Just 15 minutes from our home sprawling on the side of a mountain lays Tunari National Park; this was our fun Friday destination today. The sun shone on my children’s way as they headed out on the trail to adventure and exploration. For an entrance fee of just a buck fifty we will be back again; and next time with a picnic lunch. Here are some snapshots from our morning.
Hey fam,
Yesturday was a very big day for our big girl Sasha.
Nick put her big girl bed together for her and we got some very cute pictures that we would like to share with you all. Then we added a little video for the fun of it.
She just loves her bed! She loves that she can get into it by herself and even better, she loves that she can get out all by herslef. Even when its not bed time she likes to get in it and pretend to go to bed.
Last night was her first night in it and she did great. We didn't have any problem getting her to stay in it and go to sleep. And she was very happy to come in our room this morning to wake us up. But for nap time today we did have to put her back in bed one time, but thats not bad.
We are vey proud of her.
Happy birthday sis’!
Who remembers this one?
She sneaks around the house
As quiet as a mouse
Who is this curly haired
girl we talk about?
Emily, Emily, Ema – L Y
Yesterday I took the kids on our first Fun FridayField trip for a photo hunt up on the Cristo mountain top. I got some great shots of Timothy. I think that eight year old boys are some of my most favorite people in the world.
More slide shows to come of the wonders the kids captured.
(Detail of the bag and my shoe - hee hee hee)
Is it only the 7th? Only one week has passed in February? Amazing!
Our week has been packed: our kids were in a wedding at church, we had a youth retreat at a resort, and we started school. The wedding was beautiful. An Englishman married a Bolivian. Her name is Wendy and his Peter (like the Peter Pan story). The youth retreat was great. I spent most of my time with our kids. But we had fun hanging out with the youth when they were not in a session. The day after we got back we were all very sunburned but we got started with school. It feels good to be back at it.
I wanted to get these pictures up so you could see them. Enjoy!
Hello Family,
Truth be told that i have not touched a computer in more then three months. So i have enjoyed my morning reading up on everthing that i have been missing out on. this seems to be my way. i keep up with the computer for a while and then i go on a long computer vacation. but i am back, so you should go back and check your postings because i left a few comments.
But more importantly i have a very exciting reason to get back into the buisness of blogging.
I AM PREGNANT AGAIN! YIPPY!!!
Nick and i just found out yesturday and we are exited to tell our family. (as well as anyone else who reads our family blog.)
If i am calculating things correctly we should have a new baby by the end of September.
We cant even express how excited Nick and I are. and i know in time that Sasha will be excited as well. so far she doesnt really get it.
we love you guys.
Nick, Shawn, Sasha, and Baby
Hey family! I am so excited! I just ordered Apple's newest laptop... the MacBook Air. It is the world's thinnest notebook and it just came out this week. The downside is I have to wait a few weeks for delivery :( Check out the link and see how cool it is. I can't wait to be blogging from my home, from school, where ever. Watch out Scrabulous players! You won't be able to keep up ;)
http://www.apple.com/macbookair/guidedtour/
Emily has a new haircut. We hung the dart board up in Kent's room. We have had fun throwing the darts. My arm even hurts a little from doing it. Kent is hard to beat, he gets bulls eyes more frequently than the rest of us.
We have had a few days warm enough for biking which is great for January. They say snow is in the forecast for this week but it was fun while it lasted.
I've started doing the taxes; how about everyone else?
Hello family. Raimy made this video a few weeks ago and I was finally able to get it uploaded. Hope you enjoy! Angie
By: Raimy
This morning I saw on the floor a pair of broken socks. I decided to make Twister. I started sowing one sock at the top and bottom with the other sock inside. Then I sowed a string to it and tied it to my foot so that it could come on and off. I started circling it round and round and jumped, just like in the video. You can make your own too. Twister!
Dear Shawn,
Wow - you are what? 26? Congratulations on this your birthday!
I am sure that mom could tell it much better than I could; but I always loved your birth story best of all...
The nurse that assisted in the delivery wore flashy earrings because everyone was partying for the New Year. Mom was praying in tongues so loud they thought that she spoke Spanish - so they called in a Spanish speaking person to translate. Mom knew she had nothing to prove so she wanted pain killers. Dad was watching the injection and he fainted! He hit his head on the doorknob and had to be taken out to get stitches. And you were born on the last day of the year.
You have always been my sweet little sister. I love you very much! I hope that you feel special today and that you are able to do something fun. Happy Birthday!!!
Here are some fun moments from yesterday:
Tyler showing off his new trick of sticking out his tongue and waging his head.
Raimy got a few canvasas and paint brushes. She was inspired to paint a portrait of one of our new guinea pigs, Patrik.
Gabrielle grabbing some sweet goodies from the kitchen.
Timothy by the glow of the Christmas tree.
Papa and Tyler listening to Christmas music. Tyler singing along.
Gabrielle with "Patrik".
Raimy and Timothy with "Rosebud", the girl of the pair.
Tyler playing with his awesome new toy.
Timothy trying out his new golf set.
Just the 6 of us (well, 9 if you count our pets) celebrated Christmas at the house. The day was bright, warm and sunny. The kids went to the park to play golf. DaRonn got a nice nap in. And I finished reading "East of Eden", a great, great book. We lounged around all day eating baked goods and Chineese take-out. It was a nice day. I hope all you had a good time too.
(Warning: the content of this post may be considered unnecessarily gross to humans of the non mother persuasion.)
The pediatrician told me that the reason my son’s front is constantly drenched in slobber is that he has an over active salivatory gland that he will grow out of. I swear people, this boy is like a leaky faucet; you just can’t turn him off. The endearing nicknames that he has gained due to his zealot of a gland are: slobber-bot and drool-miester.
And while I am on it, sometimes I feel like my day consists of the meticulous gathering, inspection, categorizing and proper storage of every bodily fluid and excretion ever created. Am I comparing toddler care to the exact study of a scientist? Yes. How else do you think I can endure this demeaning yet all so important work they call care-giving?
How bad can it be? (You so naively ask.) Here comes the grossness! Shall we start south and work our way north? Or should we just do the good ol’ head to foot routine? Going with the latter… There is that orange dandruff like stuff growing under what few hairs they have on their heads that no matter how much you pick at it there is a new crop daily. Eye-boogers are your early morning greeting. Then there is the ear wax that you are not supposed to dig out even though it looks like the child has been attacked by tiny aliens and they are constructing a weird colony in there. We mustn’t forget the rainbow of snot that drains out of not one but two nostrils on an occasional basis. If you do not know the color, consistency and frequency of that slime then don’t even think about calling ask-a-nurse*! Before moving on to the mouth the nose does have one more function. In the unfortunate event that a child begins laughing while drinking milk (why is it always milk?) said milk will reroute itself through the nose expelling itself with such force as to successfully cover all persons present with the physical manifestation of the intangible joy that your child is experiencing. Moving on to the mouth: drool, spit-up, juicy blenching, smelly burps, regurgitated baby food, unswallowed mashed up food, rejected medications, phlegm, goobery tiny pieces of toys that are supposedly “a choking hazard” but are actually a cause of temporary deafness due to the screaming that is invoked from the baby when the extraction takes place and last but not least the infamous, odorous, staining and sickening vomit. Oh, and we haven’t got to the most exciting bits yet folks!
A few words about blood. Blood is meant to stay inside the body; yet almost everywhere on the body can bleed! Band-aids* are a joke. They stick for all of 3 minutes. After that, if the child has not taken it off then it comes off in some kind of water play or it is so full of dirt that you gasp and work as hard as you can to pry the thing off without ripping the tiny hairs out of their follicles. The only things band-aids* are good for are bribes. You bribe the kids to stop wailing by promising them a cute little band-aid*.
So you have your blood that you have to take care of. If you do it right then you won’t have to take care of the pus that accompanies infection. That’s right – do not avoid the blood because the pus is 10 times worse to take care of than the blood. If you see blood do not waste one more minute. Grab that wonder water that make the fun little bubbles when killing infection (technical term: hydrogen peroxide) and douse that wound! Disclaimer for parents: you do not have care for or treat broken bones. Take the kid to a doctor for that. Whoo, load off! Right?
Wrong! We have now reached the pinnacle of grossness. Below that adorable little belly button lies a load of worries. And by load, I mean load! The things that make their way out of your child’s abdomen and into that Mickey Mouse* diaper are unthinkable and unspeakable. Little bit of trivia for you. You will have what color poop when you eat Froot Loops*? If you said bright green then give yourself a gold sticker. Yes, as a parent you have diaper duty. And speaking of “duty”, why is it that we invent funny little names for bodily functions? Pee-pee, poo-poo, doodie, pees, stinkies, uh-oh, tinkle, and any other cutesy name that pops into our heads at the time. Oh, and speaking of heads. You know you have reached the brink of insanity when you see one of those tiny pieces of toy in the diaper all covered in yuck and after your initial panic attack thinking it is some part of the child’s guts that need to be taken to the surgeon so he can put it back where it goes you seriously think to yourself, “Do I dig it out and clean it off?” or an even more demented thought, “Do I call the big kids in and show this to them so they quit leaving their little pieces of toys laying around.” Recognize this as a sign that you are about to go insane and stop. Just fold the diaper up and throw it away. Pretend you didn’t see the object. It doesn’t exist. It was never there. You are still a good mom!
I said we were going head to foot. I thought it was some kind of practical joke when I smelled my infant son’s feet and they had the odor of a high-school gym locker room. My girls’ feet never smelled like anything else than baby powder. But my boys’ feet have stunk from day one. Not to mention the toe jam and sweaty, sticky sock fuzz that you gotta scrape off.
My precious gooey children haven’t yet reached the age of puberty. They tell me that the teenage years are so much worse. Frankly I don’t image how it could be worse. It will have to be my next chapter in the exposé on grossness.
People just don’t tell you all this stuff when you are oohing and ahhing over the soft cuddly bundle wrapped up in the stroller of a radiant starry-eyed young mother. It’s all a trick! They are wrapped up so you don’t see all the grossness. And those aren’t stars in her eyes, the poor woman hasn’t slept in days and her eyes are frozen open. But that is for another post.
* The name brands that I mentioned above are probably like protected by copyrights and have a bunch of trademarks. So like somebody buy some of their products and I think that they won’t mind that I mentioned them.
Hello my bloggerful family! :-)
I just found out that there is another person in our extended family with a blog. She actually updates it rather frequently. Hey this gives me an idea. Maybe I should compile a link list of blogs by family members to go on our side bar... hmmm... I like that... I think it just might work... oh, yeah - if I knew of other blogs! Ha. So, if you know of any cousins or aunts or auncles that keep their blog up regularly just get their site address to me and we'll make that info available to everyone. Thanks. Oh yeah... Lynde's blog (you know, Chad's wife). It's a great blog - check it out and leave a comment to let her know you stopped by:
http://awordygirl.blogspot.com/
For Thanksgiving, Terry, Allison and I went to his mom's in Ponca City, OK. Terry's sister and her three kids (youngest 14) came too. We went to a restaurant because his mom's apartment was too small for eight. The restaurant served the traditional stuff. The best though was the fresh buns, hot out of the oven.
Then we went back to his mom's for some cake (it was Brian's birthday, Sherry's son, Terry's sister). We also had a veggie tray and fruit tray and chips and dip.
Then we went over to Terry's dad Terry's house for an encore. Terry Sr.'s wife Pat had made the feast earlier for her kids and we continued to eat it.
Then we went back to Terry's mom's house. She had bought a pumpkin pie at Perkin's restaurant and we continued our munching and I ate a piece of pie. I got to take the rest home with me because everyone else was too full.
Friday we spent at Mom's. I helped her shop and cook the meal: ham with pineapple sauce, mashed potatoes with gravy, stuffing, stuffed eggs, relish trays and pumpkin pie for dessert. It was wonderful! It was the best meal, mainly because it was the freshest. The stuffed eggs turned out great thanks to some hints from Martha and for Terry's stepmom Pat.
We played some UNO and then watched some football. It was a nice evening, relaxed and delicious.
A short list of what I am thankful for is:
My family and Terry and Allison especially.
For Terry's new job (he is still painting but at a better shop and making more money, lots more).
That the semester is almost over.
That I have a beautiful Christmas tree (Allison helped a lot with it).
My jobs.
My health and my family's health.
My apartment.
My car.
I love you guys. Happy Holidays
Hello Family! Here are some pictures from my trip last week to Uyuni, Bolivia. It was a blast. I went with Marisol and her dad who is here for about a month. You can click once on the slide show, then slide your mouse over the picture to read the caption.
I got back the day of our 11th wedding anniversary. I can hardly believe that it has been 11 years since that snowy evening in November when we headed out in our decorated roller skate (Geo convertible) to the hotel for the night and then off to Colorado the next morning. What an adventure that was driving in the mountains with ice and flurries. These last 11 years have been quite an adventure as well; akin to the thrills of driving those rocky hills. We got back from our honey moon late Thanksgiving day and had dessert at Bec' and Jake Gomez's house (which made up for the 7/11 hot dogs we had on the road which comprised our Thanksgiving feast that year).
Speaking of Thanksgiving... I think it would be fun if you all posted what you did last Thursday or your favorite Thanksgiving memory or a list of things you are thankful for - something "thanky". That way I can sort of feel like I was with you; so I can live that American holiday vicariously through you. (grin)
Happy Birthday to Nick!!!
I am going to share my most favorite memory of Nick.
The newly wed couple had arrived safely in the foreign land of Bolivia. They had been enjoying beautiful Santa Cruz. DaRonn and I invited them over for an evening at our house. We decided to watch a movie. Nick was so excited to know how cheap the pirated videos here were. We watched a Star Trek movie (and forgive me my brother for not remembering which one - oops - may I be zapped by a Klingon for my negligence). We drug our rickety couch into our room were the T.V. was. The windows were open to let a breeze in. I think we had some kind of snacks. And it was just fun to watch Nick get all excited about this movie. It made it so much more fun for us to watch with him.
Love you Nick! Hope you had a great birthday!
I dug up an article they wrote about my August art show. Thought you all might be interested in reading it.
http://www.thesunflower.com/web/isite.dll?1187830440703
In our little gallery we have some Jill's newest art...castles and fairy houses. I also wanted to show off her new bike. It often gets parked in the entry way when not in use.
On a marvelously beautiful Sunday afternoon in October, we remarkable got Jill to play her first 9 holes of golf. She did fine and had a good time. We may get her to do it again as long as she gets to drive the cart.
We moved the restroom so we could take down some walls and make a larger kiln room.
We added shelves in the little room in the studio to accommodate the new students. We have added more classes due to the demand.
We put up shelves in the entry for more art and pottery display 
.
We added lights ot the sign over the front door.
We have a large flight cage for our four finches.
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