pretty little moments....

OH MY! This is one of my new favorite stores right now! It is called Vintage Violets...lovely little place. A wonderful mix of new and vintage items. What you see above is Atira trying on two ballerina outfits, she looks so lovely. It was such a fun experience as well, the owners, which are sisters, had just a ball watching Atira twirl around in these beautiful gowns. Customers stopped to watch as well and I was able to take these pictures of her to share! We spent time in another part of the store where the sisters brought hats for Atira to try on, it was such a fun and memorable afternoon! I can't wait to visit again!

Turkey Day Moments

This was a wonderful Thanksgiving! We had a small group at our home this year, only 9 of us together. But it was so wonderful! We were able to sit around the table together, we used the china set our sweet friend and adopted grandma Char gave us and we were treated to wonderful stories of my grandparents in their youth! After dinner we enjoyed some games, Rat-a-tat Cat and Wii bowling. As well as a little friendly competition to see who was youngest on wii fit, I would brag more, but I won't since I didn't win and we will leave it at that.

Happy Birthday Grandpa Curt!

Watch out Dirty Harry, here comes Grandpa Curt and he is packing his new airsoft semi automatic! This was such a fun day! We got to go out for a wonderful lunch at one of our new favorite burger place "Blazing Onion" as well as getting all that family time together!

BAD DOGS!

Riddle: What do you get when you are gone all day, come home for a quick sec, leave again, forgetting to close the laundry room door on your way out?

Answer: BAD DOGS!!!!!!!


Oh yeah, and this is not one of those whimpy boxes of doggy treats, oh no, this one of those monster 10 pounders from Costco. You know what happens after two bad dogs are left alone to eat dog treats for 45 minutes (thankfully not longer). They lay around, panting like they ran a marathon because there is no room for their lungs to expand in their chest due to their extremely bloated bellies. They lived, however they were on doggy treat restriction for a whole week after that. Little piggies!

Zoo moments

WHOA! Are we seeing double? Two blondes? What is going on here!?!?!? We must be nuts, but we have Sasha for the weekend, it is so much fun to add to our little zoo...you would think things would feel more crowded but really it does not. It is just more fun. So here you see (from left to right)Gunner, Atira, Kayli, Scott with Shaggy in his lap, Jordan and Sasha. WHEW!

HOT OFF THE PRESSES!

Since last week our field trip was touring a newspaper plant, this week the kids made their own newspapers! This was a very fun project held at the homeschool center. They filled in their preprinted papers , some of the highlights include:
Jordans favorite food - he couldn't decide, he likes it all
Favorite book - Redwall series, he wrote a glowing review
Favorite movie - (betcha can't guess) Star Wars (duh)

Atira's highlights:
Favorite food - French Fries
What she wants to be when she grows up - A Vetrinarian
Favorite movie - American Girls Samantha

These papers are something I will keep forever! They are really neat and a wonderful "snapshot" of who they are in their lives right now. I should do one of these each year! Great idea, chances are it won't get done though. Oh well. I am thankful I have them for this year!

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10-29-06 / Ear (אוזן ozen, Strong's #241): This is the Hebrew word for the 'ear' (see Exodus 21:6). A Hebrew's speech is often strange to us so the translators 'fix' the text so that it can be more 'modern' but in some cases the original Hebrew is much more interesting. For instance, in Numbers 11:1 the KJV says "And when the people complained it displeased the LORD." The Hebrew literally reads "And the people were murmuring and it was bad in the ear of Yahweh." The verb related to this is azan [str:238] meaning 'to give an ear' or 'to hear.' Interestingly, the Hebrew word for a balance is mozen [str:3976], derived from ozen. Why would a balance be related to the Hebrew word for an 'ear?' Could the ancients have understood that a person's inner 'ear' included a mechanism for determining balance?

Tea party moments!

I am such a dork sometimes, it is truly astounding! I was invited to the lovliest tea party today, and it was so much fun! I was all prepared with my camera to capture some memories and these are the two shots I have. I remembered at the beginning of the party, took shots of the pretty table and our teacups, then safely tucked away my camera, went home and THEN remembered I wanted pictures of all the ladies that came! DRATS!! Oh well, perhaps I could attach names to the teacups and they could be our stand ins?

A very special moment

15 years ago was the last time I saw my Uncle Scott. 15 years ago was when my grandfather had a massive heart attack, and that is why I was able to see my Uncle. But on this day I saw both of them, together, healthy and happy. What a wonderful blessing! We had an afternoon filled with laughter and sharing. My kids were able to spend a little time with him and quickly found how fun and silly he is. He shared with us some of his adventures he has had in the past few years as well. I am so thankful for this time to get reacquainted with my family.

Adventure at The Herald

This was our latest field trip, to the newspaper The Herald. We happened to come on a Friday when the "presses were running" which apparently does not happen often, so we were able to see the printer in full performance! We watched the papers going overhead, the workers gathering up the adds to placed inside them. We also learned how they made a the die to print the papers with. The kids say the most boring part was walking through the offices, we had to be quiet and there was not much to look at but a bunch of people sitting at desks looking at their computers or on the phone. It was still a nice adventure and next Friday the kids will be working on making a newspaper of their own!

awwwww

I sent this one to Scott one day telling him "this is how we homeschool". SPOILED. That's what it should be titled! This is one of Jordan's favorite spots to do his homeschool reading assignments. I am thinking the dogs like it just as much as he does!

Which is the bigger dog?

Ok, we are pretty sure our cat, Shaggy, thinks he is a dog. Not just any dog either, but a bigger, much tougher dog than our two labs. I love this video of Shaggy intimidating Kayli!

My favorite field trip!!

This is by far my most favorite field trip! What an amazing tour we had! Our day began at the gates of the naval base, we then drove in andparked. We were treated to a Veterans Day gathering where we Congressman Rick Larsen spoke as well as a naval captain and a few others. It was quite touching to look around the room when they asked for all of the vets to please stand. We applauded these brave men and women for their dedication to our country and to us and our freedom. Incredible. We then left and waited at a naval bus stop. I think this may have weel been Atiras favorite part, riding the double long bus! (that is why there is a picture of her on it!) She was thrilled that we got to ride it both to and from the ships. We stopped down at the dock, we were going to be taking a tour of the USS Shoup. What a fantastic time we had! On our tour we were able to see some of the different weapons aboard this ship, take a tour of the infirmary, dining hall, helicoptor hangar and the bridge. Which is where you will see Atira steering the ship in the above picture. The picture of Jordan has a picture of the Lincoln in the background. This ship as well as the Monson flank the Lincoln when they are out to sea. We have also had the awesome blessing of touring the Lincoln in the past, also incredible and I look forward to the day I get to do this again! It is incredible what these dedicated people do for us, giving up time with their famlies, friends and many facets of what I would say are a normal life. They are on the sea for months at time in some cases. And this may be a fierce ship, but it is not all that big and I can only imagine how much ones social skills are put to the test on a long tour like that. I am so thankful to all of you who serve and have served in our armed forces, thank you for making my freedom possible today!

A little bit of roller skating

FINALLY!! So, I finally got some photos uploaded and now you can see our latest adventures! This was a couple of weeks ago, we went roller skating! It was such a fun day. This was at the roller rink I went to as a kid, so fun to be there again! The kids and I had a great time, and they are such good skaters too!

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10-27-06 / Wind (רוח ru'ahh, Strong's #7307): In Hebrew thought the wind can be many things. It is the wind that blows in the sky, it can be the breath of man or animals and it is also the breath of God. In Hebrew thought your breath is your character or essence it is what makes you, you. The breath, or wind of God is his character or essence. In the same way that our breath is like a wind, God is like a wind. God is not an individual person that exists as we do, he is everywhere just like the wind is everywhere. Many times the Hebrew word ru'ahh is translated as spirit but this abstract term takes us away from the real concrete meaning of the Hebrew word. Rather than looking at God as a spirit, we can read the text more Hebraicly if we replace the word spirit with wind.