Is he mine?

I've always been big on oral hygiene. I still brush my kids' teeth for them and am the "teeth monitor" around the house. Jacob is my only child to have gotten a cavity so far (I know they're still young). Earlier this year he had a itty bitty filling put in. Since then he's become Obsessive Compulsive about his teeth. He brushes several times a day and always asks me..."do you see anything in my teeth?" Tonight I made fudge. I made it to deliver to my VT ladies. Of course it was such a BIG batch, that we had to sample a few. When we passed the plate to Jacob he said "No thanks, I might get Chocolate in my teeth and I just brushed." Hello...what five year old says this! I thought it was too funny!
On another note, Brent and I have been asked to play Mary and Joseph for our wards Christmas party. I know, pretty funny huh? I feel so completely un-Mary like. I'm going to have to spend the week really reading my scriptures and trying to become more Mary-like. It should be a fun night. Everyone is invited to wear a costume and we are bringing blankets to sit on the floor. We have to pay a "tax" to get in. The ward members have been working for weeks on the decorations. So we are excited to be part of such a big event. Anyone is invited if you're in the neighborhood, and wish us luck. :)

Check these out...

At our craft fair a few weeks ago, we ran into someone that Brent had worked with briefly at the foundation. She had a booth of the most adorable purses/diaper bags. She has a really good eye for color combinations...patterns, fabrics. I dropped a hint that a new purse would make a very good Christmas present. We'll see?? Her website is http://www.sewcutehandbags.net/. Check it out! (Her name is Jen...one of the nicest people ever)

Holiday havoc

I've always been a little annoyed by people who complain about the holidays..."i'm so busy, blah, busy, blah, blah. I have to say that this is the first year that i've joined the crowd. Since our craft fair I have been busy filling orders. I was trying really hard to have the majority done to take them to Albany last night. I have been so busy crafting that my house has been really neglected. It was sooo messy. And you know when some people say "excuse my mess" and you walk in and there is one dirty cup sitting by the sink. Not that kind of messy. Let me give you an example of HOW messy. I was in the kid's bathroom and could hardly see my reflection. Gross, I really need to clean that, but had about 1 minute before I needed to run out the door. Of course all of my rags are downstairs, probably in the dirty clothes. So I grab a pair of Cole's underwear, the extra absorbent ones of course, and proceed to wipe down the mirror. And yes the underwear were clean! (I hope). Let's just say my messy house has added to my stress the last few days. So last night I took a load of crafts down to Albany. After my deliveries I met up with my old bookclub friends and we ended up talking late into the night. I think every girl needs to do that once in awhile. I got back home to Keizer and crawled into bed around 3am. I woke up this morning and dragged myself out of bed and discovered that the 5 loads of laundry on the floor had been folded and put away, the kitchen was spotless, the living room clean. My pile of clothes laying on the edge of the bathtub...put away. What a great man I married! He spent his whole night cleaning up the house. I don't need to tell every woman out there, that this is one of the best gifts we can receive. This is one of the many reasons why I love him!!

**and remember my "i'm losing my mind" post? This morning I drove Jacob to preschool. Clad in sweats, no bra (hopefully only the ladies are reading this), a big coat to cover the no bra fact, sandals and my glasses (that I only wear in public when i'm sick or have stayed up until 3am). I open the preschool door and scoot Jacob quickly in hoping no one sees me, only to discover there are no kids there. He had no preschool today. Yet another example of my mind slipping...

Definition of a girl

On the way to school every morning, we pass a little field with a horse. This morning when we passed the horse, Jacob said, "Mom, when's that girl horse going to have a baby?" I asked, "how do you know it's a girl." He said, "When we went for a walk and stopped by the horse, I saw that it had long eyelashes and a long tail...so when's she going to have a baby?" So by Jacob's definition of a girl...am I a girl? Hopefully this only applies to horses.

Merry Christmas

We got them all looking in one direction....i'm happy with that!

I'm losing my mind.

For the past few weeks, Malia has been telling me about her school's holiday concert. Her 1st grade class has been practicing a few songs for the program. Well, for the past few weeks I had it in my mind that the concert was Friday night at 7. Well, every Thursday a school newsletter comes home. At 6:55 I was looking over the letter and saw "CONCERT TONIGHT" on the front page. I started shouting orders. "Get your shoes on, Change your clothes, get a bottle!" In world record time we were in the van headed to Malia's school. We got to the school and hurried in...it was only then that I learned that the "Choir" concert is only for 4th and 5th grade students. The rest of the grades are performing at a "Winter Assembly" (heaven forbid you call it a Christmas assembly) during school on Friday morning. Nowhere in the newsletter or any other letter that I received did it say that the choir concert did not involve the whole school. How was I to know that the first graders don't have "choir". So we turned around and went back home. The school needs to remember that 1st graders aren't exactly good at remembering and passing along this type of information. Later that night I went to Hollywood video to get some vids for this weekend. (I thought the new Bourne movie was out, but it wasn't...dang!) I get up to the checkout counter with Evan Almighty and Ocean's thirteen. The guy proceeds to tell me that we still haven't turned in our movies from 8 days ago. What! How did I forget that. I'm seriously losing my mind. Brent tried to offer me his old Franklin so I could try and organize my life and brain. It seriously weighed 10lbs. And I don't need an extra 10lbs to lug around. So I will continue to write telephone numbers, and to do lists on random scraps of paper, or napkins, and hope I remember where I put them.

Yum-o

Is it a sin to eat banana cake with cream cheese frosting, while watching "The Biggest Loser?"

What I don't like about blogging...

Some people want to be movie stars, or pro-football players. I've always wanted to be funny. Is that too much to ask? I just wanted people to say, "oh yeah Deena, she's so funny."
But as i've discovered the world of blogging, i've also discovered how unfunny I really am. I have come across some of the most clever, funny people. I've feel like i've become some sort of stalker, reading these blogs of people I don't even know. But their posts make me laugh, so I keep going back. It's really hard to compete with! I think my husband said it best, as I was preparing for a church talk and looking for a joke to start out with, he said, "Honey, not everyone is funny." So as you read my blog, just don't expect anything funny.

It's finally over!

Well, our first craft fair has come and gone. Things started out pretty slow...We sold a few little things here and there, but I was really starting to wonder if we were going to break even? But luckily things really picked up. We had made three storage benches and three hutches. We sold all but one white bench and one white hutch. And when I checked my e-mail tonight, there was an e-mail from a girl who had been at the craft fair, who wanted to buy the white bench and hutch. How crazy is that! So we sold them all. We were very happy with the outcome! The hardest part of the event was having a booth right next to the "home baked goodies". Yum! I had to sit and smell chocolate, and cookies for hours and hours. Oh the temptation! I have to thank my sister "K" for making so many cute crafts and for manning the booth today. She made these super cute sticheries (Sp?). So for our first event, it went better than I had expected. We were approached by a lady who was looking for vendors for the Timber Carnival (big event they have in Albany every summer) I don't know if it's something we'll do, but it's something to think about. Right now i'm just ready to crawl into my bed and not make any crafts...at least for a few days!

From wise to dumb in a week!

I had to post this because I thought it was hilarious. There is this site that determines the reading level of your blog. You simply enter your blog address and it lets you know how smart you are, basically. We'll two weeks ago I entered my blog address and it said "COLLEGE-POSTGRAD". I was pretty happy with myself...because after entering my friends blogs (yes yours) most were undergrads. Ha, I thought! Well, just for fun last week I entered my address again. This time I was an "COLLEGE-UNDERGRAD". Hmmm. Okay. Well, today I thought I would try one last time and sure enough today I was "HIGH SCHOOL LEVEL" Do you think I gone an got dumber in a week??? Maybe naxt wek ill be en grade skool?

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A stylist's unstylish do.

I'm going to risk sounding a little snobby...but this is my opinion.
What's the first thing you notice when you go to a new hairdresser. Their hair right? You expect it to be cute, stylish, maybe with some funky highlights. You judge their abilities as a hairdresser on their own hair. (At least i do!) I mean, their expertise IS in hair after all. So i've been needing a trim. I wasn't willing to fork over $35 for a trim, so I went to one of those walk-in places, ("Anastasia's Paul Mitchell salon" if you care to know). The place was empty. (my first red flag) My hairdresser walked in from outside, absolutely reeking of smoke. She had stringy bleach blonde hair with dark roots. As she sat me in my chair I wondered if it was too late to pick up my purse and declare that i'd changed my mind. I didn't. She brushed my hair out so I had a huge afro. I sat and watched her every move, just to make sure she was just "trimming". While she was cutting my hair I asked her how she like her job. She replied, "I just wish it was busier...I have a lot of free time on my hands." (second red flag) After the cut she asked how I like it. I had to be honest, it was hard to tell with my curly hair brushed out and frizzing like crazy. I told her just that, "it was hard to tell." (i'm not a very good liar) She sent me on my way to the grocery store, huge frizzy hair and all. This morning after a wash and some product, it looks fine. But I am grateful that I was just getting a trim. The whole experience just got me thinking. For all of those "stylists" in the world. We are checking your hair out...the cuter the hair, the more clients you'll get. Sad, but true.

Another Brent creation

I know you are probably tired of me posting all of Brent's creations, but what can I say...I think they're fabulous. I found a pic of this in a magazine and asked Brent to make it. I still need to distress it, but darn it's cute. We'll try to sell it this weekend, but i'm secretly hoping no one buys it so I can have it.

Thanksgiving is over, here comes Santa Claus!

We drove down to Albany to spend Thanksgiving with my parents. Two of my sisters were there and my brother was there with his fiance. We were missing my other two sisters who were in California. It was great to get together, but we did miss you Deyce and Dawn (and family)! Brent and I were in charge of the turkey. It seems to have become a tradition on both sides of the family, for us to make our smoked turkey. It turned out deeelicious! I also made a green salad and two cheesecakes (another tradition now :) We spent the day trying to keep the kiddo's under control and even snuck in a game or two. Dinner was fabulous and of course I ate enough to feed a small army. Brent and I left the kids at my mom's and drove up to Woodburn for the outlet malls "midnight madness" sale. And madness it was....the freeway exit lane was backed up for miles. We were adventurous and tried to take the back roads...and we made it....laughing at all of the cars who were at a standstill on the freeway. The stores were packed. It seriously, was crazy. But I did score a cute jacket at the columbia store for $50 off. The one I bought is green, and very cute.

I also scored a fleece jacket, so I don't have to steal Brent's anymore. Notice that we bought nothing for the kids! We left around 1:30 in the morning, cars were still at a standstill on the freeway. I think we'll be skipping this sale next year! To make things even crazier, we got home at 2, then got up at 5:30 to head to target. You know you have to take advantage of the no kid situation! I am happy to report that we have all of our Christmas shopping done for the kids. Target had some great sales and plenty of everything. It was fun to shop with Brent and no kids.
The only downer of Thanksgiving was that Claire came down with thrush. She hadn't been sleeping well at night and was sucking on her bottles kind of funny, I thought she just had a cold, but I finally figured out what was wrong with her on Thanksgiving morning. Of course her doctor's office was closed for a four day holiday. So we gave a doctor friend from Albany a call, and he was able to call a prescription in for us. Thank goodness for good friends...I'm sure he loved taking care of our medical problems...but we were very grateful.
This week will be busy prepping for our craft fair this Friday. We'll update you on how it goes! Can you believe it's the Christmas holiday season already! Happy Holidays everyone!

Loved this book!

I love to read, so much that sometimes everything around me is neglected, just so I can finish those last 20 pages. I am always on the lookout for a great book, so I thought I would post those that i've recently read, and enjoyed. I just finished "Falling Leaves"- By Adeline Yen Mah this week. It is a memoir of her life as an unwanted daughter. She was mistreated, unloved, and neglected. It is sad, but amazing how she triumphs. It is one of those books that makes you look at your own life and realize how blessed you are. I really loved it. I also came across a blog called "Good clean reads", the address is www.goodcleanreads.blogspot.com.

Just venting

So I went to Michael's craft store last week...that makes the date around Nov. 6th. They had a huge section of Christmas stuff, a little annoying, but i'm okay with that. I have no problem with people buying Christmas decorations early. But what really got me, was that the store was playing Christmas music over their intercom. I mean really???? Christmas music on November 6th...just kind of bugs me. Saturday I went for a walk and saw two houses putting up Christmas lights. And today driving through downtown Salem, I noticed that the Christmas wreaths and "seasons greetings" signs were already up on the light posts. Can't we just enjoy Thanksgiving first? The unspoken rule should be, no Christmas music, no lights, no decorations until the day after Thanksgiving. (okay, i'll allow it on Thanksgiving day, if you're really antsy) But seriously people....it takes a bit of the specialness (is that a word) out of Christmas when you start celebrating it in July!

Brent's bulletin board

Someone in our ward asked Brent is he could make them a bulletin board with a black, distressed frame. This is how it turned out. I think it's pretty cute!

Veterinarian's Day

Malia was cute this morning. It is really cold, windy and stormy outside. Malia looked at me and said, "Mom, this isn't a very good veterinarian's day is it?" I bet all of those veterinarian's out there wish they had their own day. :)

Ditto designs

Brent and I have been busy making some crafts for the Linn county Christmas bazaar, the week after Thanksgiving. This picture shows just a few of the things we have made. It should be interesting....we may leave having sold nothing...or everything. You just never know?? If we sell nothing, you all know what you're getting for Christmas!
This weekend we scored some OSU football tickets from my sister. (Thanks Kaysha!) Brent and I had so much fun...it was freezing, but fun. To make things even better the beavs won! Walking through campus to get to the stadium brought back so many good memories. The game started at 7pm and didn't get over until 11:30pm...so by the time we gathered up the kids (from my mom's) and drove home it was 1:00 in the morning. So we were all tired and a bit grumpy today. But it was worth it!

Halloween

I need to get with the program and post my Halloween pics. For FHE on monday we carved pumkins...or rather, Brent and I carved pumpkins. The kids lasted about 10 minutes and then we ended up putting a movie on for them so we could finish the carving. This year Malia wanted to be a witch, Jacob was spiderman (along with the other 964,435,434,575 others), and Cole ended up as a pirate. We literally threw his costume together at 5:30 Halloween night. We were bummed our ward didn't have a party this year...so no need for costumes until the day of. The kids had a great time trick-or-treating. Our neighborhood is great, there are SO many kids out, that it turns into a big block party. It was a fun night. Now we have enough candy to last us until next Halloween.

I bet you wish you had "Claire Hair"

(Click on the picture so you can see the close up...)
People pay a lot of money for products that make their hair spikey. Claire is one of the lucky few who will not have to fork over money for these products. Check out this picture...paying close attention to her hair. No, we did not rub her hair with a balloon, it always looks like this. The other day I overheard a lady say "look at the static in that babies hair." I think it is too cute!

Things have been really busy. Just with life in general. I spent the last few days making four different cheesecakes and three cakes for a special young womens activity. I have to admit, I had rave reviews on the cheesecakes...but I only had one sliver of one...so I was bummed I didn't get to try them all. I made a white chocolate raspberry, chocolate turtle, chocolate chip, and pumpkin. YUM!

I still haven't posted the kids' Halloween pics...I promise i'll do it soon!.

More fall colors...

After getting such great pics of the kids, I tried to get one of Claire...so that they would all have the same background and look, oh so pretty on our wall. Well, you can see how successful I was. Claire turned 7 mo. old a few days ago, but is still not sitting up. So I would sit her up in the pile of leaves and by the time I got the camera ready, she would topple over and freak out when she found herself surrounded by leaves. Our photo shoot didn't last very long...as i'm sure the neighbors were peeking out their blinds, wondering what I was doing to torture the poor thing.

Oh the funny things they say...

Last night Cole was in a super grumpy mood. We are experimenting with no naps....and it was a no nap day. By around 6pm he was crying about everything. I was trying to make dinner as he was chasing Jacob around the house...he then came up to me sobbing and whining. "Mom, Jacob won't let me hit him." I just busted out laughing. Poor guy, i don't think he's ready to give up naps.

25 Things about me

It feels kinda self-centered to sit and write a blog all about me. The reason I am writing this list, is that I have really enjoyed reading other people's lists. I have learned some really interesting things about people. :) I've added a few more than 25...so it's really 28 things about me.

1. I am very shy and feel like it takes a long time to really get to know me.
2. Once someone gets to know me, i'm a very loyal friend and would never "spill the beans". withough permission, of course. I don't share very much personal information until I feel close to someone.
3. I love to exercise
4. I love to eat. My favorite things to bake are homemade bread, soups, any dessert.
5. #3 and #4 tend to counteract each other.
6. I have four beautiful children, that are pretty well behaved...they have their moments!
7. I could spend a whole day snuggled on the couch with a good book, with only a few snack and potty breaks.
8. I love to play tennis and my dream house has a sport court in the backyard that I could play tennis on everyday.
9. I worry way too much about what other people think.
10. I think cigarette smoke is the most disgusting smell on the earth.
11. I have no desire to ever own a pet. Unless it stays outside...but if it gets really, really cold I know i'll feel guilty and let it in and then my house will stink.
12. I love waking up to the sound of rain after a long hot summer.
13. I like to call my favorite season fummer...the end of summer, beginning of fall..when it's still sunny and nice, but not too hot.
14. I hate to fly! I have to do breathing exercises
15. I will never attend another pampered chef, tupperware, avon, mary kay, candle party. Sorry ladies. ( I will do baby and bridal showers!)
16. Even though my hubby and I don't agree on everything, he's my best friend.
17. I'm very competitive. I love to play games...card games, board games, anything.
18. I played (junior) college softball. So very long ago..I love to reminesce about how good of shape I was in back then...
19. I have no interest in politics, although I should. My eyes will glaze over if you mention anything about politics.
20. I love to go for walks, and dread winter when it's hard to go out with all of the rain.
21. I hate it when people cut in front of me at the school drop-off zone.
22. I have a fear of frogs.
23. The one household chore that I detest is laundry.
24. I'm not a very organized person, and absolutely admire those who are.
25. I tend to gravitate towards people that are slightly sarcastic...I just find them funny. If they're sarcastic in a nice way of course!
26. Sometimes I test Brent by watching an item he's left on the floor, and seeing how many days it takes to pick it up. He absolutely HATES it when I do this. (of course, i've learned not to tell him)
27. I dread going to the dentist
28. I would rather go to the dentist, then to a social function ALONE.

Fall Colors

The kids and I took advantage of the beautiful fall colors and had a quick photo shoot. Claire was napping, so I just got the big kids. I need to mess around with the colors on Malia's pic, but other than that, I think they turned out pretty good.
This morning before school Malia was really, really excited, because they were having an assembly with a real live "Rock Band." She told me this, like it was the coolest thing ever. She went on to explain that the band is called the "deep sea divers" and they sing about RECYCLING! Ahhh....the innocence of youth.

A day at the Pumpkin Patch

Saturday we took advantage of the beautiful fall weather and took the kids to a pumpkin patch. Brent and I were commenting on how pumpkin patches have seemed to turn into carnivals...with face painting, pony rides, rope swings, slides, etc. We decided to keep things simple (and cheaper) by going to a farm just outside of Salem. They had a hayfort, tractor ride, some farm animals and a corn maze. Everything was free for the kids and only 2 dollars for Brent and I. Towards the end of the corn maze was a castle with a slide for the kids. So after wandering around the corn maze for quite awhile in search of the castle, we finally headed out the entrance, walked around the outside of the corn maze until we found the exit...and walked directly to the castle. Much easier than all of that wandering!

The kids then picked out a pumpkin and we headed home. You can tell it was a nice sunny day by the way the kids are squinting in the pumpkin pic.





We all had a great time and the kids are anxiously awaiting Halloween. This year Jacob wants to be spiderman, cole wants to be batman and Malia wants to be Eloise (from the "Eloise" books)

Of course I had to include the cutest picture of Claire! She's become so much fun lately. There's something about that 6mo. mark, where they just seem to change so much. She is getting up on her knees now and rocking back and forth with her little bum in the air, So Cute!

Life at our house

I found Malia pushing Claire around in her little doll stroller. It was pretty cute, Claire fit in there perfectly. She's just a little peanut!

Claire had her 6 month dr. appt last week. She weighed 13 lbs 10 oz and was 26" long. She had to get five shots. She's not sitting up yet, but rolls everywhere. She is entering the "everything I find in the floor enters my mouth" stage. It should be interesting, since our floor is frequently covered with little lego parts, polly pocket accessories and bits of paper (Cole love to cut paper!) It's going to be a chore to keep everything picked up all of the time. She is sure a cute girl and has become so much easier and happier since she's become a 100% formula girl.

The kids love to entertain themselves by jumping off anything they can find. Yesterday they were jumping off of some stools onto the couch. I took the picture of Jacob right before he biffed it hard and scraped up his forehead on the edge of the couch (you can see the stool slipped out from under him)

Malia ran in her schools jog-a-thon fundraiser Friday and ran 14 laps. She was a trooper. Jacob starts preschool next week and cannot wait, and neither can I. Cole is my mellow little troublemaker...quiet but deadly. Just last week he wrote all over our leather sofa in pen. Which I cannot get out! We even had one of those salespeople come by yesterday selling some miracle cleaner. I told her, "if it gets pen off of leather i'll buy it". So she came in and spent about 5 minutes trying to get it off. I'll admit, it did fade, but you can still see the pen. Of course she says, if I LET IT SIT....then scrub it, it will come off. Sorry, not enough to convince me! She was sent on her merry way. Well, I need to go change a diaper...the fun never ends. :)

Hiking Around Mount Jefferson

In early September (6-8) my brothers and I took our annual All Brothers Hike aka ABH. We've been doing these 3 day hikes for about 7 years, and have done hikes in Idaho, Washington and Oregon. This year we hiked up to the base of Mount Jefferson in Oregon. We look forward to this hike all year!

On Wednesday Sept. 5th I picked up Logan from the train station, and Vaughn (bro-in-law) and Kelly from the airport. Every Wednesday night I play basketball at the church so I brought the brothers along... We had a great time playing together, except on the last game I came down on my ankle and sprained it really bad. Later that night (really Thursday morning at 2am or so, Birch and Andrew arrived at my house.

My ankle was really sore Thursday morning, so I had Birch (the physical therapist) wrap it up before we took off for the mountain. We got to the mountain around 10:30am and headed on our way. Fifteen minutes into the hike Vaughn said the back of his ankle was hurting so we stopped so he could put on a piece of duct tape to help protect it. Unfortunately nothing could be done to stop the damage. His boot relentlessly hacked up his ankle the whole three days.

On both Friday and Saturday morning we got up between 4:30 and 5:00 am so we could hike to the top of the nearest peak and watch the sunrise. It is sure cool to watch the first rays of the sun peak over the horizon, crawl down Mount Jefferson and finally come to rest on us. Looking at Mt. Jefferson and the valley’s below while the sun rises always inspires us to sing. Last year Birch made us all small hymnals that we carry with us on our hikes, so we opened them up and sang – in harmony – a few hymns.

On our last day we stayed near a lake and most of us took a dip. We also had a mean Frisbee competition. The young boys, Logan, Kelly and Andrew, challenged the older boys, Birch, me and Vaughn. We played a game that was a mix between H.O.R.S.E (basketball) and Frisbee golf. Example: throw the Frisbee around a stump, through a clump of trees around a rock and then hit another tree. It was pretty fun. The younger boys were ahead, before Birch did a challenge where someone had to throw a Frisbee at a tree then someone else had to hit it before it hit the tree. Sounds easy right? We older boys did it on the first try. Then the younger boys tried… attempt 1, no go… attempt 2 failed, 3 failed, 4 failed, 5 failed. They never did successfully answer the challenge. We older boys got a good laugh out of it.


Anyway…we had a great time on the hike. We always enjoy the few days we get to spend together. It really strengthens us. We’re all definitely best friends.

Oh yeah….on the drive home, Andrews car (GEO Prism) that has 240k miles (or more) on it got stranded when the timing belt broke. I don’t have time to go into that story, but it was another adventure.

Letting go...

I'm going to risk sounding completely crazy, but I really, really miss those days when I could dress my kids. It's been adjustment for me to "let go" and let them dress themselves. I'm writing this after sending Malia off to school this morning, grimacing as I blew her a kiss and sent her on her way. Should I really care what she wears??? I know I shouldn't, but I do. She loves to wear capri's...so this morning she had on this cute yellow outfit, capri's and a short sleeved yellow jacket to complete the outfit. But she insisted on wearing yellow socks, pulled all the way up past the bottom of her capri's, her black dress shoes and her t-shirt underneath the jacket coming down past the sleeve of the jacket. I don't know if you can visualize it...but it was just one of those moments when I had to take a deep breath and remember, "it's really not important." She is enjoying her new found freedom.

CLAIRE....

My Mom got gave me the cutest dress for Claire and I just had to snap some photos of her.


I really did try to iron it mom!

Jacob turns 5!

Not officially until Tuesday, but we spent the day celebrating his birthday. Brent and I share our anniversary with Jacob's birthday, so this weekend we celebrated his birthday and next weekend we'll celebrate our anniversary. He started out the celebration by attending our ward campout friday night. Brent took the three older kids, while I stayed home with Claire. They had a great time and even got to ride a zip line that someone had rigged up. We spent saturday afternoon at Chuck-e-cheese. Jacob was given the option of having a party at home with friends, or going to chuck-e-cheese with just his family. Chuck-e-cheese on a Saturday afternoon is CRAZINESS! But the kids had a great time. We came home and had cake and ice cream. Jacob requested a batman cake...so I tried my best, although decorating cakes is not my forte. Luckily, he's not too picky! He had a great day and loves that he's 5! (almost) Malia LOVED the zip line, she went over and over again This is a picture of the "Mater" cake I made for Cole's birthday a while back. I didn't have much time, so I was throwing frosting on a warm cake (you know how that goes) so it was pretty scary looking, but the kids loved it.

On another note, I went grocery shopping on Friday. I had three of the kids with me. Not my idea of a good time, but needed to be done. I think Friday mornings at Winco they must give a senior citizen discount, because I think I was the only one in the store under the age of 70. It turned out to be a pretty good trip, as I'm learning that the outcome of my shopping trips is mostly determined by MY behavior. Anyway, I had about 4 elderly folks comment on my "cute, lovely, adorable, well-behaved, handsome kids." I even chatted with one lady who told me "don't ever let anyone tell you, you have too many kids...it's rubbish. What a blessing they are." All of these comments definately made me think about these precious kids and what a blessing they are to me...even though some days are really hard. Sometimes I think I need to step back and see these cute kids through someone elses eyes for a minute. I really do feel blessed to be surrounded by such wonderful family and friends.


I Loved this picture! Cole got a black eye after he and Jacob collided. But I love the black eye combined with the princess necklace! I told him to make a sad face and this is what I got. Too cute!

Things I am learning as a mother......

- When referring to children,The old saying, "Once you have three, it's all the same" is not true!

-There is no such thing as an easy baby.

-When you have four kids, it's not worth it to try to leave the house...just stay home.

-When you do decide to leave the house just plan on at least three trips to a public restroom.

-DO NOT, and I repeat DO NOT try to take three kids to wal-mart on a Friday afternoon. Thinking it would be easier than taking 4 on a saturday afternoon. It's all the same.

-The four loads of laundry laying on my bed will not fold themselves....dang!

-The pile of toys on the stairs...waiting to be taken up the stairs....will not be picked up until I do it.

-Leave all thoughts of becoming a "master gardener" for when you are retired.

Next week, after Brent returns from his fun hike with his brothers (and no kids) after I have recovered from being a single mom for a few days. I will try to write something more positive about motherhood, as I know there many things....just give me a few days.........

First day of school!

We sent Malia off for her first day of 1st grade. When she woke up she said "I just feel like screaming, i'm so excited!" She loved her teacher and her favorite thing about her day was P.E. It was strange having her gone ALL day.

Jacob's preschool doesn't start until October, so I still have the three younger ones home all day. During the day Jacob found several things to keep himself busy. I was impressed when I gave the boys pretzels for snack and Jacob managed to spell his name (all by himself)with his pretzels. Now that's talent. :)

Brent is gearing up for his annual all-brothers hike. This year he and his brothers are going to Mt. Jefferson. Which leaves me all alone with 4 kids for 3 days....at least one of us is having fun! In all seriousness, he looks forward to this hike more than anything, so i'm sure there will be some pics posted soon.

Trip to Seattle, Swimming, Visit from Jon Ditto

Two weeks ago we took a trip up to Seattle for Jane's blessing. We left from Portland Friday night and hung out until Sunday. On Saturday we all went to the "Locks" (the things boats go through to raise up or down to a certain water level). The Ocean and a river meet there and they're on different levels. It was cool to see all the boats go through the locks.


There was a nice park there where we ate some lunch and hung out, and we could go down inside the dam area and see the "fish locks" (like locks for fish). We had a great time.

Saturday night for dinner Logan took me to a little po dunk Mexican taco restaurant where they make the biggest burritos I've ever seen! We picked some up and took them home to feast on with the ladies. It was a quick trip, but we had a great time. Especially Claire...


SWIMMING
Malia and Jacob have been in swimming lessons the past two weeks. After the first week the Malia and Jacob kept telling us how all the kids had cool goggles and that they needed them so they could look under water. So we went to Target and found the kids some goggles. Jacob was so excited to have them that he wore them the whole way home from the store (even though he couldn't quite figure out how to put them on right...). Jacob loves to do "bobs" (dunking his head under water) and constantly asks his teacher if he can do one more "bob". Malia was very proud of herself for swimming on her own for the very first time today!


A Visit from Cousin Jon Ditto
My cousin Jon Ditto has been in Portland this summer working for Dish Network. Before he went back to BYU he wanted to come visit us. We were so happy that he called to let us know he was in the area. He drove down from Lake Oswego Sunday and spent the afternoon with us.

It had been a long time since I'd seen Jon, so it was great to catch up. The kids were so happy to have a visitor. They repeatedly asked Jon to pick them up twirl them around and throw them on the couch. Jon was a good sport and kept the kids entertained. Malia was especially enamored with Jon. After Jon left she told us that she wanted to marry him. It was the first time we've seen Malia act so "boy crazy". At least she likes good men. Jon, good luck at BYU!

Learning to ride a bike and loosing teeth...

This week was quite eventful with bike riding and loosing teeth...luckily they did not happen at the same time. Jacob came up to me today and said he wanted me to take his training wheels off so he could learn to ride his bike without them. I couldn't help but think of the last time he tried to ride a bike. He tried one time and gave up. I did all that work of taking off his training wheels, putting his knee and elbow pads on, buckling up his helmet and trying desperately to build his confidence only to have him give up after 10 seconds. Maybe today would be a new day. I could only hope.

Jacob was really excited to give bike riding another chance so what could I do. I dutifully removed his training wheels and got him all prepared to try riding his bike. Malia, Cole, Deena and Claire were all watching anxiously as I held the back of Jacobs seat and slowly started walking with him while he pedaled. I took four steps and let go. To my complete and utter astonishment Jacob was riding his bike all by himself. Now I know what your thinking...can he turn?...or stop??. Amazingly I answer yes to both questions. Jacob picked up bike riding faster than anyone I've known. I was quite impressed. He could turn and stop like a pro and stop without any help from me. Needless to say he was super excited and wanted to go around the block several times. We declared the day "Jacobs special day" and let him lead us (Malia, Cole and I) around the block. This is a big deal because Malia and Jacob always compete to be the one in the lead.

Jacobs success motivated Malia not to be outdone. Malia's two top front teeth have been getting more and more loose. For several days she had been commenting "tonight I'm going to lose a tooth." So the very night Jacob learned to ride his bike, Malia again said to me, "I'm going to lose my tooth tonight." There was only one difference, this WAS going to be the night. Malia bravely let me twist and tug on her tooth. I managed to get one side of the tooth out, but the roots on the other side were hanging on for dear life. The blood and occasional "ouch dad that hurts" was enough for met to lose the heart to finish the job...and for Malia to lose faith in me. So she went to mom. Deena laid Malia over her lap face up, and started working on the tooth. After a few minutes, Deena turned to me and said, "I can't get it, I can turn it all the way around, but it's not coming out." I told her to just keep twisting it and 10 seconds later Malia's tooth popped out! She was thrilled...now the tooth fairy could come leave her some money.

In the morning Malia was so excited to see that the tooth fairy had left her $2. When I go home from work Malia showed me the two dollars she had got, then quickly added, that one of her friends got $10. What a cheap tooth fairy.

The next day Malia's other tooth came out. The tooth fairy was out $5 that time.

My first blog ever

This is a test, because I have no idea what i'm doing. If this works i'll write more lata......