Cheap labor!

So, I'm hiring D out! They do a lot here in the schools about our "community workers", so I'm hiring D out to go into the classrooms. He went into Macy's room on Monday, and he's going into Luke's room next Friday. It's fun! He comes in with his laptop, shows the kids his demo reel, then shows them how to do some computer animation. Macy's teacher even had her bring in "Barnyard" so that they could watch it as a special (?) treat! Very cool!

Doodle the day away...

Totally random... just want to share. So I signed up for this online scrapbooking class called Doodle All Day. Today I sat down and was working on my first assignment, make a "Doodle Journal" and doodle on the cover. I was having SO MUCH FUN!!! Totally brought me back to high school, sitting in class, doodling on the covers of everything. And then Chad and Haley saw what I was doing and they wanted to make doodle journals as well. Still a work in progress, but again, just wanted to share. (Bring back memories, Carol?)

6 months already????

Soooo big!!!

Cheryl, these pics are for you! Look at all the lovely chub!!! He'll be 6 months old on Monday... can you believe it? Anyways, he rolled over the other way! He was doing tummy to back - easy, peasy... now he's got back to tummy! Much harder! He also started blowing raspberries! Very cute! We have one smart baby boy on our hands!

Cooking 101

So those of you that really know me, know how much I LOVE to cook - NOT!!! As I totally sit here watching Top Chef - love the show... not the act of doing! Anyways, I sat down with a couple of cook books the other night and came up with 18 main dishes that I thought I could make and at least some of the members of my family would enjoy. I went out and bought ALL of the ingredients - good thing we have an extra freezer! I needed something like 28 chicken breasts, 10 pounds of ground beef, and then a whole bunch of different beef parts. So, we are on day 3, and I have yet to poison anyone!!! Sunday we made homemade Mac n' Cheese - a prizewinning recipe that D found on the Tillamook Cheese website that he thought sounded yummy (not bad... but as a lover of Stouffer's Mac n' Cheese, this one was a bit too strong for me!... but Derrick loved it... even took leftovers to work the next day for lunch!). Next day found us with some really yummy stew, and even Aunt Susie liked it! And tonight we are having "Missionary Meatloaf", covered in bacon. Has to be good if it's covered in bacon! Might make a chef out me yet! Watch out Top Chef... I may be on the next season!!!

Taking the scenic route...

So today I went on a field trip with Luke's class. Luke is in the 4th grade, but in a 4/5 split, and for some reason here that means that this year he is learning 5th grade curriculum and next year he will learn the 4th grade stuff. Not sure how that works, but whatever. Anyways, the 5th graders here are currently learning about landforms, so we took a field trip today to see a bunch of the Columbia Gorge and some waterfalls. And lucky for us, it didn't rain on us too much... only some light drizzle!

Fall is here!

So I got these cute boots at Costco and just wanted to blog them. D thinks I'm really strange for doing that... but I don't care. Funnier thing is, I don't think I ever owned rain boots before. Now we have lots of them at out house!

Meet Max 3 and 4!

So also over the weekend we got some new additions to our family. It was kind of an accident getting two... but you know how I am with cute little furry things! So we now have two new kittens. We thought they were both girls and named one of them Tallulah Belle (not sure why) and the other one still unnamed, othen than the name she came with - Minka - but then we found out at the vet today that Tallulah Belle is really a boy! Darnit! Now what? We don't want to cause a kitty identity crisis or anything!!! And we totally can't name them all Max... we keep losing Max's and I think it's just a bad luck name for us now!

Halloween Costumes?

This was the favorite! Haley with Derrick's Hercules wig from a couple years ago, and the ever fashionable pumpkin purse. Haley as Sonic and Luke in his Tails costume that Grandma Paula made when he was 3ish and Chad was 5ish. See how well it still fits Luke?????
Now Haley as Tails!
Luke and Haley as The Big Bad Wolf - without all the hair - and Haley as Little Red Robin Hood!

Ok, so over the weekend, one of our jobs was to decorate for Halloween. So, out come all the many buckets that we haven't seen in two years (because last Halloween we were living in Bob & Susie's basement) - you forget how much stuff you have!!! Anyways, out come all of the many costumes from Halloweens past. Haley was having a great time trying them all on!

Macy's party, Part 2

Pretty feet... before the pedicures! I just really like this picture!
Haley giving her cousin, Jenny, a pedicure! Jenny definately being a good sport!!!

Do little girls really sleep?

Making jewelry.
Chad and John singing a very rowdy rendition of "YMCA"... with quite the back-up band when they got to the chorus part!
The gang plus Luke and Garrett.
Princess for a day! Aunt Susie made Macy's cupcakes and mini cake, with the crown and earrings on top, so Macy had to wear them in order to light the candles. And all her friends loved it because Aunt Susie put Barbie Princess rings on all the cupcakes which opened up to reveal lip gloss! Perfect!

So, the update to Macy's birthday party. We had 6 little girls over, plus Macy and Haley for a total of 8 (also Garrett, who just turned 5, and his dad, John, who was really good at karoake!). They had a great time! We did all sorts of projects - purses, jewelry, crowns, etc. - and the highlight was probably pedicures by Aunt Susie and I, who of course, spoke "Chinese" the whole time we did it! We had 3 of the girls spend the night, and I finally put them to bed at midnight, after Macy and Haley had already fallen asleep. A good time was had by all!

And who would guess how excited a group of 7- and 8- year-old little girls would get over the CD for High School Musical!!! Crazy!

He really can!

Ok, so D said the other day, "We really need to update our blog." Now, when he says "we", that means "me", because has he ever updated the blog? Does he even know how?

Ok, so I digress... point of the post, after weeks of secretly rolling over in his sleep, we actually caught Reed doing it in his awake time! He really can roll over! Not just subconciously! So now the kids keep putting him on his belly to see how long, or what they need to do, to convince him to roll over. It's really cute, actually! He puts his little bum in the air, with his legs folded up under him, sort of tips to one side and then scoots his arm out until he's made it. Not sure if he's trying to do it or not, but he does... and it's oh, so cute!

Today

Happy Birthday my big 7-year-old!!! 7 years old, toothless, smart as a whip and thinks she's the mom! Pretty normal, right? We love you Macy and are sooooo thankful that you are a part of our family! Happy Birthday to our little girl!

Mia Hamm, watch out!

And our little soccer star, whose still not quite sure what's going on, but she looks awfully cute in her jersey. Macy is having a super time playing soccer... and can you believe it... she will be 7 tomorrow!!! Oh, and one more thing, she lost another tooth yesterday! So now all she has are her two bottom teeth; the middle tops and the side bottoms are completely gone. Will post a pic when I have one.

And Reed...

and Reed has some new "tricks". D put him in his bumbo chair so that he could sit at the table with us while we ate dinner, and he thought the best thing to do would be to eat the table. Whatever works. Probably has lots of good tastes on it.

And then I came home yesterday to Chad wanting to show me some pictures. He was watching Reed while I was at Scouts, and apparently that little bugger can secretly hold his bottle. He also secretly rolls over while he sleeps. I still have not seen him roll over (see post from our California trip), but I'll go to his bed in the morning and he's flipped over... so I know he knows how to do it. We'll put him on the floor though and watch him, and he won't move, other than kicking his legs like crazy... but in his sleep is a different story!

And she's off!

Haley started Pre-School this week and boy does she LOVE IT!!! She goes two days a week for 2 1/2 hours, and she just loves it! I never thought she wouldn't, but still. She is the first one getting up on her school days and dressed and ready to go at least an hour before it's time. Then, once school is done, she has to tell me what she had for snack and that she "played" the whole time. She knew her teacher's name, Mrs. Walker, before school started, and she wanted to know the color of her house (pink) upon first meeting her... because these are important things, don't you know? I really hope that Haley's love for school lasts her forever!!!

Barf-o-rama! (Warning - do not proceed if you have barfing sensitivity!)

Sleeping Reed. He totally burrowed into the other blankets, but was very happy!
Our "campfire"! Our friend, Liz, Macy in the background with Liz's husband behind her and one of the kids, more friends and neighbors, John and Garrett Perkins at the campfire, with Luke eating his smore.
Cutest Reed!!!

Ok, so last night was our ward camp-out. It was a lot of fun!... except for the barf-o-rama in the middle of the night. So, Haley and I were just watching this cartoon, and they were at a fair, and there was this ride, the Vomitorium. Jeez.... a throw-up theme (fair warning!).

We got there, and all was well. With the help of my friend, Liz, we got our tent set up and all groovy. (D didn't get there til later.) We ate KFC and played with lots of friends and then there was even campfire activities around 9:30 last night - with smores... a personal favorite! We had our own small campfire though (see the pic above!) - the little camp stove. I know, a little untraditional, but a lot easier to roast your marshmallows at then the giant campfire that EVERYBODY is roasting marshmallows at. We were very happy with our mini "campfire"! Off to bed around 11, and all was well until about 4:30 am when Macy thought it would be fun to throw up all over all included in the tent! Needless to say, Macy, Luke and I escaped in the middle of the night to the comforts of our own beds, while D stayed behind in the "throw-up" tent with Chad, Haley and Reed - who did great! Luckily, camping was only on the other side of our lake, so only about 15 minutes in the middle of the night. Sad for D, he wasn't able to sleep at all past that lovely incident (go figure!), and is now at an Eagle Scout Project, pulling weeds for the next two hours, and then on to Macy's first soccer game... and he's totally exhausted. Macy, on the other hand, is feeling great (of course!)... she slept til 9!

So, needless to say, not too many camping pics, but at least a couple cute ones of Reed sleeping in the tent.

Hardest mile ever

This was the beginning of the walk. The end would be at the top of the waterfall at the top of the picture. See? Reed found the way to travel.
Made it up (finally!). Only took about an hour and a half to walk 1 mile!!! Cooling off in the stream.
The big fall is actually now below us.

Getting a treat after all that hard work!

So, something I really wanted to do this summer was hike to Multnomah Falls. Not bad, only a mile each way; gee, I do more than that when I walk the dog. But really, nobody mentioned the uphill, switchbacks, pushing a stroller while I can barely breathe, with Reed in a backpack on D, sleeping. He found the best seat in the house! We had a good time though. Once we got past Haley's "toddler" moments, it was a really nice way to spend our last day of summer.

It really happened!

Chad and his friend, Daelin, were the only ones waiting for the middle school bus - at 7:21am!
Look at all the kids on the elementary school bus! Crazy!!! They get picked up at 8:24. Who makes up these times, anyways?

School started! I know that some of you already started - Burbank, last week, and Provo, the week before - but for us "Northwesterners?" (Washington and Oregon) it started yesterday. Now, just trying to get back into the school rhythm.

For our kids, yesterday brought another new school. When we moved up here last summer, we were living in the boundaries of one school, but when we moved into our house, we moved into the boundaries of another school (same school district - just a block out of the boundary line for the first school), so school yesterday was new to all the kids. Macy and Luke were ok with it - they tend to go with the flow so well (and they each had kids in their classes that they knew from church). But Chad on the other hand, tried to talk us out of going back to school. Not only did he start a new school, but it was middle school, and all of his friends' from his class last year went to the other middle school, so this was completely new to him. He survived though! One of his friends' from down the street (who is also from church and scouts) got on the bus with him and introduced him to his friends, so all was well. Just the fact that Daelin was there to get on the bus with him really helped!

So, day #2. I plan to do nothing! Just kidding. My friend is actually dropping off two of her kids, ages 2 and 4 (handfuls!), for a couple of hours so that she can go check out the classrooms of her older kids. Gotta work on the invites for Macy's big giant sleepover birthday next weekend.

Happy Mommy!

I love my kids, don't get me wrong, but I am SOOOO excited for school to start on Tuesday! I know some moms are like, "I get so sad when my kids go back to school. I miss them being around all day." I don't know about your house, but in mine, when my kids are around all day, there is a lot of fighting, yelling (not always me! :O)), and "mom, I'm bored... play with me!". Doesn't the fact that I gave them each 4 other siblings to play with mean anything? So, yesterday, after I spent most of the day going bonkers because Macy wouldn't leave me alone - I LOVE you Macy! - I dropped Macy and Haley at a friends' house, left Reed with Chad and Luke, and then went and got a pedicure and my eyebrows waxed. And, when D got home, I made him take me to the movies - "Bourne Ultimatum" pretty good! - and boy, was it just what I needed to revive my "momminess". Sometimes the mommy needs to be a person, and not just a mommy! Know what I mean all you mommies out there?

Happy Feet?

We did it! We finished the Portland to Coast (walking) relay race! The Hood to Coast race is a running one and it goes for 195 miles. Our team name was Happy Feet, and I tell you my feet aren't so happy today!!! Anyways, our first van started at 9:00 am on Friday morning and walked until about 4:00 pm, then it was our turn. I was the first walker. 5.89 miles, 85 degrees, up and down all these hills. I didn't even go one mile before I was wondering how the heck I had gotten involved in this! I thought I was going to melt and die!!! Anyways, between me and the other 5 people in my van, we walked until about midnight Friday night, then woke up the first team so that they could continue on. We slept - really only about 1 hour because others around us thought it would be fun to have a party at about 3:00 am - and then it was our turn again. I started again for our team at about 5:58 am, dark, raining, but only like 4.08 miles this time. Much better! Our van ended the final leg of the race in Seaside, OR, right on the beach. In total, our team walked 127 miles in a bit over 24 hours. In our category, which was male mixed walking, we came in #25 out of 134 teams. Not too bad, huh?

A lot of work, and boy, did we smell bad when all was said and done, but oh, so much fun! I will definately do it again next year! And Liz (one of my teammates and friends) and I committed to look really good in Spandex by then!!! Keep your fingers crossed!

Will post pics as soon as I get them!