Daddy Daughter Valentine's Dance

For the last couple of years, my dad, my brother Derek, and Spencer take all the girls to a special Valentine's day dance. We opted to step it up a notch this year and they went to an even nicer venue in OREGON CITY. 45 minute drive for all this bliss! From what I hear, it was well worth the extra drive.

The girls and their cousin Ashley after dinner.
My dad and all the girls.
This is scanned in...thus the quality issues...

Ummm...I did not tell her to make this pose. The girl is comfortable in front of a camera, what can I say?
For the girls, this year it was all about the earrings. Dangly, sparkly, or heart shaped? So many choices.
For me, the dance was all about the HAIR. Love an excuse for a fancy updo!
This was supposed to be a heart shape...can you tell? Emma could, and that is all that really matters, right? :)
I got reports that it was the most fun year ever, great food, great music, and of course, good company!

Funny how that happens...

Do I sound like a broken record? I am for sure going to stay caught up on my blog. Starting now. Okay, really, I won't. I am editing tons of pictures for my annual "blurb book" that I give to the family for Valentine's day and so I am sitting and staring at pictures for hours on end. My kids love to look at these books, so it is all worth it in the end, but my eyes start to gloss over from staring at the computer screen for so long! I figured I'd add some to the blog while the other ones are uploading to my blurb book. Here are some favorites from the month of December, for a bit of a recap.
Over Christmas break we decided to learn how to skate, spent lots of time and way too much money at the skating rink, but it beat video games and 46 neighborhood kids begging to play all break long! Levi is wreckless and I can't watch him skate, Caden is a nightmare can't even get in one good stride, and the girls took right to it. We ended up getting them skates for Christmas, though ironically we have not been back since. Hmmm....

Caden turned 4 (this is out of order but I am too lazy to cut and paste).Those are spider web cupcakes though they are a bit pink and blue rather than red and blue. Fortunately, he didn't complain TOO much about it.

Gingerbread house decorating. Our annual tradition that I sort of loathe (remember how I feel about pumpkin decorating? This falls into that category...just going for fun mom points and I need as many as I can get).
Can't forget the annual employee party, where I get to sit awkwardly and make small talk with lots of drunk people who I don't know. Always an awkward night, though it is always a fun chance to dress up and go out on the town with my man!


This is a well known pose at our house. Caden has two group poses, he either squeezes your neck till you are near choking...or we have to point or touch a random object.
Another birthday picture (again, out of order, again lazy...but hey at least I am blogging).
The boys all got shot guns for Christmas (never seen my husband so excited about a gift in his life...despite his rather grim expression...), and after all was said and done my mom asks "you are okay with him having a gun in the house?" Since my mom also got a shotgun, a pigeon disk shooter thingy and a GLOCK, she is obviously more of a gun fan than I am (and she can really shoot too...not a fake gun fan, a real gun fan). But the boys have gone shooting several times now and their obvious delight has softened the blow somewhat...
All of the girlies in our matching Christmas outfits.

Short and rather boring post, but I am not going to promise anything more inspiring since I will clearly just not get around to it and it isn't like I need more opportunities to remind myself of my shortcomings!! Happy New Year!!

Whirlwind of Tday Bliss Day 1

We managed to seriously squeeze in a lot over Thanksgiving this year. This post will cover our first day. After Spencer played some Turkey Bowl football, and I finished a beastly crossfit workout (my hands are still raw from so many dead lifts!), we headed to Olympia to visit Spencer's family. Even though it is only 2.5 hours away, we don't make it out there very often. This is particularly unfortunate b/c the kids absolutely ADORE their uncles and drive everyone a little crazy with the constant wrestling (though Matt and Nathan usually have their own style of wrestling that involves dogpile push ups, timing the kids to see how long they can stand on someone's back, or swinging, throwing or catapulting children in the air or middle of the room). The kids go crazy they are having so much fun, and the adults just try and talk over the mayhem.

Dishing up on the goods...

Benson and Devon...
Kiara and the cutest 2 year old EVER. Poor thing is bombarded by every aunt, uncle, and cousin in the room vying for her attention.

Some of the musically talented in the group serenaded us with music. The Adams family has some serious musical talent (and Spencer went and married me!!).

Me attempting a plate craft, that was decidedly done better by my more craftier girls.

A more or less failed attempt at a clever cousin group shot. No idea why Emma felt the need to cross her eyes, and poor Sula had had enough.

Almost succeeded with the boy only pyramid, Devon couldn't' resist the urge to burst off the top of the pyramid in every attempted pic.

Did I mention cutest baby ever???

Okay, so my baby is pretty cute too, and don't remind me...not a baby anymore. :( Too bad the only thing he ate on that plate was the roll, thus the devious grin.

Stay tuned...the next day we head to Ridgefield for more food, bowling, shooting range, and Leinenbach fun. Followed by Christmas tree acquisition (resulting in our largest tree ever), and a perfectly delightful Jon Schmidt piano concert. Might be the best weekend EVER!!

Cookie Backwash and Middle School Drama

Monday evening Levi came sheepishly downstairs, holding a poem he had written in class that day. He started his sad confessional with the words "the teacher put this poem in my file. She said my writing is unintelligent, a poor attempt at humor, and inappropriate". Apparently the boy who had to edit the poem found it offensive and brought it to the teacher's attention.

Naturally I panicked. What in the WORLD did he say in his poem that would have him put on "file" and caused his teacher to be this upset? I never should have allowed him to buy himself an xbox! Maybe b/c we let him watch Harry Potter movies and they were PG-13? Haven't we taught him anything? Immediately angry with him, I demanded to read the poem. He nervously and apologetically handed it over. I read it out loud for my husband to hear:

My Winter Poem

Winter tastes like cookies freshly baked. With eggnog to drink, leftover milk that Santa had not finished may not only taste like cookie backwash, but it might attract the reindeer.

Levi Adams (6th Grade Humanities)

I had to re-read it twice before the panic subsided. I asked if it was his reference to Santa that was offensive? No, it wasn't even THAT logical. This poem was put in his file b/c of the word BACKWASH.

Unfortunately, my panic, and fear turned immediately to RAGE. What teacher would tell a child his writing is unintelligent (ever) when he was cleverly (imo) describing eggnog? I spent the whole night drafting an email to send to the teacher. I could hardly sleep that night.

The best part is her placid and pathetic reply to my email. She claimed that she felt he was testing her to see how far he could go with inappropriate writing. She thought he was opening a door to push the limits. Not a single apology for her comments was made, but she did graciously remove the copy of the poem from his file and did also say (my favorite part) that she "may have" misinterpreted his intentions and that the fact he talked to me about it shows that he probably did not mean any 'harm or malice' in his remarks.

Two days later and my shaking rage is beginning to subside. Stripped of sarcasm, humor and creativity, his poem was finally acceptable to his classmates and teacher. Middle school in suburban America at its finest.

Halloween Part 2

The girls invited some of their favorite friends for this year's trunk or treat. The giggling, wooping, and squealing could be heard from miles away when these girlies arrived.
Quite possibly my favorite of Spencer's costumes. We found this full genie costume it at Goodwill for $6! Love Goodwill!

Griping about Halloween Part 1 (Part 2 will be the classic, cheerful costume and aren't my kids adorable post)

Corn maze at Plumper Pumpkin Patch. Luckily I have Caders who is still my baby b/c...

We had to practically drag Levi in from neighborhood football fun outside to carve pumpkins this year (don't get me started), but once inside he remembered that he actually liked carving pumpkins. Well, I think he remembered, but looking at this picture closely his smile looks a little less genuine than I was hoping for!
Emma has a blue glow to her b/c she was at a friend's house who apparently has lots of blue eye shadow available. Or it could also be the fact that she is sad b/c we had to ground her just prior to carving for not coming home after her playdate (with blue eye shadow friend) and going straight over to neighbor's house without telling us and after almost 2 hours of wondering where she was and canvasing the area, she waltz' in the room like she just got home from the FIRST playdate. Missing the whole GUTTING portion of pumpkin carving (the best part of course!)

Deep breath, sweet baby who thinks the pumpkin patch is AWESOME and loves to hang out with me and thinks my fun ideas are great!
While at our ward's Trunk or Treat, I marveled at all of the Southern Bells, the beautiful princesses with fancy hair, heart-melting pink and purple ballerinas, lady bugs (with wings and cute hair buns!), and other adorably clever costume creations. Then I looked at my table where we had fought all afternoon on whether or not they could have blood coming out of the corners of their mouth (I hate bloody costumes). Fortunately, since I am mom, I won. However, they definitely weren't winning any beauty contests with these costumes. Kiara is a zombie cheerleader (she has pom poms and a skirt to match) and Emma was some sort of dead, zombie-witch, frankenstein bride combo of her own design. No more princesses at our house.

Levi wore his football uniform b/c he had to come late and straight from practice. He whined the whole way to the church b/c he claimed to have too much homework to go to Trunk or Treat. I told him he needed to live a little. Hmmphf.

Kiara finished her pumpkin just in time to play outside for a few more minutes before dark. Roasted pumpkin seeds anyone? Let's set these masterpieces outside and marvel at who made the scariest pumpkin! Anyone? Anyone? Let's sit on the bench in our PJ's after lighting the pumpkin candles and watch the flames flicker! Anyone? How about our annual after carving family picture? Clearly, no one. hmmphf.

Caden's creation won scariest pumpkin award this year. Entirely by default since everyone else was either playing outside, or in time-out for playing outside too long, or possibly, and most likely, no one else even cared which pumpkin was scariest! Sniff.

Oh, did I mention he wants me to read him stories and begs for me to play Legos and holds my hand when we cross the street, at the grocery store, and sometimes while I am cooking? Thank goodness for Spiderman. A super hero who is brave, caring, cute and doesn't have blood coming out of his mouth.

At least not this year.

Grouchy post today. :)

Negligent Blogger

Okay, so I fell off the bandwagon pretty big time. Fall starts and my life gets so crazy I can't even begin to think about blogging or really anything I used to do. My life consists of volunteering in classes, taking kids to soccer, soccer, piano, piano, dance, dance, scouts, football, then helping with homework (times three!), and I am working a little part time from home now too so life just got super hectic. I am hoping now that sports are starting to wrap up (Emma finished soccer last week) that I can get into my routine again. I also injured my calf playing soccer last week, which sort of forced me to slow down which despite my craziness of not being able to exercise like i usually do, it is probably good for me to slow down a bit. Here is a little catch up of the summer, and the beginning of fall. I am hoping to pick up the pace and keep up with this a little better b/c my kids love it and it is my sole form of journaling anymore!

Summer and berries...my favorite combo. We have the best berry farms around here. SO much fun!
I bet no one can guess which legs are Levi's. :)

Levi got his much coveted BMX bike for his birthday with back pedals to give people rides. This is his adorable cousin Ella on the back.

Derek's daughter Ashley got baptized. These are all the girl cousins on my side of the family.

Emma really improved on her soccer skills this year, I didn't know if she had it in her last year, but I saw some of her siblings' fire in her eyes this year. Course, she still loves to dive into the goal and do cartwheels down the field, but there is a glimmer of hope!!

Emma first day of school in 1st grade. My days without Emma home are just not the same. Quiet for one, a little boring for two, Caden and I both miss her during the day.

Caden in 4's preschool. He is still 3, but he is so huge that he dwarfed all the three year olds. Youngest of 4 kids, he needed to be in the older class. Three days a week of preschool is delightful for both of us. I get a few hours to work, or run errands and he gets to play with his buddies. He loves it and so do I!
Levi took the leap into middle school this year. I may yet write a whole post about this. I had a hard time with it, and he has turned over a new leaf. He cares about his grades, wants to work hard, and just seems to be growing up right before my eyes. Middle school is also a little terrifying to me, when I take him to school I feel a little pit in my stomach of jumbled feelings and I have a hard time letting him go, but he is definitely ready.
Kiara first day of 4th grade. Her outfit fits her personality so perfectly. A little frilly skirt...with high top converse? Cute but spunky...definitely Kiara.
Levi is number 87, having a fun season. He has found his new favorite position: Linebacker. He isn't very big, but still manages to hold his own. We love football season in this house!
Kiara is still a little monster soccer player. I will be really sad if she ever decides to give this sport up, so much fun to watch her play.

More to come, I have high hopes of getting my game back on!! :)