Trees by: Timothy

Fun Friday's

Hello Family! I hope that you are all doing well.

As you can see from the kids' posts we had a very fun morning. These last couple of weeks Friday has been field trip day. Last week we went to the Natural History Museum of Cochabamba. This week we took advantage of a new tourist attraction: a city bus tour. We sat on the top in the open air. It really was a fun time. It was good to be reminded of some of the finer points of the city we live in. Now the kids are asking what we are going to be doing next week. Maybe the botanical gardens...

Next time you are in town we'll be sure to do the city tour with you, too.

My Travel by: Gabrielle

When I was in the humungous bus I saw a fountain and pigeons around it. And when we were done of the bus ride we ate ice-cream. And when I was in that bus I saw a tower with two clocks on it. And I saw a tower with stars on it. The End.

Big Adventure by: Raimy

Bedtime Business

New Job

Today I started a new job. Yes, I left the daycare. I have started doing some in-home respite care for a little boy with CP. I am taking care of his two brothers as well. And, as a massive perk, I get to bring Sasha with me. I love not having to leave her with anyone else. (except daddy on his days off.) And I think it will be really good for her to get use to sharing me. Being an only child is starting to show. :)
Wyatt is 6 and starting first grade this fall.
Lance is 3, he is the one that state pays for.
Bryce is almost 6 moths, and weighs 3lbs more then Sasha by the way.
Today was such a peaceful day. 4 kids wont always be easy but it went a lot smoother today then it usually does when I have 20 toddlers all in one room.
I am doing some home schooling with Wyatt- he struggles with reading. And I have all kinds of respect for you Mom and Angie.
Love you all.
Shawn

Virtual Postcard

This is the blog version of the postcard I put out for my show.
(Angie, I am saving you a real one since the girl in the painting is you.
Also, I like your new look of your site http://www.xanga.com/angiewashington using a painting as your photo and the brush strokes in the background. Nice.)

Snapshot: A Child’s Mind
Oil Paintings by Emily Houtz


Showing August 13th – 24th, 2007
@ the RSC Gallery at WSU


A reception will be held August 18th from 6:00pm – 8:00pm.

For more information, visit or contact the RSC Activities Office, Room 219
phone: (316) 978-3495; website: www.wichita.edu/RSCGallery

I love my kids!

A Big Tent by: Raimy

One day I was building a tent with my brother and sister. We made a big one, it was so fun! Then me and Gabrielle made some snacks.

sasha walking

Hello all, we are recooping from Sasha's party, boy was it hot!! Almost made it to 100. I took some video of sasha walking over at great grandma houtz's house. I thought I would share it with you all since she can not walk to you. Sorry for the low quality it was my phn it is only 2mega pixels.

Kids' Omaha Trip

Blog Tip - RSS feeds

Have you ever seen this symbol on your tool bar or on a web site you were looking at?

It is called as RSS feed button. Do you know what it is for? It is for subscribing to web sites that have frequently updated information. You are alerted immediately (yet discreetly) when there has been new information posted. Thereby eliminating the need to constantly be logging into the site to see if there is any new stuff.

Here is how to use this convenient tool.

When you have the site open and you see that the button is orange then that means that you can subscribe to that site. Click on the button and then you will see a screen that asks you to confirm your decision. Respond in the affirmative.

The way that you will be notified of new information on the sites that you have subscribed to is under your favorites option on your tool bar. There should be a tiny RSS feed symbol with a little star by it to indicate new posts. Just click on this tiny RSS feed button with the star by it and you will be taken to the list of the sites that you are subscribed to. The ones that have new information will be in bold letters. Just click on the bold letters to be taken to screen that will show you the new stuff. From that screen the titles of the site and the new article are links to the actual location on the world wide web, should you so desire to go to the actual page.

Give it a try! Why not start by subscribing to our family blog? Go ahead, you know you want to. :-)

Happy Birthday Sasha

Very happy birthday Sasha! I love you so much and I miss you.

From Raimy

Happy First Birthday Sasha!

Congratulations little princess! I hope that you have a very happy day. Hugs and kisses. Love, Tia.

Happy Birthday Dad!

I hope that you are having a wonderful celebration of your birthday!

I had the kids guess how old you were. Raimy guessed 24 and then changed her mind to say 75. Timothy guessed 52 and 51. Gabrielle guessed 54 and then 100. Tyler chose the tactful route and "pleaded the 5th". :-)

Happenings at our house

Here are a few tid bits of happenings at our house:

Tyler has two teeth now. He can do "Hola" by lifting his arm and opening and shutting his hand. He can also clap. He is finally enjoying big people food. But only that which he can manipulate himself. He ate a half a banana yesterday and especially likes crackers and cereal.

Timothy has started soccer school this week. He is loving it! He is in the 4 - 7 year old bracket. He is the fastest of his class he tells me. This is a huge outdoor school beside the stadium. There are hundreds of kids that go to this school. So far his team has won all four games that they have played amongst themselves. He is usually placed as goalie. Whenever we get into the taxi to take him to school (Tuesday - Friday, 3:30 - 5:00) the driver always grins with a look of pride and nostalgia. I don't even have to tell them where to go, they know the school from their childhood.

Raimy is doing great with art class. One of her friends signed up and is going with her. This is fun for her. Today Raimy went with a member of the church that is making a children's music CD. They needed a little girl to sing a song. So this will be cool that Raimy's voice will be on an album.

Gabrielle continued to show great desire with learning. She is a very hard worker. I can hardly believe that she is almost 6 years old. Now with the other two installed in their activities she is wanting to start hers. She says she wants to swim. We are looking at the options - but it looks like that will be what she does.

DaRonn has started a bowling group with some people from church. He really likes it. I am glad that there is a bowling ally in town. (There is only one in this town of 800,000.)

I have been very happy this week that Tyler is sleeping through the night. Well, he wakes up around 3 and fusses a little - but I let him go back to sleep and he is out until the morning. We are talking 8 - 11 hours here folks! It is nice. :-)

So that is what is happening. Oh - if you want to read a fun memory that I posted you can click here. I love you all!

Cold Morning Breakfast

Down here in the Southern Hemisphere we woke up to a crisp and cool 50 degrees (F). Thusly motivated there arose in me a craving for oatmeal. Not having any brown sugar on hand I scurried around the kitchen looking for something to jazz up the blandness in my bowl. I was very pleased with the results!

Ingredients:
(One serving)
1 cup oats
¾ cups low fat milk
1 medium banana sliced
¼ cup mixed nuts (almond slices, peanut bits and walnut chunks)
2 dried figs, broke up in pieces
2 tablespoons honey (roughly)

Preparation:
Rub the oats between your hands to crush them. This will make them creamier after cooking. Layer the ingredients as listed above in the bowl that you will be eating from. Honey should be drizzled on top. Zap it in the microwave until the bananas are soft and the oatmeal is hot, about 2 minutes. Enjoy!

(This was my shivering daughter this morning. She was saying, "Brrrrrr!")

Funny Tyler

By: Raimy Washington

One morning when me and Tyler were playing we decided to play with my necklaces, my plastic necklaces. When we were playing we were pretending that Tyler was a rich man. It was so fun. We made a plastic necklace for a crown too. Tyler almost laughed at the camera.

Terry on Chopper

Terry's been having fun borrowing our neighbor's chopper. Personally I think Terry looks much better on it than the actual owner of the bike. Terry gets on it like he and the bike are old friends, like they were meant to be. Our neighbor actually considered selling the bike for $18,000 just to get out of payments. Terry just buffed some scratches out of it for him so it looks new again.