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We’ve gone crazy and we like it!

Mon, 3 Nov 2008 19:31:04 -0800

There he is... the man I love and married almost 13 years ago! Cute huh? Hasn’t aged at all. What a man!

Kristi hosted a costume party this year and we had fun with it! Gavin made his entire pirate costume out of old fabric and stuff we had in the costume bin. Ryan waited till the last minute and stole Gavin’s idea. The wig and teeth are a nice touch though. He won 2nd prize at the costume awards, probably for his indecent exposure of chest hair! Delaney and I revisited the 80’s and borrowed
cool jewelry and belts from our friend Chere, as well as her crimping iron to make our hair “oh so crunchy and big”. Liam is really into Indiana Jones right now, so we put together Indy’s trademark outfit with help from Auntie Lacee. I think he’s giving the “bad guys” a menacing stare in this picture. And of course Caedmon was looking pretty cute in his Mickey costume.
The next day we had our annual church Harvest Festival. Here’s Caedmon in his costume choice of the night- Buzz Lightyear! Anyone remember Liam in this costume? Time goes by fast. I’m not sure why he’s not smiling. He’s surrounded by candy and games- what’s not to like?
Here’s Ryan praying with the group. He gave the gospel message using a pumpkin. It was a good night.

On Halloween day, the kids had a costume parade at school and Delaney decided to be a veterinarian. It’s so neat to have all three kids at the same school. This will be the only year ever! Here they are parading...

Later that afternoon....

Finished products...

Trick or treating...
Trick or Treating...

Vitus Bering who????

Fri, 31 Oct 2008 22:43:02 -0700

It’s been a busy week, so I thought I’d start with a photo only her parents and grandparents will truly appreciate- Delaney next to her school project on the explorer Vitus Bering. I got to find out through her research that he was an explorer that proved thatNorth America and Asia weren’t connected, as well as the man that the Bering Strait and Sea were named after. The things you learn in 4th grade- wow! This tombstone went to school with her and her class created their own graveyard full of famous people. Then it came home, posed for a picture and is now sitting in our next door neighbor’s Halloween graveyard.

Where’s my tooth?

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 14:19:55 -0700

Liam actually asked this question to me on Friday. I answered, “Son, I don’t know. Where is your tooth?” Liam is our first child to have lost a tooth and missed the experience. It somehow happened and he’s not sure exactly when. So the tooth fairy is going to have to take a note instead of a tooth this time. He looks so cute with his first gap, and he talks with slurred “S’s” and a lisp. I can’t wait until the tooth next to it goes. Kindergarten is such a cute age!

Delaney turns 9!

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 14:35:35 -0700

Delaney has officially turned 9 years old. Next year she’ll be double digits- I can’t believe it. She and I went and checked out the new Streets of Brentwood mall here in town on Friday. We don’t do mother-daughter shopping trips very often, unless you count the grocery store... in that case, we seem to live there. We checked out the Limited Too and Gymboree stores before going to The Children’s Place where she shopped and found her new favorite item in her wardrobe... a furry reversible , shiny silver vest! I’ll have to post a picture of it. She promptly spent all of her gift card money on it, and was very excited to bring it home and wear it yesterday to school. She’s informed me that she can wear it with everything and even gave me a fashion show at home to prove it. It makes me smile because growing up in a house with 3 girls myself, these were things we did for our mom. Of course I was never that decisive and usually bought 4 small uncoordinating things in the place of 1 nice thing. My mom would usually point out that now I don’t have any real matching outfit. I think Delaney’s on her way to understanding these principles earlier than I did. We celebrated by having Delaney’s favorite dinner, Chicken Divan, and cupcakes for dessert. She’s excited to have 3 of her friends over on Saturday for a sleepover. Delaney is still the same girl that we remember at 2 years old, running around with lots of energy and lots of emotion. She’s still really enjoys helping me cook, playing soccer, reading stories to her little brothers, doing art projects, staying up late (when she can) and getting together with friends and cousins. She still really dislikes cleaning her room, being misunderstood, and being wrong. This year some of her new favorite things are watching “Jon and Kate Plus Eight” with me, reading the American Girl book series (we’re just starting “Kaya), walking home from school with Gavin and Math. She told me this summer that she doesn’t like the Barbie movies anymore, so I guess Princesses are a little young for her now. But she’s always willing to play with her younger cousins and is generally very sweet when she doesn’t slip into bossiness. I think she saves that mostly for her brothers. So to remember our Delaney’s last 9 years I’ll post a “photo montage”...and wipe a tear from my cheek. Love you Delaney!

Apple Hill Farms

Thu, 9 Oct 2008 21:45:00 -0700

Fall Break...Week #2.
With a day home, we’re off again!
Pastor Paul Anthes and his wife Ginny invited our family to come visit the famous Apple Hill Farms area of Placerville (see My Albums). I’d heard of it before, and we thought it would be a great family outing. It’s a collection of farms in a 10 mile stretch of road, that opens up this time of year to visitors and offers pumpkin patches, train rides (we didn’t get a chance to do that), arts and crafts, farmer’s markets, and every kind of scrumptious apple dessert out there. We went to one farm and ate lunch in a kind of summer camp cafeteria place. Then we checked out some craft vendors and tried to keep the boys from breaking the wooden toy display. We made our way down to the pond where Gavin was thrilled to see that they rented out fishing poles to fish the “pond”. Considering we’ve been promising him to go fishing, it was a welcome sight. While Gavin hunted out the best spot to trick these fish into biting in broad daylight, we took the other three kids up to the Pony Corral for pony rides. Delaney’s horse was named Ranger, Liam’s pony was named Chief and Caedmon’s pony was named Sparky. They looked pretty cute up on those horses (I mean ponies). Meanwhile, Gavin caught a Rainbow Trout in a miraculous bit of angling and had the fish shack proprietor help him gut it and ice it to bring it home. By the time we got back to the pond, he proudly showed us his catch (see My Albums). I was so happy for him. The fish now sits in our freezer staring at me each time I open the door. We also tried out the Fudge Factory there on the premises. Oh, the wonderful smell. I really like fudge. They had about 20 different varieties of fudge-who knew! I tried marbled fudge. Ryan had to try out the homemade caramels to see if they were as good as his mom’s recipe (mom’s are better and cheaper). Then Paul and Ginny drove us down the road to a small pumpkin patch with beautiful views. It was a great day.
*Did anyone catch the secret hidden object in the photo above?

Santa Cruz

Wed, 8 Oct 2008 15:19:14 -0700

Here are a few pictures of our week-long stay at Santa Cruz. With the kids out of school on fall break, we always enjoy getting out while the weather is still nice (here in California). Our original plan to have a family camping trip turned into a stay at a beautiful beach house. We were sure glad the plans had changed when it rained on Friday night. As grandma Joni said, “That would have been the highlight of the week!”. The beach house was very comfortable, even with 10 kids running around. The views were beautiful and we even saw dolphins one morning. The kids enjoyed the beach as much as possible, and especially the hot tub afterwards to warm up numb fingers and toes. We played a lot of “Apples to Apples” and “Uno” and other board games. I drank my fill of hot chocolate, ate my fill of cinnamon rolls and just hung out as a large extended family. Caedmon cried when we got home and said he wanted to stay at the beach house. We ended the week at the Beach Boardwalk. I’ll have to get some photos from Lacee of that day. The kids drug Ryan on every single spinning, twirling, upside down, whiplash ride they had there (twice). I told him how sorry I was that I couldn’t help, but alas, I was banned from riding the rides due to pregnancy. Darn! He was looking a lot green on the ride home. This is the man who reads and writes in the car, without ever getting carsick. It was a special day, and even more special because Gavin and Delaney went on the Giant Dipper roller coaster for the first time. That was my very first roller coaster ride. Caedmon and Liam were daredevils and went on everything they could. They definitely don’t take after me in that.

Fall Break

Sun, 28 Sep 2008 15:19:27 -0700

I know for some of you whose kids have only started school weeks ago, this is a bizarre idea. But Gavin, Delaney and Liam are actually on a two week fall break from school. They started school at the end of July, so to them they’re ready for a break. Delaney got out her clay and wrote her excitement on her desk, “We’re going camping!”. I’ll have to post pictures when we get back.

The first ultrasound

Sun, 28 Sep 2008 15:11:08 -0700

Friday was the big day...the ultrasound. Ryan came and so did Liam and Caedmon. They did pretty good being quiet as they watched the fuzzy black and white screen. Liam kept holding my hand and rubbing my arm. He continually lives up to his name which means “great protector” Will it be a boy or a girl?? Well, we don’t know. This little one was very cozy with her/his back facing out and didn’t want to move to give us a peek. We did get this neat side angle picture of the baby sucking his/her thumb. Pretty cool! The technician couldn’t get all the pictures of the heart that she needed, so I’ve got to go back. Maybe we’ll find out the sex next time. She did say that from what she could see, she thought it was a girl. Caedmon still thinks there’s a brother AND a sister in there. He didn’t believe us when we told him that maybe he’s going to have a baby sister.

Chuck E. Cheese birthday party!

Mon, 22 Sep 2008 16:30:16 -0700

This weekend we did what most parent’s dread... a birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese party place. They built one right here in town last year for all of us sucker parents. Caedmon’s been asking us to take him there for his birthday for months and months and well, we couldn’t resist. He says it so cute with his squeaky voice and big eyes. So we took him and some of his cousins and partied with Chuck E., ate the party-place pizza, bought the tokens, rode the cheap automated rides, played the video games and yelled real loud to try to hear ourselves talk. It turned out really fun, especially since a lot of the little ones had never been there before. To fit in with his Mickey Mouse obsession lately, we ate Mickey Mouse cake and he got a Mickey costume and blanket. Happy 3rd Birthday Caedmon!

It’ll be funny someday, right?

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 17:44:37 -0700

What happens when you whack your eye against the side of the bathtub? See above...
Poor Delaney! She hurt her eye on the bathtub a week ago. On Friday her eye became bloodshot and sore and by Sunday she was miserable, walking around like an impersonation of a cyclops. Her eye isn’t black or swollen, it’s just very painful and sensitive to light. So she went to the eye doctor and was thoroughly checked out and prescribed two kinds of eye drops as well as eye patches to help shield the light (Arr...Matey!). She has a bruised eye and the Opthamologist says it could take up to 7 weeks to heal! She also informed me that the first week’s treatment consists of eye drops 6 times a day! We feel so bad for her because there’s nothing to do to speed up the healing. So as I said, “It’ll be funny someday”. I’m always amazed at the weird twists and turns mothering takes you down. These are the things memories are made of.