Stacey's Blog

I just wanted to let you know if you peek at my sister Stacey's Blog (I have a link to her on mine... The Miller Family) you can see lots of pictures of family things I have missed. Christmas with the Howell's, Adia and Kenyon's Birthday party, the visit with T's family and more. She just updated all the way from Christmas to now so look at the older post.

Here is a picture of the STAR of her blog. This is DJ and he is such a funny little guy who keeps my sister on her toes trying to keep up with him and on her knees praying for wisdom as to how to mother him and on the phone with me just brainstorming as to how we can both deal with our boys! We will see how much more prayer she will need when this little guy has a baby brother in the house this October! I can not wait! By the way Stacey is an amazing mother and loves being one... I didn't want it to sound like she is out of control because although DJ can be she is a wonderful mom and Aunt and Sister and Friend! And DJ is a good boy but he is a boy and those of you with sons know what I mean.

I really do love these blogs and I can't tell you guys how often I am emotional reading them and feeling like we all miss so much of eachothers lives. I feel like I have gotten to know a lot of Kyle's cousins through these and even some friends of your guys' that I peek in on from time to time ( i hope i don't sound like a stalker but it's fun to see and some of them are really funny people... like the Phan link on Gina's blog). I also get such good ideas from you all and encouragement to do things I know need to be done... like Jill reminding me I want to take away Adison's pacifier and haven't talked to Kyle about it (which we did last night and it went fine... we will see about nap time today). The funny stories you guys all put on your blogs have given me a smile in the middle of a few hard days. So way to go everyone for keeping up your blogs and for those friends of mine who peek in here from time to time I would love to help you set one up too! It's a great journaling tool as well!

Happy Birthday Mom... We love you!!!

Well, today is my mom's birthday and we got lucky enough to have her here for her special day! Kyle and I told her we wanted to take her out to dinner and surprised her by taking her on a 2 hour river boat cruise/dinner. She loved it and was happy to see my dad sitting at our table when we got on the boat (Inviting him was my gift to her!)

Today, on her real birthday we had a little beach themed party with the kids and Adia made a beautiful cake. Avery picked the decor and the pinata. We all had a good time and the highlight was definitely throwing water balloons at the birthday girl.

Okay... that's it for pictures. Thank you mom for being such a big blessing to our family. We love you and appreciate you more than you could ever know. Not only have you loved us/me unconditionally (especially during my teen years) but you give and give and give and we can never thank you enough. Our kids are so lucky to have you for a grandma (Bama). I hope you felt special on your special day. You are the best! Happy Birthday! Next year you are 60... oh my goodness.

ps. Hi Grandma (Ethel) I hope you enjoyed your first visit to the blogging world! Thanks for raising such a good mom for me! Give me a call when you want a blog of your own... I would be happy to help you out.

Oregon Coast - This is really long

On our way to Washington we decided to take the long route and hit a bunch of "famous" sites along the Oregon Coast. The first day in Oregon we went to Medfords Childrens Discovery Museum. I alsmost talked Kyle into not even going into the place it was such a hole in the wall. But we went in and the kids had a great time! Some chemistry group was there and they had all kinds of little experiments for the kids to do. It was lots of fun! Here are some pictures of the rest of our adventure.

Doesn't this look nice and comfy? Here we go...

Our second stop was at a place called Seal Rock. It is home to the "largest sea cave" and you actually take this elevator 200 feet down into a sea cave where there are hundreds of seals







Next we went to some beach famous for something else... i don't remember. But the kids had a blast and did a lot of exploring with dad






We only made one stop like this... oh the joys of being a boy! Kenyon thought this was so fun!




We took a little detour to pass a bunch of beautiful waterfalls and get the kids out of the car for some short but much needed breaks.




This is what they did every night at some hotel along the way. After sitting in the car almost all day we need all the extra help getting energy out!


This is a view from the pool at our favorite hotel along the way! It was so nice and we got a really good deal (I think the girl at the front desk liked Kyle). Our room was on the bottom floor and the kids thought they were in heaven with a door to the beach like that.
Kenyon slept good this night!

This is at some Lava Park in California and we walked through a bunch of lava and even entered a cave.

We made a bunch of other stops too but enough is enough so I will end with that.
I know this was really random but with 5 kids and a husband who likes a warm meal at night I don't have time to make my posts all cute like everyone else. Sorry, hopefully my kids are cute enough to make up for my lack of time spent on this and my sucky camera!

Trip to Washington

As most of you know our family recently went to Washington to be with my sweet nephew T. The whole Howell clan (minus 2 of Tammy's little girls) was able to be there together and that was special. We enjoyed seeing the my brothers family and will always treasure the memories we made. T looked wonderful and although he lacked energy he didn't lack sweetness and humor! Jr and Allison are holding up great considering the circumstances and I'm so thankful for that. Our God is an amazing Father full of love and comfort in these times and my heart is broken for families who deal with this kind of stuff and don't realize how much God wants to be allowed in the journey. I can't even imagine!

Here are a few pictures of our time there...

This is Tristan, Adrian and Adia enjoying video games on the new JUMBO bed that T spends a lot of time on. It's a king bed and a twin bed side by side with T's favorite huge blue pillow and memory foam for his comfort.
Uncle Jr meets Kaden!

Uncle Jr scores some big points with Kenyon for letting him ride the really loud motorcycle. A year ago this same bike put our tough little boy to tears when it turned on. Uncle Kyle entertaining/beating the big kids in the pool.

My teeny bop niece Hailey being a good big cousin.

T wanted to go to dinner with EVERYONE and these days he gets whatever he wants even if it means taking this crazy bunch in public.

Papa and Grandma had snuck to the restaurant earlier that day to prepare a special balloon treat brought out at the end of dinner that was a big hit with all the kids. Balloons are fun and when you add money to the inside they are even better! Of course T's balloon had some extra fun inside and it was sweet to see all the bigger kids gave T their balloons.

The time came too quick to give our hugs goodbye and I'm sure these embraces will be embedded in my heart forever! Thanks for letting us hang out with you T! WE LOVE YOU!