Family pictures spring 2012

I took advantage of the sunny skies here in Northern Washington and took some family pictures. Unfortunately the cornfield behind our house had just been fertilized with cow manure. It stunk sooooo bad.
Logan is our oldest at 16.

Anna is 14

Ella -11

Soren, almost 9

and our baby Olivia, at 6 years old.

I am proud of who my children are becoming. They each have such different unique personalities. They will fight like siblings do, then stick up for each other when it's needed. When someone needs a friend, it's my children who are reaching out to them. They are learning to be kind to others despite their differences in race, religion or culture.

I feel my kids are growing up too fast. I want to slow it down and make these experiences last, yet I know that's not how it's going to happen. Life will continue to fly by. At least I will have these pictures to remind me of the little moments we have together.

A beautiful day in Blaine.

The sun was shinning Saturday, so we decided a little family adventure was what we needed. We packed up a picnic lunch, got the dogs all ready and headed out the the bay in Blaine.

Blaine is at the Canadian border.
Right before you get to border crossing you could pull off into a little park and walkway that goes around the bay. There are picnic tables all over, so you can relax and enjoy the wildlife.

The kids thought this was really neat. Notice how Soren is always in motion.

Anna thought it would be fun to try Whale surfing.

Did you know one of my many phobia's is Orca's?

A long time ago I watched a nature show of killer whales going up on the beaches and snatching sea lions. Since then I have always been afraid to go to close to the beaches or any big water.

OK, all water. Going across on the ferry scared me half to death. I just know there were Killer whales waiting for me!

There are some big mud flats or sand flats or what ever... I just know they were stinky!

The kids would turn over rocks and find all these little crabs. Of course there were a lot of shells for the kids to find.

Ella was the first to pick one up. You go girl!

Soren opted for using a shell to pick them up.

This is across from where we were. The big white thing is called the Peace Arch.

Blaine is across the bay from White Rock Canada. This is the view of White Rock.

I gave Ella the camera to hold and she snapped this shot. I wish she could of gotten the whole picture. Buster was flirting with the lady with the white hair. She was oohing and awing over him, and he just soaked it up. What a player!

We had a wonderful time. The kids all enjoyed themselves and saw new things. We ended up not eating at the park. I twisted my bad shoulder grabbing Izzie and it made me sick. I went home and layed down while Troy had a picnic outside with the kids. What a wonderful Husband I have.

We are loving it here in Washington. One thing in for sure, we are treasuring the sunshine!

Weird kids.

I was going through the kids camera's last night and I found some really funny pictures. Troy and I had a good laughed and also were shocked by what we found.

Nothing bad!

Just shocked at how weird our kids are. Don't know who they take after. Our little Buster, love cat nip. I don't know how good it is for him. When we get it out for our little kitty Poppy, he goes crazy. The kids put it all over his face and he tries to lick it off of himself. How mean is that?

Soren and his lego's. Who do I need to thank for the invention of lego's?

Hours of keeping him busy!
There were LOT'S of these on the camera. Can you tell she's 14?

Um, more lego's?

One of Anna's drawers fell out of here dresser. Poppy immediately made it her new residence.

How did her drawer fall out? Stuffs so much clothes in them she can't close them and then they fall out. Then they stay that way for a very long time, until Mom throws a major fit and goes through them herself and cleans up.

Poppy wasn't very happy with me.

Olivia and Soren took about 100 pictures of them watching Power Rangers.

Curse Netflix for allowing Power Rangers to come back into my life. I thought I was out of going through that nightmare with Logan growing out of them. Then along comes the ability for my small children to watch it anytime they want, thanks to technology. I would rather watch a marathon of Barney than Power Rangers. Yikes!

Santa brought Logan a set of different mustaches in his stocking this year. Um, how funny is that?

Our Izzie Girl falls were she happens to be. Most the time she doesn't quite make it to her bed.

That happens to me a lot.

This is Mr. Snowman that the kids made this year. So cute!

In all reality, I am thankful my kids have a sense of humor. I love to hear them laugh and play. They are being and doing what kids should do. Fighting is part of that, but I know they love one another. As much as I curse technology for bringing Power Rangers back, I'm glad we have it. Otherwise I wouldn't have these images to remind us of how much fun we have!

Roller Skating = Pain.

The PTA at the kids elementary school raised money for the kids to have a free skate night. The kids have not had a lot of experience roller skating. Troy and I decided to sit and watch our children get hurt.

Can you all imagine Troy roller skating?

OK, stop laughing.

Ella and Anna did great. Soren and Olivia had a harder time staying up.
Roller skating is dangerous. The kids had bumped mouths, heads, legs, arms and bruised butts.
Boy am I a good Mom just watching all of this. Anna and Ella would take turns with Olivia trying to help her.

It got so bad that the last time Olivia fell, she didn't want to get up.

"Help.......me..........Mom.... save........me....."

Soren fell and pulled his groin muscle and was in tears. So we packed up the kids and took them for an ice cream cone at DQ.

I don't think rollerskating is going to become one of my kids hobbies.

Although, I may join a roller derby group.

Just Sayin'!