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.

Easter

We've just come through a couple of months of many visitors and sickness! The visitors were great. The sickness...not so much. So glad to have 5 healthy people in the home again!

We enjoyed a visit from my sister and family a week before Easter and used the visit as an excuse to dye Easter eggs twice.

We made our yearly bunny cake. Just had to post this photo because as my friend pointed out, "That's awesome. Ya'll (she's from TX!) look like a bunny!) Wasn't planned I assure you:)

This was the best we could do for an Easter photo. Seemed cruel to ask a child with a fever to smile:(

And then there was Kiki! Happy as ever...until she also developed the fever a week later:(

Coloring Continued

I mentioned the boys coloring in my last post. This evening, we were looking at what they did in Sunday School. First we looked at Logan's papers. He had a Palm Sunday scene that was colored in the typical fashion of scribbled blue, purple, and red. With a sheepish look on his face, he says, "I used more than one color." The next page was a close-up of Jesus' face (colored blue,of course) and Logan had placed circular stickers of children on the palm branches around his face. Next...Owen. We were shocked to see Owen's first picture...palm branches were green, Jesus' face was light brown, his hair was dark brown, etc. Jacob and I carried on, as we do, jumping and shouting about how amazing his coloring was! We turned to the next page to see the circular kid stickers pasted onto Jesus' face! "Owen! What is this?" "Jesus wearing sunglasses?" I love my children and I am so glad that I'm not there teacher! :)

Wise Guy

The boys have drastically regressed in their coloring lately. Every picture that they color is blue. The entire page is blue. Today, I told Logan to color a book that we were working on reading. I said, "And I don't want you to color the whole page blue. You need to use more than one color." Then, as is my life these days, I got distracted with someone else. When I turned back to Logan, he was diligently coloring with a little smirk on his face. As I looked closer, I saw that he had five crayons in one hand and was coloring the entire page!