Happy Birthday Ashlyn...and a few other pictures

Nate was playing at a friend's house. He was so happy there getting to play pretend farmers on a real bed of hay bales, tractors, and endless land to run around on. He is one happy boy outside. Today it was so nice outside that we decided to have lunch on a blanket in the front yard. When it was time for dinner, Nate grabbed some plates and said "Eat dinner outside?" I think we'll be outside a lot this spring/summer.

I was gone when Dave and the kids found 12 deer roaming around our yard. We will often times get 3 or 4, but this was a good group of them!

This was a fun science/art project. Did you know...that the flour on the outside of the pasta dissolves and turns into gluten when heated? And the GLUten is a natural glue. So after cooking the pasta, we tossed it in a bowl with different food coloring, then went to work decorating our plates. The pasta sticks because of the gluten and when it dries, the pasta is stuck to the plate. We had so much fun with this and have bigger plans for pasta shapes and more colors next time!

Just a few pictures from Ashlyn's birthday party. She found these Harry Potter coloring pages online, printed them, cut them out, and then let her friends choose a picture to color and they made their own bags. I thought they turned out really cute. Great idea, Ash!

The birthday girl. I still can't believe she is 9.

Lots of Harry Potter kids!

Just had to write it down

Sadie came home from school today, and it was just the two of us. Nate was still asleep, and Ash was at her writing club after school. I love when it is just the two of us. She told me all about her day at school. I don't think it will be half as funny from my writing, and without her voice and facial expressions. Here goes:

Here's how Sadie said it:

Today Hannah wanted me to play with her at recess. She asked me if I wanted to do something. I couldn't understand what she asked me to do, but I said yes anyway. She wanted to teach me how to slide down rocks. I didn't really want to do that. Hannah and Mikaya started talking for a minute, and I noticed that they were talking. So I ran away.

Later while asking Sadie more about it, I asked her if she ran fast. She said she ran so fast.

I can't stop laughing about this. Every time I think about it, I laugh so hard. Just picturing Sadie not wanting to do what the girls were doing, watching for a moment to get away and then running like lightning across the playground to freedom.

I can picture it so well.

Dorito Bouquet

Dave knows that flowers are one of my favorite things. He also knows that I think it's a waste of money to spend the extra money for flowers on V-day when the prices are all higher. He also knew that his boring wife suggested to be frugal on V-day and not buy gifts. This presented Dave with a dilemma.

So when we sat down to our V-day dinner that he made me last night, he brought out this beautiful bouquet of Dorito roses.

Next to flowers, Doritos are high on my favorites list. I love to eat healthy food...except when I am presented with Doritos. All health consciousness leaves me and I could devour a bag in no time.

Dave spent an hour and a half hot-gluing Doritos, one by one, to chopsticks. He had to wait til each one was completely dried before starting the next chip. Good thing there were chips left in the bag because these flowers weren't quite so edible after all of the glue was put on.

Is there something I can do to make these last forever? It makes me smile every time I walk by and see them.

A lot of women like diamonds and jewelry and fancy restaurants. Not me. I am quite content with a bag of Doritos for a gift. I have really classy taste-buds, I know.

Nate's favorite book

A 5 minute video of Nate...for Grandparents and friends that think watching Nate for 5 minutes is actually really exciting (like his parents and siblings do). I could sit and watch him all day and be fully entertained.

A few random things in this movie of Nate:

Nate loves"reading" this book. I love how he has to check to see the animal on the next page before saying it.

And the second part of the video...I was just going to video my cute little boy, and then Dave brought in the snake.

When we were in CA, we watched The Sound of Music with my family. It's a Christmas tradition for us. My Grandma Colleen took my dad to the theatre to see it when it first came out years ago. Ever since, Nate has loved the music. We have the CD and that's all he wants to listen to.

At the end, Nate is singing the song he composed about making pancakes with Grandpa John.

Snowy Days

We had a good snow storm last week. For us, a good snow storm is about 3 inches of snow. We had lots of fun with the snow. We did a lot of sledding at the nearby junior high (with a good hill), we sledded at the little tiny hill on the side of our yard, and Dave and the girls made the igloo in our backyard.

Nate wore Ashlyn's underwear all day. Dave was so happy to come home to his son dressed like this.

The difference between girls and boys. The girls play "house". Nate plays "I'm a snake in cage. Feed me a rat!" Then he went around giving me Legos to pretend they were rats and wanted me to dangle it in front of his mouth.

Our California Trip

Just a few snapshots from our trip. So many more were taken but here are just a few of our fun times.

This picture just made me laugh...guns on each side, while sleeping on the pillow case Ashlyn made for her bed.

I just love this picture.

With Grandma Walton

With Great Grandma Bowen

All of the Walton cousins

It meant so much to have the cousins come by and see Brie's sweet spot.

Popcorn and M&M buddies. The yellow bowl in between them is full of the popcorn.

Enjoying a beautiful California day. Ashlyn made a fun picnic.

Good thing Nate brought his gun.

Cora and Nate having so much fun together...Cora was a sick patient.

We made mom a birthday dinner - Scott and Dave made tonz of crepes! It was a delicious dinner! I wore that apron when I was little.

Nate and Grandpa John reading stories.

On the carousel at Disneyland!

Christmas Eve with Grandma Fishbein

Early Christmas in Missouri

Nate graduated from being baby Jesus to Joseph this year. Joseph with some dinner left on his mouth. He's saving some for later.

Sweet Sadie - the angel

Mary and Joseph admiring the baby Jesus (girl doll dressed like a boy). Ash took the part very seriously.

Christmas morning. Yes, it's not Christmas today. But at our house it was because we're leaving for CA tomorrow. Lining up, youngest to oldest. Ash and Sadie were up at 5 a.m. waiting for Nate to wake up (at 7). It was a long wait.

This is out of order. Christmas Eve tradition from the Fishbein's. This is how the kids sat during the "letter reading". Nate was really interested, so we skipped his. He can read it when he's married. He might care then.

Our traditional Christmas Eve dinner. It started when Ash was 2 and I wanted to make a meal that she would like. So quesadillas it was. We've made them more fun over the years. This year we had a quesadilla with chevre, fiscalini cheddar, rotisserie chicken and sauteed onions. It was delicious! And we topped them with guacamole, sour cream and salsa.

It was so much fun making this 10 layer jell-o.


This is Dave now: The girls really wanted Harry Potter wands for Christmas. I looked on Amazon and there were the real cheap ones ($4) that fall apart or the pricey ones ($35 before shipping) that still were made out of plastic. I figured I could make something stronger for cheaper. The only problem is that I don't have a lathe. They are a little expensive to just go out and buy. So I spent some time in deep thought, tried a few things, failed once or twice, and with some encouragement from Meliss, made an improvised lathe. I won't take the time to explain it all, but it is basically drill powered and I used a dental lab handpiece for cutting. Below are the finished products. The goal was to make Ginny's wand. They're close and just a little different so they can tell the difference. Now I have to find some Pheonix feathers or something.