Scandinavian Festival

Rob and I have both pretty much lived in Oregon our whole lives, right here in the Willamette Valley, but this was our first trip to the Scandinavian Festival. It was so much fun.

a quick update...

We knew it was just a matter of time before Paige, Grace, andWhitney dressed Crew up like a girl. It was hilarious. They were so proud of the work they did...make-up and all.

Uncle Doug came for a visit.

I took the kids to Jamba Juice for being good sports and going to the gym with me which is right next door.

Whitney did turn 5, and we did have a birthday party for her.

We went with a bunch of friends to a really fun swimming hole...

Our newest newest addition

Isn't it ironic that I finally get my very own, incredibly adorable, charcoal lab puppy the day after a baby bunny winds up at our house. I mean isn't 4 kids, and 2 bunnies enough? Apparently not...

I will say in my defense that my mom warned Rob when we were dating that I tend to end up with pets. She should know she still has my cat. She has had her since I moved out of the house when I was 19. Also I should point out that until I was 7 (almost 8) we lived on a farm with cats, dogs, sheep, bunnies, goats etc. etc.

Rob and I have always wanted a dog. It just hasn't ever worked out until now. So here she is. Isn't she sooooooooo cute. She opened her eyes for the first time today (they appear to be blue). She won't make her way to our home for another 5 weeks. We are anxiously awaiting her arrival.

Our newest addition

So if you have ever been to our house chances are you have met "Brownie". Brownie is our 3 year old bunny we brought home when we bought our house. I was pregnant with Crew and not quite ready to own a dog yet.

Yesterday our neighbors came home to find a baby bunny in their backyard. She was actually cuddling with their dog. They of course showed her to us (because we are serious suckers for any cute animal) and because they new we had a bunny already.

It looks like we have a new baby bunny named cupcake unless a previous owner comes around looking for her. We have asked all the neighbors around are block and so far we haven't found anyone (which my kids are very happy about).
Brownie is our very mellow super soft and very sweet girl. She adores "Cupcake". They are always snuggled up next to each other when the kids actually put "Cupcake" down (which isn't very often). Cupcake is always perched on one of their shoulders, beds, riding their stuffed animals or playing hide and seek with them. It is really very endearing.
She is really tiny. She actually fits in one of my hands.

I have warned them she might not be around to stay, but we are having fun with her while she is.

Alone

Rob and I did it. We took a trip together without our kids. Well technically I just went to work with Rob for the week, but it was still without kids. Look at the cool plane we got to take :) While Rob worked in Mountain View opening up a new hospital I visited friends, and food in San Francisco and other parts of the bay area. For example, I had a lovely run in Golden Gate park, bought an obscene amount of Chocolate from Cocoa Bella's, and had a yummy dinner at Town Hall. Did I mention the sushi and the shopping? We went to 2 movies (and we didn't have to pay a babysitter). I slept 10 hours the first night we were there (I literally didn't wake up until 9:30am). We missed our kids, but they were in good hands with Grandma Verda and Grandpa Craig.

Student Parent Award

The people that contributed, and or suffered the most from me being in school, was my Rob, and my kids. So getting a student parent award was very rewarding for me. My math professor submitted me for this (thanks Scott Falstrom). He only knew I had 4 kids because I had to miss a class when all 4 had strep throat at the same time. This was a fun day for Rob and I. We got a babysitter went to the award ceremony, and then had lunch together at our favorite campus spot to eat, Sweet Basil.

Graduation Party

So after the actual "graduation" we had a little celebration at home. Gracie got all dressed up for it.
I was surprised that Doug wanted to come. I was glad. He is fun to be around. I keep trying to persuade him he should go to school to. Plus he is single, (I don't know why). Anyways thanks for coming Dougie.
Here is Kelvin and Miles, obviously moved beyond words from the ceremony. Susie, Kelvin, Miles and Simon all made the trip up from the Bay area for me. They are awesome. Thanks guys...Love ya.
This is miles. If there was any doubt before whether he would have red hair or not, here is the proof he does, he is soooooooo cute. I would love to have eyelashes half this long. I don't have a picture of Simon yet, but I will post one of him and Crew hanging out soon.
OK so Susie I don't know why, but this is the only picture I have of you from graduation. Sorry, but I wanted to account for you. :)

Graduation

So its official at age 36, with 4 kids, I finally (finally) graduated from college. I love U of O, have always been a huge duck fan, so I am more than a little bit excited to say that I am a UO Alum. I really didn't think graduation would be a big deal, but it turns out I enjoyed every minute of it.My parents, Sandi and Clark, my baby brother (next to me) Doug, and of course Rob and Paige came. Although they are mostly Beaver fans (except for Paige) they were invited.
My in-laws, Verda and Craig came as well (also Beaver fans). I am trying really hard to convert everyone over to green and yellow.


It was really fun to have Paige come. Gracie opted out. I can't say that I blame her. Crew and Whitney...well, I wanted Rob to be able to pay attention so they all played Wii with the babysitter.

The Tear Drop Chair

This is a really cool bean bag-like chair we purchased from Rob's pillows, and futons. It was quite the Eugene experience. The store is in a house, its a little chaotic and crazy, but seriously well worth it. I love the bunk bed we got there for the girls, and this chair became a family favorite overnight. It is called the tear drop chair. It is like a bean bag, but way better. First off the stitching is guaranteed for life, you can get a refill on the stuffing whenever you need it, and it is so comfortable I could easily have taken a picture of Rob, I, or even our babysitter asleep in it as well. None of us, though, are quite as cute as Crew.

Gracie's Field Trip

Grace had a field trip up to Salem to the Gilbert House. It was so fun and I was so lucky to be able to go with her. Of course half the fun of the field trip is riding on the bus. The Gilbert House
is a really cute museum. We only wish we would have had more time.

Stuff

I recently purchased a few items. I couldn't quite fit them in with all my kids in the car. My friend Kristy very generously offered to bring my kids home from the gym so I could stop by and pick up some of my stuff. I first went to Cost Plus to pick up a table, bench and some chairs for our back patio. After I got it loaded in the car I thought, "I wonder if I can fit in the bunk bed and bean bag that just came in too?'' Now I am a mom of 4 kids. To be out running errands even with just 15 minutes to spare, without my kids is somewhat of a miracle so I decided I could totally fit it all in. Now you have to imagine as I pulled up to the 2nd store with my Dodge Durango half full already the guy was positive the stuff would not fit. I smiled, laughed out loud really and said, "It will fit...trust me....I am annoying like that, " and guess what? It totally fit. The door closed and everything. I decided to take pictures to prove it to those (my husband mainly) who might not believe that everything taking up all the garage space really did only take me one trip. I love being persistent.

Who's that girl!!!

Recently our 3rd child, Whitney, graduated from preschool. We were excited for her. She like her older 2 sisters had a graduation / singing ensemble. This is her letting us know beforehand that she is ready and can't wait to show us her performance potential. We had no idea.

You see we had no clue that Whitney, our family comedian, was also a professional singer. She has moves we had no idea about. She knew all the words, sang quite loud, had all the moves down (as well as some of her own). She was front and center and let everyone know she was the fantastic. We stared at her our mouths gaping wondering who this child was. It was hilarious. We had so much fun watching her, laughing, and congratulating her along with several other parents afterwards. Like I said, "Who knew"?

Paige's Field Trip to the Fish Hatchery

Paige's 3rd grade class took the last few weeks of school and utilized the opportunity to take 2 field trips. This one Rob was actually able to make it to. They toured a fish hatchery and had a great time.
Paige is now officially a 4th grader, but she fortunately still loves to be silly and have a good time. This is one of her good friends from school. I really don't know how I ended up with a browned eyed girl, with dark brown hair, but she really is mine, really. When she was a baby I actually died my hair dark brown too so people would stop asking me if I was the nanny.

Fish

We were at the Ala Moana doing some shopping in Honolulu and found this great pond of beautiful fish. Crew stared for a very very very long time.

Hawaii

While in Hawaii we went on a catamaran ride out to see dolphins and go snorkeling. It was amazing. The weather was fantastic, we saw 80+ dolphins, sea turtles, and so many beautiful fish.


We took a day to go for a drive up to the North Shore. We went to Laie to see the LDS Honolulu temple. Beautiful isn't it.
Shaved Ice anyone? My favorite is pina colada with ice-cream. It was a happy day. Matsumoto's is definitely a favorite tourist spot and we loved it.

Yes, we did have Christmas...

We did actually celebrate Christmas this year. It was wonderful of course. I love love love Christmas. We had so much fun playing games, cooking food, seeing family. It is the best time of year. Christmas morning the kids actually let us sleep in until 8:30. It was their present to us.


Gracie was super excited of course. She was literally bouncing off the walls.

My favorite gift was a much needed gift card to a local spa. Thanks Rob you are the best.

Our kids love Christmas breakfast. It is the only time of the year they get a box of "sugary" cereal.

Seriously cute. They are so much fun.

Yes they are silly much if not most of the time.

Yes, Crew did have a birthday...

So I am not the best at blogging, and while trying to catch up on posts I realized yes Crew did have a birthday in December. He is officially 2. Well technically now he is 2 years and 3 months. We had a great little family party. Crew is so easy going and fun to be around. We are so thankful he is a part of our little family.


He got planes, trains, and automobiles for presents.

Crew inherited my sweet tooth, and its all about the chocolate cupcakes.

Here they are. They were quite tasty.

Happy Birthday Paige

Right after the holidays we go into birthday mode. Paige, Grace, and I all have our birthdays within 1 month of each other. So it gets a bit crazy. This was the beginning with Paige turning 9. This year we let her have a "sleepover". In theory it seemed like a great idea. The only catch was Rob was out of town for work. 6 other 9 year old girls came over starting at 6pm. We made pizza's, then went roller skating, then back to our place for a lot of shrieking, giggling, late night cupcake making, late night snacks and junk food, movies, and more shrieking. It is quite amazing the amount of volume 8, 9 year old girls, plus Grace can make. I should have been more prepared with ear plugs.

All in all, excluding the skating rink injury for Isabelle which required her dad taking her to the emergency room at 10pm on a Friday night (sorry Bob), the party was a huge success. Thankfully my sister Lisa and her kids Jordan, Mackenzie, and Connor came to help me out. Mackenzie my almost 13 year old niece stayed the night to help out as well. It was fantastic. Happy Birthday Paige!!!

Paige and Volleyball

So in my effort to do a little catch up I stumbled upon some pictures from Paige's Volleyball season. She has quite a nack for it :) Of course I am a little excited about the fact that she loves it. Here is a great little video of her serving.

I Love Math...

I don't really love math. I am enduring math. I am just about to finish my last class to finally graduate and it just happens to be math. If you are ever on my facebook, all I ever do lately is study math and eat M&Ms to get me through. My Professor (Scott Fallstrom) loves to provide us with entertaining extra credit opportunities. This is one of them. Valentine Tattoos. Of course I did it. I put them on, took pictures, and emailed them off for him to post. The only problem was that the next day I had to get X-rays, and and MRI for that shoulder and felt rather silly sporting "Math" tattoos. I seriously better get a good grade for this class.