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.