Davies Day-By-Day

My Newest Kitchen Creation

2012-02-05T21:42:00.001-08:00

I made this for dinner tonight just by chance and it turned out delish! It's my very own creation made with ingredients we usually have on hand. Here's what I used:

boiled white rice
black bean and white corn salsa (any salsa would work)
crock pot pork roast
steamed broccoli
ranch dressing
green leaf lettuce (optional)

I boiled the rice with some oil and salt. I mixed in a little ranch dressing and salsa with the rice. I put a pork roast in the crockpot this morning so I cubed some of it up and stirred it in. I had steamed some broccoli for lunch today so the leftovers got chopped up and added. I like my greens so I broke up some green leaf lettuce and added it to my own, but I didn't add any to my families. (In the picture the lettuce is not mixed in)

It was especially easy to make since I already had the roast and broccoli cooked beforehand and not too many ingredients. It has a fresh taste and doesn't really need a side dish unless you don't want to mix any lettuce into it, then it could have a green salad as a side dish. Anyhow I will be making this again!

Nine Months!

2012-02-05T21:38:00.000-08:00

I can't believe she's nine months old already and only a week away from her 10 month mark!

Here's Brielle chillin' in her room
I love her laugh!

Brielle is such a little sweetheart and everyone just loves her to pieces! She always brings a smile to everyone's day, including her siblings. Riley likes to have Brielle with him whenever he practices piano. Ashton likes to give her his favorite toys, and Heleena grabs her and squeezes her or says comforting phrases to her. Everyone loves picking her up and carrying her around.

Brielle has learned to drink from a sippy cup. She did it right off the bat.....a real natural! She's not picky about eating and enjoys everything I put in front of her!In fact, she even thinks she is the family dog and can be found scrounging around for table scraps under the kids' chairs after/during meals.

Yum Yum!

She is getting so close to walking! She can walk with a push toy when she wants to.

At her 9 month appt. she measured up as follows:

weight: 19lbs. 12 oz. (65%)
height: 2' 6.5" (off the chart)
head: 18" (90%) I rounded up

She's super tall, thin, and has a big tall head. She'll never, ever have to worry about being fat, just being cold.

Winter Play

2012-02-04T21:22:00.000-08:00

We've had a pretty dry, mild winter this year so the kids have spent quite a bit of time outdoors, especially at some of the close-by parks.

On our way to the neighborhood park

Miss Giggles

Heleena told me she was being a sloth. Pretty smart if you ask me...
Mr. Cautious

Ahhh! What's that bright thing in the sky?
We actually didn't even need any coats or hats that day, but before we took them off....Mmmmm! Wood chips!

That looks like a good one!
Hmmm....a little dry but maybe it'll get better if I just keep it in my mouth.
Hey! Did you get all that on your camera!? You silly Mama!

So when it has rained, you may have found a little of this going on in our house....

Silly kiddos

Even Brielle got in on the fun!

Call the Home Teachers!

2012-02-02T09:55:00.001-08:00

A haircut and three baths into my Thursday morning, I decide I'll take a few minutes and get dressed myself before I give the fourth and final bath. But then, of course, the phone rings so I run to answer it, "Hello?"

A young woman's voice was on the other end, "Um, I think your husband is our home teacher," she said.

"Maybe, who is this?" I asked.

"The Allreds" she answered in an unsure tone.

Going through my head: Hmmm....that's not one of his home-teaching families, and I don't even recognize the name, but perhaps a new family just moved in and needs help with the move or something.

The moment of silence was interrupted when she said, "Don't you guys just live on the corner?"

"Yes, that's right." I answered. "You know where we live?"

"I think so," she said "just on 2nd west."

Thinking to myself: These people must be from Utah if they say the street that way. We do live on 22nd street and only in Utah have I heard people shorten the street number, but she didn't do a good job of it; she can't keep doing that if she's going to make it here. And we don't live on west anything. Hmmm.... that just seems really weird. So I asked, "What ward are you in?"

She then told me her ward, which turned out to be a ward somewhere in Rexburg, Idaho! Not at all what I was expecting to hear! What are the chances that she'd call a number in another state AND reach another lds family AND have the conversation go on as long as it did?! It's not like our area code is very similar to Idaho's! I hope she got the help she needed. Perhaps I should have given her Nathan's number....hee hee.

Anyway, kind of funny and coincidental. Gave me a little chuckle.

Obsessions

2012-01-31T14:20:00.000-08:00

January always flies by for us. We kept busy with the usual.........days filled with my kiddos obsessions.

Ashton's obsession is with taking things apart. He finds screwdrivers, even though I hide them, and takes everything apart all day long. He claims he's "fixing" things and is ever changing batteries, whether they need changing or not! I'm constantly finding batteries all over the house, and him red-handed like I did in the above picture. Check him out in the same day later on below........

No matter how many times we tell him that our old phone doesn't work anymore, he still thinks he will be able to fix it. Maybe he'll be some kind of engineer when he grows up! Then I will feel like this madness was all worth it.

Heleena has an obsession of her own. She is majorly obsessed with princesses and with changing clothes. She goes through at least 5 outfits a day. I think she just loves princesses because they wear pretty dresses. Often I walk into her room and find this......

Princesses lined up and her half-naked. I made her hide behind the dresser for the picture. Hopefully she grows out of this stage and enjoys wearing warm, modest clothing later in life.

Heleena rarely gets Ashton to do what she wants him to, but occasionally I get a good laugh out of the following scene....

Some boys can pull off the "pretty girl" look, but Ashton has such a manly face that he could NEVER fool anyone! Too funny!
Before Richard and I climb into bed at night, he re-covers the boys and I do the girls. Often we find the kids looking so cute as they cuddle their favorite toys in bed. I recently found Heleena like this...

Precious and so typical of something she does....falls asleep in her pretty dresses.

Brielle has an obsession too. Stairs!
I think she'd climb them all day long if I didn't put up a gate, or try to monitor them.
One of these days she's going to fall down all of those 16 steps.....instead of just a few. Keeping the kids safe is one of those constants in the life of a mother. I'm happy to report that so far, so good!

For now, I let her go all the way up at least once a day. I think she appreciates the times when I allow it. When not climbing stairs, she feeds her other obsession of putting EVERYTHING in her mouth which feeds my own obsession of keeping the floors clean. I call myself the Floor Nazi.

Riley has been obsessed with yo-yo's lately. He picked up a book at the library called Yo-Yo Tricks and he's been reading and practicing every night.

Riley just finished up his first season of indoor soccer. His team was called the Firefoxes, to go along with their orange jerseys, and Riley was enthusiastic about all of his games and practices. Here he is playing goalie at one of his games....

He has started basketball season now and he's really pumped about it. It'll be fun to watch him play as a 7 yr. old, and he seems to have a really great coach, brother Gillespie from Mummi's ward.

We had a tiny bit of snow this January and school was cancelled that day (even though temps were above freezing all day). The kids had fun playing in the slush (in their jammies and boots). You have to get up early to play in the snow around here or you'll miss out because it usually all melts by mid-day.

But they had much more fun playing in the real snow when they went sledding up on Mount Hood on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

You can't tell in the picture, but our kids are troopers in the outdoors. Riley takes after Richard and does daring things like jumps and even tried to "snowboard" with his sled. And yes, Ashton wore the pink snow pants Aunt Tarja gave us a while back and they worked just fine.

This year I'm trying to cook more like my mom. Healthy soups and casseroles without using recipes, so that the whole family is healthier.

So hopefully there will a lot more of this....and this......

Helicopters, Planes, Rockets, Guns 'N Such

2012-01-24T13:37:00.000-08:00

For the remainder of 2011, the week after Christmas, we tried to pack in as many activities as we could with a large group of people and lots of little kids. We had a party every night after we put the kids to bed. The guys idea of a party was this...

That is a homemade obstacle course for their remote controlled helicopters. Richard even posted a video of his skills on YouTube:

They also let the kids follow in their footsteps with a little of this...

Yep, a remote controlled Nemo! We also did a couple more aircraft activities during the week. First, we went to the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum in McMinnville, OR with the older kids and Grandma and Grandpa Scarborough.

It was very cool! We saw the largest airplane ever constructed which is named the Spruce Goose (I've seen it before when it was in California).

I especially liked the Space Museum because it still amazes me that we put men on the moon and robots on Mars. Richard was excited to see a Lockheed SR-71 "Blackbird". It's a spy plane that flies super fast at super high altitudes. I sound like a girl when I try to describe it, but it's something every guy knows about because it's so cool.

It was worth the drive and sometime we'd like to go to the new indoor water park they have there. Aunt Emily was so nice to stay home with the little kids. She even gave them all baths and had dinner ready for us when we got home. What an angel!

The next activity we did was shoot off rockets that Papa Will got Riley for Christmas. I didn't get any pictures, but we had a couple of rockets and we shot them off a couple times each. Pretty fun, especially for the boys (big and small).

The adults went on a couple of dates during the week. The first date was the classic dinner and a movie group date. We went to a good Thai food restaurant in town. We individually ordered entrees and then all shared them with each other. Dinner was followed by the new Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows movie. The second group date was to the shooting range with Papa Will. We shot rifles and pistols.
Here's Richard...

Emily and I showing how well we did from 100 yards away.

It's good to practice your skills, or gain some if you're like me! We took the kids to JJ jump one morning while the guys went fishing for the day. They had a good time and burned up some of their energy. I didn't get a group shot before my battery died in my camera. So here's some individuals of my kids...

Ashton was so nervous the whole time and didn't want to go on any slides, while the others went crazy wild! We also took the kids to the new library downtown (with the guys). It's a nice library with a children's area similar to what you'd find at a children's museum.

On New Year's Eve we had everyone over, including Mummi and Grandpa Scarborough. We stayed very late, as usual, playing games and having fun. On Sunday it was the new year already so Heleena and her cousin Miia got to go to Primary for the first time. It was fun to see them with the big kids. They both sat in their seats reverently and participated as much as they knew how. Riley is in senior primary now! I love being in primary with my kids!

It was so nice having the Scarborough's stay with us for Christmas this year! The cousins had a lot of fun together!

2011 was the shortest year of my life, probably because I'm busier now than I've ever been before. But it was a great year for us and I look forward to our adventures in 2012! Happy New Year!

Christmas 2011

2012-01-23T14:51:00.000-08:00

We had a great Christmas at home this year. My brother Teem and his family of six came to stay with us for a couple of weeks during the holidays. We all spent Christmas Eve with Grandma and Grandpa Scarborough. The kids enjoyed playing outside in the country... and the adults enjoyed being together playing games, watching movies and being able to sleep in a little in the mornings. My dad has a passion for building, both big and little sized things. He has been designing and handcrafting wooden toys for the grandkids for several years now. Each Christmas he comes up with something new. In the past he's created many toys for the boys, but this year it was the girls' turn! He made doll beds which are just the right size for American Girl dolls. My sister Tarja (who couldn't be with us this Christmas) sewed all of the bedding.

Brielle didn't get one. She and her cousin Finn received these hand-made toys:

They are easy for little hands to push along the floor.

We spent Christmas morning at our house while Teem's family was with Mummi and Pappa Will. It was nice to be alone with just our little family of six for the morning. We were lucky enough to have Christmas fall on a Sunday this year and to be able to attend church on Christmas. I had the opportunity to play the piano for the primary children as they sang two songs Baby in a Manger and Christmas Bells. Then I got to sing It Came Upon the Midnight Clear in a quartet. I felt pretty blessed to be able to participate in so many musical numbers.
After church we went to Mummi's to have a surprise feast prepared by my brother Teem. It was the traditional Finnish Christmas feast I ate many times while on my mission in Finland. He did it exactly as I remember with cured ham and all of the different casseroles: carrot/rice, rutabaga, liver, and potato. We even had a side of lingonberry sauce. It was excellent, especially the naturally cured ham which was from Teem's own pig.

Hooray for Finnish tradition!

It was so much fun watching the kids open their gifts and fun to spend time with everyone together! It was also Brielle's very first Christmas! She was like all of the others....she liked the wrapping paper better than the actual gift! Here's a slideshow to give you a taste of our Christmas:

Before Christmas

2012-01-20T16:51:00.000-08:00

The weeks before Christmas can be summed up in one word...CRAZY! This year we did all of our usual Christmas traditions, but with baby #4 in the family now, it seemed to us that we were a lot busier! We were able to get everything done by using time much more efficiently than we have in the past. When it came time to hunt for our Christmas tree, we pretty much walked right up to the one we wanted and looked no more. Christmas tree..........check!
I have to say that it is the prettiest Christmas tree we have EVER gotten in all of our years together. We had a fun surprise as we were drinking our hot cocoa at the tree farm........Santa showed up! (and he came bearing gifts)
He even let us sit in his sleigh for a spell.
We made it to the Festival of the Nativities this year (I think we missed it the previous year). It's always a great way to talk to the kids about the true reason for the season. We always devote at least one family home evening lesson to the story of Christ's birth during the month of December, and we always read the account of it according to Luke out of the Bible before we open any gifts on Christmas morning. I like this tradition.

We always bake for friends and neighbors. This year my Mom showed me how to make Finnish pulla bread. It's a real treat being able to make Finnish food with a real Finn!
We always enjoy playing lots of Christmas music throughout the house, in the car, and on the piano in the weeks leading up to the big day. Riley got to accompany (on the piano) a huge singing group of women at my Mom's Daycare Association Christmas Party. He did so awesome and made his mama proud. He also got to perform Joy to the World on the piano at the ward Christmas party in front of the whole ward. It was nice to have a little "live" Christmas music streaming through the house this year!

We were able to attend Heleena's first Tavaci concert. Tavaci is a kids singing group. Heleena just started in the fall and this was a Christmas concert. In her dress rehearsal concert, Heleena lasted through about half of her songs before she was done and sat down on stage for the rest of her concert. I was hoping for the real performance she'd do a little more. Well, it didn't quite work out that way. On the way into the building from the car that night before the show, she fell pretty bad in the parking lot and got some road rash on her hands. The stinging sensation on her hands pretty much took over all of her thoughts and she didn't do a thing during the performance. One little girl grabbed her hand several times during the show and insisted that Heleena participate and Heleena ended up pushing the girl, right in front of everyone! I was pretty embarrassed but I'm sure we'll all laugh about it in a few years.

Heleena is in the front row RHS looking at her hand!

Heleena loves singing so hopefully as time goes on she'll learn to love Tavaci performances.
So these are some of our traditions we do before Christmas. I think that I started a new tradition for myself........online shopping! It was a must this year and let me tell ya, it sure beats anything else! I don't know what we would have done without it!

Christmas day was extra special this year, but you'll just have to read about it in the next post. Here's a slideshow with some more pictures.

December Dental Marathon

2012-01-18T21:43:00.000-08:00

Some people have to worry about getting all of their medical appointments in before the end of the year for insurance reasons; we aren't one of those families.......but we sure seemed like one in December. I got on the phone to make one appointment and soon I had one for every member of the family! So who blogs about going to the dentist? Well, I'm only doing it because it was both Heleena and Ashton's first time with the dentist. I've really slacked off in that department because I never liked the idea of walking into the dentist with a bunch of kids. Well, I did it! I walked right in to the waiting room that day in December with five kids (I had our friend Grace along). I know you're jealous! I was supposed to be there for most of the day (even with back-to-back appointments) but luckily they did their best and I was in and out in probably close to an hour. Hallelujah! The kids behaved perfectly for their cleanings, examinations, and x-rays. They looked cute in the dentist recliners.

Lil' Miss Heleena (lookin' a little nervous and unsure about it all):

No cavities for Heleena!

Big Boy Ashton (relaxed and talkative the whole time):

No cavities for Ashton!

Big Brother Riley (the experienced pro):

No cavities for Riley! Just some McDonald's for lunch on the way back to school.

And after my appointment the following day............no cavities for Mom either! In fact, I don't have any cavities/fillings despite my poor dental hygiene habits. And Richard........the one who flosses every night, uses anti-cavity mouthwash, and never eats after he brushes......he had a cavity! I feel bad for him because he works the hardest at taking care of his teeth and always has!
The kids seem to have good teeth so far. Riley brushes his own teeth and we help the other two still. Brielle has 8 teeth already and I think it's about time I start brushing hers.

Or let her do it herself for a while.
Now we can relax until June when we will have another dental marathon!

Seven

2012-01-16T15:37:00.000-08:00

Riley turned seven in December and since he loves making and flying paper airplanes so much, we decided it would be the theme for his party. We found a cute boarding pass invitation template on the internet and Richard used some of his skills to change it up a little bit so that it worked for us. It had the destination as our address and the boarding time (time of party) and you had to call to confirm your reservation. It was fun planning and decorating for this party. We tried to keep the whole party in theme, beginning with the front door.

For family home evening that week we made lots and lots of paper airplanes and hung them from the ceiling all over our downstairs.

For the gifts, we had the kids put them in an opened suitcase with a sign that said "carry-ons". I didn't make a cake (since December is a crazy enough month) but instead made cupcakes decorated with cute little airplane toppers.
We played airplane bingo with candy as our card markers. We played musical airplanes (like musical chairs) only we used landing pads as our "chairs" and used a song from the Top Gun soundtrack as our music. I gave each of the boys balsa wood airplanes as one of their prizes, and had planned to have the boys decorate them, but we ended up making and decorating paper airplanes instead. The boys just took the balsa planes home because I was afraid they'd all get broken. It was a super fun party for Riley and his friends! Riley was all smiles the whole time and he'll never forget his airplane party! Here's a slide show:

Thanksgiving 2011

2011-12-05T14:56:00.000-08:00

Can you tell, by looking at this photo, where we spent our Thanksgiving this year?

Yes, that is Ginger, but we weren't in Utah. Here's a hint: she's holding one of Grandma Davies' potatoes from her garden. Yep, we were in good 'ol Idaho again. It's really starting to become the norm for us to go to Idaho for Thanksgiving. Everyone was there this year, including all of the new babies born since last Thanksgiving and the newest spouse Andrew. What a great time to update our family photo! But not for long since we found out that Andrew and KristiJill are expecting a little girl in April! That will be good because the boys are out-numbering the girls by two right now (B-7, G-5). Here's the newest family photo. Aren't we so cute?!

While we were there we were able to attend Nathan's eagle scout court of honor and be there for his priesthood ordination to the office of an elder. Here are all of the sons and son-in-laws, except for Aaron who didn't bring his uniform.

It doesn't seem like that long ago when Alex was getting his eagle scout award.

I think Richard has changed the least, and I think Nathan got too many leftovers once all of the other kids moved out because that is one tall kid! It'll be fun when our boys get to be scouts. Richard loved the scouting program and still joins the scouts occasionally for some of their activites.

We always go visit Great grandma Jensen when we go to Idaho. Here she is meeting Brielle for the first time.

The rest of the time we were there we hung out at the house playing games, eating, watching movies, cooking, singing, and even had a little talent show! Grandma loves music and made each of the families a book of songs that we sing from when we get together. The kids played outside a lot because the weather was so sunny and warmer than usual.

Also, the kids read a lot of books with Grandma, as usual.

Some of the guys were able to go mountain biking one morning. Here they are, ready to go, in their long johns.

They also played some basketball and even set their alarm clocks for an early morning game of Settlers. That's some serious playing if you ask me! We played a lot of games and got some good laughs, almost as many as all of the pies we consumed over the week! These people know how to have fun! And just for the record, Andrew can do the splits. That's all folks!

Zoo Trip 2011

2011-11-29T22:04:00.000-08:00

Before I get to the zoo pictures........... We recently took the kids to a Curious George craft party at the library. They provide these types of themed parties pretty often, we've just never gone before. The kids have all loved watching Curious George cartoons so they had fun and it was a good activity for a rainy Saturday. One good thing about having our kids so close in age is that it's easy to find one activity that is age-appropriate for all of them. Love it! And it's nice that our kids are so easily entertained.

Something that took a bit of my time recently was searching for some bedroom furniture for Brielle's room. She really needed a dresser and I looked non-stop on craigslist for at least two weeks before finding a whole bedroom set. It didn't end up being what I originally was lead to believe by the original owners, but I purchased it anyway and it's working out great. Pics to come.

I am LOVING our baby Brielle! She is an absolute joy in our lives right now! With each child we add to the family, my ability/capacity to love others increases. It's really helped me to better understand how much Heavenly Father loves all of us, His children. Anyway, Brielle is currently 7 months old and just started pulling herself up to standing. She's also trying to climb the stairs, but hasn't figured it out quite yet, thank goodness. Although, I just caught her pulling herself up using the wall, and she was able to do it! I smell trouble!! She has 5 teeth with the sixth one just starting to show. Her hair is turning blonde and she has beautiful blue eyes. I can't believe how she doesn't look at all like her newborn pictures anymore.

Brielle already has a sense of humor and just adores her family! I just can't get enough of her!

Here's a picture of her "helping" me cook dinner. She likes to open the cupboards and drawers. She's also into everything all over the house......including the toilet.

Our annual trip to the zoo came a little later than usual this year, happening on Veteran's Day, so the weather was colder than expected. Despite the cold weather we managed to keep warm with winter coats and hats and had fun seeing all of the animals. It was nice to have Richard there with us this time. The kids didn't really have a favorite animal (usually they really like the fish). But this time they seemed to like all the animals equally. Except for Ashton, who definitely had his favorite.........the zoo train, of course. One of these days I'll have to actually take him for a ride on it.

Asians transforming Cows into Princesses

2011-11-04T17:30:00.000-07:00

I wanted a family costume theme and the title of my post is all I could come up with. You'll understand it better once you see all of the costumes. But first I have a little Halloween story. On Halloween Ashton was pestering Heleena all morning. I was getting annoyed and told Ashton that if he didn't quit he wasn't going trick-or-treating. Not more than two minutes later Ashton came upstairs to Brielle's room (where I was dressing her) and slipped me this note:

It says- ASHTONS GOEN FOR U LITL BIT. (Ashton's going for a little bit)
I still can't believe how quickly he was able to write up this page! What a smarty pants!

Well, Ashton did get to go trick-or-treating that night. How could I not let him go after all his argumentative effort!

Riley is Optimus Prime, Ashton is Bumblebee, Heleena is a princess (for probably the next 8 years), and Brielle is a cow.

How cute is that!?
How about a cow doing the downward dog.....

The kids went to the church for a trunk-or-treat the Saturday before Halloween......

The weather was nice and warm for that. We carved our pumpkins at home afterward.

Here are the kids at home after they did the neighborhood rounds on Halloween night. Riley got to go out with a few of his neighbor friends while Ashton and Heleena went out with Daddy. Brielle and I stayed home to hand out candy.

Richard and I attended a Halloween party on Friday night dressed like this.....

I'm not really sure what we were supposed to be. Just Asian? Neither of us really fit the part very well. Maybe that's why we didn't win any best costume prizes. Oh well, it was fun! Happy Halloween!

Pre-school

2011-11-04T15:34:00.001-07:00

Here are my two silly pre-schoolers on their way to their first day at Tiny Titans Pre-school. It's Ashton second year there and this time he gets to be with Heleena.

They were excited to go, if you can't tell. Ashton is reading and writing words (phonetically) all by himself already, so pre-school is for the social interaction and for the cutting/coloring/glueing projects. Heleena knows all of her number, letters, sounds, colors, shapes.......pretty much all she needs to know for Kindergarten. She won't start Kindergarten for three years still! Her birthday is in the first week of school, so she misses the cut-off date. I hope that pre-school will help her with her skills in following directions and listening. She is very energetic, happy, and likes to do EVERYTHING for herself without anybody's help. Hopefully the sight of these two puts smiles on the faces at pre-school every Tuesday and Thursday morning!

Bauman Farms

2011-11-04T14:52:00.000-07:00

We visited Grandma and Grandpa Scarborough earlier this month in Oregon. While we were there we went to a fun pumpkin patch called Bauman Farms which is out in Woodburn, OR. It was our first time there and I highly recommend it! There was so much to do. We didn't get there till the afternoon so we weren't able to do as much as we would have liked to, but still wore ourselves out. We have coats on in some of the pictures, but those ended up back in the car right away because we had beautiful warm fall weather. I managed to get pictures of a few of the activities we did. Additionally Riley did some golfing (with mallets and pumpkins) and a giant slide. All of the kids did a big hay bail maze. Really there was too much for a family to do in one day. I was very impressed with all of the cute decorations, which were in abundance. The kids' favorite activites were the bug trailer rides and the pedal kart races. Here's a slideshow:

Afterward we all went to Pizza Hut for some of Richard's favorite pizza.

Six Months of Bliss

2011-11-04T13:07:00.000-07:00

I still can't believe that we have four kids! It all happened so fast.....especially this little girl!

She is six months old already and I've enjoyed every moment so far. I just wish life had some brakes because every day is flying by; it's crazy busy around here! Brielle is growing up quicker than I can keep up with! I'm still trying to get used to the blue eyes (all of the others have some shade of brown).....

and the lack of rolls (much thinner than her siblings ever were). This is probably the chunkiest she'll ever be.....one thigh roll and baby boobs.And what's she busy doing? Crawling on her hands and knees! At 6 months old!

She reminds me a lot of her brothers. She's mostly like Riley in the way she plays with toys and moves around with so much ease. But she's a lot like Ashton when it comes to how smiley and sweet she is (of course Heleena was smiley and sweet too). There's just a softness that Ashton had also.

And this scrumptious little angel already has two teeth! The tiniest little teeth ever!
She's sick in the above teeth picture (that's why she's crying). It's her first cold.

She's also sitting herself up on her own too, but she doesn't stay that way for too long before she's off again getting into things with those very, VERY busy little fingers! She always has something in her hands.

Soon she'll be walking! My guess is at 9 or 10 months. But for now she sure gets around in her walker.

At her 6 month check-up she had the following stats:

*I will post those once I find them*

She's thin and off-the-chart tall! She's wearing 9-12 month clothes already and weighs 18 lbs.

Brielle is such a good baby! We all love her to pieces! Richard gets her for two hours each Sunday while I'm in primary playing the piano. She is always so good for him even though it is during her nap time. They've developed a close relationship, partly due to their Sundays together. Richard always holds her when he gets home from work and they are like two peas in a pod, especially since they look alike.
Brielle is eating regular baby foods now and has liked everything she's tried so far. Mealtime is a bit messy as I feed her in her Bumbo seat. I haven't wanted to bring in the high chair yet but I think it's about time now that she sits up on her own. I've enjoyed being able to sit her in the grocery cart at the stores.

I just love my baby girl! She's a dream come true!

Swimming

2011-11-04T12:40:00.001-07:00

I wanted Ashton to have another chance at swimming, since his last experience wasn't the best, so I found a private swim coach for him. He had the hardest time getting comfortable in the water, but finally gave in and got his ears wet! I think it's my fault that he doesn't like to get his ears wet because when I give baths I always fill the tub with very little water. When I kids lay down in the bath it doesn't touch their ears so they are not used to water in their ears. I'm glad Ashton has learned to get wet. He's also almost learned how to float on his back.

I got mixed up and wasn't able to get Riley on any soccer teams this fall, so I decided to put him in private swim lessons also. He is swimming now on his own and loves it!

Heleena gets to play in the pool during Ashton's lesson. Here she is spitting pool water at me! She's a busy one!The kids have really been enjoying lessons. Unfortunately the pool has been having some problems and class has been cancelled for the past two weeks. We're hoping we will get our last two lessons because the kids look forward to it every week!

Our Husky

2011-11-04T10:48:00.001-07:00

Here's our big Harmony Husky showing off his tooth that he lost while eating bedtime snack one night. He's lost a total of 5 teeth now.

Here are Riley's school pictures. Can you guess which one is the newest? He looks so much older with those big teeth!

I've had the opportunity to visit Riley at school and to meet with his teachers for his first grade parent/teacher conference. Riley is excelling in reading and math. His handwriting is neat and beautiful as you can see from one of many assignments...

(he gets that from Richard). We are very proud of the student he has become and are very pleased with the school and his teachers Mrs. Frank and Kubrakov. This year the kids are reading every night for homework and it has made a big difference in Riley's attitude toward reading. Last year he didn't really like reading very much, even though he was an excellent reader, and so he didn't do very much of it. With the daily reading he has been doing this year he has learned to love reading and is waaay above grade level! Here are some pictures of Riley in class and with some of his school friends- Aiden, Brandon, and Dean.

One, Two, Three, Four

2011-09-07T21:49:00.000-07:00

I remember when we got this picture taken. Ashton was 2 1/2 months old, Riley was 2 1/2 years old, and both Richard and I were 2 1/2 decades old. It was kind of fun to think of the similarity in numbers.
Fast forward to now and I have some more fun numbers.

Our first child just started his first day of first grade! Here is the infamous first-day-of-school pic for this year.
He's grown up a lot in the last year! We'll see how long he goes before he trashes those shoes and jeans.....I'm betting on 6 weeks before the holes appear.

Kid #2, at four years old, is just 2 inches shy of four feet tall! He's also 2 predictable sometimes and quite the character. Here's a picture of this second child with his second major face trauma accident. He fell on his bike a week or so ago. He likes to ride really fast! The boys tape little cards or post-its to their bikes so that they hit the spokes and make motor noises as they ride. It's cute!And what about kid #3 you ask? Well, #3 just turned 3 years old today! We celebrated her birthday on Saturday with just our little family and today with the daycare kids (which includes her best friend/cousin Reina) and Mummi. Saturday we took Heleena and the others to Oaks Amusement Park for some fun rides. It was Heleena's first time on rides. She was scared on the Tilt-a-whirl, but not on the ferris wheel. I was freaked out on the ferris wheel. It was windy and Heleena could have just jumped right out without hardly trying! I hate that ride! Heleena's favorite ride was the motorcycles that just went around in a circle and the kids could make noises with the buttons on them. Ashton liked the train ride (of course) and Riley liked the go-carts.
Here are some pics from Oaks Park:

At her party we had pizza, popsicles, and played in the sprinkler while blasting fun songs on the boom box (yes my mom still has one of those!). I didn't do gifts there but she did get a few at home from Mommy and Daddy. There are some stories behind the pictures but I'm too tired to explain.

And finally kid #4 is still 4 months old. She got to wear matching jammies and tiaras with her big sis tonight!

California Cousins

2011-09-07T14:30:00.000-07:00

My sister Tarja and her three kids (Reagan, Kamryn, and Ethan) came to Washington (and Loon Lake) for the whole summer. They basically left California the day after school got out and drove back the day before school began again. They came to Loon Lake for the family vacation and then came to Vancouver to run Mom's business while Mom was in Finland visiting her mother Lea Utriainen (aka Isoaiti) and sister Mara. It was so nice having them here for so long and gave us a taste of what fun we'd have together if they lived here. Tarja is such a great sister and friend to me.
While they were here we tried to spend as much time with them as possible. They were gone on the weekends visiting Dad and Connie-Jo and busy during the days working, but we still managed to have a lot of fun times together. Ethan and Riley are like best friends. They played and played together and not once were there any problems between them. I didn't even have to try to entertain them because they both have such great ability to find fun in everything around them.

Above L to R: Kamryn, Heleena, Reina, Reagan, Ashton, Ethan, Riley (picture taken at Grandpa and Grandma Scarborough's house)

Reagan spent the night at our house
She enjoyed playing with all of the kids
Especially Brielle

But who wouldn't love a little cuddly baby like this?

Ethan spent the night also, and came to play on many occasions. I didn't take a bunch of pictures but he had a blast with Riley and all of the other neighbor kids from church. One time when Ethan was over they played in this big box. The boys wrote all over the box a bunch of different things. They wrote down their "ninja" names: Riley as Kai, Camden as Jay, Quinton as Zane, Ethan as Cole, and the best part Ashton as weirdo. Poor Ashton! They also crossed his name out. But Ashton didn't know that weirdo meant anything bad. He thought he got a cool ninja name too and was so excited to be included.

Kamryn didn't have a chance to stay the night at our house, but she made a great friend at the daycare and was having too much fun for me to steal her away anyway.

The cousins went swimming together, to the fair, blueberry picking, to the river, family dinners, and casual hanging out. We were sad to see them go!

Four Months

2011-09-06T22:03:00.000-07:00

A little about our sweet blue-eyed girl.....

Brielle turned four months old almost a month ago and I'm still in shock over how quickly she's growing up! Not only has she been scooting at 2 months and rolling both ways at 3, but she's already wearing 6-9 month clothing! She's grown about 7 inches in her first four months of life! No wonder she sleeps so much. She is starting to stay awake a little longer now and when she's awake she likes to play with the toys attached to her exer-saucer, roll around on the floor, watch her siblings entertain her, sit in her bumbo seat, eat, eat some more, blow through her diaper, sit in her swing (O.K. not so much), be held (she LOVES it), and fuss. She doesn't babble much yet and only really cries when she's tired and ready to be held. Overall I couldn't ask for a better baby. She puts herself to sleep no problem and stays asleep through the night every night since she was born.

Here are her four month stats:

Height: 2 feet 3.75 inches (off the chart)
Weight: 16 lbs. 12 oz. (94th percentile)
Head: 17.01" (92nd percentile)

She's starting to feel heavy to carry around, but I'm a big wimp. I love her big rolls on her thighs. It's funny because she has one huge roll on each thigh and they are the deepest rolls I think I've ever seen, yet I can still almost circumscribe her thigh with my thumb and middle finger because her legs are so thin. Once the baby fat disappears I think she's going to have total chicken legs! Those are from the Scarborough side. Anyway, I love this girl so much! She reminds me a lot of Riley as a baby. She takes steps when I "walk her" just like Riley did at her age. Maybe she'll walk early? Hopefully not! I also love how she gives me the most adoring looks. When I'm in the room she can't take her eyes off of me! I love how Richard interacts with her. It's my favorite thing to watch him with his girls. He ADORES his daughters!Brielle puts up with a lot from her siblings and all the chaos around her. Half the time I think she's wondering how she ended up in such a crazy house! We love you Brielle!

Swimming

2011-09-01T14:56:00.001-07:00

I had all three kids in swim lessons this summer. It was fun to watch each of them interact in the class groups and with their teachers. Riley really tried hard to learn how to swim this time. He's not quite there, but I know that he tried his best. He can swim with his face in the water. Here's a picture from his first day in class.

Heleena did surprisingly well. She listened to her teacher and followed directions better than I expected her to. She seemed to have fun but did not like going all the way under the water.

Out of the three, Ashton had the hardest time. He was extremely slow to warm up to the water. He just did not want to get those ears wet! He was fine getting his face splashed and wet, but those ears.....
He also seemed to like to do his own thing during instruction time sometimes (not always). Here he is in his Thomas (red and blue) shorts.
Here's Ashton's teacher trying to lay him down in the water. No luck with that!
So the kids didn't learn much of anything, but I know that they had fun. I think next time we'll try some private lessons if we can find any, to hurry the process of learning how to swim.

Some other swimming we did was at Cottonwood Beach, on the Columbia River. I don't know that any of us really swam, but we enjoyed cooling off in the water and soaking up some sunshine on the beach. The river has stayed really full this year, perhaps due to the cooler than normal temperatures. We barely hit 90 degrees for the first time this year just recently!!!! That is not normal. With the cooler temperatures, this summer has been pretty pleasant with minimal need for air conditioning so I haven't been complaining! It's been perfect!

I've been to Cottonwood Beach probably close to 10 times in the last month, if you can believe that! I've gone with my sister Tarja, with Richard, with the kids (every time), with neighborhood friends, and I've met up with girlfriends and their kids. It's been great to be able to spend all of that time out on the beach in the sun. Nothing better than that! Here are some pics:

The Gardners

2011-08-23T13:32:00.000-07:00

The youngest of Richard's three sisters, KristiJill, got married in June.

In the church, dating and marriage can happen pretty quickly because we all have the same eternal goal and beliefs, so add in the physical attraction factor and you've got the recipe for lasting love and happiness together. Well, I guess that is what happened with KristiJill and her new husband Andrew because they were engaged and married within one week!

When Richard's parents came to visit for Brielle's blessing, they talked about KristiJill possibly getting engaged sometime this summer. Richard and my temple recommends had just expired and needed to be renewed so I made a mental note to get that done. Well, as Kim and Cynthia left we heard, through the grapevine, that KristiJill was probably getting married in Utah in one week! With no temple recommends, no plane tickets, no child-care arrangements, and a newborn baby to think about, Richard and I felt like everything was stacked against us and that we weren't going to make it to the wedding. We both really wanted to be there for the wedding and decided that we would do everything we could to make that happen.

I know we were meant to be there because everything fell into place like magic! My Mom was able to watch Ashton and Heleena while we were gone because a couple of the spots in her daycare miraculously opened up. Riley was able to stay with his friend who lives next door to us. We were able to get our bishop AND stake president interviews before church on Sunday. I know, a miracle! We were going to just have Richard fly by himself because the tickets were about $500 a piece (for a 2 hr. flight!). Well, our brother-in-law Aaron has a bunch of frequent flyer miles and got not ONE, but TWO tickets for us. We can't believe it all worked out and are very grateful to all who made it possible!

It was a beautiful ceremony for Andrew and KristiJill. They were sealed by Andrew's grandfather, another miracle that he was able to do it with such short notice. All of Richard's siblings were there, plus his parents. There was a nice luncheon following the temple ceremony and they even had a photographer AND a dress for KristiJill. I can't believe a wedding could be planned in one week! Andrew and KristiJill seem perfect for each other and I look forward to getting to know him. It was so much fun to spend time with the family in Utah at Ginger and Aaron's house. Oh, and I must mention that we stayed one night at Alex and Angeli's place and that Alex can cook a mean breakfast! It was great that Lindsay and Brandt could be there too all the way from New Mexico. I wish we all lived in the same town!

The added bonus to attending a short-notice wedding was that we were forced into taking a trip without the kids.....okay, almost kid free. We had little two-month-old Brielle along with us but she was perfectly pleasant the whole time. She slept for the flights and through the nights. This will sound bad, but the kids didn't miss us at all and we didn't miss them either. I knew they were having fun and were well taken care of so I didn't have to worry about or miss them. I loved the flight because it's been a while since I have flown. As I was glued to the window the whole way home I marveled at the beauty of the earth. It made me feel close to my Heavenly Father and to realize how every time I am in nature I always think of Him. I decided that if there is ever the opportunity to get our family out into nature I will do it. It's so good for the soul to be out in the beautiful creations that Heavenly Father has given to us.

Fourth of July at Loon Lake

2011-08-15T16:02:00.000-07:00

Independence Day was on a Monday this year. We headed to Teem and Emily's the Thursday before to enjoy some time at their beautiful home in Coeur d' Alene, Idaho. All of my siblings and their families could make the trip this year so it was extra fun. On Friday everybody else was still traveling, so Richard and I hung around the house and tried to make ourselves useful. Richard got a to do list which kept him busy. He actually enjoyed his "chores" because he got to tune-up almost 20 bikes all day long. The reason there were so many bikes to tune-up was because the next day everybody went on a bike ride on the old Hiawatha train trail. The tracks are no longer there, just the path the train used to take when it ran. I've known about the Hiawatha train since I was a little girl. My dad collected many, many Lionel trains and had a scale model of the Hiawatha. It wasn't the prettiest train and he used to tease me and tell me that he'd give me that train to keep. I didn't like it because I thought it was ugly. I only wanted a pretty train (like any little girl). He loved to tease me and call me the Hiawatha Hooter, for some reason. I think he just liked all of the reaction he got out of me.
Everyone, except me, went on the 13 mile bike ride. I didn't get to go because of Brielle and her not taking a bottle. It was fine though because I thoroughly enjoyed the quiet time alone with our baby. The boys did awesome biking on the trail. There were no complaints out of either one of them the whole time. Ashton loved going through the tunnels and they both loved going over the super steep bridges. The big boys (dads) threw a large boulder over one of the bridges that was 300 ft. up. Crazy! Hopefully it didn't hurt anything below. I think everyone had a great ride.
While everyone was gone I did a little photo shoot with Brielle.

We had a lot of fun even before we got to Loon Lake on Sunday evening. At Loon Lake it was great as usual. Hot 90 degree weather this year and plenty of great food. The fireworks that Teem and Eric bought were awesome, plus we got to see all of the other fireworks going off around the lake. Ya gotta love fireworks on the beach! I loved watching all of the cousins do fireworks together. Great memories! There was a little boat parade on the fourth and Tarja did the Fourth of July BBQ extra special with cute little prize bags for the kids and decorative drinks and desserts. It was a really fun idea! Our family had a lot of fun playing a new game called Tellestrations. It's like the game telephone but with pictures instead of whispering in ppls. ears. Anyway, I think we played that game almost every night! The guys did their annual all day fishing trip at Lake Roosevelt again (plus night fishing and pretty much most of the time we are there). Anyway, they had the catch of their lives at Lake Roosevelt. AWESOME catches and Richard caught the biggest one. Way to go guys! We had a great week at Loon Lake and look forward to next year.

Here's a long slide show from our trip. The pictures are mostly my moms because I only had my big camera and it wasn't ever close-by when I needed it.

Two Months

2011-08-10T22:17:00.000-07:00

The last two months of my pregnancy with Brielle were the slowest two months of my life......and her first two months of life were the quickest! Time speeds up with every kid you bring into the world. I swear that if we have any more I'll go to bed in my 30's and wake up in my 50's the next morning!
At two months old here are Brielle's stats:

Height: 2' 0.25" 97th percentile!
Weight: 13 lbs. 5oz. 96th percentile!
Head: 15.98" 89th percentile

....and I thought she was little! Oh well, she's a cutie! She's been a great eater and sleeper since the day she was born. She loves tummy time every day. She sleeps through the night and has almost from the very start. She sleeps a ton and I'm completely in love with her! We all are!

Here she is at almost three weeks old

At three weeks

At one month

At almost two months

Day Out With Thomas

2011-08-10T21:21:00.000-07:00

When Richard took the boys to the father and sons camp out, there were some abandoned train cars there that Ashton played in the whole time and it got Richard thinking...... Ashton has loved trains for pretty much his whole life so far to the point that he has earned a special train outing by now. So Richard came home and looked on the internet to find out that the event A Day Out With Thomas was coming up soon in Hood River, OR. Thomas is Ashton's favorite! My dad is the biggest train fan that we know so Richard invited him along and it turned out to be a fun Father's Day weekend outing for them (and Grandma Connie who tagged along to make sure they behaved themselves :)
They got some nice weather there in Hood River, while we had non-stop rain here at home. Grandpa and Grandma spoiled Ashton with some fun gifts. Ashton couldn't have been happier about the whole experience and was beaming still a week afterward. He seemed to have grown up a little after his special day with Dad and Grandpa. I'm so glad he got to go see and ride on his favorite train which he referred to as "the real Thomas!" He even writes the following from time to time with the refrigerator magnets: RIL TOMIS
Too cute!

Brielle's Blessing

2011-08-10T14:42:00.000-07:00

We were able to coordinate schedules for Brielle's blessing day so that all of the grandparents could be there. She was blessed on June 12th, the second weekend in June which also happened to be my birthday weekend. Richard's parents flew out to see us on Thursday evening. Friday we were lucky to get the whole day with just them. We took them out to Silver Falls State Park in Oregon for most of the day. This is a place really close to where my Dad lives and is actually a temperate rain forest with 10 beautiful waterfalls and nice scenic hiking. I think one of the signs there said that they get about 80 inches of rain per year in that park! We did a couple of short hikes with Grandma and Grandpa Davies and saw 3 beautiful waterfalls while we were there. The kids did really well hiking and keeping their energy levels up. Just some of the pictures.....

So beautiful!

Us behind the water fall

Giant rain forest clover

water fall #2

Enjoying the view
climbing logs
Ashton found a lincoln log cabin!
Riley built one!
a lincoln log bench!

Brielle slept the whole time we were there and didn't make it into many pictures, but she was there! On Saturday my brother Teem and his family showed up and the guys (Papa Will, Grandpa Davies, Richard, and Uncle Teem) went fishing at Yale Lake in Wa. They had fun and caught over 30 kokanee salmon. While they were gone fishing, Grandma and I spent time with the kiddos (of course) running errands, shopping, and even a little napping. Grandma read plenty of books with the kids and played some games with them. They loved it as usual! When the guys returned from fishing we all went over to my mom's house for a big BBQ with everybody including the Guinns. I felt like the BBQ was the nice part of that day for me (my birthday) because I finally got a little break and didn't have to cook dinner. Yay! The best part was when Richard and I sent the kids back to our house with Grandma and Grandpa to go to bed while we stayed at my mom's a little bit longer:)

Sunday was the blessing day. It was a beautiful blessing for a special baby girl. She looked like a little doll in her blessing dress that Grandma Davies got for her. After church we had an amazing dinner at our house. I decided on making the Cafe Rio pork burritos and salad recipe. I had a lot of help with the prep from Richard and his mom and everyone else helped with the cleanup. For dessert we had my birthday cake, which was a Finnish fruit layered cake that my mom and sister Aliisa made me. All of it turned out sooo good!

Here are some more photos from the weekend.

Mummi's House!

2011-08-09T15:36:00.000-07:00

One of the reasons Richard and I decided to move here after college graduation was to be close to family. Actually, we live really close to the house I grew up in where my mom still lives and runs an in-home daycare (for over 33 years now!) And she has a full crowd!
Since last September I began dropping some of my kids off at her house a couple of mornings a week while I did grocery shopping, went for a quick jog/walk, or went to doctor appointments. It's for just a short time, but has greatly enriched the lives of me, my kids, and Mummi. My mom has enjoyed spending time with her grandchildren on a regular basis and I have enjoyed time away from them to get some things done! The kids have so much fun playing with the other kids in the daycare, learning and laughing with Mummi, and having a break from me! I'm sure they will always have fun memories of being at Mummi's house coloring/doing projects, dancing, playing dress-up, eating healthy and yummy lunches, and riding on toys outside. It's been an enormous blessing having my Mom so close by and so willing to help our family out. Thanks Mom! I love you!

Here are a few pictures from her house.

Spring Air

2011-08-09T14:32:00.000-07:00

I'm playing a little catch-up here....

These spring chicks fill the house with so much life (and messy disasters) that when the spring arrives bringing with it a little longer days and a little warmer weather, I don't hesitate for a second to send them outside for some refreshing outdoor play.
Some (not all) of our outdoor activities this past spring included:

The annual father and sons campout
This year it was at Scouter's Mountain in Oregon

Heleena learning to ride a bike with training wheels. She loves her Dora bike even though it's seen better days.

Brielle's first bike ride in the bike trailer. It's nice to have 5 ppl. on bikes now so that Brielle can fit into the bike trailer with her car seat.

Riley enjoying many hours of rollerblading after school in front of our house.

The boy has no fear!

A not too rainy season of coach pitch baseball. Riley had a great coach this year! We missed a few practices/games but I was glad to see that Riley really enjoyed playing this season.

Daddy's creativity. He built the kids a new toy for their trikes.

These are just some of the outdoor activities that kept the kids busy before school got out.

Riley Has Talent!

2011-08-09T13:23:00.000-07:00

We are so proud of Riley as he has worked hard this year practicing the piano almost every day. Back in May, Riley's school had their annual talent show. Riley got to participate playing a song from his Suzuki book called Long, Long Ago by Thomas Haynes Bayly. He has learned all of the songs in many different books and continues to enjoy playing them and even changing some of the compositions to make them his own style. He can be pretty creative and surprises me at how well he can harmonize the right chords into different tunes all on his own. Way to go Riley!

Here's a short video of his evening performance. Not bad for a kindergartener!

Get Away!

2011-05-24T14:57:00.000-07:00

During the end of my pregnancy with Brielle I stayed home way too much! I kept wanting that one last get away, but it didn't happen. Two weeks after Brielle was born, my side of the family were all going to Coeur d' Alene for the weekend to attend our new nephew Finn's baby blessing. Although Brielle was so young, we figured "what the heck, let's get out of here!" So we packed up the car and went. I mostly wanted to go to let the kids play with their cousins. The kids had so much fun that they really didn't want to leave and Riley even cried a little. I'm glad we went because they loved the time they had with their cousins.

Baby Finn is adorable! He's a doll (don't know if you can say that about baby boys) but he's just a little cutie! We left on Friday morning and drove back on Sunday afternoon, so it was a really quick trip. Because of the lack of time, we didn't do much while we were there besides eat and play games. Emily makes the best food and I was amazed at how well she was prepared to feed a house full of 18 ppl. (20 if you count the newborns).She didn't just do the bare minimum when it came to meals, she went above and beyond. At one lunch she had made 4 different homemade soups! Pretty incredible for someone who just had a baby. Anyway, it was nice to get away and I'm itching to go somewhere else now!

Happy Birthday Ashton!

2011-05-16T14:17:00.000-07:00

Ashton's birthday was the day after Easter this year. We ended up having our egg hunt on Saturday and Ashton's family party on Sunday after church. With the new baby we never got around to dying boiled Easter eggs. I had good intentions when I brought home the egg dying kit from the store, but life has been so busy! We did participate in a plastic egg hunt at a nearby park that a bunch of families from church were having. The kids loved it and the weather was absolutely perfect......sunny and 70 degrees. We enjoyed the weather so much that we spent most of the day outside. We went on a bike ride down by the river and ended it at the spray park. This is one of our favorite summertime activities. The boys rode their bikes with Daddy and it was technically Ashton's first real bike ride without his training wheels. There were so many people on the walking path by the river and Ashton did great riding around them and braking when he needed to. The girls and I walked along the same path and met up with the boys later because we were a bit slower. This was Brielle's first outing in the outdoors. Her first family outing took place the day before when we took the kids to Toys R Us and on a carousel ride afterward. Heleena didn't stay on her horse for very long before she got scared, but Ashton loved it.
Sunday was the family dinner for Ashton's birthday. Somehow everybody ended up buying more gifts than usual for Ashton this year, us included, so he ended up with a lot of new toys to play with. I think it was good that it turned out that way because Ashton has been needing a little extra something lately and I think having his party happen the way it did was the perfect thing for him. He was so excited for his birthday celebration that he couldn't sit still the whole time and had a huge smile on his face. I loved watching his excitement! The following day on Ashton's actual birth date he brought treats to his preschool friends.
So now I have a 6 yr. old, 4 yr. old, 2 yr. old, and a newborn. I love my kids more than I even knew was possible. I'm so grateful for our little Ashton. He's such a daddy's boy anymore. When Daddy is home you can almost guarantee that Ashton will be right there beside his dad "helping" him build, fix, or play with whatever it is he is doing. Ashton is doing great with reading words. I don't work with him on reading as often as I should, but when I do I am always amazed at how well he reads words and they aren't just the easy 3 letter words. Ashton still talks a lot and much of it is so random! He usually talks about whatever he sees or thinks about and usually it ends up being unrelated, but at least he pronounces everything perfectly and is never afraid to use new words! He cracks me up with some of the things he says!
Happy Birthday Little Guy! We love you!

Showering and Bathing Confessions

2011-05-13T13:38:00.000-07:00

Showers: You probably think I'm going to confess that I don't like to shower and although that is true I am talking about another kind of shower....a baby shower. A couple of friends from my ward (Julie Crofts and Elizabeth Watson) insisted on throwing me a baby shower. I was very hesitant to accept the offer because I didn’t really need one, but since I go to showers all the time, have only had one before (for Heleena), and this will probably be my last chance for one, I let them have their way. So here is my confession: I always hesitate to let anyone pamper or fuss over me. I shouldn't because I’ve learned that it feels really nice to let people do that sometimes. The night was filled with good friends, good food, and lots of cute baby girl clothes. It was really fun!

Baths: When people ask me how I do it all with four kids…….well, you have to let some things go and a clean house isn’t one of those things, for me anyway. However, bathing my kids is one of those things that I only do if it’s really necessary. Yep, I tend to let it go as long as possible…..which ends up being twice a week for the boys and 2-3 times a week for Heleena (with her long hair and not so great skills of wiping her own bum). I’ve now got Brielle on that same schedule of bathing her twice a week (she actually needs a bath every other day because her hair gets so greasy), but I have to admit that I didn’t give her a bath for the first time until she was one week old. Ooops! Being #4, she’s lucky if she gets a new outfit to wear every morning. Usually I find that I will keep her in the same outfit for as long as it lasts and that has been up to 3 days at times! With Heleena changing outfits three times a day, I try to make up for her increase in laundry by saving wherever I can. Speaking of Heleena and her wardrobe, here is a recent picture of her.

Oh no, am I raising that old lady…..yes, you know her, the one with the crazy outfits! Heleena starts the day off half-way decent as we compromise what she will wear every morning. She always wants a dress and I always want something warm and matching. The outfit only lasts 20 minutes before she strips off whatever she can or completely changes her whole look. It either ends up being skimpy or something like in the picture….wild! She’s a wild one!

Okay, too many confessions here! Anyway, here are some pics of Brielle’s first bath at home, taken when she turned one week old. She didn’t like the water the first time, but has since learned to relax during bath time.

In the spirit of bath time….I found the next picture on the computer after Richard had been home taking care of the kids for Brielle's first week. He has an eye for photography….don’t ‘cha think? I probably shouldn’t put any nudity in here but they are only two and three years old so at those ages bare bums are still cute and besides, how can I resist! It’s too funny!

Brielle's Bedroom

2011-05-10T14:55:00.001-07:00

I couldn't find any bedding to match the wall color I painted when this was a guest room. I didn't want to re-paint so I ended up sewing all of the bedding (quilt, dust ruffle, bumper pad, curtain valance, basket liners) and added a few more decorations. It was a fun project and I'm sure glad I did it before she got here!

It turned out really cute....almost as cute as this little peanut!

Introducing our newest member of the family!

2011-05-06T14:02:00.000-07:00

We welcomed our second precious daughter into our not-so-little family on April 13, 2011 at 3:45pm weighing 8lbs. 13 oz. and 21 inches long. We kept her name a secret until she arrived:

Brielle Katariina Davies
Her first name is all her own and her middle name was a compromise between what Richard wanted and what I wanted. She is named after Richard's grandma Catherine, but it is translated into Finnish to keep some of her Finnish heritage as part of her middle name. We love the name and we all just LOVE this little baby girl! The kids want to be right next to her whenever she is in the room. Little Heleena always gives her kisses and talks to her in the most loving voice she can. Brielle may be small, but her spirit fills our home to capacity with it's sweetness.

These first few weeks have gone by very quickly. Richard was off from work to help out for the first week after we got home from the hospital. Watching him struggle to keep the daily routines and household maintenance made me realize just how hard my job really is. By the end of the week he had made significant improvement and I was very proud of him. He had a fun week home but was definitely ready to go back to work when Monday came around again. The next two weeks I was on my own, even watching Grace again, and it's been very busy but luckily I have a great sleeper. Brielle sleeps all day and all night....yep, that's right, ALL NIGHT. So I'm getting my sleep as long as I don't stay up too late like I often do. She's also a fabulous eater. She latched on from the first moment I held her and has been gaining weight steadily. She weighs a lot, but somehow she is our skinniest baby. What I mean is that she has a very lean and dainty body build and is already taller than all of the other babies her age. Go figure!

Labor and delivery was a breeze this time. I never had very many noticeable contractions and I was overdue so to get the baby out before she got too big my doctor decided to induce labor. So this is roughly what happened:

10:05 am
Started petocin

11:17 am

Water broke

11:30 am

Dialated 3.5cm

1:20 pm

Dialated 5cm

Got an epideral (it was like laying on a tropical beach! So good! I could still feel everything except for pain)

2:55 pm

Dialated 7-8cm

3:35 pm

Started pushing

3:45 pm

Brielle Katariina Davies born

8 lbs. 13 oz.

21" long

Nurse: Erin

Midwife: Dee Fleeter

I used the mirror this time and it helped me to know how hard to push and when to let up so I hardly tore at all which has made recovery easy....almost too easy.

When Brielle was first born she looked so much like Riley did when he was born. It will be fun to watch her get her own look and for her personality to start coming out. I feel so blessed to be able to stay home and spend my days with all of these wonderful little people. Now that we have four children I am feeling even more humbled and have to rely on faith that I can fulfill my calling as a mother even more than before. It's a busy job but at least I know that my efforts are definitely not in vain. Every moment counts and it all goes by so quickly! So now I look forward to more blogging about our cute new daughter Brielle!

March Madness

2011-04-03T22:46:00.000-07:00

I'm becoming a once a month blogger it seems. Maybe it's due to my being pregnant and too focused on the upcoming due date. I'm oh so ready to be done! It always seems like I look forward to the due date for so long only to watch that day come and go while remaining pregnant. Well, about 4 more days until my due date and I can't stop wondering if I'll go past that long awaited date or how the whole delivery scenario will play out. I've learned that I much prefer to have things scheduled and planned out, but that only happens with induction or c-section and I would like to skip those options if I can.

Today we went to the hospital after I woke up this morning with bleeding and clotting coming out of me. The blood was just from changes in my cervix, they said. Probably just losing my mucous plug. I wasn't having contractions, and am still not, so I figured I wasn't really in labor and I was right. They checked me out to find that I'm 90% effaced and still only dilated to about 2cm. I could stay like this for weeks for all I know....
I just thought that this week, and today especially, would have been a good day to go into labor with spring break for Riley and no Grace this week to watch. We shall see, but I'm not feeling that it's coming soon. I guess I'll just have to remain patient.

This past week was exciting for Ashton because he learned to ride his bike without training wheels. Richard asked him if he wanted them off and when Ashton got on the bike he was able to ride it without them immediately! It was amazing and I'm so proud of his courage. He enjoys trying hard to do things on his own and seems to have a lot of determination.

Part of my "March Madness" has been in getting the kids more prepared for a new sibling. Heleena must be aware of her final days as the "baby" of the family because she's been milking it for all it's worth. I've been working over-time lately as I've tried to deal with some of the battles of a two year old girl. I think I've let her get her way because it's been easier to give in to the youngest child who doesn't quite have the understanding and patience of the older kids. Also, as a parent I believe that your patience runs thin by the third child. I have more of an attitude of "really I've had this battle so many times before and I really don't want to have it again." So I give in to make it go away. I forget that although it's old for me, it's brand new to Heleena and I need to remain patient and firm. I think she's old enough now to understand that she needs to follow some rules and not always get her way and during the past month I've tackled it a lot more. I've been really trying to let her scream and cry when she doesn't get her way without my giving in, and using time out earlier in the tantrum process. It hasn't been easy but I know it will be worth it, especially when the baby comes and I have to divide even more of my time among the kids and family. I just hope I am qualified to become a mother of four very young children.

March Basketball Madness was very much a part of our evenings this past month. BYU was in the mix this time and it was fun to watch them play well in so many games. I think that Richard especially enjoyed all the excitement and I wish that I could have gone to watch him play in some of his church-ball games this season because I heard he did a lot for his team.

Well, our bags are packed for the hospital, the baby's room is ready and waiting (I sewed all new bedding and curtains during the month of March), and my maternity clothes that are fitting comfortably are few so hopefully this baby comes soon!

CE-LE-BRATE Good Times, C'mon!

2011-02-23T12:56:00.000-08:00

We've had a few things to celebrate lately. First was Richard's 32nd birthday earlier this month. Turning 32 doesn't seem very exciting and with a pregnant wife, young kids, and not many vacation get-aways planned for the near future I wanted his birthday to be really memorable and special this year. So I decided to throw a surprise party for him. His first one ever! It's not something Richard would ever suspect. I invited a bunch of his friends and their wives and in the process found out that there was a ward adult game night scheduled for the same night at the same time. I thought maybe most ppl. would end up going to the church party, but was happy to see that pretty much everybody came for Richard's party instead. Yay!
My plan was to go out to dinner with Richard (to get him out of the house) and then to supposedly go to the adult game night at the church. At the time of planning I didn't know that Riley would also be having his first ever basketball game scheduled for the same night and time as the party. I had to work around that too! Richard wanted to go to Riley's game really bad. I had to compromise and say we could stay for half of his game and then we needed to get over to the church for the party so that we weren't too late. It all worked out perfectly. We took Riley with us when we went out to dinner, watched half of his game, and came back to the house to "get our snack" to take to the church. Richard was so confused when he walked into the family room and a bunch of friends were there shouting surprise. He couldn't understand why we were "having the ward game night at our house." Really there was a church function but obviously we didn't attend. Anyway, it was a fun night of food, friends, and games. I made a new cake that I've never made before. It was an ice-cream cake. A layer of brownie on the bottom, two flavors of ice-cream stacked to form the middle of the cake, and yellow cake on the top. Then I frosted the whole thing. I didn't follow a recipe, just made it up, and it was a hit. I think I'll make it again in the future. Especially because it was so easy. I'm happy that Richard's birthday party turned out so nice for him and I know he'll never forget it.
Our next celebration was Valentine's Day. Every year Richard asks me what I want for Valentine's Day and I always tell him that I'm so easy to please.....just take me dancing. So every year we attend our Stake Sweetheart ball. There's always nice decorations, good food, and great music. This year we went to two of them and had a blast dancing the night away. The first one was East Stake's and I did a lot better on the dance floor, but the Vancouver Stake's did me in. I didn't get to shake my stuff as much as I would have liked to, but still had a lot of fun with my sweetheart and my friends. Besides, the cheesecake alone was good enough to go for! Richard even admitted that he had a lot of fun dancing this year. No more dancing for me for a while though....I'm much too pregnant for that.
Our third celebration came as a bit of a surprise. Heleena is potty-trained! She wasn't and then the next day she was! It happened a couple of days after Valentine's Day. We did the no pants thing for a month and she always did great at making sure to use the potty. We had pretty much no mishaps. But every time I put underwear on her she would poop and pee in them. It was driving me nuts so that's why I kept her without anything on for so long. I would give her rewards, in the form of candy, whenever she did her thing in the potty but still she wasn't motivated to keep her underwear dry. Finally I told her that if she didn't stay dry I'd take her favorite stuffed animal "Kitty" away and that did it! She must thrive better with punishment than with rewards. Go figure! I'm happy to report that she is doing AWESOME now. When she has to go, she goes all by herself, pulls down her own pants, wipes herself afterward, and pulls back up her own pants, and even uses the big potty without a step-stool. I'm so proud of her, especially because she isn't even two and a half yet. She's ready to be a big sister now for sure!
I want to say something else about Heleena really quickly. I took her to the eye doctor a couple of weeks ago and they did a vision test on her. It was the cutest thing in the world watching her sit in the chair and shout out all of the letters on the wall. She was so quick, like a little adult. Another proud mama moment.
I have one more proud mama moment. Ashton gave his first talk in primary a couple of weeks ago. He was asked to speak about how the scriptures teach us of Heavenly Father's Plan for us. He had no hesitation to walk right up to the podium...in fact he practically ran up there he was so excited. He was very clear with his speech and beaming with confidence. Awesome job Ashton! It's fun to see kids grow and learn.
Sorry no pictures in this post. I guess I've been a little lazy about taking them lately.

Whoosh! There went January!

2011-02-15T11:05:00.000-08:00

The new year has come and we've been busy with the kids, as usual. One of the first things I did with the kids this year was take them to the Portland Children's Museum again. Richard didn't come along so it was just me and the three kids. They behaved very well for me and we had a good time together. It was fun to be stroller free! The kids enjoyed all of the displays. Unfortunately my battery died in my camera so I didn't get very many pictures. They have a little grocery market that would have made great pictures because the kids really liked "shopping". They get it from me I'm sure. Although, Richard sure keeps UPS and FedEx busy with all of his on-line shopping.

Later in January Riley started playing basketball through the Firstenburg Center. It's kind of fun that his coaches ended up being my mom's neighbors (a married couple). He still doesn't really know all the rules of the game, but he loves to dribble and shoot the ball at his games. He made two baskets his first game. Go Riley! He continues daily piano practice and is getting really good. He can now play songs with chords in both hands together. I'm impressed at how technically aware he is when it comes to noticing slurs, staccatos, dynamics, and how great his rhythm is. He memorizes most of the songs he practices. It takes a lot of my time now that he is learning piano, but I've really enjoyed helping him and he enjoys playing.

I should say something about Ashton too. Ashton has started getting computer time this year. He loves the computer just like the other guys in the house and is another natural at figuring things out with the mouse in his hand. Hmmm....I wonder where my boys get it from? He was getting pretty upset at first when I told him that computer time was over, but he is getting a lot better about the ending time transition now. It's cute to watch him play around on the computer. He looks like a little man.

Heleena is getting ready to become the BIG SISTER. I finally decided to decorate her room. I found some cute scandinavian bedding but no curtains to go with it so I got out my dusty old sewing machine and created some to match her bedding. I also re-covered her lamp shade, created some wall decor, painted her name letters for her wall, re-covered her rocking chair seat cushions, bought some other decorations, and painted her walls green. Now all we need to do is get her a bed. Right now she just sleeps on her mattress on the floor. I'm pleased with the outcome and Heleena loves how girly her room is. I used to think that Heleena was a bit of a tom-boy girl, but she has turned into a girly girl. She's obsessed with anything pretty....jewelry, dresses, shoes and plays like all the other little girls....dancing, singing, dolls, dishes, coloring (princess pictures usually) etc. She's especially fond of singing. She sings almost constantly and makes up new words to the tunes she knows usually these songs are about what she is doing at the moment. I love it! It's so interesting to have raised boys and to see how different girls are from boys. For example, Heleena was much more interested in colors and she always organizes everything according to the family. I don't know how to explain it but she is much more family oriented than the boys ever were because she is always telling me what belongs to who and makes sure that everyone in the family has their needs taken care of. Such a little mommy already. Her new favorite word to use is probably. She sounds so grown up when she talks now because she tries so many new words every day.

We have been hard at work trying to get Heleena potty-trained before the baby comes. I've also been simultaneously potty training the little girl I watch (Grace). It's kept me very busy! I thought girls were supposed to be easier than boys but that hasn't been the case at our house. We've been working on Heleena for close to 2 months now. She did great with nothing on. She'd just go and sit on her potty every time she needed to go. The hard part has been getting her to stay dry with clothes on. Someday......in the meantime we are doing a lot of laundry and carpet cleaning. I will not give up!

So that was pretty much how January went. Here's a few pics.

End of Year Happenings

2011-01-11T13:03:00.000-08:00

We had a busy Christmas but did manage to find some time to relax. We were excited to celebrate Christmas for the first time in our new home since we moved in just after the holiday's last year. We spent Christmas eve with my mom and Will, Aliisa and Paul, and Jeremy and Karess. We enjoyed a nice holiday dinner and opened a few gifts with the kids at their house. We had a great Christmas morning at home. We woke up, the kids got their Santa gift when they woke up (7 am). Then we had a yummy breakfast, German pancakes with fresh pears and blueberries on the side. Then we all got dressed, read the Christmas story out of the scriptures, passed out the presents and took turns opening them. The kids didn't even notice their filled stockings until all the presents were opened. I was surprised to see that after a couple of presents each of the kids were pretty much done opening. This year I did all of the Christmas shopping by myself and I really tried to focus on toys for the kids that a) didn't require batteries, and b) I/Richard could spend quality time playing these toys with them or they could play with together.

The boys mostly got thousands of pieces worth of Legos and have spent countless hours since building things with them. One day Riley came home from school and went straight to the table to spend the next 4 hours non-stop building a big Lego semi he got from Grandpa Scarborough. He loves Legos! Ashton got his newest Thomas train and was pretty much done with Christmas after that. The other night he was hugging his Thomas train while he slept. I keep waiting for him to choose a new favorite toy but it has been Thomas for over 2 years now. It sure makes gift shopping easy. The kids got a lot of puzzles, games, coloring books, etc.

Heleena got a ton of dress-up clothes, shoes, and jewelry. She also got her very first Barbies. She's really into princesses like so many girls. It's fun to watch her be a little lady and often a little mommy with her dolls. She kisses them goodnight and covers them up with blankets. She also likes to play kitchen with her dishes. I hope she likes cooking more than her mommy does.
After spending Christmas morning at home, we headed off to visit my Dad and Connie-Jo. We did the traditional gift exchange and ate a lot of food. It was fun to see some of the family that I haven't seen in a while.

The week after Christmas we had a special visit from my older sister Tarja who lives in Southern CA. She drove up with her three kids to spend a week in WA. We mostly relaxed while she was here, but we did have a girls night out ballroom dancing one evening. It was a lot of fun. I didn't think I'd spend much time on the dance floor, being pregnant, but surprisingly most of the old men still asked me to dance. It was a dancing crowd that has known our family for years.

We played games at our house for our New Year's Eve countdown party and had one last party for three of the cousins with Dec./Jan. birthdays: Riley, Kamryn, and Reina. It was a combined birthday party which doesn't happen very often with the family spread out. It was nice to see Tarja and her kids again. They are growing up so quickly! I can't believe that she has kids carrying cell phones, wearing high heeled boots, and reading chapter books! Reagan, Kamryn, and Ethan are doing those things now and in four years my kids will be in exactly the same ages as all three of hers our now. Weird but somehow our kids are spaced exactly the same. They grow up too quickly! So that's our fun ending of this year and we're super excited for all that the new year has in store for our family. Cheers to a happy 2011!

First Time!

2010-12-20T13:16:00.000-08:00

Heleena just did her very first poo-poo on the potty! She's been pee-ing almost every time I put her on, which we just started doing a week or so ago, but she would never poop for me. Today I knew she needed to go poop and instead of standing over her and coaching her the whole time I put her on the potty and told her what to do and left. After a few minutes I heard her open the door and come out saying that she went! Yay Heleena!

24 weeks

2010-12-16T15:56:00.001-08:00

I'm 24 weeks now and feeling great! I have lots of energy (thanks to my iron supplement) and forget I'm pregnant most of the time. I thought I'd put a belly pic in here in case I forget to take any. This pregnancy is flying by! I'm feeling the baby kick around a lot as if there is a little fish inside of me. I'm actually a little surprised I'm looking this good with all of the holidays I've been enduring....beginning with Halloween. I know I went through 4 or 5 bags of candy bars all by myself during the month of October. Then Thanksgiving came and I ate way more than my fair share of pie and ice-cream. Now with all of the Christmas cookies/desserts and baking I've been doing I should really stop. Sorry little girl if you end up with a big sweet tooth.....it's all so tempting.

So now we're trying to come up with a name for this baby. The other 3 names came instantly and this time I've actually had to get online and search for some. After all the searches we still have nothing....any ideas?

Happy 6th Riley!

2010-12-16T14:58:00.000-08:00

I can't believe that Riley is 6 years old already! We celebrated his birthday on the actual day, which is the 14th of December. I was able to help out in his classroom at school on his birthday and leave his class some yummy birthday treats. He requested pepperoni pizza and root beer for dinner, which we enjoyed (with a green salad of course). Then he opened is presents. We got him a toy story wrist watch (so he knows when to come home from his friends' houses), a bike lock (so he can ride his bike to school sometimes), and some little legos. He was more than happy with his new gifts.

He sat down with one of his instruction manuals and put together a 35 step helicopter out of his new legos all by himself last night! He was pretty impressed with the outcome. He woke up this morning and I told him that the tooth fairy came (because he lost another tooth last night) and his reply was, "Oh...I just can't believe how cool my helicopter is!"

I'm also taking Riley to pick out a new pair of shoes for his birthday. His cousins (the Scarboroughs) sent him a lego mat in the mail. Thanks guys! I'm sure he'll get a few more gifts from others in the family. His cousins from California are coming to visit at Christmas and so we are going to have his birthday cake then when they are here.

We ended the night off at every 6 year old's favorite....Chuck E Cheese! Riley loves video games and really wanted to go there for his birthday. We got lucky because Chuck was out and about for half of the night. Ashton was so afraid of him and kept screaming every time he saw the mouse. When I asked him why he was so scared he told me that "mouses are not big, they're small."

Don't you love Heleena's expression of being in a trance? She went CRAZY pushing everything she thought was a button. Even the circles on the seats (above). Can you say overly stimulated?

All of the kids had a great time celebrating Riley's birthday. Happy Birthday Riley! I love you sooooooooooooo much and am so proud of who you have become in 6 short years.

Christmas Preparations

2010-12-16T13:04:00.000-08:00

Every year our Christmas preparations always begin with a Christmas tree hunt. We haul the kids off to a local Christmas tree farm and hunt down the perfect tree to cut and bring home to enjoy for Christmas. Someday we hope to go up into the mountains to make it more exciting, but with little ones a Christmas tree farm is plenty big and fun to stomp around in. Besides, you get free hot chocolate, candy canes, and...

Santa's Sleigh!

Ashton has a swollen face on one side from a bad fall (he fell into the front door and cut open his head really deep. Poor thing!)

We tried and tried to get a good shot of the kids......I thought with only two we might. Ha! Wishful thinking.

The tree hunt begins!

No tree yet but we did find Riley the Reindeer!

We found it! It was probably the biggest tree they had.

All decorated and awaiting presents...
This is the biggest tree we've ever had. It looks a little obese but we're enjoying it.

We have outdoor Christmas lights up this year for the first time (on more than just the porch). The decorations around the house are all up. The Christmas baking is all finished and delivered. The Christmas songs are always playing and most of the gifts are wrapped. I still have a few others to shop for but most of the work is done! So now there's more time to spend with those we love and to remember the reason for the season.

We took a Christmas card photo this year and I feel so bad that we didn't get it developed to send out in time. Here it is...

I'm thankful for the birth of our Savior Jesus Christ and for all that he did on our behalf. I wish you and your family a Merry Christmas and hope your new year is full of blessings and happiness.

Thanksgiving 2010

2010-12-15T21:53:00.000-08:00

We spent Thanksgiving in Idaho with Richard's family. It was all around a great trip...the drive as well as the time spent there. The reason everybody went for Thanksgiving rather than Christmas this year was to see Richard's sister KristiJill again after she recently returned from her mission. She served in CA. When we got there we couldn't believe how cold it was! It was well below zero, like -12 degrees F. The snow was over a foot, maybe two feet in some places and very dry so it was hard to make a snowman. Richard has missed having snow since we've moved to Washington so he decided to fully enjoy the snow while we were in Idaho. He worked a good part of two days digging out a snow cave from a huge pile of snow that was left as the driveway was cleared. He even slept in it with his brother Nathan one night! He wanted me to sleep with him, but I just couldn't imagine waking up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, as most pregnant women do. Especially in zero degree weather....BRRR! No thanks!

The cousins were all happy to play together again. They were always busy with books, puzzles, toys, coloring, making snowflakes and paper airplanes, and occasionally the computer or a movie. They had a blast sledding down Richard's snow cave which turned out to be pretty steep. I was happy to see that our kids weren't afraid of the cold weather or the sledding.

We never feel like there are enough nights to play games anytime we get together with family, but we did get a little time for that and had fun. We've been very thankful this year as we've realized the tremendous blessings that have been poured out upon our family. I don't feel like I deserve all that I've been given and try to live worthy of it all and enjoy it each day.

Our Kids

2010-12-12T22:22:00.000-08:00

I'm no different than all of the other moms out there when I say that I've got some wonderful and loveable kids. They each have their moments when it's a challenge, but overall I just can't believe how much I love these cute little people and I'm really enjoying this time of raising them and helping them to learn/grow. So I'm going to take a moment to record a little about my feelings so that they can read it someday and know how special they are to us.

Heleena is a little princess. She is a true beauty and has turned into such a girl, rather than a baby. I think the change happened when she turned two. She started talking in complete sentences, concentrating long enough to learn everything put in front of her, and playing like a kid. I can't believe how much she knows...it's amazing how quickly they learn things! She lights up my days with her cute sayings like "I found me!" when I'm looking for her, or "I did it!" every time she does something. She's always saying "Look at me!" and is so proud to be who she is. She also thinks that everything that is pink or purple is "Leena's" or "that's mine" and if it's blue it's Riley's and green means it's Ashton's. She loves to color/draw pictures and is really good at it. She also loves being a girl...dress-up, pretty things, singing and dancing, princesses, Barbies, and even sneaks my make-up sometimes. A little while back I decided to teach her her letters....within two weeks she knew all of the letters like nothing else and even has learned all of the sounds just as well. She's turned into a little smarty pants. We've had her sleeping in a twin-sized bed for a few months now and she's doing awesome at staying in bed. I've even started to potty-train her this past week and she goes for me pretty much every time I put her on the potty. I'm crossing my fingers that she'll be in underwear by the time #4 gets here.

I love her beautiful curls...
and her addictive smile!
Ashton is STILL into Thomas the train. I guess that's good because we always know what to get him for birthdays and Christmas. Once, probably over a year ago now, he lost one of his Thomas trains at Costco. He's never forgotten and if you just mention the word Costco he immediately starts talking about how we need to get that train back from there. It's funny.

He's a strong spirit and will not be persuaded by any peer pressure, not even from his older brother. Riley can't get Ashton to do anything Ashton doesn't decided to do on his own. I don't think that's very typical for little brothers. Later on his strong nature will be great for not following the crowd, but right now it can be frustrating for us if we want him to follow directions because he pretty much does what he wants to do. In the meantime, Time Out is teaching him ever-so slowly about what he really wants to do;)

Ashton LOVES pre-school. Right now he's in two different ones so he goes 4 days out of the week. Here's a class picture:

It's been good for him to have a break from home and siblings. I've worked a little on reading with this kid and he is doing great for his age. I love watching/helping this big boy grow up! He amazes me at how smart he is and I love how he always makes sure we remember to say family prayers.
Riley has started taking piano lessons from a friend in our ward. I've been sitting down with him to practice daily for at least 30 minutes. He really enjoys that one-on-one time with mom. Riley is growing up sooo quickly now that he is in school. He's always doing something from homework or piano practice to sports or playing with friends. Life of a school kid can get pretty busy.
Riley has a lot of talent and I just love teaching him everything. We have a very close relationship.
I'm really cherishing this time I have with our kids right now. I've been focusing on spending more time with them individually doing something they enjoy and it's made a big difference on how satisfying being a mom is. I know that it is making a difference in their lives and I know that they feel the love that we have for them.

Self Reliance

2010-12-12T21:40:00.000-08:00

I'm married to a man who LOVES self-reliance and survival skills. It's a good thing because he makes sure we have up-to-date 72-hour kits, organized closets/cupboards/files/garage/shed/etc., a garden every year, and adequate food storage. He is known to spend his free time organizing whatever needs it. It's great because I lack organization in most of the areas he excels in. Lately we've been focusing on making sure our 1 year food storage is complete. We're doing really well and Richard has everything we have in quantity and it's price on a spreadsheet so that it is easy for us to keep track of it all. We noticed recently that we didn't have much powdered milk. After researching for the best-tasting kind I narrowed down my two favorites to Country Cream and Darigold brands. The best deal was to buy some of the Darigold brand and can it ourselves. So that is just what we did one night after the kids were in bed.

Actually we canned 24 #10 cans (half of it we did for my mom). It was really easy and made me feel good to know that we have milk that tastes the same as skim milk in the store. So when inflation hits next year we can still enjoy one of my and my kids' favorite things......MILK!

I also made a purchase (an early Christmas present) that I have been wanting for a while. I bought our family a wheat grinder. Once again I had to research a bit and finally decided to get a Nutrimill. I love it! I've been grinding wheat to make muffins, biscuits, and homemade bread. I've even put it in some pancakes and will try it in cookies soon. I'm really happy with this purchase and know that it will allow us to use more of the many pounds of wheat we have been storing.

These pics make me want one of these blueberry muffins right now!

Matching Dresses

2010-11-16T13:17:00.001-08:00

When I was a little girl it was so much fun having sisters. We played barbies, house, dolls, danced, jumped rope, roller-skated and did all the other things little girls love to do together. I was very much into my outfits at a young age and loved when our mom made us matching dresses out of whatever material she could get a good deal on. I think matching dresses was a big thing in the early 80's in most Mormon families. I don't know if it's such a big thing now, but it will be in our family because we just found out that we're having a GIRL! Heleena's getting a sister! I guess I'll need to brush up on my sewing skills.
We are so excited to even things up in our family. The ultrasound went almost too quickly and smoothly. Our little girl was amazingly flexible for the camera. She was showing off by putting her foot to her forehead! She must take after her great-grandmother who could do the splits up into her late 80's!

I should have known we'd be having a little girl because I had some nausea during this pregnancy like I did with Heleena and I never had any with the boys. I also have craved sweets with this one just like I did with Heleena which was not so with the boys. But despite all of that I thought they'd tell me it was a boy. Well, either way it would have been fine, but we'll take another little girl! Riley insisted from the beginning that we would have another girl and even started to call the new baby "she". So often little kids are right about who is coming to their family. Riley absolutely adores Heleena and I know it'll be the same with this one. Richard is also happy to be getting another daughter. This pregnancy has been a breeze so far and hopefully will continue that way. Even though I'm excited to meet our little girl, I am going to enjoy the next 20 weeks of being a mother of just three. No rush!

Boo!

2010-11-01T13:16:00.000-07:00

Halloween was on Sunday this year so the ward set up some trick or treating boundaries where a lot of ward members live for the kids to go out on Saturday night instead of on Sunday. We spent part of Saturday carving pumpkins...
Then while waiting some more, the kids watched a movie together...they looked so cozy and cute I had to take a picture.

After that, preggo Mommy was craving hamburgers and fries so we went to Carl's Jr. for dinner. The kids were a handful there and they didn't even have any sugar in them yet! After dinner we hurried home and had less than 10 minutes to get our costumes on. Halloween night is always rushed for us it seems!

Ashton the leopard.......Heleena the butterfly.........and Riley the Buzz Lightyear!

We didn't go to very many houses because the kids got tired, but they all got to walk (well, they ran from door to door) and knock all by themselves. I gave them their space as I chaperoned them. Heleena was like a candy addict. They'd open the door and she'd immediately go for the candy! Even at home she kept trying to steal our candy to give out. She also kept eating her candy one after another with no self control like a bad candy addict. It was a fun night for a 2,3, and 5 yr. old!

Happy Halloween!

Kindergarten Update

2010-10-27T21:43:00.000-07:00

Here's Riley's picture for the 2010-2011 school year. Is it just me being his mom or is he a cutie! Riley is doing excellent in Kindergarten. I went to his parent/teacher conference tonight. His teacher(s) said that by the time a kid finishes kindergarten they should be reading at a level 3 (some scale they have) and said that they tested Riley and he's already reading at a level 8 and school barely started! He's also really advanced in all the other areas like math and writing. They said that he loves to write stories and share them with the class. He had a family project where he was supposed to put pictures on a big "ME" shaped poster that describe himself. I told him to start the project by making a list of things about himself. One of the first things he said was that he loves school. awe! He has a lot of friends and his teachers say that he is very courteous, stays on task, always follows directions, and knows all the correct answers. So am I bragging a little too much? No way! This is what makes being a Mom so rewarding! Every moment of motherhood is teaching, training, caring for, and dealing with whatever stage each kid is going through hoping to help get him/her through it. It is all worth it when you go to your kids school and get praised for doing a good job. Anyway, it felt good and I came home and took extra time teaching each one of our kids "reading" individually and had a blast! I did word flashcards with Riley, short word reading with Ashton, and letters with Heleena. Heleena consistently knows letters O, H, S, B, P, and A. Whenever I ask her what M is she just says "mmmmmm" (makes the sound for it). I think if I start working with her every day a little bit she'll have all her letters in no time. Ashton can read a lot of 3 or 4 letter words like sun, fan, rock, sock... He sounds them out and then puts the sounds together. I really need to get on the ball with him because it's been months since I last worked on reading with him.

One more thing. On Mondays for homework Riley is supposed to read a book to me or to Richard. I just make him read for 15 minutes usually. Anyway, on Monday I had a Halloween book for him to read called Five Little Pumpkins by Iris Van Rynbach. It's a fun little book I remember reading as a kid. He liked it so much that he read it over and over until he memorized the whole thing. I told him he should tell it to his class this week for Halloween. His teacher told me that today he did (with hand motions and fun voices) and taught it to his class too. What a fun memory.

Pumpkin Patch

2010-10-26T14:13:00.000-07:00

Ashton's pre-school group spent the morning at Bi-Zi Farms to enjoy the great outdoors and choose a pumpkin. The weather has been absolutely gorgeous around here for the past couple of weeks, but this week has been nothing but cold and rain. I looked at the forecast for today and it said 80% chance of rain....which means 100% chance around here BUT it didn't rain a drop the whole time we were there so we got really lucky (phew!)

I decided to not take Heleena and Grace (the 1 yr. old I watch) along so that it could be a special time together with just Ashton and I. It was a good decision because Ashton loved all the attention and I loved only having one child to look after.

When we first got there Ashton was a little anxious to find his pumpkin. He kept running off and saying that he was looking for his pumpkin. He'd grab any gourd he could find and want it to take home as his pumpkin. The first part of our tour was at the hay bale maze which was located inside a huge barn. Ashton didn't want to follow the rules and just climbed over the walls of the maze. I got him to finally find his way through (an easy task for him) without doing it the easy way. Next we went to the animal petting area. There were sheep, chickens, a llama, turkeys, bunnies, goats, pigs, and a mule. Ashton was more interested in getting the locks on the cages open. He's very much into figuring out how to build and take things apart. He likes mechanics a lot right now and is really good at them too! Next we let the kids climb a huge mountain of hay bales. Ashton made his way slowly and cautiously up to the top; again very much like a Finn would or Mummi (his grandma) would. Next we went on a hay ride out for the pumpkin patch to find a pumpkin. It was slim pickin's but we found a cute little pumpkin for Ashton. On the way back to the car there was an old tractor and it was Ashton's favorite thing. I kind of wish we had one in our backyard to the kids to play on. We had fun and stayed dry! Yay!

A Fairy Drops By

2010-10-22T13:33:00.000-07:00

Riley lost his very first tooth a couple of nights ago. It had been loose for a couple of days and then during the night he woke up to find that it had fallen out. He thought he lost it but felt around until he found it. Using his "middle of the night" thinking he decided to keep it in his mouth for the rest of the night so that it wouldn't get lost again. Luckily he didn't swallow it!

Riley's good friend Kate told him that if you leave a note that says 'I love you tooth-fairy' then you'll not only get money for your tooth, but a present too. He informed me of this very late that night. Luckily the tooth-fairy pulled through. He got $2.00, a page of cool stickers, and a sucker. Pretty good for the tiniest tooth you ever saw. Riley was happy! He said that he would save the $2.00 and keep adding to it as he lost more teeth so that he could buy something really nice. Sounds like we've taught him well!

For some sense of scale: O.K., I have very tiny fingernails (like little kids) and Riley's tooth looks small next to them.

April Surprise

2010-09-20T15:03:00.000-07:00

Just when I thought we couldn't get any busier, I was shocked to find out that we are expecting again. This may be too much information but the first day of my last period was August 18th, so when I went to the doctor last Friday and found out that I'm already 11 weeks along I was pretty confused. Apparently my body played some tricks on me back in July and I guess again in August. Yeah, I'll never figure this one out. Anyway, we are due around April 8th. On the ultrasound, the baby was very actively moving around and I could see little hands and feet with perfect little fingers and toes. I was nervous to break the news to Richard because we both feel like we could wait a while longer before adding to our family, but while I was cutting his hair late last night he noticed my little pooch and commented that I'm almost looking a little pregnant. After that comment it turned out to be a whole lot easier to tell him than I thought. At this point we are grateful and happy that we have a family but we are sooo not ready to do this again. We just hope and pray that we will gain the necessary skills we need to be the best possible parents for all of our children...like staying sane! So here we go for the fourth round...

Here's our little boy/girl! Notice the little foot.

Pre-School

2010-09-16T15:00:00.000-07:00

We started a pre-school play group with some of the kids in our neighborhood. I hosted it this week and will be hosting it again every five weeks as we rotate homes. We have it two mornings a week for two hours each time.

I had a great time getting to know these sweet little 3 yr. olds this week. We studied letters A and B, we practiced writing the upper and lower case forms, talked about the sounds they make, identified different objects that begin with these letters by stressing the first sounds of the words. We learned about all the different shapes, about opposites, and colors as we read stories together. We sang songs and danced pretending to be different animals. We also practiced following directions and copying rhythms both through music. We played outside, upstairs in the playroom, and had fun with the play-dough outside. We colored and had some free play time to use our imaginations. We practiced good manners at snack time and just all got along great!

Heleena is not technically part of the group, but she thinks she is and participates enthusiastically. After all, how is she supposed to know that she's too young, she is about the same size as the other kids in the group. I love how Ashton is a whole head taller than the kids that are older than he is!

I hope the other mom's enjoy their turns teaching these kids as much as I have. It'll be a great year.

Soccer

2010-09-16T14:31:00.000-07:00

Riley started soccer this year and loves it! He has a really nice, energetic coach who makes practice really fun for the kids. Richard and I had a blast watching Riley's first game last Saturday! Neither Richard or I have played or even watched much soccer in our lives, so this is all new to us. Riley made us both proud when he scored two goals during the game. Way to go Riley! I think he's a natural. I'm so glad that he found a sport that he really enjoys. I love being a soccer mom!

Simply Two

2010-09-13T14:00:00.000-07:00

Have we had our little girl for two years already? Heleena's birthday always seems to sneak up on us. This year we decided that since she's turning two, we would celebrate it simply in a new way. We found the perfect way to enjoy it....at Dairy Queen! Really, we made it so simple yet it was so fun. We decided to get dinner and ice-cream at Dairy Queen followed by a trip to the toy store.

Our family loves ice-cream but we usually eat it the economical way which means buying a box at the grocery store and bringing it home to enjoy. So we decided it would be a fun treat for the kids to get to pick their own ice-cream treats. Heleena's birthday turned out to be a cool, rainy day so the restaurant was empty. Heleena was excited to sit in the booth rather than in a high chair. She kept squealing "Seat! Seat!" while pointing at her big girl seat. Then she'd stand up and dance to the music playing like she was the queen of the evening. She had a blast and I didn't have to cook dinner, bake a cake or anything. It was a fun night for everyone and I'm so glad that my kids are still so easily amused.

At Heleena's two-year check-up she was 3' 1.25" tall, and weighed 32 lbs. She's off the chart for her height and in the 94th percentile for her weight. Our kids don't look over-weight at all but they sure do weigh more than the other kids. If you double her current height she'll end up being 6'2" tall as an adult! I used the fancier method I used for the boys which I found on-line and with all the variables it said that at age 18 she should be 5'11" tall. Hopefully she won't be 6'2" because I worry that it would be impossible to find pants that are long enough when you're that tall. They should make womens' jeans by length and height measurements like they do mens'.

Heleena is still really strong. On Sunday mornings she likes to play on our bed while we get ready for church. Recently she was falling back and crashing onto the pillows at the top of the bed. She kept doing this and hitting her head on the wall. She didn't cry but after several falls we noticed that she put a dent in the wall and didn't even cry about it! When I took her in to get shots after her doctor appt. last week, she didn't even cry after the shots. She's a tough girl and can hold her own against her two older brothers any day. The best way I can describe her is like a little cow-girl. She could be a future bull-rider and the funny thing is that she LOVES to wear boots. They are the shoe of choice so although she is just two years old, she owns four pairs of boots already.

Actually she loves other shoes almost as much as she loves boots. Anybody who comes to visit will get their shoes stolen by Heleena. She loves to put on different shoes all day long. The weird thing is that the minute she gets outside where she actually needs shoes, of they go! She loves to be barefoot running around outside like a wild horse. She's a country girl and could be perfectly happy outside all day long. I think her philosophy's in life right now are: Life's a party, give me my kitty my blanket and a great pair of shoes and stay out of my way, the dirtier I get the more fun I'm having. She is our messiest kid so far, but she sure likes to have fun.

Her favorite food is cheese, favorite toys are stuffed animals, purses, and shoes. And her best friends are Mommy, Daddy, kitty, and Riley. She and Ashton don't get along too great yet. I think it has something to do with being 16 months apart. Usually she practices her cat n' mouse chases and hitting on Ashton. Hopefully those two will get along for longer than a few minutes at a time sometime soon.

We love Heleena! How she's tough, yet girly. How her smile lights up the room. How she sings 75% of the time and can carry a beautiful tune. We love how she repeats everything we say back to us, and how she folds her little arms and closes her little eyes at prayer time (even if it only lasts for a minute it's still really cute.) We look forward to this next year and all the growth.

The Lazy Days of Summer

2010-09-07T10:25:00.000-07:00

I just dropped Riley off at school, the toddlers are happily playing upstairs, it's rainy and 58 degrees outside, so I guess summer is over now. I've made a slide show of our remaining summertime fun pics.
Here's a run-down of the slide show. First I have the kids playing in the sprinkler and doing all the things I tell them not to (like picking it up and chasing one another with it). Next is some photos from the kids "street playing". One of our neighbors got two new puppies this summer. It was great because our kids could play for hours with the puppies and then we could go home and leave the puppies with their owners. I know, I'm bad but I just couldn't even think of getting a puppy with three little ones around. Next is some backyard play (play-dough on the patio and on the climbing toy). There are always random kids in our pictures because we always seem to have somebody's friend hanging around the house with us. Next is a trip to OMSI (the local science museum). I took all 3 of my kids plus the baby I watch all by myself. Very brave, but we survived better than I expected. Next in the slide show is our afternoon "nap-time" activities that the boys do often. Riley's favorite thing to do during quiet time is play computer games. He takes after Richard. Ashton is more like me and prefers to paint. He'll sit and do that for hours if I let him. He's very creative and even does dot-to-dot painting now. I have picture I squeezed in of my freezer. It's full of berries (60 lbs.). I wish I would have gone raspberry picking this summer so I could make a lot of raspberry cobbler this winter. I'd need another freezer though. Then there is a biking trip we took along Lacamas Lake nearby. Ashton rode his giant tricycle. The park pics are from that same outing. Next we have some flower pictures from my dad's house. We visited them this summer at their house just once, though they came to our house to visit another time. Ashton got a late birthday gift from them and I've never seen him happier. He still loves trains! I included a picture of bath time in our summer slide show too because we seem to take twice as many baths in the summer time. If I don't give the kids full baths they get a partial bath for sure which always includes washing little black-bottomed feet!
The last pictures are of a last day of summer vacation trip to the river with a bunch of church friends and their kids. The forecast said it would be the last really hot day for a while so we took advantage and got our last sun-burns for a while probably. The water and sand were great! It's sad to see summer coming to an end, but I really do love the crisp fall mornings too! Hopefully we'll get to play in the leaves sometime this fall.

Full Day Kindergarten!

2010-09-01T22:12:00.001-07:00

Our FIRST child on his FIRST day of school! I think I was more excited about Riley starting school than Riley was because I know he's been prepared mentally and socially to go for a long time now. Just look at him! He looks like a second-grader!

The day before he started I told him some things that might happen on his first day. I told him he'd probably have to draw a picture of his family...

Apparently the kids didn't have to draw themselves

He was excited about having three recesses. I told him to find a new friend from his class to play with on recess. (he has no kids from church in his class. There are probably a dozen kids from our ward in kindergarten at his school but not a single one is in his class! Perhaps there is one from another ward.) I guess he spent most of his time at recess on the swing. No surprise to me because he loves to swing. He did play with a girl from his class for a little while though. Good job Riley!

Another (random) thing I told him is that most of the kids would have sandwiches made with white bread and that he would have more energy after eating his sandwich with whole wheat bread (Riley told me that he was the only kid with wheat bread in the whole class-he he) I asked him if it bothered him that he didn't have white bread. His reply was No.

When I dropped him off at the school the parking lot was INSANE-ly busy so I went over to the west parking lot and it was just as bad but I went for it. Once in the "unfamiliar" west parking lot I told Riley to get out of the car and walk till he found the door with a 4 on it. Fifteen or so minutes later I made it to a parking spot. I got out of the car to drop off the huge bag of school supplies to his room and to make sure he made it to his class. He was in there doing his assignment diligently and didn't even acknowledge me. I thought he didn't even see me but he later told me that he saw me come in the room but was busy. There was a check in his backpack that I told him earlier during breakfast to give to his teacher. I didn't expect that he'd remember, but when I asked his teacher about it he had walked right into his classroom, found his seat, and right away told his teacher about the check he had for her. I'm glad he's so independent, responsible, and was able to find his classroom all by himself from an unfamiliar place. I asked him if he was scared or missed me during the day. He said that he wasn't scared at all and only missed me a little bit. After school I walked there to pick him up. On the way home he found his friend Camden and walked home with him and immediately when we got home he went out to play with his friends. Could ya miss me any less? I feel like I could drop my kindergartener off at the high school tomorrow he'd be fine! Riley is excited for his next day at school with his two teachers Mrs. Brown and Dunseth. His teachers split the time up two days a week each and every other Wednesday because Kindergarten went to full-time this year.

I'll have to adjust to having Riley gone everyday and I'll miss his good company (it always has been fun having him around to talk to or teach) but you won't find any tears on my face because I know he'll have a lot more fun at school than at home with Mommy and the toddlers.

Davies Family Reunion 2010

2010-08-25T17:02:00.000-07:00

The Davies family reunited at our house this summer during the third week of August. We had all the families here minus Angeli and KristiJill (who's still on her mission in California). Richard and I spent weeks getting everything ready for the family to all come. The biggest thing we wanted to get done was build a fence. Richard and our neighbor Jim finished building our fence just in time.
Some other things I did to get ready were: paint an old desk we already had to put in Heleena's room (not sure why I had to do that before they came), buy furniture for our front room/den so there would be more seating, fix a list of things, and hang lots of different shelves. The desk was my very first piece of furniture I've ever painted and I think it turned out beautiful!
The carpet looks really dark in this picture for some reason and the desk is not a white-white but an antique white.
My new recliner reading corner. I love it! So cozy and comfy.

The other side of our den. I found this cute love-seat at Home Goods for a great price. I like how it's small but the seats are really wide and deep for tall people like us!

So we had a lot of fun together and I don't know where to begin. The guys spent one and a half days mountain biking and I'm sure Richard will post something about that so I won't post anything. Before everyone got here I had the opportunity to spend the day with Richard's mom Cynthia. I took her blueberry picking and we picked 25 lbs. in about an hour. We then had lunch with the kids at a park and went swimming at a friends pool before returning home for dinner. When more of the family arrived we took them to see Multnohmah falls and the Vista House in the Columbia River Gorge. While the guys biked on Monday morning we took the kids to the splash park and to watch the planes take off from the airport down by the river. We actually saw a lot more than just planes....firetrucks, trains, planes, boats, cars, bikes, and I may be missing some other forms of transportation. I felt like while we were down by the river we saw all forms of transportation all around us at the same time. It was a busy place.
Tuesday through Thursday was spent at Long Beach, Washington. The weather wasn't too great...only in the upper 50's and overcast for two of the three days we were there. We definately didn't take the sun for granted on the third day when it decided to come out. But the weather didn't spoil our fun. We still played in the water (some of us more than others), wasted time on the beach flying kites, making sand castles, running, laying around, etc. Riley got a lot of practice flying a stunt kite. He's really good for a 5 year old! It was really funny watching him because the kite kept pulling him down the beach. While in Long Beach we got to see some of the International kite festival. It was really fun seeing all the different types of kites and the talented kite flyers. One guy flew three kites simultaneously. We saw the North Head Lighthouse, and some other viewpoints. We didn't play any games in the evenings because we were always so exhausted ourselves once we got the kids to bed. I swear the air at the coast makes you tired. We did find that burning plastic bags around the fire was great entertainment (I guess we're a little too easily entertained).
When we got back home everyone wanted to relax at home for the rest of the week as much as possible. We managed to keep pretty busy for the last day together. The mommies got to go on a girls morning out. We went biking and out to lunch. It was relaxing, refreshing, and fun. Ginger showed us up on her bike. She may be a Wengert now but deep down inside she's still so much a Davies. For our last night we had a big BBQ and ending it at the park. We almost missed out on a group picture, but barely got one in after the sun had just set. Not the best lighting, but at least we're all in a picture together.
After everyone left the Lillywhites stayed for two additional days. We took them on a hike at Moulton Falls. It was beautiful and we were a sight to see as you'll see in the pictures that follow. We can't wait to see everyone again in a few months!

Pack Rats

2010-08-04T22:09:00.000-07:00

Just one of many every day occurrences around our house: packing things around.

I think most kids pack around their favorite toys, so there's nothing abnormal about my kids carrying around all of their favorite toys. But sometimes I wonder if they are a little OCD when it comes to having their hands and arms packed full of toys anytime they have to leave one room to go to the next room. Toys always make their way into the bathroom, kitchen counter or table, outside, on car trips, into the stores, into bed, etc. I think it gets even worse the more kids we add to the family because they know that if they leave the toy behind, it will be gone when they get back. That or they will do anything to keep a sibling from enjoying one of the toys they have had in their own hands that day. They don't really want to play with the toy anymore, but they really don't want someone else to be able to play with it. It's the classic case of wanting what the next guy has....even if you really don't. Or worse, having more than the next guy.....ai yai yai! We definitely need to put a stop to that!

My kids have all been CRAZY about their blankets! They've all had many blankets given to them, but have chosen a "favorite" one. Riley's (favorite) blanket was a gift from his aunt Stephanie. It used to be two fleece blankets tied together, but it came apart with the first wash. It's a small blue, fleece Madagascar fringed blanket barely big enough to cover his legs. He sleeps with it every night and usually grabs it while he watches t.v./movies. Ashton's blanket is twice the size of Rileys and is a black, red, purple, and blue geometric patterned fringed fleece blanket. Richard and I somehow got it for a wedding gift at our Moore, ID reception (among other un-traditional gifts I don't need to mention). Ashton uses it as his pillow/caccoon every night. He likes to chew on the fringed edges and make a sleeping turban out of it every night. He carries that thing around way too much I have to confiscate it to wash it because it smells so nasty like dried spit and dirt. Eeew! Heleena's blanket it a pretty, fluffy white fleece blanket with sewn edges and little pink flowers all over the top layer. She has to have it and her kitty every night, morning, middle of the day....She won't leave her crib in the morning without grabbing as many soft trinkets with her as possible. Here she is first thing in the morning with three stuffed animals and her blanket. She also has another silky blanket she likes covered up with. She must have dropped it on her way down.

Anyway, just thought I'd mention one of the things that add to the rhythm of our home. What are some of yours?

Loon Lake 2010

2010-07-29T18:09:00.000-07:00

Part of the reason we went to Coeur d'Alene this summer was to go back to Loon Lake again. It has been our family reunion "resort" since the summer of 2007. Every year each family gets one room and quarters are a little tight. This year there were only three families there so Heleena got her own room and it made it so nice for me (that and the fact that I wasn't pregnant or nursing for the first time since we've been going).

The weather was perfect and the fishing was the best it's ever been, according to the guys. Even I caught a fish off the dock this year with very, very little effort. I think I had the pole in my hand for less than a minute before I pulled that fish out of the water. The guys spent a whole day (sun up till sun down) fishing at a neighboring lake called Lake Roosevelt. They caught two types of fish there: rainbow trout and walleye. If you've never eaten walleye you're missing out. They are delish!

In the evenings at Loon Lake we usually play games with all the adults, but with a smaller crowd this year we watched a lot of movies instead. It was very relaxing. We only managed to play one game, The office game. We spent a lot of time down at the beach laying around, playing in the water, or on one of the boats, but we didn't make it into the hot tub this year (oh well!)

Mealtimes seemed like a breeze with only 12 people...it was kind of nice actually...we did miss the Littles and the Guinns though. We had our Sunday scone brunch after church. Some of the other meals/snacks that we always have at Loon lake were: BBQ fish/burgers/hotdogs, pizza (homemade this time), corn on the cob, watermelon, chocolate chip cookies, ice-cream, popcorn, blueberries. Hmmm...I must be hungry. But for the most part the dinners change every year and are always great.

We had a great week at Loon Lake! Here's a little peek:

Fourth of July 2010

2010-07-27T08:09:00.000-07:00

We drove up to Coeur d' Alene, ID for the fourth of July this year to spend time with my brother Teem and his family. It was supposed to be a family reunion but only our family and my mom and Will could make it. It was our first time staying at Teem and Emily's new house that they bought back in November. Their house is awesome! Not only is the house great, but the yard and location are too. It's located right next to (literally across the street) a huge area of land designated as a state forest. Richard would be in heaven if we lived there next to a forest filled with mt. biking trails. He could go on a quick ride after work everyday. Early one morning Teem and Richard ventured off with their bikes to check out the trails. Apparently there were some extremely difficult climbs because Richard got so over-worked that it made him sick and he threw up! So if we lived there we'd probably also get ourselves some dirt bikes and/or 4-wheelers.

Teem and Emily's yard is a dream. They bought the lot next to theirs and so now they have a huge yard. My brother is really into gardening...and that's an understatement. His garden is a masterpiece with irrigation hoses and sprinklers reaching every single one of his diverse crop. Emily kept us fed well with her great cooking. She always prepares such gourmet meals with lots of fresh ingredients. She's quite the entertainer. Here's a slide show with some pictures of their property:

The cousins had a great time together playing inside, then outside, then inside, then outside.... there was always somewhere for them to get lost. They had fun taking rides on a little scooter with a friend of my brother's family.

In celebration of the Fourth, we split it up into two nights. The first night we roasted giant marshmallow 'smores and Teem let off a bunch of fireworks. We brought our little bag of fireworks with us too, but they weren't as impressive so we didn't get through them.
above: Richard losing his marshmallow in the fire after a slow roast to perfection. Dang it!

On the Fourth of July we went to church, had a yummy dinner, and had a relaxing afternoon at home. Although, I did injure my upper back doing flips on the trampoline. I think I got injured because I was still fasting and so my body was weak. Anyway, that night we went to Lake Coeur d' Alene with some of Teem and Emily's friends to watch the fireworks show on the lake. It was a good show.

We had a great time in Coeur d'Alene. But that was just the start of our trip. Our next stop was Loon Lake, Wa for the remainder of the week.

Home Happenings

2010-06-21T17:23:00.000-07:00

We're pretty settled into our new home and neighborhood. Since I stay home with the kids and none of them are in school yet, we hang out together A LOT! We usually spend our days visiting parks, running errands, reading books, watching shows, dancing to kids music, playing toys, riding bikes, playing with friends, potty training (Ashton), coloring pictures, and lots of eating! Those are some of the things we do together anyway.

Riley has three friends he plays a lot with in our new neighborhood (Camden, Kate, and Ellie). Our house is smack in the middle of two dead-end streets and so we pretty much have 8 next-door neighbors. Three of those houses have friends Riley's age that he plays with daily. It's a really good set-up because all of the kids go to our church too. We call our dead-end area Little Provo because of all the members. We also love it because our baby-sitter lives across the street from us.

Anyway, I put together a little slide show of some of my latest pictures from around the house. I don't get my camera out often enough so it's a small taste of our life right now. Ashton is riding a big boy bike now and is wearing underwear day and night. He's using so many big words and starts many of his sentences with "Actually,..." and likes to explain things to me during the day, like "We don't throw toys mama, just balls." or he'll say something like "it's raining outside so we can't ride our bikes so we have to stay inside." He's just so matter-of-fact when he explains things and he's always talking. He and Riley still like to drive their little cars on everything (counters, walls, furniture...) but not much on the floor. That's a boy for ya!

Heleena continues to be high energy and full of life. She throws a lot of fits unfortunately, but she can be really fun and sweet too. She is so athletic that she can bounce on one of those hopper balls no problem and is working on riding a tricycle.

Riley is reading really well and is excited to start school in the fall. We read every day now and go to the library every week to check out new books. Although he does the reading, his favorite things to do are playing computer games and playing with friends. He's quite popular in the neighborhood and it's fun to watch him interact with all the kids (both boys and girls).

Anyway, that's a tiny bit about the kids.

Yay for Girl Trips!

2010-06-14T15:47:00.000-07:00

I'm loving my new ward! The ladies know how to take time for themselves and have fun! In the last month I've been invited to go on two over-night trips with some of the women in my ward at church. The first trip was an over-nighter to a cabin near Swift Reservoir in Washington. This was my first over-night trip away from Heleena so I was long over-due for one. There were seven of us itching to get away to the Dustin Family's cabin for Mother's Day weekend. Christy does this every year and even feeds everyone while visiting her family cabin. We had a fun drive up as many of us got to know one another better. We shared stories about how we met our husbands etc. When we got to the cabin I was instantly in-love with everything about it. I was expecting, well, a cabin but this place was as big as my house and about as nice as it too. It had so many beautiful touches; the woodwork, the layout, the large size, the adorable decorating, etc. We claimed our beds, got a fire started, and started cooking dinner. We were having a blast with plenty of laughing and story-telling. After dinner and a quick clean-up, we played a game that I brought Guesstures. After that it was getting late so we decided to end the night with a movie, New Moon. We had just started the movie and since I had already seen it, I snuck upstairs to quickly put on my comfy PJs and glasses. Just as I finished dressing the power went out. Now you need to know that the "cabin" has no electricity since it is in such a remote location. There's no cell phone service either. Power is run by a generator which charges batteries as it runs and so the generator does not have to be running the whole time. Anyway we had turned off the generator about half an hour before the power went out. Christy went to the detached garage to see why the power went out and immediately yelled "Fire, everybody out! Grab your stuff and get out!" We grabbed our stuff thinking we'd have it put out and still get to watch our movie. So I didn't grab all of my stuff because I guess I wasn't taking the fire too seriously or just wasn't expecting what would happen next. We drove like mad to the on-call fire station. Nobody was there of course so we drove around to find help. We saw lights on at another cabin and got a group of drunk guys to come over and hit the fire with hoses. They told us to sound the alarm at the fire station and it would alert the volunteer fighters to come. They came and I've never seen such slow group of firefighters. Anyway, within two hours the fire from the garage hit the house and burned it to the ground. It also burned part of both neighbors cabins. Each cabin has a very large propane tank right next to it's garage and as we watched the Dustin's cabin burn to the ground I kept hoping the tanks wouldn't blow because we would've all died for sure. It was the most terrifying thing to watch a cabin that you were just sitting in burn to the ground just so quickly. Luckily there were no children there with us and luckily we were not asleep when it happened because I don't think we would have made it out. I ended up losing all my favorite board games and my favorite T-shirt. The Dustins lost their brand new boat (a very nice one) and all they had in the cabin. A complete loss. Luckily they have insurance for everything but that is a big mess to have to deal with. We ended up driving home that night and got home a little after 3AM. So much for a night away from the family!

My second trip was a lot happier. We went to Long Beach, Wa and stayed the night at a beach house. There were 17 of us on this trip. The weather was absolutely gorgeous at the beach that weekend! We needed some nice weather after all the rain we've been having. We spent some time walking and talking on the beach, hanging out around the house talking, eating and playing games, and in the shops in town. It was a lot of fun and I'm glad I could go. I didn't remember to bring my camera so unless I steal some pictures off of facebook you'll just have to use your imagination.

Yay for girl trips!

Seven

2010-06-14T14:44:00.000-07:00

Richard and I had our seven year anniversary back in April but were unable to fully celebrate it how we wanted to until this last Saturday. We were able to get away for a night of dancing back in April. We had a lot of fun dancing and Richard came a little out of his shell on the dance floor. He does a good job with the ballroom dancing, but freezes up when it comes to the individual "club" dancing. So I got the pleasure of teaching him how to enjoy dancing solo a little better. He did better than I expected and I think he's warming up to it.

Then it was my turn to be in the hot seat as we celebrated the long awaited mountain biking date we originally wanted to do for our anniversary together. The weather during May and June has been super rainy, busy, or a combination of both so we had to wait a month and a half before we could bike. We decided to bike the Old Salmon River Trail at the foot of Mt. Hood in Oregon. It was a gorgeous, sunny, 80 degree weather day. We stopped off for lunch at Chipotle on the way there. (yum!) When we got there I felt a little bit unsure that I would spend very much of the afternoon on my bike. Rather, I pictured myself falling off or walking the bike up steep, rocky stretches.
For anybody who has biked with Richard, you know that he is an absolute STUD on a bike! Really it's an honor that he even let me bike with him. So how did I do? I did really well and even Richard was pleasantly surprised! I guess it was my pay-back for his enthusiastic solo dancing attempts back in April. I had such a fun time! At first it was hard to train my mind to go over the rocks and roots in the middle of the trail, rather than go around them like when driving a car or even when walking sometimes. But once I began visualizing myself tough and invincible, I became that....for the most part. I did almost fall a couple of times and hit the bar pretty hard between my legs (ouch!) but really no battle wounds. I did get some wet feet while biking through streams (more like rivers if you ask me). They dried. I'm happy to report that I stayed atop my bike for almost all of the 5 mile ride! Yay! Richard, on the other hand, was jumping his bike off of rocks and dips, poppin' wheelies, and being a boy. It was attractive:)
The scenery was attractive too! Big trees, raging river, sun peaking through the trees, camping/hiking friends along the way to cheer us along. We would have taken more pictures but our batteries died, of course. At the end of the ride I felt like a woman worthy of the Davies name (there are no sissy's in Richard's family). Now that Richard and I have been married for seven years, I finally feel like I know him really well. We are best friends and I love him soooo much! I love how we can constantly flirt with one another and never get enough of it. I love how I can sit and watch him for hours and be totally entertained by his good looks. I love how he's learned to open up, for my sake, and when he does he has many interesting things to discuss. I love how he wrestles with the kids and reads stories to them most nights. I feel our marriage blossoming and it feels really good. Happy Anniversary Babe!

Happy 3rd Ashton!

2010-04-27T22:05:00.001-07:00

Our little Ashton is growing up! He turned three over the weekend and had fun doing it. I asked him what he wanted to do for his birthday and he said he wanted to go swimming. We've been taking Riley to swim lessons twice a week this month and Ashton has been dying to get into that pool so we decided to go swimming as a family as part of his birthday celebration. The pool we went to has a big water slide and we were able to all ride down consecutively because Riley is now tall enough to go down on his own. Richard held Ashton on the way down and I held Heleena or vice-versa. It was nice that we could all have fun at the same time rather than taking turns "baby-sitting" one of the kids. Ashton was really scared of the slide at first, but loved it after the second or third time down. Heleena was opposite, she loved the first few times down and was bored by the fourth or fifth time. We had so much fun swimming together!
For Ashton's party we had Mummi, Aunt Aliisa, Uncle Paul, and Reina come over for a BBQ. Kind of a small crowd, but that's all the family that could come. Everyone else was sick. Ashton was sooo excited to get some new trains.

I made Ashton a Henry the train (from Thomas and Friends) cake. Henry has the number three on him so it was fitting. The cake was not at all fancy but it did the trick!

The boys played pin the number on Thomas.
Ashton wants to be big and do everything that Riley does. He follows Riley around when he's out playing with the neighborhood kids (who are older). Here is what happened at Riley's first T-ball game last Saturday:

That's Riley on second base and Ashton right there with him.

It was funny to watch Ashton copy everything that his big brother Riley did during half of the game. Even funnier that he copied him while staying right next to him. Hopefully the coach didn't mind Ashton out on the field too.

Ashton is about up to Riley's eye-balls in height now. He's wearing size 4T clothing but still only size 9 shoes (which is small for our family). He's getting close to being potty-trained. I haven't put him in underwear yet but he stays dry all morning everyday if I remember to take him potty a couple of times. He's also been waking up dry most mornings now.

His favorite toy right now is his beanie baby kitty, who he named Peach. He covers it up at night, feeds it bites of his food at dinner, and talks baby-talk to it. The only time the kitty isn't with him is when he's got trains in his hands, which are his other favorite toys....still. He also loves riding his "Mater" tricycle outside (named so because of the rusty handle-bars) and he loves dancing in the living room to children's music. He pretty much hasn't changed very much in his personality and interests.

I'm amazed everyday at how much Ashton knows. Being the middle child I really haven't spent much time teaching him anything, but somehow he knows a lot. His vocabulary reminds me of a five year old as does his size, so when he poops his pants and throws a temper tantrum I often get annoyed until I remember that he still is just a toddler. We love our little guy so much. Happy Birthday Ashton!

Easter 2010

2010-04-07T23:02:00.000-07:00

We had a fun and spiritual Easter this year with General Conference for our church falling on Easter Sunday it was very uplifting and refreshing. I loved every minute of conference!

The kids helped dye easter eggs and also fill the plastic eggs with candy. We had 35 eggs total to hunt for. The kids had a blast hunting down all the eggs. Heleena didn't have a clue what was happening until it came time to eat the easter candy. When her eyes caught a glance at the treats, she wouldn't stop opening the plastic eggs.

The easter bunny hid the eggs indoors because of the rainy weather we've been having this past week, which also happened to be Spring Break for school kids. Despite the wintery weather, we got out to Kid's Club and the zoo during our Spring Break week. None of our kids are in school yet, but I am watching a little 1 yr. old girl everyday and she was gone for the week, so it gave us a chance to do some fun things together. We also were able to go on a long bike ride as a family along the Columbia River.

For Easter Dinner we had my mom and Will over. No other family members could come unfortunately, but they missed out on the yummy feast. We had ham, cheesy ranch potato bake, corn, spinach salad with tangerines and cranberries, rolls with butter, and for dessert we had raspberry cobler topped with vanilla bean ice-cream.

I just love my cute kids so much!

Four Months Later

2010-04-06T22:24:00.000-07:00

I think I can finally say that I feel like we are settled into our new home. The boxes are unpacked, the cars are nicely parked in the organized garage, the garden boxes are built and full, 2/3 of the decorations are bought and placed, and most of the curtains are up. We still have a list of large purchases waiting (blinds, fence, shed,.....) but we have been able to make more purchases than I expected. One of those purchases was a piano that Will's Grandma owned before she passed. It's beautiful and although it came along at a tight time, I just couldn't let it go so I bought it. What a difference the sound of a newer piano makes! Hopefully it will get good use in our home. My next projects will be to update family pictures in all my frames and hang them on the walls and to organize the den/playroom by building shelves for the unfinished shelving units we have. We have a playroom upstairs but I decided that the kids are too young to want to play so far away from mommy so we are using our den (which is downstairs) as a playroom for a few years.

The kids are growing like weeds! I didn't realize it until I finally sat down tonight and looked at the photos I've taken over the past 6 months. I hardly recognized Heleena! Holy Cow! They all grew up so much in the almost 5 months we spent "homeless" as our new home was being built. I put together a little slideshow of very few of the pictures from Christmas until now (plus a couple from our last days at our old house to show how much the kids have grown).

Thanksgiving in Utah

2010-01-03T21:50:00.000-08:00

I apologize for the lack of postings. Since we sold our house and moved in with my parents, I have hardly even touched the computer. I haven't been reading any blogs for the last 3 months and very few of my emails. Somehow life is busier than ever here at Mom's house. In an effort to play catch up I will at least post a little about the holidays, beginning with this post about Thanksgiving.

We made the long car trek down to Utah, where it all began. Richard and I met down there in 2002 just after I graduated from BYU, married in 2003 and spent our first year of marriage there in Provo before moving up to the Great Pacific Northwest. We hadn't been back since we left over 5 years ago, until our trip back for Thanksgiving. Our real reason for going was to be there for Alex (Richard's brother) and Angeli's temple sealing in the Salt Lake Temple. The whole family met up at Ginger and Aaron's house in Payson. We had a great time together and made a lot of new memories as we played games together, went on little outings, prepared and ate delicious food, etc. While we were there we were able to spend time on campus at BYU to see how it has changed since we left. We took the kids to see the animals on display at the Bean Life Science Museum. If you're ever in Provo you should go see it.....very cool and FREE! We walked ALL over campus and had a lot of fun showing the kids different displays there. Playing games with the family was a blast, as always. We also were able to go to see the lights for Christmas on Temple Square. It was actually my first time seeing them even though I lived in Utah for like 5 years. What else......oh yeah, the sealing. It was the highlight of our trip to see Alex and Angeli sealed for time and all eternity in the temple. Afterward we enjoyed a fun luncheon with friends and family at Buca di Beppo Italian Restaurant. The food was good and the pictures on the walls in that restaurant were more than interesting/entertaining. Anyway, I'm leaving a lot out I'm sure, but I'm playing catch-up. So here's a little slideshow.

Happy Halloween!

2009-11-18T22:03:00.001-08:00

The kids looked so cute on Halloween this year. Riley was a Roman soldier, Ashton was a dinosaur, and Heleena was the cutest little witch ever! We went to trunk-or-treat at the church and then hit a few houses in Mom's neighborhood. Ashton loved trick-or-treating so much that even now over two weeks later he still gets into the pantry saying trick-or-treat over and over. He wanted to eat all the candy as it was being handed over.