Keeping up

It has been months since I last posted anything. We have had a lot on our plates. I am starting fresh. I will try to throw some old pictures and news in from my time away from the computer, but I am just really going to try to keep up starting today.

Spa-tastic Picnic

Lily and Nora LOVE to have picnics outside whenever they can. They will eat whatever they can find, anytime they can find it. They put it on plates and take it out onto a blanket in the yard and viola - a picnic. Today we cut up some cucumbers from the garden, opened a can of mandarin oranges, made pb&j's and added a few goldfish crackers. What ensued was not part of the plan. I looked out the window and found them lying on their backs like so....

Spa-tastic Picnic 2

Upon closer look I found this....
and this...

Tell me you could..

Tell me you could say no to that face! We can't!! We just all say "awwwwww" and then pick him up and love him until he stops the insanely sad face. Yes, he is destined to be spoiled! (8/23/08)

Sidewalk art

The girls spent the afternoon creating masterpieces on the front walk. They found that if you soak a piece of sidewalk chalk in water and then rub it on the concrete, it becomes a kind of paint that is fun to use. The colors are very vibrant when they are wet and mistakes are taken away with the hose. I wasn't too thrilled with them when I found them using my good craft paint brushes on the concrete, but other than that, they had a blast. (8/19/08)

Windows and doors

Our house is on the up and up. We now have windows and doors all the way around. The photos are of the front and east side of the house. It really adds something. It makes it look like it might be finished soon. I won't get my hopes too high, but it is nice!
(The different color house wrap is due to the lumber supply company only carrying rolls of one length in one color and the other length in another color. To wrap the house and not have to pay for a bunch of extra we will never use, Matt purchased a roll of one and a roll of the other. It looks funny, but it saved us some $ and that is important!!!) (8/19/08)

The Big Kahuna

Auntie Holly bought Jaren the cutest Hawaiian pjs that say "Big Kahuna" on them. He is quite a chunk, so the title fits him well! He is only in his 3rd month and they are 3-6 months and I am not sure they will last him much longer. The waist band squeezes his guts too much and causes him to spit up. I HATE that!
In one of her crafty moods, Lily made him a Big Kahuna head band. It did have a volcano on it at one point, but it fell off. What a cutie! (8/19/08)

Being creative

With all the sitting around I am doing with Jaren, the girls have found solace in watching the Olympics with me and being "crafty". They will pull out all of our craft boxes with markers, crayons, paint,fun scissors, glitter, sequins, etc. and create to their hearts content. They will work for hours. Usually after a swim at the pool or a run outside. Matt is back at work already, so they can't help him with the house until the afternoon. They really are good girls who love to be creative! (8/18/08)

Hailstorm

We had a hailstorm today of all hailstorms. We had to worry about water damage to the new part of our house, since there isn't a roof, etc. The hailstones were HUGE. The girls thought it was quite a sight to see all those falling from the sky.

GO USA!!

We found the Beijing Olympics to be absolutely captivating! Since I was caring for a newborn and was nursing A LOT, I spent a lot of time sitting down. Anytime there was coverage about the olympics, the t.v. was on. That could account for the weight I haven't been losing, but really, watching the olympics is THAT GOOD! We watched Michael Phelps win his 8 gold medals. We watched Nastia Liukin and Shawn Johnson win their medals. I became an even bigger fan of the skulls (I have always wanted to do that!!!) and we loved watching the diving competitions. Those Chinese divers are amazing! All I can say is I can't wait for 2012 cause the summer olympics are the best!

Matt's Antelope

Opening morning Matt killed a very nice 15 1/2 inch antelope buck right where he had planned at the farmer's the day before. It was a one shot deal. They dragged it to the truck, hung it in the farmer's barn to skin and gut and came home. It was fun for Matt and Mori and they made some good friends in the process! (8/16/08)

Owyhee Hunting Trip

Matt drew 4 hunting tags this year. His first was an antelope tag that takes and average of 12 years to draw. It was his first year to apply for that tag. Needless to say, he was very excited. He and Mori took off for Southern/Central Oregon, by Vale, to go find a big Antelope buck. It was VERY hot and a VERY long drive. They befriended a farmer's son and the family the day before the hunt and was invited to hunt the lone buck that had been eating their alfalfa all year. While talking about the particulars of the hunt, Mori was invited to feed their orphan deer fawn that they had saved when its mother had been killed. With all the plans for the next morning, Matt and Mori found a "campground" (we would call it the desert around here) and camped for the night. There were 1000s of mosquitoes around and they were kept up by coyotes and other animals all night. They slept very little and got up even earlier than usual to go and try to kill a buck.

Matt's Flower Garden

My husband has a green thumb! He loves to plant flowers and watch them grow. A few years back, he purchased a few hibiscus plants for our yard. He has kept them healthy and now we have even more plants than before. The flowers attract a lot of attention by passers by because they sit at the corner of our lot.
Matt also always plants zinnias around the fence -- hundreds and hundreds of zinnias. My dad has always had a row of zinnias between his house and the neighbor's. Matt's flowers bring back lots of childhood memories!
I love what Matt does with his flowers! They are absolutely beautiful!

Hendrickson Reunion

This year was the year for another Hendrickson Reunion. They have been happening every two years since way before I was born. My grandma had 7 siblings. Every other summer all of their kids and grandkids get together to catch up on life, play cards and have fun. This year we had it up the Grande Ronde River at Camp Elkanah. It was so fun. We had all the entertainment for the kids imaginable, including a water slide that was 25 feet wide by 100 feet long. The girls couldn't get enough of it! They also had mini-golf, a huge playground, and a game room. I spent most of the time in the main hall with all of the "grown-ups" playing cards and catching up. I LOVE these reunions and look forward to the next one. (8/11 - 8/13/08)
**Girls on the slide
**Nora with cousin Adryanne Frewing
**Great-Aunt Edye Rodell holding baby Jaren (she is my grandma's baby sister)

Special pictures

On Jaren's blessing day, he pooped all over his special outfit that Grandma Isaacson made him, so we didn't get special pictures of him with all the family that came to his blessing. This was a first. I always had family pictures for the girls' blessings. I hate that we didn't get those pictures, so I decided to take some of just him in the outfit so that we at least had SOMETHING. He is just such a special boy and he looks so adorable in the little outfit. (8/10/08)

Picking partner

Can you see why I don't mind picking many huckleberries? I get to spend lots of mommy time with this little guy instead! (8/9/08)

Our Family

We had mom and dad take a family picture of us for posterity sake. We sure love our kids! (8/9/08)

Time to pick huckleberries

It is a yearly tradition for us to go pick huckleberries up on Tollgate. This evening we went up with grandma and grandpa Isaacson for a couple of hours and brought home a few gallons for the freezer. Lily and Mori are pretty serious pickers. They value the berries as much as we do. Nora is a fair-weather picker. She travels from person to person picking a few here and there and talking with whomever will talk to her. Matt just puts his head down and works until the kids are tired, it is dark, or too cold. This year I have been spending as much time with Jaren as picking berries. That is a fun job too!
We guard these berries and eat them sparingly so we can have them until next huckleberry season. We eat them in pancakes, on cream cheese pies, and our favorite is huckleberry coffee cake. We make it often. We will be going up to pick again for FHE this coming Monday with a few friends. YUMMY!! (8/9/08)

Not working?

I have taken this school year off. I had made plans with a teaching colleague of mine to have her use my room with my stuff for a year so I didn't have to move it anywhere. She got hired by the district recently and they moved a different grade level into my room, so I have spent the past week packing up and moving out of my room. I really don't have a place to put it at my house since it is under construction, so we have rented a storage unit to put all my crap in until ... whenever. This is the first load of 3 -- yeah, teaching for 7 years gives you a lot of time to collect A LOT of stuff! (8/8/08)

Jabba

Jaren is tipping the scales more than we ever thought imaginable. Our girls were NEVER like this. He is really cute, but a chub that gives a back ache quickly! (8/8/08)

Too long

Sorry about  my unfaithful blogging.  We have been BUSY!  I am going to be posting more about the family soon.  I PROMISE!!!

Unexpected Nap

Too much play makes Nora a tired girl. While everyone else milled around the house, Nora took a nap in the middle of the living room floor. She had obviously had enough.

House Updates

August 5th
Stairs to climb, a bath to wash in, and a finished roof over our heads. Matt is hard at work and making our dream home a reality.

Block Architect

Aug. 4th
Lily spent the afternoon in the sun, working on her tan and some pretty neat block buildings. She is one to sit and work alone for a long time. Great work, huh?!

Fitting into his Grandpa's shoes

July 31t

Camden didn't really want to get wet, so he found a new job -- to fit into and play in his grandpa's boots. What a cutie!

frostbite

Okay, the house is coming along a bit too slow and the weather is changing too fast cause I think I am going to suffer from frostbite on my nose and toes in the near future. Matt tore out our old bathroom floor last night, plus our new house doesn't have insulation and it got down to 36 degrees so it is REALLY cold right now. I have the stove on to help warm the house, but am not sure it will do much good with all the cold air pouring in all the time.

And a fight ensued

After the fun in the water, a water fight broke out. Interestingly enough, if you were to compare past pictures from when I was a little girl you would find that these pictures resemble those from my childhood quite closely. Dad is still as scary as ever when he acts like a zombie. Aria and I decided that it still scared us!

Homemade slip and slide at Grandpa I's

July 31st
Dad brought a "call sheet" home from the mill for a mutual activity. When the grandkids were there, he got it out for them to use as a slip and slide. It was a VERY warm day and dad wanted a quick way to cool down and the grandkids were thrilled at the idea of being able to play in the water. Mori went first with Lily trailing right behind. Nora was a little too light on her feet and slipped way before she could slide. Grandpa even took some of the kids for rides on his back.

Mori at the fair

Mori is just as much a dare devil as Lily, but she is also a big helper. Because we adults wouldn't pay the $ to ride the rides with the little kids, Mori was willing to take them on rides to help us out. But she got to go on LOTS of rides for herself. She went on the hammer twice, (once with a friend she made at the fair) and everyother ride many more times than twice. She loved the bumper cars. She thinks driving is really fun and it is even more fun when you get to run into things. I actually went on a ride with Mori and Lily -- the scrambler. This ride was one of my favorites as a youngster so I decided to go on it with my two older girls. I forgot what the g-force does to you on a ride like that. I was completely squished up against the side of the ride by the 140 lbs of the two girls. Mori screamed the WHOLE time and Lily and I just laughed. Mori apologized 100 times after we got off, but still thought it was extremely funny!

Lily at the fair

Lily is our little dare devil. Last year she tried all the rides she possibly could and was looking forward to being tall enough to go on all the rides this year. Some of them she had to be with Mori because she still wasn't tall enough, but she did get to go on them. Her favorite was the "Round-Up" which is the thing that goes around and around and around forever. Amazingly enough, she is our motion sickness queen. The only ride that made her sick was the hammer. She was dizzy and green for about 45 minutes after, but with food in her stomach and some walking around to see the animals, she was ready to go on all the rides again (except the hammer).