You know those turkeys you buy at Thanksgiving that have the plastic timers already in them? The timer pops up when the turkey is done.
Vance happens to have his own built in timer. After a meal he checks his tummy and says...
"Look Mom! My timer popped! I'm all done!"
Today is the 10 year anniversary of our marriage. It's amazing to think how much we have grown as individuals and as a couple in the last 10 years. I'm incredibly grateful for my husband- a man who works so hard for his family, who gives the best of himself, who loves me and does sweet things for me and most importantly who seeks after the heart of God. I love you so much, baby! Happy Anniversary!
Last week Brady had a shoot up in Sandpoint so we decided to make a family day of it. We drove up to this amazing cabin in the woods on the lake. It was so incredibly beautiful up there! Unfortunately, when we got there we discovered that there were people there (they hadn't told the rest of the family who arranged the photos of the cabin that they were going up that day). So the photo plans were put on hold and we decided to just enjoy the scenery and drive. We drove up to Oden Bay and then to Hope. We stopped at the Trestle Creek Rec. Area and let the kids play in the water, which was remarkably warm! It was a great day. It reminded me of going on drives as a kid- we'd all hop in the car (with our books, of course) and drive up to these remote places on these crazy, narrow roads... inevitably we'd have to back several miles down a dirt trail that was barely wide enough for the car... ahhh... good times! ;) Truly.
My blog is disgracefully behind. Every time I think about updating.... I get overwhelmed with all of the pictures that I know I need to edit and upload ... and I put it all off yet again. But no more!! Today begins a new day! A day in which I will finally update our blog and hopefully begin to do better at keeping it updated... hopefully...
First our Seattle trip. ( Just by way of warning... I'm going after "the longest post" title with this one.. watch out Mandy! :p) It's been a while since we have been on a 'vacation' type trip with the kids. I think since Vance was just a little one. So we had a lot of fun. Our hotel room was comped by a client of Brady's who was trading for photos. So we got to stay in this amazing suite... that was probably about as big as our house.
Here are Jax and Ellie right before we set off. Don't they look excited?
Lilah was asleep before we'd even left our street.... Sweet thing!
We stopped the first night at Grandma Rothrock and Leonard's house. It was so great to see them!
The boys made themselves at home right away.. I think the first question Vance asks whenever we get there is "Can we play with the toys?".
And Ellie and Lilah went outside to enjoy the swing.
The next morning was mother's day. Jax spent a little while outside that morning.. mysteriously... and when he brought me out to the swing this is what I found!! He's such a sweet son.
Grandma and Lilah spending some quality time together. This picture is just so sweet.
After breakfast on Sunday morning we headed off to Seattle! The kids really do so well on long trips so we didn't really have any major adventures along the way. We listened to books on tape in the car (Narnia) and next thing you know we were checking into our hotel in downtown Seattle!
This was the bedroom.
The living room.
The kids eating breakfast in the dining area.
We did a little bit of sightseeing. Far more than I'll be able to post because uploading all the pictures would take a year! But here are a few highlights...
One amazing daddy with four amazing kids!
The Children's Museum. What a great place that was!
This is in our hotel. Just a couple of cute kids we found! :)
We took the kids on the monorail... talk about cheap entertainment! Vance is doing his signature half smile.
The Seattle Aquarium. Vance once again with the cute half smile.
Vance likes otters.......
What a doll she is!
When Vance was just a tiny baby my mom made these blankets for all the kids for Christmas. They are fleece blankets, you know, the kind with the fringes on the sides? Well, Vance became extremely attached to his and we are never allowed to lose this blanket. He has specific knots in the tassels that he wraps around certain fingers. He HAS to have those knots when he sleeps. If you move the blanket while tucking him in he yells "mom, you lost my knot!". He also likes to tickle the inside of his ear with the tassels when he's upset.... it instantly calms him down. He's always done this, from the time he was a baby.
Tonight was one of those inevitable nights... the blanket just had to be laundered. It got dirty at the Lake today, and I can't get over my OCD enough to allow my kids to go to bed dirty or with dirty blankies! The conversation went something like this:
Vance: Mommy! Please, please, please get my blanket! *sob*
Me: Baby, you have to wait until it's clean... you can have it tomorrow.
Vance: But I NEED it! *sniff*
Me: Well, here's a blanket with tassels... can you use this one for tonight?
Vance: (testing the tassels out on his ear) It doesn't work!! *more sobs*
He suddenly stops crying.
Vance: Mom! I have a great idea!! We'll clean the blanket and then I'll just never get it dirty again!!
Great plan, buddy. Great plan.
Why is it that with an entire yard full of grass, the kids always manage to find the one patch of mud to play in?
And the other day I was trying to sneak up on Lilah while she was reading... it's awfully cute because she gets really intense and pretends to be reading the words... but just as I snapped she looked up and gave me this cute "look at how adorable I am" grin. And she is! 
It's just about May, and our children are almost finished with their school books for the year. They've both done incredibly well this year and I'm very proud of them! Next year Jaxson will enter 3rd grade, and Ellie will be somewhere between Kindergarten and 1st. This is because technically, she wasn't supposed to be in K until next school year, but since she was so ready to start we went ahead and did Kindergarten this year. So I'm just not really sure what to call next year. We may call it K-5 or we may call it 1st.
I'm planning on continuing Phonics through the summer with Ellie, and Math through the summer with Jax. Since we do a year around schedule, we'll take probably only a 6-8 week summer break before starting up again. We're really excited for next year, because we have some fun new subjects to do! We will be starting our first year in Latin, and we have found a really neat Art curriculum we'll be using as well that encapsalates both art instruction and art history and appreciation. We're also beginning our History rotation so we'll be studying Ancient History through the fall of Rome. What could be more fun? :P Okay, so I may be just a little more excited about it than the kids... but I still fully expect them to enjoy our next year.
I stole this from my friend Deanne's blog...
It's supposedly a logic test given to Japanese job applicants. The goal is to solve it in under 7 minutes. The first time took me about 9 minutes and the second time 6 minutes. Once you get it the first time it's pretty easy to do it again. Anyway, it's kinda fun. :) Enjoy!
Rules of the Game:
The object is to get all of the people across the river on the raft.
