The Rest of Our CA Adventure!

We stayed at Poppie and Nonnie's house for almost 2 weeks during our February CA Disneyland vacation. Buggy and Uncle Kookie live with them too, so were able to hang out together, go to Sno2Go, In and Out and have other California treats. Nonnie made Opal a birthday cake on her actual birthday which was just the next day, after Disney. 

The kids had fun watching movies, playing in the empty pool in the backyard, slack-lineing, going on walks, visiting Buggy's work, and playing with the funny photo feature on the iPad:

Uncle Kookie found a kid friendly climbing gym where the kids all had a great time climbing and repelling from fun walls while attached to an auto belay.

While everyone was climbing, I stayed with Tuffy and had a photo shoot. I took all of these pictures while Tuff was sitting on my lap.

Then I finally made his birth announcement! Not that I actually printed them or mailed any out. But hey, he's the seventh kid and I actually made him an announcement. That's something! Ok. Fine. He was already 2 months old and everyone already knew he was born, but it's the principle of the thing. He'll know, now, that he indeed had a birth announcement. (If you're reading this in the future, Tuff, I love you, see I made you this birth announcement. Don't try looking for your baby book though. You won't find one.)

The kid's also loved playing with the fake snowballs Nonnie made, and her Fisher Price dollhouse was a big hit with Kivi. She played it everyday and sweet Buggy usually joined her when she got home from work. We had a great time going to my Aunt Sherri's house - she wasn't there, which was the sad part, but we still had fun in her hot tub, swimming in her community pool and hanging out in her media room and eating her candy. Actually, when we got home the kids had to write about our CA trip and Eben's whole paper was about Aunt Sherri's media room - not Disneyland!

We decided to take the scenic route back home and drive the 101. We found Mrs. Grossman's Sticker Factory on the internet on the way there and called for a tour appointment. Before our tour started we stopped at a Starbucks so I could feed Tuffy and the kids walked with Dada on a scenic trail along a creek. He helped them build a dam, which they were even more excited about that than the stickers. It was a very interesting tour seeing how the stickers were designed, and watching all the machines necessary to make them. At each different machine our tour guide would hand us each a bunch of stickers. At the end of the tour, the kids got to make a sticker craft.

We drove through the Avenue of the Giants, not through a tree, our van was too huge. But we got to walk through some! On our way home we stopped for the night at my Aunt Jan's new, beautiful home in OR. She had the hugest meal ready for us when we got there, around 9:30pm - enchiladas, beans, rice, tacos - it was good! And in the morning she made us every type of breakfast food imaginable. The kids loved it. I make one thing and everyone has to eat it. But she whipped up delicious eggs, yogurt, french toast, bacon, sausage and cereals.  I'm sure we ate through a months worth of their food! It was a great ending to fantastic vacation.

Opal's Disneyland Birthday!

We took Opal to Disneyland for her 7th birthday! Each seven year old gets to go to an amusement park instead of having a party. Disney in February on a week day was a great choice! We were the first ones in line since we got there an hour before the park opened. We filled the time with Disney trivia that Buggy printed up for us. We took all the bigs with us. The ones we knew could handle it and not need a nap, or whine, or not keep up with our fast pace. We had one day in Disney and we were going to see it all!

But first we had more waiting to do so we gave our Opie Girl her birthday kiss!

We really were some of the first ones in the gate, even though they told us they weren't going to open the gate we chose to stand in front of, #13, some "friends" we met standing in line let us go in their line. And there was Mickey, just standing there waiting for us to take a picture with him. Even as we took this pic a line of forty people assembled to be the next to snap their picture with the main mouse. Too bad we didn't think to hand the camera off so Dada could've been in it.

We got one with him on Main St.

We did all the big rides in Adventure Land first; Indiana Jones, Pirates, Haunted Mansion and then went to Frontier Land and rode Big Thunder Mountain, the favorite of both me and Opal.

We went around and hit all the big ticket rides in the park while it was still early, went to a Frozen show and then went around and did other rides. I think the longest we had to wait for a ride was about 15 minutes, but most of them we just walked on.

Autotopia always has a line. But you get to drive!! So it's worth it.

We snacked on cheeses, salami, crackers, Hawaiian rolls, grapes and apples which we packed in our backpack all throughout the day instead of stopping for lunch. I got really good at pumping (with my nursing cover!) while standing in line.

In Toon Town, we posed for a family shot in Micky's house and had Goofy all to ourselves.

We stopped for ice cream cones and sang "Happy Birthday" to Opal on Main Street while the parade was going on.

We closed down the park, at 8:00. They don't stay open very late. It was still a full, fun day and our big 7 year old experienced the adventure that is Disneyland. 

Opal, we love you so much. You are strong (in every way!), a great big sister to Berg, Pella and Tuff, helpful to Mama and very creative. You also know what you want and are working hard at letting others have their way. You are still learning to obey right away. You love having sleep overs in the boys' room. You are thoughtful and do a craft or make a card for someone every other day. You love, and act with your whole heart which is wonderful. You are improving in your self-control. You are extremely smart and read wonderfully and are even doing 3rd grade math even though you're only in first grade!! But even if you couldn't even add, we'd love you because God made you just for Him and put you in our family. Right now, you're right in the middle and that's just where He knew you needed to be. You're a natural leader and learning to be a servant. We know you will be used by God to be a great servant-leader to all for Him.

January in One Post!

We started out New Year's at a rockin' game party on New Year's Eve at the Schock's house hosted by the Edgren's. It was so good, that even though I don't have any pictures, I still remember it! This was the first time that the kids (all of them) got to stay up for New Year's and they loved it! They had so much fun, playing games, going on a scavenger hunt that Josh set up for them and running around with all their friends. Peter and I loved it too!

1-2: I finally got my ring chopped off my finger! My knuckles had swollen since I was pregnant with Eben and hadn't been able to take off my ring for 11 years, but with this pregnancy, my fingers also got fat and it was starting to hurt!

1-3: Tuff meets Great Grandma Lee, and two of Grandpa's sisters, Aunt Roberta and Aunt Valerie.

1-9: Berg gets his long hair shaved off.

1-10: The kids love putting on shows, this one stars the girls doing an acrobatic/ballet routine using the rings and hammock. Eben worked their lights and music.

1-13: Bigs and Littles. Biggest Brother with Littlest Brother and Biggest Sister with Littlest Sister

1-16: Extracurricular Activities -  The Girls: Reading books and playing with the baby. The Boys: Anything involving a computer.

 1-18: Kivi used her Special Helper Rockets and took Mama ice skating at Sprinker. 

She did amazing but we had to leave a little early because Kivi's knees were the size and color of an eggplant. Ice is hard.

1-19: Grandma and Grandpa took Opal out for an early, special birthday manicure and pedicure.

 1-20: Our friends, the Holmes, are letting us borrow their Story of the World curriculum, so that we can still try to homeschool while figuring out our new schedule which now includes 6 baby feedings a day. It is so helpful. It's a minimized version of what we did while learning about different countries, but goes in order historically, is shorter and less involved. We listen to a storyteller on CD, learn the maps, do some of the fun projects they suggest in the book, review some questions and take a short test on each chapter. Berg especially loves the maps and asks everyday if we get to do them. This week we learned about the Celts so we painted our faces blue, made double-edged battle axes and of course, had a battle.  

1-23: The kids take their own time lapse video, so they are actually posing for that, but I had my camera and took advantage of the opportunity. All seven of them rarely want to take a picture at the same time, and they did it on their own!

This is what they would do in between each coming together to pose shot. I love Berg and Pella in the background with their hats over their eyes.

1-28: Pella Became a Christian!! Pella decided she wanted to ask Jesus into her heart, so that night, she prayed with Dada for Jesus to "agive" her sins and live with her "foreva". Sooooo precious! Such a big decision for a big three year old girl. We were all so excited to get to share that moment with her!

 1-29: Bubble Time with Tuffy. Dada had a fun bath time with the little man and put bubble bath in the jet tub with makes great bubbles. Tuff didn't know how to smile yet at this point, but if he did I'm sure he'd be smiling. He was so calm and loves the water. We were laughing so hard naming all of his different bubble hairstyles.

Leavenworth, 2014

The day after Christmas we let the kids drink cocoa and devour their gingerbread Bethlehem. They always have so much fun breaking them all apart, and trading candies and gorging themselves on treats. Actually, I'm always amazing at how little they eat, they spend most of the time playing with them.

On the 27th, we headed out to Leavenworth for Grandma and Grandpa's traditional "Christmas Memories" gift. The gift of a vacation to Leavenworth is a relaxing and fun time spent doing puzzles, eating, resting and playing in the snow. This was the first time we tried sledding in city square and the kids had so much fun on the slick hill. We were so blessed to get a bunch of snow the night we came and Peter and Kivi worked really and managed to build a complete igloo!

Christmas Day 2014

Christmas was a blast! Lots of family crowded around in our tiny, little house. Everyone waiting for the traditional parade up the stairs while singing of "Happy Birthday, Jesus!"

Then we blew out His candles on the birthday cake,

and took the Christmas family picture!

Next, we listened to Luke 2, Jesus' birthday story. This year it was different because instead of sitting all together as a family, each kid had their own adults to sit with!

 Stockings were passed out and kids opened while loving aunts and (soon to be) uncles applauded each little gift.

Dada gave each kid a gift certificate to buy animals for needy kids through World Vision and Grandma and Grandpa gave each kid their traditional chick cookies which represent the chickens they bought for needy families in their honor.

After a delicious breakfast of who knows what now (it's been to long and there are no pics of it, but I'm guessing Swiss eggs), we all started the long, fun process of gift giving, receiving, hugging thanks and playing with the new "stuff".

We also played with the new Tuff! It was great to have our new little man around for such a wonderful day! My biggest and littlest babies!

What a treat to have all those grandmas and grandpas!

 As always, Dada ended the gift portion of the day with a scavenger hunt. One of the clues was divided between Missa Teeve and Uncle Kookie and the kids almost tore them apart looking for them. They finally found all the clues which led to the laundry room and found a new iPad for the kids and silverware for Mama!! Thank you, Dada!

 Our fun, silly family on Christmas day.

The rest of the day included snacking, playing, laying and some unique activities that haven't been done before on Christmas like blasting off the rocket that Kookie and Bug got for the boys, riding on the moped and hot tubbing while watching a movie at the Evarts, because they were away and Nonnie and Poppie were staying there - so why not! It was a fun ending to a great day.