Snow Days!

What a wild week! The news kept reporting an "Artic Blast" and I was getting so tired of hearing about it! We were just having little snow flurries, no big deal. They canceled our stake Christmas Devotional, and the kids didn't have school on Wednesday. I thought everyone was overreacting!

On Thursday I was able to go to Brooklyn's school and help with her Winterfest.

Then Brooklyn's school was canceled on Friday. Olivia's preschool was not. So, since Olivia goes to pm preschool we had time to head over to the neighborhood park and go tubing. I thought we had better take advantage of the snow because it would probably be gone the next day. And of course afterward we enjoyed a nice cup of hot chocolate with peppermint icecream!

After tubing Casey met me at Olivia's school to see her Christmas presentation. She was so excited to be the Shepherd girl. She got to wear the "rainbow" hat. She looked so cute.

Friday we celebrated Callie's Birthday at the restaurant Beaches. It was so fun! The snow was falling and the Christmas boats were going by on the Columbia river.


Saturday night there was freezing rain, which put a layer of ice on top of the snow. Brooklyn started picking it up so that she could get to the snow to build a snowman.



Saturday it snowed even more and so the whole family went tubing. It is so much more fun when you don't have to drive an hour just to get to the snow!

Sunday church was canceled. So we worked on our annual Christmas lip sync video over at my parents.

Today is Monday and it is continuing to snow. Casey went in to work anyway and took the suburban, so I am home bound...Then his office called and said they are closing today. So he tried to catch a bus home and they are running an hour late. He's been standing outside for an hour waiting. I called my parents to go get him, so now he's on his way home.

So, I was wrong. This really is an "Artic Blast"! Wild fun!

Mom's Birthday

Gingerbread House Village

My mom's birthday is in December, so she always has a Gingerbread House birthday party. The kids have really started to look forward to this. Brooklyn has been telling me her plans for her house for weeks now. While I helped Nathan make his I looked at him and he had his arm up over his face and was using the other hand to stick candy in his mouth. He was trying to be sneaky. (I think he is used to the apple turkeys at the Baldwin's when you aren't allowed to eat the candy until everyone is done.) I had to tell him it's alright to eat the candy, he didn't have to hide. After we were all done my mom had two houses left that none had decorated and Olivia quickly asked if she could take them home to decorate. Mom put the candy in a bag and Livvy decorated them first thing the next morning. So now I have a complete gingerbread village.

Festival of Trees

Bear HospitalSanta's Workshop

Painted Faces

One of our Christmas traditions is Portland's Festival of Trees. Casey's office always does a tree for it so the office can take their families for free. We have been going for 7 years now. One of the highlights is the Teddy Bear Hospital. The kids get a teddy bear and they take it to the "hospital" where they tell the doctors their bear's name and what happened to it. Then is gets a check up and bandaged. The kids love looking at their bears from all the years. The girls love to do all the crafts,get their face painted, watch the dancers, and drink hot chocolate. Nathan loves the toy trains and looking at the toys under the trees.

We were there.

Christmas Rush

My Christmas card. Mele Kalikimaka.

Christmas Bell are Ringing!
All Aboard!


So, we're back from Utah, and it feels like we were gone a month. When we went to Utah, Thanksgiving hadn't even happened, and now it feels like Christmas is tomorrow.
On Friday the 5th we had our ward party. It was a Polar Express theme. So cute! The kids wore their pajamas and we had pancakes and hot chocolate. Then the Primary kids sang Christmas bells. After that I ran Brooklyn over to her school for "1st Grade Fun Night". They were doing crafts and sing alongs and stuff until 10:00 at night. She was so excited, she LOVES crafts. I took advantage of the time to make Christmas cards on the computer and Casey ran to the store. Well, when I finally looked at the clock I realized it was10:05! I felt sick! I had forgotten my precious sweet daughter! I raced over to the school, and she was the last kid there, with the teachers. So sad! She wasn't worried though, she actually liked being last and had a blast. Nonetheless, I am going to have to get myself an alarm watch so I don't forget things like this again! Especially if I want that "Mother of the Year Award"! Ha, ha.

Olivia's Family Night

Olivia has always loved to to be in charge. And to be responsible for a stack of papers. As soon as she could talk she would be carrying around old receipts saying "my papers, my papers."

Well one day I gave her an old Friend magazine to color or do whatever with. She told me she would like to use it to prepare a family night lesson. I told her to go for it, and let her do what she wanted. I didn't know what to expect.

All week she was carrying around this bucket that had her "family night lesson" in it. I didn't think she was really going to remember, but when Monday came around she had it all ready to go before Casey even got home.

She then sat us all down and had us take turns picking a piece of paper out of the bucket. (She had picked out pictures that represented primary songs she knew, for example a picture of a little girl getting baptized for "When Jesus was baptized, down in the river Jordan..." her favorite song.) She had carefully colored and cut each picture and knew exactly what song went with it. Then she lead us in the song using a spoon to conduct. She was so excited. And I was so impressed.

It was a good night to be a mom!

Brooklyn followed her lead and prepared a lesson the next week. ( I don't think Casey or I will have to prepare a lesson for awhile.)

Utah Holiday

Olivia and her cousins creating their turkeys.

Nathan's Batturkey Apple


This Thanksgiving we traveled to Utah to be with Casey's family. We were a little reluctant, for fear of the weather, but the mild weather held out and we made the trip. (With studded snow tires, courtesy of my parents. Thank you! Just in case.) On the way we were able to stop and see my grandparents and were treated to my grandma Manship's famous sourdough pancakes in the morning. My picky kids love them! They are so awesome to let us crash there for the night. It brings back memories of when I made the trip with my parents, seems like it was just yesterday. I wish we could stay longer and visit, but our time is always short and my kids are always wild.


So we made it to Utah on Wednesday night and the girls were so excited that they got to do their Apple Turkeys with all their cousins! This is a Baldwin tradition that they have done forever, and our kids seriously love it. I mean who wouldn't? You've got apples and never ending candy, how could you go wrong! Brooklyn was very concerned that Grandma Baldwin didn't announce a winner. So she asked her who won. (Grandma told Brooklyn it was her, of course.)


Thursday was Thanksgiving and we ALL ate at the Baldwin's house. By ALL I mean all I mean all 39 of us! It was a PACKED house! And it was so fun! Every one of Casey's siblings were there, with their kids. Plus Casey's grandma Baldwin. The food was extra good because this is the first year in quite awhile Casey and I didn't have any kids on our lap, or have to spoon feed anyone. We actually got to sit down and eat and visit! Crazy! Then later took family pictures of course. No smiles, no pie.


The next day I had the chance to go on a photo shoot with my sister-in-law and pick her brain about photography/photoshop. I am so glad I went! She also gave me some great tips for photoshop that will save me hours! Then we did some lite shopping while we were in Salt Lake. (I hope I didn't tire her out too much) But mostly it was just fun to hang out with her. We don't get to see each other very often.

That night Casey wanted all the cousins to play dodge ball at the Church. As soon as we got there Nathan threw up all over the car! GROSS, GROSS! I went home and took care of that, then later that night Brooklyn threw up! (This is becoming a bad Utah tradition for my kids!) The next day we just kind of hung out at the house and played the wii. That night all the guys went to a Jazz game. Casey got a kick out of Easton trying to find the "free prize" at the bottom of the popcorn bag.

The next morning we headed up to see Heidi and Ryan. Nathan had be looking forward to going to "Cohen's house" all week. He was so excited to see Cohen's transformers! They were so cute showing each other their pajamas.

Nathan "You Mario?"

Cohen "Yeah, you transformers?"

N "Yeth, optimsprime"

C "Oh.....I have Mario."

Then Cohen gives Nathan a big hug, Nathan thinks for a moment then decides to hug back, and Cohen kisses him on the cheek. Pretty stinkin cute! Way better than the beating they gave each other this summer!

We drove home early the next morning.
Pretty fun trip. Minus the barfing, of course.

Thankful

I need to write this down before I forget.
The other night while getting ready for family prayers Casey was helping Olivia think of some things she is thankful for that she could say in her prayer. They named a few and Olivia said she will thank him for everything.
Casey thought she was going to repeat everything they said but she just said,
"Thank you for everything."
At the end of the prayer Casey told her that we need to name the things we are thankful for.
Then Brooklyn chimed in and said,
"Yeah, because if we were thankful for everything we would be thankful for cigarettes, and we are NOT thankful for those!"

Tag...I'm it...

Fouth file, fourth picture. You get the idea...

This is a picture from the Blazer game Casey and I went to last April. We got tickets from his boss. It was a much needed date night, I was 8 months pregnant. We were in the 7th row. It was sooo fun! We watched Shaq and Steve Nash and the Suns play the Blazers. We were so close you could hear them talking and everything! I've only seen them on TV so this was pretty cool, to see them in real life. They're like real people! Crazy!

I tag: Allison P., Rebeca L., Lacey B., Melissa J.

Olivia's Last Game of the Season

Halloween

What a happy Halloween! Beautiful weather, 4 happy kids, good food, no accidents.

This was the first year I actually went "trick or treating" with the kids. It was so fun to watch them. All three of them totally get the concept and are so excited to say trick or treat. Cody was even in a good mood the whole time! The weather was PERFECT, dry and not even cold! I had my family over for dinner, I didn't do the usual "dinner in a pumpkin" but we had yummy white chili and mom made some delicious mud pies! Mom and Dad manned our doors so that Callie and I could go trick or treating with our families. Here are some pictures of Pocahontas, Iridessa (Tinkerbell's fairy friend), Batman, and our little Jack-O-Lantern.

Boo Who

We were "Booed"! That means some one in our neighborhood left some yummy goodies and a note on our porch. The note tells us that now we need to do the same to 3 other people who haven't had it done yet. I have to come clean, in the past we've slacked and never booed back... I know we're lame/lazy. But this year the girls were so stoked about doing it so we gave it a go.
Good clean family fun. Right?
Wrong.
It was fun decorating the bags, picking out the goodies to go in, and deciding who to "BOO". But when we got to the house and Nathan was supposed to leave his bag at he flipped! Brooklyn took the bag and left it and ran back to the car, but Nathan just stood there in the driveway screaming/crying! He wouldn't move. I jumped out and ran and grabbed him, threw him in the car and we took off. He continued to cry for the other 2 houses, saying he wanted "his" candy bag back. The whole time he thought he was packing the bag for himself. We didn't realize he didn't grasp the concept. Needless to say, Mom and Dad had some explaining to do as to why we gave HIS candy away.

Curb Appeal

For awhile now I've felt like my front yard looked like a rental home. It was maintained and very symmetrical but also very boring! I thought about adding different plants or throwing in a few rocks or something but none of it would really change the look. So I had to call in the Pro's.
Mom & Dad Custom Landscaping Co.
My mom thought of what to do, and my dad lifted the HEAVY boulders. They brought me the dirt and everything! So awesome! Then my mom and I went and picked out some nice plants at Shorty's. I took down the (plastic) railing and got a cute table and chairs. It turned out so beautiful! Love it! No more rental home, it's mine now.

Before

After

Pumpkin Patch

It was Olivia's turn to go with her pre-school to the Pumpkin Patch. She was so excited! She remembered that when Brooklyn went we packed lunches and ate at the picnic tables. So she helped me pack everyone a lunch. At the end of the trip she got all settled at a table and was ready for a picnic. The problem was that nobody else was staying for lunch. I felt so bad. I told her we could go get frostys at Wendy's instead and she took it well.

Nathan came along with us. This is ALL he cared about. TRACTORS. He was very upset that we had to look at the animals first. Then he went from tractor to tractor and was so busy he wouldn't even look up when he said "cheese".

Slugs!

This is who we found trying to sneak across our driveway one morning. He wanted my flowers! This is the biggest slug we've seen at our house. I went to go get a shovel to get rid of it and Olivia had already gotten a plastic bag and picked it up and tossed it in the grass. I thought about putting salt on it but wondered if that was something we just did as kids for fun and to torture slugs. So I scooped it up and threw it in the street. That was probably just as bad, but at least I didn't have to watch it die.

A Weekend at Liberty Lake

We had the chance to visit Melissa's family last weekend. We hadn't be out there for quite awhile. We had a very nice visit. Our kids finally play with their cousins with out needing Casey or I to chaperon. The girls had such a blast. Even Nathan talks about his cousin Chase and how big/cool he is. (Nathan is still working on playing nice and his admiration for his cousins didn't always show. Nathan thinks people like to be teased and wrestled.) Anyway we had fun just relaxing and visiting. And we had the chance to watch Breck get ordained. Thanks Jensen's for inviting us to visit! I only took a couple pictures.

Olivia's Pumpkin Party

Olivia had here 5th Birthday party. I decided to let loose and let her invite anyone she wanted. She had so much fun, but it was a pretty big bunch of girls! She got to dress up and play some games with her friends. She loves being 5!

Brooklyn wanted to dress up as a pumpkin. This is what she came up with. She is so creative.

Oktoberfest!

On October 3rd our ward had an Oktoberfest instead of the usual "Halloween" party. It was a blast and the girls still got to dress up. I took my cran-apple pie and the girls dressed up in "German" attire. I lost to Callie in the Marshmallow contest. Now we know who has the bigger mouth!!!

Some of Callie's pics

Hobbies?

I have always hated it when I had to fill out something and it asked what my HOBBIES or talents are. I've really never known what to write. When Casey and I were dating I would joke with him that I wasn't really good at anything, but that I wasn't really BAD at anything either. (I've found the later to be incorrect occasionally). Anyway, I guess that I've always been a dabbler. I like to try everything, but I always change so I never really excel at anything, which doesn't bother me except when I have to fill out those questionnaires.
So I think I know what my hobbies are these days. I'm back into scrapbooking, photography, and blogging (obviously). I also still LOVE running, but I am way too disorganized right now and don't have the FEAR of Hood to Coast. Hopefully I'll pick it up again after soccer season. I kind of quit scrapbooking because I just couldn't keep up. Plus all my pictures are on the computer now so I don't have to worry about filing them or remembering when I took them. Photography I gave up on because I got myself this really cool film camera a couple years too early, right before digital became the rage. Anyway, I am a slow learner with the lighting and such, and that is a very expensive way to be on a film camera.
So here's why I'm back into them. Photoshop. I love it! I've decided that is the real hobby. I can make my mediocre pictures look really cool (well I think they're cool) and now that I figured out how to download scrapbook papers and embellishments, I can scrapbook without making a visit to the craft store! I've helped Ashley get started too, it's pretty fun working on pages and showing each other what we've done.
I also had the chance to take some pictures for a friend. It is so fun to see how I can tweak a picture to make it look just the way I want.
So here's my new problem. Now I want a new camera. A digital one that can do all the things my film camera did. I think I could learn a little faster on a digital camera. My sister-in-law, Natalie's pictures are so cool, and I thought how great it would be to just take the picture right in the first place. I wouldn't have to spend quite as much time on the computer...

These are a few of my favorite pictures of my friends girls!

Soccer Pictures

For Olivia's team we decided to take our own team pictures. I'm trying out digital scrap booking so I used some of my stuff to do the page for the team. I think they are way cuter than the Professionals and way cheaper.

Soccer Witches

Another soccer practice. The girls were helping Casey put the cones away and found a better use for them! Olivia made sure I got a picture of her "silly face".