A sweet surprise

Saturday night after we got home from the fair, I got a call from my little sister Tess. She lives in Boise with her husband and is 34 weeks pregnant. She asked about what we did that day and I went on and on about the fair. I asked how her baby in her belly was doing and she said "good, do you want to see it?" I started balling and ran to the front door and there I saw my baby sister with the most adorable baby belly. Careful don't smash the baby! Tess I love you!
Thanks Tess and Ryan for coming to see us!

The State Fair

On Saturday we went to the State Fair with the kids and Grandma and Grandpa. Lauren has an image in her mind of the fair from Charlotte's web, so all she wanted to do was 1. Find Wilbur and 2. Ride the ferris wheel like Fern and Henry Fussy. So we saw many many farm animals and about 50 pigs that looked like they weighed at least 400 lbs. I feel a little embarrassed to admit that I didn't know that pigs could be so amazingly huge. Wow, just thinking about it...those were some seriously fat pigs. Anyways, so at the very end of the pig pens we saw one mother pig (which by the way she was quite a bit smaller that the other pigs we had seen). All her baby piglets were in a heap on top of each other sleeping...except one little runt. We found Wilbur! We started to get really hungry for some serious fair food. We got this mountain of fries that was about 12 inches tall and shaped like a cone. It was awesome. So the entire time all Lauren can talk about is riding the ferris wheel and when are we going and on and on over and over. So finally it was time to go ride this big huge wheel in the sky that we've been able to see since we arrived at the fair. We get there and ...you guessed it...poor little short Lauren was less than an inch under the "You must be at least this tall" sign. Oh Man Seriously!!! She was so sad but so sweet about it. I think everyone has a "to small to ride the big ride" story from their childhood. Mine was Lagoon. I was 7 and I couldn't ride in the little boats with Ylfe and Adam. I am scarred. I've never been back to Lagoon. Lauren and I went and found the carousel while Dave took the other kids on the darn ferris wheel. Maybe next year. The kids had a great time with Grandma and Grandpa. Here's some alien wood carvings. We watched the guy carving the tree with a chain saw. The boys thought that was pretty cool.
Can't go to the State Fair and not get elephant ears.
And a carmel apple for my little Fern.

First day of school

My little kindergarten girl. Lauren was so brave going to her new little classroom. She put her things away and sat down a bit shy and started fingerpainting. When she got home from school she sadly announced that nobody in her class accept her and Tacie (a little girl from church) liked the song Popcorn Popping. I asked her if she had started that song. And she said, "Oh no, Mrs. Ally was singing it, but the other kids didn't know it. So just me and Tacie and Mrs. Ally sang it. I sang it nice and loud." That's my baby! So nice to know that her teacher is a member. Nathan and Nicole started Tuesday and Derek and Lauren started Thursday. So far, so good.

This is going to be a great year.

Name this movie

"I have spoken. All depart."

(This sweet shirt was found years ago stashed in Grandpa Pederson's closet with it's original tags from the late 70's. We assume it was ment for Jon or Dave maybe Ryan, but I think Kurt pulls it off quite well. Even a little stylish...maybe.)

Art week

This year for Christmas I wrapped up a blank canvas and painting pallet each for the three older kids with a note that promised them one week of private painting lessons during the summer with Mom as their teacher. Nicole had hers in June, Nathan in July and Derek just finished his up this past week in August. Their art week was monday through friday from

8-10pm with me helping them step by step to complete a masterpiece. We had so much fun and ate so many late night bowls of ice cream and Lucky charms.

I can do this

I never knew that deep down under all my layers of anti-pet that I actually might be a dog person. I find myself having the urge every couple of hours to go outside and throw a squeaky toy around the yard. Daisy comes running back to me with the toy, rolling onto her back waiting for me to rub her puppy belly so she knows she did a good job. Rub a dog belly? Are you kidding me? I'm actually doing this willingly? We have all made adjustments here and there and I have had brief moments of "What was I thinking???" but overall she has been a wonderful addition to our family...and she is so cute.

Beep beep

Kurt points and makes lots of caveman grunts. We have been patiently waiting for some real words to slip out of his mouth. Of course he says ma ma occasionally and sometimes OU for 'out' to get out of his chair, but nothing really consistant or exciting. He loves to play with cars, trucks, trains and gets excited nearly to tears when he sees an airplane. The other day while he was playing with his cars he said, "beep beep...beep beep". The kids thought is was hilarious to hear him say something real. So now he vrooms his cars all over the couch and "beep beep" is close behind.

Night feedings

This morning Lauren came in with sleepy eyes and said,

"I didn't sleep very well lastnight."

"Oh I'm sorry did you have a bad dream?"

"No, I was up feeding Anne in the night. She was so hungry."

Lauren is a great Mommy to Anne. And Anne has become a part of our family.

Our Special Week

Our family tradition of our Special Week began a few years ago when Dave and I felt a great need to teach our kids to be grateful for always having food to eat, clothes to wear, toys...yes the abundance of toys, electricity, TV, microwave, warm beds, air-conditioning and all the other conveniences we are blessed with. We decided to make one week out of the summer resemble as close as possible to living without...without what? Without. Just living without. All the wants that we come to think of as needs. We don't use lights or TV. When it gets dark, there is nothing to do but go to bed. We eat things from natural sources. Fruits and veggies things that can be made from scratch like bread and tortillas. We try to rough it (laugh) as much as possible in a neighborhood. The kids wash clothes and hang them to dry. They wash their dishes by hand after each meal outside with the hose. This year I wanted them to feel a sense of duty to help provide for the families basic needs. So each morning they did hard labor for three hours. Scrubbing window sills and floorboards. Deep cleaning cupboards and lots of yard work. They would earn money for their work and then combine the money to buy the food at "the market" which was like a fruit stand I set up each afternoon in the backyard and they would have a shopping list of ingredients for dinner that night. So they were responsible for working to buy the food for that nights dinner. Which is not uncommon for children in other countries to have to earn money with the family for basic needs like dinner. If our kids didn't work...they didn't get dinner that night. Their first job of mopping the kitchen floor we had so much arguing and complaining that at the end of it I told them they weren't getting paid for that job. They did a little better after that.

Monday morning I woke them up at 5:45am to gather apples (tied to the back tree) and eggs from the barn (in the shed) for breakfast and to gather firewood (pine cones) that were scattered around the yard. They were less than thrilled to wake up at such an early hour.

Here's the boys doing some hard labor.

The food from the market. Brown rice, green beans, an onion and they had money left over for some nectarines and lemons.

Washing dishes.

Baking bread. I know lots of you bake bread a lot...I do not. It wore me out. Baking baking baking. I felt like I was constantly preparing for the next meal. Bake bread in the morning so we can eat lunch that day.


We had a great time picking peaches with the kids and it was extra fun with Jon and Heidi in town.

That is our new puppy in the picture with us....umm...that's a whole different subject.

My favorite part of our special week is to walk up the stairs by candle light and have the kids brush their teeth and get ready for bed by the light of the candle. Eventually when the kids get older we'd like to expand our special week and take them somewhere in the world in central or south america so they can actually see how other people live and do some service like working in an orphanage like my sister did or do some building projects. But for now this will have to do. Hopefully they are learning something. If not it will be a fun memory anyway. I can hear them now, "Remember when mom made us take a shower in the hose outside?...yeah that was weird."

A Dog named Daisy

One week from today our family will be picking up our sweet new puppy. I have been having this insane craving for a puppy for months now. Kurt goes crazy everytime he sees or hears a dog and even though I promised I'd never have a dog while we live in a neighborhood I feel like it's the right time for our family. The kids of course can't wait. I am a little nervous because I've never been a dog person, but I have to admit that I am excited too...I've been having dreams about our puppy all week....Is that normal???

ps She will be completely an outside dog. That is the only way I can do this.

Goodbye yard.

LEGOLAND!

We spent two days at Legoland. The kids were in heaven. Their two favorite things...legos and cousins!

The kids were able to attend Obama's inaguration into the white house. With the rest of the lego spectators.

Our family vacation...Full of fun with many moments of chaos and a touch of insanity, but most important- wonderful togetherness memories.