Happy Birthday Joe and Clay

Two months into the year and already the kids' are growing like weeds.

Here is Joe turning 12 .... we all went to play laser tag and had a good time. Joe LOVES laser tag, especially when he gets to play against all his big brothers.

And Clay is turning 18 ... hold on! WHO told Clay he could be a grown-up? It was not me! At our house the penalty for turning into a grown-up is having mom smash a pie in your face. It took Clay about two seconds to return my gift in kind.

After we were done smashing pie on each others faces, the kids took the leftover bread dough (we ate Navajo tacos for dinner) and made "bread buddies" - they used to LOVE to do this when they were small and I made bread often ... all of their grown up friends chimed in and they had more fun than you can imagine.

Can you tell what Eliott made?

Calendar

I just noticed my calendar is defective. It does not list 2 of the most important days of the year. St David's day is March 1st and Dr Seuss's Birthday is March 2nd. So make sure you have your Welsh bacon for the 1st and your Green Eggs and Ham for the 2nd. Buy them today! You know how the stores always sell out.

Programming note

I bumped the Post about Logan's farewell to the top of the blog so because it's so cool.

The snake and the Puyallup summary is down below if you are looking for them.

Fond Farewell

As you see from the following pictures Logan's farewell yesterday was a very joyous event.

Zach and Logan sitting. If they had been standing you'd see that Zach is almost as tall as his brother.

Big sister sending her little "Big" brother off in the Lord's work

Happy as can be are we three!

6' 5" Logan makes the rest of us look pretty short ... if Gregg had been standing you'd be able to see that he is taller than his dad and much taller than his grandpa.

Logan talked about being a good shepard in his sermon ... Great Grandma commented that he sounded more like a returning missionary than a departing one. We all agreed.

Logan with his mom, step dad, step brother and brother Gregg ... MaKayla and Zach had left for a few minutes.

I hope they call me on a misson .... little David with "BIG" Logan.

Two bookends for their "little" Great Grandmother

He's ready, willing and wanting to get going!

Snakes Alive

 We went over to a friends house last night to drop off a plate of cookies.  While we were there they took out their 7 foot Python and let the kids hold it.  As you can see Emma was not enthralled with the idea.  Katie was not even in the picture.  She feels the same way I do about snakes.  Chas is a different breed though.  I can’t figure out where he gets his nerve.  When we were cleaning up our home in GA to put it on the market he found a snake and let it crawl down his shirt and was in heaven.  I would have been on the roof.

Emma did eventually hold the snake.  When our friend asked her which half she wanted to hold she emphatically said ‘The bottom half!’.  She didn’t want to have anything to do with the head of that snake!

 

I eventually touched the snake as did Katie but that was enough for me.

Whatcha' Doing?

I cleaned all the old photos and videos off my camera and came across these videos from Thanksgiving. I loved seeing Stacey and my kids and their cousins singing at the piano and dancing in our house.

The next video is a compilation of what we have been doing for the last few weeks. Katie performed in her first concert. She played her viola with 3 other elementary schools, a junior high and high school orchestras. It was a great performance and we were so proud of her. Katie was cool and confidant and had a lot of fun playing with the big kids.

We also went to the Point Defiance Zoo and took Emma's friend, Kelsey. (Emma has been very blessed to have found several sweet friends here in WA.) The possum was very neat, it was rescued from the pouch of a mama possum who was killed by a dog in the backyard of a vet. It was the luckiest possum I've ever seen since all the other ones were dead on a road somewhere.

Emma participated in an after school drama program and she had a blast! That girl loves to sing and dance and put on a show. Her performance was called "Go Fish". She played the part of a cowgirl seahorse and sang an adorable song called "There's a Roundup in the Ocean.".

Chas has been busy too. He had a really fun day at his "Elder Luncheon". (aka. grandparent's day) My good, good friend, Denise was here visiting from NC and he asked her to go as his "Elder". He thought it was very cool that his "Elder" came all the way across the country to be with him. I can't seem to find the picture so I included a picture of Chas imitating his Dad instead.

And last but not least, here is a Lucy montage. Her Grandma said there can never be enough pictures, so.........

Joshua Update (Feb 21, 2009)

Joshua was able to call us on Saturday and we talked with him for about an hour.

He is doing well - he sounds a little bit homesick and a stressed out, but tells me that the Corps has prepared him well for the task at hand and he is paying attention and trying to stay safe. He is in the North, in a rural area but expects to be transferred to a city soon. His activities are routine.

He describes his daily activities with a sense of boredom - same old. same old. but did emit a spark when he talked about finding and reading a book about vikings. He is very interested in his heritage as a viking and sent me on a hunt to find historical fiction that could teach him more about the warriors from his genetic past (he'd like to learn more about Cherokees too). He then made it very clear that he is not interested in "fluff' - all novels arriving in Iraq should have an element of reliable history in them :-) ..... I like Josh.

He is getting letters from Motomail (as of Saturday he had only gotten my first one, but it tells me we've got the address right!) and he appreciates them more than I can tell you. He will not always be able to send letters back to all of us, but I promise to keep you updated here.

Thank you all for loving Joshua and helping us to take care of him while he is in Iraq.

Love,
Joshua's mom

Picture of Lu

You know those parents that talk non stop about their children….  And you really wish they would share a little less?  Maybe I have turned into one of them.  Anyway here is a picture of Lucy.  This outfit looked huge when we got it but it fits here now!

February Hike!

I was supposed to go with the scouts to Mt Rainier on friday night and help with the snow caving campout.  But due to a conflict with a Daddy/Daughter date at church I couldn't go.  I still had 1/2 a day off so I went for a hike.  There is research forest associated with the university of Washington about 20 miles south of our home so I drove down there.  It was a glorious day for February.  Not a cloud in the sky.  The hike through the forest is interesting.  There were several different types and sizes of trees as this area has been used as a research center for almost 100 years.

The hike I did was two miles each way and almost climbed 2000 feet.  On the way up I could see across the sound and see the Olympic Mountains.  I was huffing and puffing.  It was a pretty hike even if the view from the top was fairly boring as you can see in the following picture.

 

I stopped on the way home and took some pictures of the Mountain.  I’m sad I didn’t get to go snow caving up there but the girls and I had fun.  The theme of the dinner we went to was ‘an evening in paris’.  We had French Food and got to draw portraits of each other.

Happy Birthday Clay!

I don't have a picture but just wanted to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY CLAY!

Youngest skier

The kids had the day off last Monday so we all went skiing. This was the first time for liberty on the mountain she did very well, skied 1.4 k a long way for a 4 year old.

Sledding for Valentines

Saturday was a really nice day so after the morning chores we loaded up the family for a long awaited sledding trip at Mt. Rainer.  Almost as soon as we started driving it got cloudy but we didn’t care.  We were going sledding!  After a 2 hour trip we were finally there.  Normally it takes 90 minutes to get to Paradise but we stopped at the slowest subway on earth to get some sledding fuel.

The kids had so much fun up there.  As soon as we go there they were out in the snow and even found a snow cave that someone had made to play in.  It was Lucy’s first trip to Rainer so we took some pictures of her with the family.  Note the sign behind them.  The snow is about 10 feet deep right now so they had to warn us to stay off the building.

Just as we were getting ready to leave the clouds broke and all the sudden the ‘Mountain was OUT’.  We were able to watch the sun set on the mountain.  As I told the kids ‘It’s a Mt Rainier Miracle!’  They stayed in the car while I went out and took 100 pictures of the mountains.  I had taken most of my snow gear off so I froze but it was worth it.

It was great weather up at Rainier.  Cloudy with light snow falling.  It probably snowed half an inch while we were up there.  That made the drive back down very exciting.  At one point I had to slam on my breaks because an ambulance had spun out and had the road blocked.  I wasn’t sure I was going to get stopped in time and I didn’t want to call my insurance agent on his birthday. :)

Toilet Tuesday!

In an effort to be more organized I have a list of weekly housecleaning tasks to do. Cleaning the bathrooms has been the most effective, I think, mainly because it has a silly name!

Ah, it feels to good to have 5 clean bathrooms!

(sorry no pic of the clean toilets! -- who wants a picture of a toilet on the blog =)

Get your green eggs and ham on ...

Happy Birthday David ...

I can't think of you without thinking of Dr. Suess and Green eggs and Ham.

Everyone ... celebrate Suess on March 2nd with a green egg and ham breakfast, David will be doing it in Washington, of that I am sure.

p.s. Eliott thinks that he, of all the people in the whole wide world, reads green eggs and ham the best. I smell a bet between Uncle David and Eliott ... last time Uncle David ended up doing a polar bear plunge. Wonder what the stakes will be this time ...

Joshua Update

Hello All -

Eliott e-mailed Joshua's address in Iraq, along with the instructions for using motomail, to each of you. If you didn't get it, please leave me a comment here and I'll make sure you do. I was hesitant to post it on the blog because this is public and I didn't want some loon writing my kid a letter.

We've heard from him a few times. He's doing fine, working hard and trying to stay safe so he can come home. We miss him. We're proud of him.

Appreciate your support ....

Jaylin's 1st Birthday

The Hair cut

Liberty got a hair cut. She wants everyone to see her hair before it was cut.

Blackjack!!

Hard to believe, but MaKayla has made it to 21. We had a nice lunch together today at the Blue Iguana eating some very good Mexican food. I even gave her a very grownup present for her birthday, food storage, a 25lb bag of brown rice. MaKayla is studying hard at the U, and will have her bachelors degree in 14 months, she has a great roommate that some of you have met. All in all she is doing great, and moving along in the fast pace city life of SLC!!!

Happy Birthday MK

Langlauf

This weekend was Langlauf the big cross county ski race on mt Spokane Shelby and I went. It was lots of fun and the food afterwords was SO good.

Shelby at the finish line

Before the start.

does the weather get any better than this?

Harris Cousins

"The Cousins" have come and gone for another year. The weather was pretty good--cloudy and coolish but the rain held off until yesterday. Ted Martinez, Sharon and I were voted into the cousinship as full cousins this year! Sharon and I got in easlily but Ted had to do a lot of campaigning with Kathy as his sponsor. We played Mexican Train--aptly won by the Martinezes [Debbie's words not mine], went to a movie,laughed 'til we were sick and ate a lot. The highlight of the weekend for me was a trip to the Mesa Temple with Sharon, Debbie, Mary and Kathy. It was wonderful being in the Temple with them, especially pondering on "Families Can Be Forever." I'm sure Grandpa and Grandma Will and Zina are happy to know some of their descendents were in the Temple together. There are lots of things that bring a family closer together but the Temple is one of the best ways. Years ago I never thought it would be possible to be in the Temple with these Harris Cousins so it was really special to me. Because of the good, calm and peaceful atmospher of the Temple I enjoyed this Cousin event better than any we've had. The golf tournament was won by Chuck. (finally!) We put in a call to Aunt Evie to let her know the good news--she's always pulling for him.

Point Defiance

For Christmas this year we gave the kids passes to the Point Defiance Zoo and Aquarium.  Point Defiance was named by an American sea captain.  He said he could place guns on the point and 'Defy the world'.  I'm not sure exactly what he would have been defying since the point is at the bottom of Puget sound and has very little military significance.  Luckily there is a great zoo and wonderful scenery to enjoy there and has been turned into a state park.  The zoo has peacocks walking around the parking lot and zoo grounds.  We were lucky enough to see this one strutting it's stuff.

   

 

 

 

 

It was a nice sunny day so we went over to the watch the sun set over the sound.  We had enough time to pop into the zoo.  We were hoping to see the monkeys but they weren't on display that day.  We did have fun seeing the tiger.  The best animal we saw that day was a wild Bald eagle who was sitting at the top of a dead tree surveying the sound.  It is great to live in a place where you can see an eagle!  It turned out to be so cold that we didn't stick around for the sunset.  I have learned that when the sun shines in the winter here it means it is cold!  We ate our chicken picnic and burned rubber getting out of there.

Mt. Rainier Snowshoeing

Katie and I went up to Mt. Rainier to go for a snowshoe walk with the ranger on Saturday.  It was one of those rare winter days that were absolutely amazing.  Not a cloud in the sky all day long.  The last time we went Rainier it was hidden in the clouds all day so we didn't really get to see it.  There was 112 inches of snow on the ground at Paradise inn which is 30% below normal but was still an eye opener to us.  The park service let us use the snowshoes for a $1 donation.

The walk ended up being 1.5 miles and was pretty easy to do.  It hadn't snowed for a week and it was very easy to stay up on top of the crusty snow.  There were great views of the mountain for most of the time as well as exciting hills to climb up and down.

  Katie had lots of fun climbing on top of all the mounds and jumping off.  I can't wait to take everyone back and do this trip again.

The Agony of defeat

I had fun watching the superbowl last night and thinking about Dad cheering on 'his' Arizona cardinals.  I have always loved that Dad latches onto the local team whenever he relocates to a new place.  When Crystal and I lived in NC we took Dad to the Mudcats (AA baseball) game and he was the biggest fan there.  He just loves to cheer for the home team.  Dad took David and I to a NC State/Duke game when I was a teenager.  I was a lone Duke fan in a sea of red.  I'm sure he was mortified that I yelled myself hoarse at that game but he never said a word. (State won by the way)

When Arizona took the lead late in the game yesterday I was happy for dad.  I could picture him cheering after that score.  When Pittsburgh made that great catch in the endzone to win the game I felt bad!  It was an exciting finish to the game.  I tried to call after the game but the call went straight to voicemail.  I figured some of the other pigs had beat me to the call!

Lucky number 13

Not everyone would think that 13 is a lucky number but I sure feel like a lucky duck today. I am so glad that Dan was only seven minutes late for our wedding and did actually show up. (especially after his late night out with his wild family!) There are a million reasons why I am glad to be married to Dan but I'll only post a couple so it won't sound so cheezy!

Dan is the best person I know. He is good and kind and loving. He is a great Dad who gives each person in our family a little bit of his time each day, even when that leaves little for himself. Dan is FUNNY! I love the quirky things he does and says that make me laugh! Dan is creative! If you have noticed the awesome feelings that he portrays in his photos you will know what I mean. Dan is an adventurer! He makes everywhere we go, and every single day of my life exciting. Thanks Ma and Pa Pig for raising such a great son for me to marry!