The Old Residence....

Well - our family spent over five years at this house.  It wasn't the fanciest place in town nor was it in the best shape, but we did have many happy memories here.  The girls have grown up here, this was Clara's first home.  We had wonderful neighbors who watched out for us, and even the deer in our yard grew on us.  Most of the neighborhood kids spent time in our back yard.  But we outgrew it and needed to move on to bigger and better.  It is time to say goodbye.

It's hard to believe that this was our room (Mark and I) - we were a bit crowded and definitely needed more closet space!

Emma enjoyed having her own room for the first time.....

Samantha and Clara were good "roomies" in this room.....

Of course, the living room was our central location.  We had Christmas mornings here, campouts, dance competitions, etc.

Soon I will be posting pictures of our new home which we are thrilled about..... but we are also feeling a little tender about our previous home.  Hopefully she will have another good family to take care of her!

Sick Kiddo

A few weeks ago Clara caught one of her bad colds...... she seems to contact every germ that comes her way unfortunately.  She was pretty sick for several days so we decided it was time to give her albuterol treatments to help with her breathing.  She was a good sport about it and within a few days she was doing much better.  Hopefully we will make it through the rest of the summer without another bout of illness.

Summer Play Time!

Yesterday was the first official day of summer vacation so we decided to meet some friends at Riverside Park to throw rocks in the river and play on the park equipment.  It was a beautiful morning!  Emma and Samantha were determined to skip rocks.....

Clara was fairly content to just stay in her stroller!

We decided to walk across the bridge to look down to the river.  The kids were fascinated!

This is Clara's best friend Brittain.  They were born a month apart from each other and love to play together.  We pushed their strollers next to each other and they even held hands while we walked.  I grabbed the camera to get a picture and suddenly they became very camera shy - no matter how hard I tried. :)

The big tree stumps were fun to climb on!  (Noah, Ryder, Griffin, Emma, and Samantha)

It was a great way to start the summer - many more adventures to come!

Transitions

In the next few weeks we will be moving to a new home which will bring lots of changes for Clara.  She will be in a new house with her own new bedroom and hopefully a nice new "Big Girl" bed!  Since that means several changes at once we decided that we should try to begin the transition from her crib to a bed before she moves into a new room.  We didn't want to throw too many changes her way at once.  Her crib was great but it is time consuming to take apart and put back together so we thought it would be nice to have one less hassle when we move.  We knew she would love seeing her new bed!  We put it low to the floor, added her favorite stuffed animals, and included a big new pillow to snuggle with. 

We told her how exciting it was and what a big girl she is becoming!

She seemed very happy and thrilled with all of the attention!  This was going to be a breeze!!!!  I laid her down for her nap with her Ba-Ba (bottle with milk) and turned on her fan and quietly snuck out and closed the door.  A few minutes later.........

......THIS is what we found!   She very successfully pulled out her drawers from her dresser and then proceeded to scatter her clothing everywhere!

And knowing that only Clara would want to ADD to the chaos, she got into her collection of Lincoln Logs and Legos and dumped them all out as well!  Bless her heart....

It's possible we were a little too confident in her ability to transition to her new bed.  Unfortunately, we had already taken her crib to the D.I. pod where it is gone forever.  Thankfully we have a wonderful play pen that is working quite well for her to sleep in and keeps her contained.  Perhaps it will be her "transition" for now and we will try with the big bed another time. [SIGH....]

Last Day of School

Well second grade and fourth grade have come to an end......boy did that go by too fast!  The girls both did wonderfully this school year but they were happy to see the end come.  Mark met them at their classrooms to take a final picture.  You can see the relief on their faces as they know that three months of freedom are ahead of them!

Here is Emma with Z.Z. - She is a very nice girl who was a good friend to Emma this year.

We have lots of big plans for the summer that we are excited about.  Plus, Emma and Samantha will be attending a new school next year so we are really looking forward to that!  Happy Summer everyone!

Memorial Day

Yesterday was Memorial Day and to celebrate we had my brother Jon and his family up to La Grande for some festivities.  We started out the day with a hike in Owsley Canyon.  This is one of my favorite places to be and it was perfect for seven little kids to tackle.  We brought up donuts and juice and had a yummy breakfast together at the picnic table.

Cute Hinkley couldn't get enough of his glazed donut - he had it all over his face!!

Here are the kiddos ready to start out on the trails - Isaac, Samantha, Clara, Emma, Hinkley, Eliza, and Jordan!

The kids had a wonderful time looking at all of the pretty plants and trees.  We started a game by looking out for animal tracks and trying to guess which animal they came from.  Eliza and Samantha found a puddle full of tadpoles!

Hinkley had a great time being strapped to his daddy's back.  He had this smile on his face the whole time and Jon was a good sport to carry a 30 pound child for over an hour.

Clara was lucky enough to be in the jogging stroller and being pushed by Mark.  She was having lots of fun but it's hard to get a good picture with her....

This was the point where we had hiked about a mile or so and decided it was a good time to turn around since little legs were getting very tired!

After our hike we drove them up to Morgan Lake on the other side of town.  Natalie and the kids had never been there and they wanted to try to skip rocks on the lake.  It was very pretty but the wind and rain all of a sudden started and the lake was choppy.  After a few minutes we were all freezing and decided it was time to just head back home for a while.

We went to lunch at Primos Pizza buffet.  What is better than All You Can Eat Pizza?  Well - All You Can Eat Pizza with an Arcade!  After filling our tummies with pizza and salad, we headed over to the arcade to play games.  Clara thought that this little horsey was so much fun!

Natalie and I played this dance game and I was terrible.  I couldn't figure it out!  So Jon took my place and since I had the camera I got to snap a picture of them rocking out to the music!

Afterwards Clara and Hinkley decided that they wanted to do it, too.....

These two are so adorable!

We came back home and had homemade milkshakes and played and visited for a while before the family had to head back home to Hermiston.  It was such a wonderful day and we hope to do it again soon!

Our Mountain Valley

This spring I have enjoyed doing quite a bit of hiking and walking with friends.  I absolutely LOVE it - it's a great workout and in our area there is so much beauty this time of year!  Each weekend we choose a different trail to go on and we spend a couple of hours hiking and exploring.  I don't usually have my camera with me but this past Saturday I went by myself and decided to hike up to Morgan Lake and I brought the camera along.  It is quite the hike and I was lucky enough to have Mark meet me half way up with the van so we could have a little time together enjoying our surroundings.

I am so blessed to live in the area that we do.  The mountains and trees are green and lush - the vegetation is fragrant and beautiful.  For me, there is something about nature that helps me feel close to my Heavenly Father.  He created all of this beauty for us to enjoy.  Since I was 18 I have lived near mountains and they have become very important to me.  I can walk the trails and ponder my life and all of my blessings.  It is invigorating and a true gift!  I am not a trained photographer so I can't do this landscape justice - you will just have to come visit so you can experience it in person!!!!

Family Home Evening

In our family we have Family Home Evening on Sunday nights - our Mondays are just difficult during the school year to fit in good, quality family time.  This past Sunday we decided to take our FHE up to Hillgard State Park.  The weather was gorgeous, the mountains were lush, and the river wasn't too high.  We had a nice lesson and I brought some oatmeal chocolate chip cookies that I made before church.

After our lesson and treats, we walked down to the river bank and skipped rocks.

Even Clara wanted to get in on the action, although it was more difficult to keep her out of the water!

All the girls went for a little walk.  Clara adores her big sisters and loves being with them!

It was a perfect evening and one that we will need to repeat throughout the summer!

Samantha's Baptism

Samantha has waited a very long for this but her day FINALLY arrived!  We had her baptism last Saturday and it was a very special experience.  We were so grateful for the family and friends who came to support Sam and who helped make it a wonderful day.  She understands the significance of her decision to be baptized and really wants to work hard at making good choices from now on.  When she came out of the font she had the biggest smile on her face and she told me how wonderful and clean she felt!

Clara was having a major meltdown throughout our time at the church so that is why she is missing from this picture.....

My friend Alisa found this dress for Sam over in Woodburn since we were having a difficult time finding one close to home.  It is a very pretty dress and she looks like a little angel in it.

As parents, there are certain events in your life that hold so much significance and are permanently embedded on your heart.  This day was one of those days and we are counting our blessings....

Softball Season!

Last month the girls received an announcement from the school that city league softball was starting up.  They have never had an interest in playing Little League before but they were excited at the prospect of trying it out.  We happily signed them up on the specified day and awaited hearing what team they would be put on.  About a week before try-outs Mark received a call from the league asking him to please coach a team and he decided to go for it!  It wouldn't be that big of a commitment, right?

Wrong!  Little League is huge around here and it takes up about three nights a week between practices and games.  The teams had to be chosen, the practice fields divied out, uniforms ordered, and helpers to find.  Each night of practice Mark and the girls rush home and we hurriedly try to get them through the nightly routine of bathing, family scripture study, and family prayer.  It's been a little bit stressful  but last week they had their first game and both girls did great.  Emma had the first hit on our team and she scored the first run.  Sam had a great hit, too.

We are really proud of them for being willing to try new things and it's wonderful to learn to work with a team.  They are trying out different positions and really enjoying having their daddy around for the whole thing!  Go Team McDonalds!!!

Happy 8th Birthday Samantha!

Samantha Isabel is just growing up too quickly!  Last week she turned eight years old!!!  This is a special birthday for her and she has been anticipating it for months.  She started out with a birthday breakfast before school and her first present - a new outfit to wear.  (She had been begging for skinny jeans for weeks and weeks and the birthday fairy found some on sale at the mall in Boise so Hurray!!!)  Then it was off to school with treats to share with her classmates.  After school she was able to attend Activity Days for the first time with Emma which she was very excited about.  She will look forward to attending now every other week!

Her birthday dinner request was bubble pizza and homemade smoothies.  However, her birthday dessert request was a banana cream pie which was a first.  I thought for sure she would go for something very chocolately but I guess she takes after her daddy in the pie department.  She blew out all of her candles after we sang the birthday song to her.

It was a great day for her and we feel so blessed to have her in our family!