The first grade at Joshua's school had a "Writers' Tea" to celebrate their writing at the end of the school year! All of the families were invited and it was so much fun. Brent, Toby and I were all able to attend.
Joshua with his work
The teachers put a lovely effort into the event...cookies and punch (instead of tea)
Joshua and his amazing teacher Ms. Mary. We have been so lucky to have Ms. Mary this year. She is so kind and experienced, and best of all she loves rambunctious little boys. Every time I talk to her she tells me what a joy it is to teach Joshua. I can't tell you how much I appreciate that!
Joshua and his best buddy Dominic
Joshua's other best buddy Chelsie. Isn't she adorable!?
Just look at that darling face! I love this kid! He has done such great work this year. This picture is with his bat project that he did.
For the benefit of friends and family who don't get to see my pregnant belly on a daily or weekly basis...
Here you go! 28 weeks down and 12ish to go.
This pregnancy has been treating me pretty good. I'm often tired, but have the energy to do the crucial things like exercise, recreate with the family, shop for girls clothes, work in the house and yard, play with the boys, etc. I am having minimal heartburn (so far). I've been seeing a chiropractor and that's been helping with the comfort level a lot! I am really excited to have this baby at home where I can labor outside of the car and finally avoid an IV. And when it's time to push, I can stay in the tub if I want to! And after the baby is here, there will be no nurse to take him (I mean her) down to the nursery and almost give the hepatitis B vaccination that we signed the waiver not to have. Oopsy! No unnecessary tests or monitors hooked up to us. Just my family, my midwives, my baby and I. Ahh, pure heaven! :-)
Sorry the pictures turned out blurry, but I think you get the idea.
It's the new buzzword around our house. (You should try it!)
No seriously...it is only half way through the year already, but I have found our family 'word of the year.' It was a light bulb that went off in my head, an epiphany, inspiration that lead me to this word.
Let me explain...for years now I have had two boys that are like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. They both have this loving side that they they show me and others...where they sincerely show love. But then when it comes to sharing toys, following directions, responding to other's requests, etc. They only do what they want to do. For years they've been this way and for years I've been puzzled why! Why don't they follow my directions when I know they love me? Why don't they share toys when I know they love their friends? I finally figured it out! They did not know what respect was and how to tie their love to their actions through respect. Maybe this seems obvious to some of you out there...and maybe even some of you have been screaming this at me inside your heads for years...I don't know and I don't really care. What I do know and care about is that the boys now understand that if you love someone (and they love everyone, believe me) you respect them, and you show them respect by the way you treat them.
We are now going to talk about respect every day, pray for it in all of our prayers, and everyone in our home will try their hardest to show respect. I've already seen it work tonight as they got their pajamas on the quickest I've ever seen them. Boy howdy am I happy!
I think that the most amazing thing about raising boys (since I grew up in a household of all girls) is realizing that they don't always catch onto things the way that girls do. Girls are so much more conscientious. I guess that is why this took so long to dawn on me.
Brent works in a very small rural town about 20 minutes south of where we live. The people are homey. They all have their opinions about the fun things to do around their town. Somehow Brent got this idea from work that it would be really fun to visit this historical mineral spring down there. He really hyped up the idea with the family. He told us of it's history...it was a bustling resort in the 20's! And really all he had to do was tell the boys it was a 'soda spring' and they could not WAIT! They kept asking 'when are we going to go to the 'soda fountain'?!? So we went:
Ladies and Gents: I give you Wilhoit Spring!
The boys look on with anticipation and thirst!
Brent fills the water bottles, while there is some apprehension from the boys looking at the orange stream...we all have a taste...
and the result is:
It was real mineral water...that's for sure. Like Perrier, with a stronger zest. I can only imagine the images of soda that were conjured in the boys heads, and then the disappointment that followed after tasting THIS stuff. Poor Joshua. He even SAVED his drinking all afternoon (unbeknown to us) so that he could fill up on the soda spring. He was so thirsty as we were leaving that we had to go straight home to get him a drink.
A short distance away from the mineral spring was the artisan well known as 'sulfur springs,' which produced a substance Joshua referred to as 'poo juice'. Only Brent was daring enough to sip that foul-smelling grog with extra fizz. His tongue was numb for a few minutes afterward.
After the 'tasting party' we hiked around to try and find the historic remains of the bath house. Once again, we were disappointed.
But we do still have a couple of water bottles of mineral water in our refrigerator...still trying to decide what we are going to make of it.
This is what Toby did when he was instructed to change out of Sunday clothes and into play clothes:
Just leave on the Sunday shirt and put a play shirt over it. Easy and totally fab! Too bad that doesn't keep the Sunday shirt from getting dirty. And just to emphasize Toby's fashion prowess, he gave his opinion on my latest maternity shirt: boring and stupid. There you have it, folks! This kid has an opinion!
And all of this thinking and opinion forming may just cause you to fall into this state a little early:
Before:
OK-admittedly, our front yard 'meadow' turned into a complete jungle of weeds and various lovely grasses and flowers. That's what a meadow is supposed to look like, right? Well...we were getting the vibe from the neighborhood HOA that this look was not appreciated by the neighborhood. So we ripped out the 'meadow' and laboriously lay out landscape fabric and 7 cubic yards of that good smelling Oregon bark dust (mmm...smell the fresh hemlock).
The labor (of love):
A super huge thanks to my sister Annika who drove down to help out in the spreading of the bark! It was a lot of work and I'm sure it would've done me in without the extra help.
Some of the plants I love:
The planters that I put together for our porch:
After:
I'll admit that I don't like it as much, although it will be much easier to control the weeds. We still need to add a row of shrubs and possibly a tree along that white vinyl fence on the left. We are also going to build a nice flower box to fill with dahlias and vining vegetables. That will fill the huge random (and now very brown) space on the left of the porch. The final touch will be a fence to separate our front yard from our neighbor's (weedy) backyard. Then the front yard will be finished! I am so glad we did this before summer's arrival. And now onto the weed problem in the backyard....
I haven't had time to blog anything in a while and it is SO time to play the Glad Game!!
1) I am glad to live in such a beautiful place
2) I so grateful for my adventurous family...Brent and Toby are always up for an adventure and Joshua always ends up loving them once he makes the transition
3) I LOVE my home...I am so lucky to have such a comfortable place to live
4) I Love that my backyard has a track around the back where Brent and I jog in the mornings. The boys love to ride their bikes around the track too. I love that there is a little mini-forest section that I get to run through.
5) I am so grateful that my boys are best friends. They are so darling together...and they are fighting less and less as they get better at communication.
6) Brent is the very best husband I could have ever hoped for. He is so smart and fun and he is always pushing me to think about things in a new way and to be a better person. He is my best friend on so many levels.
7) I LOVE Joshua. He is most possibly the kindest person I know.
8) I am so grateful that Joshua wanted nothing else on Mother's Day except to bring me breakfast in bed. And Brent already had a wonderful breakfast in the works.
9) I am thankful that I get to help at with Joshua's school. It meant so much to him that I went on the zoo field trip with him...and then the next day we raised almost 8,000 dollars for his school at the jog-a-thon.
10) I am so grateful that I have friends and family here in Oregon who are willing to take my crazy boys and watch them for me while I help out at school and other things.
11) I am really, really grateful for all of my friends. I wish that I wasn't so shy around new people. I wish that every single person was my friend and knew that I love and admire them.
12) I think that I just about have the best family in the world! My in-laws included. I don't know anyone who loves their in-laws as much as I do. My immediate family has been through a lot together and we have become better through it.
13) I LOVE how Toby loves me. I love that he'd rather be wherever I am helping me instead of watching the television or playing the computer.
14) I am grateful for my garden
15) I am grateful for the beach
16) I am grateful for my body. I truly believe that my body can do anything. I LOVE it!
17) I am glad that I know I am a Child of God. When everything else is hard, I know I can depend on that.
18) I am so grateful for girlfriends.
19) How can I not include my gratitude for my Savior.
20) And you...
21) And sleep...oh how I love it. g'night.
Another Saturday off...another adventure. This time Brent suggested the Bonneville Damn, fish ladder, and fish hatcheries...followed by a waterfall hike. This was our first time visiting the Bonneville Damn area, despite the many recommendations given by locals. I am surprised to admit that the best part of the whole area were the fish hatcheries. There are trails and gardens with ponds stocked with large fish, and underwater viewing areas. One of the sturgeons was a whopping 12 feet long! It looked like a walrus! I didn't take any pictures, regretfully since it was POURING rain. I hope we'll go back sometime when the weather is nicer and we can have a picnic on the grass. Brent was still hoping to get in the short 2 mile hike to Wachlella Falls, up the canyon from the damn...and we figured that a great way to motivate the boys to hike was to buy them their own colorful umbrellas at the gift shop! Sure enough it worked!
The Boys had great fun and stayed (mostly) dry with their umbrellas...
And it made for some nice, bright pictures.
It was a very lovely hike. We passed several waterfalls...once again, I would love to go back when it's a little more dry.
On our way down the trail, the sun actually poked its head out and we saw a little bit of blue sky.
Joshua suddenly became "tummy villain"! Watch out!
Joshua with his work
The teachers put a lovely effort into the event...cookies and punch (instead of tea)
Joshua and his amazing teacher Ms. Mary. We have been so lucky to have Ms. Mary this year. She is so kind and experienced, and best of all she loves rambunctious little boys. Every time I talk to her she tells me what a joy it is to teach Joshua. I can't tell you how much I appreciate that!
Joshua and his best buddy Dominic
Joshua's other best buddy Chelsie. Isn't she adorable!?
Just look at that darling face! I love this kid! He has done such great work this year. This picture is with his bat project that he did.
