A White Christmas in Vancouver?

Well I don't know if you would say it was a white Christmas, but it did snow on Christmas Day. Around 1:00 in the afternoon, I looked out the window and noticed large flakes coming down. We got all excited and ran out and took pics (sorry not uploaded yet). I don't know if you can even see the snow falling, but it did fall for an hour or so. Hannah, Justin and their cousin Caden got bundled and ran outside and caught snowflakes on their tongues. When they came in, they were soaking wet because the snow was so wet. It was brief, but hey, it was snow. I hope that we do get some accumulation at some point for the kids to play in. We have a good little hill to sled down in the school yard behind us.

We had a wonderful Christmas here. We started out fairly leisurely, not getting up until 8:00 A.M. The kids quickly went through their presents. Santa was very successful as usual. Hannah's favorite gift was her guitar--a real kids size acoustic guitar. It is electric blue with flame like swirls on it. Now she can be a real rockstar. Justin's favorite gift was a 5 in 1 Spiderman web shooter. It shoots that nasty silly string like web fluid that numerous friends have told us is just not worth it, but he hasn't even used that yet because the one he got also shoots a suction dart, little missiles, plastic webs and water. Even without the nasty fluid, he has a great time with it. They also got a rock polisher, which they must've forgotten about (it's hiding behind a chair) because they haven't bugged us nonstop to do it. They are both rock hounds. And they got a plug and play video game (a joystick that just plugs into the tv) and plays Pac Man and other vintage arcade games (yes, sadly the 80's are vintage now) It was so funny to hear that all so familiar pac man wawka wawka wawka sound. My brother, Ryan, had a ball playing it Christmas morning. Owen wasn't too sure what all was going on but did get a Little Poople garage (he likes to watch the cars go down the spiral ramp) and a little pop up tent that he instantly ran right into. It's his own little spot. He also had great fun body surfing on all the wrapping paper.

After our Christmas mayhem, we had the whole family over for brunch at our house and more presents. We of course ate tons of good food and a nice leisurely afternoon. Then later that day we went to Grandpa Mike and Grandma Carol's for dinner and yet more presents. It was a very full but a very fun day. Can't believe it's all over for yet another year. I will post pics soon.

Year in review slide show--click on view all images to view slideshow

Christmas Letter

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

to all our family and friends. I know that I should have had this done when I sent the Christmas cards out, and hopefully you didn’t come here earlier to find there was no Christmas letter, but per my usual MO, I am late. This year, Christmas seems like it has come especially fast. Anyway, I am glad you’ve found this letter, and we wish you all peace and joy during this season that we celebrate our Savior’s birth. We also wish you many blessings in the New Year.

As usual, our year has been full, and it has flown by. One piece of news that we do NOT have is that we either learned we were expecting or had a baby in the past year. I realized the other night that 2007 and 2004 were the only two years since 1999 that one of those has not been true.

Our big news for this year is that we moved. For over 3 years, we had been looking on and off for a home that we could see ourselves raising our kids in until they left home. Since I am extremely picky, and it wasn’t necessary we move, no one house had everything we were looking for. But after having Owen, our interest in moving was renewed, and in January we finally found something we could see ourselves in for the long haul. It’s in a wonderful neighborhood and the elementary school (which is one of the best in the district) is right behind our back fence. With us having to make a contingent offer and sell our house first, we didn’t actually close on the house until June. Right after moving in, we tore the kitchen out and gave it a complete overhaul with new cabinets, countertops and appliances. There are photos of the remodel on my blog (click here and scrolld down for the pics). We were entirely without a kitchen for about a month except for a microwave and toaster oven, which was a real pain, but it was all worth it. There are still a few boxes around and we’re still trying to get rid of stuff and get the garage in order, but for the most part, we are settled and feel at home.

Hannah will turn 7 in January and is in first grade at the school behind us. We can actually see the door to her classroom from our kitchen sliding door. She has been doing extremely well academically and has made lots of friends. She is a very popular little girl and whenever I pick her up from school, all you here is “bye Hannah, bye Hannah, bye Hannah…” from all her classmates. She has had a bit of a rough time ever since a boy in her class got hurt on the playground only a couple weeks into school. It wasn’t serious, but it was traumatic enough to her to cause quite a bit of distress. For a few weeks, going to school was very difficult and there were many tears from her and from me. She came out of that for the most part, although she is still very fearful of anyone getting hurt. We just pray that in time, she will not worry about such things. She is still doing ballet and was in her 3rd recital in June. She also played soccer again this fall. She was on an all-girl team called Mia’s Angels (as in Mia Hamm) and had lots of fun. She took swimming lessons and really blossomed over the two sessions. She had been afraid to even put her face in the water, but this summer, she was entirely underwater all the time.

Justin will turn 5 in January and is in Pre-K. He is learning a lot and has many friends. He is our boy of 100 questions. If you are alone with him in the car, he talks non-stop asking tons of questions that I usually cannot answer. He also played soccer again this fall and did great. He really improved over last year. Justin took swimming lessons this summer and, like Hannah, became much more comfortable in the water. He keeps asking when we’re going to do lessons again.

Owen is almost 18 months old and has changed tremendously over the year as all toddlers do. He is walking and running all over the place trying to keep up with Hannah and Justin. He is also quite the little climber. He is a very active little boy and keeps us on our toes all day long. He has had a few words like kick (when kicking a ball like his siblings did during soccer) and thank you. He loves, balls, balloons, his bath (splashing like a madman) and just being included in any activity going on at the time. Sometimes this is a cause of anguish for his siblings. Especially Hannah who has to keep the door to her room shut at all times because there are way too many little things for him to destroy or eat. For the most part though, Hannah and Justin adore their baby brother and it is a joy to see them interact with him.

I am still teaching fitness classes as a way to keep in shape, earn a little money, and get a little break from home, although two of the classes are at 5:30 A.M., so the break I am getting is from the sleep I would otherwise be enjoying. Oh well. I also started a new business this year selling Uppercase Living (http://www.uppercaseliving.com/) vinyl expressions (fancy stickers) that go on the wall or tiles and plaques for home décor. I’ve been selling since October and so far it has been very successful, so we’ll see where it goes. It’s been fun, and I love putting the stuff up in my home, which was my main reason for starting to sell it. I also still try to find as much time as possible to scrapbook. Last year in the letter, I said that I was going to have two of my layouts published in an idea book. That was supposed to be out this fall, but unfortunately, was delayed until after Christmas. So hopefully soon, that book will be out. I will definitely put it on my blog when it is. Before then though, I am going to be published in an online magazine. I am actually going to have 4 of my layouts and an article on me put in the January issue of ScrapStreet magazine (shh!!!!! It’s supposed to be a secret until then). I will provide the link to that in January when it comes out.

Dale continues to work at Brown and Caldwell and enjoys his job, although the commute to Portland can be a bear at times. He is managing one project that keeps him closer to home, which makes the commute easier some days. He has once again joined an indoor soccer team and is really enjoying the chance to get some physical activity despite the aches and pains for a couple days after. He also was a soccer mom this fall getting all the kids ready and to Hannah and Justin’s soccer games on Saturday mornings when I taught aerobics.

Now that Owen is a little bigger we got the chance to get out of the house a few times. In the spring, we headed over to Cannon Beach, one of our favorite places in the world for a couple of days with Dale’s parents. Later, during the summer, we rented a house in Sunriver for a long weekend with some friends and had a great time. We determined on the first day that a weekend is not long enough and are looking at a week next time.

Also during the summer, we attended the McDonald family reunion at dad’s place in Washougal. The family got to spend their first night in a tent and boy was it cold! Owen and I spent the second night on the couch in the house. I was good to get together with family and there was a lot to do. Dad stocked the pond with trout and all the kids pulled out 54 fish in about an hour. Together, Hannah and Justin caught 7.

We spent Thanksgiving in Indiana with Dale’s family. Owen did surprisingly well for his first time on a plane and we had a good time. One highlight was seeing a couple of bald eagles in a field while we were taking a drive through the countryside.

Well I should wrap this up. I am also going to add a slideshow of pictures throughout the year. We love hearing from you all so please email or even send a real card or letter when you get a chance. I put our new address in with our Christmas card, but if you missed that tiny slip of paper, email me to get our new address.

ROFLPIMPing

I can't believe I'm doing this, but I'm posting again. Twice in one day--it's a record. The key is keeping the posts short and sweet. Anyway, I just have a funny story. Don't know how many of you know texting jargon well (I don't ever text) but my post title refers to Hannah coming down from upstairs where she and Justin were playing well (just after they had been fighting) and said that Justin made her laugh so hard, she peed her pants. It was almost deja vu because yesterday at my MOPS meeting, we had a speaker who told the exact same story about her two daughters. Anyway, the whole thing reminded me of my favorite text shortcut (or whatever you call them), ROFLPIMP (I pronounce it Roffle Pimp)--rolling on the floor laughing, peeing in my pants. I just had to laugh--although I was able to control my bladder. Well enough with the potty talk. Next time, I'll try to get pics up of our holiday decorations.

TTFN --Ta Ta For Now

View my slideshow

Hey all. I've added a slideshow in the left column that has a lot of my scrapbook layouts in it. Some are old and some are new and some are new layouts but very old pictures because I'm so far behind. But if you're interested in taking a look, scroll down and click on the slideshow--then it will take you to the website where you can view the layouts full size.

TTFN

Oh, I forgot something

On the flight out to Indiana, while we were at the Portland airport, a photographer for the Associated Press snapped a photo of Justin hauling mommy's suitcase. We found it online and found out just yesterday that it did make it into the Oregonian Metro section--a big 5x7 photo all on its own with the caption. Here's the link to the photo online. It's cute.

I'm a Bad Blogger

Okay, I am such a bad blogger. I apologize to all those who come to see if there's anything new and all they find is my depressing last post. Plus, did I ever get those Halloween pics up? No! If you want to see the kids in their Halloween outfits, go to my best friend Annaliese's blog and check it out. We always get the kids together to get pictures of them, although with six kids and 2 of them being under 2 at the time, it was not an easy task. You will have to either scroll way down her blog or click directly to her Halloween post since she is a much better blogger than I and has many posts since then. If you can't tell, Hannah was an all-american cheerleader (she just wasn't going to be another princess this year), Justin was Darth Vader, and Owen was the adorable frog.

We have moved waaayyy past Halloween and, can you believe, past Thanksgiving, and Christmas is upon us. For Thanksgiving, we traveled to Indiana to be with the Lough family. We were actually there for 9 days. We flew out the Monday before and returned the Wed. after Thanksgiving, which made it a nice break and not such a crazy harried trip. Hannah and Justin have always loved flying, although I think it has lost some of its luster for them, but we were dreading having Owen on a plane. He is just so much more active than the other 2 ever seemed to be at that age, and we didn't know how we would get him to sit contained for 6 hours. He had his moments, but all in all, he did better than we expected. It definitely made for a long plane ride though. He also had a bit of trouble adjusting his schedule at G'ma and G'pa's. Finally on the last night we were there, he actually slept in the crib rather than between Dale and I. Thankfully though, he got right back on schedule when we got home and is sleeping better than ever. As far as the trip, it was pretty low key except for on Thanksgiving Day when there were 29 people in Dale's parents' home. Hannah and Grandma counted 8 kids and 21 adults. It was good to see everyone. Hannah and Justin of course were thrilled to see G'ma and G[pa and monopolized their time constantly. It took Owen a little time to warm up, but in the last few days, he felt pretty comfortable and was running around like he owned the place. Dale and I took many opportunities to get away a little--most times to a coffee shop in a town 20 minutes away where we could get a good coffee (I missed my Starbucks) and surf on the internet. It doesn't take much to make us happy. The other major part of the trip was meeting our nephew Drew who is a few months younger than Owen. He and Owen didn't really pay too much attention to each other, but it was neat to see them together. Kari and Duane are expecting another baby in May and are really hoping for a little girl. Here are some pics from the trip.

Owen and Drew in matching pj's

Okay, so there is a cute story to tell about these photos. I bought Hannah and Justin disposable cameras to take on the trip and Justin was carrying his around all day on Thanksgiving and came up to me and whispered that he wanted a picture of everybody--some sitting and some standing--and that I had to tell them. So we got all 29 people (I haven't actually counted to see if they're all there) to squeeze into the front room (it was really cold outside, so we weren't going out there), so Justin and mommy could take pics. We couldn't get everyone in one shot, so we did a panorama of 3 shots. Justin does love taking pictures. He's my budding photographer.

All the grandkids in the matching sweaters we bought.

Seefood anyone? Sorry. I just had to put this photo in. It's after Owen smashed his face onto the cool whip lid to eat it and then had a mouth full of something.

All right. I guess that's enough for now. The past few days we have been feverishly getting our tree and other Christmas decorations up, so hopefully (no promises) I will post more about that soon.

TTFN--Ta Ta For Now

37 on 11-7-2007

Well, it's no longer my birthday since it's after midnight, but I turned 37 today. What a blah age. I cannot believe I'm only 3 years from 40. I have to say that this has been one of the worst birthdays ever. The fact that I had to teach an aerobics class and 5:30 A.M. and then another one at 5:45 P.M. didn't help, but it just wasn't a fun day like birthdays should be. I know I'm just having a little pity party, but sometimes, we just can't help it. I think part of it also is that my 2 sisters and I all have birthdays within 10 days, so we just went out to dinner with the whole family on the day after my sister's birthday. I thought we were just celebrating for her, but it ended up being for all of us. It was fine but nothing special. I'm just trying to focus on 3 years from now. When I do turn 40, my plan is to take a girls' trip to Hawaii sans husbands and kids. We'll see what happens, and it will probably change, but that's the plan for now.

Alright, enough of the pity party. I hope to post pics from Halloween of the kids tomorrow, so hopefully I can manage to do that.

TTFN, Ta Ta For Now.

Finally, a new post.

Well, once again it has been waaaayyyy too long since posting. I actually typed the first sentence you just read 4 or 5 days ago but only made it that far and am now getting back to it, although the timer for the mac n' cheese (yet another well rounded dinner) just went off, so I gotta go. We'll see if I get back to this today or not. Well I'm back. Owen is currently contained in his high chair eating mac n' cheese. Otherwise, he is all over the place and needing something right now. He is walking all over the place and very active and demanding at times. He has a mind of his own and is definitely going to be a handful.

As usual, things have been very busy. I've been dealing with the situation of Hannah and not wanting to go to school. This week was way better. She didn't seem reluctant at all to go in the morning, although I still have to walk her. Her teacher said she is doing well for the most part but does get a little more stressed when it is around recess time. We did finally find out that the accident the boy in her class had at recess (cutting his head resulting in lots of blood) did have more of an impact than she initially let on to. She said she always afraid that someone is going to get hurt at recess, so she doesn't like to go. If recess were down on the playground with the rings and bars, she would be fine, but with the weather being yucky (as it will be at least for the next 3-4 months) recess is up top on the concrete. Her teacher has been very understanding and let her stay in class and help her or go to the library. Although, she is pushing her a little more now to get back outside. Hopefully soon she'll be back to her old school and recess lovin' self.

We've still had soccer practices during the week and games on Sat. Today was Justin's last game. Hannah still has 3 more. Today was our first day of games in the rain including last season. The kids did fine. Hannah actually wanted to play in the rain. Justin was not as excited. His field was actually a big mud puddle, so they all got pretty wet. I felt bad for Owen. His little hands were so cold and red, but he would not keep gloves on. I was glad to get him out of the cold and wet. Two of Hannah's games left are at 9:00 A.M., so I hope they are not extremely cold. Justin didn't have any goals this season, but he definitely got some good kicks in, and I think will just continue to improve. He had his party and got his trophy, which is always the highlight for him. He feels so special. Here are some pics of him this season:

Well right now it doesn't seem to want me to post pics, so I'll try to post them in a separate post. I also have pics of Hannah playing and Owen trying to get in on the act.

Other than school and soccer and keeping up with Owen, I've been working on my new business venture I posted about earlier. I am an independent demonstrator for Uppercase Living, which sells awesome decorative expressions to put on the wall or other home decor items. I finally got my own order and had lots of fun last week putting it up around our home. It looks gorgeous. I get to make another big order because I've sold over $1000 worth during my UpStart period and get another $100 in product credit. I want to get some stuff for the kids' rooms. So far I've done two shows--my sister did a catalog show and last Monday I had my first in home show, which was a success. I already have two other catalog shows going and 2 home shows booked with another person wanting to book one. It seems to be going good so far. If you haven't seen a catalog and are curious about the product, you can log on to http://www.uppercaseliving.com/, go to the Customer Corner and use my ID of 532228 and registration token of lough to register and log on to view the entire catalog online. You can also use the MyDesign tool to design your own sayings with all different fonts, letter sizes and colors.

Okay well, I'm going to post this and attempt to post some pics and then I need to take some Nyquil and let it do its job. Poor Owen has had a bad cold and I apparantly got it and now feel very bad. A whole morning out in the rain and cold didn't help I don't think. Owen seems to be improving though, which is good. Well I guess I can post the images now, so here are the soccer pics and whatever else I find.

Justin getting his foot on the ball.

Justin and his friend, Drew.

Hannah getting her game face on.

Hannah's team actually played positions. Her favorite was defender because she could just hang back most of the game and not have to be aggressive. Here she is defending her goal. Unfortunately, I think the ball got by her, but bless her heart for trying. She really isn't very athletic.
Owen liked playing on the sidelines.

Owen's playing goalie, so he can touch the ball. He can kick pretty well and actually says kick--at least I think he does. I just know that when he is kicking a ball, he will make a kcck sound (kinda without the i).

I do have a good pic of all of us at the pumpkin patch. We went last weekend when we had a short stretch of awesome weather, but I need to get this posted, so I'll post that later.

TTFN, Ta Ta For Now

Frustration!

It has been a hard past 4 or 5 days. The weekend was good (we were busy with soccer, The Race for the Cure, which the whole family walked, Dale's company picnic, and a birthday party), but Thursday, Friday and today have not been so great. For whatever reason, Hannah has decided she does not want to go to school and gets very upset when it is time to do so or we even talk about it. It kinda started last Wed. She came home from school fine and then got ready for soccer practice, but then when we got there, she was crying and didn't want to play. She did play, but she was off and on upset that night and really got upset when you talked about having school the next day. Thursday morning, she would not go, she was crying and would get beyond upset as you tried to push her harder out the door. She actually started walking but then headed back. She took a personal day on Thursday and stayed home. Friday was more of the same. Dale had to walk her up and stand outside the door for over 5 min. trying to reason with her while she sobbing and you can't understand anything she says. The teacher did come out and get her to go in and said she did fine on Friday, although she seemed a little unsure. I actually spied on her with binoculars out the window during recess and could see she was having a good time playing. The problem is that she won't tell us what the problem is. If you ask her, she just gets very upset. I have asked her everything I think it might be like people making fun of her or not feeling like she has any friends, and she says it's not those things. After the good weekend, I was hoping it wouldn't be a problem today, and she was better--didn't get upset until it was actually time to put her shoes on and go out the door, but once again, I had to walk her up. She did go in the door a little easier, and the teacher says she's having a better day than Friday, but that there is something bugging her. If she does this again tomorrow, they want her to talk to the school counselor to see if she'll open up to her. I just hate to see her like this. She has always loved school and at the beginning of the week last week wanted to walk up earlier than she needed to and then Wham--Thursday came and everything changed. It's just so frustrating and bewildering. Hopefully she'll be fine tomorrow. Just had to vent. Hopefully I'll get some soccer pics up soon. TTFN--Ta Ta For Now.

My new venture

No pics today. Just me typing. It's 10:13 P.M. and I should just go to bed because I'm very tired after getting up to teach a class at 5:30 A.M. and going, going, going until now. I should sleep, but this is my only chance to wind down after the kids go to bed. It was a bit of a rough day. Owen is very cranky with getting his molars and Hannah had a minor meltdown, although she would never say why. I think she just may be tired with school being all day.

Because I need something more in my life, I am starting a business selling vinyl stickers that go on your wall by Uppercase Living (www.uppercaseliving.com). That description doesn't really describe it. They are beautiful phrase, quotes, scriptures, words that come in different sizes and colors that you can apply directly to the wall or on other plaques, tiles and things to decorate the home. I didn't think I'd ever sell anything like this again after doing Pampered Chef about 7 years ago, but I just love this stuff, so I thought I'd give it a try.

Well my computer is about to hibernate. TTFN--Ta Ta For Now

So many pics, so little time

Well, these are a week late, but here are pics from Justin's first day of Pre-K. He started his second week today. He goes 3 days/week for 2-1/2 hours. This is his second year at the same school, which we love. He has a new teacher but many other familiar faces. He is always reluctant to go but always happy and excited when I go to pick him up. He just isn't much of a morning person, but mine as well get him used to it now because in a couple years he'll go all day and won't have the option of morning or afternoon.

Here he is showing an oft unseen "normal" smile.

Here he is being his usual picture taken self.

And yet again.

Well I promised them weeks ago and here they finally are...

Pics of our remodeled kitchen. It's pretty much done. There are still a few little tweaks (or tweeks ?) that need to be made. I finally got everything in the cabinets. As you can see, there are a lot of cabinets, but believe it or not, I filled them up. I must say that they are not filled tightly though. There is still tons of room in them and the drawers. The old cabinets that Dale very carefully removed are actually being put to good use out in the garage. The wall with all the tall cabinets you see in the first pic is put up pretty much just like you see along the back wall of the garage along with a row of the base cabinets that he is going to put a counter top on and use as a workbench. He is also going to hang one of the wall units up. It's nice to be able to reuse them. They were very well built custom cabinets, but just not our style.

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

AFTER

BEFORE

I wanted to show this pic to show my Father in Law how I am now displaying some of the Lough Family china. Also, I'm displaying the crystal that Harold and Sharon gave us for our wedding along with the crystal wine glasses I bought in Prague Czechoslovakia about 13 years ago. The glasses and the crystal from the wedding actually are the same pattern, which I never realized since they hadn't been out much. It's nice to be able to display stuff like that.

And finally, over the weekend there was some excitement when I became an aunt yet again to a new baby....

BOY!

My sister, Marcie, wasn't actually due until Oct. 2nd/3rd but was going to be induced today because there have been problems with low amniotic fluid. We were all a bit nervous and ready for he/she to arrive. They ended up inducing her on Sat. due to really low fluid and the baby's heartrate dropping. Around 8:00 P.M. on 9/15, the contractions started to get pretty hard and at 9:00, she was getting ready for an epidural, but by 9:15 before she could even get the epidural, she had to push and couldn't hold it. Without a doctor and with the nurses not even ready, baby came flying out. Grandma Judi actually caught him. Collin Ace was born on 9/15 at 9:20 P.M. He was 6 lbs, 6 oz and 18-1/2 inches--just a tiny peanut but healthy and home now with mom, dad and big brother, Caden. I was there when he was born, and it was like deja vu because other than her actually being in a real birthing room, that was pretty much like my delivery with Owen. It's crazy and scary at the time, but once it's over, you realize that it was a pretty easy delivery (maybe she wouldn't agree with me on that just yet).

Proud big brother, Caden
And proud big cousins

Okay, that's all for today. Hope you all have a happy Monday and a good week.

TTFN--Ta Ta For Now

I'm Baaackkkk!

Well it's been awhile since I've posted. Just to let you know right off the bat, I still don't have pics of the kitchen. Justin (my little photographer) actually did take some pics of it the other day (he just wanted to take pics of the kitchen without even knowing that I need to get them), but I have not downloaded them yet. I've got lots more pics for you though.

As with most of you out there in world wide web land, things have been pretty crazy with school starting and Fall soccer getting underway. Before school started, we did take one last summer trip over Labor Day weekend to a cabin up on Snoqaulmie pass in Washington (just east of Seattle/Tacoma) with friends that Dale and I have from Washington State University. They have 2 kids, Jayden and Grace. Hannah and Justin absolutely adore playing with Jayden, and they play so well together the entire weekend. Owen and Grace pretty much just fended for themselves. Every winter we take a trip there to do all the snow activities (last winter the kids just flew down the sledding hill), so the kids were a little concerned about what they would do there in the summer. They discovered that taking shovels and building a dam in the drainage ditch around the cabin and using boards to build bridges across it was loads of fun and much dirtier than snow. We apologize to Craig who will have to dig the ditch back out before the rains come and flood the area. Except for when they were hungry or thirsty, we really didn't see them much. Unlike the trip to Sunriver, there actually was some shopping at the Outlet mall in North Bend by Rebecca and I. In the winter, you can't really go anywhere, but in the summer, it's just a 1/2-hour trip down the road, and there's a Starbucks--actually two. It was very relaxing and a good break before the first week of school.

Hannah, Justin and Jayden hard at work.

Notice the dust flying

Owen standing right before attempting a few steps.

My beautiful blue-eyed, shaggy haired boy

Hannah was actually the only one that started school on Tuesday. Justin doesn't start Pre-K until Monday the 10th. Hannah did start 1st grade and now goes to school all day, which is kind of weird. Her teacher is very nice, and Hannah seems to really be enjoying it. As per her usual M.O., she doesn't really give me a whole lot of details about her day. She likes taking a lunch, and she is excited that she gets 3 recesses. Hopefully she's actually learnng something too. I think I've mentioned in the past, but for those who don't know, the school is actually right in our backyard and even more amazing is that I can stand in my kitchen/eating area and look out our back sliding door and see the back door to Hannah's room. The first couple days I would walk her up to her class, but on Thursday and Friday she walked herself, but I can watch her the entire way right up until she walks through her classroom door. It's very convenient and much easier than getting Owen and Justin up to make the trek up the hill.

Hannah and Justin started soccer again for this Fall season. They had their first games today. I wasn't able to make it because they were both at 9:00 when I teach aerobics, but Dale said there was definite improvement over last year. Hopefully this season, they can get some goals. Justin's team has black shirts and is called the Killer Whales. Hannah's team is actually the league's only all girl team. They are lime green and are called Mia's (after Mia Hamm) Angels. Usually the coach uses the shirt color and adds angels, like the Blue Angels or White Hot Angels, but the Lime Green Angels just didn't seem to work. It'll be another busy week this week with Justin starting school and then Hannah starting up with ballet again. Such is our life with kids. Can't imagine what it will be like when Owen starts doing activities too. Well it's been a long post. I'll post pics of Justin's first day of school and of course, those kitchen photos.

TTFN--Ta Ta For Now.

Owen entering toddlerhood

Well, Owen took his first steps yesterday back and forth between mommy and daddy. Just a few steps before falling into our arms. Today he was a little braver and actually stood up on his own without holding onto anything and stepped toward me about 5 or 6 steps. He really seems like he's wanting to get up and walk. He will be running before we know it. I can't believe how big he is.

I also cannot believe how fast this summer has gone. Hannah starts 1st grade next Tuesday. I cannot believe she'll be in school all day. I thought I was ready, but now it's coming fast. Justin doesn't start Pre-K until the 10th. He will only go 3 days/week for 2-1/2 hours/day. I've tried to get some more summer fun activities in during this last week. Yesterday we went to the zoo with my sisters and today we went to Grandpa Mike's and Grandma Carol's to go swimming and to pick berries and get veggies out of his huge garden. Tomorrow we go to watch the Gove kids while mom and dad are in Colorado and big sister Shell goes to volleyball practice. We did that Monday too and it wasn't really work because the kids love to play together. Friday Justin has his first Fall soccer practice (Hannah's starts next week) and then we leave to spend the weekend with friends up at their cabin in Snoqualmie.

I've got a few pics that I took of the kiddos at the zoo that I really liked. Still no pics of the kitchen. Keep checking back.

Finally, a vacation--sort of.

I mentioned in a previous post that we hadn't taken any trips this year. Well, we finally got away for a weekend. We went with some friends to Sunriver, a resort near Bend in sunny Central Oregon. Dale and I used to go there all the time to hike and enjoy the gorgeous weather, but we hadn't been there during the summer in forever. We were reminded of how much we love it there and now know that we'd like to spend more time there. The problem with this weekend was that it was way too short. It's about a 4 hour drive to get there, which the kids didn't really appreciate. Even though they had their movies to watch, they constantly asked if we were any closer. Our answer was always "Yes, we're a few minutes closer than when you asked before, but we still have hours to go." Owen, didn't really like being strapped in his seat, but Hannah is such a wonderful big sister and did her best to keep him entertained and supplied with whatever he wanted. We didn't get there until Friday night and just hung out. It was a bit of a task getting the 6 rambunctious kids who'd been cooped up in a car to settle down and get to bed, but we did it, and then we crashed. Saturday we hung out at one of the resort pools. It had a water slide and a lot of room to lounge all around the pool, although for some reason, Dale and I didn't get much lounging done. Go figure. Hannah and Justin have both come a long way this summer in enjoying the water. Hannah amazes me at how she just is constantly under the water and is starting to swim. Before this summer, she didn't want her face wet. Justin is not quite as confident, but is getting there. Owen loves the water and gets mad when you get him out. Other than the pool, we didn't do much else other than bike around on the trails (everyone except Owen and I) and go to a park. The kids enjoyed attempting to play tennis. We did go to the Village Mall, which is a very fun place to shop, but all we managed was dinner (which was mediocre pizze--we wouldn't reccomend Ponderosa Pizza) and very good ice cream treats at Goody's--although all kids except one opted for ring pops (suckers) instead. On the way out of town, we hit downtown Bend, which is also a very fun place to shop, but we didn't really get to do much of that again either. Can you tell I'm bitter that I didn't get to shop? ;) We walked along the Deschutes River and watched the ducks, geese and one beloved swan and fed them our day old mediocre pizza crust that had been sitting out--hopefully there aren't some sick water fowl in Bend now. We also hit another Goody's ice cream shop before hopping back in the car for the trip back home. It was fun, but we have decided that a week in Sunriver would be ideal. You could get in all the stuff you wanted to and still be able to relax and take it easy.

Here is a pic of 5 of the kids at the park in Bend. Next year Owen will be climbing with them, but this year I got a separate pic of him in Dad's Cougar hat.

I also promised pics of Owen's first birthday and Hannah without her two front teeth, so here they are. Hannah is hanging upside down, but it's what I have for now. I still don't have pics of the new kitchen. It hasn't managed to stay clean long enough for me to take a pic--maybe tomorrow.

Upside-down, toothless Hannah

We just gave Owen a cupcake (well 2) on his actual birthday while Grandma Sharon was still here (she had to leave that night to go back to Indiana).

Owen enjoying his first bites of his first cupcake.

Pretty much done with first cupcake.

Mad because there isn't anymore cupcake. We give him another.

Eats about 3/4 of the 2nd cupcake and is finally happy.

Some photos

There are some photos that I want to get on here, so that friends and family from afar can seem them. One is of Hannah with her new short haircut. For a long time now, she has wanted her hair cut, but I said she couldn't until after her ballet recital 'cause she had to have it long enough for a bun. She wanted short bangs, but I wouldn't let her get those. I do think it's cute and definitely easier to take care of--those tangles are a pain, and she never let me brush it. Another thing she has a lot less of are teeth. She's now lost 5 altogether. 2 on the bottom over a year ago that are already back in and then just in the past 3 weeks, another bottom one and the top two. I've still got to take a pic of her missing both of the top two.

This isn't a very good photo but the best I have right now showing Hannah's new hair a missing her first top tooth. She had just had her face painted at our family reunion a couple weekends ago.

About the only event we've had this summer other than moving and remodeling and the annual visit by Grandma Sharon was the family reunion in Washougal at Grandpa Mike and Grandma Carol's property. We camped in a tent (well the 2nd night, Owen and I slept in the house). The kids had tons of fun. There was a fishing derby in the pond. Hannah and Justin each caught 3 trout on the morning of the derby between 15-1/2 and 17-1/2 inches. Hannah also caught another fish or two the next morning. They now have their own poles, so I guess we need to go fishing again sometime. There was also a clown and face painting and my cousin's husband is a volunteer fireman at the local fire dept. and had some other firemen bring a truck up for the kids to climb on and spray the hose.

Waiting for a bite.

There was lots of time spent in the pool besides all the other activities.

The other big event this summer was Owen's first birthday. I can't believe he's a year already. I will post some pics from his birthday soon.

TTFN--Ta Ta For Now

Welcome to my blog.

Well, with a little encouragement from my dear friend, Annaliese, I finally started a blog. I've felt so out of it with everyone else having one. I'm not sure if I'll post much or not, but I wanted a spot that I can upload photos that family and friends can easily view.

I cannot believe that summer is almost over and the kids (well two of them) will be going back to school in a couple weeks. I feel like we haven't even had much of a summer between the cooler (and right now, wetter) weather and us moving and then remodeling the kitchen, there hasn't been much time or motivation for summer fun.

If you weren't aware, we moved to a new house only about 4 miles from our old one at the end of June. We live in a great neighborhood toward the end of a cul-de-sac (there aren't even any houses around the end of the cul-de-sac--it's green space). Our backyard backs up to the elementary school, so Hannah will just have about a 2 minute walk to school, although she says she'll miss riding the bus. The school is supposed to be very good, so we're excited about that. Justin's preschool is about 5 minutes down the road, so that is very convenient as well.

A couple weeks after moving in we tore out the old kitchen--cabinets, countertops, appliances and all--and had a new one put in. We just got our appliances back in less than 2 weeks ago after being without anything except a microwave and toaster oven for over a month. There are still a few minor fixups to the cabinets that need to be done, but for the most part, the kitchen is done, and although it was not a fun process, the results are great. We are very pleased with it. I am still trying to move all the kitchen stuff in and figure out where each thing should go. There definitely isn't a shortage of space, although somehow I am managing to fill most of it up. I will post a before and after pic when I take the after.