Deep Thoughts...

Look what turned up in the wash today!

"Huh? Whadja say, Mom?"

"Well, actually, the radius multiplied by two is the diameter..."

"Hey, whatcha got?"
(photos by Jonah, 9)

Your friendly neighborhood grocery shopper

Here's to orange floats to kick off the weekend!

Mr. "Silly Face"

Just the "A's"

Abram can clap!

You've got to admit this boy is pretty cute! He sits and claps and his hands make the cutest little "slap" sound. He gets so happy to hear it, and so do we.

Another tough meal...beef tenderloin....mmmmmm.......

Life on vacation... they make us eat fries slathered in cheese,grilled
onions, and sauce... It's really tough

It's been a long time...

Sorry I've not been a good friend lately. Nor a good blogger...But I suppose you all have to forgive me as most of you are my family anyway.
Have you noticed the amazing quantities of blogs out there these days? There's a reason they call it a "Blogosphere", my friends. In some ways I feel that we can't even compete for your attention, so then I just give up and post random pictures from my husbands iPhone, without even a comment to clue you in on what's going on...yup, real good blogger, here! (BTW, I just checked and we have had 42k visitors on our blog! Wow. Now I feel even worse! Thanks for regularly checking to see if I'm not lame anymore!)
All this is just by way of explanation, as though you needed one. You see, we have the Littlest One now, and Number 3 requires not a little attention, too. So please, stick with us, stay tuned, and pray that someday, someday...the Blogger in me will reawaken and you will all be regularly updated once more...

Boo-Boo's birthday today!!!

Solar Energy, & Other Important Matters...

Ava Lou has been making me laugh today with these:
"I asked Boo if she wanted my macanoni and she yessed her head!"

"When Abram's eating oatmeal...and I see him squish all that stuff out of his mouth...it just makes me...wanna...THROW UP!"

"Mom, I LOVE handwriting. I am going to do THREE sheets of handwriting today, and still more tomorrow!"

You may think I'm going overboard with the exclamation marks, but that's sooooo Ava. She doesn't walk, she skips; she runs laps around the dining room table. We read in our science book yesterday that if we could harness the sun's energy for 1 second it would power the United States for 9 million years....I think Ava's energy might do the same for the U.S. of A., but it would only power Brynne for 3 seconds.
Brynne, who tells me ten times a day "I'm ready go for my birthday!"
We catch her running laps around the table regularly, too.
At bedtime she tells me "Lemme kiss Abey. Now lemme squeeze him. Now lemme look at him." Then to Daddy, "I just tell you..." and she whispers nonsense in his ear. Yesterday she hopped in a locker at the Community Center where we do swim lessons and we played a good joke on Jonah and Ava ("Where's Brynne go?!")
Not as many constant exclamation marks in the speech with this girl, but they're there when she sings/yells: "I got a date with YOOOOOOUUUUUU TONIGHT!"
(Case in point: Brynne just saw the picture of herself in the locker on this post and said "Oh, Momma, das Boo-Boo. Das soooo cute.")

Jonah & Friends at Sk8 Church

Jonah goes to this every Wednesday night; it helps to get the wiggles out! Jon used to go to High School skate church long, long ago...

Dressing Up

The two Cinda-Lellas at Nannie-Poppop's House

Boo-Boo's birthday cake!

Beautiful Sky, Beautiful Boy

Teacher's Getting a Shower!

The Swimmy-Boo!

A Virtual Recital (aka: "The Sick Maestro Plays Fur Elise")

This one's for Papa Mel and Bepo (the only song I remember her playing; maybe it's the only one you know?--heehee). Enjoy!!

Abram Giggles

Abey's Oats

I'm...

Making THIS for dinner.
Y-U-M.

Super Mario Brawlers

We're Drawing up the Appropriate Documents...

To get these two couples hitched.
:)
Brynne and Joshua Durias dancing while the babies play on the floor. Brynne says Joshua ("Cha Cha") is her bewwy best fwiend.

It's a State of Mind

Ava (6 3/4): Can we do something fun today?
Momma: Like what?
Ava: Like go to Disneyland?
Momma: Too far away.
Ava: How about Candyland?
Momma: Where's that?
Ava: Hmmmm...I'm not sure if it's a city or a state.

FIRE!!! FIRE!!!

Ahh, there's nothin like secondary combustion.

Johnny Jump-up

A bouncing baby boy!

'09 Was Fine

Woah, what a crazy year, full of change and surprises!
2009 began with me (elisabeth) experiencing morning (more like all-day) sickness and adjusting to the idea of having another addition to the family. Thank the Lord for anti-nausea medicine! That was the biggest surprise, but our new baby is also the biggest blessing. Jonah started piano lessons and hasn't looked back. I am constantly thwarting his practice sessions with pleas to stop or "You'll wake the baby!"
The month of April came and Jon and I took Jonah and Ava on a trip to San Francisco. We had a blast! We walked a ton and saw so many beautiful sights and even had some nice warm weather.
June saw the entire family in my sister's wedding in California. Well, we were all supposed to be in the wedding, but Boo was so exhausted from the busy week that she fell asleep on her Nana as the ceremony was starting and didn't quite make it down the aisle. Then she was hustled off to the babysitter's and didn't see the reception, either. The older two had the time of their lives and Auntie April (Bepo) and her husband Bela fulfilled Joe and Ava's "lifelong dream of being in a wedding!!!" They danced the night away at the reception and had a really memorable visit with all their cousins for the week, as well.
July we were back at home in time for Portland's heat wave and decided to skip the church camping trip this year (um, 9 months pregnant and 106 degrees in a tent? No, thank you.)
Jon's folks took the kids for a few nights while Jon and I streamed Netflix on the laptop and hibernated in our bedroom with the window A/C unit! We only left the house to satisfy those crazy food cravings. Well, I say crazy, but all I really wanted was Mango Bubble Tea...
In August we were blessed with Abram Jonathan, or Baby Abey or Gooey-guy as we call him. He was four days late and I finally went into labor while making a fresh peach cake ("Just let me finish getting this frosting on, little guy!"). He popped out fast enough that the epidural didn't even have time to really set in, darn it all. But he was 8 lbs 1 oz of perfection and we think he looks like his daddy.
Mid-September we started school again, Jonah in third grade and Ava in first. They are quite the readers and quickly absorb new material. They also love to be quizzed "Prizes, please Mom!".
We missed out on Halloween due to a bout with the swine flu--that's all I need to say about that...and Thanksgiving was spent roller skating with some great friends.
All in all, what a wonderful, busy, crazy, spin-so-fast-you-can't-keep-up year. And yet, we take time to hold each other, to kiss the baby, to play some pat-a-cake with the two year old, to play another round of Bible Charades, to read together.
We find that we can't count our numerous blessings and constantly remark on how good our Lord is to us. May you enjoy His peace this coming year, as well!

Christmas, and then some...

This month saw the beginning of some changes to our living room: new tile surround and a wood stove insert! Next: painting...
There are quite a few pictures of Christmas morning in there, too. I love the ones of the kids faces when they were opening their surprises! Everyday Boo still says, "It's almost Chis-mas! Jesus Bird-day!!"
Finally, it snowed today! Ava is so happy to eat snow again. It accumulated quite a bit and is coming down again after taking a short break. Brynne was the one who alerted us, she was coming down from her nap yelling "Is Nowing! Is Nowing!!" We were like "huh?" until we figured it out. Ava fell asleep praying it would still be around tomorrow...

Our new fireplace!

My first mobile post!

Mini Photo Shoot

Ava's Rendition

Overheard during chores this afternoon:
"The urgent Mary had a baby boy,
The urgent Mary had a baby boy,
The urgent Mary had a baby boy,
And they say that his name was JEEEEEESUUUS!"

A Little bit of Abram

Here's just a glimpse of the sweetness we get to enjoy everyday.

Gresham Skate World--Revisted--Happy Birthday Jonah!!

Little did you know that 13 years ago last month Jon and I met in front of the very lovely rock wall (circa 1967) you see us standing before now. 11 years of marriage and 4 kidlets later here we are, back again (by request, mind you), for Jonah's 9th Birthday Party! He wanted a co-ed party and there ended up being more girls than boys there (uh oh!). . . As you can see, we pretty much had the place to ourselves. There were only a few others that skated.

As soon as Brynne saw that everyone was going to be skating, she whipped her shoes off and demanded some skates, too! She did pretty well (with Daddy's help, of course)

Clara and Makaena (with Tim in the background) making their laps

Clara and Jillian just chillin' (oh, it begins so young)

Daddy and the Boo skating away. The decor hasn't changed since 1967, either.

Melody and Audrey workin' those fancy moves, or about to fall, I can't tell which...heehee

They announced on the loud speaker after this "Please do not hold children while skating"

Olivia & Jaden (sisters)

Roller Girls (Ava, Olivia, & Paige)

The Birthday-Boy doing a "Skate-by"

Jon helping Paigey (he's good like that)

Makaena taking a little rest

Simon & Jonah

Audrey Rose

Mimi (Miriam) & her Mama (Jenni)

I love this pic of Jonah doing fish lips while waiting for us to sing to him! In leiu of a cake Jonah wanted these rice crispy treats made with butterscotch, chocolate, and peanut butter. This was waaaaay too easy!

Miriam, Jillian, Ava, & Olivia

Ava & Olivia (looking a bit glazed at this point!)

Audrey

Makaena & Clara (yum!)