Thursday, February 24, 2011

A New Shelving System (and it IS blog worthy)

Where there are dark spots in this picture, there used to be a shelf that started coming out of the wall.
From February 2011

And then it looked like this
From February 2011

And now it looks like this
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Seriously so much room to store things. And this has opened up so much more room in my cupboards. I can access things and it's organized. I do love being organized. Shelf Reliance, you had me at hello!

Playing Around

Here are some pics of the boys at a play date.
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Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Playing With Grandma

My wonderful mother-in-law came this weekend to watch the boys while we did our Portland getaway. Here are some pics of the boys and Grandma playing while we were around to take pics. Ryan started saying "Namma" this weekend and he still says it. I think he's wondering where Namma went. Max keeps saying he wants Namma to come back and "stay a long long time".
Here is the cool airplane box Grandma made with them

From February 2011

Aviators need goggles
From February 2011

Ready for takeoff
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Taxiing down the run way
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Art with Grandma
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From February 2011

The People in Our Neighborhood--Joyschool

Today we started where we left off from our past lesson, "how we can show love by serving others". We went on a service walk around the house (because it was cold outside) and I found different pretend scenarios for the kids to think of ways to help people (a little girl fell down, a neighbor was raking leaves, etc.) We also pasted pictures of different ways to help others, smiling, hugging, etc. We then learned about the Holy Ghost and how he comforts us and helps us to do what is right and serve others.
We talked about how there are people in the community who serve us. I showed them a youtube clip of Sesame Street's, "Who are the People in Your Neighborhood" song. We opened a bag and talked about the different things inside, doctor's kit, chef's hat, army hat, construction hat, police outfit and firefighter's outfit. Then we read a book about police people and one about fire fighters. We sang a song about fire fighters. Then we had free time playing with rescue vehicles and doing puzzles.
Next came the counting to 19, and the letter bag. We learned about G and read Goodnight Gorilla. Then we traced and colored the letter G. We also did patterns and the kids were really good at them. I did different sequences of fire trucks, police cars and mail trucks and they got the patterns every time. Then we colored a big poster of the people in our neighborhood and played red light green light.
We missed you Caramel!
From February 2011

From February 2011

Tuesday, February 22, 2011

Happy Birthday Tony!

We celebrated in Portland together and then at home with the boys and Mom Epps. Tony received another card and two more packages in the mail today. I love it when birthdays (or any holiday) linger like this. Here are some great pictures of Tony...
A pre-cake wrestle
From February 2011

I LOVE that smile!
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Everyone's excited!
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Eying the cake
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All these pictures are because I love his smile so much!
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Yummy ice cream
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And a post-cake wrestle
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Monday, February 21, 2011

Portland Anniversary

Tony and I were married in Portland and spent the first night of our honeymoon there. The next morning we drove back to Tacoma to catch our flight to San Diego where we spent a week in the sun. We've been back to the Portland area many, many times in the past 6 years but never as tourists. I've been to Powell's Books once and the Saturday's market, but that's it. So, we went and enjoyed great two days and night in the City of Roses (before they bloomed).
Breakfast at the Country Kitchen, just a little moment thinking of Grandpa Bob. This was a frequent stop for him and Grandma.
From February 2011

At the Portland temple
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At the Pittock Mansion
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The view
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We drove through Washington park and the west hills.
In downtown Portland we saw this awesome sign
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We never went into Voodoo because the line was always ginormous, but maybe another time
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And we went to the awesome Powell's books, the regular store and the tech store
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We walked around Mt. Tabor
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And loved the view
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We visited the waterfront and went to Tony's former thinking spot. Here he is as "The Thinker"
From February 2011

So many bridges
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And we defaced property
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At Pioneer Square
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We tried to see this street performer, Mr. Statue, since I love silver guys-used to watch them in San Fran, but he was eating lunch so I had to settle for seeing him on youtube.com.

At Chinatown
From February 2011

And Pizza Schmizza.
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A fun weekend together!

Monday, February 14, 2011

Today

Sometimes I like going back to my journal and seeing what I did on a certain day. Since this blog is our family journal, here is what happened on 2-14-11. Tony and the boys had different breakfasts (Tony's is always a to-go breakfast) but they both had red orange juice. The boys had heart-shaped pancakes. Max was really sweet and kept saying, "I hope you have a happy Balentine's day, mommy". Ryan is congested and has a hacking cough. He coughed so much a few times that he threw up. Poor baby. And then there was an incident in the bathtub that involved uninvited floaters. Ewwww. So, Valentine's morning was fairly hopping with clean up and laundry. We made a card and decorated cookies to take to daddy at work. I did some office work and did some phone calls. I have a temporary, mini-job where I'm the appointment secretary for a therapist. I make reminder calls from home. It's very easy money and an extra help for our family. After Ryan woke up, we drove to Tony's work to spend a few minutes with him after school and before he started work. Tony's boss let us drive right into the shop since Ryan is sick and I didn't want to get him out. I got to meet the co-workers I haven't met yet, and...Tony surprised me with flowers. We were just going to do service for each other and he went and got me beautiful flowers. It made my day.
From February 2011

Then we had heart shaped sandwiches and nap time/quiet time. I used that time to prime a corner of our utility room.
From February 2011

We took out a shelf that was falling apart and we're going to put in a free-standing can organizer from Shelf Reliance. I also made up some milk from our powdered milk to incorporate with our regular milk. It tastes fine and it saves money. I wish we'd known about this earlier. Then came play time, dinner, more laundry and the sweet littles are in bed.
From February 2011

From February 2011

I love those faces.