Last week we went to Rockaway Beach on the Oregon Coast. We left 95 degrees and drove into the clouds, wind and cooler temperatures.

I could not believe the kids went out into the water. I barely got my toes wet and that was enough.

What a fun day. The cool weather followed us eastward as we drove home, where we were welcomed my a much cooler house.

We made personal pizzas the other day. This crust recipe came from a friend and is so easy, I love it! The kids were so excited to make their own. In the past when we make pizza, I make 2 using a box mix. This was so much easier. While eating Michelle exclaimed, "I make the best pizza ever!"

Pizza Crust Recipe

2 c hot water

2 T yeast

Let sit for a few minutes. Add:

2 t sugar

2 t salt

4 t olive oil

5 c flour (I substituted 1 cup with whole wheat flour!)

Mix it together. Get out your rolling pin and pizza toppings. Pull off tennis ball size lumps and let your kids go to town. (See easy, you don't have to let it raise!) Bake 450 for 10min.

It's not gourmet, it's not authentic, but we enjoyed it.

Brand New Pencils, Brand New Books

Ah, the smell of fresh pencils. Aren't these neat?

The kids have been wanting to buy school supplies ever since they saw workers unpacking them at the local W-mart. Today was the day and our bill was HUGE! We bought $10 worth of homework supplies (glue, markers, pencils) the rest was class supplies- yikes!

Some of our purchases: 12 dozen pencils, 13 glue sticks, 14 folders, tissues, paper plates, napkins, zip-lock bags, 2 reams copy paper.

At the end of the school year I try to box up things that are still usable like scissors and rulers. But this year I wasn't as organized. I think we bought enough supplies to outfit several small countries.

I still have some shopping left, a small simple calculator for Abby, lunchboxes and jeans. For some reason we keep outgrowing them.

Are your class lists as huge? Next year we will have 4 in school. Any bets on what we'll spend then?

A Fishing Story

We went fishing several times to a nearby reservoir. This little reservoir is only about 20 minutes away, but in all the years I have been here, I have never actually seen it. We have driven by, but never stopped. Back in May my husband and sister-in-law bought fishing licenses and not wanting to waste them, we have been fishing several times. The lake is stocked with fish each spring, so they aren't very big trout, but they are very tasty. The kids seem to enjoy it for a while, and then their attention wavers and they go exploring. When it is not raining, or too windy, it can be really fun. These photos are from the first time I was able to go.

Mt. Hood in the far background.

Peter seems to be the only one afraid of worms.

Cristine caught a ladybug.

Rick has had a great time. There were several evenings where we were huddling in the car, trying to warm up while Rick was trying to catch one more fish. I didn't get any photos of the fish, but you wouldn't have believed how big they were. They were 'this' big, and we caught lots. Actually, they were only about 6-8 inches long and my photo of them wasn't that great.

Rick's mom, Hana, passed away June 21. The photos from my nephew's wedding have become very special. We have really missed Grammy, what a sweet, fun lady!

April and May

We got to go to Seattle to Rick's nephews wedding. It was cold and rainy as the couple walked out of the temple. Then the sun broke through the clouds and made picture taking more enjoyable.

When I was young, on a family vacation, my parents took us to the Seattle Temple. We spent an afternoon walking around it, enjoying the feeling of peace, the beautiful landscaping and the fun statues. While we were inside for the sealing, our kids walked around outside. They made movies with their i-pods of the beautiful grounds. The movies are funny, I think they were trying to see how long of a movie they could make. At times I think they forgot they were filming, the picture is sideways, upside down etc.

I am grateful that our children were able to be there with us. I am also proud and excited for Cody and Amy, thank you for setting such a great example for our kids!

Abby is now 11! Can you believe it? I can't believe how grown up she is, she is just beautiful. She is very excited for Middle School. Choosing which electives she wanted was really hard. I cannot believe how many different choices she had. Mountain Biking, Asian Art, Sign Language, Climbing Wall, Wind Sports, Newspaper, Oceanography, Band, French, Spanish, plus many many more. I think we had all of 5 choices.

Peter is now 9. He is very excited about the upcoming Cub Scout camp.

He asked for a Pikachu cake. Pikachu, Dinosaurs and Dragons are his favorite things.

A Month in Photos

We started April with Easter and Michelle's 7th birthday. Both on the same day-How exciting is that?


Forest was so excited to help Michelle celebrate! When he saw the presents he came running in saying he was ready to unwrap his gifts.

We had our egg hunt in the back yard The kids were so fun to watch as they ran around looking for eggs.

Peter showing off his loot.

Forest was so cute. When most of the eggs were found, the kids walked in front of Forest hiding (really more like dropping) eggs quickly so he could find more.

Hey Crissy, I spy a blue egg just to your right!

Being the oldest and fastest has it's perks, Abby found the golden egg, loaded with spare change.

Peter's class went on a fun field trip to OMSI. Cristine and I met up with them there. This is Sampson, the super cool dinosaur. Peter was in heaven looking at the cool fossils. We need to take a family trip here!

These next photos were taken Sunday. The orchard is almost in full bloom. It is just beautiful right now!

I tried to get the kids to pose for me. Instead of a nice group of photos, the kids were having way too much fun joking around.

Michelle finally lost one of her top teeth. She didn't want anyone to pull it. It was so loose I thought she might swallow it.

I didn't get any photos from Saturday. But we got to spend the day with Rick's nephew Michael his wife Christina and their fun 11 year old son, Jacob. We haven't seen Mike is so long it was really fun to catch up. The kids weren't too excited about their visit until I mentioned they had a son. I wasn't sure how old he was, the kids decided that as long as he was able to walk and talk they would have fun. I think they were especially pleased when they realized he was old enough to play with. We are looking forward to many more fun visits!

With April not quite over, we are looking forward to many more fun activities.

Soup's On

Rick's mom has eating a lot of soup lately. She likes that it warms her up and is easy to eat. Usually the meat is soft enough that she can chew it. I have been making lots of different soups: beef with veggies, chicken corn chowder, chicken noodle, Swiss potato cheese soup, chicken stew, beef stew, clam chowder.....We have also been buying good soups from restaurants, opening canned soup and adding water to dry packets.

I like that many of the soups I've been making can be cooked in the crock pot. But I'm getting a bit burnt out, so are my kids. Nothing sounds better to me right now than a big juicy steak. Plus I'm running out of recipes. What is your favorite soup recipe?

A Crafty Fun Time

We got into the Valentine Spirit by making several fun crafts. We even had a few friends over for a craft party. The first 3 pictures are the things we made on our own. The last 3 pictures are from our crafting party. I'll try to give some quick explanations in case you may want to try some. Cristine's Valentine's all packed up, ready for school.

These are yummy pretzel sticks dipped in melted chocolate. After dipping, we carefully placed them on a parchment lined cookie sheet where sprinkles were dumped on top. I sampled quite a few and each time decided they were really tasty. We put 4-5 in cute little bags to give to the teachers. We made enough that I was able to Valentine's to my co-workers.

I saw these lolly pops on a blog, somewhere. After Christmas I found small candy canes on clearance so I bought several boxes. After carefully opening the packages we placed them on a lightly sprayed cookie sheet and baked them at 250 for 5 minutes. After removed from the oven we placed the stick and with two table knives squished the melted candy cane onto the stick. I then put it back into the oven for 2 minutes and squished the candy cane onto the stick again. After they cooled we placed them in cute bags for our friends. These were very fragile and many broken by the time we finished bagging them up.

Cupcake decorating and pink party trail mix.

Marbled paper made with shaving cream. We have made these several times and they are always fun. Spray shaving cream into a cookie sheet. Drip paint into the shaving cream. We use ink pad ink (not sure of the real name of the stuff, but it works). Use hands to lightly swirl the paint. Gloves would have been a good idea since we all ended up with purple hands. Lay your paper and top and lightly pat in down. Pull it up and with a spatula scrape off the shaving cream. Let the papers dry. Repeat. Washing the cookie sheets off outside would have been helpful too. Cut paper into heart shapes and make Valentine's.

Heart shaped crayons. Abby collected broken crayons from her classmates. We put the broken pieces into a silicone heart shaped baking thing. I placed it on a small cookie sheet and put it in the toaster oven. I set the timer for 10 minutes. I checked on them every few minutes. When the crayons looked mostly melted I turned off the toaster oven and let them sit in the warm oven. Since these were part of our party favors and I needed them to cool quickly I put them in the freezer to speed up the cooling process.

We had a lot of fun. The girls and their friends all got along well and they seemed to enjoy the crafts. We may have to try this again closer to Easter.