Aarastas and Sarsosari

Cupcake Wars

2012-01-30T20:22:00.000-08:00

Today, after I picked Joshua up from kindergarten, he and Larkin asked if we could watch an episode of Cupcake Wars. What 5 year old and 3 year old ask that? How awesome are my kids?

Aaron requested us to make some cupcakes...war style. I'm pretty sure I've made a million cupcakes in my day...all from a box. I will make homemade frosting...on occasion if asked for it. But today, we did it all from scratch.

My cupcake is a vanilla bean, coconut reduction cake with coconut infused buttercream frosting. The candy pearls and toasted coconut capture the feeling of a tropical island. It's finished with a delectable flourish of milk chocolate on top.

I had a panel of distinguished judges...complete with a crazy little guy with a hard to understand accent. Noah does the best accents ever! Arwen said my frosting was too sour...what?? I think it was the only thing she could make up as a critique. There was nothing remotely sour in them :) That and she said they were not moist. I'm pretty sure she doesn't even know what that word means. Joshua loved them, but then again he always votes for the prettiest girl to win on the actual show. Larkin loved them! Aaron loved them! Yea :)

Since the other contestants failed to show up, I won the war!! In lieu of the $10,000 I told Aaron he can just take me to Hawaii. When are we going, Aaron??

Black Bean Breakfast

2012-01-17T05:01:00.000-08:00

LuLu

Noah was our oatmeal boy. Larkin is our bean girl.

Here she is enjoying her delicious breakfast of black beans and a pickle.

"Oh yeh! You're jealous", she implies with a wink.

Day at the Park

2012-01-10T09:22:00.000-08:00

Day at the Park

Some time ago we were just having a nice day in the park.

Swinging on swings.

Sliding down slides.

When Noah wandered down a dark and narrow path into the woods stumbling on a den of demented stick creatures.

He screamed the scream that he often screams then tamed the wild stick beast and named him Lenny.

Christmas Tree

2012-01-01T13:06:00.000-08:00

Sarah and each of the kids chose their favorite tree. The problem was that none of them were the same tree. I listened to all the pleas to "Cut this one Dad, Cut this one". Tree cutting day was either going to be a great beginning to Christmas or a crying fest. With some negotiating I suggested this and that and we wandered around enough that no one knew where their favorite tree was now. We picked a new one together. I think this years tree was the best we've ever had.

Walk In The Woods

2012-01-01T08:28:00.000-08:00

It was cold, and muddy, and fun. Hot chocolate waiting back at the car helped.

Best buddies.

Larkin ended up in the mud once and surprisingly didn't demand new clothes.

Nice pose Noah.

Poor Sarah was home resting from a back injury. We missed you Sarah.

Hanging Out In The City

2012-01-01T08:26:00.000-08:00

After our muddy hike we wandered into Portland. Got some "lunch" at Cost Plus. I let the kids pick out strange fool like things to try. It, along with a bunch of caramel corn kept us alive.

Then we headed over to Washington Square to watch the ice skaters.

Then we hopped on the Max and road into Portland to play around Pioneer Square.

Noah's quite the doeboy. Giddy-up.

This picture caught Larkin thinking she was going to fall off...Joshua saved her.

Lulu's Cital

2011-12-07T12:55:00.000-08:00

Larkin's First Dance Recital: Christmas in Hawaii

Larkin had lot's of different outfits...hmmm just like every day at home.

She had a hard time because she didn't like the bracelet on her hand. She said it was too big. So what did she do? She moped the rest of the recital. (actually, these are pics from rehearsal. We filmed the recital. She did awesome at the recital...hardly any moping and lots of paused dancing to run and give mom and dad high 5's! The best was when she glared at at little boy in the audience who was being distracting.)

There was a whole dance with just twirls. But my favorite was when she did the hula and shook her little hips like a mad woman. So stinking cute!

At the end of the recital, Miss Heidi, Larkin's teacher gave a card a candy cane to each girl. She then spent a couple of minutes explaining why each girl was special. Some girls had great dance moves and learned a ton. Then there was Larkin. She said, "Larkin is spunky." For all you moms out there with "spunky" children...you know what this means really. Yes...NAUGHTY. I loved it! The week before the recital, Larkin got put on a timeout for squeezing someone's arm and then putting her hands around her neck. When asked what she was doing, she said she was giving a hug. Let's hope that was true and that Miss Heidi mistook the alleged "hug" for strangling! I'm not sure Larkin will ever be a prima ballerina, but she sure loves it.

Sock Bunny Underpant Hat

2011-11-20T08:27:00.001-08:00

Noah's an inventor. Sadly most of his ideas never get built. We don't have a welder, a lathe, (I busted my soldering iron), or many other tools it'd take. But this one we had the materials in hand and the tools necessarily to build it.

Materials:

Underpants

Socks

Thread

Tools:

Needle

Invention:

Sock Bunny Underpant Hat

This requires a crazy little boy to pull it off.

Just a disclaimer here. The spittle is my fault. It's hard to keep the juices in when spinning at the g-forces I was asking for. "Spin a little faster Noah...faster...faster...click,click,click".

2011-10-15T14:42:00.000-07:00

Hi. Remember me? It's Sarah. I haven't posted anything on this blog since May. Aaron has been the hero who has kept up on all the excitement that happens around here. Blogging may not be a priority to me these days, but these cute kids sure are.

Arwen is 8, almost 9 and is my favorite thing ever, lately. Seriously, Arwen has the kindest, sweetest soul. She is still playing soccer and kicking lots of butt! I so enjoy watching her play. It's one of the highlights to my week. She has an amazing coach with a stellar group of girls on her team. She also enjoys going to Valiant Girls, which is an activity night at church for girls 8-11. She loves it!

This picture of Arwen sums up my little girl lately. After entering a lottery, and winning, Aaron and I have had the opportunity of putting Ar and Noah into a Spanish Immersion Charter School. It's amazing. I love it. Spanish now makes up 80 percent of their day. They only hear English in English class and in math class. Arwen loves her teachers and all her classmates, but has been struggling a lot. She gets extremely worried that she won't be able to do the things asked of her, before she even tries to do it. There has been lots of tears and heartache around here. Most of the other 3rd graders have been at the school for the past 2 years, and have a firmer knowledge of Spanish. Arwen worries that she is behind and that she will never catch up. But, after meeting with her teachers, I found out she is doing splendidly. She is an obedient child and always gets her assignments done on time and does well on them. All of her teachers tell me that she is leader and is very kind to all of the kids in class who have a hard time with their behavior. She is patient with them and helps them stay on task. She is starting to become more confident and I love that! I think I have worried about Arwen more that Arwen has :) She told me she has a few boys in class who have crushes on her. Oh no! She's too darn cute!

Noah is 6, but will be 7 in just 2 weeks! I think the appropriate words to describe Noah are spunk and pizzazz. He is my wild child at home, but to my astonishment is calm and collected while at school. His teachers tell me that he too, is a leader and participates a lot and is doing quite well. He has taken to the Spanish Immersion program and is flying with it. I love to hear the Spanish things he says and listen to all of his cute Spanish songs he sings for me. He is doing quite well in math. They placed him in the 2nd grade math class, although he's in 1st grade. Good job, Noah! Last I checked, he couldn't draw all of his numbers facing the correct directions...but I guess he is able to grasp the concepts, so that's what counts, right?? I'm afraid he spells as well as his Dad, which is not too great, to put it kindly :) I make him do his spelling words every day, even though he insists that his English teacher says he doesn't have to. He did come home with a perfect score on lasts weeks test, but this weeks practice tests have been pretty bad!

He is playing soccer as well. Aaron is his coach. I think they have lots of fun together. It's hilarious to watch their games. The kids have more fun playing in the mud than they do playing ball. Noah has fun. He's scored a few times this season and that sure makes him happy. I happened to comment on a player on an opposing team who scored at least 12 goals in one game. I told Noah that kid was a super star. Noah ran out and scored a goal and then shouted to me, "Am I a super star, too Mom?" Of course, Noah! You're the best! Noah is so neat. Anytime things are scary or someone is having a hard time, he's so quick to suggest saying a prayer. And I love how it always turns out okay and that he points out that it was because of his prayer. He has such an amazing amount of faith.

Joshua is 5. Josh started kindergarten at our regular public school this fall. The charter school does not have a kinder program. Joshua loves everything about it. He loves learning about the alpha friends and the sounds and actions that go along with them. He tells me about all the pretty girls in class and how he likes to sit by them. He also told me about Ivan, who is chubby. Josh really likes Ivan, because he IS chubby. Joshua loves when Arwen calls him chubby. Silly, sweet boy. I get to help a couple of times a month in his classroom. I like to be there, but I'm finding out that Josh is kind of lazy when it comes to coloring and cutting with scissors. I tried to encourage him to do better work, but he just ignored me. His teacher told me that he is emotional...yes, I know! But he's a good kid. She thinks that by Christmas he'll have everything figured out and won't be so emotional about things. Good luck...I've been wishing for that the last 5 Christmases!

Joshua is doing really well at home with his reading. I asked his teacher when they were starting reading groups at school and she didn't even know if they could do them this year because they have some many kinders who don't even know their letters and sounds, let alone how to read. That makes me sad. He does great here, but I think he'd really rise to the challenge in a reading group at school. Josh is playing soccer too. He is super competitive and freaks out if the other team scores. I keep trying to tell him that it's okay and we need to be happy for the other team, but he's not falling for that nonsense. It's been good for him and he really looks forward to his game every Thursday night. Josh is still my sweetheart who tells me I'm the most beautiful thing ever. He melts my heart with the caring things he says. I love that he's only 5 and loves to say nice things to make others happy.

Larkin is 3, going on 16. Seriously, that's what she tells us. All. Day. Long. "I'm not little, I'm big." I don't even know how to describe this little thing lately. Here are the things she tells me quite often. "Mom, you're old." There are two gates you can walk through to exit Arwen's soccer field and she makes me go one way and her and Arwen get to go the other way. "Mom you have to go the ugly way and Me and Arwen get to go the pretty way." "Why," I ask her. "Because you're a little bit ugly." She's quite the character and always has us in giggles.

But I really do love this little twit. I love how tiny she is, even though she hates to be called anything but big. I love how she tells me that I'm her best friend forever. I love when she's sleepy or hurt and will crawl onto my lap and let me put my arms around her and allow her to be small for a short time. I love watching her prance around in her little leotard and tights on ballet days. Cutest. Thing. Ever. I have loved having her hair cut sassy and short for so long. I mentioned that I was going to make an appointment to get her hair trimmed. She then informed me that she is growing it out, because long hair is beautiful and she wants to be beautiful like Arwen. I love that she has her own opinions but I will miss her sassy hairstyle. I adore it short. Even though she says some pretty questionable things, I'm glad she's mine!

Duck-Soup

2011-10-02T17:50:00.000-07:00

Noah has been working on the duck sculpture for days. I don't think I got it's best angle. It was pretty impressive. I asked Noah how long it took him to make it and to tell us a little about it. His reply:

"Three days, three days. I gave it a special feature. It's wings and it's nostrils, and it has fur. And if you're Grandma and Grandpa and your listening to this, it's Noah Nielsen's."

Somehow everything we thought we planted this year was actually tomatoes. I have a suspicion that we actually planted other stuff but seeds from last years wind fall tomatoes took over. Larkin has been loving it. She eats tomatoes like candy. Here's a yellow/red tomato soup I built. Perhaps next time I'll consult an actual recipe but Sarah said it was really good.

First Day of School

2011-09-25T11:44:00.000-07:00

AT SCHOOL

Arco Iris - Spanish Immersion School

Dad: Tell me about school.

Arwen: Uhhh? It's Spanish.

Dad: Anything else?

Arwen: We do very hard math. And we do recesses once or twice a day. And I...um...um...DADDY! NO! NO! (Laughing).

Dad: Anything else? Do you have any friends?

Arwen: My friends are Sajl and Cruz.

Dad: Tell me about school.

Noah: Do you mean on Friday?

Dad: Sure.

Noah: It was great on Friday because I painted a picture of Egypt.

Dad: Anything else? Do you have any friends?

Noah: One, Lilly. She's one of my friends.

Dad: If she's one of your friends who are the others?

Noah: Even, and Kendall...that's all.

Dad: How about your school work, how is it?

Noah: Good. I do for my school work stuff like doing the...learning the vowels in Spanish the first one's 'A' the second one is 'E' then 'I,O,U'. We also do for school work, we cut out little stuff and put it in our books and write the letter of what it starts with. And we write a little story that my teacher writes down on the board.

Dad: What's your favorite part about school?

Noah: Math and Art.

Butternut Creek Elementary School

We have to draw letters, and circle the letters, and first we write our name. Then we circle a letter if it's an "A" or if it's a lower case "a" we put in another box. It's kinda hard for me to do crisscross apple sauce. I have a blue folder and I go to gym at first and we go in a line so we don't loose anybody. And we draw pictures of people and we're star students...but it's not my turn yet. Soon I'm going to be one. My friends are Ashley and Frankie. I love School.

~ Love, Joshua.

BEFORE SCHOOL

BALLET SCHOOL

Larkin: My ballet school was about talking and being a doll and dancing like a doll. Any my teacher said when people come out we go back in our box.

Dad: How do you like it?

Larking: Meghan was biting the other girl and the other girl and me when the ballet again and pulled my hair.

Dad: Anything else?

Larkin: And we dance, and have a nice day, and mom picked us up, and the teacher gives us water, and Maren's mom she picked us up and we comed home, and that... and we comed home.. and we uh... drink.

Soccer

2011-09-18T11:34:00.000-07:00

Soccer season has begun, three kids, one car, and so much fun!

Here are some pictures from some of their first games.

JOSHUA

ARWEN

NOAH

The Rock

2011-09-13T06:11:00.000-07:00

If you say "that doesn't look all that heavy".

Then let's pretend that most of it's buried under ground.

Noah and Joshua had fun trying to make themselves invisible. They are pretty proud of their first attempt.

Hot Springs - Bubbles

2011-09-09T18:59:00.000-07:00

We went swimming at the hot springs on Memorial Day. It was fun. We've been there perhaps once a year because we're camping down there or just because for the last three years or so. Three years ago when I was looking for a geocache I found a huge rock with a hole in it by the river. I tried to bring it home to landscape with it but could not lift it. Last year I did quite a bit of exercising and still hand no luck. This year out of pure stubbornness I muscled that thing up the bank and hoisted it into the van. It's now in our front yard. And I'm still sore.

Smile Lulu...or just do what ever that is, it's cute too.

Noah brought the bubbles and had a blast.

Got him to share with Arwen.

Nice goatee of foamy bubble blowing spit Noah.

If Larking didn't have a rock in her hand she had one in her mouth.

Noah got tired of running around trying to catch bubbles in his mouth and just had Joshua blow them straight in. It didn't take him all that long to figure out that bubbles look better than they taste.

What a good little guy Joshua is.

Nice bubble Noah.

Out on the Lake

2011-09-04T08:55:00.000-07:00

Out on the Lake

Peter and Pricilla invited us out to the lake on Saturday. It was a great alternative to painting the tree house on a 90 degree day. We had lots of fun and got lots of sun.

Sarah out on a paddleboard.

Arwen was pretty good at getting around too.

Noah and Dallin had a blast swimming around on a foam surf board too. It was two weeks or so ago that Arwen stepped on a bee and got stung and let out a scream of death that lasted forever. We were sure no one could let out a longer or louder scream than Arwen did...well Noah can. He got stung on the toe whilst out on the lake and is alarm was heard far and wide. Poor little guy was scared to death that he was going to have an allergic reaction and die. I guess we mentioned at some point that it's the second time you are stung that you have to be careful in case you have an allergic reaction. This was his second time.

Sarah and Arwen out on the tube. Way to be brave Sarah. Arwen said she wanted to push Sarah off but restrained herself.

The lake was choppy but Joshua talked me into getting out on some skies anyway. I used to ski (wakeboard/kneeboard) any chance I got when I was a kid. Which was quite a bit on the bishops or other members boats. I'm well out of practice now though.

Are they having fun? They sure are holding on for dear life.

There, that's almost a smile on Joshua's face. They did have lots of fun.

Arwen thought they all looked like super heroes in this one on some important mission.

Monkey Bar

2011-08-26T06:17:00.000-07:00

Joshua is a monkey bar expert now.

Congratulations Joshua.

Day at the Beach

2011-08-21T11:02:00.000-07:00

Day at the Beach

Noah and Lulu had a blast trying to get the kite to fly.

The wind was fickle and I'm sure Sarah and I entertained a lot of people on the beach trying to get the kites to fly.

Noah and Lulu had more fun just running around with a short bit of line than they would have if we'd got them to stay up anyway.

Noah did pretty good not garroting beach goers with the kite line.

The kids spent most of their time fighting the tide. Here's Arwen carrying a huge rock to fortify the castle wall.

Joshua was transfixed by the waves, and cold. So he spent much of his time wrapped up in his towel.

Noah dancing a jig.

A Larkin look.

Viewpoint on the way home. Also we noticed the sign was down for the largest sitka spruce in the pacific north west. When we checked the park sure enough the largest sitka spruce was now a large stump. That's kinda sad.

We stopped off at Camp18 for dinner and had fun looking at all the old logging tools. The food is only ever okay there. The kids were in "need" of a treat so we ordered a bread pudding and a brownie with fudge and whipped cream. It was huge and was easily shared around the table.

Face Paint Line

2011-08-09T10:40:00.000-07:00

Long Long Line

We went to some kids concert on Saturday and waited in line for face painting. The kids got bored of the face painting line and would leave to stand in other lines then come back, or go and dance in front of the stage trying to get shirts or balls or whatever they'd throw out. None of them got anything, Joshua took it pretty hard every time. One of the excursions from the "line" was to another line to have their caricatures done. Arwen and Noah went first. Noah was hilarious trying really hard to show off his Sponge Bob teeth. Then Joshua, Sarah, and Larkin got theirs done. I had to grab a few pieces here and there and do a little Photoshop fiddling to add me in for a family caricature.

Probably 15min from being next in the hours long line we gave up and left. The kids just couldn't handle any more. Sarah promised to paint their faces at home. That worked.

You want me to paint a mole Larkin?

Yeah, I want a mole!

Joshua's rainbow.

Arwen's butterfly.

Noah of course is a zombie.

Grandma, you can see my "rafters" in this picture of Lulu jumping on the trampoline.

What a little princess.

River Day

2011-07-31T12:13:00.000-07:00

River Day

Nice splash Noah.

"C" is for cold. The day was nice and warm but the water was cold.

It took Arwen all day to get brave enough to swim across the cold river to jump off the rocks.

Here Joshua is showing me swimming without getting to wet.

Silly little Lulu.

We went treasure hunting up and down the banks and Joshua and the other kids had a lot of good loot. So much that they had to choose which to bring home and which to leave behind.

Noah and Joshua played together pretty well building swimming pools and finding rocks.

Joshua and Noah helped build a little cesspool that was warmer then the rest of the river.

Track Day

2011-07-21T07:27:00.000-07:00

Track Day

Look dad I can fly for just a little bit. ~Joshua

He was a little upset after his first run until he realized he got a ribbon anyway.

I did good on the pigs, oh I mean the turtles...I just jumped over the turtles easily and I winned. ~Larkin

And she did, she got first place on the 50m hurdles, I mean turtles.

The green ribbon I thought said practice.

I thought I had to practice more running. ~Arwen

Noah was much relived this morning when he found out that the "practice" ribbons were really participation ribbons.

2011-07-03T04:52:00.000-07:00

The train tracks miss Joshua

...the garden misses Arwen

...the swing misses Larkin

...the secret passage misses Noah

...and so do I. But most of all I miss you Sarah.

Have lot's of fun.

And Happy Birthday!

2011-05-29T20:08:00.000-07:00

Joshua's Angry Birthday

I can't believe that Joshua is 5! If you know anything about this boy, you'll know that he loves birthdays and cakes and games. He even has a cake hat that has candles on top that he periodically wears throughout the year in preparation for his birthday.

When I got my iPod touch back at Christmas time, Aaron put the Angry Birds game on it. Joshua LOVED it. I would find him tucked into a corner playing it at any given time during the day. I finally had Aaron take it off the iPod because Josh was officially an addict :)

A few months ago, we stumbled upon the idea of having an Angry Bird birthday party. Josh and I have been planning and scheming ever since!

Here are the fondant birds and pigs for his interactive Angry Bird game. Joshua sat on the counter for the lots and lots of time it took to create these little guys, dreaming about the time when he would play with them...and then eat them. Gross.

And here is his cake. Aaron made the sling shot for Joshua to launch his birds at the pigs.

Joshua got to play Angry Birds and Wii all day for his birthday...he was in Heaven! Neither have been allowed in the house for a long time! And after a Saturday full of whining and meanness, mostly from the older two, I now remember why :)

Don't worry, after just one bite, Joshua opted out from eating the fondant birds and pigs. (Lulu had 3 or 4 though.) We had yummy Angry Bird cupcakes for his edible birthday cake and let them pick apart the other cake. (I borrowed this picture from the blog I found the idea on...mine didn't turn out very well.)

Grandma Carrot sent a Sponge Bob pinata as one of Josh's presents and the kids LOVED it! It was a total hit. Josh got some Mario movies, Angry Bird toys, a cake game and a cool red Angry Bird t-shirt. I think it was a great day...until bedtime rolled around and Josh had to turn the Wii off. He was an angry boy who told us that his day was horrible. Gotta love him!!

2011-05-21T23:01:00.000-07:00

I've got something on my mind that I need to get written down because I don't want to forget it, and since I'm lousy at keeping a journal...the blog will have to do :)

Today was Ar and Noah's last game of soccer for spring season. What an awesome season it has been. I LOVE everything about it. I even love the practices...we go and watch the kids play and do something that they love and support them and it's wonderful.

Arwen and Noah's games were at the same time today, so I went to Ar's and Aaron took the little guys to Noah's. At first, it looked like the opposing team wasn't going to show. Arwen talked me into going out and being goalie so the girls could practice offense. (Ha Ha, Arwen. She just wanted an easy target in there so they could score big time!) Let me tell you, those 8 year olds can kick. I was scared for my life...well, the life of my shin-guardless shins anyways. It was lots of fun and then the other team rolled in right as the game was about to start.

Arwen started as sweeper and let nothing get past her and into the goal. (It may or may not have had a little something to do with the fact that I told her I would give her a wedgie if the other team scored. I'm not sure...) Then she played striker and scored a goal for me. They played a bit more and the ref's blew the whistles for half time.

There are 11 girls on Ar's team and so they always have 2 games going on at the same time. 6 girls on one field and 5 on the other. So at half time our girls switched fields so they could play the other half of the opposing team. I noticed when they switched that the other team had a little girl on it whose little body wasn't the same as everyone else's. She was quite a bit shorter than the other girls and there was something wrong with her skinny little appendages. I had what I will call a "small lung" moment..

What the heck is a "small lung" moment, you ask. Well, Aaron and I know this kid whose mom wouldn't let him try out for sports because "he had small lungs." Turns out the kid did just fine in sports once he was able to convince his mom he wouldn't die. Sometimes when we go out for a run together and I'm convinced that I just can't run a step more because my my lungs are screaming or my knees hurt I'll yell that I'm about to die because of whatever my excuse is and Aaron just has to say, "small lungs."

As a mother I struggle with letting my kids try new things or things that seem scary to me because I don't want to see them fail or struggle or get hurt. Like Josh. I always worry about him being able to keep up with everyone because of his weird muscles. Or Noah because he's so darn little. But all Aaron has to say to me is, "small lungs" and I realize that I have to let them try and that they will be okay.

So, back to the game and my "small lung" moment. I was worried sick about this little girl. First off, there are some psycho parents of these sweet little 8 year olds who will scream at the kids or gossip amongst themselves about whatever player just screwed up the play. I've seen the parents get really upset at some of the kids who aren't as quick or agile as some of the kids. It breaks my heart. Then I worried because the girls on Ar's team can kick...HARD. I already mentioned my poor shins.

I had such a humbling experience when the whistle was blown and play resumed. It took me a few minutes, but I noticed that anytime the sweet little girl would get the ball, ALL the parents on her team would scream her name, no matter what. I'm not sure that there was anything mentally wrong with her, but she sure knew the rules of soccer. She'd get that ball and dribble towards her goal. It was so neat to hear the parents yelling for her.

Then I noticed Arwen. Arwen is a superstar...and No. None of that superstar-ness came from me. Parents got to scrimmage against the girls last night as final practice and lets just be honest and say I was the lamest one out there. And Arwen is 100 percent the exact opposite of me. She is so aggressive and intimidating. She would terrify me if I had to be on the opposite team as her. Whenever someone on the other team has the ball, it's not for very long. Arwen steals it, dribbles down and scores. Really. I'm talking she always scores 70 percent of the goals her team makes.

Anytime the little girl got to the ball and Arwen was the first one there to try and steal it, I noticed something. And it took my breath away and even made me cry. Arwen did not charge the little girl. She did not steal the ball away from her. She'd wait it out and let play happen and then continue on after the girl passed the ball. At first I wasn't sure Arwen was doing it on purpose. Because really, how often does she look at the girls' faces or bodies. It's all about feet and the ball. I figured her eyes were glued to that ball and nothing could distract her. But after a few times I just knew that Arwen knew there was something special about this girl and that she needed to do some things differently. Ar didn't stop playing and make it seem like she was just letting the girl "win." She stuck with her and followed the ball, but never once did she make contact with that ball and steal it. I promise you. If Arwen had wanted that ball she would have had it lightening fast.

We try so hard to teach our kids to be kind others and love others. But most of the time I'm convinced my kids don't get it. The punch each other, call each other nasty names and throw tantrums about how life is not fair when they get called on it. But today I knew that that Arwen gets it and that when push comes to shove, she's going to look out for the littler guy. That she will be the one to make sure no one eats lunch alone at school. That she won't let others pick one someone because they are different. She won't care that her whole team, or class is watching and worry that what they might think of her.

I love this sweet little girl so much. I LOVE to watch her play ball. It gives me so much pleasure and happiness. Seriously, I look forward to practice and the games more than just about anything. But it's NOTHING compared to seeing her whole self filled with compassion and love for someone she doesn't even know. She gets it. She's trying to be like Jesus. She wants to be good. She loves her fellow humans.

I asked her after the game if she noticed something was different about the little girl and she said she did. I wanted to ask her why played the way she did, but she looked at me with her sincere blue eyes and I could just see everything. She did what was right not because someone told her too or even because we've coached her on how to treat others that have it a little rougher than we do. She did it because she is full of goodness and charity and kindness. I just love her so much and always want to remember what is probably an insignificant moment that no one even noticed except for me. Well, Arnie, I noticed and you really were the star out there today. Thank you.

2011-05-19T20:39:00.000-07:00

Arwen and Joshua made blueberry snow men the other day.

Very cute.

2011-05-16T16:03:00.000-07:00

Cute things overheard at the Great Wold Lodge

Noah: "Hey guys, It's John and Terry!" I love this show! The thing is, no one really knows which one is John and which one is Terry." (You know...TOM and JERRY.)

Aaron: (talking to Joshua about going down the canyon water slide) "Joshua, do you want to go on it again?"

Joshua: "Again? I've already been on it AGAIN! I've been on it 4 times!"

2011-05-16T16:00:00.000-07:00

Great Wolf Lodge 2011

Aaron and I surprised the kids with a trip to The Great Wolf Lodge last week. We threw all of them in the car and told them we were going to Wal-Mart...which we did, to get snacks for the hotel. (There's a Wal-Mart 10 minutes away from the Lodge.) The kids were pleased as punch when we drove into the parking lot.

I hardly saw Arwen. She had a blast skipping from one part of the park to the other. She is finally tall enough to ride all the rides without an adult. Her favorite was the Tornado.

On the 2nd day, Larkin, Noah, and Joshua all crashed at different times. It was pretty cute to see one of them zonked out there in the 84 degree park, taking a nap.

Larkin was just getting done with one of her tonsil episodes and was kind of a pill. We got A LOT of sass from her :)

Joshua was just happy to be there! He was tall enough to ride on the the big rides with Aaron or I. He LOVED it!

Noah loved everything! His favorite part may have been the cable television, though :)

And another of Lu...she did have lots of fun, when she wasn't busy throwing a tantrum!

2011-05-04T05:30:00.000-07:00

10 Years Later...

Do you hear me? I'm talking to you
Across the water, across the deep blue ocean
Under the open sky, oh my, baby I'm trying

Boy I hear you in my dreams
I feel your whisper across the sea
I keep you with me in my heart
You make it easier when life gets hard

I'm lucky I'm in love with my best friend
Lucky to have been where I have been
Lucky to be coming home again

They don't know how long it takes
Waiting for a love like this
Every time we say goodbye
I wish we had one more kiss
I'll wait for you I promise you, I will

I'm lucky I'm in love with my best friend
Lucky to have been where I have been
Lucky to be coming home again

Lucky we're in love in every way
Lucky to have stayed where we have stayed
Lucky to be coming home someday

And so I'm sailing through the sea
To an island where we'll meet
You'll hear the music fill the air
I'll put a flower in your hair

Though the breezes through trees
Move so pretty you're all I see
As the world keeps spinning 'round
You hold me right here, right now

I'm lucky I'm in love with my best friend
Lucky to have been where I have been
Lucky to be coming home again

I'm lucky we're in love in every way
Lucky to have stayed where we have stayed
Lucky to be coming home someday

I love you Aaron.
Here's to the next 10 years
...and then the eternities.

Thanks to our amazing, beautiful sister in law, Bethany, Aaron and I now have wedding pictures outside the Denver Temple where we were married. 10 years ago today, Denver had one of it's freak blizzards and I opted to not have any pictures taken outdoors. I've kicked myself since. But thanks to super talented Bethany, I have pictures to hang on my wall, that weren't taken in the gym of the church!

2011-05-02T06:06:00.000-07:00

Windflow - Hike

I can't remember what the real name of this park is, but Noah named it Windflow the first time we brought him here because it was really windy.

Larkin and the kids do fine walking on their own on the down-hill.

At the bottom of the hill is a frog pond that we spend a lot of time at. Here's Arwen climbing a cliff down by the pond.

Noah climbing the same cliff.

We found a few tadpoles and Noah found a dead snake that he had fun playing with on the end of a stick.

Mostly though, they just threw rocks into the pond. With every throw we thought Larking would go in with her rocks.

Larkin had fun throwing rocks from the top of a cliff as well. She'd get right to the edge and huck a handful of rocks and wobble a little and finally looking toward us yelling at her to, "Get back from the cliff, Lulu!"

Joshua loves his snacks. Arwen and Noah made the whole hike but Joshua and Larkin needed some help on the way back up the hill. Now that's a workout.

Arwen and I had fun looking for flowers. We found these that I liked a lot.

2011-04-26T14:24:00.000-07:00

Here's Noah, the soccer stud! His team used to be called the, "Turtles." But apparently coach Mike couldn't stand that name. But he can live with "Ninja Turtles," so Ninja Turtles it is!

It was such a beautiful day on Saturday. We got up into the mid 70's. If you'd have asked Noah, he would have informed you that that was way too hot to play soccer.

I think he had a pretty good time. He's got some mean girls on his team that like to push him down while trying to get the ball, but Noah's a good sport about it.

I'm hoping soccer in the fall will be a better experience for him...right now there are 12 little kinders/1st graders on his team and so pretty much it's impossible to teach them anything, so they just run around pushing and kicking each other.

I love to watch Noah play. He is so silly!! He's pretty fast and I think when he finally learns how to play, he'll really enjoy it.

2011-04-18T16:28:00.000-07:00

Ouch!

Windshield + Joshua's forehead = beautiful star shaped crack in windshield.

(It's not what you think...we were parked at soccer practice and Josh was drawing a picture on my touch. He stood up on the front passenger chair to show it to me since I was outside. He must have forgotten that there was a window. Don't worry, Joshua was fine. Too bad my poor windshield can't say the same.)

2011-04-10T12:06:00.000-07:00

Spring soccer has begun. It's cold, wet, MUDDY, but oh so fun!! Both Arwen and Noah are playing. This is Noah's first season. He had his first game yesterday. (we couldn't find the memory card...so there will be pics next week) He still doesn't know too much about all the rules and stuff, but he did score in his first game. It was so awesome!!

Arwen is struggling a bit this season because her coaches are teaching them positions and the girls have to play in those position during the game. Arwen is used to running around and chasing that ball and forgets to stay in her position. She likes being a wing and the striker, but not so much the sweeper. Who wants to defend when you can be scoring goals?!?!

Usually it's Arwen throwing out the elbows and checking people...not really. Last Saturday she knocked 4 or 5 of the other teams girls down but she made sure to help all of them up.

Not quite sure...maybe she's excited because they scored, or bummed because they didn't ;) It's cute though.

Arwen's team scored 4 goals. Arwen score 3 of those. I'm a proud mama!! I adore watching these kids play...even when they don't score, but oh how fun it is when they do!

2011-03-30T17:24:00.000-07:00

We had some pretty weather about a month ago and went for a hike at a pretty park up on a hill near our house. I was given charge of the camera...so not the greatest pictures and I only took pictures of one of my subjects. How could I resist, though? Larkin has a style all her own and I love it!

Can you guess her favorite color?

My pockets were full of these cute baby rocks by the time we were done hiking.

Here she is showing off some of her sweet dance moves.

Here's a super gross "worm" that she found and was brave enough to pick up.

I love this sassy pants little thing so much!

2011-03-01T20:52:00.000-08:00

Snow Day

Other than the lack of snow the kids loved their snow day. I'm glad Sarah twisted my arm into staying home in the morning.

Noah's snow man lasted a few days in various forms of decay. Arwen and Joshua helped him build it. Noah was adamant that it have hands, then decided that they looked more like marshmallows. That was a better idea anyway.

Lulu just wandered around sampling snow patches.

Poor kids have knit gloves...it didn't slow'em down.

Joshua was so excited to make a snow angel...he couldn't stop thinking about it.

This must have been the most delicious snow Lulu could find. I had to chase her away from the nasty garbage can a few times. Must've been easy lickin'.

2011-02-27T09:28:00.000-08:00

One of the best things about our Christmas trip in Denver (and our reason for braving the winter roads) was Arwen getting baptized. It was so great to be there and have so many family members be able to attend to support Arwen and her big day.

Here's my pretty, 8 year old girl on her big day. Aaron performed the baptism and the confirmation. My dad conducted and got the font ready. Aunt Heidi filled in as last minute piano player, and did beautifully.

I gave a talk on baptism and Grandma Carrot gave the talk on the Holy Ghost. Uncle Micheal played the guitar while my brother Scott, sang a solo. (Scott also sang one more song for Ar.) Aunt Bethany and Noah gave prayers. And we had lots of cousins there to whisper about how pretty Arwen was...and enjoy all the candy we had for a treat afterward.

Goofy looking family, but what a special day we had. Aaron and I are so proud of the sweet little girl we have. She tries so hard to make right choices and is such an example to all of us. And thank you to everyone that came to support Arwen. We love you all!

2011-02-20T07:51:00.000-08:00

Snow

Joshua wasn't a big fan of sledding in the freezing cold. He went down once I think. The cold was just too much for him.

Here's the big race.

"Not my problem!" yells Arwen as she leaves Noah's wreckage behind her.

Shoshone Falls on the way home. Getting here we had crazy crosswinds blowing snow over the road through Wyoming and 30mph speed limits most of the way.

Arwen braved the cold with me to go out and see the falls while the others hung out in the warm motel. It was well south of freezing.

We had fun looking at all the frozen waterfalls.

Livin' on the edge.

After another long drive we arrived at home sweet home. Lulu celebrated by sneaking out of her room and falling asleep on the top step.

2011-02-20T07:41:00.000-08:00

Family Visits

Uncle Michael decided he wanted to grow a beard and justified it with a Christmas best beard contest.

This is the best I could come up with. I shaved it off before Uncle Mike came up because I didn't want to wear it to the Hudson family dinner.

Football in Uncle Matthew's backyard. Look at that arm on Arwen. During the official game there were only a few injuries and a little bit of blood.

One of the twins, can't remember their names but I know they both have Anna in them so here's one of the little Anna's.

This could be the other or the same one, but you get the point, they were cute and there are two of them.

Lulu loved them here she is kissing one of there tiny little feet. Ah, Annabelle and Luciana.

Here are the great grand kids with Grandma Suzanne. We had a nice visit over there and the kids had fun playing with a bunch of toys Great Grandma kept over in the corner and eating all her tootsie rolls.

2011-02-12T17:42:00.000-08:00

To Denver for Christmas

getting caught up

We drove to Colorado for Christmas in the snow. It added a few hours to our 2 day drive but it was beautiful. Beautiful and maddening. I was driving in the one snow free land looking at all this scenery that I'd love to stop and take a picture of but there was no way to pull over without getting stuck.

Free day at Denver Art Museum had some catches...like that it was not free. So we poked around the grounds and...

...found Lulu's twin that was nice enough to give her a ride.

The kids really wanted this massive armoire to bring home for a bunk bed. That's be fun, and easy to put a lock on. (The kids have been seeking into my bead again lately)

You might recognize the artwork from a celestial seasonings box. Noah, Arwen, and I took a tour of the factory while Joshua, Larkin, and Sarah sampled all the herbal teas. They let us hang out in the mint room for a while and it was intense, they separate it from the rest of the herbs as the mint would contaminate everything. They were processing lemon grass the day we went and it smelled awesome.

After the Art Museum we tried the Denver Mint which gives free tours, we'll unless you have a camera bag. Oh well we had as much fun as we could and a freezing day in Denver.

2011-02-02T11:20:00.001-08:00

Joshua loves video games...or any games for that matter. He'll sit on the computer for hours and play chess against it :) He really likes to play angry birds on my iPod. Mostly, he likes to watch me play. The other day he was watching me and I squashed all the pigs with the angry birds and the pigs snorted. So I snorted. Josh looked at me with awe and astonishment on his face and said, "I didn't know you spoke pig!" I just get cooler by the minute!

2010-12-19T08:00:00.000-08:00

Here's a post for the man I love the best and most! I am so lucky to have Aaron. We've been married for nearly 10 years. It's not always been easy...we butt heads a bit too :) (Must be because he's married to a grown-up version of Larkin!!) But he really is the most patient, loving, compassionate man I've ever met.

He always keeps me giggling which is probably one of the things I love most about him. He is so creative and crafty and brings so much fun and joy into my life. He is always ready and willing to give a helping hand and I'm pretty sure there's not something he can't fix. I'm constantly volunteering his superman services for him...which drives him crazy because for some reason he doesn't think he's as amazing as I know he is.

Anyways, I love you Aaron :) Here's to the next 70-80 years! I love you the most, I win.

2010-12-18T08:00:00.000-08:00

Last but not least...Lulu!! What to say about this little one? Well...Larkin is the child that I butt heads with most of all. She is the most sassy, stubborn, naughty, mischievous, and did I mention naughty of all my kidlets. Aaron has always said that Noah is just like he was as a little child. Now Aaron is saying that he thinks that Larkin is exactly what I was like as a child. Ahhh!! I'm not quite sure about that, but it would explain why she exasperates me so much!!

Don't get me wrong, life would be so sad without little Lulu! She keeps us laughing 100 percent of the time. We dropped Aaron off at work yesterday and she pointed to a man walking into the building. She said, "You see him? He wants to kill us." "WHY??" I asked. She shrugged her shoulders and said matter of factly, "Because he's naughty." Whew! Where does she come up with this stuff?? The other day Larkin asked me where her "booby sweater" was. Whhaaat? I had no idea what she was talking about. I brought her into the bathroom and stuffed toilet paper in her shirt and asked if that was a "booby sweater." "No," she said, but was happy with my latest fashion. (Aaron was not.) She kept asking for it for a few days. Finally, Arwen figured it out. It was Larkin's hot pink puffy vest. Oohhh!! Now I know :) She wore it to the church Christmas party and took it off because she got hot. She wandered off and came back in a panic. "Where's my booby sweater?" She shouted! I quickly pulled it out from under my chair and put it on her. She was happy.

Larkin loves to dance and be pretty. You'd never know it by looking at her, but she insists that I make her hair pretty, because she doesn't like when she looks in the mirror and it looks, "ug-a-ly!" We have some fancy pants expensive curler things that she calls, "curlie-do's" and is always begging for them. But, she yanks them out after a few minutes and never lets them do what they are supposed to.

Well, guess who is 3 today?? Uh huh! I have a feeling that this little one has lots of new tricks up her sleeve for this year. And I can't wait to giggle at all of them! I love my Lulu so much!

2010-12-17T13:42:00.000-08:00

Joshua! What can I say about Joshua? I don't have any favorite children, but if I had to make a tally of who is consistently sweet, loving, giving, helpful, obedient, and cute, Joshua would win, no contest! (I'm kind of partial to him because he's the only child who actually looks a little like me!!) We have always said, "Joshua is just happy to be here," and I think that will probably be his motto his whole life.

Of all my children, Josh has had to work the hardest to get to where he needs to be. He didn't walk until he was 18 months because of a muscle condition.. Now he struggles with speech because of that same muscle condition. But he has never given up and finds joy in the journey. Joshua loves his "talking school" and can now run and jump with all the rest of my hooligans!

Sometimes, okay, all the time, I find I coddle Joshua and I don't expect as much from him as the other kids because he's been delayed with nearly everything. I have been worrying a ton lately because Joshua has a May birthday and will start kindergarten next fall, making him one of the young 'un's in his class. Both Arwen and Noah are the older kids in their classes. But I have started doing some phonics with him and he is picking it up way faster than the other two ever did. And, he's been playing some letter games on the computer lately. Aaron got on him last night because instead of learning his letters and sounds, he was doing some gingerbread man game. Josh insisted that he knew his letters and that he was ready to play. So Aaron quizzed him. And you know what, he knew 90 percent of them! What!? I've only taught him 6 sounds from my book. Way to go super star!

Anyways, we sure are lucky to have this silly kid! I love him to pieces!!

2010-12-16T09:02:00.000-08:00

Noah! How could you not love this kid? Just look at him...such an angel right? Ha Ha! He really is a sweet little boy. He always keeps me on my toes. A couple of weeks ago he informed me that he told his entire church class of 5 and 6 year olds that Santa isn't real...yeah, he figured that out himself a couple of years ago. I was pretty perturbed, especially because I have talked to him about not spoiling the fun for other kids. He just shrugged his shoulders and told me that his teacher told the class that Noah was wrong and that if they didn't believe, Santa would not come. Yeah...Noah didn't buy it.

My friend volunteered in his classroom the other day and told me a sweet story about Noah. She said that his teacher lost one of the days of the week signs and everyone was really worried about finding it. Noah raised his hand and suggested to his teacher that they should just say a prayer to find it. That's my boy! What an awesome kid.

Don't let that sweet smile fool you...behind the grin are schemes of naughtiness! Lately, now that he is learning how to read and spell, he'll write or type a note that will explain to the opposite parent how mean the other parent is. But, in his defense, we do get sweet love notes occasionally too.

You just gotta love him!

2010-12-15T13:29:00.000-08:00

Arwen turns 8 next week! I can't believe it! I am the luckiest mom in the world to have her. She's just amazing! Arwen is the most obedient little girl I have ever met. I know anytime I ask her to do something that she will do it without any complaining or arguing. I think she understands that if she does things with a happy heart...even things that she doesn't want to do, that she will be happy. I just love her. She is always dancing around the kitchen...looking silly and singing a song. She once told me that she made a song up at school and one of her friends told her it was the best song ever and had Arwen write the "lyrics" down for her. She has a beautiful singing voice. Arwen is always smiling which makes her big blue eyes light up. She attracts lots of little kids everywhere she goes because she is so sweet and loving.

Arwen has finally developed a love of reading. I wasn't quite sure that she would. Up until now it has been like pulling teeth to get that kid to read. But in the last couple of months, she has become more confident in her skills and I always catch her with her nose in a book. It's great! I love to hear her giggling in a room by herself and sneak in and find her laughing out loud at whatever predicament Junie B. Jones has gotten herself into this time. She loves scripture reading in the morning. She always begs to read everyone's verse's for them.

Arwen loves to draw pictures...especially pictures for her friends. I am constantly finding little cards and notes for her classmates and teachers all over the house. She writes me little love notes all time...her last treasure she picked out at the Dollar Store was a bunch of cards so she could write special things in them and give them to people.

I love how courageous Arwen is. She's not afraid to try new things...things that are way out of her comfort zone. And after she falls down (or fails) the first time, she gets back up and tries again and again until she has mastered it. She keeps a smile on her face the whole time. What an amazing example for me! I just love her to pieces...every little bit of her! I'm so grateful that Heavenly Father blessed Aaron and I with such an amazing little spirit.

2010-10-30T20:27:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween!

_____

/ \

| () () |

\ ^ /

|||||

Pretty much, no one had any idea who we were this year :( Aaron wore his hat to work and everyone thought he was a viking. Oh well. The kids loved their costumes...they are the masterminds behind everyones get ups!

In case you're wondering, we are characters from, Avatar, The Last Airbender from Nickelodeon. Joshua is Aang, the Airbender. Arwen is Katara, the Waterbender. Noah is Zuko, the Firebender...but not the bad Zuko...Zuko when he's a good guy. I am Toph, the Earthbender. Larkin is Momo, the Winged Lemur and also Aang's pet. Aaron is Appa the Water Bison.

Sweet little Momo was not in many pictures because she had a high fever and was pretty grumpy :( So much for spending lots of $$ and time to make her darn costume...she wouldn't even wear it at the Trunk or Treat party tonight. Gotta love it! Anyways, Happy Halloween from the Nielsen Benders!

In case you were wondering about the real characters, here they are.

Toph, the Earthbender.

And the rest of the gang!

2010-10-11T14:17:00.000-07:00

I was just running upstairs for something...I can't remember what right now. Larkin and Josh were in the family room giggling and playing nicely. I overheard Larkin say to Josh, "I have a tail in my nose." I stopped on the stairs and said, "What??" Joshua said, "She has a stretchy rat tail in her nose." I immediately knew what she had done. I made a super cute advent Halloween calendar for the kids and the treat on Saturday was cute little stretchy mice for them to play with. Apparently Larkin tore her "rat tail" off and shoved it up her nose. She had the funniest look on her face. I told her to follow me so I could take a picture of her funny face...before taking the mouse tail out. The huge lens was on the camera so I told her to wait a minute. Right as I got them switched out and was ready to take picture of the silliest face ever, she sneezed! Out came the "rat tail" with lots of snot. So, no picture, but it was pretty funny! Now if I can somehow get her to stop putting garbage in her ears and nose!

2010-10-09T21:44:00.000-07:00

Soccer

Arwen had a great game today in the rain. I caught her pouring her water over her head when she was subbed out. Rain or no, it's just a fun thing to do I guess.

2010-10-03T08:36:00.000-07:00

Noah's Project

Noah got into the building mood the other day and decided to build a giant wooden sponge bob.

Mostly him and Joshua just bent a bunch of nails, but did get some pounded through the boards into the grass.

After a day or so with Joshua's help they converted the sponge bob project into a train track project.

When we got around to taking it down they were OK with it because they could still follow the train tracks now made out of dead grass instead of wood.

2010-09-29T16:00:00.000-07:00

Larkin

Asleep at the table

2010-09-29T15:57:00.000-07:00

Wings...in space?

So the kids have been Lego maniacs for the last little while, and admittedly so have I.

We started out with space ships with cool wings and lasers and what not. The same sort of post Star Wars stuff I'd build as a kid. But somehow the kids decided that aerodynamics don't make any sense in space. Noah started the box design and all the kids had to have one. It's hard to tell from the picture but the big one is BIG. We did some major scrapping of the bottom of the Lego bin to finish it...even had to cannibalize one of Arwen's space ships.

2010-09-24T20:22:00.000-07:00

Backyard Campout

Noah and Joshua are wizards with their smoke rings.

Yes, the tree house is still unfinished.

2010-09-24T20:19:00.000-07:00

First (And Third) Day of School

Noah loves school...

...he never know's what he learned...

...but he loves school.

Arni-B 2nd Grader

She loves teaching Noah all about school.

2010-09-23T13:28:00.001-07:00

Noah's video with his current favorite song.

2010-09-08T07:01:00.000-07:00

Aaron's birthday fell on Labor day this year so we went up to the Mount Hood area to play. We decided to go to Little Crater Lake. So we packed up snacks, water, dropped by the store to get 3 pairs of new tennis shoes and then set off!

The kids really liked this fallen tree and played on it for a long time on the way to the lake.

Larkin pretending to be so awfully sweet!

We told the kids to sit down and be quiet so we could all listen to the sounds of nature. They weren't very good at it :)

Larkin and Josh went off by themselves and were pointing out all the shapes they saw in the sky. Larkin saw lots of babies and Josh saw little animals. It was funny though, because when I looked up, I didn't even see any clouds. Silly kids.

The water was an amazing color! There was nothing living in it...it just had a bunch of trees that had fallen down.

The kids (mostly Joshua) told me that this hike to the this lake with a whale in it (huh??) was totally lame.

Smiles all around, despite the lameness of it all!

The water was so beautiful! The kids just wanted to throw rocks in. Larkin even put part of herself in it.

Overall, it was a really fun time. It wasn't much of a hike, so much as a drive to a pretty lake. We went to Timberline lodge after that and then out for dinner...which was like out of the Twilight Zone...but more on that later.

2010-09-03T15:13:00.000-07:00

What do you do when your husband is away on a business trip? Prepare and eat fine dinners? No way! Not around here. We made blackberry pie, brownies, no-bake cookies...and donuts. Donuts were a first for me. The kids were a big help...and no one ended up a burn victim with hot oil around. Always a plus!

Arwen was a goofball for all her pictures. But she sure enjoyed her sprinkled donut.

I like this picture because it really shows off the half-bangs Noah cut for her a few weeks ago. Whew, Noah! Thanks. I was really looking for ways to save a few bucks.

Joshua eats his toast like this too...upside down. And really, think about it. This way, the good sugary sweet stuff is the first thing that touches his tongue.

Noah always enjoys himself a yummy treat or ten!

While driving home from the airport, the kids told Dad we got him some donuts from Krispy Kreme. He came in and saw the plate and totally believed us! Ha Ha! And...lest you be worried about all those empty calories we ate while Aaron was gone, these donuts were made from a secret ingredient from the garden...that makes them healthy! Can you guess the ingredient??

2010-08-30T15:54:00.000-07:00

Fenton's

You know the movie, "Up?" The old man and the little boy scout end up at Fenton's Ice Creamery at the end of the movie. That's a real place down in Berkley and we LOVE it! My favorite thing to order is the toasted almond ice cream with jersey topping (malt, whipped cream, and chocolate sauce) and a side order of caramel. Sooo yummy! Well, Fenton's is obviously quite the drive from our little house so the kids and I figured out a recipe for toasted almond ice cream. And let me tell you...it was delicious! The kids had a blast using the ice cream maker and we all had fun devouring our treat.

2010-08-30T15:48:00.000-07:00

Hot Day at the River

Lu Lu cheesing it up for the camera.

It was hot enough that no one really complained about a stray shot of water from the kids. Actually few of the shots went stray...the kids aimed for anyone within range.

Lu Lu had fun getting Sarah wet.

Arni takes the big jump...she did it a few times...and perforated her ear drum on one of the jumps.

If Arwen's going to do it I had to too.

We had lots of fun! Matthew and Bethany and the cousins came too along with our friends the Dickinson's. That and about half of the drunk young adults in Portland. We had ourselves a few really good laughs at people so wasted I'm pretty sure they won't even remember. Good times!

2010-08-29T19:40:00.000-07:00

Hood To Coast 2010

I just finished the worlds largest (not longest) relay. Some 12,000 people ran the relay. Hood to Coast is a 197 mile relay from The top of Mount Hood to the ocean at Seaside. We had a 12 man team and each ran 3 legs.

See how good I am at pretending I'm not terribly tired and sore?

Team "We Eat Dust"

There was another team we followed for a while in the van named "Eat Our Dust". I thought that was pretty funny.

I told Arwen I'll probably never run this race again until she talks me into it. So she strapped on my bib number and started training. Registration for next years run starts in 3 weeks. I guess that's time enough to forget the pain. I hope so.

I had 3 shirts I ran in on each leg...one from Intel, they payed for my run and gave me a nice dry fit shirt to do a littl advertising, one they gave me at HTC, and my real one "TEAM SARAH" Who was my real supporter for this event.

We had 31 hours to do the run to qualify, we came in at just shy of 30. The top team came in around 17 hours. The record is 15:44:55 hours (that's a crazy 5.19 min/mile). We had a few guys on the team get lost (other van) and after my last leg I came into the finish line and the other van was not there. It felt like I was waiting for ever but the whole thing only cost us 6 min. I guess. All in all the race went smooth and most of us met or exceeded our goals. Though I think I did have a goal of a little sleep that I wasn't able to meet. I was up a lot of the night before we left for the mountain at 4:00 AM, then over the next 30 hours I got about 2 hours of sleep out in some field. No sleep added a lot to the difficulty of the relay.

We also took Road Kill stats in our vans. A Road Kill is anyone you pass on your leg. It got me running faster than I probably would have, especially on my first run. I got 9 kills in the first 4 miles then chased some guy for the next 3.4 miles before passing him just before the finish line. He heard me coming (I had an annoying rock stuck in the tread of one of my shoes) and kept looking over his shoulder and speeding up. I just had to out run him in the end. I was a tick mark on two of the vans out there. The first guy that passed me was on my night run. The cars driving by would cast my shadow on the road in front of me and then all of a sudden there was two shadows. I tried my best to keep in front of him but with each car his shadow got taller, then I could hear him and he made a break for it. I tailed him for a while but he was just too fast for me.

My Road Kill stats:

Leg1 Kills 10

Leg2 Kills 4 Killed 1

Leg3 Kills 6 Killed 1

2010-08-17T13:21:00.000-07:00

Huh. Look at that. I've become such a lame lazy blogger that it has been taken over by a more responsible party.

Anyways, there have been a few things that have really made me giggle lately. This morning, during family scripture reading, Larkin waved her hand as if she had a question. She waved it around until Aaron stopped talking and asked if she had a question.
"Yesh." She said.
"What is it Lu?" He asked.
"So...ummm...I got germs." Then she lifted her hands to show him.

I think Noah's wig has made an appearance or two on the blog. Let me tell you about him and his wig. First off, we found 4 hilarious old lady wigs at a thrift shop in Aurora while visiting my mom and dad. Noah is obsessed with his so much so that I don't even notice when he has it on and wears it on all our outings and errands...that is until all the comments start. They don't even phase him. It's like it's his real hair and he's always had to deal with the admiration of everyone around. I usually just suppress a grin and let people oohhhh and aahhh. He spends hours combing and brushing that thing to get it to look just right. In fact, I just noticed him on the couch and laughed at loud at the wig today. It is extra full and standing straight up. He informed me that he was able to acheive this by using my brush. Nice.

2010-08-17T12:49:00.000-07:00

I put the kids to bed in the tree house the other day then came in to watch a movie with Sarah. It was already late and dark as it's not easy getting the kids to sleep when are all together, throw in the tree house and it's even harder. Anyway, about an hour into the movie we see a flashlight bouncing around this way and that in the back yard. It didn't look like it was going to get back into bed by itself so I went out and found Lu-Lu hunting for strawberries. I wonder if we'd gone to bed how long she would have wandered around foraging for food in a big dark backyard by herself. I don't have a picture of Lu-Lu sneaking around the back yard but here's one from her sneaking out of bed the other night...she's set up camp in the living room.

So here's a look at the club house nicked named "Death Star" (Not yet completed but fully operational). I still need a door and to cut out the windows and to paint it and...but it's getting there.

2010-07-31T19:27:00.000-07:00

Noah found his brother from another mother at the county fair.

He got lots of comments on his sweet hair.

2010-06-26T18:30:00.000-07:00

Day 5

All is well, Sarah's home. They sure work the craft lady ragged up there, that and no sleep, poor Sarah looked tired. We sure did miss her. I interviewed the kids today at lunch to see what they missed most about mom. There was a "She's so fun", but mostly they all said, "She's just soooo beautiful". Looking at dad all week must have been wearing on them.

We did a little cleaning this morning to impress Sarah and get ready for her trip to Colorado next week. When we were cleaning the van Lu-lu decided to turn on the headlights, I didn't catch it. Later when we were going to hunt for the DI-pods we were dead as a door nail. After a jump from the neighbors we searched in vain for the DI-pods. Does anyone know where they went?

Made some more progress on the tree house today...We have three walls now and not enough wood for the fourth and the roof unless I figure out some fancy tricks. I'll be making another scrap wood run I have a feeling.

Larkin fresh out of the bath has been coloring on herself with marker...got to go.

2010-06-25T20:19:00.000-07:00

Day 4

6:00 AM: The kids are not up yet...

6:30 AM: Still no kids...

7:00 AM: Larkin wins but soon falls back asleep in my bed...

Joshua was up next but put himself to bed right after our doughnut breakfast. He fell asleep again this evening in the hammock The doughnuts were an celebration for Joshua not using a pull-up at night again. No need to mention the only reason he didn't have a pull-up on the last two nights was because I forgot to put one on him. Tonight we did it on purpose, gotta go for the turkey right?

We worked on the tree house all day, we didn't even go swimming to Arwen's dismay. The kids helped now and again trying to finish pounding nails and what not but lost interest pretty quick. At one point I told Noah the story of the Little Red Hen, which he lost interest in when he started to understand what I was getting at. Larkin was about the best helper fetching me nails when I needed them. She calls them her babies and when I nail them into the wood she'll cry out "you killed my baby!". The little cutie will also push imaginary babies on the swing and sing to them. I did a little math on the wood I have left vs the wood I need to build the walls and roof and came short unless I build really big windows...on all four sides. So I went wood scavenging today and got a pretty good haul. Though I think I may be short still.

The kids ate peas and strawberries all day from the garden, which kinds looks like it's been trampled by horses. I did notice the broccoli is starting to flower.

Noah, Arwen and Joshua went through the secret passage today (a hole in our back fence). Noah came back breathing heavy and talking fast about a glove he'd found under a bridge...which he explained meant there was a man back their that was trying to get them. The poor little guy's imagination got the best of him and he's scared to go back there again until I go with him.

Arwen cleaned the whole house today for when Sarah comes home tomorrow. It looked really nice for a few minutes. The plan is to bath the kids in the morning then clean up all over again before Sarah get's home.

2010-06-25T06:43:00.000-07:00

Day 2 & 3

Went jogging in the morning with Peter. We'd planned on seeing what our 10K time was on flat ground so I mapped it out on the relatively flat farmington road. I missed our turnaround point and we just kept on running until things didn't feel right and then kept going for some reason. We turned around at River road. I'm sure we were tired from the run the day before but that run killed us, joints, feet, and connecty thingys were complaining.

I got back from my jog and Noah was making himself breakfast, caramel sauce, chocolate syrup, and strawberry jam toast. He made similar delicacies for the kids while I took a shower. I dropped the kids off at the Dickinsons and went to work. They were showing the US vs Algeria game in the cafe with free berakfast so I worked from down there while watching the game. We won 1:0 scoring at 90min. It was an awesome game. Watched Germany win over lunch time and snuck home early to get the kids. We had dinner then went swimming then back to Peters to help build the club-house. We got one more wall built then it was 9:00. The kids had a blast just running around and from what I could tell they were pretty good.

Jogged an easy paced 5K this morning in crocks, and I think they are better running shoes than my running shoes. We worked on the tree house all day, with a lawn mowing, campfire and swimming to break things up a bit. After dinner we went over to Peters to work on his guest-house and got the walls raised. We pounded the last nail of the day at 10:00. Poor kids haven't gotten to bed on time in a few days, I don't think they've minded though.

Arwen replied to some question of one of the kids with "This is bacon, it's the best kind of meat in the whole world", then she looked at me and added, "except for fish, of course". I'm pretty sure she was referring to shrimp.

We roasted some huge marshmallows after eating lunch. Larkin won for being the cleanest (she ate hers un-roasted). Joshua won for being the dirtiest.

2010-06-22T21:45:00.000-07:00

Day 1

Sarah shot me an FYI email as she was walking out the door for girls camp:

"Freezer is not cold..."

So I came home as soon as I could escape from work to save the years supply of delicious strawberry freezer jam Sarah had just made.

Arwen and Noah helped me mop up the water and clean up after defrosting the freezer.

Larkin was getting a little fussy so I suggested she go take a nap. I sent Arwen and Noah down to the pool while Joshua and I finished cleaning up. After an hour or so we woke Larkin up and joined Arwen and Noah at the pool.

Yesterday at the pool Larkin was so excited to get in the pool she ran over to the side and was about to jump in before I could get her floaties on. She was pretty independent...even abandoning the watter noodle after a while.

Doesn't that look Olympic? We'll other than the beach ball :)

Couldn't resist another shot of Lu-Lu

That poor shark Noah has by the tail mysteriously popped.

Joshua was sure glad Larkin preferred the floaties over his ring-o-ma-bob thingy.

If only the day ended there...I was on the phone trying to help with some stuff and shushed Arwen when she tried to talk to me. Apparently Larkin had pooped her pull-up. I think Arwen attempted to change her but there had been some malfunction of both bowels and pull-up. I'll skip forward to allow any of you that have just eaten dinner (or have ever eaten anything) to keep it in your stomaches. Suffice it to say the rug and Larkin got a nice hose down, the rug out back, Larkin in the bath.

And then it was bed time.

2010-06-20T18:23:00.000-07:00

Happy Father's Day to all the wonderful Dad's out there...especially to my own Dad and to Aaron's Dad. The kids and I made little scrapbooks that we filled with pictures of each kid and then I interviewed them and asked them questions about Aaron. some of the responses were pretty cute! Here they are if you are interested :) Love you Aaron! You're the best!

2010-06-20T18:13:00.000-07:00

Larkin's Thoughts For Dad

Larkin, age 2

1. What's your name? "Yu Yu."
2. How old are you? "5."
3. What's your favorite color? "Pink."
4. What's your favorite treat? "Gum."
5. What's your favorite food? "Ham."
6. What do you love about Daddy? "Plays."
7. What color are your eyes? "Pink."
8. What's your favorite song? "Popcorn."

2010-06-20T18:12:00.001-07:00

Joshua's Thoughts About Dad

Joshua, age 4

   1. What's Dad's name? “Aaron.”
   2. What's Dad's job? “He cleans garbage.”
   3. Why is Dad special? “Because of Mom.”
   4. How do you know Dad loves you? “ Because he loves me.”
   5. When you grow up, do you want to be like Dad? “Yes, because I like him.”
   6. Why do you love Dad? “Because I love him all day.”
   7. What do you do to have fun together? “Play with my trains.”
   8. What does Dad do for fun? “Give Mom flowers.”
   9. How old is Dad? “5.”
10. How old was Dad when he got married? “6.”
11. How do you know Dad loves Mom? “Because he gives her flowers.”
12. Why did Heavenly Father give you Dad? “So we can play with him.”
13. What kind of little boy was Dad? “Like me.”
14. What did Dad need to know about Mom before he married her? “I don't know.”
15. Why did Dad marry Mom? “Because he loved her.”
16. What would it take to make Dad perfect? “Comb his hair.”
17. If you could change one thing about Dad, what would it be? “I would take all his treasures.”
18. What is Dad's favorite color? “Brown.”

2010-06-20T18:12:00.000-07:00

Noah's Thoughts About Dad

Noah, age 5

   1. What's Dad's name? “Aaron William Martin Troublemaker Nielsen.”
   2. What's Dad's job? “Ummm...to make candy.”
   3. Why is Dad special? “He lets us watch funny movies and Daddy's really funny.”
   4. How do you know Dad loves you? “Because he does fun stuff with us and he's silly.”
   5. When you grow up, do you want to be like Dad? “Uh huh. Because he's really funny.”
   6. Why do you love Dad?” Because he's a real bunny.”
   7. What do you do to have fun together? “Jump on the trampoline, but then it broke.”
   8. What does Dad do for fun? “Watch movies with us and we go to Grandpa's house.”
   9. How old is Dad? “100.”
10. How old was Dad when he got married? “60.”
11. How do you know Dad loves Mom? “They both do fun things together.”
12. Why did Heavenly Father give you Dad? “Because he didn't want us to be orphans.”
13. What kind of little boy was Dad? “Like me...goofy.”
14. What did Dad need to know about Mom before he married her? “That she was good.”
15. Why did Dad marry Mom? “Because he loved her.”
16. What would it take to make Dad perfect? “ To not be naughty.”
17. If you could change one thing about Dad, what would it be? “That he was a rabbit.”
18. What is Dad's favorite color? “Rainbow.”

2010-06-20T18:09:00.000-07:00

Arwen's thoughts about Dad

Arwen, age 7

1. What's Dad's name? “Aaron.”
2. What's Dad's job? “He works at Intel. He writes on the computer.”
3. Why is Dad special? “He loves us a lot and he's nice. He loves making robots and stuff with us.”
4. How do you know Dad loves you? “Sometimes he brings home treasures for us and sometimes he plays the things we want to play.”
5. When you grow up, do you want to be like Dad? “Umm...No. I want to be a painter.”
6. Why do you love Dad? “Because he's really nice and funny.”
7. What do you do to have fun together? “I love when he swings me on the sing and we make projects together.”
8. What does Dad do for fun? “ He makes us treats sometimes and sometimes he plays with us.”
9. How old is Dad? “29.”
10. How old was Dad when he got married? “21.”
11. How do you know Dad loves Mom? “Because he hugs her and because Mom says that Dad loves her more than anyone.”
12. Why did Heavenly Father give you Dad? “Because if we didn't have a Dad, who would help you get birthed?”
13. What kind of little boy was Dad? “A blondie. I heard it in his pictures.”
14. What did Dad need to know about Mom before he married her? “That mom liked the church and stuff.”
15. Why did Dad marry Mom? “Because she was pretty and went to church.”
16. What would it take to make Dad perfect? “He would have to be like Jesus.”
17. If you could change one thing about Dad, what would it be? “ Hmmm...I don't really know. I would change that he didn't have to go to work but that we could still have money.”
18.What is Dad's favorite color? “It changes every year, so I don't know.”

2010-06-15T19:45:00.000-07:00

I know you probably wonder what goes on in the Nielsen house at 6 am most mornings...wild dance parties while drinking hot chocolate and eating pop tarts! Seriously though, this little 2 year old has some sweet moves. She gets shy when the camera is on her...but we caught he shaking her wild hips a few times! Anytime she hears music her hips take over and she just feels it. Love her!!

2010-06-07T17:37:00.000-07:00

Long hair + Static = Fun on the Slide

2010-06-07T17:26:00.000-07:00

I love this kid. We celebrated Josh's 4th birthday last Saturday. He's my Memorial Day baby. He really is the sweetest kid I've ever met in my whole life. He likes everyone to be happy...even if that includes sharing all his chocolate...which he did. I bought him a Wonka Scrumdidliumptious bar for one of his gifts and he was eating it next to me late one night...we let him stay up late on his big day. He counted out all the people in our family and then proceeded to break off 6 pieces of chocolate so that everyone could enjoy a piece when they woke up the next day. He's content to just sit and play with whatever toy catches his fancy at the moment for hours. He loves to hear stories about himself from when he was a baby. He sings these made up songs and says things like, "I love my mom. She's gorgeous. I like her even when she yells." So cute! Joshua, we sure do love you and are so glad that you are ours!

2010-06-02T16:14:00.000-07:00

Grubbiest, cutest kids ever. Who let Larkin out of the house without her hair combed??

2010-05-31T16:54:00.001-07:00

I'm driving to Denver this summer with the kids. They'll watch movies the whole way, but I need some good books to listen to on my ipod. I need some suggestions! What are your all time favorite books? Recent favorites?

2010-05-31T16:52:00.001-07:00

FYI: The dishwasher is a great way to wash Crocs. The dishwasher with the heat dry turned on is not...unless you need your crocs to shrink a whole size. 3 pairs of month old Crocs... :(

2010-05-27T07:41:00.000-07:00

Joshuaism: I watched "The Witches," a movie based off a book by Roald Dahl the other day with the kids. (Fun movie, by the way.) At one point it was explained that to witches, children smell like dog droppings. Joshua got excited and said, "Oh! I love dog droppings!" Noah made a sick sound and I lovingly told him that dog droppings was really dog poo. I was worried he would get upset because we were all kind of giggling at him. But he smiled and said, "Oh, I don't love that!! I thought they meant Cough Droppings! I love those!"

2010-05-26T15:51:00.000-07:00

Anyone who has been to my house has seen the ugly juniper bush that was slowly taking over my yard and driveway. Really. You couldn't even park on that side of the driveway and get out of your car because of the ghastly bush. I've always wanted it torn out, but seriously, it was huge and we don't have any of the tools needed to remove it...a truck, chains, chain saw...Well, now that our good friends moved back to the neighborhood, not only do we have lots of play dates, yummy meals, and lots of rock band playing time, we have access to some sweet tools, not to mention some man power to add to my own man's power.

A huge thank you to Peter and Aaron for pulling out my bush for me on Saturday. It took them six hours and they only broke a few tools, but it's done. They were drenched from all the rain we had that day. I was so amazed that they were able to take that huge bush and jump on it enough to get it to fit into the back of Peter's truck! (Who wants to pay TWICE to go to the dump??) Also, the missionaries stopped by to offer some assistance which was totally awesome! Thanks guys :)

Now, as soon as it stops raining........I'll get the area looking nice and plant some dogwood trees and ground cover and pretty flowers. I can't wait!! Thanks again guys!!

2010-05-17T21:26:00.000-07:00

The other night Aaron and I were playing a game and the boys kept sneaking out of their room. After telling them to go back to bed a few times we just ignored them and played our game. They eventually got quiet and we ended our game and went to the family room to watch, "Lost." During a commercial I heard a rustling behind the end table. I jumped thinking there was an animal back there. I got brave and took a peak...Noah, fast asleep. I giggled. A while later, he woke up and stumbled his way to the bathroom. He came back in the room and sat in the middle of the floor. I noticed he had socks on because he started to take them off. He was struggling so Aaron went to help him. Aaron laughed and said, "He's got two pairs of socks on." Noah said, "No. I have 3." I asked him why in the world he had 3 pairs of socks on. He said, "So I could be quiet...it's not comfortable." Well it worked...he got past us and made his way downstairs without us catching him. When we came up to bed, we found Joshua in our bed with a ball of lots of socks by him. I asked him about it and he told me that Noah wanted him to be sneaky...but he just wanted to sleep.

Tonight, we came up to bed and I turned on the light. Joshua shot up from our bed and yelled, "It was Noah's plan!" Two naughty boys out of bed way past bedtime and chilling in my bedroom. And Joshua...I KNOW it was Noah's plan :)

2010-05-09T20:11:00.000-07:00

The Father and Sons camp-out was this weekend. Sarah made the boy's and I lot's of yummy treats and she was right we had too much food. At Noah's request we had fresh quesadillas for dinner but by the time I had camp setup and they were cooking on the griddle the kids were full of nutty buddies (some of Sarah's treats) and covered from head to toe in powdered sugar (No pictures, I forgot the camera). We went down to the lake after dinner to catch some salamanders. Noah really wanted to keep each one we caught and have it as a pet. They were dark brown on top and yellow/orange on their bellies. We found an all yellow one for Joshua and as he held it it turned chocolate brown. We told him he had the chocolate touch (we just got done reading that book not that long ago), he liked that. After playing in the campfire and bumming some marshmallows off of some people I put the kids to bed. Anyway (the point of the whole post) the next day we talked about fishing wile catching salamanders again. Noah ask if he could keep a fish heart.
"No", I said, "Fish guts stink really bad".
"Well", said Noah, "I'd like it for my collection".
Again I tried to explain and he seemed to get it a little.
"Well", he said again, "then can I have the eyes for my collection?".
He was pretty insistent that he needed some fish parts for his collection. He brought it up with Sarah while fishing later that day (We picked up the girls to go fishing with us after leaving the Father and Sons). Sarah caught two fish and I caught the small one to make three. I wish Noah had been around when I cleaned them so I could show him what it was he'd been asking for. He and Joshua were excited to eat the eyeballs when we sat down to lunch. They said they were delicious. Anyway latter that day Noah comes up to me, and I realized what'd been going through his little mind about the fish guts, he'd brought me a little plastic heart and said, "I guess we can use this one to make mommy a necklace for Mothers Day instead". He'd been reluctant to give up his treasure and figured he'd just get another heart from the fish. What a cute boy. Anyway Sarah has a nice non-fish heart necklace that Noe gave her for Mothers Day. The other kids also helped me pick some flowers (above) and draw some pictures for her. Arwen helped take the picture. Happy Mothers day Sarah.

Love,

Aaron and the Kids.

2010-05-09T13:37:00.000-07:00

I stayed home with the girls from church today because Larkin has been really sick for the last 5 days and got worse last night. Arwen was sick yesterday, but I think her body kicked the bug. Anyways, as I was getting the boys out of the bath and ready for church and the girls out and ready to go to the doctors, Joshua was upset because he couldn't stay home from church too. I told him that he really needed to go because it was Mother's Day and he would probably make me a neat little present in class. (Joshua really likes to draw and make crafts these days.) He then told me that maybe I should go to his class and make my craft for him...with my eyes closed so it would still be a surprise and then he would give it to me. Nice. Happy Mother's Day :)

2010-05-03T07:12:00.001-07:00

Arwen made breakfast this morning...

Chocolate Grape Toast is one of her specialties...I guess. The kids love it anyways.

2010-05-03T07:12:00.000-07:00

As the kids walked off the field to go to their cars I noticed a few had pretty muddy shoes and mud spattered here and there. But when Arwen came tromping off the field it looked like she'd been trampled by all those muddy shoes.

Seeing my questioning look, Arni said smiling, "I got hit in the face by the ball". Well that and about everywhere else I added in my head. She sure loves soccer. What a beautiful princess she is, even covered in mud.

2010-04-26T14:04:00.000-07:00

Dandelion Blowin'

Love her!

2010-04-22T16:33:00.000-07:00

For the 186th birthday party of the Relief Society we met at church as families and did a fabulous service project. We helped make "angel dolls" which are plain dolls with no hair or faces that are wearing cute little hospital gowns that sick kids in the hospital get. They don't have hair since many of the kids receiving them don't either and they don't have faces so that the kids can draw on their own faces. We mad a TON of them that night. It was the greatest assembly ever! Aaron and I helped stuff and stitch up. Afterward there was a cupcake decorating contest...since our whole enrichment was to celebrate the birthday of the Relief Society.

These are the cupcakes I dreamed up and created. They turned out similar to what I was imagining. I really wanted to add edible glitter, but didn't want to drive across town to get some, so I settled for pink and purple sprinkles instead.

The flowers were made of fondant...which my fabulous sister in law gave me a lesson in a while ago. I think it tastes pretty terrible (made of powdered sugar and marshmallows) but it turns out cool. My kids LOVED how the fondant tasted...big surprise ;)

2010-04-21T19:46:00.000-07:00

Do you know how much I LOVE this little thing? She is seriously the sassiest, funniest, cutest little thing ever. Larkin started talking really well about at month ago. She went from babbling to speaking in complete sentences, telling me things like the dinner I made was disgusting! When you ask her what her name is, she always chirps, "Yu Yu." (Lu Lu.) She knows she is two and her favorite color is pink. Her favorite movie is Ponyo...and she sometimes insists that we call her "Pawn-o." She knows she has blue eyes, but sometimes gets confused and tells me they are pink. She loves to wear dresses. I put bows and flowers in her hair and when they fall out, (or when she tears them out) she always tells me that her "lady is falling." (I think she calls them ladies because we always tell her she's a pretty lady when she wears them.) She really is very naughty. She loves to dance, and is always shaking her bootie, yelling things like, "tooties," as she juts her hip out to the side. She loves to swagger back and forth and make us giggle. She says naughty things like bum bum and boobies...because she's two and she does what she wants! She rules the roost around here...and I wouldn't want it any other way!

2010-04-17T14:31:00.000-07:00

So we went to El Gaucho or "El Gouge-o" for dinner last night. It turns out that neither Sarah nor I are fans of meat flavored meat. And expensive meat flavored meat is no better. Both of us wished we'd got something off the seafood menu after we got our meals. Sarah's medium was raw and mine just tasted, well, like meat. Our appetizer was really good though some tuna tar-tar stuff. And desert, bananas foster, was delicious. All in all we had a fun time and did some walking around the city afterwards.

Thanks for the fun night Sarah.

2010-04-01T16:35:00.000-07:00

*Freckles*

2010-03-30T14:50:00.000-07:00

No pictures allowed for this post. Why, you ask? Cause I'm the worst mom ever!!

Arwen was home for spring break last week. Aaron took Monday and Tuesday off so we could play. After lunch at Costco, we took the kids to a new play ground. It was super fun! Lots of new, high tech play equipment. There was a little river bed by the park, that was still dry. The kids had lots of fun playing with the river stones. I ran Noah to the bathroom and Aaron was playing with Lu on the teeter totter. As I got back, Joshua ran up from the river screaming. I ran over. He held his pinky out to me while telling me a boy smashed his finger with a rock. He had been playing with a little boy around his age. I guess he smashed a rock on top of another rock that Joshua's finger was on. After a 5 hour trip at the ER...we got to go home. After 3 x-rays, we found out Joshua's pinky was fractured. His nail was completely popped off. He had to have a few stitches after being given a shot to numb his hand. The icing on the cake was when the doctor cleaned the nail off and then shoved it back into Joshua's nail bed...to try and preserve the nail bed. We have no idea if a nail will ever grow back. (hmmm...seems I have another little boy with a very similar story...and a funky thumb nail!) The hard part is that it is on his left hand...and he's left handed. He's been a trooper. Everyone was amazed with how calm and well behaved he was. He's pretty stoic when people are around, but it was so sad when they would leave his room and he would whimper to me about how scared he was for his shot.

He got a cold later on in the week and managed to scrape all the skin off the top of one of his feet while opening a door. He just fell apart :(

Why am I the worst mom...because I cut the boys' hair on Saturday. I grabbed the wrong guard for Josh and he's pretty much bald. He looks ridiculous! I'm sorry Joshy!! So...no pictures of this cute little guy in his tiny little cast for a couple of weeks.

2010-03-30T14:43:00.000-07:00

For Family Home Evening on Monday, we made gum for our activity. It was really fun! Let me just tell you though...that gum was so sickeningly sweet that I almost died. I got a belly ache and boy did my teeth hurt! I think there must have been at least 5 tbsp of powdered sugar, per piece of gum.

Gross.

Still gross.

Cute. We didn't let Larkin make her own. She just chewed a piece of bubble gum from the pantry. She had fun pretending to make her own. She would dip it in powdered sugar and chew...then dip then chew.

Happy gum making party.

2010-02-25T19:10:00.000-08:00

Naughty Little Girl For Sale...or Best Offer...or FREE!

Not really...but Lu sure is a a naughty handful lately. Last Friday I had to take Joshua to his doctor to make sure that his pneumonia was going away. He was fine so I asked the doc to take a look in Larkin's ears because she had been telling me they hurt. Guess what he found...an ear infection, but only after an hour of flushing little clear plastic beads out of her ears. She had four of them. In. Each. Ear. I was a little mortified...okay, a lot!

Okay fast forward to a week later...today in fact. I took the kids to Krispy Kreme for a donut treat after Joshua's speech class. Yummy. Then I gave the kids a piece of gum. We went to the library to check out some new books and movies. They were surprisingly good. On the way home, Larkin told me she had gum...in her nose. Really??? I thought. No Way! She insisted the whole way home. She even showed me which nostril. The only thing that made the situation okay was that a professional offered his services. He's pretty much a doctor...when he dons his one white latex glove. Noah said to me, " Mom, I can get it out. I'm a really good nose picker." And you know what? He is.

2010-02-16T12:26:00.000-08:00

I made a yummy turkey dinner on Sunday for our meal. We had turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, corn, and of course gravy.

While we were eating it, Noah threw his fork down in disgust and said, "Mom? How could you? Why did you put fish guts in the gravy. It tastes dreadful. What were you thinking?"

"Noah," I said, "they're turkey drippings...to make the gravy delicious."

I guess not delicious...dreadful.

2010-02-11T19:20:00.000-08:00

We are still camera-less..sigh. But here's a cute Noah story for you. You know the song, "You Belong With Me," by Taylor Swift? It's really cute and the video is even cuter.

Anyways, we were watching it the other day while making dinner. The kids' favorite part is when Taylor pretends her brush is a microphone...everyone grabs brushes and we dance around the kitchen and sing the song at the top of out lungs. Well, we were are Carl's Jr. last week and I was in line ordering. Noah climbed up onto one of the high tables near the front of the restaurant. He grabbed the salt shaker and pretended it was his microphone and proceeded to sing these lyrics: "I wear high heels, I wear short skirts." Loud. The emo teenager behind the counter did an excellent job of pretending not to hear it and stifle his laugh. It's moments like these that make a mother proud!

2010-01-16T21:45:00.000-08:00

My good friend Jen came and took our family pictures back in November. I LOVE them. They turned out so cute! Who'd of thought anyone could make this goofy family look so darn cute?

Look at that...we're ALL looking at the camera...and no one is crying. Woo Hoo!

I love this one of the kidlets!

I love how pretty Oregon is...even in November!

This one is great...two parents completely oblivious to the naughtiness of the kids. Joshua is pulling a goofy face; Noah is sulking, Arwen is striking her fashion pose and Lu is not looking at the camera and pouting. That's about right!!

2010-01-16T21:44:00.000-08:00

About a week before we had our pictures taken Arwen had a nasty rash all over her mouth because she wouldn't stop licking her lips. I warned her that she wouldn't be in the family pics if it wasn't gone in time. Mean mom...but the rash was gone.

She sure is a pretty, sweet little girl!

I LOVE her eyes in this one!

And this is my favorite. It pretty much sums up Arnie...Little Miss Sassy Pants. What am I gonna do with this girl?

2010-01-16T21:43:00.000-08:00

Here's our little "comedian." Seriously, he thinks he's the funniest thing. Ever. And he's pretty right.

Look at that toothless grin. He's pretty proud of it!

I ADORE this picture. This is Noah. He totally looks mischievous, but knows darn well that it he flashes his grin, he'll get away with all his mayhem!

Gotta love this boy of mine!

2010-01-16T21:42:00.000-08:00

"Which of these things is not like the others?" Oooh, ask me, I know! It's Joshua!

He's our little "brownie." And he LOVES that he's different.

He loves his "chocolate" eyes and hair and gets disgusted if one of his siblings tells him that blue eyes are prettier.

Doesn't he look so cute with his hands in his pocket? I love this beautiful boy SO much!

2010-01-16T21:41:00.000-08:00

Oh Larkin, why are there only TWO pictures of you? Oh yeah...cause you're the naughtiest little pixie. Ever.

Little Miss Sunshine here really does smile. I promise. But these pictures are pretty true to form...she's stubborn and she won't do anything unless SHE wants to do it. And that's final!

2010-01-16T21:40:00.000-08:00

These are my favorites. My plans are to frame them and put them on our bedroom wall. You did an amazing job, Jen!

2010-01-16T21:39:00.000-08:00

Here are a few more of my favorites.

I love you the most, Aaron. I win.

2010-01-10T18:57:00.000-08:00

I just overheard/saw the craziest "game" ever. Joshua was laying on the ground with his eyes closed and Noah was running around him, singing, "Dean man, dead man in a dish. How many pieces do you wish?" Joshua said 8 and Noah counted to 8 and then the "dead man," Joshua, got up and tried to get Noah. Who needs bubble gum when you've got a dead man?