Recently...

Hello faithful blog checkers, sorry for the long delay in updates! I'm a busy mama! Anyway, here are some pictures over the last month. We've had lots of beautiful weather as you can see!

Low tide on a misty morning,

Lots of playground time,
Many trips to Temsco to watch helicopters come and go, and sling radio buildings to mountain tops,

A wonderful mother's day cruise around Guard Island for the mothers in our church,

And my wonderful builder husband building us a beautiful, huge, new deck!

Logan's B-day!

Logan turned 4 on April 20! And he's very proud of it! We had a family party a few days before, where we gave him a bike! He loves it, but finds it hard to push the petals. He'll hopefully get lots of practice this summer! On his actual birthday he had a kid party after school. He wants to be an astronaut and fly a space shuttle when he grows up, so we gave him an astronaut party, with a shuttle cake, and space ice cream (which is freeze dried). He wanted me to save the last little pieces of the ice cream so he could take it on the space shuttle when he goes to space! :) Here are some of his friends and their moms having lunch.

Singing Happy Birthday. The candles were the fire in the engines. The cake. It was my first time using fondant icing. It actually turned out better than I had expected!

Birthday Boy & Girl

Yesterday we celebrated Matthew and Ashlen's birthdays! I'm afraid Matthew's birthday will never be the same since Ashlen has taken over! This time he had to share his nice pink butterfly cake with her. It had a candle antenna for each of them. Ashlen just tried to grab the flame. Ashlen is showing off her frosting. She loved her cherry cake, and kept looking at me like she couldn't believe it was really for her! The four little goofballs She also just learned how to walk! She still mostly crawls, but can walk very well when it's convenient for her!
Here are the little 1 year old friends (and mommies and Krista) who came to the party-
Haddy, Levi, and Piper

It was a fun time. Ashlen was such a happy girl through the whole thing!

More Colorful Church Foyer

Our church foyer was recently redone, and I thought all you mover-awayers would like too see it. The main wall is a lovely green, with a beautiful cross made by Bud Schultz (I think). Mischa painted the words.
Here's where the bulletin boards used to be. Each of these frames has a missionary family's info on it, with their newsletters hanging down below. It looks really nice! The Pattisons made beautiful new trim around all the doors and floor. The old bulletin board is now in the sanctuary on the wall between the classrooms. It looks good there. What do you think of the changes? I also have plans to remodel the nursery. Hopefully that will happen soon!

WHAT??!!!

This is a Godin Montreal hybrid guitar. It can do regular acoustic guitar sound, or electric. Matthew has been wanting to get this particular one for a long time. Today he got a call from McPherson's Music store, telling him they had one come in that he could look at and try playing. So of course he went to town to see it. When he was done playing, they asked him what he thought of it. He said it was awesome, and he definitely wanted to buy one when he had the money. "Well, it's yours!" they said! "We can't tell you who bought it, but they just wanted to say they love you and appreciate what you are doing out there." (meaning leading worship at church)

So as you can see he is very happy, still in shock, but very grateful and humbled that someone would do this for him!!

Whoever you are, if you're reading this,

THANK YOU!

Kids Say the Funniest Things

Tonight our church had a fun catered dinner with entertainment. Each of the fold groups did something. There were skits and a few song and dances. They were pretty funny! Here's what our family fold did...

F.F.F.F.F.F.

Wondering what the title stands for? Fabulous Family Fold Fondue Fellowship Fun! Sunday night our FOLD group met for dinner. Each time we get together, we have a different meal theme that everyone contributes to. This time was Fondue! We had an oil one for meats, some yummy cheese ones, and some dessert ones- notice the chocolate fountain! I like this picture with the two bald guys of our group, Steve and Matthew. Stephanie, Carla, Krista What makes this a Blog-worthy event is the fact that we had 40 people at our house! 21 adults and 19 kids- who all but 4 of them are under age 4! In this picture there are 19 people. Here are some of the kids.

I like this happy action shot! This was running with a purpose, they weren't just running wild. All the kids played very nicely together. We were actually shocked afterward when we counted up how many kids there were, because it didn't seem all that crazy!

Some things

Matthew and his little building crew are building us a NEW DECK!! I'm excited! It will be bigger and less moldy than the one we have now, and there will be stairs (and I'm hoping for a slide) down to the yard! Here the workers are mixing cement for the footings. Brennen was fired after only about 2 minutes for throwing sawdust into the mix! Logan just stood by, overseeing the operation.Then they made hand print signatures to show that they helped.
This past month we have had wonderful, sunny, springlike weather! Here are some pictures from playtime on our friend Kristi's beach.
Ashlen thought the sand was delicious, and had a feast!
Then she tried to go for a swim! Mommy friends-Laura, Robin, and Kristi. Happy 3/2/10!

Oops, it's been a while...

Well, Matthew & I took a quick trip with Ashlen to Seattle. We were choosing cabinets from IKEA for a kitchen job for some friends. Ashlen was excited to see the jet. She was wonderful to travel with!
Ashlen having lunch in IKEA.

Ashlen in Home Depot. We stayed overnight with Christy, and got to go out for dinner and a movie while she watched Ashlen. I didn't take any more pictures though.

My dad helped in the nursery at church today! It was a momentous occasion so I took a picture. There were 9 kids. He said he enjoyed it and will do it again!

Sorry, not much to report.

New Look

Does this look different?

In an attempt to make the sound better, Matthew is trying a new set up at church, facing the corner with the screen as the back drop/sound shield. I think it looks great, you could fit in twice as many chairs, and it does seem to help the sound in our square, echo-y building! This is the view from the center door in the foyer.

And the overall view from the back corner. Next week we will also have a new stage! This is during an evening service, which has far fewer people than the morning. (The words on the screen look funny because it was in the process of changing when I snapped the picture) Mischa (McClennan), our new church secretary, also changed the design on the front of the bullitin. It's a little more modern looking. Lots of changes for one day!

The boys...

These are some nice wintery pictures I took of the kids recently. They are all wearing their new sweaters made by Matthew's auntie Pam, who lives in England.

Cuties Brennen and Logan

They have since had much needed haircuts! He's all boy, snot and all!

...and girls

Beautiful Meadow and Ashlen

Meadow sat down on this beaver log and said, "It's been nice gnawing you!" She's so funny!

Deets!

Here's drummer boy Brennen Christmas morning on his "new bue deets" as he calls them! All those drums, and he has to play the wall?

Our house just became a little noisier, but I don't mind when he's actually playing his rhythms. He can't quite reach the bass drum pedal from the stool, but he tries it standing up. We are excited to watch him learn more and improve his skills! We cover them with a sheet and put them to sleep when it's time to be quiet. He tells them good night and even covers them himself sometimes when he's done!

Christmas!

We had a wonderful Christmas! The kids came upstairs in the morning to find the door to the playroom wrapped like a present. They stopped and stared for a while, not sure what to think of it. Wise old Meadow is saying in this picture (which is an image from a video), "I think it's a door." Finally they peeled back the paper and ran inside to find their main gifts from us! Brennen got a real child sized drum set, Logan a firetruck, and Meadow a mermaid castle for the bath. Meadow and Logan acted very excited, but Brennen casually went up to the drums and started drumming like it was just normal to have a drum set! It was Ashlen's first Christmas. She just got good at crawling a few days before, so she had fun joining in with whatever the big kids were doing.

Meadow was so happy to find this winged horse in her stocking! She had quite a reaction! :) Logan was happy to have a new hat and matching sweater knitted by Matthew's aunt. He loves wearing hats and sweaters! After present opening, the grandparents arrived with their presents. Then we all had a yummy breakfast made by Matthew! Later on they came back for dinner.