early morning kids

Sunday morning we all got up early and just hung out. Stephen and Mini were hanging out playing gameboy and Samantha and Matthew played a fishing game. All smiles even before church you got to love nice peacful mornings!

Matthew potty trains

Well it has been almost 2 weeks in undies now. He is doing good really. We have no accidents at night anymore and we are dry during the day most of the time. Though we are still working on pooping on the potty.

But he is so very proud of his undies and has noiintentions of going back to diapers. And we are very proud of him!!

Mini falls into a basket

Mini was trying to reach toys in the bottom and she could not get there so she kept on reaching till she fell in. Then we took her out and she did it again so I finally tipped the basket over so she could get the block she needed so badly!

Stephen breaks his thumb

Well, while I was off at the dr with Samantha to check out her broken nose. Stephen stayed with a friend and while crawling on the floor and racing he crawled onto his thumb and it seems he has fractured the knuckle by breaking off a small piece of the bone. So we are in a splint.

So I am hoping now that we can have a much slower week ahead of us. But both are fine and everyone says how painful both are but both kids are not complaining so I will not be telling them it is suppose to hurt.

Samantha breaks her nose

Well at our gathering Sat night Samantha ran into Dominic and they bumped heads. Samantha came out with her first broken nose. The black eye is going away and the dr says the swelling in her nose will go away in about 2 weeks. No playing ball till then. Other then that she is doing good. She said it only hurts when she bumps it or she trys moving it.

work on the house

Well the work is done ont he siding of our house. This was taken last friday when the guys were replacing the siding on the playhouse. You know it must match don't you? So if you look that is the same color as the house. I will get some finished pictures in a few weeks when they put the rain gutters on the house. Then it will be 100% done!! I am so excited to be done with it!

We are having a gathering here at the house Sat at noon to break in the new deck and patio. So if you are in the neighborhood drop on by and visit!! We will BBQ at noon and have a fire at night if it is nice outside.

Mini learns to toddle

She is not walking yet but she deffinetly is toddling! And oh so proud of herself too she is! She is so funny! And growing so fast on us. I feel like everytime we turn around she is doing something new. She waves bye bye now and loves the stairs. She loves to yell da da to me and Dennis. But she is getting into saying Ma ma when she is all cuddled in.

She is great at taking out every toy we own right next to Matthew. Not good at putting them back or letting you put them back either. Like tonight I picked up all the match box cars 4 times before I just left them out till I got her into bed. She has weaned all the way now and is doing good with it. I was worried she would fight me on it but she has learned to love that bottle of hers!
She is working on figuring out the tippy cup too. She steals Matthews all the time and chews on it. And then all the water runs down her front! So i bought her some of her very own. So in the highchair she gets one each time we eat now.

She cut her 3rd and 4th tooth now too. The 2 new ones are on top. Not the middle ones though the one next to the ones that will be in the middle. The middle ones are on their way in right now. SO she will have 6 before we know it.

Next week she will turn 10 months on us. Our year so far has flown by!

Mini finds dirt

Mini found the little pot of flowers on the patio the other day and of course felt the need to dig in it! She was so cute trying to figure out what it was in there!

Poor flower did not turn out so well but it is too cold for them now anyway.

play time in tub

Oh so much fun in the tub!! The two little ones love baths and if Matthew goes in Mini comes crawling to get in the water too. Really anytime she hears the water run she comes. Yesterday she crawled in with Matthew in the shower. Poor boy never can get away from her!

Mini Rose 9 Months

Here she is 9 months old!! Can any of you believe it?! Here she is showing off her 2 teeth on the bottom and she is working on some more so soon we should have more to show off!


Here she was showingoff how she can stand up in the middle of the floro now with no help! She has taken 1 step a few times now but always falls afterward. I hope my baby stays that way for awhile yet but I think I will have a toddler on our hands sooner then we are ready!

Silly silly girl!! She finds everything funny and loves to laugh at anything and anyone!

Happy 9 months baby girl!

the boys and mini

Here are the boys and Mini today after school! Cheese Mommy!!

Messy Mini!

Well the time has come and mini got her first popsicle! YIKES did she make a mess! But she loved every minute of eating it! Of course maybe a red one was not the smartest thing but since they did invent the washing machine it came right out! And she was oh so happy as she got to play in the bath afterwards too yet! Got to love that as it means water is running.

Matthew and Mini

Well here they are playing away. And yes they got out almost all the toys to it in and play as just one will not do! But they are turning intot he best of friends!

First day of school

Well the time has come and the older ones are back in school. They are loving every minute of it as they always do. Samantha was very nervous for open house to meet her teacher but once she met her she was very happy and excited to start once more. Stephen has Mr Churchill and Samantha has Mrs Forney.

The kids think it is great Mr Churchill married Samantha's kindergarten teacher this past summer!! So now the kids are in 2nd and 3rd grade and growing so very fast! But I am so lucky to have 2 kids who love school so much! Matthew of course cried as he missed Stephen and Samantha and he wanted to go get on the bus too.

He even packed his little backpack and was wearing it hoping to get on the bus. Poor thing wants to go so badly too. But as the days pass he is getting used to them leaving each morning again and he loves then to play with Mini all by himself.

Cakes for church

We had our church festival a few weeknds back and I brought cakes for the cake walk. The kids loved the yellow one as it had candies all over it. And they got to help put them on. I kept watching Matthew to take one! He would have to if he did not get chased away all day!

Mini Rose 8 months

Here is mini on a night outside having dinner. We made spagetti and she got the noodles. I htink she forgot where her mouth was but she had a good time doing it!

What Mom?? Am I not supposed to have gone in the shower? Whyever not?

July 30th and 31

After Silver Creek Falls we drove to Portland to visit with Jeanie and John. Dennis Aunt and Uncle. Dad was up there with Bonnie. They brought me back my car. As the A/C had gone out while in the redwoods! Not good in 100 degree weather and 4 little ones in the car!

We spent the night up there and then it was time to say goodbye. And we drove up to my brother John's house and spent the evening with John and Pam and then left at 3am on the 31st to head for home.

We drove till 11:30pm but made it to North Dakota. And on our way out of Washington we heard that baby Xander decided to join us all out here and came that morning!!

He weighed in at 7 lbs 15 oz and was 19 1/4 inches long! Congrats Andrea and Mike!!

Silver Creek Falls part 2

The falls

Sean and Larisa behind the falls

The falls from the path.

July 29th Silver Creek Falls

We had a picnic at Silver Creek before going to watch the falls. Here is Melissa with Mini. It was cooler this morning.

Here is Sean with his attachment that he seemed to have grown while we were out there! Samantha never left him a lone and she talked him into anything she wanted! Got to love the power of little girls!



















The boys also played frisbee while we had our picinic. Dell is in the background Seanin the front. And here is Shea!! It was such a beautiful day to walk. Though Xander would not come out to play with us though we tried talking him out and walking him out!!

July 28th the park

We spent the night with Uncle Dell and we took the kids to a park by his house. Here is Andrea a few days before Xander was born.

Melissa Swearingen is on the other swing. That is till we got kicked off by the kids!

Lincoln City, Oregon July 28

Here is the ocean the day we went to Lincoln City. It was windy and such a great day to be here! We did not have nearly enough time to spend down on the beach, but we got to go to our favorite beach for a bit.

Here are the kids at the Newport pier. Where Dennis and Dad always went Salmon fishing. We walked out on the pier checked on the people crabbing and then they were cleaning Salmon and the kids wanted pictures with some and the ladies were so nice and they let the kids pick them up and check them out up close! Matthew was all for poking at them but they were to heavy for him to lift up.
And on the way back to Salem Dennis had to get a picture of a log truck. As we never see them in Minnesota.

meeting up with Melissa and Tanner

for those of you who remember Melissa H and Tanner, here he is at 9 1/2 years old! He is almost as big as Stephen is!

July 27th Western Oregon State University

We went back to all of our old places Dennis and I loved to hang out in Monmouth today. We went back to campus and walked around with the kids and showed them all the buildings and where we had classes. No pictures as we took them last time we had been out. But I did include one for those that have not seen it in awhile. This is the new libary they built the last year we were at campus. It did not open till 2003 or 2004.

July 26th Andrea's house

We left Eugene on the 26th and got to Andrea's place. Dennis, Shea and Andrea went up to see Grandma Swearingen while I visited with Melissa. It was a late night and no pictures for you all. I know can you believe the camera got left somewhere and no pictures jumped on it?!

July 25th Eugene meeting Zoe!!

We got up to Eugene and Kendra had supper all ready for us. The kids loved it! Sweet corn and strawberry shortcake! Matthew ate corn for supper, bedtime snack and breakfast as he loves it so very much!


And here she is Miss Zoe!! And of course this is Kendra who looked amazing for 4 weeks after having a baby! And the painting behind her is painted by Kendra. So many people have asked who did the art. Kendra did it her own self!! Looks awsome as always Kendra!
Dennis snapped a shot off over his shoulder to finally get a good shot of Pat as he hides from the camera! Thanks for letting us come stay with you for a day guys we loved seeing your little Zoe and she is amazing just like the 2 of you!

Rogue Gorge July 25th

Here are the kids along with Alex, Jennifer and Tim's son at the sign for the Rogue Gorge. I went to college with Jennifer in Monmouth Oregon.






Here are a few shots of the river. It is so very beautiful. And the pictures will be on our wall here at home. That is as soon as they are printed!! Yea we still need to get it done. But swim lessons are done now and the kids start school Tuesday so I will have a lot more time to get it done!