Lil' Monkey

Boo was trying to catch the drips

Horsetail Falls (or was it Pony Falls? Never could figure it out...)

That's us walking behind the waterfall

Cheesy Abey

Who is that masked boy?!

And She Hit it, Too

Spicy Boy

Pick A Good One

A Few More...

BridgeTown Brawlers

taken by db photography (click to enlarge)

Our Boy

The Lonely Ballerina

Our little Ballerina...wanting to go out to play.

Highchair Photo Shoot

Chub-Chub Time

"It's bath-time now for our little dears.
I wash their face and scrub their ears."*

Abey 9 months

Brynne 3 years

*The Little Mommy by Sharon Kane

Lately

I haven't been checking your blogs! Oops!
But I did check a bunch of them today, and might I say, I am surrounded by greatness.
Seriously! My friends and family astound me sometimes with the amazing things they do. Things that fill me (who is not easily frightened except by Will Smith's "I am Legend" and maybe Mike Meyers in "Halloween"--oh, yeah, and Freddy Kruger, too) with trepidation and make my knees knock. I might need therapy.
My father and his beautiful bride (who just turned 62 yesterday--Happy Birthday Mom!) are clearing and chopping forest land and have capped out after cutting down 92 trees (please don't email me about if they are going to plant ones to replace them) on an island in Alaska, for goodness sakes!
My "niece" Makaena has been dabbling with acrylics (she's 11, people) and is doing the most beautiful paintings.
JoAnna (#2 daughter in my father's family) lets her kids do this. Luckily they were dead.
April and Bela (#1 daughter in afore-mentioned family) live in Romania and every other day the things they encounter make my heart break. Don't know how they do it.
Jamie is going to be leading a MOMS group--that would just about drive me to an early grave.

I'm so thankful that there are more than one kind of person in the world. I've been thinking all morning: It takes every kind. Including all the Portland Wackos (yes, that is the official terminology).

Anyhoo--I didn't really set out to write this post about that. I was just going to let you all know what the kids have been doing. And I guess the pictures say it all! Happy Saturday everyone!

Lovely Eyes

My sis JoAnna took this lovely picture of our Brynne when we visited with them in Arizona. I love how brilliant and piercing her eyes appear! I think Jo might have a future in this...

Jonah's "Rock On Recital" 2010

Jonah and Jon rocked the house at his recital this past Sunday! We are so proud of him and all his hard work! All the students played rock songs and they were all involved in a huge medley of about five songs at the end of the performance. And in case you're wondering...yes, he was dressed up like a Beatle! We were also so thrilled to have Gammie and Papa Mel represent, as well as The Durias and Griffin familias! Thanks for coming guys!
Jonah, You ROCK!

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