Slap me some INDEPENDENCE DAY!!

Beautiful Reachel

There was no way we could get the kids to pose for the camera

the fireworks were just too exciting for them, even the baby loved them!

Andrew , using his fancy camera to make the fireworks look awesome.

Hold the sparkler AWAY from your body Ezra!

We had a wonderful Fourth of July. 

We packed up the kids and headed off to Lake Oswego. Drove around to find the best spot for fireworks, we did fireworks on our own private beach near the lake at george rogers park. 

it was AWESOME. totally private. i dont think you could have gotten a better spot if you owned your own house on the lake!!

Rose Gardens

In Four years of living here, i pathetically admit i have never been to the Famous Portland Rose Gardens. I dont know why, it was just never on my list of priorities. its free, and its amazing. the Roses go on for what seems like Eternity. you cant really fathom how many roses there are there. We just went there on Thursday with Andrew and Reachel. 

Get to the rose gardens while you can!

summer is here!!!

Ezra with the falls behind.

Oh, how i Love that Pearl!!!

What a smoosh-cake!

Here is a sampling of our visit with Andrew and Reachel this week:

Here are Reachel and Andrew in Beautiful and Pristine Lake Oswego on the Fourth

The Kids with Andrew at Washington Park 

( this is the park right next to the famous Portland Rose Gardens)

Reachel with Ezra at Multnomah Falls 

( Ezra doesnt quite get the picture thing yet)

Ruby's first love

Yesterday was Ruby's last day of Kindergarten

She Had been talking about this boy for days and days. i thought it was a harmless crush.

he had many admirers in the class. His name was Devin. pretty much every girl fought to have him play with them. Ruby had gotten out of the competition long ago. she is not the aggresive type. But, all of the sudden, the last two weeks of school, Devin had taken special interest in her. she came home from school last week in disbelief that he would read a book with her. 

The next day "he actually played with me mom!!" I would ask her several times why she liked him so much, and she would tell me the funny games he would play. and i must admit, when she would just tell me about him, i found him quite charming. This Little boy is moving to minnesota. I would tell Ruby everyday after school when she would start talking about him--"honey, you need to stop hanging out with him , he is moving far away, and you probably wont see him again". and she would reply " mom, I just know he will see my aunt Katie, in Minnesota, and then he will think of me every time he see's her!" 

SO, when i picked her up off of the bus for the last time of this school year. the first thing she said to me was " mom, Devin is moving to Minnesota." she immediately started to get choked up. i told her it was ok to cry and hugged her ...and she fell apart. i have never seen her like this before. she tells me about 10 times a day that she is thinking of him. she told me that last night she prayed that he would get left here and have to live with us.

it was a really sweet little crush. but i am terrified for her teenage years. how do you stop your child from falling in love? just think if she was a teenager, and the boy was not moving?

Dual purpose toy

Ezra found a toy that serves two purposes. 

he occasionally wears them, but most of the time, they serve as his car ramps. 

pretty clever. He's going to have to find many uses for all the girl toys that will be around the house now that he has TWO sisters. 

A little something to make you happy!!!

check out this video from youtube.

its a song by the SHINS on my favorite show --YO-GABBA GABBA

I feel like this everyday. and there is something to be learned from this song.

URRRGHHHHH, alas, i have been tagged.

What is his name? Jason
How long have you been married ? 9 years in AUg ( gosh im getting old)
How old is he? 36 now that im telling you this, i will have to kill you
Who eats more? Him, he is such a pig
Who said I love you first? I dont remember. i think we just knew it was meant to be and didnt really ever question it.
Who is taller? He is.
Who sings better? i Do.
Who is smarter? Jason---his brain age is higher----but im cooler
Who does the laundry? i do all the colors and he sometimes does the whites
Who does the dishes? both
Who sleeps on the right side of the bed? i always sleep to the right of him ( whatever that means)
Who cooks dinner? I do, mostly-----or we go out
Who drives when you are together? Jason
Who is more stubborn? He is. but he is working on it.
Who is the first to admit when they are wrong? We both do in different situations.
Whose parents do you see the most? Mine, because we live closer to them.
Who has more friends? Jason has more friends his age that live in all sorts of places. i have more friends in oregon.
Who has the most siblings? Jason
Who wears the pants in the family? i would have to say Jason, But, im trying to make him realize that i really am the boss.

7 Things About You Tag:Share seven facts about yourself on your blog, some random, some weird, whatever you are brave enough to share.~Tag people at the end of your post by leaving their names as well as links to their blogs.~Let them know they are tagged by leaving a comment on their blog. Here it goes:

1. I love TV and dont enjoy reading books. They take too long to get to the point. i guess i dont like suspense. my favorite shows are "desperate housewives, Medium, the Bachelor, Lost, the office, ( i hate to say it, but i love these ) supernanny and wife swap.
2. I would rather be doing some kind of art or craft at all hours of the day. there is nothing i enjoy more.
3. I WISH i could have 10 kids, but because im pretty neurotic, i will probably only have four or five
4. i have a serious obsession with makeup, and Diamonds and CHOCOLATE
5. Not crazy about surprises. Good surprise yes, but you never know if you have a good one, so i would rather never have them.
6. Im a terrible Decorator. i hate things that match. and so i hesitate decorating for so long that things just look terrible.
7. I cry almost every day.

chocahaulics anonymous

I have been a chocolate fan for my whole life. and i have come to the realization that im totally addicted. a day is just not a day until i have kicked back with a square of dark chocolate. here are some of the chocolates that i have tried over a couple of months and i have finally realized which ones i love and which ones arent worth a dime. i hate to say it , but the Lindt dark chocolate is hideously disgusting!!! if you get it let me know if you like it, maybe i just got a bad batch-----but i warn you. its really sour and gross!!
The Moonstruck chocolate is a local company. their truffles are nothing to write home about , but their dark chocolate is pretty good. ( moonstruck is the red wrapper in the picture) Dagoba chocolate is just really gross. it is also very sour and has a gross bitter after taste. honestly, i dont know why this brand is popular. i also have tried the "green and blacks" brand. its good, but it has a bitter after taste. my two favorites are the Godiva Cocoiste (any kind), and the Sees premium dark. no bitter or sour after tastes. and the flavor is very superior. the chocolates with the after tastes are what gives dark chocolate a bad wrap. most people dont like dark. that is because they have never had decent chocolate. the Lindt was a complete disappointment. they are a swiss company, they make excellent milk chocolate, but its really full of fat, and cream. not good for people who want the taste of chocolate with out breaking their figures completely.BUt, if you have never tried the GOdiva chocoiste and you love chocolate, you NEED To try it. its amazing. it seems like a really pretentious brand , but its really premium.I have tried many many bars of chocolate. and this is what i think!! tell me what YOU think. i would love to try something new.

my kids love bugs!!!

Here is a picture of a baby bug ( box elder bug). they are actually kind of cute when they are babies.
my kids have spring fever, and i guess are going through a phase where they are totally obssesed with bugs!!

the prince and the pea

This picture is a souvenier for Ezra. ( i needed proof, but wanted to throw this gross thing away too!)

My Kids and i were innocently planting seeds in peat moss on tuesday.
there were peas, tomatoes, and Zucchini poured out the package of pea seeds and a couple of the peas fell on the floor.
i couldn't find them, but proceeded to plant all of them. forgetting about the previous days events i went on with my day on Wednesday. i had a hair appointment at noon, so i was carefully arranging and trying to get my responsibilities accomplished. I was kind of annoyed when Ezra would not stop whining about something. he kept coming up to me in a whiny voice saying , My nose mommy------like he could not articulate what he wanted to tell me. after the second time of complaining, he sounded a little more panicked. so i looked at his nose with concern. i could clearly see that there was something stuck up there. i didn't know what it was. i suspected it was a pea seed. because of how round it was. i asked him if it was food and he said yes "its food mommy, its food!!" so i tried getting it out with tweezers. it was too round. i tried medical clamp scissors too. it was pretty stuck. the tricky thing was is, that because it was a seed, it was getting larger, and absorbing liquid from his nose. so i tried a saline wash to try and wash it out. but it was stuck. he had enough air to breath just fine, so i felt good about that. One time, ruby had a Polly pocket shoe up her nose when she was this age, and she didn't have any room to breath. we were pretty panicked and wanted to take her to the ER. so anyway, to make a long story short---the happy ending is, that the pediatrician nurse told us to plug the nostril that was clear, and blow on his mouth ( like mouth to mouth) and it should push it out. "if it doesn't work, then you'll have to bring him in"......they said. so i tried it and after three blows it worked!!!! the pea came out. i was so excited and delighted. why doesn't someone make a handbook for weird incidences like this? it would save many trips to the doctor.