Times and Sorensens

Lucas Turns 3!

2012-01-23T14:04:00.000-08:00

Lucas had a great birthday this year. We were able to extend the celebration over a couple of days which I think made it feel pretty special for him. We did cupcakes and ice cream Sunday night and then presents and Out of This World Pizza Monday night. He played his heart out and I think I can safely say it's his favorite place ever. He does absolutely everything there is, including the stuff that's meant for older kids. He's pretty fearless. I so wish I hadn't forgotten to bring the camera so you could see him in action (well, most likely you'd see a blur of him as he ran by). I'll have to leave it to your imagination as you picture him in complete 3-year-old little boy bliss.

Such sweet beginnings!

He really has come a long way!

Thank you for being ours, Lucas! You are such an important part of our family and I can't imagine life without that smile of yours.

Yeah, that smile!

Christmas 2011

2012-01-03T22:00:00.000-08:00

Here's a collection of photos documenting our Christmas season this year. We had such a lovely time, sharing it with my brother John, his wife Molly and their three sweet girls. I'm sad it's all over but what great memories we made and it's really nice to have these pictures to look back on and reminisce.

It all started at the Christmas tree farm. We got a pretty sweet tree this year


We celebrated their cousin Sara's birthday 2 days before Christmas! Lucas and Joshua are helping Sara arrange her gifts. We of course headed to Out of This World Pizza after she opened them and had a fabulous time!

And thus began Christmas morning

I love all the vivid colors and patterns in this one

Scooters for Joshua and Daniel, round two.

An outing to feed some hungry ducks

Festival of Trees

2011-12-18T23:30:00.000-08:00

Joshua and Daniel had the opportunity to participate in Portland's Festival of Trees with their violin group a couple of week-ends ago. It was a great event raising money for cancer research and I'm glad we were able to be a part of it.

So, miracle of miracles, I've actually managed to get some footage of the performance up on the blog to share with you all (with massive amounts of help from Jake, of course!).

The first segment is about 8 minutes of footage from the middle of the performance which I felt were the highlights (they were playing most of my favorite pieces, anyway!). The second shows Daniel being a "jingle boy." He didn't like doing it but did it anyway and did a good job so I'm proud of him. He and the other two older boys he was doing it with are too new to the violin to have done much else and I'm glad their teacher had ways to include them.

The Lineup

Deck the Halls*

The Holly and the Ivy

Minstrel Round

Dona Nobis Pacem (Grant Us Peace)

*I just have to give Joshua credit for the harmony part he played on Deck the Halls . This arrangement had the melody and two different harmonies going on and Joshua was assigned the second harmony with another student that is more advanced than he is. I was stressed when I found out and wondered why in the world their teacher would pair Joshua with her. But bless his heart, he picked up that harmony almost as if it were nothing and did a fantastic job. It's the blond girl behind him that shared the same harmony if you want to watch for it.

On each of these arrangements there are always several different things going on with harmonies, rounds, and simpler variations for less advanced students. I even got the accompanist's hands at one point because I really want to learn the accompaniment for that piece! It is fun to watch for all the different parts, who's doing what at any particular time. At least for me, I find it all very interesting and am proud of these kids and their teacher for putting this all together.

Alright, enough of me talking. I hope you enjoy the playing. It's so festive!

Nine Months

2011-12-14T10:30:00.000-08:00

Caden is nine months old today and I have always felt that the nine month mark is a special one. Now he has spent as much time with us on the outside as he did inside of me and I think I've emerged a better person out of these collective 18 months. We've both learned and grown a lot, that's for sure.

I am so thankful to have a baby this holiday season. It has made it a very meaningful time for me and yes, I tear up whenever I hear a Christmas song that tells of the Mother and Child. I think having a baby boy renders me even more susceptible as he can't help but turn my thoughts to the Savior, born as a baby boy so innocent, cute, sweet and cuddly (like mine!) all those years ago.

"I recall, as a boy, staring long at a painting that I know

Where a mother holds her baby

And I stayed for a while

And I thought that I could hear that mother sigh

"Good night, my love" way out beyond the stars above"

Peter Breinholt Noel "Wake up Little Child"

Merry first Christmas, Caden! We're so happy to have you with us to share this special time together as a family. I can't wait to see you be so excited and happy on Christmas morning!

Five Years Ago...

2011-12-07T07:30:00.001-08:00

It's been five years since Joshua, Daniel and I participated in a little photo shoot at Mesa grad student housing at UCSD. There was going to be some sort of presentation made to the Board of Regents and they wanted to show what life was like at student housing. They must have especially wanted to showcase what it was like for families since it was a few of us moms that were recruited.

It turned out to be a fun experience and we have these great pictures for it! I'm not exactly sure why I'm posting these now but I'm in the middle of a huge picture hanging project around our house, of which 2 of these are included. When I realized it had been 5 years since these pictures had been taken it just seemed like a fun thing to share. Enjoy a stroll down Sorensen Memory Lane!

(Just FYI Daniel was about 17 months and Joshua was 3 1/2ish when these were taken)

I love Daniel's sweet little face in this one! Click on the pic if you feel so inclined to enjoy the full sweetness :) Apple slices are still one of his very favorite snacks!

This is one of the two going up on the wall.

This is the other one going up on the wall.

Piano

2011-12-05T15:40:00.001-08:00

Jake's Grandmother gave us the piano that graced her home for the last 50 years and we are so happy to have it! It is beautiful and was given the best of care over the years. It's the piano that Jake's mother learned and practiced on every day and I love that it has a family history because it makes it more meaningful for us.

Doesn't it look so natural in that spot?

I have managed to play it every day since we've had it and it's been great! My plans for it mainly involve myself* since the violin is such a great fit for my boys, but I would love to be able to accompany them and really look forward to making music together! Also I would love to make myself useful at Church, giving all those people who play the piano and have been stuck in pianist callings for forever a break. I've had my break these last 20 years and feel that it's only fair :).

Lucas is especially drawn to it and even composed a little song called Flower the first day it arrived.

As an adult I've felt bad that I let my piano playing skills go at the tender age of 14 and I see this as a chance to redeem myself. So far I've practiced every day since we've had it and I'm amazed by how much I remember from all those lessons all those years ago.

It is slow going for sure what with being the mother to four young children and all, but I love the snippets of time I am able to steal for practice each day. It is so refreshing to be doing something to develop myself personally and with the yoga, walking and reading I do I'm starting to feel downright well-rounded! It's a great feeling but comes tinged with some guilt. Should I be getting to do these things for myself while my children are still so young? Hmmm....I'll keep thinking about it but until I come to a conclusion, I'm going for it!

*Jake's plans involve learning to play Werewolves of London on it ;)

camo pants

2011-11-03T07:33:00.000-07:00

Who says shopping for boys isn't fun (yes, I'm looking at you R.W. ;) I'll grant that it's probably not as much fun as shopping for girls but I know for myself that it is fun in its own right. Take these fleece camo pants I got over the week-end, for example. Fleece camo pants! Adorable! And made doubly so when sported by a certain little mister ;)

The pants must've inspired this army-crawl!

Halloween 2011

2011-11-01T16:50:00.000-07:00

For Halloween this year we had a pair of Ninjas, a Knight in Shining Armor and a Baby Tiger.

I was so excited for Caden to wear this tiger costume. Each of our babies has worn this costume for his first Halloween!

And here's a bonus pic! Jake and I went to a party Friday night as Mr. and Mrs. Vampire. I wish I could blame my lack of preparedness for this photo on the kids but no, it was all me. I was trying to give our babysitter instructions on how to use the camera which she apparently didn't need. But doesn't Jake look dashing in his cape?

At the Aquarium

2011-09-30T21:06:00.000-07:00

We had a great time at the Oregon Coast Aquarium in Newport. The boys got to see and do lots of really neat things and I loved getting to watch them absorb it all. It was an interesting place because it was set up more like a zoo, with lots of outdoor space and exhibits, just all featuring sea creatures. Luckily it was a great day to be outdoors, slightly chilly in the morning and then perfectly mild all the rest of the day. I'm really glad we made the trip!

They had a really neat shark tunnel. The boys thought it was super cool.

It's not that Lucas was afraid of the shark teeth or anything, he was just having a meltdown at this point.

Check out this massive star fish (in the middle of the picture)! One of the employees said that they found it under the boardwalk.

Daniel was really hoping to see seahorses and I'm so glad his wish could come true!

We let each kid choose a souvenir and each baby have one chosen for him. This shark was too cute and is now a favorite crib mate of Caden's. He loves to wrestle with it! (Jake especially liked its evil eyes).

Newport!

2011-09-29T22:49:00.000-07:00

For our annual week-before-Labor-Day beach trip we headed to Newport because we had tickets to the aquarium. We decided to turn it into an overnight event for the first time so we could fit everything in and I'm so glad we did. Jake ended up finding us a place to stay that I/we absolutely loved (way to go Jake!). It was right up the hill from the beach with the quintessential wooden staircase leading down to the sand. Inside we had plenty of room for our family and it was just so cozy and comfortable.

We had a 3 queen loft which essentially meant one queen up in the loft area and two more downstairs. The boys initially wanted the loft but it didn't really make sense for them to all share one bed so they opted to take over the downstairs. They were totally fine with it once they realized that that's where the TV was. It was Daniel's turn to share with Lucas since Joshua "got" to share with him at the hotel we stayed at for the wedding. They seriously fight over who gets to share with Lucas -- it's great! Even though Joshua had to sleep alone he got Caden's pack 'n play set up in the corner right next to his bed which he thought was really fun. Joshua loves having Caden nearby.

The view was breathtaking and it was wonderful to enjoy the colors of the sky as the sun set and rose during our stay. The trip was practically worth it for the accommodations alone! Good thing too because the beach ended up being too windy to stay for long. We knew it was time to go back inside when Jake mentioned that the sand was exfoliating our skin. Bummer, but we were able to enjoy the indoor pool and spa.

Here's a great photo for the hotel's brochure, don't you think?

Daniel looks the part of a pleased guest...I think we've got another one for the brochure!

Baby Food

2011-09-16T14:48:00.000-07:00

It's that time again! Time to teach a new Sorensen baby to eat, that is. Caden turned 6 months old and was ready to take the plunge. Luckily I had psyched myself up and was ready to help him in this important yet challenging and messy undertaking.

So far he is doing great and basically just gobbles his cereal up. After the first few days I had to double his serving because he was wanting more. It is so nice to have a willing participant!

It's kind of hard to believe I have a 6-month-old and that we've reached this stage already. In some ways it feels like I had him a long time ago but in most ways I just can't believe we've arrived here at solid foods. However long or short it has felt, he has managed to charm me each and every day of these last 6 months. I can't think of a better way to have spent the time!

Oh yes I did experiment with borders on this post!

First Day of School!

2011-09-15T11:02:00.000-07:00

School started last week (the day after Labor Day) and is now in full swing. I'm happy to report that things are going great so far and I'm getting really good vibes about this year. Both boys have excellent teachers and are just happy campers in their classrooms.

Joshua is starting third grade and I can't believe I have a third-grader! He has a really good group of friends and comes home excited to tell me about their adventures on the playground.

Daniel's transition into first grade is going incredibly well and it's such a blessing. He's adapted to full-day school without so much as a blink and says he loves being a first-grader. He especially loves that he gets two recesses and gets to eat lunch at school, among other things.

Daniel also started violin lessons this year, another big new event in his life. He had his first private and group lesson last week and did well. He seems to have a natural sense of rhythm and timing, so that's really good. I'm really proud of him as he enters this new phase of his life.

Joshua is starting his third year of violin and things continue swimmingly. He is a demon when it comes to reading music. It is truly amazing to watch him in action. His teacher dubbed him a sight-reading Ninja, which he of course really liked.

Meanwhile Lucas, Caden and I are enjoying our mornings and early afternoons together. It really is nice to have this time to spend with them. Our mornings especially have been happy and peaceful. Here's to a great year for all of us!

Pleasanton water park - how do I love thee?

2011-09-13T07:36:00.000-07:00

On the last day of our trip we got to visit my beloved water park (click here for a trip down memory lane!). We came here lots when we stayed a summer in Livermore while Jake was doing an internship at the lab (Pleasanton is the town right next to Livermore). I have such happy memories of this place, coming here with my then-4-year-old Joshua and not-quite-two-year-old Daniel to meet family and friends.

I am an incredibly nostalgic person and in case you couldn't tell, this little trip meant a LOT to me. It was so neat to see Joshua's and Daniel's memories of the park return, it almost made me teary eyed. And it made me so happy to introduce the two little ones who have joined our family since then to the park. Lucas had an absolute blast and I could tell that Caden wanted to have a blast but couldn't really since he's just a baby. We'll come back someday for you, Caden! So without further ado, here are a bunch of pictures for your viewing pleasure!

Oh Caden...look at the camera!

Thank you sweet pea!

I absolutely love this one!

This one too!

Out on Lake Chabot

2011-09-07T07:33:00.000-07:00

Lake Chabot was the fourth and final of the East Bay Regional Parks we visited on this trip. If I haven't yet convinced you of how great the East Bay Regional Parks are, I don't think I ever will ;). We went to take advantage of the boats they have available for rent. You see, Jake had a long-standing promise to Joshua and Daniel that he would take them out on a rowboat and he really wanted to make good on his word within a year (it's kind of a long story involving bribery, but you can ask Jake about it sometime if you'd like). Also, Jake's grandmother lives nearby and we were hoping to visit her after the lake, but she wasn't feeling well and we missed out on seeing her.

The boys had seen the paddle boats at Stow Lake in Golden Gate Park from the day before and changed their minds that they wanted to ride in a paddle boat instead of a rowboat. Jake (being the kind of dad he is) was willing to oblige but unfortunately it really ended up biting him. He said that the paddle boat was basically a floating brick and was incredibly difficult to maneuver and work with. On top of that, once they were out on the water Lucas wanted to peer over the edge and spazzed when Jake tried to restrain him to prevent him from falling in. So he was having to paddle the thing while grappling with Lucas and in the meantime Daniel had decided that he didn't like it very much. Poor Jake!

After they got back with the paddle boat Joshua and I took out a two-person kayak and had an absolutely fabulous time. I felt guilty for having such a great time after Jake had such a terrible one, but really, we had a blast. I used to kayak a lot when I was younger, it was one of my favorite things to do. All that came rushing back and I had just as much fun as ever, if not more since I got to do it with Joshua! He learned how to paddle and even steer a bit while we were out there so he was actually able to help. We made a great team!

One last little side note about Lake Chabot is that Jake took me out on a rowboat (not a paddle boat!) there the summer after our freshman year at BYU, just before he left on his mission. I was hoping he would kiss me out on the lake but no such luck. We still had a nice time and now I find it kind of amusing that the next time we found ourselves together at Lake Chabot we had our four kids to bring along with us! Memorable times for us Sorensens all around at Lake Chabot. And an awesome time for Joshua and I, at least. Sorry Jake :( You get major Dad points for keeping your promise to the boys and we'll go rent kayaks up at Hagg Lake sometime soon!

Conservatory of Flowers - Forgotten Photos

2011-09-06T21:04:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from out in front of the Conservatory I forgot to include with the last post. They are pretty and I wanted to have them here to remember.

Lucas takes off! Such a familiar sight...

Conservatory of Flowers

2011-09-04T18:16:00.000-07:00

After the boys were done pestering the statue we headed over to the Conservatory of Flowers to have a look inside. The plants were gorgeous with really vivid colors I even managed to capture somewhat. Plus, they were featuring an exhibit on carnivorous plants so Jake was thrilled and the boys were plenty interested.

Lucas made friends with this turtle


I love the way his shirt picks up the greenery

Daniel was intrigued by the Ghost Cactus on the left. He thought the Pencil Cactus on the right was neat too. He just didn't feel like being photographed with them.

Can you spot Jake holding Caden somewhere in there?

I can't remember what these are called but aren't they fantastic?

Golden Gate Park/Too Much Fun With a Statue

2011-09-04T18:03:00.000-07:00

We headed over to Golden Gate Park and happened upon this poor statue. Enough said.

Tilden Park

2011-09-03T15:29:00.000-07:00

Jayne and I took the boys to Tilden Park, the third of the East Bay Regional Parks we visited on this trip. It really is a beautiful place and the weather could not have been more perfect that day. Crystal clear blue sky, warm sunshine and mild temperatures with a slight breeze, ahhhh. We plan to come back for sure with Jake next time we're here to visit (he had gone to see Cowboys & Aliens with his dad that morning). There's so much to do at Tilden including swimming at the lake, so we really could make a day of it.

We rode the steam train that Joshua and Daniel remember riding with Grandma and her friend Jeri while Jake and I were house hunting up here in Oregon. I'm so glad Lucas got to go this time (he was still in my tummy that last time ;) because he really was the perfect age for it. It is such a fun little train and the scenery as you go by is so pretty. Great times!

I LOVE this one!

Joshua thought this was the cutest thing and really wanted me to get a picture of it!

Lucas and Jayne on the Carousel!

Joshua and Esther's Baptism Celebration!

2011-09-01T12:19:00.000-07:00

After the baptisms we headed to Fenton's to celebrate the big day! It was so much fun and we had such a great time getting to be there with everyone. It was the highlight of the trip for me. Everyone just seemed so happy and relaxed. Times like these are what life is all about!

We're so proud of this guy! Thanks for giving us a reason to celebrate, bud!

Baptism Day

2011-08-31T22:05:00.000-07:00

The main event of our trip was Joshua's baptism on Saturday July 31st, 2011. Joshua turned 8 back in March but I had just had Caden and wasn't up to putting on a baptism so soon after delivery (I know my limits). Jake and I had already been planning a trip down to California for the summer and we knew that if we held off for just a bit longer we would be able to share the baptism with our families. I'm so glad we did. It was a really special day and we ended up being able to do a double baptism with Joshua's cousin Esther.

The baptism took place at a special location for us, on the grounds of the Oakland Temple at the Interstake Center. This is where Jake went to church growing up but he didn't get to be baptized in the baptistry there since it was under renovations when he turned 8 years old. He felt it was meaningful for him to be able to baptize Joshua there.

We are so thankful for all the family members who were able to be there, I believe 34 of us in all. It meant so much to us to be able to share it with everyone and I had a really sweet feeling with me all that day. We had planned and prepared for this event for so long and it really was a dream come true that we pulled it off and made it all work and got our oldest son baptized!

About the pictures...I'll just let you figure out what was going on and we didn't get the large group shot because the person with all the cameras put ours in her pocket and forgot about it!

What's not to love about this one :)

John's Birthday BBQ at Coyote Hills

2011-08-30T20:41:00.000-07:00

The whole family got together for a BBQ at Coyote Hills, the second of our East Bay Regional Parks destinations. It was a great place. To make things more fun we celebrated our brother John's birthday that was coming up. His being a summer birthday it feels like we've gotten to celebrate with him before. Our sister-in-law Cami's parents had driven out from Utah and were able to be there with us too which was really nice. All in all a great time for everyone.

These cousins ran around lots and lots together. There was so much open space for them to explore

This was when we were singing "Happy Birthday." John is flanked by two of his three sweet girls. Sorry the cake is hidden behind a tub of wet wipes. It was delicious and sported "Giant's Orange" in John's honor (that was Jake's idea):

Coyote Hills had a really pretty butterfly garden we loved exploring. It felt like a quiet, secluded sanctuary and I would love to go back sometime. Here's Lucas on this cute butterfly bench that was in front of it. He wanted it to look like he had wings!

Crown Beach in Alameda

2011-08-30T08:32:00.001-07:00

Our kids were way excited to find out we were going to the beach. We went with lots of my family and made an afternoon of it. Crown Beach is a great beach that is really more of a bay. It had teeny little waves, which is a plus in my book. It was the first of several of the East Bay Regional Parks we ended up visiting on this trip. I never really appreciated this park system when I was growing up there, but we sure took advantage of what it has to offer on this trip.

Jelly Belly

2011-08-29T11:46:00.000-07:00

Our first tourist destination in the Bay Area was the Jelly Belly Factory. Turns out it's not far at all from where I grew up but I don't think it opened up for tours until after I left for college. We had never been and we really wanted to take our kids there. I didn't get many pictures at all. These are pretty much the only ones. It was not a happy place for me but here is proof we were there and you get to see Daniel's cool moves.

Mt. Shasta Memoirs

2011-08-27T08:01:00.001-07:00

The drive down from Oregon through northern California is gorgeous. Everything is green and picturesque until about the time you hit Redding and then it just turns into the dry brown landscape that typifies much of the rest of the state. I guess I've really acclimated to the scenery in the Pacific Northwest because the sudden change was jarring and my once golden, rolling hills just felt hot and dusty. Kind of sad!
But before you get to that point you get to drive through Shasta country which is so so beautiful and carries some very meaningful childhood memories for me. When I was a kid I was invited by my friend Lorelei and her family to climb Mt. Shasta two times. I think I was around the ages of 9 and 11 and even though we were so young, we actually did some serious climbing. We didn't make the summit either time, but on the second trip two members of our group did. Granted, they were college boys (students of Lorelei's dad's), but we were all pretty jealous because they got to sign a book at the top and we had so wanted to do that.One of the most miserable nights of my life was spent at "Lake Helen," a frozen ice field (with no lake in sight, oddly enough) that marks the halfway point up the mountain. It features an open-air toilet and a view at such a height that you can actually see the curve of the earth on a totally clear day. It is nothing short of spectacular.

During the day on our way up to Lake Helen we had been hiking pretty hard and my legs got really sunburned up at that altitude. When we set up camp it turned out my sleeping bag wasn't nearly thick enough to insulate me from the snow pack underneath. I ended up totally freezing but my legs felt like they were on fire and I remember writhing all through the night. The hardships of a young adventurer!Even though it's been over 20 years since I've seen her, Shasta looks just the same as I remember. It was so good to get reacquainted. She is impressive and my pictures snapped from the highway as we drove past do her no justice.

Medford, OR Temple

2011-08-26T10:39:00.001-07:00

After driving up north for the wedding in Seattle we turned around and headed in the opposite direction for the Bay Area. We were having some car trouble which forced a longer stopover than we had planned on at our house. Fortunately Jake found a great mechanic who was open early Monday morning and was able to see us first thing. It was such an answer to our prayers that it was a quick and easy (and inexpensive!) fix. It did mean that we weren't able to get on the road until later in the day than we had wanted, so we just drove as much as we could and stopped in Medford (right on the OR/CA border) for the night.

We figured as long as we were in Medford it would be nice to visit their temple before we took off the next morning. It was closed since it was a Monday (and I think because it's a mini-temple they have limited hours anyway) and we were the only ones there. We had a nice little visit and here are some pics:

Daniel is staring longingly after a balloon he had been playing with in the car that somehow escaped from him once we got out. I could feel his hopelessness and it struck me as cute/sad. Don't worry, we had plenty more in the car!

Lucas getting some of that 2-year-old energy out! He ran that whole length of grass (you can only see about a third of it in this picture):

Alec and Meg's Wedding!

2011-08-10T14:41:00.000-07:00

Our summer travels began with a trip up to Seattle for Jake's brother Alec's wedding. Congratulations to the happy couple!

These are about the only half-decent pictures I got. It seemed my arms were always too full to juggle the camera, but I'm not sure why because I had plenty of help with the kids. Puzzling. Anyway, Erin was able to get lots of great pics so I'll refer you to her blog for more in-depth coverage of the big day.

Here's a really sweet picture of Jayne with Caden at the BBQ the night before where we got to meet Meg's great family:

A couple of sleepyheads the morning of the wedding:

Our Fourth of July

2011-07-11T09:39:00.000-07:00

We had a nice holiday this year and of course celebrated our Fourth of July Boy's birthday. We attended Hillsboro's parade for the first time and had a lot of fun. Caden was even able to sleep during a portion of it in spite of all the noise. What a baby!

Lots o' candy to gather

This is just a cute one of Lucas from behind :)

Here's the birthday boy!

I think Daniel had a pretty good birthday this year. We had time for him to open his presents before the parade and then he had plenty of time to play with them afterward while I made the cupcakes, etc. I love that we are able to do holiday and birthday activities interspersed throughout the day. It gives it such a festive feel.

Later in the evening Jake took Joshua and Daniel out to do some minor fireworks. Our neighbors across the street were doing the same thing with their boys so they combined and had a great time. I wish I had gotten some pictures -- I'll try to remember for next year.

Happy birthday Daniel! We sure hope we were able to make you feel special on your birthday. You are such an important part of our family. I love seeing how your creative mind works each and every day. Keep making your books -- we love them!

End of School Activities

2011-06-15T21:45:00.000-07:00

School is out and I have definite mixed emotions about it. It's great to have a break from the school routine and we have a nice summer to look forward to with Jake's brother Alec's wedding up in Seattle and then our big trip to the Bay Area which will include Joshua's baptism. But it has been such a great school year for both Joshua and Daniel and I am sad to see it end. They both had fantastic teachers and were in really good classes. They were just happy campers and that meant so much to us as their parents. This coming school year is more uncertain what with all the budget cuts our school district has been through and I really wish I could have held on to this year somehow, with things going so great. Anyway, here's a look at a few of the activities of the last days of this wonderful year.

Joshua's class put on a reader's theater play entitled, "The Principal's New Clothes." He was really excited that I could be there and I was happy to support him. It took quite a bit of orchestrating to get there though, but I did it and felt rather pleased with myself ;). It involved dropping Lucas off at a little friend's house early, rushing to the school, seeing the play, and then rushing to Daniel's classroom where Jake was already volunteering so that we could both be there for the Messy Play Day/Celebration of Summer Birthdays. Turns out Daniel has the only summer birthday in the class, so it was really a celebration of him! Jake had to leave midway through to get to work and I had to feed Caden which took pretty much half the time, but we did what we could and hopefully the kids will just remember that we were there for them which is the important thing.

"The Principal's New Clothes." There's Joshua just to the left of his teacher, Mr. Kelly. If it looks kind of boring that's probably because it was. It wasn't a great play, but the 2nd graders had a blast putting it on and...go Joshua!

Here's Daniel in kindergarten at the Messy Play Day/Celebration of Summer Birthdays which prominently featured...

...pizza!

Last of all was Daniel's kindergarten "graduation." Sorry for the really bad pictures -- I was holding a fussy Caden at the time.

There's Daniel with his lovely teacher Mrs. Grabel. Joshua also had her and she has been so great (sorry again for the bad pics, the camera was acting up and I didn't have hands enough to adjust it).

I can't believe my Daniel is moving on from kindergarten!

Caden's Baby Portraits

2011-06-10T12:31:00.001-07:00

Some friends of mine, Mary and Jacki, are very talented photographers and they came over a couple of weeks ago to do a photo shoot. They brought all kinds of equipment, backgrounds and props -- talk about full service! All I had to do was provide a room with large bay windows that let in tons of light (check) and a cute baby (check!):) Thank you so much Mary and Jacki for using your talents on our sweet Caden!

He just could not stay awake in this little basket. It made for some great photos!

This is one of my very favorites:

Mary said he looked angelic in this one and I can't say I disagree ;)

Another of my very favorites. Mini Jake all over.

An Update by Twos

2011-05-14T21:15:00.000-07:00

Caden turns 2 months old today, the 14th! In honor of this occasion I thought I would give updates on all the kids incorporating the number two.

Joshua is currently learning Bach's Minuet No.2 on the violin. It's a very pretty piece and he's coming along nicely with it:

Daniel just lost his second tooth which means he's missing two teeth bottom front and center:

Lucas is our 2-year-old and boy is he two:

And lastly, there's not much by way of twos going on with Jake and I other than we're a couple and a couple is the best kind of two there is!

Sleeping

2011-03-28T11:45:00.000-07:00

As Jake always says, "They're never cuter than when they are asleep..."

March Madness of Our Own

2011-03-24T19:41:00.000-07:00

Just four days after celebrating Caden's actual day of birth and nine days before my birthday we had another birthday sandwiched in there to celebrate, and a big one at that -- Joshua's eighth! With all the excitement over the baby we wanted to try our best to make it a special day for Joshua, and I think we did a pretty good job considering we had a brand new baby.

It was the last day of school before spring break and it set a great celebratory mood for bringing treats into his class. Jake and Jayne came bearing donuts and it sounds like the kids really enjoyed them and Joshua thought it was pretty cool.

Joshua with his teacher, Mr. Kelly. We love Mr. Kelly and are so glad Joshua gets to be in his class!

Enjoying their donuts:

Towards the back you'll see Joshua getting to pick a couple of birthday prizes from a treasure chest (Jayne said it was an actual chest -- it sounded impressive):

We went the Cold Stone route and ordered their ice cream cupcakes and cookie sandwiches. I knew I wouldn't be in much shape to make a cake (I'm still kind of traumatized from Lucas's cake from a couple of months ago)

Lots of Nerf stuff this year. It's become quite the rage at our house/friend's houses:

Plenty of Lego stuff too, heavy on the Pharaoh's Quest sets which are way cool because they contain mummy figures -- flying mummies, even!

Bop It was a runaway success and all of the kids love playing it. Highly recommend this as a gift for the kids in your life!

Caden was pretty fussy during the gift opening and Jayne was such a saint and held him during that time. Thanks Jayne!

A great snapshot of what life is like around here these days; nerf darts whizzing past your head at any given time:

Happy Birthday Joshua! We wanted to make you feel special because we love you so much. Thank you for joining our family eight years ago and helping us kick off our journey on the path of parenthood. You have taught us more than you will ever know, at least not until you become a parent yourself someday. What a joy you are to us!

Fun Visitors!

2011-03-23T22:24:00.000-07:00

We actually had a great hospital stay, my favorite out of the four. Jake and I got to spend some real quality time with our new baby while Joshua, Daniel and Lucas got to spend some real quality time of their own with Grandma Sorensen. It was so wonderful to have her with us and to know our children were in such good hands so we could focus on our newest addition. Caden basically slept the entire hospital stay which was great! I just had a real sense of peace and calm the whole time and it was such a blessing.

Jayne brought the kids to the hospital to meet their new baby brother and it was so great to see them and introduce them to Caden. It was such a fun visit. After they left the nurse said she could totally see Caden's resemblance to his brothers which was fun to hear. It's still a little too soon for us to tell and we're so used to seeing them it's hard to tell anyway, but I trust her objective observation and I'm glad to hear it :).

Welcome Caden!

2011-03-23T21:51:00.001-07:00

Introducing Caden James Sorensen! Born Monday March 14th at 5:33pm, weighing 8 lbs 12 oz, measuring 21 1/4 inches in length. Caden is so precious and we are so very happy he has joined our family. We are thrilled to finally meet him and have him here with us!

Better Late Than Never (aka "Our Great Wolf LodgeTrip")

2011-01-31T16:18:00.000-08:00

Back in October we took a family trip up to Great Wolf Lodge in Washington state and had a great time. Obviously I didn't post about it 3 months ago (although I really did try), but I wanted to make up for that now. I highly value the fun things we're able to do together as a family and I really want our boys to have some sort of record to go along with their memories of our trip.

Great Wolf is a big indoor water park we had been hearing lots of amazing things about. Our kids had 3 days off from school for parent/teacher conferences in the middle of October and we decided that would be the perfect time for a 2 day getaway to find out about Great Wolf for ourselves. We of course did the responsible thing and used that 3rd day to attend our kids' conferences :).

It was a gorgeous, green drive up to Washington and it ended up taking us just under 2 hours which was much quicker than anticipated. We got there in the early afternoon, dropped our stuff off in our room and then walked through the lodge to the water park. It really was pretty impressive. We played in there for quite a while before it was time to dry off for dinner. The dining options are quite limited there, but the one restaurant they do have offers fairly respectable fare. And the kids loved the "wolf ears" (a furry, pointy-eared headband) that came with their kid's meals.

After dinner it was time for trick-or-treating around the lodge, so we got our skeleton crew all dressed up and headed out for that (see pics below!). The boys loved it since they got to follow a map around the lodge to find out where their candy was coming from next. After their last stop we went back to our room and bought them an hour of Nintendo in their "wolf den" before bed.

The next morning we had a huge breakfast at the buffet (this meal was quite good) and then checked out of our room. We were still allowed access to the water park all that day so we put most of our stuff in the car, rented a locker for the things we'd need at the park, and played until early that afternoon.

When we'd pretty much had our fill and Lucas started to get cranky, we headed for home hoping that he would get his nap during the drive (which he did!). We stopped by our local Round Table for dinner which is always a fun thing for our family. We all love the pizza and the kids love to go to the kid's area with arcade games, board games and coloring while Jake and I get to eat in relative peace!

Anyway, it was a lot of fun and each of our boys had a blast. I don't think it quite lived up to all the hype for Jake and I, but it was still pretty neat and we feel great for pulling off such a successful trip for our kids.

I think my favorite thing about Great Wolf is that there is literally something for everyone. Any age from babies to teenagers to adults can have plenty of fun, which is great because that is not always the case when attending traditional amusement parks, zoos, etc. A lot of times the toddler is miserable, but Lucas and I got to hang out in a cool pool and play in a special toddler/young kids area. He even enjoyed the wave pool quite a bit. Jake got to do some water slides that looked like so much fun and I would love to do them with him next time when I'm not pregnant. We'll for sure have to try and go with friends so we can switch off watching the kids.

Lastly, one of the main reasons this post never got off the ground ('til now!) is that I didn't really get any good pictures of the trip. We were all so busy having fun and my arms were usually full with Lucas. Plus, Lucas had been messing with the camera and got it onto some setting that would only take blurry pictures. Sigh. But here we go with what I did get:

Blurry shot of Lucas from behind in his toddler towel and flip flops (so cute!). You can see Daniel's blurry bright green trunks up ahead:

As you can see in the bottom of the photo, life jackets abound at Great Wolf! Fewer worries for your non-swimmers!

Our skeleton crew takes the lodge by storm!

Lucas orders room service:

This place is big!

Daniel loses a tooth!

2011-01-25T13:14:00.001-08:00

Daniel lost his first tooth last week and it was a pretty exciting event at our house. He really is growing up!

No, it's not deja vu -- it's the bagette once again! Still highly recommended (and I still have that same original pack!).
That blue panther paw sticker on his shirt was for good behavior in kindergarten today, btw. He regularly comes home with one or two, if I'm allowed to brag a little ;). We really are proud of him for so many things!

Lucas Turns 2!

2011-01-23T14:48:00.001-08:00

Lucas turned 2 on January 10th and I wanted to post some pictures of our special guy!

Here is Jake being super-dad and assembling the "showcase gift" while Lucas finished up his nap:

A motorcycle just the right size for our little guy:

We've been eying this motorcycle for several years now (I'm pretty sure we considered it for Daniel's 2nd birthday) and we finally took the plunge. I'm so glad we did because it's been a real hit. Virtually guaranteed to make a 2-year-old little boy very happy!

Unfortunately I spent a lot of time making his cake and frosting. It wore my pregnant self out and didn't even taste very good. Bummer!
(But I still thought this made for a very cute shot :)

Maybe it wasn't such a bad thing though since this is the only bite he had. Right after this I had to take him straight up to bed -- he had developed a mysterious fever throughout the course of the evening and was really struggling to stay awake at this point:

It was really weird because he woke up feeling fine the next morning. Weird but good since he was able to spend the whole day playing with his new toys, all of which he thoroughly enjoyed.

Happy 2nd Birthday, Lucas -- we are forever grateful you joined our family! Thank you for all the sunshine and joy you bring into our lives!

Quite the Charmer

2010-12-26T15:01:00.001-08:00

Lucas really really wanted me to take his picture the other day. When I agreed he rewarded me with this:

Giant Gingerbread Men!

2010-12-23T13:38:00.000-08:00

Thank goodness for Trader Joe's and the fun stuff to be found there -- like these Giant Gingerbread Men kits I thought would make a great project over the Christmas break. And I was right! The kids thought I was a super fun mom and there was no prep work involved for me -- a real win/win situation! We had lots of fun and I think they did a great job

It just struck me as funny seeing them in their various stages of consumption:

Christmas Tree 2010

2010-12-20T15:52:00.000-08:00

We finally got our tree all decorated (and lighted -- thanks Jake!) and I think we did a pretty good job ;)

And I think an update on Daniel is in order; thank you to anyone who kept him in their prayers -- they totally worked and we are so thankful! I took him to the doctor and he was diagnosed with a major sinus infection. The pediatrician said the sinus infection was the cause of all of his symptoms, which was actually really good news. I thought we were in for treatment of about three different ailments (strep throat/pinkeye/ear infection). The wonderful thing is that she was able to prescribe an antibiotic and a steroid (he was so congested he needed it to help bring the swelling down) and within about 6 hours of starting these medications I was noticing definite improvement. What a miracle!

And by the next afternoon he was able to join us on our trip to the Christmas tree farm,. That was pushing it a bit since it wore him out for the rest of the evening, but we felt it was worth it as he (and I) would have been so sad to have missed out. Anyway, great news overall and he is doing really well by now. So much better than when I took that sad picture!

Behold, I [ have ] a dry tree

2010-12-18T12:53:00.000-08:00

Other than two weeks ago (when I mistakenly thought it was too early to get a Christmas tree), we've had nothing but constant rain and storms. Although I wish I could have gotten a Christmas tree a week ago, I didn't want to get one in the rain and then have to let it dry out in our garage, leaving a car outside to defrost in the morning. Fortunately, we got our big break yesterday and the weather was clear!

Sensing a memory we could create, I found a tree farm not far from us and we all went as soon as I got home from work. The boys loved that it was a real farm, with cows eating the last pumpkins of the year. Lucas ran around so much it was tough to get a clear shot of him:

This was the first time I've ever been to a tree farm, let alone cut my own Christmas tree! Unfortunately, I hadn't thought of how much harder it is to saw through a trunk as close to the ground as possible, and Leslie picked out a tree with a thicker than average trunk. Fortunately, the farm provided a good sharp saw and having my family there motivated me to keep going without help.

Joshua decided to help pass the time by singing O Tannenbaum, which he learned in its original German in school. Daniel thought he was a bit rusty:

After some persistence, I felled the tree and we got it baled and tied to the roof of the car. It's a bit heavy, so I was surprised that it fit easily in the stand, which is holding it quite steady. With some assistance from Joshua, I got it settled and it looks great!

We'll decorate it tomorrow night.

My poor sweet Daniel is sick

2010-12-15T15:17:00.000-08:00

He's pretty darn sick, alright. He hasn't made it to kindergarten yet this week and I doubt if he'll make it at all. It's a real shame since he'll miss his class Christmas party (but hey, at least Jake can make it since it'll be his day to volunteer!). I'm taking him to the doctor tomorrow so we'll see if there's anything they can do. Daniel says he has the "worst sore throat ever." Poor guy. It is so hard to see him sleeping around like this during the day, so different from his usual self. Any prayers on his behalf would be greatly appreciated!

Still Here

2010-11-30T18:39:00.000-08:00

I've been such a bad blogger lately. The worst I've been since I started this blog over four years ago, in fact. But yes, we are still here. And still smiling, apparently.

Seaside Beach Trip

2010-09-15T13:22:00.001-07:00

We headed to the beach a couple of weeks ago before school started and had a truly wonderful day. We went to Seaside, a small town on the Oregon coast that is all set up for tourists. Fortunately we went on an "off" day in the middle of the week that had a rainy forecast. Indeed it was raining when we left home, but by the time we got to Seaside just under an hour later we were enjoying gorgeous blue sky, sunshine and mild temperatures. It seems like that never happens -- woohoo! You know the reason it did happen is because Jake had thoroughly prepared the day before looking up all kinds of activities we could do indoors due to the gloomy forecast. What we ended up with was a delightful blend of the outdoors and what Seaside had to offer indoors, which is lots! We all agreed that it ended up being pretty much a perfect day.

After playing at the beach we headed for the Aquarium. It was small but really good. They had a place where you could feed seals (the seals would clap for you to throw them fish :) and an octopus in a really cool enclosure that I didn't get pictures of.

But here are a few things I did get pictures of:

A 9 ft. squid!

A nice lady offered to take a picture of all of us but the battery ran out right then. Arrgh! I didn't make her wait around for me to switch the battery, so here's the family sans me:

They had a tilt-a-whirl that Jake really wanted to try and Daniel was brave enough to go with him. They loved it! Daniel was smiling and laughing the whole time. If I'd been on it I would have been vomiting the whole time:

Joshua opted to play miniature golf instead of taking a ride on the tilt-a-whirl. A wise choice, if you ask me. He really enjoyed the golf and had nice form!

There was a nice indoor mall we checked out. It had a place where you can get those olde tyme pictures taken that we definitely want to come back and do sometime. Daniel and Lucas settled for a ride on the carousel in the meantime:

I love this shot!

Joshua, Daniel, Lucas and ?

2010-09-02T15:52:00.000-07:00

It will be so exciting to swap that question mark with the name of our fourth baby in March! I've already announced it on facebook but decided that this baby definitely deserves better than that -- as in a post on his or her very own family blog telling everyone how excited we are for his/her arrival. And we are pretty excited! Especially now that I am finally starting to feel better -- huzzah!

So stay tuned! We'll find out this baby's gender sometime next month...and as I'm sure you can imagine, the stakes are definitely raised when you have three in a row of the same gender ;)

8-25-2010

2010-08-24T19:33:00.000-07:00

Mock -- yeah
ing -- yeah
JAY! -- yeah
yeah -- YEAH!

We're #'s 1 and 4, respectively, on our library's wait list. A list Jake happened upon months ago. A list that grew to 547 long. It ships tomorrow.

This'll be fun!

2010 = 10 Years!

2010-07-25T15:43:00.000-07:00

It's the year 2010 and we all know what that means, right? Just in case you've forgotten, it means Jake and I have been married for 10 years! Getting married in the year 2000 was pretty smart of us that way ;). Our actual anniversary was back in May, the 12th of May to be exact, but life being as it is I am just now getting around to posting about it.

Jake's parents came to stay with our boys so Jake and I could enjoy a getaway up in Seattle. Jake planned the whole thing and he did a fantastic job. We took the train and it is such a beautiful ride between Portland and Seattle.

Here's a view from our hotel room. We had a lovely view of the water and got to watch the ferries coming and going:

We of course did the space needle and here we are at the top:

We had the most amazing food on this trip. Jake had scouted out the restaurants beforehand and they all turned out to be exceptional. Here's Assaggio, one of our favorites:

And here's another one I would highly recommend if you're in this part of Seattle, Brasserie Margeaux. I had my absolute favorite here -- roast duck! Sorry the picture's all washed out -- it was the best I could get:

Also, you should really go to Top Pot Doughnuts. Their donuts are really good and it felt quintessentially Seattle. Plus, they offer glazed chocolate old fashioned, Jake's Holy Grail of all donuts:

We did lots of touristy things. I highly recommend going to Pike Place Market if you have the chance. This is the place where you can order fresh fish and they'll throw it to you. We didn't see it happen, but we saw humongous salmon, crabs, etc. and I could only imagine. I don't think I'd want to be around for it. Anyway, we had some very tasty food there and also bought some fun stuff. Sorry no pictures of it.

We also headed to the Experience Music Project/Science Fiction Museum (they're housed in the same building). We actually didn't like going there very much. I think Jake hit the nail on the head when he said it felt like we were caught in a tourist trap. But I felt compelled to take a picture of these furry boots that belonged to a lady they tried to convince us had been influential during the early Seattle music scene:

And here are just a few pictures from the Sci Fi museum. Here's Jake with some paraphernalia from Bladerunner, which came from what is probably Jake's favorite book and author of all time...

...Phillip K. Dick, who is featured prominently in the Science Fiction Hall of Fame:

And here's a picture that's mostly for our boys, to prove to them that we saw "the real" Artoo.

Ahhh...it was a wonderful trip. We had such a great time and now we have the memories to bask in. Thank you so much Nick and Jayne for staying with Joshua, Daniel & Lucas so that we could go. We appreciate it SO much!

Yay for Lucas!

2010-07-11T18:33:00.000-07:00

Lucas is now 18 months old and today was his first day attending nursery at church. I know this is our third time around and all, but it's still pretty exciting! It just feels like such a milestone to me, knowing all that has gone into helping Lucas reach this point in his young little life.

His teachers told us he did great and that he actually helped out quite a bit by playing independently and being happy the whole time. Jake and I both peeked in on him a few times an he really did seem to be having a lot of fun. Speaking of which, Jake almost caused an "incident" when he was checking on Lucas at one point. He had been watching Lucas through the window when someone passed him in the hall and said hi. Jake said hi back and when he turned back to look through the window, Lucas was looking directly at him. Jake quickly turned it into a game by ducking down and then peeking in again, making Lucas think it was an impromptu game of peek-a-boo. Thank heavens Lucas went along with it and didn't cause any fuss when Jake left!

It's funny because I remember when Joshua first started nursery and he just seemed so grown up to me. Now having my older two for comparison I can see that children who are just starting nursery really are still babies. But babies who technically are toddlers and who are ready to learn and grow in their own little class, designed especially for their needs and stage in development. I'm so thankful for great nursery workers who are willing to work with these little ones, to play with them and teach them the gospel. What a blessing for our family!

'Tis the Season...

2010-07-10T21:28:00.000-07:00

...for another July birthday in the Sorensen household! We had a really nice time celebrating Jake on Thursday the 8th!

Here he is opening some of his gifts (with a little helper):

Joshua and Daniel decided they wanted to fool around in some of the shirts we'd gotten for daddy:

And the best part was getting a babysitter and going out to eat at Pastini. I'm pretty sure I can say by now it's our favorite place (Jake?). Seriously, if you live in our area you must go eat here. Great atmosphere and Italian food you will crave fortnightly. We had our favorite server Ted take this pic:

While out on the town we of course tested out the new car stereo Jake got for his birthday and inaugurated it with none other than Green Day (American Idiot), Def Leppard (Two Steps Behind (electric version!)/Miss You in a Heartbeat) and Ratt (One Step Away). Ah, it totally took me back to our college days...cruising around in Victor (Jake's Buick Le Sabre), enjoying the a/c he provided during the brutal Utah summers (my car Simon didn't have a/c), and listening to this "great music" Jake had found. Admittedly I had "discovered" Def Leppard like, 10 years prior to that time, but Jake somehow scared up these great albums I had never heard. Good times, good times.

Happy Birthday Jake! You are the best husband ever and I love you and the fun we get to have together!

4th of July Birthday Boy!

2010-07-07T13:23:00.000-07:00

I'm so glad Daniel turned 5 on Sunday because it has taken a special occasion such as this to help get me blogging again! It is so fun to have a 4th of July birthday in our family because it always makes it feel that much more festive and there are always fun things going on.

On Saturday our neighborhood held its second annual 4th of July Parade. It was a lot of fun to participate even though barely anyone from the neighborhood came out to watch as we paraded around. And the few who did came under acute attack from some over-zealous kids who wanted to throw candy out to the "crowd." That'll teach 'em to support our neighborhood kids :). Anyway, even without many onlookers, the parade itself had a great turnout and it was a lot of fun to get together with neighbors and friends. Our family even ended up winning a prize (totally unexpected)! It was for "Best Team Effort" on a float. Here is our "float"

That evening we took the kids to Out of This World Pizza to do the non-Sunday portion of our celebration. Sorry no pictures. I brought the camera, but it seems like we've been often enough that it would feel unnatural to take pictures. I think Lucas being in a terrible toddler mood may have had something to do with it as well. Sorry to make excuses, but either way I didn't get any pictures. Joshua and Daniel had a great time though and we were so glad.

On the actual day of, we went to church where Daniel got to do some birthday stuff in Primary. When we got home we forced the boys to have lunch first and I put Lucas down for his nap and then we got down to some serious present opening. Daniel was so excited about everything he got and I'm so glad that little kids are open books in a lot of ways and that we know what we can get that will make them happy.

Daniel designed these birthday cupcakes completely himself. I actually made them, but he chose the flavors, the colors and even the pattern of sprinkles! I think they turned out really fun.

We ended the day with my doing a little extra reading to them at bedtime. Daniel chose a Berenstein Bears book and then I read them a little extra in Harry Potter #4. We just started the chapter with the Yule Ball and my guess was confirmed that Viktor Krum was Hermione's date. I knew it! My guess was either him or Dobby. The kids seemed to intuitively know somehow that it wouldn't be Dobby, but I wouldn't have put it past Hermione. The boys were interested in the idea of a "ball" and I told them that someday they would want to take a girl and go with their friends to a ball. Joshua responded with a squirrely , "No! I won't want to do that!" Well, we'll see if he changes his mind. Anyway, our reading stoked the flames even hotter for their getting to play Daniel's new Lego Harry Potter Wii game the next day -- a smash-hit of a present (like I said, an open book...)!

I am so thankful Daniel joined our family 5 years ago. It feels like it's been longer, almost like he's always been with us. He is such a neat, special person and we are so blessed to have him. I'm very glad we could show him how much we love him and that he is such an important part of our family all on his special day.

P.S. Jake and I "caught" Lucas playing with one of Daniel's presents, the Titanium Command Rig. One would typically think that toddlers and Legos don't mix very well, but he was actually playing with it instead of just ripping it apart. I think we're seeing progress here, folks! (Believe me, this is a huge step in our family!)

DC Trip: Mount Vernon

2010-05-18T15:34:00.001-07:00

On our last day of sight-seeing we decided to head to Mount Vernon. It was a decision between Mount Vernon and Harper's Ferry. Mount Vernon won out due to its greater historic and educational value, but I think I will always be a little sad that we missed out on the beautiful hike at Harper's Ferry to the confluence of the two rivers that caused Thomas Jefferson to remark, "The passage of the Patomac through the Blue Ridge is perhaps one of the most stupendous scenes in Nature" (Thomas Jefferson, 1783). Someday, perhaps?

Anyway, here are Joshua and I. As you can see the weather finally warmed up significantly on our last couple of days:

I love this shot:

In front of George and Martha's remains:

One of Washington's vehicles (I'm not sure why Joshua is so washed out in these pictures; sorry!):

A former slave cabin on the premises:

And some shots of the Potomoc. I'm sure it's even more beautiful when all the leaves are back a little later in the spring:

Smithsonian Natural History Museum

2010-05-18T11:18:00.000-07:00

On our way down Pennsylvania Ave. in between the Capitol and the White House we actually stopped off at the Natural History Museum. It was pretty crowded since it was spring break and all, but we still had a great time. I'm so glad the kids got to be there with their cousins! If you look closely you may be able to see the dinosaur skeleton behind them:

A saber-toothed tiger. Check out those sabers!

Next we paid the Hope diamond a little visit. It was pretty fun to see it in person:

This topaz was unbelievably huge:

I just think sapphires are so pretty. I love that they're blue.

These earrings just may be the very definition of the word "sparkly":

DC Trip: Pennsylvania Ave.

2010-05-18T10:39:00.001-07:00

Oh my poor, neglected blog. Let's see if I can just hammer out these last few posts from our DC trip.

We visited the Library of Congress and had a fine time. We got to see the Gutenberg Bible and explained to the kids what it was all about and why it is special. I'm not sure if they believed us, but we may have gotten through to Joshua.

Here is some of the stunning architecture:

And they have a room especially for children, which was a very nice touch. My favorite part was finding a copy of the book "Freight Train" by Donald Crews with his autograph on the inside cover.

From there, the capitol building is just across the way. We walked around the back and it was absolutely freezing. I don't think I will ever forget the relentless, frigid wind that blasted us as we fought our way around to the front.
Blasted from behind:

Turn around to snap a shot of the Supreme Court Building:

And emerge triumphant around the front:

From there we headed down Pennsylvania Ave. to the White House. We were able to snap a few pictures before police officers on horseback came and shooed everyone away. We waited across the street (since we needed to get back to the train station) and watched as a heavily guarded motorcade left the White House. We don't know who it was, but Jake thought that it may well have been President Obama as he was supposed to be addressing Congress that afternoon. It wasn't fun to be shooed away but it did make the experience feel more authentic, I guess. Afterward we got to see one of the officers take off on his horse across the lawn between the White House and the Washington Monument at a full gallop. It seemed strangely out of place in the middle of a city, but the kids thought it was neat.

What an adventure and I know I've already said it a million times but I'll say it again: the kids were such troopers! It was a ton of walking, it was really cold and windy, parts of it were probably pretty boring for them, but they held up and I'm proud of them all!

DC Trip: Gettysburg

2010-04-30T08:46:00.000-07:00

I'm glad we decided to take an afternoon and drive back up to Gettysburg (we had driven past on our way down through PA). It was historical and interesting and we were able to enjoy it in a laid back sort of way. We stopped the newly built museum/gift shop first, which I think is worth taking a look at if you're ever there.

Is it just me, or do 3 out of the 4 look a little too happy to be standing in front of a display of Civil War era guns? Especially Lucas -- check out that grin:

And here it is -- my favorite picture of the whole trip in its original order. I've decided re-title it (thanks Tracy for the inspiration!)
Daniel and Honest Abe:

We took the driving tour of the battlefield itself which was perfect for us. The kids watched a movie in the car while Jake and I hopped out and took a closer look at things that struck our fancy, like this cannon:

The scenery really was quite pretty. I rather enjoyed rural Pennsylvania

DC Trip: My Birthday!

2010-04-22T12:36:00.000-07:00

My birthday started out with a very cute pink cake. Tracy's kids decided it needed to be pink since I'm a girl :). It made the whole house smell amazing while she was baking it and that along with the balloons and other "Happy Birthday" decor made things feel wonderfully festive. It was really sweet!

After cake we headed out to the Metro station to join the throng attending opening day of the Cherry Blossom Festival. It was really pretty down by the Tidal Basin and I'm so glad we had the chance to be there. Jake took this beautiful shot:

The whole gang:

Then we headed over to see some of the monuments. It was a ton of walking but the kids were such troopers. That's saying a lot since between us we have 7 kids!

Joshua wanted me to take his picture near the basement of the Lincoln Memorial for no reason in particular and I just love this shot because of it! When you're seven you don't need a reason or a famous monument behind you or anything like that.

The Reflecting Pool looked much different in person than it does on TV and in movies, I thought. I didn't know it had a dirt track around it, for example.

Gary and kids at the WWII Memorial. It was pretty neat.

The Kite Festival was happening in the grassy area at the base of the Washington Monument. Luckily it was a windy day and we got to see lots of neat kites. A Jolly Roger kite in particular caught our eye. Sorry I didn't get a picture of it.

After all the sight seeing we headed downtown to join in on the Sheppard family tradition of seeing the Jazz play when they're in town. Gary is a big fan and it's always so much more fun when you're there with an actual fan (and his budding fan-lets). The Jazz ended up winning which was great, but Gary and I both felt kind of sad for the Wizards. No home court advantage or anything -- ouch.

All in all it was an awesome way to spend my birthday! It always helps when your birthday falls on a Saturday, but being on a trip and being with family you have been looking forward to seeing for ages really helps too :).

DC Trip: National Air and Space Museum

2010-04-19T12:38:00.000-07:00

We really enjoyed our visit to the National Air and Space Museum. It was an absolutely freezing cold day that day with an icy wind so it was great to have an indoor option to take advantage of. We went to the Steven F. Udvar Center located just next to Dulles International.

They had a small plane the kids could get in. They actually let them control the wing and tail flaps. Here are Joshua and his cousin Jonathan:

Daniel & Simon:

There was a really cool stealth plane Jake got pretty excited about. It was impressive:

Here we have the "Mobile Quarantine Facility" which was neither stealthy nor impressive. But I thought it was kind of cool in a retro sort of way. Apparently they made Neil Armstrong & Co. stay in this little mobile home for like 3 weeks after they returned to earth in case they had "moon germs." I understand the need to be cautious, but confining them to such cramped quarters was downright mean!

Here are Tracy and I next to a toy that our Dad had had as a child. Not the actual toy, but one just like it. It is the lighthouse tower with the counterbalancing airplanes on the bottom left:

Joshua was absolutely miserable by the end of our trip up here in the observation tower. Apparently he had hated the whole thing. Granted, my legs were killing me by this point, but c'mon. Tracy truly put us all to shame with her energy and native cheeriness considering she is the one who was in her 7th month of pregnancy at this point.

DC Trip: Hershey's Chocolate World

2010-04-19T12:37:00.000-07:00

On our way back down through Pennsylvania we stopped by Hershey's Chocolate World to break up the trip a little (on my sister's recommendation -- thanks Tracy!). It was a fun diversion and now we can say we've been! Unfortunately the theme park portion wasn't open for the season yet, but we still had a good time at the indoor mall.

The boys got to be factory workers and help package Hershey's Kisses.

Then we got to go on a fun little ride where the Hershey's cows sang to us about how great Hershey's milk chocolate is. The kids loved it...

...including Mr. Cheeks, here:

DC Trip: State College, PA

2010-04-19T12:35:00.000-07:00

A real highlight for us on this trip was visiting my brother Ben's family and getting to meet our niece/cousin Elizabeth. She is such a cutie and our boys really enjoyed getting to play with her. We had a really good time taking the kids to the park with Cami and getting to talk with her. I'm so glad the kids had some time to get to know each other, if even just a lil' bit :)

I'm also so glad we were able to snag my brother long enough to come out to dinner with us. He is a very busy grad student right now in an intense program, so the odds weren't in our favor. But we beat the odds and had a great time learning more about his research and getting to catch up after what has been far too long a time.

Overlapping PhD programs with young families are just not conducive to cross country travel, but now that Jake is out of grad school and Ben will be finishing up his program in the next year or so it really should not be so long before we'll get to see each other again.

DC Trip: Rural Pennsylvania Park

2010-04-19T12:34:00.000-07:00

On our way up through Pennsylvania (which took forever because the GPS we were renting had us going on unpaved roads) we stopped off at a park to stretch our legs. I thought the countryside was rather pretty and this park was so quaint. It reminded Jake and I of what parks were like when we were kids (although honestly I think this park is from a bit before our time, even). Our kids have it so good -- parks these days are awesome! But they enjoyed this one too and it was fun for Jake and I to reminisce. I just wanted for us to be able to remember this park, and it's a pretty good sampling of this portion of our trip.

We're Back!

2010-04-07T08:33:00.000-07:00

I realize some of you may not have even realized we were gone since I never mentioned it on here -- sorry! But yes, we are back from our big trip to Washington DC! The main reason for this trip was to visit my sister Tracy and her family who are living out there now and also to see my brother Ben and his family who are not too far from there at Penn State. We of course wanted to see lots of historical sites while there and managed to squeeze quite a few in. We got to see quite a bit of Pennsylvania, northern Virginia and even rural Maryland while visiting some good friends of ours from UC San Diego who finished up grad school and moved out there about the same time we moved to Portland (has it been a year and a half already?!).

Anyway, here is the quick list of the things we got to see and do (that I can remember at the moment anyway): Gettysburg, Mount Vernon, Lincoln Memorial, Washington Monument, Vietnam, Korean and WWII War Memorials, Smithsonian Natural History Museum, National Air and Space Museum, Library of Congress, The Capitol Building and White House...oh I know there is stuff I am forgetting. We did so much that there's no way I'll be able to blog about it all. Rest assured I will be posting what I can over the next little while because I definitely want a record for our family to be able to look back on and remember our very special trip. It was awesome to get to spend that time with family whom we dearly wish we could see so much more often.

Here is a little something to tide you over since, let's be honest, it will be a while before I get around to posting it all. This picture just might be my favorite from the whole trip:

Gettysburg, Daniel-style

We Have a Seven Year Old!

2010-03-22T16:15:00.000-07:00

Joshua turned seven on the 18th (Thursday) and we had the most amazing day! Seriously, it couldn't have been better. Joshua got out of school at 11:20am (which hardly ever happens) and we took advantage of it and spent the day together as a family. Since it was such a gorgeous day I took Daniel and Lucas to the neighborhood park in the morning. I timed it so that we could meet the school bus and get Joshua on our walk home. After I fed the kids lunch and got Lucas down for his nap I called Jake to come home so Joshua could open his presents.

After Joshua and Daniel worked on building his new Lego sets for a while and Lucas woke up from his nap we headed out to a place that has completely inflatable play structures and let loose for a while. This was the "Junior" location and even a little one as young as Lucas had plenty to do. It was perfect for the age range of our kids.

This was cruelty to toddlers; Lucas wanted these balls in the worst way. Unfortunately they were firmly attached to each corner of the play structure (it kind of reminds me of the Greek myth surrounding Tantalus):

After all the bouncing, jumping, sliding and running around we headed over to Red Robin for dinner.

Joshua had heard from some friends that if you go on your birthday you get ice cream with a cherry on top and he wanted to find out for himself if it was true. Looks as if!

We had a great time there and I knew it was the perfect place for us when one of the songs that played was "Wake Me Up When September Ends" by Greenday and I heard the line, "...seven years has gone so fast..." Kind of surreal.

After dinner we headed over to the Lego store where Joshua wanted to spend his birthday money. It was really sweet because Daniel had decided he wanted to buy Joshua a lego for his birthday with the money he had been saving up. They ended up working together to choose two Star Wars sets that complemented each other pretty well, ones that they both really wanted to play with. Seeing such teamwork really warms this momma's heart!

Once we got home I put Lucas to bed and we had an ice cream cake and sang "Happy Birthday" to the birthday boy.

We let Joshua and Daniel stay up late since there was no school the next day (a Friday start to spring break -- yeah!) and work on Legos some more. Joshua ended up completing his first set that night. He worked on the rest of his sets most of the next day and finished all the rest of them, I believe 4 sets in all. I will always be amazed with how quickly he can assemble what I consider to be some pretty complex sets, but I do wish that the process could last a bit longer. Well, maybe it's not such a bad thing that Lucas is working on disassembling them as I type because it will give Joshua an opportunity to rebuild them, right? Somehow I get the feeling Joshua may not see it that way...

Anyway, I am so thankful that we have had Joshua in our family for seven years now! I think about all that Jake and I have learned as parents in that time, the experience we've gained and how much we've all grown. Thank you Joshua for agreeing to be our first child! You are so great and thankfully you are pretty resilient to the parenting mistakes we sometimes make with you being our first. What a special boy you are and we are so proud of the person you are becoming. What a perfect day we all shared together celebrating you!

Lucas In Translation

2010-02-26T07:54:00.000-08:00

Here is a quick reference guide should you find yourself in conversation with Lucas any time in the near future:

Shoshi = Joshua
Da-o = Daniel
hy-eeee = hi
doh = door
uh-oh = uh-oh
da = dog
da = cat
nana = banana
cheechee = teacher (as in the teacher from Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? I'm pretty sure he has a crush on her)
DAH!!! = Roomba
Sissus = Jesus

When asking a question with a yes/no answer:
A vigorous shaking of the head, usually accompanied by some baby mumbling = no
A huge grin and clapping of the hands = yes

A clasping together of the hands, peeking to make sure you're looking, and a most charming smile upon visual confirmation that you are = it's time to say a prayer

First Violin Recital

2010-02-15T18:00:00.000-08:00

Last week-end was Joshua's first violin recital. This was his first time playing a solo and he did great! When his teacher asked at his lesson on Wednesday if he had been nervous he shook his head and cheerfully replied, "No! I wasn't nervous at all!" Indeed, he really enjoyed performing and it was a great experience for him. He loved being involved in the group pieces as well. I love that his teacher has all the students, beginners through advanced, do a few pieces together to give everyone a chance to participate. Of course the advanced students did a few ensemble pieces of their own, including an impressive and fun tango which one of the parents put on YouTube and you can watch here.

Unfortunately I really did not think things through in my choice of recording equipment. I recently got an ipod nano and was pretty hot to trot to try out the video recording feature. For Joshua's solo piece it really did not come out very well. You can barely hear the accompaniment and there's no zoom or editing, so I'm not going to post it. Bad mom for experimenting at my kid's very first recital! Next time around I really just need to bring the camcorder and the camera -- duly noted!

But here is one of the group pieces Joshua was able to participate in, "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" with all the parts. Joshua is front and center, in a dark blue shirt and khaki pants (sorry again about the no zoom or editing) Enjoy!

Lesson learned:

2010-02-05T13:33:00.000-08:00

Never initiate a game of peek-a-boo with 12-month-old while feeding him chocolate pudding; he may just decide to peek-a-boo back for the first time, resulting in something like this:

P.S. this picture does not even do it justice -- the mess was way worse in real life!

This picture makes me happy!

2010-02-05T13:31:00.000-08:00

Just came across this picture on the camera that Jake must have taken the other day...LOVE their smiles and the fun they're having!

Lucas Turns One!

2010-01-19T09:25:00.000-08:00

I would say something like "where did the time go?" but really, it seemed like a long year to me :). Even still, it's always amazing when your baby turns one. We were watching some footage we'd taken when he was just a few weeks old and oh my goodness how he's grown! We've really gotten to know him over the course of the year and he is just a really neat person. He is so cheerful and bright, so adventurous and just plain fun! We all adore him and he brings so much joy to our family.

His birthday (Sunday the 10th) was actually a really crazy day for Jake and I. Jake had his multiple meetings before church and then I had multiple meetings after church (and during church I taught sharing time). By the time I got home, Lucas (and Jake) had squeezed a nap in and we still needed to get dinner on the table and a cake in the oven. Somehow we managed to pull it all off and ended up having a really nice post-dinner party for the birthday boy, complete with presents, cake and ice cream.

In case you're wondering why there's a roll of paper towels blocking your view of the presents -- that was one of the presents. His heart's desire would have been a roll of toilet paper, but I wasn't quite willing to go there (too lint-y). Still, he can unroll and tear at liberty 'til it's gone and I won't stop him:

Checking out his new play tunnel (yes, it's IKEA). This is a great gift for a one-year-old but the older boys are loving it too. Granted they like to play "tornado" and such with it, but I suppose that demonstrates how versatile it can be:

Directing Jake to which present he wants to open next. It's a...

...foam battle ax, of course! Too bad Daniel ripped it to shreds within 5 minutes (I am not exaggerating). Ah well, it only cost a buck.

You may also recognize the play kitchen implements from IKEA. They were quite a hit! I mentioned to Jake how this was definitely our most successful "first birthday" in terms of the birthday boy really playing with and enjoying his gifts. Jake pointed out it's because we're pretty experienced by now and know what a one-year-old will actually play with.

This isn't the best picture, but I was quite happy with how it turned out considering it's the quickest cake I've ever whipped together:

We love you so much Lucas! Thank you for being such a wonderful part of our family!

A Merry Christmas Indeed

2009-12-27T17:40:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful Christmas this year and were blessed to have my parents with us. They were here for a nice long visit and we enjoyed so many activities together. They got to come with us to both Joshua's and Daniel's school Christmas performances/parties and we spent a lot of time just doing simple things like feeding the ducks at the pond behind our library, going to Family Buffet Night at our local Round Table (yum!) etc. Also, it turned out to be great timing that the boys and I finished reading the first Harry Potter book during their visit because we were then able to watch the movie with my Mom, who is a fan (we've since started on the Chamber of Secrets, by the way!).

Anyway, here are lots of pictures!

Daniel's preschool Christmas performance (he's on the left):

The kids sorting out the presents Christmas morning (even baby helped!):

Dad enjoying a classic gift (for those who know Dad!):

Sigh. What are we getting ourselves into? Wait, I don't mean that. I've talked to lots of moms and this can be a fun thing for our family without getting out of hand... right? We did make them wait over a year to get one and I'm hoping the delayed gratification will have some residual benefits:

Unfortunately our original Roomba didn't survive our move from San Diego so well. We had always intended to upgrade someday...and Jake decided to surprise me for Christmas and make someday now! Oh how I missed you Roomba and we welcome you into our home with open arms:

Remember TinTin? Joshua loves them and as you can see is very happy to have a new one to add to his collection:

Daniel being silly with our Christmas stockings. Lucas got his from my Mom this year and I was so excited! Don't worry, I made Daniel take them off right after I took the picture. You don't think I was encouraging him by taking a picture of his antics, do you ;)

Lucas loved his squishy squeaky blocks!

And his classic Fischer Price telephone (who didn't have one of these growing up?) Sorry the picture's fuzzy:

Again we were so glad to share the holiday with my parents. They were incredibly helpful while here and I am so thankful for the way they were able to spend time with the kids and get to know them better.

My little man in his sweater vest

2009-12-14T12:52:00.000-08:00

I am so smitten

It just doesn't get much better than your little man smiling up at you in his sweater vest

Once again, Jen worked her magic and has given us these portraits we will always treasure. Plus, we had a lot of fun at the photo shoot itself. Lucas was cheerful and cooperative, Joshua and Daniel were both at school...so we moms actually got to talk!

I had the toughest time choosing which ones to post! Even tougher will be choosing which ones to frame. I think I'll definitely do a collage.

We have a walker!

2009-12-09T22:44:00.000-08:00

Lucas took his first steps a couple of weeks ago but then didn't go much of anywhere with it. In the last few days though -- and especially today -- he has become much more interested in working on his new skill and now he is totally walking! It's very exciting and we're so proud of him! It's also a little bit sad, since crawling is such a cute stage and now it's ending, but it really is a good thing. This makes for our second baby who started walking at 10 months (the first being Daniel). Just in time too, since he turns 11 months tomorrow!

Sorry to not have a cute picture of him walking to accompany this post. In the spare minute I had this evening to try and take a picture of it things just really did not work out. It was already past his bedtime and he was walking alright, but he just kept coming after the camera and fell apart when I wouldn't let him have it. So I decided to not post a picture of him lunging at the camera with an angry expression on his face. Never fear, I had his baby portraits done last week and should be getting the cd back from that pretty soon. Rest assured there will be plenty of shots from that to post before too long. You know you can't wait to see him in his cute and festive sweater vest!

And Thus it Begins...

2009-12-03T15:00:00.000-08:00

Tuesday night was Joshua's very first violin performance. Needless to say it was quite an exciting thing for our family! His violin school played a Christmas set at a Cultural Arts Center downtown for their "First Tuesday Night Art Walk." That meant that people could mill around, enjoy art displays and watch the performances. It was a very classy event.

Joshua loved it. He was in high spirits the whole time and loved performing with his group.

Just to explain a little, Joshua's school "The Suzuki Academy of Strings" is comprised of his violin teacher and her 20 students. Each student has weekly private lessons and also a weekly group lesson with their same-skill level peers. Joshua just started when school began in the fall, so he is one of the newest additions to the studio.

Joshua's teacher, Miss Kathy, is great and she works very hard at getting these kids out in the community performing (they have another Christmas performance at a "Zoo Lights" event this Saturday night, in fact). One of the things that drew us to her school is the way she has things set up to create a wonderful little community of kids and parents that we are now a part of.

It has been an amazing thing for our family in ways that I can't entirely describe, but I will say it has brought a richness and added depth to our lives. It has also brought a very big commitment, especially for me as the momma, but one that I most definitely welcome. I love it. And (whew) Joshua loves it too.

Baby's First Haircut

2009-11-15T09:40:00.000-08:00

We should have done this at least a couple of months ago, but better late than never, right? Lucas is our baby who has needed his hair cut at the earliest age, but the others weren't too far behind.

He did a great job and didn't struggle or cry one bit. The hairdresser speculated that it's probably because he's a little too young to really know what's going on and given a couple of months he may well be more resistant. That would be consistent with our experiences with Joshua and Daniel, who were both a few months older for their first haircuts and boy do I remember that Joshua hated it!

So although he cooperated so well, this was as much of a smile as I could get out of him. Maybe it's because he knew the background would be too dark in this picture for you to see much of his cute haircut.

Halloween 2009

2009-11-03T20:19:00.001-08:00

We had a fun Halloween this year with our Clone Troopers and baby tiger. Both boys had school parties on Friday and then we went to the Trunk or Treat and Chili Cook Off that evening at our church.

Halloween itself was fairly low-key until actual trick or treating. Jake took the boys out while Lucas and I stayed home to pass out candy. Jake says the boys did a very good job of saying "trick or treat" at each door and especially of remembering to say thank you afterward. They ran into Joshua's best friend from school, his family and some other friends and they all ended up going around together. The whole evening had a really nice neighborhood feel to it.

Lucas wore the baby tiger costume that all three of our boys have now worn for their first Halloween. So fun!

This picture makes me just want to scoop him up and squeeze him!

Daniel's preschool party -- he's front and center

And here are just a couple of shots I got of Daniel on his preschool class field trip to the pumpkin patch last week

Gentlemen in Training

2009-10-30T11:59:00.000-07:00

I get a fair amount of comments along the lines of, "You've got three boys? That must be crazy!" Or, "Wow, three boys," accompanied by a head shake of disbelief, "My one boy is wild enough for me. I don't know how you do it!" Etc, etc. I was surprised when I first started getting these types of comments because they really did not reflect my own personal experience with my children and I truly felt that any "sympathy" was misplaced.

I usually tried to explain, "My boys are actually really good boys...I wouldn't describe them as wild and crazy...Sure they've got plenty of energy, but it's typically very well channeled...Sure things get crazy sometimes but overall they're pretty well behaved...etc, etc." Nobody ever really seemed to believe me though, and it started to get kind of frustrating to keep running up against this stereotype.

So, I am pleased to report that I have finally come up with a response that seems to convey what I am trying to get across just fine. It is to tell those who would be sympathetic to my "plight" that MY boys are three Gentlemen in Training. And guess what? It works great! So far, people seem to really like this and have responded well. I am then able to explain the other stuff, like that they're not really wild and crazy, etc. and they seem to get it. Amazing! It's a good feeling for me and my boys to finally be understood.

Now if I can only figure out how to get a certain Gentleman to dry his hands without leaving the hand towel on the floor, that would be great. But we're working on it, and he almost always opens doors for me which is so very Gentlemanly and makes me so very proud.

First day of 1st Grade

2009-10-10T15:55:00.000-07:00

No, Joshua is not starting school in October, it's just that I am just now getting around to updating a little bit (he actually started the day after Labor Day). I assure you it is no coincidence that I have not been blogging so much since school started.
P.S. this shot reminds me that I really like our front porch

Family Hike

2009-10-10T15:30:00.000-07:00

We went for a hike at a place called Forest Park that's actually inside the city of Portland. It has over 80 miles of trails and we're excited to go back sometime and explore a little more of the other 78 or so. It has been so nice getting to know our area better.

Family Photo Shoot

2009-10-10T15:05:00.000-07:00

At the end of August we had family pictures taken by our friend and neighbor Jen, who has her own cute photography business. We think she did a great job and wanted to share some of them with you!

I just thought this one was cute. Lucas really didn't like being set down on the grass. His expression reminds me of the tragedy half of a comedy/tragedy mask.

I love this one

Jake says, "This picture tells you all you need to know about Daniel."

Tillamook

2009-09-04T15:18:00.000-07:00

Jake took the day off of work on Wednesday too and we headed to the coast once again, this time to Tillamook (just a ways south of where we had been).There's a large dairy there where you can sample their cheese and ice cream. It was lots of fun (and tasty, too!)

Here's a shot of a part of the cheese factory. It was pretty neat and kept us all interested for quite a while. Careful not to distract the workers or the cheese might fall off the conveyor belt... :)

Of course a trip to Tillamook would not be complete without stopping by the Octopus Tree! According to the sign this tree has no central trunk -- it's really weird. No one is sure if nature caused the tree to grow this way or if the Native Americans in the area encouraged it somehow. It is 200-300 years old, so no one who might know is around to ask.

A short hike down from the O.T. is the Cape Meares Lighthouse. It was neat to go inside and the view was stunning. Joshua expressed disappointment that the lighthouse wasn't taller but the sign assured us that the lens it houses is the most powerful there is, so apparently size doesn't have to matter.

We have fallen in love with the Oregon coast!

Beach Day

2009-09-03T10:07:00.000-07:00

Jake took the day off on Monday and we finally made it out to the beach! It was gorgeous. The coast here is quite different from the northern California beaches we grew up with and especially from the San Diego beaches we've most recently come from, but it is oh so beautiful in it's own way. Definitely more dramatic, more breathtaking. Dense, green forest surrounds the beach on cliffs, working its way down to meet the shore; large rock formations jut out of the water, some of them formed into arches -- very Pacific Northwest. I am so thankful that we get to live near the coast once again. It takes us just over an hour to get there now as opposed to the 5 minutes it took in San Diego, but really I am not complaining. It makes for the perfect day trip. And the drive itself is beautiful too so it's all worth it.

Joshua and Daniel were beyond excited to be at the beach again. It had been a whole year, poor guys.

These are pictures of one happy baby. He spent the whole time crawling around in the sand, exploring. It was so neat to see his baby excitement as he experienced something so new.

Loved this movie

2009-08-22T08:18:00.000-07:00

Jake took me to see this last night and it was really really good. I liked it a lot. I am not typically one for chick flicks, but this was just a really neat story that was very well adapted for the screen and the acting was great. Jake read the book last fall on the recommendation of a co-worker who has similar taste in books. He didn't like it that much, so I didn't give it much thought at the time. But then a few weeks ago I saw a trailer that piqued my interest and at the end I was really surprised to see the same title of the book Jake had read, since Jake told me the author (Audrey Niffenegger) had sworn her book would never be made into a movie. So much for that -- I'm really glad she went back on her word and I think I'll probably read the book now! Anyway, we had a great time and it was awesome to see this with the one I love. Oh yes, and I should mention that it will probably make you cry. Hard. Like pretty much everyone in the theater (there were seriously several people openly sobbing). The trailer might make you cry too (cheesy "love" music aside). So after all that crying here's a review that might lighten things up a bit. It is by Eric D. Snider, after all :).

Took the kids bowling...

2009-08-19T14:25:00.001-07:00

...and had a great time!

Summer 2009

2009-08-05T13:50:00.000-07:00

We've been having a really good summer but I realized that you might not know since I haven't been blogging about it so much! We've just been busy enjoying ourselves and I haven't brought the camera along on most of our outings to document it. I can't say I really regret it, since sometimes it's just nice to enjoy the moment without stopping to take a picture (at least that's what I'm telling myself!).

Anyway, nothing big going on, but honestly we've just been having a nice time. Maybe some of this is due to the fact that I really wasn't sure what this summer would be like with a new little baby in our family. I wasn't sure how much we would get to do, so I am happy to discover that we have been able to do a lot. We do have to work around Lucas' naps, etc. but really I am quite pleased with how much we've been out and about. It really didn't feel like that much until I looked back and realized, wow, we really have been able to do lots of fun things. So, highlights of our summer so far in a nutshell:

Vacation Bible School The Lutheran church Daniel's preschool is at puts this on for a week each summer. We would have felt like infiltrators except a good number of the kids attending were LDS right along with us :). It was super fun and the boys had an awesome time!

Gymnastics Camp A family in our neighborhood/ward have a mini gym set up in their 3 car garage. The boys had a great time but they sure were sore that week!

Get togethers with friends - old and new There are lots of neat people here in Oregon! Also, several families we knew from San Diego moved up here just after we did, including our neighbors & good friends from student housing! It has been wonderful to get to spend time with them! (And yes, this segment does deserve all exclamation points!!)

Exploring area parks including mini-hikes and a really great park with water play. Probably my favorite afternoon of this summer so far was spent at that park with our friends.

Swim lessons we found a neighborhood pool close by that offers really nice lessons. We're pretty much doing them every week day for the whole month of August. The boys are making lots of progress and having a great time!

Library Summer Reading program Both Joshua and Daniel earned lots of prizes for filling up their reading charts. It was a great program and lots of fun. Along with the summer reading program our county library system puts on lots of fun summer activities. We got to see a fun puppet show and Daniel won a drawing, among other things.

Berry picking This has yet to happen because we're having a really hard time coordinating with our neighbor, but I am putting it up here because I am hoping that will help make it happen. Berry picking is amazing here in Oregon as there are more farms and types of berries than one could possibly visit in just one summer.

Tending our garden We have a thriving garden! This is a surprise to me since we weren't planning on starting one til next year but things just worked out and we've been enjoying it as a family quite a bit. And tonight I was able to make my signature Creamy Tomato Basil Soup using our very own basil for the first time!

Playing in the sprinklers One of the things we were really happy about when we bought our house was that it had a sprinkler system. Our front yard turns out to be an awesome sprinkler-run for warm summer evenings. Add popsicles to the equation and the boys are in absolute bliss.

So that was a big nutshell, I realize. Anyway, here are some pictures I did finally did manage to take of the swim lessons. Enjoy!

Baby Legs!

2009-07-31T09:06:00.000-07:00

I love, love, love Lucas' baby legs! They are so skinny yet somehow manage to have chub on them at the same time. The cuteness of this combination makes me smile often throughout the day. I'm so glad it's summer so they don't have to be covered with pants and we get to see them lots!

Okay, here's his head now because I'm pretty sure this is the part of him you want to see the most.

Daniel's Pirate Party!

2009-07-13T12:04:00.000-07:00

We had Daniel's birthday party on Saturday and it was a lot of fun! Daniel chose a pirate theme which Jake and I were excited about because there's a lot you can do with it...like dig up buried treasure in your very own backyard, of course!

Here are the kids on the treasure hunt, finding clues around the backyard (Joshua became the designated Clue Reader since he was the only kid in the group who could read)

Off in search of the next clue

When they found the spot where the chest was buried one of Daniel's little friends asked, "Is this where the pirates buried the treasure?" So innocent and cute, I almost started to feel guilty!

Jake buried the chest decently deep in the ground, so the kids really got to dig. Their efforts were rewarded as they claimed their booty -- candy! I have to say it was nice to have a change from the standard pinata
Here's the pirate cake that we had a fun time decorating ourselves:

All in all we feel very successful for having pulled it off. And very brave. For those of you who don't know, it is incredibly tricky to throw a birthday party so close to the 4th of July holiday. Everyone is either on vacation or at family reunions or whatever. But we really wanted to do it for Daniel and are so glad that enough of his friends were still in town and that it was such a success!

07-08-09

2009-07-08T19:20:00.000-07:00

Jake's birthday makes a pretty cool date this year, eh? Jake will forever lament that he missed being born on 7-7-77 by one day, but I think this year the blow is softened if even just a teensy bit. And of course we had to go out on a cool date to celebrate!

Happy Birthday Jake! I love you so much and had a great time tonight! And I never would have guessed it would be the night that together, we would discover the world's largest onion rings!

Daniel turns 4!

2009-07-06T09:24:00.001-07:00

In some ways I can't believe that Daniel is now 4 years old. In most ways though, it really does seem like a long time ago -- that lonely 4th of July spent in a hospital room. Typically we try to celebrate the holiday and his birthday simultaneously throughout the day, but this year it ended up being all birthday. And that is just fine with me because Daniel deserves his own special day.

It all started out with a mantle full of presents, of course!

This was a big hit -- Lego Agents: Mission 5. Daniel's reaction upon opening it was pretty fun for Jake and I to see - classic little boy excitement. You called that one, Jake!

One of Daniel's presents was a wading pool and we spent much of the afternoon out in the backyard:

We went with our tradition of decorating cupcakes and homemade ice cream (rocky road). Always lots of fun! (just as a side note I'd like to mention that my chocolate cream cheese frosting was AWESOME!)

Happy Birthday, Daniel! We love you and want to make all your birthday wishes come true!

Oh the joy...

2009-06-29T09:19:00.000-07:00

...of our sweet baby boy!

Father's Day

2009-06-21T15:55:00.001-07:00

It is difficult for me to put in words what a wonderful father Jake is to our children without sounding overly effuse and thereby watering down my sentiments. I will try to say just a few simple things; this morning I told Joshua and Daniel (Lucas was napping, but it includes him too!) that they are so lucky to have Jake as their dad and I meant it with all my heart. I, too, count myself a very lucky mother to have him as my partner in parenting. It blesses our family so much to have a father who is so involved with, attentive to and interested in our children. We love you Jake -- you're the best!

Here's the man himself and the lucky boys!

He had just opened the Transformer's Father's Day card the boys thought would be so cool for him. The front sports a picture of Optimus Prime and when you open it up you hear his voice say, "There is greatness in you. You are a strong leader and a great hero. The universe needs more fathers like you. Happy Father's Day!" I'm pretty sure they got the actual voice talent of Prime, too -- what a treat!

I would feel remiss if I did not send out a 'Happy Father's Day!' to Ron and Nick, too. Thank you for all the hard work you put in as our fathers and thank you for the Grandpas you are to our kids! They love you lots and wish they could be with you more often. I do, too!

Kinder Graduation

2009-06-16T13:58:00.000-07:00

Today was Joshua's Kindergarten Graduation and it was a special time for our family and for all the kinders. I have to admit I am having a bit of a hard time though, as this is a milestone that really highlights for me how fast Joshua is growing up. I'd better watch out because if I feel this way when my oldest graduates from kindergarten I can only imagine what it will be like when it's my youngest's turn, good grief! I was telling my Mom about it and she said "It's hard to see your little kids grow up." She would know, as she went through it six times and I appreciated her understanding.

Hard time aside, it actually feels pretty good to have this under my belt -- a child who has made it through his first year of formal education! I definitely feel like more of a seasoned mom and I like that. Jake is really the one who kept it all going once Lucas was born, getting Joshua off to the school bus each morning and volunteering in the classroom every other week. What a guy! We all appreciate his efforts and enjoyed our classroom connection through him.

The happy grad -- we're so proud!

Joshua with his wonderful teacher, Ms. Hric

I like this family shot -- I think it's our first of all 5 of us!