The Date Family

My little big guy

2011-10-22T11:27:00.000-07:00

This kid is beyond adorable. He makes my heart explode with love when he smiles. I can't get enough of him!

THIS is what tired looks like

2011-10-22T11:02:00.000-07:00

It only took a few minutes in the car for Sawyer to conk out. He was absolutly exhausted after our day in Seattle. It was late in the evening though and we were worried that if he took a long nap in the car that he wouldn't go to bed later in the night. I asked Brandon to wake him up when were about halfway home. That kid could not be taken out of his deep sleep.

Brandon shook him and flopped his arms around.

He formed his little fingers into a rock pose and made him play air guitar.

And the creepiest move of all: he pulled his eyelids wide open to expose his eyes to the light. But nothing.

We were all dying with laughter. It was hilarious. Nothing could wake that little boy up. We decided to quit picking at him and let him sleep. But not until we got it on video. Please excuse my idiodic laughter.

And for the record, he went to bed on time that night and snoozed until the morning.

Blast from the past*

2011-10-22T02:11:00.000-07:00

*Please excuse the lame title of this post. It's all I could think of at 2:09am

We visited the dinosaur exhibit last. This isn't a very big part of the museum, and it never changes, but the boys will forever love it. It's a classic.

Sawyer wasn't to sure about hanging out around a bunch of giant lizards. He was especially wary of the ones that moved and roared.

Logan is such a goofball.

Fossilized dinosaur poop. I don't think Logan was too impressed.

Would you believe me if I said that we don't encourage this type of sophmoric behavior in our children? Didn't think so. Well, it was worth a try.

When we were done with the dinosaurs we left the Pacific Science Center and headed back to the Center House for a quick ice cream before we left.

It was a long day, but it was filled with some great experiences. We all had so much fun, and it was nice getting to spend time with Grandma Shellie. We are all so lucky that she is a part of our lives. She loves the boys so much and they adore her.

Spiders & butterflies & worms, oh my!!

2011-10-22T01:46:00.000-07:00

I'm not very fond of bugs. But as a mother of three of them, I've learned that boys are. A lot actually. So they were more than excited to get to the bug exhibits. Sawyer, who is usually a bit squeamish around insects himself, didn't have a problem getting right up close with all of the different creatures. As long as they were behind glass.

Anybody hungry?

Seriously, what would you do if you went to a friends house for dinner, and this was what they put in front of you?

Spiders, worms, beetles; none of that is my cup of tea. But butterflies....well, butterflies are a completely different thing. I will gladly walk through displays filled with cochroaches, bees, and larvae if it means I get to spend a little while in a room filled with butterflies.

Everytime we visit a butterfly house, Logan makes it his mission to have a butterfly land on him. He gets so frustrated if it doesn't happen for him. This was one of those days where his efforts were futile. He was kinda bummed.

Sawyer and Grandma Shellie didn't catch a butterfly either, but they were happy just the same.

Pac-Sci Standards

2011-10-22T01:28:00.000-07:00

We only had a little over an hour or so to get through the museum. So we tried to breeze through the areas that we've seen over and over again pretty quickly. But we did stop at a few of the must-see spots. Chris was blown over with nostalgia when he spotted this balance thing. He couldn't help but jump on. I've always been too chicken to try it. Even when I was a kid I wouldn't do it.

I'm not a fan of the naked mole rats. They creep me out. But they are a staple of the Pacific Science Center. Sawyer LOVED them. He could have sat there all day watching those nasty little things. When we tried to coax him away by asking him if he wanted to go and touch the starfish and replied "No. I touch these."

Logan was at the tidepool before any of the rest of us. He loves touching the urchins and having their spines close around his finger.

Sawyer refused to touch anything. I wish I knew what bothered him so much about it. The girl even offered him just a plain shell to touch, but he refused.

One of the snakes they have is named Estrella, which means star in spanish, and happens to be my sister's nickname for me. It was a perfect photo-op.

While I was compiling my pictures for these posts, I noticed that Brandon doesn't seem to be in many of them. He's becoming very independant lately and likes to just have his personal space sometimes. Whether that be taking a bike ride around the neighborhood without his brother tagging along, or walking through exhibits at his own speed and preference, I've been trying to give him that. Being an oldest child myself, I understand the feeling of wanting to just step away for a few minutes and be alone. He is such a help around here, and he deserves those moments. With that being said, here he is checking out the Puget Sound tides and waterways exhibit.

After our quick visit through the main part of the museum, we moved onto my least and at the same time most favorite area: the bugs.

Pacific Science Center: Part 1

2011-10-22T00:53:00.000-07:00

Our final stop on our day of fun with Grandma Shellie was at the Pacific Science Center. This started out as one very photo heavy post, so I decided to break it into a few smaller posts to lighten the load, so to speak.

So we'll start with the traveling exhibit. We've seen some pretty cool things in this area of the museum in the past. Last year we saw a circus exhibit that was pretty neat. But this one had to be the most interactive we've seen. I believe it was called The Science of Fear or something along those lines. There were booths set up where you could test your reactions to different situations. All of them being common fears.

The first we came to addressed the fear of falling. You got strapped into a machine that was rigged to slowly lower you backwards and then suddenly drop without warning. A camera positioned in front of your face reads your reaction and gives you a fear "score".

Logan got to give it a try first.

When he fell he lifted his head up to brace himself. I guess that was a no-no in the "controling your fear" aspect of the experiment.

Next up was Brandon.

He did better at relaxing and not reacting.

One of the next booths we came to had a machine to test your fear of pain.....I think. There were little contraptions you would stick your finger into that was connected to an electric device that would zap you with a little jolt of electricity (by the way, don't you just love my technical terms for all of this stuff). You would know when the shock was coming, because you can see the current traveling to the receptor. The boys were all for it, even Sawyer, though I don't think his little finger touched the inside of the finger thing in the right way. It didn't seem to effect him at all.

Personally, I couldn't do it. I put my finger in there, and waited for the bright blue current to travel up, but I couldn't stand it. I had to pull my finger out. I'm a weinie. Grandma Shellie passed on this booth as well. She decided to just hang out, watch the boys, and look adorable.

I of course passed on the fear of animals booth. All you did was reach your hand into blacked out boxes and feel fake critters. But above those boxes, they had real critters, and I was not about to stick my face up close to those terrariums. The boys of course were all for it.

Past the human fears booths, there was an area that talked about how animals react to fear. How they use fear as a survival instinct. There was an "Avoid the Cheetah" type game set up. It used Kinect type technology, meaning you use your whole body to interact with the game as if you were really in that situation. You have to catch falling fruit from a tree, but freeze in place when they cheetah turns your way. If you don't freeze quick enough and the cheetah spots you, he attacks. All of the boys got a kick out of playing. Even Daddy.

The rest of the time in the exhibition we learned about how our bodies react to fear. How the brain reads different scenarious and sends your body into a massive surge of activity. About the chemical reactions that take place in your body and how they cause different physical reactions. For instance: peeing yourself.

The exhibit as a whole was really interesting and it was fun to watch the kids interact with all of it.

EMP and the Sci-Fi Museum

2011-10-13T18:57:00.000-07:00

After our Ride The Ducks tour was over we headed to the Seattle Center house to eat some lunch and plan the next move in our day of fun. We decided to take the boys over to the Experience Music Project & Sci-Fi Museum. I didn't have the chance to take too many pictures in there. I get nervous since last time I was there with a friend we were confronted by a security guard for trying to take pictures. So I only got a few while we were in there.

The boys weren't all that interested in the music part of the museum, but they did have fun playing the instruments in the jam room. We waited around for about 15 minutes waiting for one of the rooms to open so we made sure to use the entire length of our turn. The boys each got to try all of the instruments and even Chris got in on the fun.

After we made a quick trip through the music exhibits we took a walk through the Battlestar Galactica Exhibit. The boys breezed through there since they don't know anything about the show. They were more excited to get downstairs to the Avatar exhibit. They had a lot of movie props and interactive stuff to see. It was pretty neat to see the technical parts of exhibit and learn how they made the movie. Please excuse the poor quality photos taken with my phone. Again, my paranoia wouldn't allow me to whip out my big camera.

The boys enjoyed the Avatar exhibit the best out of our visit. I'm glad they got to see it before it moves on to another city. I was thinking that it might be fun to take them to each of the new exhibits that come to the musuem, but the current one is all about horror films. I think we're going to skip that one.

Ridin' the Duck

2011-10-13T01:23:00.000-07:00

In June Brandon participated in a cancer walk in Seattle with Grandma Shellie. After they were done they stumbled on the Ride The Ducks tour and decided to try it out. They had so much fun that Grandma wanted to take our whole family on the tour. So in August we planned a day in Seattle. Our first stop was at Ride The Ducks.

For anybody that doesn't know what that is you can check it out here. The quick description though: an amphibious vehilce tour around the city and finished off with a drive straight into Lake Union. It's a total tourist attraction and I don't think that we take enough advantage of things like that in Seattle as residents of this area. There are so many touristy things that I've always wanted to do in the city but for some reason have never gotten around to. Ride The Ducks has always been something at the top of my list, so I was so excited to finally get to experience it. Apparently I wasn't the only one either, because probably about 2/3 of the people on the tour were all from the greater Puget Sound area.

Practically the entire time the driver is blasting music and trying to get everybody to dance in between throwing out little quips and factoids about the city. It's hard to resist the urge to bust a move. Just ask Chris. He really let loose during YMCA.

We rode down along the waterfront,

through Pioneer square and down 1st Ave,

past Pike Place, and every other Seattle attraction you can think of. Eventually we made our way through Fremont and down to the docks on Lake Union. Then came the part that I was nervous about....the drive into the water.

I'm not a fan of boats or water in general. Never have been. Once my dad took us out onto Lake Washington on his little fishing boat and I thought I was going to have an anxiety attack. I will admit though that being on the duck in water wasn't all that bad. I occupied my time with taking pictures and pointing out landmarks to Brandon.

It was such a gorgeous day and there were plenty of sights to see out in the lake. There were kayakers, paddle boarders, even a cop cruising around on a little police boat.

We saw all kinds of houseboats, but my favorite was a little tugboat looking house that reminded me of the one that Mickey Mouse drove in Steamboat Willie. It was adorable.

Sawyer loved when we were in the water. I was so nervous he was going to fall out though. He was dancing along with the music during the tour and loved every second of the trip.

Before you get on the duck you're given a quacker horn to blow during the ride. Logan loved his quacker. Not many people on the ride blew theirs during the tour, but Logan sure did.

I'm so thankful to Grandma Shellie for taking us on the Ride The Ducks tour. It was a great time, and it kicked off a fun filled day in the city.

Serve project

2011-10-12T11:00:00.000-07:00

On September 18th, instead of having a normal Sunday morning service, our church encouraged all of it's members to do a serving project for our community instead. Our Life Group decided that we wanted to do something that our kids could participate in along with us. We settled on a project to thank our local fire departments. Each family baked different goodies to package together and the kids made "Thank You" cards for the firefighters.

After laying out all of the baked goods across the tables, we realized we had WAY more than we needed for the 8 stations that we were delivering to. The kids enjoyed sampling all of the leftovers after we were done. There were pumpin chocolate chip muffins, a wide variety of cookies, rice krispie treats, brownies, pineapple tarts, and even a whole loaf of banana bread for each package!

While the grown-ups packaged up all of the baked goods, the kids worked hard on creating some great cards.

They were all very pleased with their work.

When it was time to start packing everything up to head out and make our deliveries, Mr Taylor noticed that one of the tables wasn't functioning properly so he brought out his pocketknife and went to work on making it right. The serving just kept on going!

Even Sawyer was inspired to help Daddy put the tables back.

After taking a quick picture of the adults....

...it was time to head out to the fire stations. Each family delivered to 2 different stations.

Sawyer was so excited when he figured out where were were going. Chris had him bring along his own firefighter hat to wear. He is obsessed with firetrucks. He calls them "whew-whews". We were invited to come into the first station we stopped at and the boys were even allowed to climb up inside one of the freshly washed trucks. Sawyer was in heaven.

The firefighter was very thankful and told our boys how much he appreciated our visit. He was the only one on duty at the time, so I think he was excited for the company. He let the boys look around the station a little more and gave them each a "badge" sticker before they left.

The second station we delivered to was empty. We are assuming they were out on a call, so we just left our gifts on the doorstep instead. It was a great day of service and we all had fun doing it. We hope to do more things like this in the future with our Life Group families.

Joshua Phillip Date

2011-09-20T10:57:00.000-07:00

I’m pretty sure there’s not anybody close to us that hasn’t heard the news about the loss of our baby, Joshua. It’s been 2 months and I feel like now is a good time to talk about the whole ordeal with everybody. Some of you have heard it before, but here it goes.

When I was about 7 or 8 weeks pregnant (if I remember right) a friend of mine had an ultrasound and they found there was no heartbeat and she had lost her baby. I believe she was 13 weeks at the time (correct me if I’m wrong Lyndsay). I immediately started to worry. I’m a natural worrier (blame it on my grandmother), but this really didn’t sit well with me. I’ve picked something to worry about with all of the boys. With Brandon I was worried about miscarriage because (I don’t know how many people know this) I had a miscarriage with my first pregnancy. I was only about 6 weeks or so, and it happened on our honeymoon. Not exactly a happy memory for us. With Logan, I was convinced he was going to be autistic and I just knew that Sawyer was going to have Spina Bifida. Like I said, worrier. And because I worry about most everything, when I expressed my concerns of the same thing happening to me as it had to my friend, I got eye rolls and “You’ll be fine” from my family. But even then, I just couldn’t get over that uneasy feeling.

My 12 week doctor’s appointment came and I was a bundle of nerves. After the nurse took my vital signs the doctor came in. Can I just say for a second that I have the greatest doctor in the world. He is amazing. I’m so blessed to have found him 7 years ago, and I hope he doesn’t retire before I’m done popping kids out, because I would be lost without him. Okay, back to the story. He brought out his doppler to listen to the baby’s heartbeat…..nothing. We couldn’t hear anything, no matter where he put the thing. My heart started beating even faster and my blood started to run cold. He said that sometimes when it’s so early it can be hard to find. But what I heard was “You have such a big fat stomach, it’s kind of hard to hear through the blubber.” But that’s just me! Anyway, he left the room to go fire up the ultrasound machine to get a better view of the baby. When he left, I started praying, hard. It took everything I had in me to not breakdown right there. When he came back in a few minutes later he could see I was upset. He put his arm around my shoulder and told me this was a normal thing. The second the machine touched my stomach I could see a little fluttery heartbeat on the moniter and my own heart soared. I got a little teary from the relief. He took a picture for me and it was so cute, it looked like the baby had a little smirk on it’s face. So very much like it’s mommy. I had made it past my first trimester, the baby was fine, and I felt SO much better. I kind of laughed at myself for being such a mess the weeks leading up the appointment.

Even though I knew the baby was okay, and I had started feeling flutters of movement every once in awhile, I couldn’t shake the feeling of it all going wrong. After my friend had lost her baby she blogged how she never really felt secure in the idea of her pregnancy. When I first read that line she published, my heart stopped. I had felt the same way. Chris and I had been trying to get pregnant, so it wasn’t a shock when the test came out positive. But it never felt “real”. I went out and bought a baby name book and started getting ideas for crib sets and nursery colors to get myself more into the idea of a new baby on the way.

A few nights before my 17 week check-up, Chris and I were laying in bed and we started talking about how blessed we have been to have such healthy kids, job security, a roof over our heads, etc. We questioned how secure our faith would hold if something traumatic happened to our family. Would we have the kind of faith in God we would need to get through something like our house burning down, one of us getting cancer, or even the loss of one of our children? Well He was about to show us that we did.

I went into my 17 week appointment with an upbeat positive attitude. I only had a couple weeks left until the gender would have been clear, so I was hoping that he wouldn’t make me wait a whole 4-5 weeks until I came back to find out. When he put the doppler on my belly he had a hard time finding the heartbeat again. I wasn’t nervous about it as I was the time though. I just thought “fat girl syndrome again”. So off we went to the ultrasound room. He asked if I wanted to know the sex if he was able to get the right angle to tell. I responded with a quick “YES!” When he put the scanner on my belly, I saw the baby, but that was it. He tried to move it around into different positions, but it wasn’t working. There was nothing we could see. He told me not to worry yet, since he wasn’t an expert on the machine and I would have to come back on Monday morning since the ultrasound tech had already gone home for the weekend. I was the last patient of the day. He claimed that this had happened to him before and if the baby has it’s back to him, it’s harder to try and see anything. My heart sank into the floor and I couldn’t help but eek out a couple of tears. So I made my appointment with the front desk and got to my van as fast as I could. As soon as I shut the door I lost it. I couldn’t stop crying. I called Chris of course and he told me not to worry, just to get home and then we’d talk about it. I called my sister and told her what had happened and asked her to go the appointment with me on Monday so I wouldn’t be alone in case it was bad news.

Friday night was really hard. I cried a lot. We told the boys what was going on so they wouldn’t be left in the dark. I didn’t think it was fair to just ignore the fact that something was seriously wrong in our house that weekend. Kids are not stupid and they would have sensed something. So we told them to rely on God and to pray it was in his hands and all we could do was trust he knew what was best. My doctor called me on Saturday morning and said that he felt bad for making me wait and he didn’t want me to have to worry the weekend away. He gave me the option of going into the hospital that afternoon and getting checked by the radiologist. But I passed on that. I wasn’t ready to hear the truth yet. I needed to spend a couple of days with God and let him pad my heart for the inevitable hurt that was coming.

So Monday came. I laid on the ultrasound table saying silent prayers and waiting for the news. After she had thoroughly checked, she turned to me. Her eyes said it all. She put her hand on mine and said “The heart has stopped beating.” I just looked up at the ceiling, covered my face and started to cry. My sister put her arm around me and laid her head next to mine and just held on to me. It’s all I needed right at that moment. I didn’t cry for long. There was other business to attend to at that moment, and I could cry later. My regular doctor was on vacation so I had to meet with his fill-in for the week. She came into the exam room with a sorrow filled face and tried to be comforting and show sympathy for what I was going through, but I just wanted to hurry up and get everything over with. My baby had died inside my body and needed to be taken from me. There was a job that needed to be accomplished and that’s all I wanted to deal with at that point. I didn’t tell Chris until I got home. I didn’t feel I would be able to do it over the phone. Plus I didn’t want to tell him and then have him at home by himself dealing with it alone until I could get there 30 minutes later. After he and I cried in the bedroom together while my sister sat with the boys, we came out and told them. Brandon started crying and said “But I wanted a sister” and then Logan started crying. It was hard, but we got through it all together.

Over the next couple of days there were a couple of different options put in front of me to have the baby removed. I decided on a D & E. I won’t go into details, you can look it up if you must, but it involved me being put to sleep and that’s all I wanted. I really didn’t want to be awake and try to deliver the baby on my own. I’ve never given birth in the traditional sense because all of my boys were born through c-sections. I wasn’t ready to actually deliver a baby that wasn’t going home with me. So the surgery took place on Thursday, July 14^th. And even though they think the baby died sometime between 15 and 16 weeks, that will always be the day I lost my baby.

The weeks that followed were tough. Physically as well as emotionally. There was a lot of cramping, bleeding, and tiredness. My body acted as if I had given birth and my breasts engorged and were ready to nurse. That was a painful couple of days. Not just because of the soreness, but it was just an in-your-face kind of reminder of something that would never be. Chris took care of the business of getting our baby back into our hands. We decided to have the remains cremated rather than letting the hospital include it with their “waste” disposal. This was our baby, no matter how small, and we didn’t want to just leave it with them to be forgotten. With the help a friend, we found a funeral home in Lakewood that handled cases just like this: babies lost before 20 weeks. Arrangements were made, a tiny little urn was picked out, and within a couple of weeks, we could finally hold our baby, in a sense. When we signed the release papers for the funeral home to give to the hospital I made a comment to Chris that this would be the only time we ever sign for this child. There will be no field trip permission slips, no preschool registration papers, no emergency room admitting forms for a broken arm. Nothing. That was tough.

These past 2 months have had highs and lows. I still have days when I want to throw myself a pity party. Seeing a pregnant belly I think to myself “I wonder what my belly would look like now”. Baby clothes that I had picked out in a store don’t look as sweet hanging on the rack anymore. And a few times a month when I get those free baby magazines in the mail for expectant mothers, I get a little angry. Don’t those magazine companies know what happened to me?! Don’t they know that my angel was taken? But they don’t of course, and that’s just something else I have to deal with. I know 18 women who are/were pregnant at the same time as me. It was fun kind of going through it together. All of us posting our week by week updates on Facebook; putting bets on who was going to have boys or girls. But now, I feel like I’ve been kicked out of the club. I’m not a part of that anymore. My card has been revoked, they changed the secret password, and I’ve been left behind. At the same time though, there have been 4 of us that have been ejected from the same club (3 in the 2nd trimester) and it's nice to know I'm not alone.

Sometimes when I start to feel bad for myself I feel guilty though. I can’t be mad at my friends who are still pregnant. I don’t want them to think that I’m jealous of them, or resentful of them. I don’t want them to walk on eggshells around me. I’m still so very happy and excited for all of them. I love hearing about their journeys and seeing pictures of their growing bellies and I hope that they all still come to me to do their maternity photos. I still want to be a part of that with them. I also start to feel guilty about the fact that I know so many women that can’t get pregnant and will never hold babies of their own. How dare I feel so sad when I can still have more kids. How dare I be upset at the one I lost when I have three more to love and take care of. But when I start to have any of these emotional roller coaster moments I think back to the social worker they had me talk to at the hospital. She told me that I’m free to have any emotion I want to. This is my situation, nobody elses. I’m allowed to be sad, angry, hurt, resentful, or any other nasty emotion we try to hide from the world. It doesn’t mean I will feel that way forever, and it doesn’t mean that I doubt my faith or the love God has for me. I’m a human being, and it’s okay to have feelings.

So many people have said to me, “You are so strong; you’ve handled this so well”. But I don’t take any credit for that. I owe my strength and ability to deal with this situation to God. I feel like my uneasiness with the pregnancy from the beginning and the conversation Chris and I had a few days before this all happened as a way of God getting us ready for what was to come. I don’t know why He does the things he does; why some people have to suffer while others seem to have it all. But it’s not for me to understand. I trust that he knows better than I do and I KNOW that He has my best interest in mind. Even from times that are hard and seem unfair, God will do what’s best. A huge credit in our healing process goes to all of our family and friends that have lifted us up in prayer, sent flowers or other gifts, helped take care of our boys while we took some much needed days “off from life” to regroup, and cooked us meals. I’m a person that finds it very hard to ask for or accept help, but I’m so glad I accepted it because it all helped SO much more than I could have ever imagined. The outpouring of love we got from everybody really showed us how much we are cared for and it was so comforting.

Six weeks after the surgery, we found out that there was nothing wrong with the baby or the pregnancy. It was just one of those things that happens, and more often than most people realize. Therefore we are free to start trying for another baby. We plan to wait until next year, after the due date comes and goes. But since my sister has announced that she is pregnant again, and it’s been on my mind that I want to be pregnant again. I don’t want to jump the gun though and get pregnant just to be pregnant. I don’t want to fill the hole that has been left in my heart with another baby. I want to be able to heal that hole first. So we will stick with our plan to wait until we feel completely ready. We also found out that the baby was yet another boy. And everybody just KNEW it was going to be a girl!! And I was stupid enough to actually believe them. So if the good Lord gives us the opportunity to have another one, I don’t want any of you making predictions, got it?!! Just keep those mouths closed on the subject! I’m kidding (kind of). We named our son Joshua Phillip, which is the name that I’ve had in my head since I found out I was pregnant.

If you’ve made it to the end of this, then thank you for taking the time to read it all. If nobody makes it this far, then I’m okay with that. Putting this all down on “paper” was more of a therapeutic thing than actually trying to blog. It’s been painful sitting down and typing it all out, and I’ve cried a lot during this past 2 hours, but its felt good too. Thanks again to all of you for your support and love. I’ll end this entirely too long blog with a passage that really helped me get through it all:

Fear not, for I am with you, be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.” Isaiah 41:10

He will be with me always.

A trip to the aquarium

2011-09-13T15:35:00.000-07:00

The Friday before school started I decided to take the boys on a surprise trip to the aquarium in Seattle. We figured it wouldn't be too busy since most of the districts in the area had already started school. The crowds weren't too bad so it seems I was right. It was a gorgeous summer day in Seattle and I was glad to be on the waterfront.

The first place we always stop at the aquarium is the touch pools. Sawyer refused to touch any of the animals. He was completely freaked out by them. Brandon tried to talk him into it, but he refused.

We DID finally get him to touch the water at least. But he only wanted to play with the sea foam created by the tide pool wave machines.

My three boys checking out the sea critters. By the way, don't you just love when somebody jumps into your picture right as you're snapping it? Thanks dude.

I swear this kid is insane. He's so goofy! But I love him.

I wonder how much longer I'll have before Brandon decideds he doesn't want to have his picture taken in the cutouts like this anymore? My little boy is growing up too fast.

Brandon wanted to try on a diving suit at the dress up area. So we all stood around and waited for him to get suited up. Sawyer slipped his little feet into some flippers while we waited.

He searched and searched for another sock, but finally gave up as Sawyer was reaching his "Okay, I'm done standing around, we better keep moving before I have a breakdown" point.

I didn't take many more pictures inside because it was just insanity moving through the rest of the buildings. Sawyer is starting to move faster and faster lately and it's a lot more work to keep track of him. Pulling out my camera and staging pictures isn't really a big priority right now when I'm with him. My focus is on "Where did he go?!!" instead of "Let's capture this moment for years to come."

When it was time to leave I wanted to get a nice picture of all three of the boys together outside of the aquarium. But Sawyer was more interested in climbing over the railing to see the water under the pier, so he wasn't too happy when we tried to get him to hold still for a picture.

But he was okay with getting a shot on the steel octopus sculpture.

After we left there we walked down the waterfront to find something to eat. We ended up settling on Red Robin since they have booths to trap the little one in. Plus the tourists had taken over all of the good fish places. I had wanted to take them further down to Ye Old Curiousity Shop, but I decided that Sawyer probably wouldn't handle that too well. I guess we'll have to take the boys to see the mermaid on another day!

Back to school....again

2011-09-09T16:16:00.000-07:00

A post containing pictures of backpacks and buses can only mean one thing: summer vacation is over!! Don't get me wrong, I like the summertime. I love sitting out in the sun, breaking out the barbeque, and hearing the kids splash around in the pool. But to be honest, there wasn't a whole lot of any of that going on around here this summer. We've had to deal with a tough situation the past couple of months and I think it just kind of left some bad vibes hanging around us. The start of school is giving us something familiar and comforting that I hope will help us get back to normal around here. Time to get back on track!

The first day of the new year was a pretty cheery morning in our house. The boys were SO ready to start school this year. Logan was dressed and ready to go before I was even out of bed. He wasn't too happy that I made him change into a nice pair of clean new jeans instead of letting him wear the shorts that he had pulled out of his hamper from the day before. Brandon insisted on wearing his new jacket even though I told him it was going to still be hot outside. He wanted to show it off and couldn't be swayed back to logic.

Brandon is now a 5th grader, which means this is his last year as an elementary student. I say it every year, but I still can't believe how fast he has grown up. As cliche as it sounds, it really does feel like just yesterday he was starting kindergarten.

Now that Logan is in the 1st grade he will be going to school everyday. "Except for weekends" he likes to remind me. He's pretty excited that he's no longer "low man on the totempole".

They always want a picture of their backpacks. I had to talk Logan into getting his. Every backpack he wanted cost too much or was the preschool size that's too small for him. But now he LOVES it. He calls it his "skateboarder backpack". Notice how Brandon's is slung over one shoulder? That's the cool way to wear it now I guess. He was saying how his supplies in his bag were too heavy so I suggested that he wear it the right way and it would be easier to carry. I thought his eyes were going to shoot daggers at me for even suggesting it.

As they headed off to the bus stop, Logan ran and Brandon yelled "You don't need to RUN, Logan! Calm down." I guess running to the bus stop isn't cool. Strutting appears to be the more mature way to get there.

As we saw the bus coming down the road I brought out my camera and Brandon started pleading for me to not take pictures of them getting on the bus. It broke my heart but it was bound to happen one day. I did snap one though and you can see him yelling at me to stop. Next year for middle school I'm going to have to hide in the bushes to get a decent shot.

The big boys weren't the only ones to start school on Wednesday. Sawyer started to go to his weekly Terrific Twos class at Logan's old preschool. He was SO excited to go play. He cried when the boys got on the bus because he knew he was going to school too and he didn't undertand why HE didn't get to ride with them. When it was finally time to take him, he could hardly contain himself. It was tough to try and get a picture of him standing still. He didn't want to take pictures, he just wanted to get in the van and GO!

When the big boys got home from school later that afternoon, they had the biggest smiles on their faces. Logan came running toward me at full speed yelling "BEST. DAY. EVER!!" They were both talking at full speed telling me all about their day. I'm really praying that this year goes well for all of them. And praise God that this dreary summer is over!

Excuses, excuses

2011-09-09T11:55:00.000-07:00

Ok. I know I've let this blog go, and I know I've said it before, but I really am going to try and blog more. I always sit down with the plan of doing a couple of posts, but then I get overwhelmed with the fact that I've got so much stuff piled up to talk about and going back and doing blogs of stuff that happened 6 months ago overwhelms me. But I've got it in my head that I HAVE to do it in order and I can't miss any event, whether it be Christmas, birthday parties, or just hanging out around the house. So I've decided to just start blogging current events, and if I get a few minutes to spare every once in awhile, I might go back and post something that happened months ago. That way, there's no pressure and I might actually sit down and update this thing every once in awhile. So no more excuses!!

The joys of boys?

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

A few weeks ago I was talking to a friend and she commented how she felt lucky to have an equal number of males and females in her house because she was still able to have flowers and girly things around. My reply: “Yeah, we don’t have flowers around here. We have chaos and mass destruction.” The Lord has decided to bless me with boys. I’ve come to terms with that.

Along with being given three of the most adorable little boys God ever created, I get to experience a whole barrage of things that I never knew came along with having a house full of little men. Moms of boys get to experience things like fingernails that always seemed to be caked with dirt. Socks that will never be clean, no matter how many times they are washed or bleached. Fence boards that have been kicked out while playing “ninjas”. Windshields broken by games of rock baseball and rebar haphazardly tossed into the air. Jeans that seem to magically grow giant holes in the knees after only being worn half a dozen times. Sneakers that are lucky to make it past a month in one piece. Gallons of milk consumed faster than it can be squeezed from the cow. Holes randomly dug all over the yard that serve no purpose. Scars on the bottom of our feet from stepping on Legos that are scattered all over the place like mini land mines. A house that will never be completely clean, no matter how hard I work at it. An entire supply of candles carved into with toys and rendered completely useless. Ornamental trees and shrubs destroyed and ripped to the ground simply because they looked like good climbing trees or the perfect hideout. Walls decorated with crayons, pencils, pens, and my personal favorite, permanent markers. Sticky critter gumball machine toys thrown into the air and stuck to the ceiling. Tubes of toothpaste squeezed into the sink just for fun. Half rolls of toilet paper used for one short visit to the john. And 4 year old carpet that looks like it’s been around for 15.

Even though I have to deal with all of these things and more, the joyful things that my boys give me more than make up for it. In the summer I have a constant supply of handpicked dandelions that fill my kitchen window. I’m given cute little letters and drawings from them expressing their love for me. When they spot little girly treasures on the ground (bows fallen from barrettes, sparkly little jewels, etc) they bring them home for me. Three of the handsomest boys in the world are completely in love with me. And best of all, I get to watch them grow up into men who will someday have their own children and will have to deal with all of the trials and traumas that they put me through.

I’m okay with the fact that I may never go to a ballet recital, never play tea party, or never get to bake a princess castle cake for a birthday party. And for all of the joys that my boys bring me, I wouldn’t trade any of them for pink dresses and Barbie dolls. Now please excuse me while I go start yet another load of muddy clothes.

Logan's surprise party

2011-04-26T11:06:00.000-07:00

This year for his birthday, Logan said he wanted a surprise party. I explained to him that it's not really how a surprise party works. He replied that he wanted a Spongebob party instead then. Well, he ended up getting both.

The weekend of his (or should I say OUR) birthday, Grandma Tami took Logan and Brandon to the ocean. The plan was that when they got home Sunday afternoon, Logan's party would be waiting for him. He thought his party was going to be the following weekend so he was definitly surprised when he came home from his trip to find the house filled with friends, family, balloons, and a big "SURPRISE!!".

I struggled with ideas for games and activities to keep the kids busy. Since it was a Sponge Bob theme, we had a Krabby Patty relay race,

we played "Sponge Bob bucket toss",

and had a craft table set up to make jellyfish.

After the games it was time for cupcakes and blowing out the candles, quickly followed by Logan tearing into his presents.

Logan got a TON of Lego sets, a pack of motocross bikes, some cash, and from us he got his favorite book "Don't Let The Pigeon Drive The Bus". He brings that book home at least 2 times a week from school, so we decided to get him his own copy, along with another book in the series.

But out of all of the things he received, his favorite by far was a copy of Lego Star Wars III: The Clone Wars for the XBox from Grandma Shellie. He has been asking for that game for weeks before it even hit the shelves. He was a bit excited when he opened it.

Even though he ended up getting to his party about 2 hours late, and we had to rush through it after he showed up since people were ready to leave, he still had a great time and was truly surprised. Happy 6th Birthday, Logan!!! Six?!! Geez, I'm getting old.

Spring Break Shananigans: Part 2

2011-04-18T11:13:00.000-07:00

On the second day of our spring break, Sawyer had a doctor's appointment in Auburn. Auntie and Caleb went with us to watch the older boys in the lobby while he was getting his check up. After we were done there we headed over to the Auburn Supermall for lunch and a trip to Super Jump Party Zone.

Logan, Sawyer and I had pretzels from Auntie Anne's.

Brandon and Auntie decided they wanted Hot Dog On A Stick.

After lunch I bought us all a pecan-bon from Cinnabon to share.

Sawyer was VERY happy with that. He was chowing it down.

With our bellys full (and a box of Cinnabons bagged up to take home for after dinner) we headed over to Super Jump Party Zone. Along the way we stopped at a few of the coin operated rides they have placed through the mall. Auntie hopped on the carousel so that Caleb could have a little ride in his Moby wrap.

As we kept walking along the corridor we came across a wind tunnel machine. For $2 you can shut yourself inside and get blown around by 80 mile an hour winds. Brandon and Logan wanted to do it, so I paid the fee, shut the door and let them at it. It was so funny to watch. I was hoping that the wind would blow their long hair straight up into the air, but it was blowing from above them so it didn't work out like I expected. It was still hilarious though.

If you are reading this on Facebook and can't see the video, go directly to our blog to view it.

We finally made it to our bouncy destination. Once we paid the admission and they removed their shoes, the older boys took off. Sawyer was a little hesitant at first to climb around on the bouncy equipment, but once Brandon took him around to some of the areas, and showed him how to climb the ladders to the slides, he was in heaven. It was so funny to watch him go down the slides over and over and over again.

When it was time to leave they weren't very happy with me. We could have stayed another half an hour, but Sawyer hadn't taken a nap and was starting to get burned out. The older boys left with out giving me too much grief, but I think the looks on their faces in the photo I took as we were leaving says it all.

Unfortunatly I didn't take anymore photos of our spring break adventures. But the rest of the weekend consisted of renting movies, lunches out, and a trip to the theater to see Diary of a Wimpy Kid 2. Usually spring breaks for us mean sitting at home and trying to not to kill each other. It was a nice change and a pretty fun week.

Spring Break Shenanigans: Part 1

2011-04-13T13:06:00.000-07:00

The first day of Spring Break we took a last minute trip to Point Defiance Zoo. When we woke up I noticed that the weather seemed like it was going to give us a dry day so I immediatly decided we shouldn't spend the day inside. I told the boys I needed to drive to Tacoma to run an errand. They weren't very happy about having to actually put clothes on and leave the couch, but with the promise of getting lunch while we were out they didn't give me too much grief. I took a different route to get to the zoo than we usually take so they wouldn't recognize where we were going. They finally realized where we were as we pulled into the back of the parking lot. They were shocked and very pleasantly surprised.

I took 2 of these pictures, and in BOTH of them Sawyer had his eyes closed.

I decided not to take the Sawyer's stroller with us. The idea of this made me a bit nervous. Given his past of being the "runner" of our bunch, a stoller is usually a necessity. But Brandon was very helpful with keeping Sawyer on the right track and he stuck with the boys the entire time. I was very pleased.

When we were in the aquarium we saw this really cool sea urchin. It was bright purple with white spots and a purple and orange ball in the middle of it. Brandon and I were looking at it and he says "The orange thing is it's mouth and the white dots attract females." I said "Oh my gosh Brandon, how do you know that?" He replied "I just made it up." That kid kills me.

I don't usually let the boys play at the playground areas of the zoo. I'm mean like that. I just feel like we get stuck there forever and it's always at the end of our visit when I'm trying to get back to the van and beat the afternoon traffic. But this time I felt generous and let them play for awhile. I love this picture. Notice Sawyer running as fast as he can?

Sawyer loved the slides. He went down with Brandon the first time, then he went with Logan. After that he had figured out how to climb up the path to the top of the slides on his own. He was in heaven.

After we were done at the playground, the boys were getting hungry. Afterall, they had been promised lunch out, and it was way past lunchtime at that point. So we had lunch in the zoo cafeteria. Sawyer hated being strapped into the highchair and was whining and throwing a fit the whole time we were in there. So we ate as fast as we could and then headed home.

We had a great day at the zoo. It didn't rain a drop, the boys behaved, and there was hardly anybody there, so we almost felt like we had the place to ourselves. It was a great way to kick off our spring break.

Surprise!!!

2011-04-07T08:42:00.000-07:00

#4 is on the way!

Sawyer's Second Birthday Party

2011-04-06T10:24:00.000-07:00

For Sawyer's birthday party this year, we went with a Goofy theme. Goofy is his favorite Disney character. He has this little plastic Goofy toy he carries around with him everywhere. I can't even count how many times we've gotten strapped in the car and had Sawyer start crying out "Goo-feeeee!! Goo-feeeeee!!" and pointing toward the house. Then I get to run back in and grab his little friend. So the theme was a no brainer. The difficult part about having a Goofy party, is that you can't get any decorations without having the entire Mickey Mouse Clubhouse gang in there also. So we used green, blue, and orange streamers and balloons, and I improvised the rest. With a little help from a borrowed digital projector (thanks John), Chris traced and I painted a few posters to match the theme. One poster also doubled as a "Pin The Nose On Goofy" game.

Another poster we painted had buckets with holes cut in the top to toss fish into (since Goofy is such an outdoorsman). I hand stitched the fish about an hour before the party was supposed to start. Thank goodness for my big bag of random material pieces! Since the few kids that were here fall on the younger side we just let them each play around and didn't really give out prizes or anything like that for games. It was all just for fun.

On the last poster we made, we painted Goofy with his old pal Mickey and added a little twist for some extra fun. I think the adults had more fun with this than the kids did. But it was a hit with everybody.

This party started out as a small gathering of a family and a few close friends. But you know me, I can't do anything small, and it turned into a full on lunch spread.

I couldn't find a cake that I liked in any store, and didn't have time to make one of my elaborate cake creations. So we went with cupcakes instead. Complete with blue, green, and orange sprinkles and handmade Goofy picks sticking in the top. I also printed out Goofy heads to glue onto the front of lunch sacks for favor bags. Can I just say, I love our new printer. I don't know how I went so many years without it.

After lunch, games and cupcakes, it was time to open presents. Sawyer got a TON of toys. He got two different guitars, a couple of different road set ups, a monster truck, an Elmo doll and among many other things, cars. Hot Wheels are by far Sawyer's favorite thing to play with. It was so cute when he would open up a package of cars, whatever was in his hands immediatly got thrown down to check out his new wheels. We got him a bag with a half dozen, and he had to check out each individual one before he would move onto the next gift. Later in the evening, after everybody left, he sprawled hiself out on the floor surrounded by his cars and played quietly by himself for what seemed like forever. He was in Hot Wheels heaven. In total Sawyer received 35 new cars.

Sawyer's party was a big success. And he didn't have pneumonia like he did at his first birthday party! So that's a bonus! Now to get planning Logan's party......

Happy 2nd Birthday, Sawyer!!

2011-03-29T09:57:00.000-07:00

On March 23rd Sawyer turned 2. Yeah, that's right, 2. I can hardly believe it myself. His birthday fell on a Wednesday, which is one of our "busy" nights. This night was particularly busy though. Not only did we have our church life groups to attend, but Logan had a belt testing for Taekwondo. So when we all got home and were all together for the first time that day, we put 2 candles in a piece of cake and sang to Sawyer. Right when I lit the candles he tried to blow them out. I don't really know where he learned that, but he was on it. So I had to relight them and keep him from blowing them out again until we were done singing.

While Chris was getting plates and forks so the boys could all share the slice of cake, Sawyer decided he didn't want to wait and leaned over to take a bite out of it. It was so funny. After they were done eating, the boys had to go to bed (cake before bed, I know). A few days later we had family and a few friends over for his actual birthday party. Hopefully I'll get around to posting that too :S

Our big strong Daddy

2011-01-26T13:35:00.000-08:00

On December 4th Chris competed in his second powerlifting competion, The 2010 Fife Holiday Classic. He worked extra hard for about a month before to get into the weight class that he wanted. He exercised his butt off and really focused on his eating habits. It paid off because he reached his goal.

It's so crazy watching him lift as much weight as he does. It puts me a little on edge, and at the same time makes me incredibly proud. He lifts raw, which means he uses no type of gear to assist him when he's lifting. Some people will strap their knees or wear these insanely tight clothes that make them really stiff to help them. But Chris just uses his own strength.

His best lift of the day for squats was 512 pounds. His best benchpress was 347 pounds. For his deadlift he lifted 540. That's 540 pounds just picked up off of the ground. Can YOU do that?! I'm lucky if I can lift 30 pounds off the ground!

Chris was first introduced to competitive powerlifting by an employee at the YMCA. While Chris was doing his regular workout one day, Mark asked him if he would be interested and has been training him ever since. He's a great coach and a supportive trainer. Chris has been very blessed to meet him.

Even though it was long and the competition went quite a bit over schedule, it was still a great day. I got to hang out with Shellie and Matt while we watched the lifters. The boys were all being babysat for the day, so I didn't have to worry about keeping them busy. After the awards were all given out and we said good-bye to everybody, Chris and I got to go out to dinner. We decided on Jimmy Mac's where Chris rewarded himself with a giant steak and a basketful of yeast rolls.

If you would like to view the videos of Chris' lifts or learn more about his powerlifting, you can go to his blog and check it all out.

Thanksgiving

2011-01-26T01:19:00.000-08:00

This was only the second time in the ten years that Chris and I have been married that we didn't have Thanksgiving at home. Instead we made the venture up to my dad's house in Mill Creek. We picked up Uncle JC on the way and brought the boys snow clothes to play outside. We planned on being there for most of the day. Unfortunatly when we got there the snow was melting and it was starting to rain. So playing outside only lasted for a few minutes before it was too slushy to enjoy. They were okay with watching 3-D movies in Grandpa and Granny's theater room though.

Granny and I finished off cooking dinner (both of us ruining our nice shirts with grease) while all of the boys lounged around the house doing manly things like: watching TV, listening to music in Grandpa's studio, and talking about computers.

There were some interesting experiements going on in the kitching, including Granny's sweet potato concoction. It was so thick with marshmallow fluff at the top that the mixer wouldn't budge when she turned it on. It was hilarious. In the end it turn out okay though: creamy mashed sweet sweet sweet potatoes.

Grandpa was very proud of his turkey and dressing. It's his specialty. He's actually gotten pretty good at it over the past few years.

There was so much great food to be eaten and it turned out to be a really great Thanksgiving.

The Blokus Master

2011-01-26T01:00:00.000-08:00

We are a family that LOVES board games. We're always looking for new ones to try. We had seen Blokus a few times but never really knew what it was. For any of you who have never heard of it yourselves, think of a cross between Tetris and Dominoes. All we did know was that everybody that talked about it, loved it.

About once or twice a year I hit up Fred Meyer when they have a sale on board games and pick out a few new ones. I usually just buy games at the thrift store for a couple of dollars. So when I saw the price tag of Blokus at $29.99 my jaw nearly hit the floor. After checking out the box I decided to get it despite the price. It's been one of the best $30 I've ever spent. It is so much fun! It's something that we can all play together without Chris and I getting bored with a simple kid game, and at the same time the boys can play it without getting upset that it's too grown up for them to understand. We even bought the travel version to keep in the van for them to play.

Logan absolutly adores Blokus and he is really pretty good at it. This was the first time he beat all of us. He was so proud of himself, he wanted a picture.

King of the Date jungle

2011-01-26T00:43:00.000-08:00

Moses is the cutest cat in the world. He will chase the boys in circles around the house like a dog. He hides behind corners and jumps on their legs. He'll run up behind Sawyer, jump on his back, and take him down. I love to watch them wrestle with each other. The boys adore him so much. He can get all of them riled up and playing with him whenever he wants them to. He's totally won over all of our hearts.

The first snow of the year

2011-01-26T00:36:00.000-08:00

One morning in November, we woke up to this...

And Sawyer did this....

The boys were so excited. Logan was dying to get out there and start eating snow and Brandon had a snowbeast he wanted to build. Sawyer was completely hypnotized by the flakes. He loved it. Until we actually went outside that is.

At first being out there was okay. I was holding Sawyer and he seemed interested in being put down and getting a feel for the snow. First though I wanted to get a picture of all three of them before they completely tore up all the snow in the yard.

Then I set Sawyer down in the grass. He. Hated. It. A lot. I know I'm not supposed to laugh at my kids, but it was hilarious. I would pick him up and he would stop completely like nothing ever happened, then as soon as his feet touched the ground he'd burst into bloody murder screams.

He was okay standing on the cement where it wasn't too deep and he wasn't squishing into the deep stuff. Logan calmed him down by bringing him balls of snow to throw and even got him to share in on a few bites with him.

He seemed to be getting more used to the idea of it so I decided to try the grass again.....nope. Still hated it.

So as he stood there and screamed his head off for a couple of minutes (on the walkway, not the grass, I'm not THAT mean), I got a few pictures of the boys playing.

We ended up getting eleven inches of snow! It was pretty exciting.

"Spikes, spikes, spikes!!!"

2011-01-26T00:08:00.000-08:00

Logan's youth group at church had a crazy hair day. He knew exactly how he wanted his hair that night. When I asked what he had in mind, he pogoed up and down and shouted "Spikes, spikes, spikes!!" And he wanted them everywhere. I did my best but a couple of them just would not stand up straight. Too long. His hair is a bit shorter now and there is a crazy hair day coming up at school next week, so we're going to give it another try.

Halloween Night

2011-01-25T23:59:00.000-08:00

This year we decided to go trick-or-treating with our Cub Scout pack. One of our families lives in a great neighborhood so we all met up and went through there. Grandpa Jerry, of course, came down and went out with us like he always does. This was Sawyer's first year of really getting in on the action of trick-or-treating. He got it down pretty quick. He carried his little sack and trotted up to each door like a pro. He held out his bag very politly when the people would open their doors. If they handed him his candy he would take it from them and put it in his sack, look at them and say "Bye" in his adorable little voice and turn and walk away. It was the cutest thing.

The other two boys were running so far ahead of us with the rest of the scouts, I couldn't get any pictures of them. It was driving me nuts.

It didn't really seem like Halloween. It was kind of eerie. There were hardly any kids at all out on the streets. It was almost like Halloween was cancelled altogether. It was such a nice night out, I was walking around in a baggy short sleeved shirt and tank top. It wasn't that chilly at all. That almost never happens in Washington. I think that organized trick-or-treating events are taking over the holiday. Kinda lame in my opinion. It's Halloween!! Get out there and work for that candy!

After about an hour and a half, Sawyer's candy sack was dragging on the ground and he couldn't carry it anymore. The poor thing was stretched out so much that the wiring on the inside that supported the bag was bending and tearing the material. It was getting frustrating for him because he would trip and spill his candy and have to pick it up. He was starting to breakdown. It was time for us to start heading home. We still had to get him to the car though, so Daddy through him over his shoulder and we made our way to the van. We said "so long" to Grandpa Jerry and the rest of our pack and headed home. Sawyer wasn't happy.

Until we got home and he was given the payoff for all of his hardwork.

Pumpkin Bash

2011-01-25T15:25:00.000-08:00

The day before Halloween we went to The Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle for the annual Pumpkin Bash with our friends, the Young family. Kids were allowed to wear costumes and get a discount on admission. We of course dressed ours up since we are never ones to turn down a discount! But when we got there we found out that it was actually cheaper to use our Microsoft Prime Card to get in then pay the actual admission. I was really surprised at how many people were there considering the fact that it was pouring rain pretty much the whole day. It was a lot of fun seeing all of the different and creative costumes.

The workers at the zoo filled pumpkins with different treats for the animals and put them in their enclosures for them to play with. They have posted times for each of the "feedings" but when we tried to get to the areas at their scehduled times, they were beyond packed with people and there was no way to really see what was going on. So we just wandered the zoo at our own pace taking in the sights. They also had a trick-or-treat area set up in one section of the zoo where local business could come and set up a table to advertise their services while handing out candies to the kids. I think the rain kept most of the vendors away though, because it was pretty dead in that area and the kids only got a couple of pieces of candy each.

Regardless of the rain and the crowds, it was still a fun day. Hopefully next year it won't be so crummy and we can go again. But what am I saying? The end of October in Seattle? Yeah, it's gonna be raining.

Pumpkin Baby Bump

2011-01-25T14:31:00.000-08:00

In October when my little sister was about 4 months or so along (she's due in 2 weeks now!!) I painted her little pregnant belly to look like a jack-o-lantern. It was a lot of fun and really came out cute.

The boys are so excited to meet their cousin, Caleb, in a couple of weeks. They were so happy when they heard that he was in fact a boy and not a girl. What fun is a "girl" cousin anyway?! Another little boy to teach how to catch bugs, make mud pies, build Lego forts, and most importantly: show the proper ways to terrorize his mom.

Brickcon (better late than never)

2011-01-25T14:26:00.000-08:00

Grandma Shellie pointed out to me as she gave us our blog book (volume 2) this year, that I haven't blogged anything of substance since October. She put it nicer than that of course, but I got the message. I don't know why I haven't been blogging at all these past few months. It's not like there's been a lack of events to talk about. Quite the opposite actually. I guess I've just been a bit pooped out. I'm here to correct that! So I'm going to do a quick update with some things that have happened since I last blogged way back in October. We're talking Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, etc. Better late then never, right?! So here we go.

A couple of weeks before Halloween, Seattle was once again host to the 2010 Brickcon. It's a Lego Convention held every fall in the city. I heard about it last year only a few days after it already took place. So I had the information saved for nearly a year with the idea that the boys would get to go next time around.

Anybody who knows anything about our boys, knows that they are Lego fanatics. They go insane for the little plastic bricks that plague the bottom of my feet. They have thousands and thousands......and THOUSANDS of Lego pieces. I find them in the craziest of places all over the house, in the van, outside, everywhere. So they were extremely excited when we told them the were going to a Lego Convention. Chris took them along with some family friends of ours. They had so much fun. There wasn't much to do there except walk through the tables and look at all of the different creations, but that was good enough for them. People come up with some of the craziest things to make out of Legos.

July

2011-01-06T16:41:00.001-08:00

June

2011-01-06T16:40:00.000-08:00

May

2010-12-28T14:34:00.000-08:00

April

2010-12-24T22:09:00.000-08:00

March

2010-12-22T14:12:00.000-08:00

February

2010-12-20T21:27:00.000-08:00

January

2010-12-20T16:20:00.000-08:00

With the end of 2010 quickly approaching I've been going through this year's pictures and reliving all of our adventures. I wanted to do a quick year end review for our blog since my posts have been rather infrequent lately. So here is a collection of some of our January pictures. You can click on the collage to see it enlarged. I'll be doing one for each month in coming posts. So stay tuned!!

Fly away!!!

2010-10-25T18:43:00.000-07:00

As we were leaving La Push yesterday I spotted a huge flock of seagulls resting in a field. I wanted to get out and take a picture of them. So we stopped, and Chris just couldn't resist the urge......

I hope he never grows up.

Goldie's first excursion

2010-10-25T17:13:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was the first Sunday in I don't know how long that we had nothing planned. So we made the last minute decision to drive out to Forks and La Push. Chris had never been out there and it's such a beautiful place, I thought it was time that he see it. It's a bit of a drive from us, and we left a little later than we originally planned. It took us about 4 hours to get there. The boys did really well in the car considering that Sawyer hates sitting in his seat too long, and Brandon gets car sick. Luckily we had our portable DVD player so they just watched movies most of the drive.

We drove up around the Olympic National Forest. I've always wanted to visit the park, but that will have to wait for another trip. It was rainy and wet the whole way up there and pretty overcast, so we wouldn't have seen much if we had stopped. I do regret not stopping at Lake Cresent to take a few pictures of the gorgeous fall foliage though. The hills surrounding the lake were so pretty, but I was tired of making stops and just wanted to hurry up and get to Forks.

We first stopped at La Push first. I was dreading having to get out of the car on the beach with the boys in the pouring rain, but I knew they needed to get out and stretch their legs for a bit. Luckily we had brought extra clothes for just this occasion. As we got closer and closer to the beach though, it stopped raining. Right on the edge of the ocean was starting to clear up. I was overjoyed. When we arrived at First Beach there were half a dozen cars and twice that many people standing right on the edge of the parking lot right before the beach access. The reason why was clearer the closer we got. It was not possible to get down to the beach. A storm had blow in a ton more wood that usual along the sand, and had covered everything in a thick brown mess of sea foam.The water was very rough and the waves were huge, making it impossible to walk the beach and avoid getting blown over by the sea. Even though it meant we couldn't walk along along the water, it was amazing to see the power of the ocean attacking the coastline. So we just kind of wandered around the edge of the small rocky cliffs like every body else. So we spent our time their watching the seagulls and the waves, getting blown away by the wind, taking a ton of adorable pictures, and, in Sawyer's case, seeing how much effort he could put into breaking away from Daddy over and over again.

After we left La Push we headed down the highway to Forks. It was raining (of course) so we didn't get out of the car too much. In case you don't know, Forks has been made famous thanks to the Twilight books. The popularity of the series these past few years have turned the little town into a tourist trap of sorts. People visit in hoards to catch a glimpse of a certain vampire (or werewolf, whatever floats your boat). But on this particular day, the town looked a bit dead (no pun intended). I don't know if it was due to the heavy rain, or the fact that it was a late Sunday afternoon, but probably a little bit of both. The visitor center was closed, so we were unable to get a map of all of the Twilight sites. Since Chris had never been before I really wanted him to see everything, so I had to go on memory to find them. After we drove around town for a bit we stopped at the Dazzled By Twilight store so the boys could get fangs and a few other little corny souveniers. Then we stopped at the local pizza place and had dinner. Once we got on the road again we popped another movie in for the boys and made the nearly 4 hour trek back home.

Sickie baby

2010-10-25T15:28:00.000-07:00

When Sawyer had his 18 month check-up, Chris took him for me. While there he mentioned that his breathing was a little raspy, so after a test they determined that he had a bronchial infection of some sort. So they were sent home with a nebulizer and a prescription for Albuteral. Saywer had to have a breathing treatment 4 times a day to help him breath a little better. The first few days he dreaded it. It took both Chris and I both to hold him down and the boys holding up books and toys to try and distract him. But he got used to it and would even climb in my lap on his own and tilt his little head back into position. It made a huge difference and he's doing much better. He always seems to have a rasp though and often gets days where it's difficult for him to breath properly (especially if he spent the night before crying too much), so we might be looking into the possibility of asthma as he gets a little older. For Sawyer's sake though, I really hope not.

The Melting Pot

2010-10-25T10:05:00.000-07:00

So I was going through some recent pictures and noticed a ton of stuff that I haven’t blogged about! I’m so bad. So here’s something that should have been posted weeks ago.

One of Chris and my favorite places to go is The Melting Pot. If you have never been there or have no idea what it is, you’re really missing out. It’s a fondue restaurant. And it is like heaven on earth. We have always been big fondue fans (I have something like 5 fondue pots). But it is kind of a hassle and spendy to do your own dinner. So we try and get to The Melting Pot at least a couple times a year. Usually once in the Fall and once in the Spring. That’s how it always seems to work out. On this occasion we took Brandon and Logan with us. We figured they were old enough now to be able to handle it.

On our way into the place we were walking towards two couples leaving. As they were approaching us one of the women rolled her eyes and in a very snarky voice proclaimed to her friends (and not so subtly to us) “You don’t bring kids to The Melting Pot!!” I wanted to kick her in the knee and take her down. I was so mad. But I just kept my head held high and marched right into the place. After a few seconds though, I started to panic. What if that’s how everybody viewed this place? What if they had a rule about kids? Were they going to put us in a back corner where nobody could see us? What if my kids burn the place down?! Chris told me not to sweat it, that it was no big deal. Our kids are well behaved in nice places and they were going to do fine. I calmed down a little bit but the women’s comment, and mostly her tone, kept playing over and over in my head, making me extra stern with the looks I was giving the boys as they fidgeted in the waiting area. My fears weren’t relieved as the hostess came to seat us and gave us a “Oh no, not kids!!” glance.

At The Melting Pot your meals are prepared on a hot plate in the middle of the table. So you get to interact a lot with your server. As ours was mixing and melting our appetizer of cheese, she asked how our evening was going. I proceeded to tell her about the rude lady outside and she was just as disgusted as me. She told us not to worry. They have kids in there all the time and it’s never an issue. She herself brings her own daughters, the same ages as our boys, to eat there often and they always have a good time. That really made me feel a lot better after that and I could finally relax.

And of course, Chris was right, as always. The boys were awesome. They were so well behaved. They had so much fun cooking their own food and picking out everything they wanted to eat. I was really glad that they liked the food. They don’t have a “kids menu” there, so we weren’t sure how much they would actually eat. But they chowed down right along with us. The next day Logan asked "When can we go to The Melting Pot again". I told him when gets a job and takes us.

Daddy showing Brandon how to drench the bread in cheese.

Logan Approved

Brandon reading us the dessert menu. They decided on cookies and cream, with milk chocolate instead of white chocolate.

And she poured in extra cookies, for extra well behaved boys.

It's good.

Walk-a-thon

2010-10-23T15:49:00.000-07:00

Every year at the boys' school they have a walk-a-thon in September to raise money for the PTA. This year it fell on a day that Logan doesn't go to school. So I had the pleasure of taking him and walking the course with him for the 90 minute duration of the event.

I was really looking forward to spending some time outside with the boys......until on the way to the school I realized that Sawyer's stroller was in the trunk of my sister's car....in Snoqualmie. My heart fell into the pit of my stomach as I realized my situation. Sawyer is going through a phase right now where he WILL NOT walk. I don't mean he doesn't like to walk, quite the opposite actually. He runs. Fast. If you try to have him walk along with you and hold his hand, he throws a fit and takes off. So then you have to pick him up to carry him, and that doesn't really help much because he just flings his body around until you're forced to set him down to avoid tiny flying fists hitting you in the face. Then it's back to the chasing all over again. So I started to go into a little bit of meltdown thinking about how joyful my afternoon would be.

When we pulled up outside the school and started to unload, we saw Logan's friend JD and his mom getting out of their car too. We said "hi" and she asked me how my day was going and I told her about the stroller prediciment. She immediatly got wide eyed and exclaimed that she had a stroller I could use. She does daycare for a 3 year old little girl and so she brought it for her to use, but said that we could let the little ones take turns. I could have kissed her.

So off we went to start on the course. Logan and JD took off like little bullets together and left us moms in their dust. Brandon found me, gave me a hug, and ran to catch up with some friends. So much for a nice afternoon walk with my boys, huh?

Logan was cruising around the course. By the time we were done, he went around 7 times! I only went 4. I will say though, I spent about 20 minutes lolly-gagging and standing around looking for Logan. I was nervous when I couldn't see him. I didn't know if I was supposed to stay right with him the entire time since he technically wasn't there for an actual school day or not. What I didn't realize is that while I was standing around trying to find him, the kid passed me twice! I think it's safe to say he enjoyed himself.

During the last half of the last lap, Brandon came and walked with Sawyer and me. He was bored and tired of walking. So we just kind of strolled together. Sawyer was really getting sick of being confined, so we decided to take him out and he walked along with Brandon for a bit. I guess walking with a big brother is funner than walking with Mom. It didn't last very long though. Unfortunatly I had Jeanine go ahead and take the stroller back and the "pick me up, put me down" game began. Just my luck though, we were done. I gave Brandon a hug good-bye, Logan said "so long" to his friends, and we headed back home.

What are you lookin' at?

2010-10-23T15:09:00.000-07:00

Yellow Belt

2010-10-20T10:08:00.000-07:00

Logan passed his taekwondo yellow belt test! The testing was a long process. Longer than what I had thought it was going to be anyway. He had moments where the boredom kicked in and he got a little distracted and acted up a little bit. I was sure that it cost him his belt. But luckily his teacher paid more attention to his score than his behavior. We are so proud of our little martial arts master!

Finger painting

2010-10-18T13:38:00.000-07:00

Sawyer got to finger paint for the first time a copule of weeks ago. Daddy had to show him how to smash his hands in the paint and smear it around the paper. He wasn't a fan of the mess all over his hands. But overall he seemed to enjoy himself.

My little princess

2010-09-30T23:15:00.000-07:00

Doesn't my son make the most beautiful little princess? He got a hold of one of the crowns from Auntie's bachelorette party and threw a fit until I put it in his hair.

Say cheese

2010-09-30T22:50:00.000-07:00

I asked Logan to pose for me so I could try something out with my flash and this is what he does. Can you tell this kid likes to get his picture taken? He is such a weirdo sometimes. Probably the cutest little weirdo God ever put on this earth though.

Introducing........GOLDIE!!

2010-09-29T17:42:00.000-07:00

We got a new van!! On a rainy Mondy a week and a half ago, when the boys got home from school and we headed down to buy a new van. Well, new to us anyway. It's a 2003 Honda Odyssey. We got a great deal on it, and it's in great shape. The only drawback to getting it for so cheap, was that it already has 130,000 miles on it. But that's still better than the almost 200,000 that our Caravan had.

It is a little bittersweet though. We've had the old silver van since Brandon was 2. It took us to Anaheim and back twice, and taxied me and some friends to Reno. It has been driven through sketchy conditions on camping excurtions and many other countless adventures. That was the van that we brought both Logan and Sawyer home from the hospital in, and was the first car that Chris and I really bought together. Regardless of all of the memories, good and bad, that we've had with that old van, it was time to say goodbye. It's actually BEEN time to say goodbye for awhile now. I've been driving around with a messed up electrical system, no blinkers or brake lights, a leaky radiator, and a myriad of other problems for nearly two years. I'm honestly surprised it made it as far as it did. So even though it will always hold a special place in our hearts, we are not sorry to say "SO LONG!!" to the Silver Bullet.

I have affectionatly named our new van Goldie, due to the color of it. I've joked for awhile now that our next car was going to be gold/tan so that you wouldn't see the dirt all over it. We live down a gravel road and everybodys cars are completely covered in mud and dust, so washing them is completely pointless. It's funny that the van we happened to get really ended up being gold. I guess we'll soon see if my theory is correct.

The first morning after we got it, the boys asked if I could drive them to school. I was more than happy to oblige.

The interior is leather, which I never wanted, but it's really grown on me. I'm hoping that it will be easier to keep clean than the cloth was. The front seats are heated which I'm TOTALLY in love with.

I didn't realize home much roomier the inside would be either. I figured all vans were pretty much the same. Boy was I wrong. It has stow & go seats in the back, so the third row of seats fold into the floor. The cargo area in the back is sunk into the floor due to this feature. It's really nice because it has more of a "trunk" feel. My groceries sit nicely in there and don't roll all over the back of the van or come tumbling out when I open the back door.

The sliding doors open and close automatically with the push of a button or a little tug on the handle. It makes me feel so fancy! There is a bluetooth installed in the stereo so I don't have to do the whole "Hang on, there's a cop, I have to put the phone down" thing when I'm talking on the phone anymore! ;) There is a DVD player installed that comes down from the ceiling, but we still haven't figured out how to get it to work. The previous owner had some new stuff installed, and I think somewhere along the way some wiring got confused or something, because it won't turn on. Hopefully our technological genius, Daddy, will be able to figure it out soon.

I feel so much safer driving around now. It's been such a blessing to our family. We all love our new ride. We have wanted to take the boys to Yellowstone for a couple of years now, but due to the condition of the old van, there was no way it was going to happen. But now it's looking like we've got a plan to go next summer! I can't wait to see all of the new adventures Goldie will take us on.

No better company

2010-09-21T15:53:00.000-07:00

Sawyer's favorite time of the day: when his brothers get home from school.

How in the world.....

2010-09-21T15:50:00.000-07:00

....can anybody sleep like this?!!

Proper fork etiquette

2010-09-09T14:34:00.000-07:00

I love watching Sawyer use a fork.

He concentrates so hard on making sure that the food is stabbed onto the end.

He uses his little tiny pointer finger to stabilize it and gain control.

Success!!

It cracks me up. He's so stinkin' cute!

Kindergarten, here he comes!!

2010-09-09T13:39:00.000-07:00

So Logan had his first day of Kindergarten yesterday. He spent the entire summer asking me "How long until I get to go to school?" over and over again. He was beyond excited. His first day happened to fall on a late start day, so he had to wait even longer for the bus to come and that just about killed him. After eating breakfast, passing the time by playing Legos, and choosing what he wanted for lunch, it was time to get showered and ready for school. We headed out to wait for the bus and of course it had to be raining. That didn't seem to bother Logan though.

He was SO excited to be heading out to the bus.

Finally it came around the corner and he starting freaking out, "Brandon, it's the bus!! LOOK!!".

He went over and got in the bus line with the other kids and waited for the driver to stop and open the doors. The kids in front of him walked over to climb in and Logan just stood there and gave me a concerned look. I nodded and gave him the go ahead and off he went. He got on the bus and took a seat next to Brandon.

As they started to pull away and I saw his little hand wave to me, I got a little choked up. I didn't think it was going to bother me too much. After all, he was in preschool for two years before this, but I did the "mom" thing and had a little bit of my heart broken. Another one of my babies is growing up.

Sawyer and I spent the day out running errands and doing some shopping for Auntie's bridal shower. Then we came back home to get some housework done. I kept myself pretty busy and didn't worry too much about Logan being gone, and the day seemed to breeze by. When the bus returned home and the boys jumped out, Logan came sprinting toward us yelling "I had a GREAT day today!!" Hearing that put my mind at ease a little. I really hope this is a great year for both of the boys.

Our 4th grader

2010-09-07T17:17:00.000-07:00

Today was Brandon's first day of 4th grade. Yes, 4th grade. I can still remember taking him to his preschool orientation when he was 3 like it was just yesterday. Now he's only got two more years until middle school!! It's insane how fast these kids are growing up.

So this morning on his way out to the bus I took the obligatory "first day of school" photo. He of course made the "I'm too cool to smile" pose. And then gave me a nice grin. Then he was off for the day.

This year Brandon is in a 4th/5th grade split class. From what we've been told, that means he was chosen for this class because he can work more independently and stay more focused than other kids his age. The school seems to think that he's one of the dozen or so kids that fit this criteria for his grade. We're pretty excited and we really hope that he can live up to what's expected of him. We're also hopeful that this means there will be less "riff-raff" in his class to distract him.

Daddy got home from work just in time to stand with me to see Brandon get off of the bus. When he stepped out and saw him with me, Brandon broke into a full on sprint to get to Chris.

Now to explain the change in clothing between the time he left, and when he got back home. We bought Brandon a school coat awhile ago at Walmart and the hanger that it was on said "Medium 8/10". Well when I went to go put it on him this morning before he left, I noticed that the tag INSIDE said "XL 14/16". It was nearly down to his knees. So Brandon didn't have a coat to wear today and he was really bummed out. He asked if he could wear his long sleeve Marvel shirt underneath his new Lego shirt so his arms wouldn't be cold. I told him that he was going to be too warm, but he didn't care. So I let him wear them both. As soon as he stepped off of the bus, I saw that the tshirt had been taken off. Just like I had predicted, he was too hot to wear double shirts. But hey, who listens to moms anyway?

Ready, set, LEARN!

2010-09-07T16:05:00.000-07:00

We have been ready for school for quite some time now. Supplies were bought about a month and a half ago and Logan has been extremely anxious to use them. They don't require too much for kindergarten. Just a few pencils, glue, and crayons. It kinda bummed me out when I saw his short little list. I'm a bit of a school supply junkie. I LOVE buying them. I stock up on boxes and boxes of crayons, erasers, spiral notebooks, folders, pens, etc. I'm a weirdo. So here's Logan's few supplies, ready to go.

Brandon on the other hand was a different story. He had a bit more that we had to get. I was in heaven shopping for him. Brandon's first day of school was today, and I'm secretly hoping that his teacher sends a list of a few extra things that he needs home with him so I can go buy more. Like I said, I'm a freak!!

Happy Birthday, JC!

2010-09-07T15:52:00.000-07:00

Last week was my little brother's 22nd birthday. We had him over that night for dinner and I made him a cake that looked like a drum (my brother is the most awesome drummer in the world, in case you didn't know). My sister, Geri Lynn, and her fiance, Matt, came over as well and we chowed down on BBQ beef sandwiches while we watched Wipeout. Neither JC or Matt had ever seen it before! After the boys went to bed we played Apples To Apples and had some interesting conversations. I almost peed my pants a few times laughing so hard at Chris and Matt being weirdos. That's a pretty common thing when the two of them get together. It was a pretty fun night. I hope my baby bro enjoyed it.

Nom, nom, nom!

He likes!

I don't think he really appreciated us singing to him.

What a couple of dough heads!!

2010-09-04T11:20:00.000-07:00

Brandon's baseball team celebrated the end of their season at Farrelli's Pizza in Sumner. While waiting for our food to come they brought all of the boys raw dough to play with. They loved it.

I'd never eaten at Farrelli's before. For the price, it wasn't as impressive as it should have been. The boys barely ate anything. They weren't exactly fans either. The Rock has much better pizza and Vince's has even better.

Even though the food wasn't very good, and we ended up spending a lot more than we had planned to get dinner, it was still nice to spend some time with the team and say good-bye to some great people. Brandon got put on a wonderful team. The kids were all very encouraging and supportive of each other and the coaches were awesome. They were very dedicated to making sure that each boy got equal playing time and recogniton for their effort. Brandon was the only player that was new to the team this year and they welcomed him with open arms. We were very lucky to have him placed with such good people. It made his first experience with baseball a good one.

Sssssssssssssnake!

2010-09-04T10:44:00.000-07:00

The boys were so happy when they found the snake on their scavenger hunt.

Just a couple of days before this, we went and saw The Reptile Man do a show at the park. Since they were hypnotized by him and hung on every word he said, they knew the proper way to hold a snake, how to handle it, and understood that they could only keep it for a few minutes before they needed to put it back. Logan was getting a little too excited over the snake and it made me nervous that he was going to drop the poor thing, so I made Brandon "in charge" of holding it.

He absolutly loved that little critter and he handled it so well. He loved holding it and having it curled up around his hand. He could have cuddled up with that little snake all day long.

After they were done with the snake they took it up into the bushes and put him in a little hidden spot where he could slither away in peace. It was a pretty exciting few minutes.

Scavenger hunt

2010-08-26T21:51:00.000-07:00

So today the boys were getting bored and started picking at each other and fighting. That's a pretty common occurance around here. With the end of summer quickly approaching they've been getting more and more antsy as the day wears on. So when I couldn't take any more of little boys screaming through the house and whining about each other, I had a genius idea. I grabbed a piece of paper and started writing down a list of ten things for them to find outside on a scavenger hunt. I gave them my camera and told them to take pictures of their treasures and check off the list as they went along. They LOVED the idea. They agreed to let Brandon be in charge of the list and Logan the camera, and off they went.

In about 20 minutes they found all but two things on the list. They were so excited to show me the pictures of their treasures. And can I just point out, that with the exception of the last picture, which I snapped myself, Logan took all of these photos. He LOVES to take pictures. I think I might have a little protege on my hands.

1. A red rock (more of a rock with reddish on it, but it works)

2. Five red berries

3. A stick shaped like a Y

4. A shell. I was thinking more along the lines of a shell from a nut, but they found......a shell.

5. Heart shaped rock

6. A yellow leaf

7. A face (Brandon made sure to point out that it was a vampire face)

8. Ten potato bugs. This was one they didn't complete. They searched for some, but gave up after about 30 seconds and decided against that one all together.

9. A blue flower. This was the other item that they had trouble with. They found every other color of flower, but no luck with a blue one.

10. A snake. Now I have to admit that I honestly didn't expect them to find a snake. I just put it on the list in hopes that they would search for awhile and it would cause them to spend more time outside working together. But much to my surprise........they found one, right on our front walkway.

I'm so proud of the boys for doing such a great job working together. I think we're going to have to do this more often. They had a lot of fun and were very proud of themselves.

Movie Night

2010-08-26T19:21:00.000-07:00

The other night while Daddy was out with a friend, we had a movie night. I let the boys stay up late with Auntie and me to watch Diary of a Wimpy Kid. We made some popcorn (complete with peanut M&Ms), laid out blankets, pillows, and stuffed critters, and kicked back. The movie was really funny. Brandon wants to give the books a try now. When it was finally over at nearly 10:00pm the boys were more than ready for bed. It was a relaxing night.

Mud Mountain Dam

2010-08-26T10:59:00.000-07:00

Here it is, the end of the summer, and I've barely posted anything! We've done a lot this summer and I've been too exhausted to update this thing with all of our adventures. So I'm going with the "better late than never" way of thinking and posting some of these a bit late.

One of new "it" spots that we discovered this summer is Mud Mountain Dam Park. Each time we've gone there hasn't been a ton of people which is always a plus since I can't stand large crowds of people. They have a wading pool for the kids, a huge playground, each of the picnic tables is sheltered and comes with NICE covered grills, and most importantly....the bathrooms are clean!! It's a very well kept park. It's a little out of the way for most (out past Enumclaw on the way to Mt Rainier). In my opinion though, totally worth the extra drive.

A couple of weeks ago we headed up to the park to have a picnic with some friends. When we got there it was absolutly deserted. Not another car in sight. That was due to the fact that it was about 60 degrees outside. We were expecting warmer weather. After eating our lunch as fast as we could, the boys all went over to the playground to try and warm up their little bodies. The pool was still locked and we didn't expect it to open since it was so chilly out. But after awhile the maintenance team unlocked the gate, turned on the fountain, and Logan immediatly started asking to change into his swim shorts. I didn't actually think they would want to get in the icy water, but my kids were first to change and jump in. They're nuts!!

Usually Sawyer loves playing in the wading pool with the boys. But on this day, the cold temperatures were a bit too much for him to handle. He absolutly didn't want to get in that thing. Brandon picked him up and tried to walk him out to the middle, and Sawyer had his little feet digging into Brandon so he couldn't put him down. It was hilarious.

I finally dunked him in, but he wasn't too happy about it.

We ended up staying at the park for a couple of hours and the boys enjoyed themselves, despite the weather. I'm hoping that we can get up there at least one more time before the kids go back to school.

Ride em' comboy!

2010-08-06T08:56:00.000-07:00

Chris always gets so "rough and tumble" with the boys. Being boys, they of course love it. Even though he's been doing it since Brandon was a baby, it still makes me nervous. Whether he's running around the house with two boys on his back, tossing kids as high as they'll go, or bouncing them six feet into the air on the trampoline, he can always put them into fits of crazy laughter. Though my heart has a hard time not beating out of my chest at seeing my kids on the verge of breaking bones, they love it and can't get enough. Sawyer is no exception. He loves riding the bull (AKA Daddy's shoulders). Chris bends this way and that way and Sawyer just screams and giggles in delight. I don't know where he finds the energy to play so rough with them. Three minutes of giving piggy back rides and I'm done. Thank goodness for Daddy!

Woodland Park Zoo

2010-07-30T09:49:00.000-07:00

Last week Granny Kat's daughter, Jesica, was up from California with her kids, Elias and Alina. The boys love spending hanging out with their cousins, so we tried to spend as much time with them as possible. While they were here we spent a day at the Woodland Park Zoo. We got there a little bit before they did, so we wandered around the family farm, the bug building, and the habitat playground (which the kids loved, since I never let them play in there).

After meeting up with everybody, we headed off to see the rest of the animals together. We visited the Northern Trails exhibits and Sawyer got to see his first bear up close. I wasn't sure if he was going to even notice the animals, or that they were something out of the ordinary. But right when his eyes locked on the bear, they almost popped right out of his little head. He threw his hand up, started pointing at it and babbling up a storm. It was so cute. After the Northern Trails we went to feed the birds in the Willawong Station. Sawyer held his little stick of food out the entire time. He eventually got one to land on his stick. He was in absolute awe of the birds.

The rest of the day was a lot of fun. Most of the animals were out for viewing, which is always a plus. The kids all had a great time together. Until the last 5 minutes when my boys had a meltdown when it was time to leave. I could have done without the screaming and crying in the van as we drove away. But all in all, it was a good day at the zoo.

I am the Walrus

2010-07-30T08:45:00.000-07:00

Coo-coo-ka-choo

My little dinky guy

2010-07-26T12:07:00.000-07:00

I can't get enough of this kid. The cheeks, the hair, the eyes....I'm in love.

Little builders

2010-07-25T22:29:00.000-07:00

Yesterday Chris took the boys to Lowe's to do one of their kids building workshops. I've always wanted to sign the boys up for one of these and I finally got around to it a few weeks ago. They had so much fun and we've already signed them up for the next one in a couple of more weeks.

For their first workshop they made wooden UFOs. They were each given a kit with all of the supplies they needed which included the wood, nails, stickers, and even a little light to put on the top. You push it down and it glows bright red. They were given little hammers to complete the job and they both did a really great. Along with their UFOs they brought home a certificate of completion and a patch. I think they usually give out work aprons to the kids, and I'm assuming that the patches are for that. So hopefully next time they'll each get one to start collecting the patches on. Maybe if we get them into enough of these workshops, then next summer they'll be ready to build me a new deck! Oh, if only......

Brandon's birthday campout

2010-07-10T23:43:00.000-07:00

This year Brandon's birthday happened to be right in the middle of 5 very hectic weeks for us. So his party had to wait until the end of June. We gave him a few different options of how he could celebrate. He decided on having an overnight campout in our backyard. The plan was to invite some friends over, put up a tent in the backyard, BBQ some hot dogs and have a sleepover. When I actually sat down to plan it (which was less than a week before it took place, whoops) I started to panic. I wasn't sure how I was going to fill all of the hours before the kids finally went to sleep. Pin the tail on the donkey isn't exactly a game for a bunch of 9 year olds.

Everything worked out great though, like Chris always tells me it will. My dad agreed to drop the trampoline off at our house so that we would have it for the party. Chris got home only about an hour before the party started though, so getting it put together on time was impossible. Once he started he quickly realized that it was going to be a two man job. Lucky for us, one of the fathers dropping off his boys offered up some help. And 2 short hours later (gulp) we had ourselves a trampoline!!

While the guys were putting it together I worked on dinner. A couple of months ago at a garage sale I got a brand new slider patty maker. So I made a couple dozen of the mini burgers on the grill along with some hot dogs. After the boys scarfed down the food, they took turns in groups on the trampoline. After they were burned out on that for a little bit the older kids went into the house to play some games on the Wii that I had rented earlier in the day. While they did that Logan and Ian (another 5 year old) took advantage of the older boys' absence and claimed the trampoline for themselves.

Later on in the night Grandpa Jerry and Granny Kat came over to see if their gift was a hit and to share in the cake with us. After the candles were blown out, the cake was cut, and the gifts were open, we headed back outside. But not before handing out the gift bags to the boys. I made hobo sticks to try and stick to the "campout" theme. Each sack contained a squirt gun, mini binoculars, a glowstick, and a s'mores kit. I thought it was a great idea, until the kids were standing in the livingroom holding them over there shoulders and almost poking each other's eyes out. Then I made them all unwrap the sacks and take the sticks outside.

We lit the fire pit so the boys could roast their marshmallows, but they all had other ideas in mind. They spent the remainder of the night chasing each other through the trees and bushes and hanging out in the treehouse with their glowsticks. They FINALLY started asking to go to bed shortly before midnight. So we got everybody changed into their pajamas and set up everybody's sleeping bags. All of the boys slept together in the large tent, and Chris stayed across the yard in the smaller one. He said he didn't hear a peep from them after we zipped them in. They were pooped.

The boys all woke up at about 8:00, right in time for pancakes and bacon. When they finished eating they headed back out the trampoline. All still in their jammies. Parents started arriving at 9:00 and the fun had to come to an end. It was a great birthday party.

Boing!! Boing!!

2010-07-09T22:26:00.000-07:00

For Brandon's birthday this year Grandpa Jerry and Granny Kat got him a trampoline. Since it was put together two weeks ago, the boys have spent countless hours out there bouncing and flipping through the air. The day after they got it, Logan woke up in the morning, came out of his room, rubbing his little tired eyes and the first thing he said was "Can we go play on the trampoline?"

Trying to get the perfect picture

2010-07-05T18:38:00.000-07:00

Lately getting really good pictures of the boys has been tough.

Sawyer tries as hard as he can to get away from his brothers,

Logan just goofs off and makes funny faces the whole time,

and Brandon has to play "wrangler" to the baby. He always seems to keep a perfect smile on his face though.

Somehow through all of those "Logan, PLEASE just smile" pleas and putting the baby back into position for what seems like the hundreth time, when we cycle through the many shots that got snapped, I always seem to find one that works.

And I will admit it is pretty entertaining looking through the not-so-perfect ones too.

Let's grab a pole and go fishing!

2010-06-29T20:38:00.000-07:00

Another really late post. Sorry. The day before Chris and I left for Hawaii was Logan's final preschool field trip. We went to the U-Fish pond in Orting. The weather held up just long enough for our visit which was perfect. I've never been to that particular spot before and it was really neat. We plan on taking the boys back sometime this summer.

The kids were first shown around the grounds. They got to throw handfuls of "pizza" (fish food pellets) into each of the different ponds. They each contained different size fish. Every time they threw the food in and the fish went crazy eating it, the kids squealed and screamed with laughter. It was so funny to watch them.

After the tour of the ponds, the kids were each given a pole, bucket, net, and bait. Logan picked his fishing spot, and we got his pole all baited up. He cast out his line, I turned around to grab my camera and in the same second he screamed out "I GOT ONE!!" I didn't even have time to take a picture! It was that fast! So we reeled in the fish and got him into the bucket. Logan was so excited, and it was a pretty big fish too. But I needed some photos. So we put some more bait on the hook and cast out again. He caught another fish almost instantly, but I got a few pics, so we were good. Unfortunatly this fish swallowed the hook and bled pretty bad out of his gills into the bucket. It wasn't a pretty sight. And because the hook got stuck, that was the end of Logan's fishing day. We got the fish cleaned, paid for our catch, and got in the van to head home, just as the rain started to pour down.

Logan and his best friends, Eli and JD

The B and Me weekend

2010-06-28T21:42:00.000-07:00

It's been almost 2 months since Brandon and I had our little getaway trip to Portland, and I'm just now blogging about it. We were supposed to go to a Mom-and-Me Cub Scout camp, but it was full when I went to go sign up for it. So instead we decided to take our own little trip south for an overnight stay and a day long trip to the Oregon Zoo.

Right when Brandon got home from school on the Friday before Mother's Day we headed out. We stayed at the Shilo Inn by the airport and we had our very own suite! There were three tv's throughout the room including a little one in the bathroom so you could watch while you were on the can. Brandon thought it was hilarious. The pool at the hotel was open 24 hours so we headed down shortly after we checked in and Brandon had the pool all to himself. I relaxed on a deck chair and read. When he was tired of swimming we walked across the street and had a late dinner at Shari's. I let Brandon stay up as late as he wanted to watch cartoons. I think it was about 11:00 when he finally crashed out.

The next morning, after chowing down some breakfast in our room, we headed off to the zoo. I adore the Oregon Zoo. I hate to say that it's much better than any of the zoos we have up here in Washington. They had a couple of exhibits that they were working on that open this summer, so we plan on going back with the whole family. We had a lot of fun together. It was nice to get to spend some time just the two of us.

Happy 9th Birthday, Brandon!!

2010-06-08T10:38:00.000-07:00

My little baby boy isn't a baby anymore. He's nearly as tall as I am. Okay, maybe he's still got about 6 inches to go, but he'll be there soon enough. I still remember the day he was born like it was yesterday. The first glimpse I got of him was when the doctor held him up over the curtain before handing him off to the nurses. She said "Here he is!" I looked up and hanging over my head was a little pink butt. After they cleaned him up and swaddled him, the nurses gave him to Chris. He brought Brandon over to me as they were stitching my stomach back up and then I got to see his little pudgy face. Much cuter than a butt (thank goodness). He was quickly taken away to the NICU due to breathing problems and I didn't get to see him again until the evening of the next day because I couldn't get out of the bed into a wheelchair and they wouldn't bring him into our room yet. It was hard being apart from him for so long. But when I finally got wheeled down to the nursery, they put him in my arms, and I haven't let go since.

He's becoming such an independent person which has been a little rough. When you have small kids, and you guide them through the start of their lives, they pretty much follow everything you say. They do what you tell them to do, eat what you tell them to eat, go where you tell them to go, etc. You don't think about the older years, when they want to take care of themselves and make their own decisions. You're raising people, not just kids.

Brandon has jumped into becoming "Brandon". He's stared telling me which clothes in his wardrobe he doesn't like and doesn't want to wear anymore, he knows how he likes his hair and gets irritated if we try to tell him he should do it differently. He gets home from school and runs right back out the door to cruise the neighborhood on his bike, and last night he asked when he can start staying home by himself. Even though it's really tough to have to let go of him more and more, I'm really excited to see the man that he will someday become.

We love you, B. You're a great kid. Happy Birthday.

Luau

2010-05-31T13:13:00.000-07:00

While on the Big Island we attended a luau. It was called Journeys of the South Pacific. It told stories about how some of the different tribes of Hawaii came to the islands. We were greeted with shell leis and our picture was taken on the way in. Before we were seated we hit the open bar and loaded up on Mai Tais.

We decided to sit off to the right side of the stage across from an older couple (Earl and Sherry, from Chicago). They were really nice people to share a table with. After everybody was finally brought in the men came out and blew conch shells and ran around lighting the torches. That signaled the begining of dinner. They asked everybody to come over and watch them dig up the pig from the imu. Chris tried to get pictures, but it was a madhouse around the pit. Then the rest of the food was brought out and we were called by tables to go get in line.

I tried as many different foods as I could fit on my plate. The pork was amazing. I also really liked the purple Maui sweet potatoes and they had these amazing coconut rolls. Pretty much everything I stuffed on my plate I liked, even the poi. Chris wasn't too much of a fan though. I wish I could have remembered the names of more of what we ate.

After dinner they started the show. There was a live band that played all of the music, a narrator/master of ceremoies (who I called Wayne Newton), and then 8 dancers, 4 men and 4 women. It was a really good show consisting of about six or seven different dances with stories, some cheesy lounge act type singing from "Wayne", and ended with a fire dancer.

It was very touristy and everything, but I'm really glad that we went. The food was great, the show was entertaining, the company was nice, and there were free drinks! It was fun night.

The Dole Pineapple Plantation

2010-05-30T20:46:00.000-07:00

Our first day on Oahu was jam packed with as many tourist traps as we could fit in. We finished off our day with a trip to the Dole Pineapple Plantation. It was on and off raining, so we didn't spend too much time there. Plus we were in a hurry to make our way up to the Northshore to settle into our room at Turtle Bay.

We started out with the maze. I took the lead and led us through the first half of it. When they say it's the world's largest maze, they aren't kidding. After finding the first 4 posts we decided to not spend time looking for the other ones. We wanted to see some of the other attractions and they were closing soon, so we found openings in the hedges and cheated our way back out.

After exiting the maze we made our way into the cafeteria for some Dole Whips. Our trips to Disneyland are never complete without one of these treats outside of the Tiki Room so we were not going to miss the chance to devour one at the birthplace of the Dole Whip. We went for the floats that came in fun pineapple cups. They were of course totally delicious.

While waiting for the Pineapple Express (a train tour of the plantation fields) we wandered some of the grounds and checked out the variations of pineapples they were growing. I had no idea how many varieties there really were. Some are red, some are tiny, and some are even both.

While on the train we learned a lot of interesting facts about growing pineapple and the history of The Dole Company. Along with pineapple fields, they also grow bananas, sugar cane, macadamia nuts, and a countless number of different fruit trees on the plantation. It was a nice little ride.

The plantation was a bit smaller than I imagined since they don't actually use that land for their main crops anymore. But it was a good place to visit. We learned a lot, the grounds are really pretty, and it was a fun little stop.

Hawaiian sunset

2010-05-29T21:22:00.000-07:00

We stayed BUSY while we were in Hawaii. We did a lot of sightseeing and running around. We wanted to do as much as we could fit into every day. So we didn't get to see a sunset until our 7th night there. It was the only one that we got to sit down and enjoy. It was worth the wait.

Diamond Head

2010-05-29T20:28:00.000-07:00

One of the things that was on my "must do" list while we were in Hawaii was hiking Diamond Head on the island of Oahu. For a couple of months my mantra at the gym has been "Diamond Head, Diamond Head". Every time I start to feel like I can't continue or give it that few extra minutes on the elliptical, I just repeat that in my head over and over again. I knew that it was a tough hike and that it wasn't going to be all that fun, but I was determined to do it.

Well, when we got there, I was in for a surprise. It was a lot more challenging than I thought it was going to be. I had expected the straight uphill climb, the rocky uneven pathways, the heat, and the switchbacks. What I didn't anticipate.........was the stairs. I don't like stairs. Although my knees have gotten better as I've been working hard to get into better shape, they still take a beating on stairs. So I was a little disheartened when we got to the top of the climbing slopes, to see our first set of 74 steep concrete steps. I powered up them the best I could, got to the top and saw that we needed to continue through a long dark inclined narrow tunnel. Once we got through that, with my heart pounding through my chest, my breathing out of control, and my vision blurring, I saw the next set of stairs. That's when I had serious doubts that I was going to finish.

In front of me was a steep climb of 99 steps, around 4 stories, straight up. I sat down for a second on a lookout area at the bottom of the climb, and prayed. With the help of the Lord, and the voice of my sister in the back of head nagging "quit being so dramatic and just do it!!", I powered up the 99 steps, then another 52 steps of a steep spiral staircase, and finished off with a final 54 at the top. Just about the time almost puked, we made it to our destination. It felt great. I was pouring sweat and breathing like a 75 year old emphysema patient. But after taking a look around, I saw that a lot of people were, so I didn't feel so weak then.

The view was of course beautiful, but I'd seen so many pictures of the view before, I pretty much knew what to expect. The great view didn't compare with the feeling of pride that I had. On the way back down I saw people struggling to make it up and I knew what they were thinking to themselves just by the looks on their faces. So I offered up a few "You're almost there"s to some of them.

Once we finally made it near the bottom, it started sprinkling. Chris and I began taunting the weather, "You call this rain?!", and then it started pouring. By the time we got back to the car I was soaked through. This was a bit problematic, because we only had a couple of hours until we needed to meet up with our LOST tour, and the only extra clothes I had brought with me was a dress. It was over a 2 hour round trip drive to go back to our hotel and change. That wasn't going to happen with traffic, so instead we were able to find a Walmart and I ended up buying a whole new outfit.

So I guess the biggest thing I learned from this whole experience was that if you work really hard, stay focused on your goal, and see it to completion, you'll be rewarded with cute new clothes!!

10 years and counting

2010-05-29T18:00:00.000-07:00

It doesn't seem like it's already been 10 years since we got married. It feels like it was yesterday. But so much has happened in our lives over the past decade. We've had great times together, but also some tough times. Our love for each other and for our family has kept us going strong though and I'm extremely proud to say that we've made it this far. Words can not express how much I love my husband. I'm so incredibly blessed to have him in my life. I don't know where I'd be without Chris.

We just returned from our 10th anniversary trip to Hawaii. Thanks to Grandma Shellie we were able to spend 8 days in paradise without the kids. It was amazing. I loved getting to spend so much time just the two of us. Of course we did miss our boys and were ready to get back home by the time it was over. That only lasted until the afternoon after we got back though. Kidding. Kind of.

We did many fun things on our trip. We saw some really cool sites, visited some gorgeous beaches, went on exciting adventures, and best of all.....relaxed. Hopefully I'll be blogging about some of the things we did, but I'm not making any promises! I'm sure I'll get a couple things posted. So stay tuned!

Praying to Always Be a Better Father

2010-05-18T12:56:00.000-07:00

I cry every time I watch this video. Literally. Every time.

I love my sons so much, I can't express it. For the rest of my life I'm going to revel in countless joyful memories I have of my kids, and I desparately hope they have fond memories of us together, like those expressed in this song. I think I do okay as a dad, but I make so, SO many mistakes, I honestly wonder how they'll remember me. Please pray for me. I have a lot of growing and improving to do.

Hard work pays off

2010-05-05T23:55:00.000-07:00

I can see the numbers on the scale getting smaller, my old clothes are fitting again, I can feel my body changing. But I can't really see the difference. So when somebody else mentions it I'm always kind of caught off guard. When you're a large person and you are embarrassed by your body, you tend to lie to yourself when you look in the mirror. You start to ignore your weight and you don't see how big you really look. The lie is easy to keep up, because looking into a mirror doesn't give a full picture of how the world really sees you. So to make sure that you can keep on lying to yourself, you avoid having your picture taken at all costs. Photographs don't lie. And when you have to look at one and see your true self, it can be pretty depressing.

I decided to find a picture of what I looked like at my heaviest and compare it to a picture of me now. I had to search my brain to try and remember when I'd dare let a full body shot be taken of me. Usually I hide behind anything I can. Typically whoever is standing next to me. But then I remembered one from last August at Shellie's company picnic. With all of the family being there, we of course had to get one big group photo. And we were put right in front. I was absolutely mortified. When we got home and I uploaded the pictures from my camera, I almost died. I felt so incredibly embarrassed. When I looked at the pictures this afternoon though, all I could do was smile. I could most definitely see the change. So I ran and grabbed my camera, threw on that same shirt, cinched it up and tucked it into the back of my jeans so it was tighter, and had Brandon take a picture of me for a side by side view. I may not be anywhere near where I want to be, and it might not even be THAT big of a difference yet, but it's enough of a difference to make me proud. And more importantly, enough of a difference to show me that I'm heading in the right direction.

Oh yeah, and the jeans I'm wearing in the recent picture..........4 sizes smaller.

Cry baby

2010-04-29T14:07:00.000-07:00

Sawyer has got the art of the tantrum down pat. He typically sits and screams until he's leaking from every hole on his face. If you walk away and try to ignore him, he will follow you where go, get in front of you so you can see him and start screaming even louder. He usually ends up curled on the floor on his belly, butt popped up into the air, pouting quietly to himself with his little lip out. By then he's forgetten why he was so upset in the first place and heads off to see what his brothers are up to.

Flirty Thirty

2010-04-22T09:41:00.000-07:00

On the same day that Logan turned 5, I turned........thirty!! Otherwise known as: 29 redux. I don't feel any older. I already felt old to begin with. I feel like I accomplished a lot in my twenties. A happy marriage, a strong relationship with God, and three amazingly brilliant kids among many other successes.

I got married a month after I turned 20, and many people told me that I was stupid for getting married so young. That I was going to regret having kids so early. I was going to miss out on the partying and being young. But I didn't want any of that. And I'm SO proud of the life that Chris and I have made with each other and more importantly the life that we avoided when so many people we knew were living it. I may have never had a spring break in Cabo, or entered a wet t-shirt contest, taken a road trip across the country with a car load of friends, or been passed out drunk on the floor after a hard night of partying on my 21st birthday (I celebrated mine pregnant). But I have seen 3 little boys take their first steps, been given snuggly sweet hugs in the middle of the night from sick toddlers, helped pull out loose teeth, had the most beautiful dandylion bouquets decorating my home and spent 10 years with the greatest man a woman could ever hope to call a husband. I'm not sorry for one second of everything I've "missed" out on. My twenties were great. Filled with love, laughter, family, friends, and so much more than I ever imagined I would have. I'm really looking forward to my thirties and seeing what exciting new adventures they have in store for me. And if I do say myself, I think 30 looks pretty good on me.

Logan turns 5!

2010-04-21T23:33:00.000-07:00

It's so hard to believe that my little Logi Bear is 5 years old already. For his party this year he wanted to go to Super Jump Party Zone. So we invited a TON of Logan and Brandon's friends to come and join us for a couple of hours to celebrate his big day. All of the kids from his preschool and Taekwondo classes came, a few of the boys from Cub Scouts, and of course a lot of our family friends.

Everybody had a lot of fun. The kids (and a few adults) had a great time horsing around on all of the inflatables. We chowed down on pizza and cake. And with all of the guests that came, Logan got a whole trunk full of toys. Because Logan and I share a birthday, we try to really keep our parties/celebrations seperate. I always want him to feel important and special on his birthday, and I think this year we really succeeded in that.

Sawyer's 1st birthday party, complete with a trip to the ER

2010-04-07T09:13:00.000-07:00

The theme for Sawyer's party was "baby farm animals". For the food, I decided on breakfast. Yes, breakfast. Pancakes, hasbrowns, bacon, etc, etc. I was a little worried that people would think it was kind of strange, but let me tell you, that food got eaten faster than any other party we've ever had. So I think everybody liked it. I stayed up until 1am the night before making the cake. It was a butter pecan cake with chocolate filling and homemade buttercream icing. Needless to say, a very sweet concoction. I made the little barn out of a soda box and covered it with frosting. The idea for the cake came to me only hours before I sat down to make it, so I had to use what was available. It wasn't edible, but it was still adorable!

And after the trial run with the cake on his birthday a few days before, he knew what to do when his cake got put in front of him.

When Sawyer woke up the morning of the party, you could tell something was wrong. He had a fever on and off all day long. He was very clingy and lethargic. So he pretty much sat in laps for the entire party. But I don't think the people that were holding him minded all that much. Cuddling with Sawyer is a treat. So when it came time to open presents, Daddy held him and helped him along.

He got a ton of great toys from everybody that came. Grandpa Harold and Grandma Shellie got him "Sawyer the Saw"! His nickname is Saw so it was a very fitting present.

Probably Sawyer's favorite gift that he opened though, was a box of wooden spoons from Auntie. Yes, wooden spoons. His eyes got all big and you could tell he was excited. It was the only gift that he actually came out of his little zombie like state to get excited over. Sawyer loves him some spoons!

After the party was over, and all of the guests had gone, Sawyer started to get worse. His fever was skyrocketing out of control. He woke up from a late nap and it was 102. I didn't want to give him anymore Tylenol because it hadn't been very long since his last dose, so instead I decided to give him a cool bath. As he was standing next to the tub waiting to get in he started shaking and I told Chris that it looked like he was having a seizure. Later I found out that it was more than likely what had happened. Babies can have little seizures if their body temperature is changed too fast. So when I checked him again and he was at 104, Chris took him to the hospital. When they got there they couldn't find anything immediatly wrong with him, so a chest x-ray was ordered. With that they found that he had a couple of little patches in one of his lungs that were the begining of pneumonia. They started him on medication, and now a week and a half later, he's finally back to his old self.

Thanks to everybody that came up and helped us celebrate. It was a very interesting first birthday to say the least. Hopefully next year won't be filled with the pneumonia and Sawyer will be able to just enjoy himself. Then maybe we won't get sad little miserable birthday boy pictures like this one......

Time to childproof

2010-04-07T00:02:00.000-07:00

Sawyer's new favorite way to drive me crazy is to get into the cabinets. When the other boys were babies, we lived in places where it was easy to block the kitchen from their curious little hands. But here the kitchen is open to the whole rest of the house, so keeping out Sawyer is pretty much impossible. As frustrating as it may be trying to keep our little explorer out of the cabinets, it's still hard to find him anything but adorable.

A terrific trio

2010-04-06T12:22:00.000-07:00

The boys love each other so much. Sure they have their moments where one or more of them has a breakdown and all crap breaks loose, but for the most part they are wonderful with each other. I couldn't ask for 3 more amazing little men.

Sawyer's 1st birthday

2010-04-06T12:18:00.000-07:00

I know it's a couple of weeks late posting this, but at least I'm doing it, right?! Sawyer's birthday was on a Tuesday this year, and the party wasn't until the following Sunday. So we decided to get him a little cake on the actual day. He stared at all of us when we sang Happy Birthday like we were crazy.

Daddy blew the candle out for him and then put the cake in front of him. He wasn't really sure if he was allowed to touch it at first. He reached toward it really slowly and then when he realized we weren't going to stop him, he started picking at the frosting. He was taking off the giant sprinkles one by one and eating them. So I took a butterknife and scraped them off so he would dig into.

He started out with little pieces and bits of frosting, but it didn't take to long before he was really going at it. Shoving as much as he could as fast as he could into his little mouth. He had huge chunks ripped off in fistfuls. He went crazy on that cake. He loved it.

Moving mountains

2010-04-01T23:38:00.000-07:00

I’m going to hijack our family blog for a post. I’ve been wanting to blog about many things lately: thoughts about God, being a stay-at-home-mom, politics, all kinds of different things. Chris suggested that I start my own blog to get out all of my ramblings, but I just don’t know how often I would post. You all know how great I am at keeping up on THIS blog, so adding another one might not be the best idea right now. So let the hijacking proceed!

In the past couple of months I’ve really tried to make changes to improve myself. I’ve started eating better (that’s not to say that I don’t have my slips now and again), and I’m trying to get to the gym on a more regular basis. It’s been great. I’ve noticed some huge differences. My knee doesn’t hurt when I’m going up stairs anymore, I’ve been getting more restful sleep, I’ve got more energy throughout the day, my old clothes are fitting better, and I’ve just been in an all around better mood. I’m inspiring myself everyday with the changes that I’m seeing. It’s been amazing.

Lately my motto has been: if your brain says you can do it, your body will follow. I’ve been sharing that with everybody including my own kids. I don’t like to hear the word “can’t" come out of their mouths. So every time they say it, I respond with “Only if you don’t try”. You really CAN do anything. Last night when I was flipping through a book I recently purchased, this theory was really hammered home for me. It's a small book filled with verses from the bible. They are categorized for different life situations (marriage, illness, anger, etc). So last night as I was browsing through it, I happened upon this verse:

“…..for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move; and nothing will be impossible to you.” Matthew 17:20

Reading that put a huge smile on my face. God always knows the perfect moment to drop into my life and move me with His word. It’s like he was telling me that I’ve been right all along and to keep doing exactly what I’ve been doing. As long as I believe that I can do it, the goals that once felt unattainable will come to fruition. So I took that verse and embedded it into my brain and today at the gym, I moved my own mountain.

I've always felt that the elliptical machine was created by Satan himself to torture poor innocent souls in exercise facilities the world over. I have avoided that thing at all costs for the last 8 years. But lately watching other people on it burning a ton of calories, sweating every ounce of liquid out of their bodies, and most importantly losing weight got me thinking “Why can't I do that?”

For years now I’ve had a bum knee. I hyper extended it years ago and since then I’ve used it as my excuse to bow out of many different activities: running, climbing, hiking, pretty much anything I’ve felt too lazy or more importantly, too scared, to get off my butt and do. That includes that dang elliptical machine. But my knee hasn’t been bothering me so much lately. So one day about 4 weeks ago, I found myself all alone in the little fitness room at the gym (where I prefer to exercise away from the meatheads and Barbie dolls). I decided to make my way over to the elliptical and just give it a try. I only made it a minute and 12 seconds before my legs literally stopped themselves from moving. I absolutely couldn’t go anymore. It was embarrassing. I’m just glad there was nobody else in there to see my shame. I made a decision right there to conquer that stupid machine. It was not going to steal my dignity like that and get away with it!

I knew it was going to take awhile, but I was up for the challenge. So about once or twice a week, at the end of my regular workout, I would hop on it again (only if there were very few people in the room of course) and go until my legs would seize up. And I was adding a little bit on to my time with each go at it. On Monday I was able to get it up to a whopping 7 minutes and 10 seconds. I was so proud of myself! It gave me a high for the rest of the day. I never in a million years thought I would get a full 7 minutes on the elliptical…and then some! It was thrilling. Then the very next day before a training session, I did my 5 minute warm up on the elliptical in the main gym with 2 dozen other people around. I felt super insecure at first, but I didn't care, because I was doing it, just like everybody else. And I loved it.

For some reason I’ve always waited until the end of my workout to tackle the beast. Today I decided that I was going to see how much I could add on to my time if I got it over with first thing, before I did any other part of my regular routine. Well I’m still having a hard time believing it myself, but this afternoon, on my mortal enemy the elliptical machine, I got in a full 20 minutes! You read that right! TWENTY MINUTES! From 7 minutes to 20! And my legs didn’t give out! I wanted to cry right there in the middle of the YMCA. I wanted to run through the entire facility telling everybody I saw what I had just accomplished. I can’t remember the last time I’ve felt this good about myself. From now on, my first stop at the gym will be the machine that is quickly becoming a helpful friend.

I’ve felt so empowered lately meeting the challenges that I’ve given myself. This is my life and if there’s something I’m not happy with about myself, I can change it. It might not be fun sometimes, it'll take work, and it’s not going to happen overnight, but at the end of my journey, I’m going to be a much happier and stronger person.

Next up on the list of “things I never thought I’d do”……..Zumba :S

Happy Birthday Saywer!!

2010-03-23T11:36:00.000-07:00

One year ago today Sawyer joined our little clan. It's insane to me how fast the time goes.

Sawyer has developed quickly in his short little life. Crawling at 4 months, walking at 9, and 7 fully grown teeth by the time he was 11 months old!! His size on the other hand.....well, he's a little on the runty side of average. But we don't mind. His tinyness just makes his personality a whole lot cuter.

And when it comes to personality, Sawyer has got it in spades. From the time he was just a couple of months old people have been telling us how happy of a baby he is. He is ALWAYS smiling big toothy grins and it doesn't take more than a little poke in the ribs to send him into fits of laughter. He is such a goofy little kid too. He loves making faces at you and doing anything he can think of to make you laugh. He loves when the boys play with him, but he's also completely content just sitting on the floor and playing by himself or dragging his puppy on a string behind him as he walks circles through the house.

We are so blessed to have been given this wonderful little boy. We love him so much and are excited to see what he will become. Happy Birthday Saw-Saw!