Cooking with Mama

Emily and I spend almost every minute of every day together. Every one who knows her knows that she has the biggest personality and is so much fun to be around. Last week we spent an afternoon making enchiladas together. Her favorite part was grating the cheese. My kids like to play "cooking mama" on the wii so this was "cooking mama-for real."

Fly, Fly Away

Last week we took the kiddos to the museum of flight in Seattle. It is actually the Boeing museum and it was so much fun. The kids climbed in the cockpit of a few airplanes, we went into a space shuttle and saw the treadmill that all astronauts are required to walk at least 2 miles on a day while in space. The kids also went on a flight simulator ride and got to tour a retired Air Force One.

Happy Hunting

Saturday we had a big Easter Egg hunt at the local elementary school. My friend puts it on and every year it gets bigger and bigger. Tyler was out doing Scouting for Food so he officially "graduated" from the hunt this year. We actually got sun this year!!! That is huge for us. Samantha wore her cute bunny costume from Halloween that kept her nice and warm.





Isn't she the happiest kid you have ever seen?

Tacoma General

Lucky us, we don't have to move! My kids came home from school today screaming in delight. They love their school and our ward so this is just what they wanted.

We have such great friends in this area so we are so happy. Marshall has accomplished such a difficult task and I am thrilled for him.

Yahoo!!!

Today we found out that Marshall matched to a residency program. How happy we are! We have to wait three more days to find out where we are headed for the next few years. Marshall has worked so hard the last four years and I am so proud of him. Okay, so he interviewed with 9 different programs and we had to rank them in the order we liked them. I am going to make my prediction here that we will be moving to Michigan. Lets see if I am right.

Congratulations Dr. Marshall Nickel!

My Beach

Many of you know that I lived on a Caribbean island, St. Eustatius, for a year and a half. I took the kids down to this bay at least a few times a week. I didn't care that I had four kids (one newborn), and no car at the beginning. I was determined to enjoy the sun and cool off in the sea. We had great memories from our time there and I just love this beautiful view. Every night for a year and a half we had the most gorgeous sunset. Enjoy some pictures from my past.



Tyler and Hannah walking to the bus (really just a 15 passenger van that they crammed about 30 kids in) Hopefully you can see the huge cows they walked by to get to the end of our driveway. Most days I drove them to school.




Tyler on the Atlantic Ocean side of the island. Too dangerous to swim in, but fun for collecting shells and wading in.



View from home





Our hot wheels. This car was so hard to drive with no power steering and being such a huge tank. It was a work out driving on the dirt roads around all of the pot holes. The main roads were paved, but our long driveway was dirt as well as the mile off road drive to the kids school.

What a way to live. I can't wait to go back and see it all again, just for a visit, though.

My favorites...

I am not very happy with the girls so far. Hopefully someone surprises me. So far these are my favorites. What about you all?

Your chariot awaits...

Emily (in yellow) invited three of her favorite girl friends with her to celebrate her 4th birthday on Saturday. We took them in their princess dresses to Burger King for breakfast. We decorated the inside of the car with streamers and balloons and the girls loved it. Of course Sara (front and center in pink) and Hannah came along. Hannah was my helper and took the girls all to the table to color an Easter activity page while I ordered the food. She loved being "in charge" for a bit. The girls loved being seen in public in their dresses and I loved that there was nothing to clean up!