Deprived? or just creative?

Yesterday Emma had her first preschool field trip. They walked to Petco to pick out a class fish and a hermit crab. It was very exciting for Emma, especially since it was her special day to be the class helper so she got to be the first one to feed the fish.

When I went to pick her up, there was a list of all the kids on the door. Next to it, the teacher had written what pets they had at home. A few of the kids didn't have pets, but the majority had dogs, cats, fish, birds, etc. Under Emma's name was written "Box Elder bug". Now, I believe I have mentioned before about my kids love for anything creepy crawly. At any moment, there are about 5 cups on Abby's desk with some sort of spider living in them. Well, just yesterday morning Emma had been playing outside and had found a Box Elder bug that she had adopted. She made a habitat and even named it Bock (you know, short for Box). I was so glad that she remembered to tell her teachers that she did indeed have a pet. He drowned shortly after her return from preschool. But the great thing about Box Elder bugs is for every one that dies, there are about 10,000 more in the backyard.

If I Had My Child to Raise Over Again

If I Had My Child to Raise Over Again

If I had my child to raise all over again,

I'd finger-paint more, and point the finger less.

I'd do less correcting and more connecting.

I'd take my eyes off my watch and watch with my eyes.

I would care to know less and know to care more.

I'd take more hikes and fly more kites.

I'd stop playing serious and seriously play.

I'd run through more fields and gaze at more stars.

I'd do more hugging and less tugging.

I would be firm less often and affirm much more.

I'd build self esteem first and the house later.

I'd teach less about the love of power,

And more about the power of love.

-- Diane Loomis

Randomness

So it's been a while since I've posted. I'd like to say it's because I've been in the hospital having a baby but I can't . . . because I haven't. 3 weeks left to go until the due date. I don't remember being so uncomfortable and anxious when I was pregnant with the girls, but I've had some time for my memory to soften about pregnancy and childbirth.

In the meantime, we have been having a super busy month with school starting, doctor's appointments, soccer for Abby, ballet for Emma and lots of eye surgery for Justin. The girls are loving school and the highlight for Abby has been the Bean and Cheese Chalupa she had for school lunch yesterday. Apparently it was "awesome".

We had the best weekend ever with our dear friends the Akins and Chamberlains in town visiting. We got to get together with the Norths also, making 3 families we love from our San Francisco days. We played so hard all weekend that I'm sure it will take a long time to recover for all of us but it was so worth it. In fact, we had so much fun that I forgot to take any pictures. So, I'll just post some pics of the cutest girls I know. Hopefully soon, we'll have some pictures of the little man that will soon join our family. Until then . . .

Nesting . . .

I've definitely been nesting lately. After a long period of not being motivated to do much at all, except read (I'm always motivated to do that), I have been wanting to sew, paint and organize anything I can get my hands on. This baby better come soon or else it's going to quickly get out of hand. These are a few of my latest projects.

Embellishing old jeans and t-shirts for the girls

Baby shower gifts (how cute is that snail, I can't get over it

The Before Picture (thanks again Amanda for the dresser)

The After (the girl's dresser got moved to baby's room) I think this turned out pretty cute. I painted it and then covered the drawers with scrapbook paper and loads of mod podge. Have I mentioned on here before my complete and utter love of mod podge. If not, I have now gotten it out there.

There are some more projects in the works but they are secret Christmas presents so they will remain unpublished until a later date.

Last Days of Summer

Can you believe summer is almost over?! Where did it go? The girls start school next week and I am having very mixed emotions about the whole thing. This is Abby's first year of "all day" school and Emma will be in preschool 4 afternoons a week. It seems like their childhood is passing before my eyes. I know they're still little but every new phase in their lives seems to bring on a wave of emotions for me.

So we've been trying to get in all the fun we can and enjoy these past few weeks of summer. Last week it was, get this, 104 degrees in Portland. So all of you that think the sun never shines here . . . We had to escape the heat and so we drove to the coast where it looked like this (see below). Yep, cloudy, windy and 60 degrees. I would have settled for a middle ground somewhere around 80 degrees but I wasn't complaining when we got home at 10:30 pm and the thermostat in our apt. still said it was 90 degrees in our house. The girls didn't mind that it was less than sunny. They played all day in the sand and even got in the water a bit. Not me!

The beautiful Oregon coast

Painting - they're practicing to be artists one day

Can I even tell you how much I love the blackberry bushes behind our house! Mmmmm.

Blackberry jam and blackberry-lemon tart - I love summer!

Portland Rose Garden

This has got to be one of my very favorite places. And of course the pictures don't ever do it justice. There are just thousands of roses, every shape and color. It is really so beautiful and the girls love to walk around and smell them and pick out their favorite. Anyone want to come and visit?

The Perfect Exercise for Kids . . .

I just wanted to share a great new discovery I made this week. The perfect way to completely wear out your kids without them even knowing it. Windless Kite-Flying. Let me explain. The girls and I were getting ready for a picnic at the park when Emma asked if we could take the kite. There was absolutely no wind whatsoever. That didn't seem like a good enough excuse to Emma, so in order to avoid the arguement, I told her to bring it just in case. Well, the wind never picked up but of course she wanted to fly it anyway. So for the next 2 hours the girls took turns running as fast as they possibly could in order to keep the kite in the air. They thought it was great, I had a nice rest on the blanket and by the time we left the park they were completely spent. Let's hope for plenty of windless days.

Just a Little Blogging Break!

Okay, maybe a big blogging break. We are still here and doing well. We just got back from a 3 week vacation to Utah. We had so much fun with family - the girls loved being with their cousins, aunts, uncles, and grandparents that they don't get to see too often. A few of the highlights were; a week in Bear Lake, lots of hikes, bike rides to Aggie Ice Cream, fireworks, seeing their new baby cousin Lily, learning to play hopscotch, running through the sprinkler, playing legos, jumping on Uncle Tyler, making necklaces at Grandma T's and eating a lot of popsicles. What else is summer for, right? Thanks everyone for letting us come and play with you. It was a much needed break and I think I'm well rested and ready now for these last couple months of pregnancy.

On another note, we had two big milestones this week since we've been back. Abby has learned to ride her bike with no training wheels and Emma is now officially swimming. We realized that we could have taken those training wheels off quite a while ago when Abby started riding without any trouble at all. "It's so easy" she said. Emma just made the decision to start putting her head under water after 4 years of refusing. She is now a little fish and we are loving spending every day at the pool. I'm enjoying having two swimmers while I can since next summer will be a different story.

So, there's the update. Sorry for the wordy post. Here are a few highlight pictures. I am hoping to get a web album up here soon as soon as we remember our password.

Our Little Superstar

So the big T-ball season has ended and the jury is still out on whether or not it is the sport for Abby. She pretty much summed it up after her first game when she said, "It was fine, but I want more soccer in T-ball." I will admit that those hours spent watching pitch after pitch after pitch got a little bit long. (because apparently t-ball isn't really t-ball after the first game because they start pitching to the kids and since they are 5 year-olds they don't ever ever get out and get as many pitches as it takes). But it was fun to see Abby learn to throw and hit and she really did do a great job when she wasn't making mud pies in the outfield.

Happy Father's Day!

For some reason this picture of Justin and the girls is very descriptive of his life as a father. He is very involved in the day-to-day tasks of fatherhood; reading, teeth-brushing, dress-up, bug-catching, etc. But he also works a lot and has to make the most of the little time he does have at home with us. Thus the double toothbrushing picture below. The girls adore their daddy and we wish you the best Father's Day ever Justin. Sorry you had to spend it at the hospital but we're glad we got to celebrate with you yesterday. And to our wonderful dads, thank you for the wonderful examples you are to us and your grandkids. We all look up to you so much and appreciate the huge part of our lives that you are.

Silver Falls

I just came across some pictures of a little trip we took down to Silver Falls a few weeks ago. It was such a great day. We had driven to the Tulip festival only to find miles and miles of cars backed up to get in so we decided to keep going and find a new place to discover. This park was beautiful and had the most gorgeous waterfalls. This one you could hike behind and the girls thought it was pretty amazing to be able to stand behind the waterfall. I just love having all of these new places to discover.

Not complaining, Just sharing . . .

So I just got online to check the weather for the next week since the girls have been begging to go to the neighborhood pool that just opened. Now, I'm not trying to be a complainer, I just wanted to share our 10 day forecast. I am now repeating in my head the words "I love the trees, I love the greenery, I love the flowers" over and over again. Please note the words in orange.

TonightJun 1
Partly Cloudy
N/A46°
10%

MonJun 2
Partly Cloudy
67°52°
10%

67°F
TueJun 3
Showers
59°50°
60%

59°F
WedJun 4
Showers
60°49°
40%

60°F
ThuJun 5
Mostly Cloudy
63°53°
20%

63°F
FriJun 6
Few Showers
58°53°
30%

58°F
SatJun 7
Showers
60°49°
50%

60°F
SunJun 8
Few Showers
65°50°
30%

65°F
MonJun 9
Showers
63°49°
60%


TueJun 10
Showers
69°51°
60%

Goings On!

Okay, so I know I have not been a great blogger lately. Justin's been working nights this past month and I've been spending quite a bit of time curled up with some great books. So I thought I would post a few pics of what's been going on these past few weeks.

I got to spend a weekend at the coast with some girlfriends. We rented a beach house and just relaxed, walked on the beach, ate way too many swedish fish and enjoyed the beautiful Oregon coast.

We also had Abby's birthday - 6 years old. She requested an "artist birthday party". It was so much fun. I took way too few pictures due to the intensity of 10 girls and tables of art supplies. We made pet rocks, decorated goody bags, painted little ceramic fairies, made mugs, etc. They were messy and so happy. Abby even decorated her own cake this year to look like a paintbrush. It was so fabulous but you'll have to take my word for it because I totally forgot to take a picture in all the excitement. I can't believe it.

The last picture is just Emma being so Emma.

Early morning walk on the beach (okay, not SO early but early enough for me)

Our rental house - it's for sale if anyone's looking. It was SO cute!

The birthday girl!

Abby and a few of the partyers being crafty.

Oh Emma, we love you!

It's a BOY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, I had big plans to learn how to scan the ultrasound picture and post it, but I am just not up to the challenge I guess. I'll have to have Justin help me with that (pathetic, I know). We are so excited! The baby is looking healthy and wiggly and "smudgy" according to Abby who didn't think the ultrasound picture quite lived up to her visions of "seeing the baby". After the tech told us it was a boy the girls both said "Yeah, we really wanted a boy!". It was fun to see them so excited to see the baby's hands and feet and point out things they could see. They will be great big sisters! And although Justin insisted he would be thrilled with either a boy or a girl, I know that deep down he is thrilled to have a boy and not be so outnumbered with the drama that seems to come with the girls in this family! Anyway, had to share the news. Life has taken over lately and blogging has been neglected but I will try to do better. I will post pictures soon of Abby's wonderful birthday party . . .

Woodburn Tulip Festival

We had so much fun at the Tulip Festival! Okay, so it was hailing when we showed up. But we still couldn't get over how beautiful the tulips were. The girls LOVED it and think that we should grow this many in our backyard next year . . . hmmm,

Words to Live By . . .

So I was flipping channels tonight and came across one of my all-time favorites. Karate Kid I. It just happened to be the part where Mr. Miyagi says one of my all-time favorite movie lines; "Man who catch fly with chopsticks, accomplish anything". I mean, seriously, how cool is Miyagi.

To Learn About Oneself . . .

It's amazing how much I can learn about myself from my girls. Apparently I must have had a hard week because this was our conversation tonight.

Me: Okay girls, what should our goals be for this week? (we set goals on Sunday night)
Abby: Doing what you ask without saying "no". (All said with a bored, annoyed look on her face.)
Emma: Going potty when you ask and not being grumpy. (Same goal for the last 8 weeks)
Me: Okay, what should Mommy's goals be this week?
Abby: Don't be grouchy anymore! (Rolled right off her tongue like she didn't even need to think about it).
Emma: Do yowa (your) haya (hair) a little pwettier!
Abby: Don't be sick anymore!
Emma: Don't be grouchy anymowa (anymore)! (wait, didn't we already say that)
Me: Okay, okay, that's enough goals for me this week. What should Daddy's be?
(long silence) . . .
Abby: Work really hard at work.

Looks like Justin already has it made. Apparently, I am a sick grouch with bad hair.

If you need to learn anything about yourself, just ask your kids. But be prepared for a way too honest answer.

Just thinking about you!

Okay, I know I say it all the time but I really feel so lucky to have Justin in my life. I don't know how he does all he does and still does it all so well. I think I can count on one hand the amount of times in the past 5 years that he has woken up past 6:00 a.m. He never complains and still finds a way to be the love of all of our lives. This picture was on Valentine's Day. My mom was in town and he brought all 4 of us flowers (my mom was taking the picture). The girls are always so excited to get their Valentine's flowers from their daddy. Thanks Justin for lighting up our lives.

HAPPY SPRING!

Sunriver Getaway!

Thanks to our fabulous brother and sister-in-law (thanks again guys!), Justin and I had a little getaway without the girls a few weeks ago. We drove out to Sunriver and stopped by Smith Rock on the way. It is this huge climbing mecca and is SO beautiful! We didn't have any of our gear so we settled for hiking around a bit and watching the climbers. It was pretty cold but there still were still quite a few climbers braving the weather.

Do you see the little people on the rock?Relaxing at our hotel in Sunriver. Justin enjoyed a great day of skiing at Mt. Bachelor while I opted for sleeping in, reading by the fire and taking a nap. It was fabulous!