Here are the pics I promised a few days ago. As you can see, Aric's stitches are out and his black eye is much better. Taylor wanted me to take his picture, too, so here's a fun one.

Aric Gets His Stitches Out

This morning, all four of us went to the doctor for Aric's stitch removal. I was not looking forward to holding Aric down while he got his stitches removed, so I brought Jeremy along to do my dirty work. Amazingly enough, though, Aric didn't fuss or even try to move. He seemed to think it was all very interesting, and the stitches came out without incident. We'll see if he can make it a few days without splitting the tender new skin open again...We certainly hope so! After we get past the "splitting open" period, we'll start exploring scar minimizing treatments because his wound is in such a prominent place. Hopefully we can make it disappear.

Jeremy's working on the VW bus today. He's getting very close to completing it. He's got a few days worth of body work left to finish out the doors, and then he'll just have a little nose work and the body will be done!

We've been working a little on our landscaping (we've got SO much room for improvement) and it's nice to see things looking a little better.

Our only other noteworthy adventure of late is the ongoing battle with the ants. Anyone who lives near us will understand what we mean. We have tiny little black ants that try to invade about once a week. They're always sending out scouts to find suitable locations, so we stop one colony, only to have another colony moving into a different room. It's an ongoing war, and we always win (thanks to TERRO), but it's annoying. However, the boys really like the excitement of new bugs to look at. Aric will lay on the floor and watch one crawl around and say, "Hi! Hi, Att! Hi!" over and over until I come over and "make the ant go away."

I have a few pics to post but for some reason I can't right now, so I'll try again later.

Aric's first ER Adventure

Aric went to the ER last night for a big cut on the bridge of his nose. He fell onto the corner of Taylor's bedframe, which is not sharp, but is very hard. He got to have four stitches and we are in for a tricky couple of days trying to convince him to leave them alone. He does really good, and then he kinda forgets that it hurts and reaches up to grab at the owie or scratch it. Then he cries. It's pretty sad. Hopefully he won't scar too badly. Here's a picture of him with his stitches, his bruised cheek, his semi-black eye, and the fun sticker he got from the ER. :-) While he was there, he kept trying to pull off his bracelet, but I convinced him it was really cool and Daddy and Taylor would want to see it on his wrist, so he left it on. He was exhausted when we got home at about 10 p.m. (it was late and he'd done lots and lots of crying), but he managed to stay awake just so he could show Daddy his bracelet and his special sticker.

A Day at the Zoo - Delving into Politics
We had a fun morning at the zoo. The kids love the zoo and we enjoy seeing the animals. However, for the past 8 years (since I first visited the Oregon Zoo), a certain sign has been irking me. I finally remembered my camera today, so now you can see some "false beliefs" in action. If you can't read the sign in the picture, the text says: "FALSE BELIEF Many people thought that wolves threatened humans, livestock and the availability of wild game." This sign is propagating the false belief that wolves DON'T threaten people and domestic and wild animals. If you want proof to the contrary, it's easy to search the internet and find countless examples of the havoc wolves are wreaking on wild herd populations and on domestic herd populations. As far as wolves "threatening" humans, that's easy to document, as well. In Nov. 2005, a healthy young man was killed by wolves in northern Saskatchewan. I'll try to get off my soapbox soon, but if you want more info (and have a strong stomach), check out http://www.mtmultipleuse.org/endangered/wolf_pics.htm. I guess you could say I am opposed to wolf reintroductions. :-)

TAYLOR CAN WRITE HIS NAME!

We're very proud of Taylor. He's been writing his name for a couple of weeks now, so it's time to announce the news. HOORAY FOR TAYLOR (I think he's saying hooray for himself in the second picture!). He really likes to use a grid and put each letter in a box -- tells you a little about how his very Type-A brain works. It's very cute and we love the way his personality comes out.

Easter, the Oregon Coast, San Francisco, and the Flu

Sorry it's been a while since we posted. We've been rather busy. Our Easter was quite fun, except that Aric had pink eye. We'd been treating it for a few days, so it wasn't an issue except he looked a little sad. We went to church in the morning, then had friends over and had a nice afternoon and evening of play and fellowship and celebration. After our great Easter, we all geared up for Jeremy's final Naval Reserve trip. He has gone to the Bay area for two weeks of service pretty much every year since he got out of college, and this was his last required year. Thankfully, this year I talked my parents into coming out to stay with me and the boys for part of the time Jeremy was gone (it didn't take much convincing :-). My mom actually flew in to Portland a few hours after we sent Jeremy off, so we didn't have much time to feel sad about Daddy leaving. We were all excited to see Grammy, and we had a wonderful week full of adventures. We went to parks, we went on walks, we played and played and played. One highlight was the day spent at the coast. The boys finally got to fly the kite they had gotten as a Christmas present, and Mommy got to go shopping at her favorite Children's Place outlet. It was a good day! On Thursday, my dad drove out from MT for the weekend, and Friday evening, I flew down to San Francisco for a whirlwind of a romantic getaway with Jeremy (more about that in a future post). I flew home on Sunday morning, and spent a nice day with my parents and the boys.The boys had quite a fun time "riding" the Grumpy horse and the Grumpy bull and learning the fine art of balancing on Grumpy's hands while he bench-pressed them! He looked like he had a weekend full of exercise! Grammy and Grumpy left Monday morning, and the boys and I were left with an easy 4 days until Jeremy returned home on Friday...or so we thought. Aric got the stomach flu starting Monday night, and had it pretty much the rest of the week. I got it on Wednesday (I think. It's all a little blurry cuz we were miserable) and didn't have it super bad; by Friday I was achy and tired, but done with the other symptoms. Jeremy returned home on Friday, and boy, was I glad to see him! Now we're just laying low trying to get all the way better, so I'm finally catching up a bit on computer stuff. I will post more details about our San Francisco trip after I get the pictures back and can post them.




5 look at those handsome Easter outfits

6 Grammy with her boys at the coast


6Taylor loved flying the kite and being king of the driftwood



6 Aric liked the kite, too!

HAPPY EASTER!!!

Taylor helped pick the spring colors for our title today. Yesterday was Easter and we had a very fun day. We had some friends over and the kids played and played. Taylor's been thanking Jesus for being risen every time he prays, which is really nice. He is also very happy to have gotten a new Thomas train in his basket (since he lost his Thomas in Montana a few months ago). Aric got a cool doctor play set and has been loving that. I will try to post more later, but here is a picture. :-)

SUNNY DAY




















The boys and I spent most of the day outside today soaking up the sun (amidst the clouds) and weeding / playing in the dirt. I wanted to get a picture of Aric smelling a flower, because it's such a cute ritual. He shouts "f'ower, f'ower," marches over in a business-like manner, grabs a stem, shoves it to his nose, blows on it by breathing out through his nose (so it makes a sound, which is what he thinks "smelling" is), then moves on seriously to the next bud. Of course, Taylor loves to smell the flowers, too, because he's a very olfactory person. He always notices smells and seems to be affected by them more than most people (or at least a whole lot more than me!). Today, he decided I needed to take a picture of him "smelling the tree," which is our giant arborvitae. I obliged, but the picture didn't turn out great. He also had fun on his "hand-me-down" tractor which used to be Daddy's. His feet finally reach the pedals!

In other news, Jeremy left this morning to go upriver on a 4 or 5 day trip (hopefully, he'll be home for Easter!!). We are grateful for the work - it's the first hours he'll post for the month of April. With Jeremy gone, my big assignment for the week is to go to bed at a decent hour. I think 11:30 is pretty decent, but I've only got 2 minutes until that deadline, so I'd better sign off for the evening.

I posted some pictures below of the fun trip Taylor and Aric took to the Oregon Zoo with their friends Jack, Emma, and Baby Levi (not pictured) a few weeks ago. Enjoy!

Well, it's time to update, and I have a bit of writer's block going tonight. I think it's because I was up about every hour or two last night. I think it was mostly Taylor (my tired brain doesn't track details well), and I don't know why he was up, but it didn't seem to be anything traumatic or I would've remembered (we hope!). Jeremy woke up this morning oblivious to the night we'd had...or so he thought. When he woke up, the first thing he said is, "Why do I feel so tired??" So today's been a slower day for us, but not that abnormal. That's life with toddlers, I guess. Not that we're complaining. Our boys are so much fun!

The kids and I went on a "walk" today, as we often do when it's not raining. Taylor rides his tricycle (with a lot of pushing help on the uphill) and Aric says "wunn fasss, wunn fasss!!" (Run fast). He always manages to somehow escape my death-grip on his hand and then he runs gleefully down the sidewalk, making me run to catch him. He doesn't do well with following directions - he grins impishly (see previous post for an example) and does the opposite of what we've asked. It certainly keeps us on our toes.

Taylor and I went and "previewed" a preschool today. We haven't yet decided whether or not to send Taylor to preschool next year, but it was fun to "check it out." Taylor was VERY shy during our visit and informed me as we left that he was too shy because he was too little, and he'd go to preschool once he was a bigger boy. Right after that, the two of us bought some new letter and number books to work through at home, and then for the ENTIRE afternoon (excepting the walk), we worked through them. It's fun to be in learning mode (when it happens).

Since I've chosen to write on a scatterbrained night, we're headed back to the subject of the walk. Bear with me as I hop around. :-) Aric discovered dandelion fuzz today, and boy, was he excited!! He poked at it with one finger, then GIGGLED as a few pieces of fluff drifted away. Then he poked a little more adamantly, laughed some more, and then hit the rest of the fuzz of with an exuberant slap! It was a lot of fun. Jeremy and I are looking forward to this summer with the boys a lot. They are both at really fun ages where we can get out and enjoy nature a little bit and enjoy the boys' sense of discovery. Jeremy is planning to take Taylor on a "Just Me and My Dad" camping trip this summer. (If you've never seen the Mercer Mayer book, you are missing out!) I'm a little jealous - I think it will be incredibly fun! I'm sure we'll do lots of "whole family" trips and fun days this summer, so I can't feel too left out. :-)

We should have plenty of time to do family fun things, because Jeremy isn't working much. It's been a few weeks since he's gone to work, which is pretty normal for this time of year, but it always takes a little adjusting. He keeps busy at home working on his current Volkswagen Bus restoration (it's another Westfalia camper). He's doing an excellent job, and will hopefully be able to finish it early this summer (it would be a blast to take the family to a drive-in movie on classic VW night, which is usually in June). He's PLANNING on finishing it by fall, so we'll see how it goes. :-)

Speaking of Jeremy, he is going down to Oakland for (we think) his last Reserve time at the end of the month. I'm hoping to have some combination of parents/in-laws come out to keep me and the boys company. That should be fun!

I'm slowing down, so I think I'll call it a night. I've got plenty more to write about another time. Take care. Love you all!

Hello to all our family and friends. This is the first post of what will hopefully be a frequently updated online journal (aka - blog) of our family's happenings. I have been so terrible at corresponding for so long (I think it's officially been over a year since I stopped emailing our long-distance friends) and I'M SORRY! Life has been busy with the two boys running around, and it doesn't show any signs of slowing down, so I figure I'd better find a better way to keep up. I never seem to have the amount of time I'd like for sitting down and catching up with you all. I'm hoping this will be a solution. If I can keep updating this site, I will be able to keep in touch with all of you better. You'll just need to visit this site to see our latest news. Let me know what you think by posting your comments. Hopefully it will work well for all of us. :-)

So, for today, I'm just gonna share a few pics and a little "funny" from Taylor. Last week he asked for some "farmer John cheese" to go on his dinner. I couldn't figure out what he was talking about until he showed me -- the parmesan cheese!!! We're still chuckling about that one. By the way, Taylor's picture shows off his brand new haircut (he was getting rather shaggy, but now he's ready for spring). Aric's picture just shows off his personality - he tends to think he should get away with anything because of his winning smile. :-) Hope you all have a great weekend and we'll try to post more soon.