Mother's Day Picnic

 The day before Mother's day we were invited to a picnic and boat ride at Yale Lake.
We had a beautiful spot right on the lake. The sun was out, and there was a nice breeze.
We had a very relaxing day spent visiting with old and new friends, having a bbq, and taking
an adventurous boat ride.
Here are some pictures of the kids, their first time ever, on a motor boat. Myles was a bit nervous at first, gripping his seat with white knuckles. Elsa had a death hold on my hands and would  not let them go for anything. Once we got going there were lots of giggles and screams of delight.
We all had a blast, even though the boat broke down four miles north of the boat ramp.

 Here we are starting out.

 

 Weeeee!

 

 When the boat broke down, Myles moved up to the very front......

 and so did Elsa.

  So, Chris and Bryan broke out the oars and starting rowing. I don't think they were making much progress.
Here is Chris taking a slight break from rowing. Elsa was singing "Row, row, row your boat..." for Bryan and Chris.

Here we are with our rescue squad. They had passed us heading north.

When they were on their way back they came over to see if we needed a tow.

Yes please!!!!

Birthday Trip

 We took a little trip up to visit Ben and Stacey for a few days and to celebrate my birthday.
We relaxed, visited, ate scrumptious food (it's always better when someone else cooks :) , and

made our traditional trip to Mukilteo. The kids had fun playing with Waffles and Belgium. Elsa enjoyed giving them treats.We had a fantastic time with Ben and Stacey, and as usual, it is always so hard to leave and say goodbye.

Each evening when it had cooled down we walked to the playground

to burn off some energy.

Myles was using his manpower to push Chris and then the girls on the 

"Christmas Tree"

 Aeva jumping up and pushing Elsa..........weeeee!

 We paid a visit to the local dollar store and got

bubbles, chalk, and badminton rackets.

 Myles and Ben playing badminton.

 The kids enjoyed the ferry ride so much last time, that

they wanted to do it again.

It was an absolutely beautiful day.

We purchased our fish and chips and headed on board.

 We ate our yummy lunch and then disembarked the ferry

while they did their security sweep. Then we got back on and 

enjoyed the sunshine and breeze out on the deck.

 

  

 

 

 Once the ride was over we walked the 

shore of Mukilteo. There was lots to see...

Tide pool, sea urchins, crabs, seals, and lots of seashells.

 

 

  

Can you spot the crab?

 

 After our walk along the shore we cooled 

ourselves off with ice cream cones.

 Last but not least my birthday dinner was fantastic. Pesto pasta, french bread,
ceasar salad and this fabulous cake that I've been wanting. Thanks Ben for driving me to Costco and getting it for me (thanks Stacey for insisting on it) I was not disappointed!

Apple juice, banana and spinach smoothie....Mmmmmm :)

 

 We've discovered two new smoothie recipes that we love..............although when I say we that does not include Rhaevyn and Aeva. Aeva says she has super sharp taste buds so they taste everything that goes into this smoothie. I must not have super sharp taste buds because while I can detect the banana in it, I cannot detect the flavor of apple juice or spinach. And I think the whole color thing just throws Rhaevyn off. I can understand. It can be a mind over matter thing. Well, Myles and Elsa absolutely love it, and I like that :)
The other smoothie recipe has Odwalla mango juice, banana, strawberry and spinach. It's always fun to see the kids' eyes light up when they discover something they didn't think they would like actually turns out to not taste so bad.

Aeva made this circle out of her Lego's. She was pretty thrilled that it turned out to be a success.

Two Birthdays and a Goodbye

 We celebrated two birthdays this past week.
Our little Miss Elsa turned 4, and Miss Rhaevyn turned 14. I can hardly believe that Elsa is 4. She was just born. And as far as I can remember Rhaevyn just turned 5. I feel like someone has life on fast-forward sometimes.
While at times I wish that I could make time stand still so I could just snuggle with them a bit longer, I love seeing the people that they are becoming. That is really a lot of fun.

Here is Elsa showing her new Barbie movie from Oma and Opa.
This was a big hit, as it has been all that she has talked about since seeing that Barbie was going to have a new movie out. And she loves singing and dancing to it.

Aeva made a chocolate pie for Elsa's birthday, and Rhaevyn has been eying the red velvet cake at Costco, so that's what we got her.

It was fun seeing how excited the siblings got for Elsa and Rhaevyn to open the presents that they had picked out especially for them.
 Myles and Aeva got a Lego set for Rhaevyn.  Rhaevyn picked out puzzles for Elsa.
 
 We spent Sunday putting puzzles together as a family. It was really a lot of fun.






Chris tracked down the Lord of the Rings trilogy  (extended version) for Rhaevyn; She was so surprised! Yes, she is a LOTR fan.

Rhaevyn's Mia Maid class came and heart-attacked the house for her birthday. It made her day since she has been sick with bronchitis. They left some very sweet messages on the hearts for her.

And then there was the goodbye...........
Rhaevyn said goodbye to her friend of three years..................her violin. I know she wished she could have kept it, but the selling of it is helping to pay for her new violin.

Last but not least, one of the little neighbor girls brought me this sweet little bouquet of lilac the other day.
Oh it smells so good. I have it sitting in my kitchen window.

That's been our week. Now it's onto another fun week :)

Well Hello :)

 Last Saturday Myles and Elsa wanted to get their hair cut. Elsa wanted to go short.
Her hair had gotten pretty long, and while I was hesitant to go so short, this is so much easier for her to take care of. I love that she can actually brush all of her hair. Best part is, she loves her new "do."

Aeva was invited to go on a field trip with her friend Bailey.
They went to the new Portland Aquarium. She had a lot of fun and loved that she got to take the camera with her. She wanted to take pictures for her dad who loves to take the kids to all the fish shops around here. There were a lot of hands on exhibits. Unfortunately the manta rays never got close enough for her to touch. Here are just a few of the pictures she took.

 So, I've stopped wearing anything on my nose. I think it is as good as it's going to get.While I could go in for dermabrasion to try and remove it or have it less noticeable, I don't think I will.
I know my nose is not,  nor will it ever be, the same as it looked before surgery, but I've decided to look at it this way..........
While I could try to hide or erase the one scar on my nose, I'm going to wear my scar as my badge of honor. It will be my visual memory of what I endured and what I survived :)

And on the lines of that, I'm thankful for the Easter holiday that is coming up. I'm thankful to know that Jesus Christ, my Savior, loved me enough to suffer, not only for my sins, but for all the pains that I will know in this lifetime.

Wishing you all a blessed Easter :)

So, What Exactly Have the Lindsays Been Up To?

Where do I begin?
Well, let's start with Rhaevyn...
Rhaevyn has been busily working towards her goal of finishing Personal Progress by her birthday.
It looks like she'll actually finish before her birthday. During the month of February she indexed 1004 names. She has been learning to crochet, and she made herself a scarf. She is still loving the violin and learned to play two of my favorite songs "If You Could Hie to Kolob" and "Ashokan Farewell." We learned that she is outgrowing her violin, which doesn't surprise me as I seem to be shrinking next to her :) When did my baby get to be so tall? She just finished two weeks of cooking dinners for us. Man was I spoiled! One of the dishes that we loved was lasagna made in the large muffin tins.

Here is an experimental project she was crocheting.

Aeva is getting accustomed to her new set of ivories (piano). She just got her last set of piano books, which is pretty exciting. Her teacher said she's never had a student make it this far, so it may be uncharted territory once she finishes up these books. She tried her hand at crocheting, but being left handed it was a bit hard to learn from a right handed person. Aeva thought she would instead try knitting, and she has really taken off with that. She is currently making a dishcloth. She even bought herself her own set of knitting needles. Both girls are learning knitting/crocheting from a sweet lady in our ward (who used to be my RS Secretary). They get together every few weeks, hang out, eat chocolate and knit and crochet, laugh and visit. Fun is had all around. In January Chris and I took Aeva to the temple to do baptisms. What a very neat experience that was. Aeva is babysitting now too, for us. She has also been hired as a mother's helper by my best friend. This has been fun for her and a way to earn some extra money for camp.

Here is the dishcloth Aeva is working on.

 

 Myles just lost his second tooth. He didn't want to pull it out, so he said he let his tongue do the job for him. Myles is quite the reader. While he likes to say he doesn't like to read, he reads everything! He is getting so big and so tall. He is currently trying to learn to roller blade. 

Myles missing his two front teeth.

Elsa is getting bigger by the second. I think she is keeping pace with Myles and Rhaevyn. Last night we had a fun trip to the ER, as she was running 104.5 -- 105 temp. Low and behold she had a nice bright red ear. Our second ear infection in 10 years and four kids. She is feeling much better today.
She still entertains us with her ballet dancing and her singing. I love how she makes me laugh!

Chris, after growing his curls out for me, just cut them all off again. He was looking very "Cary Grant"-ish. Oh well. He's training to ride in the Seattle to Portland Bicycle Classic which takes place in July. It's a 200 mile bike ride over two days, but he's doing it in one day with a group of guys from church. It is funny to see all the planning they are doing: meetings, google calendar, scheduled and calculated bike rides..........Should prove to be fun.

And then there is me. I've taken some pictures of me post surgery. It's been two months since my procedure. You can't tell much in the pictures except that one side looks a bit puffier than the other.
Unless you are right up close to me you can't really see the scar. After three months pass I can decide if I want dermabrasion done or not. Every day is a bit better..............the feeling is starting to come back. I will be glad when it has totally healed (which is about a year long process) and my incision site doesn't feel like it is going to rip apart when i move my face in different positions. Really all is well. I can't complain, and I'm still keeping busy with life :)

I found these pictures I had taken up at the barn we go to on Fridays.

This is Elsa with Tucker. He is also affectinately known as 

Tuck-Tuck. He is a dwarf.

Here is Myles trying to help with the wheelbarrow.

Rhaevyn scooping the poop from the wheelbarrow.

All three putting in their muscles to dump the wheelbarrow.

This is Harvey.

 

Aeva having some trouble with the wheelbarrow.

Rhaevyn making a nice face for me :)

In a nutshell, that's what we've been up to the last couple of months.