For the love of bikes!

We've been doing a lot of bike riding around here.  Well, the boys have, anyway.  Our town just opened a new skate park as an addition to our city park.  The boys have loved it and ask nearly every day if we can go.  I have mixed feelings about the park and the crowd it brings, but I have also enjoyed seeing the boys develop their skills and have a new outlet for physical activity.

We also discovered a BMX track in a neighboring town, which has proven to be a fun place to ride.  I got some great pics of the boys on the jumps and then had some fun with my photo editing software to make some cool posters for the boys. 

Parties, field trips, and summer

The last few days of school were filled with parties, field trips, and fun.  I'm not sure how they count those last days as "instructional time" but I'm glad the kids get to enjoy time with their friends before summer arrives.

Grant's class had a field trip to the park.  It was a rainy, drizzly day and the kids discovered it was fun to slide down the wet concrete skate ramps on their bottoms.  He came home looking like this.  And yes, that is bare skin you're seeing.

Kyle's class went to the zoo, which is always fun.  He enjoyed being in a group with his best friend and seeing the beavers.

Here's to another summer vacation!  Let's hope the sun joins us!

On to Junior High

It's official.  Mariah is no longer an elementary school student.  She's moving on to junior high. What!?!?!?

Mariah's 6th grade graduation was an exciting day; she had prepared and primped and worried and cried and anxiously anticipated the event.  As expected, she looked beautiful, conducted herself with dignity, and thoroughly enjoyed her special day.

We are so pleased with the young woman Mariah is becoming.  She has high standards, high expectations for herself, and a strong work ethic.  She is studious, hard-working, and responsible.  She has found joy in applying herself in both her schoolwork and her spiritual life.  I love watching her grow and strengthen each and every day.  She is an amazing person with exceedingly great potential.  I agree with her 6th grade teacher who said, "I look forward to seeing you do great things."  

Baseball, baseball, and more baseball

If you want to know why I haven't had much time for blogging, or why my house looks like an experiment in chaotic living, or why I walk around with a half-crazed look in my eyes, or why I can't remember conversation details from ten minutes ago, it could be that baseball is taking over my life and my brain and my house and my life and my brain..... and my life.

So, while I'm not running Mariah to the horse barn.... or taking the boys to scouts, or driving Karina to pre-school, or dropping off Kyle to kindergarten, or heading to the church for choir practice, or spending the day at the doctor to make sure arms aren't broken, or resupplying the cupboards with food so I don't hear the kids whine one more time that we have nothing to eat... I'm on the baseball field with one of my four kids who are playing this season.

Dallin is on a traveling team with a hardcore coach who thinks it's important to practice several hours a day, have "optional" practices on Saturdays, and be an hour early for every game.  I do not share his mindset (Dallin's only in 4th grade, for crying out loud!) so he and I have a mutual disdain for one another, albeit unspoken.  Grant is on a much more laid-back team because he is younger, but unfortunately his practices are not near our house and take a 15 minute commute each direction.  Kyle and Karina are on the same t-ball team, which is the least demanding of all the kids, but still requires time out of my Saturday mornings to juggle.  Needless to say, every afternoon/night of the week is filled with some form of baseball.

I enjoy watching each of them play.  Kyle and Karina have loved every minute of t-ball so far.  Well, almost.  If Karina's not in an active part of the field (which in t-ball is first base or the pitcher's position), she voices her complaints pretty emphatically.  But, I think she has enjoyed letting her competitive side be fulfilled and her coach has learned to keep her happy.  The treats at the end of the games have been the predominant motivating factor for these kids.

Grant loves to play at his level and tries to find every excuse to slide into home base.  The other night his coach was correcting him when he kept over-running 2nd and 3rd bases.  She told him to make sure he stopped on the base or that he slid into them, if necessary.  I saw the gleam in his eye when he realized he had just received permission to slide into every base.  He came to me and informed me his coach had told him to slide into every base except 1st, "no matter what."  I love how he conveniently plucks out the information he wants to hear and regurgitates it to his advantage.  If he could just slide around the field all night, he would be happy as a clam.  He also loves playing the catcher position and does a great job at it.

Dallin has enjoyed his season, for the most part.  He is much more confident at bat this year, which was his greatest struggle last season.  It is difficult to hit the ball at his level, since the pitchers are very inconsistent, but he has worked hard and has really improved his skills.  I'll admit his coach has done a fine job of teaching the boys base running skills and it's fun to see them steal bases.

As busy as it keeps me, I do love seeing my kids play sports.  They have fun (most of the time) and I enjoy watching them learn and grow in ways I can't teach them myself.  I knew this season would be crazy--four children in any sport at one time is a recipe for serious insanity.  But, I couldn't see how to get around it, although, I'm pretty sure next year I'll find a way.

Twig

The day Jason brought the kitten home, I walked into the house, oblivious to the surprise that awaited me.  The looks on the kids' faces belied their innocence and with their unrestrained grins, they told me they had a surprise for me.

"Look in the box!" they exclaimed, pointing to a large, rubbermaid bin sitting on the fireplace.  I hesitated, suspicious of what the excitement was about.  I had seen these looks before (see earlier post).  I recognized the mischievous faces they were giving me.

"No thanks,"  I replied.  I wasn't going to look at something freaky in the box--whatever it was.  With their continued urging to look in the box, I said, "No way!  There's a spider in there or something!"

Karina laughed and said, "No, Mom!  It's not a creepy, crawly thing!"

That's when Dallin pulled out the furry, fuzzy kitten that melted my heart.  She was tiny, blue-eyed, and adorable.  I was instantly in love and surprised at my own favorable reaction.  I've always been a cat person and had many cats and kittens growing up, but I've put off having any sort of pet (aside from a fish or two) at this stage in life.  It seems with five kids, I've got my hands full enough.  But, I guess I'll have to make room for one more.

We debated for a few days what to name her and finally decided (begrudgingly, to some) on Twig.  Karina, who voted for "Whiskers," came to me the other day and suggested we each just call her whatever we wanted, conveniently giving herself permission to continue with her name choice.  Whatever we call her, she's officially the newest member of our family and she's already snuggled her way into our hearts.

Horse show

Mariah participated in her first horse show.  Just to get her feet wet, she signed up for a simple halter class with the horse she's been working with lately.  She practiced and practiced and was ready to go the morning of the show, albeit a little nervous.

She did fabulous!  Her horse behaved well and she was able to do exactly as she had practiced.  She didn't win any awards, but the judge was only judging the horse, not Mariah's ability to maneuver the horse.  So, it was a low pressure situation--just perfect to get her started.  

I was so proud of her and her hard work.  She has really come a long way.  She stayed the rest of the day and watched the other events.  When she came home, she said she was ready to participate in more events in the next show.  I'm excited to see where she goes with all of this!

A husband unattended

Wives, be warned!  When you leave your unattanded husband in charge of four young children and their busy schedules, you may get more than you bargained for.....

Jason stayed home from work last Saturday to help me with my crazy schedule.  Kyle, Karina, and Grant all had baseball games and team pictures scheduled throughout the morning, Mariah had a horse show she was participating in all day, and I had a wedding to attend in the early afternoon.  Mariah and I arose early in the morning and left for her show, leaving Jason in charge of the baseball kids and their festivities.

I was worried he would miss one of the kid's picture times or forget to have them wear their uniforms or arrive at the wrong field and not know where to go. To my surprise, he maneuvered between all the fields, pictures, games, and such without a hitch.  To my even greater surprise, he brought home this:

Sigh.  How can you argue with such a cute face?  

News

Are you ready for our BIG news?  It's monumental, epic, HUGE!

We're adding a new member to our family.... our real estate family, that is.

Meet the newest endeavor for our business:

Side door entrance into waiting room

Front door entrance - need a new sign!  

And, no, that's not our Hummer.

Loading dock on our end of the building

After more than a year of preparation and several months of negotiation, research, qualifying, and work, we were able to purchase this building to house our growing business.  It's a very well kept, six-year-old warehouse style building located in Portland.  The previous owners (Direct Buy) prepared the building with a beautiful showroom area and offices.  We'll be doing some modifications to the showroom (what? no more wall people sitting in the showroom?) and eliminating most of the offices in order to expand the shop area and create a space for inventory storage.

The process was lengthy and somewhat arduous, and though the weight and responsibility of a large investment feels overwhelming at times, we're very excited to start this new journey for our business.  PRE has been steadily growing in the past years and we've outgrown our current space.  We knew we would need to move and expand and we wanted to make the investment for ourselves to create stability for the company.

Everything for this building fell into place as it should.  There were many ups, downs, and unknowns along the way but in the end, it all worked out quite well.  Now the real work begins with remodeling the building and then moving in.  It will be no small task and will take us a few months.  We're hoping to be up and running in the new building by September.  I'll be sure to keep you updated on the progress of everything.

View of showroom at the front entrance

These walls will come down and a race car will be on display under the circular ceiling.

Showroom - these walls will be removed 

Waiting room area (Jason's favorite room)

What sort of man-cave can Jason build in here?  

It ought to be fun!

Shop area 

This will at least triple in size once the walls are removed and everything is set up.

A house by the beach

This was our house for a few days as we enjoyed the Oregon Coast on Memorial Day weekend.  It was a lovely little cottage just a block from the beach.  We loved it!  The girls had their own room and they were so excited to have their own space they even made their beds every morning!  The boys stayed in the loft, which was complete with video games and a tv.  Do I need to tell you it looked a bomb went off by the time they were done?  But they had fun!

I love being able to stay in one location for several days.  It's nice to unpack and really settle in to a place, which is what we were able to do this weekend.  We enjoyed this little house and took our time doing the outdoor things we wanted to do.

We spent time on the beach (of course) flying kites, jumping waves, freezing our feet off in the cold water, burying kids, building castles and jumps, and digging holes.  Jason bought a couple of skim boards and Dallin and Grant tried them out.  Unfortunately, the beach we were on had a rather steep surf, which didn't allow for much water to settle and skim on before it rushed back out to sea.  The boys spent plenty of time attempting to retrieve their boards from the waves, which gobbled them up readily.  Luckily, what goes out to sea, always comes back.

We went shopping in Depoe Bay and Newport and Lincoln City.  We ate salt water taffy.  We saw seals in the water and lying on the beach.  We combed the beaches for shells and pretty rocks.  We rode bikes, ate seafood, slept in, and celebrated Jason's birthday.  It was a wonderful, relaxing weekend.  And I'm ready to do it again!

Dallin is a decade

It's hard to believe Dallin is ten years old.  He's grown so much and I love him even more.

We celebrated his birthday in true ten year old style.  

It was a party complete with bike riding....

....target practice....

....pogo jumping....

....and water sliding....

....chest bumping....

....and even a wedding!

It was most certainly a day full of adventure.  And Mom slept well that night.

Happy birthday, my boy!

May of Joy

• Enjoying the beautiful spring weather--I love the feel of the sun and warmth on my body.  It feels so good to thaw out!
• Buying plants for my hanging baskets.
• Filling, hanging and seeing my hanging baskets with their flowers as I pull up to the house.  I love that they're there to greet me.
• Spending Memorial Day weekend at the beach.  I love going on weekend adventures, but it's even nicer to have an extra day to really enjoy where you're staying and get settled in.  
• Watching Dallin perform a piano piece in the school talent show.  He was perfect!