The Howell's

Twister

2011-12-28T10:04:00.000-08:00

Our new game that we got from Christmas. Ethan and Ella had never played so it was soooo funny watching. Poor Ella, her little arms and legs were a little short so we had to go easy on her. Ethan got into some pretty crazy positions. Mom and Dad played for a bit but found out we are a bit too old to hold some of the positions. (no pictures of that unfortunately!! lol)

Christmas Morning

2011-12-28T09:46:00.000-08:00

Oh Santa, you are so good to us! Ella got a doll that walks and talks and Tangled DVD.

Ethan got Lego Harry Potter 5-7 and Kung Foo Panda 2 DVD.

Emma got an Electronic Snap Circuits Board and X Men First Class DVD.

Nathan made me this doll, looks just like him huh? What a guy!

Getting ready for Santa!

2011-12-28T09:35:00.001-08:00

Christmas Eve night the kids got to open their Christmas pajamas then take a bath.

Of course we need to bake Santa his yearly Snicker doodle cookies . . .

Now that the Egg Nog and cookies are out the kids can now go to bed!!! Yah!

Ice Skating

2011-12-17T13:05:00.001-08:00

This year for Nathan's work Christmas Party we went to Idaho Ice World. It was so much fun. Emma, Nathan and I have been before but Ethan and Ella have never been ice skating. We started out by having dinner at Chicago Connection then headed over to start skating.

Here they are .... all confident! Ice Skating cant be too hard right??

Ethan struggled a bit. At first we didn't have any of the walker things to help them out so they stayed along the wall. But after awhile we ended up with the walkers. That sped things up!

Emma is a pro!

Even with a walker Ethan still had problems going forward. I guess Ice Skating isn't for everyone.

Next time . .. Jeans and taller socks. Some of us wore ankle length socks so the shoes rubbed our ankles raw. Some of our bums got pretty cold too.

Ya! Ella can Ice Skate by herself!!

Watching the Zamboni clean the ice.

We had a ton of fun, thank you Engineering Inc. for the fun night!

Christmas Prep

2011-12-04T18:24:00.000-08:00

Emma is such a good sport. She loves helping her dad, especially if it involves getting on the roof!

This year we decided to get a real tree! It was so nice putting on the lights without getting my arms all scraped up, the real trees are so soft! Since it is a real tree I decided to put on tinsel. I have never ever had a tree with tinsel on it so I thought I would give it a try. I am loving it as of right now but I am finding the silver stuff all over the carpet.

One of our Christmas traditions is to decorate the tree as a family. The kids love to hang all of the homemade ornament they/we have made in past years. We are getting quite the collection.

San Deigo - Beware! Lots of Pictures!

2011-11-08T18:50:00.000-08:00

Nathan surprised me with a 5 day 4 night trip to San Deigo! He kept it a secret until the morning of the trip. He arranged for the kids to be watched, me getting off work, church callings, everything. We had a great time and took tons of pictures. We left Thursday morning and came home Monday afternoon. It was perfect. Here is the view from our hotel room. We slept with the door open so we could listen to the ocean .. .. I loved the palm trees!

Misc. places we went to . .

This was as close to Mexico as we could get . . .

In and Out for the first time!

Airplane pics . . .

Our plane from Boise to LA

A tiny tiny part of LA from the sky!

Our plane San Deigo to Phoenix

Lucky Peak

Beach Pics!

cool sand designs

People surfed everyday we were there. Even on the rainy days.

Our hotel . . . Can you get any closer to the beach?

San Deigo Temple . . . So Beautiful!

Cool houses/buildings we saw . . . .

This is someone's house!!! I want to live in castle!

Awesome flowers/trees/bushes we saw....

Weird things we saw that I just had to take a picture of . .

waste reducing soap . . . yet they replaced it everyday still . . .

hmmm.... I am glad my kids didn't live on this road, it was super busy!

Holy Cow!! Plus chain link fence around the sign. You never know who wants the gas station numbers . ..

A Wendy's under business offices? hmmm...

Halloween 2011

2011-11-08T18:43:00.000-08:00

Princess Zelda and Link

Halloween Cookies and Pumpkins

2011-11-08T18:29:00.000-08:00

Ethan's first soccer season - Fall 2011

2011-11-08T17:53:00.000-08:00

Ethan's first soccer season went well, he was a little slow getting it at the beginning but he picked it up fast and really enjoyed it and he was really excited to get his trophy at the end of the season.

3 temples, 2 days

2011-10-19T18:40:00.000-07:00

This last weekend I took the kids down to Utah to visit the great grandparents. Since they live so close to a couple temples we took a morning and visited them! First up the Logan Temple. Let me tell you .. I have never seen this temple before and I LOVE IT! So beautiful! Ella was a little concerned where the angel Moroni was :)

Next up Brigham City. This temple was still being built but we stopped and took a couple minutes to look it over. Ella was excited to see the angel Moroni.

After getting home from our little journey I made dinner and we spent some time with the grandparents. Emma felt awful the whole time in Utah, they have terrible stuff in the air so she gets itchy eyes and a plugged up nose. :(

This is the view from their porch. It is so pretty!

Emma wasn't feeling well so I didn't take any pictures of her but Ella and Ethan love spending time with Grandma and Grandpa and their huge dog, Sassy!

We got up the next morning, ate breakfast and left. We decided to stop at the Twin Falls temple. Since it was a Saturday the temple grounds were filled with brides. It was fun to see all the beautiful white dresses.

Before and After of the Fireplace

2011-09-24T18:48:00.000-07:00

After a couple months of hard work our fireplace cabinets are done! Drew and Nathan put in a lot of time getting these babies done!

I can proudly say that I tiled most of the fireplace (alright, maybe half). woot!

What a way to end the summer!

2011-09-18T18:26:00.000-07:00

We loaded up the kids and met Mike and Teawna in Parma at the Drive Inn. This is an excellent excuse to load up on bean dip and caramel corn . . . yummy! The double feature for the night was Harry Potter 7 part 2 and Cowboys and Aliens.

Don't ask me why Mike will never give me a real smile. He is so silly.

Here is what the kids looked like at the end of the 2nd movie. I admit to falling asleep also. My bedtime is usually 10pm not 1am.

Emma's 12!

2011-09-18T18:18:00.000-07:00

I am now a mother of a 12 year old! Where has the time gone? Emma has turned into one beautiful young women. She is a thoughtful, smart, loving girl. She adds so much to our family and we wouldn't trade her for anything!

So for Emma's party we had some of her friends over for pizza, cake, a sock exchange and a movie.

It's that time again . .

2011-08-30T18:36:00.000-07:00

Here we are again, first day of school! Back to bed time schedules, homework and tons of paper all over my house! Ugh. But . . . my kids sure do like school so I will get over it!

Emma is now in Middle School! Oh my goodness where did the time go??? She wasn't even nervous! She is in a couple advanced classes so she will be in heaven. She was ready to head back to school the 2nd week of summer vacation.

Ethan is in the 2nd grade this year. He didn't even want us to walk him to school. :( He told us he knew exactly were to go so we didn't need to go with him. I guess this is a good thing, he is getting so much more independent and confident!

Next year will be a sad one for me, Ella will start Kindergarten! She wants to go to school with the other kids but is happy enough for the time being going to Preschool.

Everyone needs a friend . .

2011-08-24T20:30:00.000-07:00

Speedy is so much more vocal and happy now that he has Kirby, just goes to show that everyone needs a friend.

They get pretty crazy at night after Ethan turns off his light to go to bed. They run around their cage and "chat" with one another. It is funny to stand at Ethan's door and listen to him laugh at the guinea pigs, he has been staying up late watching them.

Introducing Speedy

2011-08-18T17:36:00.001-07:00

The deal was that if Ethan could learn how to tie his shoes this summer he could buy a guinea pig. Ethan came home from Oregon on Tuesday and here we are with a new little friend. Ethan picked him out and paid for him all by himself. This is exciting stuff!

Day 8 - Going home!

2011-08-04T19:43:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning we packed the girls up in the van with all of our stuff and headed home. It made us sad to leave Ethan behind but he will be doing some fun stuff with the Grandparents. Along the way we saw a couple Dams, a ton of wind mills and a waterfall.

Day 7 - Portland Zoo

2011-08-04T19:20:00.000-07:00

Friday morning we packed up and headed to Portland (yes, 3 trips to Portland, that is a lot of gas and time in the van!) to go to the Zoo! I am sure most of you have been here so I posted our favorite animals. We saw tons and I didn't feel like posting them all! After a couple hours in the zoo we left to our van for some lunch. It is funny how people will follow you in their cars waiting to see if you are leaving because there is NOT enough parking there. We had to tell quite a few people we were indeed staying so keep on circling .

The Orangutan was sitting in the corner with a part of a box on his head. Weird . . .

Before you went into this bird area you could purchase for only $1.00!!! a tiny cup of syrup to feed the birds. This being vacation, what the heck, cups for everyone!

After the Zoo we stopped at McDonalds for Ice cream cones and they were not .99 but 1.48. grrr. Still cheaper than the ice cream at the zoo.

Day 6 - OMSI

2011-08-04T19:04:00.001-07:00

After coming home from the coast and scrubbing off all the sea water and sand we heading once again to Portland to go to OMSI, which stands for Oregon Museum of Science and Industry. It is like the Discovery Center in Boise only 4 times bigger and cooler! Before we got to Portland we stopped by the Portland Temple which is currently closed while it was being cleaned so we ate lunch in the parking lot since they had the grounds closed off.

The temple had this ground cover with awesome yellow flowers, anyone know what they are? I would love to have these in my yard.

Dad's mustache app on his phone!

Gotta love that tongue.

Nathan getting shocked!

Oh ya, Pit Fall on the Atari! They had a video game room with all the gaming systems! Pretty darn sweet. I can't believe how boring and easy games used to be!

Here is some pretty Portland graffiti. Can you see it? I took this picture as we sat in 5:00 Portland traffic! Ugh, sooo nasty and hot!

Day 5 - Packing up camp

2011-08-04T18:55:00.000-07:00

Wednesday we ate breakfast and decided to go hit up all the cool places you can see while driving up North on Highway 101 towards Depot Bay. We stopped at the Devil's Punch Bowl and some other misc. stops. Great views. Again, tons of cool houses that I someday would like to live in! After sight seeing we went back to camp and Nathan packed up the van. I still am amazed how he got so much stuff packed into that van. My kids could barely move but he got it all in there. We are thinking about getting a camper soon!

Thanks to the nice lady that took our family picture, at least a couple of us are smiling!

Day 4 - Depot Bay & Newport

2011-08-04T18:43:00.001-07:00

Tuesday Nathan and I woke up to a flat air mattress! It was a long night sleeping on the ground. The kids got their hot chocolate and a Dutch Oven breakfast. We headed off to Depot Bay to look at all the fun shops on the main strip. We decided this year we wanted to go Whale watching! It was pretty darn fun but no whales. :( We saw some awesome houses on the cliffs right next to the ocean. Nathan and I decided one day we will live there!

I am pretty sure this was the first time our kids had been on a boat!

Sea Lions in Newport!

After seeing tons of people eating really expensive ice cream cones in Newport we decided to hit up the McDonalds for $1.00 cones.

Getting ready for bed!

Day 3 - Beverly Beach

2011-08-04T18:27:00.000-07:00

Monday morning we packed and headed to Newport (if you remember from last year, we ended up hitting a deer as we got into Newport) We got to our campground at Beverly Beach and set up then went to the beach. We didn't plan on staying long but the weather was sooo nice. There was barely any wind so Nathan drove back to the camp spot and grabbed the kids' swimsuits, towels and some chairs. We were there for a couple hours playing. I don't think I have ever been to the Oregon Coast and had weather like this. Wow!

Packed up and ready to go!

After the beach we headed back to camp for some dinner in the dutch oven and Smore's for dessert.

Happy 13th Anniversary to us! What a way to spend your anniversary!

Smore's - you have to make them if you go camping!

Day 2 - BBQ at Crystal's house

2011-08-04T18:19:00.001-07:00

Sunday afternoon we drove over to my friend Crystal's house. She used to work at the Transportation Department with me but moved over to Oregon to go to graduate school. Luckly, she moved 12 miles away from my inlaws. Awesome! So we had a bbq and played some outdoor games!

Day 1 - Oak Amusement Park

2011-08-04T18:04:00.000-07:00

We (Nathan and I) got to Oregon Friday night, the kids were super excited to see us. Ella wouldn't let go of me, she just kept looking at me and saying how much she loved me and missed me. ahhhhh. Saturday morning we woke up and left for Portland which is 1 1/2 hours away. We started off our day with Icee's . . . Oaks Amusement Park is free to get into you just by a wrist band for unlimited rides. So, here are my favorite pictures . . .

That day was enough to wear anyone out!

Perler Beads + Cupcakes + Grandma = FUN

2011-08-03T20:45:00.000-07:00

Grandma Richards wanted to come over and bead with us, so we fed her dinner and had leftover birthday cupcakes. We love when Grandma comes over!

Emma in the process of making a Luigi. (We love Mario themed Perler Beads)

Smile!

Good conversations happen while eating cupcakes!

Ella loves her Grandma Richards!

The finished product, Grandma and Ella love Snoopy and Woodstock!

4th of July weekend

2011-07-06T18:58:00.000-07:00

Friday night we headed up to my parents cabin in New Centerville. Saturday morning we got up and went into town for the 4th of July breakfast. They had ham (plate size cuts), bacon, eggs, omelets made to order, waffles, pancakes and OJ. So yummy. After breakfast my parents, Nathan and I went up the mountain on the 4 wheelers and had a picnic. The view was so pretty!

We were filthy when we got back to the cabin. We had dust everywhere except where our helmets and sunglasses were.

My mom's puppy Boots loves all the pine cones and stick up there.

Monday evening we had our friends the Peterson's over for dinner and fireworks. Since my kids are gone over in Oregon I mostly took pictures of Liam, Mike and Teawna.

Any time you point a camera at Liam he says "Cheeeeessseee"

Hamburgers, hot dogs, bbq'd corn on the cob, baked beans, deviled eggs, little smokies, chips and cupcakes.

I love this picture of Teawna and Liam. What a cutie.

Cupcake time!

Smore's and fireworks. Good times!

Happy Fathers Day!

2011-06-11T10:42:00.000-07:00

Because our kids left to Oregon for the next 7 weeks we wanted to have Father's Day a little early so they could be here with Nathan. We started with breakfast. Ethan and Ella helped crack the eggs (which by the way are really good at). We had breakfast burrito's with avocado, sour cream, salsa, fresh parsley from our garden, toast and juice.

Next came cards, each kid colored their own card and gave it to dad.

Our gifts to Nathan were a sweet hat (I don't know the name of the kind of hat) and his 1/6 scale jeep he has wanted. He will have to put it together and paint it. (now you know what he will be doing for the next 6 weeks with the kids gone)

After church Nathan was exempt from everything, he got to sit and relax all day long until dinner when we had our good friends the Peterson's come over for dinner. I made shish kabob's and rice. Unfortunately, I don't trust myself BBQ-ing so Nathan did have to do that. It was a beautiful day outside, it was fun to have the kids swinging and laughing while the adults got to hang out and talk.

Dinner tuned out really good!! Yummmm. We had a peanut butter pie for dessert.

I love my husband and think he is a awesome dad, I sure did get lucky!

Go Huskies!

2011-05-22T20:00:00.000-07:00

The season is almost over and I really haven't taken too many pictures. I now know I need a couple more so I will get some posted later on this month. Here are a few that I have so far.

Thanks to our good friend Mike Peterson for umpiring one of the games. (Liam had fun watching his daddy play ball with the girls ) We appreciated it!

Sunday Best

2011-05-22T19:53:00.000-07:00

Here are some current pics of the kids all ready for church. Ethan loves to ask us if he looks like a missionary when he wears his jacket to church. . . .

Easter 2011

2011-04-30T13:23:00.000-07:00

Saturday before Easter we headed over to my parents house for some Easter Egg coloring. My dad ended up getting the 4 wheeler out and took the kids up and down the street. They love it.

Ella with her favorite cousin, Harper. Ella is 3 weeks older than Harper but Harper is almost a head taller than her. (my poor short kids)

Coloring eggs . . .

Sunday morning the kids were up around 7:30 to check out what the Easter Bunny brought.

Grandma and Grandpa Oni sent the kids each $20.00, spoiled eh?

White chocolate dipped peeps. yummo!

Mountain Dew flavored chap stick.

Bacon flavored chap stick!!!

Oink

Making homemade rolls, take 2.

2011-04-05T20:48:00.000-07:00

Last week I tried to make homemade rolls for our Turkey dinner we were having with some family in town. I am new at this so I guess I don't know all the rules. I guess my yeast had to be room temperature (not straight out of a cold fridge) because it never did rise after 2 hours of waiting. So my mom so kindly brought over rolls for me. So this last weekend I decided Emma and I would try it again. This time my yeast was room temperature!! And it worked! I made the rolls but Emma did the rolling, cutting out and buttering. In the end they turned out yummy.

I thought these pictures were funny of the kids. Ethan wanted to eat a Turkey leg so of course Ella wanted one too!

Birthday Burger for Grandpa Oregon

2011-03-31T13:21:00.001-07:00

We went to Big Jud's for a 2lb burger, went home and had ice cream sundae's. Happy Birthday Grandpa!

Happy Birthday Grandma Richards!

2011-03-20T17:15:00.000-07:00

We got together as a FAMILY and had a Sunday breakfast for Grandma Richards Birthday. We were all there so you know it was crazy loud but everything turned out great. I think everyone had fun.

Getting ready to eat . . L to R . . .Emma, Delaney, Orion, Ethan, Jordan, Olivia, Ella, Harper and Sam.

We had biscuits, gravy, hash browns, scrambled eggs, cinnamon rolls, crepes, bacon, corned beef hash, fruit, hot chocolate and OJ. Yummy!

I told you Amanda I was going to put this picture on the blog . . .

Molly begging for some food. Such talent.

A few pics of my trip around Idaho

2011-03-13T15:13:00.000-07:00

As many of you know, I just got back from Northern and Eastern Idaho. I took quite a bit of pictures but I thought I would show you a few of my favorites. We have such a beautiful state!

The beautiful Idaho Falls Temple.

Driving west from Idaho Falls, the fence was pretty much covered in snow.

South of Lewiston, there were quite a few old wooden railroad trellises around.

This dog Bed and Breakfast is north of Cottonwood. Who wouldn't want to stay there?

As you can tell from the next couple pictures; I love the Payette River when it is covered in snow. It is so pretty to look at. It is one of the things I look forward to seeing when I go north in the winter.

This picture is my favorite out of all of them. The Rainbow Bridge. There was no pull off's on the side of the road so I made the guy that was driving me (Travis) make sure there was no one behind us and stop right on the highway so I could take a picture.

Big Burgers and ducks!

2011-02-05T14:43:00.001-08:00

Since today was such a nice day we headed down to Big Jud's for lunch and then over to the park to feed the ducks.

Look at that french fry! Huge!

This is Ella being a wimp. She did not like the Geese crowding her so she wanted to go sit in the van.

Ethan thought it was funny to let the Geese have a whole piece of bread because after the Goose got it all the rest chased after him wanting a piece.

Run Goose Run!

White ducks!

The duck in the middle had long blue head feathers and red eyes.

When we were almost finished another guy come over with a huge bag of feed so they left us and went and feasted with him.

Kinda funny seeing the ducks just standing there on the ice. I wonder if their feet get cold?

Grandma & Grandpa's new cabin

2011-01-30T09:33:00.000-08:00

My parents are in the process of buying a cabin up in Centerville. It is about 1 1/2 hours away up in the mountains. As of right now it looks like they have 4 - 5 feet of snow to play in! Fun times.

Up and down the hill we went, sometimes on sleds sometimes on our butts. It was pretty fun.

Ella's 4th Birthday!

2011-01-17T20:17:00.000-08:00

Ella got to go to 2 places for her birthday. First, last Thursday we went to Red Robin for Ethan's birthday. They also sang to her. For her birthday she chose Carls Jr. SO we are pretty done with Hamburgers for a while. After dinner we went to Bounce. We had all the cousins, aunts and uncles and Grandma and Grandpa Richards meet us there.

Emma stuck on the Velcro.

This is what Grandpa Richards had to do to get Ella to sit for a picture. She was being so silly.

gEthan got beat up by some mean kid right after this. :(

Ella going down the huge slide.

Cutie Pies Teawna and baby Liam.

Cousin Sam didn't care if he was riding in a pink car!

Ella and her favorite cousin, Harper.

All the cousins.

After Bounce we all headed over to our house for presents, cake and ice cream! Yummy.

Who wouldn't want a pink sparkly piggy bank?

A new jewelry box from mom and dad.

Mike and Teawna gave Ella a barbie.

Blowing out the birthday candles.

Grandma Richards gave Ella a pretty tutu.

Ella loves her Grandma Richards.

Playing Barbie's with Aunt Shannon!

It was a fun packed night and we are all tired. Thanks for all that showed up. We had a blast. Thankfully we have no more birthdays until September.

Ethan's 7th Birthday

2011-01-17T06:09:00.000-08:00

We started by going to Red Robin for dinner where they sang Happy Birthday and he got an ice cream sundae.

After dinner we came home and had a couple of Ethan's best friends over. As you can see, Tanner didn't want to be in the picture.

He got an Atlantis Lego set from Grandma and Grandpa Oregon!

Army guys from Tanner, which Ethan just loves. I have no idea why I never got Ethan anything like this. He plays with it nonstop and the other kids want to play too.

I giant cupcake with Orange and Blue Sprinkles! Yummy.

We got him that Nerf Stampede he has wanted. 60 darts all over my house! The thing is huge and almost bigger than him!

Happy Birthday to my special little guy, it makes me sad you are getting so big but at the same time I love watching you get excited about getting 100% on your spelling tests at school, reading your books in record time and learning how to tie your shoes.

Bowling with the Peterson's

2010-12-27T19:29:00.001-08:00

Looks like everyone is happy!

2010-12-27T12:28:00.000-08:00

This year all the kids got what they asked for from Santa. Emma asked for an acoustic guitar, Ethan asked for Lego Harry Potter for the Wii, and Ella asked for a PINK Leapster. They must have been extra good this year.

Christmas Eve

2010-12-27T12:21:00.000-08:00

Our family tradition on Christmas Eve is to open a gift which is always a new pair of pajamas. We also make Snickerdoodles and pour a big glass of Egg Nog for Santa. Once everyone is in their new pajamas dad reads The Night Before Christmas.

Gingerbread houses

2010-12-20T20:33:00.001-08:00

Grandma Richards came over with Aunt Melissa, cousins Olivia and Orion to decorate Gingerbread Houses while Nathan and I went to his work Christmas Party. I think they turned out quite well. Somehow Ethan's house got a little smashed, so darn, we didn't let it go to waste! They tasted wonderful, Grandma makes yummy homemade gingerbread!

Cute Little Picture of Ella

2010-12-20T20:32:00.000-08:00

I took this picture of Ella before church the other day.
I just can't believe how big she is getting.

Visit with Santa

2010-12-20T20:14:00.000-08:00

Our ward Christmas party was this last weekend and the kids were super excited to talk to Santa! Ethan asked for Lego Harry Potter the video game for the Wii, Ella asked for a Pink Leapster and Emma asked for an acoustic guitar. I guess we will see what Santa brings this year.

After dinner Ella got to run around with Ellie and Molly and a couple of her other friends. We had so much fun at the party!

First snowman of the year

2010-11-27T18:20:00.000-08:00

While a certain little boy was inside playing video games, my girls and Nathan were busy outside making the first snowman of the year.

2010 Holiday Family Pictures

2010-11-08T19:37:00.000-08:00

There were too many to choose from so I posted my favorites. I will have a hard time deciding what pictures I will use on our Christmas cards. Thanks to Virgina for her awesome work!

Trunk or Treating

2010-10-31T17:43:00.001-07:00

Carving Pumpkins

2010-10-31T17:28:00.000-07:00

Decorating Halloween Cookies

2010-10-29T15:47:00.000-07:00

Some good times and some bad times

2010-09-29T15:42:00.000-07:00

As many of you have heard, Nathan's grandma on his fathers side passed away almost 2 weeks ago unexpectedly. We were so blessed to have had them visit us just a few days before hand. The kids loved talking their ear off and playing with their dog Cassie. They live in Ogden and were on their way to Oregon to visit Nathan's parents when grandma quit breathing in Pendleton Oregon. We drove down for the viewing/funeral last Friday. It was great to see all the family you don't get to see very often. Nathan's aunts, uncles and cousins are so awesome. The viewing went fine until Ella said she had to go potty, we made it to the bathroom but not to the toilet so she peed all over her underwear and sandals. Of course I didn't have any back up clothes so she went without panties for the rest of the night. I had to make sure she sat like a lady, that was a chore. During the funeral while Nathan's uncle was speaking, Ella is next to me "whispering" (do kids know who to whisper?? NO!) about how she wants her panties back!!! AHHHHH. How embarrassing. Ethan is asking why Grandma is in a box?? and if he can look in there. Skip to the next day, we get up to Grandma Oni cooking Emma a lb of bacon for her birthday. Emma ate 9 of the 13 pieces!

Every time we go to Grandma Oni's house the kids have to take a bubble bath in her jet tub. Super fun, but I do think Emma is getting a bit big to go in with the little kids.

Before driving to Ogden for the actual burial we made a quick stop to visit Nathan's great grandma who passed away earlier this year.

We arrived at the cemetery for the burial and one of the first things Ethan says is " If any zombies come up from the graves I will kill them!" (too many video games I think) The ceremony was very nice and short, Nathan's cousin played the bag pipes. We all got together afterward for dinner, it was fun to talk to all the cousin and family.

After another greasy breakfast we left for Boise, going out of town if nice but we were glad to be home.

Emma's Rock Band Birthday Party

2010-09-13T18:25:00.000-07:00

We had lots of fun watching the kids play! Thanks for everyone that came and made Emma's day special.

Ivy Wild Park

2010-09-05T21:19:00.000-07:00

We haven't had a family picture in a while, I think it turned out pretty good.

Ethan was catching butterflies like crazy.

Before and After Pictures of our Kitchen

2010-08-08T18:06:00.001-07:00

We decided that if we were going to stay in our house for a couple more years we needed to update the kitchen and bathrooms. So here are the before and after pics of the kitchen and a couple pics of the kids bathroom. Our bathroom has a long way to go so we will do more pictures when it is completed. So to start off we got new counter tops, paint, blinds, faucet and ditched the curtains. We are also currently replacing all the doors in our house (including the closet doors) with new white 6 paneled doors and painting all of our trim white. Should be a busy month. The way I placed the pictures are the before then the after picture.

Oregon Coast trip 2010

2010-07-13T18:33:00.000-07:00

Every time we drive to Oregon we never stop to see the Falls so this time we did. We climbed up the mountain and onto the bridge at Multnomah Falls. Pretty!

4th of July we had a BBQ at Nathan's parents house with his brother Billy and his son Cody. It was fun to see family we don't get to see very often. For some reason I didn't take pictures of anyone besides my kids. . .

Here we are on the way to the coast. This picture is like 5 minutes before we hit the deer. Ethan woke up and told dad . . next time be more careful!

Here is the bridge next to the Beverly Beach campground.

Tuesday we went to the Aquarium in Newport. We have been here before but these kinds of animals never get old to look at.

Off to Nye Beach. The first couple days was super nice (well, as nice as the ORegon Coast gets) so we let the kids get in the water a little bit. The last couple days it was super foggy and really cold. We went to Ripely's Believe it or Not and walked down on the Historic Bay front in Newport.

We also visited the Yaquina Head Lighthouse. Nathan, Ethan and Emma went to the top. Ella was too short so we stayed behind in the freezing wind.

Gotta roast hot dogs when you go camping. Oh, and eat tons of cheese puffs!

We found some cute little shops down by the Aquarium. It had a pirate theme so there were Pirate and ocean life statues all over. We got to watch a guy do some glass blowing and Nathan bought a huge knife at a sword shop.

Sea lions hanging out on the dock in Newport. You can hear them barking from down the street. Pretty funny to watch them sunbath.

Thursday afternoon after packing up from camping we decided to head north and stop at the Tillamook Cheese Factory and have cheese samples and ice cream. After the Cheese Factory we were set to head back to Lebanon. The GPS took us the scenic route and guess what we found??? A Ferry! In the middle of nowhere. We were shocked and a little confused! It was $2.00 to ride it across the river. Pretty weird huh?

We ended up leaving for home on Saturday, we left Emma and Ethan so now we just have Ella for the rest of the summer.

Baseball Season

2010-06-23T17:47:00.000-07:00

Here are some of my favorites of Emma so far. Her two favorite positions are pitcher and catcher. She has just learned how to pitch this season and she has been doing so awesome that she was able to pitch 3 out of the 4 innings at her last game. If she isn't pitching then she is catching. I just love watching her catch, she sticks her little butt out, it is super cute.

After 5 years playing I think this will be her last year of PAL baseball, next year we will look into getting her in fast pitch softball. With her goal of being a doctor when she grows up and loving baseball so much it wouldn't surprise me at all if she went into Sports Medicine.

Gotta love sliding into home base!

How did I get so lucky?

2010-06-08T16:32:00.000-07:00

My kids have done excellent in school this year. Both Ethan and Emma received the Perfect Attendance award. They didn't miss any school and didn't have any tardies! Not many kids received this award because of the Swine Flu stuff that went around last fall. Somehow we missed that and had healthy kids all year!

Ethan did so awesome that he was awarded an Academic Award. Only 2 kids in each class get this so we were super excited to find out he earned it.

Along with the Perfect Attendance Award, Emma also received a certificate for being in the Idaho History Bee (only 8 kids got this award) and the Academic of the Year Award. This is the 2nd year in a row that she has gotten this and her name goes on a plaque in the hallway at her school. I couldn't have asked for smarter kids, we are so proud of them and can't wait for next year's awards!

Lemonade Stand

2010-06-08T16:30:00.000-07:00

Ethan's first Lemonade Stand. He liked it so much, he can't wait to do it again! (Ella's drinking his profits)

Ethan's a kindergarten graduate!

2010-06-04T19:56:00.000-07:00

Ethan and his friend Kye.

Ethan and his favorite Kindergarten teacher - Mrs. Nishikawa!

Who loves horses?

2010-06-03T18:00:00.000-07:00

Can you tell Ella didn't like the horses?

Good thing Ethan did!

This was the closest she would get to the horse.

Then it snuck up on her.

Camel's Back Park

2010-05-31T12:57:00.001-07:00

We all started to go up until we got to the hill and Ella got sand in her shoes, that was game over for her. She wanted me to carry her! Ya Right!

Here is Ella watching Dad, Emma and Ethan going up the hill.

MMMMM S more's

2010-05-13T17:51:00.001-07:00

I found huge Marshmallow's at the store so we HAD to make S more's. Super fun way to kick off the nice weather. Thanks Mike and Teawna for hanging out for the fun!

Our most recent family picture

2010-05-11T19:02:00.000-07:00

Ella's first attempt of drawing our family. For just turning 3 a couple months ago I was pretty darn impressed that she could draw us. I love this picture, it makes me realize how much Ella is growing and how smart she is. (the only thing wrong with this picture is my face, how come I don't get a smile?)

Mothers Day Party with Ethan

2010-05-08T16:48:00.001-07:00

For Mother's Day, Ethan's class had all the mom's come over and have treats. They sang a couple songs...

Mrs. Nishikawa asked every child the same 4 questions about their moms. It was pretty funny. The first one was "What is your mom's name?", second "How old is your mom?" third "What is your mom's favorite food?" and forth "What do you like to do best with your mom?". Here are Ethan's answers:
1. Rebecca
2. 44
3. Vegetables
4. Going on Walks together

Here is the video...

They made cute aprons for the mom's with their hand prints as flowers. Too cute. I love my Ethan to pieces. As I always tell him - He is my favorite little boy.

Ella's first bike.

2010-04-21T17:39:00.001-07:00

Since it was getting warm we thought it would be a good time to get Ella a bike, too bad right after these pictures she had a meltdown because she couldn't figure how to pedal. I guess we will try again this weekend.

Ella cracks me up!

2010-04-20T17:37:00.001-07:00

So it is pouring rain and the kids are outside. A huge crash of thunder goes off and Ella comes running into the house crying. I asked her why she was crying and she said "Jesus scared me!"

Ella's new room. Before and after pics.

2010-04-07T18:43:00.001-07:00

This is what Ella's room looked like before it was hers. It was Nathans computer room/guest room. Pumpkin orange with a chair railing.

This is Ella's room now. We got her a new (to us) bed. When we got it off Craigslist it was black. 3 hours and 6 cans of spray paint later, it was white. Nathan could barely close his hand because it was soooo cramped. I think it looks great! I also found some cute butterflies for the wall. Bedtime is a lot less stressful now, Ella was always bothering Ethan when he was trying to go to sleep and he always complained. I love them being in separate rooms now.

Easter Sunday

2010-04-07T18:35:00.000-07:00

We love the Easter Bunny in our house, he leaves us yummy baskets . . .

Grandma and Grandpa Howell also sent Easter baskets .. . . . Thank you!!!

Easter Saturday

2010-04-07T18:25:00.000-07:00

Saturday we went to Grandma Richards house to color and find Easter eggs. All the Grand kids were there so it was noisy and super fun.

Ella's first trip to the dentist

2010-03-24T20:14:00.000-07:00

Waiting for our turn to go back.

I couldn't resist this picture, they had a magazine rack full of kid stuff and what does Ethan grab? A magazine about guns and hunting!!

Being a little shy!

Give that girl a purple toothbrush and she perks right up.

Couldn't forget my cute little Ethan being so good.

All clean!

Brushing with the big toothbrush

Look at that sparkly smile! No cavities!

Ethan's big day!!

2010-03-17T21:15:00.001-07:00

Ethan had mentioned that his tooth hurt tonight, I didn't think much about it until Emma asked him what tooth hurt (she is such a good sister )and oh my gosh it was about ready to fall out!! So being the nice mom I am, I offered to pull it out. If you can believe it I have never pulled any of Emma's teeth out. She has always done it herself. SO after some tugging and some crying (well, a lot of crying) Ethan lost his first tooth. Ella was in the bathroom also and she was crying just as hard as Ethan because she didn't like the idea of him getting hurt. So sweet, but kind of annoying when your other child is crying too. He was soooo excited about the Tooth Fairy coming to give him money, I kept hearing him tell in Ella "be quiet! I want to go to sleep so the Tooth Fairy will come!"
My baby boy is no longer a baby, he is six and has lost his first tooth. They grow so fast.

Enjoying the nice weather

2010-03-01T17:59:00.001-08:00

My little kitchen helpers . . .

2010-02-08T20:30:00.000-08:00

Ella loves to help me in the kitchen! Ethan, not so much, so I never thought of making him an apron for Christmas. Well, he wanted to help with dinner so he put on Emma's apron and got right up there with Ella and made us dinner. I should be so blessed my kids love cheap food like Hamburger Helper.

They even took turns stirring without any fighting! It was sooo awesome.
Wish it was always like that.

It's too cold to go camping outside . . .

2010-02-01T17:56:00.000-08:00

Each kid has their own fun tent. So we set them up and let them camp out in the living room.

Ella's Princess Party!

2010-01-17T19:02:00.000-08:00

Best friend Elley and cousin Harper!

Ella's princess cake.

What a cute pair!

Elley had to blow out Ella's candles because she didn't want to.

Grandma and Grandpa Oregon got Ella sparkley shoes.

Rings, Nail polish, Tent, shopping cart and Princess gear from mom and dad.

All dressed up with Princess stuff.

Princess Tea Party set from Grandma and Grandpa Richards

Snowglobe and Playdoh from Best Friend Elley.

Happy 3rd Birthday Ella!

2010-01-17T18:51:00.000-08:00

3 years ago today at 2:39pm we were blessed with our little surprise baby. Ella weighed in at 8 lbs 15oz, and she was a week early. Even thought she is bossy and loud mouthed we still love her to death. It is hard to imagine life with out our Ella, she must have needed to be here with us for a reason.

Ethan's Birthday Party

2010-01-13T18:53:00.001-08:00

Thanks to Avery and Amber for being such great friends and showing up to Ethan's party. He really enjoyed you coming over and playing with him!

Awesome tool kit from Grandma and Grandpa Richards!