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!

Christmas 2010

We were once again blessed to have family come visit us this Christmas. Grandma and Grandpa Schneider, Uncle Chris, and Grandpa Schwark all made our 2010 Christmas a lot of fun.

We made it to Christmas eve service...with three little kids with colds in tow. It was so full they had to add seats for us. I love candlelight service, the part where we all light our candles one by one and when you look up the room is filled with the most beautiful light. I whispered to Aiden "this is my favorite part" then in true rebellious five year old style he turned up his nose and said "I dont want my candle, take it". The kid is perfecting his button pushing. But it was Christmas, and I was filled with an extra measure of grace and only responded with a smile and hug.

By the next evening however my extra grace was used up. Aiden and Nolen take full advantage of house guests to stay up way past their bedtimes. The adults were trying to watch a movie, and to just appease the kids we set them up with a movie in our room upstairs. Half way through our movie there was excessive thumping and bumping coming from upstairs and upon investigation I found wild sleep deprived hellions cutting Nolens hair. Nolen has the cutest blonde hair, but it takes forever to grow out. It was just getting to a nice length from the summer buzz cut I gave him...Steve fixed it by giving him a mohawk which he sported cutely for a week and then I had to shave it all off today.

Thanks for all the cards and gifts, and thank you for making our Christmas Merry.
sorry about the group photo...worst camera angle ever!

Happy 60th Birthday Dad!

We left last friday to fly to Billings MT, for my dad's surprise party. It has been nerve racking keeping this secret for months. But I did it, and I didnt even mess up the phone call to say happy birthday on his actual birthday from my aunt and uncles the day before the party.

The flight out, no bumps. Security was difficult as is to be expected in this age of flying. Aiden did have a hotwheel in his pocket that sent Steve back and forth three times. But all was well after 10 shoes, 5 jackets, 3 carseats, 2 suitcase, 2 little tents, and my purse made it through.

We had a lovely afternoon with some of my favorite people in the world, aunt and uncle Sande, and cousins Megan and Jeff. Then they were off to a Christmas party and some of my other favorite people in the world aunt and uncle Murray graciously had us over for dinner. (meatless lasagna - so YUM!)

Then back for a night of wrestless sleeping due to small ones being in a new place. The morning brought delicious breakfast caserole and lazily getting ready for the big party.

Twentysome of my dads friends waited quietly as he and my mom made their way down the hall, with Steve a few steps ahead giving us notice.

"SURPRISE!" And he was! My mom did such a great job planning the party and keeping it a secret and you could tell my dad felt really honored. It was fun to see friends and relatives of his that I havent seen in ages.

We spent the rest of the weekend chatting with family and sharing meals. Steve pitched in and hauled some hay, the kids sat on Sassy the horse and jumped in the haystack. Sometimes I forget how blessed I am to have parents that live in the country.

Our flight home was just short of awful. We arrived 12:45 for our flight, and it got cancelled then rescheduled for 6:30pm, and we didnt end up leaving until 7pm. The Billings airport is nice and all, but it doesnt have a starbucks. I can stand almost anything if there is a starbucks. We ate lots of vending machine food, and ate at the restaurant in the airport. The kids were beyond tired, but after the second time through security we just let them run wild. And wild they ran. I stopped caring if we were anyoying to the other flyers. Once on the airplane the combination of vending machine food and some of the worst turbulence made me almost barf. But I didnt throw up, so this still only qualifies as the second worse flight. :)

We made it home! And it was really wonderful to see my family. Thank you to all who housed, fed, and drove us around. We love you!

Aiden's Birthday Party

Thank you everyone who came to the party! You all made Aiden feel so special and he had a blast. I think the bouncy house has met its match! We are going to have to think of something else for next year...

Everything was great, except maybe the food coloring in the cupcakes...As you can see from the pictures...I hope it came out of all the clothes and off all the faces!

Nolen did have a minor melt down when he realized none of the presents were for him. But I am a softie and gave him several after everyone left.

Friends, good. Cupcakes, Good. Wild running and jumping, good.

Happy 5th birthday Aiden!

Thanksgiving 2010

It has been a thanksgiving miracle....SNOW! How much fun! We had a couple inches Monday, and of course ran outside to play and take pictures right away in case it didn't stay too long. But thankfully it stayed and snowed more...or it snew...as Aiden says. We woke up this morning with a couple more inches and immediately grabbed our sleds, which have been sitting in waiting as last year we didnt really see as much as a flake.

We hopped in the big truck and drove to the nearest park with hills and proceed to sled until we were tired and soaked (we have yet to invest in "snow" clothes).

We came home had our fiftieth round of hot chocolate and started preparing the big turkey dinner. we kinda copped out as we didn't have any company and the little people just don't appreciate the hard work that can go into a real thanksgiving dinner. The turkey came halved and prepared from Costco as did the sweet potatoes. The kids had several helpings of whip cream fruit salad and dinner rolls.

We then sat upstairs in our room and watched ample amounts of movies. Why upstairs you ask? Because our old friends are back in town...the rats. One made its appearance at dinner last night. Boo. Steve spent several hours cutting out drywall, patching the only tiny hole it could have come through...that a year of ORKIN was supposed to fix, and rewiring (as long as he was back there) tv stuff. So needless to say the downstairs TV is yet to be reinstalled due to Lowes being closed on thanksgiving...but tomorrow it opens at 5 and Steve is psyched to get up that early.

Happy Thanksgiving.

Mrs. Megan Jones

Aiden and I were honored to be apart of my beautiful cousin, Megans wedding the end of October. Aiden was the ring bearer, and I know I am biased, but he was the cutest ring bearer in the history of ring bearers. Seriously.

He did a great job. I never know if he is going to cooperate or throw a fit, and this time he choose to be very responsible, listened to the coordinator and did a great job. During the ceremony he sat in the front row next to the father of the bride. I could hear him squirming and wiggling and looked down to give him the "YOU HAD BETTER SHAPE UP" mommy glare. Then I quickly decided I better not be caught on film making that face and decided not to look in his direction again. Apparently the person sitting behind him said at one point he looked to find Aiden's feet sticking up where his head should have been. Good thing I didn't see that or who knows what kind of face I would make. Anyhow, no major catastrophes.

Megan was beautiful, her brides maids were all so cute and nice. I gave a toast which nearly killed me.

All in all it was a fabulous wedding!

Love you Mrs. Jones.

Great Wolf Lodge

A couple weekends ago our friends from Portland met us half way at Great Wolf Lodge. It was AWESOME. The hotel has thought of pretty much everything to make it a great place to stay with noisy dirty wild kids. And they thought of me too and conveniently added an in lodge Starbucks.

The water park was pretty cool. You can walk from your room right into the park. Our kids were a little small to let them just go wild, but with constant head counting and rescuing we hit all the major attractions. Both Aiden and Nolen went down slides by themselves. And Aiden went on some big double slides with Steve and I.

"Did you like that"
"Yes!"
"Do you want to go again?"
"NO!"

Nolen added that "tummy like that!"

The best part was when our friends watched the boys for the last half hour the park was open and Steve and I went back by ourselves. We went down the "big" slides, and I screamed, a lot. I would have gone more but I was so exhausted from running up all the steps each time I was starting to get leg cramps.

Anyway, it was a hit with everyone. And it was so nice to get a few moments to chat with my friend.

Four stars.

Grandpa Sandes Visit

My dad drove all the way out from Billings MT, to spend a couple of days with us last month. We had so much fun with him! The boys and I took him to the park, we went on walks and we even made it to the Museum of Flight. So much fun!

Halloween 2010

So I am on the hunt for better ways to not celebrate Halloween, and celebrate something with a focus on Christ, and not death and goblins. But I started thinking about this too late this year and we already hyped up the costume thing. And I just couldn't disappoint two spidermen and a cute little duck. At least they still bought the idea that Halloween is just about handing out candy, and not collecting it.

Nolen ended up handing out most of the candy as Aiden ran around and got too sweaty and had to take his costume off. Coen did help out and waved at everyone.

They were cute. And it was fun. And I will try to do better next year!

The Zoo with Grandma

The Schneider's came for a weekend visit. And the boys, Grandma, and I went to the zoo. The zoo is always great, but this time we got to watch the Komodo Dragon eat giant white rats! Gulp! It was gross and the boys loved the slobber and gore of it. Now how come I cant get them to scoop the guts out of a pumpkin??

Pumpkin Picking

Hunting for pumpkins is fun. And each year our group is bigger and cuter. They hunted and hunted for just the right pumpkins. They got their faces painted, they looked at the farm animals and they ate junk food. And from the looks of it Steve got a work out hauling everyone around!

Dress Design for Shabby Apple Dresses

Check out my mom, Linda Schneider's, cute dress designs for the Shabby Apple dresses design contest! I love spending time wistfully dreaming of buying all their cute dresses.

Life Right Now

We are settling into school for Aiden and the new routines that brings. I have a love/hate relationship with morning deadlines. There has been one close call of desitin (diaper rash cream) being mistaken for toothpaste, due to me being overly tired, and WHO?? would put them in the same drawer??

Aiden was so excited his first day of preschool. He was bouncing around me all morning, "I AM SO EXCITED FOR SCHOOL!" I twirled around in a half panic and quietly thanked the Lord I had two other kids who need my attention and distracted me from all the unknowns of leaving your precious first born in the hands of someone else.

Little did I know Nolen would be the one who needed extra coddling on Aidens first day of school. We all three accompanied him to his class. I felt it was a bit much having the whole family out of the van, but we were in minority as many kids had both parents and sibling and cameras flashing as they made their way into academia. Aiden went right in, introduced his brother to his teacher and as we turned to leave, Nolen started screaming, "NOLEN SCHOOL NOLEN SCHOOL NOLEN SCHOOL!" I had to drag him out literally kicking and screaming. Once in the van he whimpered, "miss aiden miss aiden". Aiden was pleased to hear that Nolen had missed him to tears, and now asks everyday, "Did Nolen cry because he missed me?"

I didn't realize how much Aiden did around here as far as entertaining the masses. Nolen drags me out to play legos and wants me to paint with him and go play outside. So far it is not the two and half hours of productivity (or lazily laying around reading) that I had envisioned.

But as this is just the beginning we will solider on and I am sure just as I get the hang of things, they will change.