner (from Harry Potter #3) forever. David looked up the one from the Noble collection (the official Harry Potter.... stuff makers)and we found out theirs didn't hold up well if you try and play with it (which was exactly why she wanted it). So David got online and found this one on Etsy. It is awesome and she loved it. It was the only present she knew about because we wanted to make sure she was okay with not getting the other one. She actually ended up liking this one more so that worked out great. The sand actually goes through the little hourglass. It is pretty sweet!

She bought herself this Liv Barbie a few weeks ago and they have changeable hair, she was so surprised when she opened Emma's present to see that Emma had used her own money to buy her one.

When she opened grandmas present the gift inside was wrapped in very pretty tissue and Ben said "Grandma uses the prettiest wrapping paper."

She loved this little parasol and was thrilled when she opened it to find it had money inside. All the kids thought this was a pretty fun little gift - Joelle is just frustrated that she can't get Katie to leave the parasol alone :-).

She LOVED her present from Nana. She thought the scarf was the "prettiest she had ever seen." And I think the mood ring might have been her next favorite after the time turner. She loves mood jewelry and was so excited. I haven't seen it off her finger since she opened it :-). I am glad she is finally getting into clothes and we have been in desperate need of long sleeved clothing since we came up here. Thank you Nana!

Her last gift was the Mauraders Map. This one we did get from the Noble Collection and it was well worth it. It is super cool! it opens up huge and has all these different little sections inside. They have been having a blast playing Harry Potter this week. I am glad that even though she is getting older and is so mature in some ways that she is still innocent enough to still have fun with her imagination. I will be sad when her days of imagining are over. She is a joy to our family and I am so grateful to have been blessed with our sweet Joelle. I can not imagine life without her!

Katie is 4! Wow!

2011-08-14T19:30:00.000-07:00

I can't believe our "Little Missy" is 4!! She is such a happy, funny little thing. It is so hard to believe that she was such a calm little baby because there is so much energy in this little girl. She was so funny about her birthday. She said she wanted me and David each to get her a present so she could be surprised and then she wanted us to take her to the store to buy a dress. Well, the night that David and I were going shopping for her she begged to come. I told her it wouldn't be a surprise and she said "I will close my eyes." Needless to say, we took her with us. Jacob had to come too because that guy is all about presents, and he wanted to get her something.
She had a blast shopping. I wish I had my camera that day. It was hilarious. I should have filmed it. She had picked out some clothes that I wasn't too fond of so we went to the dressing room to see if I liked them better on (by the way - neither Emma nor Joelle would want to shop for clothes for their birthday). She loved trying them on! She would come out and twirl for David and ask him what he thought. And she would walk all pretty back to the dressing room. It was so cute. There was this guy out waiting while his wife tried on clothes and he was cracking up. She is such a little ham. When all was said and done she had a shirt, 2 dresses, a super flashy purse, 2 necklaces and a toy (which was a barbie camera, phone and purse all in one package). We told her she didn't have enough money for all of that so believe it or not, she put back the toy (and the necklace Jake had picked out for her -which was good because then he picked out gum and candy for her when she wasn't looking so she did end up with a present that was a surprise :-).
We took her to Kung Fu Panda (Panda Express - no matter how many times we tell her the real name she still calls it Kung Fu Panda) for her birthday dinner. She, Jake and Ben live for that place. All she had was a plate of Orange chicken and soda and loved it! It was the topping on the cake when she opened her fortune cookie and the fortune said "you have a flare for the dramatics; you should consider acting as a career." David and I just laughed and laughed. It could not have been more perfect for her. She loves attention and is very good at getting it. I am a little worried about the fact that I have a 4 year old who chose clothes and purses over toys for her birthday..... She is a mystery to me, but I love her to pieces.

I love the faces she makes when she blows. I don't know why she can't blow with her eyes open? How does she even know where she is blowing?

She acted all surpriesed when she opened her presents. She is my little girl alright.

This cute little girl on the right is Emma's best friend Mikeala. All of my kids adore her. She had come over a little bit earlier that day and Katie had asked if she could come back for her party. I told her I would come pick her up in an hour and a half. When I came she had a present in her hand. She had made her Dad take her to get Katie a present. She said she is all about birthdays and couldn't show up without a gift. She is the sweetest funniest little girl. Katie was so excited to have one more surprise gift. The other sweet little girl and boy in the pics are the kids of some of our closest friends up here, the Hirschi's (sounds like Hershey). Joelle loves their name even though it isn't spelled the same she thinks it is so cool. Their daughter had taken the time to make Katie a very pretty bracelet. She was so sweet.
She loved her gift from Grandma and Grandpa Glemser. She still has the money in her flashy purse. She won't spend it because she likes that she has real money in her purse. She loves cards too so to get one in the mail just for her was a special treat. She actually bought herself a birthday card when we were shopping for her presents (I made her choose from the $.99 ones otherwise we would have been there for hours).Then finally she got to Nana and Papa's present. She has been waiting for this for months. They brought it with them when they came for Ben's baptism in April. It was hiding up in our closet under a blanket but at some point that blanket had shifted and you could see the birthday wrap. She noticed it one day and ever since she has asked a leat 3 times a week "when can I have my present?"
It did not dissapoint. She loves baby dolls and this one walks and talks and does all sorts of fun things. It met with all of Katies expectations of a baby doll. She even made a bed for it in a special spot in her room. Thank you Nana and Papa. She loves it!

These are just some cute pictures I threw in. I had a friend here the other day who braided her hair so cute (for some reason I can't find the one that showed the back). She will never let me braid it so I had to get some pictures. It looked so pretty. She makes the funniest faces.
She is super into kisses and blowing kisses. Especially at night when we are trying to go to bed she will come in a million times to blow me and David kisses and wish us good night and tell us "don't let the beg bugs bite" :-). Life would be boring without Katie and all her dramatics.

Fort Stevens Campground

2011-08-13T08:44:00.001-07:00

While Sarah was busy with Girls Camp (the week of June 20). I got the crazy idea to take all the kids on a camping trip. We loaded up the van and headed up the Oregon Cost to Fort Stevens. We enjoyed four great days of camping in the great North West.

The camping was great, but the mosquitoes were terrible. At first we tried to use a 'family friendly' bug spray, which of course had no affect. After getting eaten alive, we drove into town and picked up some Deep Woods Off packed full of deet. We practically went through the whole can of bug spray and still had mosquito bites.

Emma did a great job cooking the bacon for breakfast. I must be out of practice when it comes to camp cooking. I actually forgot quite a few basic supplies including salt, pepper, and ketchup for our hot dogs. Luckily there was a convenient and overpriced shop attached to the KOA campground next to ours which filled in the gaps.

Katie, of course, had to take her precious blanket everywhere with her.

'Fire Sticks' kept Jacob and Ben busy most of the time. It's amazing how playing with fire can entertain these two for hours upon end.

Joelle was glad to have Samson along with us on the trip. I did feel a little bad for the guy since he had to be on a lease pretty much the whole time.

A short drive down the road was the beach with the shipwreck of the Peter Iredale (1906). The kids really enjoyed getting to explore the wreckage and splash a little in the ocean.

Close by the Fort Stevens campground are the old Fort Stevens battlements. The kids loved getting to explore these old structures and seeing where the large guns were fired. We were able to take an underground tour of the command center which was very interesting, if not a little too long for some of the kids.

Fort Stevens was actually constructed during the Civil War and used up through World War II. It was interesting to learn about how the Civil War reached the West Coast of the United States.

We ended up visiting one of Fort Stevens battlements when they were commemorating the Japanese attack. They had a short presentation which ended with the firing of 3 rounds from a TOW HOWITZER. When the gun was fired, you could physically feel the concussion wave hit your body. Poor Samson totally freaked out and tried to run away.

I image this is how it would look if we let Joelle drive.

Our last day at Fort Stevens was spent at the beach. The day was absolutely beautiful and we ended up spending a few hours building sand castles and running from the ocean waves.

A fellow camper brought his horses to the beach for some exercise. Joelle absolutely loved this and was thoroughly thrilled when he offered to let her sit on one of his horses for a few seconds.

Katie vs. the Dentist

2011-07-02T09:38:00.001-07:00

This week Katie went to the dentist for the very first time. Katie was very excited to go and made sure to get all dressed up for the appointment. She even made sure to have makeup on.

The dentist office we went to was awesome and did a great job explaining everything to Katie. She was allowed to touch the tools to get familiar with them before they used them in her mouth. Katie did such a great job letting the dental assistant do her work that they were able to get some x-rays of her teeth.

She liked wearing the sunglasses and watching the TV show (Garfield) on the TV mounted on the ceiling. Her favorite part of the entire visit was the suction hose. That and the bag of goodies she came away with. She got a new tooth brush, dental floss, toothpaste, a ice cream cone shaped bottle of bubbles, and a few stickers.

She is excited to go back for another appointment. Which is great since she has a few cavities to take care of.

Hurray for Girls Camp!

2011-06-26T21:28:00.000-07:00

This is what girls camp is like up here in Oregon (at least in my stake :). They rent out this way cool camp ground and divide up the cabins. All the areas are a little different, but I lucked out and got the newest cabins with my group of 1st years. We had 2 cabin moms, 3 counselors and 9 first years in each cabin. It was so much fun. Here I have been whining about having to go (we all know whining is one of the things I do best) and then I ended up having more fun than most of the women up there. I loved being around these girls (and these other amazing women). Believe it or not, my testimony was totally boosted being there. It was an amazing week and I can't wait to go with Joelle next year. (If the truth be told, I don't know if I would have had such a great time if I hadn't been in these fantastic new cabins - some of the other cabins are pretty old and rustic. We were the only ones with bathrooms in our cabins - other than the leaders).

Isn't this beautiful. It was like being on vacation. I could not believe how green it was. The hike we went on was awesome. Of course I only took pics. this one day because I knew that David wanted to see it all. Every cabin had a theme. Our counselors (5th year girls) came up with the theme of each cabin. Our them was "the 70's". That little banner says "Groovy Baby." My counselors were so cute. I loved getting to know them.

This was the "adult" room in the cabin. My bunk is there on the right. Believe it or not these mattresses were pretty dang comfy (that or I was so tired at night I just slept well).

This is like a big common area in the center of our little cabin. Straight ahead to the right is the little bathroom area. There were two of these rooms in the cabin as well. Each one had 6 bunks. The girls didn't even argue about what bunk they were given. They were all so cute! This little one was a daughter of the cabin mom that was with me.

This is just the other side of that room.

Seriously, have any of you camped so well for girls camp? I will be so sad next year if I don't get to be in these cabins again :).

This is where we ate and sang all those crazy songs you sing at meal time.This area is called Toby's. It is just a big open area with a stage (to the left that you can't see). We would gather here every night for "campfire" (which is funny since we never actually had a fire). This is really the main gathering hall. It is actually pretty big even though it doesn't look it. This is where all the good stuff took place.

They have this little pond (it actually looks bigger in this picture than it actually is) where you can catch tons of little newts. I don't know if you can see the little boat to the right or not, but they have about 12 of them. They are little 2 seater things and the first years went nuts over them. It was funny because you rarely saw any girls older than a second year in them. I guess they get their fill that first year, or they just grow out of it. The water in the pond looks so nasty though, you couldn't have paid me to get in one of the boats. I would have died if I had fallen in that water. :)

Aren't these girls so cute. Who wouldn't want to spend a week with them? It was neat how accepting they were. I loved being pulled back into the fun (yet crazy emotional) life of a teenager. Though I would never want to be one again, it was great to feel their energy, and love.

This pool was massive, and freezing. I don't know how anyone could handle swimming in it. They do a polar plunge every morning at 6:30 for anyone who wants to. If you do it 3 out of the 5 days you get a bead. All my girls got their beads - nuts! (although the pool had been closed the first 2 days so they only had to do it once to get a bead - still crazy though).

This is the meadow. They do most of their certification here.These were my counselors. Cutest girls ever! Yes they have their tooshes stuffed for our flag call that afternoon. They were always so happy and took such good care of our cabin. I hope I get to hang with these girls next year because they were awesome. I wish I could have gotten a picture of my YCL's (the 6th and 7th year girls that taught all my classes). They were amazing. I loved spending so much time with them and just seeing the strength and beauty that is out there in the youth of the curch. It was very humbling at times.

This deer was hanging around all week. There were a couple of baby deer too, but this one was brave enough to be out with all of us at all hours of the day. At this point I was maybe 3 feet away from her. She would just come and snack in the meadow. The girls loved her, but were good about keeping their distance. Overall it was a fantastic week. I know this isn't the most exciting post, it was more for journaling puroses :). I really had a great time.

Piano Recital

2011-06-26T21:00:00.000-07:00

On Wed. June 8th Emma and Joelle had their first piano recital. It was so cute! They had a ton of fun doing it. Emma was very nervous for the entire week before, but Joelle wasn't nervous at all. She finally got a little nervous right before hand. They both did so well. We were so proud of them.

"The Boy Who Lived"

2011-06-04T09:38:00.001-07:00

Last night Jacob was attacked by Lord Voldemort! He battled hard and barely made it.....
....But seriously, don't you love being ripped out of a nice deep sleep at 2:30 in the morning by a crying child to rush into their room and find them, and their pillows and their floor covered in blood. Then you are supposed to be able to think clearly enough to help the child who can't stop crying and is not really awake himself to understand what is going on. So you rush him to the bathroom (dripping blood the whole way because you are not awake enough to realize that your little cupped hand won't catch much blood at all). You start by having him lean over the sink (duh - really not that smart to have him leaning forward) to wash out the wound, which then starts to get blood all in his eyes and causes more crying because the water is so cold and makes him even more cold than he already is and sends him into more shock than he already is. Finally you come to your senses and realize how to handle the situation. You start asking your husband to grab things for you and he looks at you with a sick look on his face and says he needs to sit down because he either got up to fast or the look and the smell of the blood is really getting to him. So you put a cold compress on the head of your child and have him lay on the ground next to his Dad who is laying down so he won't pass out. Dad holds the compress for the next 40 minutes while you commence in cleaning the counters and carpets. You go through a whole bottle of peroxide (thank heaven for peroxide) cleaning everything. Then finally you clean your child, change his clothes (which you throw away because you can't deal with cleaning anymore blood), put a bandaid on his head (when really you should probaby take him to get stiches but you are all so tired you decide the wound isn't really that bad) and you all go back to bed (3:35am). In the morning you walk in to check on your son and see that the bleeding hadn't stopped as well as you thought it had and there is caked blood in his hair and his pillow now has to be thrown out because it has a small puddle of blood. Oh the joys of being a mother.

It is now 10:00 in the morning and Jacob has been bathed and has a new bandaid and is pretty dang excited to have a "Harry Potter" scar. All of my kids are jealous and I have asked them all not to try to fall out of bed and land on the corner of their end table just to have a Harry Potter scar. It is not worth it. We only need one "Harry" in the family and they can all just choose to be the other characters that don't have scars. Jacob did amazingly well with all of this. After we calmed him down and he was laying by Dad, he was just the sweetest little thing. He is such a good little boy and I am so greatful to get to be his mother. I wish they didn't have to grow up and I could just keep my little family like this forever. I love little boys!

a bunch of nothingness

2011-06-03T14:45:00.000-07:00

Okay, so it has been forever since I blogged and still I don't have much to offer. I thought I had a lot more, but I realized much of it is on David's camera and he has to format it for me so I can put it on here. I am not so good with all that mumbo-jumbo, so I don't know how to do it myself. But hopefully we will get those pictures on here soon (especially since his pictures are so much better than mine - I really need to learn to use his camera-- so he can then buy a new one :). Right Dave?).

Anyway, this was our egg coloring day. We ended up going to Wendy's house to say goodbye over Easter weekend so we did all our Easter stuff the Friday before. It was really fun. I love that all my kids still like to find eggs. The older 3 were really good about helping the younger two find eggs. It was really sweet. All those pics are on David's camera of course :). (I can't believe it is June 3rd and I am just now getting around to blogging Easter - Crazy!)

We also got the joy of meeting all the new puppies in our Port Orford group. The kids loved playing with these cuddly little guys.We can't wait to see Little Bear when my parents come to visit. Joelle needs some puppy cuddle time. She is totally puppy hungry.

These are horrible pictures, I know, but I figure I blog everyone else's birthdays, I should do mine too right? This was an awesome cake that Wendy made me for my birthday (which is crazy that she even made me a cake since she was moving in 3 days - She is an amazing sister). It was so sad to see them go, but I am so happy that life is good for them right now. I don't know if it was because we were so sad that they were leaving, or we were in denial, or what, but we didn't get any other pictures that weekend. No pictures of their cute kids, or Wendy and Jose, or anything. How lame! I am glad we got to go spend that last little time with them. We will miss them, but we know that they are in the right place :). BTY - My birthday was April 24th and I turned 33 - just thought I would get that in there so I can look it up next time I can't remember how old I am (which happens all the time).

Katie's new hobby is cooking. She loves to be in the kitchen making soup or salad. Jacob loves it too and is usually right by her side, but he was off playing at this point. They will sit for hours cutting and spinning salad in the salad spinner. It is really cute. Thank you Wendy for the idea of giving them butter knives instead of real knives - that has been very helpful :).When we all sit down to watch a show as a family and we ask the kids what they want to watch, Jacob's answer is almost always "Take Home Chef". Love it!

It's Great to be 8!

2011-04-13T18:44:00.000-07:00

Last week was a big fun filled week. We had so many adventures! The best part was Benjamin's baptism. He was baptised on April 9 at 1:00. He was so sweet about it. Nana and Papa (Mike and Alison Christensen) and Grandma and Grandpa Glemser came up to celebrate with us and support Ben in this decision. I was talking to Ben a few days before his baptism and I basically asked him if he was sure he wanted to do this (take this step and this responsibility). He looked at me and said "wait, I have a choice?" I laughed, but then it led to a great discussion about what it means to be baptised and how "yes, this had to be his choice." He decided he really believes the church is true and that he wanted to be baptised. I am so proud of him for making that choice. I know this is not the happiest face, but he really was so happy to be baptised. I thought he looked so handsome in his new suit (even if it is a little big :). There is a cool story behind this suit. We had wanted to get him a new suit for his baptism but for many reasons hadn't yet. Well about a week and a half before his baptism I got a sweet call from my sweet neighbor Dawn (she lives 3 doors down and she and her husband are from South Africa and have the best accents :). She called me up and said she had 2 brand new suits for little boys one was a size 8 and one a size 12. She knew our church had "big milestones"-that's how she put it-and wondered if we could use these suits. I was so excited and so grateful! Both suits were so nice and I was so excited to be able to give him something so great on this special day. The Lord truly does bless us through others.

Two of the best looking guys I know!

I want to say thank you so much to our sweet parents who journeyed so far to be with us. We love you all so much!

After his baptism we went out to eat at one of our favorite pizza joints Old Chicago. We splurged and got all our favorite appetizers. We had a very fun and yummy night.

Joelle has been asking to go here for a few months so she was in heaven.

I love watching people eat pizza. It just looks so yummy! (Are you hungry yet?)

On Wednesday (April 6), Ben had his first Pinewood Derby. He has wanted to participate in his own Derby for years (he went with David once while David was a scout leader and has been itching to do his own car since). He actually had his car done a few months before he even turned 8. It was so cute.

He came in 4th out of 10 which isn't bad. He also one a prize for "coolest design." Which was pretty special since he actually did design it. David helped him make it but he chose exactly how he wanted it shaped, and painted and he picked out the decals. He was pretty dang proud of himself (David was a pretty proud Dad).

You can't really see his car in this picture, but it is the second one from the left.

Most of the pictures taken in this post came from Alison. For some reason I kept forgetting to take my camera whenever we went out. Thankfully she had hers. We took the kids down to the temple and the bookstore. They loved getting to see the temple again. It was only their second time. I think Alison got some great shots. I love this Temple. It is beautiful. The inside still has a lot of the white marble like on the outside, but it also has a lot of very pretty dark wood. I am so happy to be able to live by a temple.

I think these doors are so cool.

We took a little trip to Tillamook with Nana and Papa. Our family loves going to Tillamook and visiting the cheese factory. This first little shop is called the Blue Heron Cheese company. They make and sell the best Brie. This shop is definitely more geared toward adults, and I love it! If you can't tell this is Jacob inside the donkey face. He loves these kinds of things, even if we are not taking pictures :).

This one is Emma, what a cutie!

And of course ... little Missy with her classic smile. I wonder if she knows how to smile a normal smile?

I think this has to be one of Nana's best pictures. I have to say when this picture is enlarged their eyes look pretty creepy. The little shop sells food so you can come out and feed the animals. That is Joelle's favorite part. It was pretty chilly this time so some of the younger kiddos really didn't care to feed the animals. Oh well, more for us Adults that way :).

This is a picture of the inside of the Tillamook Cheese Factory. This picture comes from upstairs. It is really cool to watch. They make so much cheese, and I love their cheese (and ice cream - my kids love to do the hour and 20 min. drive just to get a little ice cream cone from this place).

The best part is the cheese tasting isle. On a good day when there aren't a ton of people we will go down the isle probably 10 times. We think it is great fun. I love the pepper jack, Jacob loves the squeaky cheese (that is it's actual name and it really squeaks), Joelle likes the medium cheddar, and Emma likes the extra sharp cheddar. Dave, Katie and Ben like them all. It is one of our favorite places to take visitors.

Cape Mears is the closest light house to Tillamook. David's parents wanted to check out our ocean to see how different it was from theirs. They loved it but admitted that it was a lot colder and windier than their part of the country.

I love this little lighthouse.

This is the view from one of the lookouts by the lighthouse.

This is the view from down on the beach. It was definitely chilly that afternoon, but you can't beat the beauty of it! Alison got some AMAZING pictures of the beach. I love the ocean!

That is me out their with the kiddos. (I have rainboots on by the way, no way I would do that in my barefeet - Although Papa was totally brave and got in barefoot and all. Gotta love that guy!)

We had so much fun with Mike and Alison and can't wait till we can see them agian. I love family and I thank the Lord every day that I have been blessed with so many wonderful people in my life. Where would we be without family? Family really is everything. I love you all!!!

I love Birthdays!! (and spring break and the Velasquez family :)

2011-03-28T20:35:00.000-07:00

Last week was a blast! Wendy, Jose and the kids came up for part of their spring break. It was so much fun. I miss them a ton already. We went out all day on Saturday (the 19th) for Jose's birthday. We tried to go to the Temple that morning, but we found out that you don't even want to attempt going to the Portland Temple on the 1st Saturday of spring break. All the schools (College, High School, Elementary) throughout the entire state of Oregon have spring break on the same week. I am not sure why they do this exactly, but they do. It just meant for a whole lot of weddings and youth groups being at the temple. It was cool to see it so busy, but not so great for finding parking or doing a session. So we just drove around and looked at the temple for a little bit and decided to go off on our second adventure of the day - down town (I never get tired of going there :). Of course my pictures kind of stink (what else is new), but I am just happy I remembered to use my camera every now and then. We saw this cool pirate guy right out side our lunch spot. The boys really got a kick out of it. I thought he was pretty sweet myself.

We had lunch at this fun little place called Qdoba. Believe it or not, I had never heard of it before. It was awesome, the food was so good (thanks Wendy and Jose - We loved it!).

And of course we had to stop in at Powell's books. You can't come all the way to Portland without checking out one of the nations largest book stores, right?

Here we are at an out door Market (and of course I didn't get any pictures of the actual market - sometimes I really wonder wear my brain is). The market was great. They had lots of little jewelry shops and art, and clothes, and food, and soap... etc. It was something new to me and lots of fun. I got a cap, Nick got another.... whatever those are called that he is wearing in the picture... some kind of head covering :). Wendy got some cool soap and Jose got some awesome spices. I don't think Josh got anything there..... He did however get a great book at the bookstore that he read (and probably finished) while they were here. It was called.... "A Zombie Guide" or "A Guide to Zombies" or something like that. Whenever I went looking for him, he was always reading it. I hoped he liked it. We only had these two older boys with us that day. It was really neat getting to hang out with them too.

We were out so long that we went to dinner as well. We went to this fancy Mediterranean restaurant that was so good. I can't remember the name of it because ....... I forgot to take a picture of it. But, we are all in luck because I do remember where it is located. So if you come to visit and you want so great Mediterranean food, I can get you there.

Then we headed home for some Costco "All American Chocolate Cake." The Best chocolate cake in my opinion. It was fantastic. I love birthdays and I am so happy that Jose shared his with us.

I am not sure what was being said here, but I love the looks on these 3 faces. I know they were talking about that cake. I wish I knew what they were saying :). We love you Jose! Happy Birthday!

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

2011-03-17T16:24:00.000-07:00

David is the best holiday guy. He got up this morning and made green cupcakes with green frosting and green sprinkles for the kids. They loved it (not to mention they were super yummy)! He reminded the kids last night that today was going to be Saint Patrick's day. Ben and Emma both slept in green so that no one could pinch them right when they woke up. David was sitting at the table working this morning and heard someone walking up but didn't look to see who it was. Ben came right up and pinched him and said "you're not wearing green dad." No good morning, no Happy Saint Patrick's Day dad, just a pinch and a rebuke. David laughed pretty hard then went and got dressed in green before anyone else woke up.

Ben started scouts this week. He was so excited to go. I think he looks so handsome in his uniform. He has only been a scout for 5 days and he almost has his bobcat badge. He has been working hard.

The weekend before his 8th birthday the cubscouts went to plant trees to help earn their world conservation award. They invited Ben to go. David was telling him that this is one of the hardest to earn and how lucky Ben is that they let him come help and he should be really proud of himself when he gets this award. Ben is so funny. He wants to do as much as he can so he can get stuff on his shirt. Which is kind of sad since not much goes on the cub scout shirt :).

Jacob tagged along, but didn't have quite as much fun as Ben because he was so cold. He is like me, he has about a 4 degree comfort zone when it comes to the temperature. David said he was a trooper though.

It's Great To Be Eight

2011-03-13T21:07:00.001-07:00

Benjamin turned 8 on Saturday March 12. We had a blast with him. These first few pictures of him blowing out candles and opening his present were actually from March 5th. Emma opened hers on March 4th and since they had both asked for Harry Potter Legos, and we got them both at the same time, and it was already wrapped, he begged and begged to open his too. He is not our most patient child :). We got these cute cupcakes from an auction the night before and he was bound and determined to get all 8 candles on one little cupcake. I didn't think it could be done, but he accomplished it.

They had both sets of Legos built that very same day. I need to put up some pictures of them. They are pretty cool.

His actual birthday was one long adventure. We left around noon and went to Party City to get some cheap little toys for our primary class. Ben had a dollar that Emma gave him that morning and he was so excited by all the little toys he could buy there. Then we went to Subway for lunch. Ben and Emma both love Subway, but we very rarely go there as a family (because, lets face it, it is more expensive to eat there than other fast food joints :). He kept telling us how his sandwich was the best (plain french bread loaf, provolone, and turkey - nothing else on it).

Then we went to the train (Max) station and rode down town to go to the BSA store and get him his scout shirt and patches. We forgot to take any pictures of the actual store and shopping, but he loved it. It was so funny to see him walking around pulling out the the patches and asking what they were for and how many he could put on his shirt.... etc. He is so excited to start doing scouting. I love that David is into it because I really don't understand any of it.

When we had discussed what we were going to do for his birthday the only 2 things we knew for sure were the scout store and Panda Express for dinner. So already he was loving that we had gone to party city and Subway as well. After the scout store we started asking him what else he wanted to do. He couldn't really think of anything but he didn't really want to go home. When we got off the street car to get on the train Ben noticed Finnegan's toy store. He begged to go in so we did. We had a blast. He likes it because it makes him think of Mr. Magoriums Wonder Imporium.

We stayed here for about an hour. They have a little bit of everything. Even David and I enjoyed looking around. I was thrilled when we left only spending a dollar to get these little pencil topper animals. I was quite happy with that little bargain.

After the toy store he still didn't want to go home so we decided to go to the little down town mall that was right down the street. We spent some time in "The Game Stop," and rode the escalators a few times then decided we were all hungry again and ready for dinner. So we hopped back on the train, went and got our car, stopped at Target to get a whole bunch of cereal (we are cereal freaks and we were almost out) then went and had a yummy dinner at Panda Express.

After 7 long but fun hours we finally headed home. He couldn't wait to try on his scout shirt. I thought he looked so cute. We have since washed it so it fits a little better. We spent the rest of the night watching the new Nickelodeon movie Best Player (I think that's what it was called - it was very cute). He said this was his best birthday ever. It really is great to be eight :).

Is she really 10?

2011-03-06T22:30:00.000-08:00

I love my little EmmaLee! I cannot believe it has been 10 years since she was my little baby girl. She really ended up having a birthday weekend not just a birthDAY. A while back she asked if we could celebrate her birthday on Saturday instead of Sunday because she wanted to go to Dinner with David and I for her birthday. We said "sure." Then she realized she needed to open her present (she only got one, because she wanted the Lego Harry Potter Hogwarts Castle - those things are expensive, but awesome) on Saturday as well because she wouldn't really get to build the castle if it we waited till Sunday. We went ahead and agreed to this too. Then it turned out that David and Ben and Jake were going to help plant trees Saturday morning with the cub scouts (which was when she was going to open it) so she had to do it Friday night. So to make a long story short (I know, too late) she opened her present (which she had wrapped herself) on Friday, went to dinner with David and I on Saturday, then got to have her favorite dinner and a little present (I couldn't help it :) on Sunday. What a lucky little girl. I hope she enjoyed her 10th birthday weekend. (Don't you love the keys hanging down in the picture. They really spice up our kitchen decor :)

Seriously, I love this little girl. I cannot imagine life without Emma. Originally we had planned on naming her Lindsey Kate, but when she came out we knew she wasn't a Lindsey. It took us until the end of the second day to figure out her name. I had always wanted an Emma, but David didn't. He actually came up with the compromise of EmmaLee. I loved it from the get go. EmmaLee Gail has always suited her.

My girls are really into wrapping their own presents. We always offer to buy their gifts and surprise them, but they would rather get to choose. I love that they still want to have them wrapped though. The only birthday wrap we had was princess wrap from Katie's birthday. Apparently Emma is to old for that so she and Joelle took Christmas wrap and wrapped it inside out and then colored all over it. They were very proud of their wrapping paper. Grandma's gift is the pink one on the left. She always makes her packaging so cute too. My girls take after their grandma I guess. If it was up to me I would probably just hand them the gift with no wrap and wish them a happy birthday.

Inside Grandma's gift was this brown paper packaging that said "For your next trip to our house."

Inside was a notebook and a pencil box with colored pencils so Emma could write about her trips to Grandma's and Grandpa's. There was also a map on the inside cover that shows the way to their house. She loved this gift. She loves to write and is always thinking about her next story.

Grandma and Grandpa also gave her her very own set of Harry Potter books (which my mom got a great deal on - Thank you Mom!) She is very excited to re-read them.

This is what she has been waiting for for months! Ben got Hagrid's Hut for Christmas, but the girls pretty much built it. Everyone has had so much fun playing with it that all they have been asking for are more Harry Potter legos. They have loved putting this castle together and then acting out all the different stories. I love these kind of toys that bring them together :)

Saturday night David and I took Emma to Marie Callender's for dinner. She loved it. She got a the Turkey kids meal and then tried mine and David's too. She is so fun to take out because she loves food as much as I do. She is open to trying all different kinds of food. She pretty much likes everything. While we were there we gave her the love language test out the the 5 love languages for children book. We discovered that her love language is quality time (although I already had that one figured out:). We had great food and some great discussions. She is so fun to be around.

Happy Birthday EmmaLee Gail!

Snow Days and a Little Bit More

2011-03-06T21:21:00.000-08:00

This picture has nothing to do with a snow day, but I love it. Jacob took this picture. This is how Katie looks every morning. She loves "green drink". She and Joelle and I have been having it for about the last year, but I finally got the rest of my kids on board in the last couple of months. I think it is such a yummy way for them to get more fruits and veggies (I just saw that Jon and Heidi's family are doing it too - Awesome!).
A couple of weeks ago I went to a "soup swap." You were supposed to bring 6 one quart containers of soup and you would come home with 6 more of a variety from other women there. I told David that I was going to make chicken noodle soup since it is really the only soup I know how to make. He said "No, no, no. I will make the soup." So here he is at 10:30 on a Friday night (because we had to freeze it to take it to the swap on Saturday) making his delicious "Zuppa Tuscanna." He is so good to me. I love that he would do that for me. I am so dang lucky!

Just as a side note, I am not sure I ever blogged about Valentines day. If I did, bear with me. I love this man. He brought me and the girls this beautiful bouquet of roses. He also brought me home a huge box of chocolates (which I love, but found that they were disappearing faster than I was eating them - Emma and Ben... but mostly Katie :). He also brought the kids 2 dozen Krispy Kreme donuts. He is kind of a sugar freak. He really knows how to make a holiday fun.

2 weeks ago we had to super fun snow days. The first only stuck around for a couple of hours. The kids made a few snowballs and a pretty little snowman, but they loved it. Then toward the end of that week we had a much larger snowfall. It was a blast. The flakes were huge! I love to watch the kids play in the snow.

I love the way bare trees look all covered in snow. I have missed seeing this (although I have realized I am not cut out for tons of snow - I just want to look at it for a little while, have the kids play in it and then have it melt after a couple of days and get back to regular weather).

Samson looked so cute exploring in the snow.

This is the newest addition to our family. Lucky. He is such a sweet little dog. We inherited him from my best friend Mindy. We know they love him and miss him, but we just want them to know that he and Samson are very happy together and that he is doing great!

He is way more used to the snow than Samson is. I love this picture. I think he looks so cute. He is so fun to watch in the snow. He is not really afraid of anything.

David got to telecommute that day, so it worked out great. He had a fantastic snowball fight with the boys and Katie.

Katie really got into it. It was so cute. I still can't get my boys to wear pants. I don't know how they don't freeze. Don't you love Ben's 90's jacket. He has a great new winter coat (just like Jacob's but green) but he loves this jacket. He says it's his "coolest" jacket. He is so funny.

While Dad and the boys had a snowball fight the girls made a very cute snowman in the front yard with our backyard neighbor Andrea. My girls love her. She is the sweetest little thing. They were quite proud of their snowman.

This was Jacob's pride and joy. His great big snowball. I don't know if he actually tried to throw it at anyone. I'll have to ask :).

This was Katie's biggest snow ball. Not bad for a three year old munchkin.

Our Dynamic Duo

2011-02-27T17:46:00.000-08:00

We recently discovered that we have two little children who love to steal the camera when we are not looking and take a bunch of random pictures of each other. I had no idea they had taken so many. I have never seen them doing this, so I am really beginning to wonder how well I watch them :). My mom told me I should post some of them just for fun. So here they are. This isn't even half of what they took. We have had a chat about using mommy's camera without her knowing, but I am not sure how well they got the message since I know some of these were taken after that talk ;). I might just go with it though. Who knows, maybe one of them will grow up to be a famous photographer (wink, wink), and I will have these first photos to show where they started :).

I want to know what happened here. I don't even know why it would turn out this color. Crazy!

I brought home a bunch of balloons with numbers on them from a girls camp meeting one Saturday and the boys had a hay day with them. Jacob loved these balloons. He said they were his friends. He went around the house calling "Number 10, Number 10! Where are you?" Then he would carry it around, talk to it and play with it like it was a real person. I am beginning to wonder if homeshooling doesn't offer enough friends for him :)

I love that he got this picture (even though my kitchen is so messy), this is how Joelle sits for her personal reading time every day. Feet tucked under her and everything. She says she likes reading at the counter because then she doesn't get tired. She says she gets sleepy if she reads sitting on the couch - even if it is her favorite book (Harry Potter). This is so foreign to me. I love to read laying down (on the couch or in bed) and I can read for hours before I get sleepy - maybe that is why I don't sleep well and Joelle sleeps like a baby (she has always been a great sleeper).

I don't know how I didn't notice Jacob taking this picture. He is sneaky, that one.

He said Katie took this picture. Weirdo.

I would love to know what she was saying here. I really hope she was acting something out because she looks pretty mad :).

I know she was acting here because she called me in to show me how well she can pretend to be asleep (once again I never even saw the camera). She was so funny that day. I think she really acts well. To me she looks asleep. Am I just biased here?

I am pretty sure David knew they were playing with the camera, but he didn't mind. I guess I don't mind too much anymore either. I just hate having to go through and delete all these random pictures. Or, like today, forget they are on the camera and download them into my computer and have to weed through them to get the pictures I took.

Jake and Katie are all about treasure right now. This is their treasure box and they go around the house and find pretty treasure to put in it.

The pickin's are slim right now at best. Most of this came from the girls' jewelry box. It is fun to watch these two work.

Photo shoot pictures

2011-02-06T19:01:00.000-08:00

These were some of the pictures from our photo shoot when we were getting our Christmas card picture. There are a bunch that I want to post, but they are not in the right format yet. I will get them on here soon. These paticular pictures (aside from the first one) are the ones that will be going on our family wall. I love these kiddos!

Random Katieness

2011-02-06T18:23:00.000-08:00

Katie is so funny. She makes us laugh all the time. Even at church we get told by the people behind us that they can't focus because they are too busy watching her. She has turned into such a sweetie. Last night David made Indian fry bread for dinner. Katie loves to cook with mom and dad. She is always pulling up her stool to the counter or stove to help. She had a blast rolling out David's dough (and peppering our chicken noodle soup the night before - I now know I have to watch her very closely when she has the pepper :). Of course she had to play with the flour and dough right after her bath.

This was my first attempt at doing her cute hair since Mindy left. She made me get out my camera and take pictures of her. She is so funny with the camera. She likes to pose herself. She even told me "get me reading my book." Life would be so boring without our "Little Missy."

Look at that face. I get that look a lot when I am not doing something quite the way Katie thinks I should be.

I get this look a lot too, which I love! She is so happy lately.

This is classic Katie. For a while this is the only smile she would do for the camera. Silly little thing.

I was actually pretty proud of this hairdo.

Wow! What a crazy month!

2011-01-30T21:58:00.000-08:00

I will be working my way backward here :). Jacob celebrated his 6th birthday on Jan. 13. He was so cute. All he wanted was for his best friend Jonny to come and play video games with him. Jonny is the one on Jacob's left (his little bro is on Jake's right). He lives to play video games with Jonny.

Wendy found this cool star wars alarm clock at her Walmart and she got me one to give to Jake. He LOVED it. It is totally him. (Thanks for thinking of him Wendy! ;)

Next came his gift from Nana......

Nana is always up on the latest hip toys :). The boys had each gotten a Nano bug for Christmas so the Nano Habitat was a dream come true, it has been the most played with toy he got for his birthday (which is saying a lot since he choose to take his money from us and go pick out his own gifts). Thank you Nana!

Grandma gave him money which is another favorite. He is saving that for the science museum. All the kids love the gift shop there and love to save their money for those trips. Thanks Grandma.

Right after Christmas Mindy and her kids came to visit for a couple of weeks while B.J. studied for his big dental exam. We had a blast. The kids were so happy to have their long lost best friends around for a while (we mom's were pretty ecstatic to have each other around too :). While space was limited, happiness was abundant.

Mindy is the queen of hairdo's. Her girls always look so cute and it was so fun to have her around to do my girls hair. Katie loved it! She has since gone around asking me to do her hair "like Mindy" does. I have to put her toes in the sink "like Mindy" does. And I can not vary too much from this original hair do. I love it! She and Brighton were so cute together. Katie loved having Mindy's girls around to "baby" her. I have video of a wonderful "fashion show" they all put on for us. I will try and get that posted soon.

Brighton is an expert at posing for the camera and the camera loves her. She is such a beautiful little girl. I miss having them close by. I wish every one I love would move up here to Oregon!

I mean seriously, look at that hairdo! She looks even cuter that she already is. I need to get some talent in this area for sure.

If you really want to see some fancy hair, check out Mindy's blog. She is in my "friends" section. Click on "Kidd Family" - you will love it!

New Years Eve totally snuck up on us this year. Mindy, David and I were so tired that day. We were totally party poopers compared to our usual selves. We toasted with the kids (with our sparkling cider) around 9:00 because none of us thought we were going to make it to midnight (I have never toasted before midnight). The kids loved it. They didn't even notice that it was so early. We ended up watching two lame movies while the kids watched movies back in their room. Then that was it. It was midnight. We said happy New Year and we all went to bed. Can you believe that?! That doesn't even sound like us. I am so glad Mindy's kids were here to make that night fun for my kids. I don't know what we would have done without them :).

This is one of the only pics I got of Mindy while she was here. I don't know how that happened. Isn't she so cute!! I had to get a picture of her in her element. She is a fantastic photographer. She is my best friend and I miss her like crazy!

I love these little blower things. They don't make any noise but the kids love them.

I love that Joelle figured out how to do two at a time :).

David celebrated his 34th birthday on Jan. 3rd. We didn't really do anything fun that day, because he forgot to get the day off. Fortunately he got the following day off and he came with us to the Science Center and we all had a blast. It ended up being a great day after birthday.

He even made his own cupcakes. I was really out of it this year. Poor Dave. I love you honey! Next year will be great, I promise. (Who really cares about 34 anyway right? - Don't even think about saying that on my bday Dave ;).

I know, I know,.... the science museum again? But this was our first time with Mindy's family. Mindy actually wanted these pictures but I forgot to get them to her before she left, so I am really just posting these for her family and ours. So we will not be offended if you look no further:).

Our favorite room for the little ones was closed but they offered this fun spin art activity instead which the kids had a lot of fun with. They had this cool putty stuff to play with while you were waiting for your turn to spin your art. I never did get a picture of the art - and now I have no idea where it is. I am such a great mother.

She is just so happy! It makes me happy just to look at her.

Addy is such a sweetheart. Mindy really has such pretty little girls.

And then there is her handsome little fellow Jase.

He is the sweetest little complimenter (just so we're clear, I realize that this in not a real word). He is pretty much always happy.

Jase and Jacob were the best of buds. They loved each other and got along so well.

This was a little D.J. area where you could practice putting music to lights. It is Jacob's favorite.

My kids have always wanted to build this arch (it is numbered so you know exactly where to put each block) but we have never had enough people.

They were so happy to actually complete it this time. Hurray!

I love all these little kiddos!

Happy Holidays

2010-12-26T19:42:00.000-08:00

We had a very happy holiday season this year. We were so lucky to get to have my mom and dad come and stay for Christmas. We had a blast. They came a few days before Christmas and we got to take mom on her first "train ride" (the light rail). It was so much fun - albeit very crowded that week. The kids love riding the train so getting to go with Grandma and Grandpa was a real treat. We went down town to visit one of the largest book stores in the United States -Powells Books. It was AWESOME! While not the prettiest book store, it is so worth visiting. I have never seen so many books in one place at one time. They sell new and used so the prices vary from super cheap to super expensive (they have a collectors room - pricey :). We all enjoyed it although I will admit I was afraid I was going to lose one of my kids. I could not keep track of them to save my life. Thank goodness for grandparents :).

This was the tree they put up in Pioneer Square down town. It was HUGE! It was taller than many of the buildings. It was so pretty when it was lit up.

My camera is has issues with inside pictures, but here was our table setting for Christmas Eve. It has been a tradition in our family (for as long as I can remember) to hang a small present from the chandelier during dinner to open as soon as dinner is over. I loved it growing up and it is something our kids love as well. The girls actually hung them for me this year.

David got these fun little crackers form target. You pop them open by pulling them apart and there is a fun little gift inside. It is a British tradition and I hope we do it every year. It was a great little addition to our celebration.

I know the lighting is horrid and my camera doesn't take the best indoor pictures, but our little feast was delicious. We have started doing our big meal on Christmas Eve and our soup on Christmas day, and we are really liking it that way. It just helps fill up Christmas Eve, and then gives us great food to eat all day on Christmas. It is a win - win situation in my book :).

David decided to dye the eggs green for a more festive look. They looked so crazy, but they had the same great taste they always have.

Jello has become a new family tradition in our house. We don't celebrate a single holiday without jello anymore. It is by far Jacob's favorite dish :).

Hurray! Time to open Chandelier gifts.

I never got an after picture of mom and dad's gift either. It was the movie "It's a Wonderful Life." I couldn't believe they didn't have that one yet (on DVD). Who doesn't love that movie.
"Merry Christmas Bedford Falls!"

The kids got Pokemon tins with tons of Pokemon cards. They all spent the night trading cards. It was great and gave them something to do.

Katie isn't into Pokemon so she got a Dora puzzle (in case you can't see it since my camera puts a glare on anything with a smooth surface).
I know hair ties are nothing to get that excited over, but I have been wanting these for a long time and just kept forgetting to buy them. I was so proud of David for getting the right ones. Way to go babe!

We all enjoyed his gift. I have never seen mini Toblerones. They were perfect. I think mini things are the best!

David made the best sugar cookies on Christmas Eve. He took the time to totally decorate each one of the 4 cookies. The 5th one on the far right was done by Katie. These five cookies were put out for Santa and the carrots were for the reindeer. In the morning we realized Santa wasn't very hungry this year because there was only a small bite taken out of one of the cookies, and the reindeer forgot to take the carrots with them. They must have been really busy. Maybe Santa just couldn't handle devouring such perfect cookies and thought that David deserved to eat them himself. I don't know. Either way, we enjoyed them ;).

Once again, the glare! Our 3 older kids have been riding the same bikes for the last 4 years. Santa decided it was time to get them some bikes that fit their heights. It was a very fun Christmas morning. They actually got to ride them that day because it wasn't raining. But it was very cold so they didn't stay out very long.

Nana and Papa always send something super fun for the family. This year it was actually called a family fun box. It had tons of great movies and games and treats. It was definitely a family favorite. Thank you so much! What a fun idea! How well you know us :). (I had more pictures of the family fun box, but somehow I deleted them off my blog and as it is 11:30 I realized I am to tired to figure out how to get them back on. Just know that it was an AWESOME gift :)

Jacob got a Konzu Pet (however you spell it) battle station from Santa. It was fun to watch those little guys battle away.

Katie has had her eye on this dress up from Target (and Santa's workshop:) for months.

She looked like a real little princess.

Emma loves the Percy Jackson series and so does David so this was really killing 2 birds with one stone :).

We got Joelle this fun little microscope not even knowing if was something she would really want. It turned out to be a favorite. They keep talking about what they think things will look like under the microscope. They played "little scientists" for about 3 days straight. Taking notes and everything. Thank you Costco for such fun, learning, inexpensive gift ideas.

David gets me a can of mixed nuts every year. I love them!

Not to mention he also gets me the cutest clothes. He is such a great gift giver (just like his mom:).

Julie told me about this game "Last Word". She says they had a blast playing it with Tim, Katy, John and Tiffany. I got it for David because we love trying new games. We hope to try it out soon with Wendy's family.

Somehow I missed getting a picture of Ben by himself. He was quite happy with his bike and his Harry Potter legos (Hagrids Hut - which I believe the girls had the most fun building.) I also didn't get a picture of the super cute blankets my parents brought for the kids. We were in desperate need of more blankets up here with all this chilly weather (especially since our heater broke they day before new years eve and we haven't been able to get it fixed yet... thank goodness for blankets!!!!). Thank you to everyone for all your wonderful gifts. We love you all and hope that everyone had a very happy Christmas and hope for a happy New Year!

Funny Stories

2010-12-14T21:03:00.000-08:00

Yesterday after homeschool the girls were playing with my stamps, and Joelle noticed that it seemed like she was a librarian.... stamp.... stamp.... stamp, etc. She came up with the great idea of playing library. This was a new one I had never heard of :). Basically it consisted of the girls sitting at their little school table in their room writing a bunch of little books so that they could stamp inside them just like they do at the library (which they don't do much anymore since it is all computerized now :). Ben kept running out with a new "book" that he had checked out for me to read to him. They were really funny little stories. Then he and Jake decided that they wanted to make a book to put in the girls library. The boys are not as patient as the girls as far as writing and illustrating their own books, so they asked me to type for them while they told me what to write. Here are their stories for anyone who is interested. I tried to type exactly as they said it. Enjoy!

Deadly Dinosaurs (by Ben Christensen)

The first deadly dinosaur that we all know of is called T-Rex. The T-Rex is the biggest, most
largest dinosaur that we know of.

The Pterydactl is the flying dinosaur. It can sometimes be deadly. When it is deadly you might
not want to be near it because it will fly down, pick you up, take you to it's natural habitat.
Usually their natural habitats are on super high rocks, like a cliff. The super high rocks are
usually skinny. If they are skinny, they usually don't have babies. (It took me a second reading to understand that he meant the Pterydactls don't have babies if the rocks are skinny :)

The Triceritops is a really deadly dinosaur. I think it weighs over 200 pounds. It has 3 horns.
2 horns are on it's head and the 3rd one is his nose. If you get hit by one of these sharp horns, usually you will die. If you are lucky, you will just have to go to a doctor.

Stay tuned for the next book.

The Backyardagains Super Hero (by Jake Christensen)

Here is Jacob.

I am going to type in a story.

It is about backyardagains. It is probably going to be a christmas one.

Once upon a time there was 1 abominable snowman, and 1 ice was in his way but I don't know why. Then there was 4 elves and 1 santa. Santa had lots of presents, wind up toys, dancing dolls, and butterflies, and snakes. He has all sorts of stuff.

And then they found a jewel. There was green, yellow, blue, red and sparkle blue. Then white. That was a costume and at the white part there was a smoker that can play 5025 smoke.
But incase there was two blocks of ice and then a wall full of 225 blocks of ice and then there was a dinosaur.
Then we found a stack and then there was no toys in there and then they put in toys.

The End.
(I was actually spelling out all of the numbers at first, but he said he wanted to see the "real" numbers. He is a number kid.)

Gingerbread Ornaments

2010-12-12T19:08:00.000-08:00

This week we made some gingerbread Christmas tree ornaments to hang on the fresh Oregon Christmas tree our landlord dropped off. We didn't have any good gingerbread man cookie cutters, so we just made snowmen, Santas and Christmas trees. The kids had a fun time cutting out the cookies and frosting them.

Recipe

I'm Getting Nuttin' For Christmas

2010-12-12T15:33:00.000-08:00

One of our kids' favorite Christmas songs is I'm Getting Nuttin' For Christmas.

Here is Katie's version.

Translation for those who don't speak Katie language:

I'm gettin' nuttin' to Christmas
Mommy and Daddy mad

Ok, we do that again.

Mommy or Daddy are mad

Oh, I need to do that part ... Mommy ...

I'm gettin' nuttin' to Christmas
Mommy or Daddy mad

I love the holidays!

2010-12-03T21:40:00.001-08:00

Okay, so we all know me, if there isn't a ton of pictures it isn't my blog. Maybe one day I'll figure out how to put less on, but until then.... enjoy! So, two Sundays ago I came home from visiting teaching just as it was starting to snow. I was so excited to go in and tell the kids. They had already noticed and were jumping up and down with joy. I joined them of course and we satat the back door just watching the snow fall. It fell for maybe 10 min. and none of it stuck, but it was fun to watch. If you look closely at this picture you will see the snow flakes around Joelle. It is so funny that it is snowing and yet my grass is so green. I love it up here :)!
That morning when we had woken up there was frost on everything, so the kids took these pictures, thinking it was snow. I was so glad it snowed that afternoon so they weren't too disappointed.

Monday night I took the 3 older kids to see Harry Potter. When we came out it was totally snowing. It was so cool. We were shocked. We didn't even know it was coming and when we came out of the movie it was all over our car and the grass and everything. What a cool way to end such a fun night.

Look how huge the snowflakes are. It was perfect snow for snowballs and snowmen. Even though it was nine o'clock at night we were all out making both :).

Somehow we have winter gear for the girls......

...but not the boys. I am not sure how that happened, but I am shortly going to rectify that situation. The boys didn't notice or care, but I did. Ben actually went in and got a pair of socks to use for gloves. They wouldn't even change into pants. Ben does have a coat, he just wouldn't wear it. He was so fun to watch in the snow. He was made for this weather. He only complained about his hands being cold. And even that was after about an hour.

Katie (or "Little Missy"as we call her) was in heaven. She just walked around singing to herself and watched the snow fall. She made a snowball or two, but mostly just to eat them. She thought that was the best part. She is in jammies and rain boots (we haven't outfitted her yet for snow either - I have got to hit some yard sales this summer :).

For the first time since we moved up here David admitted he was cold that night. He had a blast with the kids though. He got his gloves and was out there making snowballs and snowmen right along with them. I love to watch him with the kids. Sometimes I think he is just a big kid himself. He makes everything so fun.

Look at those flakes. They are amazing! The man in the picture is pretty fabulous as well. What would life be like without David. I am sure you would all agree.... BORING!

I know I have been saying snowmen, but as you can tell there was not enough snow for that. It was really one tiny little snowman. But they were proud. It was their first snowman they ever built in a town we actually lived in. We love this little guy. (Look closely, he is there :)

This was our backyard the next morning. It really wasn't very much snow. Good thing though, because we were leaving that day to go to Grandma's and Grandpa's for Thanksgiving. The snow actually helped because if it snows here at all tons of people telecommute instead of going to the office. Such was the case with this day, so our drive on the freeway that evening was great. Thank you snow! We made it to Port Orford in five and a half hours including a dinner break. That is a record for us.

The kids couldn't resist another play day in the snow :).

A weird thing happened over Thanksgiving, we stayed with Grandma and Grandpa for 5 days, we helped Wendy unpack, had an amazing dinner at Joan and Jean's (thank you laddies - you are amazing) and the only pictures I got were a couple of us freezing at the beach the day after Thanksgiving. I don't get it, I had my camera the whole time I just forgot to use it. Just know, it was a wonderful week!

The ocean was amazing that day. It was cold and the wind was crazy but the waves were awesome and were huge. The funny thing is, Thanksgiving was sunny and beautiful and Sunday was sunny and beautiful. But the one day that was totally open to us (David was driving Jose back to the airport most of the day on Saturday ) was rainy and cold. Isn't that how it always happens? We loved it anyway. It was just great to be on vacation.

Katie couldn't handle the wind. She kept burying her head in David's shoulder. She was so cute. When he set her down by the big rock she started to blow away (and she wasn't being silly - she could hardly stand), it was making us all laugh.

I love this picture. Emma was imagining something, I could hear her mumbling to herself. I could tell she was happy and enjoying her imaginings. She was the last one off the beach. I turned around and had to get a shot. I thought it was so neat to see her with the huge angry ocean behind her and have her be so calm and peaceful. It was a very special afternoon.

When we first got to town David noticed that their tiny little theater was open for the weekend (it isn't always open) and the only movie it was showing was "Megamind". We had wanted to take the kids to see it so we decided Friday afternoon was perfect. They had 2 showings a day. One at 4 and one at 7. We took the kids to the 4:00 showing Friday afternoon. I know it is a bad picture and the place looks pretty drab on the outside, but we were pleasantly surprised when we got in. I love the small town feel and the theater was just as great. They took your money at the door (it was $5 a person since it was a matinee). We got a Med. popcorn (which was also much cheaper than here) and had a great time watching the movie with the other 15 people that ventured out that afternoon. As we left the owner's little boy (maybe 8 years old), stood at the door and passed out candy. I've said it before and I'll say it again, sometimes small towns can be so great.

We had a wonderful time with all those wonderful Port Orford folks. We can't wait to go back. Mom and Dad are amazing hosts and are so good to us when we stay. It was so great to be with Jose, Wendy, and their kids again. We miss the rest of our family and hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving. We love you all and hope you are enjoying your holidays!

I know, I know... Way too early!

2010-11-18T15:13:00.001-08:00

Okay, first of all let me explain the situation. We always put up our Christmas tree either the Friday after or the Sunday before Thanksgiving (depending on the date of Thanksgiving). The kids have been asking and asking to do the tree since Halloween. It has been cloudy and chilly and it just put us all in the holiday mood. We are going to my Mom and Dad's for the whole week of Thanksgiving. We will be coming back Sunday night. I just knew that I didn't want the mess of the trip mixing with the mess of putting up our decorations. I also knew that this was going to be a busy week and weekend with getting ready for the trip and shopping and visiting teaching...... So..... Last Sunday..... we put up our tree. What can I say, we are crazy. Even David and I were in the mood (me a little more than him I think - but he wouldn't have gone along with the idea if he wasn't in the mood :).
I love the Christmas season and I feel like it is too short as it is. So here ya go. Enjoy my not so great pictures of our preparation. I hope it gets you in the mood for your upcoming preparations too :).

Last year the girls noticed that I would move ornaments around after they were all done decorating. They had asked me what I was doing and I explained how I like the ornaments to look and how to fill in the spaces in the tree. They helped me some last year. This year was awesome. I didn't even have to touch the tree. Emma and Joelle fixed all the weird spots by themselves. They were pretty sneaky about it so that the younger ones didn't even notice the girls were moving the ornaments they had hung. They made the tree very pretty. It was great to see them in action. I was quite proud :).

I have always wanted a fireplace just to hang stockings above it. I was sad because this fireplace didn't have a mantel. Joelle came up with this idea and I loved it! I love living with smart people. It makes life so much easier :).

Gotta love Michaels

2010-11-18T15:02:00.000-08:00

I have said it before and I'll say it again, I love cheap easy crafts from Micheal's. I know that to anyone with any actual craft ability these are not real crafts, but for my family they are as good as it gets. Joelle and Emma did this little Thanksgiving scene. They had a blast with it.
Ben has been bugging us to make a volcano for months (since the last one we made when we first moved here - when will this fascination with volcanoes end? :). I picked this up on clearance at Michael's for 5 bucks. He loved it. I couldn't figure the thing out. I spent a couple of hours trying to figure it out with him and then gave up and told him to wait for Dad. David is great. It just took some careful precision with a hot glue gun (instead of the glue it came with that I was trying to use) and it turned out great. Ben loved it. He did all the trees and stones and most of the lava. Thank you David for being such a great, patient Dad. What would I do without you :)!?

Halloween is so much fun!

2010-11-07T12:56:00.000-08:00

Last Saturday night we had our ward trunk or treat. Luckily the rain held off until the last few minutes of the party. David loves to go all out with our trunk. We had all 3 of our carved pumpkins all lit up, 2 grave stones (one behind me that you cant see), a few skulls (which I hate), a big black light (also behind me :), a fog machine (in the bowl where Ben is standing), and a few other things I forgot I am sure. The fog machine is always the biggest hit. We actually won last year mostly because of that. This year someone had brought a huge decorated trailer (how do you compete with that :). David and I were pirates as usual - I am more like a gypsy I think (we did figure out that we have been pirates for at least our last 4 ward parties - luckily we were in different wards for some of them :). We had our candy in our big treasure chest on the ground with a big skull in the middle of it. We told the kids they could take 2 candies if they were brave enough to reach in and get it themselves. I think David is a little to morbid for ward parties, but the older kids loved it :)!
Don't you love trunk or treats. A million people all walking around in circles in a parking lot. I always wonder what it looks like when you are driving by. Do people wonder what we are doing? I think it would be funny to find out.

This is our pumpkin patch on Halloween night. We got out our lights hoping it would draw kids down our street. Our neighbors told us that we used to get a lot of trick or treators, but the last few years they have only gotten 1 or 2. So we put out strobe lights and orange lights and black lights hoping to draw them in. We ended up getting about 15 kids total, so that was better than they have been having.

We kept hearing from all our neighbors that they were so excited because they knew they would get at least 5 kids trick or treating this year. We hadn't decided yet how we felt about trick or treating on Sunday. Even the kids weren't sure how they felt about it. We decided we would trick or treat to just our little cul de sac. We were so glad we did. Most the people on our block have lived in their houses for at least 25 years (that gives you an idea of the sweet people we live around). The third house down from us is a couple from South Africa. They have lived in their house for 35 years. They invited our kids in for a minute. She gave them each a little baggie with their name on it. Each bag had four little candy bars and a dollar in it. The kids thought this was awesome. It took us a while to leave because Katie had put here blanket somewhere and 2 other kids lost their little flashlights (and we had only gone in about 10 feet :). Then a few more doors down was another couple that we have seen, but not actually met yet. When we walked up the woman asked if we were the kids from across the street? My kids said yes, and she said to wait a minute because her husband had gotten something special for just our kids. They gave them these big tin M&M's with little bags of M&M's in them. It was such a neat thing to see all these people showing so much love to our kids. It made me so happy.

While we were out in the cul de sac, my girls little friend Andrea came around the corner to trick or treat with her mom. We are back yard neighbors. She is an only child, and we absolutely adore her. She is so sweet and has been such a good friend to our kids. Andrea's mom was saying how sad Andrea was because her best friend that she would trick or treat with every year had moved and she had no one to trick or treat with. So we decided we would go with them for a street or two. We had a very good time with them. We got to talk to her mom and found out a lot about them. It was a very good night getting to be with all these new wonderful people. We love our neighborhood.

When we came home we were freezing so David started us a fire and we had hot chocolate. Then we watched "A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving." It was the perfect ending to the night.

Katie ended up dumping everyone's candy into our big treasure chest (which didn't make some of the kids very happy). The trunk did have a towel in the bottom of it, so it wasn't completely full :). It was a good haul though. All in all we had a great Halloween. We missed our family and friends but enjoyed getting to know some new friends.

Pumpkin Carving

2010-10-30T12:48:00.000-07:00

I am so glad David likes to carve pumpkins, if it was left up to me we would probably color them and that would be it. This is Ben's favorite part of Halloween (aside from the candy of course :).
Ben loves taking out the guts. He isn't comfortable actually carving yet though.

I don't think taking out the guts is Emma's favorite part :).

Not sure about Joelle :). She didn't complain.

Jacob didn't want to do either. We just made him come and watch so we were together as a family :).

We had to literally drag Katie away from Cinderella to come and watch, but then she had a blast.

Ben loved his pumpkin. David carved it for him.

The girls did all their own carving. It was really neat to see them do it. They both loved it. I think it is great that they are getting old enough to do all these fun things.

The finished products. Hooray! (David cleaned up the entire mess - he's so good to me :)

Lets Party!

2010-10-30T12:05:00.000-07:00

Last night (Friday) we were invited to a Halloween party at a neighbors house 2 doors down. All the neighbors were invited. We had so much fun. The kids loved getting dressed up for the first time this season. The party was incredible. There was amazing food, decorations, music, laser lights, games, and great company. We felt like we got to know our neighbors a lot better. I wish I had taken my camera. We played a game where we divided into teams and wrapped up one person on our team as a mummy. Our family was a team and our host asked us to wrap up David. The kids did such a good job helping me. We almost won. We were a very close second. It was so much fun. Katie spent the night dancing around in the laser lights to the Halloween music. She came home and kept going on and on about the party. I am glad they had fun. We love our little neighborhood.

Katie was such a stinker when we were getting ready to go. She has 3 costumes that are pretty new and she wouldn't wear any of them. In the end this is the only thing I could get her to wear. She has a long sleeved black shirt to wear with this skirt, but she wanted to only wear the under shirt. We were already running late, so we went with it. I really hope she cooperates better for our ward party tonight :).

I think David makes a great pirate. These are our favorite costumes. We really need new ones though, we have used these for probably the last five years. It is hard to give up a good thing :).

On Monday a storm had come in and it was pretty chilly. We decided to have our first fire for family home evening. Of course my camera can't take a picture without the flash, so you obviously can't get the full effect, but it was magical. When we asked the kids what songs to sing they were picking Christmas songs. It was pretty funny. We even had cider and hot chocolate for our treat. I think they are going to want to do this every week now :).

SR-71 Model Rocket

2010-10-24T20:44:00.000-07:00

Let me start out by saying that it has been a childhood dream of mine to build the SR-71 blackbird model rocket. When I took Jacob to the store to get a replacement model rocket (we lost the last ones) they had one on sale and I jumped at the chance to get it.

It took me about 4 weeks to build the rocket and paint it. Finally it was finished, but I could not find any rocket engines. For some reason the Michaels store by us has stopped selling model rocket supplies. I finally found some engines and took the kids out for the maiden voyage.

The first launch went perfect. The rocket went up about 600ft and parachuted back down to the kids who were trying to catch it.

On the second launch, the rocket soared about 400ft up, turned sideways and started heading toward the tree line. Fortunately, the parachute came out before getting to the trees and we had another successful recovery.

The third attempt wasn't so great. The rocket again went up about 400ft and turned. It was now heading toward the nearby school building. I had the feeling that the rocket might get stuck on the roof, which of course it did.

Once again, Jacob was heart broken about loosing the rocket. I really need to get better at this. Anyway, I quickly went home, grabbed by ladder, and climbed onto the school roof to retrieve the rocket. Luckily we were out of rocket engines and called it a day. Who knows where the rocket would have gone next.

Halloween is on its way

2010-10-24T18:58:00.000-07:00

We have the sweetest landlords. They are the cutest couple. They are both in their 60's and very healthy and active. They have a huge farm and are always bringing us vegetables. Two Fridays ago Ray (our landlord) came to cut the grass. I was still not feeling well so I didn't get out of the bed to say hello like I usaully do. When David came home that night he said Ray had left some big pumpkins out in our dirt mound by the grave markers we had put up. The kids were so excited. We thought it was so cute that he had started a little "pumpkin patch" out there in the dirt that we added all our pumkins too. We love the way it looks. Believe it or not it is even more cute when it is cloudy.

The weather has been beautiful these last couple of weeks. I wish I handn't been so sick and tired so we could have enjoyed it more. The kids love being outside. It really started to rain these last couple of days. It is still beautiful to me though (we'll see how we feel in a few months :).

This is last sunday. I think the spiders rank up at the top of the fun crafts the kids have done.

I tried to take a picture of the piano where they ended up, but you can never quite see them.

Left front to right: Jacob (he loves the teeth on his spider), Joelle (she has 3 eyes on there if you can't see them), Emma (her's reminds me of rudolph... love the red nose)

Left back to right: Katie (she had to have a big puff ball hat... that's Katie for you:), Ben (his has a big happy smile... just like him:), and David (the one without a mouth..... not sure what that means exactly :).

David felt like making cupcakes today which everyone enjoyed. He had me buy this fun little kit a few weeks ago. They were so cute.

Some how I missed getting a picture of Joelle eating her cupcake. Rest assured she loved them too :).

Fun with the kids

2010-10-17T20:22:00.000-07:00

We woke up on Monday to a fun covering of fog. The kids were so excited you would think it had snowed. Obviously my camera doesn't pick up the fog well, but it was really neat. The first picture is my view out my bedroom window. I love it.

The back yard (of course), so fun! It wasn't even all that cold.

The fog was Monday, on Tuesday I woke up and started feeling sick. I spent the next 4 days totally sick. I finally felt pretty much all better (albeit exhausted) on Saturday, but to give me some much needed alone time, David took the kids out to the Library, the park to launch rockets and the store to pick up dinner (he had to be out of town a little while I was sick and felt really bad about it - not that it was his fault- so he was making up for it..... not to mention the kids were bored to tears after those 4 days). Today (Sunday) the kids were still clamoring for something to do so we broke out some crafts.

We got some Styrofoam balls and spray painted them black. Tomorrow when they are dry we are going to make spiders out of them.

Then we went inside and started painting these little figures David and I pickup up at Michael's.

We had a blast (even David and I). After the boys and Katie were done and had left the table, I took over Katie's (there were only 6 in a box). I don't know why I thought she wouldn't notice, she came in right as I had finished, got mad and spent another 15 min. repainting hers. It was pretty funny. She was actually more proud of hers the second time around.

Emma loves to paint. She was in heaven.

She had asked me to help her paint the back of it the first time around. Maybe that is why I thought she wouldn't mind if I took over after she was done :)

Jake loves his. He keeps saying it is his friend.

Joelle was very careful and did a great job getting in all the nooks and crannies.

Ben was determined that his would be scary. He loves Halloween.

David had a lot of fun painting with the kids. His turned out perfect of course :).

From left to right: Ben's, Katie's, Jacob's.

Emma's, David's, Joelle's

Thank you Michael's for cheap, easy crafts for those of us with no craft ability (talking about myself here - My children would have no fun with crafts if they didn't have stuff like this. I don't know how I hold my head up with sisters and sisters-in-law like I have :).

Fall is in the air!

2010-10-10T19:09:00.000-07:00

We are having such a fun fall season. The leaves are all changing color and falling all around. It is so fun to see it. When I went to Costco the other day I actually noticed I was crunching leaves on the way back to my car. Massive amounts of yellow and red leaves that had fallen. there are so many trees here though that I can't really tell where they fell from, it still seems like there are leaves on all the trees. I love it. It is beautiful to see.
Yesterday, (Saturday) we went to a farm called "The Pumpkin Patch". It was so much fun. It is on a little island just north of Portland (about 15 min. from us - if you don't make a wrong turn :) called Sauvie Island. There was a gift shop, a market (with a great variety of inexpensive vegetables and squash), and a big barn with animals to look at.

They had free hay rides which take you out to the huge pumpkin patch (they had pre-picked pumpkins up by the market, but David thought this would be a much better adventure). You can pick your own pumpkins, then you ride the hayride back and pay the men that are there when you get off. We ended up getting a pretty big pumpkin (like the normal size you get at a store) and 3 smaller pumpkins for $6. The prices were great. I forgot to take pictures of our pumpkins so I will put them on later.

It wasn't really cold, we had our hoods up because it was drizzling. It stopped shortly after we got there.

My camera got water on it but I had to show what Samson looks like when he gets wet. David thinks he looks like a chihuahua (sometimes he calls him a little rat).

This patch was huge. This is most of it, but there were still more pumpkins to the left.

When we got off the hayride, I saw how muddy it was and I pretty much stayed put in one spot on the hay on the side of the road. You could tell who had been here before and who hadn't. Some people were very prepared with rain boots and old clothes. That will be us next year. The shoes got so bad (believe it or not, everything got clean at the end of the day - nothing was stained).

It is hard to say who had more fun, David or Katie. The kids can't wait to go again. I have to say I had a blast, but I did have a 10 min. freak out session about the mess. I got over it eventually, but I was a little upset for a bit. It was so worth it though. I would do it again in a heartbeat. It will definitely be a tradition for us while we live up here.

Emma was such a big help with Katie. She took great care of her in the field when I wasn't willing to go out in the mud.

Joelle is standing where the rest of the pumpkins were. There were so many vegetables growing everywhere. I loved the Market. I wish I could go get my veggies there every weekend.

Look at the mud! Two inches thick at least. I took this picture after about 5 min. in the field. We were in there for a total of about 30 min. Try to imagine what it looked like then. I took a picture but it didn't really turn out. Katie had mud caked all over her legs.

This was on our ride back. We ended up taking an extra ride before we left because it was so fun. I kind of hope our pumpkins rot so we can go back before Halloween :).

At the end of the hay ride they had these huge Hay Pyramids for the kids to play on. This was Ben's favorite part of the day. They played for at least an hour on these things. There were 3 of them, but this was the largest. David kept having to get up and help kids up to the top. It was so cute. What a great Dad (I'm sure he loved it - I even climbed up there :).

It really was the perfect place to get pumpkins.

Joelle is 11... be prepared for a lot of pictures :)

2010-09-27T21:06:00.000-07:00

Joelle turned 11 last Wednesday (Sept. 22). We had such a fun Day. Lately the kids have wanted money for their birthdays and then they want us to take them shopping that day so they can pick out exactly what they want. I love it that way, so much easier for me. We knew my mom and dad were coming so we went shopping a few days before her birthday. I told her that she couldn't have her presents until her actual birthday so she and Emma came home and wrapped them so she could open them on her birthday. :). It was so cute. The night before her birthday she arranged them all on the dining room table. You have to love her organizational side.

Joelle had asked for breakfast in bed, but it ended up taking too long to make it :). David and I got up early that morning to go to the gym before the kids woke up (David took the day off). We got home and he started cooking. She wanted "french toast, bacon and apple juice). David stood at the stove for over an hour. Talk about dedication. I was busy getting everyone dressed and ready for our exciting day.

Here she is, so excited to open her presents. She kept jumping around saying she couldn't wait (which I thought was so funny since she knew what she was getting).

She bought these earrings because they were Eiffel towers. She has worn them everyday since. She thought her dad was "just going love them" :). (Not to mention she only had six dollars left and these were just $5.98 :)

I don't quite get the whole zuzu pet rage, but she has been wanting one forever and was so happy to make that dream come true.

She bought this barbie at target, and then decided she wanted to go buy Emma one of the less expensive mermaid dolls that are still from the same movie (she got money from grandma that day). So we went to Target the day after her birthday to buy the other barbies. She had seen them when we shopped for her presents. In the space of that 6 days between buying her presents and going the day after her birthday to buy the other barbie, Target had totally revamped their Barbie section (a new barbie movie had come out that week). So the cheaper mermaid barbies were nowhere to be found. I took them to this huge Fred Meyer we have down the street (it is basically a super walmart or super target type store). They didn't have the cheaper barbies either, but they did have this same barbie on sale for $9.99 (which is sad since she paid almost $18 for hers). She was so excited to be able to get Emma the same barbie. I loved that she didn't even realize what a rip off it was for her. She is so sweet.

Here she is with her money and fun bag of goodies from Grandma. What child over the age of 6 doesn't love money?

She had been saying for months that if it was raining she wanted to go to the science museum and if it was sunny she wanted to go to the zoo. In the end she decided she just really wanted to go to the science museum. We bought a year pass and it has been the best money we ever spent. Our kids love it. We have gone 4 or 5 times, but I have never remembered my camera. I had it this time, but didn't remember to take any pictures till the end :). Sheesh! And yet I still ended up with a ton..... I think I was over compensating.

OMSI stands for Oregon Museum of Science and Industry (just in case anyone was wondering).

We get 2 guests in for free anytime, if anyone is interested - Same with the Japanese Gardens :).

When we signed up for our pass they gave us 8 tickets to go see a movie at the IMax theater that is connected to the museum. She really wanted to see the dinosaur movie, but it started to late in the afternoon so we got to see "Deep Sea". (Which just happened to be the one I was hoping to see). It was awesome! I love underwater adventures and in the IMax it was so much better. Mom and Dad and I sat on the very back row with some of the kids so we wouldn't get sick. It worked. David sat closer to the screen with Joelle and Jacob. They can handle that kind of stuff better :).

This Einstein exhibit had been here since June and was leaving Sept.26th. David and I had wanted to see it, but hadn't had a chance. It wasn't really set up for little kiddo's. Mom and Dad took the kids up to their favorite section of the museum and let David and I go through the exhibit. It was so amazing (thank you Mom and Dad - it felt like a little date :). Einstein was amazing. Sadly like most genius people, his personal life was so sad, but what he found and accomplished..... wow. For lack of a better word, Wow! They had all these little places where things were written about him, or had quotes by him, just a bunch of interesting facts. These next four were some of my favorites.

David is such a good sport about posing for fun photos.

See what I mean :).

I am so lucky to be married to such a fun guy. He makes life so happy :).
This is always a fun spot. They have it set up so you can see what it is like to be a weather man on tv. Here you are in front of a green screen...........

.....But on the monitor you are predicting the weather. How fun is that? Mom and I were taking pictures of each other here. It was a very fun mother - daughter activity :) (To see my mom, you have to go to her blog.)

It was so fun to have Mom and Dad here. It made Joelle's birthday so much more fun. I miss my family so much and having them come was so much fun for me. I can't wait till they come again. Sorry about the ugly wall color. We were in the amazing kid play place where all the walls are crazy colors.

This section of the museum is one of the kids favorites. It has so much fun stuff all in one spot. It is more for the younger kids, but my girls still really enjoy it. The only problem is it is hard to get them to leave it.

See what I mean about crazy wall color? :)

This is a big sand pit, stuck right in the middle of the room. Love it!

She was very proud of this tower and made me take a picture. I should have taken a picture of the amazing castle some other kid made next to it. It was so cool, I didn't believe it was done by a kid. Oh, but, we were very proud of her tower to :).

I love that these two get along so well. I really hope the day never comes where they don't (I am preparing myself just in case).

I asked the boys to climb in the cave so I could take a picture. The decided to strike a pose while they were at it. They thought it was so much fun they wanted me to take more.

Jacob's poses were so fun. I was laughing out loud. He loves pictures, but you can never tell because he always looks mad. I don't get it, he is always asking me to take his picture, but he won't smile. Silly kid.

The funny thing is, these pictures are in little caves in this big fun room. It was so dark I could hardly see the boys in this cave, but my flash makes it look like they are in the noon day sun.

Same thing here, Emma was making a scary face with a flashlight, and this is what came out. She is such a cutie.

Katie was such a Grandpa's girl on this trip. She wanted to be with my Mom and Dad constanlty. It was so sad becuase she wasn't awake when they left and she spent the whole day telling me to bring them back. She anxiously awaits their next visit.

Joelle decided she didn't want a cake for her birthday she wanted 2 dozen Krispy Kremes. One regular and one assorted where everyone could choose the donut they wanted. What a treat. they all thought it was super cool. I hope she didn't set a trend, it costs a lot more than a cake :).

I don't even know what Jacob is upset about. I think he just really wanted to eat his donut.

They were trick candles so they just kept lighting. All the kids were helping her blow them out by the end. I wouldn't touch a donut on that plate and I made them eat those ones first, I was sure they were covered in spit.

Joelle thought this was one of her best birthdays ever. I am so greatful for such a sweet little girl. I can not imagin life without her.

Michael, JaNae and the Japanese Gardens

2010-09-12T21:18:00.000-07:00

Micheal and JaNae came to visit us over Labor Day weekend. We had a blast. They are so much fun to be with. JaNae is one of the cutest pregnant women I have ever seen. I can't wait to see what a beautiful baby boy they are going to have.
They got in Friday night and we stayed up pretty late talking. Michael is training for a marathon so he got up earlier than the rest of us and went for a 10 mile run (I can't even fathom wanting to do that, not to mention actually doing it :). We decided to go down town and show them where David works and how beautiful down town is.
We thought we would have lunch while we were down there and then work our way to the Japanese Gardens (Micheal said that most of the people who found out he was coming up here told him he had to see the gardens). David and I have been wanting to go to the gardens, but hadn't made it there yet so we were pretty excited.
The whole down town part of the plan kind of backfired. Pioneer square was awesome as usual, but there was some big convention going on that found us surrounded by a bunch of dressed up weirdos. NO KIDDING! They were REALLY dressed up. We couldn't figure out if it was from some kind of Sci-Fi movie or Anime or what, but it was weird. I would have taken pictures, but most of them were kind of scary looking and I didn't want to get in trouble. The kids thought it was great. They thought it had to have something to do with Halloween. It was pretty funny.

The biggest problem was that all these people got out for lunch just when we realized we needed to eat. We tried a couple different places (both of which my kids love ), but they were so full we decided to try somewhere else. We looked and looked and finally found a Subway and a Chipotle next to each other that weren't too busy. Poor Joelle, she was so hungry by this point and she hates Subway. She has never had Chipotle and she isn't the best at trying new things (especially when she is starving). We finally got her to eat a cheese tortilla and then she was okay. It was also cooler downtown than we were expecting and none of us brought jackets. It was not my best planned trip, that's for sure :).
The afternoon to the Gardens was perfect. It was warmer by then and the gardens were stunning. The kids weren't sure how they felt about going to some "boring" gardens until Michael told them that these gardens are where Ninjas live. He told them we wouldn't see any, because as we all know they are experts at hiding :), but that we should look as hard for them as we can. It was great. Ben was so excited to get there after that introduction. The whole time there the kids were telling us what they thought the ninjas used each different section for. What a smart guys Micheal is. He is going to make a great Dad. (He had also had the idea to pack a lunch before heading down town, but did we listen..... no - once again, so smart).

Luckily Michael and David got maps for the garden. It was a little confusing figuring out the gardens. JaNae and I would be musing together about what we thought something meant, and Michael would break in with the map in front of him and tell us what it meant. We just kept laughing because it kept happening. His is almost as handy to have around as David ;).

The kids loved these little dragons at the entrance. You can't really see them because of the shadows, but the kids were determined for me to get their pictures. Katie loved her dragon. She didn't want to get off. I think it was her favorite part of the whole trip. She kept roaring all the way back to the bus. Silly girl.

This is her new picture face. She thinks she's taking a picture of you. What can you do?

This little section is a bunch of gravel raked out in perfect checkerboard squares. It was so, so cool.

This was my favorite spot. What a beautiful waterfall. I begged David to come home and make me one just like it. It wasn't that big, but he refused. I can't figure out why :).

Emma and I saw this spider on the path back down to the bus. She begged me to take a picture. We have a lot of this species around. I think they are cool looking - they just better never come into my house.

All in all it was a great day. I miss Michael and JaNae. It was awesome to have family come visit. It was such a fun weekend. I can't wait to be with family again.

"Look Mom, no training wheels"

2010-08-25T14:11:00.000-07:00

Joelle and I were sitting inside doing her math when she looked out the window and said "is Ben riding a pink bike?" She went out and looked and came back in yelling, "Mom, Ben is riding Emma's bike, she has no training wheels!" Apparently he and Emma were racing. She was on Joelle's bike and he was on Jacob's (Ben's tire is flat). He couldn't go fast enough on that little bike so Emma taught him how to ride her bike so they could really race. It sounded like he figured it out on the first try. He is so happy.

I love this place!

2010-08-22T20:00:00.000-07:00

David woke up this morning and said he felt like going out and being one with nature and the kids (something along that line :). He looked online and found this wonderful little place called Latourell Falls. It is about an hour away and is my new favorite place. It was absolutely stunning. I know I have been saying that a lot, but this place really was. David always comes up with the best activities for our family.

This picture really shows the true character of each child :) - even Samson's character is showing.

This one is really more accurate. There three super happy kiddo's, one class clown, and one sassy miss? Can you guys who that could be?

This is the first waterfall we saw. In one word... Beautiful. It is one of the 3 tallest waterfalls in Oregon (250 feet). This picture is way back from the parking lot. It was huge. It was a great little 2 minute walk down to the base of it. When David said he wanted to go take a little hike I was a little weary since it was Sunday, but I loved this. It really makes you appreciate the beauty the Lord has blessed us with.

This picture is when we are down at the base.

The kids loved how you could feel the spray from the water (you wouldn't think we could feel it that far back, but with it being so tall there was quite a bit of spray - even though it is a pretty narrow waterfall).

There were these cool little rock walls all over the place. It was really cool. The kids kept going around telling us what animals and faries lived where, and what all the foot prints in the ground were. It felt like we were walking around in the pages of a mythical book.

Then we decided to try then next trail that led back to another waterfall. The trail started out very steep (which really should have been a warning sign), and continued that way the whole way up. There weren't any signs or any thing so we had no idea how far we had to go. We found out later it was about a mile up there. It was quite the hike. I am not quite sure how I feel about that with it being Sunday, but it was beautiful. The kids did great up until the end when the boys started to get tired (David pretty much carried Katie the whole way so she was of course very happy). I was a little whiny toward the end -unbelievable I know :)- because we didn't know we were close and I was starting to need to use the restroom (I have been trying to drink my 64 fl. ounces of water a day -woohoo). But when we got to the waterfall the hike was so worth it.

This waterfall was larger and even more beautiful than the first.

Jacob took this picture. I was proud that I was actually in it :).

We got a little lost on the way back (we tried to take the loop around instead of going back the way we came) which made everyone -accept for David of course :)- a little grumpy. Once we back tracked and knew where we were going everyone was happy again. All in all it was one of my favorite things we have done since we've moved here. This was the only scenic view from the whole trail. Each time we passed it the boys told us that they thought they could see all of Oregon from there. I love the imagination of children.

3 ... 2 ... 1 ... Lift Off!

2010-08-15T23:02:00.000-07:00

This afternoon Ben was super bored. He kept asking to do something fun with me. I remembered that we still had these rockets sitting around. After digging around the garage to find all the pieces, we went to a park to launch them off.

Ben was excited to launch his rocket first. Unfortunately, we didn't pick a large enough park. The rocket went up really high. I tried to track it's descent, but it was oven the fence and possibly made it over the nearby freeway. Ben was crushed to say the least. I had to promise him I'd get a new one for him tomorrow.

Now a smarter person would have called it quits. Instead, I decided it was a fluke and proceeded to get Jacob's rocket ready for launch. The kids started the countdown. 3 - 2 - 1 - Lift Off!

Looks like I'll be getting two rockets from the store tomorrow.

By this time, Sarah was sure the rockets were landing on the freeway behind the park causing all sorts of traffic collisions. I figured I'd take one more chance and launch the big kahuna rocket, figuring that being a larger rocket, it wouldn't go so high.

All systems go. Prepare for launch.

Ignition in 3....2...1..

Mission Control we have ignition.

The rocket soared up into the sky. After a few seconds you could hear the 'pop' of the engine and see the recovery parachute come out. The rocket floated back to the ground while the kids ran over to see if they could catch it.

Recovery successful! After quickly packaging the parachute, the rocket was ready for another flight. The second launch was another successful flight. Jacob actually was able to catch the falling rocket before it touched down.

This was a fun activity and I'm sure we'll be doing it again in the near future. But first, I'll have to help Ben and Jake get their new rockets ready. I'll also need to scope out a bigger launch field.

A million pictures again, be prepared.

2010-08-11T21:16:00.000-07:00

Our family has made it's way to Port Orford OR three times in the course of a month. We went for the 4>th of July, then we went back 2 weeks later to help my Mom and Dad move in. We went to help them on a Friday, but we had to come back on Sunday for 2 days for David to go to a work meeting that Monday. We already had scheduled vacation for the following Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. So we left Tuesday night and went back to Port Orford and stayed through Saturday.
These first Pictures are from our 1st trip there. This house belongs to some very good friends of our very good friend R.J. We now feel very close to these two women. They are twin sisters Joan and Jean. Our kids love this place. It really feels magical. This is their house. It is beautiful. It is a haven for kids. They have a little fishing pond right next to the house and a little creek that runs through their land. Both are good for fishing which David loves. These women are so sweet to let our family run crazy all over their land. They are also fabulous cooks. They always treat us to the best meals.

Tim and Katy helped my parents drive one of their moving trucks up. It was so fun to get to have someone else experience this place we love so much. Being with them was so good for me. I have been missing my family like crazy and I loved getting to see them. It was not long enough though. I needed another two weeks or so :).

This is the little creek they fish in. It is such a beautiful, peaceful place. No wonder we have a hard time getting David to leave it :).

Katie loves going around and picking the flowers. They are all over the place here. It makes her so happy. She did it for hours that day. Luckily most of them are weed flowers and not anything specially planted.

Katy and Katie.... how cute is that?

Everyone heading down to go fishing in the creek.

Dad and R.J. out for a stroll.

Joelle didn't catch a fish this time, but she had a lot of fun practicing.

I don't think Tim caught one either but it looked fun.

Emma and the boys are just happy to hang out.

Even though she didn't catch a fish, Joelle is becoming very adept at catching these little salamander things. I am not sure what they are called but she catches them in the little pond every time we go. Thank you to Jean's grand daughters for teaching the kids how to do this. It is really cool. I won't touch them, but I will take pictures.

I think her favorite part is dropping them back into the water.

I think David was the only one to catch a fish that day. He was pretty dang happy even though it is just a little guy.

Everyone wanted to touch it. I don't know why that is so fascinating. Yuck! But I am glad they like it. It is their time bonding with Dad.

This is our second trip back to help Mom and Dad (Tuesday evening). Our new favorite hobby is picking blackberries. They are everywhere up here. I guess they grow like a weed. My kids love picking them. This is our new favorite spot. It is a little over half way to Port Orford. This exact spot is a little rest stop that R.J. told us about. It is right next to the most beautiful river.

This is the pathway down to the river. BEAUTIFUL! It kind of reminds me of something out of Lord of the Rings -the part where they are hiding from the ring wraith for the first time. So cool.

I know there is a glare on this picture, but it was the only one that showed what David and I want to buy one day. We want that little house and land on the other side of the river over there. Not that exact one but something like it. It is absolutely heavenly. It is a good dream to have. May never be realized, but it is fun to have dreams.

While we were at Mom and Dad's we decided to have Katie's Birthday party ( I realize that I forgot to take pictures of mom's new house - I will do that next time). She was turning 3 on Sunday. Every time we would tell her her birthday was coming she would get so mad. She said she didn't want to have a birthday. All it took was a few cupcakes and a few wrapped presents and she was ready to be 3. She has wanted to have a birthday every day since :). She loves presents, cupcakes and candles.

The two outside candles were regular but the one in the middle was a trick candle. I think we blew 5 or 6 times before it finally went out. She loved it!

She loves cards. She got a princes card from us and from Nana and Papa. She was in heaven

That was the biggest polly pocket set she had ever seen.

We got to go back to Jean and Joans this trip too. This time David caught one fish and helped Joelle catch 3, Emma catch 1, and Jacob 1. Joelle was litterally jumping up and down with excitement.

This is Emma's fish.

Another of Joelle's fish.

The kids wouldn't let us go home without stopping at the river to get some more blackberries.

This was David's bounty. He was good enough to share with me since I was busy taking pictures. They don't actually come into season until September so the pickings were slim.

This is Joelle vs. Dad.

This was Emma's.

These were Jacobs. After we got home Katie got Nana's present in the mail. She was so excited about the Tinker Belle doll, and felt like a little angel in the rosetta dress up. We have the Tinker Belle movies so this was really fun. She also loved grandmas kitten stuffed animal that she got on her actual birthday because I had brought it home from Port Orford when we weren't sure we were going back and then forgot to take it back when we did go. I wonder about my brain sometimes. At least she had a gift on her real birthday

Happy Birthday Katie/Kids really do say the funniest things

2010-08-08T22:12:00.000-07:00

Katie turned 3 today. She is such a fun sassy little thing. She makes life fun at our house. We got back from Port Orford last night around 11:00, and I have yet to find my little camera. We did her party there with Mom and Dad so I will post those pictures of her as soon as I find my camera.

Kids really do say the funniest things. 2 weeks ago we came home from church and we had been in the house for maybe 5 minutes when Katie did something to Ben that really got him upset. I proceeded to try and make her say sorry for the the next 5 minutes, at which point Ben realized she hadn't done whatever it was that he thought she had done (she never did apologize). Then Joelle came up to me laughing and said "Mom, I can't believe Katie wouldn't apologize - look at what she learned at church today." She held up a little necklace that Katie had made at nursery that day. It had a picture of two happy people on it and a saying across the top that read "I Can Be Happy When I Say I'm Sorry." Seriously! What did she learn that day? Obviously not the lesson - why do I even send her to nursery :).

Tonight Joelle was wandering around the house aimlessly. She and Emma are reading the Harry Potter series right now (she is on the 3rd book and Emma is on the 4th). They decided that they aren't good for Sunday reading. Emma reads classics on Sunday but Joelle says she doesn't want to start reading something that will distract her from Harry Potter. So she kept walking around saying how bored she was.
She came up to me once and said "I am bored to my stomach." Then a second latter she said "I am bored to my brain." Then she finally got it and said, "Oh wait, I think I am bored out of my mind." :)
I congratulated her on finally getting the right phrase. What a funny kid.