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.

Mandi in the Woods

My dear friend Mandi has now made two trips out to visit us from Bush Alaska! If you look back a couple of years on this blog, you will see photos of Mandi and I out walking together on the frozen tundra in Savoonga. We moved south. She moved a bit west, but those miles we travelled together in Savoonga formed a lifelong bond for us. This time, she joined us with her dog Teague (all black) and Ari (a friend's dog). These photos are all taken in or around Bickleton.

She was so kind as to let the boys style her hair several times, although, if you take note, I don't recall her every showing off her new style in public:)

Of course, we took her to see our neighbor's pigs.

I never realized what we look like going for family "walks" (long-distance being why the boys are also in a stroller!) Notice Jacob in his "Cool (to the) Max" shirt:)

Together again:)

I thought this was a great action shot...not sure what the action was about though!

Kiki enjoying the outdoors.

Mandi and her dogs.

Logan

A Day at the Park

We found a park in Yakima that would be our favorite park...you have to walk about a mile to get to it, it's next to the river, the playground is constructed out of wood and old tires...so, as I said, it would be our favorite park if it were not so sadly positioned right next to the freeway (or the raging rapids, as we like to pretend!)

Annika on the way to the park.

Logan enjoying the labyrinth.

Owen enjoying the swing.

Papa with his boys.