Christmas 2011

Eight adults + eight kids = Lots of noise, fun, laughter, poker, snowball fight, garden gnomes, redneck gifts, a trip to the ER, Catan, yummy food, matching p.j.'s, rum cake, and even a new bathroom sink. A very blessed Christmas.

Birthday Girl

A pause in the Christmas season to celebrate Kelsey's 4th birthday.

The Letter "D"

Amos goes to school! This week is "D" week for Zac's kindergarten class. The kids could either bring a stuffed dog or a real one for "show and tell". Our super great friends graciously let Zac bring their lab Amos. Zac had a great time being a "dog expert", Amos I think was a bit bewildered by the whole thing, but, was the well behaved dog that he always is.

Aarrrrgh! Pirate Zac is six years old!

Zac had a fun sixth birthday with cookies and chocolate milk at Kindergarten, pancakes, bacon and a pirate ship cake for his party at home. And of course lots of pirate themed gifts :)

Autumn

Kelsey spent a fun fall afternoon at Grandpa and Grandma's house. She picked apples, helped Grandma make a pie and then of course enjoyed the "fruits of their labor :)

Kindergarten

Zachary's first day of Kindergarten. He LOVES school, and is blessed with a wonderful teacher.
It was funny on that first day how easy it was to tell which parents had done this "first day of Kindergarten thing" before. We came in with our child, got them situated, took the obligatory picture, gave our kindergartner a hug and then... left. The newbies at this stood huddled in the back of the classroom. Which is OK, we were there once too, it just struck me how much easier it is with kid # 2.

Lions, Tigers, and Bears Oh My!

We spent a fun Saturday at the Oregon zoo with my sister Leanna, bro-in-law Jory and our most awesome niece and nephews.

Lions, Tigers, and Bears, Oh My!

Lions, Tigers, and Bears, Oh My!

Tea Party!

Interestingly, at this tea party all of the cups contained coffee. Don't know where Kelsey came up with that :)

Family,fun and sun in Moses Lake

Even by my low Pacific Northwest standards this has been a gray and dreary summer. It was so wonderful to go to eastern Washington and experience sunshine! Oh, and visit with family too of course :)

Deadliest catch...family style

Commercial crab fishing is the most dangerous job in America, thus giving it the name "the deadliest catch". We chose the more family friendly version of tossing the crab pots off the dock at Westport. Despite the fact that we didn't catch any keepers, (a few were sooo very close!) we had a fun time and built some great memories with the Conrad family.

Camping at North Fork

Camping at the North Fork camp ground was rustic, fun and beautiful. We went with three other families, the grand total of kiddos was 11, 7 boys, 3 girls and 1 baby boy. The kids (especially Zac) all had a grand time playing in the forest and going on hikes, Kelsey being the exception. She is apparently NOT a nature girl. The fussy face picture of Kelsey was on a hike. The funny thing about Kelsey and hiking is that the minute we were off the trail and back on the pavement the fussing stopped and she was happy as could be! We also learned on this camping trip that although Thomas is a very impulsive child, he has the wherewithal to roast perfect marshmallows for s'mores. The picture shows how shocked we were by this information, Thomas has one s'more in his hand and three on his lap and yes he ate them all:)

Ta-da!

Around Easter Wal-Mart had a bunch of kid bikes proudly displayed near the entrance to the store. Kelsey noticed them and asked," if she could have a new bike?" Seizing the opportunity I said, "yes, but only kids who wear underwear and keep it dry can ride bikes." After a few starts and stops, Kelsey is now completely done with diapers and pull-ups! YAY! She is now a proud bike riding girl! :)

THE HEDGE

The Hedge. My Grandparents purchased the "Beach House" in the late 60's and the Hedge was planted soon afterward. It is now GINORMOUS! And thus the annual tradition of trimming the hedge. This year with one sister and her family in Colorado, my other sister and hubby touring the Mediterranean, and my parents watching the children of the touring parents, the trimming of the hedge somehow fell to us. Hmmm, how convenient that the rest of the family chose to be "busy" that weekend....
Next year people, the hedge is all yours!
Anyways, Jerry was The Man, and trimmed the WHOLE hedge by himself. The kids and I were on clean up duty and picked up all the branches. This year, now that they are 5 and 8 years old Thomas and Zac were great helpers! Kelsey gets the award for being the "cutest" helper :)

Fun times at the beach

Happy Fourth of July!

Sunshine, a parade, ice cream, sparklers, and watching the fire work show down on the beach a perfect Fourth of July!

The house and the fort

Kelsey has her dream "house". The house is complete with a kitchen, shutters that open and close, a pink door and is furnished with a purple chair. The boys have a fort. It is still in the building stage, but soon it will have walls, a roof, real windows, a ladder, a trap door and a requirement for every fort, a secret spy hole.

Planting the "garden"

My mom and mother-in-law both plant huge gardens, and they always have, even when their kids were little. I'm utterly amazed and impressed by this. I can't imagine taking the time to do all of the work required to take care of a garden, the weeding! the watering! Did I mention that both of these amazing ladies also then can from their bountiful crop? Sometimes I feel guilty that I don't, that I have no desire to do so, and that our "garden" consists of three tomato plants in pots on our deck. BUT when my mom goes out of town for a few days and I have to take care of her garden, I get over it! Besides, both my mom and mother-in-law share their harvest with us :)

Our graduate.

And our baby boy Zachary has graduated from pre-school. The program was oozing with cuteness. The picture of the class with their arms over their head is when they were singing a song about the life cycle of a caterpillar, this is the part where they are the cocoon. Zac was the letter "M", who has a big mouth and eats marshmallows. I'm pretty sure he was typecast. Zac had a wonderful school year, learned lots and had lots of fun, a perfect pre-school experience.

Swimming Lessons

We decided to forgo baseball season this year in favor of swimming lessons. I know, I know, in some circles not letting your child play baseball is tantamount to child abuse! LOL! But, after two seasons of listening to Thomas say that he is, "so board with base ball" by the third practice, and the fact that Zac cannot swim AT ALL, swimming lessons was a pretty easy decision.

Goodbye Tree!

Goodbye tree. You would be quite beautiful in a meadow all by yourself. Next to our house constantly clogging up the gutters with your leaves and branches is just not working for us any more!

Easter

Last Easter, with the passing of our Grandma, was such a time of sorrow for our family. This year, though we miss Grandma terribly, the sadness isn't quite so raw. To make some happy Easter celebration memories we went to a local Easter egg hunt extravaganza complete with bounce houses and pony rides. We also dyed eggs with my sisters and their kiddos, went to church and had a fantastic feast afterwards. The icing on the cake though was Thomas being baptized.

Happy Birthday to Jerry!

Take a look at the middle picture. Was I secretly hoping that the ginormous candle would singe Jerry goatee down a few inches? Why yes I was :) It didn't happen , but a girl can dream...
Jerry had two parties, one with my family on his actual birthday and then last weekend we went to Moses Lake for the birthday extravaganza with the rest of the April 14th crew, Jerry's mom Juanita and his niece Jenny also have April 14th birthdays. We all had a fun time and ate WAY too much chocolate cake :)

Spring Break

 
Spring break this year was a very grey and rain filled week. Luckily I found some paints and a coloring book (and the new flooring hasn't been installed yet)stashed away, perfect for a dreary pacific northwest day.