Be Here Now

Living in the present. That is my goal. The no screen time week went well until Jeff left with Dallin for 2 nights and I went into panic mode being in a home alone. Facebook became my friend and I even had to have suziepetunia come stay with me until my crazy fears went away! I am glad Jeff is back, and even more glad that he doesn't travel very much. :-)

Our summer has been very low key. We are just having fun doing local activities. No big trips for us. I have loved not having commitments before 10am. :-) Here are some things that have kept us busy:

Vacation Bible School- Emily and Dallin were able to go to this together! I loved hearing them come home saying things such as, "God is powerful. Fear not!" They love the music and we are listening to it now. One of their favorite parts was the teeter totters.

Spontaneous Beach Trip- For as much as I love the ocean, I don't really visit it that often here in Oregon. First of all, it is a little different here than in California. The water is COLD. Second of all, I avoid driving at all costs. So, packing my kids in the car for a 3 hour round trip does not appeal to me. So, I was very proud when one of my good friends suggested we go on a hot day and I said yes! We had a very relaxing time and it was beautiful. I will definitely have to do this again.



Wed Park Day at the Fountains- We have truly enjoyed our weekly park dates with friends. This particular day was followed perfectly by slushies at Sonic!

Local Parade- When Jeff was with Dallin, we ventured to the local parade. One of the things I love about our little town is their festivals. This was followed by a rousing night of Family Feud and Karaoke at our next door neighbor and good friends' house. Wish I had pics of this!! Love our neighborhood!!

While Jeff was gone, Emily was invited by her good friends Hannah and Holden to go to gymnastics class with them. She loved it!! I am looking into more classes for her.
Trip to the pool- I finally went to my first outdoor pool in Oregon. I always joke that my life would be too easy in CA because I would live at the pool or the beach. We don't have any local outdoor pools here, so I ventured to one about 15 miles away. It was awesome!! We will definitely be back! There was a lazy river, waterslides for the older kids, little frog waterslide for the little ones, and I enjoyed good friends and sun!! Next time, I will bring Jeff. :-)
Kids Fun Run- Dallin and Emily were able to participate in this fantastic event!! They raced against their own age group and the distance was age based. Dallin ran 600M and Emily ran 200M. Dallin surprised me and came in second. He didn't seem winded at all!! He was pretty proud to pass someone toward the end. Don't know where he gets the competitiveness. :-) Emily was just as excited for her race. Dallin ran with her and it was adorable. She wore her medal the rest of the day. I love encouraging my kids to find joy in exercise. I am in the middle of planning our local family triathlon. It is a great event to be involved with. Email me if you would like more info!

Last and not least- We were able to watch some of our good friends perform in a local production of The Music Man. I was so impressed with their talent. I will link you to Sarah's web page so you can watch her husband, Taylor's performances. So much fun!!! Carrie, are you going to link some of Carey's performances!! I wish I had their talent, but I was grateful I could enjoy it. We brought Dallin and Emily and went with good friends and it was a fun night.

Real Life Angle- So, this is all the fun stuff. In reality, day to day is still not always easy. I am trying to enjoy the moments, but I get caught up in my own frustrations in my weaknesses. Right now, I am still fighting an ulcer that was never healed. I am just grateful for all my blessings. I love this quote from the Music Man,

"You pile up enough tomorrows, and you'll find you are left with nothing but a lot of empty yesterdays. I don't know about you, but I'd like to make today worth remembering. "

Thanks to all my friends and family for their love and support!


I just finished reading "The Anatomy of Peace" and it has changed me forever! I don't think I will look at my relationships the same again. I highly reccommend it. If I do things a little differently than I did in the past, just know I am doing my best.

No Screen Time Week

Well, I had plans to catch up the blog a little more before I went off line, but it did not happen! Instead I have spent the last 3 hours working on making a photobook and reminiscing. When I come back, I hope I have a lot to share.

We will be spending the week remembering what there is to do besides TV, computer, Wii, etc. I told my kids we are pretending to be pioneers. :-)

Wish us luck!

I will be back Sunday.

Alright, I threw in some teasers from Sleeping Beauty, the zoo and sailing. Enjoy!

We love having visitors!

When we first moved here it seemed like we had visitors much more often. Now, we don't seem to have them as much. Do our kids scare people away? ! :-) One of the things we love about Oregon is how beautiful it is! The parks are well taken care of and everything is green and lush. We love showing others our pretty state.

2 weeks ago we were lucky enough to have my sister Crystal visit with Tony, Ashlynn and Payge. We had so much fun!! Here are some of the things we did:

1. Free movies
2. Played at the local "fountains" splash park
3. Went camping with us and the Cooks.



4. Went to the pet store
5. Went Roller Skating
6. Went to the Tuesday Library time
7. Played lots of Settlers of Catan.
8. Went swimming at the YMCA twice.

9. Just hung out and had a great time!

Here are a few pictures. Enjoy!

(I am having a hard time getting more of the pictures up, so this will be it for now. Thanks for such a great week!)

Mommy Moments

We just had a fantastic week with my sis Crystal visiting with Tony, Ashlynn and Payge. I will write about it when I have a few extra minutes, ha ha!

For now, I just want to write some things down before I forget. Sometimes I wonder if I am teaching my kids the values that are most important to me. The things that I was taught as a kid- to love others and treat them kindly, no matter what. Do they know how strongly I feel about treating others as equals even if they are different from us?

Today I went to the park for our weekly park day. Bryce was just not happy. Usually he runs around smiling and giggling and I can just watch him from afar. Today he was clingy and whiny. I finally decided to take him home for a nap. A sweet friend of mine, Ranell, offered to keep the other 2 at the park with her, since they were having a great time.

We ended up doing a little swap and when I was at her house before she left for a movie, she said, Oh yeah, I need to tell you something about Dallin.

One of the other moms has a mentally handicapped child who Dallin had never met before. Dallin was playing baseball with his buddies and this mom and her boy joined in. Dallin lovingly pitched the ball over and over again to this sweet boy. The mother told my friend that she was impressed with his patience and his willingness to play with her son.

As Ranell related this story, my eyes filled with tears and my heart swelled as I realized that yes, even thoughI am not always the mom I want to be, the message is getting through. My goal is to never be the source of someone else's pain, and if I can pass this on to my children, I will feel successful as a mom. So, I am truly grateful for Dallin and his sweet personality. I hope I can remember this when I am getting upset over trivial things.

A great start to summer!

Let the summer fun begin!! This is definitely my favorite time of year. Boating, playing at the park, strawberry picking, laughing, staying up late, I love it all!



























Wow, a lot has happened in 4 weeks!

First off, I now have a 2 year old!! Bryce is so much fun. He is very independent and wants to do everything the big kids do. (except go pee on the potty, but I am not too worried about that yet!) He is not as clingy as he was, so I enjoy listening to him play by himself. He loves the marble run toy and doing puzzles. He knows all his letters and loves pointing them out wherever we go. His favorite books are letter books. His talking is still hard to discern, but he will scream and say no until you figure out what he is saying! He runs around in circles and loves to dance to music. He has great giggles and loves to chase with Jeff. He is a joy to have in our house and I am so grateful for my little "surprise." His smile reminds me of my dad, and that is a special blessing. On his actual birthday, I was in charge of Dallin's school fun run, so Sarah was kind enough to watch him for the day. She took him to library time, to the park and made his day very special! We also went to Red Robin as a family. Bryce did not like the bird! We decided to celebrate his birthday when my mom was in town. We had a little birthday party at the park.

Speaking of my mom, we got to have her here for a week!!! Woo hoo!! While she was here, we went on the boat, went to the beach, and I ran a marathon. It was a busy week, but there was also time for a little relaxing, believe it or not. I love the relationship my mom has with my kids. She is a great grandma and is especially close to Emily. They have been counting down the days until she came. I love you, Mom!

We also were joined at the beach by our good friends, the McDuffies and the Giles! We all had so much fun!

It was not my best race, but I loved having my mom there to cheer me on. I also enjoyed being with these women. It sure helps to have people to train with. (Or virtually train with!)When we got back there was one more week of school. Dallin will be in second grade, I can't believe it. He had a great year and learned a lot from his teacher, Mrs. Jin. She called him her right hand man. He helped correct spelling tests and rechecked her work before she photocopied it. :-) He is very responsible and loved having the teacher rely on him. I saw him grow so much this year.

Emily is my imaginitive, sweet little girl. She gives me kisses and hugs for no reason and is so thoughtful. She loves bugs and tries to take care of them in her bug kit. We don't have a great track record so far but we will keep working on it.

This summer, we are just going to have fun and learn! I don't have anything really scheduled outside of the house. I have a summer schedule for getting chores done and limiting computer time and that is it! I love it!! We have been strawberry picking, on the boat, and just having a great time together. I feel like I am in a good place right now and just enjoying this stage of my life. If you have any fun craft ideas for the summer, let me know. Emily wants lots of projects! (Also, if you have ideas for what to do with them after they're done, that would be great too!)