Happy Valentine's Day Belated :)

So I'm realizing one of these got on here sideways, but oh well. Yes, we made over 20 of these plates for friends and had a great time dropping them off! I thought that since we are home schooling Chloe this year that we better have a Valentine's Day party with lots of junk, since that's what Luke would have at school, so we made 5 zillion V-Day cookies and our party was delivering them. Funny thing I realized was how absolutely obnoxious sugar cookies look when decorated by kids!
Joel and his "hot" date. Auntie Holly. We tried to teach him some chivalry, like how to open a door. Hopefully he was a nice date.

A new blog!

OK, all you like minded decor lovers! Any people out there who are like me and are simply gleefull about cheap yardsale finds and dumpster diving, I'm starting a new blog about all the trash I turn to treasure and about our frequent house remodel projects. It will be at blah2beautiful.blogspot.com Hope you enjoy!

Surfing and the Sword factory

After staying in the Yurt, we hit the beach, since John couldn't see the ocean without surfing in it!
Chloe, begining on the Sword factory The boys and their swords. This is what they did while dad surfed.

The sword factory near completion

It's a mystery why this pic won't rotate, but here's John after his surf. A little more gear is definetly necessary here verses HI!

To stay in a Yurt

After John's reserve duty, we traveled West and stayed on the coast. These Yurts were avalible to stay in at an OR state park. I think they are awesome, becuase camping in winter is ok, but these have a heater and lots of beds!

Trip to see the Cousins

John was able to do his reserve weekend in Vancouver this month, which allowed us the oppurtunity to stay with the cousins! 9 kids in all! Always a great time. The kids play, play, play, just like we did when we were all kids. It's such a joy to watch. Always a great time seeing and visiting with my cousins too!
Here's all the kiddos. Joel was being his usual self, so I had him in a headlock.
Heidi and Noelle, and baby Eli in her tummy!
The boys checking out the Candy Land map, whishing they could really go there.
Breakfast!

And I thought they wanted toys for Christmas....

Next year, I'll save time and money just raiding big boxes from furniture stores!

Auntie and Zach

Zach is on the move!

Zach is now 10mo and is quite the "scooter"! He can really move out with his one armed, one legged scoot. We have entryway stairs that I don't have a gate for and lots of jute rugs that hide fun-to-find objects like staples and paperclips, therefore we had to construct a pen for Zach. Since this pen was made we have purchased a real, plasic pen, but I thought this picture was so cute.

sleeping buddies

John and Zach are quite the sleeping buddies. John's excuse is that he's "taking care of Zach", so he can't get up and needs to keep snoozing with him. This can happen morning, noon or night. They are pretty cute though!

Aunt Suz

This pic was taken about a month ago, since then Suzy has gone to Isreal to visit a friend and see the country. We sure love it when we comes to stay. Group pic is of us giving her a group hug when she was about to leave.