First Day of School

 4th, 1st Grade and pre-school.
I've never been the over emotional Mom on the first day of school. Sentimental maybe, but I feel quite happy and confident dropping them off. This year was different. I was so emotional to let them go, to hand them to someone else. Knowing that another adult, and person I really don't know, will spend way more hours in the day with them than I get too.  Also to say goodbye to summer. I was choking up dropping them off, my hands shaking trying to drive away. I may have even drove back and just parked in the parking lot. Some of it had to do with a teacher switch that I knew needed to be made, but now looking back, it had to be pregnancy hormones. I should have known.

But Cache and Naomi, were so ready to go.  They are very much like their Dad, unafraid of the world.  Excited to be part of it. Hungry to be with friends, to learn and experience. They really are amazing, normal, healthy, wonderfully balanced kids.

 Mug shots.
                              Naomi 1st.                                                                 Cache 4th.

 Gage would start his pre-school a week later.

 Gage's first year of pre-school! (Still loves the color red!)

 

 

Up to this point he has had no desire to get older, learn or grow up. Very content to be at home with his blankie and cars and "mama" that he talks to all day. But that day he flipped a switch. He was even so confident we got to pick up his little friend who was too afraid to go by himself and Gage guided him in the front door. They both went in with a smile. He hasn't looked back, and is learning so many new things and wanting to learn more. It's really quite fun for me to watch him change.

 

 My favorite memory of all was Gage coming home from pre-school that first day and teaching me this cool new thing he had learned called, "Cross cross applesauce."  He then took nearly 5 entire minutes getting his body into that position. He thought it was just the neatest thing. I can't believe he's this old and I never taught him that. So cute.

A little update

Summer 2015.
We spent the summer doing private and public swim lessons, training our new puppy,  moving to our new house, preparing the old house for Grandma and Grandpa to return home from their mission, saying goodbye to our Thueson's cousins who moved to China, Devin and I  being a Ma and Pa on Trek and making lots of trips to the Spratling farm in Oregon to hang out with cousins.

Our new little house in our same neighborhood.  Now we live down the road from Grandma and Grandpa Orton. What a neat thing that is! Our kids however, have started trying to pull things off like, " HMM I don't like what's for dinner, I'm going to go see what Grandma made." Um.. not a chance.  Mostly Cache does this of course. A few days after moving into our new home, amid boxes and boxes of things,  we discovered I was 10 weeks pregnant with our 4th. What a crazy most unexpected thing.

So now we are in the midst of pregnancy, 2 kids in school, one in pre-school, and an 8 month old puppy. Devin working at his office downtown and treating dogs and horses on days off. Our big things on our mind right now are preparing for the baby, and purchasing our first home about the same time as the baby comes. Focusing on enjoying all the little growths and achievements and joys in life as we prepare for those two big things arriving, and as always the business of Devin being his own business owner.

We are very happy.

Valentines 2015

This year I spent Valentine's with Gage. My baby. We traveled to Portland. Attended the funeral of Jeremy Miller's. Since we were there, we got to visit Grandpa Calvin at OHSU. He was in bad shape and couldn't eat or drink or even have ice chips for 7 days while his surgery healed. It was hard to see him that way.

The trips went like this:
Gage and I drove to Pendleton and picked up my Mom, my sister Sarah and her two babies Danny and Lilly and then we picked up my old friend Cappie!

The drive was so nice catching up with Cappie. I love my old friend. I've missed her since the day we drove away to college.  We got to the church for the funeral and I began getting really nervous. I didn't want to feel sadness and see the pain my the Miller's were going through.  Cap could tell I was getting nervous, so she said, "Can I tell you something that will make you happy instead?" And told me she was expecting! Man that was an awesome moment. I can't wait to meet her baby and see her as a Mom. It made me so happy. Glad she was with me.

We stayed at a creepy but very cool old hotel. Now I need to watch the Shining. I guess that's what the hotel was like according to Cap.  We spent the next afternoon at Nicole's house. It was good to be with her and her family. I love them nearly like family and it's sad for me to know that they are so hurt.  Especially Dave. We left pregnant Cappie with her Mamma Char, and took off to see Grandpa Calvin.

That night we stayed in another stupid crazy hotel. A drunk guy came into our room and shook us up. We picked hotels bad that trip.  Never more.  We also ate at the old spaghetti factory and Danny and Gage got balloon swords.

Valentines' day we headed home but not before first stopping by the Portland temple. It was closed but the visitors center was open. That temple is just so gorgeous and the grounds were peaceful. Danny and Gage ran around in their red boots pretending they were captain Moroni. Danny grabbed my scriptures from me after I showed them where Captain Moroni came from. He climbed up on this ledge and held the book up and announced "Gage! THIS, THis is Captain Moroni's BOOK!" It was pretty funny and dramatic. Love that cute boy.  I hope Danny and Gage always are close friends.

We made it home in time to go to dinner with Sam and my Mom and Nick at Mazatlan. Then I lost my phone and felt pretty bummed about that driving around Pendleton late at night missing my real Valentine Devin. Got myself a blizzard and that helped! It always does. :)  Sunday Gage Louie and I drove home in time for Devin's belated Valentin'es meal for us. Pictured above. He is so nice.

Disneyland 2015

~HAPPY 10TH BIRTHDAY TO OUR FAMILY~

We celebrated this land mark in our family by taking ourselves all to Disneyland! Here are some notes I took about our trip.

~HAPPY 10TH BIRTHDAY TO OUR FAMILY~

* Gage's first time on an airplane! He loves "blasting off."  Our flight attendant was named Helene and was polynesian.  We came to love her by the end of that flight. She brought Gage a new treat every two minutes. Finally she just brought him a Delta garbage sack FULL of every cookie, peanut and chocolate that was on the plane.  She loved Gage and said she thought he needed to go to BYU-Hawaii because he would fit right in with his personality.  Helen later showed Naomi some videos on her phone of her girls dancing Tahitian dance. Naomi told Helen all the names of the moves and Helen loved her so much. She said " you nee to move by me and I can be your Auntie!"  Anywa, she ended up sitting by me for the landing. She also gave me some mother advice to be a fierce and involved mother and a few other things that I hope I never forget.

*Naomi sprints everywhere all over the airports. Then collapses. Nay is very concerned about measles.  Also on the plane she followed the safety instruction card and studied it intently. 

As we rove above the clouds she was overwhelmed by the beauty. " Whoa! It's sooo beautiful!! It's so amazing!" Over and over. "It's like I don't know.. Oh I sea of clouds!"

* Disneyland Day 1.

First Disney magical moment.

Naomi spotted  Elsa down the street on a float. I grabbed her hand and the chase began!  We ran down the side walk following Elsa along the parade route for a very long while it felt. We lost the boys, and were just always a step behind Elsa. When we came to a road block and couldn't follow Elsa any further, out of breath, Naomi stood there with her hand on her heart and said: 
"Oh I so want to meet her!!!"
Then she gasped and looked down at her clothes.
"But I'm not dressed!" 
We both cried a little from emotion of the chase, the let down of aaaalmost seeing Elsa's face and the magic of it all. Little magical memory. Then we had to go track the boys. Poor Gage had tripped and scraped his knee trying keep up with all of us. So he joined us in crying. Devin was a bit upset that we had just bolted with no explanation.  Love that memory. We watched the parade and the Disney magic really took hold then. 
The next day we made sure Naomi was dressed properly to meet Elsa.

 Another fun moment was taking Naomi on space mountain. She absolutely loved it!  Cache was horrified and so ticked. So scared.  Naomi was hooping and hollering and laughing so hard saying, "Oh my gosh this is sooo awesome!! "  Gage liked it too, but said he didn't after he saw Cache so upset.  They all loved Star Tours, especially because their Mom was the rebel spy.  I gained new respect from them.

More princess time.

Belle and Naomi discussing their favorite books.  

On the Snow White ride an alligator popped up and Nay grabbed Gage trying to protect him from the alligator! He wasn't scared at all. Just laughing like a crazy man.

The boys had to complete Jedi training to receive their own custom light saber. (My rules, but they thought it was some Jedi rule).  They did it and Naomi got picked to come on stage too. Incredible memory.

Cache was very pleased that Darth Vader had sensed "The force was strong with him."

There was the cutest down syndrome man that did the final fight and defeated the dark side! I loved that boy. It was an awesome fight!

Darth Vader looked at Naomi and said : "Oh no Not in THAT dress!"

First thing in the morning, we were walking in a crowd of adults and no one was evening noticing Lightening McQueen, but he noticed Gage and called him to come over. Gage was star struck, but McQueen talked him down. It was so cool.

We visited Mickey and Minnie's house on the last day.

Thanks so much Mickey! 

We had the most magical time. 

Gage as an almost 4 year old.

Gage has been saying hilarious things lately.

• Beavers 

"Mom I have a beaver in my armpit."
Me: Oh?

"And Grandma stuck a pokey thing in it to take my beaver out.  She was trying to take my                     beaver out of my bones and it hurt."
Pretty sure he was referring to when he had a fever while staying with Grandma Colette. She had mentioned that he screamed like crazy when she tried to take his temperature under his arm. :) Well no wonder he screamed, he thought a beaver was being pulled out of his bones from under his arm! I would probably scream too.

• Freckles

 Yesterday I took him grocery shopping and we picked out some yogurt covered pretzels for a lunch treat.  He was so excited because "Freckles are so yummy!"  And each day at lunch he says: "I ate my sammich and carrot.  Now you need to give me a freckle Mamma." I never correct him.

• Mexican Bingo 

When Naomi leaves for school after lunch, I make it a point to play with Gage for 5 minutes very first thing. I let him pick. Usually he picks wrestling, but the last two days he insisted on "Mexican Bingo!  He corrects my Spanish of all the items I read.  And when a card is drawn that is on his card, he does a little dance in a circle while singing: "Oh ya, Oh ya! boooyah!."  He asks me to play all afternoon. So I set a timer and he has to let me work for 30 minutes in between Mexican Bingo games.

• De-baby-fying is hard.

Gage is a pretty big baby, but we are trying to help him overcome that by following through more when we ask him to help out around the house. Its pretty funny to watch him wail and cry and act like a single sock weighs 100lbs and "It's too heaby for me."  He is dead serious.

• Baths.

So never has a child loved water so much I do believe EVER.  He is always always wanting to take a bath. Then he plays in the tub for about an hour each time. Sometimes more.  Every once in awhile he'll  get away with taking 3 baths in a day. Today, one of his siblings wet the bed and Gage woke up to discover someone was bathing without him! ( betrayed)   But we were trying to get family scriptures and breakfast started, so we told him he couldn't take a bath. Next thing we know, he was back in our room, claiming he  "Peeded da bed." Yep he had.  He had gone back to bed, pretended to be asleep and peed, just so he could take a bath! He's crazy!

•  He asks me often: "When do I get my own phone?"

• HUMANS

Finally, Gage takes a lot about "humans."  If you ask him about a movie he'll say: "Aaand there was a lot of humans in this one." Or if you ask him what he is playing: "I'm playing humans and horsey's."

• TUMBLY

When Gage is hungry which is often. He comes and dramatically lays by me and then proclaims: "Oh my tummy is rumbly."

Faith of a child

Tonight after singing lots of primary songs to put Naomi to sleep, I thought she was asleep but then she cracked her eyes open and asked me a question that has never cross my mind ever: "Mom does Jesus like to sing?"

Not sure how to put it to words exactly why this was a special moment. It surprised me. Maybe because the absolute pure faith of a child. She is not even questioning the reality of Jesus Christ, he is simply alive and real. No question. Or maybe it was because it's her wanting to know him better.

Well anyway, I told her I think he does. Or at least I am sure he loves music. Which she stated: "Yes he loves it best when the children sing."

Easter 2014

 I took our traditional white rocking chair pictures before church and you know me, I can't choose. So here's a bunch. I love them all for each different expression.

 So without realizing, it this the the 3rd year I've purchased almost the exact same ties for the boys.

Maybe next year I'll step out of my box a bit. 

Cache got his first real non-clip on tie.

Pre-Easter happenings.

 Cache colored this egg for me! Here are the 3 sides with his message...

 Blueberry dyed egg.. pretty cool.

We had a really sweet Easter this year. Its beginning to be my favorite holiday.  Maybe its' coming off a dark cold winter and arriving at spring and Easter. Maybe it's as I get older and experience a bit more the sting of death and the hope that Easter symbolizes. I don't know but it's just got a sweetness  that no other holiday has for me. On Easter morning, when I wake up to the sun, I feel so happy and I want to whisper because it feels like such a special morning. haha! Anyway...

 The day before we went to our neighborhood Easter egg hunt. We had our friends (The Hunts) little girls with us that morning. So we marched five little kids down to the park for the hunt. It was awesome. Gage was in the 0-3 year old group so he was a giant among literally babies. He got tons and tons of candy since all the little babies didn't even know what was going on. Hilarious. I love having a park right in the middle of our neighborhood. Everyone we go to school with and church or live next to was there. Just a fun gathering place. I call it our "neighborhood living room." 

Sunday we had early church so we had an even earlier Easter egg hunt Sunday morning. The bunny hid all the candy in the basement. We ate boiled eggs and chocolate bunnies for breakfast. After church we ate all the chocolate in the house and napped. Then we headed over to the Whilkensen's,  our neighbors for Easter dinner. Melissa and Brett Peirce and kids also. (Another friend of ours who are house sitting for parents that are in Japan on a mission.)   Combined we had 11 kids at dinner and they played the entire time and didn't even fuss. Easter miracle. Us adults sat and talked for over 4 hours at the table. Love evenings that turn out like that! Beautiful day and evening. Love me some Easter