time

I can't believe how fast time goes but yet some days seem to never end. I realized recently that we really only have 4 summers left after this one to have our son at home with us....he may come home for the summers but it won't be the same. How can it be possible that this boy will be entering high school in a September??? It seems like he was a little toddler not that long ago!

Summer has always been my favorite time with my kids....no schedules, lots of sand, bubbles, sidewalk chalk, games, friends, trips, parks, saltwater sandals & evening fires. It has always been a time that I have savored & cherished. It always seems to go too fast while the school year can drag on so miserably at times. For some reason this summer feels like a little pressure. Pressure to make lasting memories, have fun, get everything in. Maybe it is because we are entering a new phase and this summer may the last of its kind for our family. Maybe it is because I am feeling a little older now that I am almost the mother of a high school student. Whatever the reason, I do not want to let the pressure ruin my summer. I want to still savor and cherish. I want to enjoy the sounds of my kids engaging together, playing, laughing, and even fighting. I want to play intentionally and accomplish special memories but also do nothing together! Thank you Lord for THIS summer!

Thank You God

We are praising the Lord in a big way right now for a miracle that has occurred for our 4 year old friend Claudia. She has been recently diagnosed with Leukemia and has been undergoing treatment for only 22 days. She has already received the news of her being in remission! Thank you God!!!
Check out her caringbridge site!

summer days here we come...

I really love summer time! I love lazy days with my kids - not having to have an agenda but being able to move at a slower pace.

We had a good school year this year. Seventh grade wasn't my son's favorite by any stretch of the imagination, but he survived with the help of good friends and is looking forward to eighth grade. My daughter made a school change this year and settled in quite easily. She enjoyed the teachers, the academic challenge and the new friends were a breath of fresh air! I truly am thankful for the school my children attend. As we have had a challenging year financially, our teachers have blessed us so very much! It has ministered to me in more ways than one and made me very thankful God put us where He did for such a time as this.

Emma and a bunch of her girlfriends gathered around after school on our last day to see each other off for the summer.

Here is a shot of Emma with our favorite 5th Grade teachers - they are a great teaching team and both my kids loved them!!

Cody and a few of his friends got together on the last day of school to go swimming at one of the guy's houses. Cody is so great at choosing friends and I really love these boys! He has been friends with a couple of them since they were all in 1st grade.

Both my kids are gone to the middle school summer camp this week and next week they will be helping with the VBS at our church. My little brother gets home next Friday and will be getting married at the end of August. That will most definitely be one of the highlights of our summer!! We are so excited for him and pray for he and his bride-to-be every day.

love day

Yesterday was Love day. We used to have a lot of fun with holidays but for the last two years has been a bit of a challenge. We had all of our stuff in storage and we lived in a 700 square foot apartment. There wasn't much room for non-essentials. But now that we have moved into the downstairs house and unpacked everything it has become much easier to play again.

For many years we got the Papa Murphy's heart shaped pizza for valentines dinner with the kids and then after they were in bed we would have the yummy grown up dinner. But now that they are older we all get to eat a great dinner together!
We had steak, garlic mashed potatoes and grilled asparagus for dinner. Then for dessert we had pound cake with strawberries and whipped cream. It was fabulous!!
Our kids spent a couple hours on Saturday making us some great cards. Emma made a card that opened into a flower - so fun!
Cody made a cool box that had two sides for me and two for Dad. It was filled inside with candy and notes. Our kids are pretty creative - they get it from their Dad!

After dinner we took some time for dancing to my favorite - Frank Sinatra. We had a lot of fun laughing at each other and goofing off.

I love this picture of my kids - even though they have their fighting moments it is so fun to watch the way that they love each other. I had to tear up a bit watching them dance - it was so sweet.

Then Emma got a whole song with her daddy. What is it about little girls and their daddy? She was wrapped around him the whole song. All I have to say....she better not dance that way with her boyfriend?!?! I know she probably won't...her daddy will make sure of that!

It was a great day. My hubby made me a bunch of little paper hearts with love notes and taped them all over the place yesterday morning. Some on the microwave, my computer monitor, the bathroom mirror, the washing machine and then one on my pillow last night.

I love celebrating my love for my family!

picture tag

Julie asked to see my sixth picture in my sixth photo file...so....let me see....

I believe that is from Easter 2006. We hosted an annual Easter egg hunt at our house for many years. 2006 was the year that Sadie, Ande, Brian and Cody were in charge of it. They did the invites, planned everything, stuffed and hid all 550 eggs. They did a great job. The kids were so little and there are a bunch of kids that I do not know - they came with friends. Fun memories.

things we have been doing

We had a quiet Thanksgiving this year. My brother moved away to Laos this year and wasn't going to be here visiting for the first time in many years. We also started moving out of our apartment on Wednesday and were moving the entire weekend so we took a break and spent a few hours at my parent's house on Thanksgiving day. This is a picture of me and my amazing son who has said several times lately that we do not have enough pictures of just the two of us together - so we thought we had better capture the moment.
These are my incredible parents who bless us constantly. They are such great examples of serving others - they both volunteer at too many places to count and are always ministering to those around them - especially us.

For dessert, my family is not really into pie. I know this is a sin - no pumpkin, no pecan, no pie period! So my mother decided to do something that they would all like instead. She created an ice cream sundae contest. Whoever had the most creative invention would receive a major prize - and it wasn't going to be a lamp in the shape of a leg!

Emma created an ice cream mountain with a chocolate slide on one side - she called it an avalanche - a very innovative idea!

Not sure what my normally very creative husband made - I think he was in a bit of hurry to eat all of that ice cream before it melted.

Cody made a blob head thing out of his - another formidable entry!

However, my creation won - I received a wonderful Starbucks gift card. It was a candy land forest with gummy bears on a chocolate/caramel trail. I thought it was pretty imaginative!
I guess there was evidence that the food was good - the table was beautiful but I forgot to take a picture of it before we ate everything. So here is the evidence of a great Thanksgiving dinner! Thank you Mr. or Mrs. Turkey for giving your life for our feast!

My adorable daughter, Emma (the one on the right) danced with her performing group friends the day after Thanksgiving at the festival of the trees. They were fantastic and amazing as always. I love watching her dance - she comes alive & is so in her element. I love that and honestly, am a little jealous of it at times. God has given her a special talent and she uses it with all of her heart. I am so proud of her!
On Sunday we went bowling with my hubby's family instead of going to church - shhhh...don't tell anyone! We then went to his sister's house for a great dinner.

Last night we took our kids out to dinner with a gift certificate we got for a gift - it was so fun to talk over dinner about heaven and our thoughts about God. We also went to see the tree in downtown Portland but for some mysterious reason it wasn't lit up last night - what the heck?!?! We had a beautiful time anyway, wandering through the relatively quiet city, hanging out with two of our favorite people.

Today my family and I visited with Mrs. Tappan for a half hour or so. Her husband who was 77 died in a tractor accident on May 11th. They had been married for 53 years and they had 5 or 6 kids. They own about 50 acres or so across the field from us and all of their children have homes on the land. The Tappan family believes in God and they will see each other again in heaven. What a great but bittersweet story she shared with us. He would consider himself lucky having died on his tractor - that was how he would have wanted it. What a beautiful testimony of what is really important in life. Thank you Mrs. Tappan for sharing your story with us and thank you God for the simple reminder today of what this life is really about.

time for playing

Yesterday our baby turned one! We started the morning with a bone, peanut butter and a candle while singing to our favorite furry friend! We thank God for this bundle of joy - who loves us unconditionally and is always excited to see us (even if we just walked out of the room for a minute or two!)

I am not sure about this photo! Who the heck are these kids? They did about 6 different shots being very strange. They had gone roller skating the night before and were having a restful Sunday morning. Maybe we need to do a little more of this relaxin thing!
As we headed out to the pumpkin patch Sunday afternoon I found this on the wall. Hello!! Excuse me, but spiders like this are not allowed on the wall of the house. If I find something like this on the inside of the house, I am outta here! Yuck!
When the kids were little we always went to pomeroy house for pumpkins, but then school field trips always took us to Bizi Farms. So this year we returned to one of my favorite spots to hunt for pumpkins. It was a beautiful day!!

Curtis wanted to give the kids a little love squeeze while we waited for the hay ride. Notice there is no line? It was fabulous!!!

The four of us sat at the back for the best view (according to our kids).

After they dropped us off at the pumpkin patch, Emma found one she liked right away! She likes the small cute round ones that are easy to carve and carry!

Cody on the other hand searched the entire field for the big one he wanted. He & Curtis make quite a masterpiece so it has to be just so. We tried to keep up with Cody but he was long gone!

Luckily, we brought along our muscles so we could get it back to the wagon...
We continued the hayride down pumpkin lane which is beautiful. It has several cool old barns and about 80 pumpkin characters along the route.

The ride is about a mile and the pumpkin folks were fun to see.
This is my ideal place for a pumpkin patch - nestled in the hills - I wanted to stay all day!
After the hay ride, we met a very friendly goat and some other animals at the barn.

One of these days when we can finish our outside fence, we want to get a couple goats.
We ended our trip by watching this rooster sleep on one foot on top of a stump. What is he thinking? Doesn't he know how dangerous that is?

Thank you God for fall and your creation. We are so blessed to live in the northwest!!

walking for a cure!

Sunday morning, bright and early, a group of us women and girls headed down to "big city" for a very cool fundraiser for cancer research. We stopped at pioneer square for a group photo.

We got to be right at the start line, under the cool balloon arch!

We took lots of combinations of group photos at this point. I think a few of the women around us were not too amused, but we had a great time taking pictures of each other.
Here we are walking down Broadway in the mass of people. It is cool to be a part of something so big!
Then of course, since we were so close, we had to treat ourselves to a little bit of heaven! My daughter will probably want to kill me if she sees this photo?!?!?
We love you saint cupcake!
It was a great time and it didn't even rain a drop on us.

Fun Memories

We have some places our family loves to go where we have a lot of fun memories. One of them is a mountain cabin we have been going to for the last 8 years. Here is a photo of us one of the first times we visited with our friends the Martins. The kids were pretty little.
Now here we were there together this summer - eight years later. The kids have definitely grown up but the adults look better and much wiser?!?!? Maybe a little more tired too.
Thanks Martins for keeping the traditions alive with us! We love you guys!

celebrating freedom!

After celebrating at a big party in the afternoon, we decided to forgo our annual tradition at the Fort Vancouver and just stay home with some friends. We had several friends over and just relaxed until dark. Luckily, we didn't go to the fort because I ended up with lovely pink eye that evening. With every loud boom, I thought my head would explode!!

This year the girls really got into the fireworks. They were all wanting a turn to blow something up - they were giddy from the excitement!

My brother joined us since our parents ditched us for a fancy cruise on the columbia to watch the big show! Actually, we sent them off with our blessings.

The evening was gorgeous!!

Not too hot or cold

and perfect for sparklers

and blowing up big stuff!!

We ended the show about 11:00 and dad was out cold by 11:10 - He was done for the day!!