Raising Three Men and a Lady

January

2012-01-26T12:28:00.000-05:00

Remember how 2012 was going to be our much needed calm and peaceful year. I'm pretty sure it's not going to be! (More on that some other day). January has been a roller coaster ride- highs and lows. Here are some of the highs!

Lego's

Adele's hair is growing and so I tried braiding it. It needs to be a little longer still but it's getting there!

Lots of exhausted nights!

Uncle Trenton came for a visit. We had a great time. We were lucky enough to get our first snow while he was here. The snow here is the best packing snow (and we have lived in a LOT of snowy places).

They named the snowman Rocksty and gave him a spaghetti mohawk.

Adele was so tired one night but so excited too. She just couldn't sleep. So I found her the "Chile Doll". Tia brought it back for us from Chile. I told her if she was very quiet the doll would tell her all about Chile. She went right to sleep and told me she dreamed about Chile in the morning.

We were planning on having a bon fire while Trenton was here...but the weather didn't cooperate so we did smores over the stove.

Having Trenton here was lots of fun.

Garret lost his other front tooth and now has a smile with lots of holes in it.

After Trenton left the real snow started coming. We got a LOT and it was really fun (at first).

The kids played and played and played in it. Then we lost power and even that was fun (at first). We sat around our fire and read a novel together. But our fireplace was not really doing the trick so we headed to my parents. We got stuck in the driveway from the snow, after getting out of that we were stuck again because a tree was across the driveway. We eventually got there.

I love going to my parents, there is always good food and good company....but it's just not the same when you are trapped and there is a lot you need to be doing. (Sorry Mom and Dad if I was a grump!). After weeks and weeks of being there (ok it was only 4 days) we headed back home and have been working on cleaning up since then.

Our little Titus boy got more teeth in during it all and is up to 7 teeth now. He has been eating more solids and likes them. He sits up really well now but still falls over when he is excited. He loves making sounds and will even mimic some of the ones we make. He loves being talked to and is very attentive.

2012 is well underway now, we are optimistic about this year and what it will hold for us.

Dog Jaw

2012-01-10T20:26:00.000-05:00

Tyler came home from work the other day and told me this story. ( I thought it was a fun one).

Tyler was at work like any other day. His patient was an older lady. He went in to talk to her about the teeth she needed extracted. When he sat down with her she said that her surgeon needed to operate on her "dog jaw" so she might not be able to have the teeth extracted.

She was very serious about it so even though Tyler had never heard of "dog jaw" he took her seriously. He assumed it was a street name for some other disorder. The patient went on to explain how it's called "dog jaw" because its a problem some dogs get, that she was loosing bone in her jaw and was going to have some grafted from her hip. Tyler agreed to talk to her surgeon before moving on with the dental work. Then she said come feel you can even feel the bone loss.

So Tyler went to feel her jaw. She quickly turned and pretended to bite him while barking like a dog. Tyler was so surprised and shocked he jumped and screamed. The lady thought it was so funny- as did Tyler when his heart stopped racing.

I only wish she had video taped it so I could have witnessed it- it may be Tyler's only encounter with "dog jaw".

28 & 2012

2012-01-02T23:07:00.000-05:00

Well, it's a New Year and like always, when the New Year rolls around it means I am just about to move up in numbers. Today I hit 28. It's been a pretty quite day but a good one. Tyler and I went out to lunch and the rest of the day was spent as a family. I enjoy quite days with the family so I couldn't ask for more.

I think birthday's and New Years are both great times to sit down and reflect on life and goals. I am a goal setter. I think it might drive Tyler a little nuts but he puts up with me pretty well! He said today and I quote "you have goals to set goals, then goals to keep goals". It's in my blood, I can't go without a plan and I always analyze things so I am constantly asking questions like "are the kids getting enough attention", "am I reading my scriptures enough", "do we have a five year plan financially" etc.... Although I wish I could ignore the urge sometimes, I really am grateful to be a goal setter and for the most part think looking at things analytically on a regular basis has really helped me.

Without further ado, here are a few of my 2012 goals (some goals are personal and will not be published...).

*Read at least 52 books (this was my goal last year too and I met it pretty easily and enjoyed it. I read a little of everything).

*Listen more intently when my children are talking to me (I am sometimes guilty of multi-tasking and listening without really listening).

* Projects on the house- 3-4 rooms finished the way we want them, chicken coop built, garden in and tree house built (the kids won't let us forget that one!).

*Get healthier- I have a weight goal, this baby four weight has been hanging on way to long.

*Spend more time each day drawing closer to the Lord.

Like I said there are more but there is a look at a few of the way I am hoping to improve/challenge myself this year.

Tyler and I also came up with 12 challenges- one for each month. We will see if we ever get started on them but if we do they will be fun. I have them written down somewhere but they are things like a meatless month ( I have always wanted to try more vegetarian meals and I think that would be an interesting challenge), made in America month (see if we could go a whole month buying only things made in America....we are dragging our feet a little but it could be fun if it happens.

2011's Final Chapter

2012-01-01T23:13:00.000-05:00

We finished off our very crazy year with a fairly uneventful week. We played with new toys. Garret used to want us to build his Lego sets for him and he now builds his own. It's fun watching. He will spend an entire day working on a big set and need no help or very little. He told me he hopes he gets a new one to put together next Christmas. (he has a while to wait).

Adele and Spencer spent and entire afternoon using boxes as boats while they waited to see what Garret was making.

Sometime during the last week I decided to take a pregnancy test. Just to be sure and ease my mind. Anyway, it was negative of course. I brought it to Tyler though and gave him a good scare. I only wish I had set the camera up somewhere first so I could tape his reaction. You could see panic written across his face. He quickly regained his composure and said it would be great. It was such a funny trick!

One night I was feeling ambitious and fed Titus a few bites of rice cereal. He did pretty well with it. I think I might start feeding him a little more.

We don't have a bathtub and babies are messy eaters. We cleaned out the big sink in the laundry room really well and it made a really great tub for him especially since he sits up already.

When New Year's rolled around we invited a couple friends over that had no plans and we welcomed 2012 together. We opted against a big party since we knew we would be putting babies to sleep all over.

Tyler picked up a few small fireworks for the kids. They thought they were great.

We spent the first couple hours doing family/kid games. Then we did a kid countdown around 8:30 and put all the kids to bed. They did surprisingly well. I thought we might have one kid after another up but once they were down we had hours of time for the adults.

As you can see the kid games were pretty silly. My kids love it when we are silly with them. They woke up saying it was the best party and it was a great time.

2011 was a strange year, there were days and weeks that drug on and others that flew by. A LOT happened this year. I don't know what the future holds for us but we are happy with where we are and the things we learned this year. I think this year could have been a year that tore us apart and we are happy to say it did not. We are truly blessed.

I am excited for 2012. I hope it is a little less tumultuous then last year but "come what may". I have goals (maybe I'll post them soon) and dreams for this year. I plan to strive for them but as the last year told us life doesn't always work out the way we plan, but it does work out and I am so very blessed to have the things that matter most.

Welcome 2012!!!

Christmas 2011

2011-12-26T14:58:00.001-05:00

Our morning started nice and early- 2 am Spencer was screaming because he didn't know if he could leave his room to go to the bathroom. Next it was Adele coming down to snuggle. I got those two squared away and then it was "real" morning at 5:30. We had them go to the bathroom and wait at the top of the stairs for a little while.

They came down to find lots of little treasures.

Santa left them all Marineers hats- he must know we attend a game each year for Tyler's birthday.

After digging through their stockings it was time for presents. Right away the kids wanted Tyler to open the one they got him. He said "we can do one of yours first" but they insisted. They were SO anxious for him to open it. As soon as he picked it up Adele said "it's a BB gun." She kept it a secret for over a week but blurted it out right at the end. The other kids didn't mind they all started talking about it. I was worried that the kids would be far more excited about this gift then Tyler but he seemed to really enjoy it as well. His first gun- so cute!

The kids made a lot of gifts this year. Here is a mountain Spencer carved for me.

A hammer Titus made for Spencer.

A toy teeter-totter Spencer made for Adele.

It was also a year of dress-ups! The kids love dress-ups, their Grandma got them some and I got them a bunch after halloween.

We took a break for our orange roll breakfast. It was great as usual. The kids didn't really get into it. I think their bellys were full of junk and their minds were still under the tree.

We coaxed Adele into a dress-up dress (once she had it on she wore it all morning, but refused to put the wig on that came with it, she has a mind of her own). She asked where her light saber was, she loves being like her brothers. Her favorite princess is princess Leia from star wars.

Since Christmas fell on Sunday we went to church. Once the presents were opened (which were all great- thank you everyone) we got ready for church. I tried to snap a few pics of the kids looking all dressed up. It didn't go so well but here is what I got.

We spent the afternoon together. We played with new toys, did new art projects and by the end of the evening we were all ready to head to bed. It was a very Merry Christmas.

Now our tree is down and my mind can't seem to grasp the fact that Christmas has come and gone already. We hope you all had a wonderful and merry Christmas this year.

Christmas Eve 2011

2011-12-26T14:34:00.000-05:00

We spent the morning of Christmas Eve at our house, then headed to my parents. The kids worked with their new tools for several days on a present for Grandma and Grandpa. They did it all by themselves and were very excited.

It was a hand carved nativity!!!

Grandma joined us for dinner. She brought her divinity- so yummy!

We shared a nice meal together then acted out the nativity again.

Adele was the inn keeper this time but she still wanted to have a baby. Of course she got what she wanted.

Then it was time for dessert. Tyler decided he was done waiting for me to make the first move as far as feeding Titus goes. He put a big glob of whip cream on his finger and was about to stick it in Titus's mouth. There was no stopping him so I grabbed the camera. He hasn't eaten solids again yet but he seemed to like them so maybe we will try some rice cereal one of these days.

When we got home the kids opened new jammies. We watched a nativity video, read stories, talked about what things we could do that Jesus would like since we are celebrating his birth (Garret said "be nice and happy and less selfish", Spencer said "help people be good and not smoke", Adele "said I gonna do that too", Tyler said "work on the small and simple things", I said "try and be less judgemental and show love for everyone".) Then it was off to bed. Adele and Titus went to their beds. The boys we decided were old enough to have a sleepover in the toy room.

Earlier we had put the monitor in the room so we could make sure they were really asleep. Tyler and I had a blast listening to them. Spencer kept saying "this is the best night ever, dont' you think this is the best night ever?" They played Lego's and checked out the window over and over. Finally at 9:30 Tyler went in and said "you might want to go to sleep because I hear Santa doesn't come if you are awake". About 2 minutes later I went up to find them fast asleep.

Tyler's 12 Days of Christmas

2011-12-24T23:04:00.000-05:00

The 12 Days of Christmas

On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me, A partridge in a pear tree
On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me, a date with your true love (that's me)- We went out out to eat!

On the second day of Christmas My true love sent to me Two turtle doves
On the second day of Christmas my true love send to me two merona gloves- Merona is a target brand of gloves.

On the third day of Christmas My true love sent to me, Three French hens
On the third day of Christmas my true love sent to me, Three black pens

On the fourth day of Christmas My true love sent to me Four calling birds.
On the fourth day of Christmas my true love send to me four types of nerds. - three pictures of nerds and a box of nerds.

On the fifth day of Christmas My true love sent to me, Five golden rings!
On the fifth day of Christmas my true love send to me, five random things.- notepad, chap stick etc.

On the sixth day of Christmas My true love sent to me, six geese a laying.
On the sixth day of Christmas my true love sent to me, six cars for playing.- the kids loved this one!

On the seventh day of Christmas my true love sent to me, seven swans a-swimming
On the seventh day of Christmas my true love sent to me, seven ounces for primping- hairspray

On the eighth day of Christmas my true love sent to me, eight maids a-milking
On the eighth day of Christmas my true love sent to me, eight colored stockings.- the kids helped out.

On the ninth day of Christmas my true love sent to me, nine ladies dancing.
On the ninth day of Christmas my true love sent to me, nine songs for prancing.- we put the music on and I had Tyler demonstrate how you prance to it!

On the tenth day of Christmas my true love sent to me, ten lords a-leaping
On the tenth day of Christmas my true love sent to me, ten hours of sleeping.- a coupon for sleeping whenever I want- SWEET!

On the eleventh day of Christmas my true love sent to me, eleven pipers piping
On the eleventh day of Christmas my true love sent to me, eleven dollars of typing- book

On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love sent to me, twelve drummers drumming
On the twelfth day of Christmas my true love sent to me, twelve Will Ferrel's humming- The Christmas CD from Elf.

Tyler's 12 days really made the countdown to Christmas fun. Sometimes he hid my present and I had to find it, other days he made me guess, sometimes he just gave it to me- every day it was fun. i told one of my sisters the thing I liked best about it was not the cute rhyming words or the gifts (although I did like all of that) it was the fact that Tyler thought about me and spent time making it fun for me. It was fun and I am grateful to be married to a man that gets into things, that thinks about me when he is off at work, that asks himself what he could do to make me happy and then does it. I can hardly wait to see what he comes up with next year!

More Counting Down and Christmas fun!

2011-12-23T14:43:00.000-05:00

One of our Countdown activities was our "Greatest Gifts Box". We read a great story about a boy whose Mom teaches him about giving. At the end of the story he says his greatest gift that year was the lesson his Mother taught him. We made a box and throughout the holidays when we think of one of greatest gifts we write or draw pictures of it, put it in the box, then we read it on Christmas morning.

Tyler made Christmas pancakes one morning.

We thought the boys could use a haircut before Christmas. The guard fell off without anyone noticing. Spencer's turned out shorter than planned...Garret wanted his short then too.

We opened presents and ate a special dinner with Dan, Heather, Ridge, Grandma, Grandpa, Great Grandma and Great Grandpa. It was a great evening and we were blessed to receive some very thoughtful gifts.

Adele knows how to eat candy!

We had a family testimony meeting one night for our countdown (no pics).

We acted out the nativity as a family. They looked so cute!

Garret took his role as the angel very seriously!

The kids LOVE the night we sleep by the Christmas tree. They were so anxious for it that we moved it up for them. We ate ice cream. watched Elf and then snuggled up together.

The boys fell right to sleep.

The girl did not! She stayed in her bed and quietly talked to herself and pretended to feed the sleeping boys, she sang to herself, she clapped, she made funny face and then out of no where she crashed!

We decorated and delivered cookies as part of our countdown.

We have a few fun activities left and then Christmas will be upon us. I can't believe how fast it has all gone by. It has been so much fun.

A Very Special Gift

2011-12-19T11:43:00.001-05:00

This is a personal story of Garret's that I am choosing to share because I want it recorded so he will be able to remember it forever. And so I can remember it and follow his example.

A few weeks ago Garret started asking me if his teacher was a member of our Church. I said "no" and then we talked about how there are good people that go to lots of different churches. He seemed satified with my answer. Then a few days later he started asking more questions and finally said "I want to give my teacher the Book of Mormon."

I was hesitant. I was worried that his gift might bother her and she might treat him differently or that she would be offended. I worried about how sensitive people are about church and school. I basically told Garret "maybe". Thinking he would forget.

He came to me again. That night I emailed his teacher and told her what Garret wanted to do and how much it meant to him but that I would tell him it wasn't the right place if she felt more comfortable with that. (There was more to it then that but that's the main point). She wrote back and thanked us and said it meant a lot that he would want to share something important with her and that she was excited to have a copy.

He was thrilled when I told him. I told him he could write whatever he wanted in the cover. He wrote "Dear Mrs. R. I know Jesus Loves me. I hope you like it. If you want you to come to church with me you can. Love Garret".

I love his cute kindergarten handwriting!

He wrapped it all up and took it with him. I asked if she liked it. He said "I don't know Mom, I told her she couldn't open it until she got home."

I love him!

Our Christmas Party Top Ten

2011-12-17T23:00:00.000-05:00

10. Jon and the watch....A girls watch that only said "no" or was it "on". We never figured that one out!

9. Rachel and Rachel the great name dilemma- it wasn't solved but we made progress (what do you think....are we stuck being Rachel F and Rachel D forever).

8. My Dad introduced us all to his latest invention "The Northwest Slug Remover" (aka giant wooden tweezers used to pick up and remove slugs). We will all be checking Melissa's blog to see what great uses Owen and Nigel find for them and we are hoping to see them available for sale at your local retailer....someday!

7. Oreo Truffles....Need I say more.

6. The Jacobsens are sneaky...we never saw it coming....they seemed so thrilled with their gifts....(who wouldn't want a twilight movie and Santa soap?)...they fooled us all with their delight....sneaky....we found them in the couch cushion later....we never saw it coming!!!

5. Watching Cheryl open the autographed picture collage of Tyler- it was like a twelve year old girl with Justin Beiber!

4. Brendan's look of wonder and awe when he opened a collection of National Geographic on VHS...maybe his smile had more to do with the fact that he drew number 1 and wasn't stuck with them....tough to tell.

3. The homemade hats were the coveted gift of the night....they were well worth the absence of Melissa as she knitted in the car.

2. The tiger print bra...the fact that I had it and somehow didn't have to keep it.

1. Sam and Melissa's sweaters. Actually Sam's sweater! Melissa's was ugly but Sam's stole the show! We told him not to wear it to church tomorrow but he seemed pretty attached to it- so maybe we will be seeing more woolen suspenders!

The party was tons of fun and we look forward to many years of get togethers in the future.

Christmas Countdown Part 1

2011-12-17T15:23:00.000-05:00

For the 12 days prior to Christmas the kids wake up each morning to find an envelope. It contains a Christmas story, poem or quote and an activity. The kids love finding out what we are going to do and I like that the hectic weeks before Christmas are organized.

With 12 days to go we did Christmas crafts. We decorated snowmen, made paper snowflakes and colored nativity pictures.

With 11 days to go we did my favorite day- Christmas Charity. Each year we do something slightly different. This year my parents gave us some information on a family that could use a little extra Christmas. The kids helped find the perfect gifts, some of the things were new things and some of the items were things they love that they thought the family would love. Watching my children willingly and excitedly give is priceless. We have done this for the last several years and never once have I had to convince them to give, never once have I heard them remorseful for giving and always I hear them talk about this special day with fondness.

With 10 days to go we drove around and looked at lights them came home to cups of hot chocolate!

With 9 days to go the kids watched LOTS of Christmas movies.

Titus's 6 month stats

2011-12-17T15:09:00.000-05:00

I took Titus in for his 6 month visit Friday. He did awesome, despite the LONG wait and three bored siblings. Our little cutie weighed in at 20.4 pounds (86th percentile) he hasn't gained much weight in the last couple months, I expected this though. He is so much more active now. He was 29 3/4 inches long (above the 97th percentile). I still predict he will be the tallest of the kids. Only time will tell!

It's starting to feel a lot like Christmas!

2011-12-12T11:51:00.000-05:00

Adele's Tree-

We FINALLY got our tree last Monday. We all went to get it but it was Adele's year to make the final decision. She was really easy to please and just pointed and said "I want that one".

We brought it home and it had too big a trunk to fit in the stand. It was a couple days before we were able to buy a bigger one. Then we ended going a date and not decorating it for another day. By that point I just wanted it up. It was not our finest decorating job...but they are all very happy with it. They have been surprisingly good with the ornaments. They do fight over the remote that turns the tree lights on!

Our Church Christmas party was the other night. Adele was so sad she did not get to sing with the kids, but got over it when she realized I wasn't shushing her and just let her sing along. I always love watching the kids sing. They were very cute.

There was also a Santa Claus. I am not a scroog but I also don't really play up the Santa part of Christmas. They needed no encouragement from me though to be excited about Santa. They are funny though because right away Garret and Spencer said "he is not real". It all started back in Buffalo when there was a very mean mall Santa. I had to tell them that he wasn't real so they didn't think that Santa's were all nasty. At the same time Anna's family went to disneyland and saw Captain Hook. Garret said he did not ever want to go there if Captain hook was there so I said he was just someone dressing up. At the same we went to Churck E Cheese and Spencer was terrified of the mouse so I told him he wasn't real. As a result they are sceptics of anyone dressed up. It hasn't affected their love of Christmas so it doesn't bother me!

It kind of bugs me when people ask kids all the time what they want for Christmas. I figure we should go as long as possible with them just being happy with surprises before they started handing in lists of things they want. ( Plus it's hard to shop the deals throughout the year for specific things). So I never really ask the kids. When Santa asked. Spencer said "toys" and Garret said "toys". Then later added Star Wars toys. It was fun watching them and listening to what they said.

I know there are really 13 days until Christmas but when I woke up this morning there was a letter waiting for me. It said "On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me...a date with your true love (that's me)" It worked better for the first day to be today (then I have been told it will get back on track). Tyler and I decided to buy food storage as our Christmas gift and then keep Christmas really simple. He is sly though and said that since all of this will take place before Christmas it's not a Christmas gift and doesn't violate any of the guidelines we set up. I love that sneaky man of mine and can't wait to see what the twelve days will be.

Tomorrow I get to start my countdown with the kids. We have a Christmas party coming up this week. The calendar is filling up, the kids are excited, the Christmas tree lights are always on, the music is playing. It is starting to feel a lot like Christmas around here and I love it!

My TyTy

2011-12-11T22:58:00.001-05:00

My little man turned 6 months old yesterday. I love him...I really, really do!

A little about Titus at 6 months-

He is a chunk (although I don't know how big a chunk until Friday when I take him in). He really doesn't look as big as he does in this picture. I thought it was funny and I think it will be tease-worthy in the future!

He has two teeth and lots of swollen spots that could pop at any moment.

He sleeps all night most nights.

He goes by lots of nicknames. Some common ones include: TyTy, Little bubbas, buddy, TyTy Mc TyTy (Only Spencer calls him that), Cutie pie, Stinker, the chubs....

He smiles and giggles very easily now.

He is a pro in the walker.

He rolls all over and pushes up pretty far but is still no where near crawling (which I am ok with).

He makes lots of baby noises but I am convinced he says "Mama". He might just like the M sound but since I am his interpreter I think he just loves his Mama!

He loves sucking on his hands and is pretty good at getting his thumb in his mouth.

He has all the kids wrapped around his fingers. All he has to do is squawk and someone gets him a toy or comes and talks to him.

I haven't given him any real food yet. I keep saying maybe at Christmas...maybe. I am just not in a hurry for the messy baby food stage. ( Dinner time is work enough as is.)

After having three projectile spitter-uppers, I have been pleasantly surprised by Titus. He spits up a normal baby amount. I had no idea what I was missing.

He loves his Daddy. I can't get him to fall asleep unless he is in his crib or nursing (and even that doesn't work like it used to). Tyler has the touch with him. He can get him to sleep in his arms when we are out and in a pinch. It might sound funny but I really believe that Titus and Tyler have a special bond. Don't get me wrong- Titus and I are kindred spirits and there is no denying my love for this munchkin but even when I pregnant with him he seemed to just love his Dad. I am not joking or exaggerating, when I was pregnant he acted different when Tyler was around. And since he has been born he has had a special love for his Dad. It's sweet and I look forward to watching it develop and witnessing their relationship over the years.

I say this after each baby, but I can not imagine life with out Titus. We needed him and even though his first six months have been tumultuous (broken bone, lots of crying in the early days, 2 moves, a new job, a new house etc), they have been wonderful. He is a blessing and I am so thankful for him. I love you TyTy!

How We Kicked Off December

2011-12-05T00:57:00.000-05:00

When we first looked at our house we LOVED it. It felt like the perfect place for us. We were not even planning on buying yet. The house found us.

We loved so many things about it. One of the things we loved was that there were not a lot of things we had to do...but lots of things we could do.

We decided we would take one room at a time and give our selves 1-2 months to work on it. We started with the living room. I would say it is 90 percent done now (It's still missing a couple pieces of furniture and pictures on the walls).

Here is the picture from the listing. It was a nice living room when we bought it. It had been freshly painted white, it had a fireplace, wood floors....

We knew it had potential to be so much more! My Brother was so kind to help us paint.

He is awesome (for more reasons then just his painting abilities). I know of no one that can cut a line like he can. He uses no tape and somehow it comes out perfect. I can't even imagine how long the painting would have taken without him. Thank you Dan for all of your help!

Tyler and my Dad (who is the master carpenter) built me the most beautiful shelves around the windows. I LOVE them. They exceed my expectations in ever way!!! My Dad gave a lot of his time to us. He glued boards and even found me boards that would go up around the windows, which was really important to me. Thanks!

Tyler worked every night on them. He put a lot of sweat equity into them and it was so worth it. The pictures do not do it justice. (scroll back up to the original so you can see the difference).

Every time I walk in the room I sigh and smile. It's not even 100% done and it just feels so warm and cozy. I think it feels that way for a couple of reasons. For one- it is a warm and cozy room. Another reason is because we put a lot of our time into it and each time we look at it we feel a sense of accomplishment. And for me I feel a lot of love in this room. It is a reminder of the people I am surrounded by that love me. My Dad for helping us build the shelves. My brother for giving his time to paint. My husband for working so hard because it was important to me. I love it! It was a fun way to kick off December (even if I did complain about how late we are getting our tree this year- we couldn't really have one around while the room was being worked on).

It makes me very excited to keep working on the rest of the house. It's fun making it our own and putting our mark on it!

Enough about my living room (is anyone still reading?). Here are a few things the kids have been doing lately...

School Projects for Garret

Getting anxious for Christmas and worrying because we don't have a tree yet.

Playing dress-ups.

One day the boys begged and begged me to let them go play "Indians" outside. I finally let them (it was cold). I looked out and they had their shirts off and were running in 45 degree weather like this. I figured it couldn't last long and they were having so much fun I hated to yell at them to put their shirts on. They played for over an hour this way.

Titus (affectionately known as TyTy) is a sweetheart. He smiles and giggles and sleeps and is adored by everyone.

Now that the living room is not taking up all our time we are going to get going on Christmas. I love Christmas and am so excited!

A Thank You and more...

2011-12-01T01:32:00.001-05:00

Our new house is a little hard to find and you can't see it from the main road. The UPS man gave me a hard time about not having a sign. So a week or so ago Tyler made a crude sign out of a scrap of wood and a permanent marker. It is very unspectacular and we both have been saying we would like to put a nice sign down there.

Today I drove Garret to school. On the way home I noticed a new sign down by the road. It had our name and address on it- but was far from crude. I hurried home and told Tyler we speculated on who could have done it. We asked a couple people but we never figured it out. We were thrilled to have a nice sign! We were touched that someone thought of us, made us a sign and put it up for us (although, whoever you are I might move it to a different spot- the spot where the crude sign is- only to stay on the good side of the UPS man that has been frequenting my house). It was so kind of you. If you want to tell us who you are we would love to thank you in person. If you don't then I really hope you read my blog because I can think of no other way to thank you. So here you are mystery person- Thank you so much!!!!

On a different note-

Adele who is just over 2 learned the word "why" and has been asking me why about everything. It is exhausting. It doesn't matter what I say she looks at me with her big brown eyes and says "why". I find the why stage a stage where I am constantly struck by how little I know. I just don't know "why" everything is the way it is.

Tyler has been working on the most amazing shelves to go around our fireplace and windows. I LOVE them and can't wait to show you pictures. I am hoping we can get them done this weekend. The kids are very anxious to have Christmas decorations put up.

Spencer wants mistletoe so bad. I told him that if you stand under mistletoe then you get a kiss. He thinks this sounds like the best thing ever. He has been telling me all the places he wants to hang mistletoe. There could be a lot of kissing going on at our house!

Titus has continued sleeping good and I really think he has outgrown his fussyness. He no longer screams in his car seat and he smiles and giggles all the time. He is a pro in his walker and turning into a little flirt.

Garret had a countries test in school. I kept forgetting to help him study for him. He was devastated when he didn't do perfect on it. He can retake it next week so it's alright. I felt awful for not helping him more. I am thankful that he takes things so seriously but it worries me a little that he beats himself up so much over it.

Adele has been told over and over that LaLa her kitten is in heaven. She was alright with this for a few days. Then one day she said to me "I don't want lala to be in heaven anymore. I'm gonna go find her".

We always get our tree right after Thanksgiving. Since our living room is still under construction we haven't gotten one yet. I hope that soon we will have it and the decorations up and hopefully, I will get organized and we will be posting about our Christmas adventures. I don't want to miss it. I LOVE Christmas and all the fun activities leading up to it.

Music and Memories

2011-11-29T10:00:00.002-05:00

Dear Josh Groban-

I have always been taught "Give Thanks, Where Thanks is due". My thanks are due to you.

First I must thank you for the magical moment you helped create on my first date with Tyler. We danced as you sang (on the radio) in a parking lot- it was perfect and according to Tyler it was the moment he knew I was going to be his dancing partner FOREVER. I admit I didn't know what he knew(it took me a little longer) but it was magical all the same.

Then you came through for us again at our wedding reception. We were married that morning, we celebrated with family at a luncheon then we had a simple but lovely reception with so many friends. The day was perfect and at the very end before we drove off as two married people we danced as you sang. It was beautiful.

Since then Tyler and I have continued to dance as you sing in the background. If we ever hear your music we look at each other and smile and we are both caught up remembering all the times we have danced as you sang. We smile because we know we will be dancing for years to come.

I must tell you there was a time when I thought your music was meant only to get Tyler and I up dancing. Then you entered our lives again...this time singing on a holiday CD. Now all year I anxiously await the time when I can pop it in and listen as you fill our car and home with the most beautiful Christmas songs (#2 is my Favorite). We don't normally get up and dance, we hold hands as we listen and sometimes we sing along.

Awe, the Christmas season. Awe, the beautiful music. Awe, the magical moments.

Thank you for the music!!! Thank you for the good memories it invokes!!! Thank you for the new ones it is creating!!!

A fan,

Rachel

***I realize Good Old Josh will never see this (especially since my blog is not suppose to come up on search engines- dang). But seriously I could listen to it all day! We have had Drummer Boy on repeat and the kids are starting to sing along---doesn't get much better than that!!!

Thanksgiving Weekend- The Good, The Bad and The Peas!

2011-11-28T14:58:00.001-05:00

The Good-

*Naomi Got here in time to hold Smoky (he disappeared the day after Thanksgiving and we haven't seen him yet- See "The Bad" for more kitten details).

*Aunt Leah is such a great Aunt....she even did Adele's hair!!!Woo-woo!

*The women of the family- We were missing a few but it was great seeing Anna and Leah and Mom. I love them SO much.

*Silly Billy- Dad read his favorite book from his childhood to his grand kids that were there. How cool is that?!

*Cousins- Oh how they have missed each other. They enjoyed their visit together and Grandpa even helped them create slug picker uppers and flingers.

*I should have had a funny category...Dad got the "high" chair for dinner!

*Dinner- You know it's a great Thanksgiving when the table stretches on and on!

*My babies- Love them.

*Titus and his Great Grandma...He has always been taken with her.

*After dinner games...."Chicken, Chicken, who has the Chicken?" I am glad I am not the only one that has a difficult time figuring it out!

*Charades Anyone....Can you guess what my Mom is? (Answer at the end of post!)

*The Root Beer Expert- Saturday our friends (they were on our first date with us) came to visit. He is always looking for the best root beer. He brought his current favorite over for us to try!

*The kids all had so much fun together!

The Bad

* Titus welcomed Thanksgiving by giving us a little present! (He actually explodes often...It's pretty comical).

*Kittens- We have had our kittens for over a month and had no problems. All three were growing and knowing their way around the property. Thanksgiving we woke up and couldn't find Lala (Adele's kitten). We all looked but Garret was the most persistent. Thankfully, he did not find her. Tyler and Joe found her. We believe she was hit by a car but we didn't spend too much time analyzing we didn't want the kids to see her. Garret took it really hard. Luckily we had had the scare of them getting lost a few days ago and been able to talk a lot about things that could happened. He cried a lot- it broke my heart. If we ask Adele what happened she says "Lala in heaven, I gonna go find Lala...Here kitty kitty kitty". I know that's life, but it doesn't mean it wasn't sad watching them hurt and trying to parent them through it.

*Kittens part 2- At least we still had Smoky and Tiger...right? Well after Thanksgiving Smoky (Garret's kitten) just disappeared in the middle of the day. We have no idea what happened. We looked A LOT. This one hit him hard too. Since we didn't ever find him we were able to say that hopefully he wandered to someone else's house and since they didn't know where he belonged they adopted him. It was a rough weekend in regards to the kittens.

The Peas-

*I must preface this by saying my Mom is an AMAZING cook. She decided to try something new to go with Thanksgiving dinner. Cold peas in a sour cream, mayonnaise, bacon mixture. I took a decent size scoop because I like peas and I like my Mom's cooking. After the first bite I knew it was going to be hard to eat them all. When Titus started to fuss, I didn't want to leave and have a huge pile of peas on my plate so when I thought no one was looking I scooped them onto Adele's plate. No one gets hurt feelings when a two year old doesn't eat her peas. I went up and fed Titus. While I was away I guess word got out that the peas were not the highlight of the meal and everyone scooped their uneaten peas onto my plate. So much for putting them on Adele's I came down to a huge plate of unwanted peas. Needless to say...My Mom is going to be eating leftover peas for a long time!!!

***For those of you wondering what my Mom was in the Charades game- She was bacon. She layed down and twitched occasionally- bacon sizzles when being cooked- She is the best!

- I must add that when this Thanksgiving rolled around it brought back lots of memories of last year. Last year Mom was in the middle of Chemo. I am so Thankful this year to have my Mom here and healthy. It was a long year for her and she is doing great. She is a blessing in my life!

I hope every one's Thanksgiving was as wonderful as ours.

Add this to the list

2011-11-23T15:10:00.000-05:00

I have a list of moments that have been really scary and had the potential to be disastrous. I won't go into the others right now. Today's very scary moment went something like this....

I was downstairs on the phone. Adele and Spencer were playing upstairs and Titus was in his walker. I was talking to my Mom and kept thinking that it smelled really bad in our house. Our house has a tendency to smell bad thanks to Titus and his diapers but this was different. I walked around the downstairs while on the phone but couldn't pin down where the smell was coming from.

Finally I got off the phone with my Mom and something in me told me to go up and see what the kids were up to. The smell was worse as I went up the stairs. When I went in the boys room, where the kids were playing, it was awful. Immediately I started looking for where the smell was coming from. My sweet little Spencer had put his socks on top of the light (they are wall lights that have a cover around them so you can't really see down in them). Once I figured it out I acted fast, I pulled the first sock out and it was only seared the second one was melted and on fire. I put it out and in as nice a way possible made sure Spencer knew the severity of his actions. I really wasn't mean but I am guessing by the fact that he hid under his bed crying for a few minutes that he got the message. Don't worry we talked about it a lot after and I don't think he will ever do it again. I think our house might smell like burnt sock for a while but no damage was done.

It was a brief part of our day but I still can't shake it. The thought of what could have happened is still too fresh and scary. I am thankful right now that I followed the voice in my head that sent me upstairs. I am thankful that my kids and house are safe. I am thankful that this moment gets to go on my "could have been disastrous list" and not on some other more tragic list.

Titus is Thankful for his Toes

2011-11-23T12:26:00.001-05:00

Titus understand the simple pleasures in life!!!

Thankful for Friends

2011-11-21T14:34:00.000-05:00

We have lived all over and we have friends all over. A lot of our friends have become like our family. The other night I had some of our newest friends over. I don't think it will be long before we feel like family as well....for that I am truly thankful!

*I realize this is a terrible picture- we had no power, it was dark and cold...which is one more reason I think these girls are awesome- they laughed it off, wrapped up in blankets and stayed til one in the morning!

My Little Family

2011-11-21T00:31:00.001-05:00

It's chaos and I Love it....

I am thankful for them!

(Photo credits- My awesome sister Heather...Next time we play with the camera hopefully the baby weight will be gone!)

"It's not just a kitten, it's a little boys heart"

2011-11-17T20:21:00.000-05:00

Let me tell you about my day...

This morning we walked to the bus stop in the rain. I had Titus in the front carrier and the others walked. The kittens followed us to the end of the road. They have done this a couple of other times but not many. We got to the end and waited for the bus to come. Garret left and we were about to head back when a noisy car drove by. Two of the kittens dove for the bushes. I tried to get them (they are very friendly normally), but they ran deeper. In the rain with the front carrier and kids I wasn't able to look very hard for them so I headed back. Put Titus down and went back out looking. I looked for a while, no luck. Put food out, called them. Walked the road again. Called the neighbor so they could look for them. By the end of the day I was sick inside. Not so much for the kittens ( I do like them ), the real thing that gave me that deep down sick feeling was knowing that I would have to tell Garret when he got home.

As I made my way to the bus stop this afternoon, I said a silent prayer that went something like this "I know they are just kittens, but please if you could just help me find them. Garret's heart will hurt so much if I don't.". Some may call it coincidence, I choose to see the miraculous in it- as I finished, the bus came around the corner and kittens walked out of the woods wet and muddy.

Today I am thankful for little miracles- and a God who cares about the hearts of little boys!

Little Bits of Thankfulness

2011-11-15T22:27:00.002-05:00

I am thankful for good books and a sense of humor. Seriously, its been a couple weeks since we read Where the Red Fern Grows and I still am hearing about how they want "Red Bone Coon Hounds". The boys told Adele today to say "I want a red bone coon hound" and she marched around saying it all morning. I am so glad they loved the book and can't get it out of their heads. You can tell a book is good when you think about it long after you read it. And I am thankful that I can laugh at their pleas!

I am thankful for the kids in Garret's class. I don't know most of them very well but I know that they had a chance to be mean and didn't. Yesterday Garret was at school and had to go to the bathroom. He went to use the classroom one and someone was in there. The teacher gave him permission to go the the bathroom in the hall. He couldn't find it and had an accident. This kid never has accidents and I can picture how devastated he must have been. I know him so well I can almost guess his thought process and how worried he was. The nurse gave him a set of clothes (which I am not sure why because he has extras in his backpack just in case) and he went back to class. He said no one said anything but he knows they all noticed. A big thank you to those kids for not making my little boy hurt emotionally. And thank you to the parents that taught them how to act.

I am thankful for caterpillars. If there were no caterpillars I could not have enjoyed a very funny moment on Sunday. Our hall closet where we hope to put all our shoes is under repair so the kids kick their shoes off outside a lot of the time. Garret had left his dress shoes out on the porch the Saturday night. Sunday morning he ran out and got them. At the end of church (which is three hours long) he came to me and told me that a caterpillar was in his shoe but he didn't know what to do with it so he had just left it there. Poor sweet boy that doesn't like drawing attention to himself (at least not in large groups). I thought he had been walking funny, I guess he was trying not to squish it- he didn't succeed. It was not in very good shape when he showed it to me. I stifled my laugh and told him to dump it out and get rid of it. It wasn't really a cute one either it was a green hairless one. You should have been there it was great! I admit it may not have been quite as funny had it been a slug.

I am thankful for new jammies. Tonight when I put Adele in her jammies they were some bigger ones I had just pulled out for her. She immediately put them on and said "I look adorable". She has no shame!

I am thankful today for paper. If there were no paper I am not sure what I would find the million little picture Spencer makes for me on. He is always drawing me pictures and hiding them for me or giving them to me. He is getting pretty good. I think he has drawn on an entire trees worth of paper I will never get tired of them! (What better way for a tree to go!)

And one last bit of gratitude for the day goes out to my Grandma. I love that she came over to see my house today. How blessed I am to live near enough now that I can have her over.

There is no way to capture all my blessings but its fun singling out a few. Isn't November a wonderful month?

Thankful for Each Day

2011-11-15T01:44:00.000-05:00

I had planned to sit down and write about some more of the small blessings in my life that I am thankful for (and I will another day) but something happened that changed my plan.

My cousin Anya's husband died in a car accident. She is just a couple years older than me. She has three little kids- two boys and a baby girl. I have not seen my cousin in a few years but I have wonderful memories of all of us playing together when we were young and a few memories from dinners when we were older. She was always a cousin that I enjoyed being around and loved.

Ever since hearing the news of her husband my heart has hurt for her. I can not imagine the pain she is enduring right now. I am thankful for the gospel and that we know there is life after this. I believe in the power of Christ and his ability to heal. And yet I know he allows us to feel pain and I am sure she is feeling a great deal right now. She will be in my thoughts and prayers and if you have a second include her in yours as well.

Things like this remind me to be grateful for each day. So tonight I am thankful for each moment I get to live. Each moment I get to love my family, watch my children grow, each moment I get to be alive and experience this world. I hope I can find ways to embrace it more fully and make the most of the moments I am given.

Why We Moved To The Country and Thankful Thoughts

2011-11-09T16:59:00.001-05:00

We moved to the country so our kids could spend hour after hour doing real kid things....like building teepee's for cats (seriously is there a better use of a kids time!)

I love watching them work together and play together. I love watching them get bored and then come up with something creative to do. I suppose there are lots of reasons we moved to the country (we can have a garden, play sports, seclusion etc) but the big reason was to provide an amazing backdrop for them to be children.

Today's thankfulness is this- When Garret had his two friends over today, he didn't leave his brother out. I hope that no matter what friends he makes he still remembers his buddy Spencer. I am thankful that they are brothers and friends.

Night Time Gratitude

2011-11-08T13:35:00.000-05:00

This morning I woke up feeling a great deal of gratitude. My sweet little bundle of joy went to bed at 6:30 last night, fussed a little at 10 but Tyler was still up so he just went in and put a blanket around him. Then we both went to bed and we didn't hear from our TyTy until 6:00 this morning. I admit I still woke up often during the night. I kept wondering when he was going to wake up and listening really hard to be sure I wasn't sleeping through his screams. I realize there is a high probability that it could take a week or two before this becomes common place but I am thankful for the rest I got and I admit I look forward to a few more nights of sleep (I have some serious catching up to do!). As much as I love him being little the middle of the night feedings will not be too hard for me to let go of (just a very teeny-tiny part of me will miss our snuggle time at night- Ill find a way to make up for it during the day). He is a sweetheart and so easy to be thankful for. Thank you Titus for a good nights sleep!!!

I think he might take after his sister in the face making department!

Sunday Thankfulness

2011-11-07T15:11:00.000-05:00

My Family Name- Now that I leave near where I grew up and where my parents still live it almost feels like I should introduce myself with my maiden name and my married name. It is weird seeing or calling people I used to know and not calling myself a Beck. When people do find out I am a Beck we always find connections. My parents know a lot of people and I am thankful that when people find out that I am a Beck it is always met with excitement and story telling. I am glad I come from a family that I can be proud of. I had one of those "oh, you're a Beck" moments Sunday and it made me once again grateful for my background.

Another quick bit of Sunday gratitude goes out to my crock pot. Strange I know but that crock pot has cooked me many Sunday dinners. There are few things that can beat walking into the house after church, hungry and tired, and meeting up with the aroma of a dinner already made and ready to eat. Tyler made Chili Sunday and I am not joking when I say it was right up there with my Moms (and that says a lot). We have so many conveniences all around us and the crock pot is one I am very thankful for. I love being able to get dinner already early when the day is still fresh and I am motivated. I love that when the end of the day crazy hours are upon us I do not have to cook while wrestling kids. Yes-sir-re I love my crock pot! (If only I knew more good recipes that I could cook in it- I might just use it every night!)

More November Thankfulness

2011-11-04T19:15:00.001-04:00

Yesterday I was thankful for teaching moments. Garret's in kindergarten so he is new to school and friendships and following the crowd. He made a wrong choice (nothing to drastic). He talked to me about it and even though my internal response was disapointment and frustration, I was able to stop myself from spewing out whatever came to my mind. Instead I waited to talk to him until I had thought it through. We talked about it and it was productive. My ultimate goal is to help them grow up well, yelling would not have gotten me there. I know he is little and mistakes happen and I know he has a good heart, I talked to him in kindness and he responded. I pray I can keep my perspective as he grows and we face more challenges together. I hope he always feels like he can talk to me. I hope he always feels the love I have for him when we talk. I am thankful for the chance I had to guide him.

Today our power was out all morning. I have no idea why. The kids seemed to think it was awful. Which is funny because the sun was out and they could do all the same things they normally can do. Anyway, rather then listen to the complain we decided to do a project together. We got out four big bins and then we put one of their names on each one and we went through the box that had all the ultrasound pictures, hospital souveniers, baby blankets they don't use right now, blog books, blessing outfits etc. We sorted them out and put them in the right box. We had so much fun. The kids loved seeing the little treasures and they loved hearing me talk about why it was special. We had the best morning together- it was productive and fun. If the power had not gone out we may not have felt like taking on the project. So today I am thankful that the power was off, that there was no extra noise, no internet, nothing but me and the munchkins together!

Goodbye October, Welcome November

2011-11-03T01:20:00.000-04:00

I am so glad that October is over. It was definitely not a bad month- but it was busy. We celebrated two birthdays, bought a house, moved, met lots of new people, started house projects and celebrated Halloween. I spent way too much of October thinking about things I wanted- things I wanted for the house, how I wanted the birthdays to go, how to make Halloween fun for the kids. Now it is November and I plan to continue working on projects but to try and relax and enjoy life a little more. I want to focus the month on being grateful for the MANY blessings in my life. Ever since Titus was born we have been deep into trying to figure out the future. First it was what to do about a job, when to move from Yakima, then it was moving from Yakima and trying to find something more permanent. Now that our lives are finally starting to find a rhythm I want to enjoy it.

Yesterday as I was taking in the new month and feeling grateful that the last was over I sat and watched the kids bike around and around and around the circle driveway. I thought to myself- I am so blessed to have this paved circle driveway. For a moment I did not see all the yard work that is undone- I just saw them. A circle driveway really is a great blessing. They never run out of space to bike. Garret has really mastered his two wheeler and gets more daring each day. Spencer slowly makes his way around the circle and is convinced he is ahead whenever Garret passes him and is behind him again! And Adele just chases them on foot!

Today I had to walk the garbage cans to the end of our LONG driveway in the rain. I had no kids with me and it was very peaceful. I listened to the rain hit the leaves of the trees, it was as if the drops were purposely playing their own music. I do not doubt that I will be very sick of the rain at times, but there will also be moments like tonight when it was peaceful and enchanting in it's own way.

Today I was also very grateful for the good school Garret goes to the kind teacher he has. He had his first conference today. It was so much fun going in and talking one on one with his teacher. I knew it would be a good report but it was fun watching him interact with her and learning more about his time spent at school. He was very concerned going in that his teacher would say he doesn't follow along well in story time with his finger. When we went in he got very clingy and I said "I think he is just nervous because you haven't seem him track with his finger well". My sensitive boy burst into tears and said "I'm trying so hard". She was very kind and pulled out a paper that said different things they are doing and how he is doing with them. Under tracking with his finger it said he is doing great. He was so glad she had noticed and you could see relief flood over him. He has a high standard for himself. She has no complaints with him and says he is a joy to have in class. He is ahead in a lot of areas but doesn't act up when he is bored. She says she uses him as an example often. He is quite at school (not at recess, which is fine), he follows directions, he is nice to others. I don't know the right word for how I felt hearing this good report. It is very reassuring to know that my little boy knows how to be good even when I am not there to reprimand and encourage. It felt good knowing that he does his best without me looking over his shoulder and telling him to try harder. He is such a great kid and I am so blessed by his presence.

Welcome November! A month to dwell on the blessings in our lives!!!

Halloween 2011

2011-11-01T12:29:00.000-04:00

We forced the kids to eat something healthy then headed out the door. We stopped by the neighbors house (we were the first trick or treaters ever and they were SO excited), then we saw some friends in Shelton, then we went to my Mom's (my Dad is in DC), then to my Grandparents and finished up at Dan and Heathers. The kids got lots of candy and made lots of people smile.

That's it for the Star Wars gang. They are alright with it though because now their costumes are in the dress up box and they get to play with them whenever they want! It was a very Happy Halloween!

Pre-Halloween (and lots of other randomness)

2011-10-30T00:28:00.000-04:00

We have been in our house for a total of two weeks. Moving makes life busy so I had mentally prepared myself to skip over Halloween this year and hopefully have it together by Thanksgiving. Apparently that is not an option so in between mowing lawns, water filters, furnace maintenance (etc) we snuck in some Halloween fun and some everyday life.

We decorated cookies with friends Monday night. (FYI- that light will be going once we get around to it!)

Spencer and Titus are buddies and Spencer is always asking me to take their picture together. I thought I better post one. I hope they stay buddies forever.

I tried talking everyone into painting pumpkins this year (I know I am not normally such a poor sport). Don't worry no one went for it. In the end it was totally worth it. They loved it. And they loved their Jack O lanterned shaped pizza that we had before we got started.

I found myself sneaking into Adele's room a lot this week. I peek in at her normally but sometimes when I find her to be, shall we say, challenging, I go in more often. Something about a sleeping baby reminds me why it's all worth it. (Please don't think that there is anything wrong with Adele, she is one of the most adorable two year olds ever and we could not possibly love her anymore. She just keeps us busy! This week an extra lot.)

At Garret's school they recognize kids for "quality work". Garret was one of the kids recognized from his class. I took the younger three to go watch him and they were perfect and so proud of their big brother. We are all so proud of what a great job he is doing in school.

All year I had been thinking of great family themed costumes for the us to wear. I figured since they are all little it wouldn't take any convincing. Then we moved and I was WAY to busy to make any costumes. I decided I would be lame and just have them wear something from the dress-up box.

I do love making my kids happy so at the last minute I looked on-line for Star Wars costumes (no I am not really a fan and this was not my clever idea for a family theme). I found ones already marked down and coupon codes. It seemed like a decent deal so I ordered them. They were thrilled. (and considering home many times I have been asked if they can wear them to bed....I think they will be well used.)

Princess Leia, Baby Chewbacca, Luke Skywalker and Han Solo!

Tyler and I couldn't resist going along with the theme. So for the church party we wore black and wrote the opening lines across us. We got a lot of "oh, now I get what you are" comments.

The Church party was lots of fun. The kids costumes were a hit and it was fun seeing our friends.

On a different note. I went to grab my camera and take pictures of Titus when he woke up the other day. He was so happy. When I came back Spencer was so proud of the fact that he saw and heard some action while I was away. Having a baby around never gets old.

Whenever we have a spare minute we work on the house and whenever the sun shines we work outside. The kids help whenever they can. They were pulling weeds for us and didn't want to stop playing with their kittens so they all put them in their hoods.

Spencer and I tried testing the limits of the front carrier (just for fun of course, as if I would actually lug that kid around, Titus about breaks my back). He said it was pretty comfortable.

The school put on a Fall Festival so we went. It was too crowded for our taste but still fun and we like supporting his school. They had lots of little things for the kids to do. I'm pretty sure that everyone that saw Adele commented on her cute little wig. Titus was also a big hit. Who doesn't love baby Chewy. Spencer was sure to correct people if they called Titus an Ewok. It's amazing what they know about Star Wars, considering they have NEVER seen it! Once again they loaded up on candy and we haven't even done the "real" thing yet. Now I am going to have to try and loose baby weight and Halloween weight- Yikes!

We never made it to a pumpkin patch this year but I think we still fit quite a bit in considering all we have had going on. The kids are happy so we are!

4 Months and 2 years

2011-10-27T17:15:00.000-04:00

Adele and Titus had Doctor's visits yesterday.

Titus weighed 19 and a half pounds (above the 95th percentile) and was 27 and a half inches long (above the 95th percentile). He is a healthy little guy. He did awesome for shots. He won't take a bottle for the life of him but he seemed to like the oral vaccine and did great for his two shots.

I was pretty worried about Adele. She is feisty and I thought the doctor office might bring out some of that. She did awesome. She sat perfectly still while they looked in her ears and eyes. She stood on the scale and she didn't even cry when they gave her her shots. She is a big girl she weighs 31.8 pounds (93 percentile) and she was 35 inches tall (77th percentile).

Speaking of Adele while writing this she just said "I went potty like the boys". I went to see what she was talking about and she showed me a puddle of pee right outside my front door. What am I going to do with her?!

Aunt Marianne

2011-10-26T00:15:00.000-04:00

Most of my Mom's family lives in Utah. We never lived there but used to make a yearly trip to visit our relatives down there. Once I left home I went a few times but we were so busy with school and too broke to fly there so we haven't made it very often. I really enjoy visiting with family. I think that no matter how long it's been just the fact that we are family makes us gravitate towards each other and enjoy one another. Plus we all share wonderful childhood memories together. Tyler and I hope to make a trip to Utah sometime soon. All that is beside the point. The real point is this- my Aunt Marianne was visiting and she spent an evening with us. I am sure I would enjoy visiting with her no matter what- but it was extra fun because she has a blog and obviously I do as well so we have been able to keep up with each other over the last couple of years.

It was raining but that didn't stop my kids from showing off their kittens or bike riding skills! They might survive in Western Washington after all.

One of the funniest moments of the night occurred when I told Spencer we would probably get a rug for the living room at some point. He burst into tears and cried off and on for the rest of the evening. Even after I explained that the rug would not cover the entire floor. He doesn't want to give up any of his good sliding floor to a rug- classic!

We didn't get to spend tons of time together (next visit) but we enjoyed the evening and the fact she fit us into her trip meant a lot to us. Hopefully it will not be as many years before we see her again! Thanks for the visit Aunt Marianne!

Teeth

2011-10-23T01:22:00.000-04:00

This little chub-bub has two teeth now. He got them when he was 4 months and 6 days old. I really feel bad for him. I have been so busy with buying the house and the move that I haven't taken enough pictures of him. He really is a cutie. He has the greatest dimples in his cheeks when he smiles and he has really started giggling.

***Note to self---Take pictures of Titus soon!

Kittens

2011-10-23T01:19:00.000-04:00

We have lots of mole holes on our property (A LOT). We decided that some barn cats would be a good investment. But we wanted to get them as kittens for the kids to enjoy. A couple days after moving here we started looking on craigslist for kittens. Most of the kittens were indoor kittens and we didn't want indoor kittens, one day we found an ad for kittens raised outside.

Tyler went to get them but could not go until late at night. We had planned to have the kids pick out there own but we didn't want to risk someone else taking them. So, they slept in a box in the laundry room the first night. The kids did not know we were getting them that night.

We woke up the next morning to Adele saying "whats that noise" over and over again. I didn't want her to see them before the boys so I ran in their room and yelled "quick get out of bed I hear something". They flew out of bed ran down the stairs and Tyler said "I think it's coming from that box". They all peaked in together and their reactions were priceless. They were shaking with excitement and Garret burst into tears. He ran over and hugged me and through his tears said "Thank you Mom".

We let them each name one. Garret picked up the grey kitty and said "I'm gonna name him Old Dan and teach him to hunt" (we recently red Where the Red Fern Grows) We said that they might get confused since we have an Uncle Dan so he named him Smoky (but is still going to train him). Spencer named the orange kitten Tiger. And Adele named the Black one Lala.

They run around outside during the day and sleep in the garage at night. The kids love them and they are the BEST kittens. They let the kids push them on dump trucks, give them piggy back rides, carry them upside down (Adele is trying hard to be nice). They never scratch or run away.

The first day Adele's kitten went behind a chair. She said "oh oh oh it wants to play hide and seek. 1, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9 I gonna find you".

Spencer loves having me take pictures of everything his kitten does. He puts flowers by and asks me to take a picture because it is "so cute". He puts it in the trees, on the fence everywhere. He has been around me a lot I can tell because he says "I always want to remember my little Tiger when he was still little, someday he will be a big cat".

Adele loves them so much she doesn't even want to come in to blow her nose! Nasty!

We are enjoying our kittens and I am enjoying watching the kids with them.

A Quick Update (Sorry No Pics)

2011-10-21T14:06:00.000-04:00

I promise to get my desktop hooked up soon so I can put up pictures (I usually always blog from there because my pictures are all organized on that).

We moved again! It was crazy. We were only moving a couple miles so we just made lots of trips back and forth. Thanks to those that helped it go so smoothly.

Let me back up and tell you how this latest move came about. Tyler and I love looking at house. We are always talking about what we want in our house someday and watching the market. When we moved here we looked just for fun a few times. One night I saw one that looked pretty good especially considering the price (it was banked owned). My brother Dan was over and I showed him some of the houses I had been looking at for fun (just for fun because we were not planning on buying until we had been at the current job for longer). Everyone liked the house I showed them so we decided just for fun to drive by it. We drove in and loved the property. There was a big barn, a small guest house, a garage, circle drive-way, the house, a trail to the water. It felt like it's own little world, like a great place for the kids to play. Then we decided that just for fun we would get a realtor to let us in and see the inside. We did and the house was better then we thought it would be from the pictures. It was not 100% what we had always talked about but it was pretty close so we then had to make a choice try to buy it or wait since it wasn't the plan. As the last couple months have shown life doesn't always go the way we planned so we decided to think and pray about it.

We felt good about it and came back to see it several times. So we applied for the loan and everything just came together really quickly. We closed in 45 days and it would have been sooner but the bank did a couple repairs on the house for us. We got out of our rental and moved in. We have a few projects we have to do and a lot we want to do. The kids are so in love with the place. Tyler and I love it (minus the fact that there is no bathtub- but Ill get over it). My big problem is I have all these ideas of things I want to do to make it even more perfect and I have to pace myself. It's fun, having a big project to work on ourselves and make our own. I like getting the kids involved. We are going to try and take one room at a time and spend about two months on it making it the nicest we can. (I have to have a plan so I don't get carried away). I will try to put up before and after pictures for everyone.

Lots has been happening around here. I will put house/property pics up soon (we have 5.25 acres) and fill you in on the other exciting things going on, but hopefully that will suffice for now.

Number 7

2011-10-13T17:21:00.000-04:00

No we are not adding a seventh member to our family....We are about to make our seventh move. So if you don't hear anything from us for a few days it's because I am putting all my stuff back in boxes, changing addresses, and struggling to keep my sanity.

House details to come....

I'm a Mormon

2011-10-11T18:22:00.000-04:00

Our Church set up a website where we can post a little about ourselves and why we believe what we believe. Tyler and I both set ours up so we decided to share!

We are so grateful for our religion and the role it plays in our lives. There was so much that could be said, it was hard to summarize such a huge thing but fun to try.

Click here for my profile.

Click here for Tyler's profile.

Reading Together

2011-10-10T14:02:00.001-04:00

The boys are really loving being read to. We get up early and read a few chapters before Tyler goes to work. There are some books he doesn't care if we read while he is gone but others he wants to hear and help read so we have to wait til he is home! It's lots of fun sharing good books together.

We have just a couple of chapters left of Where the Red Fern Grows. Everyone should read it. It is so good. The story is good and a fun adventure for the kids and the message is SO SO SO good. While I am reading I keep stopping and talking to the kids about it because I want them to get all they can out of it. I love that the little boy works for 2 years to get his dogs- I hope my kids could be that patient and work that hard for something. I love that he prays and has a relationship with God. I love that he is emotional and appreciative of all he has. I love how much he cares about his family and dogs. We have just a little left and I know it is the sad part...I am not sure how we are going to get through it, we have already cried and it's not even sad yet. Seriously it's a good, good book.

***Update*** We finished this morning and it went something like this. Tyler started crying while reading, then we look over and Garret is crying, he crawls up on Tyler's lap and continues to cry, the book is handed to me. I start reading and suddenly Spencer starts crying and repetitively saying "I do not like this book". When we finally finished everyone was crying. We calmed them down and they confessed they liked the book but didn't like the ending. Still a good book- but definitely gets you in the end.

I guess one good thing about the rainy season that is about to be upon us is more time to share good books!

Hailey and her family!

2011-10-10T00:29:00.000-04:00

We spent a couple days back in Yakima and had a great time. Hailey was having a birthday party that I was lucky enough to get to help with and she had her baptism which was very very special to attend.

She had 7 friends over for her party and Anna and I helped them decorate cupcakes. I had to remind myself it was just for fun and not worry too much how they turned out. Surprisingly they all thought the cupcakes were beautiful. Then the boys saw them and I overheard them saying "wow, they did so good". Awe, to have 8 year old eyes!

Saturday morning we watched Kyle play football. How cute are they in their little uniforms and pads!

Saturday afternoon I pretended to be a photographer (a new camera is on my "someday" list!)

Hailey- The beautiful, spunky, social 8 year old.

Nichole- The sassy, smiley, cute as can be kindergartner!

Kyle- The athletic, tough and yet so kind 10 year old (double digits- so old).

Katie- dimples in cheeks, make you laugh kindergartner!

Lydie- Independent, baby of the bunch almost 18 month old!

Anna and Marc- My brother and sister and great friends.

I love these kids!

A beautiful family!

It was so fun seeing them all again!

Our NOT so terrible Two Year Old

2011-10-05T23:53:00.000-04:00

We celebrated Adele's two year old birthday today!

Tyler and I made her cake very very late last night (he had meetings and wasn't home until after 11). Apparently we do better when we start earlier! We decided to do a funny face since anyone that knows Adele knows she is always making faces.

She loved it. When she saw it she said "oh, a funny face" and then mimicked it. Her day was already off to a good start.

Then we opened presents. She knew just what to do and enjoyed each and every gift. Her face may look like she doesn't but that's just our silly Adele.

She picked cereal for breakfast (which I was thankful for since I had to have all the morning stuff done and everyone ready to be out the door by 7:30). We also had chocolate milk with straws.

We dropped Tyler off at work and Garret off at school then went to Grandma's house. I wanted something fun for her to do so she made cookies with Grandma and played with Ridge. She had lots of fun.

The cookies were BEAUTIFUL! They had LOTS of sprinkles and tasted really good. Anyone that has had my Mom's sugar cookies knows hers are the best!

She wanted to hold the plate of cookies on the way home. The whole way she kept saying "I breaking them Mommy", it was her birthday so what are few broken cookies.

We had a lunch of corn dogs then a nice long nap. Then it was time to go get Tyler. We got him then headed to the store.

She liked everything and had a hard time deciding. She kept going back to this dog play dough thing. So in the end that was her pick!

Then we went to eat at this "bear" restaurant. It was the perfect pick. There was bear decor all over and she kept saying (a little too loud) "OH a Bear" every time she saw one. When the waiter came she said to him "it's my birthday today, I two". She is pretty cute and the next thing you know he is back with a stuffed bear and tells her she can have any dessert she wants!

When we got home we were all feeling the effects of our huge dinner so we put our pajamas on and watched Adele's new movie "Tangled". She watched it with her new baby that she named Em-o-ly. (She came up with the name all by herself and makes sure we all pronounce it properly!).

Finally, we did her cake. She blew those candles out like an old-pro!

Then we said she needed to go through the spanking machine. She started to cry and say "no spanking machine, no pinch to grow an inch" so in true Deli form she got out of it! (next year we won't let her off so easy.)

Then it was off to bed. She was a very happy girl and had a wonderful day. The rest of us had a wonderful day making it fun for her. We love you Deli-girl!!!

Adoring Adele

2011-10-04T12:01:00.000-04:00

(Ignore Adele's filthy face in the pictures below)

My little girl turns 2 on Thursday. We will be celebrating our little girlie on Wednesday. It's strange to have her birthday coming up because in a lot of ways she has seemed 2 for a long time now but it's still hard to believe that she is not a little baby any longer. Let me tell you a little about my silly Deli-girl---

Where to start....

Adele is one of kind thats for sure. I can hardly remember life without her...it must have been very dull. She is very full of life and has a great sense of humor. She keeps us guessing and laughing! She is always making funny faces, getting into mischief and saying funny things. We love her personality! She is one spunky girl.

We adore her as do all those that meet her. She is always getting comments about her funny faces and because she is not shy she has a way of making strangers feel like they are her best friends. She will go up to people and say "Hi, what you doin?", or "Hey, have a good day", if you catch her on an off day she might go up to a stranger and say "where his hair go?" or "Wow, big belly". Like I said you never know what you are going to get with her.

She loves to sing and dance around. She picks up songs SO fast and before we know it she is singing it to her baby doll or baby brother. She talks up a storm and has been for months and months. She not only talks but when someone uses a funny voice she can mimmick it and comes pretty close.

She is potty trained and has been since 18 months. However lately she has been experimenting with how long she can hold it and has had a couple accidents.

She thinks she can do anything her brothers do and tries to be just like them. When I ask her what she wants for her birthday she says "I want a big gun". When they play tarzan with no shirt on...she does too. I think odds are she will be a tom boy. We are just so deep into boy stuff that sometimes we forget about the girly things. The boys try to remember though and they sometimes force her against her will to be a princess or quenn in their games.

She loves animals most of the time but gets scared if they come to close.

She loves pretending to talk on the phone. She calls Grandma, Daddy, Aunt Heather and others all day long.

She loves her baby brother and is always nice to him but sometimes tries to help with him too much!

She wants to be independant and screams when we buckle her car seat for her because she wants to do it "all by myself".

She is very familiar with time out and I have a hard time not laughing when she does something naughty looks at me and says "Time Out" and runs for the bench.

She loves playing pretend, she crawls around and barks like a dog, rides her horse and says "yee-haw", she feeds her baby dolls, and she joins in all the boys pretend games.

She can scream bloody murder one minute and be diffused the next.

When I tell her to smile for a picture she either closes her eyes or makes a funny face.

She wakes up every morning and gets a Huge pile of books and stands by the door yelling "I awake, open door, read me story". She usually drops half of them and before 7 am I usually have books all over my floor. It's a constant battle (which I usually loose- me versus the books and toys).

She is busy and active but can sit still when she has too.

She still scribbles when she draws and we have to keep glue sticks away from her because she thinks they are chap stick.

She counts to ten by saying "1,3,5,7,8,9,10".

If I say jokingly "you better not do that or you will be busted" she falls on the floor crying "I no want to be busted" over and over. I know its mean but its pretty funny...especially since no one has really been busted!

She loves baths and showers especially with the boys. She is very funny about the boys and had really noticed that they have different anatomy then her. When she sees them she says "oh, belly button" she said to Titus the other day while I was changing him "oh, two belly buttons". We think its really funny.

She loves playing in the mud and the other day the boys came in and said she found some animal poo and thought it was mud and had put it all over her....sure enough they were right.

She loves helping me in the kitchen and gets so excited when I am about to cook something she can hardly contain herself.

She has a sweet tooth and enjoys treats a lot. So far she is not a picky kid and will eat most anything we give her. Some of her favorites are treats, bananas, corn on the cob and chicken.

When she needs the boys to help her reach something or do something she says "hey buddies come help me" or "hey brothers come and help me".

When she wait for Garret to get home she yells "Come home Garret" over and over.

She still calls Titus "baby TyTy" some of the time.

We call her all kinds of things- Adele, Deli, Deli-girl, Dels, Delzy, Jelly Bean, Itty-Bitty, Bitty, Baby girl, scallywag, trouble, cute-stuff, sweatheart, little lady etc....

She is so fun to take places because she gets excited about everything. She is pretty well behaved when we go out but she doesn't have as small a radius as the boys did at her age so she keeps me on my toes more. She doesn't ever try to run away but at a park or some place she will just go from toy to toy and work her away farther from me.

She is not aloud to even touch the computer. Whenever she even bumps it somehow she has a way of resetting the screensaver and changing all kinds of settings.

She finally enjoys sitting and reading but will barely sit still for movies. She has a couple that entertain her but not many.

She is finally growing enough hair for me to do things with and she is being asked if she is a boy less often.

There are a million things I could write about Adele. She is a treasure. She is delightful and wonderful. I love having her in my life. I love all that that she adds to our family. I adore my Adele. I am excited to celebrate her birthday. She is very excited and I hope she has a great day and knows there is no one that could ever replace her. She is our Deli-girl!!!

News from School

2011-10-03T23:51:00.001-04:00

I asked Garret how school was today he said "well Mom, I have a problem. When I am at recess everyone wants to play with. I try to be real nice but sometimes I have to say, I am sorry but I can't play with all of you right now". (It's safe to say he has friends).

A different day I asked how school was he said "well Mom, I had to tell some girls to stop chasing me. They didn't stop so I had to talk to the teacher about it." (ALREADY)

Another day I asked him how school was and he said "Well Mom, a girl was spanking my bottom, I didn't like it so I had to tell the teacher on her."

Today Garret used the bathroom at school for the first time. He said he thought he could make it all day but whenever he sat down he thought he was going to have an accident and finally he couldn't hold it any longer and just had to go. It's funny to me because I can picture it!

It seems like school is off to a good start for him.

Turning 6

2011-10-02T00:55:00.000-04:00

Happy Birthday to Garret!

Tyler and I made Garret's cake. He loves the beach we live by right now so we made a beach cake. It was the very easiest cake we have made yet. But still very cute!

We woke the big boy up by serenading him with the Birthday song. He woke up smiling and smiled most all of the day (lets face it by the end of the day everyone was worn out and a tad on the cranky side).

He ran to see what his cake was. Loved it! Then asked if he could open his presents before breakfast! He loved them all and got pretty much everything he has been dreaming about.

He ran around a lot of the day decked out as a Daniel Boone/Spy/Archer and loved every minute of it.

After a breakfast of German pancakes and orange juice (Garret's picks), we headed off to the store to let him pick his one thing. He has had a lot of ideas throughout the year but in the end went for the spit-wad gun. ( I realize he has a lot of weapons...I told him this....)

Because we had a some time to spare we did some black light mini golf. Luckily we didn't have to pay for Spencer or Adele because they didn't really get into it. Garret finished 18 holes in 102 strokes!!!

We came home and tried out the spit-wad gun (you buy the wads...and put them in water so at least there is no human spit involved). Then ate a lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches (Garret's pick) and watched a little conference.

Then Grandma, Dan, Heather and Ridge joined us for pizza (Garret's pick) and cake.

Then he got to watch his new movie while Tyler went to another session of conference with Dan.

The little ones played in the bath. They really enjoyed it, even Adele. She just makes faces whenever I take pictures...actually, she makes pictures other times too!

As soon as Dan and Tyler got back we had "the war" (the nerf war Garret has been planning). I didn't get any good shots but it was action packed.

Don't mess with us----we're tough!

Garret went through the spanking machine (it was a tight fit!).

He played for a few more minutes with cousin Ridge.

Then it was off to bed. Garret asked if he could wear his coonskin hat and night vision goggles to bed. Why not?! He was a very happy little guy and was asleep minutes after we said goodnight. They were tired and warn out (especially Spencer who usually naps and didn't today) but they were happy and I think we accomplished what we went for today- Garret knew we loved him and that he is special! Happy Birthday Garret (a few days early), may this year be a great one!

Gushing over Garret

2011-09-30T22:21:00.000-04:00

Birthday time is here again. Garret turns 6 on October 4. In our family we like celebrating on a day close to their birthdays when everyone can be around (or their actual birthday if everyone can be there) . So we are celebrating Garret's birthday on Saturday. I will post about that tomorrow.

Here is a little about Garret at nearly 6-

6 things he is into-
1. Star Wars (he still has never seen the movies and probably won't for a few years but he loves the whole idea of it.)
2. Weapons (This is funny to me only because he is not really a violent kid he just loves playing pretend with them.)
3. School (He loves it SO much)
4. Reading (He loves listening to me read, most recently Narnia and currently Where the Red Fern Grows)
5. The Beach (Everyday he is home he asks if he can go to the beach)
6. Drawing (He loves drawing up the ideas he has in his head).

6 moments that made me proud of him this year-

1. When he came home from school and his eyes lit up as he told me about meeting the kids with special needs and how he wanted to push one of them on the swing. It was a moment when I knew he understood what things are really important.

2. On Easter he put eggs in Spencer's bag with out anyone asking him too because he had more than Spencer. There is no doubt that Garret loves his siblings.

3. Garret hiking a mountain to the top. I hope he can climb all the mountains in his life with such enthusiasm

4. Listening to him talk about Church and the Gospel and how much it means to him. I pray he will hold onto that spirit forever.

5. When Garret mastered the monkey bars. He took a lot of falls first but he stuck with it.
6. Listening to him Read. I just LOVE it!!!

6 words that describe Garret right now-
1. Emotional (He is very in touch with his emotions and others- 95% of the time this is a Great thing)
2. Thoughtful (He is always thinking about something and has lots of ideas)
3. Excitable (Everyone always knows if Garret is looking forward to something)
4. Determined (He will stick with something if he has his mind set on it)
5. Caring (He is kind and caring to everyone he is around)
6. Rambunctious (This kid can sit still when he needs to but when it's time to play he really plays!)

6 new things he did this year-

1. Started school

2. Moved from Yakima to Olympia
3. Learned to Ride a two wheel bike
4. Fed an Elk
5. Kayaked

6. Shot a blow gun

6 quirky Garret things-

1. He doesn't like string cheese or melted cheese on hamburgers and he doesn't like potatos

2. He does a very good impression of the nun on Elf. " But the children love the books"- You will have to hear him!

3. He talks in his sleep.

4. He makes up his own songs and sings while he does lots of different things.

5. He never goes to the bathroom at school (maybe that's normal but it seems like a long time to me).

6. He is a Worrier!

Enough categories....

Let me tell you about Garret- He is awesome. He is a great kid, with a great heart. He gets excited about life and nervous about new experiences, he wants to do his best on things, he can be loud and crazy one moment and snuggle up the next and quietly listen as I read. He is full of dreams and hopes for the future. Sometimes when I am watching and he doesn't know it I am overcome by the fact that "he gets it". He gets that life is suppose to be embraced, he gets that we are suppose to be there for others, he gets that the most important things in life may not be what everyone else says is most important, he gets that sometimes we have to work very hard for the things we want...He forgets sometimes too, but most of the time he amazes me. I could not be more proud of the person he is growing into.

I love that tomorrow is all about him. I hope he enjoys it and that he knows that he has a family that could not love him any more than we do. That he is one of the bright shining lights in our lives and that he is a blessing to us all. I hope that he feels like the special kid that he truly is.

Keepin Busy

2011-09-29T21:52:00.003-04:00

A very small glimpse of the way we fill our days-

When Titus isn't cryin he's chillin. I LOVE the converse!

Spencer is a puzzle man. It keeps him busy for hours and he doesn't need any help...except with keeping Deli girl away.

Tower building is always fun...except the crashing usually wakes up baby brother...

Sometimes when I turn around Titus has acquired new accessories. Pretty sure the kids think he is their toy to dress up. Speaking of dressing up Adele really likes wearing his clothes. I wish I had taken a picture of that!

The older three love playing Tonka or War.

Grandma let us crash her house for a doughnut party!

Spencer really wanted to wear his hair like this to church. I had to be the mean Mom and say NO.

Playing babies.

With Garret gone a couple days a week Adele and Spencer have become partners in crime. They played Cowboy/cowgirl all morning one day.

Adele enjoys mimicking me and "feedin her baby". It's pretty cute.

I even went out with my Sister (She is technically my sister in law but really she is my sister) for her birthday and some friends for Shelton. It was lots of fun.

So there you have it a picture update!

Intruder

2011-09-23T17:12:00.000-04:00

Today we had our first home intruder ever. I am serious someone walked in uninvited. Here is how it happened-

I was switching the laundry and Garret says "Mom there is a little boy in our house".

When I came to the living room a little boy in bare feet with dirty pajamas on backwards was playing with toys. I looked out the door (which is normally locked and for some reason wasn't), no one was out there. I kept looking but I couldn't really walk up and down the street with five kids looking for his parents. I called the fire department because it is close and they said to call 911. So while I was one the phone my kids were busily taking things he shouldn't get into and putting them away (this kid was really making himself at home). I couldn't get him to tell me his name or where he lived. I tried to get him to point and he wouldn't.

The 911 operator said they would send someone out. Then they called back a few minutes later and said they had heard from the Mom and she was coming over but not to let her take him until the police showed up (ummmm....how am I suppose to stop her from taking him?). Luckily when I said they wanted her to hang around until the police come she was fine with waiting. She had another baby with her and they both had fun taking out everything I own.

Finally the police showed up and got it all straightened out. Even though it was an awkward afternoon, I am very glad that this little boy came here and didn't continue wandering on the road. So many awful things could have happened to him. At least he was safe at our house.

My kids thought the whole thing was so crazy. They couldn't understand why he just came in, why he was getting into everything, why he smelled, they had a lot of questions when it was all sorted out...but in the end Garret said to me "we did a really good thing for that little boy." Spencer said "that was so cool we got to see a police officer with a gun" and the little boys Mom showed Adele all her tattoos and she kept saying "lady has pictures on her arm". I guess we all came out ahead...and hey we met a new neighbor!

What's Hot September 2011 Guide

2011-09-20T00:51:00.002-04:00

With Fall quickly approaching I knew everyone out there is wondering what is hot right now. So I asked the experts and here is what they said-

Glowing swords- they are all the rage and are the perfect activity for a family night. Another perk they can be found in the dollar section at Target.

The Chronicles of Narnia- Grab a blanket and a cup of cocoa and enjoy a good book together.

Showers- Bath time is still fun, but the shower is the place to be this Fall.

Work- Handouts are totally last season, this season it's all about doing extra jobs at the dental office to earn the spending money (my boys wanted Nerf gun bullets).

Pig tails- If you want to sport the latest hair style be sure you have "piggies".

Suits- When Sunday rolls around be sure and sport your nicest suit.

Brotherly Love- Need I say more, it's always in season.

Pocket Knives- If you haven't got one get one, your eyes will light up (at least Garret's did) but be sure and follow the rules (Garret does).

Bed Head- Toss and turn all night and you will wake up looking HOT!

Hands- The latest things for the 3 month olds! Provides hours of fun...or at least a good twenty minutes here and there...we will take what we can get.

Naps- Can't get enough of them.

New Friends- Fall is the perfect time for making new friends! We have spent a lot of our nights getting to know new families. I can just see our kids growing up together!

Baking- One of the greatest Fall activities. Just

don't step on the scale.

Oranges- Apparently matching clothes means everything is the same color. At least that is what it means around here if you ask Spencer to grab clothes for Adele.

Shades- Keeps the sun out of your eyes...wait a second...who found this model?

Bus rides- One of the greatest ways to pass a few minutes after school- just ask Garret!

There you have it- now we can all get ready for Fall 2011!

Chapters

2011-09-13T00:33:00.002-04:00

Some people always tell the same story, others like to use the same analogy for everything- for me it's books.

Garret started Kindergarten today (I'll tell you the details in a minute). I have known this was coming (luckily he is one of the oldest in his class so I got a little extra time to think about it). Even knowing it was coming I wasn't ready for it. I was told I would be ready to send him off. I wasn't. I love having him around. He is a great helper and his siblings adore him- plus he is my baby and even when he is not on his best behavior I love being there to help him through it. So, it's safe to say I was not counting down for the big day. I wasn't really dreading it, I know he is a good well behaved kid so I didn't worry about him getting into trouble, I know academically he is either ahead or up to par with the other kids so I wasn't worried about that.

Here is where the book analogy comes in- I just hated that for him to start this chapter it meant the last chapter was ending. I love watching him grow and experience new things. I am his fan through and through, right there cheering him on as he grows and tries new things- but with each new chapter, I feel a deep down pain knowing that never again will we enjoy the one before.

Having Garret at home day in and day out for nearly 6 years has been a wonderful chapter of my life and his as well. This is where my book example doesn't work because in a book you can read your favorite chapters over and over but in life I can never experience Garret at 1 again, or relive his first steps, I can never again enjoy his baby voice or marvel as he learns to counts. There will be new and exciting wonderful moments but the bittersweet feeling comes from knowing that this last chapter has ended.

I am very grateful that I have had the last six years to spent at home with him, I am grateful that I have enjoyed them. I don't feel regrets about his first few years. I look back at them knowing I soaked them in all I could. I just loved those years so much and I love Garret and that is why a part of my heart went to Griffin today and why I felt like I was missing something all day.

Now about this new chapter of his life- I am thrilled for him. I loved school and know he will too. I have been so pleased with his school so far and I am sure he will have priceless memories there. I know this chapter is going to be a great one!

Enough of all that- here is how the day went for Garret-

A few weeks ago he didn't want to go but we went to a lot of school functions before school started and pretty soon he was eagerly awaiting his first day. This morning he woke up excited and picked out his Star Wars shirt to wear. We snapped a pic of him and his backpack- he is such a good looking little guy!

Then he started hugging everyone! He told Spencer he would miss him and bring him something back and that they would play when he got home. (Spence has had a hard time (last night he was screaming "I don't want anyone from our family to go to school, not Titus, not Deli, not Garret NO ONE", but in the end he said "I didn't miss him too much"- whatever you say Spencer, they were sure happy to see each other by the end of the day though).

Titus missed Garret! Garret is so kind and gentle with him and loves making him smile. I think there is a good chance Garret will be Titus's idol as they grow.

Adele didn't even stop flossing her teeth for the picture but she was the first to burst into tears when we dropped him off.

I played it tough for all the kids benefit but inside I was mush. I sure love my boy!

We all know Tyler is mush. He fought back a few tears on the drive as we talked about how fast they are growing up.

Garret held my hand awfully tight as we walked in. I snapped a pic as soon as we got to the classroom. He is a little unsure. But then a second later he spotted a friend from church and everything was better.

By the end of the day his friend from church (the boy at his table) was his best friend. They played together all day and in the words of Garret "you never know he might be my best friend my whole life". Maybe he will!

He was happy to see us when we picked him up. He is ready to go back and loves it so much. He said "I wish I could go tomorrow too". I said "I am kind of glad I get to play with you tomorrow". He paused then said "when I said I loved school and wanted to be there it doesn't mean I don't want to be with you, you all will always be my favorite people. School was just better then even I thought it would be."

He loved everything about school and I am so glad. Hooray! Day one was a success! I loved the last chapter of his life and I know we will love this one too. Great job today Garret!

And Luckily for me Garret is so in tune with people's emotions. All evening he was not really clingy but he would come over and hug me and then come over and snuggle up on my lap. He is a sweetheart!

It's official I have a school age child. How did that happen?!!!

A Real Mountain for Garret

2011-09-11T00:41:00.001-04:00

My baby boy Garret went hiking with Tyler and Dan today. It was no little stroll this was serious hiking. They went up altitude a couple thousand feet it was steep. He did awesome. I guess he didn't complain, he just kept going and in his own words "it was way more fun than even I thought it would be".

He is one tough little guy! I guess he got a lot of attention from other hikers that could not believe he made it to the top. They kept on giving him high fives and one lady even said that he inspired her to keep going.

He said "it was fun spending time just me and two grown-ups".

I guess he had to hold on pretty tight on the snow so he didn't slide down.

He was so excited to tell us all about it when he got home. He was very nice to Spencer too telling him maybe next year he could come. By late afternoon his legs were sore (as they should be) but he said "I am still glad I went but I hope they stop hurting soon."

Rolling Over

2011-09-08T12:16:00.001-04:00

When Titus was two weeks old he started rolling from belly to back (he might have done it before then but I didn't put him on his tummy until his umbilical cord fell off). I really don't think he meant to, he would just get mad and arch his back and flip over. He doesn't mind his tummy as much anymore so he doesn't throw himself over in anger anymore. He has pretty consistently done belly to back all along- but last night he went from his back to his belly. So far I have only seen him do it once but he is a strong little guy and I expect we will be seeing more of it from here on out. I guess he decided not to listen to me when I told him to stay my little baby forever. Although if he had stayed a newborn I never would have gotten to see his beautiful smile and I am pretty much smitten with it!

I wish I could call this "The fruits of my labor" or something spectacular like that

2011-09-08T12:11:00.000-04:00

So if you recall last year, I had a great experience canning fruit. I felt a huge sense of accomplishment from the work I put into it. Each time we opened a jar the kids would talk about the work we put in. Great discussions came of it, we discussed working hard and preparing for the future, the fruit was excellent...

So that was last year. I pictured this year going basically like the last. I would have a couple weeks of working hard but in the end it would totally pay of. We would have yummy good fruit to enjoy, it would cost less the store, be better for us etc.

Let's just say that this year did not go as planned...well...it did in some ways. I worked hard. With Titus being so small I mostly had to work on it at night. I did a little in the mornings when he napped but it was hard to fit it in. So each night I worked on it. I peeled peaches, sliced nectarines and cut up pears. I did a lot, enough that my feet hurt each night...but that was ok because it was going to pay off...right!

I did the first batch and nothing sealed- AAAAaaaahhh! So I put it in the canner again and when they came out they didn't seem exactly like normal but the lids were firm so I assumed they were sealed. So I put them away. I did batch after batch and they weren't really sucked in like last year but they didn't pop. So I just stuck them on the shelf. Well today on closer analysis it was discovered that NONE of them sealed. Let me say that again NONE of them sealed.

If you closely you can see that the lid is raised up a little that is the pressure inside and the peach vomit about to erupt!

So I started pulling them off the shelves to throw them out. As I took the lids of the lids were popping off and rotten peach juice was squirting out all over our kitchen. It was the nastiest smelling stuff. It smelled like peach vomit. Picture Tyler and I emptying nearly fifty quart jars of peaches into the trash, as we opened them they were spraying peach vomit all over. It didn't take long before Tyler was laughing and his laugh is pretty catching so I had to join in. It was a good thing because if he hadn't been laughing I might have started crying! Needless to say it was another long night of working hard, but the night was spent cleaning up peach juice from the floor and cupboards and washing jars.

I guess at that point there was nothing I could do about it but laugh. I guess we will not be enjoying the fruits of all that labor. It really was a sad thing to throw all that sweet delicious fruit away. I guess the only fruit of my labor is a good laugh! Oh well.

I don't know why they didn't seal. Last year they all sealed, and I can not think of anything that I did different. I wonder if my lids were bad or something like that. I guess I'll never know for sure.

Reinacting the past!

2011-09-04T14:45:00.000-04:00

Leah and I found these dresses of ours from when we were little. We thought it would be fun to put our girls in them. Leah and I were (are) best buddies and we hope our girls will be too. It was fun revisiting the past through them. I am actually a year older then Adele in the pictures of me. Leah is about the same age as Naomi.

Rachel and Leah---A long time ago. I was 3, she was 2.

Adele and Naomi. Adele 23 months, Naomi 2 years and a couple months.

Tyler thinks they look like little pioneers! They are some CUTE pioneer girls.

Scrambling

2011-09-04T14:36:00.000-04:00

I still feel like I am scrambling to find a routine and rhythm to life here. We are definitely enjoying life I just haven't quite figured it all yet! Some of the fun things we have done lately....

Gotten to know our Church here a little better.

Played at the beach with some friends. The kids love the dead crabs. I think its kind of gross!

Tyler and the boys went to a baseball game. They caught a foul ball! I think that was the highlight of the game.

My sister was staying with my parents so we took her and her family into the dental office. I think I have a real future as an assistant!

Naomi was not quite sure about the dental chair.

Titus at 2 Months (well 2 and a half months)

2011-08-26T15:14:00.002-04:00

I finally took Titus in for his two month appointment and just as suspected he is a chunk. He weighs 17 pounds 6 ounces (over the 95 % for weight- that explains my backache- they didn't say a specific percentile) and he is 25.5 inches long (again over 95% for height). He is growing - big so big.

Along with growing nicely he is learning to smile. Big smiles and they come easier everyday. He also is finding his voice and when we talk to him he makes noises back. He is still a little fussy at times but seems to be mellowing out a bit. He is perfect in my book! I love my little Titus!

***Just for fun I looked back at Adele and Spencer's two month check ups (Garret's weren't easy to find) and he is bigger then they both were at this age and they were both big babies too.

Great Grandpa Beck

2011-08-24T23:07:00.000-04:00

Lately we have been apple picking at my parents, playing outside, enjoying dinner with new friends and spending an evening with my Grandparents.

My Grandpa had a great experience during the Korean War. While he was there he was able to share the gospel with his Korean translator. The man was one of the first converts in Korea, became the first stake president in Korea, was personal friends with President Hinckley and served the church in so many ways. My Grandpa shared his story with the kids. It was fun hearing it again and watching my kids listen for the first time. He talked about the choices that helped him grow strong in the gospel and how those decisions helped him bring the gospel to HoNam and then he later shared the gospel with SO many others. He encouraged the kids to be "sunbeams" in others lives. I didn't get any pictures because I decided to video tape instead!

I found this very brief account written by Ho Nam on the church website-

Ho Nam Rhee

Ho Nam Rhee, first president of the Seoul (Korea) Stake, tells how he joined the Church.

I was first introduced to Mormonism when an American Army man I worked with, Calvin R. Beck, took me to MIA. Everyone at the meeting was American, and I was surprised that they all extended warm hands and called me “Brother Rhee.” I felt that brotherhood, and the word “brother” echoed in my mind for days.

I wanted to know more about this religion, so Brother Beck taught me about Joseph Smith and the restoration of the gospel. I still remember one lesson based on the following questions:

Where did we come from?

Why are we here?
Where are we going after this mortal life?

The subject shocked me, because those questions have puzzled great philosophers throughout the ages. But as Brother Beck explained the plan of salvation, I was thrilled. I had no doubts. I think the Lord blessed me at that very moment.

My spiritual birthday came September 5, 1954, in Seoul. Elder Harold B. Lee, then an apostle of the Lord, personally confirmed me a member of the Church—an unforgettable blessing. I can still picture his kind, serious face and feel his warm, tender hands on my head.

I could hardly wait from Sunday to Sunday to share the testimony of the Saints. I was greatly blessed a second time when I was ordained to the office of priest by Joseph Fielding Smith, who dedicated Korea for the preaching of the gospel in 1955.

I feel I have an even more important position than the Korean ambassador to the United States, because I represent not one nation, but the kingdom of God. I am an ambassador of God to this world.

We thoroughly enjoyed our evening at my Grandparents. I am thankful for all the time I have been able to spend with them and love that my children are no making memories and learning from them. I didn't want a post with no pictures so here is one of Titus. He is growing so fast. He was such a scrawny little guy when he was born and now look at all that chub!

Hmmmm....Not sure what to call this....

2011-08-18T18:44:00.001-04:00

I found a few pictures of the moving truck. It was huge and somehow we filled it ALL the way up. The kids loved the truck.

We play at the beach whenever we can. It's in walking distance. When we get there I admit I feel a Little envious of the parents that have lawn chairs and books in their hands. I haven't figured out how to carry Titus, push Adele, encourage Garret and Spencer along and get a lawn chair there. The kids love it so much though that it is worth the effort of getting there. And it's beautiful.

The beach also has a park by it and a clubhouse with toys for the kids. They have potlucks and activities. It's a fun place to live. It's not where we will be forever but we plan to enjoy it while we are here.

Believe it or not Garret is starting Kindergarten in a couple weeks. My sister takes each of her kids out before school to buy what they need and spend some one on one with them. i think its a great idea so I took Garret on a back to school date this year. (the whole Garret going to kindergarten is a subject for its own post but not today). Our date was super fun. Garret is such a great kid to hang out with. We talked a lot about going to school. He is excited and nervous. He didn't need to much but I let him pick a shirt. I know I have to let him decide some things so I let him choose whatever he wanted. I admit I had to bite my tongue when he picked star wars. I just don't get his obsession with it. He has never even seen it. But he was happy with it and can't wait to wear it.

I told him he could pick whatever he wanted for lunch he picked sandwiches!

Adele (and the others too) are missing their cousins. If we say anything about basketball she says "kyle basketball" if we say what should we do she often says "go kyle-hailey house". I don't think she understands that her cousin crush lives so far away now. It's sweet that she loves them so much but sad we can't just run over anymore.

Now that we are in Olympia which is pretty close to Shelton I have bumped into a couple people from the past. It's fun to run into people and think I know them from somewhere and have memories come back. If anyone reading this lives around us- we are in Olympia now and it would be fun to catch up!

It's been a little over two months since I became the mother to four kids. It's been a very crazy, busy, hectic two months. It's taken its tole on the kids. I think they are worn out and trying to figure out all that has been going on. Despite all of it they are so great. I think they have come through it really well. They are such great kids and even though life is busy right now I really enjoy having all four of them. I think I learn a little more with each kid and even though I don't know everything about parenting I feel like I know enough to be able to relax and enjoy them. It's hard to get everything done but that's ok, because I know they will grow up way to fast and then I will have too much time on my hands so I just try really hard to soak it all in.

It's hard to believe that this little guy is over two months old. He is such a sweet addition to our family. He is a little fussy at times and not the greatest sleeper but he is my baby and can do no wrong! Sometimes I wish I could just hold him all day long. He is loosing his newborness and getting big and strong. He is so smiley when he first wakes up in the morning and is starting to make little noises.

He has such a funny double chin. I think it's so cute and squishy.

I went to the movies with my Mom last night. It is so fun living near them. I haven't lived this close since high school and in high school my Mom and I got along but we weren't really at a "let's go the movies" place. Now I consider her one of my best friends. We talk on the phone all the time and I call her to tell her little trivial things. Now we get to be more than phone friends. I am just continually thankful for the great family I have.

I think that by next week the last of the annoying moving stuff should be done and life will start to find a rythm. I feel like we missed out on summer this year. I hope it stays around a little longer so we can enjoy it. Since I can not think of anything else remotely interesting to blog about I guess I better do something productive---like tackle insurance applications---ugh!

Update

2011-08-16T00:59:00.001-04:00

So we finally moved. It took us forever (or at least what felt like forever) to figure out where we were going but once we decided it all went crazy fast. Tyler accepted a job, took us back to Yakima on the weekend, came back worked all week, went back to Yakima the next weekend and we moved. He found us a house to rent during that week (once again I wasn't around to help pick it out). Moving had it's usually stresses (will it all fit, where do I put everything etc) But overall it went really smooth. A big thanks to those that helped us pack and unpack.

Then as fast as we could we got settled in because about three days after we returned the U-haul Tyler's parents came for a visit. I will try to get pictures of the house and area up soon but here are a few pictures I do have of our visit with Tyler's parents. We had lots of fun, sorry about the lack of details I am just trying to get caught up. But did have a really nice time and we were so glad they made it up here this summer and that they were able to meet Titus for the first time.

We met up with them in Vancouver and visited Leah for a little while.

Then drove on and met some of Tyler's cousins. We played at a park with them. Spencer threw up (so gross) while riding the tire swing. I cleaned him up and he asked if he could get back on! It was fun meeting some of Tyler's relatives I had never met.

Tyler worked some of the time they were here so he missed out on some of the fun. We went to the children's museum.

The play place at the mall. Adele had an accident here- She was "that kid".

Tyler's name is now on the door!!!

Everyone enjoyed the beach near our house. It will be fun living near such a sandy beach. There is also a little playground and basketball hoops.

Everyone worked in the yard some.

I missed blueberries in Yakima so we went picking here. The berries were small this year but still tasty.

My parents and Dan, Heather and Ridge joined us for a hot dog roast in the backyard.

We went to church here for the first time. Everyone was really friendly. We are anxious to get better acquainted and involved.

Titus enjoyed getting to know his Grandma and Grandpa.

We even fit in a few games.

Thanks for coming, we had such a nice time and look forward to seeing everyone again.

We are still working on getting settled- seriously moving is such a pain- I will love the day when I never have to switch my address again, cancel and start up utilities and unpack boxes again.

A Long Update...

2011-08-12T00:23:00.000-04:00

is coming but not tonight, I am too tired from moving and unpacking and having a two month old and company etc. We are in Olympia now and lots has been happening around here...check back soon.

What's gotten into her?

2011-08-05T00:22:00.001-04:00

I must preface this by saying I love Adele. She is the cutest little thing. She is spunky, silly and loads of fun. But these last couple days (weeks) she has been a real trouble maker. I tell her not to do something she does it (picture permanent marker drawings, styrofoam messes, a naked girl etc). It really doesn't worry me too much because I feel like I know the cause. We have been in the process of moving for a very long time now and it's hard on her. She sense the change, she knows everyone is busy and at times stressed and she wants our attention. I think that once life settles down she will as well.

A couple days ago she was really driving me crazy, I tried to breath and figure out what she needed- something fun to do (her toys have been boxed up for a LONG time now). So we went out and I asked her to water the lawn for me. She was in heaven!

The boys couldn't resist getting in on it too!

It seems like whenever my kids are at their worst it's because they need something (love, attention, a sense of security, a routine). If I can take the time to figure it out then things work themselves out. I know what this girl needs and I am excited to give it to her when we move. Once we are settled Little Miss Adele is getting Mommy playtime and a schedule. For now we are surviving by taking breaks with the hose!

The Big Decision

2011-07-31T01:08:00.001-04:00

I know everyone out there has been anxiously awaiting an update on our future...the wait is over.

I have to start back a few months though so you can fully grasp (or at least partially grasp) what we have been going through.

Back in November we emailed about a dental practice (sorry there still won't be a lot of details on that practice out of respect for the seller). The practice was being looked at by someone else so we figured we were out of luck. We looked into some others but nothing really felt right.

In January we were told that the practice was available again so we went and looked at it. There was just something about the practice that welcomed us. We fell in love with the area and started thinking hard about buying the practice. We met with the seller on several occasions and really got to know him. He is a very, very nice man. We were so excited to work with him and transition the practice and take over. We read books on practice management and filled out so many loan papers. The banks were tight and we met lots of rejection but we kept feeling like we were suppose to continue pursuing the practice so we did. That went on for a LONG time. We tried lots of banks and got lots of advice from dentists, accountants and bankers. We tried hard to process it all and know whether we should continue to pursue this route. We knew we wanted to and felt like we should.

Tyler's job ended and although we had casually looked into other jobs we were still set on buying the practice and since we hadn't found another job we found ourselves unemployed for a while. We kept going on the practice but also started anxiously pursuing other employment. Tyler signed up to work temp jobs until he found a full time position or we bought the practice. Then a couple weeks ago he got an interview for a job in Olympia. He went to the interview and came back telling me the people were really nice and the job seemed like a great one. Then we were thoroughly confused. We had our "dream" practice that despite our efforts was not falling together like we wanted and we had a chance to join a very nice office and take a job that was secure and full of potential.

Saying we were torn does not do it justice. I am not the best at making big decisions. In the end we decided to take the job and we will be moving to Olympia next week. We are excited to start the next chapter of our lives, pay of our student loans and settle down some.

We don't know why things worked the way they did this year. Maybe hindsight will explain it, maybe it won't. We know we learned a lot from the process and we met some very nice people. We hope the owner of the practice knows what a privilege it was to work with him and get to know him. We also know that by holding onto the practice option for so long it caused us to be available for the current job at the right time. It was a very hard decision to make but now that it is made we are moving forward with it and trying to get ready to start the new job and embrace the next phase.

There you have it....the next stop in our journey....Olympia!

Other Adventures

2011-07-31T00:51:00.000-04:00

Tyler set up more dental stuff for the next week so we stayed at my parents longer. Tyler went with Garret, Spencer, Dan and Hector camping at Deer Park. From what I hear the boys LOVED it and had a great time. It is very beautiful there and was named perfectly, the kids couldn't stop talking about the deer.

I met them the next morning with the other kids and we went to a game farm. It took a little while to get comfortable with the animals there. They literally stick their heads into your car so you will feed them. When a HUGE elk stuck it's head in the car Garret was startled and fell right over.

These bears knew some tricks and clearly people enjoyed their tricks and rewarded them with food they were the fattest bears in the park. The kids loved watching them wave and throwing bread and having them catch it in their mouths.

Some of the animals seemed to know that if they stood in front of the car long enough you would roll the window down and feed them.

Spencer loved feeding this smaller type of deer. He was cute and also loved the rabbits and peacocks.

The game farm was a great time. There were llamas, a rhino, bears, elk, buffalo, yaks, and all sorts of other animals. There was also a petting zoo and a couple old sets from movies filmed there. I wish I had gotten better pictures but Tyler and I were both holding a kid.

The rest of the week was spent playing at Grandma's house, spending a couple more days with Stephanie's family, a trip to the fair and some big dental decisions.

Titus's Blessing

2011-07-31T00:37:00.000-04:00

We decided to have Titus's blessing the Sunday after Grandpa Camp so that all of my brother's and sister's could be there. It was a very special morning having everyone together at church and for the blessing. We are so grateful that we have the gospel in our lives. We love little Titus, he looked so cute in his little white suit and his blessing was very special.

Titus is named after his Great, great, great, great, great, great Grandpa. We love the name and the story of the ancestor he is named after. I love that we are blessed to have a heritage of good, righteous people. I hope that my children can draw from that strength and live lives of faith. The necklace I am wearing in this picture (and that you will see my sisters and Mom wearing in other pictures) has a bead from my Mom's Grandma (who is also a direct descendant of Titus Billings, our Titus's namesake). My Mom had a bead from it made into a necklace for each of us. It was very thoughtful of her and a treasure for all of us.

I love our family SO much. Having Titus a part of it just adds to it. Each one of them is a blessing in our lives.

Our family has grown so much- can you believe we managed to all be there. I LOVE them all SO much. Seriously, my siblings could not have picked more perfect spouses and all the kids are adorable.

My dear friend Nichole also came. Nichole and I have been friends since we played on the same volleyball team when we were 13 (maybe 14) I am not sure. She has a beautiful little family now too. She is great! I am so sad she is moving to Kentucky. The great thing is she is one of those friends that even when we are far apart or time has past when we get back together we pick up right where we left off!

It was just the best, best, best morning. Thanks for joining our family little Titus and thank you everyone for being there.

Adele followed it up by napping with Grandma!

Grandpa Camp Year 3 Day 2

2011-07-31T00:05:00.000-04:00

Day 2 started off with a quick breakfast and then we headed to the park. Anna's family showed up then so we were all there! It is a rare thing to have all of us together and I am so grateful for the times when we are.

My parents now have 14 grandchildren. They do such a great job of showing love to all of them.

The kids had a great time at the park. They played on the playground, climbed trees and went on the swings. The boys snuck in a quick game of Kan Jam!

After the park we enjoyed lunch together and even my Grandma joined us! Then some of the kids napped and others kept playing outside. The afternoon was spent making boats with Grandpa, doing crafts with Grandma, trying to get the swing out of the tree, kayaking for Kyle and Hayley, swimming in the pool, Popsicles, guessing how much candy was in the jar and blow-guns.

I just love this one of Natalia. Those bubbles did not last long!

You probably can't see it but the swing is stuck WAY up in the trees. It was an adventure getting it down.

That night was the CABIN night. The older kids look forward to it all year long. They have fun telling stories and causing trouble together and with Grandpa!

It was another great Grandpa camp!

Grandpa Camp Year 3 Day 1

2011-07-30T23:37:00.000-04:00

My parents host Grandpa Camp every year. The last couple years have been so fun....this year was no exception.

The morning started off with Grandpa pancakes (he puts all kinds of weird stuff in them and the kids loving eating them and trying to figure out what's in them).

Then the kids check in. They are all weighed, measured and they sign their name. Then they got their Grandpa camp shirts!

They also got a necklace, they get beads for the activities they do and kindness beads for good deeds they do.

Even the babies are part of the fun.

After check-in they headed to Cabellas. The kids enjoyed everything there.

I stayed at the house because I was in charge of lunch. I decided to have the theme be "Grandma's Goofy Garden". I made "Funky Flowers", a "Garden Octopus", "Swamp water" and "Strawberry Short-Snakes". It turned out pretty well and was lots of fun.

Then the kids took naps and some of the parents too!

After naps it was off to the beach. My Dad makes the most beautiful boats. This year he added a kids kayak to the fleet. It's is not only beautiful but lots of fun for the kids. Garret and Spencer both loved it. I think they are naturals. Some of the little girls even got in. He also brought the row boat down and let us all paddle around. Spencer stuck the paddle down on the rocks and sand and the kayak started to tip. He was so funny as he calmly said "I do not like this". Then he got out dumped the water out and got back in and told everyone he was the first one to tip the boat! Garret would have stayed in all day. I think in another couple years he will be ready to venture a little farther from the shore!

After the beach we came back and enjoyed the tee pee my Mom made, the kiddie pool, sunshine and the outdoors.

By the end of the day we all looked and felt pretty happy and warn out!

Trip to Mom and Dad's house

2011-07-30T22:53:00.000-04:00

Tyler had some dental stuff set up over by my parents so we went over there a couple weeks ago. The first few days it was just our family, Stephanie's family and my Mom and Dad. It was so much fun spending time with everyone. We had fun watching the kids play together. Garret and Spencer were content to play outside basically all day everyday.

Adele had fun putting diapers on "bear" (she knows it's a mouse but she calls it bear).

I think most everyone snuck in a nap with Titus. I really am going to get this little guy on a schedule when we settle down.

Playing with Grandma and Grandpa is always fun!

We went to the beach together and threw rocks in the water. What could be more fun than that?!

One day we were at the mall and Tyler let each kid pick out a piece of candy. This was a special treat for the kids.

The first few days were lots of fun. Stephanie's kids are so cute and they all played together pretty well. Adele and Natalia were "Frenemies". But I think in time they will be best buddies.

A New Ride

2011-07-30T22:20:00.000-04:00

We bought our Dodge Caravan used for cash back in 2005 just after Garret was born. It has been such a great van for us. It drove us all over the country, brought 3 of our 4 babies home, had the best built in car seats and got us from point A to point B. Two weeks ago we took it in to have it checked and it needed almost 3,000 dollars in work done. Since it had 155,000 miles on it we decided to trade it in. So now we have another new (well new to us) silver van. We hadn't planned to get a new one now but what else could we do.

Garret was so worried about getting a new car. I couldn't figure out why. Then when we went looking he was so cute he crawled into one and started saying "Mom, this one has seats". He had thought when I said that I was sad we wouldn't have built in car seats anymore that we were not going to have seats at all. Rest assured he is very happy with the new van (it has rear air the other one did not!).

Call it what you will...

2011-07-10T17:23:00.000-04:00

Summer break? Unemployment? Limbo? In between things? No matter the name we have some time on our hands right now. It has its advantages- We get to see more of Tyler and it has it''s disadvantages- no income, trying to decide if we should move in with my parents (nothing against my parents), lots of uncertainty, living in a house that has been boxed up for over a month (no couches either) etc.

We spend a lot of time looking at jobs and a lot of time trying to find a way we could purchase a practice...but all that stuff is hardly worth reading about (plus we are not suppose to talk details until they are a done deal...one of these days when we have things set in stone we will write a nice long post about the journey we have been on for the last several months!). Since we can't spend ALL our time ~~stressing about~~ working on future employment we try to focus on the plus side of it whenever we get a chance- Time with Tyler. Here are a few pictures from some fun we have had-

A trip to the temple was followed by the new splash pad!

Cherry picking- we got a little carried away and ended up with TONS of cherries. Apparently the bucket weighs two pound, but it holds lots more than that. I love the fresh produce of Yakima.

We all had a great time. It was such nice weather and no one else was there. There is just something about being outside together that makes for a great day.

Spencer loved the farm dog (Adele did not). Spencer kept feeding him cherries and playing sticks with it.

Garret hardly stopped picking the entire time we were there. He was such a good little worker.

Titus slept the whole time. Tyler put a cherry in his hand so he could feel like he was helping.

Does it surprise anyone that Adele mostly ate cherries (pit and all) and not only that but when asked which she liked better - cherries from the tree or from the bucket, she said "from the bucket". Yep, she followed Tyler and around and just kept eating them. They hit her a couple hours later.

In the end we had 31 pounds of cherries. Way more than we thought. We just kept picking and before long we had filled up both buckets. Needless to say we took cherries as gifts to our neighbors and the kids primary teachers at church. We still were left for plenty for jam and a huge bowl on our counter and two freezer bags full in the freezer. I told Tyler if we ever do end up moving we might have to come back each weekend so we can pick whatever is in season!

Little Moments

2011-07-06T22:06:00.001-04:00

Moments ago I was sitting here thinking how life is funny and doesn't always work out the way we think it will. Then the three older kids come running through the living room screaming and laughing. Behind them comes Tyler chasing them around, tickling them, playing with them....

Life may throw curve balls, there are times that we aren't sure what is going to happen next, there is uncertainty. But then I take a deep breath and look at what is all around me. Our family is doing great, our kids are wonderful, I am married to the greatest man and life is good. It seems like it is impossible to feel discouraged when I am surrounded by so many wonderful things!

Spencer's Birthday!!!

2011-07-06T00:04:00.000-04:00

We celebrated Spencer's birthday on the 4th. My parents came and Leah and her family were here and Anna's family is always here so it was a good size group for his "party" year!!!

We did a Lego party. We try to pick a theme that really fits what our kids love. Spencer's first birthday his cake was a bathtub (he loved baths), his second was a milk jug and his third was a monster. His cake was so easy this year. Normally the cakes take SO long but not this year. He loved it though- who wouldn't it has NEW Lego guys on it.

We let him open his presents in the morning. He loved all his gifts. Then we had a breakfast of Special K cereal. I let him pick anything he wanted and that was his choice. It made my morning easy (I thought I would be in the kitchen making pancakes or something).

After breakfast he played with his toys for a little while, then we headed to the store.

Even though he got Lego's for his birthday he picked another set at the store. He wasn't sure at first what to get since Titus got him a measuring tape already. But in the end he went for the old standby- LEGOS.

Then it was pizza for lunch (easy again). We got the kids to take a quick nap while we set up for his party. Everything was Lego themed. Guess how many Lego's in the jar, pin the head on the Lego guy, Lego pinata, Lego coloring contest, Lego building etc.

Titus fell asleep right before and slept in his swing through most all of the party.

When the guest arrived (his cousins) we started with the guessing game (which my Mom is really good at) and the coloring contest.

Then we did pin the head on the Lego guy.

Even the adults got into it- Go Mom.

There was a children's building contest.

And an adult building contest- Marc won for the adults- not a bad sized tower for just two minutes time.

We sent Spencer through the spanking machine. He told me to make sure no one spanked too hard!

Then it was time for the pinata. We made a pull string pinata. Everyone took turns pulling off a ribbon until someone picked the ribbon that opened the trap door. It worked just like we planned.

Then we announced winners of the guessing game and coloring contest. In the end everyone got a prize.

Mom and Joe tied on one of the guessing jars. We decided to have a dance off- classic!

I am so glad that so many of Spencer's cousins could make it. They are all such good friends and such nice kids to be around.

After the Lego activities the rest of the afternoon was spent water fighting, swimming and eating. (Don't you just love Adele's wedgie!!! It was way up there all afternoon).

Titus decided to wake up for a little while in the afternoon. He enjoyed having so many people to pass him around.

Leah brought confetti poppers for the kids to pull while we sang to Spencer.

And finally the evening was finished off with sparklers.

Spencer was a cute little birthday boy. He is not the type to act overly excited. But if you know him then you can tell in his little ways that he was thrilled with it all. I asked him today what his favorite thing was. He said he didn't know because he loved it all. He said it was one of the best days not THE best day because all his birthdays are best days. I am glad he enjoys his special day. I hope he knows on his birthday and all year long that he is one special kid. Happy Birthday Spence!

Thank you everyone that came or called. It really made his day fun!

***On a different note- I know from emails and phone calls that a lot of people are anxious to know what we are doing now. Tyler's job ended so I guess technically we are unemployed at the moment. What is our plan....that is a good question. We are working hard on that and I hope to post and answer for you soon.

Weekend Fun

2011-07-05T23:03:00.000-04:00

My sister Leah, her husband Joe and their two kids came for the weekend. Everyone worked together on Anna and Marc's kitchen and we all played together. There was lots of playing outside and games at night. Getting together with family is always fun. Here are some of the pictures from the fun before Spencer's birthday.

Playing outside- The little girls think the slip and slide is a drinking fountain. The guys even joined in on the slip n slide after a long day of working!

I captured this when I asked Adele to smile!

Baby Ramona gives real smiles though!

I even captured one of Adele and Lydia's brawls. They can't decide if they want to be friends or enemies!

The guys needed root beer and so did Lydia! She carried that around for a long time!

Pizza is the perfect dinner to finish off the day.