Happy Birthday, Peanut

I'm a day late, but Happy Birthday Abby. I can't believe our little peanut is 4 years old! 4 years of that irresistible smile; 4 years of happy laughter; 4 years of chasing all the animals you love so much; 4 years of pink, princesses, and ponies. Oh, it hasn't all been smiles and sunshine, and I know once those female hormones kick in she and I will butt heads more than I can imagine. But she is my joy; to paraphrase a friend of mine: she was sent from Heavenly Father to weed out the insides of me - to help me be a gentler, more loving mother. She adores her brother and is Caleb's little shadow. I truly pray they continue to lovingly bicker, hug, tickle and love each other for the rest of their lives the way they do now. Growing up I always wanted an older brother, and I am jealous, and so happy that my daughter does. She has Dave wrapped tightly around her little finger. And it isn't much of a secret that he probably loves her more than he does me. And that is ok.
Happy Birthday little peanut! - April

Happy Birthday 'Sam'

When I was pregnant with Caleb, we called him Sam, since we didn't know if he would be Samantha or Samuel. Since then, he has had numerous nicknames: peanut, goobernut, mr. moose. Sunday this little moonface turned 8.
How quickly he went from being a peanut to a goofball!

This is the Commander Cody (from Star Wars the Clone Wars) cake I made for his birthday party. It was my first time using fondant, so judge gently!
The Star Wars fanatics that attended his party: Brendan, Caleb, Zane, Logan, Zane.

4-Eyes

He never had a fighting chance. His genes are against him. On both sides of the family. Really, he's lucky he made it as long as he did - one month shy of his 8th birthday. Today Caleb got glasses. He really, really, really likes them. It's all he can do to stop staring at himself in the mirror and grinning from ear to ear. And if you all thought he looked like Dave before, you better be sitting down. This kid is a spitting image of his dad! I present to you: Caleb with glasses! - April

Quickest pumpkin patch visit ever...

Today was one of those days when I actually like the weather in Washington. It was nice to spend some of it outside. We spent the morning with friends visiting from Arizona, traded in incandescent bulbs and got free CFL bulbs courtesy of PSE and then headed to the Schilter Farms. They are the closest pumpkin patch to us and always have lots of other things to see and do. Unfortunately, we were running late on our way to Craig & Daphnes to carve pumpkins, so we were in and out of the place in 35 minutes! NO kidding. And 20 of that was spent parking and standing in line to pay! They had the best pumpkins and it was so easy to pick the ones we wanted. We did stop long enough for pictures to document the trip. We try to go back when we can spend more time actually enjoying the place, weather permitting! -April

Caleb vs. desk

Two weeks ago Caleb was running in his classroom to get in line for recess. Gravity worked against him, and he fell, his right cheek meeting the corner of a desk. He is really lucky his injuries weren't any worse. He came home early from school and was so sleepy and lethargic. He threw up quite a few times and after a call to the consulting nurse, we decided to go to Urgent Care. They really wanted to do a CAT scan to make sure nothing was wrong, but didn't have one so we went across the street to the ER. At the end of 5 hours and visit to one of these:the doctors decided that nothing was wrong with him and sent us home. I am so grateful that Caleb ended up with nothing more than a bruise on his cheek and eye. But am not looking forward to the pending bills! - April

Still alive...

Whew. What a summer. It went by so quickly, and was so jam-packed of fun and driving and visiting friends and driving and visiting family and driving... It is good to be home. I have finally uploaded all the pictures, so will slowly be recapping our summer escapades.

Caleb started 2nd grade last week. He has a super teacher and he is really looking forward to "learning more harder stuff", as he put it. This is the "What I did over the weekend" writing assignment that he did on Monday. His teacher may be pleased with his descriptive words. I am pleased with his unabashed honesty and testimony sharing! - April

Summer so far

I have really been slacking. We haven't been super busy, I just haven't had it together enough to post anything. Here are a few pictures of what we've done so far. With the exception of the 1/2 marathon I ran. I didn't take pictures of myself - I'm waiting for those to come from my mom & dad (hint, hint).Abby & I painted Caleb's room. He has been in Utah with my sister Dyan for the past 2 weeks. This was a surprise for him.

Daredevil Abby. This is her favorite thing at the park.

The group at North West Trek.

Abby pointing out the cougars on the fence line.

Up close and personal with some bison.

Baby mountain goats.

We went with the Smith's for the 4th of July and celebrated at the Cul-de-Sac of Fire. Always lots of fun. Abby throwing down the poppers.

The snake pit before....

The snake pit after.

The tank wars being set up.

Abby tuckered out after too much fun! -April

Photos from Dave

This is from an email Dave sent out.

The pictures of me are from the day I was promoted to Staff Sergeant. There is one standing next to Sergeant Smith (also promoted that day), he works with me and will probably play a large part of my next update email.

The picture of the truck is a vehicle that we inherited. I think every family in America needs one of these. It's armored with bullet proof glass, seats up to four fully outfitted adults and has plenty of cargo space in the back for groceries and your golf clubs. It was abandoned on the side of the road when it was being driven illegally by some civilians. Unfortunately, we weren't able to bring any vehicles of our own so everything that we have to operate with here had to be scavenged, although in the case of "Darlene" I think we made out pretty well.


The photo labeled "Our old home" is exactly that. When we were here back in 2003 that was the hangar that we lived and operated out of. One of our soldiers went back there for some maintenance a few weeks ago and cruised by our old stomping ground. I would have expected nothing less, but the place hasn't changed much.
I realize the photos are a bit random, but I hope you enjoy them anyway.

Take care,

Dave

Lena Lake

Saturday I went on a hike for camp with the Young Women in our ward.  We chose this great hike to a place near Hoodsport called Lena Lake.  It was 6 miles roundtrip and this was what awaited us at the top.  Such a beautiful view.  Even some of the girls admitted that it was worth it!  There is a camp ground not far from where we turned around.  I am planning on going back with Caleb & Abby.  I believe they can handle the hike and then a nice overnighter.  

Not sure what these flowers are, but they were everywhere on the trail.
-April

Seahurst Park

Over Memorial Day weekend, we took a little day trip to Seahurst Park in Burien.  It was amazing to me that this beautiful waterfront park was minutes from the first church building Dave & I attended when we lived in SeaTac, but we had never been there.  10 years later we realized we need to do a better job of exploring our little neck of Washington.  

Here's a picture of the cousins enjoying the sand and frigid water (it is still Washington after all!)

Speaking of being in Washington, I had to snap this picture of the tide coming in with all the seaweed.  It can't be a Washingtonian beach without the seaweed!
Abby and cousin Lily playing in actual sand!
This see-saw was all set up ready to played on.  Caleb and cousin Corgan had a great time on it.  In the water you can see the group of kayakers that were practicing their recoveries - flipping upside down in the water, and then righting themselves.  
What a beautiful beach.  I am so glad we went! - April

Lacey Fun Fair

Every year, our great city of Lacey has a Spring Fun Fair.  It has lots of community sponsored booths, over-priced 'fair food', lots of free stuff for the kids and of course, bouncy houses!  I think the best thing this year was the super-duper ID cards that we got from the Thurston County Sheriff's office that include an iris scan.  Abby was especially excited to ride the ponies this year.  

Caleb named his horse Sandy and Abby's was named Midnight.  No points for originality, but at least they were accurate!
The kids stepped up for the Fishing tank.  If you look just to the left of the white pole, under the man's arm, you'll see Abby's fish.  She's reacting to being splashed by such a tiny rainbow trout.
Caleb patiently awaiting his bite to come.
We did have a fish fry - the condition of participating in the fishing was that you had to take the fish with you... no catch and release.  My sister Rachel has pictures of the gutting of the fish.  Caleb helped with that part, but I was the only one to eat the fish.  I thought it was pretty tasty!

The kids at the end of a hot, fun afternoon, with the cotton candy they just had to have, but didn't eat more than about 5 bites of! - April

Pictures from the other side of the world

Dave sent us some pictures from Iraq today that I thought I would share.  He has told us a number of time about the different colors of sand and the effects the sun has on the area.  I thought this one was especially impressive.  It is such an unnatural color.

Here is a picture of a sand storm rolling it.  It really looks intimidating. 

In the middle of a sand storm.  Looks more brown to me than the one above. 


Of course, what would a series of desert pictures be without a camel?  

This was table decorations for Easter.  Cakes, fruit, bunny and Jesus statues... made from butter!  Oh yes.  butter.   - April