Long Overdue

The last six weeks or so have been very crazy, sad, busy, and fun around here. I haven't done a real post on here in all that time. I am taking the time tonight to give you a quick update through pictures and captions. Here you go:

Logan and Jackson's school has Fall and Spring Concerts. Your grade determines which you participate in. This year, Jackson was in the Fall Concert. It was a tribute to our Veterans!

Singing with his classmates.

Everyone dressed in their red, white, and blue finery. Keira was no exception...Here you see her very first ever piggie tails!!

The day after Thanksgiving is the kick off to the holidays in our town. We attended the annual bridge lighting with the kids. There are hot drinks, treats, singing, a parade, lights, and this year FIREWORKS! The kids sort of cooperated to have their picture by the vintage firetruck:P

The beautiful bridge. Afterwards we went to dinner with Christa, Ruben, Mariah, Vincent and Ruben's nephew Jay, his fiancee Lauren, and their daughter Bethany.

Life was extra busy this year due to our family's participation in our church Christmas program. The boys are in it every year...but this year Keira had a special role. I volunteered to help with costume changes, etc. Well, the director decided to have Christa and I help her teach the kids the songs/dances. That ended up being us doing (I think) 7 songs between us. Then the director went on vacation the week before the program...Leaving Mom, Christa, and I in charge of the kids. Then, having decided to learn to sew, I decided to make Keira's costume. Yes...I'm nuts.

Tevyn, Logan, and Jackson singing one of their "solos." Jackson had a speaking part, plus the boys had 3 or 4 "solos." Apparently they think they can count on our family...go figure. :P

Yup...you're seeing right. The toddlers did the Nativity this year. Keira was a sweet Mary to her baby Jesus:) So in addition to creating Keira's costume, I ended up somehow making the two shepherd costumes, also. I say create, because I had to make my own pattern. Thankfully someone donated the fabric to me.

Casey in his shepherd costume.

Keira as Mary. What do you think? I did these after only having been sewing for about three weeks...Thanks Kimmie for teaching me on that other project!

Last night after Keira and I went grocery shopping, we ran home to pick the "boys" up. Our friends Mel and Dave were running a neighborhood 5K. It was a nighttime "Tour de Lights." We raced over to snap some pictures, and cheer them at the finish. Apparently it didn't end up being a full 5K. But they had fun anyway:) In June Mel, another friend Charity, and I are running in the Race for the Cure Seattle. Which means I need to start running again:P Mel is a super friend, and a GREAT runner. She is preparing for multiple races this year including some full and half marathons! She has her own blog called Tall Mom on the Run...check it out!

Mel and Dave at the finish:) Aren't they cute?!

So there you have it folks. And this is just the stuff I have pictures of! Hope you enjoyed this little update. We had another shooting of police officers here last night. This makes three officer shootings in Western WA in the last seven weeks. These deputies were actually coworkers of my dad. Please say a prayer for them, and their families, as they fight for their lives.

Pictures

We went and had family photos done recently. Two weekends in a row to be exact. The first was just our kids. We like to take them for their fall pictures/Keira's birthday pictures in November every year. The next weekend, we went with the whole family for pictures. Christa and Ruben had his kids for Thanksgiving, so we had to take advantage of everyone being together! Here are a few of the pictures for your viewing pleasure:)

"Say cheese Keira!"

8.5

6.5

2

this picture just makes me smile:)

Wordless Wednesday

Wordless Wednesday....

Okay...wordless until later. :)

A Baby No More....

We celebrated Keira's birthday with a family dinner tonight. Grammi, Papa, Uncle Ruben and Auntie ReeRee joined us for pizza, salad, and cupcakes from Indulge (which just moved to Sumner, yay!). Tomorrow we are having a party at daycare with her friends there, and on Saturday we will host our friends and some of their kids here. Wow...that's three days of celebrating. What a lucky little girl:)

The birthday girl with a pizza face:)

Mmmmm...cupcakes:)

Blowin' out the candle (the assist from Daddy isn't on camera)

Can you guess what Grammi and Papa call her?

Christa says this was the best money she ever spent.

She's officially a toddler folks...I don't know if I can take it. All around me people are popping out babies again, and Tom says...NO MORE! Don't get me wrong, in my head I know we're done, but in my heart I'm ready for another. My baby turned two today:( I need another cupcake.

Halloween

We had an interesting evening on Halloween this year. We actually didn't make it home until after 11pm on Saturday. "Why?" you ask. Well, we decided to run all over Western Washington this year, and consequently were caught in traffic from two car accidents. Needless to say we were exhausted the next morning. Plus, Keira got sick in the night. My mom is giving me a hard time about the junk she ate...but I'm not feeling very well myself right now, so I choose to believe she had a little bug:) Besides three suckers and one piece of candy isn't that much, right?! I guess if you top that with Sonic for dinner...I STILL choose to say bug:P The trouble is that she's too dang cute, and everyone wants to give her what she wants! Tom is adamant that we won't be doing so much "visiting" next year. But, it was sure fun to see everyone's face when they saw the kids in their costumes! Here are the pictures for you to enjoy.

Jackson's grumpy "don't take my pic" face...while the other two say, "Cheese."

The "other" local high school (Bonney Lake) had a great event put on by a local church. Lots of games, candy, bounce houses, and even pony rides. We stayed nice and dry:)

Keira plays "putt putt" for candy.

Tall Mom on the Run's Giveaway!!!

Our good friend Melanie is hosting a giveaway on her running blog this week...Please be sure to check it out. It's an amazing prize, and she's an amazing person! Here's the info:

BROOKS FOR HER GIVEAWAY:

Brooks created the Brooks For Her (BFH) collection to help support the fight against breast cancer. For each BFH piece purchased from March through December 2009, Brooks will donate 6.25% of the suggested retail price to three organizations that research and support those affected by breast cancer: The Young Survival Coalition, Making Memories Breast Cancer Foundation, and Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, earmarked for breast cancer research. Your vote, between March 1, and December 31, 2009, determines how much of the total donation each group gets. No purchase necessary to vote. Learn more about the three selected charities Learn more about how BFH works See the Brooks For Her collection


To introduce you to the Brooks for Her Collection the wonderful people at Brooks are hosting this amazing Giveaway. THANK YOU BROOKS!!!

WHAT WILL YOU WIN???

Brooks for her Jacket

(Chose your size S, M, L, or XL)

• Function: Pink-and-white technical zip-up with brushed interior and retro track-jacket style will likely become your favorite performance "sweatshirt." Even better, your purchase of this item helps support those affected by breast cancer.


• Fabric: Equilibrium Knit: 100% polyester


• Fit: Semi-Fitted


• Features & Benefits:
  Zippered side pockets store essentials
  Ready to carry your MP3 player
  Embroidered pink emblem on front; white star on back
  

HOW DO YOU ENTER:

1. (Required Please) Visit the Brooks for Her Collection website HERE tell me, and Brooks, which products you are interested in and/or what you would like to see in the future. Leave a comment.

2. (Required) Contest open to Tall Mom Bloggy Pack Members only.. If you are a Follower, you are in luck, if not click to Follow. If you do not have a Blog please email me and I will comment on your behalf. I realize there are many readers who do not have Blogs and I do not want to leave you out. (tallmomontherun at hotmail dot com)..

BONUS ENTRIES:

3. You can earn 10 entries if you purchase an item in the the Brooks For Her Collection. If you buy more than one item, you get 10 points for each. This is on your honor, please let me know what you bought in a comment and I will credit the POINTS.

4. If you have run/walked/sponsored/donated/volunteered at a Race for the Cure event, or any event supporting Breast Cancer Awareness, please let me know which event Name, Date, State, etc. You will receive 3 points for each event.

5. SHARE: Post a link to this Giveaway including the pictures and details about the Brooks for Her Collection and you will get 3 points. Leave a Comment with the link. (If you post on more than one Blog you will get points for each and if you mention the Giveaway in more than one post on your Blog, you will get 3 points for each mention. Add up your points and let me know.)

6. Tell me about how you plan to Go Pink in the year to come. Leave a comment 1 point.

• CONTEST ENDS ON Sunday November 1st at 3:33PM. Winner will be announced on Monday November 2nd.

Many will enter one will WIN.. Happy Commenting..

The Pumpkin Palace

Yesterday we made our annual pilgrimage to Scholtz Farm's Pumpkin Palace in Orting, WA. We've been going here as long as I can remember. We often visit other patches with friends, but keep coming back. It's not the fanciest patch, with special themes every year. It's also not the patch with the most stuff to do. But it's the patch that we feel comfortable letting the kids run wild at, never have to worry about pumpkins in standing water, and don't have to pay a fortune just to GET IN! Hope you enjoy the pictures of our visit this year:)

Jackson thinks he's cool :)

Little Logan and Big Logan as they are known

Keira hitches a ride

Pretty pumpkins!

Preschoolers and Science

So for those of you who don't know, I teach preschool two days a week. Now, it's only four kids...and it's at our daycare...but it's great. One of the nice things is that since I actually have the kids all day, five days a week, we can start things in class that might take us longer than actual "class time." Most of these things involve our science experiments. Here is one that I thought I'd share with you all. We are learning about farm animals, and this ties in great with conversations about where food comes from. It is very easy, but super fun for the kids.

To start you will need:

whipping cream, a jar or container with lid, spoon, bread or crackers

Next:

add cream (we only used about half the carton) and spoon

Then:

Have kids shake-a shake-a (put back in fridge when gets warm)

And:

Repeat!! Do this until it becomes fairly solid (it won't be solid like you usually see...and it won't be yellow).

Finally:

Enjoy!!!

We tied this in by talking about how cows eat grass and hay, from this they make milk, from milk we get cream, and we made butter from that cream today!!! They were super excited, and everyone got a chance to shake the container. Here is one of the crafts we accompanied the "experiment" with:



Now try this with your kids:) I promise, they'll love it...and the butter's pretty good! (And isn't that craft cute?!)

My handiwork...and a beautiful surprise!

So for fun, and to earn a little money, I make cards. My aunt has a flower shop on Whidbey Island and she sells them in her shop. I also make them for friends and family when they ask. I had been getting a lot of requests for Autumn and Halloween cards, so instead of taking orders this time, I made up about 50 cards. I sent around 20 cards to my aunt for her shop, and the others are "hanging out" in the entry of my mom's house. They are a hit, and are going fast:) I took a couple of pictures of them to share with you all. I have been thinking about starting a shop on ETSY to sell them, so let me know what you think.

Halloween...Please excuse the pictures, I know the quality isn't great.

Autumn...Again, please excuse the fuzziness.

I am currently selling them for $3.50 each or 5 for $15. I have been charging $4 for special orders. What do you all think?

What a BEAUTIFUL surprise!

For the last week, one of our daycare families has been telling us with a sly smile on their faces, that they have a surprise for us. Imagine our faces when the grandma walked in today with two of these:

Isn't it beautiful?!

Can you tell from the picture that it's handblown glass? Look at the craftsmanship! We are blown away...Here is another view.

AWESOME!

Apparently little Jaiden's Uncle does this as a HOBBY!? He rents out the studio and does as many as he can of whatever he is making. He gives them away as gifts or sells them. His pieces range in price from $60 - $100. If you have ever looked at glass, you know what a STEAL that is. I have ALWAYS wanted to own some glass pieces, but the cost is prohibitive. Now I have the most AMAZING piece, from some AMAZING people. How blessed am I?!

Go Seahawks!

Or "Go Teehawks!" As Keira would say. Up until a few weeks ago she couldn't get that "S" out at the beginning of Seahawks. She's definitely her mommy and daddy's little girl. She will sit on the couch playing while the game is on, and cheer when appropriate. Yesterday coming home from the birthday party she started yelling, "Seahawks!" and pointing. We realized that the truck in front of us had a big 'Hawks decal in it's back window....Her daddy was so proud:) Enjoy!

Her new "Sea Gal" outfit Grammi and Auntie Ree Ree got her

Did you know that her first words (after mama & dada) were yelled at a TV? Yup, at 10 months old she yelled, "Go Teehawks" at the TV during an away game:)