NEWS

It all began like an ordinary Wednesday...

Then I noticed a person putting an envelope on our door. I didn't think much about it.  I knew it was from the rental company and I figured it was just a reminder that our lease was coming to an end soon and we needed to re-sign for another year.  But then I opened the envelope and it said that we needed to be out of our house in two months. I guess the owner wants to fix up this old house and get it ready for sale. :(
   So now we are on the search for a new place to live.  Will still has one more year before getting his social work license.  We don't want to buy anything for just a year (the wise old Internet said it was only financially profitable to buy a house if you can live there for 5 years).  So we are looking for another house to rent.  I really don't want to live in an apartment if we can help it.  I have gotten use to having a yard.  That limits our options but I am praying that we find a good place that will be good for our family.  We will keep you updated on any address changes.

Family Expo

So I remember going to something called the Family Affair as a kid.  We always thought it was awesome because you got to see animals and make gak and all the fun kid things.  And there was always a fire house where kids can enter and learn about fire prevention and fire safety.  Anyway, I heard about the Family Expo down in Pasco last weekend and we decided to go.  The kids had a blast.

This is the biggest tire ever.  The girls only look a little upset about being inside the tire because we stopped their coloring.  There was a lot of coloring at this event,

We ran into the Michelin marshmallow man.  There were a lot of people dressed up.  Technically, we could have dressed up the kids.  But that was too much work when coming from Umatilla.

The girls playing inside a little toy castle.  Only Megan fell for the toy food and tried to take a bite of the apple.

Still inside the castle.

This is homemade playdough that was super soft and edible.  It also smelled wonderful - watermelon, lemon, root beer.  It cost a lot of money though and we actually have a lot of playdough.  But the kids still thought it was fun.  (And I don't think Megan ate any of it).

So the huge trac center was filled with booths that had informational pamphlets for adults and fun activities for the kids to do.  I know it was all a ploy to get us to buy things or sign up for things, but we just kept telling people that we lived all the way in Umatilla and it would be too far to sign up for things. 

The girls made a yoda mask.  Will went and saw the new Star Wars movie after the family expo.  I think he had fun.

Lots and lots of princesses.  I think Elsa was happy to be holding a baby.

Spinning for prizes.  The girls got lots of candy and stickers and toothbrushes and small toys.  Whitney even won a shirt and she was very excited about that.

And we looked at this neat model train for awhile.  We were there for about 2 1/2 hours and still didn't get to see everything, but everyone was getting a little tired and grouchy.  So we decided to make a pit stop to Grandma's house.  Anyway, it was a fun day.

Two Months

I cannot believe Adam is already two months old.  How does time go so quickly?  At his two month appointment, Adam was 12 lbs. 9 oz. and 24 inches long.  So he is a big baby.  We already had to change him to size two diapers and 3-6 month clothes.  Here are some random cute pictures of my cute baby boy.

We like to put him in the corner of the couch so Adam can look out and see what is happening.

Look who has learned how to smile.  He is even cuter than that alligator on his shirt.

Another smile.  Most of the time, I can get Adam to smile at me just by giving him extra big smiles.

Of course, not all the time.  There is the occasional screaming fits.  He wasn't too sure about this bumbo business.

Eventually fell asleep.  That looks so uncomfortable, but all of my kids would quickly fall asleep in the bumbo.  Weird.

It is important that a sleeping baby have a little dog to hold.

The girls love watching him.  

In other news, Whitney recently lost a tooth.  I wasn't home at this occurrence and I guess she wasn't thrilled to get a picture taken.  But she was happy about getting a dollar from the tooth fairy.  I can't believe my baby is growing up and getting adult teeth and everything.

For some reason, all the blankets made it into the hallway.  The next day was a holiday so we decided to let the kids sleep out in the living room.  They were super excited for this adventure.  Nothing quite like sleeping on the floor to make a kid happy.  I slept on the couch to make sure nothing crazy happened.

And the girls pretending to be pregnant.  Obviously, this game has been happening more lately.  Aren't they cute?  I just love being a mom.

A Very Chocolate Party

We celebrated Rachel's birthday by having a big chocolate party (and it was very chocolaty).

It is a bit dark but we made a Happy Birthday sign for Rachel. And then the kids decorated it all crazy.  If you squint a bit, you might see that it says 'Happy Birthday'.

At the beginning of the party while we were waiting, we let the kids color a design for their own chocolate bar.

You can't really tell, but this is our chocolate hunt.  I hid like 150 pieces of candy all over and the kids had a blast.  There can never be too much chocolate.

This was a candy bar matching game.  (Not all the candy bars were chocolate though.   Shh...don't tell. The kids didn't seem to notice).  It is hard to find a variety of chocolate bars that aren't king size.

The kids split into two teams and rolled dice to try to get to eat some chocolate.  They had to use a knife and fork to eat it.

Poor Megan could never roll a six.  At the end we just let her eat some chocolate.

This whipping cream game was really fun to watch.  I hid about 50 mnms into each tub of whipped cream and the kids were suppose to find it.  Technically they were suppose to use their mouths, but most ended up using their hands after not very long.  They all got super messy and the whipped cream turned a shade of gray.

We made the mistake of letting all the kids work on their puzzles at the table.  So some of the pieces got a little mixed and made it more challenging.  After they finished their puzzles, they got to have their candy bars.

Then it was time for lunch.  I cooked some pizza and peeled some oranges (that was the healthy part).  We also let the kids dip things into melted chocolate.  Pretzels dipped into melted almond bark seemed to be the favorite.

Singing Happy Birthday; we used brownies instead of cake.

And the kids got to decorate their brownies.  I think the kids liked decorating their brownies more than eating them.  But oh well.

And baby Adam spent most of the time with Grandpa.  He was fascinated with Grandpa's Seahawks sweatshirt.

Not at the party but an awfully cute bunch of kids.

The party was great.  I get a little break until doing a Scooby Doo themed party for Whitney in March.  

New Years Celebrations

So Will took New Years Eve off from work and we decided to go somewhere fun as a family.  There isn't a lot of options around here for fun family time, but we picked going to the bounce house place in Hermiston.  We have been there one other time when Megan was a baby.

There were a fair amount of kids there, probably because it was school break.  But our girls got this bounce house to themselves for awhile.  I think that is how they prefer it.

Whitney climbing up the pirate ship bounce house.  It took Rachel and Megan a little longer, but they learned how to climb up those funny steps eventually.

Will encouraging.

Whitney on the rope swing.  This is the one that I think would be fun.  Swing for awhile and then just drop down on your back.

We had to wait and wait for the air hockey table, but the girls finally got a turn.  Whitney has played air hockey on some of her daddy daughter dates, so she is getting pretty good.  Rachel seemed to like it too.

And we put Adam on a slide.  He didn't seem to care or notice what was happening.  He is a pretty laid back baby.  Everyone tells us how calm he is and he really is, so that is most fortunate.

For New Years Eve evening there was a stake family dance.  We were one of the first ones there, so it only felt a little awkward to get on the gym floor and start dancing by ourselves.  

But we don't mind being a little awkward.  The children outnumber us so we have to take turns on who gets to hold whose hand and all that.  But it was never Will's and my turn to dance together. Oh well, maybe someday.

Eventually more people showed up.  This is Megan's friend, Asher, the little boy I use to babysit.  She was trying to give him a hug and he was trying to avoid it.  It was cute.

The stake celebration ended at 9:00, so we came home and watched a movie that we got for Christmas.  Can you guess what it was from the screen?  

Anyway, it was a fun day.  (And I got my New Years kiss).  Hopefully we will have a fabulous 2016!