The AWANA Grand Prix, 2012

Ascha and Daddy designed and built this hot pink car with a silver racing stripe. The boys used their cars from last year and revamped them for speed. Ascha's wasn't very fast, but it was pretty. The boys', on the other hand, did pretty well. Both made it past their first two heats into some semi-final action, but neither car quite made it to the top. Nevertheless, it was a memorable night full of fun.

Woodland Tulip Festival

Fort Vancouver

Our Pitchers

Both boys loved trying their hand at pitching this year, and they both improved as the season went on.

Easter in Montana

We spent Easter in the beautiful Bitterroot Valley with our families.

Ascha helping Grammy bake

Ascha and her favorite cousin enjoying a smattering of spring snow

The girls had an easy egg hunt, while the boys had a traditional challenging egg hunt, put on by Grumpy and the uncles.

Hanging out with Great-Grandma Jen on Easter

Ascha hamming it up at Grandma Janet and Grandpa Lyn's house

April Musings



We have really cute kids! Ascha usually waits until one or both of us parents tucks her in, but this night, she put herself to bed and promptly fell asleep... in our bed, not hers... and in my gardening hat.

Aric had a wonderful time on Cowboy Day dressing up and enjoying the special day with his friends at school. He sure looked the part.

Each of our children is so unique. We recently read the story of Solomon asking for wisdom. As a lead-in, I asked the kids what they'd ask for if they could have anything. Aric said, "All the legos in the world...no, wait! All the boy toys in the world!" Taylor said he wished he could have a super-special brain that could think up all sorts of amazing inventions. Ascha said she would choose a princess doll house and lots of princesses. It was fun to see so much revealed about each one's personality in such a simple Q&A.

When it comes to interesting news, the dog is not about to be left out. Not only does our cat love to swallow earplugs and rubberbands whole, but our dog eats leashes. EATS. As in, consumes in entirety. He snuck off into a corner and in a matter of minutes, chewed off all but the latch-end of his 5 foot leash and swallowed it whole. After three nervous days of watching and waiting, he is once again "unleashed." (Which is worse - the bad pun or impolite references to bodily functions?)

March: The Return of Winter

In March, we had several snowy days. The kids loved it, both because they got to play in the wet stuff and because they got to skip school. The puppy loves it, probably because he gets to play with his neighborhood dog buddies. The cat, however, is nonplussed. She was asking to go out by meowing one morning, but when she saw the snow outside, she paused, surveyed the wintry wonderland, and hissed long and loud at the white stuff before scooting back inside.

On March 22nd, we had the latest recorded snow in this area. The boys and their friends built a giant snow tunnel by hollowing out a ball. The weather warmed and it melted fairly quickly, but it made for a fun morning. 

Also in March, Taylor pulled out his marble track again. After a while of not playing with it because it "wasn't as fun as he thought," he's discovered that he just wasn't quite ready for it. Now, he can build all sorts of workable tracks on his own and he's loving it.

Aric and Taylor started baseball practice this month and they are both doing great. We think they might turn into great pitchers and it's fun to see them learn this new skill. 

Ascha, while inventorying her "owies" recently, found a mole on her knee. As I assured her it wasn't an injury, she solemnly said, "but it's just a pretend mole, because REAL moles build dirt houses." 

February Update

Grandma Janet's birthday is in February, so Ascha decided to show off her exuberant coloring skills. If you think this is impressive, you should see her cutting skills. That girl can cut a paper into about a million tiny pieces, and she cherishes each one. I have to secretly purge her craft area while she's in bed, because every tiny snippet, even the myriads on the floor, are very precious to her.

We had quite a bit of beautiful weather during the winter. On this fine, spring-like day, we decided to take little Pepper to one of our favorite hiking areas - Lucia Falls and Moulton Falls. We picnicked, then went "hiking."

Ascha enjoyed playing with Pepper in the sunshine. Look how tiny he is. That small stage sure didn't last long. 

Also during February, Aric got to expand on his "communities" unit at school by taking a field trip to the post office, a restaurant, a bank, the fire hall, and city hall. Here he is in the mayor's chair. He liked it!

Pretzels

January was a very busy time. We had Jeremy's parents come visit for five days, a short recovery period, and then my parents visited for three days and accompanied us to the PBR in Portland. We had a blast! Jeremy stayed in town for over two weeks during this time. As things returned to normal (in other words, all the Grandparents left and Daddy went upriver, leaving us all feeling a little "let down"), the kids and I decided to make pretzels. Ascha, our resident playdough expert, came up with the idea of making snails out of our pretzel dough. They turned out great and the kids loved having them for breakfast.

Sleepy Ascha

In January, we had decent enough weather to go bike riding. Ascha promptly fell asleep. I love these moments where my big 3 1/2 year old seems like a baby. They are getting fewer and farther between.

We bought a bed for Pepper. She loved sitting on it in the cart as we made our way through Costco. We brought it home so it would be ready for Pepper when he arrived with Grandma and Grandpa. She decided she'd break it in for the puppy by making sure it was comfy. It passed her test.

Basketball

2011-2012 Basketball

Both boys played on a 3rd grade HotShots team this year. They did well, learned a lot, and had fun.

Snow Days

In Mid-January, we had several days of snow and cancelled school. The kids had a wonderful time. The first day school was cancelled, there was NO precipitation on the ground in the morning, but the roads were icy for people living up on the hills. Then we got this much snow:

Not much, but it was sure better than nothing!

Later in the week, we got more snow. It was several inches deep early in the morning, down to about 2 1/2 inches when the kids went out and built, and by the next day it had all melted. However, for that one glorious day, the kids had a blast. Several large and small snowmen were built. Here's the "snow family" that Ascha and I constructed. The big snowlady is the mommy, and the little snowman on her lap is the daddy, and all the kids are the little snowpeople on the ground. :-)

The boys had a blast with the neighbor boys building opposing snow fortresses and having a snowball fight.

Aric's 2 Front Teeth

Aric lost his 1st front tooth on New Year's Day. He and Ascha were playing and Aric's very loose tooth somehow caught in a thread trailing from her princess dress. 

10 days later, he wiggled and wiggled his 2nd tooth until it came out at school. His next door neighbor and buddy, Olivia, had lost her 2nd front tooth just the day before, so I think he was motivated to keep up.

As you can see, he didn't keep his toothless grin long at all...in 10 days that 1st permanent tooth had already made a fair bit of progress, and his 2nd permanent tooth was visible when he lost the baby. Both boys managed to loose their front teeth in January... maybe Ascha will be the one who gets to sing "All I Want for Christmas is My 2 Front Teeth."

PEPPER

My latest excuse for not blogging has a name and a personality. Pepper is half wire-haired pointing griffon and half mystery. He's a handsome fellow, and very busy. We are amazed at how quickly he has grown. 

We got the call in mid-November that Whiff (Jeremy's parents' dog) had surprised her owners with a puppy. She acts like she's going to have a litter every fall, making a nest and acting strange, but she hasn't had a litter in several years. They hadn't even tried to breed her this year, so imagine the surprise! The grandparents wanted to give the pup to our kids as a Christmas gift, and how could anyone turn that down? :-)

Jeremy had been itching for a dog anyway, and Ascha was finally getting old enough, so the timing seemed right. 

Here he is at 4 days old:

The kids met him in Montana, then waited a few weeks for him to be old enough to come live with us. Lyn and Janet graciously brought mom and pup out and stayed a week with us, so his transition was very easy. He came to us at 8 weeks weighing 10 pounds. (Wasn't he cute?)

He's grown quickly! He started in our cat carrier, but he's had to move up to a bigger crate. He can't even fit on top of it comfortably now, like he could when we snapped this picture at 10 weeks.

Now, at 14 weeks, he weighs 25 pounds. As he's grown, he's gotten more "whisker-y." His whiskers on this side are all black, but on the other side of his muzzle, he's got one clump of white ones. He also has little white hairs that are not so wiry. They grow in a tuft on the top of his head and stick up for a little "faux-hawk."

The kids are mostly loving him. They do concede that he takes a LOT of work, and sometimes they wish they didn't have to help out so much, but that comes with the territory. They run him around, feed him, clean up after him, and go with him to Puppy Kindergarten each week. Both boys are great, responsible dog owners! We're proud of them and we're all enjoying our little Pepper.