Have not posted in a while again. I just can't keep up. Not very many pictures this time. We have had a great October and November. Lots of normal every day busy stuff going on.

We went to Seattle for a memorial for Joe's Grandpa Melvin who passed away last month. He was a wonderful man.

Holding Madeline the flower girl at our wedding.

Family
Christmas 2004

Marah loves to play with her diapers. LOL. The other day she insisted Joe put them on his head and he did. :)


They would fall off and she would shriek and hold them up so he could do it again.

We don't celebrate Halloween so we have Family Movie and Banana Split Night. It is the third year of this and the kids love, love, love it. So here is our banana split this year. We put Marah to bed early so the kids could watch Flushed Away without her climbing all over them.


Final pictures of our preying mantis. Here she is having a cricket for breakfast.

The kids having their breakfast with her.


Her egg sack, before we released her she laid another one.


We had a birthday party for Madeline's Cabbage Patch Doll.


Marah spent most of this day walking around with her head up so she could see under her hair. She will not let me keep it up or clipped back.

So I cut it...
The new Marah. Look she has EYES!

Marah has learned that it is fun to fling herself off of things. Scares the crap out of me but so far she has not done it without any padding.

Frogger

A Frog told me I needed to update. Well I went to do that and realized we have not downloaded any pictures since last time I made a blog post. (insert the embarrassed smiley here). So I will update soon as soon as I find the camera. :)

So much for keeping up

It has once again been a while since I last posted. This one is very picture heavy. We have had a great September. The weather has been so warm and Joe took a nine day vacation. It was nice to have him home and not on call, no phone calls, no pager, no text messages. We had a busy month and here are some pictures.

Please remember to check Maddy's blog as well. She is planning on updating soon and would love a comment or two. :)


Joe took this one. Lately we have had to force Madeline to go outside. If she had her way she would sit on the couch and read ALL day long. So we made her go outside and she sat on the swing and read instead. LOL.

She walked all the way into the house from the swing set while reading.

We went to OMSI again. The kids love it and I hope we can get a family pass soon. Madeline and Daddy spent over an hour in the chemistry lab together.

Michael loves this huge crane.

Marah and Daddy.

Marah again, this time in the ball room.

We went hiking at Lucia Falls which is north of Battle Ground. It was a nice short little loop hike and the kids enjoyed it. It was a no water access park though and the kids were a bit bummed they could not go and play in the water. We talked a bit about salmon and how the water is protected.

Hiking.

Looking at the waterfall.

The baby is growing. I am showing so much right now, much sooner than any of the other kids. I also have not lost as much weight as with Michael and Marah. I am at only 10lbs this time compared to the 30lbs I lost last time.

I made Madeline a cape. Hers was the prototype and is a bit big. It is reversible to a yellow fabric (see below). Michael also has one in flames and pirate fabric.

The other side.

I made a diaper. It turned out really well for my first diaper. It is a fitted diaper that would need a cover over it. The inside is a pink fleece and I used an old towel for the inner absorbent material. Unfortunately it is a bit too small for Marah and the velcro won't hold. Maybe the new babe can wear it.

Marah is getting so big, I had to post this pic.

Madeline is almost 7!!!!

Snack time. Michael's favorite snack is popcorn. We make our own in an air popper and the kids love it.

Marah must think Maddy's is better.

The kids have been having a campout in the play tent in their room. There is no room to move in there but they are on night 4 of sleeping in there.

Marah's new face. Its so silly and she does it on purpose now cause she knows we will all laugh.

Yesterday Michael caught a preying mantis. We did some research and found out it was a male. Later that evening while Joe and Michael were looking for bugs to feed it they found another. That one was a female. Well they mated for almost 12 hours starting last night at 11pm and ending sometime around noon today. Then she proceeded to eat him. All that is left is his wings. The kids are excited about the possibility of babies later.

Here she is.

Jumpy and Woky (the backyard squirrels) have gotten to our sunflowers. We were planning to dry them for the birds this winter.

Completely bare.

So instead we cut them down and they played sword fight.

Madeline is holding the one she grew in her own garden.

We went to Great Grandma Evelyn's a few weeks back to visit. My Aunt and Uncle were there with their little girl. She would be the kids second cousin. Here is a video of her playing with Michael.

Summer Update

It has been a month since I last posted so it will be a big one. We have been enjoying the last days of summer. Michael is looking forward to fall and asks every day is it fall yet.

Madeline is learning fractions and this week has made brownies and zucchini bread with minimal help. I opened the oven and helped her solve the "issue" of accidentally using a 1/4 cup instead of a 1/2 cup. She is still getting Zoo Books in the mail and jumped into the current issue about Sharks when it came in the mail today. She loves getting mail. She also signed up for her own library card this past month. She has also been interested in learning about the presidents so we checked out a bunch of books at the library. Her latest project can be found here: http://www.madelinejo.blogspot.com/ You can also link to it at the right on this blog under Blogs I Read. She loves getting comments on her own blog so please respond if you can.

We also participated in a home school family swap this past week. We sent a package to a family in South Carolina and they sent us one as well. We sent info about WA state, pictures of the kids with little info cards about them, balloon animals that Maddy made, some art supplies, and items the kids collected from nature (rocks, shells, and flowers). Our package arrived on Tuesday and the kids were so excited. There was a lap book about Pageland, SC and the family we swapped with, info about the area, sand, flowers, and some toys. It was a lot of fun and I hope we do it again soon.

New baby is growing well. We recently chose a MW (midwife) in Portland, OR. Unfortunately we were not able to find one that would take our insurance. :( Why insurance will pay thousands to tens of thousands for a hospital birth but not 3,000 for a HB (homebirth) is beyond me. We are at 13 weeks and recently saw our MW for our first prenatal visit. It was not much but talking as we decline most prenatal tests. The heartbeat was a great 150 bpm. Joe and I really like our midwife and the kids seem to like her as well.

We have been u-picking and canning like crazy. So far we have canned strawberry jam, blueberry jam, whole blueberries, peaches, pears, pear sauce, and apple butter. We still have apples left to make applesauce with. The freezer is full of peach slices and several gallon bags of blueberries for smoothies. :) The garden is also doing well. We have had a bunch of zucchini, squash, carrots, and tomatoes.

Here are some recent outings:

We went to the Clark County Fair.

The goats.



There were races. The kids loved it so much that Joe took them back for the second show later that evening.


We went to Cannon Beach. It is so nice to be a day trip away from one of our favorite vacation spots.

Michael loves the waves.

Marah would run right out into the ocean if we let her.





Madeline enjoying the beach.

Car Accident

Joe was in a car accident on Thursday. Someone (who received a DUI) hit Joe in the back and pushed him into a tow truck. So he was squished between two trucks. The car is totaled and thank God Joe is fine. A few scratches, lots of bruises, and he is really sore. He is still finding glass all over him after two showers.

Not so bad in the front.

The steering wheel bent and the driver seat fell backwards. Glass is everywhere.

The trunk is now located convienently in the backseat.

Camping

We went to Lake Wenatchee in July to camp with Brian and Marnie. The kids had a great time together. It was great to see good friends again after such a long time.

Here is Michael and Kat. You can see how bad Michael's eye is in this pic. He was bit by a mosquito on his eyebrow and his whole eye swelled shut.


Joe and Brian.

This was Michael's pirate ship. He found it the first day there and there is a little place to sit at the very top.

All the kids doing something...

But Mom rocks ARE for eating.