Princess Emilia turns 3!

For Emilia's birthday we had a few princesses over to celebrate. We had a stylist on hand ;-) to give princess updo's, we decorated crowns and we had a royal cake walk. And of course the bouncy castle...

Strawberry Lemonade cupcakes!

Summer 2010

Summer was full of activity!

Fair!

Scandinavian Festival!

Swim Lessons...Gavin is a fish...Emi won't put her face in the water.

Michael Jackson night at the Em's baseball game. I out moonwalked "Mi-Koo Jackson" the impersonator...yes that is my new claim to fame.

Mmmmm.....

Disneyland 2010

We were fortunate to be able to go to Disneyland during a trip to California for Ammon's high school reunion. The kids had an amazing time and have yet to stop asking to go back.

Gavin staged a mutiny and took over the ship.

We call him Captain Gavin Longbeard now.

Everyone is a kid at Disneyland.

Evil Queen's ROCK.

I've never seen my kids enjoy themselves more!

4th of July 2010 on the Boat

This 4th of July we went out on the boat with Noni & Papa. You can just guage the kids maturity by the changes in their behaviour on the boat. Last year the kids could barely last an hour before the meltdown wiggles hit them. This year its like a whole hour and a half...

Grandpa Ram, Maryanne & Wren

Grandpa Ram, Maryanne & Wren drove up for a visit. We met them on the coast and had lunch at Mo's. We walked the open market, wandered along the shoreline and hiked Sweet Creek Falls. We swam at the pool, rode bikes by the river and took in the sites to be seen in Eugene. Thanks for visiting. Eugene is a fun place when guests come to play!

Father Son Campouts 2010

Gavin & Ammon took off for two father son camp outs at the Coast. I loved hearing the stories upon their return. Gavin would tell me of adventures with bats, giant trees and playing with the waves. Ammon would share his heroic moments in subterfuge during the greased watermelon throw down. Then I would see the pictures of my child up too late at night, climbing to the tops of trees, and running freely around fire pits with his father encouraging every wild activity.

I love my boys!

Preschool End of Year Party

The preschool end of the year party was a blast!

Puddles made an appearance and of course Gavin, Emilia and Puddles go way back.

There was a petting zoo.

Which means my 4-year old son got to hold an alligator.

For some of my dearestf riends this will trigger an amusing memory of MY college experiences...for my newer friends please feel free to ask...

But what is a 4-year old boy to do with an alligator?

Chase his sister with it.

Obviously.

Warning this one hurt!!

On June 5th, 2010 Gavin received his first stitches.
Strangely enough, he received this injury in a rather innocent way. I had returned home and he was excited to see me, so he ran down the hallway and accidentally slipped on some newspaper and his chin hit the floor. That's it. We quickly deduced that this was beyond the healing qualities of a kiss and a band-aid and rushed our boy out to get stitches. He was a zen ninja master "I eat pain for breakfast"-I on the other hand fainted from the idea of my son in so much pain. He is perfectly okay now-"chicks dig scars".

Sunbeam

Courtesy of Carissa Hambelton.

"I have to share this little story about how cute kids are!...During Primary today we had a member of the Bishopric-Brother Dunne-come in and give a short lesson about how prophets wrote the Book of Mormon. This is the conversation that happened between Brother Dunne and one of our Sunbeams-Gavin.
Brother Dunne-"Who wrote the Book of Mormon?"
Gavin-"Joseph Smith"
Brother Dunne-"That's right! And how did he write it?"
Gavin-"With CRAYONS!!"
It was the cutest thing ever! The answer Brother Dunne was looking for was that Joseph Smith translated the Book of Mormon with the help of the Holy Ghost, but kids are so sweet and come up with the best answers sometimes. I love teaching these kids!!"

Thanks Carissa & John! We sure appreciate you for teaching our little guy!!!

Work Hard

A while ago Gavin got his heart set on getting "Woody's Remote Control Car" from Toy Story. We'd been through the toy store and he was very specific. It had to be the big one with the remote control. The thing is RC car is a pretty expensive toy and we'd just finished spoiling this little guy for Christmas and his birthday. So we created the "job chart". Gavin was given some responsibilities around the house that he could do and earn money for accomplishing. Things like: clearing the table, washing the windows, picking up his toys, practicing his letters, weeding the yard with dad, feeding the dogs, washing the car, dusting and walking the dogs.
Well it turns out our little guy is quite the helper! I could not believe his perseverance and determination. His favorite job was walking the dogs (which was actually a family walk to the park). As you can see from the pictures of the job chart we are pretty stingy and he really had to work hard to earn enough money for his little car!
We also used this opportunity to teach Gavin about what a great blessing it is to be able to work and how we express our appreciation for all that Heavenly Father gives us by paying tithing. The concept was just so natural to this little guy who thanks Heavenly Father for every little joy in his life every night.

He was SO excited.

Yup, paid in quarters, dimes, nickels & pennies.

(It wasn't busy and they were great sports about it at the toy store.)

I love the look of accomplishment in his face.
Congratulations Gavin.

Tulip Festival

Tulips are my favorite flower, so this might have been a bit more for my enjoyment than for anyone else. When I was a small child I had a neighbor that had carefully planted rows of beautiful red tulips. I vividly remember being inexplicably drawn towards them because they looked like candy. Then I ungraciously decapitated them to make petal boats to float blades of grass down the gutter stream. My poor horrified mom marched me up to my neighbor's front doorstep and made me apologize. This is my first recall of an (at the time) insincere apology. I loved her tulips and couldn't have felt more entitled to my own personal enjoyment of them. I can't say there is anything else in the world that makes me feel such exclusive satisfaction than tulips becuase when I see tulips...I think of candy.

Took the kids to the Tulip Festival just past Woodburn and they had a great time.

The kids were pretty enchanted by all of the beautiful flowers.

OR the kids had a blast stomping through the biggest mud field they've ever encountered in their entire lives...perhaps the mud was more appealing...