The LaVine Fam

One Month Old

2012-01-21T10:42:00.000-08:00

Avery is one month old today! I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a bit relieved to it make to this milestone. The first month is hard for me with all the adjustments to a newborn. However, Avery is quite the content little lady and the adjustment has gone about as well as could be expected with a baby who is born right before Christmas. Oh, and we do have a birth announcement to send out with a (very late) Christmas letter. Hopefully those can go out early next week! I'm finding it difficult to accomplish many projects with three little ones needing a lot of attention these days. Thank goodness for supportive friends and family.

These two are adjusting pretty well to having a little sister around. The oldest has probably taken it in stride the best, although Haylee is doing quite well, too. When Avery cries, she alternates between saying, "Oh, my baby sister is crying. You need to pick her up!" and "No, Avery, DON'T CRY!" ;) Overall, she's enjoying having a little sister around. And I'm enjoying the fact that the two older ones play well together most of the time.

(They love sitting at the counter to eat breakfast and lunch.)

Girls' Day

2012-01-17T14:18:00.000-08:00

My blessed in-laws took this guy (who I really miss) for a special day with Grandpa and Grandma today, leaving me with a lot of...

...Sugar

(Don't you love her hair? Fresh out of the bath, she is a complete fluff-head.)

And Spice...

And everything nice.

Our Surprise Blessing: Avery Rachel

2012-01-04T15:59:00.000-08:00

Wow. What a year 2011 turned out to be! I think God is trying to teach me to be a more flexible person. :) Chad and I had decided that we were done having our own children (well, we hadn't made it final) but in our minds, our next child would be an adopted one. So, imagine our surprise when we found out we were pregnant. Then, selling our house, waiting for our new house and moving into this house seven weeks before Avery was born have made me even more certain God was trying to make me more flexible.

On the day I was being induced with Avery, we had another curve ball thrown our direction. (Oh, wait, we had two curveballs. The night before going to the hospital, we found out our computer had contracted a virus and someone was trying to steal our identity. Really? Thankfully, we were able to put a stop to that, but this is the reason why this post is so late.) The plan was all set in place: Jack and Haylee were going to stay the night at Grandpa and Grandma LaVine's house the night before, and Chad and I would wake up early the next morning and be at the hospital at 6:30 to begin the induction. We had a playdate all set up for the kids (Thanks, Carly!) in the morning so Brad and Carol could come see Avery as soon as she was born. This is how things went with Haylee and we had a healthy beautiful baby girl by 12:34 p.m.

Well, Deaconess called at 5:30 the morning of December 21st and told us that all their labor and delivery rooms were full and would we mind calling back at 9 a.m. to see if any were open? What?! When does this happen? So, Chad and I watched probably 4 episodes of Lost. Then, we called the hospital at 9 a.m. and they asked us to call back at noon because they still weren't ready. As my friend Steph wrote in a text to me that morning, "Don't they know you are a planner??" But, what can you do? So, we watched more Lost, ate a light meal and finally got the green light to head to the hospital at noon.

I was hooked up to pitocin at 1:00 and then we waited another 9 hours for Avery to make her appearance. Apparently, sometimes with the third child, it takes them a while to drop. Thankfully, I had a lovely epidural and didn't have a lot of pain, However, I was stressing out a bit because my parents had come to town, Bryan and Rachel had made a quick trip to Spokane to meet Avery, and Brad and Carol were coming to the hospital with Jack and Haylee so they could meet Avery after she was born. I needed to get this girl out so people could go to bed. But, everything went well and Avery made her arrival at 10:17 p.m., healthy, beautiful and totally worth it all. She weighed 7 lb. 5 oz and was 20 1/2 inches long. Our smallest baby yet. She reminded us of Jack just moments after birth with both her features and demeanor . (Later I'll do a blog post about who looks like who.) We are so thankful for this surprise gift from the Lord. She's sweet, and while newborn land can be a bit taxing, Chad and I feel more relaxed this time around. We've both wondered why we couldn't have good perspective with the first child (we were so stressed about every little thing), but we're enjoying this time. Well, so far at least. We're only two weeks in. :) Here are the pictures.

First picture of the new Dad of three.

Jack meeting Avery for the first time. Major props to Grandparents LaVine as the kids were p-e-r-f-e-c-t in the hospital even though it was almost three hours past their bedtime.

Haylee finally has a real Baby Avery.

The only picture Chad and I are in together. That is our great doctor who delivered all three LaVine children.

Grandma LaVine and Avery Rachel.

Grandma Johnson and Avery.

Grandpa LaVine.

Uncle Bryan and Grandpa Johnson.

Aunt Heidi happened to be in town from Missouri and got to meet brand-new Avery.

Aunt Rachel: the middle namesake. :)

Grandparents Johnson.

Love that little face.

At home.

Our dear friend Anna and Avery.

She's the sweetest little baby.

Sitting, Waiting, Watching...

2011-12-08T22:11:00.000-08:00

...Well, not really just sitting around waiting for Avery to be born. There is still lots to be done before she enters the world! But, we are getting excited for her to make her appearance, Lord willing in a couple of weeks. Hard to believe we'll be growing from a family of 4 to a family of 5. Here are a few pictures from the last couple weeks.

Jack likes to climb onto this stump in the backyard and jump off it. He's enjoyed ~~talking Chad's ear off~~ hanging out with Chad as he cleans up the yard for winter.

While they have their moments, these two sure enjoy playing together most days. It's fun to hear the little games and situations they think up. It's a good thing Haylee's up for anything, because most of the time, they do what Jack wants to do. Which is why she loves playing with pirates, legos and adventure guys. It'll be interesting to see where Avery fits into their play time when she's a bit older.

Our lone Christmas decoration, but the most important one, right? :) Chad and Jack spent an afternoon on Greenbluff finding the perfect tree. It was a highlight of Jack's life, and the tree makes things feel festive and cozy. I'm not sure how many more decorations we'll put up. I'll feel good if we can at least get the rest of the boxes unpacked in the next two weeks! :)

Thanksgiving

2011-11-27T14:28:00.000-08:00

We had a great time celebrating Thanksgiving in Ephrata. Reading books with Grandpa.

Love that our families get along so well to celebrate holidays together.

Playing Grandma's new piano--very popular.

Lots of time holding Baby Shannon.

And helping Grandma decorate for Christmas.

All of it topped off with celebrating Grandma LaVine's birthday!

The Wall for Legos (and a few "before and during" pictures)

2011-11-21T22:36:00.000-08:00

Chad had no idea that when he decided to build the half-wall in our living room that it would be such a popular place for playing Legos. But, how can it get any more fun to have your Lego guys fall down the stairs repeatedly?

Yes, we still have boxes around. We've unpacked most of the top floor, except for anything that hangs on the wall. That's always the last step for me as it takes me a while to figure out what I really want to have in certain places. I've decided to show a few before and during pictures of our house. If I wait until everything is completely unpacked, cleaned and organized, well, who knows when I'd be able to post. So, even though not everything is where it will be permanently, you can still get a sense of how things are shaping up thus far. It's slow going...whoever would decide to move while 8 months pregnant, and while raising two active kids? Someone insane, obviously! :) But, it's coming along--I just have to remind myself to take it one task at a time while everything else is undone around me by two little munchkins.

The living room before with the blue carpet, metal railing and pinkish walls.

This is the only good pic I've taken so far. When the whole room is clean, I'll take another. Chad finished the wall which not only looks better than a railing, but it also much more functional.

This is the dining room before. I really like the way the kitchen opens up into the dining room. The kids can sit at the table and play with playdough while I make dinner. Oh, and I love cooking with a gas stove! I've never cooked with gas before, but it cooks everything so evenly.

This is the during picture of the dining room. We've painted and added furniture. We still need to get pictures on the wall and just fine-tune things quite a bit.

The before picture of the kitchen. I like the layout, but miss the cupboard space I used to have in our old kitchen. But, we're getting creative with where things are stashed, and I love the view out the window.

"During" picture. I still need to figure out how to organize the appliances, items on the counter, etc. It looks cluttery at the moment, which bothers me. But, it'll get done, in good time. I do love the wall color. I was a little hesitant to go with such a bold color (my dear friend who also happens to be an interior designer, Anne suggested it), but I'm so happy we decided to go for it. It's a great look.

The Dining room view into the kitchen before picture. Notice the cupboards under the bar, making it basically unusable. Chad ripped those out and you'll notice the beautiful orange carpet that they didn't bother to replace when they redid the floors. I'm just excited to get some bar stools in for more seating.

I'll post more pictures as we go. This is all I could manage to take pictures of today. I'm being induced one month from today, so we need to keep pluggin' away because we all know that once this baby girl is born, time for projects will diminish greatly. :)

Meeting Shannon

2011-11-05T21:44:00.000-07:00

We made a quick trip down to Hermiston today to meet our new niece and cousin, Shannon Leah. Isn't she just the most precious little baby? You can get the exact stats at Katie's blog here.

The kids were very excited to meet her and to see their cousin Mitchell.

Haylee was especially excited to hold Baby Shannon and is quite in love with her new little cousin. I think she may be a fan of her little sister as well. Let's hope this is a sign of good things to come. :)

Jack and Mitchell had a fun time playing together. Jack wanted to get Mitch some Legos and put them together for him. (He can now read the instructions and put Lego creations together--can you hear Chad and me rejoicing?) Mitch was obliging, and now we've introduced him to the wonderful world of Legos. You're welcome, Bryan and Katie.

Rachel made it down for the day as well.

Did I mention Haylee was excited to meet Shannon?

It should be a fun-filled Thanksgiving this year! Until then, we're praying for some good sleep and a great adjustment for the Johnson family!

Halloween!

2011-11-01T22:30:00.000-07:00

Halloween was a rather low-key affair in our household as we had moved in only the day before. But, we still had a great time and the kids thoroughly enjoyed trick-or-treating and it was a wonderful way to meet our new neighbors. Grandpa and Grandma LaVine got to be a part of the festivities as well, and very generously brought us dinner--a big thank you to them. Here are some pics from the day.

Our serious Obi Wan Kenobi.

Our very demure princess.

Love that our Halloween costumes cost us $0 this year. Thank you Grandma and Stephanie!

Can you see the deer in this picture? if you click on the picture to enlarge it and then look under the tree, you should see it. It's the 4 point buck that decided to spend the afternoon resting and eating in our backyard. (Eat your heart out, hunters.)

A Sneak Peek and Some Fun

2011-10-26T21:44:00.000-07:00

We're preparing to move into our house this weekend, and have been working hard to get things ready. So, I thought I'd give a little sneak peek of one of the changes that has occurred over the last two weeks.

BEFORE: Here's the living room/entry way. Notice the beautiful, stained blue carpet and un-kid-friendly metal railing. Also, the walls were an interesting pinkish beige-y color. They don't look pink in the picture, but believe me, they had a definite pink tone to them.

AFTER: Almost done with newly painted walls, trim, an almost-finished, much-sturdier half wall (thank you, Chad!), and new clean carpet. There have been a lot of hands working hard on the house for the last couple weeks, and we so appreciate ALL the help from both sets of parents, siblings, and friends. Funny picture of the kids, I know. They were so excited to be running all over the house, checking things out. There is still a bit of an overwhelming list of things to do in the next couple of days, but it'll get done.

We have been sneaking in some fun here and there, too. Raking leaves and jumping in piles have been popular activities, and consequently, great energy-burners! ;)

Carving pumpkins has quite possibly been the highlight of Jack's life at this point.

Going to the 'Bluff

2011-10-10T19:00:00.000-07:00

The weather was perfect this weekend, so we called Rachel (who was in town) and headed to Greenbluff to enjoy apples, caramel applesauce, and picking pumpkins.

Scenes From October

2011-10-08T15:40:00.000-07:00

Here is Haylee holding her "Baby Avery." Avery is currently the front-runner (and unless we have divine inspiration for a change, is the name we're going with) in our ideas of names for our baby due in December. We've told Jack and Haylee this, and Haylee starting calling her baby Baby Avery on her own. She takes very good care of Avery, wanting to change her diaper, putting Avery in her baby bed before Haylee gets in her own bed, feeding her bottles. I think it's safe to say we're going to have a faithful little helper when little Miss Avery arrives.

We need to work just a bit on our carrying technique.

While I'm sure Haylee will want to take Avery on her trike, I don't think this will be happening...

Chad started a little tradition with the kids on Saturday mornings where he makes Haylee some decaf herbal tea and Jack hot apple cider. The kids love drinking hot drinks with us. Above, you can see that Jack has his cup of cider while listening to music on the iPod.

Haylee and Jack got to pick pumpkins from Grandpa's garden recently. They are in love with their pumpkins, as you can see.

Love this picture of HJ. She's getting more and more grown up!

While living with Grandpa and Grandma LaVine, Grandpa has introduced some fun boy traditions to Jack. I love the look on Jack's face as Brad explains how to fly an airplane. They've also put together a fun model car.

I was reluctant for fall to come, since summer seemed so short. But, the weather has been quite lovely, still allowing us to spend time outside. Also, fall is an exciting time for our family...we close on our house next week and we'll hopefully spend the fall getting settled in before our winter Surprise Baby comes along!

Another Hike

2011-09-20T18:21:00.000-07:00

We took a hike last Saturday, one of our favorite Saturday morning pastimes as a family. This hike was a little extra special because we hiked along a trail that winds right behind the HOUSE we are BUYING! The backyard of this house is a forested hillside that makes it secluded and private. Needless to say, we're pretty excited! The inspection went well, so we're looking forward to closing toward the end of October. In this first picture, you can see a glimpse of the house from the hillside. Yes, it's an awesome teal blue color. :) But, that can be changed easily.

I just thought this picture was funny because HJ and I have the same expression on our faces. :)

Some Favorite Photos From the Last Week

2011-09-18T13:54:00.000-07:00

Throwing Airplanes

Wearing Bubble Suits

A common sight: Haylee feeding Felicitee oats.

She's totally into it.

All decked out for an Oregon game.

The kids love to play "farmer" in the garden.

Zorro's favorite resting spot: the swing on the front porch.

Lego Table

2011-09-13T15:27:00.000-07:00

Chad recently took advantage of his dad's spacious shop to build Jack his very own Lego table. He thought it'd be fun for Jack to have his own special place to play with Legos. So, he found some scrap wood and crafted a fun table. Jack got to help here and there. He picked out the color (it was hard for me to let him pick whatever color he wanted...I need to work on letting go of control). :)

Do you think he likes it?

Chad even glued some green Lego plates down on half the table so Jack could set up little Lego worlds. A little boy's dream!

Church Day at the Lake

2011-09-04T20:14:00.000-07:00

Our church recently had a day-long retreat at Camp Spalding. It was a fun day and really made us appreciate what a great church family we have. There were lots of games, swimming, and kids' activities. Hence the reason I took lots of pictures of kids, and very few of adults!

The only two girls from our small group who were present that day. Thank goodness we are having a girl. Our small group consists of 8 boys and 3 girls (all 5 years old and under, mind you!). We need to even out the score. **I don't usually do Haylee's hair in crooked ponytails, but after a day of playing, this is often what they look like. I just can't put myself through another session of putting in the ponytails, so they stay like this. ;)

Jack and I were able to go on a kayak ride. I'm definitely trying to find ways to justify buying a couple of these. They are fun!

Playing football.

The "Get-the-oreo-into-your-mouth-without-using-your-hands" game.

These two LOVE wrestling together. He's the only boy Jack wrestles with. It's like they see each other, and know it's time to wrestle. They laugh the whole time.

Soaking Up The Last Days of Summer...

2011-09-02T20:11:00.000-07:00

...enjoying picnic lunches while we can,

chasing butterflies,

and catching them, gently, of course,

with these two kids. :)

May the Force Be With You

2011-08-28T16:09:00.000-07:00

August Days

2011-08-15T19:00:00.000-07:00

During pregnancy, I can't ride my horse, which is a bummer. But, I get to work with her still periodically. Chad took these pictures the other night while I was lunging her, and I thought they turned out kind of neat. If you know of anyone who'd like to lease a horse for a year, let me know! Since I probably won't be able to ride for about a year, I would love to see her get ridden often and kept in shape. Or, if you'd like to come ride her, let me know! :) I miss riding and can't wait to get back to it. I'm sure with 3 small children, I'll have tons of time to ride, right?

My Aunt Janice and Uncle Ivan from Minnesota were in the area for the last couple of weeks, and we got to have a short visit with them. It was great to see them! :)

Chad's mom still has the record player and records from when Chad and Heidi were little. The kids loved listening to some stories on tape.

Baseball, Birthday Bash, and a Backache

2011-08-13T15:11:00.000-07:00

Last weekend, the kids and I headed to Ephrata. Unfortunately, Chad had quite a bad back episode and wasn't able to come with us. We sure missed him, but still managed to have a good time. We went to Aunt Rachel's community play on Friday night where she was the villainess in a melodrama called "Granny Smith Goes to Washington." I didn't get any pictures, but she did a great job. My parents even hired a babysitter for the kids so I could go. It was lovely.

On Saturday, we headed to Johnson-O'Brien Stadium to watch the opening ceremony of the Babe Ruth World Series. Yes, it's being help in lil' old Ephrata. My dad has been working for months getting the field ready, and it was in tip-top shape. Jack was excited to see baseball players and a man parachuting from the sky delivering the ball for the opening pitch.

Mitchell at the opening ceremony.

Dad in his coaching uniform with Jack and Haylee. Haylee told everyone that the shirt she was wearing was her "baseball shirt."

The day of the opening ceremony was also Mitchell's 2nd birthday and my dad's 63rd birthday. We had a joint celebration at the Allstot's. It was very fun and surprisingly relaxing. I don't often think of going to a birthday party as a single parent with two kids as being relaxing, but this party had the perfect atmosphere and the kids did great.

Brand new toys to play with. This was a great weekend as the cousins are all old enough now to play well together. It was cute to watch. Mitchell was a very generous 2 year old and shared all of his new toys so nicely.

The swing set was a big hit.

Birthday Boy Grandpa and the kids eating adorable monkey cupcakes. It was a fun weekend with family!

Treasure Huntin'

2011-08-12T15:11:00.000-07:00

When Grandma and Grandpa got back from Whidbey Island, they had some surprises for Jack and Haylee. In order to make things a little more fun, Grandma made up a treasure hunt for both kids to find their surprises. It was pretty cute.

The pirates on a treasure hunt.

The treasure was found, a robot that Jack can put together and take apart himself. Plus, some chocolate coins, and other fun things.

Then, Haylee had her own, beach-themed treasure hunt. Luckily she had a pirate to help her.

She got a mermaid set, a sticker book and some other fun things.

I love this picture.

The kids are never going to want to move into a new house. Chad and I are just not as much fun... :)

A Sunday Afternoon

2011-07-31T23:05:00.001-07:00

We had a lovely Sunday afternoon today. The weather was perfect, so we took a canoe ride down the Little Spokane River.

Haylee's view from the front.

The back of the canoe.

When we got back to the parking lot, I couldn't resist snapping some pics of the kids while Chad loaded the canoe onto the car. These are some of my favorite new pictures!

Add more than one person to a picture, and it's hard to get everyone to look good.

When we came home, Haylee had fun doing some water hopscotch.

What was Jack doing at this time? He was having a special treasure hunt with Grandma. But more about that in the next post. :)

**See the post below. I tried to set the posts for two different days, but it won't let me. The treasure hunt post to come soon.

More Sugar and Spice and Everything Nice!

2011-07-31T22:44:00.000-07:00

The next member of the LaVine family is a girl! We had our ultrasound on Friday, and she looks healthy and is quite the MOVER! I wish we had pictures, but we were only given the snapshots, and a DVD with only the 45 minute video of the ultrasound.

Jack was slightly disappointed not to be having a brother (whom he was going to name "Steve"), but has warmed up to the fact that having a sister could be a good thing. We shared with him, for instance, that a little sister may entertain Haylee more, keep her out of his Legos... Hmmm. We can dream. Also, being the only boy means doing lots of manly things one-on-one with Chad. So, now he's excited and has decided her name should be Maggie.

Haylee says she's excited, but we're not sure she realizes what's coming down the pike for her... ;)

Chad's a bit nervous about the estrogen level in the house, especially once Jack graduates, but is excited about another little girl in the family.

And I'm just excited the balance of power will now tip towards the women. No, really, I'm excited to have two little girls. I love having a sister and doing girlie things with my mom and sister. It's also fun to think of Jack being the oldest and only boy. I think it'll be a great role for him. A boy and two girls; we feel very blessed!

Summer Days

2011-07-27T15:59:00.000-07:00

Chad has finished summer school, so summer has officially begun for our family. We've been enjoying some low-key days. The kids love riding their bikes around Grandpa and Grandma's patio.

They also love playing in the huge sand box.

Jack decided the other day that he and Haylee both needed to be wearing Star Wars shirts. Thankfully, Haylee was a willing participant.

The Zoo

2011-07-24T14:18:00.000-07:00

On our way home from Cannon Beach, we stopped at the zoo to stretch our legs and give the kids a chance to see the animals. They loved it!

Grandma and Haylee.

Jack's method of looking through the telescope.

Katie and Mitch checking out the giraffe.

Rachel told us that New Zealanders call redheads "'rangas" because their hair is the same color as orangutans. Chad has taken to calling her Ranga, and now our kids refer to Rachel almost exclusively as "Aunt 'Ranga." Thankfully, she's a good sport and agreed to get her picture taken next to a picture of one

What is Haylee so excited about?

Why, the black bears, of course! :)

So, this is my last CB post. Whew! That was a lot of blogging, but now I feel like the hundreds of pictures we took are organized. Yeah!

Ecola State Park

2011-07-22T15:05:00.000-07:00

On Friday, the four of us went to Ecola State Park. It's a beautiful park with gorgeous views of the ocean and fun (but muddy) hiking trails. The kids loved it.

Checking out the map.

The view from the hike.

Such a common scene. A while back, Chad mentioned that he was sad the kids were getting too big for the backpack. Surprise! One more kidlet to backpack. ;)

Our natural scientist at work.

A little friend we met along the way.

Kids' Program

2011-07-21T16:25:00.000-07:00

I was a little worried about how the kids would do being in the kids' program every day at the Conference Center, but it turns out I had nothing to be worried about. They loved it. In fact, Jack had his first crush...on his teacher, Firefly. It was pretty cute. It was fun to see how much they liked it, to hear the songs they learned, and to see all the crafts they made.

Jack and his class. Firefly is the teacher on the right. She's making a funny gesture, but she was pretty cute. Just look at Jack's expression--even from the side...

The kids sang their songs for the adults on the last night. It was pretty cute. :)

The Beach

2011-07-20T15:52:00.000-07:00

We enjoyed a few days of sunny weather before the rain set in. The beach was beautiful and we spent a lot of time walking, digging in sand, and relaxing. I'm now convinced that the beach is the best place for kids to play. There's tons of room to run around and lots of sand for digging. It's perfect.

Mitch loved to dig.

Thank you, Grandma, for providing LOTS of sand toys!

Aunt Rachel was a pretty good helper with building sand castles.

Awkward family photo.

A family on the beach had a dog that loved to fetch the rocks Jack was throwing. It was a nice dog, but slightly confused the whole time as he could never find the rock to bring back to Jack.

There is a small river that runs into the ocean at Cannon Beach. When the tide is low, it's the perfect place for kids to run around and swim.

Our beach girl.

Haylee loved running on the beach. She would start running and say, "I'm running!!" It reminded us of this scene in "What About Bob?"

Sand Castle Contest

2011-07-19T15:41:00.000-07:00

The Conference Center has a sandcastle contest each year, and we decided to participate. We wanted to reprise our Grand Prize Sandcastle from 20 years ago when we made Rachel into the Little Mermaid, but Rachel wasn't so obliging this year. So, Katie had the idea to make a baseball field.

Seeing the field take shape.

The expert baseball field architect hard at work.

The finished product. If you click on the picture, you can see the stands with "jelly belly" fans and the opposing teams in the dugouts. And, we called it "In the Big Inning," based on Genesis 1:1.

Yep, we won! The Johnsons are a slightly competitive bunch.

Tide Pools

2011-07-18T15:26:00.000-07:00

In the morning when the tide is low, the tide pools around Haystack Rock are quite incredible. A few mornings, we went to the rock before breakfast so the kids could check out the marine life. This was quite a highlight of the week.

This is a happy look for Haylee, in case you wondered. ;)

Mitch, Bryan and Rachel at the tide pools.

Jack loved all the sea life in the tide pools.

Mitch was a pretty big fan, too. Gotta love those cute rain boots!!

There were probably hundreds of starfish all over the rocks.

On the mile-long walk back from the rock, Haylee insisted on pushing Mitchell. My dad and Bryan supervised.

Cannon Beach 2011

2011-07-17T15:23:00.000-07:00

We spent the past week at one of my favorite places on earth. When we were kids, almost every summer from the time I was 5 and Bryan was 3 (and Rachel was still playing with the angels) through early high school, we came to Cannon Beach to spend a week at Cannon Beach Conference Center. It is a really nice family camp where a delicious breakfast and dinner are provided daily, an excellent speaker teaches on a subject in Christianity, and the kids have a program to attend. From the late morning until dinner, you have free time to spend at the beach and explore the surrounding area. Some other perks are FREE babysitting in the evenings, and one night the kids eat in their classrooms while the adults enjoy a dinner by candlelight. It was busy, refreshing and fun.

This year, my parents generously took all 10 of us to Cannon Beach and we had such a wonderful time together. We hung out at the beach, ate great food, spent time together, and just enjoyed life. My parents graciously offered to stay with kids while they napped a few of the afternoons, so we weren't always bound to the room during nap time. It was lovely.

It was a long drive, but the kids did great. Jack's foot position cracks me up. :)

The kids L-O-V-E-D the beach. I enjoyed reliving the wonder of the beach through their eyes.

Since I have so many pictures, I'm going to do multiple blog posts over the next few days, mostly for my own organizational purposes. Hope you enjoy!

I Guess I Should Have Seen This Day Coming....

2011-07-03T19:44:00.000-07:00

But I'm still not sure how I feel about it. It is a boy's rite of passage, I suppose.

And how could I be opposed to it when it makes them so happy? By the way, it's a bb gun.

(PS Notice the Lego Star Wars shirt that Grandma Johnson let Jack pick out at the store recently. He tells me, "I'm going to wear this shirt for 200 days!" 2 down, 198 to go!) :)

Could Summer Actually Be Here....to Stay??

2011-07-02T13:49:00.000-07:00

We sure hope so!!

A Punchcard Surprise

2011-06-11T20:25:00.000-07:00

Do I have your attention with the title? Stick with me, and hopefully it will make sense. A few years ago, before any of us Johnson siblings had children, my dad mentioned in an off-hand remark that if we gave him 9 grandchildren, he would buy a family lake cabin at Priest Lake. He may have been joking, but we all considered it a verbal agreement. Katie and Bryan, and Chad and I have been doing our best to get the process in motion. Recently Katie and Bryan announced that they are expecting baby #2. So, Chad and I thought it would be fun to make a little punchcard and send it to my parents. It looked a little something like this:

Grandma and Grandpa Johnson thought it was funny, and then they saw three punches on our portion of the punchcard. That's right, folks, we are expecting LaVine Baby #3!

Let me answer one question that you're probably thinking right now: Did you guys plan this?? No we didn't plan this... I'm a planner, and I would not have planned to find out I'm preggo shortly after the sale of our house. Nor would we have planned to have a baby with a due date of December 28th. (And in answer to Sister-in-law Katie's question, yes, we do know how this happens.) But, we are very excited about this new adventure, and I think God is trying to teach us that we have very little say in how our life is planned out.

It's hard to imagine what the third LaVine will be like. Jack and Haylee are so different, as evidenced in some pictures I took of them sleeping recently:

Will Number 3 be like Haylee, who sleeps like the free spirit she is?

Or a more ordered person like Jack who barely moves all night long?

Who knows, but we're excited to find out!

Beautiful Day

2011-06-09T14:36:00.000-07:00

I know, cheesy title for a blog post about going to a U2 concert, but there's really no other U2 song title to describe last weekend. Last year, in February, before we even put our house on the market for the first time, we purchased tickets to see U2 in Seattle June 2010. They have been Chad's favorite band since seventh grade and seeing them live is one of the things on his "bucket list." We were so looking forward to it, and were so bummed when Bono hurt his back moving equipment (seriously, Bono, don't you have roadies to do that for you??). Anyway, we couldn't have predicted how perfectly the timing could have worked out when they rescheduled the concert for June 4, 2011. After selling and moving from our house Memorial Day weekend, we were ready for a little non-domestic fun. And this concert did not disappoint!

We left the kiddos in Ephrata with Grandma Johnson and Auntie Rachel (Thank you!!), and headed to Seattle Saturday morning. It was a beautiful day (I know, cheese-ball, but it really was), and we enjoyed lunch at Ivar's, coffee at Starbuck's and just strolling along the pier in Seattle. (Oh, and a nap in the car before the concert--we are parents of young children, after all, and staying up until 1 am is not something we do a lot of anymore.) Then, the concert. It's really hard to put into words, but it really was a completely unique and amazing experience. I am quite a sheltered person (the other concerts I have attended in my life include DC Talk, Steven Curtis Chapman, Newsboys, Michael W Smith, etc.), so the idea of going to "rock" concert intimidated me. Was I going to see the rockers drinking goat blood? ;) Were people going to be getting high around me? Well, the answer was no. It was just a lot of fun, and the most fun was seeing my husband enjoy his favorite band live. U2 doesn't disappoint when it comes to a concert--they sound better live than in studio and they just have a lot of fun on stage. Also, we saw all ages there, from couples in their 70's to a 3 year old (what was that parent thinking??) Anyway, it was a much needed 24 hour getaway and we enjoyed ourselves!

At the concert. Do we look tired? Maybe that's because we had to climb 123 stairs to get to our seats. I had to do it three times because of bathroom breaks. But the seats were really good.

When we bought the tickets, we arranged to be seated with our friends Jason and Angela, fellow U2 fans. They were great to go with.

Before the concert. The stage was huge, and by the time the concert started, all the area on the floor was completely covered with people. There were 84,000 people there.

Lenny Kravitz opened and went WAY too long. (See, Lenny? The stands aren't even full yet...we weren't there to see you.) His first two songs lasted 20 minutes. He just kept going. I was slightly annoyed (just ask Chad).

U2 finally onstage.

I was not a U2 fan until I met Chad. I barely knew their songs except the ones played on the radio. Over the years, I have become a big fan of their music as well. If you ever get a chance, and are even a slight U2 fan, you should go to a concert if they play in a town near you. If they ever play in Seattle again, we're there!

Hall of Famer

2011-05-20T13:38:00.000-07:00

Last week, I left the kids with Chad's parents' (thank you, Brad and Carol, and Chad!) and made a fast trip to Ephrata/Seattle to see my dad inducted into the WIAA (Washington Interscholastic Activities Association) Hall of Fame. My dad coached baseball (and basketball at times) for 36 years in Ephrata and won 8 state championships, multiple district and regional championships, and is THE the winningest baseball coach in Washington. My dad was (and still is) an excellent coach who modeled integrity and character on and off the field. As one of my friends said, you'd never know by just meeting my dad that he is such a successful coach. He's the type of guy who is humble, hard-working, and doesn't talk about himself. He just puts his head down and gets the job done. Now, because he coached so successfully for so many years in Ephrata, everyone in town knows about him--he had over 50 people come to see him receive this honor. Some of the other honorees in past years: John Stockton and Mark Rypian. He's in good company. Since my dad won't brag about himself, I thought I'd do the bragging for him.

All three of us kids were able to make the trip. Just like old times, we scrunched in the backseat of my parents' car for the ride to Seattle. We just didn't fight as much as we used to. At one point in the ride, we did try to fight with each other, just for my parents' sake, but it was too much work to keep it up. It only took us 20+ years to get to that point.

My dad receiving his award. Another one of his gifts is public speaking--he had everyone laughing during his whole speech.

Four players from the 1999 State Championship--Dad got to coach Bryan's team to 1st place that year.

My Aunt Dianne and Uncle Bob even came up from Scottsdale for the occasion.

We're all so proud of you, Dad! It should be noted that my mom has been so supportive of my dad throughout his career. She did a great job of keeping things going around the home-front while my dad coached late nights. (As a mother of young children now, I can appreciate all she did!) At one point, he was coaching two sports, in the role of athletic director, and teaching. Busy days for him and my mom. Behind every great coach is a great and supportive wife!

Haylee Jean, The Two-Year-Old

2011-05-14T22:05:00.000-07:00

Haylee is 2! This little girl has wanted to be "grown-up" since she was a baby, and I think she's liking being two years old. It's hard to describe Haylee-she's her own person you have to get to know in order to appreciate her. :) Here are a few interests and traits of hers that are emerging these days.

She can get her brother's goat like none other. My personal favorite is when she and Jack are playing together, and she'll whisper with a mischievous grin, "Mine." It sends Jack into a frenzy, and you can see Haylee's satisfaction that she's gotten a reaction. However, on the flip side, she LOVES Jack. If she wakes up from her nap before Jack, all she can talk about is when he is going to wake up.
She loves interacting. Conversations with her these days are quite entertaining and fun. She is a snuggler, so whenever she wakes up in the morning or from her nap, we have to have snuggle time with her blankie. It's a favorite time of day for me. While her brother wakes up ready to conquer the world, Haylee is a slow, snuggly "waker-upper."
If you ever have a chance to see Haylee run, it's quite an experience. It's impossible to describe in detail on the blog, but I'll just say that it's amazing how many directions her body can go while she runs from one place to another. I love it.
Unlike Jack, she hasn't become focused on one thing to play with. She loves her babies, and playing with puzzles. But, I think her favorite thing to play is with Jack. She loves playing Legos (when he'll let her), pirates, and whatever else he's into. It'll be interesting to see if any favorite toys/games emerge this year.
She had her dad wrapped around her finger. He is defenseless around her. And she loves him.

There is so much more to say, but I'll stop there. We had a fun birthday with her today: went to lunch at Red Robin, napped, then had a little birthday party/dinner at our place tonight. My camera is on the fritz, so I used my old one which has such a slow response time...

Our lunch at Red Robin.

Blowing out the candle.

These two were SUPER excited about the party.

Dinner time!

Present time!

My wonderful Uncle Bob and Aunt Dianne came all the way from Arizona for Haylee's birthday! Well, okay, they came for my dad's induction to the Hall of Fame, but we were happy they were able to add Haylee's birthday to their week in Washington.

Anna and Josie outside. So cute!

Haylee got a shopping cart for her birthday, so she and Anna did lots of passes in front of the house. It was a hit, as you can tell!

Whenever Steph and Rachel get together, they like to compare stories about how bossy and Type-A I am. ;) I shouldn't let them get together too often...

The awesome grandparents! Our family is blessed to have such wonderful parents/grandparents who get along so well and love our kids so much!

We had a wonderful time with our family (and missed those who couldn't make it) celebrating Haylee. This was probably our last get together at our house as we SOLD OUR HOUSE and are closing at the end of the month. We have such great memories of our home and hope the young couple who is moving in is able to form great memories as well.

Grandma LaVine shared this poem with me the other day that fits Haylee to a tee. So, I'll end the post with that:

Courtney

by Lois Lee Gill

Little Miss Adorable

struts down the hall

She's a tiny mite, not even

two

Doesn't bother

at all!

She's thrilled with herself,

bursting with glee

And I'm so pleased she visits me.

She knows she's cute

she knows she's smart

Little Miss Adorable

steals everybody's heart!

We love Haylee! She brings us so much joy!

The Indoctrination

2011-05-05T15:48:00.000-07:00

**I asked Chad to write this post, but he politely declined....So, I'll just write about what I heard about the trip....

If you know Chad and his dad Brad at all, then you know they are huge U of O football fans. Like, check-the-Duck-internet-boards-everyday fans. They go down to an Oregon game each fall as well. This year, Chad decided Jack was old enough to be introduced to the wonders of Oregon football. The three generations packed up and headed out of town last weekend for the (free!) Oregon spring game (a scrimmage within the Oregon team). They stayed in a hotel where they got to swim (a major highlight for Jack), play Legos, and eat an amazing breakfast each morning, and jump from bed to bed. They had a wonderful time.

Jack and Chad outside Autzen Stadium.

The spring game is geared for kids, so they have the indoor practice field set up with all kinds of activities for kids to enjoy.

Tackling Grandpa.

The spring game also featured the Armed Forces for kids to meet. Jack got to see this real soldier with a real cannon.

Jack in the Humvee.

This is my favorite picture from the game.

The boys did lots of swimming in the hotel pool.

On the way home, they stopped at Multnomah Falls. They were featuring Search and Rescue teams, so there were bloodhounds to look at and lots of fun prizes to win.

I think Jack ran Grandpa and Daddy into the ground. :) He seems to have an unlimited amount of energy.... It was fun for me to talk on the phone with Jack each night so he could tell me what he did. The first night I asked him what he had done, and he told me "I played Legos!" Then, he told me that he'd show me the hotel one day. I think he's officially indoctrinated into Oregon football. I think one day, they'll love going to Pac-10 Oregon football games together. :)

What did Haylee and I do, you ask? We spent some time with Grandma LaVine on Friday, and then headed to Ephrata on Saturday to spend time with the Johnson grandparents and Rachel. It was so fun for me to spend time with just her. In the future, I'm sure we'll have lots of opportunities to do fun girlie stuff while the boys make the trek to see Oregon games. :)

Happy Easter!

2011-04-29T15:38:00.000-07:00

We had a lovely Easter. We went to a wonderful Easter service at church. After church, we headed up to Grandpa and Grandma LaVines', enjoyed opening Easter baskets, a fun Easter egg hunt outside, and a delicious meal. On top of it all, the weather was BEAUTIFUL. Aunt Rachel even got to join us for dinner, although I didn't get any pictures of her.

I made this dessert that you can find here. It was delish, and very easy. Perfect for springtime. :) Hope you had a wonderful Easter as well!

Hope

2011-04-23T13:30:00.000-07:00

Things are looking up. We are all feeling better (knock on wood!), and this morning, it seemed like Spring has finally sprung in Spokane. We took advantage of the beautiful weather by taking a hike with the kids. It was quite the wonderful feeling to feel the warm sun on our backs and be able to enjoy the outdoors. The kids did great. Haylee insisted on walking the whole time and didn't complain once. We brought the backpack, but she refused to ride in it. (I'm pretty sure my camera lens had smudge marks on it, so the pictures are a bit blurry. Oops!)

Jack was the official map-reader.

Enjoying a snack by the river.

We are hopeful that spring could actually be here.... And Easter is tomorrow, the ultimate reason for hope.

Goals

2011-04-09T20:44:00.000-07:00

We were really, really looking forward to spring break. We had virtually no plans with the exception of bookend birthdays on the week. Let's take a look at some of the goals we had for the week of spontaneity and time as a family. So, here are The LaVine Family Goals for Spring Break:

1.) Celebrate Jack's 4th birthday.
2.) Go on hikes as a family and exercise in general.
3.) Possibly go overnight somewhere for a fun outing as a family.
4.) Do a toy purge after all the new toys came in for the 4 year old's birthday.
5.) Go through both kids' clothing now that spring is here.
6.) Chad and I had planned a birthday hiking date while Chad's parents would watch the kids.
7.) Celebrate Chad's 32nd birthday with family.
8.) Enjoy down time.

Sounds fun, right? Now, let's look at how the week actually turned out.

1.) We celebrated the 4 year old's birthday. See the post below. :)
2.) I came down with the strangest virus: an incredibly sore throat, achy feeling, and zero energy, resulting in 4 days of basically being in bed.
3.) In those four days, Chad got lots of time single-parenting the kids, and making sure I didn't overdo anything. Thankfully, he had the option of taking the kids to his parents' home to play and to have a little adult conversation and help. (His parents were so helpful in so many ways! Seriously, we are blessed.)
4.) Once I started feeling better, Chad started getting a sore throat. He had the virus and spends two days resting.
5.) Chad starts feeling better. Then, Jack wakes up in the middle of the night in tons of pain. We think it's the virus. Turns out he has a double ear infection and is now on a strong antibiotic.

And that's where we've left off so far with one day left of break. I understand that none of these things are the end of the world, but when you are really looking forward to some fun, unplanned family time, sickness for a whole week isn't the most desirable outcome. I will admit I have felt frustrated at times because I felt like our family really could have used the time to play and just have a relaxed time together. Plus, I'm a planner and goal-setter and really like to see things carried out.

This morning while I was thinking about goals and how our week had gone, I was reminded that, back in January, I had written down some personal goals for 2011 in my journal. In the process of writing the goals, I prayed that God would help me hold those goals with an open hand. That I wouldn't be frustrated when the goals weren't reached in my time frame, but to realize that sometimes there are divine interruptions and I shouldn't get caught up in the goal so much that I lose sight of what God might want to do in my life. Why did I pray that? It's like praying for patience--you know that you will be provided with lots of less-than-desirable opportunities to practice patience. Or praying for humility--you know that you'll be made to feel humble. :)

So, my goals were interrupted this week. We have still had lots of family time together. We may not all have been well, but we've stayed close through all this. It's helped me realize (AGAIN) that my goals are not the final say--they're simply goals. And we'll really appreciate when all four of us are healthy again and we can start checking off some of the things on the first list above. Since one of my goals for the year was to be intentional about spending time with my family, I was at least able to reach one goal this week! :)

Jack's 4th Birthday (a belated, but heartfelt post)

2011-04-08T13:16:00.000-07:00

Jack had a great fourth birthday celebration! I'm a little late in posting about it because I've had a horrible virus for the last few days. Thanks to my saintly husband and in-laws, I'm starting to feel on the mend, and finally getting around to posting pictures.

I don't think anyone can forget looking into the eyes of your child on the day he or she is born. Chad and I have talked many times about how it felt to look into Jack's eyes after a long and tiring labor and delivery. It sounds corny, but it was like time stopped for a few moments. It's quite hard to believe that this little baby could so quickly grow into....

...this 4 year-old boy!

We started off our day with a trip to the Fish Hatchery in North Spokane. This is about the most fun, almost-free ($.50 for fish food) activity to do with a couple of preschoolers. Jack and Haylee loved this place! It was raining, but we managed to have a great time.

Feeding the fish.

Just a few of the thousands of rainbow trout that have grown up at the hatchery. These particular fish will be relocated to lakes around Spokane in the next month.

Jack got a new electronic light saber for his birthday that came with a DVD of actual Star Wars duals (edited for 4 year olds). Haylee and Jack loved having pretend duals with characters such as Darth Maul, Darth Vader and General Grievous (and I'm now a bit more knowledgeable about who these characters are). If you look at the bottom of this post, there is a video of Jack fighting a dual.

Both sets of grandparents and a few other family members and friends were able to come celebrate. Here is Grandpa keeping Miss HJ entertained.

Grandpa LaVine and Rachel.

Anna and Haylee: two peas in a pod.

We had a Star Wars themed birthday party.

Aunt Rachel and Jack.

I should have taken more pictures of everyone, but I was feeling quite under the weather, so I wasn't quite on my "A" game. We had a great time, though and we are so proud of our 4 year old. Jack is enthusiastic, caring, active, and fun and we couldn't ask for a better son. Love you, Jack!

My Day with an Almost-Four-Year-Old

2011-03-31T14:13:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, Chad's parents took Haylee for a "Fun With Grandparents Day" which gave Jack and me a day with just the two of us. We had a fun day together...

Our first stop was Jack's favorite store: The White Elephant. We had a great time looking at all the toys, and I have a very long list of things he wants for his birthday.

After the White Elephant, we headed to the Milk Bottle restaurant in our neighborhood to have a milkshake (which we should have shared).

I don't know, do you think he likes chocolate milkshakes??

Then, we walked across the street to a new bookstore. Jack really liked looking at the very age-appropriate book, Mummies.

After our outing, we came home and played pirates and soldiers together. I loved having a day with my little guy! It's hard to believe he'll be four in just 2 days...

The One with the Secret Closet

2011-03-08T14:45:00.000-08:00

My brother has told me a few times that I remind him of Monica on Friends. At first I took as a compliment because she's so clean and tidy, but the fact that he's said it at times where I'm being very particular about something makes me think that maybe her more annoyingly particular traits remind him of me... Anyway, if you've seen the Friends episode where Chandler is trying to figure out what's in Monica's secret locked closet, you know that behind that door was a huge mess that she was hiding to give the appearance that everything in her home was clean.

I really like a clean, organized house, but I'm known to stuff things in a closet so that the mess is out of sight. Our computer armoire recently had gotten out of control. When my sister wanted to check email at our house a couple months ago, I realized what an embarrassment it is when the armoire doors are actually open. I needed to clean out files so I could file more recent papers, but that takes FOREVER, and what mom has time for that? Well, I've been working on it little by little, and finally got it looking more respectable. This is kind of hard for me to post since I like being thought of as a tidy person, but I rarely accomplish something like this, so it seems fitting to post it on the blog. :)

The armoire with the doors closed. See, there's no mess here!

Oh, the horrors. Look at the piles of paper on the top. Please don't judge me...

The almost finished product. I'm still on the lookout for really cute organizational products that don't cost an arm and a leg, yet are the perfect combination of colors. For now, the white plastic whiffle-ball buckets will have to do.

The bottom cupboard--just so you don't think I stuffed everything down there.

My helpers who woke up from their naps as I was finishing up.

Now, if you have a great system for organizing special cards received from loved ones, I'd greatly hearing about it!

Couches

2011-02-19T15:20:00.000-08:00

Who knew when we bought our couches 5 years ago how perfect they'd be for kids?

Perfect for puppet shows. (Some of us are more refined in our puppet skills than others.)

Perfect for creating an army fort to volley shots to the other side....

Perfect for making forts. The kids wanted to watch a show the other morning from within the comfort of their fort.

The pillows (all of them) come off the couch at least once a day. :)

Personality Types

2011-02-12T18:38:00.001-08:00

It's pretty clear that Jack and Haylee have different personality types. The other day while painting, some definite traits showed up. I just looked up (on Wikipedia--the source of all knowledge) the actual definition of Type A and Type B Personality types. (On a side note, I had no idea the personality traits had anything to do a person's risk of coronary heart disease.) Here are some of the words to describe a Type A Personality Type: ambitious, competitive, business-like, impatient, time-conscious. See Exhibit A in these pictures of our oldest child. Please note that he would not look away from his painting to give him mother a nice smile for the camera.

Jacks' paint container.

The Type B personality can be described as being the opposite of a Type A personality. A few words to describe them are: generally patient, relaxed, easy-going, and at times lacking an overriding sense of urgency. See Exhibit B of our child with Type B personality.

Haylee's paint tray.

Now, which parent does each child take after? Hmmm.... ;)

Our New (Repetitive) Joke

2011-02-08T10:43:00.001-08:00

We recently taught Jack a knock knock joke that required a specific delivery method (which we're still working on, as you can see). So, Chad practiced and practiced with Jack. Since Haylee was around, she also learned the joke, and will tell it 50 times in a row. You think I'm exaggerating, but I'm not. She doesn't quite have the interruption part of the joke down. But the rest is spot on. Here's a video of the kids telling their new joke.

Grandma McMaster

2011-02-04T14:57:00.001-08:00

Grandpa and Grandma on their wedding day.

Me, Grandma, Jack and my mom on Jack's first Easter. I love the pleased look on her face as she looks at Jack.

My Grandma McMaster passed away early last week after 80 years on this earth. It happened rather quickly and we were sad to see her leave, but we know she is now where she longed to be--with Jesus. She was a wonderful, loving grandmother and I'm thankful to have known her for 31 years of my life. Every other month, I write an article for our MOPS newsletter. Since Grandma was fresh in my mind, I decided to write about her impact in my life.

Living a Legacy

Lately, I’ve been thinking about what kind of legacy I want to leave for my family. In the day-in and day-out busyness and exhaustion of raising a family, I get bogged down in the details and have a hard time seeing the bigger picture of what I’m really doing. It’s easy to see what I’ve accomplished in a day, but in a lifetime? That’s much harder to envision. I mean, who is ever remembered for cleaning up the spaghetti that has been tossed on the carpet? Or for being really good at keeping our family’s schedule running smoothly? It’s not stuff that legacies are often made of.

I started thinking about after the recent passing of my beloved Grandma McMaster. My family and many friends were saddened the suddenness of her departure from this world. However, we all keep talking how thankful for we are for legacy she left for us all. She was a simple, down-to-earth woman whose life was definitely not easy, yet we all respect her and give her credit for passing down faith in God and being a person of love. The more I think about it, the more those two things, faith in God and faithfulness are the ways she left her legacy. She was passionate about the Lord, praying for the members of her family and devoting time to be with God every day. This gave her wisdom I sought out often. Knowing she was praying for me was comforting and encouraging, especially during the rougher patches of life. Faithfulness is the other characteristic we all admire about her. She cared for my grandfather for more than 20 years after he suffered an illness that rendered him dependent on her. She spent every day monitoring my grandpa and making sure his needs were met. Talk about mundane! Yet she faithfully loved and cared for him every day. Throughout my life she also spent hours of quality time with me, asking me questions, telling me stories, and planning fun things for us to do together. This was her legacy: one of love, faith in God and faithfulness in caring for others. This legacy was carried out in the midst of her everyday life.

So, as I think about the legacy I will someday leave behind, my grandma’s example helps me see how a legacy is formed not in the big moments of life, but in the “everydayness” of life. The decisions I make each day, even the most mundane ones, are all building toward the big picture. I want my family to know they are loved by God and by me, just like my grandma did for our family. I hope that my legacy won’t be about running my family’s schedule smoothly or some other detail of domestic life, but rather how my family felt loved and learned about God while going about the ordinariness of life. I’m so thankful for my grandma’s influence on my life and I pray that I will someday leave the same legacy for my family.

Mini-me?

2011-02-01T20:24:00.000-08:00

I'm totally copying Katie's blog today. My sister found this picture of me this weekend. People tell me that Haylee and I look a lot alike, but I really think this picture captures it. Oh, and I'm thinking of giving Haylee the same haircut. ;)

Ordinary Days Can Be the Best Days...

2011-01-19T18:21:00.000-08:00

Even though we have been busy since Christmas, there don't seem to be many exciting events to post. I had a great post planned for when Oregon won the National Championship, but it's not as fun to post about almost winning the National Title....

Today we had a day at home with no outside obligations and it was great. Grandpa Johnson stopped by for a bit after dropping off hay for my horse (thank you, Dad!) on his way to a speaking engagement. Jack and Haylee enjoyed seeing him and visiting for a bit. The kids also got to do a few of their favorite things:

...like pretending to be R2D2. Don't you see the resemblance?

...playing with legos.

..."cooking" in the sink. Anytime someone is in the kitchen, Haylee drags her little yellow chair in to be part of the action and "help." If I fill a saucepan with water in the sink and give her a spoon, she stays quite busy!

...drinking hot cocoa after a very sunny, yet very chilly walk.

...reading books.

I even got to finish a few projects around the house while the kids played. An ordinary day, yes, but a happy one. I like being busy and enjoying activities out of the house, but I'm thankful for ordinary days like these where we can regroup and recharge.

20 Months Old

2011-01-14T14:35:00.000-08:00

Haylee is 20 months today which is hard for me to believe! We're four months away from having a 2 year old! She's loving life, experimenting with emotions, and talking up a storm. A few things about Haylee:

**She loves shoes. She received the above boots from Aunt Rachel for Christmas. When she put them on, she did this little toe point for the whole Johnson family. No one taught her this. She just loves to show off what she's wearing. Funny, but we never saw this with Jack.

**She loves being with Jack and doing whatever he's doing, like dressing up like an army guy and pirate. However, her way of playing now includes getting Jack's goat. She'll take one of his treasured toys (bear, lego-guy, you-name-it) and run off with it, laughing the whole way. This, of course, sets Jack off, which only encourages Haylee to continue. I'm trying to teach Jack to just ignore that she took off with the item, and she'll give it back. We tried that this morning, and sure enough, Haylee brought back his bear. I know this technique because I've used it when Chad teases me. If I just kind of ignore it, he'll stop because he's not getting a reaction. ;)

**She's definitely experimenting with her emotions. If you take away her cereal bowl (because she's throwing her Honey Nut Cheerios on the floor), she'll start crying and it's almost like she is a broken record. The crying turns fake, but she continues making the sound. So, I've started giving her time-outs until she gets herself under control. It's now to the point that when something doesn't go her way and she throws a fit, or she hits Jack, I tell her to go have a time-out. She walks calmly back to her room, closes the door and just stands there. She comes out completely back to her normal self. It makes me laugh, actually. A timeout for Jack is like the end of the world--he hates being separated from the rest of the family. However, Haylee likes it. A couple times she's even stayed back her room for 10 minutes reading a book. I'm going to have be more creative in redirecting behavior with this girl.

She's a riot and it's fun to see all the new things she learns every day.

Christmas Vacation, Post #3

2011-01-04T22:37:00.000-08:00

When we returned from our fun visits with both families, we had a few great days as a family of four. We went sledding, played, relaxed, ate good food and just enjoyed being together.

Little sledding girl. What I love about Haylee is she is up for everything. It's probably because she sees her brother show such enthusiasm for everything.

We had a great time sledding at Whitworth.

The kids were such troopers; they carried their sleds up the hill by themselves.

I met this guy at Whitworth 13 years ago, and now we are taking our kids sledding there. Life is good, and I'm thankful.

Christmas Vacation, Post #2

2011-01-03T22:13:00.000-08:00

So, while I was not on the ball with taking pictures of opening presents in Ephrata, that's pretty much all I took pictures of when we were with the LaVine family. Oh, and I don't have any of Grandpa LaVine either. Sorry! We did have a wonderful time together, especially because Chad's sister Heidi came for Christmas, all the way from Missouri! It was fun to spend a few days together. We relaxed, played with all the new toys, took a little trip downtown and ate a yummy meal at Red Lobster. We are so thankful that our kids have such great family members on each side. We feel blessed.

Can you tell they were excited about opening presents??

Haylee loves her new chair, and Jack is happy because he can have his all to himself again.

Another delicious dinner--this time: ham.

The kids with Heidi. Haylee was DONE with taking pictures.

Jack got a new sleeping bag for Christmas....

...Chad and Haylee loved snuggling in it.

A little too much celebration for Chad. Don't worry, he was also given his own sleeping bag for Christmas. Unfortunately, he did not receive a pillow pet, so he's stuck using Haylee's.

Christmas Vacation, Post #1

2011-01-02T18:35:00.001-08:00

We had an eventful first week and a half of Christmas break. First, we went to Ephrata for a few days to spend time with the Johnson side of the family. We were all able to be there for a (semi) relaxing time. Is it ever relaxing with three little kids around? It may not be super-relaxing, but it is always fun to see Christmas through the eyes of children. It was especially fun as Mitch and Haylee were able to participate a little more than last year when they were 3 and 6 months, respectively.

It was a blessing that there was a fresh blanket of snow when we arrived in Ephrata. We spent lots of time playing outside and trying our best to make the most of the snow.

Jack made his very own snowmen. He was quite proud.

Inevitably, time outside in the snow turned into a snowball fight between the three adult men (Bryan, Chad and my dad). Surprising.

These two enjoyed being outside.

We had a great time pulling the kids along in sleds.

I have an embarrassingly small number of photos of my parents. They were busy bees a lot of the time with cooking, tidying and keeping the fire going in the fireplace.

This is our attempt at trying to get a picture of all the "kids" (minus Rach who was working) by the snowman that Chad and Bryan built. Katie and Mitchell look like models from an L.L. Bean catalog. The rest of us? Hmmm....

My parents' cat is the perfect snow cat. He runs around with the kids and plays in the snow. Jack loves it.

Sadly, I have zero pictures of us opening presents. It was just a fun, crazy time and I didn't want to stress with taking pictures. However, this is my dad by the tree with the presents.

Christmas Eve Fondue Dinner...Chad's favorite meal of the year. It is quite delicious.

The girls post-fondue....

And Bryan post-fondue.

After our Christmas Day dinner of prime rib, we headed to the high school gym to get some exercise. The kids loved it.

We had a wonderful time. Next up, our LaVine family Christmas...

Little Baker Girl

2010-12-14T23:23:00.000-08:00

It's becoming clear to us that Haylee loves to "bake." Just give her a bowl with a tablespoon of flour and sugar in it, and she'll be busy for minutes.

Just don't take her away from "baking," or this toothy grin soon disappears....

Snowman Party

2010-12-13T22:55:00.000-08:00

In our family, we've joked that Jack gets his love of snowman from both of his grandmothers. Both women have an incredible number of snowman in their Christmas decorations. So, it was no surprise that Grandma LaVine wanted to throw a snowman party for Jack and Haylee. We headed up to their place for the whole day. The kids had a wonderful time, as did I. It was a nice break to get away from the house and away from the dozens of items staring at me from my to-do list. Thanks Grandma and Grandpa L!

The house was covered in snowmen. I couldn't even take pictures of them all. :)

She had a snowman craft for the kids. (This is Haylee's new smile for pictures. Gotta love those teeth!)

Haylee has really taken to snowmen herself. She calls them "snowies."

Grandpa L. had set up a great electric train, and he and Jack looked at it for probably over an hour, total. They made up stories about what was going on inside the train. I'm thinking we're going to have to invest in one soon. It was extremely popular for the three year old. (And yes, those are snowmen poking their cute little faces over the train.)

Grandma even had them bake snowman cookies. Haylee was into it, but not quite able to be involved in the actual process. So, Grandma gave her a bowl and some margarine to which Haylee added pecans. She thought it tasted great, and I had to finally pull her away from it. You can probably imagine that I was not the popular one for a while...

To round out the snowman extravaganza, Frosty the Snowman was on TV the other night. So, we got Jack in his snowman pajamas, set him up on the couch with his favorite snowmen and enjoyed an old classic. Rachel even got in on the fun.

Oh, and we enjoyed the numerous cotton balls that Grandma sent home with us for a snowball fight. They sure are fun to pick up when the snowball fight is over. :) No, seriously, such a thoughtful and fun party for the kids.

Giving Thanks

2010-12-11T22:44:00.000-08:00

It's been over two weeks since Thanksgiving, but it's never too late to be thankful right? We had a wonderful time with members of both sides of the family this year. There even was a blanket of snow to beautify the landscape. Here are a few things I'm thankful for this year:

I'm thankful for a great husband whom I love and who loves me enough to....

...still throw snowballs at me. (If you know Chad, then you understand this statement...)

A healthy, lively family.

Healthy, fun kids who make me smile daily.

Two sets of wonderful, loving grandparents.

An involved, loving and fun dad for our kids.

Wonderful family and friends (many who were not with us on Thanksgiving Day and therefore, are not pictured in this post). :)

A mother and mother-in-law who show great hospitality (from whom I'm trying to learn...)

And I'm most thankful for a God who loved us enough that he sent His Son to us to save us. The Perfect Gift we remember during Christmas time. Which is approaching faster that I'm ready for....

Crazy About Snowmen

2010-11-27T12:58:00.000-08:00

Jack has been crazy about snowmen since he was 18 or 19 months old. You can see pictures here of Christmas when Jack was 1 1/2. Almost every picture includes this mechanical snowman that my mom had at her place. Jack claimed it as his own and carried it around everywhere until probably April that year. I don't have pictures of this, but he also carried around two little ornament snowmen everywhere we went during that same holiday season. Last year we got almost no snow, which was a bummer. But over the last few days, about 1 foot of snow has accumulated, so Chad and Jack made a snowman this afternoon before naptime. Jack was nothing short of rapturous (is this a word?) about the whole thing. In fact, as he was climbing into bed before his nap, he said, "I love my snowman. Thank you, Jesus, for my snowman!" (A special thanks to my friend Jenn for the build-a-snowman kit!)

Snow!

2010-11-22T10:44:00.001-08:00

It snowed today. Not sure if I'm quite ready for it, but as you can see from the pictures, Jack and Haylee sure are!

Jack thought it was fun to throw snowballs at me....he takes after his father.

Getting Haylee ready to go outside reminded me of the bundled-up little brother in "The Christmas Story."

Snow angels! It snowed too early--I don't even have snow pants for him yet.

18 Months

2010-11-20T13:08:00.001-08:00

Our little munchkin turned 18 months the other day. Haylee's world is growing each day and I think she's loving not being a baby anymore...it never really did suit her. :) We had her 18 month appointment the other day and she seems to have inherited her father's long and lean genes...In the 85th percentile for height and the 50th for weight. And holding strong in the tradition of our whole family, her head is in the 90th percentile.

Here's Haylee doing two of her favorite things: reading and hanging out with her brother. She's quite the compliant companion for Jack as he thinks up games for them and she's happy to play along. It's not always fun and games: when Haylee comes near Jack's legos, watch out! But for the most part, they have a sweet relationship. When they do get into a spat about something, I realize why my mom used to get so annoyed when Bryan and I used to fight. Sorry, Mom!! I now understand what a wonderful thing it is to see your children getting along.

We love our sweet HJ!

HJ Video

2010-11-11T14:13:00.000-08:00

Haylee's been learning her animal sounds and I caught them on video the other day. I also caught her in her penchant for saying "no" to everything. We took a similar video of Jack when he about the same age. I think it's fun to compare Haylee and Jack and see how different they are. It's fun for Chad and me to witness the development of a child's language skills all over again. HJ's just at the point where she can now repeat lots of different words, so I'm sure we'll have two talkative kids before long!

Trick or Treat!

2010-11-02T13:25:00.001-07:00

We had a great time with Halloween this year. It was pretty low-key, but nice. Even with it being pretty relaxed, we were still exhausted by the end of a low-key weekend! It must be the combination of striving to find a great costume for kids, being sure that you are getting the pumpkins carved, making fun treats for neighbors, making sure we had all our ducks in a row, and dealing with the sugar crash that happens after trick-or-treating! We did have a great time, though. Jack, of course, loves dressing up and trick-or-treating and Haylee enjoyed following him from house to house. My mom and sister came up for the weekend (although pictures of my mom are non-existant since the poor thing was fighting a bug and didn't want to make the kids sick). Brad and Carol had us up for the day on Sunday for a relaxing day of doing not much more than eating. I'm not kidding. They can definitely put on an amazing spread! It was a nice day. Enjoy some pictures!

(Disclaimer: the pictures are horribly out of order, but we recently replaced our computer, and I'm having the hardest time moving pictures with blogger. I used to just cut and paste, but I don't have that option any more. Any advice??)

Jack insisted that they hold hands. :)
Who could resist giving candy to a storm trooper and cheerleader?

I like this picture. I wish I would have done a better job capturing pictures with the grandparents.

Thanks to Buz and Jolen for loaning us the cute cheerleading outfit! :) Every storm trooper loves having his picture taken with his mommy. (For those of you who are Star Wars nerds out there: we are well-aware that he is not exactly a storm trooper, but we weren't about to split hairs on this one.) ;) Oh, and for the record, this costume was kind of expensive!! But, my friend Steph consoled me that I was making an investment in an outfit he'll want to dress up in every day of the year.
Carving pumpkins was fun. One of our children loved carving and cried when it was done. And the other cried while the carving was being done and loved the finished product. I'll let you guess which was which.

Our attempt at a family picture.
Getting ready to go trick-or-treat!

And, just to prove that everyday is dress-up day in our house, here's a knight and the princess (complete with my wedding tiara). I love Jack's imagination! Happy November!

Visit to Hermi-town

2010-10-27T13:10:00.001-07:00

Last weekend, Bryan and Katie graciously invited us to Hermiston for a weekend visit. We had such a great time! Mitch, Jack and Haylee really loved playing together and we enjoyed what I think is probably a couple of the last nice fall days we'll have. We spent a lot of time outside relaxing in Bryan and Katie's beautiful backyard. My parents and Rachel came down for the day, too. Thanks, B & K! What a fun family weekend!

Quite the busy bathtub! Poor Mitch. I think he was a bit overwhelemed by the volume of his cousins!

Haylee's teaching Mitch how to try to escape.

Bryan and Katie have some great grape bushes in their yard. The kids ate lots and lots of grapes.

My sibs. Can you tell they're related??

Before this picture was taken, Katie had just told me not to worry because Haylee and Mitch couldn't get out. Then, Jack came up and was able to unlatch the gate. I have a feeling theses cousins will be getting into mischief for many years... To me, it looks like Haylee is trying to distract me from the fact that Jack is letting them out.

Sitting around B & K's lovely patio. Such a gorgeous day!

Life These Days

2010-10-16T20:05:00.000-07:00

There's not a lot to blog about right now as far as events go, but we've been enjoying a WONDERFUL fall here in Spokane. The kids are at fun ages, so I thought I'd post some pictures of their antics lately.

If you know Jack, then you know about how he LOVES to dress up. On any given day, he could be Indiana Jones, a knight, a pirate, a football player, or a storm trooper (above). He came up with the storm trooper hat made out of two tupperware bowls. (Frankly, I don't even know what a storm trooper looks like, but apparently they're from Star Wars and Chad says the hat fits the description. How does Jack know what a storm trooper is? From playing with our friend Brayden's legos, of course.) :)

Here's Jack in his garden pot that is now a robot hat. He came up with the idea, Chad cut out the robot face.

We'll be carving the pumpkins that Jack picked out of Grandpa LaVine's garden, but he insisted that he draw faces on them first. (Bryan and Katie, I know Jack's hair is VERY long in this picture, but don't worry, he got a haircut this evening....)

Haylee has been Miss Personality lately. Her favorite word? "NO!" said forcefully and the answer to any question she's asked. The sweater above was knitted by Grandma LaVine. Isn't it so cute?? I personally think it rivals Hannah Anderson's sweaters. The light isn't great, but I couldn't get her to pose for a picture. She kept saying, "NO!" whenever I asked her to stop and smile.

I think her second favorite word is "apple." She walks around much of the day working on eating an entire apple. It's pretty cute.

And she's learned to say the word "cheese" when pictures are taken, resulting in this cheesy smile. :) She's really a lot of fun most of the time around here.

I hope everyone is having a great fall!

Half-Marathon

2010-10-10T16:33:00.000-07:00

This morning, my friend Carly and I ran a half-marathon. I really cannot believe I wrote that sentence. When I first starting running with a couple friends in January, I could barely run two blocks without being out of breath and wanting to quit. I haven't run since high school, but I wanted to get back into it as it's such great exercise. Plus I had this vision of Chad and I running together while the kids were in the jogging stroller. This hasn't really happened. Since Chad's legs are much longer than mine, he's usually about a block ahead of me...and that's while he's pushing the stroller. But, we enjoy taking alternate runs on the same route while the other watches the kids.

So, my friends Kristina, Holly and I would run twice a week about 3 miles each time. I was feeling pretty good at this point when Carly tried to convince me to do a half-marathon. (She has done two, so she's an experienced runner.) I kept putting her off because I thought there was no way I could complete a half-marathon. That's 13.1 miles and I had only run 3. That's a 10 mile difference.... But, then she told me about the training program for running a half-marathon and it seemed really gradual. So, I finally said yes. We had a great time training together. Carly is a really good runner (she'll deny that's true...), but she was patient with me and all my issues on our long runs. :)

Fast forward to today and our run. It didn't start as I thought: Jack woke up not feeling well at all, so it looked like Chad wouldn't be able to come cheer me on. Luckily, Chad was able to put the kids in the car and come to one of the last points on the race (I use the term "race" loosely--I ran quite slowly...) to cheer me on. I had a super-slow pace, but my goal was to run the whole thing and that happened! I'm not sure if I'll do another one, but I'm contemplating it. We'll see.... It's been fun to have a measurable goal to work for. Thanks for convincing me, Carly!

Sleeping Babes

2010-10-01T21:24:00.000-07:00

Like most moms, I'm sure, I check in our kids each night before I go to bed. This is how I found Jack the other night. I love that he fell asleep "reading."

And Miss HJ (who's looking bigger each day!).
**Look below for another post.

Toy Box Adventures

2010-10-01T21:19:00.000-07:00

Sure, they may look cute in the toy box.

Even their friends have fun in the toy box.
And I have fun cleaning up the aftermath.

**Look below for another post. :)

Hair Wars

2010-10-01T21:00:00.001-07:00

Chad and I have a difference of opinion of our favorite hairstyle for Haylee. Her hair is getting longer (and curlier on the ends) so we have more options of what to do with her hair. Typically, we just put a bow in the top of her hair. But, here are two ways we have tried her hair lately. This is Chad's favorite way (he came up with it all on his own). I like it, especially from the back . But, I just don't know what to do with the top hair that isn't in the ponytails. You can see it from the side a bit in this pic.

The back view.

And this is my current favorite style--the ponytail on top of her head (not a super shot of the ponytail, but I really like this picture).

Either way, she's still cute and it's fun to do girlie things with her.

Like paint her toenails.

Similar Interests?

2010-09-11T14:44:00.000-07:00

Like mother, like daughter?

Like father (and grandfather), like son (and grandson)?

We really aren't trying to sway our children one way or another in the matter of interests, but it's starting to seem like they might like the same things we do (at least at this point in their young lives....). Haylee rode my horse for the first time yesterday and seemed to love it. For the record, Jack likes to ride as well. Haylee has just seemed really interested in Felicitee lately, so we tried putting her up for a ride. She loves it! It was pretty cute. She also likes to go talk to and feed my horse when we're at Grandma and Papa's. I get excited thinking about getting HJ a horse of her own someday and she and I riding together. Don't worry, I won't force it. But, if it seems like something she likes, I'll run with it. (Disclaimer: for any of you horse people out there, please excuse my riding posture. It's hard trying to ride with a 15 month old sitting in the front of the saddle....) Also, special thanks to my wonderful in-laws for watching our kids so that I can continue my lifelong love of horses. They take SUCH good care of Felicitee. And thanks to my dad for supplying us with some good old Johnson hay.

Jack LOVES fishing. Can't you tell by his expression??? He recently went for a big fishing trip with Grandpa L. and Daddy and had the best time. They fished all day and based on the reports from the men, Jack didn't complain one time. In fact, there were a few issues with the boat and apparently the older men complained about the later start a lot more than the 3 year old. They caught 14 fish that day and had such a great time together. I foresee many more fishing trips for the boys in the future. I love seeing them all having a good time together and that Chad gets to share his love of fishing with Jack. Haylee and I were left to our own devices that day, so we went for a girls' shopping trip. She's also a good little shopper and hardly ever fusses. Perfect! It's so fun to see our kids growing and developing their interests and personalities. We love it!

Soaking Up The Last Days of Summer

2010-09-03T20:26:00.001-07:00

Tonight we spent the evening in the park with Bryan, Katie, and Mitch who are in town. We had a picnic, the weather was perfect and the kids loved playing. I'm not quite ready for summer to be over, but nights like these extend it just a little bit longer....

Haylee thought it'd be fun to feed Mitchell and he was willing to let her.

Summer Days

2010-08-17T14:42:00.000-07:00

We've been having random days of fun. Here are some pictures of what we've been up to while trying to get the most out of Chad's days off.

**Scroll below for one more post.**

We spent a slightly rainy day at Priest Lake that ended with the brightest rainbow we'd ever seen.

We headed to Hermiston for family birthday party for Mitchell who turned 1 year old!

We spent the day at beautiful Hayden Lake with some friends (I should have taken more pictures.

We "discovered" a new park.

This picture is great because Jack often puts all of our couch pillows on himself and then is a lizard "hatching" from an egg. He got to pretend with an egg that looked more real. :)

15 Months

2010-08-17T14:20:00.000-07:00

Haylee turned 15 months 3 days ago. She continues to be a delight with her fun girly ways. Some fun facts about Haylee:

She loves shoes. She must always be wearing her shoes around the house. She also prefers that everyone else be wearing their shoes. She knows which shoes belong to whom and brings them to you if you aren't wearing them. She insists you must wear them.
Her words are increasing. Some of her favorite words/phrases are "here you go", "all done", "mommy", "daddy", "Forro" (Zorro), "tickle" and others. She's funny.
She likes to tickle. Whenever she sees someone's stomach even the least bit exposed (i.e., leaning over), she always tickles that person while saying, "tickle, tickle, tickle." It's cute.

I took some pictures the other day because I was trying to catch a funny expression on her face while watching the IPod with Daddy. Here's the picture I was hoping to catch (and eventually did):

But, when she saw I got the camera out, she looked up and gave me the look below.

She just likes to be delightful. Oh, she has her moments--the other day, she threw about an hour fit because we wanted her to sign "please" (which she does all the time) for a snack. I'm not kidding, she walked around the house throwing her head back and crying. For an hour. But, the majority of the time, she's a blast to be around.

Whidbey Island

2010-08-03T20:09:00.002-07:00

We just returned from a trip to Whidbey Island with Grandpa and Grandma LaVine. The LaVines' former neighbors from Southern Oregon own a cabin at Whidbey and have always encouraged Brad and Carol to use it. In fact, they offered the use of their cabin for free to Chad and me for our honeymoon which was perfect for two poor newlyweds fresh out of college. We spent a wonderful week together there 9 years ago and have always wanted to go back. Chad's parents organized this trip and we had such a great time. We stayed in the town of Langley which is pretty much near perfect. In fact, bunnies hop all around town. Not rabbits, but cute little bunnies that someone might keep as a pet. The beaches there are perfect for little kids, and we spent time there every day. Brad and Carol even watched the kids one night while Chad and I went to dinner and a movie. Here are some pictures of our fun week!

On the pier at Langley

I love this picture. Jack loves to hold Haylee's hand while he walks and his hand is the one she'll actually hold for any length of time.

On Double Bluff Beach--where we spent the majority of our time. There were so many crabs all over the beach. Definitely the highlight of the trip for Jack.

Another crab!

Searching for more crabs.

This was the first time we put Haylee in the backpack. She loved it and so did Chad.

Grandpa found a great big crab.

Searching for hermit crabs.

Did she really have to put her hand in her mouth? :)

Grandpa and HJ.

Little Beach Girl.

Haylee's goal was to walk every inch of the island. And watch out if you tried to pick her up and carry her. Not a pretty picture.

Jack trying to catch a bunny.

Jack and Danny resting after a busy day.

One day when Carol and I were out and about, we discovered this puppet/book store. Actually, I had gone to this store a couple years ago when I went to Whidbey with some girlfriends. I knew Carol would love it, so I took her there. She was like a kid in a candy shop. Of course, we had to bring Jack and Haylee back later that day (and the next) so they could pick out some fun pupputs from Grandma. I thought maybe Jack would get a lizard or a bear or a hermit crab. Nope, he picked out a pirate hat, a parrot, and a blue-eyed scallop. Haylee really loved the mini-hawk. ? Carol also got her a Harbor Seal.

9 years later! I should really scan some pictures of our honeymoon, but I'm too lazy.

We stopped at the zoo on the way home. The best exhibit by far was the bird exhibit. You could buy these little seed sticks that the birds would land on and eat off of. It was fantastic and the kids loved it. So did Chad and I.

I think we sufficiently tuckered them out!