Memories in French

Alfred the Great

2012-01-08T23:26:00.000-08:00

So, as I was preparing for Homeschool this month, I noticed we would be talking about knights, castles, kings, coats of arms etc. So, I emailed my family to get some family crests from our family to show our kids. As I was looking through the family history website, my awesome brother Bryan created, I found a picture of Alfred the Great of Wessex, England. I was so excited because that's who we studied about in history this week, and he is like our 39th great grandfather!!

Anyways, he was one of England's first kings. England was getting invaded and attacked by the Vikings, on all sides. All of the other kings (there was not one king over the whole country at this time, just in smaller areas) couldn't stand up to the Vikings. Alfred the Great was the first English king to defeat the Vikings.

When they were first attacked by the Vikings it was Christmas day and the English were not prepared. Alfred hid in the countryside pretending not to be king. It is said that he was scolded by a peasant woman for burning the cakes she asked him to watch over. So, for homeschool we made Alfred cakes- basically English scones-yummy! (We didn't burn ours though).This is how they turned out.
We also made Alfred the Great statues.
This is the inscription on the real Alfred the Great statue:

Alfred found learning dead and he restored it

Education neglected and he revived it

The laws powerless and he gave them force

The church debased and he raised it

The land ravaged by a fearful enemy from which he delivered it

Alfred’s name will live as long as mankind shall respect the past

I also found out that George Washington is related to Alfred the Great. So, in probably a round about way I am related to him to. COOL!

Anyways, in other things. I had to take this picture of Robert loving Talia during school. They love each other so much!
Isabelle started acting classes this week. She is loving it so much!!! It was all she could talk about the whole night of her class. It makes me so happy!

Christmas

2012-01-01T23:18:00.000-08:00

Rob got a fun packet for us to celebrate his five years working for Grizwold water systems.

The Grotto in Portland.
Christmas dinner
Isabelle wanted to act out the Nutcracker.

Christmas Breakfast.

Robert threw up in the theater on Christmas Eve. He went straight to be when we got home. We asked if he wanted to open presents with us and he said he did. When he saw his p.j.'s he said he felt immediately better. He called them "miracle p.j.'s".

White elephant with the Trevisanuts. I loved the ginormous comb.

For homeschool we made some mosaics because we learned about the Byzantine Empire.

Our prettiest tree ever.
Some fun cookies I made.

November -French family time

2011-12-19T00:32:00.000-08:00

Ok, it's 2am. I am pooped. I will narrate this later. For now, enjoy!

November 2011-Kip's wedding, Webster Thanksgiving, Lily's baptism

2011-12-18T23:01:00.000-08:00

We love Gabby and are so grateful that Kip found her. They are a wonderful couple!

We came down to Utah for Kips wedding. Before the wedding we wanted to take them out to dinner to celebrate. So, here we are at Cheesecake factory.The wedding day.... 11-11-11Here Gabby is wiping all of the red lipstick off of Kip's face...Kip, Gabby, and nieces and nephews..Heather and Talia held hands almost the whole luncheon. Talia just loves Heather. She still talks about her.Kip and I got into it...
Gabby wouldn't put up with it.
Our kids.Katie, Andrew, and Talia.Me and my cute cousin Anne. Our baby girls were born the same week.

Kip's car.Yes, there was a stowaway.
What a mess!

Thanksgiving with the Websters.We went to visit Grandpa Boulter and Maxine at their place. We even got to have dinner in a fancy private room!We felt so lucky to be able to go to Lily's baptism.Talia had fun scrubbing Grandma Webster's fridge.

November-homeschool

2011-12-18T22:12:00.000-08:00

So, I had to do some preparation to do homeschool in November since we would be in Utah for pretty much the whole month. So, here are some of the activities we did.
For art I had Nan talk to the kids about sculpting.
We studied about some water dinosaurs and fossils, so we made some of our own. We tried to see which material would make the best fossil- sand, clay, or dirt.

Nan had a real fossil very similar to the ones we made.I also wanted to visit the dinosaur museum in Utah for science since we were studying dinosaurs. It just happened to be a plus that my siblings wanted to see the brand new Natural History Museum at the U of U as well.
I have been trying to set up occupation visits for the kids to see what different people do, so they can start thinking about that for themselves. My best friend Wendy's little brother Brad is a pilot. He was so nice to be willing to talk to us about being a pilot and then even take us up in his plane!!I went up in the plane first.Austin was the bravest of the kids. At first, he was the only one who wanted to go up.Rob had a great time with Brad.He took this view from above.

When Austin came back and said how much fun he had, Isabelle got up to courage to go too.I also wanted them to learn more about the Utah pioneers and some of our ancestors. We watched the movie "17 Miracles" and then went to This is the Place monument.

Halloween

2011-11-06T23:58:00.000-08:00

So, we are leaving on a trip for Utah tomorrow, but I wanted to get out our pics of Halloween before we took all the pics of Kip and Gabby's wedding etc.

So.. Here is Austin and he preschool friend Ivy on their school party day.
For homeschool we did some volunteer work at the local homeless shelter. We did cookie decorating and some musical chairs. The kids picked out toys of theirs to give to the kids and we handed them out as prizes.Everyone was so gracious and happy. It was awesome.

We had a little get together with the Trevisanuts for Halloween. We celebrated Heather's birthday.We had yummy treats.Rob and I were "pumpkin pi".Here we are Halloween night. Neighborhood kids.Neighbors- the Crouches.Kim.Our pumpkinsTrunk or Treat

I asked Rob if he could fix our DVD player before we went on the trip for the kids. How many other husbands get this deep into their electronics? I thought it was cute.

Homeschool-Japan, Australia

2011-10-23T23:41:00.000-07:00

For our homeschool unit on Japan we made "carp kites", like a festival they have in Japan. I was so proud of myself for being organized enough to do this. I normally HATE projects like these. But, it was really fun and the kids loved it!
I also made a Japanese meal. I made terriaki beef, sesame broccoli, rice, and clear soup. We didn't use spoons because they just drink their soup in Japan.

For our unit on Australia and the aborigines there, we made home made boomerangs out of paint sticks.Then, we made a "moth mix" since the aborigines eat all sorts of strange things like moths and lizards etc. (We did replace the moths with nuts though...)

For science we have been learning about coral, so we went to the IMAX movie at Omsi about coral reefs. The Great Barrier Reef that they talked about is right by Australia- so that was really cool to have learned about Australia at the same time too.

football, 1/2 marathon, lost tooth, talent show

2011-10-23T21:37:00.000-07:00

So, a lot has happened since I posted last. Rob got tickets for us to see the BYU vs. OSU football game in Corvallis. We had to go since Rob was an alum of both schools. The weather was nice and BYU won! It was all good.
We stayed with our friends the Clements that night. I can't believe we didn't get a picture of them. They made us a wonderful dinner and were so hospitable, thanks guys! We had a great time. :)
We went to church in our old Philomath ward. We love the people there.

We got to visit with our friends the McFarlanes after church. When we grow up we want to be like these guys.This is the welcome my kids got there. They are so good with kids.
Jeremy blew bubbles and picked apples with the boys.This is my fun friend Angie that I used to go running with. She has one of the most tender, compassionate, and forgiving hearts of anyone I know.
Lately Austin has really gotten into being "fancy". He loves to wear button up shirts, ties, vests, dressy pants, belt buckles, corduroy jackets, etc. He complains that people aren't fancy like when in older times people used to wear gold and jewels. Anyways, I took him to a Knuckleheads sale the other day and he picked out this whole "fancy" outfit. I think he is a cutie.
Our kids have been attending a craft workshop for kids put on by this awesome woman in our ward.
I ran a half marathon for the first time in my life. I honestly never thought I would, or could do anything like this, so it is a big deal for me. I was running alone, and nervous about it. I started talking to a woman and her daughter right at the beginning. After the first lap around the track, her daughter wasn't feeling good and cut out, and she asked if we could run together. It was such a blessing to me. She was a seasoned runner and had run in like 20 marathons. I asked her advice, we talked about our beliefs in God, our families, it was amazing. She really helped me to do much better than I ever could have on my own and made it a joy.

The first ten miles were actually pretty fun. The 11th mile I was starting to get tired, and I thought I was almost done because we were coming back onto the raceway from the cross country trail. When I found out I had to run 2 more miles I was not happy. It was really difficult for me to finish, but Vicki stayed by me the whole time and I was determined to run the whole time. But we did it! Yay!During my run, they had a free kid's run that our kids participated in. I really think Isabelle gave it her all, because she had a hard time walking today, poor girl!
They gave all the kids little medals afterwards too.Later that night was our ward talent show. They tried to make it like American Idol. Rob was the MC, or Ryan Seacrest. We had Simon, Paula, and Randy Jackson along too. They all did a good job and were super funny!
Isabelle lost her first tooth there. She has been feeling bad that every kid her age, and younger have been losing teeth, so she was super excited to finally have a loose tooth. Unfortunately, she actually lost it, lost it at the talent show! We couldn't find it anywhere, luckily the tooth fairy still came. Phew!
Here are a couple other fun Knuckleheads finds ...Talia update- this girl is wild and crazy. The older kids love her, but are afraid of her too! She likes to hit them with sticks and chase them around the house. She get really jealous if another kids is on my lap, or someone else (like Rob) is holding my hand. I love her to bits and she makes me laugh, but she can be a handful too.

Bears, Seattle, School

2011-10-09T22:45:00.000-07:00

Robert earned his "Bear" in cub scouts recently. We are so proud of him!I found this on the fridge the other day. I thought it was cute.For history we studied the Arabian peninsula and 1001 Arabian Nights. We made a hanging "Valley of the Snakes" from the Sinbad story, and put treasure underneath.Rob had a business trip to Seattle that we were able to join him for. We went to this "park" in the middle of downtown.We saw some other cool sights as well.Talia was making friends.
We wanted this to be a field trip to see some sea lions, since we studied them in science. This is all we saw of one.This was near a dam, it also had a place we could see the salmon go through the dam, that was pretty cool.

Back at home, we made home made stamps since we learned that the Chinese were the first to do block printing for books.We did and experiment to learn the purpose of blubber by putting vaseline on one hand and just gloves on the other, then put them in cold water and see which hand can stand the cold longer.
We also made a walrus and seals out of clay.
We got our pumpkins yesterday.

Family Pics, school in September

2011-09-25T22:11:00.000-07:00

We asked my friend Kim Doman to take our family's pictures and I am happy with how they turned out. Here is a sampling.

As for the rest of life...

Robert caught a snake.
For History we talked about India and then made colored sand pictures. As you can tell, Robert still loves to wear his "cape" from the Celtic war we did.Ok, this picture made me really want to make sure Belly's hair is done every day.
Austin started preschool with Miss Connie again this year.
We visited my friend Lori at her work to teach the kids about Nursing. It is my goal to have them learn about a different occupation each month.It happened to be "Western Day" the day we were visiting.
For science this week we have been learning about whales. The use sound to communicate through hundreds of miles of water, and to locate food. So, our experiment this week dealt with sound through different mediums.Robert had a hard time hearing, they had a hard time keeping the string taught, but, they got the point.
The kids also made whales out of clay.

For our homeschool group I taught a class on Leonardo Davinci. He was an all around amazing person with inventions he thought of way before their time. He also felt like he needed to know people from the inside out to be able to draw them. So, for our project I had the kids draw some objects from the outside, then we opened them up, and they drew the inside.I started both Robert and Isabelle in piano this week. Robert wasn't super interested in piano when I signed him up, but his teacher has given him so much confidence, and he really has some talent. So, he is loving it now. I am just happy it is boosting his confidence.For English I have been having the kids memorize poems. Isabelle has memorized 3 so far and absolutely loves it. I had her perform for the Lords and Ladies group (homeschoolers) and she wanted to say them every time someone walked in the door. She also loves to act out her poems. Robert hates having to say them in front of a group (he is more like me this way.) I tried to upload a video of them saying their poems, but I think it was too big.

Isabelle memorized her last two poems in 1 day. As reward I bought her a fruit tart. We have been reading about Alice in Wonderland lately and she asked me what tarts were, so I got her one.I also wanted to try my hand at them. Here is my attempt. They are very yummy!

Begin of Homeschool year 2011-2012

2011-09-11T23:10:00.000-07:00

So, I was really nervous to start school this year since I would be homeschooling both Robert and Isabelle. Now, mind you, I completely let Isabelle choose. She was doing just fine in public school, but she asked to be homeschooled this year.

Rob gave us some blessings before the school year started that really calmed my fears, and so far, I think this has been our best homeschool year ever. Robert is doing the best he ever has. He is much more focused than he ever has been before, can work independently, and seems to soak up the information better than ever before. Isabelle is just getting used to the routine, but she is so easy to work with, and happy about her work. She just memorized a poem (The Catepillar, by Christina G. Rosetti) after like only 3 days of working on it. She is also very proud of her spelling. :)

We are studying ocean life for science and the Middle Ages for history. Our first fun activity for homeschool was making Roman columns for history, and we ate them because they got torn down by invaders. We were lucky enough have the Ledesmas staying with us for the weekend that week. We love you guys!!

Our first field trip was to the tide pools at Haystack Rock in Oregon (think Goonies).

We got to see green sea anenomes, star fish, crabs, and aggregate sea anenome. So fun!
We then went to Seaside and played in the sand.
We saw Lewis and Clark.

The kids got these fun hats there.The next fun activity we did was a Celtic war reenactment for history. The Celts would put blue swirls all over their body, spike up their hair, and wear cloaks (since it was chilly there). They also liked to use axes.The girls would paint their nails, and were known for being great warriors as well. Talia totally wanted blue swirls on her as well. When I just put them on her tummy, she pointed at her arm and said arm, arm!

We invited Britain and Camry Ross to join us, and we are so glad they did. :) We had a lot of fun.Afterwards, Isabelle came in and continued drawing blue swirls on herself. She went a little crazy.

It took quite a bit of scrubbing to get all of that blue off of everyone!
So far, so good.

Idaho trip, end of summer

2011-09-11T20:36:00.000-07:00

I love business trips, at least when we get to bring the whole family along! Rob had a trip to Idaho scheduled, so we brought the fam. The first day we were there, I looked up a hike to take the kids on. This one was highly recommended, so I took the kids.It basically looked like a big dusty dirt hill that went up at a 90 degree angle.

The kids and I had a bit of a tough time getting to the top, but the view was awesome. We could see the whole city. Also, I was able to get some great cowboy pics of Austin.

The kids were having a hard time handling the 100 degree weather, so I took them back to the pool to swim. I was able to teach Isabelle the dolphin kick and how to dive. It was really fun. :)

The next day we went swimming and then to this park.

When we got back to Washington, we took the scouts to the LDS Humanitarian aid Center in Clackamas to donate some of the balls and school supplies we collected. I am the wolves leader and Elizabeth Kullberg is leader of the bears.

Afterwards we took them to Krispy Kreme. It was a lot of fun. :)

More August....camping Beacon Rock

2011-08-21T23:05:00.001-07:00

Ok, so this is still August, but oh well.

As soon as we got home from Utah we got our new trampoline. :)The kids were finishing up soccer. Isabelle did a dynamite job as goalie.Austin loved to try to steal the ball from the ref. He is such a tease.
Robert took an injury for the team and ended up breaking his arm during his second to last game. We went camping up at Beacon Rock. It was SOOOO fun!! We love it up there. The kids had fun climbing up the rocks in our campsite.Isabelle loved that I had our hair and hats matching.We had the Trevisanuts with us. Here Reagan is hanging out with Talia.The next day Rob, Isabelle and I went Kayaking. When we got back we went on a hike up Beacon Rock.
This is a view of where we went kayaking.On the little island over there were a bunch of elk.
It was cute to see Cameron holding Isabelle's hand on the way up.Us at the top.Trevisanuts at the top.Just kidding, here they are...
There were lots of switchbacks.This is the rock that we hiked.
Oh, and Isabelle and her friend Clara have been having lots of fun turning their fluffy skirts inside out to make big bottoms.

August update

2011-08-19T23:06:00.000-07:00

Sorry I have been so bad about updating my blog lately. So, here is what we have done for the month of August so far.

Robert and I went to cub camp. It was a space theme. His favorite activity there was archery.
I took the other kids to Oaks Park while Robert was having fun at camp one day.
All of Rob's siblings were going to be getting together in Utah, so we decided to make a trip out to see them. We were super lucky to be able to see Kip and his new fiance' Gabby!
Oh, and we found out that this awesomeness that Kip wore to the demolition derby was inspired by Rob. Rob always tries to dress like white trash when we go to the demolition derby. You sure took it to the next level Kip!We got to celebrate Chloe, Steven, and Emily's birthday.
Later that week we went swimming with almost all my siblings, so fun :) Then we went to see the "UP" house replica they did in Harriman.
We stayed with my friend Wendy and she did beauty shop with the girls. I made Austin this awesome vest because he has been begging me for a month to make him a Woody costume. We also bought him boots and a cowboy hat on this trip. He was so happy!
These are some baby cousins we met for the first time on the trip- Joseph and Owen.
And we got to see Rachel's new one baby Mary :)
The kids were happy to see their twinner cousins-

Talia and Davis Austin and IsaacIsabelle and Abby

Robert and Liam
The cousins all made rockets that Uncle Mike let off.
There was a fun slip and slide.
Stilts
Badmitten
Face painting
Rob did balloon animalsfishing
Papa doing what he does best.
I got some snuggle time.

We got to see Ben's family and his cute new baby Jackson (or Jack Jack as Rocky calls him).

Mom Visit!

2011-07-17T22:51:00.000-07:00

I was really so grateful my mom was able to come up and visit me for a week and a half, beginning with Independence Day. I loved having her here.

The day before she came, I took Austy on a date.Rob was asked to give a talk on the 4th of July and I think he did and amazing job!
Here are some of our 4th festive treats, one I did, one my friend Heather did...I organized a neighborhood block party for the 4th. My neighbor Judy brought out her firepit for smores.
Sis Kullberg dancing with Talia.Isabelle and Clara.

I took my mom and Belly to the Broadway production of Mary Poppins. We had a girl date.
We ate at Papa Hayden's for dinner. I think Isabelle felt very fancy!If you were wondering, I wouldn't recommend it. They had naked dancing statues! What's up with that!!
Soccer season is here at the French house. This is how the first game went for Austin.

catch up on school, field trip, father's day

2011-06-26T23:10:00.000-07:00

So, I realized I have been a slacker on my blog. We had Austin's last day of preschool. We went to a park and the kids sang for all of us. Austin hid behind his Mickey Mouse the whole time, but I do love how he is just his own person.Austin with his teacher, Miss Connie.
Austin is such a fun, sensitive, happy little guy. He always makes us laugh. I had taken Talia's clothes off to feed her dinner that night and Austin put on her clothes and started dancing around in them.
Isabelle got an award at school for telling the truth.
We went on a walking tour of Portland. It was fun to learn more about "Stumptown" or "Mudtown", as they used to call it.

These are "Benson Bubblers." The main guy who logged in Portland, way back, put these in so he wouldn't have drunk employees. I think they are fun, constantly bubbling.
There are lots of brass animals around downtown Portland.They used to paint all of the buildings white, to make it brighter and sunnier. Now many are reflective, to do the same thing.There are words in the bricks around on the sidewalks. The kids got to do some rubbings of the phrases around town.In the early 1900's it was not in to have brick showing on buildings, so they covered the buildings in iron and made beautiful designs. Why don't we have style like this now?
Our tour guide gave all the kids magnets so they could tell which buildings were covered in metal and which ones weren't.We saw some fun fountains. (At this point the kids were getting pretty tired.)This is the famous "Portlandia" statue. I guess she was only put in, in the 1980's. She is suppose to be welcoming visitors to Portland. I think it looks more like she is about to pick up this onion ring from across the street....

Now, Father's Day

First, we woke Rob up with breakfast in bed and presents.

That night for dinner, I did something I almost thought I would never do: I cooked Salmon.
Rob requested it for his Father's Day dinner, so what could I do? So, I made salmon, artichoke, biscuits, and rice.
The salmon wasn't the best, but I tried another recipe the next night and it was way better! For dessert, Talia will model the French Silk Pie I made.She is in chocolate dreamland. It was that good. I loved pairing it with strawberries as well. :)

California Dreamin', no for real!

2011-06-05T22:29:00.000-07:00

We were super lucky to be able to go to California in May to visit my Dad and see some of the sights while we were there. Rob scheduled some business to offset the costs. We go to go to Disneyland while we were there. (Rob worked during the day and met up with us at night). It was so nice to have my dad there :)

Robert got picked to be in the Jedi Training there and got to fight Darth Maul!The person Austin most wanted to see was Mickey Mouse. He was so excited! He even picked out a Mickey Mouse stuffed animal for his souvenir.Isabelle got to see Rapunzel (Tangled).

After Disney we went to Universal Studios, this time with Janice too.
Next we headed out to Legoland.They had so many cool Star Wars things there.

The White House out of Legos! Had to take a pic since we were just there!We had to take this pic of my dad and Janice by the Hollywood Bowl replica. They took us there a few years ago!
This was one of the kids favorite rides. It was like a little town that they drove through. They stopped at red lights, stop signs and everything. It was so fun! Notice Robert is driving "cool" with one hand.

Fun times. Austin got one of these swords and plays with it every day I swear!
On this ride the people in the boat get to shoot bystanders with water. I must have got hit a billion time before I could take this picture!There is a fun water play area there too. We didn't have our suits the first day we were there. Talia didn't mind.We had our suits the next time though.
Did you know there is an aquarium at Legoland? It is kind of small and lame, but we got cheap tickets, so it was ok.
The next day we went to Sea World and got DRENCHED in the rain. We bought ponchos as soon as we got there so it wouldn't be as miserable.We hung out inside for a while.

It was so cool to see people riding dolphins!
But, everyone's favorite was Shamu. On the coast we feel lucky if we see some water spurt into the air about a mile away. Here we got to see them up close doing amazing things! It made me feel so much reverence for God's creations.
All things bright and beautiful all creatures great and small, all things wise and wonderful the Lord God made them all. (That is what it made me think of).

Isabelle fed the sea lions.We went to a wild animal park. It seemed like the zoo, except that the cages were bigger, so we had to walk really far to see each animal. I think the zoo would have been better.Robert said that playing on the Rhino statue was the best part of the whole day.Rob got this cool Indiana Jones hat there.For our last day in San Diego, we went to Balboa Park. It was nice not to spend money for a day!
The whole thing was done in 1915 out of plaster and chicken wire in old Spanish style. It was super cool.
They also had an Old Globe open air theater where they perform Shakespearean plays. So cool!Tiled bell tower.
Cool Cactus.
Organ Pavillion, they have a concert here with an organ like they have in the Mormon tabernacle, once a week. How cool!
Thanks Dad for a great VACA!

Derby, party, Easter

2011-04-24T21:34:00.000-07:00

Robert got to go to districts for his Pinewood Derby. He didn't win overall, but he did great.

His buddy Brycen got to compete there too. :)
Austin had muffins with mom with his preschool.
In homeschool we learned about the Celts. So, we had a Celtic dinner with no electricity, no silverware, and celtic music. It was fun!
In our scout auction we won a birthday party from Lisa Stevens and she came up with this super fun movie party idea.
As the kids walked in, Isabelle gave them tickets from this "ticket booth" and they got to buy their movie treats with them. After that they watched "Barbie Island Princess" and played wiggle cars.
After her party we went to our stake's Life of Christ exhibit. It was amazing!
If you look at all the little yellow papers on the wall, those are children's testimonies. They lined rooms and hallways. That was the most touching part to me. I also loved the actors talking about the different parts of Christ's life.
We then went to an Easter Egg Hunt where they dropped eggs from a helicopter. So cool!
We colored eggs that night.

Our Easter feast.

March 2011- Washington D.C.!

2011-04-10T22:20:00.000-07:00

We were lucky enough to go to WA D.C. in March since Rob had some free plane tickets and hotel stay built up. I have always wanted to go there- Since I love our nation's history!! What an incredible experience!We got in Tuesday night on the 21st and so all we hit the Jefferson Memorial. I couldn't believe how massive it was! The whole thing was made of marble. Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, was a Member of the Continental Congress, was 3rd president of the U.S., made the Louisiana Purchase, he had Louis and Clark do their famous expedition and was the founder of the University of Virginia, of which he wrote the curriculum. Here are some of my favorite quotes from Jefferson...

..I have sworn upon the altar of god eternal hostility against every form of tyranny over the mind of man." - Jefferson to Dr. Benjamin Rush, September 23, 1800^[1]

God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that his justice cannot sleep forever.

Educate and inform the whole mass of the people... They are the only sure reliance for the preservation of our liberty.
Thomas Jefferson

I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.
Thomas Jefferson

Next we saw the George Mason memorial. He wrote the Virginia bill of rights and refused to sign the Constitution without a bill of rights. What a man to be grateful for! What would our country be like today without the bill of rights??

“That all men are born equally free and independent, and have certain inherent natural Rights… among which are the Enjoyment of Life and Liberty, with the Means of acquiring and possessing Property, and pursueing and obtaining Happiness and Safety.”

-- George Mason. Virginia Declaration of Rights, May, 1776.

Mason was among the first to call for such basic American liberties as freedom of the press, religious tolerance and the right to a trial by jury.

That night Talia had fun crawling into our luggage.
The next day we had a tour of the White House!!This was one of the things I was most excited about for the trip, but I was totally disappointed. After having made reservations through a congressman about 3 months in advance, we were herded in like cows with no tour guide, only a pamphlet and then herded out. It was beautiful, but I like to hear the significance of things! That is what makes the difference to me. So, it was a little bit of a disappointment. We asked a gaurd if anything important had happened in any of the rooms we saw, lately, and he said Sheryl Crow and some other artists had been there about two weeks ago. Oh good, at least we know that our tax dollars are going to personal concerts for the president.-gag!
Andrew Jackson memorial. Department of the Treasury.
FBI building.

We went to the Ford's Theater next.
We weren't allowed to go into the theater that day, due to rehearsals, which was a bummer. But it was cool to see the artifacts in the museum. Like John Wilkes Booth's gun that shot the president...
and the door to the presidential box, Lincoln's clothes, and the pillow he laid on as he was dieing. We went to the National Archives to see all of the founding documents -Constitution, Declaration of Independence, the Bill of Rights. That was amazing! I didn't realize the documents were on animal skins! Also, the penmanship of those documents is amazing.

Next we went to the Natural History Museum.Yum, Yum, give me gum gum! (Statue from Easter Island, and Night at the Museum.)

We saw huge whales.Sea anemone made of yarn.A great geological section that Talia enjoyed too. (It did say please touch!)Jade. Huge Geodes.The Hope Diamond.Smithsonian Castle.Washington Monument.That night we ate at the Old Ebbits Grill, a place Rob's friend had suggested. Basically across the street from the White House and the Treasury.
That night we drove 3 hours (!) to Jamestown for the next day. It turns out there are two places you can go to see there. A place with people in period dress recreating what it was like, then the actual place with the actual artifacts. One was run by the state, the other the federal gov. What a waste! Don't you think they should work together? Oh well, we decided we wanted to see the real stuff.

Jamestown was the first PERMANENT ENGLISH settlement here in the Americas. They came over in 1607. I learned that John Smith was put in shackles on the boat on the way over and they wanted to kill him, since he and the captain of the ship didn't get along. That it was a commercial endeavor (they thought they would find gold), and that not all the stories we have heard about John Smith and Pocahontas are necessarily true.

Here is an actual bread oven found here at Jamestown.

Here is what some of the living conditions were like there at Jamestown. I can see why lots of people got sick.A memorial put up in 1907.
This was our tour guide. He was awesome. He sounded like a pirate.
I loved the inscription behind him, it reads..

Lastly and chiefly the way to prosper and achieve good success is to make yourselves all of one mind for the good of your country and your own, and to serve and fear God the giver of all goodness, for every plantation which our heavenly father hath not planted shall be rooted out.

Advice of London Council for Virginia to the Colony 1606
This is the original church built by the Jamestown Settlers.

This is the front. This part had to be reconstructed.

As you can see, the settler used oyster shells in their mortar to make up for their lack of limestone.
They have been digging and finding the exact spots where their forts were located and they are building replicas on the exact dimensions locations.
This guy was the coolest ever! He had tons of cool information on Jamestown and is part of the archeological dig that is now going on there at Jamestown. They are digging up bodies of the inhabitants to see, from their bones, if they really died of starvation or of poisoning. He used to work as an engineer for space shuttles and would go to all of the launches! We learned that John Smith wrote tons of stories of women swooning after him and saving him. Also the story he wrote about Pocahontas saving his life may have been made up because 1. He wrote it after she died, 2. She was probably only about 10 years old when it supposedly happened, 3. He wrote about a number of women stepping in and saving his life. We don't have another person to back up the story. So, I was swooning over John Smith her to show all how he said lots of women were swooning over him.
Our tour guide said that Pocahontas would to cartwheels naked in the middle of town when she was about 10 years old. So, we had to get Wendy to recreate that moment for us.We were also told that a couple of old ladies went around to government officials and got the land given to them to make sure that this site was preserved. On this fence, it mentions the "Colonial Dames" that preserved this landmark. So, Wendy, Talia and I are being the Colonial Dames.Next we went to Mt. Vernon, George Washington's home. We got there 1 hour before it closed. We ran to get up to the house, but I think we came at a great time because there were no lines!!
The original front door.
The back of the house. Notice all of the chairs lining the back of the house. I can just imaging people sitting on the back porch and soaking in the beautiful view of the Potomac River. Here is the view. I can understand why George Washington wanted to live here, not in D.C., and wanted to be buried here, not in the Capitol building, like some wanted him to.His carriage.
View on the way to his final resting place.His, and other Washington family member, final resting place. So beautiful and peaceful. Gardens.
We also got to see the original "Prayer at Valley Forge" painting by Arnold Friberg.

Katie's, Isa b-day at Moms, Dinosaur Museum

2011-04-10T21:49:00.000-07:00

We went to my sister Katie's house and her little boy, Andrew, was so sweet! He kept crawling into my lap and playing with me. I loved how friendly he was.
Katie and Mike were nice enough to let Robert try out a bunch of their wii games so he could choose his reward for learning the Articles of Faith!Isabelle-Talia snuggle time.
We had a little birthday celebration for Isabelle at my mom's. My mom made her this sweet "Bella Box" with lots of fun stickers, pencils etc to make cards (which Isabelle loves) and do her doll's hair (which she also loves).Mom also got Isabelle and Talia matching dresses. So cute!Talia and Isabelle immediately started dancing in their fun dresses.
We celebrated Katie's birthday too. ;)
Mema took us to the Dinosaur Museum, which is great since we just finished a unit in Science on Dinosaurs.

Utah March 2011-St Patrick's Day

2011-04-07T23:38:00.001-07:00

We celebrated St. Patricks with a traditional Irish dinner with Mema and Papa.
Mema made this yummy Killarney cake.
Talia liked it so much she had 3 helpings and licked the bottom of the bowl each time!Austin was so funny. He put on every green article he could find- Hawaiian Lei, snow cap, he even had his green swim suit on earlier.

Soccer, Pinewood Derby March 2011

2011-04-07T23:03:00.000-07:00

Austin was lucky enough to be on a fun "church" soccer team with a bunch of other members. He had a great time. P.S. He is really into this Mohawk thing now.

Robert had his pinewood Derby and took third place!

His car was inspired by "Bob" from Monsters vs. Aliens.

Dr. Seuss, Lords and Ladies, Talia update

2011-03-07T00:12:00.001-08:00

The kids celebrated Dr. Seuss' birthday at school this week.

I had "Lords and Ladies" for the first time at our house. I was nervous, but I think it turned out fun. Robert and I told of our favorite facts we've learned about animals this year (since that is what we have been studying for Science.) We then split the group of about 20 kids into 4 groups to come up with questions for Jeopardy. We borrowed a fun buzzer device from a friend for answering the questions.

After that the kids went to 4 stations-

The Kangaroo Jump
Anteater tongue raceAppreciating opposable thumbs
And making animal habitats out of cupcakes.I think the kids go really creative and it turned out fun. :)
And here is my Talia. I am amazed at what she can still get into, no matter how many child locks we put on. She is the poster child for where there is a will, there is a way! She loves to get on her little scoot car when the other kids are on their wiggle cars. She understands so much of what we say. (Like lay down on your bed, give me kiss, give me 5). We love how snuggly she has become and how loving she is with the whole family.

Kid date, cake auction and friends

2011-02-27T23:55:00.000-08:00

Austin has been working hard lately and earned his own kid date with Dad. Rob took him to Kid's Club and they had a bunch of fun together.We got a fun package from Grandma W. this week with lots of b-day presents. I was so excited that I could actually fit a hair bow in Talia's hair, although it only stayed there for about 10 seconds.
Here she is strutting down the catwalk in her adorable new dress, she wore it to church today too.Robert was lucky enough to have his good friend Ammon come and play.Talia gets into everything. She also tries to try on anything cloth related. She did actually try to put on this crown. We had to help her out for the picture.Rob was the actioneer at the ward cake and service auction again this year. He always does such a good job! I think we made more money this year than any other year!
This is the cake Robert and I made. The colorful things on the sides are suppose to be the wings. I was going to wait until right before we sold it to put them on, then they got stuck to the aluminum foil. Bummer! I think they would have looked really cool.
I let the kids purchase balloon animals as part of the auction.Snow.Robert loves the snow more than anyone I know. He was so happy with Punxetawny Phil today.
Austy soccer.
Fun playdate.

Austin turns 4, Robert turns 9, 11th anniversary!

2011-02-20T21:47:00.000-08:00

For Austin's birthday this year we went to JJ Jumps.Robert and Isabelle were really cute about helping Talia down the smallest slide.Austin's friend Ally wanted him to open his present right away!We came home and had pizza and opened presents.
He wanted a pillow pet, and had been begging for a skateboard since Christmas. So, we got him this mini one. He was so happy!Austy and Allie.I asked him what his favorite part of the day was and he said decorating his cake. He made this fun train cake.He had Mater be the driver.Austin really wanted the Hutchies there for his birthday.
He got to take cookies to his preschool for his birthday and came back with this fun crown!Isabelle celebrated 100 days of school. She made this fun crown and 100 Cheerio necklace.For Robert's 9th bday, we invited a bunch of boys for an easy going party.
They had balloon wars, played wiggle cars, then we hid his presents all over the house and Robert had to find them.Robert designed his cake this year. He wanted Indiana Jones on it. So, we went to the store and picked out some candies and he put them on the cake how he wanted to. He had most of the guys drowning in quick sand. Some were getting attacked by snakes. Indiana Jones was shooting the huge boulder.He was so proud of it. :)The friends that came were Clark, Cameron, Hudson, Conner, and Brittan.

For our anniversary we went to the temple.Then out to Papa Hayden's for dinner and dessert. We have been so happy together these 11 years. We are looking forward to 100 more.

Valentines 2011

2011-02-20T21:04:00.000-08:00

I did some fun things for Rob this month before Valentines. I put this in his office one day.Talia really hasn't slept in her bed for a few months, so I decided to take down her crib and give Isabelle some more room. This was her first night on the floor instead. Isabelle was SO excited to have her first sleepover with Talia.Austin had his Valentine party this week. He had such a hard time giving all of his suckers away for Valentines. He really cried! So I am glad he was able to get back such fun Valentines at his party.I gave the kids heart bubbles for l0ve month.During Austin's soccer games he has had a hard time when kids kick the ball away from him or when the goalie would kick the ball out of the goal. This last game he was so proud when he didn't cry the whole time!We did our annual "kid dates" the Friday before Valentines. I was able to get tickets for Rob and Isabelle to go to a Daddy Daughter ball.We all went to McDonald's together for dinner (the kids chose). Then while Isabelle went to the dance, I took the boys to Big Al's to go bowling.Rob and I went to an adult, Valentine's stake dance for our Valentine's date. We had so much fun!The kids were so excited for Valentine's day! It didn't take them long to wake up that day!
I made pink, heart shaped pancakes.
I ordered balloons for the kids and my friend in the ward brought them by before Isabelle left for school.I thought that the kids were so sweet about making each other Valentines. They really were thoughtful to each other and to us.This is Isabelle right after her school party.We had a red dinner of beets, salad with red dressing, and spaghetti.This is what Rob got me for Valentines. He also rented the movie "Temple Grandin, Thinking in Pictures" that we watched that night. Excellent movie!All of the kids made us Valentines this year. Isabelle made us at least 4!
Robert brought a ton of valentines in his satchel to JCP. It also snowed that day!

Talia turns 1, Robert earns his Wolf

2011-02-07T01:17:00.000-08:00

h
I can't believe we have had our little Talia for 1 year. It has flown by so fast! Her birthday was February 3. We had a small family party for her on her birthday. I wasn't going to do much, since she won't really remember, but Robert said that we HAD to put up decorations, and Isabelle said that we HAD to get her a card! So, we did.We have too many cakes in February, so I just got Talia a cupcake all her own for her birthday.She learned how to blow that day, but she still needed help. She was a little afraid of the flame, for good reason I guess!She sure did enjoy her cupcake!We got her some clothes and a book with animal pictures. She can't get enough of these books now (Thanks to Heather Trevisanut!)
We had to hurry things along, because that same night Robert was receiving his wolf!We are so proud of all the work he has done! He also got to do this fun cookie activity.
Austin has been part of a church soccer team and he had his first game on Friday.Talia always wants to get in on the action at the games!We tried to go to OMSI on Saturday, but as you can see, Austin wasn't feeling great. So it didn't last long.
Talia, Robert, and Isabelle still had fun.They had this great Egyptian exhibit there with a real mummy! It was so great because we have been studying Ancient Egypt for history this year.

Talia update

2011-01-31T00:59:00.000-08:00

Ok, so I just wanted to post on the fun things that Talia is doing now.

She is constantly trying to put things on. The other day I had the laundry basket out and she would put socks around her neck like a scarf or put underwear on her head. I just think it is exciting that she is trying to get dressed like the rest of us!

She is constantly into drawers that Austin, my most curious to that point, hadn't dreamed of getting into. I am always finding things all over the house that she has pulled out of drawers. She is even getting into our dresser drawers which are fairly heavy.

I am so glad we got her this little shopping cart for Christmas, she has just loved it. She loves to put lots of stuff in it and push it around. One of her favorite things to do is put take things out and put things in, whether it be drawers, the shopping cart, or boxes.

I am having a hard time staying put in church because she has this wanderlust going on constantly. She just loves to be busy all the time.

She has been getting a bunch of teeth it seems and has been in so much pain lately. We finally were smart and gave her some pain killer and we saw her fun happy self come out after that.

Austin has joined a church soccer team. He really likes to play, but is having a hard time sharing the ball and having a goalie that will block his kicks.

Rob's Birthday!

2011-01-23T23:03:00.000-08:00

So, first of all, the love of my life turned 34 this week. All week the kids kept telling Rob how excited they were for his birthday. The kids and I secretly planned his birthday out.

We gave him breakfast in bed. (Robert took this pic).
Then he got to open presents.He got tools.
That night I took him out to dinner while our friends decorated for his surprise party!We had brownies and a bunch of toppings for sundaes. Then he got a guys night playing Mario Cart with a bunch of guy buddies. :)
Today we did his family birthday dinner. He ordered deep dish pizza.
And French Silk Pie for dessert. All but Isabelle and Rob usually complain about pie, but not tonight. Austin said, "Dad, I like your birthday cake!"
In other news, Austin read his first book this week. He has been begging me for the day when he would get to read a Bob book. I love the influence of older siblings! He did great!
Robert was a great older brother and took Talia for me for a little while. He got both of the little ones to fall asleep snuggling him.

Talia walks!

2011-01-09T21:11:00.000-08:00

Talia has been walking a few steps here and there for a while, but Saturday we had Talia walk between me and Isabelle and we got her to walk across the whole room, over and over. Everyone was so excited! This is the most she has walked and she is 11 months old! Yea Talia!Robert finished his lego ship he got for Christmas, today.Grandma Webster gave us some fun presents.We have been having lots of fun on 0ur wiggle cars. Even Talia gets excited about it. :)We also did another roller skating trip recently. Austin and Belly wanted to wear their costumes there, so a hamberskater and a roller cat were there. :)

Christmas Vacation

2011-01-02T17:22:00.000-08:00

We had a wonderful Christmas Vacation. We made gingerbread houses with the kids.
Austin helped me make pies. We were lucky enough to have my dad and his fiance' Janice for Christmas Eve and our Christmas vacation. They joined us for a wonderful turkey dinner.Isabelle wanted a drumstick Rob read the Christmas story in the scriptures on Christmas Eve.The kids enjoyed being with Grandpa Larson. The kids and girls all got jammies.Robert was so excited about his jammies that he choked me with hugs.Robert made sure we had something set out for Santa Clause. All month he talked about making a present for him like Santa and his elves make in their workshop. So, he made this little reindeer for Santa as well.

Here are the presents before they got touched.The kids loved their presents.
I got my dad and Janice stockings, but couldn't find them at last minute, so they got tube socks for their stockings!I helped Rob find some mistletoe.Everyone had fun on their new wiggle cars Christmas morning.The next day, everyone wore their new clothes to church. The boys all had matching ties. :)

Janice helped out so much!! And the kids loved her :)

Monday we went to JJ Jumps.
Tuesday we went to OMSI. Noel and Janice got us a membership there, yea!

Then did dessert first at Moonstruck Chocolates.Then went to the Old Spaghetti Factory in Portland. It was so fun! It had chandeliers everywhere, an old train car, big stain glass windows, beds turned table seating, it was awesome. :)

Wednesday we went rollerskating at Oaks Park.We met up with the Hornbergers there.Isabelle found her friend Layla from school and they had a fun time skating together.Then we took them to VooDoo doughnuts.
We took the tram that goes over Portland up to OHSU.The guy behind Dad and Janice gave us a free pass to the top!

Robert and Isabelle whined and cried the whole time, they were scared. Austin thought the ride was great!

Thursday we got a sitter and took Dad and Janice to our favorite restaurant- Papa Haydens. They have the best desserts!

This is the meal that Rob and I shared.Dad and Janice both got cornish game hen-so yummy!Here are the desserts!

Janice and Austin helped me make chocolates for our New Years Eve party.
We also had some friends over for New Years. The kids played with wiggle cars in the garage.
We had a dance game on the wii in the basement.
We had games and food upstairs.BFFs

New Years Baby!

The Nutcracker!

2010-12-19T23:31:00.000-08:00

I missed these pics earlier...

Austin was very anxious for me to put up Christmas (a few weeks ago).

Isabelle was in the Nutcracker this weekend. There were a lot of practices and some late nights, but it ended up being so cute!! She was a mouse and a bon bon. She had so much fun with the other girls there.All the girls had fun playing with Talia while waiting too.Our family came the first night of the performance.The Beehives in our ward came and gave Isabelle the flowers. How sweet!Other bon bons...Uncle Steve and his family came Saturday night.
There was another girl in our ward in the Nutcracker too. She was so sweet to help out with Isabelle when I couldn't be there. Her name is Alexie Pedigo.Isabelle and "Clara".What the girls did to pass the time when they weren't on stage...Isabelle was making this thank you note for the Beehives.
On Saturday morning we got together with Steve's family for Litia's birthday. We went to Safari Sam's and everyone had so much fun!

Rob and the boys went to a Christmas Party Saturday night and got to see Santa Clause!

Oh, and we got to see the weiner mobile. :)

Christmas parties!

2010-12-13T01:01:00.000-08:00

When we came back from Utah the two girls were sick and I had a bad ear infection, so we were down for a week! But, we had to get it together quick, because we had 3 Christmas parties to work on! So, we had to get the tree up!P.S. Austin begged for that Santa hat, I had to give in.

Austin had his preschool cookie party. Rob got to go with him this time.
After that, we hosted a neighborhood Christmas party so we could get to know our neighbors a little better. I think it turned out really well. :)The kids mostly hung out downstairs and played on the wii.The next day, Rob was in charge of the ward Christmas party. He had the ward use the chimes we got from Wendy. :)
Rob ran the show with a short program that he narrated, the chimes, dinner....
and the primary kids sang some songs. It turned out great, my hubby did a wonderful job. :)Now we are just happy to be done with the parties!!

This picture is from today. I wanted a pic of the kids, and Talia just did not want to cooperate.

Thanksgiving in Utah

2010-12-12T17:42:00.000-08:00

Before we left for Utah Austin had his preschool Thanksgiving party. He was so proud of his little hat (and devastated he forgot to bring it to Utah.)

Austin also made this "thankful turkey" at school. I don't know where the dogs and dog bones came from. He must have been scraping the bottom of the barrel there.
We stopped by the Japenese gardens in on their free day before we left for Utah. The fall colors looked gorgeous!
Isabelle made one of these for me and Rob on the spur of the moment one day. She made paper sandwiches for us. Isn't she a sweetheart?!!
I found this fun candy house/restaurant in Portland and took Austy there.

We treated Wendy's family to some malts.
Rob and his brother Mike got to go to a BYU game while we were in Utah.On the way there it started snowing and Robert said, "Look Mom, it's raining snow!!" I guess it shows what weather we have the most of!We went to Classic with Wendy. They had skating, bounce houses, and nerf ball room. It was so fun. Plus, we could roller skate with strollers and scooters!Austin was so brave to go so high in the bounce houses.Even Talia got into it.We got to play with wiggle cars at Aunt Diana's.
We had fun at Mom's for Thanksgiving.

Little Chloe, (on the far right) kept running around saying, "I'm Ahora!" I think she meant to say "I'm Aurora."
This is me and my sister Katie with her little boy Andrew. He is two months younger than Talia.This is Rob's brother Mike with his son Davis. He was born within two weeks of Talia.
We had a cousin sleepover. Austin and Heather got along so well!Then we went to the Children's Museum in Salt Lake. Libby had me do all the girl's hair matching.Talia took her first steps here in Utah!! She took four at the children's museum. :)
I got to see my cute sister Emily.

Dates, stairs are done, and more!

2010-11-08T01:16:00.001-08:00

The kids have been earning activities. This time they chose dates. Robert and I had a "Harry Potter" date. We made scones together, went to a Harry Potter activity going on at a school, made rootbeer floats, and then put together some Harry Potter legos while watching the movie. Robert came up with all of that himself. We had a good date! Rob took Belly and Austin to the movie "Megamind". It was in 3-D, when Isabelle put her glasses on she said, "It made the movie real!"

On Saturday we took the kids roller skating.Rob finished the stairs. Here is the before and after.
I think it looks so much better! Thank you Rob!!

A friend gave Robert some snow pants today. He was so excited for them.He even wore them to dinner. Rob made me dinner tonight since tomorrow is my b-day! It was delicious, thanks honey!

P.S. Talia stood up on her own for about a second today!!

Halloween continued

2010-11-08T00:26:00.000-08:00

So, I didn't have time to post everything from Halloween. Our weekend was kind of a strange Halloween for us since Halloween was on a Sunday this year, and we had Stake Conference. So, Saturday we went to a pool party for the kid's swim teacher. She has cancer and had to stop teaching. So, she had a party for all the kids to say goodbye.That night we went to stake conference. The next day I let Robert wear his Indiana Jones costume to church (since it's church clothes with a leather jacket anyways.) I wore my witch tights with a black skirt and top. Then I made this fun Halloween dinner.
Pumpkin bread, mummy dogs, asparagus...
I tried a jello hand, it didn't work out so well.
and we put eyeballs in our hot cider.
As you can see, Robert didn't make it to the meal. He decided he would rather sleep. I think we were all the happier for it. :)We didn't go trick or treating. We just let the kids dress up and took some pumpkin bread to a neighbor so they could see the kids. Everyone was so happy. :)

Halloween party party party.....

2010-11-01T00:14:00.000-07:00

Last weekend we had our 11th annual Halloween party. It was so much fun! Here is the cast of characters that came.

Wendy and Bryan Ross

Mike and Jaymee Hornberger
Jennifer and Tim Howard
Matt and Javanne Allen
Shalee and Allen RuthShalee made this awesome punch. :)Vic and Heather Trevisanut. They helped us with games this year and they were so fun!Danile and Ted DucetteGeoff and Sara SwangerRob and I were Macbeth characters this year. I was a "weird sister" or witch from Macbeth, Rob was part of the army that hid behind the branches of Birnam Wood to attack the castle.Angie and Jeff The kids got to enjoy the spoils of the party.Monday night we did pumpkin carving for FHE.

We put on the "Thriller" video while we were carving pumpkins. That is why Belly is dancing here. I tried to do some of the dance moves as well. :)Talia got into the Halloween spirit by chewing on a skeleton.We had pumpkin pie.Here is the end result!Austin got to wear a costume to soccer practice.

Robert got to dress up for Pack Meeting.
They had pumpkin bowling. So fun!Austin had a Halloween party at his preschool.
We had a homeschooler Halloween party.
I did a Macbeth presentation there. I dressed up like a witch and told the story from the witch's perspective. I had the kids wear name signs behind me and act it out as I told the story. Then I made a witches brew. I had bottles labled 'Crushed bones', 'dried blood', 'eyeballs', etc. The kids just ate it up! Afterwards we all played games.cookie decorating pin the teeth on the vampiremusical chairsRobert had a Karate party that night.
Then we went to trunk or treat!Isabelle was so tired after that party day that she fell asleep in process of putting her jammies on.