Spring is Here!!

It's March 21st - yesterday was the first official day of Spring -- can't you tell........

I believe this is the first snowman I've ever made. Sad but true. And it was a lot more work then I thought. And so... it is tiny. And... I was sweating when I was done. That is sad but true as well. (oh and Gwenny helped too. And Jackson threw snowballs at us while we worked. And Addie stayed inside watching tv in my warm bed)

The (new) tradition of making Sam pull them on a sled behind his bike..

Addie trying to catch the snow flakes.....
Caught one in her mouth -- it must have been a yellow snow flake because she clearly was disgusted ;)
And as exciting as snow is to my children for the first 5 minutes of play -- it always turns to this..........
I wonder where they get their aversion to cold from????? ;)

hanging around

Since Sam's current full time job is searching for and applying for jobs - he is home a lot. It's pretty fun to have him around. He'll say "want to go do this or that" - and I'll say "yeah" and then we do. We've gone to lunch. We've gone shooting. We've gone to Portland. We've surprised the kids at school and had lunch with them. We've gone on lots of walks with Jackson - since he is usually home with us while the girls are in school.

This no work thing is kinda fun. A little stressful sometimes - but we are enjoying our time together.

So to update you - still no job (obviously) - but he has been getting lots of phone interviews set up lately and more things seem to keep coming along. So we aren't discouraged. We know the right thing will come along - so we are just waiting. And having some fun while we wait.

Here is a picture of Sam and Jackson from one of our adventures. I love them.

Disneyland 2012

We started our week at Disneyland by starting it off with a run for the whole family. On Sat. morning they held a kids fun run in California Adventures. I ran with the girls and Sam ran with Jackson. I'm so sad that Sam did not think to take any pictures of him. :( But they all loved it and did such a great job. They all got little shirts and plastic medals too.

Here is Addie and Gwenny by the starting line of their run.

The next day I ran the Tinkerbell Half Marathon. I loved it! It was my very first run to run alone. I've always had a running buddy with me. I was supposed to have my friend Carley with me - but due to stupid work stuff - those plans fell thru. Then I was hoping to get Sam to take her spot - which he was willing to do. Some friends from church were actually there at the same time (she did the run too) and offered to let us drop them off at their hotel before the run. The problem was - the run began at 5:45 AM! I had to be there by 4:30AM - so there was no way I was going to do that to anyone or my kids. So I ran it alone. And it really was great.

I had worried because my knee had been giving me a lot of problems in the weeks leading up to it. But I just took a bunch of ibprofen - put on a knee brace and I was good to go. I felt great running. I think it must be the magic of Disneyland. :)
Our hotel was around mile 8 of the race. So I ran with my cell phone and just called to wake up Sam and the kids about a mile before I got there. I can't tell you what a boost it is to have a familiar face cheering you on in these races - so to have 4 loving faces out there cheering for me (bedhead and all) - was awesome!

Then Disneyland begun.

The girls were able to ride on every single ride! Gwenny really wasn't actually tall enough (just by a tiny bit) to go on California Screaming - but they let her ride. And she rode as many times as her little heart desired - which was a lot of times! :) And Jackson could go on everything except 2 - California Screaming and Indiana Jones.

The weekend there was more crowded of course - but once Monday came - it was so great. No lines!! We'd just walk right onto most of the rides. Never want to go when I have to wait - got to spoiled that way.

Have I mentioned how much I love Disneyland. I really do. It just makes me happy to be there.

We met up some some of our favorite friends.....

Addie got over her fear (with a little bride of a $1) and volunteered to get up in front of an audience - that was her fear over fighting the dark side.
She fought a good fight and won! So proud of my girl.
The best part was - we just got to play together for a week - it was fantastic!!

And this is just my favorite picture of the bunch. I just love the look on his face standing there with his buddy Lightening McQueen.
Can't wait for our next trip....although I'm pretty sure Sam can ;)

January's crazy weather

January's summary has to do with the crazy weather. Where we live it doesn't snow very often - but it sure is exciting when it does.

Here is Sam pulling the kids on a sled behind his bike on all that snow! We make the most out of it when it's here. I took a turn pulling too - it was quite a work out.

3 days later - this happened. This is our street. It was crazy. People died from swollen rivers, people were evacuated, even our church building was flooded. It still is not in full use. Hope that does not happen again.

Dec. 2011 catch up

My brother in law - Paul - works for Pepsi in Corvallis. Pepsi had a float in the Christmas parade and wanted "Who's" for their Grinch inspired float. My nieces were in it so my sister - Misty - invited the rest of the cousins to join in. It turned out so cute -- I still am mad they didn't win a prize for their float - they were definitely the cutest - by far. :)

Here they are in action ( I tried to get the red eye out - but wouldn't work - but they still look cute - just a little evil.)

We did a little ice skating. Well the girls and the dad's (and uncle Tony) did. Alicia and I sat out with Tori and Jackson. It was fun to watch tho. Especially watching Sam and my brothers trying to do tricks on the ice.
Then there was Christmas. I was really horrible with pictures this year. Only took a few on Christmas morning when the kids opened their stockings.

Here is Jackson with his Santa present -- another Light Saber
Gwen got her special secret diary that she asked for. The writing only shows up under a special light and the diary only opens up to Gwen's secret word - voice activated. She shows me what she writes in there. It's pretty juicy stuff like "I love mom" and things like that. :) She's pretty cute.

And Miss Addie got her hearts desire. A jewelry box with one of those spinning ballerinas in it. Plus it had a bunch of cute jewelry inside. She is so my mom. :)

And of course - we had our neighbor Shirley come over for Christmas morning to be a part of all the excitement. We love her.
Two days after Christmas - I turned 32. We partied at the roller skating rink. It was really fun! This is the only pic I have from it - it's off my sisters cell phone - so it's not the best. OR we were just skating so fast - we were a blur. Yes, lets go with that.
And lastly - we rang in the new year at Keith and Alicia's house. The kids loved being able to stay up so late AND bang on pots and pans. We are wild and crazy (if it were up to me - I would have been asleep for hours by then - but I'm the party pooper and didn't get my way;)
Good month.

Nov 2011 catch up

I don't have a great memory. Actually its a pretty sucky memory. I'm glad I have pictures to help me. So these past couples months I missed will be short and sweet.

November - we had Thanksgiving. We actually had 2 of them. Sam's family came up the week before Thanksgiving and we got to get together for a Thanksgiving dinner. We actually hosted it - first time ever doing that. But everyone pitched in so it wasn't so bad and scary.

And then on actual Thanksgiving - we had out at my parents house.

here is the kids at my parents house. November was also "no shave november" for Sam - who you can see in the back. He decided to go fancy and shave some chops.He also chose to wear the vest for the extra awesome effect. I LOVED it! ;)

While Sam's sister Raeleen and her family were here we went for a cool walk around my parents house. Isn't it pretty? :)
And that's all I've got for Nov. :)