Stake Service Project

On Saturday we joined with 500 members of our stake to participate in a celebration for Oregon as well as a commemoration for the Pioneer day. We all pitched in to do some service! It took place at the Tillamook Forestry Center--which made it nice that it wasn't too far away! Everyone was assigned to a group. Our group pulled invasive weeds and other plants. Other groups worked on trails, spread bark, painted benches, some ladies quilted. Following the service project we had a BBQ and played pioneer games. We checked out the Forestry Center since this was Nate's first time here (my third time!) and watched a movie on forest fires. It was a fun but very VERY hot day! It felt good when we arrived back to Tillamook and had a cool breeze! I guess I can't complain now, the weather is perfect here!

Ty, Mara, and Nate climbed to the top of the look out tower.

Ty and Mara taking a rest in the shade!
Hey little boy! Caleb just chilled out while the rest of us worked!

Mara playing in the rocks with the other kids!

Nate working on pulling weeds!

Ty was such a great helper! He is such a good worker! He pitched right in and helped pull weeds.

Caleb taking break and eating some food! He's chewing on a nice cold carrot! Yum!

Sleepover!

Last night for our young women activity we went on a over night camping trip! Yes, that's right Caleb and I spent the night with a bunch of rowdy teenage girls! It was so fun! We really did have a good time. I was quite worried how Caleb would do especially since the young women president would be in the tent with Caleb and I. He usually does so well at night especially camping but lately he's been crying at night due to teething (I think?!)
So anyway he did okay during the evening was super tired by bedtime and just crashed around 8:00. While he slept I had so much fun playing with my girls! We played ghosts in the graveyard, mafia, catchphrase, and just sat around the campfire laughing and having a good time. While mama played Caleb kept on sleeping! That's right--he slept the entire night! He did AWESOME! In fact the young women went to sleep before the leaders and Tammy and I stayed up talking and giggling most of the night! Oh how fun to have a sleepover with a friend!In the morning Caleb woke up so refreshed and happy! He was all smiles and the life of the party! You are one fun little boy to have around Caleb! Thanks for being a trooper!

.....MEANWHILE back home...

How did Ty and Mara do with their daddy? SUPER! That's because they have the best dad in the world! They too had their own little campout in the living room! The pulled out their sleeping bags and all slept together on the living room floor! I don't know who slept better Caleb and Mama on the blow up matress in a tent or daddy and the kids on the floor at home!! Oh we all had a good time!

Look what Ty can do!

Another BIG accomplishment for TY--riding a bike! Nate and I have been working with him trying to teach him how to ride a bigger bike without training wheels, but he just wasn't getting it. I finally said enough's enough! This kid could ride this small bike if it didn't have training wheels. So I took them off and sure enough he got it just like that! Now he is cruisen around like a big kid! Nate took the kids over to the high school track last night to let Ty practice riding on a smooth, flat, wide surfice, he did awesome! Nate said Ty went around and around and lapped him several times! Watch out residents of Tillamook Ty is on the loose and the side walks could no longer be safe. Go Ty Go! Ride Ty ride!

A half a year!

I am not kidding when I say time flies by too quickly--my baby turns 6 months today! What a sweet little boy he is! Caleb is sure one loved little guy! He is constantly being smothered with kisses, hugs, pats, rubs, and tickles!

Caleb stats for 6 months are:

• Height: 27 inches
• Weight: 17 lbs 14 .5 oz
• Head Circumference: 17 inches
• Teeth: 4 on the bottom! ouch!
• And a hole lot of cuteness and chubs!

Caleb is between the 50-75 percentile for both height and weight. Perfect little boy!


Ty-----------Caleb

My boyz!

Caleb has been called a lot of things in his short little life:

• Ca-ub---Mara
  
• Cabe---grandma Mimi
  
• caterpillar---daddy
  
• inch worm---daddy
• fruit bat---daddy, because he likes to be upside down
  
• Calebee---Ty
• my little boy---Mama
• chunky--Ty calls him this well...it isn't very nice but he is rather chubs!
  
• buddy---Ty because they are 'best buds'

Caleb started solids about a month ago. So far he isn't in love with food yet, but doesn't complain when it is offered! He has tried rice cereal, oatmeal, squash, and sweet potatoes! Yummy in the tummy!

Peacemaker

This morning at breakfast we read a story from The Friend on being a peacemaker. Nate was practicing the piano and just happened to be playing 'Master the Tempest is Raging' (peace be still, peace be still!) and we then practiced Ty's scripture he was suppose to say in Primary "And ye will not have a mind to injure one another, but to live peaceably" all these things had to do with PEACE! So we talked about what peace was and how we can be peacemakers and this morning I had the cutest little peacemakers in my home while I was getting ready for church! It was BLISS! Oh how I felt the spirit while my children played so nicely and listened to primary songs! It was great. A little while later Ty came in and said, "Mama, Mara isn't being a peacemaker, she's being a hurtmaker. She hurt my arm!" Well, it was wonderful while it lasted and after a quick reminder to Mara about being nice and a peacemaker she was all set to try it again! Oh I love these sweet, sweet little cherubs!

Dory Days

Enjoy the sunshine & go play or work on projects around the house? Hmmm! That is the question we ask ourselves every Saturday! We decided to do both! We started our day down in Pacific City for the 50th annual Dory Day celebration! We watched the Dory boats come onto the shore from out in the ocean, we also took a look at many of the boats on display.

Oh what fun it was to be at Cape Kiwanda on a beautiful day!

We enjoyed the parade--the kids loved chasing after all the candy the most!

No, Mara isn't having a bad hairday! It was just super windy!

One of the dory boats in the parade--anyone who had a dory boat was in the parade! We also saw Smokey Bear, clowns, bikers, Forest Service rig, you name it! It was quite the parade for a small town!

Instead of candy being thrown from the float--someone threw flowers. Usually Mara loves smelling flowers but decided to be grumpy instead! It's time to go home for nap!

Usually parades have lots of floats--nope this parade only had boats!

Date Night!

The other night Nate came home from work and said, "E, I've made a decision about something, we need to go on a date once a month." I just started to laugh and said "Good! I'm glad you agree! We have a date planned already for Friday!" My friend Jaclyn asked if we could do a baby-sitting swap for date nights! What a brilliant idea! We dropped of Ty & Mara and headed to the golf course! It was a lot of fun. What a neat mini golf course! Who knew Tillamook could have such a great place to play golf--we had no idea! It wasn't like the typical mini golf courses we've seen with fake AstroTurf and little haunted houses and lighthouses---no this was close to the real thing! It was awesome!

Nate kicked my can on the mini golf. He gave me every opportunity to win by saying "oh the first half was just a practice! Now we'll start." or "The one who wins the next three holes takes it all." Nate still won that one. Finally on the last hole. "Winner takes all." Again Nate won! But who really cares about the score?!

It was just so nice to be with my best friend, and have a good time just us together--well, Caleb did come along for the ride, but mostly hung out in the stroller as the ball boy!Who knew Nate was good at golf? He's amazing and good at everything he does!

Thanks again Jaclyn for watching our kiddos! We are excited to watch your girls in a couple weeks while you and Jeff get out to play!

Happiness

Whether it was our lesson last night for FHE on happiness or the beautiful sun shiny day today I don't know, but I do know that we were all very hap-hap-happy today and it felt wonderful! Can't you tell from our happy faces:

This month for Book Club we read the The Hiding Place--what a sad and depressing but wonderful and inspiring book! It was good for me to read this story about the war and concentration camp. I feel so much more gratitude for all that I have and blessed for my life as it is. This book had many good quotes in it but one of my favorites was:

"Happiness isn't something that depends on our surroundings, it's something we make inside ourselves." (The Hiding Place, Corrie ten Boom)

So why does it seem that we'll be happy when...or we'll be happy if...or whether or not it's sunny? I'm not quite sure! But today here are just a few things that brought me happiness:

• Story time at the library
  
• Watching Ty play with a friend at the park
• Making cookies with Ty (even when he dropped an egg on the floor! We both laughed about it!)
• Visiting Nate at work and taking him cookies
• Feeding the fish at the fish hatchery
• Getting wet and slobbery smooches from my baby--Caleb that is!
  
• Hearing my three children giggle and laugh together as I did the dishes
• Wishing my brother a happy birthday

3...2...1...BLAST OFF!!!

Last week the mailman delivered Ty a package from his Uncle Colin & Aunt Trish. When he opened it up he found PVC pipes in a box (and some candy!) What was a 5 year old to do with white plumbing pipes? Make a bottle rocket launcher! Yay! Today while Mara and Caleb took a nap Ty and I put together the bottle rocket. We had a lot of fun launching it off! Thank you so much Colin and Trish for a great birthday present!

I got to thinking all day 'How can I incorporate a bottle rocket into our FHE lesson tonight?' I don't know if it's the cloudy weather and rain we've been having this week or just feeling a bit down, but I felt like we needed to have a lesson on happiness. We began with a happy song of 'If you're happy and you know it...' Our lesson was on 'Blast Off to Happiness' we talked about 10 things we can do as a family to feel more happiness. We used a little rocket to help us blast off each time we named something. Then we all went outside and watched the rocket fly!

I felt so much better after Family Home Evening tonight. I was more uplifted and just felt happy. I'm grateful for such a special night each week to be a family and feel the spirit and teach my children the gospel.

Launch #1

Oops! We had to work out a few technical difficulties!

Launch #2


Houston--we have a problem! After the second launch our waterbottle landed on the roof! Ty didn't think his mom could get it down and thought we had to wait for daddy to come home! Oh no--I had an idea! I climbed up on a ladder held the hose directly at the waterbottle while Ty turned on the water full blast! It worked!
Let's try it one more time!!

Launch #3

A perfect launch! What fun!

Thanks mom for the FHE treat! Eclairs sure make me happy!

Caleb--why aren't you happy? Don't you like squash?

'Okay--I guess it's not too bad!'

'Are you laughing at me? Do I have something on my face?'

We love our grandmas!

"What children need most are the essentials that Grandmothers provide in abundance. They give unconditional love, kindness, patience, humor, comfort, lessons in life. And, most importantly, cookies." ~Rudolph Giuliani
Ty, Mara, and Caleb are sure lucky to have such wonderful grandma's! We had a great time with Grandma Lewis this past weekend. It was much too short but we are glad she would come celebrate Ty's birthday with us. We are counting down the days and can hardly wait for Grandma Mimi to come visit in August. What would life be like without grandmas? A pretty sad and lonely life! We are grateful for cell phones, blogs, web-cams and airplanes which have allowed us to see and keep in touch better with our grandparents. We wish we lived closer to them and could see them more often, but for now we will do the best we can to send our love from Oregon. We love you Grandma Lewis and Grandma Mimi!! Hugs & Kisses!

A few pictures from our day at the beach with grandma:

Dinosaurs and Dollies

Our little Ty-Rex


Ty is our little paleontologist! Who knew a kid could love dinosaurs so much? For Ty's birthday he received a dinosaur kit that included a big solid rock with dinosaur bones inside. He had to dig, and dig, and dig until he found each bone.






















He was such a hard worker! He just loved digging for bones! Grandma asked him if he wanted to take a break and read some stories. He said okay, but when they were almost through with the story he said "Are we done yet grandma? I want to finish digging!"



































Every time he found a new bone he was so excited! "Hurry Grandma come see! I found another bone!"













Next he had to put the bones together and make the T-rex. He had a little help putting them together, but he mostly was able to do it himself!














Then he painted it! What a great little kit! He spent HOURS on this little project!

























The finished product! Wow! What a cool dinosaur! Way to go Ty!








Princess Ann Dolly
As for our little sweetie--she loves playing with dolls! She definitely doesn't get that from her mother, but I'm glad she is a little girly and enjoys playing dollies! She loves to feed (and nurse) them! She takes them for walks, changes their diapers, and puts them down for a nap! Basically everything I do to Caleb-she does to her doll! She has two dolls: one is named Baby, the other is Samanino--a name Ty gave her and it stuck!



The other thing Mara loves is playing with her baby brother! She just can't get enough of baby Ca-ub. This video is a riot!