The simple things...

Simple things like finding the first egg laid by our new chicken Pepper make our day. Can you see the smaller one? Too bad both ducks turned out to be boys so we'll have to stick to eating chicken eggs. Well we made zucchini bread with it and Ethan and Ry helped. I couldn't believe how hard Ry worked to shred the last little bit. It was delicious. Though the loaf with gluten-free rice syrup was not nearly as good as the one made with sugar (shhh, don't tell the boys). Of course with some chocolate chips on tops and even Aidan downed two pieces.

Aidan and Ethan start school...

Aidan has begun second grade and Ethan is into Kindergarten! There were no tears from him (the way there was with Aidan) though he did want me to follow behind the bus and walk him into his classroom. He likes his teacher and was up and ready to go early this morning for his second day! I was having some camera trouble with no time to mess with the settings but here are a couple pictures anyway...
A confident and excited second grader! Ethan started the next day. And Ryland still not too happy.


The littlest boy, on the left, was so dissapointed to not be allowed to follow onto the bus.




Here is Ethan making his very first friend. Me: "What is his name?" Ethan: "Chrashopper". Me: "Are you sure it's Crashopper?" Ethan "Yes, I'm sure." Me: "Could it have been Christopher?" Ethan: "Oh yeah, Christopher!" Only time will tell I suppose.

He was a bit nervous, can you tell? We actually did a have a couple hard days. A very very long story of one thing after another. Related to Ethan... The first thing out of his teacher's mouth was "Is this Ethan? You need to go straight to the office." I'm not joking. His immunization record was late. But really, couldn't she say "Hello I'm Mrs. Hiskey, it's nice to meet you Ethan." And then tell me that I need to be sure to talk to the office secretary? Then coming home on the bus in the middle of the day (so Aidan wasn't with him) I was waiting for him and the bus went right by. His head turned back to watch me and his eyes got bigger and bigger. I was waving my arms and everything. I waited another 10 mins thinking the bus would come back but it didn't. I called the school and the driver returned him to school because I wasn't there. Ha-ha. I had to wake up the girls and go pick him up. They've had a cold and have been up a lot at night, so they weren't too happy. Then Aidan's best friend from last year was told not to play with him at all this year because of a silly incident at the end of the last school year. He was so sad and indignant (rightfully so). Hopefully the rest of the year goes better than the first week!

Ethan Caleb

It's hard to believe my middle child is nearly six. It seems like just yesterday I had him at our North Bend home. He was a huge 8lbs 10oz and just beautiful. We've been giving so much individual attention to Ryland because not only is he not the baby anymore, he is also the middle child now. But it's easy to forget Ethan because he's pretty quiet and not usually demanding (unless his blood-sugar is low or he's tired~watch out!). He is so fun and I enjoy hanging out with him, that is if I can break him away from his brother Aidan. He follows him around all day and hates to go anywhere without him. Luckily (or not?) he will have Aidan by his side when he begins Kindergarten in just one short week. What will I do without both of them!?! I will spend more time with Ry and the girls I suppose. Sniff-sniff. I just had to post a few pics of this sweet boy, my little explorer, and Chad's fishing buddy.

Sky River Trip

We had such a great time on the Skykomish River! The weather was perfect, sunny tank-top weather for most of the day and it waited to sprinkle at the very end of our float. Actually we didn't do much floating. We rowed most of the time because the wind was in our faces and we had two little boys to pick up after dinner. But we were on the river for over 5 hours, yet it flew by (could've been the company I suppose). I could barely lift my arms on Monday, but it was well worth it! We caught (and released) a few salmon and I learned to fly fish! Here are a few pictures...

11 years ago today...

Chad and I were married! It sure has flown by. Seeing him love the girls as his own has made my love for him deepen when I didn't think it were possible. It was a bit hard but we were able to have all five watched (and loved) for the weekend so we could spend some time alone. I just spoke to Aidan who said he's helping Grandma Sharon take care of Hope and Halle, and he's even going to get up and help with the middle of the night feed. Ethan, who has had a great night with Grandma Cheryl, started crying though. Sniff-sniff. But this is good for them, and US! Tomorrow we're going to take our pontoon boats out on the Skykomish river. My anniversary present: waders and boots! I figured I can't in good conscience get Chad to take up scrapbooking so I decided I'm going to get into fishing. I'll post some pics tomorrow. :o)

Hope Noelle

What a personality she has already! So mellow and relaxed and yet animated and so full of grins. I had to write down what Aidan said about Hope today... "Mom, I know that they will be with us forever." "Why is that Aidan?" "Because I love them so much, and God knows that, that's why. And Hope thinks I'm the best big brother ever."

Ethan's first two wheel ride!

The other night after riding around the park, we stopped to play at the playground. Ethan asked if I would help him ride Aidan's bike so I pushed him around on the grass, letting go briefly, and before I knew it he took off! He's so proud of himself. We have a bike trailer for the girls, so as soon as we can get Ry riding without training wheels we can have some fun rides!

When we got back and surprised Daddy, Ryland had get in on the attention and brought me some flowers he'd gathered for me. Sweetheart...

Two steps forward

and one step back. As a parent, some days are more challenging than others, but the days where I feel I've lost ground, that is hard. Now I know, nothing is really undone, but it can feel like it at the time. This is the one thing that makes parenting such hard work. I keep thinking they'll be 'done' with some of the behaviors that drive me nuts. Our kids are so beyond blessed with more toys than they need, more food than they can eat, more freedom than they know what to do with and more yes's than no's. Sometimes we shoot ourselves in the foot, giving them way too much. (We're on a drive-thru fast!)

Yet I think because I teach and re-teach, patient day after day... "Could you please not grab; ask your brother nicely for that toy. Yes, you do need to share." and "Stop chasing the chickens!!! No, you cannot hit the duck over the head with the sword. Don't you remember what happened just yesterday???" But hey, we're all like that aren't we? Learning, growing and hopefully changing, vowing to never make the same mistake again, yet only all too often only days will go by before we find ourselves back in the same position. So if as adults, we fall over and over and have to get back up and seek God's grace and mercy, why shouldn't our children?

Then there are the times where I'm amazed by kindness one brother shows to another or some great unselfishness that makes smile and I'm proud to be their mother. I am raising sweet boys that will grow to be amazing husbands and fathers; I'm confident of that. Truly the bad days are few and far between, but when I see certain behaviors growing which I feel powerless to change, I feel defeated. I'm sure I'm not the only one who thought their young child was incapable of doing the same terrible thing twice. I just find it hard to know what is just "boy" behavior and what is behavior that cannot be tolerated and what needs consequences. I think I need to dust off my "Bringing up Boys" book again. I'm also currently reading "The Mission of Motherhood: Touching Your Childs Heart for Eternity" and finding it rewarding. Anyway, writing out this reminder is good for me... if we, as adults, aren't going to be "finished" until we meet our Lord face to face, how can our children possibly be?

Happy Halle

I'm amazed at how much happier our chubby little Halle is lately! In fact I had to make this post just for the fact that I got an super cute picture of her smiling today! She was just kicking and smiling and just being plain happy. And while I'm posting this picture the chubs on her makes me want to look back at how scrawny she and Hope were when we brought them home from the hospital. Here is Halle today at nearly 3 months...

And here she was at 1 week exactly...
Here is Hope today...

Here she was at nearly 1 week...




What a difference two months can make! Wow! Praise God.


Well I better get to bed before I'm woken in a few hours!


Thanks for indulging me,
~Becca

Nearly done...

We were lucky enough for Grandma Sharon (thank-you, thank-you!) to watch the girls Friday and Saturday so that we could finally attack the girls room. I wasn't sure I'd ever get to do a baby girl room, though I knew we'd adopt someday and we were hoping for a girl, we thought we might be meant to have another boy or two. Well, Hope and Halle came to us nearly 3 months ago, right after water damage to our downstairs forced us to tear all the carpet out and even some of the walls! So getting the boys bedroom and bathroom back in order was priority so the girls had to wait. Here are a few pics of the boys room nearly completed...

They love the bear, fish, tree night lights. I didn't get a pic of it, but Chad did a great job putting molding up 2 feet down from the ceiling with a ledge to put their big letters on (spelling their names). The colors are so cheerful and all that is left is for Chad to do some more artwork (bears, stream and more evergreens) because Ry's bed ended up covering up much of it.

Ryland's new big boy bed has a fort underneath which we're encouraging to be a wrestle-free reading zone. ;o)
We turned our main floor office into the twins room. There is no closet so I got a huge armoire with room enough for lots of little dresses. ;o) We painted Saturday and Sunday and yesterday after work Chad put up molding. I think it's turning out great. After I get things on the walls I'll post a pic of the finished room. Until then here are a couple recent pics of Halle and Hope...

I could just stare at these eyes forever! The girls are so interactive now. We're having a blast.

And lastly, not a great picture, but it is the first pic of all five!

Chad and Ethan...

are fast becoming best fishing buds. I'm so glad at least one of the boys really enjoy doing something that Chad loves so much. Aidan and Ryland have fun too, but they don't have the staying power Ethan does. They had a great time fishing Spada lake. It's enormous!

Of course after 4 hours in the boat a fishing pole has to take on many forms!