The Closing of Summer 2009

Summer is coming to an end and fall is quickly approaching. After an eventful summer, we are hoping for a pleasant fall. Everyone is doing well on our end. Currently Ken is cutting 4 teeth at the same time...... thank god for baby orajel and tylenol! Emma starts pre school in a couple weeks, she will go 3 days a week. Don't really have much else to say, just wanted to post new pictures of the kids.

My pretty girl.

Should I go down the slide?


Playing together on the playset.

Flower girl.


On the go!

Stay still Ken!

Emma and her giraffe

Bubble boy.

Cheese!

I love to splash in the bathtub.

Busy summer.

Sorry I havent blogged in awhile, boy it's been a busy summer. Wayne's father passed away a couple of weeks ago, so he will fly to Australia in a couple days for the funeral and will be there for 2 weeks. He seems to be dealing with things fairly well, which is commendable since he quit smoking last month also! I was hospitalized last weekend for a terrible gallbladder attack. Surgery was scheduled for the second week in August, but 2 days later I had another attack, so they did my surgery on Thursday afternoon. I came home from the hospital the next day and am doing well. I'm sore and tired, but my mom has been staying here helping out with the kids, thank goodness, don't know what I'd do without her! The kids are great, hope you like all the new pictures. Ken started walking last month and it only took him a couple weeks before he had it all figured out. Now he cruises around like mad and he realizes he can reach things that he couldn't before. Needless to say, the phrase "no Ken, you can't have that" must get said over a million times each day. Emma is doing well also. She is excited to start pre school this fall. She has recently learned how to write her name and is very proud of that. Our chickens are laying about 8 eggs a day now, so many of our friends and family have started to recieve free eggs from us. Hopefully life will be back to normal soon. Will post again when I get some more time.

A brown egg and a white egg.


Little sweetheart.

Cutie pie.

The kiddos and I.


Emma and mommy.

Ken likes to climb on things now.

Ken loves to point at things now too.


Emma being silly.


Ken eating his 1st birthday cake.

Emma and Ken taking a bath.

Ken's 1st b-day photos.

Well, it's almost time. Ken turns 1 year old on July 8th. My mom and I took him and big sister to Seattle yesterday to have his pictures taken and then went shopping and to the aquarium. Ken and Emma both had a great time, she had the most fun shopping of coarse and he had a Blast at the aquarium. He was just mesmorized with all the fish!

Having a nice summer so far!

What a nice summer it's been so far. It's pretty windy here at the moment, but so far the weather has been very nice this summer. The garden seems to be taking off, thanks in part to my mom who put in a sweet drip system and soaker hoses. We have gotton to pick some ripe radishes and fresh lettuce already! One of our white chickens has started to lay eggs already, so we have a new egg to go claim every morning (Emma loves to go find the egg). The Aussie willow trees that we planted last fall as babies are really taking off (they must be about 3 feet high already). When they get bigger they will add some much needed shade, wind break and decor to our flat piece of land. The kids are doing great, they have a 2 week break from swimming lessons, but start again next week. They both LOVE to swim!! I get in the pool with Ken in his swim class (or my mom if I'm at work) and Emma does her class at the same time in the children's pool. Emma is still doing gymnastics 1 day a week over the summer and will start pre school in the fall. Wow, pre school already...... kindergarten next year..... time goes by so fast. Ken is growing fast. He is getting more interactive with Emma now...... this is sometimes good and sometimes not so good. She likes to play with him, but does not like it when he tries to play with HER toys;) Wayne and I are both doing good. Today is father's day, the kids and I got Wayne a Nintendo DS (a small game player) with some games (learn spanish, brain age and a couple others). I thought next month when he has to fly back to Australia this would be nice for on the plane and waiting around in airports; and it's small so will be easy to keep in a carry on bag. Hope you all are having a great summer too!


Jacki.








Emma's new hobby...... roller skating.









Cheese!






Separation anxiety, I left the room just long enough to get the camera and this is what I came back to.


Emma 4 years. Ken 11 months.



Our back yard looking out toward the Clockum mountains.

Sunset looking out from our front door.

Just more pictures.

Just some more pictures, they didn't have anything to do with the Oregon trip, but they were cute, so I wanted to post them! PS, if you didn't already figure it out, when you watch the slide shows you can click on them and it will take you to a site where you can see the pictures bigger!


Enjoy.


Ken playing in the bar stool.




Emma and Ken hanging out.



Emma by her new little pool.



Emma's 1st trip to the dentist.

Emma with Dr Schroeder. Pretty smiles.

Trip to Oregon.

What a wonderful weekend! The kids and I set off with Grandma and Great-grandma on a road trip to Oregon this past Saturday. Everyone did fairly well on the trip down to Albany, Oregon; it was a pretty long car ride. We stopped for a picnic lunch at the Maryhill park before crossing the bridge into OR. Then when we got to Oregon City, we dropped Great-grandma off at my Uncle and Aunts house so she could catch up with them. About an hour before we got to Albany, Ken was screaming his guts out and Emma was repeating "Mommy I'm starving to death," so we made a dinner stop and then finally made it to our motel...... Whew! On Sunday we headed over to my friend Kristin's house in Corvallis, it was her daughter Mackenzi's 6th birthday. Emma and Mackenzi absolutely loved hanging out together! The birthday party was great. Then we hung out some more at the house, went to a park, ate dinner, and after a full day of events, we finally went back to the motel for some sleep. After breakfast the next morning, we drove back to Oregon City and picked Great-grandma up; we stayed at Uncle Jim and Aunt Vi's for a few hours and visited of coarse. Then back on the road. We ate lunch at Multnomah Falls and had an ice cream cone. We just got back this evening, the kids are both in bed, pretty worn out still; but they did much better on the way home. It was so nice to catch up with friends and family, I hope we get to do it again sometime soon, road trips are great! Enjoy the pictures!

It finally feels like spring!

The last few days here have been just beautiful! Weather in the 60-70's with just a light breeze in the evening. I have been busy in my garden and am almost done, hopefully we will have lots of fresh veggies this summer. Emma enjoys helping me in the garden, but poor Ken is not having a very good time being stuck in his stroller for any extended period of time. He likes to be mobile! Wayne has been busy with his new project, two lambs that he intends to fatten up over the summer. The kids have also started swimming lessons and they both just LOVE it! Ken's class is a parent/child, so I go in the pool and hold him. Emma goes by herself in the shallow childrens pool. It's gearing up to be a busy summer for us; 2 weddings to go to, a two day trip to Oregon to visit a friend of mine and her daughter and Wayne is flying back to Australia for a quick trip to visit his folks who seem to be deteriorating in health. So sometime in my busy summer schedule I will try to keep this updated with new blogs and photos!




Emma and Ken.


Emma and one of the new little lambs.


Silly Emma getting ready for swimming lessons


My garden a few days ago.... now see next picture!


The garden before!