Aunt Michelle Had a Farm, E-I-E-I-O....

Oh Boy, do we have a lot to report from our week in Spokane. First off, I have to tell you that Jed's sister, Michelle, along with her husband, Tom, children, Tessa and Matt, 5 dogs, 2 cats, two ponies, two horses, a bunch of cows and chickens, 2 pigs and some goldfish live on the most beautiful property that exists in this country. Seriously, it is so lush and breathtaking. It is for this reason and all that the property offers that we decided to have a big reunion at their homestead. The only regret that I have to report is that Jed's brother, Ryan, wasn't able to make it. We sure missed you Ryan! The rest of the report is as follows:


Catching Chickens and Pigs: I am not quite sure if I should start with this, but after polling the boys and all of the cousins, this activity was at the top of all of their lists of great memories for the week. The men made it their quest to catch this one particularly ornery rooster. It may seem like an easy task, but if you have ever tried to catch a rooster, you will know that it is quite tricky. It was hilarious watching the kids and men running around, totally out of breath, as the bird repeatedly escaped their grasp. I am not sure, however, if that was more amusing or watching them try to catch the pig (to avoid looking like a complete redneck family, I am not going to mention that the pig was lathered in butter--we'll just leave that detail out!). Those pigs are strong creatures!


Coeur D'alene Lake: Another highlight was a trip to Coeur D'alene, Idaho for the day. We had lunch at the park. Then spent time splashing in the lake before playing on the playground. It was a beautiful area and a very fun day.

Birthday Party: This event is documented in the previous post.


ATVs: Uncle Tom's ATVs are a HUGE thrill for Davis. How could he resist the repeated requests, "Uncle Tom, can I ride your A-T-V?" Tom, you are a champ!


The Trampoline: Oh how the kids LOVED the trampoline. They jumped and jumped and jumped and jumped. I am not sure all of the games that they played out on that tramp, but sometimes they were dinosaurs, or good-guys and bad-guys, or having dance contests...I am not sure all that went on out there, but there was a TON of giggles because of that equipment.


Strawberry Picking: Not far from Tom and Michelle's house there are a group of farms that neighbor each other, more or less. When the different farms have things in season they are open to the public and you can go and pick all the produce you want (for a minimal cost of course). Lucky for us, strawberries are in season. Yum-yum! The kids picked and picked and ate and ate and ate. It was great. Afterward we went to another farm for ice cream. Delicious!

Projects: Of course I had to bring a couple of art projects for the kids...I couldn't resist. My favorite was decorating Frisbees and then having contests with them.


Fire Pit: What would a farm be without a great fire pit? Two nights we enjoyed dinner made over the fire and SMORES. Each night Kate was a filthy little girl, but boy was she happy!

Paint ball shooting: Jed brought his paint ball gun and the kids (of all ages) enjoyed shooting at trees, tin cans and a wheelbarrow.

Grandma Nila's Reading Club: Jed's mom started this tradition a couple of Christmas' ago. When we are all together we have Grandma's Reading Club (that is what I call it anyway). She gives all of the kids new books and then the adults pair up with a child and the older children read a few pages to that adult and the adults with the younger children read their books to them. After a few minutes the kids switch. I just love that Grandma Nila is passing on her love of books and learning to this next generation.


A few other memorable things: The adult (I won't mention any names...Pam, Jed, Nila, Tom, Kristin...) fascination with Nintendo DS, Owen learning to play video games with Spencer and Sean, Kate seeking out Aunt Kristin, Cousin Jacob (not quite two years old) saying, "No fair!", Davis' new found love (besides the ATV), a dart gun from Aunt Kristin and Uncle Matt, Cousin Spencer telling Owen, "Owen, there are two things about you, you always wear those yellow sunglasses (this is true he would rarely take them off. He has another pair, but this pair is bigger and blocks out more of the sun, he has informed me.) and you like to boss people around (also true)," late night talks with the adults about politics, the future of our families and reminiscing about old memories, and did I mention...LOTS AND LOTS OF FOOD!

Thanks for all the fun...we miss you all already!

Happy Birthday Kater-Tot!

We just returned last night from a wonderful week in Spokane, WA with our family from Jed's side. We had loads of adventures, which I will document later. One of the BIG things that happened while we were away was that Kate turned one! I can hardly believe it. We had a big party in her honor and to honor all of the others in our family with summer birthdays. The kids broke a pinata, blew out candles and exchanged gifts. It was a highlight for me to watch our little girl devour her cake and ice cream and push around her new doll stroller. Even at age one Kate shows an amazing amount of determination and personality. We sure love the way in which you have and are blessing our lives and our family you sweet, strong, opinionated, lovable girl. We love you Kater-Tot!

BUSTED!

So today Shelby, Ellie and Weston stopped by for a little while. Shelby had helped me pick out some colors for our house, which was just painted, and had come to see how the black door turned out (love it!). Anyway, the kids were running around the family room and Ellie came over and said, "Miss Erica, I think Kate drew on your chair." I went over to see that someone had drawn all over the seat of a brown leather chair in our family room (a hand-me-down, so don't be too impressed or concerned). Immediately I asked who had drawn on the chair, although it was pretty obvious that Davis was the culprit. Owen confirmed my suspicion with a "Davis did it!", but before I could even scold Davis I saw something that told me that Owen was not totally innocent. In the top right corner was a small "B-Y-U". BUSTED OWEN! Owen loves to write "BYU" since it is "his football team." I looked at Shelby and we tried really hard not to laugh. She reminded me that this story was blog worthy, so I am jotting this down as the boys are in the other room scrubbing the chair with Daddy. Ay, Ay, Ay!

A tribute to the two most important Dads in my life...

I feel that I have been greatly blessed to be surrounded by good men in my life. I have incredible brothers, brother-in-laws, uncles, friends and most importantly an amazing father and husband.

My Dad: Some of the things that I most admire about my Dad are that he has never stopped working hard for his family (he has an amazing work ethic), through his trials he has remained dedicated to his faith and the Lord, Jesus Christ, he has a hilarious sense of humor and is great at impersonations, he has a mind that loves to learn. Daily I am reminded of experiences with my Dad. I had a headache the other day and remembered how my Dad would rub my face and temples when I had a headache as a child. I was scolding my kids for using bad manners just this morning and remembered how my Dad had once lectured us on and on for burping at the dinner table. Afterward we all sat there in silence, feeling reprimanded. The silence was only broken with a burp and a big laugh from my Dad (I am sure that he is going to love that I shared that story!). I used to love when he would carry me to bed after I had fallen asleep watching a movie or riding in the car (sometimes I would pretend to be asleep, just so that he would carry me to bed). My Dad was and is always willing to fulfill my Saturday morning donut cravings. For these and a million other reasons I love you Dad! Happy Father's Day!

My Jed: Could there be a better husband and father for my children? From the beginning Jed has inspired me to want to be a better person. I admire Jed for his easy going/down-to-earth nature, curious mind, love of the Lord and his family, desire to constantly improve and ability to calm me when I am worried about something. I admire him for his ability to hold his tongue and keep other's names safe. I am thankful for his sense of humor, even when it is teaching our kids to say, “Mom, you look hot!” As a father I am grateful for the time that he spends teaching our children about life and the world around them. It is not often that you find a Dad who is so willing to read parenting books and be involved with the day to day rearing of his children. I am grateful that he will schedule himself out of the office to attend basketball “games”, swim lessons or other things that are important to me and the kids. Just last month Jed and I celebrated our 8th anniversary. It is crazy to think that I have been with Jed for a third of my life! Amazing. I also think that it unbelievable how safe and secure I feel because of him in my life.

Owen says that he loves that with his Dad, "I get to shoot pellets, bbs and paintballs".
Davis says, "I love that Daddy plays with me."

Happy Father's Day Jed! I love you!

A Birthday Shout to Grandma Nila!

Happy Birthday Grandma Nila! We hope that you are as happy today as we are! We love you!

Things I was reminded of today...

Baby Car-car, Davis and Owen in 2006

In this post I thought that I would mention a few funny and memorable things that I want preserved for future generations. I know that I should post more here and there instead of big chunks once a week, but here it is anyway…

Crunchy: Since Owen was two he has had an imaginary friend named “Crunchy”. I am still wondering where he got that name. Owen mostly talks to Crunchy on his Buzz Lightyear cell phone and will occasionally tell me things that are happening to his friend. We didn’t hear about our pal Crunch for months, but recently he has resurfaced. In the past few weeks I have learned that Crunchy has a brother named “Juicy” and another named “Pizza” (I am dying to see what this kid names his children since he named his baby “Car-car” when Jed and I didn’t use it for Davis and he was disappointed that we wouldn’t name Kate, “Flower”) and that he is on a mission for our church in San Diego (the same mission that Owen hopes to go to because it is near Disneyland and has the word “Diego” in it--he likes the show “Go Diego Go”). This kid has quite the imagination and I find it fascinating to see how his mind works. Oh, and while I am on this subject I should mention that, according to Owen, tomorrow is Car-car’s birthday, so Happy Birthday Car-car!

The Bread Store: My friend, Kayde, reminded me this week of this incident that happened a few weeks ago. Every few weeks I take my kids to a bread outlet in town. It is amazing how much bread and tortillas we go through, so I have deemed this outing very much worthy of my time and I am always so pleased with myself afterward for the money I have saved. Well on this particular day Kate was finally asleep in her car seat, which I had set on the cart in the front. Davis had wanted to ride in the back, but I had explained to him that I needed that space for all of the bread that we needed to load up on. He seemed okay with that and was content hanging on to the side. Owen begged me to push the cart and so I relented. I had Owen push the cart over to the shelf that I needed to be at and then I bent down to look at something. I had my back toward them, so I am not exactly sure how it happened, but before I knew it I heard a huge crash…the cart had tipped on it’s side landing on top of Davis (who was screaming) and dropping Kate’s car seat on it’s side as well (she was now awake and also screaming). I hurried to comfort/quiet my children (Owen was standing dazed and confused a few feet away—I am sure he was waiting to see if he was in trouble) and then I said something dumb like, “Talk about making a scene” to all of the bread store workers who had come to my aid. OK, so someone please tell me that this has happened to you too?

Ironing Smironing: I know that it is no secret that I do not enjoy laundry and ironing is definitely not high on my priority list these days. Basically I iron no more than once a week and when I do it is on Saturday night in preparation for our Sunday morning church. All that being said, several weeks ago now I was getting ready to go to a baby shower on a Thursday night. I had decided to wear a shirt that needed to be ironed, so I bit the bullet and did it. As I was standing at the ironing board in the laundry room Owen walked by. He stopped and looked at me with a puzzled look and then finally asked, “Is tomorrow Sunday?” I laughed so hard…maybe someday I will learn to love ironing, but I am not holding my breath.

He said, he said...

Recently I overheard Owen telling Davis that when he was "a little boy" he used to call helicopters "welihopers" (true story--it was adorable). I've been trying to think of something cute like that that Davis says so that I can note it and he can someday tell Kate what he used to say when he was "a little boy". Just last night the boys were changing for a spontaneous water balloon fight and I heard Davis shout to Owen, "I've got my swimming soup!" Who knew the word "swimming suit" could sound so cute!?!