The Cedar Hillbillies

We Loaded Up the Truck and Moved...

2012-02-10T21:19:00.000-08:00

Eight months ago, but who's counting. Since we are no longer the Covington Cahoons, we thought we'd finally change the title of our blog. Thanks to those clever Lone Peak High School teens for the inspiration. They thought it was an insult to mock kids from Cedar Hills, but we love it! We're proud to call ourselves Cedar Hillbillies. So proud, that we may make it a permanent thing :)

I have a girl!

2012-02-10T13:34:00.000-08:00

I know, I know, I have actually had a girl for 19 months now, but it is really just beginning to become apparent that Evelyn is very much a girl in the way she acts.

Just yesterday, I gave her a toaster waffle on a green plastic plate and she said "No Mom. Pink pate." So I switched it with B (who was happy to switch for green). Satisfied, Evelyn exclaimed "Pink pate!" with a grin :)

Evelyn has become such a mother hen. She likes to boss her brothers and even her Dad around. Always announcing to them it's time for prayer, dinner, or a bath until they respond. When she hears Brandon crying, even if she is in another room, she'll rush over to him and say "Bobo, happened?" or "Bobo, sad?" and then rub his back.

Evelyn is such a chatter box. I often see her walking around with anything she finds held up to her ear and pretending she is on the phone. When I'm on my phone, she always makes such a stink because she wants to talk on it. She talks a whole lot more than the boys did at this age. It's kinda funny to hear the things that come out of her mouth and how long of sentences she can manage to say. I'm a little worried for the teenage years!

She likes to be complimented on what she wears. On Sundays, she'll go show Nate or her grandparents her dress she's wearing and say things like "I pitty" (pretty) or "I cute." She also cares about what she is wearing and likes to be involved in picking out her clothes. One of her favorite shirts is her ballerina shirt, which she likes to point out to others when she is wearing it.

This doesn't really have to do with her personality, but Evelyn finally has long enough hair for me to "style". She's not a fan of headbands, but she is pretty good about letting me do her hair otherwise. After having two boys, it's pretty exciting to get to do something other than gel and a comb through :)

It'll be interesting to see just how girly Evelyn becomes as she gets older. She loves dolls and girl things, but she also loves to be just like her brothers. She knows burping is a silly thing and just the other day Brandon was getting her to say all kinds of potty talk. I think Legos are still her favorite toy unfortunately. So far though, no Legos stuck in places they shouldn't be (knock on wood).

2011 Recap

2011-12-31T14:54:00.000-08:00

Changes:
The big news is that we moved to a new state. In late May, Nate received a great job offer to work as a software engineer for Hospira in downtown Salt Lake City. After accepting and agreeing to a start day of June 27th, the next few weeks became a whirlwind of end of the school year activities mixed with all the to do's involved with moving to a new state. We're so grateful to our friends and family members that were able to help us out with such a huge task. This summer we stayed with Nate's sister Leslie's family in North Salt Lake while Nate's parents were finishing their basement. Then in late August, we moved down to their home in time for the boys to start school. We are currently renting out our home in Covington and planning on finding a new place to live this upcoming spring.

Our Family:
Nate is doing well at his new job and still making time to do freelance for an appraisal company that he has helped for the past 5 years. His wife and kids pretty much take up the rest of his time. When he gets the chance, he enjoys hanging out with his brothers. They are all anxious for the snow to come so that they can go snowmobiling and back country snowboarding together.

I (Jana) am grateful to focus my time and energy on raising our three kids. Nate and I are currently teaching Primary (Sunday School for children) together, which has been fun. When I am able to get away, you can find me at a Karve or Zumba class or a church building, playing volleyball. It's even more important for me to keep active now that I've hit 30! :)

Gavin (6) is in the first grade now. He loves his teacher and has made some great friends at his new school. Gavin has taken off with spelling and reading this year and is excited he can now read chapter books.  Even though he has become a great reader, he prefers to spend his free time building Legos, playing video games, doing art projects, playing soccer or football, and just hanging out with his family. Gavin is loyal, thoughtful, kind, smart, inquisitive, responsible, creative, and a great big brother.  He sure is growing up! He lost his first baby tooth this year and has shed some of his shyness to perform a solo in his Kindergarten program, then as narrator in his 1st grade Thanksgiving show.

At just 27 pounds, Brandon (4) is our little guy, but does a great job of keeping up with his big brother.  He's an excellent Lego builder, budding artist, and has at times been the one to save the day when he plays video games with the boys. He is beginning to learn how to read and picks up on things very quickly. We love how happy, affectionate, imaginative, creative, smart, and helpful Brandon is. He too is a great big brother. Brandon enjoys going to preschool and always has a big smile when I pick him up afterward. He has become much more social this year and often requests to have playdates with his cousins and classmates. His favorite friends to play with though are still Evelyn and Gavin.

Evelyn (1 1/2) has grown from a baby to a busy little toddler this past year. She's now running, climbing, and talking up a storm - even in full sentences. We have a little parrot in the house as she often repeats the things we say. Evelyn has also mastered being cute to get what she wants. Several times a day Evelyn will ask for gum, tic tacs, and treats in her sweetest voice with a smile, head tilt, and eye contact.  She patiently does this over and over again until she gets her way or we distract her with something else. She loves her family, snuggling, music, dancing, and being silly.  Evelyn also loves to show us her new "tricks", make us laugh, and play with her brothers and their toys. She would be in their room playing Legos all day with them if they'd let her. I think all would agree that Evelyn has everyone in the house wrapped around her little finger.

Vacations:
During Spring Break, we took a much needed family vacation up to Vancouver, Canada. The kids especially loved the aquatic center and the beach. Over Memorial Day Weekend, Nate was able to go to Blue John Canyon in Utah with some of his family for a fun adventure of hiking, rock climbing, and rappelling. While he was gone, the kids and I met my parents for a weekend in Leavenworth, WA. This fall we were able to drive down to Southern Utah and Henderson, NV to visit Nate's Grandma and his sister, Amy's family. (I still need to post about that trip). We had a great time and wish we could have stayed longer. Our final trip of 2011 was our week in Southern California, where we met up with my family for Legoland and the beach. Then we split off and did our own thing in San Diego, visiting the San Diego Zoo and Sea World. We loved all of our trips, big and small. We're thankful that we could visit new places, spend time together, and strengthen our relationships with our family.

We had a great year and are looking forward to the possibilities in 2012!

The rest of the trip

2011-12-27T21:49:00.000-08:00

The next day I did some laundry and we took our time checking out and getting to our next place. Evelyn fell asleep on the way there and finished her nap at the next place we were staying at. By the time she woke up, there wasn't much we could do. So Monday was a very low key day. I don't think the boys were too upset though because they had some great new Legos to play with in the hotel. I just wish we had found some amazing food to eat that day.

One awesome thing that happened that day was that my sister's husband's sister dropped by with 2 free adult passes to the San Diego Zoo! Yeah! So I guess we have my sister's husband's sister's boyfriend's dad to thank for saving us 84 bucks! Did you follow that? ;)

After a day of doing nothing, we were excited to check out this world famous zoo. It was HUGE! We were there when it opened at 9 AM, took a 2 hour break for dinner (disgusting again!) and to rest (by now Gavin's legs were getting weary from all the walking), and left just before they closed at 8 PM. I have never been at a zoo that long. It was amazing! The morning was definitely the best part when the animals were more active and eating breakfast. The monkeys were pretty entertaining. It was cool too to see so many new animals not at other zoos we've been to. It almost didn't seem real that we were seeing in real life pandas and koala bears.

The next and final day, Nate and I couldn't decide on if we should splurge and take the kids to Sea World or just stay and do museums in San Diego. It was hard knowing that there was no spectacular deal to go that day and that we'd have to leave about 2 hours early to catch our flight home. Cahoons always stay the entire day at an amusement park :) We decided to just do it, but were second guessing ourselves in the parking lot and as we stood in line to buy tickets. Then the really sweet ticket counter lady told Nate she could get our kids in for free! This saint saved us $130! We couldn't believe it! So glad we decided to go.

The kids had fun, loved the shows, and Nate and Gav had a great time on the 2 bigger rides they went on. Gav even liked the Journey to Atlantis which was a much bigger coaster than anything he had been on before. Even Evelyn was able to go on a few rides here and she loved them. We were so busy rushing to each thing, that we only took a few pictures.

We had a fabulous time on our trip! Gavin pointed out that our family is always happier when we go on trips together. I guess we needed this! :) Thanks again Grandma and Grandpa!

Oceanside

2011-12-27T21:10:00.000-08:00

That night, after getting back from a full day at Legoland, the adults were all ready for some R&R and to put our kids to bed. However, my boys and my brother's two oldest were dying to do the cousin present exchange that night. So we gave in and did the gift exchange with the exception of Sara's family (her little guy had fallen asleep on the way home).

The next day we headed to Oceanside to spend a day at the beach. My sister ordered the best fish and chips ever for lunch. If I am ever back in that area, I will make sure to go there! Somehow everywhere Nate and I ate, we struck out. Anyway, as we were eating lunch, we got to see some seals pretty close to us at the harbor. Another exciting moment was when my brother left his food for a second and a seagull seized the chance to steal a large summer sausage. Pretty crazy to see it flying away with that thing in it's beak.

It wasn't hot that day, but pretty decent weather. Nice enough for the big kids to wear swimsuits and for the ~~crazies~~ brave in the family to go for a dip in the ocean ;)

All had a nice time and Evelyn didn't eat too much sand :) I think just one mouthful.

Afterward, my Mom and siblings' families drove up to Anaheim for the rest of their stay and we checked into our hotel. The room wasn't quite ready for us when we got there. So the kids and Nate happily played in the pool while Ev napped. Then we quickly cleaned up and met my friend and her boyfriend for pizza. Poor Beebo slept the entire drive up there, through dinner, on the way home, and the rest of the night. He slept from about 4:30 that afternoon to 8 the next morning! Poor guy was sick and we were exhausting his little body :(

Legoland

2011-12-25T16:03:00.000-08:00

The week before Christmas, we had an early Christmas present. My parents gave us and my siblings' families a trip to Southern California. The highlight of the trip for us was Legoland. We had a blast and loved the warm, sunny weather! Two downers of the trip was that Beebo was sick with a bad cold (he gladly obliged to be pushed around in the stroller all day) and that Gavin left his Christmas project on the airplane. He was finger crocheting a gift for me and had already spent a lot of time on it. We didn't have any luck getting it back though. Nate thinks they probably just threw it away when they cleaned the plane that night :( Luckily, we had plenty of great distractions to keep him happy despite his lost work.

At first, Gav was a little nervous when I said he had to go on all of the rides at least once. He ended up loving them though, especially the "bigger" roller coasters. (Even the biggest roller coaster at Legoland is pretty tame). Surprisingly, the only thing he didn't like was driving the cars, which I hear is a favorite for many of his cousins. I have a feeling in a few years, he'd like it more.

The only ride that Evelyn was big enough for and she didn't like it. She was perfectly content though to just hang out with her family and be held all day! :)

It usually took some convincing to get Brandon on a ride, but once he was on it, he LOVED it! His favorites were the Dragon Roller Coaster, the 4D show with Clutch Powers, and the Lost Kingdom Adventure (where you shoot targets with a laser gun).

B had a better experience with the cars attraction than Gav did.

The boys loved this ride too and Nate was being so silly :)

Had to get a shot with Darth Vader!

Gavin was hammin' it up for the camera today. He was in heaven! He said it felt like a dream to be in Legoland.

The boys loved everything and were in the main store FOREVER! It took them a long time to choose their Lego sets they wanted from Grandma. In addition to the Legos from Grandma, we came away with a cute pink foam sword for Evelyn and a plush dinosaur that Brandon has named Snowy Santa. B knows how to work me and I was extra weak at saying "no" since he was sick.

I had to get a picture of Evelyn with this pink Lego girl! :) As you can tell with the coat, it did get a little chilly when the sun went down. Not as cold as Utah though!

Grandpa who? Just kidding. The biggest disappointment of the whole trip was that last minute, things changed for my Dad and so he couldn't make it to our family trip. We missed you Dad! Thanks for putting this trip together for our family! We're just sorry you couldn't enjoy it with us.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-23T21:45:00.000-08:00

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas!

Love,

Nate, Jana, Gavin, Brandon, and Evelyn

P.S. Sorry we didn't get a formal card in the mail this year. We were too busy having fun in Southern California this past week. :)

October

2011-11-29T21:55:00.000-08:00

Okay, it's my goal to be caught up with this blog by the end of the year. That means I only have one month left to cover the last half of the year!

At the beginning of the month, my parents brought the rest of our stuff up to us (which will be explained in a future post). Evelyn LOVED going through Grandma's purse.

Grandma even put a little lipstick on her - a first for Ev. I think my Mom has a soft spot for this cutie :)

Some parents have conference themed worksheets and clever games prepared for their kids to play during General Conference weekend. I however let my kids battle their Ninjagos and do whatever they wanted as long as it was quiet. I didn't feel guilty and they were happy :)

We finally convinced Brandon to switch from his tricycle to a bike with training wheels. He was a little hesitant at first, but it only took a few rides and then he was all confidence as displayed by the "no hands" picture above.

Evelyn had a hard time watching Gav's soccer games for a full hour each Saturday. Then at one of the very last games, B brought Evelyn a sucker. She was much less wiggly and fussy this time around. I'll have to stock up before the next soccer season begins!

We took the kids to the Boo Barn at Thanksgiving Point with my sil and cute nephew. The boys had a lot of fun and loved winning prizes. Their parents loved that it wasn't crowded and was free (well, "free" for TP members, which we already were).

The next set of pictures is my attempt to take a picture of Evelyn's new teeth. It took her FOREVER to get her first tooth! The crazy thing is that it wasn't your typical front tooth. It was the tooth on the top next to the 2 front teeth - the lateral incisor. Then her 4 front teeth came in all at once. So she went from toothless to having 5 teeth in about a week.

Brandon is a wonderful big brother to Evelyn. They are starting to form a special bond with Gavin being gone at school every day. Ev usually calls Brandon Bobo (since we call him Beebo), but lately she'll call him Buddy a lot. He loves it!

Halloween Costumes

2011-11-09T20:01:00.000-08:00

This year for Halloween, we had a ninja, butterfly, and knight turned monkey.

It was really hard to get all 3 to pose for a picture before trick-or-treating. They had already been waiting too long for us to be ready to go! Plus Evelyn is always on the move!

Brandon really wanted to be a knight when he saw this sword and shield at Walmart. Luckily, his buddy from preschool was a knight last year. So we borrowed his costume to go with the accessories B had to have. I snapped this picture of Brandon just before his preschool party.

JUST before the kids got into their costumes to go trick or treating, Brandon insisted on being a monkey instead. He really wanted to wear his new hat and gloves we bought him a few days earlier. (Actually, Nate and I were both hesitant to buy it, but he LOVED it and needed a new hat and gloves for winter). It is so hard to say no to this kid :) So I searched his closet and pulled out all of the brown I could find. Luckily, I found enough brown and he stayed warm! I should have turned the sweater around, but oh well. That's what happens when I don't have any warning on costume changes.

Beebo is our little emoter. He LOVED trick or treating and was sooo happy the whole time! He kept saying stuff like "This is the best Halloween ever!" and "Look at all the candy I have and I'm not even tired!" So cute! It actually was a pretty good Halloween - I think we had the best weather ever and almost all of the homes in the neighborhood were handing out candy that night. So the amount of walking for candy was pretty decent :)

As you might have guessed, Evelyn liked trick or treating too. She figured out walking on her FEET (instead of knees) just in time!

1st Day of School

2011-10-28T13:20:00.000-07:00

Gavin started first grade this year. It was a big adjustment for him to start school at 8 AM, be there a full day, and not know anyone. Gavin had a hard time at first, but is doing great now. He loves his teacher, has made some great buddies, and has become such a great little reader and speller. Last night, he surprised all of us when he spelled "heir" correctly. Nate thought for sure he wouldn't get it and promised a Lego creation if he got the word right. Luckily we had some Lego guys stashed in a closet :)

Brandon is now in his 2nd and final year of preschool. He too didn't know anyone at first. I just found his preschool teacher online and then took a leap of faith when I enrolled him. Brandon was excited from day one and has really enjoyed his teacher and preschool class. I love how positive and easy-going he can be. He's such a sweetheart and I'm glad he's my buddy for part of the day still.

Soccer

2011-10-27T18:55:00.000-07:00

We just finished fall season soccer for Gavin. Last spring I signed him up on the very last late day possible at something like 11 PM. I'm so glad I did, because he had a great time and made a new friend.

Gavin's teammates named themselves the Golden Eagles. Kinda a mouthful when you're cheering for them on the sidelines :) Gav's soccer experience was pretty different from last year.
Last year - Almost always won because of some star players (not Gav in case you were wondering)
This year - His team only scored 1 goal the entire season (it was the coach's daughter). Yes, you read that right. It was actually a great thing for Gavin though. It encouraged him to try harder for his team and he improved a lot this season.
Last year - I remember lots of rain and drizzle and gray skies the 2nd half of the season.
This year - Pretty much always sunny with one or two chilly games (but sun) and one kind of drizzly weather game.
Last year - Just a game t-shirt and ball provided
This year - A full uniform of jerseys, shorts, and socks with ball provided
Last year - Spent $ on after game treats, professional pics, trophy, and coach's gifts
This year - Wasn't asked to do any of the above. I think they might do the trophy and coach gift thing after spring season. I haven't heard though. I don't know if they do pictures here. Guess we'll have to make more of an effort to bring the camera to his games.
Last year - Only played fall season
This year - Required to sign up for fall AND spring season. So Gavin will be playing again with the same team in the spring. I'm crossing my fingers for a warm spring :)

And here's proof that Gavin finally got aggressive enough to have some ball time this season :) (He's #3 in the yellow jersey)

Field Trips

2011-10-22T22:16:00.000-07:00

This past month Brandon had 2 field trips with his preschool class.

The first was to Pumpkinland at Vineyard Garden Center. Judging from all the school buses that day, it must be a pretty popular field trip destination! :) Luckily, it didn't feel too crowded though and all the kids had a great time. Brandon especially liked having his picture taken in the many cut-outs.

Clowning around with his buddy, Drake.

His class - so many boys!

The winning pumpkin Beebo chose to take home.

The second field trip was to the fire station. Unfortunately, as we were walking to the station, the firemen were called away. They passed us in their ambulance with the sirens blaring. So we hung out at a nearby park for a bit to see if they would return. After awhile, we decided to see if someone in the City Offices (they share the building with the firemen) would let us at least see the fire trucks.

Luckily, this really nice guy said yes! I can't remember why they all were giving two thumbs up in the picture, but I think it was his idea.

The silly faces pic was my idea ;)

The class with their teacher, Miss Liza.

They all even got to sit in the fire truck. So even though we didn't get to meet real fire men and ask them questions or see their living quarters, the kids still had a great time. One of the best parts was watching them pretend to be fire trucks at the park. Such a cute and imaginative class - perfect for Beebo! I was a little worried on how it would go this year since he had such an amazing preschool teacher last year and I picked this one randomly. It's going great though - Beebo loves his teacher and going to school and has made lots of great little friends. He's already had 3 playdates this month, which is more than he had over the entire year last year :) I think it's partially him getting older too. I'm just glad he has some real friends to talk about so that I'm not always hearing about "Inky" and "Cha-Cha" :)

AF Canyon - Campfire

2011-10-21T14:49:00.000-07:00

The boys are on fall break right now and Nate was able to take some time off from work. So yesterday we headed to the storage unit for another drop-off and pick-up of our stuff, bounced around at Jump Around Utah, and then headed to the canyon for a campfire dinner and s'mores.

The Outdoors = 2 Very Happy Little Boys

On the way out the door, I accidentally grabbed a sleeper for Eva that was a size too small. I think she didn't mind though :)

Cheetos, marshmallows, dirt, and sitting on her grandparents' laps - I think she was in heaven!

Mouth full of meat!

Evelyn adores her "Gampa."

Somehow I didn't manage to take any pictures of the tin foil dinners Nate cooked to perfection, the ooey-gooey marshmallows (I think my hands were way too sticky to touch a camera), and Grandma C. All were important parts of our evening though! :)

We originally planned on camping, but we changed to just an evening in the canyon and then built a fort at home for the boys to sleep in. It was much easier than actual camping (esp. with a 15 mo old that still walks on her knees) and I don't think the boys were too brokenhearted that we didn't camp overnight. Nate let them stay up late to play Angry Birds in their fort :) I love that this canyon is so close!

American Fork Canyon - Sunday drive

2011-10-21T14:13:00.000-07:00

On Sunday morning, we left our pj's on and went for a little drive through the canyon. Nate and I have been wanting to see all these beautiful fall colors up close before it was too late. After only about 10 minutes drive, this was the view from our car . . .

The Sunday drive turned to a little exploring . . .
After all, the boys had Grandma's magnifying glasses they were dying to use!

My little joey, snug in her baby carrier.

Such a beautiful day and breathtaking landscape. It was so peaceful and filled our family with joy to be out here. We didn't want to leave. The promise to come again soon is the only way we convinced ourselves to get back in the car and return home. Oh and it also helped that the boys were looking forward to doing art projects at home with their leaves they had collected :)

Something a little more current . . .

2011-10-16T20:51:00.000-07:00

Okay, it's driving me crazy that our last post was about end of the school year stuff back in June. So much has happened since and Evelyn is constantly changing! Just in the last month she has started talking a lot more - even stringing 2 and 3 words together (Let go!, I want milk, etc.). She can also stand up on her own for a short amount of time and a few days ago (at 15 months and 4 days) she took a few unassisted steps. Since then though she has gone back to her favorite way of travel - knee walking. I'm so used to it that I forget that it's not something all babies do. Actually, neither of our other babies did it. They did the standard crawling then cruising then walking. So several people find it pretty amusing to see. I also love how she growls all the time, which you'll also see in this video clip. Never a dull moment with this girl :)

Our little star

2011-09-16T21:59:00.000-07:00

At the end of the school year, Gavin and all of the other kindergartners at his school put on an Oceans of Fun show for their families to come see. Gav shocked Nate and me by agreeing to do a solo for one of the songs - a shark rap. Thanks to his best buddy also being a part of it, I think it gave him the confidence he needed.
(Disclaimer - the video is pretty shaky because I was trying to corral Evelyn at the same time. She kept trying to grab a lady's coffee cup).

Gavin is the first one that starts off the rap

Nate and Beebo hurried over to the school after his preschool graduation. They got here just in time to take a few pictures after the show and get back in the car to go home. :)

And here are a couple of shots that I grabbed off of my friend's blog - hope you don't mind Jenni! :)

Preschool Graduation

2011-09-16T20:54:00.000-07:00

This year it was Brandon's turn to "graduate" from Miss Ashlee's preschool. Unfortunately, it was on the same day as Gavin's big end of the year kindergarten show. So Nate and I split up with the kids. Here are a few pictures from Nate's phone . . .

Thanks Miss Ashlee for a great year! Beebo sure loves school and loves you!

Memorial Day Weekend

2011-09-05T22:10:00.000-07:00

Yes, I know that is Labor Day Weekend right now, but in this blog we're still at Memorial Day Weekend.

So while Nate was living it up in Utah, exploring Blue John Canyon and impressing his future employer, I did something last minute and a little crazy. I decided to pack my bags and the car and take all three kids to Leavenworth for the weekend. My parents were staying there for a few days and I decided to meet them there. Their originally planned quiet and relaxing vacation had been turned upside down by my 3 full energy kiddos, but I don't think it bothered them one bit :)

The drive there was LONG. I didn't really know how to get there and so I took a few detours, adding time to the trip. Plus Evelyn took a very short nap and was cranky/crying the rest of the time. By the time we got there, I was frazzled and asking myself, "What was I thinking?" But we quickly recovered and had a great weekend. Thanks Mom and Dad for letting us join you guys!

Beebo's Blue Bunny went everywhere on this trip. I guess he was making it up to his BB since it was left behind on our last mini vacation we went on.

This was actually a pretty cool historical museum we went to. Plus scavenger hunts and prizes make everything more exciting. Brandon is ALWAYS trying to hold Eva's hand, especially for pictures. Sometimes she puts up with it, but usually she doesn't :)

It's not often I can get this guy's real smile on camera. So I definitely treasure this pic!

Testing out the cow cars.

When it was time to actually ride in one, only B would go. We got stuck with the last and tiniest car of all. I was afraid someone would have to grease the sides to get me out of that thing. This particular car was definitely a tight squeeze and not meant for adults :) But we had fun and the tractor driver pulling the cars did a great job of making it feel like a kiddie roller coaster.

One of the best parts of being on vacation is the place you're staying at. This one had a king size bed and the most awesome bathtub ever. My kids were in heaven. Between that and the Pirate Legos Gav convinced Grandma to buy for him, the boys would have been happy to never leave the hotel room.

After Leavenworth, we drove out to Gig Harbor for a BBQ and some fun at the beach with the Powels and Baxters.

Overall, it was a pretty good weekend. It was also a decision maker that we'd go with Nate to Utah right away, rather than staying behind to wrap things up in Washington. Even with a fun-filled weekend, we all missed Nate alot. So I realized we wouldn't survive too well on our own for the summer while he tried to find a place to live. Hopefully someday in the near future I can post on our new adventures in Utah. With 2 moves in 2 months, school starting back up, and having a 1 yr old, I don't have a whole lot of time to blog.

Blue John Canyon

2011-07-30T14:56:00.000-07:00

Before Nate even found a job with Hospira (his new employer), I was planning on surprising Nate and his family by flying him to Utah for a weekend visit. I hadn't purchased the tickets yet and then Nate ended up finding a job out there! So the company flew him out to meet him. The timing was perfect! He was able to join several of his family members for an adventure to Blue John Canyon. Name sound familiar? If so, you probably heard the story of Aron Ralston, the guy who amputated his own arm to save his life. Yep, that's the place that Nate's family chose to hike/climb/rappel at.

Here are the pics from his trip. Since I wasn't there, I can't really narrate it :)

Look closely in the picture below to see a scorpion my nephew found.

The place where Aron's arm got pinned.

Nate with his brothers and dad. Two things these men do well - have fun and wear themselves out! :)

The following day, there was lots of resting and Nate's mom made a delicious birthday dinner for him. Nate had a great time and even though we missed him a lot, he definitely deserved this weekend!

Spring Pictures

2011-07-30T14:16:00.000-07:00

Just playing a little catch up with this blog while I have the chance.

Evelyn's 1st Birthday

2011-07-10T22:28:00.000-07:00

On Friday, our little girl turned one.

This is how she spent her day . . .

Eva started the morning off with one of her favorites - a bowl of Rice Krispies in milk.

Then we rushed off to watch her brothers at their swim lessons, run errands, and return home for lunch and a nap. Thankfully she took a decent one so that I could prep for the celebration.

Once she was up, Evelyn was dressed for the party. Then she grew impatient, wanting constant attention. It's like she knew it was her birthday or something :) So we went outside and played until Dad and guests arrived.

They came and she was happy to have lots of people adore her. She was an excellent hostess, greeting them all with a "Hi!" She LOVES that word and loves any chance she gets to say it. We "feasted" on pizza and pasta salad, then moved on to the presents.

Evelyn received all kinds of fun new things including a little swimming pool, strawberry hooded towel, bubbles, new pj's and clothes, baby stroller and baby, Little People ferris wheel, and bath/pool toys.

Grandma and Grandpa Sinsay also sent her a fun present that she got to open a little early per Grandma's request.She loved her new little baby doll and looked very patriotic in her 4th of July dress sewn by Grandma.

After presents, came cake. I had a hard time deciding what to do and finally settled on doing a simple PINK strawberry cake and cupcakes with PINK strawberry frosting. Afterall, we've done lots of blue and little boy birthday cakes for the past 6 years. The cupcakes and cake are topped with flower sprinkles and raspberries to keep it girly, but NOT princessy. I figured the princess theme will eventually come on its own :)

Evelyn wasn't quite sure what to make of everyone singing to her and the burning candle held in front of her.

Her first reaction was to share her raspberry and cupcake with Daddy. What a polite young lady ;)

Then she dug in . . . sorta.

The sticky frosting threw her off.

So she daintily nibbled on the cake and frosting, but overall wasn't too interested in eating or playing with it.

Just like her brothers' first birthdays, Evelyn stayed pretty darn clean during the entire process.

As she experienced her cupcake, her cute little feet were twirling and moving the entire time. Whenever she is concentrating or excited, it shows through her feet :)

Afterward, everyone had a nice time hanging out in the backyard.

Gotta love summer birthdays . . .

and an awesome backyard!

Trying out Eva's new pink bubble wand.

Thanks to everyone for making Evelyn feel extra special on her birthday!

Blurb anyone?

2011-06-18T22:09:00.000-07:00

BEFORE I knew we would be moving, I purchased a $45 Blurb voucher through Groupon. I was planning on catching up with my blog to albums project and thought the deadline would be a good motivator for me. Remember this post? I had just completed our second album back in March. Well, the voucher expires THIS MONTH - June 29th to be exact. I thought I still just might have time to pack, clean, move, unpack, and complete and order a 3rd album. Now I'm being realistic with myself. It's just not going to happen. So if anyone is interested in using my voucher, let me know. I'd hate for it to go unused.

Taking a break

2011-06-15T21:57:00.000-07:00

Just taking a ~~quick~~ break from packing, etc. to record a few things in my "journal" that I want to remember . . .

Gavin is getting anxious and nervous for his kindergarten Ocean Show tomorrow. He has a little solo, performing the first verse of a shark rap. The show is tomorrow night and in front of all the families of the 4 kindergarten classes at his school. I've tried to reassure him that he'll do great and even if he makes a mistake, we'll still be super proud of him. When he agreed to do this, I was totally shocked. Just last year he wouldn't even sit with his preschool class of 12 for graduation because they were in front of the parents. So I'm crossing my fingers and praying that all goes well tomorrow night. It's just too bad Nate will miss it. He and I have to split up tomorrow night since B's preschool graduation is at the exact same time. It makes me wonder, how do parents manage going to activities/performances for more than 2 kids? I guess we'll eventually find out :)

Brandon was with me at the bus stop the other day, waiting for Gav and singing "A Hard Day's Night" by the Beatles while strumming his "guitar" which was a plastic ladder from a toy fire truck. The best part was when he would sing "It's been a hard day's night and I was sleeping with my mom . . . and I feel alright!" I LOVED it! I don't want him to ever figure out that "I was sleeping with my mom" really is supposed to be "should be sleeping like a log." His version is so much cuter and makes perfect sense coming from his perspective.
A few weeks ago, Brandon was going through a copycat phase. When we were at our favorite teriyaki restaurant, the lady that works there announced in her heavy Korean accent "Teriyaki chicken to go!" B immediately repeated aloud with enthusiasm "Teriyaki chicken to go!" mimicking the accent and all. It was so cute and impressive (with how well he got the accent) and MORTIFYING all at once. So I quickly told him that what he did wasn't appropriate. So far we haven't had an experience like that since. It's interesting when kids start to pick up on differences and be more observant. I like hearing how a 4 year old sees the world and the people that live in it. B was just asking me the other day why Nate's skin is different from mine ("Why does Daddy have spots on his skin and you don't?"). So we talked about how it's just like how we have different eye color, etc. and that makes us all unique - not better than or worse than each other.
Right now Beebo is going through a stage where he talks a lot about real "bad guys" and is truly scared of them. He never wants to be in a room alone now and is always asking me if bad guys will be wherever we are going, etc. I'm not sure what led to this phase - maybe nothing? He's also very attached to his Blue Bunny, which started this spring. I'm not a huge fan of how babyish it makes him, but it also makes it easier for him to be happy about going anywhere as long as he has his Bunny. Plus I can handle that more than his earlier phase of when he always talked about his imaginary friends. It got pretty bad when he insisted on having me walk up to a total stranger's door in our neighborhood and knock on it to deliver a present he had wrapped. B had insisted it was the house of his imaginary friend, Inky. Thankfully nobody was there. I just don't do the imaginary friend thing too well. I'm too much of a practical, realistic person.

Evelyn started crawling at exactly 11 months old (last week). I sat her down to run the bath water and she just started crawling across the bathroom floor to the bin of bath toys (hands and knees). She's so much happier now that she can get around a little more. She's also becoming more inquisitive and likes to copy us. I can tell she's also starting to understand us more. Evelyn can do some signs and will blow kisses by putting her hand to her mouth. She's also starting to point to my facial features when I ask her to (eyes, nose, mouth, etc.). She'll mimic us by blowing when I blow on hot foods, make elephant sounds, touch her head, tilt her head, etc. when she sees us do it. Evelyn also LOVES to hold/pull my hair. She often grabs it in order to fall asleep. Would it be weird if I gave my baby a lock of my hair to sleep with? :) She really is such a sweetie and I'm cherishing every moment more than I did when the boys were babies. I think it's because she's my third and probably my last.

House 4 Rent

2011-06-04T21:19:00.000-07:00

In just 3 weeks, we will no longer be the Covington Cahoons.

Are

Moving

UTAH!

We've accepted a great job opportunity for Nate to work for Hospira in Downtown Salt Lake City. Because of the current housing market, we've decided to rent out our house. If you know of a great property manager and/or anyone that may be interested in renting our place, post a comment or email me.

P.S. We are also willing to rent out our kids for the next 3 weeks if anyone is interested ;)

Pure Comical Relief

2011-05-27T23:13:00.000-07:00

Laughter is a wonderful thing. Here are a few sure-fire ways to get me to laugh lately:

1) Modern Family (basically the only show worth watching these days)

2) THIS BLOG (no need to thank me for the shout out Josh)

3) Slap stick humor in general. Maybe it's a sign of unintelligence, but seeing someone run into a door is just plain laugh out loud funny!

4) The things my kids say and do. If only I could remember them long enough to post on this blog!

AND just for the grandparents, here's a little video of my dancing diva to the Beatles' Can't Buy Me Love.

Attitude is Everything

2011-05-26T15:38:00.000-07:00

This little girl may not have inherited my brown eyes, but I definitely see me in this stubborn little face (which she likes to make A LOT).

March

2011-05-26T15:11:00.000-07:00

One last mega catch up post . . .

One day Brandon came home from preschool with a new toothbrush and a hard boiled egg. They were learning about different professions and today was all about the dentist and keeping their teeth clean. He was sooo excited and treated his egg like a pet. Gavin wanted a special hard boiled egg pet too and so his wish was granted. For the rest of the day the boys played with their "pets" which they named (of course I don't remember the names since I'm posting about it 3 months later). We had an inevitable roll off the table moment, but B's egg was tough and only suffered a minor crack. So then we made special protective cases for the eggs to be played with. Then when the kids were sleeping peacefully in their beds, I bid farewell to the pets that came to play at our house all day :)

I debated whether or not to sign Gavin up for spring soccer and/or t-ball. I decided not to and I'm so glad I didn't. It has allowed us to spend more quality time with our kiddos and have more flexibility with our schedule. One Saturday, Gav and I went to the store to buy the supplies for a special project and then came home and made Gak. Gavin was absolutely in heaven. He is definitely my "quality time" love language kid.

That same day, B was in tears saying he had no best friends. So while Gavin and I were getting Gak supplies, Nate took Brandon to the pet store to pick out his very own fish - Bluey. Then they came home and snuggled on the couch while watching a movie that Brandon picked out. He too was in heaven. Brandon is more of a "touch" love language kid. So a little snuggle time is huge for him! Luckily for him, his Dad is the same way. Side note - yep, Brandon still likes to wear his 18 mo old horse costume at age 4 :) Maybe that's why I keep forgetting how old he actually is.

My sister and her cute little Sam Man came to visit us for a week. I don't know who was more thrilled - my boys or her son? Cousins are the best! And it was fun to hang out with my sister! Wish we could live closer to each other.

Something funny that happened while she was here - On Sunday, Nate and the boys and my sister and her baby walked into the chapel together while Evelyn and I went straight to the Mother's Lounge. Several people said they did a double take. "Wait, that woman with Nate isn't Jana, is it? And that baby she is holding has BROWN hair and is wearing BOY clothes!" :)

That Saturday, Nate and I split up with the kids again. Nate and Gavin met up with a friend and his dad to see the Star Wars Exhibit at the Pacific Science Center. My sister and I took Brandon and the babies to the children's museum in Bellevue, meeting up with a friend there.

Last pictures before my sister and nephew returned home . . .

Pretty easy to figure out which one doesn't belong to me :) Somehow all 3 of my kids came out blond, blue eyed, and fair skinned.

We ended the month with colds :( April was the same. I'm crossing my fingers for May!

Mother's Day

2011-05-20T23:05:00.000-07:00

Mother's Day gets better each year. This year I got to go to 2 tea parties and be showered with love and gifts from my cute boys.

"Thank you for playing with me. Love, Brandon"

Gav was such a gentleman. He asked me which cake I preferred and insisted on serving me first.

"My Mom is fantastic. She tucs in me at nite and hups me for bak a slep. She givs me hug. I love you. love, Gavin"

Nate and the boys out did themselves with dinner this year - Parmesan crusted halibut, scalloped potatoes with a hint of cayenne pepper, and fresh green beans sauteed with garlic and red onion. Sooooo good! I don't know what my favorite part of the meal was - the fact that Nate planned it out without my help, how delicious it was, or that the kitchen was spotless before we went to bed.

April

2011-05-20T22:41:00.000-07:00

We got a project done in April! We painted our master bathroom. Even the boys chipped in (actually they were dying to help)!

Beebo decided this month that he's old enough to button his pj's without my help. He figured it out all by himself in a manner of minutes and was so excited to show me.

2 days before Easter, we met some friends at a park for an Easter Egg hunt. Gavin had a hard time finding and grabbing the Easter eggs before someone else would beat him to it (he was one of the youngest in the "big kids" group). Each kid was supposed to end up with 15 eggs in the end, but when all of the kids were done, Gavin still didn't have his 15 eggs. He was pretty upset about it and so a few kids and moms tried to help him search for them. They found a couple more, but he was still short a few eggs and when some moms offered their kids' eggs, he didn't want them. He wanted to find them. So one sweet mom secretly re-hid a few of her 18 mo old's eggs for Gavin to find. When I mentioned to Nate what happened, he reminded me the same thing happened at a Primary activity for our boys in a year previous. I guess we should do more egg hunts so they get the hang of it. Or maybe I just need to buy the right shoes for Gav (like in that Walmart commercial) to give him a competitive edge. ;)

I think I was the only mom that didn't bring their Easter baskets to the egg hunt.

Brandon's birthday landed on Easter Sunday this year, but we decided to just celebrate it the day before. I'm glad we did, because by Sunday Nate, Evelyn, and I all had bad colds. So the boys' wish came true - they got to stay home and wear pj's the entire day.

I never thought I'd say this, but I am seriously considering asking the Easter Bunny to not bother coming back next year. Too much sugar and stress when you combine it with our boys' birthdays that surround the holiday. Plus I don't want the Easter Bunny to trump the real reason we celebrate Easter. In fact, I'm starting to have the same sentiments regarding Santa . . .

Beebo always wants to bring a toy with him to wherever we go. One evening as we were getting ready for a bike ride, he insisted on bringing something to play with in the trailer. Of all the toys we have laying around, he chose a plastic pickle. I love how Evelyn is eyeing the pickle, devising a plan on how to take it from him I'm sure.

He LOVES holding her hand. Such a sweet big brother.

We tried to take a few pictures one Sunday before church. Not the best idea I've had. Why is it that taking family pictures is so painful? At least I got this picture out of it.

Thorns and Roses

2011-05-14T16:53:00.000-07:00

It is much easier to face the thorns in life when we have these sweet little roses that mean everything to us.

Tooth Fairy

2011-05-10T10:35:00.000-07:00

Something else happened in February, but I decided it deserves its own post.

Gavin lost his very first tooth. The tooth that had a filling, then a pulpotomy 6 months later. After all of that, it had to be pulled. Gavin was actually kinda excited because he would FINALLY have a tooth to leave for the tooth fairy! Plus his dad informed him that the tooth fairy pays double for pulled teeth (since it is a lot more painful and scary).

Hisr dentist gave Gavin a special treasure box to put it in.

By bedtime, Gavin was super emotional because he didn't want the tooth fairy to take his tooth. So we encouraged him to write a letter to her/him.

"Der ToFeRe I Wo to Kep My ToF PLeAse"

(Dear tooth fairy, I want to keep my tooth please)

I would want to keep my tooth too. It is one expensive tooth! ;) The next morning Gavin was thrilled to wake up and find money AND his tooth still there! :)

February

2011-05-10T10:23:00.000-07:00

February started out beautiful and sunny.

Evelyn liked eating as soon as we went beyond baby food and spoons :)

Making Valentine cards for classmates.

One Saturday, I took the boys to a special science day at Gavin's school. They had fun and we saw some things even I have never seen before :) This is the inside of a salmon.

The one day I decide to run errands while the boys are at school and FORGET to bring my phone. That's of course the day that Gavin has a mishap at school. Gavin came home upset for two reasons - 1) I didn't answer my phone when the school nurse called and 2) If the second grader would have just FOLLOWED THE RULES by not running, he wouldn't have collided into Gavin.

Valentine's Day is one of our favorite holidays - heart shaped foods all day long, yummy treats, fun things in the mail from Grandparents, and our traditional scavenger hunt I do for the kids.

Brandon was so proud of this mini version of the Rockband drums he made.

While he was working on the drums, Gavin came up with this design. I love seeing their creativity! The flames are my favorite :)

On President's Day, Gavin asked me what we would do to celebrate. So we decided to make the biggest fort we've ever made. It took up our entire family room. The boys had a lot of fun. I like Gavin's addendum to the sign - "STOP and Look at the sin" (meaning "sign").

I love President's Day because it means half off day at the local thrift stores. I was so excited when I scored all this great stuff for super cheap! It totally helped that my friend watched all 3 of my kids so I could shop in the morning alone.

We had a couple of snow days and it turns out that kindergartners don't have to make them up. Lucky kid!

The month ended beautiful and sunny - just very cold!

January

2011-05-08T17:21:00.000-07:00

For some reason, most of the pictures I took in January, I took with my phone. So sadly, a lot of the pictures are pretty grainy :(

At the start of the month, Evelyn turned 6 months old. So we started her on rice cereal for the first time. She wasn't a fan and never changed her mind in all of our future attempts.

One night I came home from a friend's baby shower to find this little guy asleep on the stairs. For how much he moves during his sleep, I can't believe he never rolled down the stairs!

Gavin has decided he likes singing even more than playing the drums. He was thrilled when he scored his first 100%! I guess he inherited some of his Dad's talent. :)

We don't play Beatles Rockband very often, but the boys like listening to the music. I often hear Brandon singing Eight Days A Week around the house. It's pretty cute.

Gavin's Kindergarten class had a special Snow Show. They worked really hard to prepare for it and all did a great job!

We actually had a sunny day in January! I think this was the first time we ever did a snow scene chalk drawing :)

One of Nate's favorite things to do - snuggling his kids while taking a nap. Evelyn is one lucky girl!

Best. Job. Ever.

2011-05-06T18:45:00.000-07:00

I'm pretty lucky . . .

Love these cutie pies! Their dad is pretty great too :) It's hard to believe we just celebrated our 9 year anniversary. I think I'm one lucky lady!

Gavin's birthday

2011-05-02T22:11:00.000-07:00

I am totally doing things backwards and out of order on this blog these days. Plus I'm now 4 months behind! Nate thought I could never post out of order, but I guess each kid loosens me up a little more. Just a little more - this out of order thing is like nails to a chalk board for me, but I'm not losing sleep over it. Baby steps. ;) . . .
Gavin's birthday was on a Friday this year. I was so excited because it landed on my day to volunteer in his class. We were going to bring in homemade oreos for his class and I was really looking forward to being there on his special day. I was thrown a curve ball though when Evelyn caught a really bad cold the day before. So after a pretty rough Thursday, I made the oreos in the middle of the night and stayed home with her on Friday. I don't think it mattered to Gavin that I couldn't be there and he ended up having a great day despite the glitches.

He requested pancakes with strawberry jam/syrup and whipped cream for his birthday breakfast. I even made sausage - something that I pretty much never buy or cook. Why bother with sausage when you can have bacon?

Something fun in the mail - thanks Great Grandma Priscilla!

Gavin wanted corn dogs for lunch. I don't think we've ever had corn dogs at home before. So when Gavin ate them at a friend's house one day, he was so excited to tell me. He thought they were homemade and he told me to get the recipe. So I called his friend's mom and she said her recipe is "Go to Costco!" ;) Love it.

A new bike for our growing boy - Nate found it on Craigslist before Christmas. It has been hiding in our garage ever since. It's a good thing we have a lot of stuff in our garage already so that Gavin wouldn't even notice. At first Gavin wasn't so sure about having a used bike. Luckily, we were able to persuade him that a really nice used REI bike is better than a new, lower-quality bike that wouldn't look new after about a week. :)

I've decided next year I am going to first decide what I can handle making and then present those options to the boys. The open ended thing is killing me! Oh and having them look over my shoulder as I look for ideas on the internet is even worse! I was up past midnight making rainbow cupcakes for his Saturday party. They turned out cool, but way more time consuming than I had realized.

We let Gavin bring his two best friends to Chuck E Cheese with us. Then we had cupcakes and opened presents at home.

My parents came up mid afternoon to celebrate Gavin's birthday with us.

Gavin scored lots of great gifts from friends and family - art stuff, a green lightsaber, Kung Zhu pets, a solar system puzzle, and his very first set of real big kid Legos. The boys, especially Gavin have been begging us for Legos for awhile now. After several playdates at our neighbor's house where they only play Legos for 4 hours straight, I figure they have proven that they are ready for them.

Gavin mentioned he wanted a big dinosaur book for his birthday. I think Grandpa Cahoon managed to find the BIGGEST and coolest dinosaur book that exists! The boys were pretty excited!

Brandon's Birthday

2011-04-26T17:10:00.000-07:00

With Brandon's birthday and Easter this past weekend, it felt a lot like Christmas!

Presents - Check!
Sugar - Check!
Grandma and Grandpa Sinsay visiting - Check!
Someone sick in the family - Check! Check! Check! (Nate, Evelyn, and I all had colds)
Extra time in pj's and hanging out at home - Check!

Since Brandon's birthday was on Easter Sunday, we decided to celebrate it on Saturday. He started the day with orange french toast. He actually requested "dinosaur rolls" when I was making his birthday menu, but I was under a time crunch to finish cupcakes for the party. Luckily, B is easy to please!

This year we gave the boys an option for each of their birthdays. They could either have a traditional party at our house with 4-6 friends or they could pick somewhere fun to go and bring 2 friends with them. Both chose the second option. I wasn't sure who B would choose to invite since he mostly plays with his siblings and talks about his imaginary friends. He ended up choosing 2 really great kids that are real and could come - Grace and Gavin L.

Our boys have a thing for Chuck E Cheese. I don't mind as long as we go when it first opens up. So the parents were nice enough to drop their kids off at 9 AM on a Saturday morning.

Brandon tries to do Skee Ball every time, but still doesn't have the arm strength. I love that he keeps trying without getiing frustrated.

With a little help from Nate, they scored a ton of tickets for prizes - all were happy!

Then we came home for cupcakes and presents.

Brandon kept changing his mind on what he wanted. Then he saw a picture of cupcakes with blueberries on top and that was the final decision. :)

I used my friend's lemon cupcake recipe and topped them with fresh blueberries. B devoured the entire thing, which he doesn't usually do with treats. Seriously.

Next came presents. Thanks friends and family - Brandon LOVES all of them!

He still has a thing for bad guys - especially ones from Star Wars like Darth Vader and General Grievous.

Legos, Kung Zhu pets, and Spiderman were also top on his list.

He also got a few surprises. I found this cool "Color Your Own Fort" brand new in the box for $3 at the thrift store. All the kids were excited to start coloring it right away!

Once his friends left, Nate picked up a Papa Murphy's "robot pizza" (the name my kids have given to their "cowboy pizza") for lunch. Afterward, Grandma took the boys outside since it was an absolutely gorgeous day while Eva and I took a much needed nap. We finished Brandon's birthday with a trip to Red Robin where the boys got their corn dogs and ice-cream of course! I think it was a perfect day for our Beebo!

6 and 9

2011-04-09T21:19:00.000-07:00

3 posts in 1 week - I think that's a new record for me! ;) And I'm still not caught up!

Yesterday I took Evelyn in for her 9 month check-up. She cried as soon as the nurse came into the room and made eye contact with her. Then she started crying and arching her back every time the nurse or pediatrician touched her. I think her long term memory is starting to kick in (i.e. doctor's office = not fun). At one point, her doctor said she's going to be a rough toddler since she's already doing the arching-the-back thing. Gee, thanks for the warning. At least Evelyn is my third - otherwise, I'd be stressing out about it. Or maybe I'm just extra sensitive when it comes to dr. check-ups for my kids, given our track record. Anyway, here are her current stats . . .

Height: 29 1/8 inches (95th percentile)
Weight: 16.11 lbs (10-25th percentile)
Head Circ: 17 14 (50th percentile)
-Evelyn is getting more personality every day. She can wave, clap, loves to play with toys and people, and has a sweet little voice. We can get her to smile and laugh pretty easily now. When I'm holding her, she is always trying to reach for the nearest object to grab. Evelyn is a great little eater now and eats just about everything we give her as long as it isn't baby food. She usually feeds herself, but has also started to let me feed her with a spoon (I know, we went backwards). She typically takes about 2 naps a day and will sleep through the night about once a month. Hopefully that will improve in the next few months! :)

And since I never did record her stats at 6 months . . .

Height: 27 3/4 inches (95th percentile)
Weight: 14.15 1/2 lbs (25-50th percentile)
Head Circ: 16 1/2 (25th percentile)

(6 month pic taken at the start of the year)

O Canada!

2011-04-07T23:31:00.000-07:00

After a year of basically going nowhere (with the exception of an overnighter at my parents' house and a weekend camping trip for the boys), our little family needed a vacation. The kids had spring break this week and Nate took the week off from work. So we thought big and decided to escape to a different country :)

On Sunday afternoon we drove up to Vancouver B.C. where we stayed for 3 fun-filled days. When we arrived at the hotel, the concierge presented the boys with a "treasure chest" to choose a toy from. Gavin chose Battleship and Brandon chose a motorcycle that makes sounds and lights up. They were in heaven and we were off to a good start!

(Half the fun of going on vacation is staying in a hotel and watching cable tv!)

Then the next morning we woke up to rain. Boo! We tried not to let the weather dampen our spirits though and ventured out with rain gear in tow. Since we're already used to the wet stuff we were well prepared with coats, umbrellas, rain boots, and a plastic stroller cover. We spent most of the day at Canada's largest aquarium, the Vancouver Aquarium in Stanley park. It definitely was the biggest and best aquarium I've been to so far. Too bad I don't have any cool pictures of all we saw. I guess you'll just have to go and see for yourself!

In the rainforest section

The kids' area

Afterward, we changed into our swimsuits and headed over to Watermania, an indoor waterpark in Richmond. Since our hotel didn't have a pool, they gave us free passes to the nearby pools and aquatic centers for the week. This was Evelyn's first experience in a swimming pool and she loved it. I ended up getting a baby float for her to sit in, which made it a lot easier to watch all three kids in the pool at once. It even allowed Nate and I to take turns going down the bigger slides. The boys had so much fun that we decided to take them back the next morning. Just Nate and the boys swam the second time around so that I could take pictures and feed and hold Evelyn for her morning nap. On the way home, we picked up McDonalds Happy Meals for the boys where Brandon scored a batman toy. He was on Cloud 9. Yet another reason for the boys to say they LOVE Canada now! :)

We had a few hiccups along the way, but what family trip doesn't? There were some tears shed over Brandon forgetting to pack his bunny. He was so sweet when he cried about his bunny, worrying about who would feed his bunny and brush it's teeth and snuggle it at night. So I told him that I would ask our neighbor to come over and take care of it until we got back. That helped a little.

By Monday night, the rain stopped and the rest of our trip was dry. So on Tuesday, after a second trip to Watermania, we drove to Lighthouse Park during low tide in hopes of finding some sea creatures in their habitat. This was the main thing that Gavin wanted to do on our trip. The hike to the beach was beautiful and invigorating and we managed to find some cool stuff while there.

As we hiked back uphill to our car, Gav happily pointed out that we just burned a good amount of calories :)

The sun was in Gav's eyes for this pic

This little guy looked like an eel, but I'm not sure what it was

B putting a crab in the bucket

As we headed home to our hotel around dinnertime, Nate and I were a little curious to see what the nearby Costco had. We're geeks, huh? We were planning on getting the kids their dinner there and then picking up something more "authentic" to the area for us, but we got suckered into the much more diverse menu at this Costco. ;) When we saw words like "gelato" and "smoked meat sandwich", we couldn't pass it up! Then we tortured our kids by walking up and down the extensive candy aisles there. They had all kinds of old fashioned candy and Cadbury chocolates in BULK. It took every ounce of my will-power to pass up buying $30 worth of Cadbury mini eggs. Do Canadians love sugar more than Americans or something?

For our last day in Canada, we resisted the boys' pleas to return to the waterpark for the third time. Instead, we drove up to North Vancouver to explore the outdoors. We had to take advantage of the sunshine! First we stopped at Lynn Canyon Park. They had a small hands-on ecology center and a pretty spectacular suspension bridge. Pictures don't do it justice (especially iPhone pictures).

Then we picked up some donuts at Tim Horton's since we wanted to eat somewhere new and made our way to Cate's Park. I had read about these donuts and they did not disappoint. The krueller was light and airy yet chewy and what a donut should be. We let each boy pick out their own and everyone was willing to share other than Brandon. He guarded his chocolate bar dipped in sprinkles very closely. He also had no interest in trying the other donuts. It was pretty funny. Well, except to Gavin who really wanted a bite of his brother's donut. The park had a great playground and beach with both sand and rocks for the kids to play in and look for crabs, etc. It was a great way to end our trip to Canada.

Evelyn was amazing for pretty much the entire trip. She ate and slept whenever and wherever. Her naps were pretty short, but she was as amiable as ever. She didn't really get upset until a little after we had crossed the border to return home. Then she was done. We had been in the car a lot that day and the car ride home was especially long. We left Cate's Park around 4 PM and didn't get home until 10 that night. She has forgiven us though and was especially helpful by taking 2 long naps today. I think she was the happiest out of all us to be back home and in her own bed. :) The boys are happy to be back, but already talking about going to Canada again, eh! :)

Gavin, the teacher

2011-04-05T03:52:00.000-07:00

Last month we went in for a parent teacher conference with Gavin's kindergarten teacher. She began with "I don't know where to even start." Then she gave a glowing report of Gavin that was 100% positive. She said things like "He's bright, a leader, well liked by his peers, great at following the rules, a quick learner, a great reader and writer, and mathematically minded." Nothing too surprising (he is our first child afterall). ;) Then she said something I hadn't thought too much about or used to my full advantage - "Gavin is great at understanding difficult concepts and then explaining them to his classmates in a way that they understand." She said she loves to see the light bulb go on for Gavin and then watch the same thing happen to the rest of the class once Gavin explains it.
Fast forward to last week . . .
Beebo has his phases of "I can't do anything by myself" and last week he was in one of those phases. One night we were waiting a long time for him to finish using the bathroom so that we could read our bedtime books together. After a lot of waiting, he finally came into my room saying "I can't wash my hands by myself." I said that I don't understand how he can do things that are much more difficult like play video games if he can't even wash his hands. To which he replied, "Gavin teachded* me how to play." Then the light bulb finally went on for me - "Gavin should teach you how to wash your hands then." DUH! So, Gav told Beebo to "follow me" and B happily followed him to the bathroom. He came back to my room beaming, saying that he washed his hands! Problem solved. Since then, Brandon has been great about washing his hands without help and loves to show us the whole process that his big brother taught him :)

I think I might have Gav potty train Eva . . .
Actually, that won't work since Evelyn is a GIRL. Rats. I guess I'll use him for something else - like teaching his siblings to read :)

*This isn't a typo - the boys say words like "teachded" and add the "ded" to many words that end in "d" or to make something past tense. Another funny word they use is "packadages" instead of packages. :)

Someday

2011-03-27T22:26:00.000-07:00

Someday I will catch up on the last 3 months worth of pictures and journaling on this blog . . . someday.

About Me

2011-03-27T22:20:00.000-07:00

On Gavin's birthday, I thought it would be fun to conduct a little interview. Originally it was just going to be for Gavin, but Brandon was there and so he answered the questions as well. Some of his answers were copycat answers, but others were all Brandon :) I have to admit, I thought I would be able to predict all of their answers, but there were a few surprises even for their mom! ;)

What is your favorite color?
G: dark blue, white, black
B: dark blue, yellow, white, black

What is your favorite thing to eat?
G: corn dogs, crescent rolls
B: dinosaur nuggets, pizza (I totally thought it was fruit - like apples, pears, or berries. Sometimes we have to actually limit him on his produce so that he'll eat something else.)

What is your favorite treat?
G: candy (When I asked what type - he said all candy, anything with sugar in it)
B: Trix (The boys have really been into "sugar cereals" lately. They LOVE them and have had fun comparing sugar grams between all of our cereals. It's pretty cute when B will ask me how many grams of sugar his cereal has. Interesting sidenote - I was shocked to see that "my" cereals blew theirs out of the water as far as sugar content goes . . . Raisin Bran Crunch and Cracklin' Oat Bran aren't so healthy afterall)

What is your favorite music?
G: Justin Roberts, hip hop, rock 'n roll

What do you want to be/do when you grow up?
G: paleontologist and an artist
B: help babies (He does really love babies, but I could also see him becoming a podiatrist. He is obsessed with Evelyn's feet and is always taking off her socks!)

What is your favorite subject/thing you do at school?
G: journal writing
B: eating snacks

Who is your best friend?
G: Ben and Payton
B: Gavin L. and Bouncy (1 of his 3 imaginary friends he often talks about, which needs a post of its own. When I was surprised he didn't say Inky, his I.F. that he most often talks about, Brandon said they're not best friends anymore because Inky gets him into trouble sometimes. Oh and Gavin L. is actually closer to Gav's age, but has been a good sport about playing with Brandon too for playdates.)

If you could live anywhere, where would you want to live?
G: Utah
B: United States

If you could go anywhere on vacation right now, where would you want to go?
G: Hawaii
B: Hawaii

What is your favorite book?
G: A-Z Mysteries books (series by Ron Roy), Elephant and Piggie books (series by Mo Willems)
B: (He gave a bunch silly answers of made up names, but 2 recent library favorites are Pssst by Adam Rex and Jake Goes Peanuts by Michael Wright)

What is your favorite thing to do?
G: write stories . . . do anything with a pencil like homework, drawing, and projects
B: drawing, Mariokart on the Wii
(Neither boy mentioned it, but they LOVE playing with Legos and Mega bloks and any Lego video games)

Evelynee

2011-03-09T22:31:00.000-08:00

I finally pulled out the camera tonight to take some snapshots of this cutie . . .

Evelyn . . .
-Is sitting on her own
-Can roll over
-Loves to play with toys
-Giggles and smiles often
-Likes to say bababa, dadadada, and mamamama - she usually saves the mamama for when she's sad
-Still has great fat rolls and is already wearing 12 month clothes because of her long legs (Soooo different from her brothers at this age!)
-Seriously has the longest eyelashes - people comment on them every day. A neighbor recently told me that she should be an eyelash model, lol. Move over Drew Barrymore!
-Is happy to be playing on her own as along as she isn't tired
-Still needs to be held to fall asleep, but then transfers to her crib easily (usually)
-Has gone back to waking up one or more times at night
-Feeds herself - She doesn't like anything served on a spoon like baby food, yogurt, applesauce, etc. (she's a total gagger). Instead she has opted to go straight to the stuff she can munch on. She mostly likes carbs (especially Cheerios), beans, and cheese so far.
-Starting to prefer me more, but usually does great with others (her brothers were much more attached to me at this age)
-Nicknames - Eva, Evelynee, and Pumpkin

A super sweet, cute, happy, and very "chillaxed" baby :)

8 on the 8th

2011-03-09T22:01:00.000-08:00

Each of my kiddos around 8 months old . . .

That's right - our little pumpkin turned 8 months yesterday!

Time Flies

2011-03-04T05:18:00.000-08:00

Has it really been a month and a half since I last posted? Sorry I've been neglecting our family blog. I've been busy . . .

working on this

and this*

and taking care of these

*I couldn't have made these cute decorations for Evelyn's room without the help of a very sweet and talented friend :)

December

2011-01-22T22:12:00.000-08:00

At the end of November, Gav came to me and said he didn't think Santa was real. Then, it just so happened that the next morning was December 1st, marking the day that our Elf returned to our home. I figured the Elf would seal the deal in his unbelief. Instead, it was quite the contrary. It renewed his belief in Santa and all the Christmas magic that comes with this time of year! Go figure.

He finally sat on "Santa's Helper's" lap this year (at our church Christmas party), but then didn't say anything to Santa. I think he didn't know what to do because he recognized that it was his friend's dad. When it was Beebo's turn and he was chickening out, Gav tried to reassure him by saying "It's only Konrad." Thank goodness there were no other kids in the room!

The one no fail baby item that all 3 of my kids have loved is the the jumper (the kind that hangs in the doorway). Bonus - it's probably one of the cheapest and easiest to store baby things we own.

This year we invited a few families over to make Christmas trees . . .

and Gingerbread ~~houses~~ temples for FHE :)

The boys and I even helped Nate's office look more festive by making these paper chains and snowflakes.

This month, Evelyn became a lot more playful and aware of the world around her.

I finally managed to capture her cute smile on camera!

After some more crazy weather, we had another long power outage. This time it lasted overnight AND most of the day on Saturday. Our house got pretty chilly and so the boys pretended to go camping with all the blankets they owned (I'm not sure why Gav only has a t-shirt on though). Eventually we wimped out and headed to the Supermall. We were pretty desperate and crazy to go there since it was the LAST weekend before Christmas.

The silver lining to not living near family during the holidays - lots of packages in the mail and at our doorstep! Besides the presents inside, the boxes were pretty exciting too.

Gavin's "spy box."

Decorating Christmas cookies.

After Christmas, we decided to check out the children's museum in Olympia. We all fell in love with these way cool Keva planks. I think that's what Nate wants for his birthday ;)

Nate and I had a little competition on who could build the highest tower. This was my creation. We were pretty even and so I stopped to take a few snapshots. Then . . .

In just a couple of minutes, Nate added a few more to his. It blew mine out of the water! Being the super sweet wife that I am, I decided to let him win this one ;)

Before returning home, we decided to check out the state capitol building.

Eva has become very interested in what we're eating. When I was distracted, she snatched this roll out of my hand and started tasting it right away. She didn't want to give it up. "Daddy, don't let Mommy take this away from me!"

For the boys' last day off, we decided to take them to a new bouncy place with inflatables. Even though I called ahead to check times, I still got it wrong. So when we got there, it was closed. The boys quickly got over their disappointment when Nate and I took them to Chuck E Cheese instead. We got there right around the time they opened and we were basically the only ones there the entire time. Guess it's not a popular spot on New Year's Eve (at least in the morning). Gavin spent all his time trying to get as many tickets as possible (mostly by following the game tester around), while B used up most of his tokens on this roller coaster ride (which didn't earn any tickets). They couldn't be more different! I love it!

Overally, 2010 was a pretty good year for our family. We all agree having Evelyn was definitely the highlight, hands down! =)

Wrapping up 2010

2011-01-22T20:52:00.000-08:00

A few random photos from Nate's phone . . .

My turn

2011-01-03T01:29:00.000-08:00

Jana does most of the posting around here and she's very good at keeping a record of our family. I had two random thoughts that I thought I'd put out there.

1st - Jana asked me to pick up some Martinelli's sparkling cider while at Costco. We like to get it sometimes for New Years and Thanksgiving. Well... I always encourage Jana to shop by the price per unit cost to make sure she's getting the most for our money. So sticking to my advice I sat there in Costco calculating the $/unit of a different drink that I was considering. It was quite a bit cheaper than Martinelli's and in my opinion and I think my boys agree... yummier! Enjoy, hopefully your Costco has it.

Galvanina Organic Blood Orange Soda (Imported from Italy)

2nd - I think the day before this we were picking up some items that Jana wanted before her coupons expired at the nearest Wal-Mart Supercenter. She asked me to grab a couple of cans of Sweet & Condensed Milk. I grabbed two cans of Carnation from Nestlé. Then we we're walking down another isle and passed the 'Hispanic' foods section and I noticed Nestlé has the EXACT SAME product with spanish brand 'La Lechera' writing on it for less!!! I think I've noticed this before with spices. It seems like if you buy the spices in a bag like chile powder and bay leaves in the 'Hispanic' foods section they are WAY cheaper.

Oh... I thought of some more random things to post on...

Today at church I while trying to get Evelyn to fall asleep I stopped in on the gospel essentials class on honesty. It was a good lesson with lots of fun discussion. I remembered an article that I had recently found on Yahoo!, it came up on my Yahoo! home page and I read it, and a site that I found randomly a long time ago. I navigated to the second article in class and we had some chuckles.

Here's the blurb from the Yahoo! one...

'Thanks to the recent financial crisis, frugality and thrift are increasingly becoming positive attributes. But if, like many people, you find yourself looking for ways to trim you spending, you may find yourself flirting with what can be a very fine line. You know: the one between making smart financial choices and being outright cheap. In fact, in many cases it's a line between thrift and outright thievery. You know you've hit it when your savings become someone else's loss - or your own. Here we'll look a few common examples where thrifty become downright cheap. How far would you go?'

http://finance.yahoo.com/family-home/article/111349/5-moves-that-make-you-look-cheap
Here's the blurb from the other one...

'There are lots of crafty things people do to save money. Some are good ideas, some are lousy ideas, and some are downright criminal.

Below is a list of these things, beginning at the top with "eating the free food at an art opening," which I consider to be completely acceptable, to "writing the wrong room number on the hotel bar tab," which is plain thievery.

Personally, I've tried the little things, but rarely do I do something that rates over a 20. I consider the items at the top to be healthy, harmless acts, but I've seen people balk at them, so they are included. Sometimes a person's behavior is dictated by a regular moral code, but if a scheme is tricky enough--or anonymous enough--it can get special attention.'http://www.cockeyed.com/magic/cheap/cheap.html

On a totally different note... Our current favorite family movie that the kids love to quote all of the time is Despicable Me. If you haven't seen it we highly recommend it!

And finally, Go Seahawks! They became the first team in NFL history to get into the playoffs with a losing season.

Christmas 2010

2011-01-02T23:03:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve didn't exactly go as planned. I ended up getting strep throat the day before, but never went in to see a doctor to get medicine. So I spent most of the day in bed while Nate took care of the kids and let them play video games pretty much the entire day. Then we had pizza for dinner. I didn't hear any complaints though. Only a few pleads throughout the day to open "just one present" :)
That night, as Nate was putting the boys to bed, he promised them that he'd try to catch Santa (without Santa knowing of course). It totally helped to get them to go to sleep quickly!

Santa's quick, but not quick enough for our awesome Spy Dad! Nate used his iPhone to catch this picture of Santa leaving our house (we don't have a chimney). Way to go Dad!

The next morning, Gavin came into our room right at the agreed time - 6:30 AM. I was shocked! He hardly ever wakes up that early. Since his siblings were still asleep and I was feeling really sick still, I had him crawl into our bed until Evelyn woke up. As soon as she woke up (about 7:30), he went to wake up Beebo. It didn't work. Reminds me of my brother and me as kids :) Then I asked Gavin to get a diaper for Evelyn. I was still pretty out of it and so it took me a few minutes to realize that Gavin was gone longer than it should have taken him to get it AND he went left out of our room instead of right. Left goes to the stairs and right goes to Eva's room where the diapers are. As soon as it registered, I called for Gavin. He said he thought the diapers were downstairs. Nice try. Thank goodness Santa wraps for our kids! This kid is as sneaky as his Dad! :)

Checking out what Santa left . . . I love Gav's face in this picture.

The boys were even more excited when they saw a large package under their Dad's stocking. Turns out that since Nate did a good job taking care of everyone while Mom was sick, he was able to make it onto Santa's good list afterall :)

The boys with some of their favorite toys from Santa - Kung Zhu pets. Both boys did really well with the process of giving and unwrapping their gifts. They were so excited about each present. We would have to remind them that there were more gifts to unwrap. A funny moment is when Brandon got distracted with a Bakugan from his stocking. He was so absorbed with it, that he totally forgot about the wrapped gifts that were laying next to his stocking. Nate kept asking him if he wanted to open them, but he was totally in the Bakugan zone. So Gavin took a wrapped gift and started shaking it right in front of his face. It was like waking someone up from hypnosis. It was pretty cute.

Remember this post? Well, aside from the excruciating pain of swallowing, I was again in heaven with the yummy veggie omelet Nate made for breakfast that morning. The boys even gobbled up their eggs and bacon before they even thought about asking to eat a treat from their Christmas stocking. A pleasant surprise :)

My parents drove up to stay with us the rest of the weekend. So we introduced them to Cafe Rio. You may be thinking, Who eats Cafe Rio for Christmas? No ham or potatoes or prime rib? The bigger question though is Who eats a meal off of their nice china while wearing pj's? I figured though it was a step up from Brandon not even wearing pants for our Thanksgiving dinner :) I probably wouldn't have bothered with the china, but we didn't have any clean plates in the house.

Probably Evelyn's favorite gift was the set of Take 'N Toss spoons Santa gave her. With 2 older brothers, he figured he had to give her something. He gave Eva her first doll too, but she thought this purple plastic spoon was much better!

Thanks to Grandma and Grandpa Sinsay, we are now pet owners again. They gave Gavin this aquarium and let him pick out 4 new goldfish. So now, we have added to our family Dorothy (a.k.a. Tiny), Nemo (a.k.a. Fatso - I just have to say that it wasn't me that came up with that name), Shiny, and Peek-a-boo.

Dear Santa . . .

2010-12-24T23:07:00.000-08:00

We've been really good this year (most of the time) . . . promise!

Love,

Gavin, Brandon, and Evelyn

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-24T22:58:00.000-08:00

November

2010-12-14T09:01:00.000-08:00

Did I say NOvember?

I meant MO-vember. In honor of Movember, Nate grew a mustache. Not his best look, but a worthy cause. It was to help raise awareness for prostate cancer, which hits close to home for our family.

It was fun to have my sister and cute nephew come up for a visit. After they left, B kept saying that we need a Sam in our family.

If you visit our house, it's a requirement to do an art project with Gavin :) Aunt Sara made these fun leaf decorations with him.

It's a good thing we had some winter clothes for our kids, because November had some crazy weather . . .

First, a major wind storm that broke our tree in half and trapped Nate at work. He was working late at night at the place he does freelance for and the wind blew the fence down, blocking his car. Luckily his friend came to the rescue. I wasn't eager to put our 3 sleeping children in our car and brave the storm to get him.

Then we had SNOW before Thanksgiving!! Does that ever happen in Seattle?

Just in time for my brother's family to play in. Too bad it was a pain to fly into the airport and then a 2 hour drive to our house instead of the usual 30 minutes.

Gav's snow cave.

Thanksgiving dinner. It was the first time for us to be alone - no traveling and no guests.

We loved how low-key it was. Pants weren't even required (notice B's skinny, white legs) :)

The day after Thanksgiving, we drove down to Vancouver to celebrate my Dad's 60th birthday.

Giving Grandpa his homemade b-day cards . . .

. . . and his favorite treats.

Playing hide-and-seek with Miss Sadie.

One day I went into Evelyn's room to get her from her nap, but discovered that her brother beat me to it.

She still loves bath time . . .

and snuggling her brothers. Their new favorite thing is to snuggle her in one of their beds during bedtime.

November was a good month with much to be grateful for!

Perfection

2010-12-09T15:21:00.000-08:00

That's right - Evelyn is sleeping IN HER CAR SEAT! It started on our drive to Vancouver the day after Thanksgiving. I thought it was a total fluke, but she did it again on the drive home and a couple of other times since. Car rides have been much more pleasant lately :)
Then last night, in honor of turning 5 months, Evelyn slept from 8:30 PM to7:45 this morning in her crib. (She didn't fall asleep on her own totally since she was laying in my bed next to me while I was reading a book. Then I transferred her to her crib. That's good enough for me though!) It was awesome and super thoughtful of her since I'm dealing with another pesky cold :) I'm sure she won't do this every night, but it's nice to know that it is now possible for her.
I'm loving 5 months and wish I could just freeze her at this age. No sass, no arguing, no whining, no messes, and feeding her is easy and free!

4 months and counting

2010-11-23T15:22:00.000-08:00

Technically Evelyn is more like 4 1/2 months now. Maybe one of these days I won't be behind on our blog. Maybe, but not likely :)

4 month stats:
--14 1 /2 pounds*
--26 inches*
--Can roll from tummy to back, but not consistently yet
--Smiles a lot
--"Plays" with baby toys
--Can hold her feet and clasp her hands together
--Laughs for us and it is starting to change from a "cough" laugh to an actual baby giggle; she giggles the most for her daddy
--Drools more, which means she can blow bubbles and make raspberry sounds when she buzzes her lips
--Loves to stick her tongue out

Evelyn sleeps best with a pacifier in her mouth, blanket on her face, and resting comfortably in someone's arms. The second best place is in the Baby Ergo carrier (worth every penny!) and the third best place is wrapped up and wedged inside her boppy. Nothing else will do for the most part. About a month or so ago, I briefly tried letting her cry it out in her crib for a few days and it was a disaster. So we're holding off on doing that again for awhile. Besides, how do you get a 3rd child to fall asleep on her own and sleep in her crib for all her naps when we are constantly on the go? Did I mention she could never fall asleep in her car seat? Never. Not even at the beginning when most newborns can't resist it. This is the only high maintenance trait of Evelyn though. Otherwise she is super sweet and easy going. She doesn't have to be held during her wake time. In fact she often prefers to be on her own, flailing her little arms and legs and sucking on her hands, toes, toys, and whatever else she can get into her mouth :)

*The weight and height stats are rough estimates since I took them at home rather than at the doctor's office. She must be doing well though since she's already wearing 6 month clothes! Definitely different from my other two.

October Photos

2010-11-19T21:46:00.000-08:00

October was definitely a busy, but fun-filled month. Here's just a glimpse into what we were up to . . .

Bakugans - the crazy thing is that this picture doesn't show all of the Bakugans my boys have collected. I found a few more lying around the house after I took this picture. I told the boys they are lucky to have each other because it means double the toys that they love :)

Gavin also got into collecting silly bands this month. It all started with a 5th grade girl that sat by Gavin on the bus and gave him one. Should I be worried? ;)

I'm totally in love with my pumpkin!

This month Evelyn became more playful.

We had a few awesome sunny and warm days during October.

Our neighbor friends had the great idea of having a last picnic in the park for the year.

Grandma Sinsay came up to stay for a few days while Nate was crazy busy with Music Man. Thanks to her, the boys made a few more Halloween decorations for their room. Check out the jack-o-lantern garland on this board! Each face was different. Grandma also did A LOT of gluing with those triangles on the top. Thanks again Mom for entertaining my boys all week long!

Getting ready to start the show. Nate was volunteered to be in charge of the sound for our Stake's production of Music Man. I told him that's what he gets for not liking musicals :)

Brandon's first field trip with his preschool class - Thommason Family Farm

Gav was home from Kindergarten and so he got to join us too.

Brandon's class.

I started volunteering in Gavin's kindergarten class this month. This was during their Spider Spectacular day. Days like this one make me so grateful that I can stay at home with the kids.

Brandon definitely kisses Evelyn the most. He especially has a weakness for her feet. The other day he told me I needed to leave her socks off so that he could kiss her feet more :)

Siblings

2010-11-13T11:00:00.000-08:00

I LOVE my kids!

And I REALLY love that they love each other. Hopefully they'll always be best friends :)

Soccer

2010-11-10T23:22:00.000-08:00

Last game of the season:

And thank goodness we didn't have this type of weather until the very last game! Everyone was cold, soaked, and purple-lipped! After the game, we ate pizza and shivered as the kids got their trophies outside, in the rain :) I don't think the weather dampened Gav's spirits too much though. He was so excited to get a gold trophy! He's already talking about the next season. I'm not sure if I'm ready for spring soccer in Seattle. I may need to invest in a rain suit!

P.S. Do these pictures look familiar? Thanks to my friend, Tami for capturing this day!

Costumes

2010-11-10T22:48:00.000-08:00

I really should be in bed, but it's not often that Nate's not on the computer, all 3 kids are sleeping, and I'm still awake! :) So here are a few pictures for the grandparents . . .

Bald Eagle

Little Witch in training (the nice kind, of course)

Shaggy (from Scooby Doo gang)

Ladybug

I wish I took more pictures of the kids in their costumes, but as always - we were in a hurry to get out the door :) The boys' costumes ended up being pretty easy to put together and we borrowed Evelyn's cute costume from a friend.

September Photos

2010-10-09T23:08:00.000-07:00

It was fun to have Grandma and Grandpa Cahoon visit us for Labor Day Weekend. Gavin and Nate put them to work at Blueberry Bob's farm.

Of course, this cute girl is the main reason they came :)

Even though my boys are best buddies, Brandon was a much more pleasant kid once Gavin started school again. This summer was a little rough for Beebo after going from lots of 1 on 1 time with me and free reign of the house to sharing me with his brother and a new baby sister.

Orange is becoming Brandon's new blue. He wears these shorts every day possible and loves to pair it with an orange shirt :)

I'm having a tough time capturing it on camera, but Evelyn gives the cutest big smiles now and she loves to stick her tongue out. She's starting to make more baby sounds now too.

She's so opposite of our boys in the size department. When I tried the 3-6 mo outfit on her (Thanks Aunt Sara), I couldn't believe how well it already fit her. At her 2 mo visit, she was already 24 inches (97th percentile) and 11.1 pounds (75th percentile)! I don't think it will last forever, but for now, she is affectionately called our "Chunky Monkey" :)

For National Service Day on 9/11, the boys and I helped clean headstones at the Tahoma National Cemetery. They were good little workers for about the first 1/2 hour. Things got a little more crazy for the next hour and a half.

We all had our check-ups with the dentist this month. This was Beebo's first dental cleaning and he did really well. Plus no cavities - hooray! With his very low tolerance for pain, it was a definite answer to my prayers :) Unfortunately, Gavin hasn't been so lucky. He had to have his second pulpotomy plus a filling done. He's a perfect little patient though and his dentist is really great.

It has begun - going to soccer practices and games every week.

Just Gavin is playing, but Beebo had to get his picture taken too :)

Grandma and Grandpa Sinsay even drove up to watch one of Gav's games (a 2 1/2 hr drive for a 1 hr game). That's grandparental love! Luckily we had some great weather - the umbrella is to block the sun, not the rain :) Afterward, they treated the boys to lunch and some playtime at the park before heading home. It was pretty cute to see Grandpa play hide-and-seek with Beebo. (BTW, the whole reason I took this picture was because of how ridiculous Evelyn looked in this humongous hat! I couldn't find the one I have that fits her and we were in a hurry to get out the door.)

Back to Gav - he's really loving soccer. He said he loves soccer because of the after game treats, but I think that's just part of it :) He was excited to be goalie at this game and did a great job of stopping all of the other team's attempts to score. Gavin is definitely more of a defense kid. He's way too polite and timid to do offense. We'll see if that changes over time.

Aside from the baby blessing, starting school and soccer, and having visitors, we have . . .

begun a new volleyball season (Nate and Jana),

started teaching aerobics again (Jana),

been teaching the 3-4 yr olds at church (Jana)

gone on a scout camp out and been involved with their Wednesday night activities (Nate),

begun scuba diving training (Nate),

had several late nights for work (Nate),

assisted with the sound portion of a musical that our church's stake is producing (Nate),

and sadly said farewell to Nate working from home Mondays and Fridays.

This was one busy month and October has been even busier so far. I barely saw Nate this week and he's not even travelling. I can't imagine what it will be like once all of our kids are in school and doing extra activities.

Brandon's Turn

2010-10-07T22:24:00.000-07:00

Brandon started preschool this week. I seriously can't believe he's old enough to go! He had mixed feelings about going that first day, but Gavin did a great job of telling Bran how much fun he would have. When I dropped him off there were no tears and when I came to pick him up, one of the first things he said was "Mom, I had fun!" Of course it helps that on his very first day, he got to bring his Bakugan to school for show and tell. Then on the next day he was the bell ringer :)
Miss Ashlee is the best!

My Blessing Day

2010-09-24T23:09:00.000-07:00

Grandma Sinsay made this beautiful dress for me, making it extra special! Did you know I share my name with her mom, Great Grandma Evelyn?

I couldn't truly appreciate being dressed like a princess though. I cried through the entire blessing, making it difficult for Daddy to concentrate on what he was saying. Mommy cried too, but for different reasons. I guess I won't understand until I become a mom.

We were lucky to have all of our local relatives join us for this special day - Great Uncle Brad and his family, John and Katherine, Daddy's parents, Mommy's parents, and Aunt Sara's family. Also participating in my blessing circle were Daddy's friends, Adam Powell, Konrad Crabtree, and Dick Wing.

My brothers even wore ties for my special day.

Mommy sometimes complains about needing to hold me so much, but deep down I know she loves every minute of it!

After church, my guests ate lots of yummy food and enjoyed talking and relaxing all afternoon. Most of all, they loved holding and adoring me :)

My Great Aunt Barb and Daddy's cousins made these princess cookies. I hear they tasted just as good as they looked. Unfortunately, I'm on a BM diet. Maybe next year I can learn firsthand what the fuss over frosted sugar cookies is all about :)

I was held the entire afternoon by many willing hands. I was in HEAVEN!

I also slept basically the entire time. How could I resist when Mommy had me wrapped in this extra cozy blanket that Grandma Cahoon made me?

Thank you to everyone that was a part of my Blessing Day! I'm a pretty lucky girl to be surrounded by so many people that love me!

Off to Kindergarten!

2010-09-19T15:57:00.000-07:00

There's nothing like the first day of school. Gavin was awake and dressed much earlier than normal. So we had plenty of time to make a special breakfast.

Gavin came up with the brilliant idea of putting M&M's in the pancake batter.

Gotta get in the first day of school picture by the door.

Waiting at the bus stop with his buddies. Riding the bus is one of his favorite parts about kindergarten.

I was a little nervous for Gavin, but resisted following his bus to school. It helped knowing that he'd be meeting up with this friend and his mom once he got to school.

Gavin later told me that while he was waiting in line for his teacher to open the door that he got a little sad. Then he said, "But then I told myself 'I'm a big boy and I don't need to be sad or cry!'"

Thanks Jenni for taking these pictures! Now I have proof that Gavin did just fine going to his class.

We eagerly awaited Gavin's return home. Gav had a great first day of school!

Summer - Part 3

2010-09-19T14:46:00.000-07:00

After Evelyn was born, our pace slowed way down. We still enjoyed our summer though. Just see for yourself . . .

I had to take this picture for my siblings. Nate decided to dig up the rocks in our front yard, sift them with a homemade sifter, clean the rocks, and then put them back in. I have lots of memories sifting and weeding as a kid. It was my Dad's favorite family home evening activity :)

The boys loved helping out with this project. Side note - B went through a phase of wanting to wear this horse costume all the time. He even insisted on wearing it to his friend's Hawaiian themed birthday party.

My little Picasso (aka Brandon) calls this creation "Uncle Jake." It's hard to tell in the picture, but he built up a circular mound of dirt to outline the face. Look closely and you'll see the rocks represent the eyes and nose. Of course, he made this while wearing his horse costume :)

"Detectives in Disguise" inspired by Gavin's favorite books of the summer - Jigsaw Jones chapter books.

When Grandma C. was visiting, she and Gav painted this cute bird house.

Drawing with chalk never gets old.

Neither does painting with water.

My last birthday where I actually turn a year older :)

My Mom came to visit and help out as soon as her doctor gave her the okay. (She was recovering from surgery).

I'm not sure who was more excited - her or my kids. They love having visitors, especially grandparents!

I finally managed to get a bow to stay put!

Nate and Gav made two trips to Blueberry Bob's - the first with friends and the second with Nate's parents and Beebo. This will definitely have to become an annual tradition.

The blueberries made great syrup, stuffed french toast, muffins, and pancakes. Mostly though, we just ate them straight out of the bowl and shared them with friends. Yum!

We took a day trip to Vashon Island to see the Justin Roberts Band perform. They are now my family's absolute favorite band. Nate even listens to them while at work and no kids around :) Thanks Christensen family for the recommendation!

My 3 boys went camping with the Crabtree girls and their dad at Deception Pass . . .

They had fun hiking, exploring, playing at the beach, and roasting hot dogs and marshmallows. I don't think the boys even missed me (well maybe Nate did). They did miss their baby sister though and that's the first person they wanted to see when they got back. Who can blame them?

Building marshmallow homes for a fhe activity

August = Picking Blackberries!

Point Defiance Zoo

Brandon gave me 2 frazzle moments this summer -

1) 2 days before I had Evelyn, I took the boys to the beach by myself. While playing in the sand, Brandon really had to go pee. Unfamiliar with this beach, I didn't see a bathroom anywhere and so I quickly took him to a private tree. Turns out he had to do #2 also but didn't warn me of this :( I made Gavin stand guard while I ran to my car to get clean-up supplies. I'm sure it was a sight to see, especially when a 41 week pregnant woman was trying to climb over a fence as a shortcut to the car. That evening I decide we're staying home until the baby comes.

2) For my first outing with all 3 kids and without Nate, we went to the zoo. Luckily I was with friends because Brandon wandered away from this playground at the zoo while I was nursing Evelyn nearby. Thanks again Ashlee for finding him!

Checking out the zoo map

We finished our summer at Pt. Defiance Park's beach to celebrate a friend's birthday. It was a great way to spend our last weekend before a busy school year started back up.

Sorry for the HUGE post, but now I'm finally caught up with summer pictures! Yay for finally crossing this off my to-do list!

Summer - Part 2

2010-09-07T21:52:00.000-07:00

My 3 estimated due dates came and went . . .

Fortunately, this cute couple came to visit us during that time. We were so busy having fun with them that it made it a little easier to still be pregnant :) Unfortunately, they didn't get to meet their newest niece or babysit the boys while we were at the hospital.

Day 1 - We took Nate's brother (Jake) and new sis-in-law (Emilie) to visit the boys' old house and stomping grounds up in Redmond. They had fun finding the "Tami Rock" and seeing the now very tall McDonalds tree they had planted way back when.

We explored the forest in their neighborhood. So beautiful!

After going down memory lane, we made our way south to Snoqualmie Falls. (This is Emilie's first time in Seattle and so we made sure to do all the touristy hot spots). On our way to the falls, we bought a bag of Rainier Cherries and consumed ALL of them while viewing the falls. They were soooo good!

Then in an effort to wear us all out more and encourage the baby to come out, we stopped at Remlinger Farms to pick berries. As you can see, we didn't leave with a whole lot of raspberries and strawberries even though there were 4 adults picking.

That's because of these two little rascals that kept taking the berries out of the crate I was carrying. Of course, our berry loving Beebo was the biggest offender. At one point someone said "We need to find something to distract Beebo so that he stops eating all of our raspberries." Gavin replied "I know, we can let him eat the strawberries! That will distract him!" True, but not the solution we were looking for :) When we got home, we had just enough to make the best berry cobbler ever (thanks to Jake and Em) and a few extras to snack on. It was perfect since I was in no mood for making jam or anything else that required effort :)

Day 2 - We did the downtown Seattle thing. First stop - Pikes Place Market

A Pikes Place Market trip wouldn't be complete without a bag of fresh Daily Dozen Donuts.

Afterward, we grabbed lunch at Ivars. Fish and chips and clam chowder = happy bellies and eager seagulls.

Ballard Locks. Gavin was in a posing mood. He kept finding photo opps and telling Uncle Jake to take a picture of him. I was shocked!

After seeing the salmon swim up the fish ladder and watching the boats go through the locks, we drove over to Green Lake. The boys rode their bikes and then everyone except me went paddle boating. Someone had to stay behind to take a picture of this good looking group and I was happy to volunteer :)

Day 3 - 4th of July . . . Seriously, I can't remember a 4th of July in the northwest that had as miserable of weather as this year. Despite the cold and rain, we still had a great time at the Cadd's house. They hosted a party on Lake Sammamish with tons of great food, toys, a live band, and AWESOME fireworks display.

Day 4 - We headed back into Seattle to visit the Seattle Science Center.

Our favorite part is the butterfly and insect exhibit. The butterflies seemed to really love the Nate's coat. At one time, he had 3 different butterflies all resting on him. That day everyone lucked out by having one land on them except the one person that really wanted to have one land on him (Gavin). Go figure.

The Science Center had a new exhibit that was a circus theme. Notice how difficult it is for Nate to fit in this box . . .

Piece o' cake for our 2 boys to fit in it at the same time :)

Thanks Jake and Emilie for visiting us! We loved every minute you were here!

Summer, Part 1

2010-09-02T04:37:00.000-07:00

This summer, we didn't go on any road trips, family vacations, or weekend getaways. Instead we stayed close to home, awaiting our little one's arrival. For the few weeks leading up to the big event, we . . .

played in mud and dirt (and bathed more frequently),

ran through the sprinklers,

soaked up a few rays,

washed things,

played at the park,

and went for a few strolls/bike rides around the neighborhood.

We visited Oreo and her new calf, Hershey at the farm right by our neighborhood park. Thanks to their dad and two boys' curious minds, Gav and Beebo also learned first hand what it feels like to get zapped by this fence.

As we neared the end of my pregnancy, I started to lose motivation to be in the kitchen. The boys weren't complaining though, because it meant more breakfast dinners :) Nate even took over the griddle one evening and made some fantastic pancake creations. The snake and batman ones were a hit! My kids seriously have the coolest dad!

1 month

2010-08-18T22:12:00.000-07:00

A few people have told us that Evelyn looks just like her brothers, but wrapped in girl clothing. Here's a comparison of the three kids all at around 1 month old . . .

Evelyn

Brandon

Gavin (and cousin Emilee)

What do you think?

Raising 3

2010-07-29T12:46:00.000-07:00

We didn't roll out of bed until around 10 this morning. After finally getting Evelyn back to sleep, I hopped in the shower and then came downstairs to this . . .

I think B missed a step in getting ready this morning before playing video games :) At least the house wasn't on fire and nobody's hair had been cut =) (knock on wood)

Evelyn

2010-07-22T13:45:00.000-07:00

3 hrs old with her adoring Daddy

Evelyn meets her brothers

My big helper - he's a natural with babies

Nate's mom flew out to help me for the week while Nate had scout camp and then went back to work. She cooked and cleaned and entertained the boys all day, every day so that I could get some rest. I felt pretty lucky to have so much help, but she insists she was the lucky one. Thanks Evelyn for being so cute for Grandma and making her trip worth it :)

Hanging out in the stroller while the boys played outside

Beebo loves his baby sister, but has been a lot more difficult for me. Hopefully he'll adjust soon. Meanwhile, I've been praying a lot for me to have patience with him :)

Her brothers will make sure that she's never bored

She loves soaking in a warm tub. She does not love the lotion application that follows.

Yes, all the feedings, poopy diapers, spit-up, extra laundry, and lack of sleep are totally worth it!

She's Here!

2010-07-10T16:44:00.000-07:00

Meet Evelyn Nicole

Born Thursday, July 8th at 3:10 PM

7 lbs 13 oz

20 1/4 in

Our sweet baby girl was well worth the wait! In Mary Poppins' words, she's "practically perfect in every way." We are completely in love with her.

Preschool Graduation

2010-06-24T22:58:00.001-07:00

Last Thursday, Gavin officially graduated from preschool.

This year we made major progress compared to last year's preschool graduation. This time, Gav sat in the front row with his brother AND went up to get his portfolio and certificate from his teacher all by himself. A year ago, he clung to me in the very back and refused to move until the program was over. He gets pretty shy around other adults and didn't want to sit or dance in front of them. Although it would have been fun to see him sing and dance and be silly with his classmates, I totally understood where he was coming from.

I actually started to get a little choked up when Miss Ashlee called Gavin up and mentioned he would be moving on to Kindergarten next year. I'll just blame it on the extra pregnancy hormones. BTW, the portfolios Miss Ashlee makes for her students are awesome! I wonder if she'd be interested in making them for the rest of Gavin's school career? Just name your price Miss Ashlee! :)

Gav even posed with his class for a group picture - something else he had refused to do at last year's graduation. It's all about baby steps :) After this, he was back to his normal self - loading up on sweets and running around the backyard with the other kids.

For the past few months, Gavin has been anxious for summer break and to move on to Kindergarten. However, when we got home from the festivities, Gavin admitted he was going to miss his teacher and preschool. Luckily for him, he still gets to see her and some of his classmates at least once a week, if not more. Thanks Miss Ashlee for a great 2 years! Brandon can't wait for it to be his turn to go!

Newest Cousin

2010-06-24T22:58:00.000-07:00

At the start of this month, we drove down to Portland to see my sister's cute baby and attend his baby blessing. Keeping with the tradition of forgetting to pack something, this time I left our camera at home. So thanks Sara for taking and sending a few pics!

I think Sam likes Gav and vice-versa :)

He makes my kids look so much older!

The whole crew after the blessing.

Sam was so sweet and cute, it made us all anxious for our baby to come join our family!

Another Year Older

2010-06-03T11:20:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday, we celebrated Nate's birthday.

Q: What do you do for a guy that won't let you buy him anything?

A: First, let the kids buy sugar cereals for their Dad's b-day breakfast - Trix and Cinnamon Toast Crunch were the winners. On the big day, clean, wash and fold 6 loads of laundry, cook, bake, and clean some more. Then hang up some party decorations, make a few homemade birthday cards with the boys, and cross your fingers that something good came in the mail for him that day. Then after his special dinner and birthday treats, send him off to the theater to see a guy movie (with a free movie coupon of course) and get to work on ironing several of his shirts as a final b-day gift. In this house ironing is a big deal, because I dropped that chore I think around the time Brandon was born :)

Gavin has concluded that adult birthdays are way more lame than kid birthdays. I think Nate had a good day though :) Next up - Father's Day. What to do, what to do?

Picture Potpourri

2010-05-30T13:24:00.000-07:00

Here are several pictures that I've been meaning to post in the last few months . . .

I bought the boys bath robes when they were on clearance and it was one of my best purchases. B especially loves his and I think he is so stinking cute in it!

Preschool field trip to the Costco Bakery

The boys and I celebrated Earth Day by cleaning up our neighborhood wetland.

B is even more obsessesed with dinosaurs than he was a month ago. I've lost track of how many dinosaur books we've checked out from the library recently. He and I are becoming quite the dinosaur experts :)

B insisted on wearing his new backpack and socker boppers while I read books to him and his brother before bedtime. I guess the book I was reading wasn't very interesting :)

Our very own "swimming pool."

We didn't do a whole lot for our anniversary this year. So I thought it would be fun to get out the china and make one of Nate's favorite meals - Cafe Rio Salad. I think we've only used our china once before and this was a first for the boys. Later in the month, we managed to go on a date to the temple and out to dinner without kids.

On Mother's Day, I came downstairs to Nate and Gavin working hard in the kitchen to prepare breakfast for me. I was shocked to see that Nate had advanced Gavin to using something more than just a butter knife. They both did a great job of spoiling me for Mother's Day. It gets better each year. My favorite part was not having to do dishes the entire day.

It seems like my kids have grown up overnight . . . just in time for us to have a baby again :)

Brandon loves to be tiny sometimes. It's a good thing because the doctor said he is only in the 10th percentile for height and not even on the charts for weight. In this picture he is in his "nest."

I've been experimenting with making homemade snacks lately. I finally found some popsicle molds, but I need ideas on what to fill them with. I also attempted making granola bars. They turned out pretty good, but were more like a breakfast cookie. Still, it was nice knowing we were consuming a baked treat filled with flax and oats :) I need to find some more worthwhile recipes like this one. Anyone know of any good ones?

Some of the most exciting news is that Gavin no longer has training wheels on his bike. He's had 3 lessons with Nate so far and by the last one, was able to ride the entire length of our street. Yet, it's still really hard to get him to ride his bike. He'll just start thinking about it too much and say it's too hard and won't do it. All the rain we've been having hasn't helped either. Hopefully we'll get some good weather soon to motivate him some more.

Butterflies

2010-05-30T12:32:00.000-07:00

For Gavin's birthday, he received a butterfly treehouse to raise real Painted Lady Butterflies (thanks Grandma and Grandpa!).

They came in this container as tiny caterpillars and we had fun watching them eat and grow so rapidly.
Once they formed their chrysalis, we transferred them to the "treehouse" and waited. What a great lesson on patience!

After transforming into butterflies, Gavin was dying to touch them and let them out into our house. I didn't want him to, but when I wasn't looking, he let one out by "accident". After this picture, it quickly flew away and explored our house. We couldn't find it until the next morning. Luckily it was a harmless insect - otherwise I wouldn't have been able to sleep that night.
We released it, along with the other butterflies in our front yard.
We decided our azaleas were probably the best place for them.
The boys are already asking to get another set of caterpillars or other insects to raise. I have to admit, it was a pretty awesome experience to watch this incredible transformation in our very own kitchen. I'm not so sure about Brandon's request for assassin bugs though :)

8 with Nate

2010-05-05T21:04:00.000-07:00

Monday, May 3rd, marked our 8 year wedding anniversary. Since I was not a great journaler and we didn't have a blog back then, I thought I should document the first few days of our life together before my memory fades even more. (Don't worry - this is a G rated blog :) )

After our wedding reception, we drove into downtown Portland for our first night. We stayed at the Westin Hotel and the bed was the most comfortable bed ever! Ahhh, the luxury! I was kinda sad to leave it the next morning. When we got to the hotel, we hadn't eaten since early that afternoon at our luncheon. We had food at the reception and I hear it was good, but I wouldn't know - too many pictures to take and people to greet. We were supposed to have food packed in our car for us to eat at the hotel, but after searching for awhile, we concluded it never made it into the car. So what do starving newlyweds do? We headed to the closest place we could smell - a restaurant/bar within the Westin. After we were seated, we realized you had to be 21 or older to be there. I was a young and innocent 20 and so technically couldn't be there. Crazy to think I was old enough to be legally married, but not be at a bar or served alcohol (not that I wanted any). Some may have considered me a" child bride" ;) Our waitress was really nice though and let me stay. She even brought us complimentary sorbet in between courses to "cleanse our palate" since we had declined the free champagne they typically give newlyweds.

We borrowed my sister's car for the honeymoon because we left ours in Utah. That window paint was impossible to get off! Sorry about that Sara.

The next day we drove up and took a ferry to the San Juan Islands.

We stayed in a cute vacation home on Orcas Island.

It was so beautiful and quaint and had a ton of wind chimes. Now every time I hear a wind chime, I think of that place.

Since it was not yet peak vacation season on the island, everything was closed by the time we got to the house that evening. Once again we were starving! Nate met this sweet neighbor that lives there year round and she invited us to her place for dinner with a few other dinner guests. I wish I could remember her name - she was so nice and had such a different lifestyle than what we suburbanites were used to. Her home's water supply relied on a rain drip system and she made her income by selling handmade bags at a local store.

We did manage to find the Sunflower Cafe open the next morning and I'm so glad we did!

Food tends to make a lasting impression on me. I can still taste the lavendar french toast with orange maple syrup. Yum!

Orcas Island was full of local artisans with beautiful pottery and other creations like this one.

This is the dining area of the house we were staying at. Cooking was such a different and pleasant experience when it was just the 2 of us with no rush or other palates to please.

During our stay, we visited Friday Harbor for the day. In those early years, we did a lot more "winging it" than we do now. So we left our car on Orcas Island and walked onto the ferry, thinking it would be fun to rent a scooter to explore the other island. When we got there, we found out that pretty much everything was closed because we were still in the non-peak season. I guess we shouldn't have been surprised. So we ended up paying to rent a car to explore the island's gardens, lighthouses, and natural beauty that day. Too bad we had our own car parked on the other island - duh! When you are newlyweds though, it's hard to get upset or annoyed. We just loved being with each other ALL THE TIME. I seriously had to pinch myself several times those first few days. I was completely intoxicated with pure bliss!

We bought a picture similar to this one to remind us of our trip. It hangs in the kids' bathroom where it served as the inspiration for that room's decor.

After our short trip (I think it was only about 3 days), we drove back down to my parent's house in Vancouver, WA to grab our other suitcases and head to the Philippines for a different type of adventure. Maybe that will be next year's post . . .