Winter storm

I've lived in Oregon almost all of my life and don't ever remember having a storm like this. Yesterday we had about 6 inches of snow, followed by freezing rain. More freezing rain tonight and 1-3 more inches of snow in the forecast. This has been going on for about a week now. Church was cancelled today. We spent the day playing games and baking Christmas goodies. It was a nice cozy snow day. I'm just grateful that we didn't lose our power like the 45,000!!! in the western half of Oregon. This picture is kind of dark, but you can see that the ice is doing a number on our willow tree. We've had four large branches snap off and probably more tonight. The tree is pretty funny looking now. We'll have some fun cleanup in a few days when this storm is gone.

I just have to clarify that the lady in the story below (from church) was on no way
ungrateful for my "attempt" to help. I just didn't want it to sound that way. It's more a matter of feeling like my efforts have been pointless....
Today was day 4 of school closures here. I'm guessing tommorrow will be day 5. The kids are driving me crazy...a nice beach in mexico sounds nice right now, eh??

Dang global warming...

Dang, it has been cold here! I'm sure anyone in the northwest knows what I mean. It took Brent 3 1/2 hours to get home last night. (he did get lost trying to take the back roads, but still!) We've been mostly homebound, since I prefer not to drive on icy streets. The kids have had snow days every day this week.
These are pictures we took for our Christmas cards. Yes, you heard me right! IT's a tiny christmas miracle, we are doing Christmas cards. You may not receive them by Christmas, but I figure they are fun to get anytime.
So, recently I've been feeling like I should find opportunities to serve other people. To think less about myself and more about what other people might be needing. So Sunday a family was singing in church. They were holding their young toddler who was out of control, so the mom goes to bring him out to the foyer mid-song. Thinking I would help out, I get up so she can hand me the child, thinking she'll go up and finish the rest of the song. Instead I carried a kicking, screaming child out while the mom followed me. (Me not knowing she was following). So I ended up just feeling dumb as I immediately returned to my seat. Then today I thought I would be nice and bring some hot chocolate over to some men who are building a house kiddy corner from our house. I felt bad that they are out in the freezing cold all day. The kids were excited to do this little good deed. So we make hot chocolate, fill up the thermos and find some paper cups. I head over with Jacob, only to have each man refuse my offer for some hot chocolate. One man wouldn't even look up when I asked him, he just sort of chuckled and turned away. So again I end up feeling really dumb. Don't people know that you are supposed to just accept someone's offer for Hot chocolate, even if you don't REALLY want it?? Anyway, my desire to do good deeds has been deflated.....On a better note, we are so excited for Christmas and the three birthday that will follow the three days after Christmas. It's going to be party central around here! Happy holidays.

Holiday update

What a crazy, busy time of year! Although I wouldn't want it any other way. We
just returned from a 8 day trip to Spokane for Thanksgiving. We had a great time. We were able to take the kids to a fun indoor waterpark, we hit the cheap theater and saw wall-e, decorated gingerbread houses, played with cousins and ATE! We had a great time and even had some snow.
Now we are back to reality. I'm busy with vinyl orders..December is busy with people wanting signs/letters for gifts. We are also doing another craft show this coming weekend.
While we were gone my wonderful neighbor was nice enough to show our house to a couple who were wanting to look at it for a second time. They just called and want to look at it a third time tommorrow. So, at least we know they like it. But who knows what will happen?? We are busy gearing up for Christmas and for the THREE birthdays that immediately follow, plus Malia's baptism. So there is no slowing down around here...Happy Holidays!

Claire's changing table is set up next to her crib. Last night we put her to bed in her crib. This is what we found about an hour later. She had climbed out of her crib and somehow managed to get a pillow under her head and a blanket over the top of her. So cute!

The strangest thing...

I've inherited the knack for losing things. Just ask my mom, it runs in the family. So,
recently I lost a library book. Of course it was a "new release" library book, so it could not be renewed. It was missing for about a week before I really started to look for it. The due date came and went and I continued to look. I looked EVERYWHERE. At this point it's been missing about 3 weeks. Nothing was left unturned. I honestly could not thing of a single place that I had not looked. So I finally gave in and ordered a new book from Amazon. This morning I was getting the kids all ready to head to the library to turn in my new purchase, I went into my room and what is sitting right on top of the bed??? My library book. What in the world?? On my bed?? I talked to Brent and each of the kids and no one knew anything about it. So strange...i'll be baffled for the rest of my life on this one!

Be Grateful

My brother posted this on our family blog and I had to pass it along!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbIGbZ6gq_Y

(You may have to copy and paste into browser?)

Halloween getaway

For Halloween this year we took a trip up to Spokane. It was a bit of a whirlwind weekend, but we had a great time. We left Thursday night and arrived very late. Friday we visited family and got to see each their new homes that they have recently bought. All together we took a trip to a childrens museum. They were having a halloween party so the kids got to wear their costume. This is Malia doing what she does best, being a ham in front of the camera. She definately did not inherit that from me. As I look at this picture I realize how old she is getting! So grown up!

This is a picture of what the sis-in-laws like to do. We have a great time when we get together, just chatting and having a good laugh.

This is what you will find the boys doing when we get together. Huddled over the latest gadget

or toy. Brent was pretty impressed with Logan's new iphone.

Friday night we went to Kelly and Annie's for a fun Halloween dinner. We had edible eyeballs,

rotten punch, monster toes...it was really fun and really yummy.

Friday night we went trick or treating. The kids were so excited, running from house to house. I love the picture with all of the cousins dressed up.

Malia was a princess, Jacob was luke skywalker, Cole was peter pan, and Claire was a chicken. I was happy that I was able to make or borrow all of the costumes and didn't have to buy anything.

Sunday we headed over to Yakima for the baptism of my nephew Tyler. The kids love the yakima ditto house and were sad to only stay one night. But luckily we have thanksgiving to look forward to.

Here's a pic of Tyler and his mom and Dad on his special weekend. This pic looks like it should be in a magazine, what a great looking family!

Election-be done....

You know it's time for this election to be over when your 7 1/2 year old starts to singing
(to the tune of "where is thumbkin") Barack Obama, Barack Obama, John McCain, John McCain, Barrraack Obama, Barrraccckkk Obama, John McCain.
(The number of times a name is mentioned means nothing!)

For the girls (or "the gils" as Jacob would say)

Just something to make you smile.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTC4qkb8Ppk

Oops...too late.

I'm horrible about getting frustrated with my kids and threatening them with a consequence that I know is too severe. For example: I received a note home from Jacob's teacher that he was "play fighting" at recess and continued to do it after being asked not too. We had an incident the previous week (nothing big...kindergarten stuff) so I was pretty aggravated to receive the note. So after talking with him (calmly) I told him that if I received another note home, that he wouldn't be going trick or treating this year. Now what kind of mother is actually going to keep their 6 year old home on Halloween because he was play fighting at school. It was one of those times where it slipped out and I instantly regretted it. I was telling Jacob's teacher yesterday what I had threatened jacob with and she responded "You said WHAT?" Just reaffirming the horrible parent feeling I was having. I hope i'm not the only one who does this...So I want to hear your stories (if you have any) What is the worst "punishment" you threated your child with, and instantly regretted.....
Or you could just threaten your child with this punishment...

Best cobbler recipe ever!

I had some apples to use up the other day and decided to make an apple cobbler. I have made peach, blueberry, and blackberry cobbler, but never apple. I got this recipe from my mom (thanks mom!) and it is amazing. It's a strange recipe. I was a little skeptical that it would turn out, but it was one of the best cobbler's i've ever had. You could use this recipe with any fruit.

1 2/3 c. flour
3/4 c. sugar
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp salt
-mix together and add:
1 1/3 c. milk
1 cube butter, melted (not low cal..)
-pour mixture into the bottom of a greased 9x13 pan. Put fruit over top.
(I just sliced apples and put them on top and sprinkled sugar/cinnamon over the apples)

In a saucepan mix 1 c. water, 1 c. sugar and 3 tbsp butter, bring to a boil. Pour over
the top of fruit. Bake at 400 for 45 minutes. Serve with fresh whipped cream or ice cream. Yum!

My computer is not letting me load pictures, so it will be another picture-less post until Brent can solve the problem. We had a nice weekend. The weather was beautiful, so we took the kids over to a cool park about 30 minutes from our house. It's a huge park with a sand hill and all sorts of unique play equipment. The kids had a great time. We came home and watched "The water horse" with the kids. It was a cute movie. (Brent and I also watched "vantage point" this weekend. Not my favorite. Every other person in the movie gets killed...) Sunday was one of those horrible church days where you spend the whole time out in the hallways. I will spare you all of the details. When we got home from church we got a call from someone wanting to see the house. When I asked when they would like to see it they said, "well, we are sitting in front of your house right now) The house was a mess! So luckily they agreed to come back in an hour. We were crazy people trying to clean up, but we did it and everything went well. They seemed to love the house, but really wanted a 5 bdrm...so i'm not getting my hopes up. It's only our second showing in 5 weeks. Slow......
I started a fun project this weekend. I decided to paint our drab old kitchen table. It's the table we bought after we got married (9 years ago) and it was in bad shape. It was one of those generic light oak tables. So I sanded, primed and painted it black. I still need to apply a clear coat over the top and do the chairs. I'll post pics when it's all done. But I love it already! I can't wait to get it all finished.
The kids are counting down to Halloween. Malia wants to be a princess, Jacob...undecided and Cole wanted to be batman until today. He found Jacob's old peter pan costume and put it on and now he wants to be peter pan (hooray!) I love when they want to wear something we already have. So the countdown continues.....

I love this stuff!

I always appreciate a good cleaning tip...or any tip that is useful really. But I thought I would pass along my favorite carpet cleaner. It's called Folex instant carpet spot remover. This stuff has done miracles on my carpet. Honestly there has not been a stain that it has not gotten out. I buy it at home depot, but i've seen it other places as well. It's not expensive..and it works. (I used it on the mats in the van the other day and was amazed!) So there you go folex...a bit of free advertising!

Update....

So how great was conference this weekend! I loved it and felt so uplifted! What amazing leaders we have!
I just haven't had anything exciting to post lately...I still don't, but here's an update anyway. No news on the house. We haven't had a single phone call since our last showing. We've dropped the price 23,000 to under $300k This is the lowest we will be going. If we can't sell at this price, it won't be worth it to us. We met with an agent last week and afterwards decided the $20,000 commission is just not worth it to us. So we will continue to try and sell on our own. We are trying to decide if we should pay a flat fee and be put on the mls or just advertise on craigslist and the newspaper. A funny story about craiglist. I had no idea you could only post every 48 hours. So I was posting every day, until one day I was banned! I haven't been able to post anything for a week. It finally let me this morning and you know i'll be sticking to the 48 hour rule! I've had people ask me if i'm stressed trying to do this and honestly I was for the first few weeks. But i've come to realize that it's not worth it. We are in a great house, in a great ward, in a great neighborhood and I should just enjoy that....and I am.
The kids are loving school. They just had their school fundraiser which is a jog-a-thon. Jacob ran the most laps out of his class and was pretty proud of himself. Of course Malia cried when she heard this because SHE wanted to run more than Jacob and she didn't. They are SO competitive. Cole gets a little bored in the mornings with just me. He often asks "are we going anywhere today or is anyone coming over?" He's looking foward to being in school next year. :)
Not much else to report....just the usual stuff....Adios!

To leave...or not to leave (them in the car)

The other day I saw an commercial for an upcoming Dr. Phil. They were having a woman on who was arrested for leaving her children in the car while she ran in the car. I didn't see the show, but she said (on the commerical) that she was able to see the kids the whole time. So my question to you is, have you ever done this? I'll have to admit I have. I think you just have to use common sense. Would I leave them in the car while I ran into target? No. Would I leave them in the car while I ran into the post office, which has floor to ceiling windows looking right out to my car? Yes. Do I trust my children to stay in the seats and stay buckled. Yes. Would I leave them in the car on a 100 degree day? No...you get the idea. Just wondering if you guys have been rebellious like me and done this.....or am I a horrible parent??

JACOBS BIRTHDAY...(oh and our anniversary)

Jacob turned 6 last Thursday. I can't tell you how excited he was! Thursday we started our our celebrations by bringing sprinkled doughnuts to his kindergarten class. They were in heaven. Then we went to the video store and he got to pick out a movie to rent. That evening we had pizza and pop and then he opened his gifts from us.

Today he had his first "friends" party. He invited 5 boys and 1 lucky girl over. We played games and had brownies and ice cream topped with all sorts of candy. We opened presents and then finished off the party with a treasure hunt. I think it went well and he had a great time. Jacob has never had a lot of friends...mostly because we haven't done preschool or many sports yet. So he is loving kindergarten and all of his new "friends" that he has made.

This is one of the games we played. See who can wrap the mummy in toilet paper the quickest. I suggest heavy duty tp for this one. Although the kids thought it was great. Jacob is being hugged by Malia in this pic.

This is Jacobs friend Tyler from around the corner and also in his Kinder class. Tyler LOVES claire, and we had to capture this moment because Claire wasn't too sure she wanted to be sitting with Tyler. She had the funniest look on her face.

And on to our anniversary...which is the same day as Jacob's b-day. Brent sent me these beautiful flowers and I also got a 50lb bag of peanut m&m's...okay it just seems like 50lbs, but i'm managing to make a good dent in it. (Dark chocolate m&m's....the best!!)

Tonight my brother and his wife came up to babysit the kids while we went out to eat and went to a movie. We hit up Jack in the box (best cheap burger ever) and then went to see "The dark knight." We enjoyed it, but it was a bit dark...and gruesome. (And the family in front of us had two kids watching it, the youngest looked like he was 6 or 7...but that's a whole different post) Would I watch it again? probably not. But it was nice to spend time together with no kids. So 9 years after marrying my hubby I couldn't be happier. He is the best!

To view our For sale by owner blog...

www.1205bairrd.blogspot.com

Small blessings

Has anyone ever had a problem signing onto their blog? When I click on the "sign in" link, nothing happens. I have to go to blogger.com in order to sign in. I can't find any help on their websites either? Anyone else ever have this happen??

On another note...we showed the house once and we received good feedback, but no offer....
So a funny story. It seems kind of silly, but oh well. A few weeks ago we lost our main tv remote. We could watch tv still, but we couldn't skip past commercials or pause the show. And we had to manually get up and turn the channel (gasp!) We searched high and low for it and after a week assumed that it had accidently been thrown out in the trash. So I called a local dish network guy and he said a new one was $40, but he might have a used showroom remote we could buy for $25. So he said he would call me back and let me know. I waited another 3-4 days and he finally called back and said yes he did have one. Then he said he was actually at home ready to take a "siesta" and that he would call me later that day when he was out. He never called. (This was 4 days ago) So every day after that I would think, "I should head down to the dish network store and pick up that remote" but there always seemed to be something more important to get done. So last night Malia runs into the room yelling "I found the remote!" She found the remote in our shoe bench that I swear to you I've looked in every day for the past two weeks. I've pulled shoes out and thrown shoes in....I have NO idea how I could have missed it. So, it seems silly, but we considered it a blessing that that flakey dish man never called us back, and that we didn't waste $25 on a new one. We were so excited that we took the kids to Baskin Robbins to use some gift certificates we've been saving. I know we are totally lame celebrating the new found remote...but the kids thought it was the best night ever.

For Sale by Owner

Why are life decisions so hard to make? We are always asking ourselves "are we doing the right thing?" Well, we've decided to put our house on the market. I know, it's a terrible time to sell, I hear that from everyone! Brent would love to be closer to his family, but we have had no luck finding anything in the Spokane area. So we feel like maybe it's time to try and shorten his commute. Right now it takes anywhere from 45min to 1 1/2 hours to get to and from work (each way). We found some new construction in Forest grove that we love, but we have to sell our house first. So keep us in your prayers that we will be able to sell in this slow market. We were told the average time on the market is 6-8 months, we are trying to do it without an agent...so we'll see. We feel like Heavenly Father has a plan for us and we are trying our best to figure out what it is? All we can do is try to live right and hope it will all work out for the best.

First day pics

I don't think I can call myself a blogger unless I post "first day of school" pics. This year Malia started second grade and Jacob started Kindergarten. They both LOVE school. On the first day, Jacob was up and dressed with his backpack on, an hour and a half early. My only complaint is that kindergarten is only 9-11:30. By the time I get home (or go run an errand) the next thing I know it's time to pick him up. He's decided to ride the kindergarten bus home and he loves it.
Malia also loves her teacher this year, and to be honest it's nice to have them back in school. Cole is pretty bored without Jacob around to play with. Those two play so well together, with an occasional fight. But they'll shut themselves in their room for hours playing legos. So I guess in that sense it's good that kindergarten is so short. They are both looking forward to a fun year!

We made it...a survival story.

So every year Brent heads out on a hiking expedition with his brothers. They have dubbed it the "All brother's hike" or ABH. He looks forward to this every year with excitement. So he left for the airport straight after work on Wednesday. Now, as much as he looks forward to this event, I dread it. I need my break from the kids, otherwise i'm not the best mom. They start to get on my nerves. But I was determined to not have a lousy time this summer and I have to admit, I actually enjoyed myself while he was away. Wednesday we had kindergarten orientation, then the boys went to a birthday party. That night we had hot dogs for dinner. Thursday I took the boys and Claire to a friends house, and then malia and i headed to a cool dine-in theater to watch the "American girl" movie. This theater sells $3 tickets and then you can order dinner or dessert and they bring it to you during the movie..you have table to eat on and everything. The movie was really cute and we had a good time. Friday we went out to breakfast at Shari's and then headed to the library. The kids participated in the summer reading program and earned free blazer basketball tickets, free dinner at applebee's and they picked out some small toys to take home. So that night we headed to Applebee's to use their free dinner coupon. They were amazed that we went out to eat TWICE in one day! It was a luxury. we also did some school shopping and spent too much money.
Last night I invited 6 girlfriends over for a late dinner and we had a great time laughing and talking. The kids were great and stayed in their rooms and fell asleep. It was the perfect way to end the week. Brent is due home in 20 minutes and the kids are dying with excitement, and so am I. We had a great time without him, but we'd much rather have him here!!!!

Almost time...

we've been having some serious computer issues. we lost most of the stuff on our hard drive, but installed a new drive and then last night ended up with some horrible virus on our main computer. So here I am again on the kids computer. I will blame my lack of new posts on our annoying computer.
So we've had fun winding down our summer. A few weekends ago we went camping at silver creek falls. we had a great time, although the camp sites were packed together and lacked any privacy, the kids didn't mind. It was the hottest weekend of the summer hitting 100, but up in the mountains it was perfect. we played in the water, went to a little demonstration by the forest rangers about bats, and ate smores.
Last weekend we took a trip down to corvallis to go swimming at otter beach. the kids had a blast and we stayed for about 4 hours. One of these days i'll post some pictures!
i took the kids to the Oregon state fair on Monday for $1 ride day. It was awesome. Usually they don't get to ride the rides, but being $1 day they got to ride several. There were duck races, and an omsi tent, a reptile tent and the kids also loved looking at the cake entries and picking out their favorite decorated cakes. they also make solar "smore" making boxes. not sure what the official name is. It was a fun outing for them.
Jacob had his kindergarten orientation today and it was fun to watch his excitement. He has a great teacher and is in a class with several kids from our neighborhood and church, so that makes it easier. He is so ready to start school. Malia starts in a week and is excited as well. I am also very excited! I have to admit that I probably look forward to school starting more than they do. back to school, back to sanity

Summer update

Summer is just flying by. Only 3 1/2 weeks until school starts, and already people are talking about school shopping and who's in what class at school. And although i always look forward to my kids going back to school, it's been a great summer and i'm not quite ready for it to be over.
we spend a few days last week up at lake Cavanaugh in Washington for a Ditto reunion. We were pretty disappointed in the rainy weather, but that didn't stop us from tubing, waterskiing and riding the jet ski's. The kids pretty much lived in the hot tub and loved playing with their cousins. This past week we didn't have much planned. I took the kids to riverfront park to play and ride the carousel. I learned that claire does not like the carousel and neither do I. A very naseous mommy stepped off that thing.
On a bad note, when we got home from the lake we learned that our hard drive on our computer had crashed. brent has been working on it all week and he thinks we can save some of it. It's going to take a long time to reinstall and find everything though. I know absolutely nothing about computers, so everytime Brent would update me on the status of the computer, my reply was "so...what does that mean??" We have an older, slower computer that the kids use for their computer games, so that's what we've been using. so wish us luck in saving our millions of family photos that we procrastinated printing, and back up all of your files after you wish us luck. :)

Finally some help!

Well after a few months of being solo with my 9 sunbeams, I finally have some help. YAY! I love my calling, working with the sunbeams, but a lot of times I felt outnumbered. So my good friend edgyk was called to be the other sunbeam teacher. I couldn't have asked for a better person. Actually someone asked me last night, "Did you request her or was that by chance?" We're are going to have a great time with those little munchkins...
On another note: I went back to the dentist today, for a cleaning this time and the hygenist (who I had never met) said, "Wow, you have some special teeth." I had to laugh...

A day at the beach

Last Saturday Brent was in charge of an elder's quorum activity over at the coast, in Pacific City. We absolutely love our ward, but we do have a shortage of activities, so I was excited to finally have one. When we got there it was overcast and drizzling...ugh. Everyone reluctantly got out of their cars. It did stay overcast the whole day, but it wasn't too cold, and there was no wind. (a miracle!) We had so much fun. The kids braved the ocean and made sandcastles. I'm sure Claire ingested about 10lbs of sand, but she had a great time. We climbed up a big sand dune and ran down...good exercise! It was fun to sit and talk with the ladies and relax! Overall it was a great trip.

One of the specialist

Today I had a dentist appointment. I HATE the dentist...sorry Logan. My hands get all sweaty and my heart-rate goes up. To make a long story short, I have a bridge that has "de-bonded" or come loose on one side. So it's just being held together on the other side. When I picked the kids up from my friends, I was trying to explain to them that mommy had a fake tooth. Then I had to explain that I had a fake tooth because I was born with some baby teeth with no adult teeth under them, and they weren't very strong so eventually I had to get a fake tooth. Malia looked at me and said, "You must be one of God's specialist people to be born that way." Yes Malia...it's true...I must be one of the specialist. :)

I can never think of a good title!

We had a great weekend, we started it out by going to Brent's softball game Friday night. They didn't win, but he did get an in the park homerun! Woohoo! It was one of those warm summer evenings when it just feels good to be outside. I had a good time visiting (when not chasing after children) with some of the other ladies and the kids were all really good. (amazing, I know)

Saturday we took the kids up to the temple and walked around the grounds. The kids loved the fountains. Then we went to the bookstore and picked up some much needed items. Brent picked up a copy of "Hubener vs. Hitler-a biograph of Helmuth Hubener, Mormon teenager resistance leader." I'm excited to dig into that one. Next we headed to trader joe's. It was actually my first time going to that fabulous store. I picked up a huge basil plant for 3.00.

My basil plants that are in pots on the deck are about 1/10th of this size, so I thought it was a pretty good deal. My mouth is salivating just thinking of all of the tomato/basil/mozarella salad i'll be eating. Yum!

Saturday afternoon we totally cleaned out the garage and sent a huge load of garbage to the dump and a huge load of "stuff" to goodwill. It felt so good to clean that mess up. If you've been in our garage you know what i'm talking about. We bought some storage containers and tried to organize a bit more. Saturday night we had the missionaries over and went high class, feeding them egg mcmuffins. I know, we are amazing cooks.

Sunday Brent gave a good talk on the priesthood. I still admire how he can get up there and not be a bit nervous. oh, wouldn't that be nice! He did a great job.

Today the kids and I picked blueberries. It's the second time we went out this year. The first ti me we just froze the berries, this time i'm going to attempt to make blueberry jam? I've never had it, but i've heard it's good. I'll have to let you know!

My definition of a successful day as a SAHM

1. I've made it through an entire day without some sort of mystery stain ending up on my shirt.

2. I've only yelled at my kids once.

3. Dinner is made, and STILL warm, when Brent gets home.

4. I've managed to do laundry AND get it folded AND get it put away.

5. I get my one hour of quiet time in the middle of the day.

6. I can count the number of fights I have to break up on one....two hands.

7. My house is mostly clean. (I can't say ALL the way clean, because that would never happen)

8. Claire takes two naps and goes down easy

9. I only eat chocolate once.

10. I have one of those "mom moments" when you see your kids getting along (rare) and your heart just melts when you think about how much you love them.

Obviously having a day like this almost never happens...but if I can't succeed at 1-9, i'll just take one #10.

The Zoo.

Yesterday we headed up to the Portland zoo, where we met up with my Birch and Sara and family. The kids were so excited to see their cousins. Malia is somewhat infatuated with Alex and loves to follow him around, so she was especially excited. They were so excited that they ran from exhibit to exhibit and us parents struggled to keep up with them. By the end we were hungry, sweaty and happy. It was a great trip. Cole's favorite thing was the penguins, Malia's was the hippo and Jacob's was the black bear. Claire did great despite not getting a nap until 3:00. In the picture below, I told the kids to "Look scared". This is jacob's attempt to look scared. It looks more like he just ran a 5k.
All the cousins...(except Claire and Chloe)

Maybe this is why nothing sold??

I must have stared at this sign 100 times. I designed it on the computer, cut it out on the vinyl machine, weeded it (took off excess vinyl) applied it to the sign and then moved it from place to place and stared at it for countless hours while at the fair. When we got home from the fair I hung it up on my wall, because it was one of my favorites. Not once did I notice my error, until we were in the middle of a "spriritual" family home evening. I glanced up and started laughing. Ruining the mood of the whole lesson. But you have to admit it's pretty funny.

Claire learns to paint!

Claire is learning all types of new things lately. She has recently taken up painting. With her body as the canvas. Luckily we were able to get the paint out of her cute outfit. (Because that's what's really important. :))

Gotta love dinner time!

This is when we do rock, paper, scissors to see who is going to clean her up!

A few photos...

Here's a photo of our little booth

This picture just gives you an idea of the awesome entertainment that we had at the fair. Read more below about our fair experience.

You live, you learn

Is it physically possible to die from boredom? I asked myself this question a dozen times today. This our weekend at the marion county fair. Otherwise known as the Marion lamest place in the world fair. Holy Cow, i've learned i need to do more research before I sign us up for a fair. The fair lasts four days (12 hour days) We have been open 2 days and sold about 8 things. There is no way that we will be making any money on this deal. In fact we'll be losing some. But i'll have to chalk it up as a "learning experience." Just so you understand how lame this fair is, our booth is surrounded by, "Brink's home security", "a united way booth" "3 grange booths" and some guy selling tools. Hardly anyone walks by all day and I am going completely insane. I've read national geographic, parents, family circle, Ok, Canadian living, The friend, readers digest and a few others, twice! I've mastered Sudoku, and inspected my hair for every split end possible. :)
We plan on enduring another day and then bailing on the whole show (against the rules..but who cares!) so we don't have to work Sunday. It was just not the right venue for our stuff. Oh well, you live you learn.

Smarty pants

Cole's reply to everything I say is "I know." So here's a recap of a conversation we just had.
"Cole you have to fill out your whole chart before you get a prize."
"I know."
"How come you know everything?"
"Because I'm four and four year olds know things."

And that pretty much sums of the thinking of every four year old in the world.

Sunriver

Every year my family takes a trip to Sunriver. This is one of the few times when we are all together. I look forward to this trip every year. Sunriver is one of my favorite places to be, and this year was no exception. We were there five days and managed to get about....oh, 5 pictures. So i've included most of them. We did get some video, but we are lame at taking pictures.
The week went by so fast. We went for long bike rides, Played tennis, went swimming, played the Wii, Relaxed, and soaked in the hot tub. We also celebrated my mom's birthday with a flaming cake! (literally) Brent ran in a 5 mile race and came in 5th overall (about 30 people participated) and 2nd in his age bracket. I did the 3 mile walk with my sisters.
One night Brent and I and my sister Kelly, rode our bikes down to the "village" to watch a concert. Well we stayed a little too long and the sun went down. You have to understand that in Sunriver, they don't have lit bike paths. It is very dark and you can't ride on the roads. So we had an exciting bike ride home (maybe 2-3miles?) in the (almost) pitch dark. We could see about 5 feet in front of us at all times. We had fun laughing as we prayed we wouldn't crash into any trees....or deer.
Brent had a great time golfing with his "Brothers" early one morning. What a handsome guy!

My brother Stephen and Brother-in-law Garrick.
Malia with her cousins Becca, Emma and Evan. They had a great time playing together. Malia has been a little bit Sassy lately, so I have to thank her cousins for putting up with her. Any advice on sassy seven year olds? This is my first time and i'm pretty inexperienced in this area (parenting that is)

The girls put on a "show" for everyone on the fourth of July. The sang some songs and read some facts about independence day. They were so excited and had chairs set up for all of the adults. It was really cute!

It was a fabulous trip and we are now home. The house is a disaster and we have 3 days to get ready for the county fair, which starts on Thursday and which i'm absolutely dreading. I'm wondering why I signed us up for this thing...we'll see if it's worth all the work?? Wish us luck.

Happy Birthday Cole!

Cole turned four yesterday and we had a fun day celebrating. He was so excited for his birthday and has promised that he'll stop sucking his thumb when he turned four. I have a feeling that will be a hard bargain to keep.
Cole had "batman brownies" for his b-day. Although when it came down to it all he wanted was the ice cream.

We spent the afternoon at the Gilbert house with his cousins. (A children's interactive museum) The kids had a great time. Cole is such a good boy and i've loved having him around. I'm looking forward to more one-on-one time with him as Jacob starts school in the fall. Cole is always quick to say, i'm sorry and give me a hug, when he's made me mad. He is definately my most mischevious child, but in an innocent way. He is always breaking, spilling, getting into something. He is just curious. He loves to be in the garage with Brent, playing with his tools. He will be Brent's right hand man someday as they fix things together. He's a great boy and i feel blessed to have him!

I had to add this picture. Until recently we had no markers in the house, and this is why. Claire has just discovered the joy of markers. I was actually just glad she got it on herself and not on my carpet. :)

Weekend update

My brother became a married man over the weekend. We enjoyed a nice, quiet wedding in
my parents backyard. The weather was perfect and the food was great. Stephen and Oksana were glowing the whole night. I'm excited to see him so happy and i can't wait to get to know Oksana better. Welcome to the family!


Stephen and Oksana cutting the cake.



On another note: Jacob recently outgrew his bike, so we bought him a new one and Cole inherited Jacob's old bike. We told Cole that he would be getting a bike for his birthday. So Brent took the bike apart and painted it red and applied some vinyl decals. The decal on the side says "cole" with flames. On the front is a small dragon. (he requested a dragon?) Cole is in LOVE with his bike and I love that he is so happy and excited about a hand-me-down. He asks every day if we can go for a bike ride. He is getting better and faster at riding every day. He's such a fun boy.

Finally an update

I haven't been too great about updating lately. I've been so busy. Brent and I are doing a booth at the Marion County fair, July 10th and it's really sneaking up on us. We have a lot of work to do and not much time. We will be heading to Sunriver soon and so that's one week less to get stuff done (although there is no place i'd rather be!) So my "spare" time is filled with signage...:)
Here's a few pics of some i've done. I've really enjoyed making some for kids rooms. Hopefully some of them sell.



Jacob just had his last t-ball game of the season. He loved it and told me that he wanted to play forever. He was a great fielder, he rarely let a ball by him. The funny thing is that his hitting seemed to get worse over the season. He had so many "coaches" constantly telling him what to do, that I think it may have overwhelmed him. The good thing is that he loved playing and had fun.

The boys went to a father/son campout over the weekend. They were so excited and talked about it all week. Malia was pretty upset that she didn't get to go. We stayed home and watched a movie together, then went to Shari's and to garage sales in the morning. The boys had a great time. Brent said they didn't get to bed until midnight, because of some other loud campers. So when they got home Cole crashed on his bedroom floor for about 4 1/2 hours. He slept until 2:00 in the afternoon. Their favorite thing was roasting marshmallows.

We were up in Seattle a few weekends ago to celebrate my BIL Logan's graduation from dental school. It was a short trip, but we had a great time and were glad we could be there to celebrate.

The only downside is that Brent got sick over the weekend and passed it on to all of Logan and Julia's family.....SORRY! It's always kind of annoying when visitors come and bring there sickness with them. Malia had thrown up two days prior to leaving, but everyone seemed fine the day we left. So we feel bad about that. This is a picture of Claire at Logan's. I realized we had no pictures of Logan at his graduation because we were using his camera to take pics.

This is the first summer that I've really felt like i've needed to be organized and plan stuff for the kids. They are at the age where they start to get bored easily (mostly Malia). So thanks to my SIL Sara for sharing a great website with me. http://www.sugardoodle.net/Educational%20Lesson%20Plans/index.shtml. I have the whole month of June planned. We do "school" time every morning, using ideas and worksheets from the website. The kids have absolutely loved it. So far we have made prayer pretzels, made jonah and the whale in a bottle, and worked on math and vocabulary. This morning we paper mache'd "planets" that we'll paint later in the week. It's been a lot of work for me to be organized and have everything ready, but it's worth it because the kids love it. We've also planned "field trips" to the park, gilbert house, strawberry picking, etc. So my only hope is that it will be a great summer for them. This summer we are also

*Going to sunriver

*taking tennis lessons (malia)

*Swim lessons

*Going to Lake Cavanaugh

*Camping at Silver Creek falls

*Going to bible school

So it should be a fabulous summer that I just know is going to fly by. We can't wait for all of these fun activities. Summer is the best!