Everything Ellison

Sorry, Time to Play Catch-Up!

2009-06-27T22:39:00.015-05:00

OK, since it has been almost four months since my last post, I figured we are way overdue with pictures and the latest goings-on here in Nixa, MO. I suppose it would be easiest to start from the stuff that happened longer ago and work my way forwards, so hopefully this isn't too muddled!!

After the last post in March, I received news that my Grandma Runner was not doing well and was going in to the doctor, a few days later, we learned that she had a fast growing aggressive tumor on her brain stem, and was not expected to live much longer. This came as very shocking news. About two days after hearing this, she passed away peacefully. We are all very sad, but thankful that it was so peaceful. My supervisor was very understanding and gave me a few days off to fly back to Oregon for the funeral. It was good to see a friends and family, considering the circumstances.

April was pretty low key for the most part, rainy, kinda cold, and we were quite ready for the warmer weather, so not much happened, except for some bouts of sickness. There are different things to be allergic to here, so we all suffered as the trees bloomed and various plants blossomed. At the end of the month though, we had a some very fun visitors...Nana and Baba! We had lots of fun showing them around and playing and going to Eli's Kindergarten day at his new school, Espy Elementary. Also, two very special occasions occurred, Eli's and Evan's birthdays! I can't believe they are now 5 and 3! We had lots of cake that week and family and, of course, the welcoming into our home of the Wii. Eli has become an accomplished Wii-player, and Evan is getting their, much to Eli's frustration at times.

Dying Easter Eggs

The library at Eli's school, Espy Elementary, where he will be starting Kindergarten in the fall

School playground

Taking a bus ride around the block

Eli's 5th Birthday, along with the traditional cake of choice, strawberry cake, which is the same as Aunty Holly's birthday cake

The item that he said he wanted for his birthday over and over...a Wii

We thought it might be fun to take Nana and Baba to Branson and see some stuff. We thought since it was Evan's birthday and he likes dinosaurs, there is a museum in Branson. We got there and were slightly surprised at the...quality, if you will, as 80% of the exhibit was Styrofoam. Still, the boys could care less and ran around looking at all the dinosaurs, and Evan still asks to go back.

The Spring program at Morning Star Preschool and Daycare

Eli graduating to Kindergarten
Evan's 3rd Birthday...and his traditional cake, which is the same as mine, Cockeyed cake!

May brought lots of up and down weather. Some nice days, some cold days, which really screwed up my sinuses, but again, that's spring. We also experienced some Mid-West storms that are quite exciting, but quite terrifying at the same time. We had some tornadoes touch down pretty close to here and could hear the sirens, so we were a bit on edge at times when the thunderstorm warnings would come in. One morning when everyone got to work, we had only been in the office for about five minutes when they instructed everyone in the building to go down to the main level for a tornado warning. Everyone in the entire building was crammed into the 1st floor hallways for about 20 minutes while the storm wailed outside. There was some damage in the surrounding area, but once again, we were all fine!

Lots of rain, have to eat Popsicles inside

June finally has brought the nice warm weather. However, it seems to have gotten really hot really fast! Fortunately, the pool is right outside and has been great! I haven't gotten many pictures of us in the pool yet, but hopefully will get some soon. The boys are experiencing a June-event for the first time that I find quite fascinating, which is lightning bugs. They are neat to watch and we have lots of fun going out when it starts to get dark. We have been able to even catch some in a jar so we can get a good look, but we always let them go. Eli enjoyed 4 weeks of summer school, sort of a bridge to Kindergarten, at his new school with his classmates and new teacher. He had a blast and I know he is going to do great in the fall! Evan is officially potty trained, whoo hoo, and got to move up to the three-year old class, and loves his new teacher and class. It is a lot more structured than the one he was in before, and his sponge-like mind is taking everything in! John is in full swing of the summer semester of school and is pretty much slammed with work. Lots of info in a short amount of time, but he has really been enjoying the clinical part as he has been getting to work with patients more. I have been plugging away at work. I enjoy the people I work with. It can be stressful and irritating at times, but it has been pretty good for the most part. One of the doctors I work for thinks I need to relax, so maybe that's my problem! June also brought our 11th wedding anniversary. We had a very nice meal at the same restaurant that we ate at for Valentine's Day because we had been craving it ever since. We then drove around the Branson area and Tablerock Lake to see the sights. On our way back, the phone rang, and we had learned that Evan had taken a bit of a topple and had possibly broken his arm. We drove a bit faster and got home and raced to the ER. They got us right in and got x-rays and sure enough, he had broken both the radius and the ulna bones in his forearm. The orthopedic surgeon that was on-call called ahead to the OR to schedule us for Monday morning first thing as he did not want to set the bones right then. Evan was quite a trooper and won over everyone who came in our room with his his big smile and winking. He usually is a horrible patient and cries when he gets his temperature taken, but he sat just as still as he could be for the x-rays and when they put an IV post in his hand. It was very weird actually and we asked him "who are you and where is Evan?" to which he replied "I am Evan." He did really well for his procedure as well to reset the bones. He will be getting the hard cast in a few days. Hopefully it will not become a weapon. This is all a new experience as this is the first time one of kids has broken something, but I had pegged Evan to be the first.

Aunty Holly and Uncle Joe took the kids to "Sucker Days," an event honoring the sucker fish. I think Evan was slightly disappointed in the fact that there were not suckers everywhere. None the less, they had fun. I had to stay home due to strep throat.

Aunty Holly's Birthday

One project that John has enjoyed, is getting his grandpa's boat all fixed up and taking it out fishing. We have taken it out a few times, not so much lately as school has been quite demanding. Both the boys have been out with just daddy and love fishing, especially Evan. When John is done with school after the summer session, we are hoping to get out on the lake more. This picture John actually took by himself of a bass that he caught in Lake Springfield.

Eli in the pool
Evan with a broken arm in the pool
Classic car show, every Saturday night. The essence of coolness.
It was also blistering hot that day. It was about 7:30 pm when we got to the show and it was probably still about 90%
A new favorite pasttime, catching lightning bugs in our pajamas. The boys have gotten such a kick out of hunting lightning bugs! Evan has even mastered the art of one-handed firefly catching, though most do not survie the return to the wild as he packs a lot of force behind his snag.
I thought this was a neat picture because you can see the firefly between Eli's hands!

For the Fourth of July, also Grandma's birthday, we went to Aunt Terri's house and played with cousins, ate lots of food, and enjoyed a great fireworks display courtesy of John's cousin, David. Most of the main firwork shows in the area were canceled this year due to budget cutbacks, so we bought some fireworks and had our own little show on the farm. The kids loved it!

Mommy's 30th birthday! Traditional cockeyed cake....yum! I also recieved a Wii accessory...the Wii Fit. It is a lot of fun for both me and the boys!

Grandma's birthday! We got her a case of Oregon chai

Aunt Terri and Uncle Paul's farm
The cousinsEvan and a slightly mauled frog that he caught. The boys were catching and naming frogs. The poor frogs were nearly exhausted to death.

David lgithing the red rocket that Evan picked out

Fireworks are great, aren't they? It was especially fun this year, because every year up until now, Evan has been scared of them, but he was into it this year from picking out fireworks to sparklers to watching and cheering!

A curious on-looker

The storm blowing in. It was quite a show between the fireoworks, fireflies, and the distant lightening and thunder

Evan enjoyed making large circles with the sparklers. I was a little concerned that he was going to light his hair on fire a few times.

Going for a ride on Aunt Terri's scooter

So those are the main highlights. The summer is about half over all ready, I can't believe it! I will try and be good and not wait so long for the next post, as I am pretty sure this is the longest I have gone in between posts!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

2009-03-18T19:54:00.003-05:00

St. Patrick's Day is one of those funny little holidays that I typically don't think much about or anticipate, but it is always one of the most fun days. After I got home from work, we searched the front yard for Leprechaun treasure, because after all, they tend to drop stuff when they are in a hurry to run off with treasure. We found a plentiful bounty of chocolate coins under bushes, in trees, and in the rocks. We also found some quarters and pennies hidden around the house that the Leprechauns had hidden. Daddy even found green rice pudding in the refrigerator! We ended up the evening with a very traditional St Patrick's day feast at El Puente (Mexican food) because none of us felt like cooking at the end of the day. We enjoyed the beautiful weather and are looking forward to it sticking around hopefully soon!

Looking in the trees for treasure

Eli and Evan and their Leprechaun gold!

Enjoying the nice warm weather!

Eli, Evan, and Uncle Joe

The Circus

2009-03-15T20:01:00.006-05:00

Sunday afternoon we had a family outing to the zoo. Now, before we went, I honestly was trying to not expect too much. First of all, it was in a theater, and second, circus's tend to be on the carnie side. Also, I was not sure how Evan would respond to the circus since fear of clowns runs in the family and he had a very adverse reaction to Santa Claus, but the boys were excited to attend their first circus. It was put on by the Shriner's and was a fundraiser to raise money for the Shriner's Hospital. We got there plenty early and were the second ones in line. As we were standing and the clowns were entertaining, someone yelled, "make way for the elephants!" And sure enough, coming up the side walk were four elephants. They are so big that the only way for them to get inside was to use the front door. The largest of the elephants even had to crawl through on it's belly. They walked probably four feet from us and the only thing between us and then was a 1/4 inch yellow rope strung up to keep us back. It was amazing and the boys mouths hung open as these huge animals walked by. We got inside and I could tell that this was not a carnie circus. It was very well organized and these were professional circus folk. All of the acts were amazing and it was a very impressive show from the tigers, to the trapeze, to the clowns (which thankfully were not scary clowns and did not come in to the audience), and of course the elephants. They boys were in awe and sat on the edge of their seats the whole time and clapped and cheered. It was really fun!

Here come the elephants! This is the one that had to crawl through the door to get in.

Enjoying some snacks waiting for the show to start. Evan does not like cotton candy, like his dad, and settled for popcorn.

Mmmm...cotton candy!

Elephant party line

That is multi-tasking

Miniature horses

Evan laughing at the clowns. The clowns were really quite funny and they did not have their faces completely painted. It was enough to tell that they were clowns, but not freakish.

This girl did some painful looking stuff!

Eli stated that this was his favorite part

These two were something else. They did this all without a net! One of their tricks was the girl hanging from this handle-thing, and the guy held it with his teeth. I told Eli that is why we need to brush our teeth so that they are good and strong.

My favorite, the tigers! Right at the beginning two of them started fighting and the trainer poked them with a stick and said "no, no," which seemed like it would be rather ineffective, but they stopped and did what they were asked. Their roaring was so loud you could hear it over the trainers 80's routine rock music.

Incredible Pizza

2009-02-21T20:07:00.004-06:00

Last night we went out with Aunty Holly, Uncle Joe, Austin, and some friends of theirs to Incredible Pizza. To those of who you who have braved Chuck E. Cheese, look out because this place is huge. They have multiple dining rooms, a huge buffet, games galore, go-karts, mini-golf, bumper boats, mini-bowling, a bouncy castle, and not bad pizza. We never got around to the golf, but did pretty much everything else. Instead of tokens, you get a card and you swipe it at the games, and when your card runs out, you put more money on it. This place has to make a fortune because it was packed. It was actually a lot of fun and the boys had a blast running around to all of the different games and activities and made some new friends and had a good time with Austin.

Bumper boats

Eli and Aunty Holly in the go-kart

Evan and Daddy in the go-kart

Eli is a big fan of air-hockey. This was a close second on his favorite thing we did behind the bumper boats!

Nothing Much New

2009-02-18T16:54:00.005-06:00

I thought I might post something, though I do not have much to report on. We are still doing well, though we still have occasional thoughts of wanting to return to the "yellow house." We had a very nice Valentine's Day weekend filled with a lot of chocolate. I have been indulging in it a bit too much, but it is just so yummy! John and I went out on a date to Branson and went to Branson Landing, mostly shops and places to eat. I found a neat bead store that runs an advertisement in my bead magazine that I get- Plum Bazaar is what its called. We ate at an amazing Mexican restaurant and waited nearly an hour for the table, but it was well worth it. The guacamole and the carne asada were fabulous. We ended out the evening at Andy's Frozen Custard, another weakness of mine.

At the moment I am still hoping to be employed soon. I have filled out dozens of applications and have had an interview and a call back, so I am hoping that something will work out.

Making chocolate covered strawberries with Larania

Just about every night we play games, so grandma got us some new ones (as we were getting tired of some of the others!) This one is "What's in Ned's Head?" It is interesting to say the least, but the boys think it's great. You have cards and have to find the matching objects while feeling around in Ned's head.

This is Ned

Eli and Buster Brown. Evan will sometimes tack letters on to the ends of words, so he calls him Busterd, which for poor Buster has stuck.

Lady B. Evan did not want to be in the picture...
...so he is in his own.

Time to Catch Up!

2009-01-22T18:57:00.000-06:00

Okay, so this is the farthest behind and the most I have ever neglected my blog. Everyday I think "today is the day to sit down and do this thing," but of course I get distracted and our lives sit still in November. A lot has happened in December and now almost at the end of January. I think the best way to go about this without overwhelming one entry is to do this in sections. Hopefully you can make it through!

Probably the biggest thing to happen in December was Arctic Blast '08. It began mid December with some snow threats, some flurries, some frostiness, and of course everything being canceled. Not too bad. It was nice to be in and getting things done. For the first year ever I had all the presents made and wrapped on time. However, as the week progressed, the snow got more intense as well as the falling temperature. The timing seemed to be very poor as this was going to be our last week at the Tree of Knowledge, the Christmas Program, staff lunch, school Christmas party, family parties, and on and on. As the days passed, I became more discouraged of how many things were canceled and we would not be able to make them up later as we were leaving on New Year's Day. The only good part was the fact that we got to play in the snow since we were completely encased in snow drifts. We had fun playing in the snow, had two slumber parties with the Klobas's, and just being together in our last few weeks in Oregon.

At the tail end of Arctic Blast '08 was of course, Christmas. One of my favorite times of year. I love the way it smells, tastes, looks, and love seeing the excitement of the kids with all of the fun activities that we do. We went and cut our own tree, as we have done the past five years I believe, and this was definitely the biggest as it sported nine strands of lights. Due to the weather, the Lively Family Christmas party was canceled, which was very sad, but there was no way we could have made the drive as that was the worst day of the storm. John had to drive to Seattle to pick up Jan because all of the flights in and out of Portland were canceled and they told her she would not get in until the 1st of January. It took about ten hours driving with chains parts of the way, but they made it safe and sound. Christmas Eve we went down to Salem for the Runner Family Christmas Party, very slowly I might add. The ice on I5 was slow to melt and the ruts of ice were very treacherous as there had been numerous accidents all day. We made it there and back and had a great time with family, especially the slide show that Aunt Sharron and Uncle Dave made (thanks again!) and we also made a stop to see Grandma and Grandpa Lively. It was a late night, but Santa understood as we rolled in at about 12:30. We set out the cookies and jumped into bed. Christmas morning was very laid back and relaxing. We did a much better job this year about not buying so much and not spending money on things that we were not really sure people would like. I also spent more time making jewelery so that I could make more detailed pieces. We then went to Cousin Michelle's house for a very nice lunch/dinner and had a great time playing games and visiting.

Once the festivities died down, we had to get to the serious business of packing and leaving. It was exciting mixed with great sadness to leave our home and family and friends of the last seven years. We shared many amazing experiences, some happy, some sad, but all memorable. It is quite a task to box up your life and put it on a truck. In some ways I felt guilty that we have so much stuff to fill a 24/26 foot trailer. We had even downsized a ton. We did leave some patio furniture behind that I am sure will be put to good use. We said our good-byes for now and began a new year in a new place with a new beginning. We will miss everyone we left in Oregon. We love you all and will be back soon.

We have been here in Nixa, Missouri now for about four weeks and are feeling pretty good at how much we have gotten accomplished. We moved in to Jan's house, Larania's house actually, and feel very much at home. The dogs will give us looks as if to ask when we will be leaving, but all in all, everyone is getting along splendidly. Eli started swimming lessons through the gym we are members at at the hospital. He loves it and loves that there are family swim times. We went last week and the kids had a blast swimming and jumping in the pool. I think when Evan gets a little older we will try him out in swim lessons. We have been looking at different churches as well and definitely see some possibilities of places that we could fit in and call home. Eli loved going to bible class again and recited word for word the lesson. I am still looking for work. I applied for about 12 jobs between Cox hospital, where Jan works and John goes to school, and St. John's Hospital. Hopefully something will turn out. In the meantime, we go the gym, run a few errands, and try and keep the house tidy as there are six people and two dogs. The weather is definitely much colder than we are used to, but every now and then we get some gorgeous days and play outside with no coats or hats! I am ready for spring though, but I usually am this time of year.

And now we arrive at today, and once again, it is snowing. It is a different snow here. A lot icier. In fact we started out the day with sleet and about 1/4 inch of ice on everything, and now this evening it is being covered up by snow. It will probably be around for awhile and hopefully the power won't go out because of the lines getting too heavy. Hopefully you have made it this far, because now it is picture time! I won't post everything as it will take forever, but hopefully from here on out I will be better about keeping things updated a little more regularly! The pictures are arranged from most recent to oldest, that's just how they were added and it will take forever to cut and paste.

2 inch chunk of ice off of the hot tub cover

Trees full of ice. It amazes me how everything gets coated and sparkles. It was sunny all day and nothing melted

The shiny lines are ice coated power lines

This was the night before when the snow started falling

We built Geral Grevious's ship out of Legos on our ice/snow day

Eli and Evan with their cousins: Cameron, Grant, Levi, and Jayden.

A Jedi on his day off

Batman in the morning

Now we have moved to Christmas morning and probably Evan's Favorite gift

Me and the boys with great-Grandpa and Grandma Runner. Evan was not being very cooperative, but it was late on Christmas Eve and he was ready for bed!

During Arctic Blast '08 we had a two night slumber party at our house, so the kids watched Horton Hears a Who

The piles of snow at our house

We had about a good five feet in front of the garage

We went to the Evans' house to make snowmen on one of the days. This was Eric's creation.

THE END- you made it!!!!

Superstar

2008-12-07T22:07:00.000-06:00

One exciting thing that happened in November before Thanksgiving, but I failed to mention it at the time, was Eli got chosen at school to be Superstar. It was a very exciting week as he got to pack a bag of all his favorite things, such as books and toys, took some pictures in of him as a baby and with family and friends, got interviewed, and got to sit at a special table with a friend of his choice. He was very excited when he brought the bag home, and Evan spent the weekend attempting to pack it for him putting various items in it.

Some random pictures:

Eli getting his hair shaved in the garage

Before we got our tree, the boys were pretending the basket ball hoop was a tree and the Star Wars guys were ornaments, or ort-a-mints as they keep saying
One of my favorite childhood snacks was Babybel cheese, so it is excited that they too have taken to it!

Our Christmas Tree

2008-12-07T21:23:00.000-06:00

Once again we made the trip to Alber's Tree Farm in search of our tree, and once again we found a great tree. We did search a little longer this year, but most of that was due to the fact that we decided to walk to the furthest section of the farm, but it was a beautiful sunny day, a first in our Christmas tree retrievals. The boys did great walking out and even helped carry the tree back, sort of. Eli held the tippy top and Evan held my hand while I carried the tree and John pretty much carried the full weight. It was a bit of a trek uphill, but we got the biggest tree we have every had. I ended up putting about nine strands of 100 white lights. It is a beautiful tree and we love to turn all the lights off and just look at how pretty it is. The boys did great helping hang ornaments and several have been rehung as they fall off the tree. They got some good practice helping McKenzie decorate the Evans' gimungous tree at their house!

Alber's Tree Farm- the bunch of trees in about the middle right in front of the tall trees is where we walked to.

Decorating the tree

Thanksgiving in Sunriver

2008-12-07T19:48:00.000-06:00

I am a little late in getting this posted, but better late than never! For Thanksgiving we went to stay with Nana and Baba in Sunriver. As compared to the last several years, the weather was amazingly warm. We even went without coats a couple times! We had a wonderful Thanksgiving meal, as usual, and the boys had lots of fun playing games with everyone. On Friday, me and John and Jessica did the Black Friday shopping, but went with the goal of not going overboard this year. We were successful and I feel like we have done pretty well at following the Advent Conspiracy theme of spending less on gifts and spending more time creating memories and helping out others. I am also making some gifts, so hopefully that will get done in time!! Friday night we went to the Sunriver Grand Illumination and saw Santa arrive in a blaze of fireworks, which was really effective. They had arranged for a helicopter to fly over the lodge and then lit some sort of firework something that was shooting out the back, and it looked like a comet fly through the sky. Santa then came riding down the street in his sleigh pulled by a tractor. The boys thought it was pretty neat and we then had a very pleasant walk through the forest back to the car. On Saturday we went to the Lodge again and visited Gingerbread Junction and went to a really neat craft bazaar. We then ended the day going to a Civil War party in Caldera Springs at the Lakehouse. It was unfortunate that the Beavers did not win, or even got close, but it was fun and the food was great. We were commenting that Eli and Evan were the happiest Beaver fans in the state as they were still running around cheering go Beavers with two minutes left and the score was not even close. We also got to see the lights go on at Caldera which was very pretty. It was a great weekend in that we got to do some fun things, but we didn't feel like we were constantly doing an activity and we got to spend lots of time playing games and just being together.

Mt Hood as we were driving over to Sunriver

A friendly game of Go Fish

Thanksgiving feast

The Sunriver Lodge Grand Illumination

Arrival of Santa and the Mrs.

Gingerbread Junction- there were amazing things that people had made with gingerbread, frosting, candy and fondt

Evan liked this house because the roof looked like peppermint bark

Game time!

GO BEAVERS!!

A Post Finally...

2008-12-07T19:41:00.000-06:00

Sorry about the month that has passed since I last posted anything. Time it seems has been going faster than I am. There have been many events that have made the last month or so zip by. I guess to begin with, the most time intensive event is packing up our house. John received word at the end of October that he got accepted into an accelerated nursing program in Springfield, Missouri, and classes start in January, so we have begun the task of packing up and moving 2000 miles. It is both an exciting time and a sad time for us. We are very much looking forward to a new adventure and John getting to pursue a career path that he has always been very interested in, and for the opportunity to be around his family as he will be going to school at the hospital where Grandma (Jan) works. The boys are excited that we will be staying with Grandma when we get there for awhile and to see Aunty Holly and all of the other people that we have been telling them about. It is also sad that we are having to say goodbye to family and freinds that we have become so close to. We will miss everyone here very much.

Happy Halloween!

2008-11-01T01:17:00.000-05:00

The day finally arrived after much anticipation and drooling over how much candy we were going to be getting. It was kind of a wild day at school, because of course all anyone really cared about was what was happening after school. The wildness seemed to continue on into the day as questions kept coming up of why can't we go now? No one is ready for us yet I would reply, but that did not seem to be a good answer and the natives were restless a lot today. Finally the time came and I forced the issue of eating some dinner before we could go. We got suited up in their matching Darth Vader costumes (I almost had Evan convinced he wanted to be a Storm Trooper, but when he saw Eli dressed up that was it. I figured since Eli did not mind them dressing up the same, it was not a big deal for now) and I quickly took pictures, because I knew that the masks would not last long on their faces, and off we went. We began next door and Pete and Gail's. We then went to a neighborhood close by and walked around a few of the blocks where houses that seemed to be participating in trick-or treating were grouped together. The kids had a lot of fun ringing doorbells and receiving their treats, except for one house Evan got scared by a boy in a mask, but was fine when the mask was removed. He spent the next five minutes convincing us, in other words himself, that it isn't scary, it's just a boy. We then went to the Awesome October Festival at church. It was so much fun for the kids to play games and run around together in a safe place. We now have more candy than we can eat and the boys had a great time. They were wound up for bedtime and Evan did not want to take his costume off, but eventually they got to bed and went to sleep immediately probably dreaming of how much candy they are going to eat, and hopefully not about the boy in the mask!

Trick-or-treat! Once again frustrations rose with our camera, so there are not many pictures as it was too dark outside and in the church building

The costume show

The song in the next three videos is "5 Little Pumpkins," which was our favorite Halloween song

and book. The first video is of them doing it together, and the following two are solo performances.

Little Swimmer

2008-11-01T01:09:00.000-05:00

This week Eli finished up session 1 in the fall session of swimming at Mount Hood Community College. He absolutely loves being in the pool and I am so amazed and proud of how well he does. Over the past two months he has improved so much and is doing really well swimming on his own. Eli is also very proud of his swimming, but mostly about the fact that he gets to swim in the big pool like Michael Phelps does. I am happy to say that he was able to graduate to the next level, so we will be beginning those classes next week, which he is very excited about!

Doing the front crawl, or scooping ice-cream as they call it!

Having a bit of goggle malfunction, but not really caring

Evan being helpful by putting himself in a locker

Pumpkin Carving

2008-11-01T00:51:00.000-05:00

Ah, that messy part of Halloween festivities! Of course, the kids ask all day when we can carve the pumpkins, and usually only remain interested for about five minutes. This year we let them play in the pumpkins guts, which they seemed to enjoy, but it took a lot longer to clean up! This year Eli wanted a scary face and for or "character face" Evan chose Diego from one of his favorite shows, "Go, Diego, Go!" We also had two little pumpkins that Eli got from his school party, so I free-handed them. It took awhile as usual to carve all the lines, John actually did most of the more difficult carving, but the kids have loved the results!

John had a good idea this year of using a "handy saw" which was way faster!

Go, Diego, Go!

Scary-face!

These two I just made up as I went

Scary-face all lit up! My camera has not been liking dark pictures, so this is the best we could get.

Church Retreat

2008-11-01T00:35:00.000-05:00

What a beautiful weekend! For the second year in a row, our church retreat has taken place at Eagle Fern Camp, last weekend, and the fall colors on the drive there and at the camp were particularly amazing this year! The boys had a great time playing outside running, throwing rocks in the creek, swinging on the tree swing, and just playing with all of their friends. They were worn out every night! John and I also had a good time visiting with friends. I feel very thankful and blessed for this time that we spend with our church family. It was nice to get away, and it took all week to recover!!

Evan poking nature

Eli on the tree swing

Pausing for just a moment for a picture

Fun Fall Festivities

2008-10-19T00:22:00.000-05:00

Fall begins a very crazy, but fun and exciting time. In the past, I never really cared for this time of year, but now that we have kids, it is so much more exciting and enjoyable to experience all the little fun things that happen. It also begins my baking spree, which also means I need to be back at the gym more consistently. Between cut out cookies and pies and bread and all sorts of yummy things, I can already tell this year it is hard to say no to sweet things. We began with a single batch of pumpkin cut-out cookies, and since I still have half a bowl of frosting left, I am sure they will be followed by more soon! We made a single batch of cookies, which we only got about 22 cookies or so. They are pretty big, but the boys and Blake had fun rolling, cutting, and sprinkling, and of course eating!

Rolling out the dough

Cutting out the cookies

There they are!

A very important cookie making step: cleaning the frosting off the beatersOn go the Halloween sprinkles. This was definitley the messiest part

Nothing like black lips and teeth. Need more brushing!

Another fun activity is going to the pumpkin patch. This is a relatively new thing for me as we did not have pumpkin patches in Abu Dhabi and I had never really been to such a place until we moved here and went to Sauvie Island. This year we did a laid back approach and went to The Olsen Farm pumpkin Patch in Boring, Oregon. There was no one there, we took our time, got great pumpkins, and it is so laid back that they don't even have people attending the stand. Your just put your money in a box! The boys loved running around looking at all the pumpkins and trying to pick them all up. We are currently searching for the perfect carving patterns, so the carving event post is soon to come!

They each got to pick out a teeny tiny pumpkin. Baby pumpkins as Evan was saying.

The pumpkin field. We did not have to go out there. They bring all the pumpkins in to a smaller area and arange them by size and stand them all up in rows. Very organized, which John commeneted on.

Wandering around looking for a good one

It was a pretty hot sunny day and Evan took on this pose a lot.

Two happy pumpkins

We found some good ones!

Beaver Game

2008-10-14T00:18:00.000-05:00

So I am finally writing a post. For awhile I did not have much to report on, and then I had a cold/sinus infection, so I did not feel like doing anything for about a week. But now, I have something to write about!

On Thursday, Friday, and Saturday morning of last weekend we had our first garage sale in seven years. I know why we wait so long because it is quite an ordeal. I was shocked that so many people came on Thursday and that it was our highest money maker day. Go figure! We got rid of a lot of stuff and it felt good to be rid of things that we just did not need. We have a few pieces of furniture that we are going to attempt to sell on Craig's List, so we will see how that goes.

This past weekend we went down to Corvallis for a Beaver game. Eli and Evan had been talking about it all week and were very excited. We got all of our Beaver colors on and packed up all of our cold weather gear, and headed out after noon. The weather was perfect, much warmer than I had been anticipating. Last year we were cold and drizzly. The sun felt good this year! We drove down with Jessica and Jerry and The Klobas's and met up with some other people from church and Nana and Baba, and some of their friends. The boys had a great time being at the game with family and good friends! And to top it off, the Beavers won by about 50 points! We got home pretty late, but the boys crashed and dreamed of Beaver football.

When we first got to the game, Evan was a bit overwhelmed, and would not smile nor be present in any pictures. This is the best we got with Nana and Baba.

After the first half of the game, Evan warmed up and was his usual self.

Beaver buddies

Last Days of Summer

2008-09-30T21:54:00.000-05:00

Summer is definitely my favorite time of year. I do enjoy all of the seasons, but the warm long days and the cool nights and all of the summer outdoor activities are the highlight of my year. I do admit that I have more of an appreciation for fall than I used to from growing up for so many years in a place where there was no fall season. Seeing the trees turn into so many beautiful shades of red, orange, and yellow is amazing to me, but I do get a tad sad to see the long warm days of summer go until the next year. So, today we had some outdoor playtime as the weather is getting ready to turn less agreeable. The kids played and ran and I started knitting scarves that the boys have requested for the winter. Hopefully we can get a few more bike rides in before I have to battle the wind, which I probably will not succeed at!

Eli also commented that summer was the best because we can play in the pool. Fortunately for him, today was the first day of swimming lessons for the next month. He loved it and did a great job. It is nice that he is in the big pool so that we can watch from the stands. I forgot my camera, so maybe I can get a few pictures in the next weeks. It may not like the lighting however as it is growing grumpy.

"I'm Popeye the Sailor Man, except I blow bubbles." We watch quite a bit of Popeye.

Zoo Trip

2008-09-27T23:37:00.000-05:00

We finally made it to the zoo today! All summer I had wanted to go, but we kept having to change plans for one reason or another. The weather was forecasted to be good, so I decided that today was the today. Of course, a lot of other people said the same thing. For the first time ever we had to park in the overflow parking lot and ride the shuttle. Apparently it was member appreciation day and the World Forestry Center and the Children's Museum, who share the same parking lot, had new exhibits that just started. We made it though, and it was not as crowded as I was anticipating. We saw pretty much everything except for some of the pens were being remodeled and they are doing the big addition for the lions and other African animals. The boys had lots of fun, even though I carried Evan most of the time despite having a stroller. he was being a bit particular, but it made up for not going to the gym today or tomorrow. Evan's favorite animal was the giraffe because it has a long, long neck, and then he added "like me." He, on several occasions, said that the crocodile, the snakes, and the bats were "too scary," but he always wanted to see them! He later claimed that the snakes were one of his favorites and that bats bite his neck, I guess because it is long, long. Eli's favorite was the hippos, so he said, because they eat fish. I think he liked the monkeys.

It was a very fun day and we could not have had more perfect weather!

A mandrill

A colobus monkey

The polar bear was very fun to watch as she was having play time with the barrels. At one point she drug them over to the water, pushed them out a little ways, and then jumped on top of them and flipped over. The boys thought it was very funny!

The patch is where she had an abscess and they had to shave her fur and lance it. Ti is interesting that they have such dark skin, but it is all part of how they stay warm because it absorbs heat better.

Look at those teeth!

We of course had to get a picture of the beaver. My camera did not like how dark it was however.

The long, long neck!

Scary!

It must be tough being a hippo!

I don't exactly remember the name of these, but it is a kind of antelope.

We had to wait in line for awhile, but we got to see one of the latest additions to the zoo, Samudra the baby elephant. She is about a month old and is very cute!

Of all things, they had belly dancers performing to Arabic music on the amphitheater stage. It was really neat and I explained to the boys that when I was their age, I lived somewhere where they danced like that and there were lots of camels and sand. I don't think it clicked yet, but someday. It was actually very nostalgic to listen to the music and watch the dancing!

Lunch break

Warty pigs from the Philippines

The other latest addition was the one of the warty pigs having three piglets. They are really cute and were scampering around everywhere. They were very tiny.

Race for the Cure

2008-09-21T18:10:00.001-05:00

It has been awhile since I have posted anything. Sorry about that. We had a touch of sickness, fever with a sore throat that lasted forever, but we are all better, and just in time. Today was the annual Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure in downtown Portland. On the loud speaker they said it was the largest race on the west coast, though the portion that we do is not much of a race. It is very crowded and most of the time it is just strolling, but it is amazing the number of people that participate to supprt breast cancer awareness and research. Survivors, family memebers, family and friends honoring loved ones that have passed on, and family and friends celebrating those who have conquered this disease. They did not give an estimated number as they wait until the race is over, but they were saying that there were record numbers of survivors crossing the finishing line, and are thinking this is the biggest ever. We had a great time and were glad that we were able to go and support Linda and others at church and in our families who have had breast cancer. Afterwards, we wandered around Saturday Market for awhile and then ate at Dan and Louis Oyster Bar. I do not think I will be needing dinner tonight!

We love you Linda! Congratulations on 14 years! (In think it is 14?)

Through downtown Portland we went...

First Day of School

2008-09-08T16:22:00.000-05:00

Today was the first day of school at the Tree of KNowledge Preschool. The excitment was definitely thick in the air! Some kids came in ready to go, some were shy, but at the end of the day everybody had a great first day.

We were a little nervous that Eli would miss the first day as he was sick with a fever on Saturday. His temp was up to 103 and he was quite lethargic. Sunday he was better, but said his throat hurt. Today though he popped out of bed was was all better. He had a great time at school. He had been looking so forward to starting and I was so glad that he did not have to miss it.

Evan had his first day of daycare today. Daddy took him and it was a little rough at first, but the lady who watches him said that as soon as John left, he was fine and played all day and ate his lunch. I was so relieved that he seemed to enjoy himself and is making new friends too!

I am so excited that I am back at TOK. We have a graet little class and they are jsut adorable! It will be a fun time! A lot of our kids are some of Eli's old classmates, so it was nice to be familiar with them already. We look forward to a great school year!

Family Fun Farm Day

2008-08-30T02:00:00.000-05:00

Today we took the kids to Sauvie Island for some country time. It is amazing out there in that you can grow just about anything and the hills from the gorge all around are just beautiful. We decided to go out since summer is closing thus meaning that certain fruits will now be in season. So, we went to the Pumpkin Patch and picked about 11 pounds of blueberries, and we got about 20 pounds of peaches for canning. The U-pick does not start until next week unfortunately. We also got some corn, grapes and blackberries and may potentially find a place around here to pick more blackberries. The Pumpkin Patch also has a little barn with some animals in it that the kids thouhgt was pretty neat. It was nice to be able to go out and spend some time in the sun picking berries. The kids were done sooner than we were, but said they had fun and we made lots of references to one of our favorite books, "Blueberries for Sal." Eli has already ordered blueberry pancakes for breakfast tomorrow!

Evan kind of lost interst after awhile

11 pounds in all of it's glory!

Victor the goat

This and That

2008-08-26T00:17:00.000-05:00

For some reason I failed to post a picture of Eli and Evan completing their summer reading at the library. It has been about two weeks now and they are very proud of their shirts!
We have had various activities as of late, nothing earth shattering, but note worthy anyways. For the first time, we, that is to say John, attempted canning. We picked about 10 pounds of green beans one afternoon from our garden and decided that now would be a good time to try out canning. John read up on it, everything seemed to work, and the jars are sealed, so we are assuming they will be good! In the end we had 10 pints and 6 quarts of green beans.
I also hosted my first baby shower for sweet little Greta.
My cousin, Michelle, and I the other day went to a zoo concert which was lots of fun. I had not been to one in a long time. We saw Brandi Carlile, and it was a really great show. Thanks again for the invite, Michelle! Love you lots!
Eli finished up his summer swim session. He graduated from P1.5 to P2, so he is very excited that he will be starting in the big pool! Sorry no pictures. My camera is a bit uncooperative.

The weather has been quite odd lately, so today we had some art time. We finger painted in the garage, and had a great time. The paint fortunately was water soluble, because Evan pretty much painted himself! Later, they used scissors and cut pieces of their finger painting and glued them on paper. It was fun seeing them being creative and I discovered that Evan is quite handy with scissors. He had never used them, but held them right from the beginning and I rarely had to replace his fingers in the holes. I also reminded him about a hundred times that scissors are for paper even though that is how he gets his hair cut.
They have two different cutting styles. Evan uses the open mouth approach, while Eli prefers the tongue sticking out technique. Both seem to be effective.
And last but not least, our food harvesting for the day. We had some blueberries that were ripe and they picked about 1/3 of that little green bowl.

Unfortunately, Eli became distracted while picking tomatoes when Evan held up the little green empty bowl. Oh well, there will be more blueberries in a couple days!

Little Tid-Bits

2008-08-18T22:32:00.000-05:00

Not much has been going on lately with us. The hot weather mostly just meant swimming, swimming, and swimming. Our pool got a lot of action and is looking a little grimy. We also have been watching a lot of Olympics. The boys have enjoyed the swimming and some of the gymnastics, and Evan enjoys the synchronized diving. John and I have been up way too late since we DVR it.

Speaking of Olympic swimming, I debated whether or not to share this on my blog, but many encouraged it, so I am. We were watching one of the men's swimming finals, because Eli thinks those are the only ones worth while, and they were showing all the guys coming in. Some of them have full body swim suits and some just have the pants. As they are doing the close ups of the swimmers and showing their names and countries, they come to the first bare chested swimmer. Eli says in a loud voice "wow, he has big nipples!." Then, he looks at me and says "mom, his nipples are bigger than yours!" Thanks, son for noticing.

Only a few more weeks until school starts. Eli will be entering his second year of preschool and I get the honor of going back as an aid in Miss Wendy's class. I am very excited to be getting back to TOK!

Happy Valley City Park, it was about 103 later this day!

This is about what we get once to twice a week from our garden, as well as the buckets of tomatoes we get each week!

Swimming Lessons

2008-08-12T01:03:00.000-05:00

Today was Eli's first swimming lesson. The excitement began the night before and I was not sure that he would be able to go to sleep. He would sit up and say, "tomorrow after I get up?" about a million times. When it was finally time, he hoped right in and did all the activities that he was asked to do. He is quite a little fish when in the water. Evan kept asking for his turn and I had to convince him that after he turned 3 then he could go to swim class. It seemed to be a good enough reason for now. My camera is dying a slow death, so the pictures are not real great. I am hoping that on the last class, since they only let you in the little kids area on the first and last day of the session, I can get closer so that my camera and the flash don't have to work so hard. So these pictures will have to do.

When the weather is nice, which has been off and on, we pretty much spend the day in our pool. It got hot enough last week that Evan decided that he would give it a try, and I also got in to cool off! Evan has now decided that he likes the pool after all, which would seem to be better than walking around in the heat not wanting to get wet which was what he was doing before. Hopefully we will have plenty more swim days before the summer ends.

Eli actually took this picture.

The Lively Family Reunion

2008-08-03T23:55:00.000-05:00

This last weekend the Lively family, that's my mom's side of the family, got together for our annual reunion. This year we went to aunt Kim and Kris's house in Prineville, and boy was it a treat! We had such a great time getting away and spending time with family. The boys definitely had the times of their lives. Prineville is in the central Oregon high desert area, so it was quite toasty and and between the nice cool breezes and the boys playing "baking" in the sand, we stirred up a lot of dust! Most of our time consisted of eating, of course, and just sitting around talking. The boys enjoyed the swimming pool that Kim and Kris got to cool off in and looked like little sugar cookies after going back and forth between the pool and their sand digging spot. They also found a new hobby of instead of looking for bugs, they were looking for lizards in the rocks. They spent a lot of time peeking in nooks and crannies for lizards! Kim and Kris were also kind enough to let us use their trailer and the boys thought it was the coolest thing and often wanted to be in the trailer and roll around on the bed with their flashlights. John was able to go out fishing with uncle Mart and uncle Jay which was a nice get-away. They did not return with anything, but that was not the point anyway! On Saturday we had a big breakfast and a family picture in our matching shirts that aunt Kim had presented to us the night before. It was really neat to see everyone with Grandma and Grandpa Lively. Then we got another treat as uncle Jay and aunt Kim brought their boat and we spent the day at Lake Prineville. It was so much fun! We played in the water, floated on this barge boat thing that the boys liked a lot because it filled up with water and they could splash around, kayaking, tubing, wake boarding, boat riding, and just sitting on the shore. Eli even went tubing....twice! Eli and Evan also enjoyed kayaking with Kim and Kris and got to paddle as well. John and I also got in on the fun and went tubing too. We are going to be and already are quite sore!

It was a fantastic weekend and I am so thankful and grateful for our extended family. Everyone had a great time and were so great with the boys. We are so blessed by all of you and thank you so much for an awesome weekend!

It is thought that this juniper tree is about 800 years old, which was the family picture spot!

Cooling off in the pool

...and then getting absolutely filthy!

sometimes all you can do is have a seat and a good cookielizard hunting, and the lizard to the left is not real, it is plastic
a friendly game of Candyland

Eli and Evan had a good time with Jenny, Grandma and Grandpa Lively's dog, and no we do not want one despite the suggestions!

Evan trying to free Jenny from timeout. He was successful after awhile.

aunt Cheri and uncle Mart preparing the BBQ lamb. It was quite tasty!

Eli and Evan and great-Grandma and great-Grandpa Livelyin the evenings the quail would come through. There was a rabbit that would come in the morning, but I never could get to my camera before he would hop away. We did squat down once to look at him, and he came real close to me and the kids. I did have to inform them to not pet it.

What a cute couple

Since a neighbor came over to take the big family picture, we thought it best to just use one camera, so once I get the big picture, I shall post that toosome things never change!Prineville LakeEli and aunt Kim kayaking

Evan and Kris kayakingEli and daddy tubing

I realized as I was posting pictures that they all pretty much have the same fuzzy spot and I looked at my lense and it had a finger splodge on it, so that explains some of the bright fuzziness. This is not one of our better pictures as I fried my face and Evan was done for the day, but it is not too bad.

Headed home with smiles on their facessome high desert scenes

And now for some movies!

The first is of Eli and daddy on their tube ride. He later went again with my cousin, Ashley

Evan and his new best friend, Jenny

Eli and uncle Mart taking a three wheel ride. There are pictures of me and Jessica doing the same thing at the same age!

Thank you again Kim and Kris for all of the work that you guys did to have us there for the weekend. We love you guys lots!

Summer Evening

2008-07-23T01:26:00.000-05:00

Today we were very sad to see Grandma go. We had a wonderful two weeks and the boys enjoyed hanging out with Grandma. It always goes by too fast. We miss you lots and Eli is wondering when we can come visit. I told him it is going to take a lot of quarters.

This evening we had some nice family time. We went out on the patio and roasted marshmallows in our new fire pit/chimney (thank you Grandma!) and the kids thought it was so neat that we could do it at our own home. It was very pleasant and the fire felt warm. I think we are going to enjoy many more summer/fall/spring evenings out there! (depending on the wind and rain of course)

Once Again....A Trip to Sunriver

2008-07-17T00:30:00.000-05:00

When we asked what place we should take Grandma more than any other, Eli's reply was to Nana and Baba's. We were going to go there anyway, but we saw that it was with the up most importance to Eli that we do so. We left after church on Sunday and returned home this evening. We had a great time playing at the playground, the pool, and bat watching. You wouldn't think so, but bats are very punctual. I'm serious, we would be sitting outside at 8:59 and not see a single bat, and when the clock struck 9:00, dozens of bats would swarm around the waterfall in my parent's backyard. It was pretty amazing. You could hear them flapping and squeaking and they would dive-bomb your head. Eli was completely fascinated and watched them all three nights as long as he could before it got too dark to see or we made him go to bed. We also got to enjoy a new park that had been opened in Caldera Springs right before we came. It has a big grassy field, a tree swing, walking paths, a maze made out of reeds, and a stream with a bridge that Evan was determined to fill up with rocks. Baba said he was also throwing rocks in the other day so that the water would make more noise, so Evan felt the need to do so as well. We played some Frisbee and baseball and football. It is a great place for the kids to run around. Eli is already asking when we are going back! We have a little less than a week with Grandma here. It has gone by too fast once again, but we are planning to spend some time just hanging out at home. We have relocated the pool and it looks like it is going to work, so lots of pool-days to come as Eli would say!

Grandma is Here!

2008-07-12T15:59:00.000-05:00

We are so excited that Grandma is here for about two weeks. Thus far, we have had a pretty relaxed time with swimming, playing, and just hanging out. Yesterday, we put Grandma and the kids to work and went raspberry picking. I love raspberries. The color, the smell, the taste. Everything about raspberries, except perhaps when you go picking and the wind is blasting and the thorny branches are slashing your legs and arms and face. I guess that is the way it goes sometimes. The berries this year were pretty small, but we picked about 10 pounds which will be good for eating some and freezing some. We might have to get some more at the stand down the street.

Grandma also got Eli a little something special. He got a new big boy bike and helmet. He sure is cruising now!

One last little story...last night we were standing in the driveway, Evan, Anuty Jessie, and myself, and out of the corner of my eye I saw something strange. When I looked again, I saw a raccoon sitting on the Wilson's patio. It was about 8:00 or so, so it was still pretty light. Some blue birds were swooping at it and chirping like crazy. My guess is that it tried to go after their eggs. Anyway, the raccoon was scared and was trying to get away fro the birds, but it did not want to get close to us. I picked Evan up as I was afraid he might try to pet it and the raccoon decided to be brave and run through us. It ran down the driveway right next to us, so close I could have touched it, and then across the street, over the wall, and under the chain link fence on the other side. We could hear the birds squawking at it as it was running away through the trees. After all that, Evan for awhile could only say "tiger, run street in there!" So that is our story of a run-in with a tiger.

We had only been picking for a little while and Evan had about 2/3 of the bottom of the bucket covered, and Eli says "hey, Evan ate all of his berries."

Church Camp Out

2008-07-07T14:28:00.000-05:00

Once again, the time of year rolled around for camp out. It was a lot of work to get everything ready, but as always, it is worth all of the work. The kids had a blast! They played all day doing various activities from the playground to catching bugs to collecting paint balls (there was a new paint ball course added down by the lower campsite) to poking the campfire to climbing trees and all of that other fun camping stuff. On July 4th, some of us went in to Mollala for the Mollala Buckeroo. The kids had a great time watching the horses, the bulls, the cowboy monkeys, that's right cowboy monkeys, buffalo, and fireworks. Except for Evan, he did not like the fireworks even though he said he did, he hid the whole time! Back to the cowboy monkeys, one of the entertainment bits was that some border collie dogs came into the ring to heard some big horn sheep and on the dogs were little monkeys dressed up in cowboy outfits. It was pretty funny to see the dogs running around with monkeys on them. I did not get any pictures as the light was not very good at that point and they were moving around too fast. The other cool thing was the One Armed Bandit who came in and rode around and cracked his whip and he only had one arm, hence the name. Then they let two large male buffalo in the ring and he herded them on top of the horse trailer, and THEN he got on with them on his horse and stood up on the saddle! Pretty impressive. Naturally the boys slept very well at camp this year with all of this kind of excitement! We had a great time, but mom and dad were happy to be home in our comfy bed!

Waiting for the rodeo to start

The One Armed Bandit and his buffaloes on the trailer
Can't go camping without roastintg marshmallows
Bedtime stories

The kids kept messing and poking the fire, so I suggested that they take some of the firewood and make their own camp site, and this is what they came up with. They played here for hours, and we brought the camping gear that the boys got for their birthdays from Grandma, so they were set!
And now for your enjoyment.....Blake, Eli, and Evan performing "Hitting a Baseball" for the church camp out talent show!

Strawberry Picking

2008-06-27T00:05:00.000-05:00

Mmmm.....berries! One of my favorite things of summer is berries, and I am especially glad that we have passed this love of fruit on to my sons. Today we went to the Thompson Farms u-pick. I was not sure how the boys would do as Evan is a bit of a destructor. They did surprisingly well. They picked berries the whole time, except for the last few minutes Evan found a stick and was poking stuff. Eli was very meticulous, of course, and had to remove every stem and all of the leaves from his. Evan only picked a few "pink" ones, but fortunately no green ones. We ended up picking 21 1/2 pounds of strawberries. We brought them home, cleaned them, got the leaves off, and prepared them for freezing. We left some whole ones for eating, sliced some that we are currently drying for snacks, left some out for ice-cream, yogurt, and whatever toppings, some out for a pie that I made (yummy!), and the rest we sliced and juiced to freeze, which ended up being about 20 cups. We should be good for awhile, at least until the boys devour the whole berries in the fridge! Next, perhaps raspberries, my personal favorite!

A Little Trip

2008-06-16T22:00:00.000-05:00

So it has taken me a little while to get this one posted. I had typing to do and the weather has been so nice that we spend a lot of time outdoors.

Last week John finished his last prerequisite class for school. We decided that this would be a good time to take a spontaneous trip to Sunriver, as we had not been there since Thanksgiving. The boys were very excited that we were going to Nana and Baba's house and I guess we were too because we ended up leaving a couple hours earlier than we were planning to. We had the most perfect weather there! Not too hot, not too cold. Baba was excited for the boys to see the new Caldera Springs playground, so that was the first thing we did Friday morning. It is very cool and the boys had a blast! We had lots of fun playing, riding bikes, and it was even warm enough for the pool, sort of. Eli would swim if it was 60 degrees, but the rest of us were a little cold on Sunday when we went. It was also neat that we could be there for father's day with Baba. We went to Typhoon for lunch, which was excellent, and then Nana and i went bead shopping (yipee!) for my birthday, which was early, but we probably won't see each other until after. We then spent the end of the day at the pool, the playground, and then going on a bike ride. Sunriver is probably one of my favorite places, not just for nostalgia, but it is truly beautiful, and I can't wait to see how Caldera Springs is going to change over the next few years. Just from last summer, the plants are really growing and flourishing. Baba did a great job! Here are some pictures from our weekend, most of them are from Caldera Springs as it is a very cool place and I highly recommend a visit (not intended as an advertising pitch!) The quilts are the ones that my mom made that are in the Lake House in Caldera Springs. The picture at the bottom where it looks like John is throwing something is his fly fishing class!

A World Record

2008-06-04T22:19:00.000-05:00

Today we had the once in a lifetime opportunity to witness a miracle of science. At Mount Hood Community College we got to see the eruption of the Guinness Book of World Records largest vinegar and baking soda volcano. It was something. The structure was about two stories high (about 20 feet), and contained a mixture of 60 gallons of vinegar and 120 pounds of baking soda along with food coloring and glycerin. John's organic chemistry lab partner was the guy kind of orchestrating the event. KATU and KPTV were also there to capture this historic event. The boys thought it was pretty cool!

An Afternoon at OMSI

2008-06-04T00:20:00.000-05:00

As I was laying in bed at 6:45 this morning listening the rain rushing down the gutters, I decided that perhaps today would be a good day for OMSI. This ended up being a good choice as within 30 minutes of the boys being up, they were fighting, as is a common occurrence these days. The gloomy weather is affecting all of us in a cranky way. We decided to invite Blake to come to as Cheryl was recovering from "the flute" as Eli calls it. We had a great time and the boys were very good and had fun. It did get off to a rough start as I took a wrong turn and ended up at the Rose Garden, but I navigated my way to the Loyd Center and called John for directions to OMSI. For those of you who know my past phobia of driving, it is quite amazing to me that I found my way to the Loyd Center at all, and I even did it twice because I tried to find my way to OMSI on my own, and that did not work, so I went back to the Loyd Center. Had this occurred about a year ago, I probably would have been a ball of anxiety! Anyway, it was a fun day and the boys asked if we can go back again soon. Fortunately, that is one place I never get tired of!

The giant sandbox

"Evan and the Chipmunks!" This was probably one of the things they did the longest. They had a blast wearing the little chipmunk coats and searching around for rubber acorns all the while calling each other Alvin, Simon, and Theodore.
Storing up nuts for winterThe water table. The smocks are really quite pointless as we had to change clothes before we got into the car anyway!

Flubber!

Two scary dinosaurs!

I really enjoyed the dinosaur exhibit as dinosaurs were my favorite thing to talk about and read about when I was in first and second grade. They had a really neat collection on display on loan from China. The boys had fun running around looking at all of them as by the time we got to the exhibit, all the bus loads of field trip kids were already gone!

This picture was funny to me because they had a hard time keeping their backs to the T-Rex and kept saying that it was going to get them.

He is quite mean looking though!

Planting Our Garden

2008-06-01T01:16:00.000-05:00

Today was the day we finally were able to plant our vegetable garden as it was not too cold or rainy or windy. We all participated in the event and got a lot accomplished in one day and are looking forward to what we are going to produce this year.

Evan and daddy planting yellow crook-neck squash

sprinkling "chicken poo" for the pole beans. The boys thought it was quite funny that we had chicken poo from a bag that we were sprinkling into the holes. They would keep telling each other to sniff it and then say "eww!"

Eli planting pole beans

Farthest back are 18 lettuce plants (butter crunch, green leaf, and romaine), then six tomato plants in five different varieties, cucumber starters and seeds on the left and squash and zucchini starts and seeds on the right. On the far left are two rows of snap peas and along the fence is 36 feet of two varieties of pole beans (green beans).

We planted not a moment too soon as two of the plants already had tomatoes growing on them!It was really fun to work in the garden today. I especially enjoyed being able to work with John as in the the past two years I have had a young baby that makes it difficult, and it was fun to be able to help in the planting process. I know the boys will enjoy harvesting the food. They are such good helpers and love to work in the garden, especially with watering!

A Visit with Nana and Baba

2008-05-27T02:04:00.000-05:00

We had a special treat this weekend as Nana and Baba were here and the boys had a great time playing and showing Nana and Baba their new favorite movies, that being "Alvin and the Chipmunks" and "Star Wars." We did get to play outside some which was nice, but once again winter has returned to the area and it was a bit chilly and rainy at times, but the boys did not seem to care. We had a good weekend and Nana made pancakes for us, even though she could not eat them. What a great Nana! Eli ate two for breakfast and then another one for a snack about an hour later. Hopefully We will get to go visit them at their house soon! We had a good time and we love you, Nana and Baba!

Eli, Evan, Nana, and Baba watching "Alvin and the Chipmunks"

This is a funny little video. Evan was insisting that Baba lift him up to the monkey bar and swing him. He was swinging about tow times back and forth and the dropping to the ground. It was quite funny so I ran to get the camera. This time at the monkey bar, Evan grabbed on and would not let go. You can hear him say "I want down," to which Baba replies "well let go then!" as Evan falls in a heap on the ground. We all had a good laugh along with Evan.

Teddy Bear Picnic

2008-05-21T22:33:00.000-05:00

Today was Eli's last day of school. On the last day, they have a Teddy Bear Picnic which the kids absolutely love. They began with a parade where they carry around their bear (Eli chose his Oregon State Beaver as a final stab to his teacher who is a Duck!). Usually the parade takes place outside, but today was a rainy day, so they paraded to each classroom. Next, they went to different stations in the school and up at the church building. There were all sorts of things such as a water station, rice table, bubbles, trike racing, tattoos, hula hoops, balls, and other toys. Then the kids went back to their classrooms and had a hot dog picnic on the floor followed by a Popsicle. Eli had lots of fun and commented this evening that he did not want school to be over. I got numbers for play-dates and we are going to do some swimming lessons over the summer, so hopefully he will not be to sad without school! Evan got to go to the Teddy Bear Picnic as well and had lots of fun, seeing as how he thinks he is big enough to go to school anyway. The water station was definitely his favorite as he was completely dripping wet and had rice stuck all over himself. Fortunately we had Eli's spare clothes box. Everyone had a really great day!

Water station

Rice table

Eli waving for the parade

Suddenly Summer!

2008-05-17T20:39:00.000-05:00

Well all of that complaining I did about the weather sure seems silly now. We seemed to have skipped spring and moved from winter directly into summer! My plants are in a bit of a state of shock. Hopefully they can acclamate to the temperature. It isn't supposed to stay this hot for long though. We were able to get lots of outside time involving lots of water. We played in the pool, with water guns, in the sprinkler, and just dumped buckets of water on each other. Evan's favorite is the water guns. He is a bit of a close shooter and gets about six inches from your face before squirting. Hopefully we have not gotten too much sun today. We feel a bit pink! It sure was great to be outside so much and hopefully this means the begining of a fun summer!

Nothing like a good pipe!

Mother's Day

2008-05-13T01:32:00.000-05:00

We had a very nice, very low key Mother's Day, as I am feeling a bit cruddy still. I was greeted when I came down the stairs to go to church by a beautiful ceramic pot with a maroon/white calla lily(not the flower on the right, that is one of my tulips) in it. I was surprised as I had been to the nursery a few weeks before and said that that was my Mother's Day gift getting all of my potted plants. Eli of course started reciting the card to me before I opened it, which was very sweet. All day whenever the boys overheard someone say "happy Mother's Day" or any reference to the day, Eli would say "Happy Mother's Day, Mom," and Evan would say" Mother's!" By the end of the day Evan was saying "Mother's Day" and " Happy Birthday to you, mom!" We had a late lunch at Red Robin, which was technically Eli's choice, so he was thrilled when I picked that and said "that's the same choice as me!" I kind of had a Mother's day weekend, since I did not feel good and cough all the time, and John was so awesome and cleaned and did laundry and took the kids on errands, so I laid around Sunday afternoon. We ended the day watching the Survivor finale. It was a great season, but a disappointing winner. Oh well.

We finally had some good weather so I took some action pictures of the boys. This week it is supposed to get up to 92. I'll believe it when I see it, but I'm hopeful that we will be able to get the kiddy pool out!

Light saber battle. Every time Evan sees the Klobas' garage door down, Evan says "Dark Rader (Darth Vader) in there!"These are videos that I shot with our regular camera, so the quality is not real great, but it will have to do until we get a digital recorder. Eli was doing his fancy spins on his bike (on the top), and Evan is taking a drive on the tractor (on the bottom).

Back to Bloging

2008-05-08T22:18:00.000-05:00

Well, after almost a year, I guess it is time to update our blog. For a long time I thought I was too technologically impaired to figure it out, but it really is not that bad. Hopefully we can be better about regular posts. Just a brief update, Eli is in his last month of preschool. He loves it and I think it will be hard over the summer, but I have talked with several of the moms in his class, and we are going to try to arrange summer play dates. Evan is doing good. We go to "class" at the Library on Mondays which he enjoys singing and playing with the other kids. We also go to the gym quite regularly and the kids love the Kid's Klub and ask to go there almost everyday, which is good accountability for me. John is busy with work and with school. He is in his third term of organic chemistry and then will be preparing for the MCAT. I am happy being a stay at home mom and I enjoy this time that I have with the boys. I am also still doing transcription. We are looking forward to this summer playing outside, riding bikes, and sitting on the patio, that is when our eternal winter will be over. We seem to be getting sick a lot, I don't know if it is the weather, but it would be nice to get out of the house. Eli, and now Evan, have pink eye currently and are getting over colds and coughs while I am in the beginning stages of a cold. Not so much fun.

The following pictures are from Eli's birthday and Evan's birthday. We had lots of fun with friends and family and enjoy seeing the boys with those that love them so much. We are so blessed to have so many people that the boys look up to.

Pin the bow-tie on Pablo (from the Backyardigans)

Pinata time!
Happy 4th Birthday! Eli had a yummy strawberry cake that is the same recipe that Grandma used to make Aunty Holly for her birthdays!

Eli and his new Razor 360. It is very cool. He can do spins on it and it getting better at riding it without fishtailing down the street!
Happy 2nd Birthday! Evan had a Curious George party with cockeyed cake, which is what his mommy has every year for her birthday!
Curious George birthday hat!
What cute boys! We didn't play any games at Evan's party, but we did play a lot as it was a beautiful day!
Quilts from Nana! They love them and sleep with them every night! I will take more detailed pictures of them to post.

The next few pictures are from Eli's Spring Program at preschool, The Tree of Knowledge. He did a great job singing!
The next few pictures are just odds and ends in our garden. One good thing about our long winter is that my spring flowers have lasted a long time!
They were not particularly wanting to pose for a picture at the moment, but this was the best out of about six.

We hope that you enjoy the pictures and we will do our best to keep you posted on the happenings of the Ellison family!

"Gratitude and Responsibility..."

2007-07-03T17:47:00.000-05:00

This post contains some very challenging thoughts for me. It is a copy of today's "gracEmail" by Edward Fudge.

GRATITUDE AND RESPONSIBILITY (by Edward Fudge)

Imagine that the approximately 6.5 billion men, women and children in the world today were shrunk into a village containing 100 people with all present human ratios remaining as they are now. Forty-six people in this prototype human village would enjoy political freedom, 17 would be partially free and 37 would be denied most basic human rights.

Geographically, this village of 100 people would include 57 Asians, 21 Europeans, 14 people from the Americas (North, Central and South) and 8 Africans. Seventy of the 100 villagers would be non-white. Religiously, 66 people would be non-Christian (22 Muslims, 15 Hindus, 14 non-religious, 6 Buddhists, 9 other) and 34 would profess Christianity (18 Roman Catholics, 7 Protestants, 4 Orthodox and 5 other).

In terms of formal education, only one person in this village would have a college education. In the cycle of life, one villager would be near birth and one would be near death. From an economic standpoint, six villagers would possess half the wealth of the total village, all six of them from the United States. Meanwhile, 80 villagers would live in substandard housing, 70 would not be able to read and 50 would suffer from malnutrition.

All of us reading this have much for which to be thankful and also much for which to be accountable as stewards of God's bounty. What would happen if all professing Christians took seriously Jesus' teaching about the proper use of money? What could happen if wealthy countries (and wealthy rulers of poor countries) set a priority on supplying basic human needs to all human beings? Imagine a world in which national goals, individual greatness and personal success were measured by good done for others. How do these thoughts make us feel? Why?
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Copyright 2007 by Edward Fudge. Permission hereby granted to reprint this gracEmail without change, with credit given and not for financial profit. http://www.edwardfudge.com/

Our blog...

2007-07-03T17:41:00.000-05:00

Here is our first entry into the Ellison blog...

We hope to use this to share about our family, our life, and to have a place to reflect on faith, and living out a kingdom life of service to God and to the people and world he creates.

Our journey of faith continues...and thus far we have experienced many blessings, joys, challenges, disappointments, even heartbreaks, but we set our hearts toward God and journey on with his Spirit. May we be blessed as we journey together.