Happy 1st Birthday, Sophia!

Our baby turned 1 on September 21st (which also, by the way, was our 13th anniversary.)

My sister, Cherilyn, and her son, Ryan, were here visiting from Pinetop, AZ. (We took this picture of them when we went to the Pacific Science Center on Saturday. We had so much fun while they were here. Thanks for coming, guys!)We had a little birthday party, complete with pizza, cake, and ice cream. Our neighbors, Barbara, Christine, and Elizabeth Davis came. Chad Carman and his kids came, too--Barb was out of town, so we figured we could be their entertainment for the weekend!

Traditionally, I've made all of the kids' birthday cakes from scratch and have decorated them myself, but I cheated this year and bought the cake from Costco. I'd made the cake and when I went to decorate it, I found out it didn't quite get baked enough. The frosting, I'm sure, was lots nummier for Sophie. We had so much fun watching her eat the cake. She had never eaten sugar before, and she's decided she loves it! She coated her fingers with frosting and just sucked on them for a long time. I thought she'd get tired of it, but she ate almost the entire piece!

She loved opening her presents, but with all of the "help" she was getting from all the kids, she was a little overwhelmed. (That's why she's not smiling in these next pictures.) Her favorite present was a Fisher Price train from Daddy.

She's been showing off all week to everyone that she can walk as she follows the moving train around the room. She also likes the rooster flashlight that cock-a-doodle-doo's when it's turned on that the Carman's gave her. I've noticed a theme with almost every gift she received--they ALL make noise! She loves them!

I really can't believe how quickly the last year has passed. Today, I spent an extra few minutes talking to Sophie today, singing to her, and holding her as I captured pictures of her in my mind as my "baby." Before I know it, she will be a big girl!

I took this picture of her last week playing in Daddy's office--she'll always be spoiled--that's for sure!

My ears are still ringing!

Awesome! Tammy and I went to the Def Leppard/Foreigner/Styx concert last night. WOW! For the last 6 months, everyone we've told about it has laughed at us, I'm not sure why. Maybe we don't strike people as metal-heads. Well, we went and had a great time.

We bought our tickets last spring, for our anniversary last week. We had great seats at the White River Amphitheater just outside of Auburn. Here's the seating map, the yellow circle is where we were sitting:



Of course, I left the camera in the car so the only pictures I got were on my phone. But, just so you know we were really there, here are some of the pictures:


Styx started out and they were my favorite group. Yep, I even bought a T-Shirt to prove it. The crowd was thin at the start, but filled in as the concert went along. I couldn't believe it when the guy next to me asked "Are they the opener?" Yeah, buddy, Styx is just the opener. And Star Wars was just a preview of Star Trek. Geez.

By the time Foreigner started, the stadium was full. They turned the amps up to 11 - that's one louder than 10, if you're not familiar with Spinal Tap. Tammy's favorite song was Urgent- a Sax solo that knocked her shoes off. Literally.






Finally, Def Leppard came out. They proved that this is really their tour. My apologies to the guy next to me. Wow! Foreigner and Styx were loud, but only painfully loud. If the amps were at 11 before, they jumped to 111 for Def Leppard. We had to lean toward the stage to keep from being knocked over by the thump of the bass guitar. I'm guessing this has something to do with the ringing in my ears this morning. Congratulations, Gents, you've proven that Def is all yours.

Any one of these groups was worth the ticket price. All 3 together was, like, 3 times as good. Plus, we go the fun of watching everyone there (Yes, Jackie, we saw you gettin' Def with your friends). Believe it or not, we weren't the oldest ones there- most of their fans were listening to these groups in the late 70's, so many of the concert goers were 5-10 years older than us. Many had been drinking, some had desperate looks in their eyes, a few were smoking some brand of cigarette I hadn't smelled before...

So I'm looking for another concert to go to. I'm not sure what could top this one, but it would be fun to get a group of friends together for the next big concert.
-- Steve

Sophie, the Toddler

On Monday, September 17th, our baby turned into a toddler. Sophia started walking! Wasn't she just born last month?!? Oh, wait! Her birthday is this Friday! Yikes! Time flies.

We were kind of shocked that she just started walking. She's been cruising along furniture for a few weeks, but hasn't shown any interest in standing on her own. We decided to try the same trick we used with Rachel. Sunday night, we got Rachel's doll stroller and had Sophie push it along for awhile. She was squealing with delight as she tried to keep up with the fast stroller.

On Monday, just for fun, I got down on the floor and stood Sophie up out and towards me a few feet and let go of her. She stood there, grinned, and took her first steps. She was so proud of herself--almost as proud as her Mommy!

Ever since then, she has been trying to walk everywhere. When she's on a roll, she even tries to walk when she falls down, crawling/standing upright on her knees. Of course her older siblings are more than happy to help her in her new-found skill.

Doin' the Puyallup!

For Family Night, we “Did the Puyallup!” I’m referring to the annual fall fair in Puyallup, WA. We had so much fun. We started out by taking the shuttle bus from the Sumner train station. The kids had as much fun riding in the back of the bus as they did on the rides at the fair.



We had initially told the kids that we would not be riding any rides. We started out by walking through all of the exhibit buildings. Rachel’s favorite exhibit was a lady bug collection from an 11-year-old girl. Steve’s favorite part was listening to the live accordion music. My favorite part was people watching (and all of the food, of course!) Sophia’s favorite part (I guess) was watching the clowns do their magic show onstage.


I made the kids walk through the livestock barns with me. They couldn’t believe that their own mom had taken a heifer (baby cow) to show for 4-H when she was Ben’s age. I explained that I had to hang out in the barn the 3-4 days that fair was going on to watch Violet, my heifer. They gagged and held their noses because of the “cow poop” smell that permeated the building!


After the wonderful aroma of the livestock building, we moved on to the food areas. The boys wanted the Walla Walla Burgers—huge hamburgers with grilled onions—and curly fries. Steve and Rachel split a Soba Noodle plate. We all split an elephant ear. I had a scone (fresh, hot biscuits filled with jam ) for dinner—no nutritional value, whatsoever, but yummy—plus bites of the boys’ hamburgers!


We reluctantly told the kids they could each ride one ride before we left to go home. When we got to the ticket counter, we realized that it was “cheap ride night at the fair!” All rides were just $1 each. We splurged and bought 6 tickets so each kid could go on 2 rides. (We had to hurry and catch the shuttle back, so they couldn’t go on more—darn!) The kids were pretty bummed. We heard a lot of “No fair! You mean we walked through a bunch of boring buildings and smelled smelly cows when we could have been riding more rides?!?” We told them they should be thankful they got to ride any rides at all because we’d told them we were just going there for dinner and the free entertainment.


On the way out of the park, Steven bought a fake wooden snake with his allowance money. He had fun freaking people out while we were waiting for the shuttle bus. In the dark the snake looked very realistic. (I'll post a picture of Steven and his snake when I take one!) Until then, look at how much fun Sophie had riding on Daddy's shoulders!

Back in the Swing of Things

We're officially back to "real" life again. The kids all started school Wednesday, and what an exciting (and long) day it was! First, at 7:00 a.m. we sent Steven off to middle school. For those of you who know me well, know that I am NOT a morning person. So this will be a new experience for me! It will only get worse soon, as Steven starts Jazz Band before school, and since the bus doesn't pick him up, I get to drive him a couple of days a week. Oh mannn!

Next, we sent Ben off to his new school, where he will participate in STEP (Student Teacher Enrichment Program). STEP is designed to challenge kids who might drive their teachers crazy in a normal classroom setting. They go at a little faster pace and have more interactive projects and assignments. The school is near downtown Auburn. It's kind of rundown, but they have excellent teachers and, more importantly to Ben, a fun playground. Luckily, the bus comes to pick him up near Rachel's bus stop, only a few minutes before her's comes, so I only have to make one treck to the bus stop in the morning.
At 9:00, we went to a teacher conference for Rachel's class. We met her new teacher. She seems so nice, and Rachel is just thrilled to be back in school. She was sad that her best friend, Kylie, isn't in her class this year, but she has another friend, Payton, in the class, so she's happy. Rachel didn't actually attend class until Thursday, so she had one more day to stay home and play with Sophia and Leia (our new puppy.)
Everyone came home from school and reported that everything at school was just fine. Steven said middle school is a lot like elementary school, except there are a lot more rules. He had been nervous about the whole locker combination thing and finding his various classrooms, but he did just fine. He's bummed that none of his friends are in his core classes. He does have a couple of friends in Wood Shop and Band, though. The boys brought a whole recycling bin full of papers home with them, and I spent the next 2 hours filling out forms.

As I was filling out the forms, I noticed Leia (the puppy) on the porch with something bright orange (and pretty big) hanging out of her mouth. I quickly went over to her and instructed her to "drop it." Of course she didn't! She swallowed it! She kind of gagged as it went down, and I opened her mouth to see if I could see it anymore. Nope! Gone! I figure it was one of three things--a nerf dart from the boys' gun, a broken piece of plastic shovel that was recently chopped up by a lawn mower, or (hopefully) a Rhodedendron leaf. (Although Rodies are poisonous to dogs.)

I wasn't too worried at first because she ate a bunch of her dinner later, so I thought, "She's fine!" After I got the kids in bed and Steve was out taking care of bishopric business, Leia started writhing around on the floor in pain. She started gagging. I picked her up and ran outside. As soon as I got to the porch, she threw up.

Now for those who know me, I have a HUGE aversion to anything to do with throwing up. I try to keep my kids away from other sick kids, I have them wash their hands a lot during flu season, etc. just so they don't get sick. Steve is such a wonderful husband that when the kids do get sick, he cleans everything up. For some reason, doggy vomit is not as vile as kids' vomit. I didn't freak out too badly--except that I was really worried now about what the dog had swallowed.

I called Steve, and as he came home, I called the after-hours vet, and they said to rush her in. I just knew she was dying, so I went upstairs to the boys' room and told them to give her a hug before Dad got home. There was weeping and wailing and lots of prayers said for our sick, sick doggy. I was really afraid we'd never see our new puppy again and I wanted our boys to be able to say "good-bye." Steve, the eternal optimist, gave me an "Oh brother!" look when he came home and said everything would be fine and told the boys not to worry.

Leia threw up in her kennel on the way as Steve took her to the vet. Steve left the dog at the animal hospital and came home. I asked him how much it was going to cost. He said, "Around $300." We've never even spent that much on all of our kids combined for visits to the emergency room! The vet took x-rays and said he couldn't see anything solid, but that things like Nerf toys and plastic don't usually show up on x-rays. Well, duh! Then why did he take the x-rays?!? So he induced vomiting and the only thing that came up other than dinner, was a bunch of strings from, ironically, a toy the vet had given us last week! I went back at midnight to pick up Leia and brought her home.

The next day she was a little lethargic (and boy was I, too.) We watched her closely and the kids said lots of prayers and asked about "doggy heaven." I told them she'd be fine. It's funny! Now we don't have as much of a problem getting the kids to go out and play with her now. I think they have a new-found appreciation for her.

Rachel had fun her first full day of school. She came home super tired, but really happy. She said first grade "wasn't as hard as I thought it would be!" Just wait! Sophia just crawled around the house all day saying, "Da-dull" (Rachel) and looking for stuff to do. She REALLY misses the kids! And so do I, but it sure is quiet now. :)