Imagination is a Wonderful Thing

Hello to you all, family and friends!

I find reminders daily why I love being my children's mother, but today I had a really good one that has made me giggle to myself for the last three hours.

I was in the kitchen this morning with Rhaevyn and heard this muffled noise that sounded like someone running in the house. I turned to look at Rhaevyn, sitting at the table, to see if she was making the noise by banging her hand or foot on the table. She gave me a questioning look. Then I turned and was startled to see my little man galloping on all fours into the kitchen, tongue hanging out, panting.

I had forgotten that when we put him to bed last night he was pretending to be a dog.

He is still pretending. His name is Marshmallow and will not answer to Myles.

He carried his spoon to the breakfast table in his mouth because he had to use all fours to get to the table. Getting Marshmallow dressed was a bit of challenge, because, as those of you who are dog owners probably know, dogs cannot stand straight up without help and get dressed at the same time. And I have been informed by Marshmallow that because he has four feet, he must wear four socks and four shoes to church today. This should prove to be interesting.

He is still galloping around the house as I type.

I gave him a kiss and he told me I had dog germs now.

Well, they aren't just any dog germs I informed him. They are his so it is okay.

I so love this little guy!

Update: As we were leaving for church here came Myles with socks on his feet and hands. I talked him into not wearing shoes on his hands. At dinner he said he needed to eat on the floor because dogs do not sit at the table. Chris said he had to sit at the table, which Myles complied with, but did not use his hands. He ate only using his mouth, like a dog.

I had to turn my head so he wouldn't see me laugh. He is very serious about this Marshmallow the dog business. He did a wonderful job of putting the taco shells on the pan. He wasn't too sure at first because being a dog he didn't think he could do it. But I assured him that there are plenty of dogs out there that help people who may not have arms or are blind, and those dogs do lots of things to help their owners. So he decided if those dogs can do amazing things to help their owners he could put the taco shells on cookie sheet.

I love the imagination of kids!

The girls had their Achievement Day Camp this week on Thursday and Friday.
They had so much fun making things, hiking, singing, etc.
Rhaevyn made a new friend and came home thrilled about that.
I loved picking them up in the afternoon and listening to them chatter about
the great time they had while we drove home.

Everything is better with Ranch,

especially Red Robin Ranch!

Christopher's birthday was Friday.

We got him his absolute favorite pie....

Strawberry Bavarian Cream.

He gets it once a year on his special day.

Everyone eagerly awaited a slice.

Everyone except Aeva.

She chose to have a pudding cup instead.

It was very tasty!

Happy Birthday, Dear.

Elsa cleaning her plate after pancakes.

Elsa loves it when Chris takes her out to swing.

I love watching her on the swing.

Today, Aeva played a song on the piano for Primary.

She chose a song perfect for Pioneer Day,

The Oxcart.

Life's a

Bowl of Cherries!

The other day Myles stood outside the back door, while Elsa and I sat on the floor next to the door and ate cherries. They were so good and sweet, just like life right now.

While my mom was here she helped me pick out a paint color for my room.

While I painted, she shredded my huge box of papers. Chris reminded me that he helped too.

Boy, did we appreciate that being gone and out of the way.

On one of our outings while my mom was here we took her to walk old town Battle Ground.

There isn't a whole lot there, but there are some cute antiquish stores. At one of them I saw this painting lying on a table. I immediately fell in love with it and had a sudden connection to it.

I decided I would splurge and get it because I just couldn't put it down.

My mom surprised me and got it for me. Thanks, mom!

I have taken three shots of it so you can kind of piece it together.

It was hard to get a good shot of it.

Can you see why I love it yet?

It is my girls!!!

Two with really dark hair that are quite older than the youngest in the picture, who has blond hair.

Chris likes to tease me and asks "Where is Myles in that picture?"

I call it "The Three Sisters."

I had a frame with no glass in it, and wanted to recycle/reuse it and not throw it away.

I was trying to come up with a way to either use it in my room or the girls' room.

And a thought of inspiration came to me.

I bought a quarter of material for under a dollar, two kinds of ribbon that would go with my room, and Rhaevyn picked out some buttons for me and I made this............

But something was still missing.

I love quotes and my mom had happened to mention

one that she liked while she was here.

I just changed it a bit.

It didn't show up too well in this picture, but it says....

"Four of my greatest blessings call me Mother."

Well, thanks to Christopher's handy work, the insulation was installed, the holes in the bedroom and kitchen were sheet rocked and puttied. The bedroom was textured in the one spot. The walls were painted and Chris did the ceiling and touch ups for me. Chris picked out and put up the new light, curtain rod and roller shade. Last Wednesday the carpet guy came and installed the padding and put the carpet back down. He even went the extra mile and put the closet door on and took a ripple out of the carpet in front of the kitchen entry. He really was great.

So it was just time to wait for Chris to get home to put the baseboards back on and move the furniture back in.The kids made good use of the time and space. First they got all the Legos and little people stuff and played in there. They loved being able to spread everything out in the empty room. Then they ran around. I loved the echo of their laughter and yelping.
Time to move the furniture in.

Here is the almost end result.

Since these were taken we put up a bookshelf

and will probably get one more for the school books.

I will have to take another updated picture.

Oh how nice it is to have our bedroom back.

It is like our little oasis.

No more world maps on the wall or periodic table.

Homeschooling things have made way for nice pictures and quotes now.

I love quotes and this is my whiteboard of quotes about life, faith and being a mom.

Life feels like it is getting back to normal now that the living room and couch aren't our bedroom and bed. The girls room is almost done as well, which means it is about time to try and move Elsa in. Myles now has his room back. Evey thing seems more light and less cluttered.

We just have the kitchen left to be textured and painted, but at least the room is done, so I am not as worried about getting it done right now.

Will post more pictures of the rooms once everything is done and in its place.

Happy Birthday My Boy, Myles!

My sweet little guy turned four!
I was just looking back at some of the old blog posts at how little he was.
Now he is a year away from starting Kindergarten.
What a ball of fun and energy he is.
I am so thankful that our family has been blessed with this mischievous, energetic, sweet boy of ours.
We celebrated Myles's birthday on Thursday because my mom was here, but would be leaving Friday.
He chose pizza for his birthday dinner and picked out a chocolate pie.
On the way home from buying his pie he kept saying, "but I wanted cake."
Cake, cake, cake is what was coming from the back seat.
I was feeling a bit guilty because I knew he had wanted cake, but being that it was 98 degrees here. I thought well, a pie would be nice and cool and half the price of a store bought cake and better tasting.
Realizing that I was making no headway with..."But you picked out a really yummy chocolate pie", I finally said, "Oh yes, that is cake you picked out and boy does it look yummy.
The back seat suddenly became quiet.
The funny thing is, he was more excited about his birthday presents then eating his piece of pie, which ended up getting mauled by Elsa.

So, we decorated his cake, ate pizza and bread sticks, sang happy birthday and opened presents.
It was a very fun birthday celebration.

Happy Birthday to Myles.

Oma got the perfect card for Myles.

He loves to hum along with it, and

he still carries it around and listens to it.

Myles got airplanes from Oma and Opa.

He carries all of them around at a time.

Aeva picked out this remote control car from Toy Story. For the past three months, every time I went to Winco with him, Myles would ask to look at and hold the box with the car and ask if I could buy it for him.

I would say no, and he would put the box back on the shelf and stare longingly at it as we walked away. He was so thrilled when he opened the present.

Ever the practical gifter, I got him pajamas. Rhaevyn spent her own money and got him a Star Wars action figure.

For his birthday present to Myles, Chris took him out to eat at McDonald's, as he'd been wanting a Fillet-a-Fish. Then the two of them went for a walk around Battle Ground Lake and to the library, at which he checked out Star Wars books to bring home for each of us.

Ah, my little guy is growing up so fast.

Lucia Falls

Thursday the kids and I took my mom to Lucia Falls.
We tried to go as early as we could, since it was going to be 98 that day.
It was a nice little hike, and we enjoyed the beautiful flowers and the roar of the falls.

Rhaevyn is nick named "Eagle Eyes" and for a good reason.

She spots things the rest of us don't.

Good thing she was with us this day, because

she saw that fish were jumping up the waterfall.

It was fascinating.

Watch the video to see if you can spy the jumping fish.

Hiking up the trail.

Aeva picked a bouquet.
Aeva found my mom a walking stick.

The kids love to find walking sticks when we go to Lucia Falls.

When Myles finds them, they are usually too short, but then he just pretends that he is Yoda and walks bent over.

Oma spotted this little fish down river.

After a brief rest and nap from our excursion to the falls,

we did a "foot bath" as Myles likes to call it.

I sent my mom home with pretty painted toes.

Fort Vancouver

So, the original plan was that my parents were coming up for a week.
Unfortunately my dad's back did not want to cooperate with that plan.
He was not able to make the trip to come see us this time around, but my mom decided to still come. She said nothing was going stop her from still coming and we are sure glad.
We so enjoyed her visit.
It was truly a week of memory making!

Tuesday we went to Fort Vancouver.

We all loved the English garden you walk through to get to the Fort.

Rhaevyn didn't want to sit for the picture because the bench was hot.

Aeva, Myles and Oma up in the tower.

My mom found a piece of Olive Glass in the rubble

that these volunteers were sifting through.

Taking a bit of a rest.

What a wonderful time we had at the Fort.