Mmmmmmm, Berries!

I love berries, especially fresh ones. My girls do too. We loaded up all of the kids and took them to a berry farm to pick our own blueberries and blackberries. For about $1 a pound you can pick whatever berries are in season. We took home about 5 pounds of berries and put them on vanilla ice cream. The next morning we made crepes and filled them with berries and whipped cream... YUM!!!

I haven't weighed myself since coming home, but I've probably gained about 10 pounds. It was totally worth it!

The Carousel

Ginny, me, and Reese

My little sister Laurel and her girl Addison

(and her baby boy in utero)

Addison

This is my (2 years) older sister Natalie, who hosted us on our trip. She is with her 6 yr old Kate, and 1 yr old Abigail. In the back you can see Sarah (11), Addison (2), Taylor (9), Ginny (5), Me (old), and Reese (1).

Thank goodness for my sister and her awesome camera! I kept forgetting to grab mine so I had to rely on her take pictures of our adventures.

We took the kids to this really cool carousel by the Willamette River. All of the horses are hand carved and painted. They are really pretty. Reese especially loved it.

After our rides we went outside to drink our Coke's and we witnessed a guy being drug off in handcuffs by 2 police officers. After they put him in their cruiser, we told my 11 yr old niece Sarah to go ask the cops what he did. Of course she did, she always does our dirty work, and they told her that it was personal for the guy (AKA he exposed himself or something sick like that). Never a dull moment with my family, that's for sure!

The Coast

We stayed on the coast for a few days and had such a great time! You literally walked out the door onto the beach... it was awesome! The kids had such a great time playing in the sand and water. It was Reese's first time seeing the ocean and she couldn't get enough of it. She was COVERED in sand and when I finallly asked her if she was ready to take a bath, she said yes and started running toward the ocean. When she found out that she couldn't bathe in the ocean she was pretty disapointed.

Behind the cliff that you see behind Taylor, resides the rocks from the end of "Goonies"... you know where they come out in the pirate ship. We took the kids over there on our drive back and ate lunch there. I also peed in the tall grass by those rocks... how many of you can say that you've peed in the sand where a popular movie was filmed? (Except my sister, who also peed there)

I can't wait to go back... next time I'll make sure that DJ comes with! Thanks for an awesome trip sisters (and Neal)!

A Picture Says A Thousand Words...

We have had alot of "firsts" in our house recently.

The pictures pretty much tell the stories...

Reese has been wanting undies like her sister's and cousin's,

so I bought her a few pair... she just wasn't sure which

end they went on.


That's more like it kid!

Then Reese drew on my wall. Luckily I heard the

scratchy noise and ran to investigate.

They say that the punishment is supposed

to fit the crime, but she doesn't look too upset

with her punishment!

Lucky for her, it washed right off!

She kept pointing at her masterpiece saying,

"Yellow, yellow".

It looks like we need to work on the colors.

Next, I let Reese ride her horse naked, but only

after her bath. Right after this picture was taken, she climbed

off and squatted to go poop...

lucky for her, I was right there to

run her to the bathroom.

(She is one lucky kid)!

Most of you probably know how much Taylor

loves dogs... she's obsessed. Too bad for her, I DON'T.

Lucky for her, I not only let her babysit my Mom's dog, but

I let him sleep on her bed.

Gross, I know, but the dog is technically my

youngest brother, so I had to give in.

(He's the favorite kid of my parent's)

Here you see something that has never been seen

before... one of my kids riding a bike without

a helmet. Let me explain... it was Reese's first time

wearing piggy tails, and we couldn't mess up the hair.

Beside's, it's not that far of a fall. She's also lucky that

she didn't impale her eyeball with her flag.

There goes my "Mother of the Year" award...dang!


Here's Ginny riding proudly at her first bike rodeo.

You will see that she IS wearing a helmet.

Here is Taylor riding a bike without training wheels...

a big accomplishment for her. She overthinks everything,

so bike riding was a bit scary for her. She just had to teach

herself at her own pace. We bought her that sweet bike 2 years

ago, and now that she can ride it, she is about to outgrow it.


Here you see Reese watching fireworks for the first time.

She LOVED it! They didn't start until almost 11 pm, and

she just partied the whole time.

And last, here is the crew fast asleep when we finally got

home at midnight. I actually let them skip baths that

night... another surprising first. They skipped tooth brushing

too... gasp!!

Like Sands Through The Hourglass, So Are The Days Of Our Lives

From boy to man... a walk down memory lane with DJ

Here he is, all 22 lbs of him, at just nine months.

(Reese weighs that at 21 months)

I'm going to make him a replica of this outfit for his next birthday, he will look so dapper at church.

I think he was in kindergarten here, so sweet.

This is DJ on his first soccer team, the Stingers.

They were so bad that they were nicknamed the Stinkers.

I'm digging those short shorts!

I'm seeing double!!

His first crush, and one of his only dances.

DJ only attended the girls choice dances, because he wasn't

going to waste his money on a dance... had he known me at the time,

he would have spent every last dime on me. Although I was only in elementary

school, so that would have looked a little messed up.

(he must have just cut off the mullet, what a shame)!

And last, enjoying some sledding with Reese.

I hope that you have enjoyed the pictures. I had hoped to include his mission photo...

it was a picture of him, in a suit, reading the scriptures, taken at Kiddie Kandids.

Sadly, I couldn't find it, but when I do I will definately post it.

My sister claims that her husband is the best, but I am going to have

to disagree with her, DJ definately wins the best husband/father award.

It takes a true man to raise all girls, and do it well.

So, to the man in my life... you're the best!!!

The War Of The Noses

Ginny and Addison are quite the little team. Addie is my niece (who won't look at the camera), and she has been coming to our house to play. Every morning, Ginny sits in the living room chair, waiting for their car to pull up. Addie loves to be big like Ginny, and I am always catching Ginny teaching her to do things she shouldn't (jumping off of the stairs... Ginny jumps from 2 stairs up, but is always coaxing Addie to try 3 or 4).

Well, last night I get a call from my sister, asking me if the girls had been playing with beads. I wasn't aware of any, but my house is full of them. We have numerous kits that contain beads and plenty of bead necklaces have been brought home from preschool, so it was definatley a possibility. It turns out, Addie had a bead stuck in her nose, and one in her pocket. I wasn't home at the time, so I called home to question the girls down, and to make sure that there were not any beads laying around.

Well, it turns out that it wasn't a bead, it was a chunk of an eraser that Addie had been playing with a few days earlier. I had been feeling guilty that she had done that on my watch, so I was a bit relieved that it had happened at her house (don't feel bad Laurel, it happens to the best of us).

Well, I was almost home when I get a call from Taylor informing me that Ginny had just stuck a bead up HER nose. She told Tay that she wanted to see what it had felt like for Addie.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

I found it hilarious, but only because Ginny wasn't the one stuck up at Primary Children's Hospital until midnight, being sedated and tied to the table while 4 adults had to get the thing out. Lucky for us, we were able to plug Ginny's nose and have her blow it out.

Pretty crazy, especially since we had started that day out with Taylor getting the inside of HER nose cauterized, to stop her constant bloody noses.

Well, I'm glad that all of the noses are taken care of and that we won't be dealing with 2 or 3 bloody noses a day.

Why do I get the feeling that I will be able to write a book called "The Crazy Adventures Of Addie and Ginny" ?

Let's Hope This Isn't Her Last....

Graduation, that is!!

Miss Tanya is the BEST teacher EVER!!

Ginny is such a goof! I love the picture of her using her "diploma" as a telescope... that is classic Ginny.

Ginny is so sad to be leaving Miss Tanya's preschool. She has had such a fun experience the last 2 years. She told me that she is not going to kindergarten because she is staying with Miss Tanya. The sad thing is that this is Tanya's last year of teaching. So sad... what will poor Reese do?

When we lived in West Jordan, we made the 15 minute drive to take Tay to her school, and Taylor loved it. We ended up moving 2 minutes away from her school when Ginny was 2, so we hurried and got her on Tanya's school list. I told Tanya that I am just going to drop Reese off at her house twice a week, school or no school. I'll just pin a check to Reese's shirt once a month.

For the last day of school, their class had a beach party. Ginny wore her swimsuit to school under a coverup dress. At the end of class, they were all sitting on the rug. Ginny was sitting with her legs crossed, and when Tanya looked over she got a little peek a boo surprise. It turns out Ginny had taken her suit off, and was going commando under her dress. Ginny had decided that she didn't want to wear her wet swimsuit anymore, so she took it off. Tanya tried getting her to put it back on, but she refused. To make matters worse, I asked Ginny where she was when she changed, and she informed me that she just did it in the classroom. I asked her if there were any boys in the room and she said, "Just 2 or 3, but I couldn't see anything when they changed." We then had to have a discussion about privacy.

Ginny definitely keeps things interesting around here. Her kindergarten teacher will be one lucky lady!