Vacation bible School

Well, we just finished our big week of VBS at our church, and we all had a great time. Emma got to bring her best friend Presley (also our next door neighbor) every day, so they had lots of fun. I led the Kindergarten class, and wow, they wore me out :-) They were lots of fun, though, and kept me laughing the whole time. I took a bunch of pictures, but the last day I accidentally deleted them all on my camera, so I was left with like 4 pictures :-) It was a great week, though, and my mom was able to come stay with us for a few days and help out with Benny and keep me sane :-) Dave had a few night shifts so our schedules were all off... So, here's a couple random pictures of my class, maybe I'll be able to steal a few from my friend Lisa (hi lisa!)...she was with the preschoolers and maybe she got a picture of Emma doing her thing....

Crazy kids

This is Benjamin's sunscreen mohawk :-) His hair is starting to get pretty long, but it is so blond that you can't really tell until you gel it up! He loves to be outside any time of day, and loves to try and do anything that big sis is doing. We're in that crazy loud stage with him where he is trying to talk to us, but doesn't know the words yet so he just screams....and screams... and yells :-) But he's so cute we can't stay mad for long. He can say a few words, though...he says Emma (that was his first word), dada, bye-bye, hi, doggy (or dooddy)...notice that mama is missing :-)!! i won't hold it against him. anyway, he's growing up fast,. and loving the sunny weather!


Emma could stay in the water ALL DAY... she is getting a nice tan from all the sun, and she is cracking us up with how grown-up she's getting. She is SO excited for the Olympics, i think she's really going to be interested in lots of sports. And yes, her new favorite show right now is American Gladiators, so funny. Usually we only let her watch movies or the kid channels, but she LOVES to watch the contestants climb the rock walls, swim under water, go down zip lines and run the "eliminator".......
My mom was up for a few days last week, and one night we were driving back to our house when all the sudden from the backseat Emma said, "Shhh..I'm getting a call back here"... she was pretending to have a phone in her hand and started talking on it. she said, "uh, huh, this is Emma, yes, Oh, hold on a second, I can't hear you. Ok, I'm putting you on speakerphone, is that better?" Oh, my we were cracking up!

A fun weekend

We had a very fun and busy weekend.. Adam and Bridget were out here looking for houses in Seattle, so we got to spend some time with them- it will be great to have them out here all the time! Friday night we got to go to Thuy's graduation party from her fellowship here in Portland, and that was really fun. Sunday everyone headed over here for a big get together and all the Hughes cousins got to play. And then Monday we headed to the Zoo with Adam and Bridget. They have a really cool exhibit there right now all about dinasours, so we got to walk through that- pretty fun stuff!

Emma liked the dinasoar walk, except for the loud noises... :-)

Adam and Dave

Dave and the T-Rex

Emma and her new friend Rosemary

Ben loves to lounge in his own chair

Lucas and Finn

Horses

Emma really loves horses right now, and wants to ride them, feed them, all that great stuff. My mom's neighbor has horses, so when we go down there the kids always make the trek to feed and talk to the horses. Emma LOVES them, and cries when we have to leave...so, here's some pictures of their latest visit :-)

Emma and Sarah

Emma and Bailey

This is one way to get 4 kids to stand still for more than 2 seconds :-)

These guys are becoming really good friends- Jack and Ben

Lazy Days in the Sun

The past few days have been beautiful, but a little hot for this momma :-)The kids have had a blast though. Their cousin Lucas and Uncle Mark came over to do some swimming and slip and sliding, they got to play with the neighbor girls many times, and swam and played in the sprinkler all day! Summer is going to be fun!

Our little man is growing up soo fast!


Emma and Lucas take a break from swimming to eat a cinnamon roll...


I thought this was cute, but it looks like she's about to strangle him..hmmm..

Okay, I couldn't resist this picture...I think his swim trunks are a little big :-)

I've been tagged!

Well, I got "tagged" by my friend Amanda on this, so maybe you can all learn something new about me :-) Scarrryyyy... :-)

Amanda tagged me; here are the answers...

Four jobs I've had:
1. Safeway courtesy clerk
2. Oregon Zoo
3. Camp Tapawingo (some of the best times :-))
4. Accounting firm office assistant

Four movies I've watched more than once:
1. Anne of Green Gables
2. Return to Snowy River
3. Dead Poets Society
4. National Lampoons Christmas Vacation

Four places I've lived:
1. Dallas, OR
2. Portland, OR
3. Port Orchard, WA
4. Battle Ground, WA

Four places I've been:(Amanda, I didn't have to change the first three, cuz they were all with you..haha)
1. London
2. New York City
3. Ireland, Scotland
4. Honduras, Central America

Four TV shows I watch:
1. The Office (love that show)
2. John and Kate plus 8...I could watch it all day (I'm with you there, girl)
3. Criminal Minds
4. Mystery Diagnosis

Four people who email me regularly (doesn’t include blogging comments):
1. Amanda, long distance best friends!
2. Stephanie Vos- hey girl!
3. Janell, who is far away in Spain :-(
4. My sisters, when they make time for me :)

Four of my favorite foods:
1. Pizza
2. Ice Cream!
3. Thai
4. Cereal

Four places I would like to visit:
1. Alaska
2. Austria/Germany
3. Cape Town, Africa
4. Islands in the Caribbean (Yeah, that sounds nice too right about now....)

Four things I'm looking forward to in the coming year:
1. Maybe no more diapers??? (one can hope, right??)
2. sending emma to her first day of preschool
3. going to the beach with my family
4. Adam and Bridget moving out here!(Daves brother)

Four friends I'm tagging: (if you don't have a blog, you can just send them to me in an email- maybe I'll learn something about YOU!)
1. Janell Ward
2. Bridget Hughes (i gotta know these things, we're "sisters" now :-)
3. Lisa Dunnavant
4. Jane Schmidt

Merwin Reservoir

The four of us got to spend a whole day fishing together up at Merwin Reservoir..Dave works up there a lot, but I had never been up to the lake before. Its about 40 minutes north of our house towards Mt. St. Helens in the boonies :-) But it is absolutely gorgeous there, and it was a beautiful day too! We spent over 4 hours in the boat (I can't beleive the kids made it that long!), and we caught 9 fish! But we only got 5 fish in the boat, the other 4 got away... It was so fun, and Emma caught her first fish! Here's some pictures...
So excited!

Ben's ready to go...

Emma's first fish!

going fast!

Emma took this one of me and benjamin

A picture of the lake

parenthood is full of suprises :-)....

On the Benjamin front:
So, this kid is a maniac, and keeps Dave and I busy chasing him, and well, mostly cleaning up after him all day.. so, the fun he provided us with this week both has to do with Rosco. He Loves to play with Rosco, follow him around, hit him, and mostly feed him. He feeds Rosco ALL THE TIME... even when he's not supposed to he will sneak away and give him something. The last nice day we had Dave and I were outside and caught him sharing his popcicle with the dog- he'd lick it, then Rosco would lick it... you get the picture :-) Gross... and then....

Ben now knows where we keep the dog treats, and loves to get into the cupboard to get them for Rosco. While I was taking a shower he got into a bag of bones, and by the time I got out the damage was already done. There were bones in both toilets, bones scattered around the bedrooms, in garbage cans and in kitchen cupboards. I guess he was "hiding" them for later use- who knows...all I know is its hard to fish soggy bones out of toilets without getting grossed out- thanks a lot Benny ;-)

On the Emma front:
Emma is really starting to be curious about God/Heaven/Bible stories and things like that. She loves to pray at dinner and tell God stories (as she calls them). So here's a couple tidbits from a kids point of view :-)

A prayer she said a few nights ago at dinner: "God is great, God is good, thank you God for our food, and please help Jesus to be good up there. Amen"

And a "God story" she told me yesterday: "One day there was a big huge storm in the ocean. All the guys were scared. So God gave Jesus big muscles to fix it and save the guys. They were so happy and then Jesus died at Easter to make us feel better. The end" I love it!

Emma singing

Emma loves to sing, and now has started "doing moves" as she calls them to the music...thought I would get it on video... its pretty long, the whole entire Ariel song, but its cute...oh, and you'll have to turn it up pretty loud, she singsa kinda quiet... enjoy :-)

Lewisville Park

My little Sis came up with her hubby and kiddos a few days ago, and we had a fun day. We got to go up to Lewisville Park(which is about 5 minutes from our house), and hang out. Emma and Ben love to go there and play, feed the ducks, get muddy and wet, and well, run around and scream :-) So here are some pictures from the park..(Oh, and for those of you wondering why Dave has not been in any pictures recently, he's been working a LOT the past few weeks, its a busy time and he's been pulling some LONG days...poor guy, but hopefully things will slow down soon!

Jackson

Austin

Cousins Austin, Emma, Jack and Benny by the Lewis River

Crystal and Me :-)

Emma pushing Ben on the swings

I love this guy!

At the wedding :-)

On Saturday Emma and I had a fun girls day- we drove up to Tacoma, WA for a very fun and beautiful wedding! Amanda's sister Melissa got married, and it was such a fun night. Dave and Ben had a guys night, I think they went to look at fishing stuff and got Burgers (what more could you want?? :-)Here's a couple pics from the night..

Me and Amanda- lookin good girl ;-)

Melissa, the beautiful bride, with Grace and Emma

Emma getting her groove on :-)

Charlie and Emma (these two are alot alike!)

Fun days with our friends!!!

What a fun week we had! My best friend Amanda came out from Illinois for her lovely sisters wedding, and she and the kids got to stay 4 days with us! (Dave really missed you Wade!) It was so good to have some time together, and let the kids get to know each other some more. We were pretty proud of ourselves for being brave enough to go out with all four kids, and actually get them all to sleep at night (though usually not without a fight :-)) We love you guys!!

Playing in the sprinkler :-)

Charlie and Gracie getting a drink from the hose

All the "cousins" at the zoo (yes, we actually got them all to stand still for a few seconds :-))

Me and Charlie

Grace, Charlie and Emma getting a MAJOR sugar-high at Coldstone Ice Cream

Emma, Ben and Gracie at Kids Club Gym