Is this in my job description?

Chasing baby robins? Is this in the mom's list of duties? Aurora and Myah were playing out back when they saw something running in the grass. As quick as they saw it, our cat moved a little quicker. Suddenly Myah sees our cat, Sandy, with a baby bird in her mouth. From the kitchen I hear both of them screaming at the top of their lungs at our cat. Myah quickly closed in on Sandy, hit her and she dropped the baby robin.
Let me preface this story. Myah, Avery and Aurora have been watching this robin nest for the last four weeks, since the tiny blue eggs appeared. They closely monitored the eggs. They finally hatched about two weeks ago. We watched the little beaks peak above the nest while their mom fed them. My three girls had grown attached to the baby birds, so to watch Sandy with one in her mouth about gave Myah a heart attack. The first bird quickly ran away and we put Sandy inside the house. Next item was checking to see if the other two birds were still in the nest. After I checked they were still there, but when Aurora checked, both decided to jump ship and landed on the ground. I chased the other one that dodged me and ran to the neighbor's yard. Myah captured the other one in the grass. Then Myah and Aurora went to the next door neighbor's house to try and find bird #3. Avery and I teamed up to return the 2nd bird to the nest. I propped her in the tree while I climbed up to the nest. She handed me the baby and I placed it in the nest. Myah and Aurora were beaming with glee as they returned with the third bird in their possession. By this time I am done with the birds and need to get back to my other "motherly" duties. Myah starts up the apple tree to return the 3rd bird to the nest when it starts squeaking. As soon as the mother bird heard that, she started diving at Myah. Myah is completely startled, drops the bird and comes running inside, pleading with me to help her with the last bird. Reluctantly I go outside, tag team with Myah to put the bird back in the apple tree. As soon as I put bird #3 in the apple tree, they both jump out, testing their ability to fly, hit the ground and run off! I was done! Let nature take it's course. The birds are trying to learn to fly and let's allow them this privilege! Myah finally understands and our bird chasing days are behind us.

Avery's Bike Jump

Avery loves riding her bike. This video is a crack up. She loves "getting air" on the jump Dave made for the girls. Here she goes off the jump a few times and needs a little snack. Check out where she gets her snack from! She has a few moves like riding her bike one handed and bunny hopping the driveway curb. Hopefully you can catch those moves too.

Bike-Swim-Run!

Hagg Lake Triathlon was on Saturday. I don't know what happened to the 88 degree weather they were forecasting, but it never came! My wave of swimmers started at 8:35 and I was so cold, I couldn't wait to jump into the lake. I knew it had to be warmer than standing outside in my swimsuit in 68 degree weather nervously awaiting the start of the race. I can't ever figure out why I do get nervous, not like I am going to win, or in this case it wasn't even something new. Maybe it was just looking at all the amazing equipment people had and thinking I should have something like it. Who knows?
The swim is crazy. There are probably 75 women all starting out at the same time and all heading for the same buoy. Needless to say there is a little traffic jam at the first turn and the second. Finally by the third buoy we are all staggered enough, it was not so bad. The transition to the bike was great-throw off the cap and goggles, pull on bike shorts, helmet and sunglasses and I was off! The bike is a very hilly lap and a little more around Hagg Lake but it was perfect weather for a bike and a run. I finished a couple minutes faster than last year at 1:33:30 and felt great at the end. My cheer team of three cute little girls and one great husband were there to meet me at the end.

American Girls

Happy Fourth of July! I kept the tradition of running the 5K CAT walk which is a funraiser for cancer research. Dave and the girls cheered me on from Bagley Park and they anxiously awaited the start of the Hillboro parade. I really think they could care less about the actual floats, it is the candy that really matters! To kill time before the parade the kids played on all the park equipment like the slide, the merry-go-round, the tire swing etc. After my run, I came walking up and Aurora is laying on the round acting pretty sick. Evidently she had way to much of a good thing, namely the merry-go-round. She kept telling us she was going to throw up. She felt better for a while and then came back to lay down. The threat of everything coming up seemed eminent! Eventually her body gave in and let it all go! Perfect timing, right before the parade started. She felt much better afterwards. The kids sat on the curb and watched the hour and a half parade and gathered about two pounds of candy each.




Max and Avery eating blueberries out of their cupholder burning time before the parade starts.

Our neice McKenna flew in from Utah to stay with us for a week. This is her fourth year! We love having her smiling face and easy going personality.

Our girls also recieved "American Girl" dolls from Grandma DeAnn. They picked out which doll they wanted and ordered the girls online. The week was very long for two anxious little girls. Myah said, "Mom I just want my American Girl doll to come, that is all that I can think about!" When we received the tracking number, it only told us they would come on Friday. The girls were constantly looking out the window for the UPS man. He finally showed up at about two. Here are a few pictures! Thanks Grandma!

/>

Where have I been?

I honestly can't believe two months have slipped away without me posting anything. Where in the world have I been? I could start with a list on the various events that have seemed to consume my time but that could be very lengthy and a good possibility of being a tad boring so I will stick with the highlights!

Hiking-We drove up to Government camp and hiked into Mirror Lake. Since it was such a beautiful day it drew in large crowd. We only heard a few complaints from the girls. We honestly thought it may tire them, but we were wrong! The girls were great hikers.

Father's Day-We had my whole family at my house for a salute to the great and amazing fathers in our family. We had some great food, lots of laughs and kids wrestling. Aurora had the great idea of "fake" bandaging the younger kids up with toilet paper. Avery ate up all the attention she received for her ailments.

Picking Strawberries-You can't live in Oregon and not eat the berries. I was so sick the next day after we picked. I honestly think forcing someone to eat 5 pounds of strawberries and deal with consequences can be a form of torture. I didn't stay away for long-two days later I was right back eating them, but in moderation! The girls are some of the best pickers. We were lucky enough to have my mom here and my sister Laura and her daughter Kate. Thanks Mom for spending a week with us!

Pre-school Graduation-After two great years of co-op preschool Avery will start Kindergarten in the Fall. The kids bounced and played until their hearts were content at Out of this World Pizza and that was followed by a perfectly short ceremony.

Half Marathon-Whew-glad it is done! Helvetia half is a beautiful but very hilly run. I had some of my great friends there! Way to go girls! I was a little slower than last year, but chalk one up to training better for next year.

Fountain Fun- Maile found a great park with an even better fountain. We weren't really prepared, nor was it the right weather to be playing in the water, but that didn't stop my kids. Avery took extra precautions by wearing her bike helmet while playing. She was actually riding her bike in between playing in the fountain. My Mom made a killer rhubarb pie and crisp we ate while we were down there. I have been dreaming of it since!

Girls Trip to Seattle-This time my girls are old enough to go! We had such a great time,Pike's Place the fish throwers, the rainbow roses, the freshest fruit, amazing food and fun. Maile's parents were very generous to let us have their house. We stayed up and watched Mama Mia and it is a very good thing we watched it with just girls. My husband may have lasted 5 minutes into that movie. Right after we arrived in Seattle, we emptied the car and changed. We quickly found out that Myah had left her and Aurora's suitcase in Nate and Maile's backyard. It was a really good thing there was a Target right around the corner and we were only gone for two days. Thanks for the good times sisters!

Avery's Birthday- May 2nd she turned 5! She was just excited to have her cousins at her house, open a few presents and have chocolate cake per her request. She laughed her way through the "spanking machine" and went to Utah with Dave for Great Grandma Luella's funeral and Grandpa Don and Grandma Tanny's mission farewell.

BYU and UVSC Graduation-The last weekend in April I flew to Utah to see Audrey, Laura and Ryan graduation. Congratulations graduates! We were busy from arrival to departure with ceremonies, moving, celebrating,talking, seeing family and enormous amount of rain-especially for Utah, great pizza at Pizzeria 712 and fabulous frozen yogurt at Red Mango.

Are you still with me? If you are I'm impressed! Hopefully I can keep up a little better over the summer.

Baptism and little spring please!

Myah was baptized the first weekend in March. We are so grateful we had so many family members that were able to come and support us. She was really excited to be baptized and to start going to Activity Days.

After her baptism she quickly dressed-it was a little chilly and was confirmed. We had a great day and loved being with our family and friends on that special day!

We traveled up to Kalispell to visit my parents for Spring Break. We were really busy, but I must say the weather was not anywhere close to spring. Snow was abundant 4 of the 5 days we were there. We happened to plan our ski day on the most beautifully sunny-but cold-day. We could lookout from the top of Black Tail Mountain and see clear out to Glacier Park and most of Flathead Lake. I miss the amazing beauty of the mountains and the valleys of my hometown. The mountains in the background almost look like clouds.




Grandpa and Avery getting off the chairlift.

My Dad came up skiing with us. He skied our pants off- his form was impeccable and Avery talked his ear off on the chair lift. Not many little girls get to ski with their Grandpa! As we were leaving to go skiing we had a major car problem. Dave hopped into my parent's van and the automatic door shut on him. He pushed it back so it wouldn't keep closing in on him and the door came off the track. Dave and my Dad tried to fix it, the motor for the door had already been having problems, but it was done. As they were trying to just get the door on track to close it, the back window shattered all over the place. There was just enough pressure on the window to shatter. We transferred everything over to our van and took off for Black Tail Mountain.

We went out to eat at the Somer's Bay Cafe. The girls shared some juicy ribs, Dave had some Buffaol meatloaf, I had Prawns on a Grit cake and I think my mom's meal was the best-chicken with an amazing sauce of mushrooms, onions and who knows what else! Avery was "starving" and ate 4 pieces of bread before her grilled cheese even arrived.

Happy Birthday Myah

Playing in the river June 2006.

Myah Valentine's Day 2004.

Myah playing soccer fall of '07.

Myah almost 8 and with a new haircut!

WOW-like all moms, I am asking myself, "Where did the time go?" I can't believe Myah just turned eight! It seems like just yesterday I went to the doctor for the 36 week check and never left! She told me, "You are having this baby today-maybe tomorrow." It was four in the afternoon, so they admitted me and I called Dave and told him to come quickly! He was driving from Sun Valley where we lived at the time to Brigham City, Utah where I had Myah because I still carried my health insurance from teaching in Ogden. I labored for a while stalled for a while, they said it was my epidural stalling my labor-so tough luck-no more epidural! Finally after almost strangling Dave we were blessed with a beautiful baby girl at 12:40 A.M. March 2, 2001!

We love having Myah at our house. She is a peacemaker,understanding and selfless. She loves to go to bed early and get up early! She is the healthiest 8 year old I know! She loves good healthy food. Last time I took her to the grocery store, we came home with about 20 different items from the produce department-many of them not in season-but it is hard to turn down and cute little girls who wants strawberries in February! She is always willing to help out and is very afraid to loose her teeth! She loves to wrestle with Dave and help me cook. She is a great piano player and amazing skier.