LITTLE MOMENTS...

It's a beautiful thing...

2011-07-07T16:45:00.001-07:00

This place we have the privilege of calling home for the next year or two.( I'd love to post pictures and plan to as soon as we get the home computer up and going again. Currently Mr. Tech takes the Internet along with him when he goes out of the office. )We have chickens (not our own) in the "back 40" and enjoyed some 28 turkeys too 'til a week ago when they "got turned into meat" as the small men like to inform people. As I type this, there is a haying operation going on in the back field, the small men have been having a blast watching the round bales roll out of the baler one by one.
We "hiked" down through the hay windrows two nights ago to the tiny creek in the "canyon". It's very tiny as it trickles through the fir trees and we had to beat our way through the spring growth of underbrush to find it. A 1/4 mile walk up the country road (no lines) brings us to a beautiful view of Mt. St. Helens, with lots of friendly neighbors along the way. Never dreamed we'd be here, the Lord has been so gracious to us. It is such a blessing to be surround by His handy work out every window!! Hope to post a few pictures of it soon!

Projects and Pigtails

2011-05-23T11:24:00.000-07:00

Over the last week we have been able to get a few of the "big" projects done around here. We are planning Lord willing to move to the new place the first week of June. We were originally hoping to be moved in by this last weekend. But with the nasty flu bug the week before last we pushed it out to June so as not to share the bug hopefully! It's worked out better anyway as we will have a lot more done and ready on this place now. The back fence boards needed to be replaced so that became the project of last week. And with the beautiful sunshine we had a great time doing it!!

Before

Almost halfway. And I didn't get time to upload an after but it's finished as of Saturday!!

Julabeans was a trooper and slept a lot mostly. But also got a chance to enjoy the sunshine a little too.

The boys had a blast being out in the yard so much!!

"Small Bear" ( aka Leroy) "pinched" grass and dirt for quite a while.

Gettin' there!

The three Musketeers conferring over their "logging operation" I believe it was.

Bugs checking to see how tall he is.

And then comes the pigtails! Her hair has partial curl but the ends are straight so it's always a bit on the wild side. I ran into Walmart for wallpaper border and found these cutest little mini clips and rubber bands! This was the result:

"Look what my Mom did to my hair"

"Might as well show it off"

"Right side"

"And here's the left side"

"are you laughing at me?"

"I guess it was sorta funny"

She is 4 months today and has been such a sweet little person. She's seems to be always laughing silently at her brothers. She occasionally finds her little voice and has very gurgly, jolly little conversations with whoever is chatting with her. She is up to about 15 lbs and still a little snuggle bug! Pretty much, all around, sweetness, our "tiny lady" as she's called some times! So we start into another busy week! I was able to get the boys room painted and new wall border on over the weekend too. Something that had to be done before we could rent the house as the old wall border had gotten torn. Very nice to have two of the biggest things out of the way!!! And we're that much closer to being out in the country. Not that it won't still have it's challenges but I'm looking forward to the quiet... well as quiet as it gets with three boys around. But if you've every lived in the country you know what I mean. Well it's wash day so I better get going. Later.

A month in pictures...

2011-05-14T16:38:00.000-07:00

At the end of April we were able to visit the Woodburn tulip fields in bloom. They were amazingly beautiful, as usual!

And given all the rain we've had, the boys had a blast!

We came semi prepared with rubber boots

and boy did they have fun.

Although, it looks as tho' there is such a thing as too much mud.

I guess, not as long and you're bigger than it is.

Why else would there be ditches between every row, besides for jumping over?!

Uncle AJ and Aunt Ruth came along,

as well as Grampa and Gramma.

The diversity of color never ceases to amaze me!

On the first of May, Jeffy, (whom we more often call Bugs these days) turned 2!

We got to celebrate at Uncle Dave's house, which was great fun.

As it was Uncle Dave's birthday, 2 days before Bugs.

Juls getting a "ride" in the wagon from Grampa.

She made the 3 month mark at the end of April.

"My Sweetness"
one of her many nick names.

Chubby toes so fun to munch on!!

Investigating her brother Leroy's offerings for play things.

New shoes!!

Happy Mother's Day, which we enjoyed at Uncle AJ and Aunt Ruth's

Mom and her two granddaughters

Two cousins waiting for Uncle Dave to hurry up and come in.

Our Monday night laundry pile, which we tackle while listening to recorded ministry, or something motivational !!

The boys view of their Dad :)

And some sunshine at last, which has the kiddos in the yard most days!!

"Pride goeth...

before a fall"...
when your brother backs up in the truck you're standing on.
(tho' he landed quite safely from this one)

And right now we're in the middle of a rather horrible throw -up flu , which this small man started for us. He was actually in the middle of it when I took this picture tho' you'd never guess. He was starting to come out on the topside after having lost it at least 6 times over the course of 9 hours.

I didn't feel quite so chipper when I got it two days later. :P Mr. Tech got a light version yesterday night and now Phi's down with it today. So far Leroy and Beans are holding out!! It seems to be catchy for up to two weeks after you have it, so we will probably be laying low for a while here. So, that's another month in the life of the Soares. Plenty happening, not so much time to stop and think about it.

I read this in an old book from the 1800's the other day, and found it "food" for thought:

"Time is so precious, that there is never but one moment in the world at a time, and that is always taken away before another one is given." Hawes

Spring time at the Zoo

2011-04-13T11:26:00.000-07:00

We were able to make it to the Zoo for $4 Tuesday yesterday. Not wanting to ride in the school bus this time we didn't get there until 1:00 and got to park in the zoo parking lot. We were thankful for lovely spring sunshine! Since most of the animals we saw were from Asia or Africa I'm sure they were grateful to finally have sunshine too! Phi walked the whole time and Aaron was at the stage where he preferred the stroller and was unsure of the animals. Phi was in that stage last year. It's interesting to recognize some of the stages they go through since they're close enough in age I can still remember when the other one "did that". Any way, on to the pictures and hopefully (if I can get it to load right) one video for you. Kate and Tay-O, we hope you can go with us some time when you're here, for now here's a "through the lens" tour!!

One of the polar bears was splashing in their pool...

playing with a big rubber toy.

Mean while his buddy was hanging out in the shade on his tummy showing off his big bear feet

The tiger was pacing back and forth, back and forth by the doors in his cage looking like he was waiting for his lunch from his keeper.

These little gazelles were Phi's favorite, tho" they were just minding their own business eating grass and leaves. We talked about how they can run really fast, fast enough to get away fro a cheetah! (Which always reminds me of Dave Ramsey's visual of credit card advertisers and debt being the cheetah and we've got to be the gazelle getting away. HA! guess that one stuck with me)

And the Hornbills who were just enjoying the sun on their black feathers on a log.

The giraffe was again indoors.

But Leroy found it interesting that it was drinking water.

This coolest lizard looked like it should be a fake stuffed one, but, it was cruising around it's cage hoping on rocks and such like, very much alive.

This lone zebra was grazing in the sunshine.

We at least got to see the hippos' faces this time and their funny little ears. Leroy like their "little" tails.

The lions were not doing more than sunning them selves on the rocks. This was just fine with Phi who was hoping they wouldn't roar. The male remind us of Gramma's Dandy lion story with his scruffy mane.

It was Julabeans first trip to the zoo at 10 weeks. She slept most the time and was a very patient little lady and waited the whole 3 hours to eat till we made it back to the van.

Sorry the video would not load, grrr. Maybe when Mr. Tech gets back we can get it on here.

Much thanks to Aunt Deb!!!

2011-03-27T14:55:00.000-07:00

"For this cutest little hat ...

and dress, sewn with love just for me!!"

"We tried it on this mornin' an' it just fit perfectly!"

Just in time for Spring tho' we are still enjoying rain showers so I had ta wear the flowers."

She looks just like your baby pictures Deb, especially this expression.

"Whoa, someone's sneakin' up on me"

"Oh, just my doting brother"
(who gets a little too "helpful" sometimes, such as leaning over to put in her binky with a hand on her tummy to hold himself up. :P Tho' she gets a great many " 'ugs" from him too.)

Thank you so very much, it is so fun to have her fitting it. I love the flowered hat and the full shirt, it turns her into such a little lady! Love the prints too, I don't know how you ever choose the materials but I love the way they match up.

These days...

2011-03-14T16:32:00.000-07:00

Well it's that time of year, flu bugs, coughs, colds, and in our area whooping cough has been going around. A bit scary when you have a 7 week old infant who could die if she caught it. We have all been vaccinated including Julabeans. We are also taking a five day course of antibiotics to kill it if we have it and make us noninfectious to everybody else. And above all praying that we are kept from having to deal with it!! So aside from that here are some of the happenings that I've been able to capture on camera the last few weeks.

Phi's very own Chitty made with his Duplo Erector set.

Actually he has no idea what or who Chitty is...

He just loves to create..

I guess he mixed regular legos in with the erector set. I'm not sure what the exact purpose of this creation is.

And it's little miss Julabeans herself.

This is how you teeter-tauter when you don't have a real one readily available.

Here's a few in the snow that came at the beginning of this month. Snow in March ??? Spring is supposed to be here in a week!

These guys thought it was awesome of course.

Bugs getting his ride all cleaned off.

Julabeans posing on the special quilt A. Mary L made for her.

Cuteness

She's looking all growed up already.

Bug's trying A. Susie's shoes on for size.

And one of the Eygptian plagues came to our corn meal mush. Ha, I found this sitting on the kitchen counter one morning after Mr. Sneaky aka Leroy, got up before the rest of us. It made me laugh for some reason. The demise of a rubber frogs arm.

And we'll leave you with a few of little miss sunshine...

for our cousins to the East ...

who aren't feeling so well.

Hope you all feel better soon and we get through this time of sickness and on to the sunshine of spring!!

1 month

2011-02-23T22:56:00.000-08:00

Time certainly has been passing faster these days, it was a surprise to realize this little lady was a month old last Sunday!

Her most devoted caretaker...he goes running when she cries with an
exclamation of "uh-oh Ulia." He is actually very handy at putting her binky in for her. :)

Hanging out with Daddy and the boys after bath time one night watching Daddy draw pictures on his Slate.

Sweet dreams...she still is not smiling directly at people but getting closer everyday. She will look pleasant but that's as far as it gets.

Our little Juli-bean with her wild mop, this is how it looks after a bath and it's pretty hard to get it under control.

Thoughtfully sleeping...

Bruder Leroy had a birthday this month and turned 3!!

He requested a train cake which is exactly what he had last year but that made it easy for me. Brownies and MnM's make it easy and delish...

Here's everybody helping with the "car shooter" Uncle AJ and Aunt Ruth gave him.

And this little lady can't wait to see her cousins and Aunt and Uncle who are coming to see her for the first time!

"My who"

"Oh those ones"

"I'll try to look proper"

"No cross eyed stuff and all"

We'll be very pleased to see you"

"Good night for now"

Things have gone so well thus far with four, we have our busy times on occasion when several of them need attention at once. But most days are pretty much the same as before with a little extra time taken for feedings and such. The boys all love her to pieces and often request to give her hugs and kisses. She does love to be held which can be challenging but is also a pretty good sleeper most days so we get quite a bit done during those times All in all we have been very blessed!!

Hair they are...

2011-01-24T16:26:00.000-08:00

A few more pictures of our new little lady (including the hair)

Our lovely Midwives Dr. Jill and Dr. Kathrine

Her chubby little self yesterday evening with first day puffiness.

Holding Daddies fingers, (don't worry she does have all ten.)

A few of my favorites with her brothers.

Leroy was very fascinated by her and the fact that she would hold his finger.

This guy wasn't so sure at first but warmed up after a bit.

Phi trying out the finger trick.

Her first bath today.

Here's the hair

And the latest and greatest taken this afternoon when her hair got all dry.

She and mommy have been doing very well thus far. Thanks to everyone who was praying for us, things went so smoothly, we truly felt the Lord's tender mercies through it all.
A big thank you to Grampa and Gramma and A. Susie for taking care of the three musketeers while we're resting here at home.

It's a baby!

2011-01-23T22:36:00.000-08:00

The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him. Lamentations 3:24

Praise to our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ the Son of God.

Thank your for your Prayers! Now we can praise together!

Introducing our First Girl!!
Julia Lorraine
Born on our Lord's Day
January 23rd 2011
Weighing in at 7Lbs. 12Ozs.
Length is 20 7/8 inches

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V
Daddies or Mommies girl? You decide! Comments required. ;)

Big brother now. :)

The Protector.

"I hope it's a girl!" Got what he wanted.

Posted by Daddy, Mr. Tech.

4 Years Old

2011-01-20T14:05:00.000-08:00

This post has been a while coming as his birthday is actually the seventh of this month. He tries to pose for the camera these days and then wants to see what he looks like on the screen. Easier to get a picture, just as hard to get a real smile. :)

He was looking forward to the birthday this year and was very into what the cake was going to be... clear since last fall. He changed his mind tons of times but finally decided on a truck. He had requested red but we had to compromise because I made whip cream frosting and it wouldn't go darker than pink.

He was satisfied once he saw the finished product.

Chocolate cake with whip cream frosting.

It actually tasted good and didn't seem like too much sugar.

A shovel and leather gloves, his gifts from Uncle AJ and Aunt Ruth which included some tic-tacs. They were his favorite part of course and rattled around in his back pocket all night. :)

And this one from Grampa and Gramma and Aunt Susie brought great excitement to all of them.

It's even fun for grown ups!!

It's an older train set they found on Craig's List and has miles of track. I like that fact that the trains look more realistic and less cartoony than then newer sets. It is going to be an awesome creative play thing for years to come. We got the down stairs rec room done just in time! :)

He also got a Lego Duplo Tech Erector set from us which is great for creative play. I haven't gotten any pictures of it but highly recommend it for boys.

He has gotten so grown up over the last year, but he still doesn't like new things or too much change with out getting used to the idea first.

Some favorites right now.

Food would be a toss up between Pizza and Egg salad sandwich.

Favorite color is still Red.

He loves to talk and explain things and has gotten much more out going.

He considers Uncle Dave his measure for being grown up. "When I get as big as Uncle Dave I'm gonna do such and such."
It is also his goal to be able to run as fast as Uncle Dave.

Very belated happy birthday post but wanted to get it done before the newest little one arrives The due date was yesterday but we're still hangin' in there. It's OK by me this time as I'm feeling well and sorta enjoying the current routine for now. I'm sure that will change in a few days!!

Our Snowy Week

2010-12-23T05:18:00.001-08:00

Finally some pictures from the last time the camera batteries worked. Twas' the the weekend before Thanksgiving actually, and we got to enjoy it at Chatty and the Mr.'s place. We arrived Friday evening just before this storm hit and woke up to this in the morning. The little men were quite worried that our van windows were covered. "How are we going to see out!?! We will have to clean them off." -Phi

Even the covered porch was "covered" in snow because of the wind.

This one's compliments of Chatty who grab my camera at just the right moment! :)

They were quite amazed and excited as it's the first snow most of them have any memory of except Phi.

Once the proper attire was found they had a blast.

Jeffy was not so sure of it, being it was at least 4-6 inches in most places and deeper were it drifted. After falling over several times he was ready to be done with it.

The guys chatting it up on the porch. (Do guys chat or would that be jabbering?? Discussing, discussing, that's it!) :) The sunshine was lovely here but once we got into town it was too chilly to enjoy much out of doors.

Phi was litterly rolling in the stuff as though he were in the sand at the beach or something.

Chatty got out some beach toys and the boys loved it. We headed for home Sunday with just a dusting farther South but more falling as we drove, later in the day.

At some point that week we were home and got this light dusting of our own to enjoy, much to the small men's delight.

They made this arrangement themselves, always gotta' have some challenge.

Half a week home and then we were off to Kate n Taeo's house for Thanksgiving and more snow. Somehow I managed to get all snow pic's and no indoor scenes. But, this I once again blame on my batteries which dejuiced this first day and I never took the time/ had the energy to get new ones the rest the weekend.

So here's Taeo thinking it looks like a lot of fun out there!!!

They were following Grampa's trails in the park, then Phi decided to head out as the "snowplow."

It was quite deep were it drifted and soo cold that it didn't pack real well.

"This stuff is overrated Mom, Can I go back in yet?!"

It was nap time and he was so snuggled up in his snow clothes that he nearly went to sleep before we got him out here. Jeffy had decided he'd had enough snow the last weekend and wouldn't go out in it without a fuss.

Shovels and a truck kept them busy for a while till the big people came out and built a sled trail.

Thankfully in all our travels the Lord graciously gave us good roads as we do not have a 4x4.

So that's been our snow thus far this season, though Phi keeps hoping for more around our house. And I wouldn't mind it either now that we're home safe and sound! :)

PS: The lovely new format is thanks to Mr Tech. I'm so dense right now that it took him looking at it to realize that the previous background had expired and that's why there was an annoying box in the middle of the screen when you tried to read it!!! :)

Only a boy...

2010-12-19T20:47:00.000-08:00

Be warned, don't read this if you are at all squeamish!!

So we're heading out to Grampa and Gramma's for dinner on a lovely Sunday afternoon, when from the back seat Phi calls, " Mom, Leroy ate a booger".
Mom (thinking OK gross, but whatever) asks: "Leroy why did you do that??"
Phi (fills in for him in his tattletale voice): " Well I took one out of my nose, and I put it right here (pointing to spot on pant leg) and he took it and when I tried to get it back he put it in his mouth and ate it."
Groan! Gasp! Gag!
The joys of boys! ;P

Hello again!

2010-12-16T16:23:00.000-08:00

I've been hoping to do a catch up post on the last 6 months going on 7 with a few pictures. But due to the fact that we recently got a new computer, I don't know where they are currently. That's my excuse anyway, so I'll just jabber a bit about what's been happening in our lives. I suppose the biggest item and soon to fill a large part of our days is the little one we expect to make an appearance around the January 19th, 2011! That's all of 5 weeks away which is rather startling and exciting at the same time. This pregnancy has been much like the last with a lot of struggles, the first 4 months I had tons of nausea and cramping so we didn't end up telling anybody until we were almost 18 weeks. Finally around that time we realized there were lots of intestinal issues going on so got on track with some supplements for that and it made a big difference until about 25 weeks when we found that the thyroid was acting up again and iron levels were low again as well... so energy has been greatly lacking but D-day is near! :D
I s'pose the next biggest event in our lives which is old news to most, was that my littlest brother got married in June, in Illinois, in the hottest part of the summer there. Well maybe not hottest but it was the first time I had experienced humidity and being about 2 and a half months into this pregnancy and feeling rotten didn't help. I'm sooo glad for pictures cause it was a blur for me though I wouldn't have missed it for any thing!!! We are very thankful for A. Ruth!!
Third on the list of most relevant would be that Mr .Tech branched out on his own back in the end of August . Something he's wanted to do for years but never felt the timing was quite right until now. This may sound a little absurd, as in how would the time seem right, now with the economy in a recession and our fourth child on the way?!? But, it did and it's been awesome!! He's been as busy or busier than before but able to be around more in the mornings when the boys wake up instead of the strict 8:00 to 5:00 of before, and of course we've all loved it! Mr. Tech loves the freedom of it and we've benefited from much more Daddy time most weeks!!!
The most recent happening is a relative of Mr. Techs who also happens to be a general contractor with time to work on our basement!! Yippee, we might accually get to use it one of these days!! For the last five years it hasn't been usable other than the washer and dryer. Once finished it will have a bathroom, two bedrooms plus a big multipurpose room for the kids to run off energy in!!! Can you see why I might be a little excited. Laundry can even remain down there (temporarily of course ;D) instead of up here on the couch!! The possibilities are many!
So that brings us to the here and now which is currently dinner time for us, the intent is to get some recent pictures on here soon. Hope to be back soon.

We made it...

2010-05-29T09:00:00.000-07:00

To the end of the alphabet! We actually finished at the end of April and then waited for the second Tuesday in May so we could get into the Portland Zoo for only $2 a person! It ended up being a busy day and the Zoo does not have enough parking. So to the great excitement of most the small men (Leroy didn't approve at first but recovered quickly) we had to park a few miles from the Zoo and ride in on a school bus they provide for such occasions.

We were very blessed to get quite a bit of animal action for the day! The sea lions were swimming around and playing by the glass, versus the usual blob sunning it's self on the rock.

The polar bear was scratching an itch on the log.

The elephants were the best, we got into the elephant house and there was only one male elephant not doing much so most people left. The boys were all lined up at the window when a keeper came in with a arm load of hay and a half a honeydew melon. He made the elephant back up and then lay down on command.

then sit up,

and a bow and then he got his melon. Not exactly your typical wild elephant but it was fun to watch such a big animal do those things.

The rest of his cohorts outside were busy too, the year old baby elephant was actually playing in the pool, sitting in the water and then falling over with a splash. That scene is firmly ingrained in Leroy's mind and we hear about it most mornings first thing when he wakes up, "the elapent, plashing in da wader".

Watching the elephants.

Mathew got to come along with Aunt Susie and the boys had a blast together.

The lions weren't too exciting this day, mostly sleeping.

Painted dogs

Hippos,
we're beginning to think they might be statues this is the almost identical position they were in last time we visited a year ago ;)

"Zeba-ra" (Leroy's pronunciation)

The one giraffe was indoors, not sure what happened to the rest of them there used to be at least 4.

The Alligator, I think,
tho' it could be the crocodile. I can't remember how to tell them apart and they were in the same encloser but separated with a natural rock wall.

A funny deer and ducks

Aunt Susie and the three little men.

The chimps were very active, eating broccoli (which impressed Phi) and pushing hay around the cage.

And last of all were the penguins, we couldn't find any at first and then some came swimming in and this little guy posed nicely for us before swimming off again.

Then it was back to the school bus to find our cars and head home for late naps and meeting night. :D It was definitely worth the $12 dollars it cost for all of us to get in (Gramma came too) since that is the average cost per adult on normal days.

So we are trying to decide when to start working on numbers now. I haven't decided whether to continue with the week per letter/number or how to work this. We've been playing Hide and Go Seek so that Phi works on counting from 1 to 10 so it will just be number recognition and amounts that we work on. June and July are very busy months for us so might wait for a bit of that to pass first before jumping in to this next phase. Thanks for reading and encouraging us along!

1 year

2010-05-12T08:19:00.001-07:00

...Since I last posted, well not quite. But this little man

turned 1 on the 1st of May! It very hard to grasp that it's been a whole year since this.

and this.

He and Unca Dave shared the party since Dave's falls at the end of April.
The birthday boys.

So here's Jeffy's cake.

And Dave's, a Applesauce Raisin with cream cheese frosting. So yummy!

And here's the cake's demise. First the candies, Phi did the exact same thing only being the first and careful child he had to be told, yes go ahead and eat the cake too. :)

Not so with mister third child.

He knew exactly what to do with it.

No questions asked...

Diggin' in for more.

and then the inevitable sugar overload/time to save some for everyone else.

Opening presents with Daddy. Grandma was distracting the brothers so Jeffy actually got to open his own gifts.

And play with them for a bit uninterrupted.

He was 23 lbs and 29 inches tall at his 1 year check up. Still our little peanut as we call him occasionally. He is quite the talker, not words but baby gabber that sounds like 'what is it" and he'll go on chirping out sounds like a little bird. He does say Daddy and Momma. He loves to clap his hands or feet when he's in the car, hence the nick name Happy Feet. Daddy sings him "if your happy and you know it clap your feet". He doesn't walk yet alone, but loves to walk holding a hand. He will have the most serious conversations with people, making earnest eye contact and chatting away, only all in baby gibber. He's still our snuggliest little man and we love him that way. Happy first birthday little man!

Tip-Toe Through The Tulips

2010-04-10T17:42:00.001-07:00

HE has made everything beautiful in HIS time...Eccl. 3:11

Gramma and the boys and I, had the privilege of visiting the Wooden Shoe Bulb Co. in Woodburn, OR, about a week ago. The tulips are mostly in peak season and we were amazed by the diversity of God's colors! It coincided with week T so it worked out quite nicely. :)

We haven't given up on the alphabet, just had a small break while we figure out how to work out U and V. Anyway so Tulips came in time for week T but they are soo beautiful I couldn't pick favorites so they need a post of their own. Enjoy!

I'd love to have some of these ones.

We thought of you Ruth when we saw this lovely shade. :)

The mix of colors is amazing!

Wooden shoes make an ideal spot to rest.

Smile!

Love this melon color too.

Three little tulips.

"Huh?"

Curious things, these tulips are.

"they have black things in there"

My favorite!

They have several old tractors around the fields which make great props and play things!

Interesting mix.

Then amongst all this loveliness, the little men found some dirt.

And since we've had record rain fall in the last two weeks, it was some lovely, sloppy, squishy mud!

The sloppier and squishier the better for this little man. He would get in the deepest spots and be giggling away.

So should you ever find yourself near Woodburn, OR from April to May it's definitely worth a stop, the tulips that is not the mud!

Couponing...

2010-03-31T21:48:00.000-07:00

It's pretty fun stuff, especially when you have a Sister in law who's really good at it and clues you in on all the great deals!! Thank you Coca!

Today we ran around and got these great deals:

3lb.s of Turkey breast meat $5 @ Safeway.
Edit: It gets even better, with a -$1 coupon we found tonight we can get it for $4 per 3lb.s!

Sour cream .69 each

Tostitos Chips .99 per bag.
Those were all Safeway deals and a real couponer would probably barely call them deals. But they were savings for us, on things we were already buying so that worked for me.
My favorite of the day tho' was Walgreens,

6 bottles of shampoo (that I love)
2 - 6 pks of Dove bar soap for $2.25
+ $5 to spend in store on something else another time!
That's more like a couponers deal! ;)

These were a decent deal at Freddy's, Organic Blue Corn Chips for 2.99. Better than the 4.99 per bag they were asking.

Dole canned Pinapple for .70 a can, worked for me @ Winco.

But here's another true couponers deal. We went into Albertsons last night with coupons and double coupons and walked out with 4 boxes of WW pasta and 2 - 3pks of juice for FREE! This is not stealing, it's called couponing! And it's still a little crazy for me that you can actually do this!

This was tonight's steal of a deal, Hershey's Dark chocolate chips for $1.10 per bag since we had some Catalina's (in store credit) to use up. If you want to learn more about it check out this site.

There's many more like it around the NW if you do some snooping. It takes time but they do half the work of matching deals and telling you were to find them! Pretty crazy stuff, but it's sure fun to watch the register numbers turn from XXX amount of dollars to 000's or close!!

Week S

2010-03-30T10:25:00.000-07:00

We have been taking it a little slower the last two weeks and sort of meandering through S and T. The week of S we found out this in the basement:

The tile shower was never sealed properly so the entire frame and walls surrounding are rotted out. Blah, so that's our newest project. But, we did do and see some S things that week.

Mr Squirrel who is a regular visitor to our back yard,

And our roof top.

It also was Grandpa and Mr. Tech's birthday so we got to go to The Outback Steakhouse for birthdays. Phi got his own Steak since we got free kids meals for any adult entree. Phi loves his Steak and actually ate this entire thing...of course it could also be that it's the A1 sauce that he's addicted to, I'm not sure. :)

Sillyness..

in Suits,

for a Sertain wedding.. ;P
(we found them all on sale at the Burlington Factory Store. Yahoo!)

Aunt Susie was a great S person.

For some silly times as well.

The weather was once again helpful as we had Sunshine!

For a few days anyway, on one of them we headed out on a walk,

Where we Saw Some S's.

And some Spring time!!!

And raided a Squirrels hidy hole.

Incidentally, the Mr. and Chatty came down that weekend and we went up to Timberline for some Snowboarding! We haven't been in 3 yrs, me since our honeymoon and Mr . Tech since just before Phi was born. It was a blast and the weather was perfect!! Phi didn't get to go along but he did get to see the Snowboards and pictures of the Snow.

Our beautiful day.

And we got some Seeds to play with. It amazes me how long these will entertain them for.

It does require a good sweep of the kitchen once they are done as the seeds tend to bounce around on our counter. But the entertainment it affords is worth it.

Our verse was: Fear ye not, stand still and see the salvation of the Lord... Exodus 14:13

Animals: Seals, Sea lions, Seagulls.

Songs: "Safe am I", and "Salvation is a big word".

Bible stories: Saul whose name was changed to Paul. And Phi became fascinated with Solomon and wanted to read about him every day.

So that was a little of our S week See ya next Time. :)

Week Rrrrrr..

2010-03-25T09:39:00.000-07:00

So it was actually two weeks ago we encountered this letter in R trek along the alphabet. At that point the house looked something like this, therefore so did my mind, but we still managed to get R into our lives.

The weather helped, it Rained most the week

So we Ran in the Rain. (which happened to be after dark, sorry.)

We made Rice.

In our Rice cooker.

We saw a River.

And found R's wherever we could. This one's from the Old Spaghetti Factory where we went to find...

Salad, not really that just came with their meal. The waitress offered salad or applesauce for them and when I said salad she looked very skeptical, which is understandable. For whatever reason these little men love salad, don't ask me why.

So the Real Reason for coming here was Ravioli.

It was spinach and cheese but he actually liked it.

We wanted to Ride bikes. (but it Rained)

We had Raisins, Rice Krispies, and Rice.

We read about Ruth. Which Phi enjoyed very much and kept wanting to read more once we'd finished the book.

Our verse was: Remember now thy Creator in the days of thy youth. Eccl. 12:1

We found a very cool rooster crow on youtube. Also checked out Rattlesnake and Rat.

We Rocked in our Rocking Chair.

Played with our Race Cars, and Rocks.

Drove on the Road.

Played with Grandpa's Rope.

Phi thought it was cool that it was A. Ruth's letter. He also enjoyed writing it since it's so close to his P. I told him to make a P and then give it a leg in the front so it could walk. :)

So we Ran through week R and Slid in to week S.

Week Q

2010-03-10T22:25:00.001-08:00

So Q has been Quite the week! I was having another mind blank. And walking around the house thinking about every thing that ought to get done wasn't helping. So lots of stuff that wouldn't just do it's self got done. Mid week we thought of Queen so we read about Queen Esther. We having a whopping three pictures of the week to make up for last weeks picture post.
We did make Quasadillas, which I'm possative start with a Q but spell check says it's spelled wrong and is offering such words as Quasilinear, Quadrille, and Quadrilaterals. Humph.
So this is our chicken, ranch, Bar BQ and cheese Quasadilla.

And we also had Quiche

With a Q in ketchup, if you use your imagination. Neither of these help the Q sound out too well but that's just how our crazy Minglish goes.

We already had the issue with J and G. It should correctly be Jerbils and Jiraffes and Quiche ought to be something like Keesh not to mention the unnecessary letters K and S. C takes over their jobs nicely City, Cidney. Only I s'pose it could get confusing sort of like our word read, "Did you read that story or have you already read it?" We'd also never no which no we were talking about and knights would be history. OK enough, but it brings to mind a funny memory of my littlest brother at about the age of 4 or 5 trying to sound out and spell the word M n M's. LOL it came out something like, Emanems. :D

For our verse we did,
Behold, I come Quickly... Rev. 22:7 or 3:11

Also colored a Quail picture thanks to Gramma Jo.

We belatedly thought of Q-tips (thank you Lily) and wanted to do some thing with them besides clean our ears, noses etc. but haven't gotten there yet.

We did have a Moving sale (no the house hasn't sold but it's all about getting it ready) so had lots of Quarters.

Week R has a few more possibilities in the activity section. Hey, we should get you to come visit (soon-to-be) Aunt Ruth! It's been hard to have U. AJ being so Ruthless. :P

P.S. this is what happens when you sit down and write a post too late at nite. To bed we go.

Week P

2010-03-04T10:50:00.000-08:00

Week P was Plenty busy as they all are. We started the week with a breakfast of Puff Pancake and a Party that evening.

With Presents.

We got some Pistachios, which the little men love.

And then did lots of Packing for a trip with Mr. Tech for work.
Here's Jeffy Parking the van.

We found a P on this sign.

And when work was done got to go visit this Punkin,

(who doesn't appear to like Pictures or Picture takers, I'm not sure which)

and his family. His Mommy had posted a great P Post for us that week.

We Played,

and Played

and yeah, you get the idea...

These are all at a interesting Childrens' Museum in Ellenburg.

We also Pretended to be Bumpa cutting trees.

And firemen.

At this point my camera was out of batteries, the story of my life, who'd a thunk it would do that. Some how it seems to happen every time we go somewhere. I always leave home telling myself it's got plenty of juice left. The problem is if I bother to remember the recharger it never runs out of batteries cause I will inevitably forget to use the camera the whole time or some thing of the like.
Anyway so the remainder of the time we took a walk to the Park, we being women and children, the gentlemen half of the party took the van and met us there. This was just Peachy with us, the Plus size, I mean side, was the guys got their "cave time" and we ladies got extra chatting in. We also had Pizza for lunch before heading home Saturday afternoon to be home in time for our Sunday school treat on Sunday.

The one Part I wish I had a Picture of was Deb and I taking the 5 kiddos shopping at Safeway while the guys were checking out Mr. Wise Guys work. Safeway had a cart the was a double seater up top and then also had a little car attached to the front with room for two as well as grocery room in between. We got all 5 kids in that thing and just an FYI if you are in a hurry to get your shopping done that is not the recommended way. It seemed that the whole store had to stop and comment. And then when I was off getting something they would assume they were all Deb's. "WOW, two sets of twins?!?" upon being told they are cousins they must then know who goes with whom, and so on. So yes, not conducive to a quick shopping trip contrary to our first thought.

Our verse for the week was: Pray without ceasing. 1 Thes. 5:17

And read a bit more of the life of Peter.

We had lots of Practicing to do as Phi was to say a verse this year for his SS class but ended up chickening out and not saying any verses. Maybe next year...

So were on Q this week and just sort a taking it easy as it's a hard one to think up any activities for. But maybe we'll focus on counting Quarters or something.

When You Were One...

2010-03-04T09:30:00.001-08:00

Finally a post to break up the routine of the weekly alphabet post. Mr. Leroy turned two the end of February so here's to his first year.

The day you turned one!

We made you a Doggy cake cause you loved doggies.

And still do love most things to do with animals.

Big

Small

And wiggly.

You've always been our ham n a half.

You didn't walk until the day we welcomed your new baby brother.
(14 months)

You love dirt

of any kind.

And precarious perches.

Berries of any sort are a favorite.

You like to pick the petals off flowers or leaves off plants one itsy piece at a time.

You like boats and trucks and airplanes but have a worry over helicopters.

Surprisingly, you play very well alone.

But, you also love your big brother,

and try and do whatever he's doing,

good or bad.

You love coloring

and drawing.

But you DO NOT like swimming pools.

though water in general is great!

Your favorite people are your Daddy,

U. AJ

And Bumpa.

You love phones and helping in the kitchen.

And being out of doors.

You started talking at about 18 months and can talk as well as your older brother these days.

When you want to know what a color is you state, " color purple" until you are told what the color is.

Your favorite color is blue currently.

When your older brother does something you don't like you tell him off using his full name, first, middle and last. :)

It's hard to believe you are two and some days that you are only two, my little man.

Week O

2010-02-21T22:46:00.000-08:00

Our Week O has been a bit random it seems. We caught up on our letter writing from the past two weeks.

O for this week

N for the week before.

And M which kept wanting to look like an N.

We caught up on tracing and cutting too which also assisted us with our numbers as we had to follow 1 first and then 2 up to 3.

A bit random I say as we got a head start on week P with some painting.

And were shown some gracious hospitality by the H family one evening where we got to play with the cutest little fur balls you've ever seen!

He looks just like one we had growing up that we called Rascal.

So fun, but only cause we were visiting and not taking care of them everyday!

Becca graciously entertained the little men all evening with stories and some tractors and trailers and popcorn seeds! Very creative and they loved it!

We wanted to go to the Ocean for a day by with everything going on in our lives right now it was too far. We ended up at our favorite spot along the Columbia (which flows to the Ocean) Overlooking a surprise of dump trucks, a digger, a bulldozer and boats, much to the little men's delight.

And the airport on the other side with planes taking off into the beautiful blue sky and Mt. Hood.

The dump trucks were coming and going quite quickly taking dirt away. It will be interesting to see what goes in there.

And you may wonder what Lukey has to do with Week O!? The sad part is nothing.
We had this conversation one morning about a week ago:

Mommy and Phi looking at our blue fishy floating in the bowl.

Mommy: "I think Lukey died Phi."
Phi: "Shall we feed him?"
Mommy: "No, he's not alive any more."
Phi: "Shall we flush him down the toilet?"
Daddy took care of that part.

So, meet Obadiah,

whom we hope will fair better than Lukey.

We had Oranges and Orange Juice and picked the Olives Off our combination pizza at Costco. :)
We read about 2 Othneils and also the Open tomb of Our LORD and the Open gates and doors for Peter in Acts 12 when the LORD brought him out of prison by HIS angel.

Our verse:
O give thanks, unto the LORD for HE is good, for HIS mercy endureth forever. PS. 136:1

We saw videos about Ostrich, Otter, and Owls. And watched for Osprey along the river.

So with much business we head into week P with Plenty of Packing and Painting to go along with it!

Week N

2010-02-15T06:17:00.001-08:00

It's been a week that was hard to find inspiration for. We focused on Numbers a little just 1-10 and will continue those. We had some fun Bible stories Naaman the leper, Noah and the ark, and Nehamiah the cup-bearer. Our verse ended up being : Neither is there salvation in any other, for there is none other name, under heaven, given among men, whereby we must be saved. Acts 4:12
We held up four fingers as we were saying the reference to help remember what the number was and Phi made it part of his routine when he said it in Sunday School much the other kids amusement.
We also had Noodles and Nuts (pistachios) but no pictures of them. We talked about Neighbors and Necks. We focused on Noses and Nostrils ...because all three boys had a cold all week. :P And one night while I was busy making supper Phi and Leroy began conducting scientific experiments of their own.
Phi's involved seeing what would happen if you took all the screws out of the door handle ...

and surrounding fixtures.

Leroy on the other hand decided to see at what ratio toilet paper would exceed the amount of water in a quart jar if the jar was half full. Brilliant! :) Sad to say his mother cut his experimenting short, since we need TP for more useful things... (we actually got some TP free this week thanks to Aunt Cornelia and her coupon sharing. Along with lots of diapers for only 2.99 per 30 down from $13.99-$9.99 the usual prices)

We worked on the New fence project.

Dug up some Night crawlers the only critter we could think of besides Newt.

And found these Nasty little spiders crawling out of the old fence boards. EEEW they still sorta give me the shudders, they're so creepy looking. Thankfully they were very slow crawlers and not the speedy ones that are places you don't want them before you can get away.

They acted and looked very much like crabs minus the pinchers so I call them crab spiders but have yet to look them up. That's a finger for size.

The little men enjoying the yard inspite of the weather.

Finding strange things to amuse themselves.

Very strange, he used to be afraid of heights but seems to be overcoming that one.

And for Sunday morning we dressed up Nicely.

And had our morning coffee to keep us feeling Normal. :)
Actually that's his berry breakfast smoothie in a coffee cup. I did it that way for them a while back to help keep it from being so messy and now they don't like it any other way of course.

So we're just passed half way there, still enjoying it and finding it a challenge to keep working it in. No breaks aloud or we may just not get started again. :) On to O and lots of packing and painting.

2010-02-11T07:27:00.000-08:00

Week M was a busy week we started off Mailing some Mail to Kate.

In the Mailbox of course.

We had some cookies and Milk in that order. :)

We also had both Blueberry and Cranberry Bran Muffins.

And then it got very busy with some Major projects around the house.

I'll have to post some before and afters once it's completed. We're working on putting the house on the Market.

Mischief.

Messes.

Mountains...

We took a Mini vacation for Mr. Tech's work down to Medford and got to spend a night in a Chalet in Klamath Falls. We went over Mt. Hood but couldn't see it because of the weather.

I told Phi we were going to drive "over the Mountain" and he wasn't to sure about that until we explained that we were not going to go over the point but around the side. :)

My Men little and big.

Klamath Falls had a little snow and when we stopped for groceries at Safeway there was a "monster" truck crawling up the side of one of the mounds on the edge of the parking lot. Phi decided that looked like fun and wanted to do it too. I told him we needed bigger tires to be able to do that and he then began campaigning to get big tires put on the van. We sufficed him with the thought that he would have to go in U. Dave or U. AJ's trucks some time to go mountain climbing.

The Chalet.

Our M person tho' there's many more we thought about but don't have pictures of.

Phi enjoying the pool at the hotel for the first time, while Leroy did not this time!

Some M nM's that we used to make chocolate kiss pretzel snacks with M n M's for decoration.

Our Verse: Many O Lord, my God are Thy wonderful works which Thou hast done... Ps. 40:5

We read about some Miracles and Multitudes.

Animals were: Moose, Moles, and Marmot

They bounced on the Mattress and we wanted to play with Marbles but never got a good chance.

We spent all day Sunday at "Meeting." Multnomah Falls was also on the list but we didn't get to that one either. There is a lot going on in our lives these days and we are trying to prioritize...daily.

Week N is already half gone now but we've worked it in here and there.

Week L

2010-02-01T22:46:00.001-08:00

Week L we've Learned a Lot! It took a little while to get going with the week and then by the end we nearly didn't finish every thing we thought of.
Our L in writing.

We made Loaves of bread...

mini Loaves to make it more special.

We fed Lukey (something we do every day not just this week ) :)

We had Lots of Laughs with this Little man around, pulling himself up on everything and thinking he's big stuff!

We got Licorice.

And made a Licorice L.

We measured things to see how Long they were.

For a craft we did finger print Ladybugs. Something we got off the Illinois state web site and have been saving for this week. Two red finger prints made with finger paint and then when it's dry you draw in the extras with a black marker.

We also had lettuce, something Phi actually thinks is quite good. How he came up with that idea I know not?!

And around the house we had Loads of Laundry! As you can see it's getting bad enough to gobble up the little men. Actually they were pretending they were falling off a mountain. Ha! I think it's time to fold some Laundry!

Here's how Phi "folds" a face clothe,

Deep concentration,

and ta-da. Guess I should start keeping them in a basket so this method would work. :D

We also made a Lego L, which is hollow down the middle because...

It becomes a Lane to drive cars down. Oops!

We read our very cute Lamb story and our Lady bug counting book. and played follow the Leader. The boys Loved that one and wanted to do it every day since Mommy did whatever Phi did!

Our verse : Love one another as I have loved you... John 15:12

We sang "this Little Light of mine"

And studied some of the Life of our Lord Jesus while he was here in this world.

For Animals we learned a little about Lions, Lambs, Leopards, Lemurs and Llamas.

We talked about Legs and Lips, and also some opposites as there are tons of them that start with L.
Left vs. Right
Little vs. Big
Low vs. High
Long vs. Short
Less vs. More
Loud vs. Quiet (Leroy's favorite cause we whispered "quiet".)
Last vs. First
Light vs. Dark
Large vs. Small

I am never sure how much is sinking in but was encouraged when Phi came up with all on his own, " Does cousin Laura start with L?"

Some laughs from the week,

Phi from the back of the van playing with Jeffy:

"My little brothers cute!" ( I think he heard someone else say that one.)

Leroy, as we were driving in the country was looking out the window informing us what he was seeing. Most of it was normal things like "blue trucks" and "boats" and such like until we came to a horse. "Elephant", he bellows from the back, "Deer"! We laugh. Then we come to the Emu farm, "Chickadee"!

We wanted to go to a Lake but never got that far, anything close around here is no more than a pond. And so we March on to Week M. Thanks for the ideas Gwynne!

Week K

2010-01-25T08:24:00.000-08:00

Edit: Kate we did not forget you, only A. Sjo did in my hurry to get the posting done before something else came up. In looking for a suitable picture tho' I don't have any recent ones (had to snitch this one off you guys blog). That means it's been too long since we've gotten to see you all!! Shall have to remedy that soon.

Week K, we've become more Knowledgeable, (though we didn't actually cover these "Kn" words because they're too confusing for now.) We did learn about Kangaroos, Kittens and Koala Bears on Youtube. Kangaroos are the strangest things, they seem to be to Australia what deer are to the NW. Interesting critters. An FYI, if you want to see them on Youtube put in Baby Kangaroos or you get lots of Kangaroos boxing.

On the menu was some Special K cereal,

Kiwi's! Kiwi Apple "salad" was great.

And Kidney Beans, on Nachos, yum!
Kabobs would have been lovely but this is a hard time of year for them. Besides the fact that I didn't think of them ( thx A. Deb) before I went shopping for the week.

Here is our written K

And Leroy wanted to try writing too so he did these A's with a little help on which way to go. I don't plan on starting him now, though he does get in on much of what we do. I hope to do it again with him next Fall/Winter and get more detailed with Phi. Anyway...

We "helped" in the Kitchen (thx A. Ruth 2b! ;)
He doesn't do Knives, ever, so this was a novelty.

Opening cans, with help.

Our project was a Kite, though not a flying one cause I wasn't up for that challenge and we don't have anywhere in our yard to fly one. Besides, we had rain almost the whole week. Tho' some beautiful sunshine peeked out on Thursday and again on Saturday and made me realize how little we've seen it in the last few months!

So we started with this K

and then tried the fun glue-on-tissue-paper-bits-with-a-pencil trick.

It worked great! You can even see our lovely peep of sunshine in the background. :)

Things around the house were Keys and Kindness tho' the latter took some work. ;)

Bible stories were the Parables of the Kingdom and then King David being anointed and showing Kindness to Mephiboseth.

Our verse: Be ye Kind one to another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as GOD, in CHRIST has forgiven you. Eph. 4:32

We couldn't think of a K song tho' I'm sure I just didn't try hard enough.

Some funny quotes from the week:

At lunch the boys have been occasionally giving thanks for the food when Daddy isn't there.
One afternoon we sat up to the table and I asked who would like to give thanks?

Phi:" Unuh."
Leroy: "You do it."
Phi: "You git to be the thanker today"

After prayer we're looking out the window at the squirrel having it's lunch in the feeder.

Phi: "Did he close his eyes?"
Me: "When?"
Phi: "When we prayed??"

So we Launch into week L! ;)

Week J

2010-01-18T11:48:00.001-08:00

We started off with a visit to Aunt Jenn which was special for many reasons but mostly because she's a special person!

I now know why Junk food starts with J, the only foods the cook book lists were Jam or Jelly and we did have that on toast but what's new. We could have branched out to Japanese food but I'm not great with oriental dishes. So we were left with these,

Joe Joe's!

Jello Pudding,

And Jelly beans (thx Gwynne)!

In a Jar.

We wore a Jacket and Jeans, the salsa has nothing to do with it other than that was what he happened to be carrying when I finally got a chance to take his picture. We didn't do Jalapenos!

He knew that this little man's Daddy started with J when he's not Mr. Wise Guy. :)

Also Gramma Jo, but we couldn't find a picture of her.

Writing our J.

We also did Jumping Jacks, which I didn't get pictures of as I had to do them too. The boys both did plenty of Jumping on the bed, a favorite past time of theirs when I'm on the computer.

We watched videos of blue Jays which happen to be Phi's favorite bird, and a quick one of a Jaguar which is not one of Phi's favorite animals.

Our verse was: Jesus Christ the same, yesterday, and today, and forever. Heb 13:8
Phi surprised me on Sunday by saying it in Sunday School when all the other kids said theirs. That was a first, as was getting to go to Sunday School class for the first time.

We sang lots of J songs including Jesus loves me and Jesus wants me for a sunbeam. Phi is beginning to branch out on his own in this area ever since he saw the video Kate made for him on his Birthday! He now goes around singing one or two lines to different songs that he's heard and then stating, "I can do it Mommy." They were riding around Costco the other day in the cart singing "Happy day, happy day, when Jesus washed my sins away." Jesus bids us shine!:)
Our bible stories were about Jacob and then his son Joseph, Phi seems to enjoy them very much and always wants to hear more of what the person is doing.

I wanted to get out Jogging but I think it rained almost the whole week so we got out of that one. ;)
So we head into week K another challenging one, I'll just have to become more Kreative, ur well, perhaps not that creative.

Week I

2010-01-11T11:00:00.001-08:00

We had trouble being Industrious with our letter I as we started off the week with Illness again. Leroy this time, tho' he seemed to get over it much quicker then Phi. We only had one morning of illness and then were better.

We spent most of our time Indoors because it was very windy outside.

We played Indians.

and of course had an Indian house, otherwise known as a tepee.

We did finger paint for something fun Indoors. He knows how to spell this much of his name by himself so that was his I practice for the week.

For his birthday he got a Mic-O-Mic helicopter.

It comes in lots of little pieces so daddy helped

and Instructed him how to put it all together.

We did Italian bread for dinner one evening.

And for his birthday dinner with Grandpa and Grandma we did Ice Cream!

Well, Grandpa did Ice cream with them.

Phi was Interested in the process

and cranked a few times before going off to do other things and leaving Grandpa to the cranking.

But he was back again once it was ready for tasting!

Delicious, homemade Ice cream and brownies!

Our verse: I am the way, the truth, and the life, no man cometh unto the Father but by me. John 14:6

Our song ended up being, "I am so glad that Jesus loves me."as Phi picked that one for a favorite from all the 'I' songs in the childrens hymn book.

Leroy ended the week with Itching. He got hives quite badly from a new laundry softener we used (we think). Poor guy his little feet and hands swelled up huge and it came out all over his face too. We've rewashed all his clothes and everything and he seems to be better today.

We learned about Isaac all week going through his life up to where he married Rebekah. Which nicely brought us to his sons Esau and Jacob... but that's for another week.

A highlight of the week, after a reading one morning Leroy asked to pray. Phi wanted to after him and now they've begun asking to pray at lunch time and bed time. It's still repeat after me on Leroy's part, and half and half on Phi's.

I didn't get any pictures but we looked up the state of Illinois online and found coloring pages of their state bird, animal, fish and some that are just creatures that live there. They had a very informative website and more facts than you'd ever need to know about one state. Phi was especially excited about it since that's where A. Ruth lives!

Thanks for all the I Ideas everyone that left some last week. Feel free to leave J ones for this week. We may not get to them but it is great to have more ideas then just mine!

The Year you were Two...

2010-01-06T23:29:00.001-08:00

Be warned this may be sweet but it's not short!

A year in pictures
On your second birthday Phi, you were still unsure of the whole "Happy birthday" song.
the candles were the best part but you still didn't know how to blow them out.

You were always curious about small things.

You loved to play with Leroy

And share your food with him.

You were tall enough to reach door handles and learned to lock doors...

You love books

And precarious perches.

You went on your first boat ride and thought it was the worst thing that ever happened to you.
You loved water though

And helping wash the car.

You learned how to steer a bike, but still don't know how to pedal too.

We celebrated Daddy's 30th birthday in March.

In May we welcomed our new brother Jeffy.

and you became Momma's big helper.

We went to the zoo when he was three weeks old

you were worried about what was going to happen next, the whole time.

You got to help pick raspberries, strawberries and blueberries and loved it.

Raspberries are still your favorite.

You finally started talking somewhere about here and using all the words you had stored away in your little mind.

You were still very shy tho' and did not take to any one new very easily.

You loved the tall slide at Sester's park,

but couldn't stand twisty slides

You are afraid of Ferguson, Grampa and Gramma's dog.

We spent almost six weeks of the summer traveling for Daddy's work.

Much time was spent with U. Phil and A. Mary

Where you also got to take your first ferry ride.

We spent one week in Alaska w/ A. Susie along.

where you saw a glacier, a moose and hated the plane rides.

We made several visits to Kate's house

where we welcomed our new cousin Elliott.

You went to at least two weddings

You love to share Daddy's shakes, even the coffee ones.

You got to help plant a garden.

You and Leroy shared a big bed together for a while until you got a little one of your very own.

You learned to talk on the phone.

You still like your Binky tho' we try to only use it at bed time.

You love to help in the kitchen

You like hats

This is how you often ride on the stroller.

Loved the beach

We found out we were getting a new Aunt and you were very interested in this! You would have imaginary phone conversations with her before you guys even met for the first time.

Loved doing whatever Grampa was up to.

Unless it involved animals.

You started learning the Alphabet when you were 2 3/4 and can say all of the letters by your self.

Happy Birthday little man, it's hard to believe it's been 3 years!

Cause mom got a phone call!!

2010-01-06T13:05:00.000-08:00

"Hey, Mom's busy and look what I just found"

"Ummm it's pretty tasty"

"Oh the possibilities"

"Take a good sized handful"

"Jam it in there with two hands"

"Ya baby that's the way"

"Ah, good times, good times..."

BATH TIME!!

Week H

2010-01-03T20:01:00.001-08:00

We had a Happy week though not a very Healthy one. Phi ended up with some sort of strange bug the Wednesday morning before New Years eve. It lasted all the way through until Saturday morning. I say strange because it would only come in the mornings, he would lose his breakfast and then just feel tired for the rest of the day and then act fine by evening. I'd think yay, it's gone! and then that exact process would repeat it's self the next day. This happened for three days in a row and finally today he seems to be actually on the mend, a big relief for me! None of the rest of us have gotten it either so that was the other odd part. Any way on to the H part of our week.

We took a Hike

Actually happened at the end of the previous week but close enough to count. :)

On his own.

It ended at this beautiful water fall.

We had some Healthy food. :)

our Happy boy.

Ha, Ha, Ha,Ha, (little puffs of air) The noise this guy makes when he's all proud of himself and thinks he's big stuff.

We also got some snow...in our hair,

and on the ground. It came on Tuesday so Phi got to enjoy it too!

We did Hop-scotch (thanks to a suggestion from A. Deb)

in the Hallway.

We even got a Honey bear.

With honey inside of course.

This Happy pancake happened one morning. The eyes just appeared when it popped out of the oven so we made it into a Happy face. Although it insists on looking slightly forlorn.

We traced our Hands.

Drew our H.

And his name. He actually knows his first three letters to his name now.

Our Verse: Him that cometh to ME, I will in no wise cast out. John 6:37

We watched You tube videos about Horses, Hippopotamus, Hare, Hedgehogs, Hornets and Hens. Also some Howling wolves, and Hooves, and Horseback and Hatching.

We wanted to have some Ham and Hash browns but didn't get a chance with the sickness that hit mid week.
We went to Grandpa and Grandma's House and talked about our Home. We made a Hideout out of our little table and blankets which I didn't get a picture.

We also found our Hands, Heart, Head, Heels, and Hair. And also figured out where we Hear.

The boys started out the week sing/saying, Happy day, Happy day of their own accord. This turned into our song for the week.

We read about the Wise man who built his House on a rock and so on. Also talked about Heaven, Hell and the Holy Spirit.

Phi was into who was a He and who was a she this week. He'd go through the whole family by name asking, "is Kate a she, is Andrew a he" and so on.

So Phi seems to be getting back to Health and strength as we look forward to the week ahead. A new week, a new Year and Phi's Happy Birthday coming up on Thursday. If you have any suggestions for the letter I feel free to leave them in the comments. ;)

Andrew and Ruth

2010-01-02T21:32:00.000-08:00

A few pictures I had the privilege of taking while A. Rufe was here for the last two weeks. Thanks guys for giving me some photography worthy material !! :)

Who can find a virtuous woman? for her price is far above rubies. Prov. 31:10

Trust in the Lord with all thine heart; lean not unto thine own understanding.

In all thy ways acknowledge HIM, and HE shall direct thy paths. Prov. 3:5,6,

How excellent is THY lovingkindness, O God! Ps. 36:7

Who so confideth in the LORD, happy is he. Prov. 16:20

Commit thy way unto the LORD; trust also in HIM; and HE shall bring it to pass. Ps. 37:5

Two are better than one; Eccl. 4:9

Delight thy self also in the Lord; and HE shall give thee the desires of thine heart. Ps. 37:4

Many , O LORD my GOD, are THY wonderful works which THOU hast done, and THY thoughts which are to us-ward: they cannot be reckoned up in order unto THEE; if I would declare them, they are more than can be numbered. Ps. 40:5

Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drowned it...S. of S. 8:6

May the LORD continue to bless and keep you guys.

Week G

2009-12-27T23:28:00.000-08:00

We had a busy week again and didn't focus as well as we could have on our letter, but we still fit it in here and there. The most exciting part is a special Guest we've been enjoying having around for the last week. I should probably say Girl as she won't be a Guest around here in a few months.

She's not staying at our house but we've gotten to see her plenty and it's been such fun!

An side on the word Girl, Phi is trying to understand gender differences and will ask periodically of me, "Are you a girl?" "Are you a Wooman?" "Is Daddy a man?" "Am I a Boy?" "Am I getting bigger,bigger, bigger?" That's his version of growing up. Sometimes he'll throw in, " Are you a Lady?" To which I answer, "rarely". JK

We had a hard time with food again for G. Grapes would be an obvious one but this is not a good time of year to find Good Grapes. So we scrounged around and came up with Guacamole.

And we dipped pretzels in Ganoche, this one was just an excuse to eat chocolate. The word cracks me up as I just recently became aware of it but we've been making it for years... I just never knew you were supposed to call it anything but chocolate sauce.

Our cutting exercises,

and tracing. Curving lines, just in time for G.

Grins,

Goofballs and Giggles

And then I dug out my Guitar that I never learned to play well and let them play around with it.

Phi loved that one of course.

And our Garbage truck that we put a G sticker on that lasted a brief amount of time.

Also had a Golf ball with a G written on it. Phi calls it a "loudy ball" as it makes quite the noise if you drop it and let it bounce down the hall on wood floor. Much to their delight.

Our verse: GOD is love. 1 John 4:16
When I'd ask Phi what his verse for this week was the first thing off his tongue was, "God loves". We had to work to get the 'is' in there, but he wasn't wrong anyway.

While we were at Chatty's house we read her fun little book about a baby Goat who is a little boys friend, with lots of fun pictures. It came at the perfect time as, after hearing of some Goats that he (Phi) had never seen, but that reside at Grandpa and Grandma's neighbor's that made strange noises for bleats he declared he didn't like Goats. After reading Chatty's story he at least understood what one was and that they weren't all strange animals. Though he still tells me every so often, "I don't like Goats I just like sheeps."

We spent the week reading through the story of Gideon in Judges 6 and Phi again found it quite interesting . The fact that seemed to most stick in his mind was that Gideon was scared. But, we always added, he still trusted the Lord and that's what mattered.
We sang the "Brave Gideon" song from the sunday school book, over, and over, and over...

We learned about Giraffes, Gorillas and Grasshoppers for animals and bugs. And saw our Gold Finches in the feeder most days. It's been a Great week and we can't wait to Greet the next one!! :)

Week F

2009-12-21T11:50:00.001-08:00

Week F was Filled with Fun! :D
It started off with a breakfast of French toast.

We were treated to a display of some of God's handy work when these little Finches joined us for breakfast at the Feeder outside our window.

Soon it was a Feeder Full of Finches...

And then I moved too quick and we were treated to a Feeder Full of Frightened Finches and Flying Finches. :D

Here's Phi's F (the big one on the right side of the page, the other one is mine)

We also headed out to Grandpa and Grandma's house to explore their Forest! We found a lot of "F"s there. On the way out we were driving through a school zone and Phi calls from the back seat, "Mom, can we go Faster." :) so we picked an F outta there.

Ferns

Fallen trees

Ferguson and Frozen water.

with ice Formations.

More Fallen trees and Ferns and Frozen water

We then Followed Phi through the Forest to Find Ferguson and Grandma's house.

We were also treated to a Flicker that happened into the Feeder while we were there.

We looked at a book about baby animals that had Fawns and ...

Foxes

That evening after Daddy got home we went and had some Fries...

And Frozen yogurt.

Then after a stop at the pet store we came home with this little guy. A Betta Fish whom we've named Lukey, as that's been a favorite name of Phi's for a while. ( No we are not working up to P is for Puppy, and K is for Kitty, pets are fun but not at this stage in our lives. )

Lukey the Fish swimming happily in his corner. He has been a most easy going little fellow.

We hope we can keep him that way.

We also took some time to go see the Forklift that resides at Daddy's work.

Forklift Full o' boys.

With the Kumon workbooks I ordered, was one for learning tracing. Phi has really enjoyed it, and since we have to write his name at the top of every page he has almost learned to do it on his own. This is his first attempt, I told him which letter to write and he wrote it with out assistance other than the box lines.

The way they have them trace is by going from one object to the next. In the picture below he was to go from one dog to the next which ends him up with a zigzagging line. We've been doing it for almost two weeks and I've found that he can draw words if I make dots in the appropriate places and tell him which way to go. He seems to click with the way they teach in these books so they've been a great addition to our little routine.

For some FUN at the end of our week we headed up for a weekend with Chatty and the Mr.
We made a stop for more Fun at Cabela's in Lacey, WA. (the world's Foremost outfitter)

They have Fish in a huge aquarium.

A little Frontiers man we found.

and these awesome displays of Forest animals (but we'll have to save more of that for another post)

Up at Chatty and the Mr.'s we had Fun, but poor Petra not so much, she wanted to play so bad. :(

Here is our Farm and Fence that we built with Chatty's legos and animals, it even had a Funny little Farmer.

So our verse was: From everlasting, to everlasting, THOU art GOD. Psalms 90:2

We read the parables about the man who had 100 sheep and lost one and went to Find that one sheep, and when he Found it, he brought it home rejoicing to his Friends and neighbors. Also the women who finds the money, Peter finding the money in the Fishes mouth and the disciples who fished all night and caught no fish. We watched a quick Youtube video of some Pink Flamingos. I never had seen them, other than lawn ornaments, they are very unique creatures. Phi was in the bath tub the other day and said he was a Pink Flamingo. We were going to make a blanket Fort but didn't get to that one yet. So on to week G it is.

Week E

2009-12-13T22:13:00.001-08:00

We finished E last week and are still enjoying ourselves. It is this little mans letter, although we didn't get to see him in person, Phi loves to pick out his letter, his daddy's letter and Kate's letter on his alphabet chart. Little Mr. Elliott.

The attempt at drawing an E.

I ordered a few workbooks that were on sale at Timberdoodle.com and this is one of them, Phi loves it of course.

It came out perfect that one of the exercises this week was a tug-o-war game when it was all cut out. So we learned about Ends. "This End is your End, this End is my End". Whoever got the piece of scotch tape in the middle won the match.

We also worked on Enter and Exit, boy style.

And then for easier repetition.

We of course had Eggs

And Aunt Deb gave us the idea and recipe for English muffins which we tried making for the first time with some success.

Our classy English muffin cutteroutter. :D

Phi's favorite part, sprinkling the cornmeal on them.

Almost done.

And a finished product hot of the press.

We also did some Egg carton critters for a craft who were respectively named Enoch and Ezekiel.

We learned about Elk, Elephants, Earthworms and Eagles for animals. Eyes, Eyebrows, Eyelids,Eyelashes, Ears, and Epidermis for body parts. We attempted to understand the meaning of Eternity, and Everlasting.We finished up our D week's Creation story with Adam and Eve in Eden. Phi loved the story about Elijah in 1 Kings 17 being fed by the Ravens. Our verse was: Even a child is known by his doings, whether his work be pure, and whether it be right. Proverbs 20:11 And we sang it too, along with Everyday with Jesus.

Two funny quotes from the week:

Phi leaning over a chair upside down: "Hey Mom, I'm upside-over"

Phi looking around for his younger brother: " Where is our bruder Leroy?"

On to week F we go, and we'll see what that brings.

Week D

2009-12-06T21:46:00.001-08:00

We had a harder time thinking of things to do that started with D, we had Daniel in the lions den, David and Goliath and about David killing the bear and the lion and Phi loved those. The we started learning about months since our month December started last week. And along with that came the Days of the week and the Days of creation. He of course doesn't get it all but some sinks in.

Then we had plenty of people to start with D.
Daddy of course...

and Uncle Dave (who Phi thought of himself)

Food was more of a challenge too but we Dipped our carrots in Dressing.

And for a change one evening with Daddy we did something the kids had never done before.
DONUTS

I was a little bummed that we didn't hit on a time when they were actually making the fresh ones but the kids didn't mind at all.

Daddy went out of town for one day so we headed to Gramma Jo's and stopped to feed some Ducks at a park along the river out there.

They were wild Ducks as Phi said and were too scared of us to come close and eat the bread we offered.
We got to throw rocks to the Dog, Ferguson.
A bit strange but he loves rocks, and will not touch sticks other than to bug Phi. If Phi has a stick Ferguson will grab it and run in an attempt at chase or possibly a bit of jealousy at his rival for Grandpa's attention.

Grandpa and Grandma's also has a great Driveway to walk down after the mail.

Phi even found a Dolphin that came all the way from Leticia

We did bread again but this time for the Dough side of it.

Drink was an every day one but we made it special by having hot cocoa in a special cup.

And in writing.

And of course Dump trucks and Diggers in abundance.

Our verse was: And whatsoever ye Do, Do it heartily as to the LORD and not unto men. Colosians 3:23

And the song: Daniel was a man of prayer
and
Only a boy named David

The Things They Say...

2009-12-05T22:47:00.001-08:00

Since Phi's finally taken to talking he has been surprising me with the words he has in his vocabulary and the concepts of things he comes up with.

One day after we had been at Grandpa Dave and Grandma Jo's house we had the following conversation in the van on the way home:

Phi: "Bumpa loves Gramma?/."
Mommy: " Yes"
Phi: "All the peoples love da' ladies."
Mommy: "What do you mean?"
Phi: "The mans love the ladies."

I think he must have observed Dad giving Mom a kiss goodbye before heading off somewhere.

Recently Aunt TeTe was riding along somewhere and she and Phi were discussing the fact that Aunt Ruth would come live with Uncle AJ once they were married. Upon hearing this Phi popped out with "Will you, marry me?" anything to get Aunt TeTe to come stay at his house.

One day I found him reading this Pat the Bunny book peering into the round mirror on one of the pages. Finally he states, "Momma Phi's in dat' hole."

At Thanksgiving we saw a large herd of Elk grazing in a pasture near Grampa Allen and Grandma Dee's house. Later in discussing them I said something about their horns meaning antlers, Phi immediately asked, "do da' elks honk dair' horns".

At Thanksgiving we also got to spend a night near the beach. As we were getting out of the van I mentioned how loud the Ocean was roaring. Later Phi wanted to know if there were lions in the ocean.

Leroy, following his brothers lead will come in to find me looking at blogs or pictures and demand, "who dat," it sounds quite comical coming in his little accent.

Phi, being the first child, often, when we are driving wants to know where we are going and when turning if we are making a Left or a Right. He has also been known to try and tell Daddy which way to go on occasion.

We've begun the 1001 questions stage but so far it's been fun to hear what these little minds have to say.

Week C

2009-11-29T14:37:00.000-08:00

We seem to be progressing well, though we're only 3 weeks into it. We go over this Alphabet place mat before proceeding with our letter for the week and he can already pick out others that he knows now. He seems to enjoy it and was asking me today what our letter was going to be this week. :)

So for week C we had a snack of Chocolate Covered raisins, Cranberries, and Alphabet Cookies*. (*Trader Joe's, the best)

We ate it while wearing Daddy's Cap.

This one might become a favorite of Mommy's when possible. For one day we picked out all our toys that started with C and some books too and that was all we played with for the day. It greatly lessened the amount of toys under foot!

It was a great letter to do it for since Cars starts with C, so we had our Car truck, and a Chicken that snuck in for a ride.

And Car races from the Car truck.

"on your mark, get set, GO!"

Racing to the finish line!

And also our Cows and Containers.

"Hello, I'm a Cow in a Container, eating a Carrot."

Seconds before this was taken these were Cows on Containers.

We also got to Color with Crayons pictures of Chipmunks and Chicks.

And a C lunch we had.

Even Jeffy got a Cracker, he's also attempted crawling this week all because of C I'm sure. ;)

Phi got to be a Chief partly for the C and partly because it was Thanksgiving week.

And for the same reason he got to help make a pie Crust.

As an aside did you know you can use butter instead of shortening in pie crust? I did it as an experiment and it worked great! No more hydrogenated shortening for me.

Ready for the pan.

And here was our C page from the paper and Country Magazine.

And practicing writing C.

Our verse for the week:
Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden and I will give you rest. Matthew 11:28

And our song was: C-O-M-E that's all He asks of me...

We also made a Chocolate Chocolate Chip Bundt Cake, we have a recipe that is very simple that Phi loves to help with but it calls for packaged cake mix and pudding so I have been meaning to find a homemade recipe that we could do so I know what all the ingredients are. This was just the incentive I needed to dig through some recipe books and come up with a good one from all the ones I could find that sounded good. For the holiday we also made Chocolate Peppermint Truffles (w/ Trader Joe's Peppermint Oreos, my new favorite find, don't know how I'm gonna survive when they go back out of season.) and Chocolate dipped pretzel slims. I think this may have been my favorite week so far! :) Hooray for Chocolate! :D

Happy Thanksgiving!

2009-11-24T17:45:00.000-08:00

We hadn't really given Thanksgiving much thought and all the sudden we were half way through the week so we decided to be the quickest and easiest persons to reenact, the Indians.

The Chief with his "bear claw" n bead necklace giving out war cries.

And his trusty Brave following suite.

Foraging for roots/bulbs in a ... flower pot. I know not the men's work but we were running short on women.

Trying to figure out how these bows are suppose to work.

Chief Broken Feather..

And his rather mischievous looking sidekick...

Brave Three Feathers,

who decided it was time for stories around the campfire..er.. fireplace.

While Chief Broken Feather worked on his war cries and

roasting his catch of the day.

Happy Thanksgiving from the Oregon Territory!!

Week B

2009-11-24T16:24:00.000-08:00

Last week was our week devoted to the letter B and I had fun finding things to keep us going. It ended up having a lot to do with baking but we found some stuff to get the wiggles out too.

Our verse for the week was:

But God commendeth HIS love toward us in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us. Romans 5:8
Leroy likes to practice along with Phi so they both get in on the fun.
Phi "rode" his Bike. He doesn't actually pedal much yet, but he can steer, so I hook him by rope to the stroller and we go, it makes more room in the stroller for the other two.

And thanks to some ideas from Amma or Gramma Jo we should say, we also wore a Band-Aid sporting the letter B.

Leroy gets in on this too, we'll see how much sticks.

And by the river at Grandpa and Grandma's found a stick that had been chewed on by a Beaver!
When we got back up to the house Gramma Jo read him a story about how Beavers make there dens and such.

Toward the end of the week we made Bread, in the Bread machine. We should do this more often as the process fascinated all of them. Jeffy was mesmerized by the paddle going around to mix the dough.

Phi's favorite part of course was punching it down.

This one was fun for mommy too cause it burned lots of their energy, they Bounced on a Blow-up Bed. We've been saving this bed for some rainy day ever since we got a new one since this one doesn't hold air for more than an hour. I hadn't thought of this before but it was perfect.

Then we added Balls for even more fun!

We also made Bran muffins one morning and,

had Bananas and Blueberries on our puff pancake another morning.

We sang "The B-I-B-L-E" song and picked out the letters he knew. We also took Baths with Bubbles but since that has to happen more than once a year it wasn't quite as much of a novelty.

And when the free adds came on Wednesday we did our cut and paste page and letter recognition and finding pictures of things that start with B.

It must have been sinking in cause by Sunday as we were driving he asked from the back, "Momma, does Bus stop start wis' B?"

We're on to C this week though we still practice all the letter verses together at our morning readings as Leroy's favorite is the A verse "All have sinned...".

Week A

2009-11-15T18:13:00.001-08:00

Last week we started learning the alphabet and are hoping to accomplish one letter a week. We did "A" things in honor of our letter. Phi loves to cut with his scissors so we took a grocery add and first found A things.( Leroy helped with the coloring)

"Apples" and "Avocados"

Then since his scissors were still antsy we cut small bits of different colors from the paper and made an "A" shape. Then he took over the glue part and Mommy the scissors and we found as many letter "A"s as we could through out the adds and came up with this page.

He then got to try writing some and did pretty good other than wanting to make them look like H instead of A.

We did an "A" verse to memorize for the week.

And got some library books to find some more pictures with "A" words. One about Animals from Africa and another of Animals in general.

"Armadillo"

"Albatross"

And also took a walk by the airport so we could watch the airplanes. And see some "A" s on signs and such.

We also included "Apple Cranberry Scones" for breakfast one morning and sang "A" songs out of the Let's Sing About Jesus hymn book each morning.
They say learning should be fun so we're trying to keep it that way.

Twas two months before Christmas...

2009-11-14T20:18:00.000-08:00

NOT that we're counting down or anything. Dad and Mom's place is surrounded with Christmas tree farms (who knew there was soo much demand) farms with trees grown especially for the Christmas holiday and nothing else. And starting about the first week of November, many of the farms begin harvesting these small trees with a helicopter. So every year growing up there came the sound of what we called the "Christmas tree helicopter", and we would eagerly finish our school work so we could ride our bikes up to find out which farm it was at and watch the process. It could be hit and miss as there are farms all over the area and just a few helicopters. So some times we would have "Christmas tree helicopter" cases in the van. We caught on to the trick of following the helicopter gas truck, if it left a particular field you could follow him to where the helicopter would probably be next. The three little men got this fascinating privilege this week when Amma called to say the sound was there if we hurried we might see it.

And see it we did right up close, in a small field right beside the road.

Coming back for more.

It was close enough Phi decided it was "loudy" his word for too loud.

Dropping a load.

There's the driver, watching the cable to see when the ground man has it connected to the bundle of trees.

And there's the ground man running back as the bundle takes off. The occasional bundle is not tied well and will all fall out of the rope once it leaves the ground. Therefore the ground man moves, not wanting a 50 pound tree on the head.

A bundle enroute.

Almost ready to fall into the heap of cut trees. From there they're wrapped in twine and then sent by truck all over the country and even over seas I guess. It amazes me that they last so long after they're cut.

Our play pen.

One of his last toothless smiles for the next 80 years. His first tooth popped in today with another to follow soon.

And here's a video of the process, sorry about the quality, and the car parts in the way, I couldn't figure out how to stitch it so you get the unedited version.