Loose Ends

Here are a few happenings to catch up with from the past few weeks . . .

Amanda turned 14! She wanted to have "just girls" over to hang out--phew! It was a fun time. Even more exciting though was her first official Saturday night dance! I was out of town unfortunately so no pics were taken but I had plenty of friends strategically chaperoning. She had a wonderful time!
We finished up a chilly soccer season but the girls did great! Megan loved her team and we really appreciated being able to have Coach Dave help us when Nate couldn't make it to the games.
Megan is looking forward to next season already--what a fun group of girls!
Jared wrapped up his fifth grade specialties project. We love the specialties fair. The kids always do a great job. We are very glad this is over, though as he had to do a project last year as a fourth grader due to the fact he was in a 4/5 combo class. This is one of those things where moms do a happy dance when their last child completes their project. I, of course, have two more of these to enjoy . . .
We've also been spending precious time with our cousins. My sister and her family are soon going on a two-year adventure to Washington, D.C. for my brother-in-law's work. While we are so excited for them and are eager to visit, we are going to miss them terribly and hope that this time goes by fast!

Spring is Fun and Busy

Finally! The weather is warming up, the kids are starting to get pink cheeks and we are piling blankets, umbrellas and sandwiches into the car several nights a week. First, we celebrated Jared's 11th birthday. He had invited a few friends to a hockey game and that night the opposing team had a breakout of food poisoning so they cancelled the game for the night! What are the odds? We had to frantically come up with an alternative birthday party and had only a few hours to do so. Thank heavens for the movies (Escape to Witch Mountain). The birthday party was saved but we have no pictures. Here are a few from Jared's fifth grade Seattle trip. Nate went with him and they had a great time!




After Nate and Jared got back, we turned around two days later and headed right back to Seattle for spring break. Luckily, the weather was pretty nice considering we had terrible weather here at home. We had a great time doing all the downtown Seattle activities. We also got a chance to have dinner with some dear friends who managed to give us the authentic Seattle experience and put together a dinner for three families when the power was out in their home most of the day. It was a yummy BBQ and we loved seeing them--thanks Webbs and Ahlstroms. We were sorry we missed the Elsasser family due to sickness--we'll catch up with you again!

These are taken at the top of the Space Needle.

Then, onto the Pacific Science Center . . .



We rode the monorail so Bradley could say he rode a "train."
I included the picture below because just as we hopped on, we saw some friends we know from Richland. That was fun!
Pike Street Market--yummy donuts!
The Aquarium

Woodland Park Zoo



We also went to the Music Experience and Science Fiction Museum where the highlight for the older kids was making their very own music video. I was on the keyboard, Megan drums, Amanda lead vocals and Jared was guitar. We sang "I Love Rock n' Roll." It will not be available to the public anytime soon though. We had such a fun time together. It was nice to take a little vacation.

Ouch is an Understatement

Well, we've had an exciting month so far, or at least Nate has. We have another reason to complain about the Tri-Cities wind (as if we needed another one). Nate loves this time of year, at least when it's at least 10 degrees warmer. He starts gearing up for "lawn season," spring sports, yard work, etc. which is what he was doing the day a gust of wind came up and slammed our back door to the backyard right on the tip of his right middle finger. This is a picture I took of the copy of the x-ray. It is much less graphic than the picture he made me take with his phone--ugh! If you can't tell very well, the tip of that finger has a chunk taken out of it. All I heard was Nate yelling "OUCH!" several times and then I saw a blood-stained towel covering his hand. In the chaos I tried to calm the kids down who were VERY upset due to previous experience with witnessing grandpa vs. table saw with a couple of grandpa's fingers losing the fight. That's another story. Anyway, I was running around in what seemed like slow motion as I struggled with the Bradley-proof doorknob thingy to try and get out to the garage to get Nate to the ER. We spent the afternoon at the hospital but they took him right in. It turns out he broke off a little bit of the bone, tore off a lot of the pad of the finger and kept the nail intact. The on-call was going to do a flap procedure at the hospital but decided to wait, hoping it would leave Nate with more options and sent us home. We waited until Monday to follow up with the hand surgeon (luckily at my office I transcribe for) and they slid him in on the schedule between surgeries for the doctor to see him. This doctor also decided wait to do surgery because he thinks there is enough tissue left that a skin graft might not be necessary. We are 1-1/2 weeks out now and Nate returned home from a followup appointment today. The doctor was VERY optimistic and said things were looking great and he was glad he didn't do any grafting or flap repairs because Nate will hopefully have less complications this way and eventually full function restored. We are so grateful! Although he is still in a lot of pain, Nate is feeling much more optimistic after today's appointment and feeling like our prayers were heard. This is a relief! I could only imagine Nate's frustration as he was worried about all that he does with his hands. I think we are all a little more appreciative of our ability to use our hands for so many things right now at our house. I just wanted to thank everyone for their concerns, help, brownies and prayers on our behalf. We have the greatest family and friends!

So Random

Not much going on lately but I wanted to share a few things . . .
This was a fun book that I loved that I just had to share with you. We picked it for book group and it is one of my "book group favorites" to date. Read it if you get the chance!
I just repainted the downstairs "powder room" bathroom last weekend--it used to be yellow prior to us moving in and I love the new color.
I stayed up way too late making these iLove valentines for Jared's class but they were very fun. They were from Family Fun Magazine. We had a great Valentine's Day! Amanda went to a couple of parties and a *gasp* church dance for 12 and up that she had a blast at! Jared and Meg had class parties that were fun to help with. Bradley loved all the treats and liked his "balentines." Nate and I had a fun night out with friends--dinner and a movie which together is a rare treat on a date night. I also loved the roses he got me! We also had a fun Valentine-themed dinner that weekend at Grandma and Grandpa's house. They do such a good job getting everyone to enjoy some time together and we love their theme dinners.
Also, I need to mention that Jared recently participated in his last Pinewood Derby. He made it memorable by winning first place! They called his car the Bombermobile or something to that effect. Go figure. Way to go, Jared! We're looking forward to all of our spring activities and hopefully some sunshine and warmer weather!

Keeping Away the Winter Blahs

I can't seem to keep up with all the indoor play and eating and messes that result. This is after Bradley discovered a Costco package of goldfish crackers. Thanks Nate for taking care of that one!

Ok, I'm a little hesitant to put these pics up but I wanted a hair change sooo bad! Why not in the dead of winter? It took about an hour at the salon to do this so my attempts at home have been a little less polished--I don't have that much time or patience for taming my curls usually. This was so much fun! The last time my hair was straight was when my roommates ironed it in college. Do you remember that Jenny? Anyway, we'll see if I decide to abandon my curls for a while. Nate says it's just not me = )
We had fun watchng Jared and Nate take 2nd place in a tournament over the Martin Luther King Holiday Weekend. Amanda's CMS team started games this week so Nate is coaching almost 24/7 and we are in the gym watching almost 24/7. The great thing about basketball is that it is a warm indoor sport to watch!
A little Mariner's Caravan complete with friends and autographs gets us looking forward to spring and baseball.
And, we've been watching a lot of movies lately. This is Bradley's absolute favorite! It's got trains and a talking ball and bat and he loves it! I'm a little tired of it myself but the rest of the kids seem to walk by and get sucked in every time it is on. We may have to find another copy for backup as this buys me some valuable time during the day.

The Way We Get to Ring in The New Year

It's hard to believe it is the end of January 2009! I'm catching my breath as we are keeping up with life. I'm glad we got to start out the new year with a birthday boy's two-year-old celebration! We enjoyed the New Year's Eve bowling with friends and then games at our house so the older kids could have friends over to hang out with. Bradley didn't make it to midnight, of course, so we took him out to breakfast the next morning, bought him a balloon and had family over to celebrate later in the week. He really liked his dump truck cake even though he's not smiling in any of the pictures. We're happy to have this lively chatterbox as part of our family. He lights up our lives--we love you Bradley!

Only 362 More Days To Go

What a great time of year! Once I felt the shopping, wrapping, baking and other preparations were under control, it was time to enjoy what is most important--each other! We had a minute to get a quick Santa picture. Bradley liked him a lot more this year.

We thoroughly enjoyed the snow--from the school delays to using it as an excuse to stay inside and watch it fall. It was so fun to have a white Christmas!

This is Nate and Bradley trying the hill at Carmichael Middle School.

Amanda and her friend, Savannah.

A little family snapshot before Bradley got too cold and Mom was willing to take him to warm up in the car for a little while and thaw her toes.

Megan and cousin, Cielle.
Haynes and Kraus cousins and our neighbors/friends going down together.

I was caught up in my Christmas generosity and let my daughter have some friends over for a white elephant gift exchange party. It turned out to be a fun night--we enjoyed watching them have fun together. The boys were a little concerned that "coach" would make them go over plays or perhaps speak Spanish to them but Nate behaved himself (i.e., took the younger kids out for the evening for most of the party).
Below is proof that teenagers will entertain themselves with whatever is accessible (i.e., Bradley's diapers--clean ones, that is).

I'm pretty sure these are the cutest reindeer I've ever seen . . .

Four-wheeling fun with the Fuhr family.
Megan reading the letter from Santa.
Christmas Eve Bunco at our home with lots of family members.

I think it will be hard to get back to reality. I'm glad we have New Year's to look forward to!