Here's Gracie today...

I recognize that this is really just a post for our Grandmas and Papa. :)

I am my mother's child

I took this picture of Jed and Kate just after a picnic at Crater Lake. It is not the greatest photo of Kate, but there is something about her face or her crazy hair that reminds me of myself at that age. Family...do you see it?

I am my Father's Child

Owen is a funny kid in many ways...one of which is how excited he gets about ANYTHING new. He was SO excited when I bought new toothpaste and it wasn't even something cool like Transformers or even Mickey Mouse. It is just plain old kids tooth paste. Anyway he could not wait for the old Wall-E toothpaste to run out and kept talking about opening the new stuff. Either he is OCD or he is his father's child...you decide.

Time to be 2 and 3

One thing that I really look forward to with Owen now in school is for Kate and Davis to have time to be two and three (almost four). With Owen around Davis often wants to play whatever it is that Owen is doing and I don't know how many times a day I hear Kate say, "Boys not being nice to me." Sometimes it is true...sometimes not so much. It warmed my heart last Friday to see these two having a tea party. I am not so sure that Davis will appreciate this photo in the future, but I love it!

Gracie's Smile

Do I really need to say anything about this photo? How do you not love that smile? Gracie was what I often describe as "urpy" her first weeks of life and we really wondered if she was going to be a tough baby, but these last few weeks she has really become such a happy, delightful baby...boy are we relieved!

First Day of SCHOOL!!!

Owen and his friend from church, Camrie. He has Camrie and a friend from preschool, Skylar, in his class.

Now it's official...Owen is in kindergarten! Everyone has been asking how Owen liked the first day of school. The best way to describe it is he seemed completely indifferent. I could tell that he got a kick out of being old enough to go, wearing his new clothes, carrying his Spiderman lunchbox, etc. Davis was sick that day, so we obviously all could not go, but I gave him the choice, "Who do you want to take you to school, Mommy or Daddy?" His response was quick, "Daddy". Honestly I felt a bit relieved. I didn't want to be the bawling mother driving away from the school and I am pretty sure that he didn't want that either. Kate and I stood at the door and waved good-bye as he drove away and that was that. Jed said that he held his hand to the classroom. Owen showed him around, Jed took a couple of pictures and then said, "It's time for me to go" and Owen said, "Okay Dad, bye." No big deal...totally indifferent. Not what I pictured, but I am relieved that he wasn't acting shy or scared. Davis was not able to leave the house in the afternoon (he has had diarreah for a whole week now...poor boy), so my neighbor/friend, Jodi came over and sat with the kids while I ran over to pick Owen up from school. I asked him how is day was and he said, "great". He seemed to like lunch and P.E. (that's our boy!) and then asked if he had to go tomorrow. I told him that he wouldn't go again for two more days (they do this wierd slow start thing here) to which he told me that he was glad because he wanted to stay home and play with his new legos. I think he is going to be our child who says, "Do I have to go to school today?" ALOT! My best guess is that he thinks he is going to miss out on something fun at home. Hopefully when the novelty of all of his birthday gifts wears off it will be better. So, there you have it...Owen is officially a Redwood Roadrunner. He will go to school all day on Tuesdays and Thursdays and half the day on Friday. In some ways I feel like I have sent him off into the influence of the world, but I am more and more excited for him and for our family to get to know more families in our community.

Here's to having Roadrunners for the next eleven years! I guess I better join the PTA...

Owen Turns 6!

A week ago today was Owen's sixth birthday! In some ways I can't believe he is already six. It seems like time is going too quickly...he is growing and changing too fast. Then I think he darn well better be at least six because I have FOUR KIDS. I mean really, let's not make me any crazier than I am. :) So above you will see the birthday banner that I think I started for Jed's birthday last February and I finished at 1:45 a.m. (with Kate by my side--she woke up and couldn't go back to sleep--sigh!) on Owen's birthday. I just couldn't let another birthday go by without having it done. Carmen and Shelby...are you proud of me?

Of course Owen woke up at 6:30 a.m. SUPER PUMPED that they day he had waited for all year, had FINALLY arrived.


After breakfast and a bit of playing around the house we headed off to an open house at the school. Owen got to meet his teacher again, find his cubby, etc. Above you see my sweet boy by the sign that made my eyes water. I really did not think that it would affect me to send him off to kindergarten. We did the whole preschool thing so I thought that I was in the clear. Somehow this was different. I feel like this is the beginning of a new chapter and I hope we are ready for it!
After the Open House Miss Beth brought us Sonic for lunch and then decorated Owen's LEGO cakes for me. Once again Beth saves the day with her cake decorating talents. :) Owen wanted to have a LEGO party and this was the first time that I limited the party to a few friends his own age. He had a GREAT time. My camera died in the middle of the party, so I will have to get the rest of the pictures from Beth's camera.

I am lucky to have a husband who can be at the birthday parties and things and that night we camped out in the backyard (Owen's request of course...man this is one lucky kid) and the party kept going and going....

I have to say that the next night when I climbed into my own bed I was one HAPPY gal. There is nothing like being in your own bed. Happy Birthday Owen!

The last of our Summer festivities...

Last month I reported that we blessed Gracie while Jed's mom was here visiting. I always love to have Jed's mom here. She is SO terrific about playing with the kids and looks for ways to lighten my load. Last Christmas I told her that she could move in and be my nanny, but she informed me that Jed couldn't afford her. Oh well. Anyway, we had a nice visit with her. Kate had her first real tea party with Grandma, the boys loved doing art, reading Magic Treehouse books and playing legos with her, I loved hearing her memories of Jed as a child while walking the track together at the elementary school and we FINALLY made it to see Crater Lake. Nila pumped the boys up by telling them a very dramatic story about how a volcano EXPLODED creating this huge crater. After that they really didn't mind too much that we had to drive two hours to see the crater. You should have seen how captivated they were by it all. Amazing.




This is the amazing quilt that my mom made Davis!

At the end of the month we ventured down to my parents for an action packed reunion with my siblings' families, grandparents and Auntie J. We visited Columbia, an old Cowboy town in the foothills of CA and the Jelly Belly Factory. We swam, shot paintballs, rebuilt a "spy fort" for the kids and ate and ate and ate. The things I loved the most about this time were watching the kids play together, visiting with my family and the luxury of being able to take kid-free morning walks with Jed. We all had some really good laughs and did I mention that we ate well?

Then back home we came to tackle the last few weeks of summer and the bountiful fruit from our trees. With the prompting and help of some friends I canned pears and peaches (the peaches were not from our yard) and grape juice. Then we made and froze plum pies and Jed took the lead on drying yet some more pears and plums. I have to admit that I never thought that I would be one who would can anything, but there is something really satisfying about the whole process.