Springtime and outings!

Spring is a little slower in our neck of the woods, possibly because of the slightly higher altitude (?). But how exciting it is to see the bulbs coming up, and enjoy the sunshine and balmier weather! We are loving every minute of it.

The lawn is also a delight after not having one for quite a while! I've never thought of lawn-mowing as a chore; it's so nice "have to" spend time outside.

The kids are still enjoying their forts.

This picture is a little embarrassing because of Jenna's stained clothes, but interesting none-the-less :) I don't know who took it.

We went to an air show on Saturday (my first time!) and it was a lot of fun. If Steve was writing this post, he'd tell you all the kinds of planes and helicopters but I don't have a clue; they were interesting and many times unique though :) It was just so nice to feel the sunshine and walk around outside.

They had a lot of activities for the kids. The jumping thingy was Holly's favorite.

Steve complained that I picked a boring airplane for the background of this pic...

Here's our little doll, probably catching her first real rays of sunshine ever!

This airplane looks like it's in trouble but it's just taking a dramatic nose-dive with smoke for effect.

We saw some of these remote-controlled airplanes in action and they are spectacular!

Steve admired this little plane, then read the sign in front... turns out it's owned by D. Mischke!

A coop school trip to a creamery in the area...

A very appropriate spot for our little piglet's face... :)

This pic is out of place and a little odd. We took the kids to a party at Steve's work. Holly was absolutely terrified of this rabbit; I wish I had a picture of her face. She wouldn't go near him in the room.

Cash Shoes

Once in a while, my kids add an item to my grocery list. It's usually Marie, and I can usually figure out what it's about. But last week I just could not figure out what was going on with "cash shoes" and who wrote it??? At least, not until I asked Steve out loud and heard myself say it. Yep, turns out Steve wrote it, and what he meant was "cashews." Steve is a smart guy. He once took a military entry test (or something like that) and scored in the high 90s in everything. Except spelling, in which he got 14%. I think it has something to do with his snarky personality too, because he figures if we can understand what he says, then it's spelled correctly.

Some more random pics...

We still have the creep living next door, so our kids' outdoor time is limited to when we're out there. It's now a touchy subject with the neighbor and Steve doesn't want to bug him about it anymore, so we're really hoping he'll get rid of the guy before summer. Even so, he wants his weird bachelor son to live there instead, so it's still not a good situation. And the kids' favorite spots to play are in their forts pretty near where he lives :(

Flowers are always a good excuse to take a picture :)

We call Jenna our "Pumpkin Therapy". Emily was discouraged and having a bad day, and what can cheer you up better than holding a sweet chubby baby, our little "pumpkin"?

What we've been up to lately...

Not much really :) We've mostly gotten over colds and the flu now, except for Jenna who is congested and seems to be teething. She is not her normal self, poor thing. Steve is busy with a lot of meetings lately.

Steve decided to watch the Lord of the Rings movies as a family, a little bit each night here and there (the extended versions - wow are they long!). I think Joel's too young and there's a lot of nail-biting and pausing the movie to explain parts, but they are really getting into it. Actually, Joel sticks his whole hand in his mouth when he gets tense :) I'm hoping Emily and Marie will read the books, if not now then in a few years.

Holly never tires of playing with her doll and listening to its electronic sounds... I'm very thankful that they did a good job making the sounds sweet and soft even when it's crying, although it's still trying at times and I've also wondered if it's the doll or Jenna.

Em & Marie are taking a knitting class at coop school, and enjoying it. It's a little challenging to come up with new projects as they are so ambitious they go through quite a few. Below is Holly modelling her new scarf. If anyone would like one done, let me know and we'd be happy to make one for you.

The kids had fun growing hybiscus (each year there is a virtually unlimited supply of free bulbs, compliments of brother-in-law Travis). They each grew at least one, but Emily did most of the watering. They are now planning out what to grow in the garden soon. I think pumpkins and sunflowers top the list.

Joel builds a lot of Lego airplanes. I really should take more pictures of their creations. Emily's latest is a pyramid, complete with a mummy wrapped in bits of toilet paper inside (she used a Lego skeleton man for that :). Does anyone else have trouble getting their kids to take Lego stuff apart? My kids want to keep them up on top of the piano for MONTHS. I guess that's one disadvantage to having great amounts of Lego. We found the motherload at a garage sale years ago, for less than $10.

It's not spring yet! We got more snow just this past week, and a big windstorm two nights ago.

January & Emily's birthday

Marie got a new haircut. This was our family's first visit to a hair salon of any sort in about 8 years! (Yes, we're Dutch, and yes, there was a sale on for $8 haircuts :)

Steve's grandfather died a few weeks ago, and here are some pictures from the funeral. The grandchildren sang "I Will Sing of the Mercies of the Lord Forever", one of Grandpa's favorite songs, and it was amazing to see how many grandchildren there are! (and that's without spouses and great-grandchildren)

Moessie with her three daughters

The kids are holding there geode rocks from Ruth, which Steve sawed open. Once they found out they weren't just plain old rocks and that there was something interesting inside, they were practically splitting at the seams waiting to find out what was in them.

I'm trying to think of what's new here, but there's not much, even though we're pretty busy. We're back to regular rainy Washington weather. Steve's on the plant shutdown at work, and we're thankful he's working and even getting a bit of overtime even though the union hasn't made a deal yet and other refineries are already striking.



We had 7 girls over for Emily's birthday last week. When that many girls get together, it can get pretty crazy, we found out :) They had a fun day and Emily planned lots of group games so they kept busy. Emily got a digital camera for her birthday, and she and her friends took about 250 pictures! Ouch; now I have to find some disk space to store them all :)

Emily had a sleepover with Marie, then a sleepover with Laura & Steph, and then a birthday party on Sunday.

They're attempting to make a heart-shape.

Jenna is now in a very curious stage; she will be distracted by a string on my sweatshirt, her own fingers, just about anything... so cute to watch! And this week her appetite has scaled back considerably; I'm not too disappointed about that :)







Her rather-uncomfortable-looking spread-eagle position. All our kids did that... I guess that's normal? Another one I don't have a pic of is when they are laying on their backs and hold up both their head & their legs like a seal.