Ho Ho Ho! Happy Birthday!

Merry Christmas! Asher and Madeleine (mostly Asher) are really excited for Christmas this year! Asher keeps making Paul sing Christmas songs to him at bed time. Madeleine likes to say Ho Ho Ho! Happy Birthday, which makes me laugh every time; she also sings Jingle Bells which is hilarious. I have to get it on tape. If you are a member of Pasco 3rd ward you've probably heard her when she's trying to liven up sacrament meeting. On Sunday, She kept calling a man behind us Grandpa, and he isn't even Grandpa age, but she made him feel old. I was hoping he wouldn't understand, but she kept saying, Grandpa! Grandpa!

In an effort to be festive I cut Asher and Maddie's cheesy tortillas out with cookie cutters today. Asher is now concerned because he has a Christmas tree in his tummy, which he doesn't think is appropriate. He's a bit out of sorts today. He is excited about Christmas, but he doesn't really like his routine altered. Hopefully he's over it when he gets to open all of his presents.

We are also dealing with unusual weather for our area. It usually only snows a handful of times every winter and the snow rarely stays around for long. It's been here for a week and a half and more just keeps coming. It's a little fun, but I hope it all melts immediately after Christmas.

Let it Snow...

This week has been quite eventful. It was my last week at CH2M Hill and to complicate matters we got a bunch of snow. The timing actually worked out pretty good, because I finished up all my projects by lunch time Thursday and so I was able to come home and play with the kids in the snow.

Early in the week we got a couple inches of snow and it stayed the rest of the week. Wednesday night for Mutual the young men went and shoveled the driveways and sidewalks of a neighborhood street. Of course by Thursday morning we had another half foot of snow to replace the snow we had shoveled. It reminds me of a story about Henry Eyring, Henry B. Eyring's father, that he shares in this talk, near the end.

Well, I came home at lunch time on Thursday and we all bundled up and played in the back yard. This picture reminded me of the next picture, which was taken last summer. The slide has been more than worth it.
We all had lots of fun, although Madeleine's mobility was pretty limited with her big snow suit and boots. She ended up sitting there, swiping her hands back and forth in the snow, and laughing.
She also had lots of fun sliding down the slide, but the cutest video we got of her was her doing her "angry face" and "sad face". She also has a silly face, where she sticks her tongue out, but my favorite, not shown here, is when you say to her "Show me a cute face" and she points to herself and says "Right here."


I also love how blue eyes look in the snow, because the cold pales their face, while the white snow shrinks their pupils and draws the color of their eyes. Here is Asher showing off his big blues.

And last but not least, here is Vanessa looking beautiful. My favorite part of this picture is her wearing my bulky snow gloves. They give her "man hands".

Mission Sick

Most missionaries at some point or another get homesick. While I (Paul) never really had a problem with home sickness, it seems like every Christmas I get mission sick. I served my mission in Sweden and winters were cold, dark, and long...and I loved every minute of them.
This picture didn't scan in very well, but you get part of the idea of what winters in Sweden were like. Often everything would be draped in snow making the whole world a brilliant white. Imagine the Celestial room, just colder.
Then there was the back drop of beautiful European cities with their great architecture. Also they would all put little lights in the windows (which I some how never got a picture of) and during the long winter nights (the sun would go down at 2:30pm) these little lights would glisten across the snow covered ground. This picture was of me and my companion Elder Brandon Lake in Eskilstuna, Sweden.The other thing about the late sunrises (this is ~9:45am in Eskilstuna) and early sunsets was that the sun would never rise very far into the sky, creating a sort of permo-sunrise/sunset. It always cast a wonderful light on everything. This was possibly my coldest day in Sweden at -24 degrees celsius, with steam rising off the frozen river.But all the snow made for the most picturesque winter scenes ever. These were taken in some small village over looking the frozen lake Siljan in the heart of Sweden...in March. Sure winters were long, cold, and dark, but if you could bundle up and brave the cold then untold beauty awaited.
Well I tried to capture our own little Christmas here in Pasco. The other night the moon was supposed to be at its brightest and so I went out and took this picture. No snow, although the wind had a real bite to it, but it is one of the best treatments for my mission sickness.
The next remedy is some little Christmas villages that my dad paints for us. This year we had enough to line the shelf from our living room to our kitchen. These little houses help me pretend that we live in a little snow-globe.

In case I don't post again before Christmas, I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas.

We still exist!

I'm sorry I haven't posted in such a ridiculously long time. We went to Arizona to visit my family for Thanksgiving and to go to my Sister Stephanie's mission homecoming. It was so much fun! I love having my sister back! She has come back with so many inspiring stories about the people she taught in Denmark. I always think it is amazing how different people are when they return home from a mission.

Stephanie and I had quite a bit of sibling rivalry growing up. I was born April of '83 and she was born in December '85. When we were kids and people would ask us how far apart in age we are, I would always say 3 years and she would always say two. Now when people ask she always says 3 and I always say two. I can't be old enough for my little sister to be home from a mission!

Here are some pictures from our trip...This is the Scottsdale railroad park. Asher was in little boy Heaven! I was impressed that they gave you such a long train ride and there was a bridge and a tunnel which made Asher VERY excited. The first time we went, Asher and Paul road in the box car at the back of the train. It was Asher sized, but Paul was a little cramped so the next time we went, Paul convinced Asher to sit in the front by the engine. Asher has always been really sensitive to loud noises and the trains whistle being so close was too much for him. He would be laughing and smiling and then the train would whistle and Asher would cover his ears and whimper in fear. All in all he loved it, Asher still wants to go back. Madeleine loved it too. She thought the whistle was awesome.

This is Stephanie. She met Madeleine for the fist time on this trip and they were fast friends. Steph is going to BYU in January, so if you know any RM's who want to take out the coolest girl on earth, let me know :) She'll kill me for that.
We also went to see the Mesa temple lights. Asher was really excited to see the Christus statue in the visitors center. It was so moving because he was so concerned and wanted to know why Jesus had holes in his feet. I told him that Jesus Christ died on the cross so that we could live with Heavenly Father again and that Jesus died because he loves us. It was one of those moments where I wished that I could just transfer my feelings and emotions into Asher's little heart. I hope he someday comes to feel as strongly about Jesus Christ and his divinity and love as I do.

Maddie kept saying "Baby Jesus" over and over again for the rest of the evening after she saw the nativity scene.

Paul took this beautiful picture. I may have to frame it.


Tuesday night (Dec. 2nd), a few hours before we had to wake up to catch our plane, Madeleine started vomiting. She threw up several more times during the night. Then again in the parking lot at the airport. While we were in the airport waiting for our plane she started having explosive diarrhea and we had to change her clothes twice. She threw up all over the airplane we were on, luckily the plane was empty so she only puked on the empty seat next to her. She then threw up about every 30 minutes on our 3 hour drive home from the Portland airport. I have never been so happy to be home in my life.

The next day Paul was too sick to get out of bed, the day after that Asher and I were too sick to get out of bed. The best part...

Asher and Maddie are STILL throwing up and have diarrhea. Maddie doesn't wake us up when she vomits so every morning I go in and have a huge mess to clean up. I took her to the Dr. on Tuesday afternoon and he said it was the stomach flu and it can last up to 10 days. It isn't as bad as the first few days, but one of them is always vomiting. Asher is back in diapers again after being almost completely potty trained.

It has now officially been ten days and they're still just as sick. I don't want to sound like a downer, but it's been really hard to feel very Christmasy when I've barely left the house since I've been back. I was able to go to enrichment last nigh and I LOVED it, it was such a beautiful program and so festive, and no one was vomiting. I absolutely love my ward and the ladies in it. And I want to go back to church this week, so if you could all say a special Christmas prayer for Asher and Maddie to feel better, I would appreciate it.

Hiking Badger Mountain

Last Saturday we wanted to get out of the house and go for a walk, but instead of wandering around the neighborhood we opted to hike Badger Mountain. Badger Mountain is the prominent peak in the area reaching 1579 feet. Hiking Badger is a sort of right of passage for locals, akin to climbing the "Y" at BYU.

We knew Madeleine couldn't make it so we brought a carrier for her, but we were hoping Asher would like to walk. We weren't that far before Asher insisted that he ride on my shoulders. The unexpected result from carrying both of them was that I flew up the mountain compared to Vanessa, because I was in such a hurry to put them both down.
At the top we had a picnic, and Asher peed on the bushes next to the radio tower, which he thought was really cool (the tower, not the peeing). We also took some pictures including this one of the Columbia River Temple (Temple is middle-right, Columbia River is upper left). After we climbed back down the kids had a bunch of fun playing on the play ground. Madeleine loved the swings, but the fun and games ended when Asher wandered in front of her and got bulled over. Still it was a really fun day.

Fall Colors

This is a post that I (Paul) have wanted to make for a while, even though it isn't exactly the most exciting topic. It is partly to give a shout out to the Riggs, our friends who moved to Denver so Jeromy could go back to school to get a masters in Landscape Architecture. When we first bought our house Jeromy was working at Beaver Bark Nursery making landscape plans for customers. He offered to put together a landscape plan for us since our house just came with a sand lot.

We didn't follow his plan exactly, due primarily to cost constraints, but partly because of our lack of vision, which we now regret. However we took his advice about tree selection. He chose special varieties based on their fall colors and how quickly they grew. He also advised us of the best fall sales so that we could get the most bang for our buck.

We bought the trees in fall of 2006, after they had gone dormant, and looked forward to seeing their promised beautiful fall colors. Well last year our sprinkler system got tripped sometime in September and quit watering our yard, but since it was set to water at night we didn't notice. It was early fall and so we didn't suspect anything when the leaves started to shrivel and fall off, but I became concerned when instead of turning the brilliant red that Jeromy had promised, they simply turned brown and fell off. I realized in time to save the lawn and trees for the next year, but we didn't get to enjoy the fall colors.

So this year I have been (not so) patiently waiting for fall to see the colors. Our maple tree in the back yard, shown in the picture below, changed colors first in mid October. First it went purple, then a burning red color started at the core of the tree and worked its way out to the outermost limbs. It was beautiful.Our aristocrat pear in the front yard has been a beautiful tree, but has tried my patience. The maple tree had long lost its leaves while the pear tree was still completely green. Finally it has turned yellow with the outermost leaves turning pink. I will have to post an updated picture when the tree really turns pink, but I got too anxious since I have been plotting this post for some time. Last week we used a Beaver Bark coupon for $20 off a $50 purchase to pick up another tree. We found a pink flowered dogwood tree, normally $100, but 50% off, and we got it for $32 after tax (70% discount, score). I planted it yesterday in our front yard, in front of the the side fence. We are excited because we think the pink dogwood flowers will be a great compliment to the white pear flowers. To Jeromy, thanks for the help with our yard, both in advice, know how, and labor, and to the Riggs, we miss you guys. We hope Denver is treating you well.

Happy Halloween!

First, Here are some pictures from Asher's birthday. He was so excited to help make cupcakes. He put all of the cupcake cups in the muffin tin and then asked me every ten minutes if he could have a cupcake yet. It was also very important to him that he have a number 3 on top of his cupcake because Madeleine had a number 1 on her birthday. I think this is how traditions are born. All day, he kept saying "It's my birthday, I am so happy"! This guy has been anxiously waiting for his birthday for a looong time. He had about 6 presents to open after dinner and it was just too much for him after number four so he begged Madeleine to open the rest for him. She was more than willing to help Asher with this "chore", and he was happy to scoop up the toys when she was done. Ahhh cooperation.

We went to our church's "Trunk or Treat" instead of going door to door. We all had so much fun! This was the first Halloween that Asher willingly put on a costume. A few days before Halloween I took him and Maddie to their Music class Halloween party and he refused to wear his costume. Luckily on Halloween he was ready to go.

I was there early to help set up and Asher and Maddie ran laps around the gym, screaming with the other kids who were there early. It is so funny how different siblings can be. Our primary president, Molly, was telling Halloween stories while people prepared their cars for the trick or treaters. Maddie ran up and sat between two kids that she didn't know. Asher insisted on sitting on my lap. Later, during trick or treating, Maddie ran from car to car yelling "Trick Treat"! Asher was excited too, but wanted to take things a bit slower. I knew it was time to quit when Asher started saying "I want to go home" to people instead of "Trick or Treat". I love their little personalities.



Oh, we are currently in the middle of painting, which explains the blue tape on our walls.

3 years old!

3 years of Asher!




I can't believe my baby boy is 3 years old. He was born just 8 minutes before Halloween. He can be mischievous sometimes, but when I'm finished cleaning up the schemes he concocts, I love him even more.

He is my backseat GPS system. He knows when I've missed a turn and likes to tell me where everything is along our routes. I don't turn on music in my car because I just love to listen to him chatter about all of the landmarks.

I love the way Asher learns about the world. He tries so hard to figure out all of the rules. He has learned the difference between asphalt and concrete when learning about when he is in the street or the sidewalk. It means that I can let him walk ahead of me on the sidewalk because I know he won't run into the street, but he completely freaks out if he isn't holding my hand on any type of asphalt. Even if we are walking on a bike trail or basketball black top, he tearfully begs to hold my hand. If there is a stop sign anywhere in his sight, he Demands that we stop whatever we are doing.

He loves music. He is a huge fan of the Mormon Tabernacle choir, he could watch them perform forever. He is always singing, right now his favorite song to sing is the Happy Family song from our church's "Children's songbook". Mostly he sings "we are a happy family, I love Madeleine, Mama and Daddy, and they love me, we are a happy family" over and over, not quite the right words but it makes me smile every time.

He is always saying sweet things to us. He likes to tell me that I am a beautiful princess and that he likes my hair, shoes, or dress. The little guy is in love with me and I eat it up. I am such a softie when it comes to him. He tells Paul that he is "so big and strong" and he tries to be just like him.

an impromptu haircut

I just never know what my day will bring. Today while I was in the other room and Asher was having quiet time, I came to check on him. He sneaked out of his room, climbed over the baby gate, and found my craft drawer. In about ten minutes he spread construction paper all over and painted himself, the wall, and the computer keyboard with glittery puff paint. Oh, and he wet his pants.This kid thinks of some good ones. I'm tempted to cancel his birthday on Thursday, but I'm pretty sure it's against the Geneva convention.

SHOES!!!

Madeleine just loves to go into the closet and find shoes to try on. They all fit her because she has the smallest feet. She has the cheesiest smiles! I love this girl!

Oh and sorry about my pity party, I am feeling so much better!

The tables have turned

When I was a school-aged kid, being sick was always a welcome vacation. I loved Sleeping in, watching TV, and having my mom bring me ice cream to help with my sore throat. My-oh-my, has life changed since then. I have been sick for the last few days and it is startlingly different from how it used to be.

No one cares that I am sick. Paul still has to go to work; he can't just stay home and bring me ice cream. I still have to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and change stinky diapers. All I want to do is lay on the couch and watch mindless day time TV. Unfortunately, I have to keep Word World, Super Why, and Thomas the Train on because I am too tired to respond to a mutiny.

It hasn't been that easy for Paul either, but he has been wonderful. He brought home orange juice on his way home from work. I haven't been sleeping well at night, which means that he hasn't been getting much sleep either. Apparently, I kept yelling things out in my sleep last night. He said that at one point I grabbed his arm and asked him if he had to go PooPoo in the potty. Nice.

Luckily this time I am the only one in my family who is sick. The only thing worse than being a sick mom, is being a sick mom with sick kids.

Pumpkin Patch

I went to a pumpkin patch for the first time in my life last weekend! It was so much fun! It was so much fun that getting good pictures was nearly impossible because the kids were much too busy to pose. Asher's favorite part was riding in a big wagon behind a tractor that took us to and from the pumpkin patch. He made sure that we rode the blue one and he also insisted that we sit as close as possible to the actual tractor.

Here are the kids choosing pumpkins. Madeleine tried to pick up about a dozen pumpkins before she found one that she could pick up all by herself. Then, she didn't want it out of her sight for the rest of the day. Asher studied several pumpkins until he made his choice, I'm not sure why he picked the one he did.Here we are at a display tractor.
Madeleine's favorite part was visiting the little barn with the animals. There was a great big pig there that caught her eye. She kept going behind it and saying "tail, tail!"

It is so wonderful to live in an agricultural area. We also bought a 20 pound box of runt apples for $5, that made terrific apple sauce. Hooray!