Josh and Anne Wester Family

random august things

2011-08-27T21:41:00.000-07:00

Summer is coming to a close, we are trying to fit in all the fun things we can before the kids go back to school and the rain (and rain , and rain) starts up. It has been absolutely gorgeous here, High 70s or 80's every day, there is no where more beautiful than the pacific northwest in the summer. We went to a lake near Seattle called Green Lake last Saturday.

They had little sailboats for rent. Josh got one, while me and the other kids got a paddle boat. The kids all got turns with Josh, they sailed circles around us.

Here are Ally an Ava and Ally;s friend Maggie sporting their lifejackets.

So Ally has started cheer. And Luke is in football. Ally gets to cheer for Luke;s games, it is super fun to watch them. Ally loves cheer leading. It has made for a busy August thought, football 5 nights a week for 2 hours, cheer 3 nights a week. Green! Green! Green! Green! blackblackblackblackblackblackblack and white (clap clap clap clap) and white (clap clap clap clap). We just finished up a full day of cheer and football, those cheers have a way of staying with you long after the game. Ally is in the back middle of this next shot.

All in all, we are having a blast this August, and sad that we start school after Labor Day. This summer just zipped by, one more week of playing, swimming, picking blueberries, hanging out at the beach, and running through the neighborhood. 9,7, and 5 are the BEST ages. I love this stage of life!

just ava

2011-06-12T22:52:00.000-07:00

Since I didn't have any pictures of Ava in the post I just did, I thought I better put one in. Here we are at the park near our house today. This toy makes me sooooo dizzy.Hi Curly.

2011-06-12T22:40:00.000-07:00

So for years, Josh has gone to the girls ballet recitals, the kids school programs, soccer even, but I have never seen this smile on his face for any of them. Here they start tackle football at age 7, so now that Luke is....he is signed up. They start practice in August, but Josh took him in to get geared up on Saturday. It takes Luke a long time to get dressed in all this stuff. Hopefully we get it down by August, because he has to wear it five days a week.

He looks so tough, yet small under all that stuff. Hope he doesn't cry when he actually gets hit.Friday was a half day, so I took Ally and Luke and a buddy each to the zoo. Ava stayed with a friend. They loved the peacock.
the zoo right now has a pretty cool dinosaur exhibit with dinosaurs that move and make sounds. This is the T-Rex, but as you come in the front, there are two dinosaurs that move their heads and spray water out of their mouths about every 3 minutes. the kids got soaked, but loved it. We had the zoo almost to ourselves, which was nice, I guess not everyone had a half day.

back to blogville

2011-05-01T17:37:00.000-07:00

Whew, so it has been at least a year since I posted last, and it took me forever to figure out how to get back on here. I thought the blog was lost forever, but (as you can see) I figured it out, so we are up and rolling. I will be better at doing this more often. I will. No eye rolling out there. I am back on it. So, sorry for the random pictures, I was more curious to see if I could even remember how this all worked. Why oh why is it my destiny to be so dumb about computers? My kids spin one-handed computer cartwheels around me, even Ava who is four can get on here, find some cartoon fancy ladies to dress up and have them eating dinner with their cartoon boyfriends with nails all painted and hair all done. All while getting the Wii to play Netflix movies and like or not like her favorite songs on Pandora. I am actually kindof worried about this generation. But that is for another day, because I am back on. Wahoo.So can you tell who this potato is supposed to be? White glove? Microphone? Doing the moonwalk? That's right, it's a potato (this was a St patricks day school project for Luke's 1st grade class) dressed up as Micheal Jackson as a california raisin. This is because Luke is obsessed with all things Micheal Jackson. Its a whole new Pepsi Generation.
So since this time last year, we have moved from Eagle to Mill Creek WA, about 20 miles N of Seattle. We were sad to leave, but happily report that rain (and rain and more rain) aside, we love it here. My kids have adjusted very nicely, here is Ally at Red Robin with her 3 new best friends, after shopping at the mall all night. We still miss Eagle, but are glad we are in such a nice place with so many nice people.
When we do go home to Eagle to visit, Grandma and Papa spoil these kids. During spring break, they took them to do a little chicken shopping. They ended up getting 2 new chickens each (6 chickens total) who got their little chicken feathers nearly patted off during that week. They all happily made it through though, and my little farm-babies-in-their-hearts are excited to go back to collect eggs in the summer. Thanks Grandma and Papa.

no pictures, just words

2010-01-18T20:55:00.000-08:00

So I guess it has been quite a while since I have posted anything. A lot has happened, we are in a new year, with lots of changes coming up. We had a great year last year, some highlights, Ally got baptized, Luke started Kindergarten, Ava is still not potty trained. Josh started a new company, worked his heart out, sold it, and now has started a new job in Walla Walla. Lots more, too many to list. I can't remember it all. Here are some highlights of what I did today, however:
woke up at 5 am, put the kids in the car and took Josh to the airport
brought the kids home and put them back in bed where they thankfully fell back asleep
made breakfast
did 3 loads of laundry
hosted playdates at my house for four different sets of friends from 10 until 6 ish
picked up after above mentioned friends
un-crusted several slices of bread for snacks for the same friends
ate the crusts
sorted through three piles of old papers
read 3 books
played trains
delivered dinner to 3 families from my food co op
made dinner for my own family
hosted family home evening where we decided to save and send money to haiti
dishes
scriptures
prayers
many good nights
ate chocolate ice cream with malty balls
whew.

nauvoo

2009-09-08T21:55:00.000-07:00

Well, what a summer the Wester family had this year. boating, camping, backpacking, how to squeeze it all in, I guess I will at least post the highlight of our summer, a three week trip to Nauvoo to visit the folks. I flew across the country with the three kidlets, whilst Josh stayed home. That part was not the highlight. The kids had a blast working at curly grandma's custard store, riding papa's horse drawn carriage, and visiting with their cousins. Nauvoo has church history galore which the kids soaked up. We came back spoiled from the grandparents, more knowledgeable about the early beginnings of the church, and a little stouter around the waistline from a daily dose of custard. Oh but it was so smooth.

There is a little variety show put on by the senior missionaries and the young performing missionaries called Sunset by the Mississippee. My kids thought it was the funniest thing and we watched it nightly. Had most of it memorized by the end, the kids could sing all the songs and recite most of the little jokey plays. Here's curly and Ava watching intently. After this we always ran over to play the pioneer games that go on before the pageant every night. The kids had a ball.
Dad hooked up Leo to the carriage and took us for a ride. The kids laughed and lauged at how Leo would run whenever he got in the grass.

Ally at the reigns

And here we are at Carthage jail, such a powerful place. The kids loved it too. It was funny, they show you a little video before they take you through the jail, and it tells about Joseph Smith. Luke knew this was where he was shot, so he leaned over to me during the video and said "mom, when we go up there, are they going to shoot us too?" no.

Now we are into back to school, pictures will come later skater.

haircuts

2009-05-17T22:17:00.000-07:00

The girls were looking a little scraggly (Luke's hair is just growing back from a sahve, so he is not) so I tok them in for haircuts to my good friend Jayme. This was Ava's first real haircut-which means it was not me snipping away at long looking pieces while destracting her while in the bath. She was a little nervous, but had a good time and loved to show off her hair cut to dad and her friends later.

She is afraid of the blow dryer at home, but sat very still for this one. she still did not like it one bit though.

Ally loved her new do too, she got a lot taken off. We do it curly most days though, its was easier, and cuter too, I think.

I went and got mine cut short a couple of days later. So all the girls have new hairdo's for the summer. I didn't get the dog cape, or any pictures taken of me though. I did sit still.

Easter

2009-05-06T21:50:00.000-07:00

We had quite a few fun Easter festivities this year. lots of eggs and treats. The highlight though, is always the egg hunt at grandma and pa pa's house. The kids got quarters this year, which came in very handy last week at a garage sale. And Josh and I had little competition for the dollar-filled egg find. Too bad no one else came home for Easter this year. Here's Ava, having a great time. The favorite Easter bunny item was a bubble blowing dog. While the treats lay languishing on the floor and in the baskets. I thin I ended up throwing a lot of the candy away. but we still have the bubble dog.

Luke got tricky bubbles too.

Here are the kids in their cute easter outfits, thanks to grandma and her savvy shopping. Luke also had a cute moroni tie, but did not want to wear it for the pictures, and looked very grouchy in the picture we took after we made him put it on. He loves it, just not while he was trying to enjoy his Easter stuff.

Hope everyone had a happy Easter!

visitors

2009-05-06T21:41:00.000-07:00

We have had a lot of visitors lately, and we have loved seeing our family and friends. Ava was more than happy to share her coveted and over-rubbed belly button with Drew and Ashley's littlest... The kids had so much fun with their friends, and got some good exercise doing this until we got smart and hooked the four-wheeler up to the wagon.

My dad came and we loved the key lime pie that he taught us how to make. It is so fun to see him cooking, he makes us a new treat each time he comes.

WE are crushing up graham crackers for the bottom of the pie. And eating some. It turned out Ally had strep throat, and it is amazing that none of the rest of us got it after this.

And my grandma came with my dad. it was so fun to see her, she is one of my very favorite people in the world, and always sucha great example to me. We had some good talks and learned some interesting things about her from her great stories.

gardening

2009-05-06T21:34:00.000-07:00

Curly grandma came and we got into some serious gardening. Here are some of what she bought. I think we planted peas, pumpkins, strawberries and raspberries so far. Once she left we got lazy and have not yet put in the rest of the crops. We are taking baby steps this year to see how our luck with gardening turns out. Luke and his best buddy Garrett from two houses down were great little helpers, digging and digging in the dirt.

And then they needed to take a break after some hard work. These two little guys are so cute, it is fun for Luke to have a great neighbor finally.

Ally's bookclub

2009-04-03T15:40:00.001-07:00

For Ally's bookclub, we read Socks (2 out of five stars-kindof boring) but since it was about a cat, we made these little cat cupcakes. And pipe cleaner and paper kitties. Ally came up with these little critters on her own.

lookie here, Ava and Ally with their cats, waiting for their friends to arrive.

each girl designed and ate her own cat cupcake.

We also had chex mix for dry cat food and ate it out of bowls (not shown) to offset the chocolate milk and many other chocolate items. the food was a hit. the discussion was kindof like...well, like herding cats.

sorry, no pictures of Luke at this time, but he has a big soccer game tomorrow, so we will try to get some of that up here soon.

painting day

2009-02-26T12:25:00.000-08:00

I had a poster to paing for our church primary activity, and Ava came down in the middle of it and decided to get in on the fun. she is real proud of her painting shirt

this picture is for curly grandma, she is saying hi.

It's kindof nice the day when Luke has his playgroup and Ally is in school, so Ava and I can just hang out.

little angels

2009-02-14T22:05:00.000-08:00

Ava was hanging out with Ally, and then I went up to check, and here they were, all worn out and fast asleep. What little angels.

random stuff

2009-02-14T21:46:00.000-08:00

Well, it seems like December and January have been so full of so much stuff, some good, some bad, almost all causing major change in our lives, that I haven't been too good about updating this. Plus facebook seems to take a larger amount of time that it probably should. So I am resolved to do better. Happy Valentines Day!!! Josh and I traded babysitting with some friends this year, so we went out Friday so they could go out tonight. We went to a hawaiin restaurant here in Boise, with a buffet and live hula dancing. It was interesting and fun. so today for V day, Josh went snowboarding, and when he got home I made a trip to the gym to work out alongside the couple of people who didn;t have other plans. The kids had fun with their friends and we made Valentines cookies. So it was a good day, and kindof nice not to go out on a busy Saturday night. We have been busy with Josh's new company, which seems to be all squared away as of this weekend, so Boise Legal, here we come. Let's hope it's a good change.

So enough ramblings about us. Does every singel two year-old girl have to wear fancy dresses over their clothes? We are two for two. I see other moms with thier little ones dressed the same way out around town, we just smile a knowing smile. I'm sure some of you know what I am talking about.

We took Ally and Luke skiing. Josh was VERY patient, and they both loved it. Luke has even been back one more time (he's free) but they were very good and had a lot of fun. I pulled Ava around on the sled and we hung out and watched in the lodge.

Here in Boise, we get a lot of what is called an inversion. See the clouds? We live under them. It seems about half the winter, we are living in a cloud. and it's cold. then we go to the mountains, and it is warm and sunny. Crazy.

So here are the kids yesterday with some friends enjoying thier school Valentines spoils. they planned out their own little party, I opened Ally's room door and here they all were, sucking down the pixie sticks.

Pre-Christmas fun

2009-01-09T17:53:00.000-08:00

Well, we had a pretty exciting Christmastime around here, probably like most households with little kids with wild Christmas blood in them. Or maybe it is wild Christmas sugar. WE were lucky and had my mom here for almost a month. Besides being a free babysitter/cleaner/chef and someone to talk to during the day, she spoiled the kids and introduced them to the art of making Christmas candies. Ava had a blast dipping pretzels, and then dipping her own fingers. And licking them. Yum. We also had a very very white Christmas, with lots of snow. See how Ally's head is also the head of the snowmen. My children are so clever.

After getting chilly in the snow, we needed to get cozy with some hot chocolate by the fire. Ava never made it out that day, but needed to be cozy nevertheless.

Luke was a shepherd in his preschool Christmas program. I wish I could post how he sang the very loudest (and I mean LOUDEST!!!) for the songs they sand to the old folks. I'm sure even the hardest of hearing among them could hear that day. I was laughing so hard I couldn;t video straight, but he was pretty cute.

We had a fun night with curly (my mom) at the mall while Josh was travelling. There were guys making balloon swords and puppies, we rode the escalator many times (the absolute highlight), got a butterscotch sucker at See's candy, patted the puppies at the pet store and got a pretzel while the kids tried out the rides that take quarters. they even got to put money in one this time (thanks grandma). Ava couldn;t quite make it onto Santa's lap, I should have a picture of me holding her at a safe distance while she sucked her two favorite fingers and rubbed her worn out bellybutton.

And Santa did make it to our house, I will post Christmas pictures later. This is progress for me to get these up, so just enjoy them for now.

the treats

2008-11-01T22:49:00.000-07:00

And here is what all that hard work was all about. The haul-

Now we get to eat it all-right?

Making some important trades of the treats.

Ava shares the wealth

Now put the kids to bed so Josh and I can pick out our faves from the pile. Only one bit-O-Honey this year, I was sad.

trick or treating

2008-11-01T22:35:00.000-07:00

Here we are getting ready to go out on Halloween. somehow my pictures got put in here backwards, so this one was supposed to be last, but here are me an Ava getting ready to go into the haunted house (which we determined ten minutes later, was a mistake-that cute smile was gone) So our neighbors do a really elaborate haunted house every year, which people come to from far and wide. Last year it was really fun. This year it was really scary. Ally and her friends and Luke and Ava all came out with tear stained faces.

Here is Ally, calming down.

And Luke with Pa-pa, still feeling scared. He would not go to any doors to trick or treat that were even remotely scary or had sounds. Even for candy.

Here we were right before the haunted house. I think all of the girls cried. At least the ones that went through.

and here are my little candy lovers ready to go and get some.

par-tay

2008-11-01T22:22:00.000-07:00

This was the Halloween for parties. We were worn out before the trick-or-treating even started. but a good worn out. Here is Luke and his friend Ryan having pizza before heading out to hit the streets. (Luke is the Ninja. He started out as a ghost with a sheet over his head, but it got kindof in the way of him and getting to the candy.)

Okay, my friend went to so much work making holiday goodies for her daughters birthday party earlier that day, that I just had to include some of her hard work. Rice Krispy fingers, cheese fingers with red pepper nails, deviled egg ghosts, witch hats, and Oreo spiders. This is not even all, there wer hot dog worms, spider ice cubes, caramel apples, caramel popcorn, sugar cookies to decorate, and a pumkin cupcake cake. It took her two days to make and about twenty minutes to eat.

The kids had friends over the night before Halloween to hang out and have fun.

Here we are decorating sugar cookies at the birthday party. I don;t even think any of these kids are mine, sorry.

And Ally's class party. Ally is the third one from the left in a bat shirt and blue jeans.

two unrelated items on the same post

2008-10-22T12:17:00.000-07:00

Well, this week I had an awesome find at the neighborhood garage sale, 3 scooters, one for $3, one for $2 and one for $.50. We had been wanting to get Luke one anyways, since both he and Ally are not proficient on the bikes, and kindof refuse to try. The were a big hit. It turns out the one for 50 cents handlebars won't come up and it does not turn very well, (you get what you pay for) but it is the perfect size for Ava. The kids have spent the last few days scooting all over the cul de sac. They of course had to show grandpa when he came this weekend. I think grandpa might have strained a few back muscles while taking Ava around. But she loved it, and it saved my back for a little while.

And of course Luke's buddies wanted to scoot when they came over on Monday. And so far no really bad crashes (knock on wood)

So Luke wants to be a ghost for Halloween. Today I have been trying to figure out how to make a ghost that will not frustrate the guy by falling off, or the eye holes moving. I will enlist the help of grandma this weekend. But Luke's friends wanted to help out, so they walked around making ghost sounds. They look pretty good, don;t they? Luke is the one on the far right. And here they are, the men (and ladies) behind the masks. Oh, by the way, we are pretty excited for Halloween around here.

the party

2008-10-10T21:17:00.000-07:00

Well, because Josh was not here to tell me how to reset the flash on the birthday pictures, some of these are a little blurry, but Ally had a super fun party on Saturday, after a not super fun time of cleaning and baking. But she and her friends had a great time, and now I can rest easy that another birthday week (ours always seem to last that long) is over and was a success! The girls decorated their own trick-or treat boxes, then we headed upstairs, where they would trick-or-treat at each door, and behind each one was a game or craft, with treat.
Ally and Ava enjoying some tasty ghost cupcakes and ice cream.
Fuzzy again, but here is the group of girls.

And the big hit of the night-glow sticks from the dollar section at Target. I love you glow sticks.

Happy Birthday Ally

2008-10-01T20:05:00.000-07:00

My baby girl turned 7 today (sob). the festivities started last week with the newest addition to grandma and pa-pa's growing petting zoo. This is Hannah Montana Wester, the dog, which because a memeber of the family once papa was foolish enough to bring over the neighbors pup that they were giving away, and ask the kids if they should keep it. Now ally feels like she has a dog (a lifelong ambition of hers) and it lives at grandma and papa's under their care. A gift for all of us. (My Ally is the brown-haired one in case some of you don;t know)
Speaking of hair, this is Ally;s new grownup haircut she got today for her birthday. It is an A cut she calls it. Here are a couple of more views of it, my friend Jaime did it, and it turned out darling. She looks so big. Ally spent the majority of today on the phone, thank you to all family and friends that thought of her and called her up, she recieved so many gifts and phonoe calls today, it made her feel so popular. These shots are only a week older than the one above with the pup. Doesn't she look grown up already?
Here's all the cute stuff in the back of the 'do.
Grandma Gail is so thoughtful and sweet, and took Ally shopping for a new outfit to wear to school on her birthday. I didn;t know how to turn this picture upright, but here she is head to toe in Hannah Montana wear-shoes, pants, shirt, sweatshirt, hat and purse. She even got new underoos, (not Hannah Montana however). She felt so special today at school. We went in to her class and sang to her and handed out gift bags.
And the fun never ends, Ally is having freinds over all day tomorrow, and a party with 11 of her firends on Saturday night (Hannah Montana themed-see a pattern here anywhere?) So My saturday will be spent with 12 girls doing crafts, dancing, dressing up and watching Hannah Montana Videos. I can't wait. Or maybe I can. Thanks again to all of you who remembered Ally and made her day so special. And steele and Trisha, please figure out soon how to freeze time, this can;t keep happening. Way too fast.

The Campbell are coming!

2008-09-10T20:49:00.000-07:00

As soon as we got back from our fun San Francisco vacation, we were so lucky to have our other cousing come to visit us! These kids were like peas and carrots, carrots and peas. It was 5 days of uninterrupted fun! (although my kids bedtimes were shot completely, and we suffered the first week of school because of it) Here are Luke and Lucy, Ally and Sophie. I do really think that there was not even one little spat with these guys, they were just in heaven the whole time. I am so gald that Jackie decided to be a brave little momma and fly out with them this year
Aaaahhh cousins and sleepover together, what could be funner. Here they are all lounging on Ally;s bed.

And then jumping on Ally;s bed. They took turns putting on jumping shows for each other. And again, were very good about it, not one fuss.
Cousin Roman also came for Friday and Saturday, here he is enjoying a popsicle with the kids. I think it was Sohpie's job to push the swing-love how much she is enjoying that popsicle. We took the kids swimming, to the park, boating, and riding four wheelers, but I only had pictures mostly of the bed-jumping part, so that is what we have here. Maybe Jackie will be so nice as to email me some of the other pics-she was so good about taking them early and often. Jackie?
It was so fun to see them though, what a blessing to have such great family on both sides!

san francisco

2008-09-10T20:33:00.000-07:00

Our big trip this summer was driving as a family to San Francisco to visit Cale and Hailey. Despite my trepidation on taking a 12 hour car trip with the kids, it actually was quite pleasant, probably due to the fact that Josh's parents took Luke in their car with them, and Ava was sick, so she just rode mellowly along, with a diaper change needed almost every hour. Some stomach bug, I guess, but pleasant driving. So twelve hours, and six outfits (Ava again) later, we arrived. I cannot even begin to tell all the fun things we did, saw the city, redwood forest, coast, swimming in the pool at the condo where we stayed, catching up with old friends. It was lovely. Here is the whole family at the coast. Despite my aversion to cold wind, it was actually quite pleasant weather-wise, and extremely beautiful and mysterious what with the fog and the water and the dark rocks.

This here is Josh's favorite picture of the kids. They found a few treasures and loved running in the sand. Notice Ava like a little hermit crab off at the back left side. This was how most of her vacation was, due to not feeling well, poor thing. Just taking a back seat and enjoying from afar. She (along with us all) really enjoyed Golden Gate Park. there was this really cool carousel that the kids could ride for 50 cents. It was refreshing for once to not be charged an arm and a leg for entertainment for the kids. Way to go Golden Gate!
At the kids playground part of the park, there was this amazing slide for the kids to ride down on a piece of cardboard. Look at that cavegirl go!

And here we all are at the end of the day, Josh, his brother Nick, his dad and mom, Cale and hailey in the front with their little Kira in the pink, and me holding Ava-Luke ann Ally in the middle. The drive home was not quite as fun as the drive there, but then again, we had all the ruffians then and Ava was back in full swing. We made it though, and can;t wait to go back.

more of summer

2008-07-28T18:32:00.000-07:00

Oh where has the summer gone? We have done a lot of fun things this summer, and sadly, have taken pictures of almost none of them. The kids have taken a couple of swim lesson sessions, and Ally and Luke are great swimmers now. We have been boating a lot at Black Canyon, playing with friends friends and more friends, and staying busy between the park and pet watching and camps to learn to cheer and cook and do crafts. And then of course lots of practicing this at home. Oh, and ice cream, snow cones, popsicles, if it is tasty and cold, we have eaten it this summer. Our bedtimes have also really relaxed, which is kindof nice when all the kids sleep in. We love Idaho summers with the warm weather and it doesn;t get dark until well after 10. Here is Ally at her cheer camp, the one in the pink shirt. She loved it. she is a little cheerleader in her heart.
Our stake asked everyone to turn off the TV and movies and video games for a month. So we have been spending a lot of time on bike rides and reading stories and walks and playing games with each other. It has actually been really great. We have one week left to go, but really do not miss having the TV on. We had gotten to where it was just in the background most of the day some days. We have not been perfect, but a couple of times our sanity was worth a half hour of Blue's clues. Just to stop the crying.
We went downtown to the Twilight Criterium, like we do almost every year, can you see the bikers int he background? They are there, just going so fast that you can hardly tell. Just a blur. We scored big at the free Power bar booth, the kids were really excited until they tasted them. Not so good as they look. We will add them to our food storage I guess. the kids favorite thing was the free little clicker they give you to cheer on the bikers.
And my kids have managed to adopt another dog, at least for the week. We love babysitting dogs. We get enjoyment, and then we send them home when we have had enough. One thing I have learned about dogs though, the bigger the dog, the bigger the poo. And this last dog was pretty bid. Can you tell which one is the real dog? Luke made a bed on the floor of Ally's room so he could sleep with the dog, Aubrey was her name.
and what is summer without enjoying an ice cream sandwich at a slip n slide party? Ava liked the ice cream way more than the slip n slide.

Gonna party like it's my birthday!

2008-06-26T11:35:00.000-07:00

Well, little Ava Pearl has turned two. We kept telling her it was her birthday, and she would say "birthday" but she didn;t really know what birthdays were all about, se we had to show her. I took her to King's to help shop for her present.

She loved the Princesses and dolls, but she picked out exactly what I thought she would, a Doodle writer that you can erase. She is a budding artist, and can color for hours, well not really, but it entertains her for a long time.
And this is what she really wanted-CANDY!!!! But she did not get it due to the fact that i noticed two little cavities on her back teeth earlier that morning and made her first dentist appointment. Yikes!
Then we went downtown to the Boise Co-Op a fun grocery store that has little carts for the kids, and tasty gelato, mmmmm our favorite. Ally's friend Sydney came along, Ava wanted to hold her hand the whole time.

And here we are with our little carts. The kids each picked out an organic fruit leather and put it in their own respective carts. But then they got a little wild and were causing traffic jams in the Co-Op, so we had to get them out of there. From there, we took a picnic to the Foothills Learning Center in the Boise foothills where a story teller was talking about bugs.

And then home for the best part, decorating cupcakes and opening the presents. the kids each got a pair of star goggles since they are so into swimming now and can go underwater without plugging their noses (I can't). And Ava of course just wants whatever the other two have. The kids licked the frosting off of their cupcakes, and we went to bed. It was a nice birthday, I hope another couple go by before Ava realizes that she needs friends to come to it. She is such a darling girl, and we are so happy to have her in our family. And we can't believe that she is two. Happy Birthday little Avesie.

Summer!!!

2008-06-13T13:25:00.001-07:00

So Ally graduated from kindergarten last week. She is sad to not be in school anymore, she had the best teacher and such a great class with so many friendsshe absolutely loved kindy. I am so proud of her, she has learned to read and did such a great job, she can hardly wait for first grade. But she did have summer to look forward to, and one of Ally and Luke's main needs this summer was a slip n slide. So I bought them one...
And it remained just like this, in the box for over a week while we checked the weather every day to see if it was warm enough for the slip n slide. Luke would get up in the morning, and ask if it was warm enough today. One day there were black clouds in the sky, and he said "Oh man, I woke up and saw black clouds." The weather here has just been weird, not near as bad as some parts of the country, but definitely too cold for summer lovin' kids like mine...
But then today, after a long long wait, summer has arrived. The slip and slide made its way out of the box and on to our lawn. The jump house came out to visit too, and some popsicles made their way over.
And the kids had their friends over and are outside right now, as I write, slippin' and slidin' in the sun. Until the slip n slide breaks. It does not look very sturdy. But so far so good.
Ava and her friend Sophie are not too sure about getting wet, so they are cruisin' instead. We love summer!!!

the merry month of May

2008-06-01T12:30:00.000-07:00

Well, we have had a lot of things happen this month, so I will just put a couple of highlights. It seems like May gets so busy with the end of school, soccer season finishing up, so many parties and things to go to, our anniversary, Mothers Day, trips and family coming to visit. It just flew by in a flash of fun activities, but we loved it all. My sister Suzi and her husband Matt came to see us. Suzi is a whiz in the kitchen, here she is whipping up a batch of blackberry cream cheese muffins for ally's school teacher appreciation. Those lucky teachers, they were the tastiest muffins I ever had. I tried to re-create them later, without Sue, but not even close. She also gave me the best recipe for Mexican Lasagna I have ever had.
Josh and I got to spend a few days in SanFrancisco last week. We are sad that Cale and Hailey moved so far away but are glad that they moved somewhere so fun. We are at the Golden Gate bridge. It is very high. A helicopter flew under it while we were on it. We ate delicious sourdough bread and saw the sea lions and rode the Trolley cars and went to China town, and walked and walked and walked all over the town, there was so much to see and do. We can;t wait to go back.
Here are the kids modeling their Chinatown pj's.
Pretty tricky.
Uncle Nick also got back from China yesterday, after being there since December. We were happy too see him, Ava loves Nick. We are excited to go up today and see his pictures and hear all about his trip.

So those were a couple of May highlights. I can;t believe that the month is already gone. Only three more days of school, and then summer is here. Hope everyone is doing good.

Happy birthday batman

2008-04-20T22:52:00.000-07:00

Our little superhero is 4 today. He wanted puffy pancake for breakfast, complete with four candles to blow out. They kept melting in the hot pancake though, so we stuck them in a hamburger bun where they stayed in place beautifully.
And then after church we went up to grandma and pa-pa's where Luke got a cake in the shape of an L. I think 80% of the frosting got eaten and 10% of the cake.
That frosting with the dots is rather tasty though. I was giving some to Ava, but then there was some still left on my finger. Really. Look at the excitement on that little face as he sees the four-pack of superheroes. I love being the mom to these little kids, they make everything so exciting and fun.
and here is batman in his cape, mask, utility belt and bat-arang enseble. Looking good batman, here's to another year. We love you!

moneydooz and skateboarding

2008-04-20T22:43:00.000-07:00

Ally got to go to Monkeydooz for a friend's birthday, a hair salon fir little girls. They did her hair and nails. she loved the hairdo, and slept in it for two nights until it was super fuzzy and we had to take it out.
Look at this little teenage wannabe and her posing. and look at my sad daffodils that I bought from Costco, I just don;t think they are going to make it. But isn't ally's hair cute?

and Luke' new love besides superheroes is skateboarding. His pinata for his birthday is a skateboard even though it is a superhero theme (he just can't pick between batman and incredible hulk. too hard, they are both so cool) so here he is trying out a few tricks.

However, this new hobby has not been healthy for our wood floors.
Look at that caveman go!

Easter

2008-03-25T13:45:00.000-07:00

The Saturday before Easter we spent a fun day with Cale and Hailey and cousin Kira up at Grandma and Granpa Wester's house. Here are some of our fun activities.

Ally was so happy that grandma bought a new juicer, they wasted no time in cutting up all kinds of fruits and vegetables to juice, it turned out really yummy.

Gail had a fun Easter egg hunt out back for the kids. They had fun finding eggs, Ava liked it once she figured out there was candy in there. But she never really got the plan of getting a lot, just enjoying the one or two she happened to stumble into.
Luke and Ally raced around getting eggs. I put this picture in also, so you could see the beautiful view behing Grandma and pa-pa's house.

Then we played some games, had egg races, and chick races. Here, if you can't tell, the chicks are racing to see who can be first to make it from the edge of the sheet to the food in the middle. I think batman won. He is the most competitive of the chicks.
And then Sunday, while we were at church, the Easter bunny came. He followed the Campbell tradition of throwing the eggs and candy all over the floor so the kids could rush around and grab it up. Ava could tell it was candy this time and got into the fun. I think the Easter bunny brought too much candy though, as there was still quite a lot on the floor by the time the kids stopped gathering.

We then had a good talk about the real meaning of Easter, and had a great holiday with our family.

baby chicks for Easter

2008-03-20T20:35:00.000-07:00

Happy Easter!

Well, Ally has been asking and asking for baby chicks this year for Easter. (Can you tell that she is an animal lover?..that is all she talks about. Oh, and boys. And Hannah Montana. And her friends, and sometimes school,but the rest of the time, animals.) I told her no.
...but thanks to Grandma and Pa-pa Wester, who live in a chicken-friendly community (we do not) and decided that fresh eggs might be tasty and fun, they decided to get some chicks. Which meant that Ally, Luke and Ava got to go to the feed store and each pick one out.

I don't know if Gran and pa-pa will ever actually get to see, hold, or keep at their house-these chicks- now that the kids have picked them out and named and loved and loved and loved them. They have spent most the night just sitting and watching and patting them. They are planning on sneaking downstairs while they are sleeping to play with them in the night. Ally has been asking me all day if this is just a dream, and that she loves the chicks more than her guinea pig, hermit crabs, and fish. And they have been so loyal.

So let me introduce you to Batman, Peepster, and Chicken (from left to right) the most loved chicks in Eagle city limits. Lets hope they survive that love, and that they are girl chickens. It is really hard to tell, Gail and I had a hard time, but the guy at the feed store had a "trick", girl chickens have weaker leg muscles and can't reach up and peck you when you hold them upside down by the legs. So we either have girls or weak-legged boys. Only time will tell. but at least we have some happy kids this Easter.

weekend in the snow

2008-03-15T22:34:00.000-07:00

Despite the spring weather here in Eagle, we went up to a cabin in Tamatak with some friends last weekend, where winter is still alive and well.

The kids are enjoying a treat of icicles. They were all around the house, some almost as big around as the kids, I am glad that none of them fell off while we were under them. they could have done some serious damage.
Little snow angel Ava.
Besides being a tasty treat-it didn't take the boys long to figure out an additional use for the icicles.

We had a fun time, the kids loved playing in the snow, but after putting on and taking off and putting on and taking off the winter clothes,-well, lets just say I am grateful that Spring is almost here.

music fun

2008-03-15T22:09:00.000-07:00

The kids have come up with "can music" which means one kid is banging on the pots and pans while the other plays the "cymbals". Luke is pointing at Ally letting her know she is up.

Then they switch. I love that they are so creative and work so well together. I just wish it was somehow a little quiter. Josh and I have to escape upstairs during a few of their numbers. To keep our sanity.
Our other favorite musical activity is putting on my running play list and dancing around the house, practicing for the girls dancing with the stars audition.
Here I am showing the kids that this old mama still has some moves.
And I love Ava's face here, wild and happy after some having a fun time together.

borrowed dog

2008-02-12T14:48:00.000-08:00

Well, Ally's love of dogs and wishing for a dog and asking for a dog almost daily and saving up for a dog finally manifested itself with the neighbors dog, "Romy" finding its way to us. He comes by whenever he can break out of their back yard, which is pretty often. I think he makes a beeline for our house, and then often spends the night or two. I'm sure he feels the love our kids have for dogs across the barrier of streets and houses, and now we have the best of both worlds, a dog to love and play with, but none of the responsibilily. And it just goes to show if you want something bad enough, it will happen eventually. The kids couldn't be happier.

The kids can not all sit still at the same time.

I know the next step is for us to get a dog. We want an old one that just lays around like this one does.
Romy did not enjoy the whoopie cushion like the rest of the kids did. Maybe that sound is not funny to dogs. It is funny to the kids though. Everytime. Sooo funny.

another tooth out, another hermit crab

2008-01-13T15:15:00.000-08:00

Ally lost her second tooth, this time a legitimate one from the bottom, not the top deadened one. We are going to the dentist tomorrow to see about the snaggle tooth that has slid over on the top, porbably to have it taken out, just don't tell her that. Too scary!

Ally was really nervous about this tooth, so to help her, Josh told her that she could buy another hermit crab with the money from the tooth fairy.
So the very next morning we headed out to the pet store with some of Luke's buddies and picked out "superman", the next addition to our growing family of pets.
Here he is in his container to take home. And it looks like Luke has found some kind of treasure as well.
What will happen with the next tooth? Stay tuned, there are still three wiggly ones.

Christmas Day

2008-01-06T17:58:00.000-08:00

Christmas Eve was really special with Barbies dressed up like the Nativity. I think GI Joe was Joseph. Gail was so creative to make this, and it was so fun for Ally and her to work on it together.

And finally-Christmas morning. ally's favorite present from Santa was three hermit crabs (all still living two weeks later...) and even though it was cold out, they could not resist riding their motorcycle. Or maybe that was Josh.

Look at that proud dad. Sadly (or maybe not so sadly) to say, the motorcycle turned out to be a little too hard to handle for the kids, so it was traded in for a four wheeler, which has provided much joy pulling the kids on sleds through the snow. ally is pretty good at it, if we could just get the steering down. All in all, we had a great, fun, busy, tasty, whirlwind of a Christmas and New Year, and loved it all, especially being with so many friends and family. We truly are thankful for each of you, and for the birth of Jesus Christ. Here's to another great year!

2008-01-06T17:48:00.000-08:00

On Christmas Eve Day, we went up to Grandma nd Grandpa Wester's for a delicious breakfast and to open presents with his family.

Ava loves her little cousin baby Kira "Ka-ka" She is such a doll.

Ava and Luke like to help everyone open thier presents, the unwrapping is really the best part...

The kids had such a fun time and got so many fun and thoughtful toys from relatives close and far away. Thanks to everyone from North Carolina who really helped the kids have a fun day.

And just look at the muscles on this spiderman. This is totally not just for Halloween. Around our house we need superheroes everyday. to save the day.

Thanks Westers for such a fun time and letting us hang out at your house so much over the holidays, we loved it.

The Campbell Family

2008-01-06T17:40:00.000-08:00

We were lucky to have so much family with us this Christmas. My mom and dad and sister came to celebrate Christmas, and it was so fun for us and the kids. Here my dad is helping the kids make snowmen out of pretzels dipped in white chocolate. Cute and tasty.

My mom makes the best caramels. she does not always cook with her eyes closed however.

I t was the first real snowy night, so dad was a great "horse" for the sleigh. He was way faster than me-which helped Luke to be a "speeding bullet".

And we even made a snowman with a celery nose.

Thanks to the Campbell family for coming so far to help us have a fun fun Christmas this year. We love you.

live nativity

2007-12-15T21:30:00.001-08:00

Our stake does a live nativity every year. It is really well-done, with a real donkey and sheep, but not a real baby-too cold. It is really spiritual though, and makes the nativity story seem more real.
It was also cold for this baby, but thanks to papa, she was snuggled up.

And the hot-chocolate at the end is so delicious, despite it being watered down and only semi-hot. The kids had two cups each. If anyone wants to know what Luke needs for Christmas, a scarf in a color besides pink would be nice.

Live nativies are fun, but they take a lot out of you. Like the Christmas light pj's?

reindeer cookies

2007-12-15T21:20:00.001-08:00

Sunday we went to grandma and pa pa's like always, and decorated reindeer cookies

The kids had a great time, very creative, adding hair and bows and stuff

Here are the fruits of our labors, de-licious, crazy-antlered reindeer
Ava ate her share before it made it to the reindeer, thanks to the game she played with pa pa, thinking she was stealing the M&M's before he could get them. He'd lay one out and tell her she better not get his m&m, so she would grab it up and pop it in her mouth, so proud.

scary lights

2007-12-15T21:03:00.000-08:00

When I was getting the "big" lights out to check them before I put them on the tree, of course Ava wanted to come see what I was doing. She was so afraid of those lights. Here I am hodling them up to her, and she is hiding behind the train table and almost to cry, I don't know if you can see her face in this, but it was so funny, she was so scared.

So she tried to not look at them, and see if they would go away. Here is Ava's signature pose, whenever she needs comfort, she puts two fingers in her mouth and touches her bellybutton. She used to get sores on her fingers, but they have toughened up. I am surprised her bellybutton isn't rubbed off either, it's funny what kids use for comfort, this is hers.
So we turned off the lights. They burned two little brown spots on our carpet, those big old fashined lights are hot!

Getting ready for Christmas

2007-12-07T19:06:00.000-08:00

The kids love to read Christmas stories together at night. Ava is especially loving her book it seems. and Luke looks like he is loving his nose. And mine is just red. My contribution-looking like rudolph. I'm so festive.

This has nothing to do with Christmas, but Ava and my dad were good friends over Thansgiving. Ava loved to wear his glasses. so big.

We don't have a tree of our own yet, but at least we got to help decorate grandma and pa pa's. As you can see, the tradition of going up to the mountains looks like it has seen an end.

Still working

Oh the joy of Christmastime! Hopefully we will be putting our own tree up soon, we are still looking for the "perfect" one. So far it does not exist. I'm all for fake tree next year. Always perfect. Needs no water. No needles falling off. But no delicious pine smell, either.

2007-11-16T08:25:00.000-08:00

Ally lost her first tooth, it has been wiggly forever and hanging on by a thread, but it finally decided to come out.

Now she is twins with my mom, who is scheduled for an implant soon

The toothfairy was very generous for the first tooth, bringing over $4 and gum.

My mom has been here for the last week, which has been fun, lots of quality reading time at night.

and Josh and I got to get away to McCall for the weekend while she watched the kids. thanks mom!

Entering the Blogosphere

2007-11-02T19:08:00.000-07:00

Well we are now officially bloggers on the interweb. We are excited to finally be a part of the world of internet nerds. I guess these days it sn't so nerdy anymore.

Check our our halloween pics. Ally was a Pup, Luke a bat (not to be confused with Batman) and Ava was a Gorilla.

Here is a shot of Luke fueling up before a night of running from door to door gathering up as much candy as possible.

Ally's kindergarten halloween party. Luke and Ava were invited which made them feel like one of the big kids.

Trunk or Treat at the church.

On the streets trick or treating.

Enjoying the fruits of their labors.

CANDY!!!

Luke at the end of a long night - I think I ate too much candy!