The Gilbert Family

2012-01-23T18:31:00.000-08:00

Lucy was pretty excited to find her sunglasses today. She insisted I wear mine as well and when she found I wasn't wearing them, she politely shoved them back on my face. It was kind of hard to do laundry this morning...

Can you find the almost 3 year old? It might be hard for a few reasons. For one, her crib resembles a small zoo and oh wait, what is that in her mouth? Oh yes, a pacifier. She never took one as a baby and I tried. Never had an interest and we never had to break her from it or go through any of that. So now I really can't understand why she loves the dang things so much and keeps stealing them from Edyn's baby stuff. She asks for it throughout the day, "Where my binkie go? I want my binkie!". I mean, seriously child? You are almost 3! I am trying to get her to sit on the potty once a day just to make an effort with the whole potty training thing and here she is wanting a pacifier! I am having to hide them from her which is hard considering the newborn in the house that actually uses them. I can't figure that kid out. She's just weird, and I mean that in the nicest mommy way possible. She eats play dough with a fork. I love her and she makes me laugh a whole lot, but oh my goodness. I hope her turning 3 will tone down the crazy a bit.
I am very lucky this week, my visiting teacher arranged dinner and somewhere for my kids to play almost everyday this week. I feel guilty as I am doing pretty darn good other than just tired and think I should be able to handle things but I am certainly not going to turn down a chance for a nap! Today they were gone for 3 hours and I felt like I was on a mini vacation. I got a nap and cleaned my house and sat and cuddled Edyn. It was awesome. And my kids loved being able to get out of the house and go play with their friends. I hope I am able to return the favor soon for someone else because it totally rocked!

Snow!

2012-01-21T11:01:00.000-08:00

Since Wednesday this week, we have had about 7-8 inches of snow. It started to melt today but we had fun while it lasted!

e took the kids to the park to go sledding on Friday which had a bunch of small hills. The kids had a blast .

Kevin and Lucy sledding down the hill. Isak got a new sled for Christmas and was pretty excited to try it out.

Lucy just wanted to sled down the hill on her bum, she was so excited.

Its amazing how fast you can go when there are three of you on the sled! Amazingly, we didn't even wipe out.Then today Kevin took Isak sledding behind the Jeep with his dad. He had a ton of fun and afterwards played on a snow hill with the neighbor kids. He was pretty worn out when he was done.

And all this snow of course calls for cinnamon rolls. I know at some point I should do something about this baby weight but snowy weather and freezing cold just screams cinnamon rolls! And they were delicious.

Edyn was jaundiced so we had to put her on a bili blanket at home. She looked like a glow worm. She was attached to this hose thing and was not portable at all. I think it kept her warm though, she slept the best she ever has with that thing on! She only had to have it on for 24 hours, thank goodness, then I decided she looked better and returned it. The next day they drew her level and it had dropped by 5 points so she is doing much better.
We had a movie night at home last night. Isak and Lucy made a "nest" on the floor. Lucy has really been teasing Isak a ton lately, she loves to get a reaction out of him. Since they are pretty close to the same size these days, they are much more evenly matched. Sometimes, I just let nature take its course...
Yes, poor Isak. I can't understand why he wasn't more excited for another sister.....

Edyn Girl

2012-01-17T20:56:00.000-08:00

Edyn at 4 days old. She loves to be awake between 2 and 6am. Likes to be held upright. Hardly ever spits up. Definitely a more delicate eater than her siblings, she might actually be average weight and height!
Likes to cuddle at night and will only sleep well if she is lying next to me. We are working on this because it is not very comfortable for me!
Since my mom has been here helping during the day, I have been spoiled with naptime everyday during Lucy's nap and Edyn just sleeps right along with me. It has been rather awesome. I have been amazed how good I feel after having her and how quickly I have recovered. Aside from being pretty lightheaded/dizzy over the past day or so which is apparently related to being dehydrated (I'm not convinced), I have been feeling good. I drink over 64oz of water alone during the day mainly because breastfeeding makes me so thirsty! And my dr. told me today to add another 32oz. Seriously? I will try but that is a whole lot of water!
Edyn went in for a quick checkup today at 5 days old and she is 7lbs 4oz, almost back to her birth weight. She is also pretty jaundiced so tomorrow she gets a biliblanket and gets to hangout like a glowworm for a while.
Isak has come around and has decided that he likes his little sister. Lucy has always been in love with her and really likes to hold her. It is so fun to watch them love her!

2012-01-14T20:31:00.000-08:00

Its official...Isak and Kevin are out numbered! Its a GIRL!!

Edyn Hahana Gilbert joined our family at 0714pm on 01/12/12. She is perfect! We loved the name Edyn and Hahana (not Hanna) means "to shine" in Maori which I thought was a beautiful. We have been seriously sleep deprived as is expected with a newborn but I will do my best to rundown all the good times that happened with her labor...Wednesday while I was at preschool with Isak I had a sudden numbness in the left side of my face. It was brief, maybe 10 minutes, but scared me so I called my doctor and went in to see her that afternoon. Following the numbness in my face I felt tingling down my left arm/leg that wasn't significant but it definitely noticeable. While at the doctor they determined that everything was fine, I was pretty dehydrated but otherwise fine and she checked me and I was 4cm dilated so she went ahead and stripped my membranes. A new experience and definitely not a fun one. I contracted hard for the next 2 hours then they stopped. I went to the gym and ran a couple miles to see if I could start them up again. About 830 that night they started again, mostly cramping and irregular. By midnight they were getting stronger and Kevin called his mom to come stay with our kids. I noticed I was leaking fluid around 1230 and figured my water had broke. I was still fine with staying home, the contractions were not that strong, but Kevin really wanted me to go into the hospital so I complied. I was still 4cm dilated went I went in but more effaced and they admitted me. I got my epidural around 3am and well somehow stayed in labor for the next 17 hours. The night nurse told me I was 7cm when she left at 730 then the day nurse informed me I was only 5cm. Yes, that was awesome. So they started Pitocin and did that all day and my day nurse left at 3, telling me I was 10cm dilated and they were letting me labor down. I should mention that I have back labor with all my kids and they are all facing up instead of most babies that face down so it takes them longer to descend and for me to dilate. Its as fun as it sounds. Anyway, my next nurse came on and told me I was not complete and was only 8cm. Get the pattern here? I was a little frustrated to say the least and really tired. It was at this point I started doing fun stuff like blacking out and scaring my nurse. I had low blood sugar and my blood pressures were low and the room was spinning a lot. I think it was mostly from sleep deprivation and just pure exhaustion. They also described it as a big hormone dump and it was my reaction to all the adrenaline. Good times. Anyway, eventually my doctor came in and finally found the rest of my bag of water that hadn't ruptured all the way and did that. After she did that I kept repositioning myself to try and get her head to turn face down. Then my epidural which I had for over 12 hours had been gradually wearing off and was no longer effective. So I was maxed out on Pitocin and feeling every contraction for the last hour and refused any kind of bolus from the epidural for fear it would slow down my labor again. Finally I went complete at 7pm and was very ready to push. My doctor came in and I only pushed for 5 minutes and out she came! It hurt so horribly awful and I couldn't quit crying when she came out, mainly because I think I was so relieved it was finally all over!

Wow, that was a lot of info. This is me in labor with my epidural when it was still working. Thats why I look so happy.
Edyn right when she came out. She was starving and wanted to nurse right away. I think she hadn't eaten in over 20 hours too and was hungry!
She has a cleft chin just like Kevin and her siblings and has long fingers and feet like her big sister. Her hair has a reddish tint and her eye shape reminds me of Kevin and Isak's.

Weighing in at 7lbs 6oz and 20 inches long.

Lucy was so excited to see her. She kept saying "She's so little. She's cute!" She is in love with her and especially loves all her fun accessories like her binkies, her bouncer, swing, cradle and carseat. She loves to climb in them and shove all her stuffed animals in them and run around with Edyn's binkies in her mouth. Yes, we have to watch her.
Lucy and Isak were the first ones to come in and see her and Isak was pretty disappointed it wasn't a boy and has been rather wary of her ever since. My parents and Kevin's parents came in next and we told them it was a girl. I don't remember most of this because I was in some kind of sleep deprived coma and my nurse shoved some toast and juice in my mouth before I konked out again.
Here she is all ready to go home! I realized I need to stock up on my hair accessories with all these girls...
Our family at home, Edyn is one day old. We have our hands full!
My big baby and my little baby. I had to laugh when I looked at Lucy's size 6 diapers and Edyn's newborn diapers.
Here she is today at 2 days old. I need to take some more of her tomorrow but for now I think I need to go to sleep as this little girl thinks that she needs to wakeup at 11pm for the day.

Isak

2012-01-09T14:07:00.000-08:00

Isak has been saying some pretty great stuff lately. My favorites from the past couple weeks.

Putting him to bed one night, he insisted on sleeping with his new zhu zhu pet from Christmas.

Isak: "Mom, he's nocturnal, he doesn't sleep at night so I can't go bed either".

Me: "Isak, if he's nocturnal then he has to come stay awake with me in the living room".

Isak: "He's diurnal! He's diurnal!"

We have an insect book that talks about butterflies that are nocturnal or diurnal which is where he got this from. Crazy kid.

Isak: "Mom, did you know that the largest beach in the world is in Idaho in Africa?".

He's been obsessed about the planets lately and loves to ask which gases are on which planets, how many moons they have and likes to inform everyone we know that Pluto is no longer a planet. Anyway, I'm sure there is more that my foggy pregnant brain can't remember but he is sure entertaining lately!

Christmas!!

2011-12-31T20:53:00.000-08:00

Christmas morning Isak woke up around 7 and we let him open his stocking. We woke Lucy up around 730 and started opening presents. Isak had a scuba mask and his specified nerf gun waiting for him from Santa while Lucy was elated to find her angry birds and pigs set up for her under the tree. She refused to let go of said angry bird and opened the rest of her gifts with one hand, for fear we would take it away as we had every other time we had been at the store.
Isak also got some more robots, legos and games and Lucy got some other toys that she didn't care about because well she already had her angry bird. My sister made this really awesome bird costumes for my kids which they LOVED and Lucy thought they were angry bird costumes and was really excited. Thanks Valerie for the Halloween costumes for this year!

The great thing about having Christmas near all our family is that we really had 3 Christmases...one by ourselves, one with Kevin's family, then one with my family. And Isak and Lucy really loved opening gifts three times!
Before church we went over to Kevin's family to open presents. Isak got another Nerf gun and more legos and well he was just as excited as could be. Lucy continued to refuse to let go of her angry bird and happily settled in watching "Wonderpets Mistmas!" It was fun having Kevin's Aunt Colleen up for Christmas as well as his grandma to visit with.
My parents came over for dinner along with Aaron. Isak got an awesome sled and Tinker toys while Lucy got a tea set and a new doll that has a motion activated laugh. It sounds slightly demonic.
Aaron made Isak an awesome ferris wheel out of his tinker toys and played nerf guns with him all night. Isak is still asking me when we can move to Texas or when it would be possible for Uncle Aaron to move to Othello.
She has been having tea parties with "Gatorade!" and her angry birds ever since. She is very polite and makes sure everyone says "please" and "thank you" before receiving more in their cups.
We had a wonderful Christmas and it was so nice to be able to stay home and be with family. We were so blessed and our kids were spoiled rotten by everyone. Now, if we could just add another baby here in a few weeks everything would be perfect!

Christmas Eve

2011-12-27T21:41:00.000-08:00

On Friday before Christmas, we made gingerbread houses at my parents' house. My brother Aaron is here visiting from Texas for Christmas and Isak absolutely loves and idolizes him. Apparently he wants to be an engineer just like Uncle Aaron because he is "so smart". Anyway, we do graham cracker houses and Isak was very specific that he wanted to make a "spooky gingerbread house". He let me know which decorations were spooky and which ones were not. He also really wanted to decorate for Christmas eve with our Halloween decorations but fortunately I couldn't get to them.
Notice the spooky candy corn on the house? As well as the broken house and hole in the gumdrop window...

On Christmas Eve, my parents and brother came to our house and we acted out the nativity. Here is Isak being a wiseman and bringing his "treasure" to the baby Jesus. I was Mary and Lucy was suppose to be the angel but not surprisingly, she was not cooperating. My brother Aaron was nice enough to be a Shepard and wiseman with Isak.

My dad read us The Grinch who stole Christmas, which has been a christmas tradition in our family since I can remember. He does the best actions and voice to the grinch and Isak was quite enthralled.

Lucy was determined to keep sticking stuffed animals in the tree despite numerous reminders and warnings not too, which led to this....

Followed by timeout in her crib. Did I mention she is getting to be super fun lately?

And the kids were less than excited to pose for me with their pajamas in front of the tree. Stinkers. We put out milk and cookies for Santa and carrots for his reindeer.

Stoneridge

2011-12-27T20:57:00.000-08:00

The weekend before Christmas Kevin and I took the kids up to Stoneridge, a resort north of Spokane. His parents have a timeshare up there and no one has used it for a while so we decided to take advantage of a cheap vacation and spend a few nights there. The room had a small kitchen with a fridge so we brought our food and cooked it as we went.
The rec center area has a salt water pool, hot tub, racquet ball courts, gym and areas for crafts and even a WII game room. The first night we spent playing in the hot tub and then had a movie night with the kids, complete with popcorn and Gatorade. They were in seventh heaven.
There was a light dusting of snow and the lake was frozen over. We took the kids for a walk and Kevin and Isak walked out onto the lake and threw rocks. We found all sorts of animal prints everywhere and Lucy found sticks to draw in the snow with.
Kevin took Isak sledding while Lucy was napping and he had a great time. There is a golf course there and it had perfect hills for sledding.
There was an ice cream social one night we were there at the rec center and Isak found some boys to play with. There was also Santa there, which neither of kids were that excited to see but Isak flat our refused to sit by him or talk to him. No amount of bribing was working. It was a good 15 minutes and finally he gave in as long as he could sit with Kevin. So this is our Santa picture this year, kind of funny. Isak asked for a nerf gun and a scuba mask. Lucy was just happy with the candy cane she got out of the whole deal.
We had fun and I learned why we don't go on "vacation" with our kids more often...its a whole lot of work with a 2 and 4 year old! By the time we got home, I told Kevin I needed my own vacation by myself...but Isak had so much fun and keeps asking when we get to go again. And Lucy keeps looking at videos on my phone of her swimming and wants to put her swimsuit on over and over and doesn't understand why she can't go to the pool. I am glad we got to do something fun with just the two of them before our family expands to five!

2011-12-13T21:13:00.000-08:00

Lucy doing her yoga pose with Kevin. That girl is incredibly flexible, its amazing. We have been so busy the past few weeks with Christmas approaching as I am sure everyone is. I just got our Christmas cards sent out today and mailed the last few packages. The kids are so excited for Christmas and Lucy loves our "mistmis tree!". I showed them the new bible videos on lds.org and Lucy LOVES them and keeps asking to "watch baby Jesus!". I guess there are worse things she could watch. Isak especially seems to get it this year and asked to make sure I get his letter to Santa so he knows exactly what he wants. The other day he told Kevin and I he wanted an RPN. We asked him what that was and he said, "a rocket propelled nerf gun!". I guess he is starting to understand acronyms!.
My young women and I made gingerbread houses last week at my house and my kids were pretty impressed. Actually I only had one girl, poor thing, and she was stuck with me the whole time. She was nice enough to gift her house to my kids and Lucy promptly named it "lucy's house" and told me, "its so nice!". She loves to sit by it and talk about it and actually has eaten very little off of it, just wants to admire it. We are making ours next week and Isak keeps telling me he needs one his army guys can live in.
Isak has been asking to make a fruit rainbow, for some reason, so today I obliged and we created this. Isak has been telling everyone that he has a cat named Carro that lives in our attic and is very nice. Everyone once in a while he has kevin lift him up there and let him look around. He even told his whole preschool class about this as well as the snow leopard that lives in our yard. The kids comes up with some impressive stories. Last week he told me that blue otter pops have more fiber than the other colors. I don't know what he knows about fiber but he has a memory like no other so I'm sure he heard it from somewhere.

I have about 5 weeks of this pregnancy left and have started to get pretty uncomfortable. Sleep is getting harder, as well as moving in general and I have been pretty cranky. Poor Kevin and my kids. This combined with Christmas just has been a lot to deal with. I am working on being more agreeable and trying to save my patience for my children. My mom and I went shopping on Saturday and I got everything I need for this baby, either boy or girl, and I am all set. Just trying to wrap my head around the idea of a third kiddo around here but we are so excited!

Thanksgiving!

2011-12-04T21:15:00.000-08:00

The Wednesday before Thanksgving Isak had his cousin Grady over to play. These two play so great together, I hardly see either one of them all day. Isak loves having a constant playmate and I love having someone to entertain him so I can get something cleaned!
They were even pretty good about playing with Lucy, who ran around for an hour with the fireman hat on her head and packing around this blue case.
For Thanksgiving this year, Kevin's family came up to Othello to celebrate and attend his cousin's wedding in Spokane. My brother Mark and his wife Jen came up to Moses Lake as well for Thanksgiving and for their wedding reception on Saturday. So we were very busy with family!
Stephanie, Whitney and I made about 3 batches of rolls and I made 3 pies for dinner. The rolls were so yummy! We had a wonderful dinner and visit with family right up until Friday when some horrible virus started to run through Kevin's family. It was super contagious and volatile but short lived. Isak got sick, then me, then Lucy threw up all over my brother's reception and then Kevin missed work the next week. It was horrible. I think Sunday night was the only night we actually got to visit with everyone and no one was actively sick.

Since we were sick most of the time, I completely forgot to pull out my camera. These are 3 of the grandkids post sickness. They had a lot of fun playing with their cousins!

2011-11-22T20:48:00.000-08:00

We enjoyed the last of the snow on Sunday and kevin pulled the kids around in the sled. They LOVED it and I think Kevin got a great workout! My large pregnant self was inside the warm house in a chair I think at the time they were freezing outside......

The snow was quickly was melting by Monday but Isak was desperate to make a snowman. So I helped him scrape him up the last of the snow and we built a sad little snowman that the kids loved.
When Kevin came home from lunch he made him a second snowman which Isak promptly destroyed. His favorite part of building snowmen is jumping on them.
I attempted foam curlers in Lucy's hair the other night as well without a lot of hope. She really dislikes having her hair touched, brushed,braided or anything else that would make it super cute. She let me put in a few curlers which I tried to tie some fabric around for the night.
When she woke up, most of them had made it through the night and at least some of her hair was curly.
It turned out pretty cute! Now if only she would let me do this more often.....

First Snow!

2011-11-16T21:44:00.000-08:00

It snowed today and the kids were super excited. Isak kept running out into the snow in his socks and telling me he needed to clear the driveway. Then he found, his water bottle and wanted to stick it outside so the water would freeze. He was also very insistent all afternoon that he go out in play in it but I told him he had to wait till Kevin came home. It was freezing outside and I knew he would be outside for a while and well, my coat barely zips up so right now and being outside in freezing weather isn't super appealing. I'm a great mom right now, I know. When the snow stopped, Isak started crying and telling me to bring the snow back and it took me forever to get him to understand that it would stop and start for a while. And no, despite being super mom, I do not control the weather. Anyway, I was VERY excited when Kevin came home from work and took crazy 1 and crazy 2 outside in the snow. I won't even go into the theatrics that came when Isak realized his mittens didn't exactly match.But they did love the snow. Even Lucy is much more adventurous than last winter and was very insistent on making a "dowball!. I can't wait till there is enough for sledding! Although I probably won't be doing any of that for a while...

2011-11-16T20:30:00.000-08:00

Kevin and I had a pretty productive weekend last week. My parents were gracious enough to take our kids Friday night and Saturday so we could get some projects done and so I could sleep since I worked night shift.We got our front room painted on Friday night and then Kevin got his floor put in for our shed on Saturday with the help of some great friends. I was able to start sewing the squares for Isak's quilt which I'm realizing is going to take me forever to finish. Its suppose to be a christmas present so hopefully I can finish in time. Anyway, it was fantastic to be able to get so much done! This is what people must be able to accomplish all the time who don't have kids!Our kids were so tired when my parents dropped them off, Isak fell asleep on the recliner and slept for an hour. I don't know if its nesting or what but all the half finished projects we have around our house are driving my absolutely crazy. That and I feel like the walls are closing in on me in our house and we really need that shed before the baby comes so I have a place to put everything! I don't even have room for its cradle right now and haven't been able to dig out any of my boy baby clothes because I can't find them. I have a couple months..I can do it, right??

Speaking of babies, Lucy really likes to sit in the bumbo chair and say, "I'm a baby". Its fairly awesome, especially when she's in her raincoat and blanket sleeper.

Isak loves me to play war with his army guys and the playdough with him. He takes his colored pencils and uses them as missles and they fire them at each other from their mounds of dough. I love him but oh my goodness he is so demanding. He gets upset whenever I talk on the phone with him there because I am not paying 100% attention to him all the time. Its exhausting. I love spending time with him but it would be nice if he would play be himself for 10 mins during the day! He's going through a phase where he loves to tell jokes that he's made up and he thinks they are hilarious. Its pretty funny. He says the funniest things. Tonight he was in bed yelling at Kevin and I because we couldn't find a stuffed animal of is and I heard him yell "why is no one paying attention to all the feelings I am having?!" He loves feeling the baby move and talks about it frequently, I just hope he loves it as much when he/she shows up and starts taking a lot of my time!

Halloween!!

2011-11-01T19:56:00.000-07:00

We had our ward's trunk or treat on Saturday night which was pretty small affair. Isak was a leopard and Lucy was a ladybug, both costumes we were gifted to us by my sister in the past year so I had to do absolutely nothing! Thanks Valerie! The kids got some candy and Lucy quickly figured out that if she put her bucket back up towards people and the candy bag, she would get more candy. Somehow she ended up with twice as much candy as Isak.

On the actual day, Isak had a Halloween party at preschool that I got to go help at. He wore his costume and was extremely excited to go show all his friends and see their costumes. Spending 2 hours with several hopped up 4 and 5 year olds in costumes was definitely an experience.

Kevin was also out of town all day Halloween so I got the lovely job of getting the kids ready for trick or treating. As you can tell, Lucy was just so excited. But this picture pretty much explains her personality the last 3 days, apparently puberty hits at 2. Who knew? She is impossible to reason with and will throw giant tantrums over anything, like green watercolors or not holding owl puppet. She can communicate when she wants too, she just would rather scream and be completely irrational. I love her, yes I do, but when I got pregnant I purposely put 3 years between my kids in a hope that Lucy would be more independent since Isak was so little when Lucy was born. I didn't realize I would still have 2 babies! She has no desire at all to leave her crib, to be potty trained, to try and dress herself, or well do anything that requires any effort at her part. Isak was so completely opposite at this age, wanting as much independence as we allowed, that I have no idea what to do with her. Anyway, this is about Halloween so I shall continue.

Lucy eventually obliged to go outside when she realized she got to bring her candy bucket with her and fill it with more candy. My nice friend and her family offered to go with us so I wouldn't have to drag the kids around by myself.Isak as a leopard and his flashlight/sucker that I'm pretty sure he doesn't know is candy yet and just likes the face reflection that the laser puts off. Notice the new door in the back? We put it in on Saturday and I love it! It lets so much more light in our house and looks so much better. We trick or treated down our street towards Kevin's mom's house and the kids did pretty well. Lucy rode in the stroller and hopped out for every door. It was pretty cold but their costumes were very warm. They both got a decent amount of candy that has been relegated to the top of the fridge and I am attempting to control their daily intake.

Lucy apparently got a little too much candy and needed her glasses back on, as you can tell. She was sitting in the chair and noticed me reaching into her candy bucket. She yelled at me, "Hey! dats mine! top it!" (stop it). Then proceeded to go grab her bucket while giving me the stink eye. I guess I should know better than to try and take Lucy's candy. The kids had a great time and even Kevin got home in time to join us for a few houses. Speaking of Halloween, look at the giant pumpkin shaped baby in this picture....

Alright, I know you have all been dying to see this. Take a good look, the next time you see this baby it will be outside in a blanket :). I am about 28 weeks in this picture, not sure how I can get bigger, but I'm sure I will. Isak loves feeling the baby move and will often come up to me during the day and put his hands on my stomach. If he can't feel anything, he will say, "Mom, wake the baby up so he can kick me!". I am glad he is so excited, especially since Lucy will probably be having a much harder time with the baby and relegating her status of "the baby". I have awesome heartburn, upper right rib and back pain, but otherwise feel pretty good and have been able to keep running. I have done absolutely nothing yet in preparation, I should probably figure that out soon, like buy some diapers or something :).

Marks Wedding

2011-10-26T21:20:00.000-07:00

My little brother Mark got married last Friday in Idaho Falls. I can't believe he's old enough to be married, it makes me feel old. They had great weather, which is suprising for southeastern Idaho in October, and it was pretty warm.

My kids outside the temple waiting for Mark and Jen to come out. They were happy at first. Then they got a little bored....
Then they were were! Jen looked so pretty, I loved her dress, it was all lace and she had cute cowboy boots on with it. The temple has done some remodeling and added some gardens outside so they had a lot of places to take pictures, despite the construction that was ongoing outside the temple. Mark and Jen did a lot of their picture taking in the morning before the sealing so we just mostly had family pictures left, which made it pretty quick.
The best part about Mark getting married was getting to see all my siblings at the same time for a few days. Since my sister lives in Wisconsin and Aaron lives in Texas and Paul in Boise, this doesn't happen very often. It was so nice to be able to go eat together and just hang out. My sister especially loved it since her and her husband were able to leave their 4 kids back in Wisconsin with her in-laws for a few days. Lucy had to wake up from her nap to come to the wedding and was insistent on bringing her stuffed bunny with her to the temple. She was having lots of fun with it, making it hop, feeding it bark, and trying to ride it down the hill.That is, until we told her she couldn't have it in the pictures with her. Yes, trying to reason with a cranky 2 1/2 year old doesn't work too well. Especially when its Lucy.They had a nice luncheon/reception afterwards in Rexberg and had this cute cake there. Their official wedding cake will be at their reception in Jen's hometown in Montana but they had this fun Fall themed one to eat. It was so cute!
And Isak really loved the way the cake tasted as well.

2011-10-26T21:15:00.000-07:00

My brother Mark got married last week and we got the chance to see a lot of family. Above is Lucy with her cousin Conner helping Stephanie and I make cookies. We stayed with them on our way down to Twin Falls and on the way back.
My brother Aaron came up from Texas and Isak was loving all the attention he got from him and followed him everywhere. I was so grateful to Aaron for the hours of entertainment he provided for Isak. I just wish he lived closer so that we could see him more!
We also had the opportunity to visit the visitor's center at the temple in Idaho Falls and had a wonderful time. They have a touch screen computer with interactive games for kids and Isak and Lucy had a lot of fun with it. There was a beautiful exhibit of sculptures from the life of Christ on display that have been on tour around the country.

2011-10-26T20:55:00.000-07:00

We picked about 15 pumpkins out of our backyard this year. We learned that if we would've snipped some off earlier, we could have gotten some really big ones. But we still had fun with the ones we collected. Isak was so excited to carve them and somehow I never got a picture of him with the finished pumpkin. Sadly, it is now rotting on my front porch but it was a lot of fun for the 2 weeks we had it!Isak's class went to the pumpkin patch last week for preschool and they could pick any pumpkin they wanted for $1. He picked out the largest pumpkin he could find, which was huge, and spent the rest of the time jumping off the hay bales. My kids were being too wiggly for pictures but Isak was interested in seeing how many pumpkins tall he was by this sign. My sweet Lucy sleeping with her menegarie of animals. I love how she says her prayers at night. She will repeat them in jibberish back to us with an occasional recognizable word but will say "amen!" very loudly at the end.
Isak takes lots of interesting pictures during the day if I don't hide the camera well enough. Most of them are deleted as they are fuzzy or random pictures of my foot or Lucy's hair. This was actually a pretty clear one he took last week, he's getting better! This also documents Lucy's current obsession with "Old Mcdonald had a farm" videos on youtube. Also why I hide my phone from her during the day as she is in love with children's music videos and memorizes the songs, only to sing them repeatedly throughout the day. It is very entertaining.

2011-10-09T21:02:00.000-07:00

Tonight we had some friends over and Isak enjoyed playing dress-up with their little girl. Luckily she thinks spiderman is as cool as Isak does. Sadly (gladly?), I cannot say the same for Isak and princess dresses.Isak has officially stopped taking naps. I knew it would happen, he's been 4 since May and I have really been lucky with how long he has lasted. However, it has been a rough transition for both of us. I am used to being able to sleep for an hour if I need to, which with pregnancy I usually do, and Isak gets tired early in the evening. I try to have "quiet" time for him but he doesn't grasp the concept of doing things by himself easily so usually I am involved with his quiet time. Which is fine, I just really need a break some days and don't get one anymore. We are spending lots of quality time together...lots of candyland, playdough, computer games, bad guy fighting, puzzles, and reading books. We did these things before, now we just do them when Lucy is sleeping and he really loves not having his sister there to interrupt his time with mom. With number 3 coming soon and Isak starting kindergarten next fall, I know I just need to take a deep breath and enjoy this time with him at home. That's just easier some days than others!
My mom and I canned applesauce this weekend, 26 quarts, it should last a while. I love it for breakfast with cottage cheese and I figure I will have a baby eating lots of the stuff come this summer.
We had some rainy days this week, I think fall has officially arrived. So the kids and I made a giant fort in our front room. It was huge!Lucy loved it as well. Someone needs to tell her that its now October because she keeps asking to wear her swimsuit and go in the "swimin pool!".Today I even put her in it to make her happy but instead caused a complete meltdown. She was also very loud during church today, singing "Old mcdonald had a farm" repeatedly and tracking down innocent babies and going "Oh hey, its a babies!" then patting them on the head. The lady in front of us said she was having flashbacks of Kevin's little sister during church. I would like to point out that all of our kid's crazy behavior comes from his side.....

2011-10-04T20:56:00.000-07:00

Isak's soccer has one more week. To say the least, it has been entertaining. Isak isn't so much focused on following the ball as he is on doing summersaults, twirling, picking grass, and trying to wrestle down his teammates. But he is only 4 and he is having fun, I think I will try wrestling for him next fall and see how he does with that.

We had a very busy weekend but Sunday morning was wonderful. Kevin let me sleep in till 830 since I worked the evening before, then I got up and made breakfast and scones. We sat around in our pajamas and watched conference.

Lucy especially enjoyed herself. I let her hair go crazy, she got to run around with all her puppets, and Kevin was nice enough to let the kids jump on him like a jungle gym. On second thought, maybe watching conference was more fun for me than Kevin.....

We found an exercise band and the kids were loving playing with it tonight. I don't know why even buy them actual toys.

Isak was having Kevin stretch it across the living room down the hallway then letting it snap. They thought this was the greatest game ever.

Lucy and Isak love this show called zooboomafoo on PBS. It talks about different animals and their habitats. Lucy gets particularly excited, as you can tell. Listen closely, I swear she is saying "horse" and well, not something else.

BABY UPDATE

I was going to post a picture of my preggo self but just couldn't bring myself to do it. Maybe next week. I am about 25 weeks and carrying this baby lower than the other 2. I am guessing this is why I have been so uncomfortable so early on in this pregnancy. Either that or the 33lb 2 year old that still thinks she needs to be carried and picked up all the time. Or more likely is that fact that I am getting older, this is my 3rd pregnancy, and my body is just tired. I have been able to keep running which I think has helped, although my belly has started hitting the bar on the treadmill so I might have to revise my form. We have had 2 ultrasounds and the baby looks great. We decided to not find out the gender since the delivery with Lucy was so fun not knowing. Isak has decided if its a boy to name it pickles and if its a girl, strawberry. Kevin is convinced its a girl, and I have been wrong every time so I am not going to guess. But if it is a girl and she is like Lucy, Kevin gets to deal with her when she's 16. And he gets to brush out her hair.

Soccer and Peaches

2011-09-20T21:51:00.000-07:00

Isak started soccer this week and so far he has had one game. Kevin is coaching his team and there are 4 little boys on his team. The main goal is for them to kick it in the right direction, use their feet, and have fun. There is one boy on his team who is amazingly good for being 4 and played spring ball. He can kick the ball while running and turning and can steal it away. He scored about 10 goals so our team might be pretty good thanks to him!

Isak mostly likes just running after the ball with the other kids. He gets tired easily and needed about 4-5 breaks, most of which were while his game was still going and he just ran over and grabbed his gatorade. He only went to play on the swings once toward the end and came back pretty easily. And Isak only tried to tackle this kid on the other team a few times who luckily thought it was just as much fun as Isak. So all in all, a pretty good success. He was a lot of fun to watch and I let him roll down the grassy hills when we were done which he was so excited about.

Kevin's parents have a peach tree in their backyard that gives off lots of peaches every September. Since I am trying to build up our food storage and free fruit is a great way to get some, I decided to try my hand at some canning. I have used a steam canner before helping my mom can over the years and know basically what to do but have never done it all by myself.

So I borrowed my mother-in-law's pressure canner and took all her jars and lids and prayed nothing would blow-up in my kitchen. It was a process and I was pretty nervous that none of them would seal, but it worked! I just did 10 quarts but they all sealed and look edible! I felt so domesticated when I was done and now think I could can other things as well and do okay.

I made about 12 pints of peach freezer jam, 2 peach pies, froze about 4-5 bags, and pureed some and froze them in ice cubes to use as baby food later.

Isak was a great help and used the potato masher to help mash the peaches for jam. The best part is that my house has smelled like yummy peaches for a week.

2011-09-14T21:12:00.000-07:00

Before I start talking about the fair, I wanted to mention Lucy's latest obsession. Meet baby owl or "owl puppet" and mama owl. Lucy loves to carry them around and goes to bed with at least one of them. She especially likes shoving them into her stroller, box, or halloween bucket and carrying them around with her. She will look for them yelling "ere are you oowwl?". Often times at nap we will hear her playing with it going "whoo, whoo, whoo" quite loudly.

The fair was this week, so on Tuesday, the kids made sheep out of cotton balls and glue. Well mostly Isak made a sheep. Lucy just wanted to play with the animal puppets and make them talk. I am pretty sure Isak used a half bottle of glue.

The kids were lucky enough to go to the fair twice today. Once with the preschool in the morning and then tonight with Kevin and I as a family. Lucy was super excited to see the animals and kept saying "wow, oh wow" over and over again. She moo'd at the cows and talked appropriately to the sheep and goats as well. Isak was especially excited about the turkey he found that gobbled at him.

We ate some very yummy but horrible for you fair food, looked at then animals, then to the rides. Lucy somehow wrangled Kevin into letting her ride a pony that was very overpriced.

But she was pretty darn excited about that horse.

I discovered that you can't ride the ferris wheel when you are pregnant. I tried to get on with Lucy and the lovely carnival man said, "mam, is there something on that yellow sign that applies to you?" I was so confused at first then I realized that he was meaning I was pregnant. I wanted to say, "No, I just had my baby. Its at home. But thanks for calling me fat". Sadly, I was caught off guard and didn't say anything witty. So Kevin took both kids by himself.

And I had a heart attack while watching my babies go up so high and fast. Something about the heights on those things always scares me but apparently doesn't phase my kids any. They appeared to be having a great time!

Isak went on the big pink slide again this year and loved it, even after dropping his blanket and making the ride lady climb up to him and give it back to him. I had a feeling she wasn't too pleased about that one.

A very blurry picture of Isak on the spaceships. .

Lucy rode the floating balloon ride with our friend's daughter and Isak rode them as well on a separate car.

Lucy is just over 36 inches tall so she met the minimum height requirement for most of the rides there. However, she is only 2 1/2 so I was a little worried about her being able to safely stay secured in the rides. She managed to stay strapped into this roller coaster fine and actually did really well with all the rides, never crying, just looked a little wide eyed during some of them.

Isak went through a kids straw maze as well and really liked it. He also got a light up sword that he has been talking about since last year's fair that he his currently using as his night light tonight.

I love our little county fair we have, its just the right size and I love that we see everyone we know when we go. My parents are coming with us on Friday night and hopefully we will get to go through some of the exhibits as well as visit all of Lucy's dear animal friends :).

1st day of Preschool

2011-09-07T21:25:00.000-07:00

Isak started preschool today and he was pretty excited. I think he gets bored at home with me all day everyday and its nice he can go somewhere and see other kids and adults a few times a week. We are doing the Co-Op again this year so I get to go help a few times a month which is nice. Anyway, Isak had a great first day and had many of his same friends in his class this year that he did last year and the same teacher. His favorite part of the day was checking out the new playground toys and of course, snack.

I can't believe he will start kindergarten next year. I don't think I am ready. Lucy and I already didn't know what to do with ourselves with the just the 2 hours Isak was gone today. I cleaned the house, we colored and read some books, and it we had 45 mins till Isak was done. I guess it is good I will be having another baby soon to keep me busy!

It was so hot out today, I pulled out the pool and let the kids play. I'm sad to think that summer is almost gone!

Football Weekend

2011-09-05T21:41:00.000-07:00

I gave Kevin Seahawk tickets for his birthday back in July and we got to go to the game on Friday night. Kevin's mom was nice enough to take our kids for the night so off we went! I bought the tickets in June when they were still pretty cheap so I got us tickets 5 rows from the field for a great deal. We have been to several college football games but never to a pro-game and it was really fun to see players in person that we've seen on tv and read about. The crowd was a bit rowdier, mainly because of the open alcohol that was being sold in the stadium...

It was so much fun! The main downside to the seats was that the Seagals were 10 ft from us the whole game and they weren't wearing many clothes. I kept staring at their abs thinking, just wait. Just wait till you have 3 kids and its all shot to heck. Perhaps it was the crazy pregnant hormones talking. Thats been happening a lot lately.

And....Saturday night was Boise State's first football game of the season! Kevin's Aunt Colleen came down to watch it with us because she is awesome and his grandma came too and brought Chico's Pizza. We were all dressed in appropriate fan attire and Isak practiced his football throwing throughout the game. He's actually getting pretty good and loves to run, catch, then spin. Its impressive :).

Lucy got in on the action as well but mostly wanted to dance for everyone and hear them cheer for her. As long as she doesn't grow up to be a Seagirl, I am good with her exuberant personality.

Weekend Travels!

2011-08-31T13:22:00.000-07:00

We went to Rexburg this weekend to visit some family and so I could run a race with Whitney and Nate. We decided to do this Mesa Falls half marathon back in May and trained through the summer. Whitney hasn't done a race with us yet and we wanted to all do one together. Since I knew I would be 5 months pregnant, I didn't want to do the full race but the half was perfect. I haven't ever ran a race where I wasn't trying to beat a time or be competitive so it was really different. I just ran to finish and actually had a pretty good time doing it. I stopped and drank at every aid station and jogged along till I finished. Usually I am way out of breath at the finish line but I was doing pretty good since I had ran so slow! The biggest pain was the soreness that hit the next day when I woke up. If I had been thinking, I would have sat in the cold river after the race to ice my legs but I forgot about that option. So I could hardly walk the next two days but luckily have felt pretty good since.

We had a whirlwind trip so after spending Saturday with Whitney and her family, we headed to Idaho Falls to have dinner with some friends. We then drove down to Twin Falls to spend Sunday with Kevin's brother, Nathan and his family. Above is their little boy Jayden sitting in his bumbo and Lucy sitting next to him. Between their bunkbeds, the baby, and the pet hamsters, my kids were in 7th heaven at their house.

Conner and Isak blowing bubbles in their milk. Don't you love their kitchen? Sigh. I had pretty counters like that once and cabinets that didn't hit you in the head when you opened them. And finished baseboards. Oh the things you take for granted! Nathan made us fried chicken for dinner and Stephanie and I made very yummy cake.

My kids LOVED their hamsters. They would get them out and put them in their balls and let them run around . Lucy kept saying," it the eater bunny! hop! hop!". We headed to Boise on Monday and had dinner with my brother and his wife which was delicious. My kids played with their cats and Isak scored some sweet Star Wars toys from Paul. We stayed with friends that night and Kevin took his CPA exam that next morning in Boise while visited with a good friend in Nampa. It was definitely a whirlwind trip but we got to see a lot of friends and family and it we had a ton of fun. Even if Lucy gets carsick very easily :).

Beach Reunion!!

2011-08-22T21:18:00.000-07:00

We just got back from a week at the Oregon coast with Kevin's family. We had a blast and were lucky enough to have gorgeous, sunny weather everyday with no rain! Super rare for Oregon beaches. My kids were in their swimsuits everyday on the beach, playing in the water and sand. It was fantastic.The house we stayed in was huge, it had to be for as many people as we had. It had an indoor hot tub which the kids loved to jump in after playing in the ocean.
Isak loved playing with his cousins and I hardly saw him the whole time because he was was always off doing stuff and down at the beach.

This was the view from the deck at our house. It was so pretty!We had a bonfire down on the beach and made smores. The kids loved them and made giant messes.

Lucy on the deck of the house with her beloved pink blanket.

The floors in the house were tiled and were great for spinning kids around. Lucy thought this was especially fun. All of kevin's siblings and their families were able to come including a few of his cousins and their spouses and his aunts and uncle.
We went to the aquarium in Newport and Isak was especially excited since he has been rather into sea creatures lately.

There is a 360 degree shark/fish tunnel there that you can walk through and see fish swimming above you. We saw manta rays and several scuba divers as well swimming around. The picture above with us in the shark mouth, I believe we have 2 other pictures of our family in the exact same place. Funny to think in 2 years when we are back again, there will be one more of us!

One of the things we always look forward to about going to Oregon, besides the wonderful views and water, is the outlet mall in Lincoln City. Between all of us girls, we do some serious damage. And we all manage to usually buy something that is all the same. And then we take cute pictures of ourselves on the beach.
Josh and Isak really loved the tinker toys Nana brought and spent hours creating different weapons and helmets out of them. There was also a pool table, foosball table, and air hockey that provided hours of entertainment.

I was amazed and the wonderful weather we had. It is usually so cold and windy whenever we get to go to the beach. One afternoon Lindsey and Nate dug these huge holes in the sand and Isak and Lucy were more than happy to jump right in.
Lucy especially did not want to leave the hole and all you could see was her little pigtails moving back and forth.
We spent a morning at the "D" river, apparently the world's smallest river. Its really a little stream of water leading into the ocean that is fairly warm.

We spent the evenings playing games, chatting, sitting in the hot tub and eating lots of yummy food. When we left, we forgot Isak's very favorite stuffed animal, hopdog, at the house. At first I had no idea we had forgotten it until the next day when we had unpacked and I couldn't find it anywhere. I was able to contact the management in charge of the beach house and they hunted it down and were able to find it. It came in the mail today and I don't think I have ever been more relieved. Isak was really upset and would start to cry whenever he talked about it and it was absolutely heartbreaking. He's had it since he was a baby and we have never been able to find a spare. It was an answer to many prayers and a true testimony to me that Heavenly Father cares about every aspect of our lives, even something like a lost ratty dog.
We had so much fun and I can't believe we have to wait 2 years to go again. Thanks to Kevin's grandma for providing us with such a fun vacation!

2011-08-07T21:24:00.000-07:00

The kids and I found this sweet little play toy last week at a garage sale. They are almost too big for it but since we will have more kids, I thought it was perfect.

This weekend was pretty busy, as most of our weekends always are. Friday night my parents took the kids overnight and Kevin and I were able to go to the temple and do some shopping. They brought them back in the morning and stayed and helped us reassemble our Gazebo. We painted and put the roof on. When my sister was here in June, we painted the scenes on the inside of the roof. It looks really awesome. Kevin is going to shingle the roof and we have to add a little bit of wood to the top then it will be done.

Then that afternoon, we took some friends out to the dairy to visit the cows and play in the cottonseed. The kids really had fun and Lucy kept asking to take a baby cow home.

Isak has been very funny lately. He has been obsessed with everyone's ages and how old his cousins will be when he is a certain age or at a certain event. "Mom, how old will Martin be when I am 15?" Or "How old will the baby be when I am 10?". He then responds with wow, that is really old, they are a grown-up! Or they will still

be a baby. The other day he asked me how old you are when you die, to which I responded, 100. He told me this week, "Mom, 5 years old is so far away". Oh Isak. He makes me laugh multiple times a day.

Glasses!

2011-07-28T21:22:00.000-07:00

Lucy got her glasses on Wednesday and so far she has done really well. She is a very active little girl and I was worried about her pulling them off and smashing them but she has done great. I looked through her lenses and was amazed at the prescription, things 100 yards away were all the sudden right in front of my face. I wish she could tell me, "wow I can see so much better" or "this isn't helping me see at all!" but she's too little. So we got back in a couple months to check her eyes again and hopefully they have improved. We got her 2 pairs as we know we are going to need a spare. They isn't a ton of choices for kids this little but it gets better as they get older and she got some pretty cute ones.

So far they have stayed on during watercolor time (and while drinking the paint water).

And have stayed on while she's eating the tops off of the carrots. I know I say this all the time, but this girl eats the weirdest things! Her latest is eating the clover out of grass and chewing the bark off of sticks. I swear she's not nutrient deficient either. Today while she was eating this carrot top she looked at me and went, "this is mummy!". Yea...she wouldn't eat her garlic bread or ravioli but she will eat weird plants outside. And on another note, Holy Pumpkins! I only planted a little row of pumpkin seeds and appraently forgot to read the package on the seeds about spacing. My poor watermelons are growing up underneath the pumpkins and well, it should be interesting. So if anyone needs a pumpkin come October, I think I will have some to spare!

2011-07-25T21:24:00.000-07:00

So last week Lucy got her first official hair cut. She just took an inch or so off but its made her hair much more manageable. This was pretty much the best picture I could muster with her completely distracted..
My brother Mark came over last week to play with my kids on his day off. He has been home from college this summer working and we loved having him close. He came equipped with nerf darts and Isak was in seventh heaven.
We even wrapped him up in a lemur tortilla and threatened to eat him :).Isak really loves to dress up, I think he was in at least 3 different costumes that day.
Isak grabbed my camera the other day to go take pictures of the pumpkins that are overtaking my yard. Who knew little pumpkin seeds could grow so big? Apparently I should have read the packaging on the seeds and spaced them better because now they are overshadowing my poor watermelons. Isak took this lovely picture of lucy and I, not too bad, at least we are both in the picture! So Lucy pants loves to be wrapped in her pink blanket, her "dee dee!". She brings it to me several times a day, drops it at my feet, and demands to be wrapped up. She then goes limp and she wants to be swaddled and carried like a baby. It was cute the first 2 times, now it is getting old. She is 32 lbs, that is one big baby to be carrying around! She loves this thing, she has 2 of them, both are equally matted and gross, and I have to be very sneaky when I take it to wash it as she can tell which of them is softer and always wants that specific one.

Catch-Up!

2011-07-19T21:51:00.001-07:00

I have been trying to play catch-up from the time my sister was here but in the process everything that is going on currently is getting lost. So I will continue to backtrack while trying to move forward a little. So here are the top 5 most exciting things that happened this week, in no particular order....

1. We took Isak in for his 4 year check up on Friday and I took Lucy with me as I noticed (and everyone else noticed) her left eye turns in quite often. Isak is growing and developing great and the poor little boy had to get 4 shots and has to go back for 2 more later. Lucy, however, got a referral to the eye doctor and several screaming eye drops later, we discovered she is very far-sighted. And she gets glasses! Poor girl. I guess it runs in Kevin's family. She did great identifying all the little pictures in the mirror with each eye and charmed the pants off the nurse. Right up until they had to put drops in her eyes and it took 3 of us to restrain her :). She didn't love the eye doctor so much after that. We ordered them on Saturday and she should get them in the next couple weeks. I am quite nervous to see how she will do with them as she hates things on her face and is always pulling her sunglasses off. Hopefully when she realizes she can see better with them she will like them!

2. Kevin and I had the opportunity to go to girl's camp last Tuesday and spend the night. We had so much fun. I got called into Young Women's the end of May and have absolutely loved my time there and getting to know the girls
Here they are at the top of the slip n slide in their "train". Watching those girls made me tired, I'm only about 10-12 years older than most of these girls but holy cow their energy! I've forgotten what its like to be 15 and have a super fast metabolism and be able to eat whatever you want.
Kevin was there to help us with our tin foil dinners which was greatly appreciated. He kept commenting on how girl's camp was nothing like boys camp. No killing squirrels or lighting random things on fire and we had decorations of all things! He was pretty perplexed.
While we were gone, Kevin's mom took our kids overnight and Isak discovered the marble set. I had the same one as a kid and we played with it ALL DAY the next day. He loves it and also loves creating guns with the different parts, go figure....

3. We discovered the splash park at Columbia Park in Tri-Cities. My kids loved it, especially Isak, and we had to pull him away crying to get him to leave.
Lucy was a bit more cautious and doesn't love soaking herself in the water, but she still jumped right in and played a bit. She kept coming up to me and going "I all wet mommys, I all wet!".
4. Pretty much everyday, the kids and I spend a significant amount of time outside on the trampoline. It never gets old and some of their favorite games to play on it are chase, Lucy loves ring around the rosie, and duck duck goose.

It may never get old because Isak is always being more inventive....he dragged out the leapfrog table and was doing tricks off of it. Other ideas that have been stopped by me quickly: Leaping from the trampoline into the pool, onto the bouncy castle, and trying to shove each other off the trampoline. Never a boring moment at my house people.
5. Today was the weirdest weather. It is the middle of July, but this morning was rainy, windy and just plain cold. We attempted to play outside but ended up making a fort over the kitchen table and dragging the stuffed animals under it. We also made pictures of the sky, complete with lightning and birds, and Isak worked on writing his name. We are getting there, I am not in too big of a hurry with him. I figure he will get it before too long and there is no need to frustrate him with the whole tihing.
6.....Whoops. I forgot, there is a number 6. Probably everyone knows by now, but I am 14 weeks pregnant. We are due in middle of January and are very excited. I have been sicker with this one than with the other two but I keep my whining to Kevin and immediate family. I am hoping it will get better soon as I could sure use some more energy to keep up with these two kids. And don't hold your breath, we won't find out the sex till its born, we did it with Lucy and I am completely convinced that it is the only way to go. One of life's only true surprises. And here's to hoping that number 3 will be our mellow one....I can hope, right??

Aquatic Center

2011-07-01T21:33:00.000-07:00

Isak has been taking swim lessons the past two weeks at our local pool. I've been a little skeptical about how much he has learned as there were 7 kids in his class and one teacher and many times it appeared that Isak did as he pleased. But apparently he passed and got a tootsie roll and can go on to the next level. I think we will wait till next summer when he's a little taller as he was the shortest and one of the youngest in his class.
Right after he finished with his swim lessons, we went and spent the day with my family at the aquatic center. This pool is huge compared to ours and has way more things that my kids can do so they were in heaven.
We had about 5 adults for 6 kids so we were pretty well covered. I was even able to race the water slides with Kevin and Valerie.
The kids loved the body boarding feature they have in the simulated wave pool. All of them tried it out, even Isak, although some were better at holding on than others.

Isak stayed on for about 2 seconds, but apparently, being swept up and wiping out didn't scare him at all and he asked to do it again.

Poor little Caleb about lost his swimsuit on it, good thing he's too little to be embarrassed by it!

Isak's favorite feature by far was the lazy river (and Lucy's too) and he went around countless times. While Lucy was quite happy to just sit in our laps and be carried around and around, Isak was insistent that he have his own tube, although he had to stand on his tippy toes.

2011-06-27T21:59:00.000-07:00

We've had so much fun with my family here. My kids are loving having their cousins around and Isak especially loves that there is always someone to play with. The other night we had our official "Master Chef" competition, with the key ingredient being carrots. We each had to come up with a dish that contained carrots and then were judged on taste, carrotiness, presentation, creativity, and some other things I can't remember.
I made some tortilla wraps that had ham/cheese/shredded carrots/lettuce/tomatoes and had a mixture of cream cheese and ranch dressing. They were delicious.
We also had a quiche, carrot salad, some bunny cracker appetizers, and carrot cupcakes. I would just like to mention that I won. Not that its important or anything :).
Lucy and Reed are only a few months apart and play really well together. Along with this, they also fight really well together as well so some days there is more hitting and biting than others.
My brother Aaron came in from Texas this past weekend and brought his super nintendo along with bomberman. I loved this game when I was younger and the kids loved that 4 players can play at once. Anyway, he was very popular.
My sister and I took the kids out to Scootney swimming area last week and the kids loved playing in the water. My sister was awesome enough to swim with Isak out to the dock and then wait patiently for him to decide that it was okay to get back into the water.

We found some little tadpoles in the water that were fun to watch.

As well as several large sticks and some pieces of driftwood that the kids entertained themselves with.
We've have spent so much time outside in the water, my kids have been sleeping great at night because they are so tired!

2011-06-20T21:01:00.000-07:00

This weekend Kevin and I hit up some awesome garage sales to add to Isak's robot fleet. For a $1.50 we got a buzz light year, complete with talking buttons, laser light, and moveable helmet and 2 talking/light up/walking little robots that came with remote. I also got a huge box of lincoln logs for $5 and painted wood blocks of all shapes for $2 and some other things I am saving for christmas. I usually do a lot of my kids christmas shopping in the summer at garage sales...My kids are still little and don't care and I can find almost brand new toys for super cheap! Actually, only 2 of the robots below were bought at a store, the two red ones in the middle, the rest were goodwill or garage sales. My kids still have way too much stuff but when it only cost me $.50, I don't mind getting rid of it after they are done playing with it.
My little brother, Mark, got engaged a few weeks ago and we got to meet his fiance, Jen, this past weekend. Somehow I never got a picture of her though, but she is very cute and incredibly nice. While she was here, we had the great idea to have a cake decorating contest and have Kevin judge them. Kevin was chosen as he wasn't there while they were made and wasn't biased.And somehow, mine won! I think its the cute cardboard cutouts of the couple on top that did it for me. We all enjoyed some cake while we showed Jen the infamous slide show of our family pictures that every daughter/son-in-law has had to watch before marrying into our family. Its always quite entertaining :).Lucy and Isak have LOVED having their cousins around this past week. Even if we've spent all day with them and they leave, Isak always asks, "where did my cousins go? I want to play with my cousins!".

Reed and Lucy taking a bath and splashing my mom with enormous amounts of water. They were having so much fun!
Since Valerie has been here, we've gone to the pool and thrift store shopping and spent lots of time in my backyard watching the kids jump on the trampoline and swim in the bouncy pool.
And Maddie was smart enough to bring her lemur costume with her so her and Isak could be lemurs together again! Isak loves this costume, I think its the tail, and loves his cousin Maddie. Its funny, he seems to adore the ones that are 3-5 years older than him versus the one his age.
And Lucy found the leopard head to her costume. She is starting to love to dress -up as much as Isak.On a side note, Isak started swim lessons today. We will see how it goes, there are 7 kids in his class and it seems kind of chaotic. Last year I was lucky enough to be able to find him a private lesson for a week that he loved and seemed to learn a lot from. Hopefully 2 weeks in this class will help him with something.

Lucy's hair is getting really long. I want to cut it for summer but Kevin won't let me. Its pretty when its brushed out, but I have to usually fight her pretty good to get it done in the morning which is a huge pain. And despite massive amounts of conditioner, its gets tangled easily. The jello and Popsicle juice probably doesn't help either. Maybe she will have an "accident" with some scissors and I can trim it without anyone knowing...

lately

2011-06-14T19:33:00.000-07:00

Alright, I have been horrible at this the past few weeks but so much has been going on, it has been hard to keep up. We took Isak on his first mini golf outing and he loved it, although I think he has some practice ahead of him before he turns pro. He mostly likes to shuffle the ball along with his club and when he's done with that, he picks up the ball, puts it next to the hole, and shoves it in. He had a ton of fun though and was very enthusiastic about the whole thing.My sister just arrived from Wisconsin and will be here for the next month. Since I only get to see her and her kids about once a year, I am very excited. She has 4 kids and so far they have done a great job of tiring mine out so they sleep great every night. Today we went hiking out by Ancient Lakes outside of Quincy, we hiked a mile in to a waterfall and some streams, ate lunch, and then hiked out.

My kids did okay on the way out, Lucy had to be carried a lot, but the return they were pretty tired. It was really hot as well, and despite the hats, sunscreen and water, they were very red cheeked. They were also extremely tired. We found this cool cave that the kids liked to throw rocks down.I realize I am doing this post backwards, but that is the way the pictures worked. Kevin's grandpa passed away the end of May and we had his funeral the following week. I always loved Kevin's grandparents and admired their example of service and enduring to the end. They were wonderful people and I know they are so excited to be together again. Kevin's siblings were all able to come up for the funeral and it was great to be together and see everyone.

Nathan and Stephanie were able to come up for 5 days and we loved having them around and my kids were excited to have a cousin to play with. They spent a lot of outside at Kevin's mom's on the swingset.

And out at grandma's picking the leaves off trees. Or in Lucy's case, eating the flowers off the trees.
We also went out to the dairy and saw the cows and found these brand new baby cows. So we dumped our kids in the pen with them and took a picture. Then took them out before they got kicked.
My sweet daughter decided to stop sleeping in her crib a few weeks ago for no apparent reason. She can't climb out, but really hates to be put in it for some reason so we have put her mattress on the floor and for now that is where she is sleeping. It is kind of working. She has spent many a night falling asleep on our couch/floor as well. I knew her wonderful sleeping habits couldn't last forever but I was sure hoping. I guess its time to go bed shopping!

2011-05-27T21:47:00.000-07:00

In the past few months, Isak has discovered how to take pictures with the camera, reasonably well. I often find pictures on the camera of carpet, stuffed animals, furniture, and very unflattering pictures of myself who was unknowingly being photographed. Anyway, he also loves to put hopdog and dishtowels on the fan then turn it on low and let them fly off. I know, I am a hugely irresponsible parent. So below are some of the photos Isak has taken this last month. He also has a great knack for capturing messes around my house as well.
Something about these socks sitting in the middle of my floor drew his attention.

Self-portrait.

Gotta love the angle he does with this shot. Crazy kid. Thats his time-out chair in the corner :).

And on another note, this is Lucy's hair this morning. It was very volumnious, as it usually is in the morning, and she wouldn't let me touch it. So here it is, in all its tangled, crazy glory.
Lucy has recently discovered her dress-up shoes and likes to wear them around the house, even though they are way too big on her. I think she likes the way they clack on the floor.

Isak's Birthday!!

2011-05-23T21:40:00.000-07:00

Isak turned 4 today! I can't believe my baby boy is already four. He was such a fun 3 year old, I'm sure 4 will bring its own set of interesting ideas and challenges. On Saturday, we had a party with his little friends from our ward. It was kind of cold, which it was last year too on his party, but we had fun anyway. We had it at the park, close to the toys, and had pizza and watermelon.
Isak and Lucy loved chasing the bubbles they got out of the pinata.

This was my first time making a pinata and it turned out okay. Spiderman originally had more of a body but then I thought it would be easier to hook it together with just the head. He sustained several whacks with the bat, however.
I made Isak a spiderman cake this year which turned out to be a lot harder than it looked. I did the head out of rice krispie treats and had to remake it a couple times as it was too heavy and kept falling forward into the cake. It still didn't turn out that great but Isak loved it and he was all I had to impress.
All the red frosting stained all the kids faces red and they all looked like they had attacked something.
Sunday night we had a family dinner with mine and kevin's parents and his grandma. Isak got even more presents, namely superhero squad figures, dr. doom's castle, and a large captain moroni and Nephi figure.

Today was his actual birthday and we did cupcakes at preschool, got a happy meal for lunch, and had friends over to play this afternoon. Then tonight was preschool graduation. I know, he's only four and he will graduate next year, but look at his cute hat! Isak's birthday was like a 3 day celebration. I think next year we will make it one day and I will just buy a cake from costco and make my life much easier. After all, he will be 5 and as Isak says, "When I turn 5, I will loose my teeth".
So Happy Birthday Isak! He loves to play super heros, hide and go seek, jump on the trampoline, go to the park, play games, have books read to him, cut paper, and talk to any kid who looks like they may be within 5 years of his age. He can be quite emotional at times which can be frustrating but with that he is also very sweet and really wants to do what is right most of the time. And he makes me laugh on a daily basis.

2011-05-16T21:42:00.000-07:00

Last week it was quite warm here and the kids and I had a lot of fun. I couldn't get the pictures from my phone to upload or I would've written this last week. One evening Lucy decided she wanted to do watercolors so I got out all the stuff.

Only to find her drinking the blue paint water. She was really mad when I took it away.We made a volcano outside with baking soda and vinegar. Isak and Lucy loved this and kept wanting to pour more baking soda on it.

I am glad we still have a mud hole in the backyard since we put grass in. Someday hopefully it will be something useful, but for now, my kids love digging in the dirt.

We also went and saw the cows out at the dairy. Isak LOVED them. Its been a while since we have been out there and Isak wanted to see the baby cows, "they are so cute mom!We even saw ", the medium sized cows, and the big momma cows. We saw some pretty new baby cows that were trying to stand up, they were pretty cute. And yes, Isak is barefoot, He is a farm kid at heart. And I gave him a bath when we got home and scrubbed his feet :).

The warm weather has meant that the snow cone truck is back at the park! Baseball season is in full swing which means the park across the street is busy almost every evening and weekend. The kids got their first snow cones of the year and Kevin and I had some delicious tacos from the Taco Wagon.

Kevin''s sister Lindsey and her husband Nate came up from Rexburg on Thursday and stayed the weekend. We had a great visit and I got to sharpen up my dance central skills. My kids especially love Uncle Nate and that he is their personal play toy that will wrestle/carry/throw them where ever the please.

2011-05-09T22:14:00.000-07:00

I had a great Mother's Day yesterday. Kevin let me sleep in, well, Isak came and visited me a few times but I still slept in. Then he made me breakfast and I got a pretty hanging basket of flowers and Isak and Lucy gave me a card. In the afternoon we visited my mom, and my brother made us homemade ravioli which was delicious. And I didn't have to change any stinky diapers, although Lucy dear did get kicked out of nursery briefly for knocking over other children in her excitement :). Above is the best picture we could muster at the end of the day, Lucy was sad because she just knocked her snack all over the trampoline and wanted to go eat it. My little, mostly sweet, boy who made me a mommy after 12 horrible hours of labor.
And my crazy, crazy daughter who took me by suprise by being a girl and has taught me lots of

patience. And a belated Happy Mother's Day to my own mom who I am lucky enough to get to see on a regular basis and is great mom and grandma to my kids. One of the many things I love the most about my mom is that she always shows an interest in what I or my kids or doing. She is always the first one I call after their check-ups or after they met one of their milestones because she is always just as excited as I am. She is one terrific lady!
This week it has been in the 70's here and we are loving the warm weather, spending most of our days in the yard, garden, and jumping on the trampoline. We like to put the sprinkler under the trampoline and then jump through the water.

I planted my garden a few weeks ago and today I noticed all my little bean and pea sprouts are showing. I also have some raspberry starts that I am hoping will give me some berries next year, so far I have managed to keep everything alive.

Lucy's favorite activity is snapping the heads of my tulips and then carrying them around. Almost as much fun as unearthing all the seeds in my garden. Almost.

2011-05-04T22:14:00.000-07:00

Isak has been coming up with some pretty interesting stories lately. I love seeing how his little brain works as he tries to put it all together. This past weekend there was a carnival in the Wal-Mart parking lot here, which we did not attend, but Isak was quite fascinated by. On Monday we saw them packing it up and Isak kept asking me where they were going, which I told him, I don't know. Then he said, "Mom, they are going to a city called Trample, where there is lots of electricity. And there are flying cars. But we can't go there because there are lots of shock hazards". We are so glad that Kevin's CPA exam is over, he took it last Thursday. There were lots of late nights where the kids and I battled it out alone. He has one more this month, but luckily, its the easier one. Below is one tired Lucy lounging on the floor. She has to be wearing shoes at all times inside the house and gets mad when one falls off. She yells, "shoe off! shoe off!". If she doesn't like the shoes I put on her, she goes and gets a different pair and brings them to me. And then there is Isak, who can hardly be bothered to even wear shoes. There has to be a middle ground!
Now that Kevin is home in the evening, he can help with hair duty. Brushing Lucy's tangled mop after her bath is always a chore. We have also been busy getting our yard ready, now that we have grass and not dirt, its much more fun!

Easter!

2011-04-24T20:16:00.000-07:00

We had a great Easter weekend. I didn't have to work and we got to spend a lot of time with family and just hanging out at home. Yesterday my mom and I went shopping in Tri-Cities while Kevin studied and my dad hung out with Isak at my house. Lucy tagged along with me for a girls morning out shopping which she Loved. I had to try some dresses on her to see what size she was and she was twirling in the mirror and talking to herself. At one point we found a three way mirror and she was talking to each "Lucy" in the mirror. She was quite fascinated. We had Easter dinner with my parents and brother last night and today we celebrated with Kevin's dad who came over for BBQ and the first watermelon of the season.

We usually don't make Easter huge deal in our house, its pretty commercialized already, but I think a little Easter basket is fun and the kids each got some treats with a toy. Well, some of the "toys" were things I picked up in New Zealand and just saved to give to the kids. Isak has been really into board games lately and I picked up this cute fishing one for pretty cheap at Target. Its much more his age than the Risk game he has been "playing" lately or rather playing battle with the little guys.Lucy was the first one awake and she woke up pretty early and had gone to bed pretty late the night before. In fact, she had fallen asleep in the car and apparently we forgot to take off her sandals when we laid her down. So, excuse her crazy hair and slightly less than excited expression. We got her this cute Kiwi backpack in New Zealand with some dollar store polka dot morracas. I love the backpack, it even has little feet.This was the first year I actually tried to dress the kids nice for Easter and got Lucy an actual Easter dress. The dress is huge on her, its a 4T, but they didn't have a 3T and as long as I tied it tight, it fit fine. I got Isaks shirt and sweater last July in Michigan at a consignment store. Her dress just made it hard to grab her during church while she was climbing on all the benches, too much skirt. Don't they clean up nice? When their faces are washed, hair brushed, and shoes and socks are both on? It doesn't happen too often, which is why I have to document this occasion.

I found the bunny ears from last year and Lucy sported them tonight, she was quite excited. Tonight we had our home evening for the week and told the story of Christ's death and resurrection and showed a short video for the kids. Isak was actually pretty focused and asked questions. I know he probably wont remember any of it a week from now, but maybe something is sticking. Anyway, it was a nice relaxing weekend and we also got a lawn mower so we will no longer have the longest grass on the block. One good thing about the dirt lawn last summer, we never had to mow it.

2011-04-20T22:17:00.000-07:00

So, back to life as normal now. Kevin is studying every night late for up his upcoming CPA exam and I am busy trying to get our garden in while keeping Lucy from digging up all my seeds. Forget birds, the two year old is way more of a threat to my little plants! So last week my good friend Katie Reese, formerly Jensen, who now resides in North Carolina was in Washington for a visit. I haven't seen her in over 5 years and was so excited to catch up. Since Crystal also lives conveniently in the same town, we all got together for a mini-reunion with our kiddos. We were such good friends in high school and have managed to stay in touch pretty well. Katie now has a super adorable little boy, Kaden, who is 8 months. And who Lucy felt a need to torment by repeatedly taking his binkie and then trying to shove it back in his mouth backwards.

This was our attempt at a picture of all our kids together. We graduated 9 years ago, who would've thought this would be what our little offspring would look like?

From left to right: Lucy (2), Isak (3 1/2), Livy (3), Kaden (8 months), and Aubrey (5 1/2).

Dang we have some cute babies! Katie lives close to the beach and I think Crystal and I need to take a vacation down there while our hubbies spend a quality weekend with our kiddos. Livy was feeling less than cooperative with the picture, but she belongs to Crystal :). I love that being close to where I grew up I get to see friends from high school every so often. Now if I could just convince some family in the way of siblings and sibling in laws to move closer, I would be set forever.

Its been nice to be home and back in our routine. Isak likes to tell me that he is "so glad you came back from New Zealand" and that he loves to be back at his house. He told Kevin yesterday, "I am made up of bones. Yep. I shoot them out of my eyes when fighting my enemies". Today he told me, "Mom, it smells like human food. It doesn't smell like boy food". Funny kid.

We got our kids some sheep skins while in New Zealand which I have reserved for special occasions only with no food, drink, or stinky hands nearby. Lucy was pretty excited.
Saturday we had an Easter egg hunt at a friends house here with a bunch of kids. Isak and Lucy were pretty excited, I recycled our pumpkin from Halloween and Isak used the actual Easter basker. I think Lucy was more into it than Isak was, after he found about 10 eggs he just wanted to play on the equipment. Lucy was really mad she had to wait to go find eggs, she kept trying to run into the backyard ahead of all the kids. I have a friend who had a good idea about teaching kids about Easter that I copied. In the Friend this month there was an activity about the 8 days prior to Easter and what Christ did each day. I printed them out and stuck them each in a balloon with some jellybeans then numbered the balloons 1-8. Each day we pop one and read what happened. I'm not sure my kids get it at all but its a start at least.

Hamilton/Auckland

2011-04-19T21:31:00.000-07:00

We spent some time out in Hamilton, where Kevin spent 20 months of his mission. The beach above was Raglan, a little surf town about 45 mins outside Hamilton. They sell awesome leather sandals there at a little shop called Heart and Soul. Kevin has had two pairs of sandals from there since he served his mission there and they last forever. The beach there was gorgeous, the road out there was rather trecherous and very very windy.

While out in Hamilton, we had the opportunity to stay with some families Kevin knew there on his mission. Below, is Amanda and her daughters Kendall, Choree, and her husband Jeffrey. Kevin knew Amanda when Kendall was about 3 or 4 and now she is 13! They live out on a dairy farm in a little town right outside Hamilton. It was so fun to meet the people that I have always heard Kevin talk so highly of. They were so friendly and made us feel so welcome. Unfortunately I am dumb and didn't get a picture of Raina and her family that we also stayed with for a few days.

Kendall really wants to come visit us now in Washington, in "America". We tried to convince her mom how great it would be for her to come work on a dairy farm in America for a summer... Below is Choree and her cousin Makiah..she was seriously cute. About 20 months with the cutest belly I have ever seen on a baby. I just wanted to rub it for luck. All of us trying to squeeze in for a picture, not the greastest, but at least we all got in one!
The temple in New Zealand is in Hamilton. We got a chance to go do a session while we were there and it was beautiful. We also got to go the visitors center there and see several church videos that I had never seen before and visit with some missionaries.
I loved being able to go running in the mornings around the temple grounds. It was so pretty! Also in Hamilton, there are these very awesome gardens that represent different areas in the world. Below is an Italian garden that was filled with lemon trees.

I really don't remember what they all represented. I just remember there were a whole lot of them, and they were amazing.

I was pretty fascinated by the bamboo trees that grow all over New Zealand. It was all over in Paihia and I found it again at this garden in Hamilton. So Cool!

The national soft drink of New Zeland is Lemon and Paeroa, Lemon for the taste and Paeroa for the town where it was discovered. We traveled up to the coramandel peninsula while we were there and the town of Paeroa was along the way. Had to take a picture with the giant L&P bottle! I tried some while I was there and its actually not too bad. Its slogan is, "Give it your all....most". Kind of funny, its like the national slogan of mediocrity.
We went up to the Coramandel Peninsula because we had heard about this place called Hot Water Beach. There are these natural hot springs on the beach right by the ocean. You can rent a shovel (or just take someone else's spot if your cheap like us) and dig a hole to lay in. You have to bring a bucket to haul cool water into the hole so it doesn't get too hot.

It was pretty awesome. I think I could've sat in my little hole of hot water all day long. We were pretty close to the spring and it was getting pretty toasty on my toes or I might have.

I thought the other mountain roads in New Zealand were bad, the ones up to Coramandel were by far the worse. There were even mirrors for trucks on the roads so they could see if there were oncoming cars before they completed a turn. Talk about hairpin turns, I thought we were going to die!

We spent the last few days in New Zealand in Auckland. Above is the pier in Auckland. It also happened to be my birthday while in Auckland and we celebrated by eating on top of the sky tower. It is apparently the highest structure in the southern hemisphere and the top does one full rotation every hour.
Apparently New Zealand has become the hot spot to visit for reality shows, just this week I saw the biggest loser contestants jumping off the sky tower and then I discovered Kate Gosselin and her kids also did the same. Crazy. After the sky swing experience I flat out refused to do anything more with heights. We had an incredible time, totally worth the 13 hour plane ride there and back and missing my kids for 2 weeks. Who, by the way, were totally and 100% find and not scarred at all from the experience. I thouht we were going to have some major clinginess/insecurity issues and they were completely fine! Not so sure about our parents, but the kids were doing great! I don't think I will ever be gone for that long again while I have little babies but I'm so glad we did it once. And who knows? Maybe someday we will make it back there. I can only hope.

Rotorua

2011-04-11T21:44:00.001-07:00

So I should back up a bit. Kevin served in the Auckland, New Zealand mission 10 years ago which is why we decided to go back and visit. We have wanted to do this ever since we got married and Kevin has managed to stay in touch with a few people. Since we live conveniently near both sets of grandparents and Lucy is now 2, we decided it was now or never. We started saving a few years ago and just decided to do it. It seems things like this you either make happen or they pass you by so we decided to jump. It still doesn't seem like we really went there. Anyway, after Paihia we made our drive to Rotorua, it was about 5 hours and the longest car ride we had. Since the scenery was all new to me, I didn't care and we took our time meandering through the countryside.

We passed by this awesome tourist attraction in construction, a pre-european Maori village that will open this summer. It was near a museum that we stopped and talked to some of the workers. We found a lady there who was LDS and discussed with us the growth of church in NZ in the past 10 years. I honestly couldn't understand a lot of what she was saying do to her thick accent and use of Maori words thrown in here and there, but Kevin later translated for me.

There were some pretty awesome road signs in New Zealand. Above, this was on the very windy 2 land road coming out of Paihia. It reads, "High Crash Rate". I thought, "shouldn't that read Road Closed??". The roads there are kind of scary, a lot of blind curves. Below, their yield signs read "Give Way". There are way more of these then stop signs, which is nice and much faster. I also saw a sign that was a yellow diamond that read "Aged Persons". I was so mad I never got a picture of one, they were hilarious.

Kevin and I went to the Hells Gate Spa in Rotorua when we got there. There is tons of geothermic activity in the area and there is even a steaming park in the middle of town with all this bubbling sulfur. Anyway, first up on our little spa trip we got to go for a walk through all this geothermal area.

It reminded me quite a bit of Yellowstone, except, there was a hot water waterfall there. The largest in the southern hemisphere, apparently.

This was a mud volcano that apparently erupts up to a 5 foot diameter. This little fence is definitely within 5 feet, which could make a person a bit nervous.

Anyway, we got to go rub stinky mud on ourselves, sit in a very hot sulfur pool, then got awesome massages. They shuttled us home in a mini-van, that also contained 4 workers that they dropped off on our way home. It was pretty funny...and very much New Zealand culture.

We went to the agrodome in Rotorua as well which contains several hundred sheep. You can tour the farm sites, watch them get sheared, etc. We got to see them call out the sheep dog and watch it herd the sheep into a pen. Very exciting. Above kevin is standing with a very tall fiberglass sheep. Across the way, we tried our hand at Zorbing, a lovely little activity invented who knows when, that involves you getting instead an essential hamster ball and rolling down a hill. We opted to do wet zorbing, which you do in your swim suit and they weight down the ball with water, so you don't actually flip over, although you feel like you do. This was the track we went down. It was fun, but it was a pretty short ride. I'm not sure I would do it again, but I'm glad I did it once.

Kevin and I also went to Skyline, this lovely place that we took a Gondola ride to the top of a very large hill and then scootered down on these lovely things. It was so much fun! We went down 3 times, once down each course. Above is the gorgeous view we had from the top, that's Lake Rotorua in the distance.

Alright, I will save the best for last here. We bought our tickets for Skyline in a package, that included a ride on the "sky swing". I didn't really know what it was, it sounded harmless enough. We saved it for last, which turned out to be a good thing. A little alarm went off in my head when the 5 point harness then the 2nd seat belt clicked into place. The lady clicking me into place, muttered somthing about "make sure you are clicked in on the way, that would be a big mess" . That's when the panic set in. She pointed out the release pull that we were to pull to "release" ourselves at the top. Then we were elevated very, very high in the air, facing the ground. On this little journey, I had some words with my dear husband about exactly what I thought of this little adventure. Little did I know, there was a camera recording the whole thing. I HATE rides like this and I wanted nothing more than to get down, but at that point, there is only one way down. So I shut my eyes and Kevin pulled the cord. I felt my heart drop through my toes as I slingshotted (is that a word?) out over the hill. Apparently we went 150km/hr in 2 seconds. NOT FUN. But oh don't worry, my cute little husband bought that DVD that was conveniently for sale when we were done, so I can relive it again and again. Oh and so he can show my rantings to everyone we know. Would've been so great if he would have mentioned to me that there was a camera above my head...I may have chosen some different words :).This is already too long. Rotorua was packed full of stuff we did. I'll talk about the Tamaki village and buried village and whaka in another post. Betcha you can't wait.

2011-04-11T21:44:00.000-07:00

Bay of Islands

2011-04-10T22:14:00.000-07:00

Kevin and I just got back from two weeks in New Zealand. It was AMAZING and we had so much fun. We did so much it will be hard to summarize it but I want to include it in my book so I'm going to split it up by the areas we visited. First up, Bay of Islands. This was on the northern part of the North Island and was the most tropical area we visited. It was right on the ocean and has a group of about 140 small islands in the area. We stayed in a little coastal town called Paihia.

There were several historical areas in this little town, including sites where Christian missionaries first landed and integrated with the Maori people. Below is a Huge tree we saw there, see Kevin underneath?

We went sailing out to an island the second day we were there. Neither of us had ever been on a sailboat and I thought it would be fun. We were on the boat with about 6 other people, several from the UK, Australia, and a German. I rarely met any Americans the whole time we were in New Zealand, it was rare to hear anyone that talked like me!

We had a pretty leisurely sail out to a little island where we stopped at an island for lunch, hiking, and to kayak. Glen, our captain, had to boat us over to the island in his "dinghy" as he called it. It was rather tiny and I was amazed we didn't fall in the water.

We hiked to the top of the Island where we found this amazing view. Apparently most of these Islands are protected land by the government in New Zealand and are considered nature preserves. Some of them have homes on them that people have to helicopter in to to reach. Can you imagine??

We also went Kayking a little but it was so windy it was hard to get to far in the bay as we kept blowing back towards shore.The sailing on the way back to Paihia was quite a different experience from the way there. It was so windy we sailed the whole way back on the side. Apparently this is how most sail boats go but I had no idea. All I know is we were tipped so far over my feet were dragging in the water and everyone had to be on one side of the boat so we wouldn't end up in the water. Our captain let the German tourist take the steer for a while at this point while he did the lunch dishes . I did not think this was the greatest idea as we were sailing sideways. Anyway, it was quite an adventure. I'm glad I did it once, not sure if I would want to do it again. We were able to see the Island that Captain Cook first landed when he came to the North Island in New Zealand.

There were several hiking trails in this area and waterfalls. Unlike America where there are rails keeping you from falling to such falls, there are none of those in NZ. We could get very close to the water.

I was amazed by all the lemon and orange trees that were growing everywhere and the huge palm trees. They were beautiful.

2011-03-19T21:54:00.000-07:00

Isak: "Dad, when is Lucy going to turn into a boy?"
Kevin: "Ask your mom, she's a nurse."
Me: "Isak, Lucy has a little girl spirit in her. She will never be a boy. Maybe someday when Mommy has more babies we can have a little boy".
Isak: "I just don't want another toddler".
Luckily Isak, they don't come out as toddlers. By the way, he thinks babies come from the kid store and that you can go get one when you want. Yes, at 3, I think we will just leave that be :).

Fun Adventures

2011-03-10T22:01:00.000-08:00

I went to Isak's preschool meeting Monday night and met one of the parents there of a girl who goes to school with Isak. I got, "Oh so you're Isak's mom. We hear lots of stories about Isak at home". I was afraid to ask. Isak was pretty grumpy today because he skipped his nap. He kept saying, "I wish you would just go back to heavenly Father!". Yes, super nice. When he doesn't get his way or is being disciplined he loves to tell me, "You are breaking my rules! That is not nice. Those are not my rules!".

When Lucy wakes up from her naps in the afternoon, she loves to come lay down on my bed while she is still waking up and talk to me. She has recently started singing the ABC's song and just this week started saying a short prayer by herself before bed. Its very sweet and almost intelligible, but kevin and I can understand her pretty well. Her hair is always is some crazy form when she wakes up. This morning she dumped a bottle of tylenol all over the kitchen (she got the lid off, it was loose) and then tracked it all over. She was very very sticky but she smelled great, very grapey.

Wednesday morning Kevin needed to go out to the dairy for something and the kids and I decided to tag along and pay the cows a visit. It was very rainy and cold though and my kids were rather unsure of the baby cows. I am pretty sure Lucy was expecting sheep and Isak kept trying to have conversations with the big cows out the windows.

We have made some good friends here in Othello and are getting to know families as they move it. This week we made mini pizzas at a friends with several girls and their kids. It was crazy, probably 10-11 kids there, but it was so fun to get out and talk to adults and other moms. I went out Wednesday night to have dinner with my good friend Emily who leaves on her mission in a couple weeks and my friend Crystal. We went to Shari's and it was high school all over again! Best part, free pie night! We are holding silverware for no reason inparticular. I am so excited for her, she is going to northern Brazil and will be an awesome missionary.

And below is a picture of Lucy being cute. She is going through this "very naughty I am 2 and terrible stage " and will scream for everything at me until figure out when she wants. But then other times she is so sweet it almost makes up for her craziness.

2011-03-06T22:44:00.000-08:00

The tiling continues at our house, despite little feet stepping on drying tile, Kevin and his dad have made some progress. Hopefully this week we will finish, at least for a while. Lucy, meanwhile, thinks the tile saw is sitting in a drinking trough and likes to play/drink out of it when I'm not looking. I know, disgusting, but this child has shown an affinity for mud and other delicacies.

We managed to make it to the park one day this week where it wasn't too freezing cold. Until Isak went down the slide and got soaking wet and we had to go home.I had a race yesterday down on the Snake River by Pullman. It was a half-marathon and the weather was perfect. The course was out and back on a road along the river. It was gorgeous, the only downside was that there was no spectators because the road was closed for the race. Kevin and the kids occupied themselves throwing rocks in the river and Isak found some 12 year old girls to talk to about the dead fish he found along a dock. They had a lot of fun while I was suffering. I had a new PR though! I was hoping for 1:45, ran 1:46, but as long as it was under 1:50 I was happy. I found this sweet Nike app for my phone that let me hear my mile splits and have "power songs" when I needed them. I could have also had people cheer for me on facebook and then hear cheers while I was running, but alas, there was no service near the river.

Lucy was sporting her sunglasses on the way home to avoid the sunglare through the windows. If only she could figure out how to put them on right side up.The poor kiddos crashed on the way home. I think they were more tired than I was. We had someone ask us if Isak and Lucy were twins. He told us he had boy/girl fraternal twins that didn't look as much alike as Isak and Lucy did. Funny, first time we have gotten that. Lucy keeps getting so tall, hopefully Isak can keep ahead of her or he might not love that so much when he's older.

President's Day Weekend.

2011-02-27T21:39:00.000-08:00

Presidents Day weekend we went down to Boise and then to Twin Falls to visit some friends/family we haven't seen in a while. Silly me, I didn't start taking pictures till we got to Twin Falls. We stayed with my brother and his wife Thursday night and had a great visit and my kids loved chasing their kitties. Then we stayed with Kevin's aunt Susan and her husband John Friday night and got to see some more family. I also got to see some friends in Boise that I have't seen in a while and catch up with some girls I use to work with. It was a whirlwind but really great to visit with everyone. We got to Twin Falls Saturday aftternoon, just in time for Conner's 2nd birthday party. Conner got this sweet little car that Isak liked to push him around in and Lucy liked to shove him out of :). Isak got this spiderman mask at Target while we were shopping for Conners b-day present. I have been trying to find him a Spiderman costume but since its not Halloween time, this mask was a great 2nd option, and much cheaper.

Kevin's sister Lindsey and her husband popped in to so it was like a mini family reunion, minus Jason and Whitney. We had tons of fun, staying up late playing Kinnect, having a huge nerf gun fight and even got in a little shopping.

By far the kids favorite part of their house was GusGus the hamster, who was recently acquired by Nathan and Steph. Lucy was so excited, I thought she would hyperventilate. She would just stare at him in the cage and then we let him out to run in the ball and she just kept saying "hi gusgus, hi gusgus" over and over. Poor Skeletor, the other hamster, didn't get nearly as much attention. Probably because he's a biter. Isak thought he was cool but wasn't too sure about holding him. Apparently Conner likes to try to give him rides in his little push cart.

Sorry kids, I am getting you any pet hamsters anytime soon.We got Conner his very own automatic nerf gun for his birthday, a rite of passage for every 2 year old boy.We had lots of fun and loved visitng everyone. Did I mention Stephanie is 8 months pregnant too and super cute? She is. Sorry that I didn't get pictures of my trip to Boise, I promise I love my family there equally too. I love that even though we moved away, we are still close enough to visit once in a while!

Lucy's 2nd Birthday

2011-02-21T21:45:00.000-08:00

2011-02-15T21:29:00.000-08:00

Alright, so Lucy's "official" b-day party was on the 10th. Both sets of grandparents were there, minus sickie Bob, and Great Grandma Grimmett. My mom scored Lucy this awesome Cat in Hat Hat, complete with bowtie (not pictured). Lucy about had a heart attack when she saw herself in the mirror she was so excited. She couldn't quit grinning and kept yelling "cat in haaat! cat in haaat!".

For dinner I took the easy route and did mini pizzas with strawberries and jello. Total Lucy food and she was pretty excited. She even got Kevin to hand feed her some of her meal.

This was her cake, she LOVES cat in the hat and all of the books and the PBS cartoon. The cake was fairly simple, the hardest part was getting the stripes to not blend.

Lucy was very excited about her cake and even more excited that people were singing to her. I uploaded a video above of her blowing out her candles. She made us sing to her twice.

She got a pretty princess mirror that lights up when you push a button and says "you're a pretty princess". She LOVES it and carries it around in front of her face. She also got a microphone to go with it so she can sing to herself and record her voice.

Being the frugal mother I am, I regifted this shopping cart from her aunt and uncle from christmas and gave it to her birthday along with some baby doll accessories I bought a year ago at walmart during their huge clearance sale.

She also received an awesome Fisher Price barn set that makes varied farm sounds, a fairy costume complete with butterfly headband, playdough, and some books. She really loved her birthday and had a great time, I must say, she thoroughly enjoyed each of her presents.

2011-02-14T11:58:00.000-08:00

I need to post a few pictures of Lucy's birthday party. But first, I wanted to write down some funny things Isak said to me this week that I don't want to forget.

Isak: "Mom, I know a lot about gargaling. Gargaling make me nervous".

Isak: "Heavenly Father is going to create an army for me to destroy the ghostlight"

Isak: "I have a very important meeting tomorrow at the preschool".

Me: "Oh really Isak? What is it about?"

Isak: "I have to tell people about Jesus. I can walk there, just down the street".

Isak: I just need to tickle my nose. Electricity would be very DANGEROUS to tickle my nose with!

There is a little girl down the street who recently moved into our ward. We've had them over a few times to play and apparently she really likes Isak. She brought him a valentine on Sunday and he walked her to Primary at church on Sunday. Its pretty much the cutest thing ever.

Shameless Plug

2011-02-12T12:53:00.000-08:00

Okay, I am asking you all to go vote for Lucy
right here:
http://www.chelsearosephoto.blogspot.com/.
Just go to the voting bar on the left click on her name, and hit submit. Thats it! The winner gets some pictures and I really need some good 2 year old pictures of this kiddo. I haven't had any in quite some time. And look how cute she is!
The link to the website is also on my blog list bar on the top right of my blog. I think you can vote everyday and voting closes next Friday...Thanks!

Happy Birthday Lucy!!

2011-02-09T22:34:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday to my Lucy Lou! I can't believe she is already 2! Where oh where did the time go? It was just yesterday she had her sticky uppy hair and was so itty bitty.

We are celebrating Lucy's birthday tomorrow night with our families but we still had a really fun day today with her, although she had no idea what was going on. She just thought we were giving her what she wanted more than usual.

She got to lick the beater from her cake.

I let her open her birthday present of fruit snacks, flouride free toothpaste, and toothbrushes. She loves to eat/suck on toothpaste and I thought I would get her some that was at least safe for her weird habit. We got her other stuff too that weren't grocery items, like large amounts of playdough that she snacked on this morning. Yes.

Then she scored some chocolates from her Nana which totally capped off her day. Some even made them into her mouth. We got her a Happy Meal for dinner which she got to eat while watching Toy Story. Pretty much the best day ever for Lucy.

Lucy is super fun at this age and has so much personality, I often wonder how she fits into such a tiny person. She loves to sing, even when she doesn't know the words, and will sing along at church quite loudly. She loves to bug Isak, its her favorite hobby, and she is really good at driving him crazy. I told Isak Lucy was turning two today and he asked, "does this mean she's going to quit bugging me?". I told him it probably meant she was just going to get better at it.

She likes to count to 10, although she will usually skip some numbers, and mostly does it so she can clap for herself when she's done.

She is not shy at all and LOVES attention. She loves people watching her and telling her she's cute and will perform anytime she can tell she has an audience. One of her favorite things to do is to tell me "you're funnyy" and laugh and repeat this again and again.

Her favorite book is green eggs and ham, which she calls "haamm!hammm!".

She sleeps with her "deedee" (pink, furry blanket) and will crawl up in it when she's tired.

She will often demand to be put in her crib if we don't do it fast enough. That girl, like her momma, loves her sleep and knows when its time to go to bed.

She can be pretty naughty and defiant and gives us her "devil smile" quite often.

She loves to wrestle with Kevin when he gets home from work .

She still sleeps in her crib and has never tried to get out, which is not suprising . She would much rather just yell and have someone come pick her up. Way too much effort to climb out.

She has the prettiest blonde hair and blue eyes. This will be a problem when she gets older.

Anyway, I love her at this age and she is so much fun everyday. I love having a little girl.

2011-02-09T22:08:00.000-08:00

After Isak was sick last week, I got the evil twin of Isak's virus that Saturday and was super sick most of the weekend. So far, Lucy and Kevin have escaped it and I'm praying it stays that way. So for now, Isak is well besides just being extra cranky. Apparently that was a side effect of the virus. Or of being three. Once we were feeling better, Isak and I made some heart shaped cookies. Isak thought his "tommy gun" would make a much more awesome cookie cutter.The library in Othello had a "block party" this week with several different block stations with all types of blocks. Isak's preschool went on Monday and he loved it, especially knocking down his towers.

Every morning, Isak will ask, "What are we going to do today mommy? Do you have any ideas?". He then proceeds to tell me if my ideas are good or not, fortunately, most of the time he likes them. They usually involve him and his "projects". Now, I am not that mom that is super awesome and does organized preschool with my kids everyday. I'm just not. But, Isak loves to cut and glue and paint so we usually do playdough or some kind of art project. Many times Isak will figure out his own "project" like the day we made ninja warriors out of paper plates. Anyway, the above is a rainbow he made by cutting strips of scrap paper out and placing enormous amounts of glue everywhere.

2011-02-03T09:44:00.000-08:00

I was suppose to go help at Isak's prechool this morning. I was in charge of "snack" and had a great idea planned...ego waffles with strawberries/whipcream/blueberries and syrup. I even brought the toaster. As I was unloading out of the car, little Isak started puking all over the sidewalk. I managed to find someone to give my stuff too and hauled Isak back home. Poor kid. His biggest concern was that his coat was covered in germs and that now he needed a new one from the coat store. I was wondering why he wouldn't eat breakfast this morning and why he kept telling us his pillow was too hot last night..Luckily, Isak is pretty good when he is sick and I have to do alot of investigating to tell if he's done being sick or not. I am more worried about his little sister who is a big weenie when she is sick and will more than likely come down with the same thing. Hopefully she can wait till Saturday afternoon....when I'm at work :).

2011-01-30T22:12:00.000-08:00

This week Isak and Lucy made some pictures by blowing paint with a straw across the paper. It was a lot of fun and Isak could do it pretty well. Lucy just fingerpainted and made a huge mess, which was fine since we can use our bathtub again! Isak likes to help me by putting away the silverware out of the dishwasher. I have made it is official "job" and after I take the knives out, he pulls up the stepstool and sorts it out in the drawer. I hope this is the first of many tasks he can take over for me. Lucy has been really into wearing her hat lately and will bring it to us yelling 'haat! haat!" until we put it on her head. She also loves shoes (such my daughter) and will bring them to us demanding we put them on her feet. Her favorites are the frog boots which we recently replaced with new, bigger frog boots that look just like her old ones. She will bring us cartons of milk and juice out of the fridge with a sippy cup and yell she wants a drink "in here!". She will drag them quite a long ways if I don't catch her and sometimes the milk is almost a full gallon. She's building some big muscles.

Annnndd she discovered how to pull out the chairs, climb on the counter, and attack the brownie batter. Now that is one happy face!

Ding Dong the Oven is Dead!!!!

2011-01-25T21:15:00.000-08:00

A wonderful thing happened at my house this weekend. My awful, 70's, avocado green stove officially was laid to rest. Its days were definitely numbered and may it rest in peace in the pit. No more stuck cookie pans, no more cursing at my oven, no more burnt fingers and bracing myself against the counter to pull dinner out of the oven. Did I mention I got to help pull it out of the wall with the crowbar? Yes, it was very liberating. We were able to get a suite of appliances on Black Friday last year and they have been sitting in storage ever since, waiting for us to redo our kitchen. Since its probably going to be at least summer before we get to do the whole kitchen, I thought why not use the appliances now that we've paid for? They are just sitting there while I am cooking on 2 cookie sheets everynight to keep stuff from burning.

I made cupcakes today with the kids and BOTH PANS fit in the oven! I was so excited! Oh the little things you take for granted. We are going to put in the fridge too and leave the microwave hood and dishwasher till summer since ours work fine. We also pulled out the cooktop stove and threw that in the pit as well. Our bathroom tile is finished , just need to do some finishing work. I had quite the battle scars on my hands after the past few days but its totally worth it.
Its too bad real life isn't like HGTV and all your home renovations can't be completed in a day or 2.
Isak desperately wanted to make cupcakes today so we recycled our christmas plates and made some valentines cupcakes. A combination of holidays. And I found some willing people to take these plates for me so I don't end up eating 10 cupcakes, which is a very real possibility.

I am painting this mirror for our bathroom and Lucy loves to sit in front of it and talk and sing to herself. She truly is her own biggest fan. I am glad she has such great confidence at an early age. Hopefully it will carry on to her teen years, which I don't want to start thinking about just yet.

Isak and I made a fort this morning out of our new toilet box. We made Lucy an adjacent tunnel so she could hopefully be contained. Isak decided it was a rocket ship and cut out some paper to be his control panel. Boxes are awesome.

2011-01-21T08:55:00.000-08:00

Getting my Isak to eat his vegetables is difficult. I will admit, I am not a super strict mom when it comes to this. He is rather picky, it is probably my fault and most of the time, I don't want to battle. I am trying to improve, get him to eat something green once in a while, but in the meantime, I have to improvise. I put spinach in his smoothies in the morning and whatever other pureed vegetables I want to dig out along with whey protein powder. I cover it with some orange juice and yogurt, and he can't even tell. I usually add frozen blueberries or strawberries or whatever else I have laying around in my freezer. I think I might start adding some flaxseed as well. He loves them and asks for his "shake" every morning. Lucy loves them as well, although, she is much more adventurous when it comes to eating compared to her brother. Anyway, I am always feeling like I am a horrible mother because I let Isak eat a whole lot of chicken nuggets and honey and PB sandwhiches. Knowing that perhaps I do one thing right in his diet a day makes me feel a whole lot better.

What a happy kid! He doesn't even care that his "shake" is a lovely green color today. How do you get your kids to eat whats good for them?

2011-01-18T23:02:00.000-08:00

Lately we have been very busy with some home renovation projects. We are tiling our entryway/hallway and bathroom. So Kevin and I have been scraping old linoleum and cutting carpet out in our spare time. This week we (really Kevin and his dad) are laying the tile. Isak has been "helping" the demolition process, donning his safety goggles and snow gloves. I will post some pictures of the lovely before and after once it is all done. I feel like our projects in this house are neverending, there is always something to be painted or replaced or torn out. Like that oh so lovely green oven that is going to be in the garbage very, very soon. I think I might set it on fire and dance around it in my backyard.

Last week the kids and I spent a lot of time indoors going stir crazy. We did a lot of playdough, lots of bed jumping, dancing, painting and playing random games that Isak would request me to make up at a moments notice. I also spent quite a few hours being a bad guy, robot talks with green eyes, the eliminate guy, and purple spiderman. Yes, I was quite happy to get out to work last Friday afternoon for some adult conversation. I found a super sweet Rescue Ranger Castle for Isak at Goodwill for $3, I forgot a picture but he LOVES it. I got that and a huge bag of action figures for $4 and a Spiderman sleeping bag for $4. I don't know why I ever buy any of my kids toys new, they never know the difference! Lucy really loves to play with playdough and eat it as well. She also loves to paint and will bring me the paint bottles, yelling, "painnt! painnnt!". Tonight she was waving and yelling "bye bye!" to herself in the mirror and then running away, coming back, and doing it again. Such a crazy nut.

My brother Aaron got us this super sweet trampoline for Christmas and the snow finally all melted so we set it up on Monday. We still need to put up the safety net around it but Isak was so excited. He's been asking everyday for weeks if it was warm enough yet to have it up. They both love jumping on it and get really upset when I make them come in the house.

Lucy loves to sing. Its not always intelligible, but some of her recent favorites are the Cat in Hat Theme song from PBS and if your happy and you know it song from primary. On Sunday I was singing the latter with her and she grabbed some boxes of pudding and was clapping to the beat. She always makes sure to cheer for herself at the end :).

2011-01-06T15:03:00.000-08:00

It has been pretty cold around here lately and the snow hasn't gone anywhere. I try to take my kids outside once a day unless its super duper single digits cold. I got lucky and have had so much family around lately, I have gotten out of this duty but I realized yesterday we were all going stir crazy since it had been a few days. Lucy was begging to go outside as well although I am not sure she knew what she was asking for, judging her reaction to the cold.

We were outside for probably 2 minutes when she started complaining "Im cold, I'm cold". and wanted to be held. Yes, she is not too tough that one. So I bundled her up in the stroller and Isak and I walked to Kathy's house. It was just what we needed to get out of the house and none of my kids got frostbite or any sicker than they have already been. We got a lot of weird looks along our way, Im guessing you don't see too many strollers out in snow. Although, it wasn't too bad and we really enjoyed our walk.

Those are trees behind my hair in that picture, I swear I think I remember combing my hair that morning.
Kevin and I joined the gym here in Othello this week so I no longer have to run outside in super cold temps unless I really want too. We also bought our tickets to New Zealand for this spring for our trip we have been planning forever. I am so so excited and now we are looking for motels to stay and planning our activities/sights while we are there. Kevin still knows some people there from his mission and it will be fun to meet some of them too.

Isak and "Big Bear" that him and Lucy got for Christmas. Its been added to his stuffed animal fleet that he sleeps with everynight. This is how we found Isak the other night in his bed. Loved the cross legs.
Lucy will be 2 next month and despite all her cuteness, she is no longer a baby, so I have been trying to be stricter with her and more dispilinary. Which really means, telling her no and making her give things back to Isak when she takes them. The video below will demonstrate how well this is going.....

2010-12-31T14:19:00.000-08:00

Christmas 2010 was a success, if I do say so myself. I once again attempted to save money by buying toys in advance, only to buy only more with "such great sales!" and really didnt' save that much. So, I now have birthday presents for this year. We spent christmas eve with my parents and had a wonderful, quiet evening watching the nativity and reading the Grinch and the Christmas Story out of Luke. The kids opened their christmas pajamas and I of course could not get them to pose together so separately, here are there pajamas. Isak was old enough this year to understand about Santa and being naughty or nice and still continues to threaten to call Santa once in a while and tell him I am being a mean mommy. Anyway, we put cookies out for Santa and we had to get our kids up early christmas morning because we had to be over to Kevin's parents house in time for his whole family to open gifts. It was a little nuts. The kids were pretty groggy when we woke them up and it was rather anti-climatic. We had to remind them to keep opening presents. They were pretty excited though, Isak got his Iron-Man that walks in the snow that he's been asking for for months. We left it unwrapped and put it outside in the snow christmas morning. Kevin took him outside to get it, he was pretty excited. Lucy got a Buzz Lightyear pillow and an alphabet of wooden, painted letters and some other things. We had presents left that weren't unwrapped yet so I just stuck them in the closet for their birthdays. I didn't even get them that much stuff but I think next year I'll stick to 2-3 presents a piece. Isak was a little overwhelmed by it all.

At kevin's parents house, we had 5 families and 7 grandkids opening presents at random. Isak got this awesome Ironman shooter gun. Sense a theme? Yea, it keeps going.

Kevin bought me a beautiful necklace and earrings and I suprised him with a Kinnect for our Xbox, which happens to be the most fun thing ever. Anyone want to come over and play Dance Central with me? Its AWESOME!!Lucy got a stuffed Buzz and a Woody doll with some books and other toys. Kevin and Isak also got matching IronMan pajamas but really, how awesome is that? My sister made my kids these great dress-up costumes. Isak and Lucy got matching dinosaur ones and Isak also got a leopard one. He's been wearing them quite a bit sense Christmas. Below he is trying to figure out how to shoot webs with his fingers while wearing the dinosaur costume.
We went to Kevin's Grandma Grimmett's for Christmas dinner and Lucy provided some entertainment for everyone by jumping on the table and clapping for herself. She cheers for herself often.

We went to my parents house Christmas night to open gifts and Isak got an Ironman Costume. Now he can be IronMan that Walks in the Snow. He was super excited. Lucy got a doll that she can take in the bathtub. We all had a great Christmas and it was nice to be able to share it with family.

December Happenings

2010-12-28T20:33:00.000-08:00

Isak made gingerbread houses at his preschool a few weeks ago at their little christmas party. He was pretty excited and I think it turned out pretty awesome. Definitely looks like an Isak creation. I let him pick off a little bit of it for the next week till the candy was gone. Santa also showed up at Isak's little party. This was like the 3rd time Isak had seen Santa. He was getting a little confused as to why Santa kept popping up at random places. This might also be why he's looking a little bored in this picture. Santa gave Isak a present that was a book that I had wrapped for him previously. It was a cute night before christmas book with flaps and cute illustrations. Would've been a pretty awesome book had his little friend not got a Spiderman book that was way cooler. I was reading Isak's his when he ran over to check out Spiderman. Yea, I felt pretty lame. Isak didn't complain though, just was obviously way more interested in the other book.

Kevin's brother Jason and their family came up a week before Christmas to visit. We went to the Lowe's kid build project one morning and each of the kids got to build a train. It was a nice little wood train that they spent the next hour running all over the store.

Afterwards they had cookies and Juice from, you guessed it, Santa. Isak was more confused than ever and his little cousin Claire asked where he parked all his reindeer.
Since Jason and Vicki were visiting, we decided to ditch our kids for a night and run up to Levenworth. I have never been there at Christmas when all the lights are out and it was super pretty. Kevin's cousin Todd and his wife came too and we had a great time. We did some shopping, ate at this nice Italian restaurant that was probably a little too trendy for us (we all split entree's), and took an embarassing wild west photo at one of those little "dress up photo shops". The shop was actually ran by some members of the church and the lady who was helping us was pretty funny. She brought us boas to the dressing room so we would feel more "covered". Yea, it was slightly awkward. I'll spare you the picture.
We stayed at a very cute little inn there that had a fireplace and no kids! It was great!

Vicki and I in the snow the day we left. Next up, Christmas!!

Playing Catch-Up

2010-12-12T13:14:00.000-08:00

I realized I still haven't blogged about Thanksgiving. Aaron and Mark were able to come up and Isak LOVED having two of his uncles here to give him lots of attention. We took him bowling and he had lots of fun nudging the ball down the lane at 2mph. He got bored after about 5 turns and went to play in the arcade. Lucy spent the whole time trying to run after the ball in the lane so she was quickly banned from that area.

We had so much snow! We usually don't get that much in this area but we had a TON at Thanksgiving! There were drifts all over our backyard. Most of it melted this wekkend but we got some more snow last night. Isak is loving it so hopefully we at least have a little through the winter. Isak and I built a snow fort out in the front yard one night and he was insistent on drinking hot chocolate in his snow fort.

Last Saturday Kevin and I went to Apple Cup with my parents. I graduated from WSU back when their football program was a bit more stellar but I will always be a true Coug at heart. It was actually a really good game, WSU played better than I thought and it was close up till the end. It was fun to visit the campus and see the changes that have happened since I was there. Oh and it was freezing cold! I wore running tights under my jeans in addition to hand and feet warmers.

I still am sad we didn't make a Boise State game this year. We will have to go to 2 next year to make up for it.
We finally got our christmas lights up, although this picture doesn't display that. I was helping kevin just finish them in the front when I must have tugged on them wrong or something and they ALL CAME DOWN. Like dominoes. Kevin turned around just in time to see them one by one, all fall off the roof. We just had to laugh, I didn't even know that was possible. Luckily they went back up pretty quick.
Lucy has been loving these plastic animals lately, particularly the sheep, horse, and elephant. She takes them to bed with her and makes them talk to each other. Sometimes we find her in the morning with them lined up at the side of her crib and buzz lightyear jumping on them. She's awesome.

Our ward christmas party was last night. We had dinner then the kids decorated sugar cookies. They did a children's theater and read the Grinch that Stole Christmas. Isak was particularly excited for this part as he just loves stories. I didn't realize just how excited or I might have had him sit back with me. See, all the kids were sitting in the front where the adults were passing the microphone and reading the story. Isak was hyped up on sugar cookies and quite excited for story time. He started repeating the story back to them, quite loudly, and would pick out phrases he liked. Such as "AND ROAST BEAST!! HAHAHA!" "HE CAME DOWN THE CHIMNEY!". He wasn't being super disruptive and he was just really excited, not trying to be naughty, so I let him listen and do his thing. It was pretty dang funny.

They during the nativity scene, Isak yelled at me right before they started to sing, "OH NO MOM! MY COSTUME, HURRY FIX IT!". So then I had to run up there and fix it to which he yells, '"NO tighten it, mom!". Anyway, people laughed so apparently no one was too annoyed. I had several people come up to me today and yesterday and say they enjoyed Isak's "performance" last night. One girl even asked me if he was like that at home. When I said, Oh yes, She said, "wow, you must be really busy". Yea, I just assumed everyone's kids were this nuts but apparently Isak is especially crazy. Just wait till he's in sunbeams, I'm doubting it will be this cute in the middle of sharing time!

"Cheese!". Lucy just found kids to run around with and screamed a lot. She's starting to be very verbal which is great but its kind of a pain too. She was yelling "I want to go ooome!" over and over towards the end. Yea.

Then yesterday Kevin and I also had the chance to go the temple together, one of my very bestest friends was going though for the first time and I got to go. It was super awesome and a great experience. I am so excited for her and know she will be an awesome missionary!

"Isak-isms"

2010-12-07T20:39:00.000-08:00

Some weird things Isak has told me lately:

"Mom, I love you more than bad guys, electricity and fire."

"Mom, I want a real knife for christmas. Then, I can just cut through the wall and get to the
electricity and the plasma!".

"I'm going to tell you a story about my mission. There was a huge fireball that came in the
meetinghouse and just blew it all up. Then bumblebee came and brought a sea otter. I know a lot about sea otters mom. Sea otters are usually mean!"

He keeps telling me he wants an Ironman that walks in the snow for christmas and also told Santa this. Funny how I have gotten him everything but the very thing he has asked for. Although, I am not sure the Ironman toy I am thinking of could actually walk in the snow.

I really don't know where he gets some of this stuff.

2010-11-29T21:25:00.000-08:00

Snow! We have a whole lot of it right now, kind of usual this time of year. And while I'm not the biggest fan of driving in it, my kids sure like to play in the stuff. Well, Lucy is still pretty impartial. Isak loves it though. Lucy just likes to be pulled around in the sled and as long as she is completely covered and not getting wet , she's okay with the snow. Isak, however, will go outside and play by himself in the snow, not caring that his fingers are blue or that he is shaking with cold. Over Thanksgiving, 2 of my brothers were in town so the kids LOVED all the extra attention and I loved having someone take them outside! Lucy was fond of my dad pulling her around on the saucer. Isak loved squirting the snow with green water and making snowballs and a large snowman "rock warrior".

We went sledding across the street at the park where we found a little hill. It was freezing!

I bundled Lucy up one day right after lunch and then she started yelling "night night!" (her request to sleep). Since it took so much work to get her ready for the snow, I made her go out anyway for a few minutes. She insisted on taking her blanket or her "deedee!" and laid down in the sled. She lasted maybe 5 minutes till she was in her crib.

2010-11-21T21:02:00.000-08:00

"The Angel has left the building". This is what Kevin declared the other day as Lucy deliberately took the christmas balls, threw them, then smacked Isak on the side of the head. Her looks are so deceiving. She started hitting this week, Hitting when she's mad, hitting when she doesn't get what she wants. Its a problem. At least its not biting, but still. She will look at me, I will tell her no, then she looks at me sideways with her eyes, and does it anyway.
Then she shrieks, yells, kicks, and screams, usually, "no! no! no! no!". She's only 21 months, time out is kind of hard because she doesn't understand. So I tell her "no" firmly and displace her away from whatever it is. This kind of works....mostly not. She gets when Isak is in timeout, because she will walk over and start scolding him in her babble and pointing her finger, enraging him. Oh how she loves to irritate him.

Anyway, I've heard of people wanting all their kids to be 2 years apart and blah blah blah so they are well adjusted. Well, dear next child of mind, it might be a while so if you are feeling ill adjusted later in life due to the birth order and spacing of your siblings, you can blame your dear sister. She's driving me batty. The kids and I made sugar cookies on Tuesday while Kevin was studying late. My mom got us all these super cute aprons at a christmas bazar. Lucy and I have matching ones!

I never thought Isak would be the easier kid, but these days, he's much easier to manage. It helps he can communicate well and can tell us what he wants. He's so excited about the snow out side tonight, we went out and played in it for a while. Its amazing how kids never get cold, I was freezing and he was just having a great time.

2010-11-14T22:18:00.001-08:00

Conversation with Isak following nursery today at church.
Me: "Isak, how was nursery today?"
Isak: "I was just a little bit naughty."
Me: "Oh really? What happened?"
Isak: "I took a piece of puzzle and threw it across to the table".
Me: "Did you get a time out?"
Isak "uh huh".
I love my son, but I am so glad that I am not his teacher. Kevin's mom has him next year in sunbeams, along with 3 other rambunctious little boys. I can only imagine.

Lucy started throwing tantrums this week, she technically isn't two till Febuary. I think she is starting early. Isak was destructive and active, she is mischevious and very naughty. Somehow she always finds my gum and eats it, with or without the wrapper. I painted her nails on Saturday for the first time, and she LOVED It and kept wiggling her toes and pointing to them. Isak also requested his nails to be painted, we are all matching in red at the moment, minus Kevin.

I'm painting my cabinets this week, sick of the matching floor/cabinet thing and since we will tear them out eventually anyway, it doesn't matter what color I do. Any ideas? I was thinking some shade of green....

Dress Up!

2010-11-11T13:18:00.000-08:00

So I got a few half price halloween costumes since Isak has taken to dressing up lately. And after wearing the lemur suit for 3 days while visiting my sister, I thought it might be hygenic as well for him to have some options. Below is Isak dressed up as "bumblebee" from Transformers. He really likes this mask, which suprised me, since he can hardly see through the thing. My mom found Lucy this very sweet cinderella dress and she likes to watch herself twirl around in the mirror with it on. She really loves herself.

My mom also found Lucy this really cool butterfly wings which are huge and have strings that let her flap them herself. They will probably fit her until she is 10, heck, I could probably wear them too. Isak is also demonstrating his darth vader cape and mask.

And lucy combined the vader mask and butterfly wings to make a unique costume. See those boots? She insists on wearing them all the time. She wore them to church on sunday with her dress. If we put somthing else on her feet, she brings them to me and goes, "boot! boot!".Already showing prefernce at 21 months. Probably not a great sign.

And best of all, the wings let her fly! Isn't this an awesome picture??

Anyway, they have a few more but they are for christmas gifts. On another note, tonight is our ward craft night that has caused major stress the past week. Since I am only in charge of one craft, it shouldn't be that big of a deal. But there are tons of little parts to remember and the dang thing goes till 1130 pm. I might fall asleep, unless the toxic smell of paint keeps me awake. And I got a new calling as the primary secretary which is also going to keep me busy. On the plus side, we don't have to travel anywhere for thanksgiving or christmas this year and I am determined to make it the least stressful year ever. I already pretty much have my kids christmas all done! Now to plaster my house with obnoxious christmas decorations...and hope Lucy doesn't keep eating and tearing the clingy snowflakes in the window.

Halloween

2010-11-07T20:59:00.000-08:00

We spent Halloween with my sister as well. We carved some pumpkins.

They had a trunk or treat on Friday night in their ward and Lucy recycled Isak's old costume and was a green monster or a large piece of grass. Whichever. She loves her frog boots and insists on wearing them all the time.

Isak was ninja cat for the trunk or treat, mainly because his lemur costume needed to be washed after the trip to the zoo. He was okay with this until he realized Maddie was a lemur and he had a meltdown, screaming for "my ringtailed lemur suit!!". Luckily, maddie convinced him he was a red fox lemur and that sort of helped.

But when we went trick or treating, he had the lemur costume back and was a happy camper.
My sister sewed these 3 costumes for her kids last year and they wore them this year too, only Isak borrowed one and Caleb opted for the dinosaur suit.
Isak missed his nap on halloween and fell asleep at 5pm. He woke up in time to do some trick or treating but he was pretty groggy. He said, I have enough candy now. And we were done.

While Isak was asleep, Lucy was definitely not tired and enjoying her sugary sucker which put her over the moon. She loved trick or treating and figured it out pretty quick. She would grab one candy and say "bye bye". I just had to lug her everywhere because her little feet aren't too quick. I was tired by the end of the night!
All the kids, minus Martin, in their costumes. Martin was a ninja ,I think, and he got invited to a little halloween party so he didn't trick or treat with us. Anyway, aren't they cute?

Trip to Madison

2010-11-03T19:14:00.000-07:00

We traveled to Madison to visit my sister and her family the last week of October. I usually just see her once a year because she lives so far away. This was the first time Kevin was able to come with me on the plane and it was a HUGE help. The car ride to the airport was eventful, as Lucy got carsick and vomited all over her carseat and clothes. We had to park our car there and didn't have time to clean anything so we changed her clothes and left her pukey carseat locked in the car.

Isak loved watching all the airplanes take off and the moving walkways and escalators. I am deathly afraid of both so I let Kevin take him on all those fun adventures. Our plane ride there went pretty well, we were well equipped with treats, iphone games, and dvds. At one point the flight attendant even gave us free tv and claimed it was because another customer who was eligible for the free upgrade declined it. I think it was because Lucy was screaming and she was trying to get her to be quiet. Either way, it worked in our favor. Frontier Airlines is awesome, we got warm cookies on each flight, we were big fans. Our plane had to circle about 3 times while trying to land in Madison because of high winds, making an extremely turbulent flight. I did not handle this well and judging by the number of puke bags I saw leaving the plane, no one else did either. We went to the zoo the first day which was great because it was so cold, no one else was there! The zoo they have there is a free zoo and has tons of great animals and exhibits. They had a great playground with huge climbing structures. Isak decided to don a matching lemur costume with Maddie and they wore them to the zoo. Don't their tails look awesome?

It was fun having all the kids together and letting them spend time with their cousins. Especially now Isak is old enough to remember things. It was great having Maddie and Martin there who are 7 and 9, they are old enough to entertain the younger ones and can help out quite a bit. Perhaps this is why people have more children.

The elementary school is just across the street from where they live and has a fun forest area to explore as well. Below is Caleb posing. Him and Isak raced a lot, Caleb is super fast and always won. It helps he is a year older as well.

Maddie got a new bike for her birthday and loves riding it around everywhere. She is quite the character.

Reed is just a few months younger than Lucy and would always give me a smile. He really loves my sister and would cry anytime she was out of sight. He started to warm up to use after a few days and would no longer cry if I talked at him or looked at him wrong. :).

Maddie just turned 7 and I made her some cute hair flowers and a headband. She sported this and some of her Barbie make up to church on Sunday. She looked pretty awesome.

I loved that Kevin came along because I could do things with Valerie and didn't feel bad about leaving my kids. We went shopping one day and hit up a thrift store where we had all sorts of great finds...ie, red leather pants for $0.10, wooden picture frame $1, fluffy pink pillow for lucy...$0.10, piano bench for $7...I wish Othello had one of those!

My cute sister and some of her kids. We did a race on Saturday, it wasn't a big one, not too much of a big deal, except, we RAN to the starting line. Which also wouldn't be a big deal, except that it was 13.5 miles away. In another town. Madison has more bike trails and running trails and skiing trails than anyplace I have ever seen. Anyway, my sister thought it would be a terrific idea to run to the starting line, sign up for the race, then run the race. It was the UFO days in a nearby town, they even had a doll head float. So, I ended up running almost 17 miles when all was said and done. I was pretty sore on Sunday, I hadn't run that far since September.

We went to the arboretium one day and explored and saw some wild turkeys. The kids had alot of fun running all over and climbing on the leaf piles.

We also went to the children's museum in Madison while we were there which was amazing. They had a water room, a huge climbing structure, arts and craft room, tons of neat hiding places and things to play with. Above is the shadow room where this camera will take a picture of your shadow on the wall everytime you push a button. It was pretty cool.

The roof had a chicken coop, a garden, and several herbs the kids could taste test. There were binoculars the kids could look out over the city.

I also introduced my sister to the beauty of spray painted furniture and we found and painted this piano bench.

We had so much fun! Now if only I could convince her to move to Othello.....

2010-10-25T21:06:00.000-07:00

This past weekend was super busy. Kevin and I got a deal on some armoires they were moving out of the Red Lion in Richland (us and many other people) and we got them for $50. So Kevin and his cohorts who were also purchasing these spent most of Friday and Saturday morning hauling these incredible heavy things onto a trailer and then unloading them. I am going to probably refinish them, not because they need it, but more because I have 3 identical armoires and need to make them look diferent. Anyway, they are huge and very, very heavy. Above is Keivn and Reuben displaying their super awesome moving belts. They were both super sore on Sunday. I am thinking when we move again we might leave some of them with the house. Anyway, I will put some pictures up when I redo one of them.

Meanwhile, Lucy tried to pose for me before church on Sunday. It would've been great, except she was yelling "cheese!" at Kevin, not me. Today I was trying to pack, unsuccessfully, as Lucy was unpacking everything as soon as I turned around. And then Isak, bless his heart, thinks he is spiderman and can do "tricks". He climbed to the very top shelf in my closet and perched himself there. And then wanted me to close the door. He's very big into finding little hiding places these days and stowing himself away.

This, of course, made Lucy quite angry that Isak was up high and she couldn't reach him. She yelled and persisted until I sat her next to him. Meanwhile, nothing was getting packed.

This picture is quite distorted the more I look at it, Lucy is not that huge. I think that Isak was leaning back or something.

Pumpkin patch

2010-10-21T21:18:00.000-07:00

Today Isak's class went to the pumpkin patch. Isak was more excited to jump off the hay bales, but he had fun picking out a pumpkin. Lucy got to come too, although she spent most of the time tripping over vines and eating dirt.

Isak picked out the biggest pumpkin he could find and has been asking to carve it ever since. My camera showed up in the mail right after we got home so I took some pictures of the kids outside with it. Aren't they cute? Well, Lucy looks a little crazed in her picture, but I'm just so happy to have a working camera again. We had a new couple in our ward over for dinner tonight and it turns out the husband went to WSU and knows my old roommates and alot of the same people I do. Small world. And, it sounds like they will want to go out and do stuff which is a double plus! We already have them booked for a double date tomorrow night! Yea for new friends!

Ramnblings

2010-10-15T13:43:00.000-07:00

I should be sleeping right now. My kids are sleeping, and I am working tonight, but instead I laid in my bed for over an hour, wishing I could nap. Isak ran into our room last night at 3am, screaming, "I want my ironman costume!", completely hysterical. He must have been dreaming. See, we went to the temple last night and Kevin's cousin, Angie, was kind enough to take our kids during the session. She has very awesome toys at her house, like real doggies and ironman costumes, and we had to pull our kids out when it was time to go. Isak was insistent he also needed an ironman costume. But after discovering they cost $20 and knowing it would be half price after Halloween, I conveniently forgot and distracted him elsewhere. Apparently his subconscious knew better and made itself known in the middle of the night.
Our camera is officially unrepairable. We took it to a camera shop and the parts would cost close to a new camera. This makes the 2nd one in 2 years. The first died by falling off the top of the car, and this one died in the hands of a 3 year old. And Lucy about finished off our laptop this morning, slamming down the already cracked lid. Good thing money grows on trees, right?
We are going to Wisconsin in 12 days to visit my sister and her family. I am very excited, we only get to see them maybe once a year. Hopefully I will have a new camera by then. That I will have to keep in a steel case...protected by fire....

2010-10-10T21:33:00.000-07:00

Isak broke my camera this week, shoved in the lens while it was out, so I am cameraless. I have had to resort to using Kevin's phone for pictures. Anyone know of a camera repair shop nearby?Meanwhile, I dressed Lucy really cute this morning for church. I love picking out outfits for her, and so far, she doesn't care what she wears. Its so fun! Boys just aren't the same to dress. Unfortunately, she did not want her picture taken. I hit a couple garage sales this weekend and picked up these awesome 3 wheel trikes for a total of $5 for both. With some new batteries, they are as good as new and the kids love riding them around. Completely worth $5.

Kevin and I went on a nice little date Saturday night and enjoyed a leisurely weekend at home. Oh and Boise State won. Again. And moved up to #3 in the rankings. I made Lucy a BSU tutu. I will have to post a picture soon. Kevin and I have decided if they go to the championship game, we will mortgage our children and go. I think its a great idea.

2010-10-08T14:22:00.000-07:00

The house is mostly repainted, if you look close you can still see the red, it will need a few more coats. Yesterday we were driving in the car and Isak said, "mom, its so hot outside, you would cook just like a pancake!". I have no idea how hot that is but apparently, hot enough to cook some breakfast food.
Lucy has been saying some funny things lately. Her new phrase, "oh man!" and her favorite.."allllright!". She will also try to count..1,2,8,9,10! only its not super intelligible. Today she had an "accident" in the bathtub so I took her out, wrapped her in a towel and sat her on a chair. While I was cleaning it she walks in saying "pottee..pottee.." and promptly peed all over the floor as well. Isak then walked by and exclaimed, "Oh my gosh, this is not good. This is not good at all". So helpful. Lately when we have been putting him to bed he has been yelling at Kevin from his room.."I just so mad at you daddy I can't sleep! I'm just so angry right now! I can't even take a nap I so mad!". They are funny kids, so funny, they I cannot wait to go to work today at 3 and let Kevin have them all night!

2010-10-02T20:33:00.000-07:00

Kevin and I were painting our front door today with the paint sprayer. We caged Lucy successfully but Isak was wondering around. Since he's old enough to not touch things and to listen (in theory), we thought it would be fine. And it was. Right up until he picked up the spray gun and gave it a squirt. ALL over the front of the house. Fun thing about sprayers, it sprays dots of red everywhere. Luckily we have some extra paint.
One very sad little boy in timeout. He is so very naughty sometimes,but, we love him. Isn't that the saddest face ever?

Kevin was working on putting up our fence today and dug a hole for the post. It was also big enough for Isak and Lucy to squeeze in. I thnk this is one of the few pictures I have of them together both smiling. Don't mind Lucy's mullett, I was sleeping and Kevin was in charge of her hair, bless his heart.

2010-09-28T19:41:00.000-07:00

Dear Lucy, I really hope you never need glasses. Or at least you learn to walk with them if you do.

2010-09-26T19:57:00.000-07:00

This weekend we spent enjoying our lovely grass outside...and Isak hit around his golf ball. On Friday we went to Cirque du Soleil in Spokane with Kevin's grandma and parents. I had never been and really enjoyed it, especially all the acrobatics. The most impressive act I thought was the set of catortionist sisters who could pretty much touch their belly button to their back bone. Inspired me to do more yoga. After getting back late Friday, we woke up early Saturday for my race in Richland. My wonderful parents came to my house super early so Kevin could drive me to the race and they later met us there. Crystal's husband, Scott, was running his 1st half-marathon...a bet he was trying to win. Apparently making your husband run long distances to get things that they want is very popular :). Anyway, it was along the riverfront in Richland and started at the marina.

Scott did much better than I thought and finished in under 2 hours. I still beat him, but that is neither here nor there...I have to give him props, I dealt him a lot of trash talk about finding him on the side of the trail somewhere. I felt pretty crummy the last half of this race and then continued to be sick the rest of the day. I am not sure what was going on but I am still feeling a little under the weather today too. Anyway, I did run a PR and was excited about my time. I know I can do faster though.

Saturday night was the BSU vs OSU football game and we had friends over to watch the game with us. Somehow I forgot to take pictures though. Picture tons of small children running around screaming and some adults sitting trying to watch a football game, also screaming. And lots of orange and blue paraphenilia sitting around. Thanks to everyone that came, it was tons of fun, sometimes I forget how much I like to be social.

Then today was my mom's birthday! We celebrated at my house with some very yummy salmon and strawberry cheesecake from Costco..delicious! Its great having family close so we get to celebrate birthdays and holidays together. It was a whirlwind weekend, I think an early bedtime is in order tonight.

The grass is always greener....

2010-09-23T20:52:00.000-07:00

Wednesday was one of the great days of my life, right up there with my wedding day and the birth of my children. Because Wednesday, 8 very lovely pallets of sod were delivered to my driveway. I was so excited, I started laying sod for over an hour by myself before Kevin even got home for work. People, there has been dirt in my house since March. Dirt on my children, dirt on my carpet, my floor, my table, and it has never really gone away. Everytime I would clean my carpet, my floors, my kids, they would get covered with dirt the next day. Usually the hose would also be involved and then mud would be tracked throughout my house and the lovely white carpet. There was a pool to fill in, which took several loads of dirt and a skidster parked in my front yard for months which broke down at any given time. (but it was free and courtesy of the farm, so I was grateful :). Then there was cement to jackhammer up and old yucky grass to dig up and tons of weeds to clear.
Oh and do you remember the broken water main that had us tear up all the cement out of the front yard and leave a 4 foot ditch out to the road? That was fun too.

Kevin also put in sprinklers which I am so grateful for now but took a little while to get sorted out. Anyway, there were many days when I thought I would never see the likes of green in my yard.
Above is the back of our house when we moved in. Below is our backyard with sprinklers and grass! So much better! It still needs landscaping around the edges but it looks a TON better than it did.

We were lucky to have Kevin's cousin come help us lay the sod and Grady came along too. They pretended the sod pallet was a pirate ship and were quite upset everytime we would come take some of their ship away.

Kevin's dad came and helped us too and was nice enough to also entertain Lucy at the same time. Turns out, she fits perfectly on a wheelbarrow full of sod. We are so thankful for the countless hours of service extended to us by family and friends to help us complete this enormous project. Now we have a safe backyard for my kids to play!

2010-09-17T14:00:00.000-07:00

Wednesday night we took our kids to the fair here in Othello. It was our first trip there and our kids first experience at a fair. They LOVED it! I dressed them appropriately in "farm" attire, made Isak wear a plaid shirt and overalls. I have yet to see any farmers wear anything like this, but I made my point :). Our kids loved being able to pet all the animals and Isak was very interested in finding a brown rabbit that looked just like his hop. Lucy loved baaing at all the animals, see video below, and was quite suprised when some started baaing back. She also moooooed at some of the cows. It was very endearing.

"Hey, is this where the milk comes from?" He would make his grandpa proud.

I was suprised how much our kids like the rides, being so little. Above is Isak at an amusement park I took him to last August in Wisconsin when he was 2.
Above is Isak on a similar ride at the fair, obviously much braver. He especially loved the bouncy house/slide that we had to pay a $1 for him to go on and each time we didn't catch him come out and go back in. I am pretty sure that's how they make all their money.

Isak really wanted to go on this huge pink slide and the only requirement was that they could walk up there by themselves. I thought, no way, this is way too big, but sure enough, he grabbed his little blanket and marched right to the top and came down.

He loved it...and went twice.

He also loved this spaceship ride which I thought was too scary but it put him up in the air and up and down and he really liked it. We also took Isak on the ferris wheel and sat him between Kevin and I. I forgot how much I dislike heights and I also forgot what a parrot I have for a son. So as we are sitting 50 feet off the ground I hear Isak..."Oh my gosh, Oh my gosh, we shouldn't be up here..". Yea, way to pass my fears on to my kids, I know.
I put Lucy on this little goldfish ride and she Loved it...she was yelling "wweeee" the whole time and when they had to stop to pull off some crying kids she kept yelling "ready, set go! ready, set, go!"My sorry attempt at a family picture that I conveniently cut myself out of.
There was a cute little play area near the goats that had sawdust chips and some toys for the kids. By the end we were pretty tired and our kids were pretty cranky. It was the perfect size fair though, not too big, and had everything you needed. And the best part is that we went on dollar day so everything was only moderately overpriced. And we get to go again tonight because Kevin signed us up to work the elephant ear booth for the Boy Scouts from 10-11:30..AWESOME! (insert sarcasim).

Lucy the Sheep Whisperer....

2010-09-15T21:39:00.000-07:00

We went to the fair tonight and Lucy was especially excited for the sheep. Here she is talking with them, if only we knew what they were saying.....

Things we are up to this week...

2010-09-15T14:33:00.000-07:00

Isak finger painted today when he got up from his nap. He asked me, "mom, what animals like to finger paint?" I said, "just humans". He said.."I'm not a human, just a little boy, sorry!". We picked some leaves off the ground at the park this morning and colored on top of them on paper. Isak is loving using my camera now and wanted to take a picture.

We attempted to make cinnamon rolls yesterday but they didn't quite turn out. Isak was kind of enough to document the experience...I love when I upload my pictures and there's about 10 extra that I don't recognize that Isak has taken, always interesting.

We are working on learning to use scissors and so far Isak still wants to use two hands when cutting instead of one. He is very stubborn, I am thinking he would take direction better from his teacher than from me.

Lucy reached an all time naughtiness...while I was working with Isak she got into the cinnamon roll dough and rubbed it all over her face, and then proceeded to start biting the tips off the markers. She loves to color, but she also loves to eat all the crayons and draw all over the walls so its difficult to find the right balance....