RUDOLPH THE RED NOSE REINDEER!!!

Winter Break!

Yes we have been on winter break since Friday........as this was the last time our children went to school, and probably will be until January 5th? We have had some fun (baking, playing, arts, crafts, snowmen) but also some stress (getting stuck in a friend's icy driveway and Derek coming to pull us out, lots of sibling rivalry, lots of messes, cluttered house, extra laundry, and lots of wet clothes from the 5 minute snow adventures..................they always get too cold:) I think we've made gallons of hot cocoa in the past 3 days! Here are some pictures of our week....................

So cute!

Ok, I don't have any HUGE NEWS to share, but we took some cute pictures today! Amelia is off to go see her uncle's concert, all "cutie pied" up. Then there is our cutest EVER BOY!!! Is he having fun or what? He just LOVES toothbrushes, and he is really into peek a boo, I mean he laughs from his belly, so loud and just loves to hide and then to be found............it's just thrilling for him!

Feels like Christmas......

Tonight was a great night! I had the opportunity that every mother with girls would love! Grandma and I took Ellie, Lucy and Amelia to the Nutcracker. The joy in their eyes and the wonder as they watched the ballerina's so gracefully dance across the stage! They certainly made it look very easy. We were hesitant to take Millie since she is only three, but she did great and barely blinked the whole time:) She was a bit startled (as we all were) when the cannon went off and the fireworks at the begining. As I sat there on our "girls night out" with the music playing, it sure felt like Christmas all of a sudden. Ellie comments on the two dancers that do the egypt type dance, she says, "mom I think there outfits are kind of inappropriate--don't ya think? Well the girls is bad because I can see her belly button, but the mans is REALLY BAD I can actually see his nipples". I have to keep myself from laughing:) Then she proceeds to tell me how she had noticed the men's tights are VERY tight! She says, "I can see why they are called tights, they are sooooooooo tight I can see lines in the front and up the back - if you know what I mean". She was just adorable. We will see when Grant wants to join in the fun..........my guess is, it will be a girls night out for awhile, and when he's ready he can come along.

We're Back...............

Wow, it's been a really long time since our last post! We had some major computer problems, and then getting the pictures off the camera is kinda a Dad job in our house (my 09 resolution) so since he's been busy--with no pics the motiviation is on the low side! Life here is good. Kids are busy with school, gymnastics, church, and of course friends:) Grant keeps us hoppin as he is now a climber. He has only been a "walker" more a month or so, but he loves climbing on chairs and trying to find his way back down. He is trying to get into everything and so curious about all the fun stuff--He still has the wheel obsession and is saying, da da and uh oh and I thought I heard him say "NO" tonight--that's always fun! I'm sure it has nothing to do with his three sisters that say it all the time:) WE are in job transision...........Derek was notifited of a lay off in September that would take place the middle of November (big slow down in res. construction) We were lucky to have some time to figure our our plan and a direction. WE were SO BLESSED to have an amazing job basically come to us! Things went so smoothly with interviewing, and the timing. He has two weeks off (which he really needed) and starts with Hilti on December 1st. He will be home doing his "home study" and making occasional trips to Portland for 4 weeks and then off to Tulsa OK for about a month! Fun for mom!! Not sure who will be working harder:)??? We again are so excited to be staying put, we love our neighbors, our town, home and community we live in!!! We are so excited for our new adventure.................

Although Dad may not mind a vacation, as the hormones have been raging in our home. No, it's not mom, it's our sweet little 8 year old? Is it too early for that ? HMMMMMMMMM....well we think not! I told him to gear up and pull out the patience card there are going to be three teenage girls in our home at one time! He's great with them, but the emotional rollercoaster has been a new experience. Hey mom.........was I like this when I was 8?

PS: Ellie and Lucy are in Halloween make-up ---- this is not their "usual" look!!

To be continued.......................

Had this fabulous post about our summer, and my computer crashing for a month, the loss of Derek's job, and girls in school etc....................and then yep, you got it, "error city" and I lost it ALL!!! I'm too tired to fix it now, but I'll write more later!

Handsome Devil..........

Look at this handsome devil with his little tonka truck! It's just so fun to have a boy in the house. He loves wheels, wheels and more wheels! He will find any wheel he can and spin it.......he is the first baby we've had that has big chunks of dinner in his diaper that must have worked it's way down during his feeding frenzy at dinner:) He loves to be loud, fast, and it just a 100% adorable, charming boy!

When's school start?

Today was a day only a mom could appreciate. First I must say that the memory of Sunday night with the patio stairs lined with my nice blankets as carpets for the princess games, and about 12 books in the sprinklers - now ruined and soaking wet, an array of baby dolls and dress up clothes in the yard........ I had just about had it! I found myself actually counting the days until summer ends and school begins????????? For those that want to know, it's 21 to be exact. We started our day with a zillion tiny little beads all over the floor that I kept slipping on, three girls that were very mouthy and quite rude to their mommy. I should have known it would be a bad day to try to clean the "junk" drawer in the kitchen. But the way I work is I like to do everything all at once, like jumping off the cliff. So although our house was chaos I dove into the drawer with bobby pins, needles, phone books, clay, old gum wrappers, goggles, sunglasses, and a million other mismatched objects. As I cleaned out art projects that the girls made with the babysitter over a year ago-they were so emotional over the loss of that alone I didn't know how I was going to get rid of more important things, like beaded fish they had made??? I called our sweet babysitter next door and she saved me for an hour. I found I was able to get a lot done, clearing my mind and my clutter just a bit...............

GOT MILK????

After 330 days, 11 months, and almost a whole year of Grant's life..................he is officially switched over to real whole milk "the kind people drink"!! This is always a big milestone in our family and one we really look forward to. It's nice to not have the sheer panic on Saturday night that you have almost ran out of formula, or forgetting a bottle while running errands, and there is nothing to feed baby (I have never done this--only my friends:)) oh, and the powder spilling in the grout of the tile is oh so yucky, plus the added expense of pricey powder, and the smell of it. We can now have white crisp clean pure milk in our ba-ba! We ran out of formula so instead of buying a giant pack at costco for about 4 weeks more we decided to try him on milk a few weeks early. He loves it, we love it and life is much easier. He even likes it ice cold from the fridge.......We love Bubba and are so excited to celebrate his 1st birthday next month!!!!!!!!

Enchanted Forest Anyone??

Yestery we ventured out to take the kids to The enchanted forest! After being on my own with the kids, we welcomed a "family outing" that included daddy and two extra hands:) The kids all really enjoyed themselves. We watched a fun play about cinderella, and rode rides, looked at all the attractions, and slid down many slides. It was just one of those fun filled days together enjoying simple times..........Don't mind Ellie, we came from a primary activity at church on pioneers, and she really wanted to go to Enchanted Forest in her pioneer clothes.........some battles are worth fighting, and some just are not!

Seattle or Bust!

We just got back from a fun filled week up in the Seattle area visiting the Ringhiser family --who had to go and leave us for the bigger and better things in life:) The kids did well on the way up, we made it in about 4 horus with no big headlines to report, just a stop for lunch at a trashy Burger king! The way home was far more adventurous as we sat in traffic for 6 hours and got rear ended just outside of Tacoma! Everyone was ok, but Lucy was mad the "rearended" had to wake her up! The week was filled with lots of trips to the lakes (wilderness, coolon, and meridian). The kids dug in the sand and made up fun game. The fun kept coming from the lake as Ellie and Olivia had a rash that we think was a case of sand crabs-- Sher and I had a great Thursday night as we headed to the south center mall, and shopped only a small section of it, as it's way too huge to see all of it in an evening. We had dinner at the rainforest cafe with Grant (he came with) and then befroe heading home grabbed cheesecake from the cheesecake factory, coming home and eating it in our jammies--what a perfect end to a great day! It was fun to see the kids hot tub, and make up games outside and overdose on disney channel, it was a true vacation as they were up til 11 most night:) Thanks again to the Ringhisers for hosting our family for the week. I guess I'm just a modern day pioneer woman to haul four small kids to washington and single mom it for the week!

Bookworm

Last night at about 10:30 we decided it was time to get the kids to bed. We had been up late with family enjoying the warm summer night, while the kids all jumped on the beloved trampolene. We got everyone showered and I was look for little Amelia? I looked all over and then walked into my room to find her in my bed. I guess we like to do what mommy does. She was quite proud of herself, and who know she may one day be a librarian!

Never easy to say goodbye............

Last week was a big roller coaster that we knew was coming our way.........after five years of dear friendship, my best friend, Sheridan moved away and left me for Washington! Not only did I loose a jewel, my kids also lost their best friends! How do you replace a friend that you talk to about 10 times per day, or that you call for anything you need (I mean anything)! We really took care of each other and I'm still trying to figure out how to get her back to Albany, as I don't know how I will function without her. The only good thing (besides Ray's job) that came out of their transition was she and three of her kids were able to stay with us for the week, before they left. We had a really fun, and chaotic time with 7 kids, and pretty much no husbands to help........but it was one last Hurrah for the kids, and the moms too. We will really miss their family.......Thank heavens for free long distance!

Jamberry

I have always loved the book Jamberry, as it reminds me of summer and picking berries. While we were not able to go out and pick our berries this year, we were able to go out to Grandpa's and get four large flats of strawberries and make lots of yummy stawberry jam! Ellie has decided she will only eat peanut butter and jelly with homemade jam, she says it just taste better. So with four kids, 25 mason jars, 8 boxes of suregel, 25 pounds of sugar, and $80 worth of stawberries we made out way through the 98 degree day (last friday) and got domestic. Ellie is the only one who wanted to squish the berries with her bare hands.............and then about half way through the project I found it was just "my" project.

After another 6 hours or so...........we have hundreds of whole stawberries frozen for smoothies all winter, and jam for all!

Borning is Good

Today was an ordinary and uneventful day in our home. We awoke to making fresh banana muffins for breakfast, followed by the daily dressing, feeding, showering, unloading the dishwasher, loading the dishwasher, seeing dad out the door, running a load of wash........ok, now it's 9am! Grandma came over to see the kids swimming lessons. As we went out to the car, we found our "houdini" had been in the car yesterday (this was after she locked herself in it for about 20 minutes) and left the keys in the ignition. We had 5 minutes to get to swimming and the car was stone dead. Oh, well this was a usual event in our home, so I got my trusty little self charging battery device and did my magic. I really thought nothing of it as I played "mom the mechanic" again. My mom was much more impressed than the kids ever are! After swimming we enjoyed a nice picnic lunch, playing outside, and lots of jumping on the trampolene. The girls set us a whole "school looking" thing in their playhouse, I said, "oh are you making a school"? They all three put their hands on their hips and said (in a gruff voice) NO, THIS IS THE PEPSI CLUB! Little did I know they had all snuck into the garage and grabbed a warm diet pepsi and were in the their playhouse drinking..........ooops I guess it is like mother like daughter:) Grant spent the afternoon fascinated with Grandma's pug, named Ziggy Doodle. He just loved a dog to play with all day. We finished the afternoon with haircuts, nail trimming, and polish for all.........except Grant (no polish for him). It was nice to relax and just enjoy each other instead of all the running we've been doing!

Halloween in June!!

Ok, we had to ask ourselves today is it a "skunk" on our kitchen counter or Amelia? Well let's just say "amelia rides again". She got into the vicks vapor rub today smearing it all over the closet, on her body, and worstly all over her hair about 2 inches thick! We tried degreaser from the garage, cornstarch (skunk look) and dawn dishsoap..........NO LUCK!! We have been told the only way to get it out is with paint thinner? We are not wanting to do that yet, so we are hoping over time it will wear out? For now we have a very "vapory/eucaliptis" smelling house........perhaps the smell will sedate us all and bring on relaxation!!! Stay tuned.........what will happen next week???????????? Only time will tell.

Amelia Bedilia!

We are not sure where are little Millie gets her mischivious spirit? She is always into something.......today it was getting into the sugar canister in the pantry, smearing bacon grease all over the counter and my chair cushion (and eating the bacon for my recipe), sneaking out of the house to be found in our neighbor's car who was visiting, and lastly flooding the backyard with a hose! Her new nickname: houdini. Oh, and yesterday she got into all of my make-up. She dumped three containers of my bare minerals, smeared mascara all over my bathtub and her hands, ruined brushed, eyeliner, lipstick and set my wallet back about $110. Did I mention she did this exact same thing three weeks ago? I think the salon is going to think I'm eating the stuff if I go in and replace my whole supply again? We are investing in a lockbox for my makeup!