Hiking in the foothills and an anniversary!

Yesterday we went on a hike in the foothills near our home.  It was just warm enough, and blessedly overcast.  The only annoyances were the gnats that were flying around, but other than that we had a great time.  As it turned out, we finished just in time.  As we were hiking back to the car, a thunderstorm rolled over the mountain and it started raining.  Thankfully the lightning didn't start until we were IN the car!

I would be remiss if I painted the picture as being too rosy though.  In the first half of the hike there was enthusiasm and excitement.  Mid-way through the hike, the excitement began to wane a bit as fatigue set in.  Adam and I had to supress our laughter as one of our children, fed up with the gnats and large ants yelled, "get me off of this stinkin' mountain!"  I told Adam I felt like we were on the set of the original "Parent Trap" when Vicki yells something like, "get me out of this stinkin' fresh air!"

The other big news of the week is that Adam and I celebrated our ten year anniversary.  Since it was a busy day during the middle of the week, we decided to stay home and celebrate our family's "birthday" with a nice dinner and tasty dessert.  The kids loved being able to take part in the celebration.  We've had a lot of fun and made some wonderful memories in the last ten years, and I can't wait to see what the future holds!

It appears we're back in business . . .

I'm not sure what the problem was with the last few posts not publishing very quickly, but I think it is fixed now.  I won't even try to go back and fill in the blanks in the family history, we'll just start fresh :)

We are now residents of Albuquerque, New Mexico.  It's kind of an interesting mix of Arizona, Utah, with a little California thrown in.  We live right up against the Sandia mountains, and while it doesn't replace my love for the Michigan treescape, it is quite beautiful nonetheless. 

For the last two weeks Madelyn, Parker and Meredith have been in swimming lessons.  All three of them LOVED the lessons.  This was Meredith's first time in lessons and she could not have been more pleased to join the club.  Rhece and I hung out poolside while they explored their inner fish :)

Other than swimming, we have been unpacking and trying to do so quickly since before we know it, it will be time to pack it all back up again!

Stay tuned . . . . more to come!

Jennie

testing . . .

I've written a post or two, but it hasn't been publishing, so I'm just seeing if this thing is on :)

Have a Holly Jolly Christmas!

Wishing you all a very merry Christmas!

Pops and Granna's visit

Pops and Granna came for Madelyn's baptism and we all enjoyed their visit. We took a hike at the Nature Center and loved seeing all the fall colors.


Pops packing Rhece.


This shot will not be featured on our Christmas cards this year :)



Parker insisted on having hiw walking stick.
While they were here there was a lot of reading (Granna brought lots of favorite books), and Adam and his dad installed a new kitchen faucet that looks great.

Happy Halloween!

I won't even offer an excuse as to why it's been FOUR months since I last posted here. But here are some cute Halloween pictures. It was a busy week and I think I can say that we celebrated Halloween thoroughly enough!


This was at our homeschool Halloween party on Thursday. The kids got dressed up, made a ghost, heard some cute Halloween stories and did some games. For lunch we had spider web pizza and candy corn pizza. With all the sugar the kids would be consuming in the next few days, Jessica was good enough to bring some veggies and Rachel made some bread sticks that were completely divine. Kendra made a darling Frankenstein pudding cup to top off the party. And, while we got pictures of the kids eating the food, we have no picture of the festive food before it was summarily ingested!


Here's the crew ready to trick-or-treat on Saturday night. Madelyn was Kirsten Larson the American Girl, Parker was a U of M football player and Meredith was his cheerleader. I made Madelyn and Meredith's costumes and borrowed Parker's, and I figured Rhece wouldn't care so he got a ghost sewed to a shirt. Maybe next year he'll get a real costume:)

We went to the ward Trunk-or-Treat on Friday night at the church. There were a lot of fun games and Parker in particular was a fan of the apple bobbing. Some of the other highlights included a cake walk (because the kids totally needed more sugar) and a game where you stuck your hand into a box and tried to guess, based on the texture/temperature, what was in the box. Parker was grossed out by the slime that stuck to his hand in the "brain" box.

Last night we hit up a town that was holding their trick-or-treat festivities Saturday instead of Sunday. Apparently the rest of western Michigan got the memo about that neighborhood too because we weren't the only ones there :) Adam kept waiting for someone to ask for some ID to prove we lived in the neighborhood before they handed over the candy. We met up with some other friends from our stake and took the kids around. The kids were pleased with the stash they amassed and went to sleep quickly once their heads hit the pillow.

June in Review

I’m out to right a wrong. While picture-taking and fun-making have continued, family journaling has fallen by the wayside of late.

The beginning of June found us on beautiful Hilton Head Island, but that deserves its own post. For now I will chronicle June’s strawberry picking and Rhece’s first birthday celebration.

While not nearly the hectic adventure that last year’s strawberry trip was, we had a great time this year. We got there about an hour before closing and the kids filled our large bucket quickly. Rhece got his first taste of fresh strawberries and that, to him, almost made up for the fact that he couldn’t get out of the backpack and crawl around in the bushes like he really wanted to do.

On June 23rd Rhece turned one! We decided a few weeks before his birthday that his big brown eyes and sweet cheeks were begging for a monkey-themed cake, so I did my best to create one. He liked the cake well enough, and when he was through eating it he let us know by throwing it off the tray.

A few of his one year stats:

Rhece has seven teeth; four on top, three on bottom.

He is a very proficient crawler, he cruises some, but has not really shown an interest in walking

(thankfully!)

Rhece goes to bed between 6:30 and 7pm, and wakes up at about the same time the next morning.

The kitchen vent provides him with endless fun, especially if it is on. He figured out how to get the cover off. When Parker was sweeping the other day he noticed and retrieved a measuring cup and a toy that Rhece apparently put in the vent for safe-keeping.

Until earlier this week Rhece almost always had a binky clipped to what he was wearing. He managed to pull it off while we were running errands. I didn’t have an extra of this favorite one. I noticed just before we were heading home and stopped to get one. The one I got was not acceptable to His Royal Highness and after giving it a few sucks he took it from his mouth and threw it across the floor. So for the cost of one new binky, Rhece is now binky-free.