Family Picture Time

My hat goes off to wonderful Amberlyn who was brave/crazy enough to take on my brood. Family pictures this year was an adventure full of surprise,Thomas' funny "WHOOP"ing, and a lot of bribery. Here are a few of the previews. I'm not sure we'll ever manage to get everyone looking at the camera at the same time, let alone with a half way normal expression. But I love how each photo captures the pure essence of each one of the kids.

Yes, I made matching dresses for the girls. I don't know what overcame me. I haven't always been the matchy, matchy sort of girl but it just seemed cute to me this time around. I even attempted to make myself coordinating dress but that didn't turn out so well. But my summer sewing adventures are a whole other story.(I'm saving up for a fancy dress form.)

OK. So...Townsend was "on a roll" this day. How I love that kid and all his boyish antics. Ephraim is pretending to shoot something in this one, which is pretty his new favorite pastime. Ada is trying to escape which her new favorite pastime. Marley thinks we're all a just a little weird, which is her new favorite thing. Jairus, well he was just plain happy for a minute which is not generally his favorite thing to be. And Aislyn, I think she was dreaming of the chicken nuggets we had to promise in order to get her to agree to this whole thing.

I have not been much in the mood to blog as of late. I have to admit I have been struggling a bit with a case of the "bad attitudes". I don't know what's wrong with me, but I have been uncharacteristically negative and grumpy for awhile now. My poor family. Also I don't really get any comments anymore so I don't feel motivated to write. It's all about the comments, people! I'm talking to you brother Brent.

Life is good though. Ever changing, busy, and chaotic. But I am so thankful for it all.

Aislyn+Scissors

So today we had a little excitement. As you can see Aislyn did some experimental work with my sewing scissors late last night. This is what I was greeted with this morning as I came out of my bedroom. Pure awesomeness! It was one those moments when you can't decide if you want to laugh or cry. I mean, I was really excited to get some family pictures taken in a couple of weeks. I had happy dreams of everyone looking pretty, clean, and sweet. And now....uh, this.

Luckily we have a new friend in the ward, Cristy who was so very helpful. She saved us from a buzz cut! On the bright side, she looks a little like Haily Mills in Parent Trap.

Paddle Boat Racing

Day two in Boise Thomas didn't have to work much. So we found a riverfront park to spend the day in. Did you know that Boise is called the City of Trees? Indeed it is, and it really is quite beautiful. I am not much of a desert loving person. The desolate hills and mountains all along the drive to Utah have in my estimation always been UGLY. So needless to say I wasn't too excited about a family vacation to Boise. I pictured it just being more dry, dusty, wasteland. I stand corrected. Such a beautiful river and trees and grass everywhere. It was hot and sunny the whole time, but not too hot.

There was a place you could rent paddle boats and since none of us had ever been on a paddle boat we thought we'd give it a try. It took three boats to accommodate all of us and once we figured out who should ride with who we were on our way.

Townsend, me, and Ada rode together. Townsend felt pretty cool being able to drive the boat. And of course as no ten year old boy would be, he was not content with mere liesurely paddling. And so a paddle boat race ensued! Turns out though, no matter how hard you peddle you really can't go very fast.

So, leave it to my sweet husband to up the ante and turn the paddle boat race into paddle boat bumper cars. Not to worry though, paddle aren't very good at bumping either. And in the end we all just paddled slowly side by side and had a lovely afternoon.

Boise-Day One

It's been two weeks now since we left for Boise. I'm not behind or anything! Thomas was going for a week to help set some new scanners up at the Boise airport. Since the hotel and mileage were paid for we thought we might as well all go. As we were getting off the freeway to get to our hotel we saw of all things the Boise LDS Temple. So for our first adventure that's were we went. The boys had a lovely time discovering hidden doors all around the building, Aislyn spent her time fighting the urge to pick the flowers, and Ada was just trying to decide which she liked least, the sun in her eyes or the sun bonnet on her head. We met a lovely family who actually lives just 20 miles from us. The mother was from Brazil and she had all her family visiting with her. I just love listening to people speak in different languages.I can't wait for Thomas and I to be able to go on missions together. It motivated me to get back on track with my Spanish lessons on Rosetta Stone.
Our first day there was Sunday and temples are closed on Sundays. But the gate to parking lot was open so I just drove in. As we headed back to the car, much to my surprise I saw that the gate was now locked. I stood there for a moment with my mouth literally gaping open. And then I noticed a man across the lot with an amused expression on his face. Luckily he was kind enough to let us out.
It is a beautiful and unique building- how cool that we just happened upon it? 

Home

Here's my pretty girl. Camp can wear a girl out. She was away from us for a whole week! I just can not believe that my baby girl is old enough to go to Girls Camp. She had "THE BEST TIME EVER". She got so tan while she was away I almost didn't recognize her. Now she's home, well sort of. We had a fun time surprising her with an improptu family vacation to Boise. Poor thing didn't even get to go home and shower, we left straight from the church.

What have we been up to?

Rolling down grassy hills.

Playing with chickens.

Picnicking with our much missed, unofficially adopted daughter Felicity who is back in Washington for the summer.

Snuggling with the cutest, sweetest, fat baby around.

We've been in Port Orchard for almost two months now and all I can say is I LOVE IT HERE! It is true that our house here is much smaller but somehow it's actually made life a little easier. I like that no one can hide from me. I love how beautiful it is everywhere. I love that the kids are practically always outside. Even my little TVaholic, Aislyn has all but forgotten about the lures of that creativity sucking television. They play "explorer" every day. I love my chickens. I love all the different birds that I've never seen before. I love how much more friendly people are here. Even the Costco sample ladies who in Tacoma are notoriously cranky are pleasant and sweet out here. I love our ward at church, I've never felt so welcomed. I love our neighbors/landlord.
Things I don't love: missing my friends and having to drive back over the bridge to visit them. Have I ever mentioned my irrational fear of deep, dark water? And I don't so much love the crazy big hills here everywhere you turn. Ok, I do love them just not when I'm trying to run. They're killing me.
We do still plan on ending up in Utah someday but for now I will just hope that's way off in the future. Port Orchard rocks!

NEW YORK!(a month ago)

The last week in April Thomas, Ada, and I got to take a little trip to New Jersey to visit my beloved brother in law Brent and his lovely wife Sheree. We have missed them terribly since they left us for the Garden State. Thomas and I celebrate both our birthdays and our anniversary within a three week time period, so this little trip commemorated 14 happy years together. Man we're getting old! We ate REAL Italian food, saw a few historic sites, drove around looking at old beautiful houses, saw the Manhatten temple/stake center, went to NY City for a day, but mostly just spent time with people we dearly love.