Visiting Santa

As you can see, Josiah is pouting because I sat him on Santa's lap to begin with and he got mad. To keep Josiah from crying, Mariah had to hold him behind the Jolly old guy. Josiah did enjoy the candy cane Santa gave him after the photo was snapped. Now that Mariah is 17, this might be my last year of all four kids getting their picture made with Santa...it seems just a short time ago Mariah was meeting Santa for the first time. Time passes too quickly!

~2008 School Photos~

Below are our daughters' 2008/2009 school photos ~ Autumn 2008

Mariah - 17yrs old (less than 2wks after her surgery)

McKenna - age 13yrs old
Miranda - age 9yrs old

Our Family on Thanksgiving

The photo below was taken shortly before we left our home to enjoy a very yummy Thanksgiving dinner at Steve's parent's home....

We are so very blessed by our family. From left to right: Steve, Josiah (2), Tracey, McKenna (13), Mariah (17) and Miranda (9) ~~ Yes, the kids are all destined to be taller than Mom!!!

Pumpkin Festival @ Rock Creek

Each year, we all go to a very fun, local pumpkin patch. Unfortunately, with my dad's passing, we didn't have a chance to go to that one this year. Instead, my mom, sister and I took the kiddos to a pumpkin festival at Rock Creek in Stevenson. It was different than the tradition we've become accustomed to since @ 1992, but we all had a fun time!
~~~~~~~~~~
In the photo below, in front of the tractor are all four of Lisa's kiddos, Tyler's son, my four kiddos and Mariah's boyfriend, Bobby. From left to right: Miranda (my youngest daughter), Dade (son of my youngest brother, Tyler), Josiah (my son), McKenna (my second born), Sydney (one of Lisa's twins), Sophia (Lisa's youngest daughter), Mariah (my oldest daughter), Savannah (one of Lisa's twins), Antonio (son of my sister, Lisa) and Bobby (Mariah's friend).

Below, from left to right: McKenna (13yrs old), Josiah (2yrs old), Mariah (17yrs old) & Miranda (9yrs old) ~ my sweet blessings!
~Mariah & Bobby~McKenna, peeking out from the hay bales!

My sweet McKenna is growing up into such a young lady!

And below is Miss Miranda (disguised as a kitty) peeking out from the hay bale tunnel.

I just love the look of wonder and amazement on Josiah's face!

(These were taken on October 29th, the day before his first haircut).

"Hey!! C'mon, Momma, why are you making me sit in this wheelbarrow?!?!?!"
A future cowboy, perhaps?

I know I've said it many times before, BUT, I am such an incredibly blessed momma. I am SO very thankful for each one of my children.

Reading, writing & arithmetic...

Today was the start to yet another school year! Mariah decided to remind me that she will "only have one more 1st day of school after today". I asked her to not remind me of that sad, but true fact! Ugh!

The photo below shows all three girls just before we left for school on the first day (sporting their new dress code/uniform school clothes - they have a large selection of vendors to choose clothes from). Steve and I always go to the school on the first day. Last year, Mariah drove all the girls to school in her "new to her" car and that was the plan this year (with dad & I taking our own vehicle). That plan didn't happen as Mariah's car had a VERY flat tire when they went to get in the car. Dad was very helpful in getting that flat fixed and her car over to the school prior to the end of the school day.

From left to right, Mariah (11th grade), McKenna (7th grade), Miranda (3rd grade), displaying their new haircuts:

The long and the short of it....

Today was the end to my girls' long hair ~ at least for now! Yikes!

Months ago, they made the choice to grow their already long hair out even more and donate it to the "Locks of Love" ( http://www.locksoflove.org/ ) organization. They each had over 10" of their hair cut and are now sporting some very cute short hairstyles.

This photo shows the initial cut of Mariah's ponytail:

And here is her ponytail and the new length of her hair, before her hairstyle was completed:

And below is the hairstyle Mariah chose:

Here is McKenna just prior to the intial cut (I'm having trouble uploading photos, and I'm not sure why this one is smaller thanthe rest):

McKenna was much more enthusiastic to have this haircut and give the donation to Locks of Love than it appears in this photo...I think I caught her off-guard with the photo:

Below is a photo taken just prior to Miranda's initial cut:

Miranda as her new 'do is being completed:

These are the ponytails that will be mailed to Locks of Love this week:

Below are all three girls showing their completed hairstyles.

Miranda in the hospital

We had yet another hospital stay in our family this spring. I'm beginning to think we should be eligible for our own room....with our name on the door at the hospital! =)

On a late Friday afternoon, Miranda (7.5yrs old) was trying to climb a tree on the lower part of our property (near where an old cattle barn used to be) and stepped on a huge rusty nail that went deep enough she had to use a lot of force to remove it from her foot. We called the doctor and did all that he suggested (warm soaks, irrigating it, etc) all that evening. By that evening she was very sore, but was doing well we thought. The next day, she was tired and sore, but still okay from what we could tell. Because her foot was bandaged, we didn’t look closely at it that Saturday morning because Mariah had double-header high school softball games, Miranda said it was okay and our morning was chaotic. At the game, she was sleepy, so we let her snuggle on a blanket behind the bleachers and take a nap. At one point during the second ballgame, she asked me to show someone her puncture wound, so I took off the dressing.....much to my surprise, we discovered a HUGE red, hot, raised area on the TOP of her foot, a red streak starting up her leg, as well as discovering that she was running a pretty high fever. I called the doctor who was on-call for our medical practice and that doctor insisted I take her to the ER right away (less than 1mo before we were there due to McKenna’s motorcycle/dirtbike accident!!). The ER doc evaluated her and found that she had a very nasty infection, requiring IV antibiotics. My poor baby girl was in the hospital for over 24hrs on IV antibiotics. She was such a trooper and I was so proud of how brave she was during her stay. It took three attempts before her IV was placed (due to her small veins), but she sat still and allowed the nurses to do what they needed to do.

~Tracey

A new school year....

A new school year is beginning tomorrow. It's a mixture of excitement and sadness in our household!! Excitement to be able to see old friends, meet new friends, see who's returning to the school and just basically having the opportunity to re-connect with old friends. The excitement is also increased by the fact that the school will be moving to the new school building that's currently still under construction....we've heard talk about the classes being moved to the new building before the end of this calendar year!!! The girls are so excited about the new building!! Sadness in that the start of the school year signals the end of the summer....the end of our care-free days of sleeping in, swimming and just spending time with one another. BUT....the girls are talking about the excitement of school starting a bit more as the beginning of school also means we are even closer to the arrival of our new baby (due in November). There definitely has been a mixture of emotions and thoughts during the past few weeks about the new school year. For me, I'm dreading the start of the new school year at least as much as the girls are. I enjoy my time with them and I really miss the lack of time we have together once school begins.....selfish on my part???...you bet!!!

It's so amazing to think that I have children going into 1st grade, 5th grade and 9th grade tomorrow morning!

My 2006 Graduates....

This is Miranda just prior to graduating from kindergarten! Look out 1st grade (and Mrs Clark!!)...ready or not....here she comes!!!

Mariah, just after graduating from 8th grade....and just after being selected for the "Christian Character" award and plaque for her school! What an honor and privilege! We are so proud of her!

My girls....

This is a photo of the girls enjoying a coastal sunset while we were on vacation in Westport. We stayed for almost two weeks up at our property on the Washington coast. The weather was amazing for the majority of our time there! Of course, it didn't matter if the weather was nice or nasty....it was just nice to get away for a while.

Article from the Hood River News

Here is the article that appeared in the May 3, 2006 edition of the Hood River News.

A Fish Story...and That Ain't No Fish Tale!!!

You always hear about "the one that got away".....well, this fish tale story is about "the one that DIDN'T get away"! Last Sunday, April 30, we celebrated the opening weekend of Washington State's trout season with our annual family picnic and day of fishing at Horsethief park in Washington with some family and friends.This photo was taken just before Miranda got into the boat with her grandpa and daddy. Before we left our house to go fishing, I asked Miranda to "get some fishing clothes on". Well, this outfit is what she came up with - except she did have a pink sequined tank-top on at first. I had to ask her to change into a shirt that was a bit warmer! Can you tell that her favorite color is pink??Miranda (6.5 years old) was the first of the girls to go out in Grandpa Joe's boat with Grandpa and Daddy to fish. Miranda insisted on using her little pink Barbie fishing pole she received last Christmas from Santa Claus. Not thinking she would actually catch anything with it, let alone be able to successfully reel a fish in on it, Steve decided to humor Miranda and let her borrow her Grandma's red Rooster Tail lure. Oh, little did we know, little Miss Miranda would out-fish EVERYONE that day with her pink Barbie fishing pole!

Mud, smiles and fun!

Lots of mud today, plenty of smiles and a whole lotta fun for both Miranda and I.... Here is Miranda on our Raptor 50 quad. She's learning to ride on her own, and at the age of 6, she's getting the hang of it pretty quickly! She started out maneuvering around cones in our field, but just today she graduated to riding in the driveway, around all the vehicles (and company vans). She can steer, use the throttle and the brake...all at the appropriate times! She's very excited to be 'like the big girls' and not have to just ride with someone else -- although she did get a bit of a stern 'talking to' when she went around a corner too fast for my comfort!!! I don't think the word S-L-O-W is in her vocabulary....except for school mornings...when Mom needs her to hurry a bit more!!! Oh, my little girl is growing up way too quickly!