Proud Moments

At the closing ceremony for Josiah's Awana year (his first year in Sparks), he was asked among others to share a Bible verse in front of the crowd of parents and kids in the Awana program. We had been working on memorizing Psalm 23 the whole year during his homeschooling work and so he reviewed it a bit and he was able to recite the whole thing! He did a great job and did not appear to be nervous at all!

In the same week on a Friday, Josiah had his 2nd belt test (this time for his Senior Orange belt). Here he is at the beginning positions getting ready to warmup for the test. He is sitting next to his buddies Bryce & Sophia who were also going for the same belt.

They perform their ten hand sets together and this is the double knife hand block.

They warm up with a few kicks and then this time they had the black belts hold these targets for them to kick back and forth across the floor for various types of kicks.

They also have to show how to do a skill called "Self Defense #1" and "Attack #1" as well as do a board break (snap front kick this time). We thought that perhaps he wouldn't pass as it took him around 7 times to get his board broken, but finally he focused enough and was able to do it! I think he was worried about "who" was first as he kept looking over at the girls while he was breaking his board and so that didn't work so well! This shot is of them shaking the hands of the senior belts and the Master and Grandmaster of the school. Notice all the broken boards on the ground? The larger stacks were for the two black belts that tested. They each broke 7 different boards altogether. It was quite a neat thing to see the black belts do their thing! Very impressive! We are hoping Josiah will stick it out to the end to get a black belt too, but we shall see!

SUNNY day and HAPPY kiddos

The sun finally made an appearance here this week and it has been loooooong overdue! And yes, it does rain an awful lot on the West side of WA, but it has been a much longer rainy season than most of us are used to this year. A little vitamin D has done us all some good thankfully! Somehow all the kids decided to sit at the kiddie table at the same time. And by happenstance I had my camera at the ready as well!

They were banging on the table making noise...teaching Naomi the finer art of "boy noise" I am sure!

Josiah kept leaning over to kiss Naomi's hands. He loves his little sister! It is fun to watch them together. He loves to make her laugh and play with her though sometimes a little too roughly. She loves her biggest brother though and her other brothers too!

Trip to Spokane 2011--part 1

Well, for those of you who haven't heard, we are planning to move to Spokane this coming August. David's job will be the same as they have an office in the Spokane area, so that is one thing that will remain the same. We had been looking to get back there for a while now and the timing is now right to do it. David has to travel to Spokane periodically for work anyway, and so on one of his trips we just drove (instead of him flying) and went to meet our new landlords as well as some other friends and family. God has really been working in the situation in that we happened upon the new house we are to rent and the time frame is right in the same time that we were planning to move. We knew them prior to moving because I taught lessons to two of their girls for a short time as well.

Pictured above is Josiah on the way to Spokane. He was looking through his Adventure Bible and picking out words he knows.

The house we will rent is just four blocks from my friend Janeen and a short walk to our old church, so there are lot of things coming into place. We had a nice visit with our landlords and a yummy dinner there on Thursday evening, followed by dessert with our friends the Graham's (Janeen and her family) there also. Janeen is obviously friends with our landlords. It turns out too that Steve (our landlord) is now the full-time the pastor at my Aunt's church in Cheney (hence the reason they are moving). So there are connections all around and it was actually through my Aunt that I heard of the rental.

Naomi on the way over kept putting her little blankie bear over her head. Too cute! We also had lunch at Chili's right after we arrived in Spokane and had a taste of what life would be like with kids spaced by 5 years apart (the twins were with Grandma and Grandpa and then later my friend Sarah while we were gone). We missed the twins, but it was amazing how much easier things were to manage without them present. The other side of the story was though that the twins were NOT that easy to manage out of Mommy & Daddy's presence. But to be fair, it was the first time they had ever been away from us for that long (Wed. afternoon through Saturday afternoon). That story can be told another time.

On Friday night, we had dinner at David's Uncle Terry and Aunt Pam's house. David has never really known his uncles all that well as they live all over the country (and so did his family growing up) and only recently met his Uncle Terry on a visit to Spokane a while back. Terry & Pam have a beautiful home tucked away in Coeur d' Alene, Idaho and he has all sorts of fun "boy toys" that kept Josiah's interest while we were there. He runs a tractor business and goes on- site to various places he is hired to do various jobs during the spring through the fall and then in the winter he does shop work at his home repairing farm vehicles, snow mobiles and other machinery. Josiah actually got to DRIVE the tractor (with assistance of course) and unfortunately I didn't get a photo of him doing that, but he was really excited.

Later, Pam took him outside to see all the peacock feathers in their front yard where some coyotes made short order of a peacock. They took the meat with them, but the feathers were left behind and Josiah was fascinated with the feathers. Amongst all the peacock feathers, he also found a turkey feather (pictured above) and he kept correcting us that it was a "wild" turkey that was just walking around and left his feather there.

Josiah is proud as a peacock here about finding his feather. He was also fascinated with all the wildlife we saw while we were visiting. From far off we could see some elk grazing & some California quails over by Terry's shop as well. He also had a stuffed moose head on his wall and Josiah asked, "How did that moose get up there?" A short lesson in taxidermy was in order and he got one. Afterward, Josiah was non-stop talking about all his adventures at Uncle Terry and Aunt Pam's house. I am sure taking the twins there someday in the future is in order. Josiah told the twins all about his adventures when he got home and it was cute to hear him relate all the details to them.

Aunt Pam had a great time holding and playing with Miss Naomi girl while we were there. Their dog (I forget doggie's name right now) was interested in baby and she was VERY interested in their little dog. Doggie barked loudly though at Naomi once, and she got very scared and gave us her tomato face right quick!

Aunt Pam had to tie Josiah down for this shot, but I am glad we took it, such a cute shot of them both. Pam was very sweet to show Josiah around and was the one that talked to him all about the peacock, coyotes, and turkeys out in the front yard.

We didn't get the tractor shot, but we did get a picture of him sitting on top of one of their snowmobiles. I am pretty sure it is obvious how pleased he is here!

We posed briefly also for a family photo minus the twins. Thanks Terry & Pam for the fun time!

And making one cameo appearance (just barely) is Uncle Terry with David and Josiah. They weren't the most willing subjects, but I managed to capture at least one shot anyway! David cracked a joke so they would all smile for the camera.

While we were there, Pam's daughter-in-law and granddaughter came also. She and her husband live in England, but she was back in Spokane to visit her parents and her in-laws. They have an 18-month old (pictured above) named Jaelynn and Jennifer (her mom) is also pregnant with twins (both girls we found out later) and so we had some great discussions about twin stuff and made some connections there. Jaelynn wasn't too keen on having her Tigger played with by Naomi and after giving it to her promptly wanted it back. It was cute watching them play together!

And lastly and sadly, I did NOT get any pictures of where we spent most of our day on Friday with my friend Kim and her kids Colton and Kylie. For some odd reason, my camera never surfaced. However, we had a nice time hanging out with Kim (and Chris also for lunch) and her kiddos at her home. Josiah loves playing with his buddy Colton and kept calling Kylie "KAYlie." Kylie was really sweet and kept watching me as I was crocheting and was very interested. Colton came over and said, "I have a hole in my sock." I looked up and said, "OK?" Kim said, "You know where your socks are silly, go get a new one." Colton replied, "No, I need to you make me a sock Miss Heather." I was making granny squares at that time, but it was so funny he thought I could just whip him out a sock right then and there. Miss Naomi was fascinated with Kim's stairs and though she could climb them, she wasn't too steady on them and took a couple of tumbles down them, but thankfully with no injury. We will have stairs in our new home also, so I will need to gate off areas to keep her safe.

We also visited family in Cheney on Saturday on our drive home, but those pictures and stories will be in part 2!

Trip to Spokane--part 2

As promised, here is part 2 of our trip. On our way back home, we stopped in at the Care Center in Cheney where my Grandma Betty lives now. She had a stroke a while back and can't really communicate or walk on her own anymore, so she can certainly use your prayers as life is hard for her these days. She perked right up when she saw the baby though and made cooing noises and smiled really big. I also played my flute for her and could tell right away that the music was pleasing to her. When we got ready to leave, Grandma wanted to come to the front door to see us off like she always did before her stroke. Her personality is still in tact, but I am sure she is very frustrated that she cannot communicate anymore. I pray for her whenever she comes to mind that God would give her peace in this life and that she would be ready to meet Him someday when He calls her home. She is a dear Grandma and we will hopefully be able to see her more when we live nearer.

Josiah was preoccupied with other things while I was playing my flute for Grandma. He found these hats in a box and thought it funny to put all of them on at once. He made himself scarce most of the time while we were there, but I finally got him to come close enough to Grandma so she could see him. He didn't really understand why she couldn't talk, but once I explained that he was more comfortable around her. He gets really shy with everyone at first, so this is not unusual!

I threw this picture in randomly of Naomi before we left for Spokane riding this little horsey/chariot thing that Grandma got for her. She was very tickled to be on her new ride as you can see.

After the Care Center visit, my Aunt Genny came with us to the park and then afterward to have lunch at Zips. It was rather cold at the park, so we didn't stay out in the cold long for the sake of sweet baby and the freezing cold ladies. Kalen (my cousin) also lived nearby and stopped by the park on her way to go swimming so we could say hello. All the ladies sat in the warm car and chatted a bit before we went to lunch.

Here is baby Naomi with her little red nose from the cold all bundled up with Aunt Genny at the park. We had a nice visit with Aunt Genny at lunch and then got on the road after that and made it home in good time to greet the twins at home. They were very happy to see us of course as we were to see them also. It was a nice trip and it was really fun for David and I to get away even with the two little ones we took with us. Thanks to my parents, my friend Sarah and our babysitter Sharel for covering the care of the twins while we were gone!

Well....Allll---Beee!

We met our friends the Allbee's (Chris & Kim) at the Rainforest Cafe yesterday evening. They are a family we met when we lived in Spokane and they were in town for a vacation and we planned to meet up with them for dinner. They have two kiddos (Colton--J's age and Kylie--6 months older than the twins). It was fun to see them again and Josiah and Colton didn't miss a beat and were best buddies again. They used to play together when they were really little!

After we ate at the Cafe, we walked to the play area in the mall for the kids to play a little bit before they made the big drive back home. All the boys are walking together and the girls hung back to chit chat. We walked past a store where a while back I had accidentally broken something (was trying on a pair on sunglasses and leaned in to look at a mirror and didn't see this snowman deal on the edge and it fell off the shelf) and David teased me saying, "Do you want to go in there?"

Across from the play area was a Sanrio store (Hello Kitty stuff) and like a magnet Naomi was drawn in and wanted to play with the purses hanging near the ground and when Daddy lifted her up to see the Hello Kitty dolls she leaned in right away to hug two of them. She fit right in with her pretty in pink outfit!

At the Rainforest Cafe, they had their tree frog mascot out in front greeting the people as they came in. Caleb was delighted to see him and ran in to give him a big hug. He then spied a little tree frog stuffed animal in the shop and got it to give to the life size tree froggy. You could tell he was "touched" and then tried to give it back to little Caleb-ee! He is such a sweetheart! Love that smile!

Josiah and Colton are having a 5-year old boy kind of conversation. You know...the usual...underwear, karate, and other such funny and cool topics. It was a really fun outing and so great to see old friends again! Thanks for taking time on your vacation Allbee's to see us!

Josiah AKA Supermonkey!

The other day Josiah dressed up as "Supermonkey," his own made up super hero. Rarely does he want to pose for pictures nowadays, and so the fact that he wanted to made it a perfect opportunity to take some fun shots. This is a just a piece of Josiah's fun, energetic personality. Below I will list some of the funny things he has said of late as well.

The other day when we were eating chicken, I handed Josiah a drumstick and he promptly said, "This is what cavemen eat!" A while back when Daniel had a bad cold, I told him I was going to give Daniel a "breathing treatment." Josiah ran to get his books and kept wanting me to read them and said, "I want a reading treatment too!"

I was sewing these star patches (3 total to sew)on Josiah's uniform and they are very small and difficult to put on by hand without a thimble. I mumbled to myself, "Man these are a pain!" Josiah looked over my shoulder and said, "I guess you will have three pains then!" Yup....three stars equals three pains indeed!

Daddy was talking to Josiah about him getting a second stripe on his Taekwondo belt and on the way home Josiah said, "I am SO excited for my new stripe!" Daddy said, "How excited are you?" Josiah stretched his hands wide and said, "I am BIG ROCKET excited!" On age--Josiah said to me, "Daddy used to be 39, but now he is 40." And another day he told me, "Momma you are 35 and just 5 more birthdays and you will be 40!" Today he was standing on a chair and Daddy was nearby and he said, "I'm 40 Daddy!" Daddy said, "Why are you 40?" J said, "'cause I am as tall as you!" Daddy told him that if he was 40 he would need to get a job and move out of the house! ;)

Cuteness Factor Raised at Daddy's Work

Today, Mommy, Daddy and Naomi headed to Daddy's workplace to go to Aurora's (pictured above) retirement party. When we have visited in the past, Aurora has loved to hold our little ones and so David thought it would be fun to bring Naomi this time to send her off. She is going to be a full time Grandma now in her retirement and was pretty excited about that! It was nice to see her again and chat with many of David's co-workers as well. Happy Retirement Aurora!

Naomi is spreading her cuteness here in the elevator. This was the look she gave when we stepped in. It was clear she was NOT SO SURE that the elevator was a good place to be!

As you can see we are Daddy's little sweetheart and she had a great old time toddling around all the big people at the party. Everyone wanted to look at her and talk to her and at first she was backing up into a corner pretending to be shy. We discovered soon into the party that indeed she was just really tired and was missing some of her beauty sleep, and so we had to leave a little early so that we didn't have a crying, grumpy Naomi on our hands.

Prior to the party, we went on a date to the Lunchbox Laboratory to have lunch. It is basically a gourmet hamburger place that is decorated with old lunchboxes. It was very yummy though as they make everything from scratch. Baby girl was fascinated with all the sights and sounds and kept trying to eat her goldfish off the table like a doggy with no hands.