December 23, 2008

out of the bag....

So many of you may already know this by now since last week Erik let the cat out of the bag on FaceBook...but we are expecting no. 4!

I thought we were waiting a little while to "announce" our news, but Erik just couldn't keep it to himself. This next one should come mid August. We're very excited that God has continued to bless our desire for a big family. Please pray for our newest as he/she grows. I know God always blesses us, but sometimes it not always the blessing we expect. With every pregnancy comes some risk and no one is guaranteed a healthy/typical child. We see every new baby as a special gift, and although we pray for health, we know God is good and is able to do immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine.

Baby ticker coming soon!

December 19, 2008

SNOW!!!!!!!!!

We had a ton of snow fall the past few days, and the weather is supposed to stay cold with more to come over the next few days. Hurray, I love it when it's all snowy, but no one I know loves snow more than Erik. Yesterday, he took the kids out to play. This was really Max's first experience with snow. When he came in from playing, I handed a him a cup of hot cocoa, and his response was "this is FUN!"







December 18, 2008

Jack's smiling!

It's been snowing here the past few days. Even though it may not be much for some of you who are used to tons of snow, a few inches is a lot for us. Enough to cancel school and keep us house bound. But we are snug in our house with a nice warm fire and plenty of food. Jack is loving that we are all here and he can sleep with the nice warm fire. This is him hanging out on our chair keeping watch at the window. Can you see his smile?



December 11, 2008

Fastforward

Arggg..What is happening? I think someone put my life on fast forward and didn't tell me. I can't believe how fast time is flying. Zoey will be ONE next week....wow. That was one VERY fast year.

Erik and I had a quick 48 hr trip to Sacramento to attend his sister Kelli's wedding. We were able to borrow our friend Scott Laird let us borrow his wide lense and WOW...did we have fun with it! Thanks Scott. I'll post some pictures soon, but for now here is a few....





Also, thanks to Beverly, Laura, Jen, and Alex for watching our kids!

November 16, 2008

My Girls!

I was going through some of our files and came across these pictures from a few months ago. This is what Erik and I do with our Kids when we get bored!










October 22, 2008

The Farm

Last Sunday after church we went to a Pumpkin Patch called "The Farm" in Snohomish, WA. It was a perfectly sunny day (unlike last year that was rainy and very muddy). We went with Laura, Jen, Alex & Trenton, and of course our troop of kids. Erik was the photographer on this trip. Here are some of my favorite Pics of the day....
























October 15, 2008

Quinlin's Disney Birthday

We celebrated Quinlin's birthday on Friday with a Character Breakfast. It was so GOOD! The Character breakfast was a Lelo and Stitch Luau in Paradise Pier Hotel. It fun to see all the characters dressed up in their Hawaiian outfits. There wasn't too many people there and the kids had a ton of access to all the characters that were there. If you're planning a trip to Disneyland, I highly recommend this!

Before we left for the party, Quinlin recieved some gifts from family. Fred and Jill (grandpa and grandma) got Quinlin this SUPER cute minnie dress. Aunt Nicole got her matching Minnie shoes (which we had to exchange for another size....that' why they're not in the picture) and Aunt Kelli got her these other Pink Sparkly Disney Converse. If you don't already know....Quinlin LOVES shoes. Santa always brings her a few too!

So this is Quinlin dressed and ready to go. The other pictures are members of the group and characters.















October 13, 2008

Disneyland

We've been back for a week now, and I'm finally getting to the Disney trip. We had a blast! All of Quinlin's favorit people were there. The whole gang included: Quinlin (10), Erik, Marci, Max (2), Zoey (9 mths), Grandma Jill, Grandpa Fred, Kelli, Kylan (8), Savanah (3), Nicole, Anika (3), Bailee (7 mths), Papa Len, Grandma Beverly, Laura, Jennifer, Trenton (9), Alex (12), Tyler (16), Kym and Kai (10)....phew! It was A LOT of people...but very important people.

We were there for the week (that was supposed to be mild temperature and few people) with very HOT temperatures and a TON of people. Despite the heat and crowd, we still had a great time. Quinlin went on all the fast fun rides with anyone who would go with her. But her favorite ride is still the Tea Cups. She also loved the carousel, dumbo, rockets, and anything else that would spin.

Max loved the Tea Cups as well. But he also liked dumbo and the carousel. He asked once..."I sleep in Tars-man's house" after having visited it for the first time. He also loved exploring Huck Finn's island.

Zoey seemed to enjoy many rides. She was able to go on more things than I had realized and never complained about being on any of them. Hopefully next time we go... she'll be able to express what she liked.

We took many pictures, although we did miss out on so many more. It was just not possible to photograph as much as we would have liked. Often the group was separated so there was always something going on where we weren't.

Here are a few of my favorite...



Disneyland was decorated with tons of pumpkins...in the theme of Halloween Time



Bailee (our youngest niece)




Nicole (sister in law) Anika (her daughter) and Savannah (another niece)



Quinlin and Kylan (nephew) on the Carousel



Marci and Zoey on Dumbo



Trenton, Laura, Minnie, and Alex (family friends)



Max climbing in Pooh's corner



Erik, Marci, Quinlin, and Max climbing in CA Adventure Bear Park



Quinlin, Erik, and Tyler in the Tea Cups



Anika/Minnie

Savannah & Anika



Alex, Laura, and Pluto



Max, Minnie, and Anika


Zoey and Bailee



Savannah and Anika

I have even more Pictures of Quinlin's Birthday Celebration at our Character Breakfast. I'll save those for my next post....