Love

Oh I heart Valentines Day!! It was always one of the best days at school and it just keeps getting better! Yesterday I woke up to roses, a hand made super sweet card promising me a Wii and some cute cards from the kids and roses! Then he made us all heart shaped pancakes! He bought Audrey some tulips and Jack a froggy baloon. Then we had a great sermon at church , a nap for everyone and then Ben took me out to Chinese food and Baskin Robbins- yuumy! I made some cards for the kids and got them each a craft project. I'd say we are feelin the love- there are cards all over the place today! Love it, love is an awesome gift from the Lord and a great reason to celebrate!!!

Audrey and Mommy go ice skating

This year on Martin Luther King Jr. Day ( try and have Audrey say that it's too funny!) Audrey did not have school but Jackson did. I decided to take advantage of the opportunity to spend some one on one with my girl. Because the national championships for ice skating are in town there was free ice skating at Riverfront park. She hadn't been since she was 2 so I really wasn't expecting much. She did great! Even Mandy was impressed and she's been skating for a long time. We'll definately have to go again soon.

October Happenings

October was a crazy busy month! Ben was still making the drive out to 7-Bays on Lake Roosevelt every day (he still is) which means he comes home pretty wiped out at the end of the day. We got the permit to start building our shop, visited Greenbluff and our kids were in my cousin Mandy's wedding. We also had a nice time celebrating Bens birthday with family n friends on the 27th. It seems like every year once we hit Bens birthday its time to hold on for the ride because the holidays are just around the corner......... here we go!

Oregon Coast Trip

We had such a great time on vacation with our good friends the Hopsons. We left at 5am on a Wednesday. We almost got out of town before Jackson had to go potty (Luke was so happy it was our kid that had to go first!) We made it to Portland by 1130 and toured the Portland Zoo. It was nice and warm and we saw so many animals! We ate some lunch and continued on towards Lincoln City where we had rented a house right on the ocean. That first night was probably the warmest weather we had the whole trip and the view of the ocean was clear which we soon found out was really rare. Over the next 4 days we collected sea shells, built some amazing sand castles, toured the aquarium, swam, well sort of swam, in the freezing ocean, soaked in the hot tub and had an amazing time. The drive home was long but overall went really well considering we were traveling with 5 kids. We are already looking forward to our next vacation!

Good times and bad

How is it my babies are now a preschooler and a 1st grader?! Tuesday the 8th was the day after Labor day so a busy start to a schhol week, it was also the first day of school ever for Jackson and the first time Audrey was gone for a full day at school. The morning went well as the kids were really excited to wear thier new school clothes and see familiar faces at school (Audrey knew some friends who would be in her class and so did jack). Packing a lunch was also a new thing, which thankfully we did the night before to simplify things- its a bit of a challenge still as Audrey doesn't eat a ton of typical lunch food: no pb&j or really any kind of sandwhich so we've been getting a bit creative. I dropped Audrey off at school first and she didn't want me to get out of the car :( I was a bit sad and kept offering but she insisted she could do it by herself! I did snap a pic of her walking into the building- the determined little thing never did look back. Next stop was Adventure Kids Preschool with Jack. He walked right in and gave me a hug only because I asked- he was such a big boy! It was like ok mom c-ya! When I picked him up later he just said "I was getting done with that place". Too funny. I think he meant he'd been there long enough for one day. Audrey was happy to see me that afternoon and soooo hungry. Judging by her appetite and the fact that 80% of her lunch was still in the lunch box I think she was too busy to eat. So we had afternoon snack and relaxed for a bit before the kids headed out to play. Here comes the sad part of that day. I hadn't realized that Dirt dog went outside with them too. A neighbor was walking her dogs down our street and Dirt ran out in the road to bark at them. Bad idea. One of these dogs was a pit bull and didn't want to be bothered. He attacked our little buddy and he ended up dying from it. Terrible, awful thing that the kids and i had to go through. So we are now down to one animal, our Charlie Brown cat, aka Mr. Brown. So the first week of school was a bit crazy but we made it and are looking forward to fall routine. Thanks to all of you who have sent us kind wishes regarding our dog- its been much appreciated. :)

Long Lake

I took the kids out to our family cabin at Long Lake a couple Sundays ago just for the afternoon. Just me, my sister and mom and the kids. It brought back so many memories! They were perfectly content to just swim and play in the sand for hours. I can remember swimming until I was called out of the water to eat dinner....oh the days of summer!

Jack likes to help

Both the kiddos like to help mow the lawn yet Jackson seems to have a much longer attention span for it. This last time he 'helped' with almost the entire back yard! Kudos to Ben for being so patient!