Weston is 8!

I can hardly believe we have an 8 year-old! Soon I will post a few "progression" photos from Weston's 8 years on earth, but for now I'll just post a few birthday photos.

I can't believe I pulled this one off. It was fun to make, but I'm not ready to take the cake-making reigns from Memaw Mary. Sorry Mom, you're not off the hook ;)

No more babyish birthdays for this boy! We're talkin' weapons and camo!

It was only after I frosted hundreds of tiny grass blades ONE AT A TIME that my mom happened to mention there was a special grass decorating tip. Gee....thanks mom.

Noah kept poking his finger into the frosting while I was trying to pose. He is very focused on sugar.

Mother's Day Cards

I had to post my Mother's Day cards from the kids. So cute and creative. Mike said Weston was totally peeved that Grace was copying his idea. She sat and copied with a little smile on her face while he loudly protested.
These cards were delivered to me in bed in bed on Sunday morning along with a yummy breakfast of eggs, toast, OJ and coffee. I think Joy got to me first and woke me up with a wet snout in my face. :) Pretty fun way to start Mother's Day (the cards and breakfast, not the snout)!

This is Mr. Noah's card. I'm sure it took him about 2 minutes, but he was very proud of it.

Grace's card. I guess I should have put Weston's first since she copied him. If you can't tell, it's a coffee mug with a flower growing in it.

Elsie's card is me in a tutu with roses all around. I was particularly impressed with her roses. Her picture is a little hard to see because she had folded it into a teeny-tiny little square and stuffed it into an envelope. It's a little wrinkled.

This is the original coffee mug with a flower. I love how coffee is splashing in the mug. Weston pays attention to detail in his drawings.

Mini-Vacation to Long Beach, WA

Our family took a 3 night getaway to Long Beach, WA this past weekend. Mike and I decided we would take the kids away on a fun trip after all the stress of house-hunting and our house purchase falling through. We had a great time exploring the peninsula in the sunshine! Although the beach was fun, the highlights of the trip were the two hikes we took to the Cape Disappointment and North Head lighthouses. The photo above was taken in Dead Man's Cove on the way to the Cape Disappointment Lighthouse. It was this beautiful little cove with rocks to climb on and driftwood to explore. It was definitely a highlight of the trip.

This is the North Head Lighthouse. We couldn't go inside, but the views were pretty.

This boy loves to be outdoors. Sometimes I'm amazed at how he can entertain himself for hours with sticks and dirt (or sand).

Noah loved the sand too. Oregon is perfect for winter hats and bare feet!

It was fun to drive on Long Beach! We even passed other vehicles and horses on our way into town.

On Sunday we played at Fort Columbia. We explored the bunkers and hiked around the beautiful park. The bunkers are pretty creepy, but I'm sure the men stationed here during WWII were thankful for them.

Sunday was also the Loyalty Day Parade for the Long Beach Peninsula. We sat for a few hours and watched the parade. The kids were more excited about the candy than any of the marching bands or clowns. My favorite club that marched was a group of people from Portland called the "Get a Life Marching Band". They appeared to all be in their late 50's to 70's. I found their webpage and this is how they describe themselves, "We were all in high school or college marching bands. We still haven't gotten over it. We'd rather miss a note than a meal!" Their 2011 slogan is, "We don't need good taste to know what tastes good." I'm still not sure what the eating has to do with marching bands and drill teams, but they were having tons of fun so I guess it doesn't matter. In fact, they seemed to be having way more fun than the junior high and high school marching bands and drill teams. Noah waved at everyone marching by. We're talking hours of waving. He's quite the friendly guy!

A break from hiking to enjoy the daisies.

Mike and I agreed we could have stayed on the peninsula for a week and kept busy. What a beautiful part of Washington! We look forward to visiting again someday!

Happy April!

This month started out with a bang when Noah fell and hit his head on our couch leg, making for a quick and bloody trip to the ER. Three hours and six stitches later we were back home with him happily licking an ER Popsicle! One week later Mike and I snuck into his room at night and took his stitches out ourselves. He turned over a few times but didn't even wake up for the procedure :) We figured it would be easier to do it ourselves while he was asleep than to head back to the ER where he would inevitable freak out and fight. His owie healed up nicely, but he'll have a good scar to show for it.

Showing off the stitches!

Here's a recent photo of our sweet puppy, Joy. She is very affectionate and loving with our entire family. She's always up for adventures with the kids, and she's good at including herself in whatever we're doing.

Weston and Grace are currently playing YMCA indoor soccer on the same team. The team is 1st and 2nd graders, but they allowed Grace to move up one level for our convenience. So far, it's been a wonderful experience and the kids LOVE it. Weston even go to be a star on Saturday and scored 5 goals in one game!

We decided to make some Spring/Easter cookies today. I saw the recipe in a magazine made with pretzels and yogurt coating, but I decided to make the little nests out of Chow Mein noodles with melted butterscotch chips and peanut butter for a coating. They turned out pretty cute! I'm not sure Noah actually assembled a complete cookie. I do know he ate at least 2 Peeps, 5 eggs and 1 nest!

Grace Hannah

Elsie Noelle

Finished product!

My Friend's Blog

Lately, I have been enjoying the blog of a friend of mine. Kara is a dear friend from Southwest Bible Church where Mike and I were married and started our family. She and her husband, Jason, were the first of our friends to have a baby. We were newly married at the time and we watched their parenting closely. We asked lots of questions. We adopted many of their methods. All this to say, her friendship and experience has been very sweet to us. I hope you enjoy her blog just as I do! You can click on the link below to visit it!
The Chuppies

I especially enjoyed her post from this morning. Click here to visit the specific post.

History Lessons

We read about Captain J.A. Sutter in history today. Here are the kids' summaries of the history lesson. Weston writes the summary on his own and then Mike or I go through it with him and help him correct the grammar and spelling. Grace and I talk about how she'd like to summarize the story and then I help her get it on paper. I thought it would be fun to share some of their homeschool work. I will try to post a few more homeschool items in the next few weeks.

This is Grace's work.

This is Weston's work.

March Update

The big news around here lately is that we are looking to buy a house and possibly rent out the duplex. The house buying process has been quite the roller coaster ride this month. Although it's been a difficult process, it's been awesome to see God answer our prayers in many ways. We also have learned more about ourselves and each other. We have learned that when we walk into a house, I'm all-out optimistic. I emotionally fall in love with everything about a house. I don't want to hear anything negative (rose-colored glasses). Mike, on the other hand, walks in and sees everything "concerning" about a house. After the first tour of homes, we left with my feelings hurt and him feeling like I was bullying him into liking homes. We learned fairly quickly to just let the other person have space to have their own opinion. We don't have to agree right away. We figured out the best way to agree on a home is to sit down together and make out a pro/con list. This makes the good and bad things about the home tangible so we don't end up arguing or with hurt feelings. After 10+ years of marriage we are still learning things about one another!
We currently have an offer in on a house very close to the duplex. We both feel good about this home and think it would be a great place for our family for at least the next 3 to 5 years. We'll keep you posted on the outcome!

Here's Elsie with our naughty puppy. Joy loves to chase Noah and steal a sock off his foot, so he'll chase her around.
We have all enjoyed having a dog again. She has a very sweet personality and loves the kids. We have to baby gate the stairs at night so she doesn't sneak upstairs and wake the kids to play with her.
The other morning, I was thinking about how Joy wakes up so excited for the day. She bounds out of her crate in a frenzy of happiness. She greets the kids and I as if she hasn't seen us in ages. She attacks her toys and rolls around on the floor in glee. I have to admit I'm jealous of her energy and spunk. :) I wish I woke up every morning with that much excitement for the day to come! Of course, maybe I would be that excited if my responsibilities were limited to sleeping, eating and playing.

Joy with her contraband sock.

The girls love to snuggle with their puppy!

Elsie is so proud of her puzzle skills. This is a 100-piece puzzle and she did really well putting it together (with some help)!

Grace loves puzzles and Fancy Nancy! This is one of her birthday gifts.

Grace is 6!

Here are a few photos to celebrate 6 years with our sweet girl!
February 24th, 2005

1st birthday party

Age 2

Age 3.5, with Noah.

Age 4

My mom threw Grace a ballerina/heart birthday party in Bend the weekend after her birthday. Her cake was a base of red velvet cake, a heart of white cake, and ballet slippers with ribbon.

Although Grace was disappointed she wasn't going to have a "friend" party this year, she loved being at Papa and Memaw's house with all the snow. My aunt, cousin, and my cousin's daughters were also able to attend the party. My cousin and her girls are from Arizona, so it was a special treat to have them there.

We are so blessed to have Grace as our daughter. I'm so thankful for 6 wonderful years and pray we get to enjoy many, many more as we watch Grace grow into a woman.

Sewing Class

I'm not sure how it happened, but I found myself caught in a promise to teach the kids to sew this week. A friend from church put some extra fabric in a bag she gave me on Sunday. The kids happened to be sitting at the table when I pulled it out. Somehow the words, "I could teach you guys how to sew with this" just popped out of my mouth. Oops. The problem is that I really don't know how to sew myself :) I can sew straight lines with a machine but not much else. The kids were so excited about sewing I didn't have the heart to back out. I did, however, manage to delay it until Friday and get a return promise that they would work really hard on home school this week and finish their work by Thursday.
Somehow I kept my promise and they are about halfway done with their little pillows. Our stitches are definitely not pretty, and I'm not sure I'm teaching them correctly, but we're having fun! I think I can safely say we will never be sewing our own dresses (I realize this does make us "B" team homeschoolers), but I'm okay with that.

Grace is sewing her pillow slowly and carefully. She cried a few times when she messed up. I keep telling her it's okay, she can't ruin it.

Even Elsie got in on the action with a little heart pillow. I might have to go back over her stitches and do some reinforcement stitches, but she did wonderful for 4 years old!

Weston was most excited about the sewing. Not excited about the photo though.

Happy 4th Birthday Elsie!

Elsie's special request for her 4th birthday cake was rainbows and Hello Kitty. My mom came up with this cake made from a rainbow of M&M's and two cute kitties. We all thought it turned out so cute!
I've been remembering back to when Elsie was born and the craziness surrounding our home purchase, remodeling, c-section, new infant, and moving all within 1 month! It was a very difficult time, but also so joyful! We have now been at our duplex with the Rasmussens for 4 years and we are still enjoying our home and our friends. Elsie has grown into such a sweet and fun little girl. She is quick to laugh and joke and also quick to pull out the pouts. Elsie has a special fondness for sweets (more than the other kids) and loves to color and cut paper. She can sit for hours at the dining table doing crafts with the bigger kids. She is pretty shy away from home and is not known for being friendly toward strangers, but she really knows how to cut loose at home. As a 4 year-old she still follows what Weston and Grace are doing most of the day. We pray she will learn to be a leader as she learns more about whom God has created her to be. Elsie's speech is continuing to improve and she enjoys going to a preschool speech class on Wednesdays. This girl loves to be in the kitchen helping! We are so thankful for our little "Elfie" Noelle! It's so fun to picture what she might be like in 10 or 15 years!

This is at our special Red Robin birthday date on Friday night. We like to take each of the kids out to dinner alone around their birthdays. With 3 other siblings they rarely get to spend time with Mike and I alone, so we enjoy this tradition. It worked out great that Elsie wanted Red Robin since she got a free kids' meal for her birthday and Mike got a free burger for his birthday (the 18th). They both also got free ice cream sundaes, balloons and the birthday song :)

3 years old

2 1/2 years old

2 years old

21 months old

9 months old

2 or 3 months old

2 days old

1 day old