Update on the latest....

Well, it has been far too long since I have updated my blog, but here I am getting the news of what we have been up to out to our blogging fans! So to start: here is a little before and after:


This is Atira before her middle tooth fell out...(actually it was her left tooth, it just scootched over to look like a middle tooth. I took to calling her "Jack" short for jack-o-latern, she did NOT appreciate it, athough I got quite the giggle from it!)


AFTER!! Her tooth came out and what a lovely story that is too. We were eating dinner when she felt her tooth had come out, her mouth full of food. Yum. So, I did not know what else to do, so I told her to spit it all out on her placemat! Which she happily did, then dug through the chewed up remains until she found her tooth. A happy girl, she was! That night the mommy fairy left her a coupon for one cake with candles, even though it was not her birthday! She was incredibly pleased. I was a bit worried she would not be happy it was not cash, but she loved her coupon. Worked out fine.



Now, what has Jordan been up to? Well, he has received his junior red belt in martial arts. He is very proud and happy of this accomplishment. He has worked with his blue belt for two years now and Master Chang wanted to give him some motivation to keep on working hard. This did the trick, can you see how happy he is in this photo?!




We had the opportunity to have Atira and Jordans cousin Monique over for a few hours this past week. It was great fun to have her and the girls had a wonderful time together. Amazingly, Atira and Monique are a year apart in age, but they are almost exactly the same height and size! They look very much alike too. No question they are related! This picture is taken of them after they got all dolled up, makeup, dresses, the works! What a fun afternoon! Not to mention, we had Grandma Joan over too, it is always fun we get a chance to visit.

Well, I tried to upload one more picture, and I could not seem to get blogger to cooperate with me, so my last picture will have to be in the form of a new post! So, to all our friends and family, enjoy the update. We love and miss you! And to everyone else, thanks for stopping by!

It's my birthday!

Well, actually yesterday was my birthday, but now is when I had time to sit down and blog about it. So, let's start with yesterday morning when I woke up......

It was about 8:30 AM, nice to sleep in on your birthday! My best girlfriend called me up to begrudgingly wish me a happy birthday! (she just likes to torture me) So we chatted for a while and while on the phone with her Atira lost her front tooth! WOW! I was so excited! Then my girlfriend quickly brought me back to reality, this is my birthday and it is not all about her losing her tooth! ;) After her phone call my loving husband was quick to call and also wish me a happy birthday, so nice! Well, my boy is still sleeping soundly at this point and he really should be up wishing me a happy birthday too. So, I yell down the hall "BOY!!!!" "BOY!!!!!" All I get is, "huh?". To which I yell, "WAKE UP IT'S MY HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!" He really doesn't appreciate my birthday like I do, or the wake up call. Weird. So we finally get out of bed, I hop in the shower and my mother in law calls....did she time that? We all get ready to go and I take us out to IHOP for breakfast when my mom calls to wish me a happy birthday too! I have the stuffed french toast, OH MY YUM!! That was so delicious! Then I drag my unhappy little angels with me off to the thrift store for a mini shopping spree for myself! They really don't enjoy themselves at the thrift store when I am shopping for myself, but I figured it's my birthday they can suffer a little for their dear sweet mother!I get a chance to talk to MIL on the way to the store, it was so nice to hear more happy wishes for a wonderful day! We leave the thrift store and hubby calls, he is home! WOO HOO! We head on home (saving my neglected babies from another thrift store excursion). We get home and hubby has bought me a dozen red roses! Then he shows me the cake he bought me, german chocolate! I could PUKE! I hate german chocolate and he knows it! But he is a man, did he just forget, or is he a dork? Do I get mad, or do I love him for at least coming up with this one by himself? Well, as I run all these thoughts through my head it dawns on me that he is messin' with me on my birthday! I try to give him a punch to the gut, and he bursts out laughing! He got me, and he knew it! While still laughing, he pulls out the real thing, my chocolate cake! What a buttface. And I love him. We all sit outside in our sukkah (it is sukkot right now, ya know!) and eat chocolate cake. I could not think of a better way to spend time with my family on my birthday. It was so beautiful outside and the cake was delicious. We then make plans with my mom to meet up for Chinese food for dinner. Another, OH MY YUM! It was fun and totally delish! My birthday was perfect. While sitting on the couch after dinner my hubby reminds that our message clock had been programmed, scrolling across it says "Happy Birthday Brat". Great day, great evening, great food and the best company! I am so very blessed, thank you Abba!

Swimming with Austin

This was a wonderfully fun weekend in Bend, OR. This picture is of Jordan and Atira with their good buddy Austin swimming in our hotel pool. It was such a great joy to get to see Austin again after meeting him a few months before. We had a wonderful weekend enjoying the pool, attending a conference and visiting with friends. It was a great time with family and a nice long drive together as well.

Summer is now over, it rained today, a lot. We are full into homeschool again and really enjoying it. Atira is officially 1st grade and Jordan is 6th. They are both doing very well and enjoying their studies. Jordan is taking outside classes in martial arts and metal working. Atira is taking a class on literature through art and a science/math class. We are looking forward to fun adventures with our homeschool group as well as with our friends through this fall.

I will work to update more frequently, sorry about the delay! Summer sure was fun, but it leaves little time for updating blog.
To our family reading this, we love you all!!

It's a construction zone!

 
Well, this summer has certainly NOT been a boring one! We have had all kinds of adventures one of which is the total construction zone that we used to call our street and driveway! Our neighbors have decided to do a little construction it's funny how easy you can jump onto that bandwagon when someone else is already starting the trouble. We decided since he was ripping out part of the street, we would repair a part of our driveway and finish off our second driveway with concrete, after all, the neighbor started it! Our two homes at the end of the street here will look positively stunning, when it is all done. For now, it is a mess. We drive on dirt and watch the dust fly. The kids are having a blast and need more baths than ever before. But lots of dirt is a great sign of a super fun day! I will try to upload more pictures as this job finishes out. As for now, here is one of Jordan on the tractor that was used to change the views out our front windows! 

Gotta love 'em!

Jordan is now nearly 11 (in August) and Atira just turned 6. They are growing up too fast...and I am so thankful to be home to enjoy every moment of it. For those of you in our family, have no fear, the pictures will be on the way soon. They will be ready for pick up on the 8th and I will be mailing them out soon after!

Best Friends

 
It is great to have a best friend. Atira and Brianna are quite the little pair of girlfriends. They look forward to calling each other, seeing each other, eating together, trading clothes, swimming and just about anything else you can think of. One of the first things Atira does in the morning is to run to our window to look out and see "if the neighbors are home". And we always are greeted with warm welcomes, and goodbyes by our little neighbor friends! There is no sneaking around at the end of 15th Place SE, let me tell ya! Talk about a neighborhood watch, we got it covered between these kids!

 

Ah, and on to boy things. Sword fighting, in the rain. Does it get much manlier? The joy clinking swords brings to boys faces is incredible. And rain really added some kind of drama to the whole scene as well. Reuben is Jordan's good buddy. They have been friends for several years and really have a good time together. We are so grateful for our kids having such nice friends. 

Catching up.

Sorry it has been so long, here is what we have been up to!



This is a picture of the kids at the Seattle Arboretum. They are under what is called a "Camperdown Tree". It is actually a tree stump with a bush grafted into the top of it. It grows up and then the leaves grow down, creating a tent like appearance. They are actually pretty good at keeping out the rain and can be camped in. So pretty and the kids loved it because it felt like a great big playhouse!




This was a very proud moment! Jordan used several different types of flotation devices to make this item up. It freed him up to use no muscles whatsoever and still remain afloat in the water! It was very ingenious and I was cracking up!




Here are the kids in front of the I-5 bridge that goes over the Columbia river into Oregon from Washington. We attended a conference down in Vancouver this past weekend and the weather and views were spectacular! Nice 80-85 degrees and our hotel was RIGHT on the river. Great weekend, but we all came home tired.

So there is the update for now, I should have more photos soon. Summer is a busy time and I will try to capture lots of memories to share with everyone!

Atira turns 6

Wow, she is six already. June 5th Atira turned 6. She had a wonderful weekend. On Saturday she had a rollerskating party. It was great fun and all her friends and some family was there to celebrate with her.

Picture it: 8:00 AM, June 5, 2006, a little girl who has snuck her way into her parents bed begins to stir. Mom lays there watching the little angel as she wiggles and stretches a bit. In a flash, her little fists go flying up above her head hitting the pillow as she says "TODAY'S THE DAY!" It was great, what a way to wake up. And what a nut!



Her party was wonderful, we roller skated for 3 hours and then had cake, ice cream, root beer and cheese pizza. Opened many gifts and enjoyed the company of our friends and family. She wrote out thank you cards and took the last one and secretly wrote out "Thanks mom and dad for a great party". It was so very sweet of her. I love that girl so much. For all of you far away, we missed having you here...and we think of you often.

Happy Birthday to my Little Girl! I love you Atira!! My big 6 year old!

It's raining....

Well...it's a day to behold in May. It's raining. A lot. Dang. I want some sunshine.



And here is your sunshine! Atira was in a performance last Thursday night. She took a chorus class at the homeschool center. Her group of K-3rd graders sang the following top hits:

*Scales & Arpeggios
*Gonna Build a Mountain
*Bought Me a Cat
*Rubber Ducky, in which they played the kazoo and squeezed rubber duckies
*Speed Bonnie Boat

She did an excellent job, and had a good time up there. Her comfort on stage is really astounding. She had no trouble adjusting her tights (of course at the crotch) or itching her nose at any given moment throughout the performance. It was really cute and we all had to giggle. Wouldn't it be great to be able to fix our underwear whenever it bothered us? Right there on stage when everyone is watching? Well, kids can even if we can't and just look how happy and carefree they are. A good lesson to be learned. We had lots of friends and family who came to cheer her on, Grandma Sheila, Grandma Joan, Grandpa Curt, and we brought the neighbor kids with us as well, Bailey, Brianna and Ryan. It was a very fun time. Scott and I took all the kids out for milkshakes after, 5 vanilla's please! Sorry the pictures are not better, we have the movie too. If I ever become savvy enough on this computer, maybe I will figure out how to upload a short clip of video for you all to see and HEAR!

I kicked his butt...

Ok, we have started having "1 point matches" and sometimes "3 point matches" in martial arts. Basically that is where you spar and try to make points by pretending to hit your opponent. You get so many points depending on where you hit them (although you really don't make contact). So today, I was sparring, and I totally creamed my opponent. Within 3 seconds of beginning the match I was called as winner (and he as loser)! I just sent a nice right punch to the face and did a successful pull back (completing the punch) and I got the point! I was mighty proud of myself. I had good eye contact, completed my punch, good form and I won. Does it matter to me that the kid was 8? Not really, I still creamed him. Then I got called out for nearly actually hitting my next opponent in the face. Ooops. I did not realize I was that close! Well, better luck next time. And did I mention that I have now bled for my sport? Yeah, I was sparring the other day and a teenager, WAY bigger than me, somehow ripped the skin on my pinky, and so, I have bled for my sport. I think it is a sign of how committed I am to it or something. So there is my martial arts update...still loving it and I am well on my way to my hands becoming lethal weapons. Sweet.

Jordan & his buddy Reuben

 

Well, there is nothing like having a best friend. Jordan and Reuben are just that, best friends. These two get on the phone and start plotting how to get together. Then when they have a plan, they go into action, schmoozing the moms and then getting us to talk to one another. Playing on our emotions, they are excellent at what they do! So, here is a nice picture of these two boys, what are they doing you might ask? Well, they decided to stuff pillows into their clothes so they could ram into each other and look like goobers. Didn't they do a nice job? It was actually hilarious, especially when I said "hey, getting a little rough there" and Reuben looks at Jordan and says, "geez, yeah, you just hauled off and rammed into me, chill". Of course to which I replied, "oh you mean like you did when you first started playing this game?" All I heard from him was "giggle giggle". Hmmm. That's what I thought. Having Reuben over is a lot like having one less kid here, those two just dissapear into their own world and only come up for food. Ah yes, food the air of the growing pre teen boy. Although I do have to say my boy eats less when Reuben is here and perhaps that is why he eats so much when he is not. He is preparing his body like a bear prepares for hibernation. HA! Ok, well there is my blog update...sorry about the delay. Maybe I will surprise you with another one later this week as a bonus for being such a slacker. 

A moment to remember....

This was a most special evening. My grandparents, Larry & Shirley Anderson, celebrated their 60th wedding anniversary by renewing their vows. It was truly beautiful and inspiring. Their son (my uncle) Larry Anderson, performed the ceremony using the same vow book they used at their original wedding! The evening was made memorable by the vows and the family and friends who came to celebrate and support them.


Grandma, Grandpa and Uncle Larry

Gunner loves bubbles

Well, we would have never guessed but that goofy dog just loves chasing and biting bubbles. And the kids get a huge kick out of blowing them for him! Here is Jordan getting ready to blow some bubbles and Gunner is waiting to pop them for him! Gunner has really taken to Jordan. In the morning he waits for him to come out of the bathroom, and if Jordan wakes up first, Gunner will jump down to go and be with him in the morning. It is nice to see them together. Jordan also loves to hide and jump out and scare Gunner, which of course sends the dog into a flying fit. Those two are a good team. 

Happy Passover!

Well, it was a beautiful evening. I now have a bunch of people laying around with full happy tummies and many more wonderful memories. It was just our family celebrating this year, so it was intimate and special. The kids had a wonderful memorable evening, talking, discussing, reading and sharing. Atira & Jordan helped to make the food and set the table as well as all the work that goes into getting ready for this festival. They also helped clean up the house of all "leaven" this week to prepare us for the next festival of Unleavened Bread. The memories we are making are very special and tonight was no exception. This is our 4th Passover we have celebrated and they get more special each year. Chag Pesach Sameach! 

Skagit Valley Tulip Festival

It was a beautiful day today and we decided to head north and visit the tulip festival in Mount Vernon. It was gorgeous, even though it was early in the season and not all the tulips have bloomed yet. We also visited an Alpaca Farm...funny little creatures. The kids and I had a wonderfully fun afternoon. Oh, and Atira isn't really giving Jordan a piggy back, it just looks that way! LOL!

Check me out....

I am doin' martial arts with my son! WOW! Ok, so here I am in my uniform, this was at our demo we did on 3/29. So, here is the story that led me to this momentous occassion. I have woked out on average 5 days a week for about 3+ years now. I was getting kind of bored with my at home workouts. But I remin faithful. I have been watching my son do martial arts for 5 years and I finally started rolling the idea around in my head to perhaps join up and get in a different kind of workout than what I am used to. So I did it! I signed up! Of course I cleared with Jordan first, I did not want to steal "his thing" if he wanted it to be his alone. But he is a generous kid and was more than happy to have me join him. Actually, I kind of think he likes it, he is a higher rank than me (by 2 belts) and he gets to correct me and teach me...pretty cool for him huh? We are in the same class as it only makes sense and his teacher is very flexible about us parents joining in. (We take this at our homeschool center) We go two days per week for one hour per session. It is a great workout and I am humbled by how much harder this is than I originally thought. I could never quite get why he was tired after class, but now the kids call me "brittle bones" because I have days where I am very sore after a day in class. Now to the downside, I am in a class of mostly boys, and a large majority are teenage boys. Do you have any idea how awkward it is for me to straddle a teenage boy? I feel I should write somebody an apology letter. Granted I am bending their arm into a knot when doing it, but heck, it's still just a bit weird. Not to mention the occassional punch that is aimed for the upper chest but they make a square connection with another part. Dang....I wonder if they just figure it is my flabby gut that they made contact with. Oh well. Nobody seems to need any therapy other than me, so things are fine I suppose. All righty then, that is plenty of information for you all. Now you know, I am in martial arts, so let that be a warning to ya!

the letter J....

It just seems like a few weeks ago that we sat enjoying the company of Aunt Janis. Got to see her beautiful home, well manicured grounds and enjoy her laugh and smile. It has been nearly 5 years. Time goes by way too quickly. These are the moments you wish you had stayed in touch more, made a phone call, wrote an email. J is the letter for Janis, Aunt Janis. I am sad to write that she is no longer living in this world with us. Her body was tired and had been sick for too long. She is set free of the confinements of this Earth and prayerfully she is living happy and free now. She had a characteristic laugh with a smile to match. A no nonsense attitude and a generous spirit. I know she was very loved, especially when I saw the sadness that filled my husband who loved her very much. I am honored to have known her and will remember her always. The beauty that comes from the cycle of life is the closeness it brings to a family. People connect again, call one another, stop the business of their lives to make an effort to reach out and let them know you care. Our prayers and thoughts are with the entire family as they go through this period of life...we love you.

Girl's LOVE twirly skirts

Ahhh, my little princess, Atira. She has really been wanting a good twirly skirt, and they sure are hard to come by in the stores. So we went to the fabric store and found this lovely watermelon print. (She picked it cuz she loves watermelon, of course!) And tonight I found a few moments to try and figure out how to put this together. After only one major error, it was done and she is a happy little twirling girl!! It came out so cute, I may have to make one for myself! Even big girl's like twirly skirts! They just make us ladies happy! 

Hm, just thought I would share....

Ok, well, we have been a bit busy lately so I have not had time to get any new pictures into my computer of the kids or the family. Sooooo, I decided to just add a nice little picture that someone decided to share with me. Sharing is nice, see how that works? Someone shared this with me, now I share it with you. We all get to enjoy something that otherwise many of you would never have had the privilege to see! Ah sharing, it is a nice thing.

So, like I said, we have been really busy lately. Between homeschool, martial arts, chorus, swimming lessons and a house to take care as well as groceries to buy etc etc etc....you get the picture, it's been really busy. But really fun! The kids are still in swim lessons, they signed up for another session this week, but will probably quit once the summer arrives, maybe, we will see! I am now in martial arts with Jordan 2x per week. I am really enjoying it, mostly. But I have days where I stand there wondering (or lay there, if someone bigger than me just twisted my arm behind me causing me to fall to the ground) why I am taking these lessons. But my reasons are simple. I wanted to mix up my workouts for one thing, I also thought it could be really beneficial to me to learn some martial arts moves, hopefully I will never need them, but the confidence boost cannot hurt. Also, it stretches me (literally and figuratively) in ways I would not have otherwise gone. All in all, I think it is pretty good for me, excepting when I am yelping in pain as my instructor bends my hand in a knot while giggling with an evil grin knowing that I will not forget to "tap out" when I am in pain so the opponent will stop. Ok, I am done whining. There is our life in a little tiny nutshell. Enjoy the picture, I sure did!

You got to love a snow day! What a wonderful sight this morning to see our world covered in the beautiful fluffy white stuff!! We went out to play for a bit and our wonderful neighbors came out to join us. We had a memorable morning playing in the snow and even Gunner had a great time! (Snow apparently has lots of sniff quality) By afternoon it had warmed up to the mid 40's and the snow rapidly melted away. But at least we have great pictures and even better memories!

Wacky Olympics

Well what a wonderful day!! We had our friends over this afternoon for a day of Wacky Olympics. To give you a bit of background information, we just completed our unit study on Greece and to celebrate we decided to have a Wacky Olympics Party, being that the Olympics originated in Greece. Our guest list included: Suzanne, Emily, Annabelle and Elizabeth, Howard, Jennifer, Krystal, Rachael & Denah, Reuben, Grandpa Curt & Grandma Joan, Grandma Sheila and of course Scott, Myself, Jordan, Atira and Gunner. We were sad not to have Michael and Andrew as well as Scott, Julie, Teigan and Jacob. Some of our friends were fighting colds....hope you guys are better soon! Our events included, poetry reading, Jordan & Atira read a passage from Psalm 139 and Emily wrote a poem and shared it with us, they all did a wonderful job! We had an art exhibit where the kids drew pictures of Olympic events, a turtle, a Greek woman. We also had jewelry displayed as well as ceramics and and entire book of drawings! It was wonderful to see so many creative things the kids all made! Next came the cotton ball blowing marathon, the straw javelin throw, the seated chair (ya know, where you sit with you back against the wall in a chair position until your thighs scream). Next came the licorice race, taking a long skinny piece of licorice and try to slurp it up first no hands allowed! We had a long jump in the hall, discus (tossing of ping pong balls into cups, very challenging!) We also saw amazing things at the cricket jump (we used ants from ants in the pants and jumped those guys!) then came wrestling, thumb that is and the events concluded with boxing, using Rockem Sockem finger Boxers of course! After all that we were STARVING! That kicked off our 'Taste of Greece' portion of the event. We tried a wonderful Greek salad, greek olives, baklava (which was a hit, but what sweet treat isn't?), pasta salad, strawberries (YUM) and grapes, pita w/ tzatziki dip and spanikopita. It was great fun, lots of good food and best of all family and friends. Thanks to everyone for helping to make our day very special!

COUSINS!

What a fun and very special day today! Grandma Joan was coming over for a visit today and she surprised us by bringing Cousin Monique with her! We were all very happy to see her. Atira and Monique played all day long. Monique is about 1/2" taller than Atira and Atira is about 7 pounds heavier than Monique. Monique is about 15 months older than Atira is. They are such good little buddies. Speaking of buddies, Jordan had his best buddy Reuben over for the day and they had a blast too. And of course we were all happy to be able to spend some time with Grandma Joan.

Gunner!

Oh my goodness! Isn't he a cute pup? This is a nice picture of Gunner, you can really see him clearly, we have found that black dogs are very difficult to get good pictures of. This particular shot was taken by a good friend of mine who is a photographer! (Thanks Julie!) Well, it has been such a wonderful blessing to have Gunner in our home. He is a great dog, a bit naughty and strong willed, but he fits in well! He is a bit over 4 months old now and doing very well. He can sit on voice and hand command as well as lie down. He rarely goes potty in the house anymore, but if we are at our friends house, he does not always do so well there. He loves to play and his favorite things to steal are socks and my slippers. This morning we got up, and he had been out playing with the kids, we came out to the living room and there were six socks in a little pile that he had gathered and brought in. He is also losing his baby teeth, I have never seen a dog lose so many before, normally you never see them. But his fall out and we find them everywhere! He has lost two in one day that we know of. He lost another today....goofy dog. The tooth fairy gives him a dog treat when he loses one, he just loves that! The kids really enjoy him a lot and he them. We have a neighbor dog (as well as neighbor kids) and Gunner now runs outside just like our kids looking to see if "Sasha" is there to play with. Sasha will also go out to play ball with her mom or dad and come up to our driveway and look at our house, looking for Gunner. Too funny! Well, it is an adventure having Gunner, some days are hard but most are wonderful. Hope you all enjoy his picture, he sure is a handsome thing. Oh, so handsome in fact we will probably breed him, at least to make back our initial investment!

LOOT!

Well, what a wonderful surprise! Don't you just love it when an unexpected package comes in the mail? Heck, I love it when one shows up that I was expecting, the UPS truck is like eating chocolate without the calories! Just makes one happy and it's brown too, coincidence? I think not. Ok back to our story, yesterday we had a notice in our mail that there was a package TOO LARGE to fit in our mailbox...hmmmmm, what could it be?! So off we went to the post office and there it was presents from our parents in California! What a fun surprise! Had to run other errands, so all we could do was wonder what was in that box. Torture, it's good for people. Got home, waiting for dad to open the package....he calls; he'll be late. More torture? No way! You snooze, you loose buddy! So, here are the kids opening their loot from Grandma and Grandpa, they loved it. Personal note: Thanks guys for all the fun loot, we are heading off to Borders and lunch at McDonalds tomorrow. Looking forward to it and we will be thinking of you both while we shop. 

Beauty, Eh?!

Well..it was time. Scott had taken our old van as we bought a new one for our first ever major road trip this past fall. It (the old van) had over 120,000 miles on it and it proved to be a wise move not to take it on a long haul down the coast. The old van bit the bullet. Cracked a head or worse...may need a new engine in it. Well, the cost of repair for the lesser work was nearly the value of the van and the price of a new engine out cost it's value by almost 2,000 dollars! Easy decision, time for a new vehicle. After pondering what to do, we found a great deal on another van, Scott would take the recently purchased one as it is more manly (that is if a van can be more manly, but it is a GMC, I think that helps?!) and I would take the new more family style van. Well, we were not thrilled, it was nice, clean and a good price, but that was it, no spark so to speak. Well then.....we spotted this little white number, Scott asked if it is was in our price range and it was...took it for a little spin and bought it! He loves it, finally, he has a car he has wanted, it has been a long time since that has happened. This little GMC Jimmy has it all, 4 wheel drive, towing package, heated mirrors...it's a beaut. (Beauty, eh?!) He is happy, I was thrilled and the kids love it. So there is the latest, sorry for the long time between posts, I will work on making this a regular weekly mission on my part. Glad to hear we have a request! Love to all our family!