Samantha's Blessing

Samantha was blessed on Christmas Eve and it was wonderful. Having her surrounded by the Priesthood and given a blessing by her dad was a beautiful event. This is such a special time of year when we celebrate peace, love and purity. I pray I can be the mother that Samantha needs to teach her those principles.

Merry Christmas

What a fun time of year. My kids only have two more days of school and they can hardly believe all of the great things that have been happening. On friday we had a huge wind storm that shut down the power in the area. They were so excited to wake up and find out they had no school! It was Marshall's birthday so I took him on a date in the afternoon and the kids went to Red Robin with Grandma. Grandma and Grandpa had a huge tree on their roof, that is still there, but they are doing fine. Luckily there doesn't seem to be too much damage.

This is my favorirte time of year. I hope all of you are having a great holiday! Can you believe we have so many kids?? I can't!

SNOW!!!

The kids are in heaven with their school being closed one day this week and delayed the next. Tomorrow looks like it might be another free day for them. It is Tyler's 9th birthday today and he feels like this snow storm has come just for him. It really is more like a dusting of snow, but with the ice that just won't melt the roads are hard to drive on. The joy that I see in the kid's eyes when they looked outside and it was white was wonderful. There is nothing like a snow day!

Halloween

My blog woudn't be complete without some of our family Halloween pictures. I will put several up of the last few years. This year was very cold...but dry! The rain held off until yesterday when the storm came and doesn't look like it is going to leave in the next two weeks! It was kind of soothing going to sleep last night with the rain against my bedroom window. I grew up with that sound and it kind of took me back. Maybe that is why I slept so well last night. Anyway, back to Halloween. The kids had a blast at trunk-or-treat and then we went trick-or-treating in my brother-in-law's neighborhood. All the houses are close together so it was fun, even though my pregnant body was aching after just three streets! The first picture was taken last year '05, the next two were our Halloween we spent on Statia '04. By the end of the night their make-up had sweated off! The last two are this year. Enjoy the pictures!

Iowa State Football

Marshall and Emily all dressed up ready to watch Uncle Walter play some football.



Marshall and Tyler went to Oklahoma last weekend to watch Walter play and had a great father/son trip together. I was pretty jealous that they were in some warm weather while we are here in wet Washington freezing! Go Iowa State!

Pumpkin Patch

I took Emily on Sara's preschool field trip today to the Pumpkin Patch in Nisqually. They had such a great time riding on the hay ride, choosing a pumpkin, going through the hay maze and petting the animals. I didn't get a picture of Emily with the kittens, but she loved them! The animals and hay were making me sneeze, but it was all worth it! Of course Emily was all over the animals and I had to protect them from her, but Sara was keeping her distance. I love the fall!

Warm weather in WA

Our temperatures almost hit 80 degrees today and we took advantage of that. I took the kids to Sunnyside Beach in Steilacoom along with my sister in law, Marnie, and her son Spencer. My kids were collecting seaweed and having a great time. Being a local girl, I know that when days like this come we have to go out and enjoy it before the rain comes!

Kids in a box

My kids received a package and they were more excited to play in the packing peanuts! They had a great time, but it took the rest of the day to clean it up.

Do the Puyallup

We spent a great day at the Puyallup fair last week. The kids love to go and we have made it an annual tradition, when we are living here that is. The pictures weren't that great, but here are a couple. Marnie, my sister-in-law and her son Spencer, are hanging out with my girls in this last picture. Emily was sad that she didn't get to go on any rides, but the cotton candy made up for it. The other kids went on several rides and they all had fun seeing the stinky farm animals and eating the greesy food.

Sara Started School

My third child has entered the life of being a schoolgirl. Sara has been waiting for weeks for pre-school to start and today was the day. She had her outfit all picked out and I was going about my morning as usual when Heather called. She asked when Sara started school and I thought I had time, but after looking at the paper again I noticed that it was going to start in less than 10 minutes. I quickly got Sara and Emily in the car with my wet hair and all and drove her to school. Emily is potty training and sometimes wears underwear at home so we risked the mess and kept her in her panties. Luckily we weren't too late and Emily stayed dry! Sara had a great time and couldn't stop talking about all of the fun she had. They stamped with halved apples, had snack time and practiced the letter, "A". Tonight I am going to Hannah's open house for first grade. I can't wait to meet her new teacher with the "boy" haircut!

Aaron's Visit

Aaron and Erin were just up here in Washington visiting Erin's parents in Gig Harbor and we were able to get together with them and go to the Capitol Building. Our kids all get along so well and they all had a great time. Sophie is the only sister in her house so she loved being around my girls and Tyler, being the only boy, loves when his boy cousins come around. Going to the Capitol sure brought back some great memories. The kids ran around the garden and discovered the "warm bench". They thought that was great. We took a tour of the Capitol and Tyler skated on his heeles on the marble floors. Aaron tried to teach the kids about our state government, unfortunately I don't think my kids were really listening. We love it when people come to visity the great Northwest!

Statia Con't

Marshall and Hannah at the peak of the quill. You can see from here where we climb down into.

This picture was taken on the last day of school. That is why Emily is there with us. Notice the open windows. They often had lizards, iguanas, roaches and spiders in their classroom, and of course misquitoes! Tyler hated the daily spray of repelant all over his body. They also had a donkey that was tied up outside that they could hear moaning ever so often.

This is the view of the Caribbean beach from Slave Trail. The entire island was a mountain so coming up from the water is a trek if you don't have a car. Earlier in the island's history it was a slave trading island, where people would come to buy and sell slaves. So they had the slaves build a very steep path coming up from the water to the town. They carried goods to be sold. It was a good workout to go up and down the trail, but my kids could barley make it. What a gorgeous place!

Where I used to live...

Recently I have been thinking about a time when I didn't have anything going on, no scout camp, gymnastics, play dates, guitar and piano lessons, not even soccer practice to go to. Those days are long gone, but sometimes I long for those days. It has been almost a year to the day that I returned home with my family from the island of St. Eustatius (Statia). I still had four kids, just like now, but the island was so small and the activities so limited that me and the kids really spent some good quality time together. The one thing we did consistently was go to the beach. And boy did we go to the beach. The locals didn't go too often, other than on a few select holidays, so my kids and I typically had the entire beautiful Caribbean beach to ourselves. And when the waves were calm and the sun was out there was no place I would rather be.

My other favorite place on Statia was the Quill. The Quill is an inactive valcano that has a rainforest or jungle inside. Tyler and Hannah were able to hike with us up and down inside the valcano. Once inside there were vines to swing on, hermit crabs and lizards everywhere. It was a cooler place to be and I loved that since I was sweating pretty much the entire 16 months we lived there.

I will never forget the experience we had living in another part of the world. My two oldest kids will always remember being the only white kids in school and how that felt. They have learned to appreciate McDonalds and toy stores. I have learned to appreciate a washer and a dryer!!! I spent so many mornings and evenings hanging the clothes out on the line each morning only to take them down before bed, but always remembering to shake out each piece of clothing to get all of the spiders and bugs off. That didn't always work, but I am sure it helped.

The Grandpa

Tyler is now a cub scout and loves to do anything related to scouting. I will be spending two full days next week at scout day camp and Tyler can't wait to shoot BB guns and do all of the other cool stuff they will have ready for him there. While we were in Utah earlier this month my dad helped Tyler build a bird house to pass off one of his requirements. It was so great to see two of my favorite men working together. It turned out great and Tyler will never forget it. (Emily is watching intently hoping to get her hands dirty too.)

We're Home!

We just returned from a fun trip to Utah to see my parents. The kids had so much fun, especially Tyler who has a ton of friends in the neighborhood. Utah is so different than Washington. The kids can just run around the neighborhood and I don't really have to worry at all. Pleasant Grove is a nice little town. Tyler didn't come home before 9 p.m. if he could help it, because it stayed light out for so long. Emily (2 year's old) had a tougher time of it all. On Monday we went to some water slides and she slipped and fell after we had only been there about 30 minutes. I had to take her to the E.R. where they sedated her and gave her 5 stitches in her little chin, but she was a trooper and was up and running around that night.

It is good to be home!

New Baby Girl!

My poor Tyler was upset to hear the happy news of a new baby girl being added to our family. The ultrasound was clear and so were his feelings. Marshall helped him feel better by explaining that it will be just the two of them on campouts and boy things. Tyler loves spending time with is dad. We are asking for all suggestions on baby girl names, as we have used up all of the girl names we had chosen.

The Happiest Place On Earth

We spent a week in California visiting Kirsten, my sister, and then on to Disneyland. The kids had the best time. Tyler, who is 8, and I went on all of the rides several times and had a blast together. Marshall is way too whimpy to go on any rides. On this trip is where I found out that we are going to have our fifth child! Yep, it really is the happiest place on earth.

No More School

Yippee! It is now officially summer time! The kids are finally out of school and we plan on enjoying our time swimming and going on some day trips. I don't know if anyone is ever going to read this. I suppose I should be writing in my journal instead. That is something I should do more often.