Preschool Graduation

Here they are at the beginning of the year...

and here they are as graduates.

Little Miss loved her preschool. She has also loved being home this summer with her older brother and sister, but she still talks about her friends.

The kids loved playing some games. That is Huck under the blanket.

He thought it was the best thing to run under.

Congrats Little Miss we are so proud of your hard work and all that you have learned.

I know I have been bad this month about writing. Things have been in a word crazy. There is a post coming that will explain all of that, but for now here is some past events.

A Memorable Trip

Have you ever gotten back from a trip and had such an amazing time, and have so many things to share, but then the rest of the "real" world dumps on you and suddenly the trip you took seems so far away.

You wonder when you are going to find the time to sit down and

write about all those family memories.

You want to just sing out to all of the fun you had.

About the times two sweet little sisters sat and counted the seconds until it was time to pull up the crab rings and hope that this time there was a keeper in it. (There wasn't but we sure had fun throwing back the others)

Of course there were the times that siblings didn't get along, but you would never know from this photo that a second before the photo was taken and a second after there were shouts of "I don't want her sitting next to me" or "No more pictures".

The best part was hanging out with these sweet blue eyes...

or this little sweetheart

(who every night now tells me "You can call me angel if you want to")

or how about this sweet smiling happy face - love it...

I loved sharing a joke with my little guy...

or spending time with my handsome husband - love ya babe!

We loved hanging out with Mimi and Papa...

or getting snuggles from these sweet cheeks...

or playing with my little happy nephew...

or trying to chase down this little sweetie.

Yes I was there too - although I'm not sure how my sister escaped being in a photograph along with her husband. We have to work on getting her out from behind the camera.

Then again if she did we wouldn't have any of these shots.

I do promise to document all the details of the trip - just as soon as life settles down.

How does 2012 look for all of you???

My boy

Here is my sweet little boy singing in his first grade music concert. Let me just say I absolutely love his music teacher. She is amazing. The fact that she can get 100 little people to focus for 45 minutes is astounding, but then when she gets them to sing adorable little songs like this. What can I say, "You are a great big bundle of potentiality and I love you little guy."

Tears people...big honking tears. And then that wonderful music teacher goes and pulls out this song. What is a mom to do? Sobbing was the only recourse. Of course the gym was packed with women doing the same thing so I wasn't alone.

200th Post

It has been awhile. Things are well...busy...

I do have things to post but for now here are a few cute kid sayings:

Leo: "You know mom kids are challenging. I mean one kid is challenging, but then

if you have two that is even more challenging, and three is really challenging,

and four well that is just past challenging."

Don't I know it kid!

Little Miss: "Mom (Leo) hurt my feelings. He was mean...He is acting like a teenager."

Oh please not yet.

Walk on the Wild Side

A friend posted these on her blog and my kids now have gone crazy about it. Numerous times I have caught them and their neighborhood friends crammed into our living room laughing hysterically at these little videos on you tube. Frankly I feel a little like the mama monkey.

A Time Out

At the latter part of last week I was able to take off a couple days of school and Ken and I were able to go away for the night. My mom was able to come down and watch over the kids, which was fantastic because we knew they would be in good hands.

We ended up staying at the Oregon Garden Resort. It was beautiful. We were able to get a great package and we were really happy with the resort.

The weather was chilly while we were there, but each room had a gas fireplace and it was so nice to come back after a cold day and sit by the fire. While we were there Prince William and Catherine were married and it was kind of fun to watch the wedding and think about Ken and my wedding nearly 14 years prior.

The above view was what we could see from the restaurant. Also through the gate we could have after hours access to the Oregon Gardens with our hotel key. It was wonderful to roam the garden with no one else around.

The gardens are beautiful. We were able to visit 5 years ago and it was fun to see how things are developed even more. The below garden is the pet garden.

One of my favorite parts of the garden is the children's garden.

They have built a hobbit house, which my children would love to have in our back yard.

During the hours the garden is open a train runs through the children's garden.

Our stay at the resort included tickets to the Tulip Festival.

I have always wanted to go and it was beautiful. It was like a little piece of Holland in Oregon.

It was amazing to stand at the end of the muddy fields and then let your eye

graze up and see the rows and rows of tulips.

Ken and I kept commenting how funny it was that we could go so quickly without all the children. The day before we had arrived, and for weeks prior, it has been pouring rain. The fields were full of mud. We laughed that our kids would be covered in mud if we would have brought them. As we were walking back a family we were walking with their small child they had walked only a few steps from the parking lot when the child fell into the mud. When she stood up she was covered in it. The father replied, "You fell already! We just got here." Ken and I looked at each other and laughed because we knew it could have so easily been us.

It was a delightful trip and was so nice to spend time with one another. We were also excited to return home and see our children. Hanging over our house was a rainbow, which we took as a good omen that our kids had been well watched over. When we walked in the door. Baby Huck was at the top of the stairs and I peered around the corner and looked up at him. He got a big grin on his face and yelled out "Ma". He has never said Mama, although he has said Dada numerous times. Of course he hasn't said it since, but it still was really sweet.