Blog announcements

So Ezra and I love all the feedback we have gotten on the trampoline vs. play fort issue, and we'd like some more input from family and friends.

We have been wondering--what kinds of things are appropriate to announce on a blog? Can we tell everyone how silly and fun our kids are? Yes, we've certainly been doing that.
Can we tell about all our Oregon exploring that we have been doing? We've been doing a bit of that too. Can we tell a story about a rolling, spraying, exploding can of Sprite that covered our kitchen and how even though we have spent HOURS cleaning, the floor is STILL STICKY? Haven't told that one yet. What if we posted that we were expecting baby number four in July? Would that be okay to announce on a blog?

What do you think? What kinds of things can we announce on our blog?

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Please Help Us! Play Fort vs. Trampoline

So now that spring is just around the corner (and the backyard is finally finished), we are debating what we should put in our backyard for the kids to play on. The two big options are a Play Fort or a Trampoline. We can see different advantages to both, but we wonder which the kids would play on/with the most.

Does anyone have one or both and how do your kids do with either? Even if you don't have either, what would you do?

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JFK on Mormons

I thought this was interesting...

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Chubby Toes

What is it about babies' toes that is so . . . so . . . yummy? Amanda's are so chubby that they crowd each other out.

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Corish Gay Hens

In following my mom's tradition, every year for New Year's Eve, I try to make fancy foods that aren't anything like what we normally eat. I have a lot of fun doing it, even if the kids end up hungry because everything is too weird for them. Christmas dinner is already planned--the turkey we didn't eat on Thanksgiving. So I was thinking ahead for New Year's Eve. Today I asked the kids if they would rather have Little Smokies or Cornish Game Hens. I expected them to say Little Smokies, (oooo, tiny hot dogs on toothpicks!!) but I tried to sell them on the Cornish Game Hens--(wow, your very own little chicken!!). Natalie opted for Hornish Pens and Brendan opted for Corish Gay Hens. What a crack up. ;-)

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The Christmas Tree

So we drove out to a Christmas tree farm about 15 minutes from our house and chopped down our first real Christmas tree! This is a huge step for us, for the last 8 years we have used the same 4 foot tall, fake tree. So now we finally have the space to have a big tree, and wow did we get one!

We packed the kids into the car-complete with rubber galoshes (Lisa used her red polka dot boots) and loads of warm clothes. Of course, Brendan was worried we forgot the ax.

After too much debate over picking the best one, we finally decided on something too big and very wide. But heck it only cost $27!

As you can see, we picked a great one...

Now if we could only get the kids to stop rearranging the presents twice a day.

Merry Christmas everyone!

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Checkers

So I don't claim to be any good at checkers, but I thought I could at least hold my own against a 6 year old. Today, Natalie jumped four of my pieces all with the same piece. I'll admit I set her up to jump two pieces, but I didn't see the other two. The little stinker then had to laugh and gloat about it. Lets just say I won the game.

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Natalie vs. Amanda

Lately Amanda has reminded us of Natalie at about the same age, so we decided to do a bit of comparison. The top 3 pictures are of Amanda and the bottom 3 are of Natalie.

The funny thing is that their personalities are exactly the opposite. Natalie couldn't hold still (and still can't). Amanda takes a few crawls away and then just stops...puts a finger in her mouth...thinks...goes back to where she came...thinks again.

And Brendan, well he's in a league of his own.

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Cocked and Loaded

Check out these two trigger happy little tykes.



So they were just paint ball guns, but the kids got pretty good at hitting something ...eventually.

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Thanksgiving Feast!

We had a great Thanksgiving with friends in a city about four hours south of Portland called Grants Pass. Jed and Erica, two great friends from BYU, invited us down for a few days. I have to say one of the highlights of the trip was the truducken...Anyone heard of it? Ok call it crazy, but someone gave Jed and Erica a turkey stuffed with a duck and then stuffed with a chicken. Yes, one stuffed inside the other with three different layers of cornbread stuffing sandwiched in between the birds. Even better, the whole thing was boneless!!!!

I dare say this quickly topped the list of the best Thanksgiving foods we have had in a long time. Everything was so well seasoned it didn't need gravy or the cranberry sauce...Heck, I was picking the leftovers out of the fridge during breakfast the next morning!

Our cf card was full so we don't have any pictures of the actual bird, but you can get the idea from the picture below.
Great food, great friends, and just relaxing; it all made for an absolutely outstanding Thanksgiving! Thanks Jed and Erica!

The kids had a great time chasing around with their kids and making candy houses. If I can get a few pictures I'll post them of the gingerbread houses the kids made. Ezra and Jed also snuck out to play paintball for a few hours and had a blast...I'll see if I can get pictures of that too.

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Amanda is Crawling!

On Tuesday Amanda made a few brief attempts at a crawl and today she amazed us by doing it pretty consistently. Seeing her effort at moving each arm is just too cute!



Sorry about the long clip, we are just proud parents!

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A Walk Turns Into A Wild Goose Chase

The hayseeds and I decided we would go out for a little fun while Ezra was gone on his "catch up with the guys/BYU football game/laser tag/eat really good food/get two nights of uninterrupted sleep" weekend. We went to Bethany Lake park to see what was there.























We were having a great time exploring the new (to us) park with its little lake . It was a gorgeous fall day.























Brendan said it was too hot to wear a shirt. (It was in the low-60s that day).























Some nice folks gave us some bread to feed the ducks and geese.


















Natalie and Brendan got scared by the geese. The geese were big--they came up past my waist. The kids started to run away, but they forgot to drop the bread. So the geese started honking loudly and chasing them. I managed to stop laughing long enough to yell at them to drop the bread. They did.



















Come back, Brendan! (that's him way off in the distance between the power poles) I'll stop taking pictures so I can protect you like a good mommy should!

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Random Brendan Moments

Brendan loves to make people laugh. His budding sense of humor and his silliness keep us chuckling. But sometimes what makes us laugh the most are moments when he isn't trying to be funny. For example, today at lunch he asked why there aren't any vegetable yogurts. He thinks broccoli yogurt would be fun to try. Yuck!

Look closely at this picture.

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Fighting "He Who Must Not Be Named"

Let's just say I'm grateful the orange washed out.



Lisa made the costume, doesn't it look great!

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Mummies

As part of the Halloween party we also gave the kids a roll of toilet paper and had them make mummies out of themselves. Now we wonder how long it will be before the kids start doing it on their own...or even worse...to someone's house!

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