Random Bryant

Bryant has finally learned to ride his big boy bike!  He can start and stop all on his own!  He even said he wants to ride to pick up Sydney from school every day!  Since he received his new bike for Christmas he has only wanted to ride his baby bike, as he calls it, to meet Sydney after school.  He was having so much fun riding around in circles in from of our house and pulling over for cars to go by.  Look at that smile!

Mario Kart anyone?  Bry is a pro!

Adding to our food storage

My friend Paige recently introduced me to Honeyville food storage products.  I had way too much fun ordering from them.  I bought a case of dried veggies like peas, carrots, celery, corn etc. that would be great to add to pasta, rice or soup.  I bought the dairy combo like milk, chocolate milk, eggs, egg whites, butter, and cheese sauce.  I splurged and got the combo for smoothies.  Just add water, so excited to try these!  We did make some of the lemon poppyseed muffins and they were really good!  

Today I went to the book store and bought, "I Can't Believe It's Food Storage" cookbook, loving it already.  I was telling Todd I can't wait to start cooking with food storage and he told me if I used it now, we wouldn't have it later when/if needed!  I am going to start introducing it little by little anyways to see if anyone even notices.  I'll keep you posted.  We are supposed to be using our food storage and replenishing it so we get used to eating it, and not just when we have to.  I still need to add more pasta to my supplies, we love pasta!

On a funny note!  Last fall when we were having our kitchen updated, the guys installing the granite asked about all the white buckets in our garage.  Once I told them it was food storage, they laughed, couldn't believe we would have so much just sitting around, and said they would come to my house if there ever was a disaster! Come on over!

Multi-Sport Class

Bryant is now taking a multi-sport class.  Same coaches, different kids.  So far they've done basketball and soccer.  Next week it is track events and t-ball.  The little guy in the light blue shirt is Bryant's friend.  You may notice that Bryant isn't in the group photo... he refused to sit up and was laying on the bleachers...

Oh, here he is!  Nope, not gonna do it!  

Vegetable Garden April 20, 2009

This is our garden, we've extended it a few feet towards the weeping cherry tree in the back  there.  I've gotten peas, beans, onions, lettuce and herbs planted already.  Tonight I'm hoping to get my cucumbers, squash, zucchini, carrots, hot and bell peppers planted by seed.  I'm so excited, I love to watch things grow!  

Along this fence we have three blueberry bushes that are on their second year, hopefully we'll get more berries this year.   And behind them are the thornless Raspberries.  We didn't get any berries last year, but they are looking strong this year already.  We've given tons of starts away too.  I can still give more if anyone is interested...
I decided to buy some bare root trees, this is a mixed pear tree and the other one is a mixed apple tree, not pictured.  They are finally starting to show signs of life and I can't wait to see if we'll get fruit this year or not...they are dwarf trees and should only get about 10-15 feet tall.  Perfect to block the view into the neighbor's backyard as they are the only other neighbors that actually use their backyard too!  Maybe we scare the others away because we are so loud, hmmmmm....

Give Away!

I can't wait to win or buy this new cookbook.  I follow her website and love it!  She has so many ideas to use food storage!  Check it out at everydayfoodstorage.net!

Easter Sunday

Sydney is happy with her basket items and please don't look at the rest of the family room as it is a mess!  Remember we just got back from vacation and destruction follows my children wherever they go!

This year Todd got a basket and the kids saw what was in his and forgot about anything else in the world.  He got Mario Kart and two steering wheels!  Nice bed head Tay!
See what I mean about the smudge in the middle of the photo?  Bry's finger print!  Easter outfits from Nana and Papa and Wii steering wheels!
Todd and I both took naps and when I woke up and came downstairs I saw this!  Close up, his face is all smooshed against the chair.  When he woke up he got sick all over this chair and everything around it!  Gross!  Good thing Todd was home to clean it up!  I gag myself silly and can't do it!  I try, but I really can't handle it at all.  Too much candy and not enough good stuff!  Then later he got sick again and then Sydney got sick, at least he made it to the throw up bowl and she made it to the toilet!  Great way to end Easter... sick and early to bed!

Spring break part three

While the Dads fished, we took the kids on a hike to see the Lake Lenore Caves.  If you keep hiking upward you can actually see some petroglyphs, we didn't make it that far.  This is the view out from the first cave.

The pathway split and this was a photo from the left option... way to dangerous, we turned around right after I took  this photo!

First cave.
Second cave.

Spring Break part two

I don't know how to show more than five photos per blog entry...  so here are some more from our trip east.  As I was downloading I noticed that there is a small blurry spot near the middle of the photos...Bryant likes to squeeze his finger in the lense opening on my camera, the little stinker!  Here is Todd and some of the kids on a paddle boat.  I guess in the summer they have a few more things to take out onto the water.  This was the second week of opening for the new season and they were starting to clean up and repair the resort.  Opening fishing day for the Sun Lake is in two weeks.  The kids were bummed that the pool was empty, oh, it had a log in it but no water.

In this photo, Bryant is in mid air after making a putt!

Eating lunch and how do you like the backwards helmets on the boys?
After our Easter egg hunt.  The lake is just past all the brown reeds behind the children.

Sun Lakes Resort 4/09

This is the front view of our cabin.  It had one room with a twin bed, double bed, futon sofa, bathroom and kitchen area.  It was not the Hilton!  We've decided our kids are way too spoiled when the first thing they said was "Gross!  We're staying here?"  Too many nice hotels with hotel points!  We went to Sun Lakes Resort in central Washington for three days of our spring break  this year with our good friends the Hansen family.  I remember coming here with my family when I was a kid and having so much fun!  The lake was right outside our cabin, just past the grassy area.  We rode our bikes, played at the playground, fished on a couple of the many lakes in the area, hiked, played in the cold water, paddle boated around the lake, played miniature golf, had our own huge Easter egg hunt all around the cabins and had a lot of fun with our friends!

This is as close to fishing that Sydney got!
Bryant did go out with Todd for a little bit.  This is what I saw when they were headed back in...Bryant on the back, so Todd could fish, and leaning over the edge touching the water with his hand!  Todd rowed back in with Bryant just as he is in the photo, not worried at all! Ugh!
Taylor was okay as long as she could see and feel the bottom of the lake.  She has this control issue like I do, where my safety is concerned!

A couple of warm days...means water!

My kids love the water.  We were lucky enough to have two days of seventy degree weather this week and all my kids wanted to do was to head to the creek to play.  We headed to the park and then the creek.  Sydney's feet were so red from the ice cold water run off, I kept making her come out of the water to warm them up a bit.  Then the slip and slide came out, even though it doesn't work right.  They would hose it off and then slide down it.

Like our nice wood pile piled up underneath the tree?  Ugly!  We don't know where else to put it though, it can't be near the house for bug reasons...


Taylor made a teepee!  Not sure why though...

Easter Egg Hunt

Nana loves a good egg hunt!   And she came loaded with candy filled eggs for the kids.  This is before the hunt.

Checking out the loot!  And loading up on sugar too!
The kids love the crab apple tree, trimmed and all, it still works as the climbing tree they've always wanted.  Sydney loves to go all the way to the top and it scares me to death!  

Another Birthday Party!

Nana and Aunt Louise came up for a few hours last weekend from Portland to celebrate Bryant and Easter with an egg hunt, more on that later.  This is Bryant opening his Star Wars Light Sabers. His friend Jon has them and brings his over on Tuesdays when he comes to play and it is all Bryant has been talking about lately!  So he got two for his birthday from his sisters.  He now just wants to fight, sound effects and all!  

Trying them out with sister Tay.
Louise got him Red the fire engine from Cars.  Bryant and I have been looking for him for two years!
We got him the Sheds for his trains to park to go with his Thomas the train set.
This is how Bryant reacted when the only gifts left were for his sisters from Nana and Papa, and none left for him... pouty!  Happy Birthday Bryant!  We love you!

Bryant's 4th Birthday Party!

Oh, we had a fun April Fools Day!  It started out snowing all morning and melted almost as fast as it landed. I thought about putting plastic spiders in the girls sandwiches or chips, but thought better of it as they then would refuse to eat their food...  

Today we had Bryant's first friend birthday party and it was so much fun!  The kids each made their own pizza, had soda, cupcake and icecream cone, played, played a game, played, took their turn at the pinata, and played some more.  I decided since Todd wasn't here to just sit the pinata on the floor and let them have at it (I usually have him hold it)- worked great!  Everyone got a turn and then Bryant wacked it hard right in the middle and split it in two, I then dumped the candy and they all sat around really nicely picking out what each wanted.  Nothing like older children do... grabbing everything in sight!  So different.  We had four girls and one boy, plus Bryant. It was fun to see the major differences between boys and girls and how they play and get along!  This is how he acted when everyone was singing "Happy Birthday" to him!

He really got into opening his gifts this year, as he fully understood all that was happening.  He got a speed racer car, football, lots of coloring stuff, frisbee, Batman and Spiderman and bubbles!  So fun!  His real birthday is this Sunday.  Papa and Nana are coming on Saturday and we'll have birthday celebration number 2 then.


The boys discovered balloon boxing and had so much fun!  Thank you friends for coming to celebrate Bryant, he had a great time!