I am thankful for...

During this month, I have really been thinking about what I am truly thankful for. The list is endless. I am truly very blessed. So, I will just list a few that have really hit me hard this month. 

I am grateful for a healthy family. We are all alive and well and the kids are full of energy and spunk (I do wish Rich and I had as much energy as they do:).

I am grateful for our home. It isn't the biggest or fanciest, but it is ours. We have a lot of great memories here and I am grateful for the opportunity to make many, many more.

I am grateful for Richard's job. 

I am grateful that I am able to be a stay at home mom. I know our children's lives will be better because of it. 

I am grateful for family and friends who help keep me sane. Until you are a stay at home mom (or dad) you can never truly understand how important adult conversation is.

I am grateful for Jesus Christ and the sacrifice he made for me. I am grateful that the Spirit testified to me that He lives.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!!!!

Answered prayers

Kylee had a very spiritual moment yesterday and I don't want to forget it so I wanted to make sure it got recorded somewhere and what better place to record it then our blog!

We were at my mom's house and Starla came downstairs and was upset because she had misplaced a gift card and she thought it had been thrown away on accident. She had searched everywhere. We went up to her room to help her look and couldn't find it. Kylee suggested that we pray. For whatever reason, we didn't  follow through with her suggestion (definitely not a moment I am proud of). We kept searching. Her room, her car, the toy box downstairs. It was nowhere to be found. We just figured it had been thrown away on accident. While Kylee and I were searching the toy box, I whispered in her ear that if she wanted to pray about it she should go into the other room where it was quiet and do so. I told her that I had no doubt that her faith would help us find the gift card. Well, we kept searching and still didn't find it. We gave up. It was gone and we weren't going to find it. Starla walked out to her car to load some stuff in it that she needed for the day and when she looked in the backseat, there was this little gift card stuck between the seats. She starts screaming "I found it" and Kylee walks up behind me and says (with tears in her eyes) "You were right mom. I prayed and my faith did work."

I honestly believe that we never would have found it had it not been for this amazing 10 year old and her faith in our Heavenly Father.

12th anniversary at the Oregon coast

Rich and I never went on a "real" honeymoon and usually for our anniversary we just end up going out for dinner but this year I wanted to do something different. When we want to get away we usually end up in Utah but we have been there so many times and we wanted to try something new. I had never been to the Oregon coast and Rich hasn't been since he was little so we thought "why not!". We found a hotel right on the beach and it was amazing!!!!

The view from our private balcony!!!

 Watching the waves come in.

Yeah for self timers on cameras!

Panoramic view from our balcony

At the Yaquina lighthouse

Best sunset we saw. 

Hi Kids!!!!

Being silly!

Baby seal waiting for his momma to come back.

Hello Mr. Krabs

Lots and lots of seals

Those purple things are sea urchin.

We saw over 50 sea stars.

Last picture before heading home. :(

Consequences

Jarred and a couple of his friends from the neighborhood thought it would be a good idea to have a plum fight at the park (with all the plums that had fallen off the trees). Boys will be boys right??? There is nothing wrong with a plum fight but then they thought it would be fun to throw them at the fence and smear them on the slides. Well, they learned that with choices come consequence. As soon as we found out what happened, we filled a bucket with soapy water and made them scrub it all off. It wasn't fun, but I think they learned their lesson (I hope).

It wasn't all horrible. They did such a good job cleaning that we made a "water slide" for them when they were done.

Independence Day

All dressed up for the 4th of July!!!

Red, white and blue fireworks on their cheeks (it seems that this is becoming a tradition)

 Starla, a couple of the Perrys, and the Yoshikanes joined us for the festivities this year at Brad and Jen's house.

 My man grilling us up some dinner.

 More "tattoos"

 Waitin' for the fireworks

"Ella, I have a surprise for you..."

Once upon a time there was a sweet little boy named Jarred. He loved his baby sister very, very much. As he was wandering around the neighborhood one day, he happened across a yard sale. As he took a peek at all the treasures to be found there, he spotted a gently used fairy bike that was just the right size for his sister.  But alas, he had no money. But wait! What did he see? A sign was upon this little bike and thankfully, Jarred knew how to read. "F R E E" said the sign. What?!?! Without hesitation, Jarred asked the lady who was having this sale if he could have the bike for his baby sister. "Of course" she said. So Jarred walked that bike home (which was not easy since he had his scooter with him also) and walked through the front door and announced, "Ella, I have a surprise for you!!" It was a perfect fit (it just needed a new seat)! And everyone lived happily ever after!!!

Family pics

The last time we got "real" family pictures taken, Jarred was 1. Isn't that sad? Poor Ella had never been in one. We attempted to take some ourselves when Ella was a baby and well, let's just say they didn't turn out like I hoped they would. 

See?

But, I thought this one turned out great. At least everyone is looking at the camera. And, Jarred doesn't look like...well, I'm not really sure how to describe how Jarred looked in the other one! Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the old one, but it will be nice to print this new one and not laugh every time I look at it. Besides, look at how much Ella has grown. Yep, it was definitely time for a new pic.

I love these kids!! 

So pretty!! I have always loved her eyes. Since the day she opened her eyes for the first time, I have been amazed by them. All her emotions come out through her eyes. Just by looking at them you can tell what type of mood she is in. Sometimes it is obvious (like when she rolls them to show that she is annoyed with me) but sometimes you have to look a little deeper. I have seen joy in those eyes, I have seen love in those eyes, I have seen anger in those eyes, and I have seen sadness in those eyes. 

This little dude is my favorite little dude in the whole world. His mind amazes me. He says he wants to be a scientist when he grows up and I have no doubt that he will be. He is always experimenting and creating new things out of nothing. He has the biggest heart and gives the best hugs in the world. I can be in the worst mood and somehow he senses that I need a hug or an "I love you, mom". He can definitely be a handful but the good in him by far outweighs the bad.

This little princess (and when I say princess, I mean princess, just ask her) is an answered prayer, literally. I prayed for her for 2 years. But, of course, the Lord knew when it was time for her to come and he was right. Every once in awhile something will happen and it is like He is saying "See, this is why I made you wait". She has a way of reminding me that this life is supposed to be fun, not boring or miserable. Things that I used to get REALLY upset about don't seem so bad when she says (in her sweet little 3 year old voice) "It ok, we can fix it." or "hmmm...we better queen (clean) that up."  

 We also took a BIG family picture with my family. It has been about 5 years since we had one (1st time since we were kids for a professional one). 6 little ones were born within that 5 years so it was time for a new picture.  

Here's all the girls!

And all the boys! (as you can see, us girls definitely outnumber the boys!)

Ella got her hair cut!!!!!

My baby girl got her first hair cut today. If you have ever heard me talk about her hair, you know what a big deal this was. She has the cutest little curls in her hair and so I have been terrified of cutting it because I didn't want them to disappear. She is 3 1/2 years old and has never had even one hair on her head cut. She has gotten gum in her hair twice and I still refused to cut it. Well, my fear of cutting her hair kinda rubbed off on her. She was terrified of getting it cut. She thought that it would hurt. I told her that it was like cutting her fingernails. She wouldn't believe me. I tried taking just one tiny strand of hair and cutting it so that she could see that it wouldn't hurt and before I got the scissors anywhere near her head, she started screaming like someone had just tried to cut her big toe off. The look of terror on her face made me want to cry. I had never seen her so upset. Well, I asked a bunch of people what I should do to convince her to cut it. Most of the things suggested, I had already tried. So, Rhea suggested that we have a "hair cuttin' party". As soon as Ella heard "party", she was intrigued. As soon as the words "balloons" and "ice cream" were mentioned, she got excited. So, today we went over to Rhea's and Ella and Emma got pampered. Rhea washed both of their hair in the sink and put special spray in their hair and then Ella got to watch Emma get her hair cut. Apparently, that was all she needed to see. She had a huge smile on her face when Rhea took the first cut of Emma's hair. When it was her turn, she jumped up into the chair and didn't even flinch when the scissors came out. We only took a tiny bit off of the ends (cause I still want to hang onto the curls) to help keep the tangles at bay and to just clean it up a little. All the curls are still there and Ella did awesome!

 Ready to make the first cut!

 There it goes!!! (see the extra hands? Those are Emma's hands. She was trying to help Ella hold still.)

 Apparently Emma thought a choke hold would work best.  

Field trip to the Fire Station (and other random pics)

The theme for Preschool this month was "Heroes" so we took a trip to the Fire Station to meet some local heroes.

It may not look like it here, but she really did like seeing the fire trucks.

Inside the fire engine

The preschool group (plus a few extra)

Inside an Ambulance

Before heading to the Fire Station, we met up with some friends at the park.

This is Ella and her friend Kirsten sharing "treasures" that they found on the ground.

Looking for more interesting things to play with.

I just threw this one in for fun because she is so stinkin' cute.