Snowy Moments!

What a wonderful morning! We woke up to a snow covered scene, it is so beautiful out! Not to mention how much easier it is to get kids up and out of bed when there is snow outside! We did a little school work and then headed out for some playtime. They were sledding down our driveway and in our backyard, as well as throwing snowballs. Toward the end they created a snow ogre for Scott to hit with his truck when he gets home from work. They were delighted at that idea! I am pretty sure Scott will like it too!

The last of the recent photos...

This was hilarious! We have a plastic change jar and as it turns out Shaggy LOVES it! So, he will climb in there and just "be", well, Gunner thinks this is fabulous, canned kitty! He will stick his snout in the open end but cannot even come near the cat. The cat just lays there happily making the dog crazy. We, of course, are just laughing and enjying the show!

Awwww....look how nice they look when they all get dressed up! We had a "cocktail attire" even to attend (our first as a family) and so here we are all dressed up! Jordan wore a "real" tie (by that I mean, it did not zip or clip or anything else but tie). Atira got new lacy tights and a sparkly evening bag and Scott was redone head to toe! (Except his Jerry Garcia tie...)As for me, I also got a new skirt and lovely velvet blazer. We had the best time that night. We danced, the whole family for about 2 hours! The music was great, the kids had a blow up guitar they played, and we just boogied the night away! It was a very precious memory. They had a photographer there as well, I will try to scan in our picture we had taken there and post that too, it was very fun!

Ok, what happens when you leave an innocent kitty alone with an innocent 7 year old girl? You get one unhappy cat and one family who can't help but scream with laughter. Isn't (s)he pretty?

We went ice skating, as you know and here is the proof! Atira did great! She would now like to take lessons....go figure!

Here is Jordan with is best buddy Reuben and Atira.

Jordan was a pro racing around the rink once he got used to the skates...he also really loved this outing!

Here is Atira and her very good friend Raya! These girls had a very fun time going around together!

I promised pictures!

Here are the kids celebraing Hanukkah on the last night...it was a wonderful week!

Here is Atira and her beloved American Girl doll Nicki, if you will notice Nicki has her own menora to light!

Jordan received this puzzle as a gift from his Grandma Sheila and here it is completed! We all had a fun time working together on it!

Apparently Shaggy was living it up a bit for New Years eve....

We been so busy!!

I will work on getting a photo up here on Sunday, but I wanted to take a moment to tell about what we have been up to lately.

For homeschool the kids had the opportunity to go and play soccer at an indoor court near our home. They had a wonderful time!! They played for two hours, first warmed up, then played, all coached, the next day they were both so very sore! I had to give Atira Tylenol because he legs hurt so bad!!

Today we went roller skating for two hours and it was a blast! They had a great time and so did I . The fun part for me (besides the roller skating) was the fact that it was at the rink I used to go to all the time when I was a teenager. It looked very much the same, so the moms and I had a fun time reminiscing about "graveyards" and video games. Not to mention, they played some music from our era! The kids really enjoyed my stories of hanging out there as well.

We are now studying about the revolutionary war, well right now we are studying about the things leading up to that war...and it has been a very fun study! For science we are focusing on mammals and that has been fun as well. Both the kids are doing so well and are so smart. They read all the time, even when they are not required to by me for their studies! It cracks me up, we will finish up our day of studying and I will find the two of them sitting with books reading away! Now, don't think they would not hop on a video game or computer if I said yes, but they really do love reading and I am very happy about that!
Well, that is tonights update...I will work on getting some pics up here very soon.
Have a great weekend all!
Love,
T

Gunner has his own moment....

We decided Gunner is now old enough and responsible enough to have his own pet, so we bought him a kitty! Please welcome Shaggy to our family....actually we decided we missed the dynamics we had when we still had Sheba and Critter. We loved that they were pals with one another and spent so much time together, playing, sleeping, fighting etc. We are hoping to recreate some of that with these two. Things, however, started off a bit rocky. The cat hissed and growled at Gunner in their first meeting. After a quick swipe with his claws, catching Gunners face in the swipe, Gunner miraculously transformed from a lab to a boxer. He would bob and weave, pulling his head back quickly each time he got near enough to sniff the cat. It was wonderfully hilarious! They have now fully adjusted to one another, although Gunner still has obvious feelings of rejection. He has become more needy than he usually is and has managed to get himself into some trouble. The two do enjoy times of rough housing, although Gunner gets a little rough still. Something we are working on with him. And occasionally we will find them curled up together, snoozing. Those moments are very precious and we hope to see more of those soon. I think in time, we will have them happily living together, without too much jealousy. (Mostly on Gunners side, the cat really does not care what anyone thinks.)

a CAPITAL moment!

This was a wonderfully fun day! The whole family had the opportunity to visit the state capital! We had a tour of both the capital building as well as the supreme court. We had the camera balancing on a garbage can to get this shot...but you can hardly tell!

Here is a picture of Jordan in front of the state seal...and the following shot is of his sister..same bat place, different bat time....

Ok, this was so incredible I just had to include it in the blog...this is the chandelier that hangs in the center of the dome, it is so big that you could park a (Russ, you should appreciate this one) Volkswagon Beetle inside it! Near the top are angels, they are about 5 feet tall!

Here they are in front of the offices of the Chief Justices...marble is everywhere in this building! If you fall, it would really hurt, duh.

Ok, this shot is hard to see, but it was rather dark in here, this is the kids playing court IN the supreme court! They all had a part in a mock trial and the amazing thing was, it was a real court case and they voted exactly the same as the justices did in the same trial!

This is just outside of the law library at the back of the supreme court, it is really beautiful out here.

This year we decided to do something different with our homeschool. For the pas several years the kids have participated in a program at another homeschool center, we change for one where we have the opportunity to attend field trips every Friday, and so far it has been wonderful. This was an amazing opportunity to learn so much about our state capital, as well as a really fun family adventure. I hope to have another one of our Friday adventures posted on here soon for you to enjoy too!

a moment from a childs perspective....

Kids see the world in an entirely different way than we do. Atira took pictures of our Thanksgiving dinner...and these are the results. I love how she captured the true essence of each of us! Nice job girly!!




Sorry grandpa, somehow we lost Grandmas picture!! Nice smile though!! We love you guys!
Audra, captured in a fine pose!
Roy looks dapper...as always!

Hi Grandma Joan!

Is Grandpa Curt hiding m & m's in his cheeks?

Well there's a shot of my grandma! And Jeff & his new goyl....she is so sweet!

The photographer had mercy in this next picture...had the person who took this shot knew what their picture looked like they may not have been so kind! (What a true beauty though, huh?)

Grandma Sheila...so cute....

Oh boy, is this how she views her brother??

I just happened to get luckier than most...
Daddy looks a little pinchy, huh?

So, we had plenty of turkeys at Thanksgiving, it was a wonderful time and wonderful memories were made....hope yours was a blessing to you as well!

Star Wars Moments....& other funny stuff....

This was SO COOL! The family had to make a run into Aberdeen as we needed some things that just could not be found in the little town of Ocean Shores. We made a wrong turn and found this wonderful store! It is a complete Star Wars store! We could not believe we were so excited we accidentally took a wrong turn (again) down a one way street! It was very thrilling and we were far too sidetracked to pay attention to little things like street signs.

In the bathroom there were two posters about smoking...and they just had me cracking up. I hope you can read these images. Isn't it amazing what people used to think about smoking and in such a short span of time the entire world feels so very different about it? Something funny that also happened on our trip that relates to smoking, we were at our friends house visiting and I saw a glass ashtray sitting on a table. It was clean and unused, I picked it up and showed it to my kids and asked them if they knew what it was or what it is used for. They sat looking at it completely puzzled, it was incredible, they had no idea it was an ashtray. So funny, it made me giggle while I watched them eyeing this foreign object. Ok, so here is one more shot from that bathroom, and boy did I feel like a dork taking pictures of things inside of a bathroom, but I had to get these on film!

This one says "Before you scold me mom, you better light up a Marlboro"! HA, can you believe it?

More sukkot moments

I am just loading some pictures here that I think you all would enjoy of our vacation....so there is not much to say but a brief explanation under each pic, enjoy!
This is of the kids with A.J., and Hanna, they were teachers in the childrens class along with Jeff. They had a BLAST in there!!

Daddy and the kids in the water park at Ocean Shores, this was a really fun time, even though dad slipped and fell. The kids came to his rescue.

This was great! Jordan and his new buddy Justin figured out that if they sat on these jets of water that shoot up to the ceiling they could lean over and shoot each other with the water instead, I personally thought this was hilarious!

We had some very nice days to fly kites, Jordan has his kite flying a couple of times and Scott did too!

Gunner loved the sand and Atira loves Gunner! We all really enjoyed our time at the beach.

Well, here we are in the little Sukkah City. The wind was so strong that several of the sukkahs flew away, so these creative people attached three together and they stood through the entire festival! This was truly a blessed time for all of us!

Moments with Grisam

This is Grisam, he is the most chicken dog I have ever had the pleasure of getting to know. Usually if you try to go up to him he will shy away and try to hide behind his dads legs. Gunner, on the other hand, has no idea that Grisam is fearful so he jumps around as though Grisam was just as happy to see him as he is to have a playmate around. Well, all that aside our friends who own this very cute and loveable dog wanted us to babysit him while they celebrate their wedding anniversary. So, we had a trial run today. Jeff dropped him off at our home this morning and he had a nice little sit by the front door for about 10 or 15 minutes I would say. After that the kids and I would crouch down (it makes him feel more secure, or maybe it's superior, hmmmm..) and go up to him for pets to welcome him to our house. He did not shy away this time, which was an incredible leap for him! Soon after I started calling Grisam into the house to be with us and to my surprise he obeyed me! I did use a firm tone with him and I tried give off the energy of being in charge so he would feel safe and secure. (Ok, I love to watch the Dog Whisperer, can you tell?) Well, no matter what, it worked. Gris staye with the kids and I in whatever room we happened to be in and did great. I set up a nice little bed for him under a table, it had his mom and dads shirts and his stuffed animal. He came and sat in my lap, gave me hugs (which is amazing this dog knows how to do this, it is so funny!) and eventually made his own spot on our couch. He did not play with Gunner the way he would have wished, but at least he was calm and content while his dad was gone. By the end of the evening he even took a treat from me and ate it, I would say that was a very successful trial run! Here are a few more shots of Grisam during his day at Doggy Day Care.

Gris' little bed I made under the table, he took a nice little nap under here.

Gunner is still wishing Grisam would play with him, but here they are together in the play room.

And one last shot of Gunner trying to get some attention! Gunner thought this little bed was really rather nice. He was just a bit too big for it!

PS Grisam, if I spelled your name wrong...my sincerest apologies.