Monday, December 13, 2010
Just What We Needed - by Brad
Labels: Home Video
Posted by Brad at 9:16 AM 2 comments
Monday, November 29, 2010
November Snow - by Brad
Posted by Brad at 12:48 PM 2 comments
Monday, November 15, 2010
Halloween + - by Brad
Posted by Brad at 12:55 PM 1 comments
Tuesday, November 09, 2010
Boys Weekend - by Brad
Lindsey headed to her annual "women's weekend" in Leavenworth with the ladies in her family, so I had the boys to myself from Thursday through Sunday (I think that's more than a weekend). I had a fun time with my boys. Thursday afternoon one of their friends came over and played for the afternoon and then I took them to Awana while I had music practice at church. Friday I took the older boys to school and Spencer and I had a nice morning running errands and visiting with my parents for an hour or so. After we picked up the boys from school, they decorated their wooden boats for the Awana "Yacht Races" event. One of the highlights was that Elliott and Wesley got to race each other. Elliott ended up taking second place for the second year in a row. He got a nice new trophy for that.
Monday morning before school started I walked by Elliott's room as he was getting dressed when he stopped me and said, "Dad, I only have one pair of pants because you forgot to do laundry this weekend!"
I am pretty sure Mom was laughing in the background.
To which I replied, "I know, I know, I'm am definitely not as great as Mom."
Posted by Brad at 5:30 PM 1 comments
Thursday, October 14, 2010
Elliott Turns 8! - by Brad
Posted by Brad at 5:30 PM 2 comments
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
End of Summer - by Brad
We made another trip out to our favorite spot on the Wenatchee River. This is one of the few places we can find a sandy beach around here. The salmon were spawning and jumping and the kids were running and having fun with their friends. Side note: This is the same place where the dead fish dissecting took place. No nasty pictures this time.
Posted by Brad at 5:30 PM 0 comments
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
First Day of School... a little late - by Brad
Posted by Brad at 5:30 PM 2 comments
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Blessed - by Linz
I started my morning with this Facebook status:
Some mornings just feel like one giant struggle to get out the door.
It was a rough morning. By the time Brad kissed me goodbye and headed off to work, Elliott was moping about not getting to play DS, Spencer was on his bed, naked and screaming about not wanting to get dressed and Wesley was crying because he got a stray hand to the cheek. I thought for sure, the day could only get better. And it did...but not before it got worse.
Not thirty seconds after Elliott and Wesley got in the car after school there was yelling, tears and arms and legs flying with the intent of injury. My bad morning had in fact turned into a bad afternoon.
Once Brad got home things started to improve. He has some sort of calming effect on the boys...something I secretly envy. Unfortunately, Brad had a meeting this evening and the positive influence of his presence quickly faded. Relaxing TV time quickly turned into fighting and an early bedtime for the boys.
But here's where the day got better. Oddly enough it happened after they were all asleep! When I went into their rooms to tuck them in and put away their books and turn off lights, it hit me. It happens even on the worst days. After the long hours of broken rules and unkind words and enforcing discipline, they win me over. After a day of feeling like an inadequate, overwhelmed and frustrated mom, I look at them sleeping and all I feel is blessed. And then I pray that I can remember this feeling even in the chaos that morning is sure to bring!
Posted by Linz at 9:59 PM 5 comments
Saturday, September 25, 2010
Linz & Trophy - by Brad
With the older two boys at school, Spencer has only one person to entertain during the day. Lindsey. She is the audience for his entertaining as well as the brunt of his disobeying. While I am at work, I miss out on many of these moments. I would probably forget most of these if it weren't for Lindsey's documentation process... texting.
- Someone peed into our bathtub!
- I think I need a vacation from Spencer.
- Spencer came up with a bra and squeezed it and said, "honk honk... can I wear this today?"
- (unrelated to Spencer) I smashed a HUGE fly in the kitchen... and maggots came out. I almost threw up!
Posted by Brad at 10:23 AM 0 comments
Tuesday, September 07, 2010
Trophy - by Brad
About a month ago, Spencer and I were relaxing on the floor of my bedroom talking. I asked him if I could call him "Spee" for a nickname. He said no, so I asked if I could call "Bradley" since that is his middle name. Again, he said no. Then he looked at me with a half smile and said, "You can call me Wes."
I explained that since his brother's name is Wes, it would be very difficult to know which one we were talking about. So he proceeded to say, "Then you can call me Elliott."
Again I jokingly explained the same story with Elliott's name. So Spencer looked around the room for a few minutes and finally said, "You can call me... Bookcase!" He so cleverly came up with that nickname because we have a bookcase in our bedroom. So I declared to his brothers that from now on we would refer to Spencer as "Bookcase". They all got a good laugh out of that, and after using the name Bookcase for a few minutes, he decided on a new name.
The object of his new nickname came from what is sitting on top of the bookcase. Once again, Spencer (or, Bookcase), looked at me and said, "No, now you can call me... Trophy!"
This nickname sounded a little more promising than Bookcase, so I again declared that his name officially be changed to "Trophy".
Since then, Trophy has enjoyed his new name. Several times when I would call him "Spencer", he would stop and say, "No, my name is Trophy." At first, he told Lindsey that only I was allowed to call him by his new name. Then he decided that he wanted her to call him Trophy as well.
When Lindsey asked him to clean up some toys, he didn't do it (typical). When she asked him again, he said, "I didn't hear you 'cause you didn't call me Trophy."
Lately he has been telling everyone to call him Trophy. It's not a bad nickname, I guess. He seems pretty adamant about the name, so I guess we'll see how long it sticks.
Posted by Brad at 7:36 PM 5 comments
Thursday, September 02, 2010
Hungry - by Linz
As I was driving back from a morning run with a friend we saw a man on the street corner holding a sign that read: JUST TRYING TO SURVIVE. HUNGRY. GOD BLESS YOU. The hungry part of the sign was in big, bold letters.
We were stopped at the red light and my friend dug through her purse to scrounge up seventy-five cents. As we drove away she commented that she felt bad that she only had seventy-five cents. And then we talked a bit about how hard it must be to have to humble yourself to asking for change just to get a meal.
Later that morning, I was running errands and I saw that the man was still there. I decided to run in to Safeway and pick up a few groceries and take them over to him. I took the boys into the store and we got bagels, bananas bottled water and a candy bar. So I pulled around the parking lot to where he was standing and carried the groceries over to him. Before I could make it all the way, he put up his hands and said, "NO". Ummm. I was kind of surprised so I just stood there for a second. He then said, "I am not accepting any food today." So I commented that his sign said he was hungry. "A lot of people have tried to offer me food, but I am not taking food today." ...Umm, Ok... Then as I am walking away he asks me, "But can you spare any change." I said NO, and walked away...probably not the most gracious move, but I wasn't in the mood to try to help him anymore.
When I got home and told Brad my story, he was not the least bit surprised. I just don't want to have to be so cynical about who really needs help...but the guy that I tried to help, didn't really need help. I saw him the next day jogging to his corner while listening to an Mp3 player.
Now I don't know what to think!
Posted by Linz at 4:11 PM 6 comments
Friday, August 27, 2010
Summer Winding Down - by Brad
Summer has been winding down for us since the week at Pearrygin Lake. We have stayed busy since then, and now we are trying to cram in some last minute summer fun before school starts next week.
We worked on a project on one side of our house that has been bugging us for several years now. We needed to dig up some dirt and weeds, lay down weed barrier, and then haul a couple truck loads of basalt rock to dump on top of it. Thankfully it only took a couple evening because I had the help of my dad in hauling about 40 wheel barrow loads of rock up our front steps. Now we have the other side of the house to do... but we are waiting on a little more concrete before we finish that part.
After the water slides, we picked up the other two boys and then we prepared to head to the drive-in movie theatre to watch Toy Story 3. Apparently the drive-in theatre in Wenatchee is one of the only remaining drive-ins operating in Washington, and it sounds like it is going to close this year, so we though we should probably take the boys. A short conversation took place that evening in the car...
Lindsey: Are you boys excited to go to the drive-in?!?!
Wesley: Yes.
Elliott: No you're not
Wesley: Yes I am
Elliott: No you're not
Wesley: Yes I am
Posted by Brad at 12:50 PM 3 comments
Thursday, August 12, 2010
Pearrygin '10 - by Brad
This was the fourth year in a row that we have vacationed at Pearrygin Lake. In the past years we have gone with my parents and pitched a tent on their campsite. This year, we borrowed Lindsey's parent's trailer and got our own site. Our friends, the Andersons, brought their boat up and stayed with us.
With a boat on the lake, we got to do a few things we hadn't done in the past. We went tubing and tried wake boarding. Lindsey did great wake boarding... I couldn't even get up. After trying several times and drinking half the lake up my nostrils, I decided that tubing was all that I was talented enough to accomplish.
On our last morning at the lake, we got in some of the most active fishing we had ever seen. Aaron and I had the six kids in his boat and had two fishing poles going. After three hours of fishing, we had let the kids reel in about 40 fish. Every time we would cast our the bait we would have a bite within 30 seconds. This was the perfect conditions for the kids to be able to reel in as many fish as they wanted. We let many fish go so we only had to walk away with nine rainbow trout.
Since we caught a few crawdads last year we made a couple traps to set out. However, with two crawdad pots over 4 nights, we only caught two crawdads. This prompted Aaron and I to take a late night raft trip on the lake armed with nets and flashlights. We had really good luck catching them this way. The only problem was that we forgot to bring a bucket with us. We ran out of space in the pouch of the raft and the crawdads kept getting out and pinching on Aaron.
They turn from a brown color to bright reddish-orange when boiled. We shelled them and dipped them in butter and seasoning.
The kids did a lot of bike riding, so it was common that they kept their helmets on...
In Winthrop, my dad treated all of us to ice cream and mini golf...
We took the Andersons out to the smoke jumpers base for the tour. Of course the best part of the tour was getting to play around on the airplanes...
Aaron was a great entertainer for all the kids. He came up with a "most interesting rock" contest when we had some down time...
Even though we couldn't have a campfire at our site, Aaron found a way to cook the smores. He setup the portable grill and we made smores over the propane fire...
Posted by Brad at 7:30 AM 1 comments