What Do You Want to Be...

Sitting around the breakfast table, the question was posed, "What do you want to be when you grow up?"  Logan - "A scuba diver."  Owen - "A scuba diver."  Annika - "Ummm.  What I want to be?  I want to be...  I want to be...  I want to be...a butterfly."  We love her:)

2014 Post

I just noticed a link to our blog on my friend's blog and I was reminded that I used to do such a thing as record some moments of our life! :)  I thought I should at least post once during the year of 2014 and perhaps I'll even start again in 2015!  So, Annika just reminded me tonight that I wanted to write down my new favorite word that she used last night.  Nadia was fresh out of the bath and I was dressing her on the bed.  Annika was hopping around saying, "Nadia, it's so cold.  Here!  Use my towel.  It's refrigerating in here!"  Guess that's better than freezing.  And on to 2015:)

2013 Bickleton Rodeo & More

Logan and Owen had to retire from Muttin' Bustin' (too big and old) but we still enjoyed a fun rodeo with my parents.

Annika's first carousel ride...that she is actually on the horse and remembers. 

Logan and Owen in front and my parents behind.  The boys weren't so into the carousel this year and I don't seem to have photos of anything else.



 First of the harvest!

 Watch out for this one!

Logan building something complete with his outgrown goggles:) 

Annika putting herself to bed.



Kindergarten Graduation

The boys graduated from kindergarten (about a month ago!) so I thought I'd post some photos.


The last day of school (their backpacks still look huge!)  They both decided they wanted to dress up for graduation and took it pretty seriously.  Made me laugh because they never wanted to dress up for any of their little concerts throughout the year, but this was a special occasion:)  They each picked out their outfits...pinstripes and all for little Owen:)

 

 

 

Owen getting a certificate from Ms McManus.

 



 
Logan receiving his diploma from Mr. Palmer.

Little sister packing all the gifts home!

 

 

 

The boys celebrating their success!

 

And now we have 1st graders!  So proud of our little guys.  They LOVE school...especially the social aspect!

Latest Favorite Quotes

Before I head to bed, I should record a couple of my favorite quotes from our children.

Several months ago, Owen was mad at Logan for some reason, so Owen highly insulted Logan by saying, "You're nothing but a dried up coconut."  We've really tried to encourage the boys not to call names and they really don't...at least not the typical ones.  I was rather proud of his creativity though.

This morning, Logan was sitting on the edge of his bed when I went in to greet him.  He said, "Hi Mama.  I'm just telling a story...in my head."  I made some comment and he said, "Ya, and if I talk I'll forget where I am in the story."  And the story continued for several more minutes before he came out of his bedroom.  I'd love to hear it someday:)

A Snow Day in May

 

 

I have neglected this blog for a year, mostly because I suddenly couldn't figure out how to post pictures anymore...but, I tried it, once again, and it worked!  I'm not going to attempt to try to update the past year.  I noticed the last post was Muttin' Bustin' and this year's rodeo is this coming wknd.  Yikes!  It's been awhile, so I think I'll just take it from here, maybe posting some highlights from the last year later on. 

 

So, some of our latest unexpected fun was waking up to a foot or so of snow on May 22nd and the boys' first snow day.  The snow wiped out power until noon, so school was cancelled.

 

 

 We were, once again, grateful for our woodstove and enjoyed cooking pancakes on it for breakfast.  Then, a neighbor-girl joined us to play in the snow the rest of the day.

                                                           Owen, Annika, Megan, Logan

Annika

 

                                                                       Logan

                                                                               Owen

Our tomatoes!  I was thinking we really planted a bit early this year, but everything seemed to survive.


And...since it's been so long since I've posted anything, I'll add a few more fun pictures of the kiddos.

                                                  Annika "napping" with her favorite doll.

                                  Logan dressed up as a pirate (and putting off going to bed!)

                                               Owen on top of a dinosaur at a favorite park.

                                                Annika "helping" me clean out closets.

Hopefully, I will be better about posting now that the pictures seem to be working for me.  Stay tuned for a busy week of Kindergarten Graduation and the Bickleton Rodeo:)

 

Mutton Bustin'

It took the boys two years of watching, but this year, they finally rode the sheep. I thought that they were super brave and did a great job. Our friend, Nicholas, put them on, so that Jacob and I could watch. Nicholas told the story of his own mutton bustin' experience. A couple feet out of the chute, his sheep jumped and rolled and Nicholas came up still holding on...he won the belt buckle at age 5 and later went on to be a champion bullrider 15yrs later. I'm not hoping the boys follow in his footsteps! After their experiences, Owen said he was glad he did it, but it felt like he landed on a pile of rocks! Logan still has some mixed feelings. Getting his finger stuck in the gate on the way out of the chute caused him a bit of trauma and blood loss! Woops! He's all good now and I'm sure he's glad for the one-time experience! Overall, they said they are both happy to retire. Next year, at the old age of 6, they will be too old to compete:)

Gram and Grandpa Visit

My parents just spent a few days with us. It's always fun to have grandparents around. Grandpa protecting his cake.

A nice family game of BINGO!

Sadly, the weather was a bit chilly during their visit, but they were good sports and took the boys fishing anyway.

A bit of a motley crew! No, mom was not overdressed in my insulated coveralls from Savoonga! We had good fun fishing (The boys got their first bites. Logan said, "Look, I got one! I got one!" Apparently, he has no need of seeing the fish out of the water...the nibble was sufficient excitement!)and watching all the wind/kite surfers while we ate.

Kiki interupting Gram's reading to the boys:)

We had a great visit!

Family Fun Day

Yakima has a program designed to encourage families to enjoy the outdoors together. They put on fun, free events throughout the year. We had so much fun at the family fun day. They had a whole bunch of stations set up for the kids to try different sports. First, they kayaked...

Then, a little outdoor drumming...

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Annika...enjoying the day:) Notice her new tooth!

Owen and Jacob finishing up the obstacle course.

But of all the events they had out for the kids to try, they seemed to get the most excited about the hula hoops(next to kayaking!)! You gotta love our boys!:) Logan tries it around the neck...

"I got it this time!"

"Hmmm...maybe around the arm would be easier."

"I just don't get it, Logan."

A fun day had by all!

Happy Bday Jacob and More

We celebrated Jacob's bday at the beginning of this month.

We're sooo excited for warmer weather. Our first backyard picnic(several weeks ago) of the season.

They decided to start farming the field across from us. I caught the boys watching the tractors:)

I've always said that we don't comb our hair in this family...who, really, wants to make time for that?:) But, since the boys will be starting Kindergarten in the fall, I thought it might be time to start them brushing their hair. So, one day, I said, "You guys need to comb your hair before breakfast." This is how they proudly returned:) This morning I heard Logan say, "I wish we had some gel or something to keep our mohawks up." Owen replied, "Ya, or maybe some glue. Glue would work, Logan!" And this is when I intervened!

Housekeeping

I've never claimed to be the best housekeeper and having a third child certainly hasn't helped me much in this area! Last night, I stayed up and cleaned the entire house(meaning I put everything away, not that I got to the scrubbing part!) Nobody seemed to notice, so at lunch, I felt the need to point out to the family that I cleaned the house last night. After staring at a spot on the floor for awhile, Owen finally said, "Mama...for cleaning the house...it doesn't look very clean." Thank you very much, Owen! :)

BINGO

We were playing a rollicking game of bingo with my parents and the boys tonight. The boys were taking turns spinning the balls around in the cage and reading the numbers. They are still learning to recognize anything over 10 or so, but I think they figured it out tonight. "I tooty-six"(I26) and "B onesy-four"(B14).

Big Brothers

You can see from the following pictures how much Logan and Owen love their little sister and vice-versa!

Owen and Annika

Owen and Annika?

Logan and Kiki

Logan and Kiki?

Helpful big brothers:)

And one last photo suggesting that perhaps we should consider feeding Annika solids:)

Annika in Church

I haven't braved church with the three children for awhile. We usually listen via a speaker in the nursery because our church is SUPER quiet and our children account for the youngest attendees by a long shot. People assure me that they enjoy having the kids in the service, but they also seem to spend an awful lot of time staring at us when sounds are made! Annika, overall, is very happy during the service, but she likes to talk and when she talks, she likes to be heard. There was that one time that Jacob actually stopped preaching until I ushered us out the door because, even though he was mic'd, he could not be heard over Annika! But today, I had good reason to believe that she would sleep through the service. We came in only to find all of the back pews already filled, as they would be in any good reformed church! So, up we went to join Jacob in the front pew (it's in the front, yes, but there's also a side door not too far away). Annika slept the first part of the service and then she felt the need to practice her new word over and over and over. "Mamamama...mamamamamama....mama." Each time, Owen and Logan would giggle, I would tell them to be quiet, then I would try to move Kiki to distract her, then she would spot Jacob and start smiling and laughing, and soon resume her "Mama...mamamama..." I think that we weren't really quite as distracting as I felt that we were being, but somehow, I feel that I get more out of the service when I'm in the nursery!

Mandi at the Beach

We used Mandi's visit as an excuse to head to the Oregon coast for a couple of days. So much fun!

We roughed it in a yurt:)

We discovered Nehalem Bay State Park...dunes and beach. We spent much more time playing in the dunes than on the beach due to the high winds and cold temps!

Owen, Teague, and Ari

Logan

Jacob and the boys playing on drift wood near the bay.

We camped next to a very fun family with 5 children. The boys loved having other kids to play with.

We finished our trip with an amazing dinner at this Japanese restaraunt in Hood River.

More wildlife spotted in Bickleton.