Happy Birthday D!!!

Look who turned 38 today! Can you believe it? He's old! Happy Birthday to the best husband, father, friend a person could know! I love you and hope that you have the best birthday ever!!! No Mini Cooper this year... but maybe next year, for your "mid-life" crisis birthday. 381!

Also turning 38 is Sherri, D's twin sister. So, she's old too (but 8 minutes younger!!!). Happy Birthday Sherri! We love you!

That's Sherri in the front, with teeny, tiny little Reed when he was only about 2 months old. Ignore Annie in the background making faces.

Tulip Festival.

While Amanda was here, we went to the Tulip Festival. Most amazing! I want to know when Derrick is going to make our backyard look like this! The kids had a great time on the bouncy, jumpy trampoline thing, and Amanda and I loved all the tulips.

Small town.

As I've mentioned before, we live in what I consider a "small town". Take for instance, Luke and Macy's school is currently on this whole poem kick. So, they each have a poem displayed in one of the businesses in downtown Camas. Macy's poem about soccer is on the wall at Bank of America, and Luke's is in the front window of a restaurant called Around the Table.

I'm back...

Sorry, it's been a bit crazy (ok, a bit crazier!) at our house lately. Between having the basement worked on, the WASL (Washington State School tests), trying to finish a scrapbooking deadline (to pay for the basement!), having Amanda and Grandma & Grandpa visit (love all of you!), life has just sort of slipped by. So, on that note, here's some catch up.

First off, pictures of the basement. Chad has a room - still in the rough stage - but it's there. It's so neat to see the progress. The bathroom is being worked on, and a shower has been bought. Yesterday we spent the whole day re-arranging the new crawl space area and trying to figure out where to put all the basement stuff. Needless to say, our garage is pretty filled up with Star Wars toys right now.

Friday night we had some pretty nice weather and decided to BBQ. It hadn't rained since that morning, the sun was shining, and it was at least 55 degrees out - almost boiling!

More Montana photos.

Fireplace at the Moonlight Basin (I think that's what it's called) Lodge
Haley and I ice skating - outdoor rink... pretty cool!
Eskimo Reed - part polar bear, I tell you!
Reed and Daddy
Reed and I ice skating
Ready for hiking! Sunglasses, check! Warm clothes, check! Backpack for daddy, check!
In front of a frozen water fall. Pretty cool, huh? You could put your ear up to it and hear the water rushing still on the inside.Above the frozen Ousel Falls. Very cool (I mean, cold!) hike that we went on!

Spring Break in Montana.

Grandpa told us that we were supposed to spend Spring Break in warmer climates. Unfortunately, we got this memo a little too late. Aunt Sherri and Uncle Curtis (Hi!) have a condo in Big Sky, Montana, that they let us use for Spring Break (thanks Aunt Sherri and Uncle Curtis!). When we left our house in Washington, it was snowing lightly, not enough to stick to the ground, and was about 34 degrees. Montana, about 5 feet of snow on the ground, around 10 degrees, but pretty bright and sunny... so happy.

We had a great time! We went sledding, ice skating (the kids had never skated before and really liked it - they all want to take lessons now), hiking and shopping. Chad and Derrick went snowboarding and really loved it! They haven't been since we were in Canada almost 4 Christmases ago.

On our way there, we almost hit an "elk" (not really sure what it was - today it's an elk) and got caught in a snowstorm on the Idaho/Montana border. We also got our car stuck in the snow while sledding one day and had to call AAA to come and tow us out, but other than that, had a really fun time, and really enjoyed the week together... even with Cooper! We found out that he really likes snow.

Poor little man.

This is what happens when I won't let him take a nap. We were running errands all morning, and then had only about an hour before it was time to pick up Haley, so I refused to put Reed down for his morning nap. Wait until after we pick up Haley, and then he could sleep for hours. So, I left him on the couch and when I came back, this is what I find. Not even laying down. Just sleeping. Don't you wish it was always that easy?

Guess who turned 1 yesterday!!!

Can you believe it???? Little man Reed turned 1 yesterday! I don't think he really cared, or was very excited for that matter, although he did really like the cake that we gave him. He wasn't feeling so hot, so presents and food didn't really matter... but cake always counts.

At 1... Reed is growing tooth #5. He's a little slow on the whole tooth thing (just like the other kids!). D thinks that he looks a bit like Spongebob with his little snaggle-tooth grin. He is "walking" around furniture, but not quite standing or walking on his own yet. He gets up the stairs very well, but still has some issues on getting down them - we're working on it! He loves to eat anything... including everything I like to eat that the other kids say are "gross", like tuna, grapefruit and avocados. He likes to say "stop" and is getting really good at mimicking motions. He's just the cutest and we so love having him in our family.

Happy Birthday little Reed!!!