So much fun!!!

Thad's sister got married last night and as you can see we had so much fun. We started our day at Deepwood for pictures with the bridal party and totally unplanned noah grabbed abby's hand and kissed it. well that set the photographers into a frenzy and they made him do it again and again. SO CUTE. Noah had a blast walking down the aisle and he did a great job not messing around on stage. The best part was when the pastor asked for the rings and noah was mouthing to me that he had the rings, why weren't they using his rings....i thought i was going to laugh out loud at one point. He did a great job. It was so much fun to see abby so happy and nervous and just loving her day. We moved onto the party and sydnie got to hand out favors with her cousins. The girls were done so quickly, so proud of their job. My kids had been waiting for the dancing all night......hoping for the chicken dance. The girls danced so nice, but noah was like a spring with to much tension....bouncing all over the floor and when he paid to dance with abby I though he was going to pull her over! When we left the party was just getting started with a hispanic tradition of the groom being thrown in the air!!! Cannot wait to hear what happened after that. Congratulations abby and eder.

first day of kindergarten

isn't he just adorable. seriously love his little camo shoes.
with the too big backpack and the freshly pressed clothes.
i love the first day of school. he has just had to wait several
days for his first day. he has been so patient and now he
gets his moment to shine.




So cute in his little shirt...he has been waiting to wear his
new first day of school shirt. even with the 90* weather,
he still wanted to wear this one.




Thought this would make a cute pix of his name on his cubby




already hard at play...he could not wait to head into the classroom
and start playing. he knew there was stuff to play with and he has
been waiting two years for this day. he immediately started talking
to his new little friend on the right and i could not even get him to
tell me goodbye! he just was in the moment. so proud of himself. such
a big guy now. he was very excited that he gets to come out the front
door today. man he is so cute. I just wish that his first day of school
excitement had not woke him up at 5am!!! Hope he stays awake in
class today.

Warning - Warning - Warning!

The great rip off has just occured....

do not, i repeat do not take your daughters to Limited Too........EVER.

I am the first to admit it is ridiculously over priced and extremely expensive, but sydnie loves it so I told her we would only go there a couple of times. my mom decided to use our too bucks today and take sydnie on a shopping spree.

$160 = 6 items!!! that is with $50 off. HOLY CRAP!!! then mom complained about how expensive it is.....to which i said then why did you take her here? in all fairness i told mom not to buy the $50 skirt!!!! seriously.......for kids clothes!! she got a couple of pairs of pants, which i gladly paid $36.00 for because they fit and she liked them (sydnie is really a skirt girl, so i have to get pants when she likes them).

of course you suckered in by the too bucks and coupons off and before you know you have spent $900 and you have to hide it from you husband. ( i did not do that but some lady was observed who did).

in the long run we found three great pairs of shoes for miss extra extra wide foot at nordstroms and she liked them. another long story and dinner needs to be put on the table. have a great night.

the nitty gritty

the first and second day for sydnie have been great. she is really coming into her own this year and loving school. she sits at a table of all girls, which helps so much. last year she was always at a table with boys. she loves her teacher and is really looking forward to learning a lot this year. she has already had pe and music....library must be tomorrow. the last two days she has walked out of school with a huge smile on her face. and this morning she did not want me to walk her into class!!! I knew it was coming.....i took every chance i could last year to enjoy walking her in.

i have been praying for her all summer that she would enjoy this year and just have fun. she had a really rough year last year. i am told that most girls go thru a phase in the third grade of just trying to fit in and figure out what and who they are, but syd went through it last year. plus she hated being away from me all day. i had to search long and hard this summer about home school. i was not sure it was the right thing to do...but she was so miserable last year. i was able to talk to some women and decided that the best thing was to see how this year went and if something horrible happened we would pull her out and put her in private school. she needs to experience some of these bad times to appreciate the good.

she looked absolutely adorable on her first day of school. her outfit was of course from limited too. she has been planning this outfit since end of july when we bought it. the only snafoo was the brown ballet sandals that we had bought to wear the first day were too tight for some reason....(i think she really wanted to wear the ballet crocs from limited too). i have learned through the years to not fight about the shoes. she said that everyone loved her limited too strawberry necklace......"the girls all wanted one mom!" I loved her outfit......she looks so cute. this year is all about blue for sydnie.....YAY, no more pink.

so here is to a good year and good friends and a great teacher!!!!!

2nd Grade

Isn't she lovely

While we were camping, sydnie had her hair french braided and she loved it. she was super excited when the braids were pulled out that her hair was wavy. she wanted a photo shoot on the beach. most of them did not turn out good, but i love the ones of her laughing.

camping

god's beautiful creation




happy magoo and cranky mcstanky





love this shot of my dad...this is his lake




who told him he could grow up




the mini syd....they are hysterical together

a little suprise visitor jumped on us to get in on the action

look at the cute little grans and the older versions

we had a blast at crescent lake this year. lots of good food. standing around our french presses and drinking coffee. lots of swimming. lots of rafting. lots of good memories. this year the kids got along so good. noah loved having ryen there and she loved him too, as long as he did not come near her stuff. (we heard a lot of no noah's). Syd loved playing with ryen and sharing her puppies with her. we had a great football game down at the beach, syd has a good arm on her. my dad almost broke my ankle with a shove from behind and he and i had a great time blocking each other. sydnie scored a touchdown for her team and did a little dance. we heard lots of great stories from dad about this lake.....will have to post those sometime. i love this lake and these people.

State Fair

Yes....we went to the state fair again this year....i cannot quite decide if i hate going or kind of like it. not really my thing, but the kids have fun so, it is fun to watch them. the kids rode a ton of rides, screamed, laughed and loved them. we are somewhere in between the big rides and kiddie rides. we saw a bunch of people that we knew and at the very end of the day as we were getting ready to leave we heard radio disney rehearsing for their concert that night. It was all high school musical........that is all we watch, hear, sing and dance to at our house right now. We headed to the disney booth and were lucky enough to get handed free reserved seating tickets!!! The only serious problem was a bridal shower we were suppose to attend that evening. but after talking to my husband and having him make the decision (his family event) that i should take the kids no matter what. things like this happen only so often. the concert was great. syd had a blast. she sang. danced. and got a bunch of free stuff. she even got out in the mosh area and started dancing. what time is it? party time!

.

a glimpse...............

i only have a brief moment to post a few pix from our camping the last several weeks. we went back to back to crescent lake (our favorite spot in the whole world), with both extended families. these are just a few that i fell in love with.......he can be such a goof ball. more to post later.

SOS in Pacific City

Can someone say soft sand?


SUPERSTAR!




The good old afro van just didn't have it in her today.....hardly made it off the pavement before.......we had to call in the calvary. But we were not the only ones getting wenched out today....lots of 4x4 trucks were put to shame today. This nice older man came by in his Jeep wrangler hooked us up and pulled us out..........but i can ramble more tomorrow, after the sunburn cools down and i drink a gallon of water.

What an adventure

What a couple of days we have had around here. Saturday night came home from helping my SIL put together her wedding invitations and started packing to head over to Pacific City with my parents for a couple of days...but had to delay because we all got the flu around here. Seriously nasty throw up kind. I was suppose to leave on sunday after church, but ended up taking off monday, so that we could all recover. The kids had a blast....we stayed in the rv park right across from the beach, in my parents trailer....that was an adventure with three adults, two kids and two dogs and a little rain to blend it all together. The kids swam in the pool, walked on the beach, ate pizza, fed the rabbits (that are all over the trailer park) and played on the sand dune. Good thing my parents were there to play with the kids, because I still did not feel to hot. When we left we headed down to Lincoln City for some Mo's Clam Chowder and a bit more beach play and some shopping. I am so thankful for my parents and how much they love my kids and want to be around them. hopefully they won't end of getting this flu....still don't feel to great today. Good times with family and something the kids will always remember....i am guessing we will be back to do it again.

Hard workers

In an effort to teach my kids (by which i mean noah) responsibility i started having them seriously help clean the bathrooms. Sydnie has always done well. if you give her a task, she will do it and well, but noah could care less. So this summer whenever they start fighting they have to go clean bathrooms.....well this is something we do every week, but you understand what i am saying. i finally figured out that all noah wants to do is spray.........anything and everything. he could go thru a whole bottle of cleaner if i let him. and he really likes to stand on the counters and clean the mirrors. so yesterday as soon as the fighting started sydnie called downstairs..."mom, is it time to start cleaning the bathrooms?" Do I have them trained or what?

Sometimes...........

don't you just want to be a cat for a day. no one telling you what to do. no laundry. no cooking. no cleaning. no breaking up fights between children. no packing away old toys and clothes. no runs to goodwill. no grocery shopping. no cleaning garages out. not doing much of anything sounds good....i want to just lay around and sun myself, eat when I feel like it, roam the neighborhood and be held and pet when I feel like it. Ahhhh to be a cat.

Who wouldn't want this?

they have done it again...those women at 5 minutes for mom http://www.5minutesformom.com/2032/insignia-37inch-flat-panel-lcd-hdtv-contest/and http://www.bestbuy.com/ have designed a contest to win a 37in lcd/hdtv............thanks you guys for such great contests...if only I could win this one. My 10 year old tv could use an update....i have started to see the little lines on the screen. Actually my DH and i were going to buy a new tv day after thxgiving this year...but since we had to buy a new transmission............i guess we will have to wait another year for the new tv.

just because

she looks great in orange.........i love her smile......her beautiful blue eyes.......i feel joy..........i feel love.......i feel peace.........i feel like her (a long time ago).......my heart is hers.

just because

he makes me laugh.......and cry...........and feel joy.......and stress..........and love.........all at once.

Taking Flight

last weekend i was able to go to women's camp up at Tadmor...the speaker was Robin Jones Gunn, a funny, witty and touching speaker. I have read many of her books and this weekend God was able to use her message to touch my heart. The last year and a half have been extremely difficult for me to navigate. Many events have transpired in that time, some good some bad and it left me with a huge gaping hole and a bitter spirit. While in the midst of all the events I turned to God and felt that I had used His strength to get through...but somewhere along the way I stopped and it came to my attention these last few months that i have been cynical and bitter and I was so tired of living that way. Anger built up, not directed at any one person but at all events. I felt myself wanting to break free....but not ready to give up the anger yet. I felt it was justified anger....I should be angry because of this, I should feel free to be mad at that person or their actions. Look at what has happened to my family because of one person's sin. Look at what has happened to my husband, I want our marriage partnership back. I want to know that he is dealing with his grief as well. I know that grief is acted out in many forms....it takes a course, it takes time, it takes true healing to move beyond it. I needed to break these bonds and in God's timing I was finally able to release the anger, cynicism and bitter spirit. All because in God's time I was at tadmor listening to a speaker who talked about letting go of what was holding you back, being able to move out of that gilded bird cage, feel your feet at the edge of the cage and then release and take flight......let your spirit soar. So after bawling my head off for a half an hour I was able to talk to a wise women who lifted our family up in prayer and has commited to praying for us.....to talk to God and ask for healing and wisdom. For repair and release. For stronger bonds and a sense of family again. For healing with extended family and God honoring relationships. For the first time in awhile I find myself actually laughing...joy has entered my heart again and I feel at peace. I know that this only comes from the release and God taking control. It is amazing that no matter how much I wanted to not fall into this, to not experience the negativity that comes from certain events, I did it anyway. But that from it my character has grown, my love for God has grown and maturity was attained. And now I don't have gray hairs growing in faster than I can clip them....come on I am only 37!!! I feel the laughter bubbling in my soul, I feel compassion again, I feel my Saviour taking hold of my soul and it feels good. Thank you to my friends who have understood my pain and stuck with me, even though I am sure there were times you wanted to put me in the looney bin. Without your love and support and honesty....I might still be stuck in angryville. I was able to express my hurt and pain to you and you listened, instead of pretending that everything was fine all the time. God put you in my life for reasons that we can never understand, but that He has proven through this last year. whew......that feels good to write it down. let it go. let it go. let it go.