We have had so much fun over the past two weeks with our cousins Sierra (11) and Kian (4). They come every year and stay with us and go to VBX. The kids have so much fun playing together. Grammy helps out a TON by making all of our breakfasts and lunches (she cleans up too ). We did lots of fun things like swimming at KlineLine and making sandcastles, face-painting, cake decorating, sewing and lots of other crazy things. The kids had so much fun this year just making up things to do.
We had another fun year this year at VBX. The theme was "Crocodile Dock." The kids learned to fearlessly shine God's light. We took our neighbors and our cousins each day so we had quite a car full. They were so cute, singing all the songs and doing the motions. It is for sure a tiring event but so worth it. There were over 250 kids and 80 workers. The kids raised money this year to buy orphans in Rwanda shoes and together brought in $1300.......enough to buy 326 pairs of Crocs! It was so exciting!
Well, the day finally came. The day that Ben has been longing for for quite some time now. The tattoo has been something he's wanted since we were married. So here it is, 12 years later and he finally got it. If you are an adult and are reading this I am sure you can relate with the fact that there are lots of things we want and we get so close to getting whatever it is and then the money set aside is needed for something else. So for Christmas the deal was sealed. It took about 4 hours. I was able to go thanks to my parents watching the kids for us. Two of his friends also showed up to show some support. Thanks Peter and Benjie. I was pretty intrigued by the whole process and I am really glad that I was there to see it and be part of it. I think if he would have come home with it I would have freaked out a bit because it was quite a bit bigger than I was thinking. I love it though. Ryan did a great job. Sydney is excited for when daddy is going to get one with her name on it. It's going to be awhile however. My name......even longer.
This has been a busy month....lots of normal stuff and a bit of the extra and exciting too. We seemed to have lots of birthday parties and baby and bridal showers. The two highlights would be family picture day and Thanksgiving. Picture day. Wow! It started out a little on the rough side. I had my idea of how I wanted everyone to look, not specific but in general. The girls wanted to do the fancy dresses thing but that wasn't really what I was going for. We came up with some suitable compromises. We went to the Ace Hotel downtown Portland and our friend Kim started snapping away. The girls did great. It was a typical NW rainy day so most of the pics were taken inside. It was a lot of fun. Now, to order the prints and send them out!
This year was really fun. The girls were so excited about their costumes and getting all dressed up. We usually go around the neighborhood with one or more of the grandparents and let the girls trick-or-treat and then it's off to Neewollah at Church where they have a horse drawn carriage ride, games, food and a huge bounce house.
Just thought I'd share these cute pictures with you. A friend from church passed down this dress with matching purse and shoes that she made (well the dress anyway). Both of the girls love it!
Leah, Noel and Sydney had fun the other day playing around the house. They made their own Chuck E. Cheese where they could win tickets and then come to pick a prize. All these prizes on the couch were worth different amounts of tickets. It was so cute!
Here is Noel and her good friend Savanna on their first day of school. Don't they look adorable. Noel was so excited about wearing her "SouthPole" jacket and "skinny jeans." Little fashion queen already.
Both Noel and now Sydney are enjoying playing fun little games on pbskids.org. They are learning computer skills while playing games and listening to stories as well as interacting with their favorite cartoon characters. This is a good alternative to watching TV and entertains them for short bits of time here and there so mom or dad can get some stuff done quick. If you have kids and haven't checked this out yet........do it! Playhouse Disney has a lot of great stuff too!
The painting on the top is one I did for a friend (Tiffany) I wrote her life verse over the top of it. I think it turned out pretty great!
Our family reunion this year was great. We all met in Manzanita, Or right on the beach for our bi-annual get together. We stayed in a really nice house along with Charlie and Emily, Dave and Carol, Rachel and Dan, Karen and Corey, Joel and Morgan, Brenda and Dave, Connie and Mike and all the kids. The girls had a great time getting to play with Leah, Denise and Angela. Both houses had lofts that the girls all made into their hideouts.
Sydney's Birthday was slightly chaotic from the start but it turned out really well. We were supposed to meet at Esther Short park but as it turned out, about 3,000 other people were already crammed into that park. That is exactly why I called ahead to make sure this was a good weekend to have it there. I think I talked to the wrong person. Oh well, we made it over to Marshall Park and everything worked out just great. The kids had a nice time playing on the huge playground while the adults enjoyed the shade on a hot day! 
Vacation Bible School was definitely Extreme this year! We got to have our cousins Sierra (10) and Kian (3) stay with us for a whole week and enjoy VBX together. The kids had a blast! The theme was POWER LAB, there were lots of experiments, great Bible stories and lots of awesome music. I think we had 260 kids attend this year. Kian and Sydney are in the second picture and in the third picture Sierra had her picture taken with the craziest guy there Jesse Atwood. In the last picture is Noel and her two good friends Chrissy and Savanna.
Here is some more art work. At the top is my first try at a mural......it's on our wall at home. Second picture is a mural that I did for my cousin Blake for his 15th birthday. It's in his room. We photo copied a picture off an album cover and put it onto a transparency and then I was able to paint over the image with black acrylic paints (thanks for the advice Denise). I really like how it turned out. It was a lot of fun.
Wow, so much has changed from the
So, one of our favorite family shows is Ace of Cakes. Seen it? It's amazing what they can do with cake. We all enjoy seeing what Duff and the gang are going to come up with. They mostly work on fondant cakes. Needless to say the show inspired me to try my hand at it. I first attempted Annabelle's soccer cake above with homemade fondant. It tasted pretty good but was a bit greasy and harder to work with so for Noel's birthday I tried the store bought stuff (not cheap). It tasted.....well, let's just say it looked pretty but you didn't want to eat it. It was very fun to work with and Noel loved it. She actually designed the cake herself with the little curly bobs on top. The castle cake in the middle was for Leah's 7th birthday! Love this pink and princess phase. I'm glad I finally gave into it all. I plan on making something fun for Sydney's birthday this summer. She says she wants the same cake as last year. I am going to try and talk her into something else.
We have been having a great time the last few months hanging out with cousins. Mom's and Dad's need breaks.........and cousins like to be together. We have had several slumber party's complete with movies and popcorn, playing dress-up, and also playing with our new favorite activity - "the treasure box." The treasure box is an idea that I borrowed from BSF which is a big tub full of rice and beans and all sorts of treasures like gold coins, rings, frogs, and all sorts of other miniatures. The kids can dig and sift for treasures and then record their findings. It keeps them occupied for quite a bit of time.
