Wednesday, March 5, 2014

a little time off

Well, I took a little time off.  I mean I just missed Dallin's first year of life, that's all.... I've decided I should try again to keep up with my blog posts as it's the only "journal" this family has.  So recapping
2013 in pictures!
Can't remember anything about January, so we'll start with February.  We usually have a valentines themed family dinner, this year it was heart shaped pizza. Luckily the kids are pretty easy to please.

I had my first real garden this year.  Brent put up a fence to keep the deer away.  Towards the end of the summer the rabbits did find their way in though.  It was fun to have a garden, but I definitely need to learn how to keep the weeds down, they were out of control and I couldn't keep up.  I gave up after awhile! I grew tomatoes, beets, basil, carrots, strawberries, squash.  The beets and tomatoes grew like crazy, but got hardly any squash.  It's a learning experience!

Dallin LOVES being outside.  He's 9 months old in this pic.


Claire and her best kindergarten friend Sophie, on the last day of school.
Dallin, looking quite dapper
Cole hurt his lip at school, he somehow fell off a slide.
The boys, our Oregon state fans.
 Malia before a 6th grade choir concert.  She looks so pretty in this picture.  She decided to continue with Choir in 7th grade and has even started voice lessons.
The boat received a much needed upholstery job.  The boys were all so happy. :)

Cole was lucky enough to celebrate his birthday at sunriver this year.  We had a fun "amazing race" with the kids.  The morning of his birthday I went around and set up my clues in the village.  The kids were divided up into teams and were given certain roadblocks/challenges to do.  The first team back to the house wins.  The kids loved it and it just may become an annual tradition.  Cole of course requested costco's chocolate cake.
     
Dallin's first time swimming.  After a few minutes of getting used to it, he loved it.
While in Sunriver I ran a half marathon. I connected with a couple of friends from Keizer.  We didn't stick together as they are much faster than me.  I wasn't in love with my time, but just happy to finish.  It was something that i'm glad I did.  My brother-in-law Jon also ran.  (and beat me without training) :(
After Sunriver we were blessed with a quick visit from the Jones'.  We dragged them to a boring 4th of July parade and went boating at the lake, followed by an outdoor movie.  We loved having them and tried to pack 1000 things into one day. (i'm sure they loved that)


Jacob, Cole and Claire all played baseball this year.  Jacob was able to play on the little league's all star team.
I coached Claire's team.  They were so cute, and so....not into playing.  Mostly they would ask how much longer until the game was over.  It was fun though.
Claire in a ballet/tap class that she took through parks and rec.
Malia put on her summer kids camp and was able to raise some school clothes money.  Unfortunately we got rained on the first session, which made for a crowded house.  But we were blessed with beautiful weather for the second session.


While Malia was away at girls camp I gave her room a makeover.  She was so surprised when she got home.


Dallin still wasn't interested in walking, which made for very dirty trips to the beach

we spent many weekends/evenings at the lake.  Malia, Jacob and Cole all got up on waterski's for the first time.  One of the hightlights of the summer (no pics) was a couples retreat we went on with two other couples.  We went up to priest lake and camped.  The weather was amazing and friendships were strengthened.  Thanks to my mom for coming and watching the kids!
One of our favorite summer activities is setting up the big screen and watching movies in the backyard.  Nothing better on a warm summer's night.
Dallin's first birthday was spent at the May family Ranch at a family reunion. Dallin makes everyone smile.  He was a late bloomer, he rolled over at 6 months, didn't sit up until 8 months, started to crawl around 10 months and started to walk at 14 months. He was just pretty content being on his own time table.   I'm not big on 1st birthdays, because really, they don't really know what's going on, but it is pretty sad that this is one of the only pictures of the day. Yes i am lame. Sorry Dallin...we love you!
 
Malia's first day of seventh grade.

Jacob 5th grade, Cole 4th grade and Claire 1st grade.  All at the same school now.

We had been meaning to get new family pictures for quite awhile.  We got together with our good friends, the Holdings and we took each others pictures.  

October brought Cupcake wars!  Grannie went all out this year and I think Julia won "best overall."  We were eating cupcakes for weeks.
This is also the month that Dallin started walking! 14 mo old.
 November we spent Thanksgiving in Oregon.  We were able to see my parents new house for the first time.  They sold the home that my Dad built 30+ years ago and bought a manufactured home to put on my sisters property.  They are now "country dwellers." We loved our visit and loved seeing their new place.  Thanksgiving morning we headed to Corvallis for an early morning turkey trot.  It was a great way to start off the day.  I've been having issues with plantar fasciitis, so I walked it, while Brent and Jacob ran.  I was able to walk with my sister and chat....loved it.  It was a great Thanksgiving.
Christmas seemed to come so quickly after Thanksgiving.  We spent Christmas eve at Grannie's house.  Everyone was there except birch and Sara, who would be arriving the next day.  We had our talents show, play, white elephant and lots and lots of food.  
Christmas morning we spent at our own home.  It was so nice and relaxing.  We had cinnamon rolls and orange juice for breakfast.  We took our time opening presents.  All the boys wanted for Christmas was "skylanders."  (a wii game) They talked and planned for weeks about playing this game.  I can now say that they conquered the game and were asking to sell it within two weeks.  (sigh.....)  Malia got a new touchscreen phone, Claire got some action figures from the movie frozen.  We headed back to Grannie's for Christmas dinner.  It was a fun, family filled Christmas.
Brent spent his birthday on the slopes with a few of his brothers and lots of kids.  I stayed home with Dallin.  That night we had a little party at our house.  He was excited to get a new soundbar for the t.v.!

 I was so excited for my birthday.  I had the whole day planned out. It involved spinning class in the morning.  Malia and I heading out for lunch and shopping, followed by an adult only dinner.  I made it through half of spinning class before I decided I was too nauseous to continue.  Nothing like walking out on a class halfway through.  I felt lame.  I went to cafe rio for lunch with my friend Amy and Malia.  Still wasn't feeling hot.  I dropped off Amy and malia and I headed to the mall.  I made it to one store before I decided I needed to call it a day.  I spent the rest of the day in bed.   I was down and out for a good week. This picture was Malia and I having birthday cake several days after our birthday's.  When I finally felt good enough to eat it.
 Here's a picture of my birthday dinner without me. :)
 Malia did get to do some fun things for her birthday.  In November I took her to the midnight showing of "the hunger games."  She was so excited and we both loved the movie!

She also had some friends over for cake and ice cream and they went to see "the book thief."

It was a great year, and hopefully I can do a better job of keeping up in 2014