Santa

We visited the mall Santa this year. I was kinda hoping for a picture with one of them screaming in terror, those pictures are way cuter. But alas, three brave boys, no tears, just lots of requests for presents.

The Happiest Place on Earth

It was pretty darn happy! We had so much fun at Disneyland!!

Aiden went on all the rides at least once. And the scary (fun) ones he would usually say "I really liked that one!" followed by "But I dont want to go on it again!".

Nolen went on quite a few, and Coen went on all that his height allowed.

The weather was perfect, the hotel pool so much fun, and spending time all together without any schedule was great.

There are A LOT of pictures...I got a little carried away with my new phones camera apps :)

Our latest trips

So we are wrapping up summer and getting ready to start school next week!

New pictures at the side of our camping trip. We went with our church and shared a site with our friends and their 3 girls. It was raining while we set up and in just continued raining. The kids didn't even notice...they probably welcomed the extra mud!

The difference between boys and girls was apparent come bedtime. Off went the girls to their tent and quietly drifted off to sleep after 15 or so minutes. Off the boys went...drug their by their dirty toes. Once inside it looked as if a bear accompanied them. The tent shook and bulged, Coen's teeth could be seen biting the inside of the tent. After a particularly big crash I went to investigate. Coen tipped himself out of the packnplay, no one was where they started...a general, but normal, mess.

Not being a die-hard camper we set out for home the next morning and continued our "camping trip" after being showered, back at our friends home for more roasted marsh mellows.

The second group of pictures is of our trip today to the kangaroo farm. Coen as usual was the most friendly with all the animals, not even hesitating to feed a llama with his lips while gaining a kiss. I did it in an attempt to get Aiden to try, but he also characteristically would not be talked into anything he didn't want to do.

I feel as though we have had loads of sunshine lately. I am trying to close my eyes and meld the feeling of the sun and the image of the blue sky into my mind so I can recall it when winter comes!

Busy Busy Busy

Well as you may have guessed we have been busy with summer (since it finally seems to have arrived!)

Coen celebrated his 2nd birthday the beginning of June. There was lots of whip cream, balloons, and bouncing in the bouncy house.

We drove to Liberty Lake for my brothers graduation in June. We were able to visit with lots of family that came for the graduation. It was a really nice ceremony and after party. There was nothing to report of the road trip except that we know every bathroom between here and Spokane.

Then we had a lovely 4th of July. The weather was great and we had our regular Monday night dinner crew over to celebrate. Lots of good food, games and chatting.

And yesterday we participated in the Run of the Mill 5K. I registered Aiden as a runner with high hopes that he would run with me thereby giving me the excuse to go really slow. He consented to run and made it about 100 yards. Then he hopped on the double BOB stroller and Steve pushed all three boys the rest of the way. I told Steve he might as well go as fast as he wants because otherwise he just ends up walking beside me while I jog. He still beat me by 2 minutes. I am not sure how many kids he has to push for me to be able to keep up....
It was really low key, and a good cause raising money for cancer research. We look forward to next years race.

Besides all that our summer project has been to tear out one side of the fence, move the retaining wall out to the property line, and rebuild a fence on top of the new retaining wall. That pretty much occupies our free moments.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful summer!

Easter 2011

Easter was great. I always look forward to celebrating my Lord's victory over death and His gift of eternal salvation for me.

I have wonderful childhood memories of egg hunting at my Grandmas, searching out the special golden egg and eating lots of chocolate. My mom would dress me in bonnets and gloves and white patent leather shoes. Relatives would gather for a much anticipated Easter lunch. There is an air of excitement and reverence that surrounds my memories of this holiday.

Celebrating Easter on this side of the mountains with no family is challenging for me to conjure up the same anticipation, but I think we are getting better every year.

The forecaster said Saturday would be nice and we could not count on the weather for Sunday, so we had our outdoor egg hunts a day early. This year I thought it would be prudent to avoid as much sugar as possible and hide eggs sans candy. I thought they wouldn't even care...boy was I wrong! There was great disappointment upon discovering the plastic eggs held no candy treasure. But they humored me and hunted anyway.

Sunday upon threat and bribery they all wore the nice Easter clothes I picked out for them without too much complaining. They looked so cute. When we arrived home Steve dropped me off and took the kids to pick up the mail so I could hide the Easter "baskets". I set out m&m trails for them to follow to their baskets.

We did dozens more egg hunts, this time with candy. When dad and I refused to hide anymore eggs Aiden and Nolen took turns hiding them for each other.

More than anything want the kids to be able to stand in awe each Easter as we remember the great price paid for our sins. Aiden thanks God each night in his prayers for sending His son to die on the cross so we can live in heaven. This is the best Easter gift I could get.

Introducing Minnie

February and March have brought lots of crazy weather thus lots of indoor activities. This time of year the boys are just climbing the walls wanting to get outside and play. We have had several snow days, crazy thunder, hail and of course lots of rain.

Aiden has been wanting a kitty for a long time so we started praying about it each night. "Dear God, please help us find the right kitten for our family, and please let it not have claws, and if it does have claws help it not to scratch me."

We were at Bridges Pet Store and they had some kittens in...which they don't have kittens pretty much all winter, we have checked. And there was a cute little cat, so we scooped her up as two of her three brothers/sisters were already paid for! (they had just arrived that morning). Apparently kittens go like hot cakes.

I was very apprehensive about whether or not Ellie would be able to accept a cat and we took our time introducing them. At first Ellie would not even look at the kitten, she just trembled and tucked her tail between her legs. I figured this was better than lunging and biting. Over the next two days we put Ellie's muzzle on and let her loose. On the third day we said our prayers and let them get to know each other. Ellie did great, the kitten totally holds her own and as of two weeks later they are pretty good friends. They share treats, cuddle at night and play king of the bed. I could not have hoped for better.

All three kids love toting her around, and are gentle in order of age. She is great and wants to hang out with us and follows us around the house. She was totally littered trained and I found a cool litter box, Litter Robot, which makes all that messy business much easier to handle. She sleeps in Ellie's dog crate in our room for now and doesn't make a fuss all night.

We are pleased to introduce the newest member of our family....Minnie Pink Toes Schwark.

Christmas In February

We got to have a second Christmas party with Grandma Teresa and Grandpa David when they visited us in February.

Aiden got a little kitty toy that walks and purrs and did not quell his desire for the real thing..
Nolen stole dads gift of fun magnet pieces and takes them everywhere...
Coen loves his set of miniature jungle animals..

They all take turns sharing and trading and generally enjoying all their new toys.

Thank you for coming to visit us!

Since returning home, David suffered a terrible fall and has been undergoing many many surgeries to repair broken bones. Please remember to keep him in your prayers.

Nolen Turns THREE!

Okay, so this post is late. Nolen turned three almost a month ago. Prehaps I did not want to write about his party and subconsciously put off posting.

His birthday party was awful. I was going to say disaster...but I am trying not to overly exaggerate things. It started three days before when Coen caught a tummy bug. Within 24 hours he was back to normal. Nolen spent the day before his party acting a little lethargic, but showed none of the symptoms Coen had.

The day of his party he was tired and grumpy, which is not entirely unsual for him. So we forged ahead. Our first party guests arrived. Ellie had yet to be locked up and barked ferociously at the little faces pearing in the window (one of the little faces happens to be rather shy of dogs and proceeded to shriek in fright).

More guests arrived, and I went to find the birthday boy. He was sound asleep on our bed. I woke him up and drug him down stairs to all the chaos. The bouncy house fan was noisily blowing, ellie running around, kids crying...

Things got underway and settled down a bit. We dished out the icecream. Nolen blew out his candle and we started opening presents. Nolen was uncharacteristically not into opening presents. Steve sat him on his lap and helped him get going. About three fourths of the way through the gifts Nolen threw up.

Steve quickly wisked him upstairs to fall back asleep watching cartoons. The party guests finished bouncing and playing and then went home.

I felt horrible. I should have called off the party. I am glad that he probably wont remember this. We did a second party with the family the next day when he was back to himself.

Happy third birthday!