A different look...

Well, I went to have my haircut today at a new salon with a new stylist. She was recommended to me by my good neighbor Amy. Naomi (the stylist) was great! She is so friendly, listens and understands what I want and is very energetic. She asked if she could straighten my hair for me, so I said sure, why not! And this is the result. I could not help but laugh out loud at myself, I kept looking in that mirror in the salon and I could see my own mouth move, but it was not me in the reflection. Just crazy and super fun. It was a fun day to be doing something a bit different. Thought you all might enjoy this one as well.

SHE'S A GENIUS!!

Atira had a reading assessment done a couple of weeks ago and it turns out she is reading right around a 6th grade level! WOO HOO!! She loves to read (just like her brother) and we are so happy that she has been given this gift, a love of literature. The teacher who assessed her stopped at the fourth grade assessments saying there would be nothing left to assess her on in future years, but that most likely she is reading much higher than 5th...so that led to 6th! She is doing a wonderful job and growing up to be such a smart girl!

ok, really, this is it...

Ok, since blogger was being disagreeable I had to break up my post into three, which really doesn't work very well because you read what I intended to be last first. Stink. Ok, here is the upside, the last post (this one) is sure to be the funniest of all, at least in my humble opinion (either way it cracks me up). So you decide, start here, enjoy a laugh and then go down and read the rest. Or, scroll down to the bowl of cornflakes and read up.

I should probably put in a some kind of warning or rating for the following picture...but I will let you adults decide what is appropriate for you to see and what is not. Now to give you some background, Scott and Josh also played the Wii tennis game. Needless to say they are lacking in skills, and that is not just my opinion, you can see if for yourself on the game system, it ranks your skills right on there and it kept telling them they had no skills. So anyway, here is a shot of them after playing for a couple of minutes, I think it was just a bit too much activity for them. And someone should tell them to not fear the ball....it's only a video game.

now then, where did I leave off??

Wow! What a winter (and even fall) it has been around here! First we had rain, so much rain! We had flooding everywhere making it difficult to even get out of our little neck of the woods! Next came snow, lots of snow! It was so beautiful and the kids could not have been happier! They hit the hills straight away! It is nice to have a driveway that is a hill in the snow, we don't have to travel anywhere for a good sledding spot. After that came the wind, boy what a screamer of a windstorm that was! Thanksfully we only lost power from about 10:30 at night until around 5AM. Not bad for us. But not so for many other people, my grandparents were out for 4 days and some even longer than that. Incredible winter, and we are not even half way through it yet!

And now, Hanukkah! It was our fourth year celebrating and the most fun yet. The kids had a wonderful time and so did mom and dad. We enjoyed the company of family and friends over several different nights as well as one cold, but very clear night spent at a Seattle mall watching a 15 foot menorah being lit up with music and lots of people all around. That was a fun time, not to mention we ran into some friends of ours and it was a true joy to get to see them again. We have lots of fond memories of this year and look forward to it again next year.



And finally, something a little more serious. To the untrained eye, this might look like Serena and Venus Williams, but if you had seen my friend Kyla and I playing their new Wii tennis game on New Years Eve, you would be able to quickly discern that this is really us, rockin' the tennis court! OW! Oh yeah, about 4 hours later we were total pros and even contemplating how we could use our considerable skills to shark people. Ya know, let them think we stink, then go in for the kill. It's gonna be great. I am gonna have to start buffin' up too, my right arm was killing me the next day. But hey, that is the price you pay when you play at the level we are at. Kyla, glad we decided to team up and not kill each other, this will be way more fun and just think of all the fun stuff we will have to talk about!

Ok....I have one more thing to show you, but again...you will have already read it by the time you get here...but wasn't it funny?

WHAT A FLAKE!

WOW! I cannot believe that it has been so long since I have last updated my blog! I have to apologize to my friends and family! And everyone can send out a nice thank you to my neighbor, Kyla for ever so gently (not, *giggle*) reminding me that I am WAY overdue! But really, thanks Kyla! I needed a not so gentle kick in the rear to get in here and get things going again! SO, here we go, I am gonna update ya on everything going on around here since the last post!


Look who got concrete!! WOO HOO! What a great day that was! Our driveway has been poured and we have a street again! We're movin' on up! Although it was nice to pretend we were back in the hood for a while, brought back warm fuzzy memories of days gone by. Our neighbors have been so faithful about making sure we feel right at home. I wonder if they used to live in the hood too?


This is a picture of the kids saying good bye, for now, to our good friend Terri. She recently moved to Israel, Jericho to be exact. She is working with refugees, teaching them english. She is such a wonderful lady and a true friend. We will miss seeing her regularly, but are praying for her safety and protection while she away.


HAPPY THANKSGIVING!
This is the thanksgiving that Atira hosted for our good friends next door along with her brother. They had such fun recreating a kids thanksgiving meal and I just love this picture of them all. We had a joyous holiday here on Thanksgiving day with family from both sides. I think it is so great how my family and Scott's come together to celebrate as one larger family. It truly makes the day memorable and I don't think our kids could ever be happier than when there are six (yeah, count em) six grandparents in one room. I hardly saw those two! Not to mention Uncle Geoff, he truly made the night complete for my kids! Hope everyone else had a wonderful day too.


Ok, blogger is being weird, I was planning to go on with a couple of more photos, so to do that I am going to publish this post and reopen another one and try to finish out my story. Sorry! So, things will end up a bit backwards, you will have most recent first and later next, oh well.
Thanks for taking the time to read up on how we are doing out here!
Love and miss all our family!

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!