This is Great!

YouTube - Straight No Chaser - 12 Days

Everyday Life

We have just been enjoying everyday life around here. We are almost done with all of the Christmas shopping, wrapping and stuffing. We will be leaving on Sunday, the 23rd, to go down to Klamath Falls for the week. I am very excited!! The kids are excited too. Blake is demonstrating excellent self-control with the presents under our tree, you can see the anticipation eating at him everytime he walks by the tree. Teagan can't wait to see all of our family down in Klamath and Penelope, well, she is just happy!

Just a couple of pictures of our everyday happenings and a video of Teagan and Blake.

I think this is what people mean when they say "sleeping like a baby"

Stan had a pretty good hunt with some co-workers last Saturday.

Here We Are

Can you believe it is Christmas time again?? How did this year go by so fast?!?! We have had a good few weeks, most of it filled with delight and fun times.

We did have some tragic events on November 16th. Stan's cousin, John, was killed in a car accident while on duty with the California Highway Patrol. He lived in Lodi, CA with his wife, Stephanie and two kids, Chandler, 4, and Reese, 2. Stan was able to fly down to California to spend time with his family down there and attend the funeral. We are so proud of John and the man that he was. And we are so proud of Stephanie for the strength that she has!! She is an amazing woman!! Please keep them in your prayers.

Now, we did enjoy Thanksgiving in Newport, Oregon. We met my mom and grandma there and spent a few days in a condo with a great view of the ocean. Penelope enjoyed her first swimming experience in the pool and Teagan and Blake loved being at our "beach house".

Yesterday we took the kids sledding. I think Stan and I had more fun laughing at the kids then the kids had actually sledding. Blake did not like the snow blowing in his face at all!!

We are traveling down to Klamath Falls for Christmas again this year. We are excited for the season and to see friends and family. We hope everyone else is enjoying this blessed time of year!

Oh My!!

Those were my only and exact words Wednesday morning. I woke up to Teagan at my bedside saying "Mom, Blake tried to pee and it's coming out of the toilet!" So I ran up stairs to see why Blake was crying and nearly broke my neck running into the bathroom. The bathroom floor wasn't just wet, it was flooded!! Blake had tried to use the toilet by himself and put nearly an entire roll of toilet paper in it. Then he continually held the handle down trying to flush it....did I mention this is the upstairs bathroom?!?





So....I scrambled to turn the water off to the toilet and grabbed a plunger. I grabbed every towel upstairs and mopped up. Then when I came back down stairs to get more towels I heard a gushing noise. Not good is all I could think.....and then before my very eyes water started pouring out of one of the can lights in our kitchen downstairs. Oh my gosh....oh my gosh. That was all I could say!!! I grabbed a five gallon bucket from the laundry room and put it on the counter to catch the water pouring from the ceiling. Then called Stan!!!


So this would be the gate blocking off the kids to the upstairs.
This would be the hallway upstairs that had to be torn up because the water ran out of the bathroom into the hall.

And this would be the light (first light on the right) that the water was pouring out of downstairs.

Thankfully, the damage was minor (it could have been much worse!)

Ahh, life with kids :)

Disney on Ice

This last weekend I was able to take Teagan and Penelope to Disney on Ice. It was great! We went with our friends Cara (the mom) and her two girls, Kaylee and Mya, who are the same ages as my girls. We traveled to Yakima, WA which is about 100 miles from here. It was really fun especially for the kids. Teagan was very excited that Tinkerbell and Mickey and Minnie were there. Her favorite princess was Cinderella (of course) and she was the very last princess to come out.

While we were at the show Stan and Blake went fishing out on the Columbia River. They didn't have luck catching fish but they had a great time.

Penelope is four months old now. I can't believe how fast the last four months has gone by. She is such a wonderful addition to our family. She is full of smiles and giggles which is really fun for Teagan and Blake. Her newest "thing" is sucking her thumb.

Hair Poll

I'm thinking about cutting my hair (again) I really like this cut.....it's pretty short though. I need some more opinions!

Pictures

Teagan trying out her big girl bike on her birthday
My attempt at a Clifford cake for Teagan's birthday
Blake in a party hat
All three kids on Teagan's birthday
One last picture of the house I grew up in

We are here!

I can't believe it has been over two months since our last post. Much has gone on since then....I'll just hit some of the more exciting things though. Since our last post we've had Stan's birthday, a good friend's wedding (Stan's friend married my friend and we had nothing to do with it), Teagan's birthday, two trips to Klamath Falls, one knee surgery for Stan (he's doing pretty good) and my mom sold her house of 24 years and moved into a new one.
All three kids are doing great. Teagan is enjoying being the big 4 year old, Blake can't wait until his birthday....he keeps repeating "I be free (3) in January"....and Penelope is nearly 4 months old already! She is at such a fun stage...she laughs, smiles and isn't mobile! It's great!!
I am looking forward to the fall weather and all that fall brings. I love this time of year! I'm hoping to get some projects done in the house. Things like organizing pictures and closets! We still have our house for sale...we aren't sure what is going to take place. We are just trying to be patient and rest knowing that God has a great plan for us. Why is that such a hard thing to do??
I'll post some pictures of the last couple of months.

Finally some pictures

I've been meaning to get these up so here they are, finally. These were taken before Penelope was born (notice the LARGE belly)

Punky's Post

I thought Penelope deserved her own post! How cute is she?? I can't believe how much she has grown even since these pictures were taken a couple weeks ago.

Photo Shoot

All of these pictures were taken by my friend/photographer Shannon. She is so talented and wonderful. It's great to have these moments captured!

Weddings, Mini Vans, Glue and the Itch!

I can not believe it has been a month since our last post. Time really has flown by this summer. We have been good....busy...like everyone else I'm sure....but good. We just returned home on Tuesday from a trip down to Klamath Falls. We went down for Shelly's, Stan's sister, wedding. It went great and Shelly and her new husband, Chris, are in Hawaii right now for a well deserved honeymoon. I was one of the bridesmaids and Teagan and Blake were the flower girl and ring bear. They did good and took their jobs seriously. Especially Teagan, she could become a professional flower girl!

We sold our suburban finally! We really loved it but the cost to drive it was UGLY! It was a great car for us other then the price of a fill up. Every time I drove it to WalMart I could her money falling out of it. We had it up for sale for about four months so it was nice to finally sell it. So now I am officially a mini van mom! YIKES...it makes me feel old, but I have to say, I LOVE my mini van. We did quite a bit of research on them and decided to go with the trusted Honda Odyssey. We bought a used one...but it's in great shape and only has had one owner. I told Stan I don't think I'm as cute driving a mini-van (no offense to other mini van moms) but I'm so happy to be saving all the gas money! Maybe I'll take all that extra money saved and buy a cute new outfit or two that will make me feel better!

Yesterday we had our first Urgent Care visit. Blake and Teagan were playing and Blake ended up cracking his head open.(I think it was caused by a violent, yet playful, push from Teagan) He some how hit something hard on the couch (can you tell they are always well supervised?) and split the back of his head open. It really wasn't too big but it was wide enough that I didn't think it would grow back together very well. So, I loaded up all three kids (after I sprayed Resolve on the blood stained carpet) and off we went to the doctor. Thankfully, he didn't need stitches just some glue.

Stan and I will celebrate our 7th wedding anniversary on Sunday. It's hard to believe it's only been seven long, long years. Just kidding!! I keep teasing him that I've been feeling itchy lately. He just attributes that to all of the spit up on my shirt and my lack of showering. Actually, I feel blessed to have shared the last 7 years with Stan. He is a pretty great guy!

Good times!

Teagan and Blake are enjoying summer time. They spend lots of time in the backyard playing...and telling secrets!
We had a great homecoming with Penelope, thanks to my mom and niece, last week.
Teagan is enjoying the river! She is a great swimmer!!
Penelope relaxing at her first river/beach trip.
And of course the three kids watching their traditional morning show. Teagan can't get enough of her "baby sister".

Well, this is the first day I have the kids by myself for the ENTIRE day. So far so good...but it's only 10:45. I'm sure it will go fine as we don't have anything planned, just to be home. Our church is bringing meals starting tonight....what a blessing!! And when they stop my mom brought up 15 meals!!! What a lady!! Everyone is doing good...Stan is back at work today. We are excited to settle into our everyday life now that Penelope is here. Thanks to all of our family and friends for the prayer, support, love and blog posts that have been so thoughtful! We feel so blessed to have you all in our lives.....even if some of it is only via internet.

Here are some better close up's.

Punky Pictures

Steve I through this one in for you and Gwen.