Camera-maniacs

The kids have found a new love... That is stealing my camera any chance they can get and take hundreds of pictures. Thank goodness for digital cameras and I can delete the many repeats. LOL.

Tyler especially has gotten into photography and is a budding photojournalist just like his father. Just before we left Missoula, Jim took him out quite a few times to take pictures of the Rugby and Lacrosse games that were constantly going on in the big field by the house. He really did enjoy it and got quite a few great pics out of it. Here is his favorite from that.

While at Grammy's house, Jacob and Tyler were constanly running off with my camera. They did get a few shots that I liked, so I kept them and will share them with you now.

Of course one of the most important shots is to get one of yourself. So I thought this was a fun one of Jacob. Don't see that smile on him very often, so we gotta enjoy it while we can.

This one is also a favorite of mine. It is of Jacob and Noah's shadows. I just thought it was a fun idea and came out pretty cool looking.

Needless to say they all want digital cameras for their birthdays. If only we could afford to get them all one cause you know if we only get one for use by all the kids they will constantly fight over it. We will have to check into something I guess for these budding photographers of ours. I can also say that Jim is so very proud of them all. Glad they can follow in his footsteps.

Cooking with Poppy

Noah found a new interest while at Grammy and Poppy's house. He has learned to love to cook. All the kids enjoy cooking with me, but Noah has really gotten into it. He helped Poppy cook dinner a few times while there and watched Food Network with Grammy a lot. He has now continued to watch food network while being home and just really seems to enjoy it. I hope he continues to love it and can grow into a wonderful cook.

New House

Okay, I promised that I would get up to date with all that has gone on in the last 2 months. I finally got all the pics onto my computer and there are a lot of them. It may take me a little while to get them all up and going.

First I wanted to start with pics of our new house. Here she is.

We really are loving all the extra room. Here are a few shots of the inside of the house just to get to know how we are living here. It is a nice house with essential 4 levels and a big backyard.

Here is the backyard view from the back sliding glass door and porch area.

And here is the end of the backyard looking at the back of the house. You can see we have lots of room to run around and the kids have been having fun making a mess and all.

When you walk into the front door, you see the kitchen and dinning room. The stairs there in front of you are going up to the master bedroom and Abby's bedroom. There is a bathroom up there connected to the hall and the master bedroom.

Next is a view of the stairs that go either up to the 2 bedrooms and bath or down to the family room, office, and 2nd bathroom.

This is a pic of Abby's room. She loves the colors and the butterflies. Although if you catch her at bedtime, she says she hates her room and she hates butterflies. LOL.

Next is a view of the living room from the top of the stairs. The fireplace is really quite extravagant and then the bay window just adds to it. We are running short on furniture to go here, but I keep dreaming about all the possibilities up here. Cant wait to work with it all and cant wait to decorate at Christmas. It should be fun.

Now if you go down that set of stairs just inside the door, you come to the family room. It is a bit small, but very well used right now. With the addition of some furniture from mom and dad, we have made it a cozy little place for us to be together to watch TV, movies, or of course play Wii. Also, if you go to the right you come to a little office area for me and a bathroom.

Here is the office area. It sure is nice to have that office area (not in my bedroom). Makes it easier to separate my work from my home life. It is also nice to be close to the family room, but not in it so I can be nearby for the kids, but still out of the way and able to hear what I am supposed to be transcribing.

And the final level is through the family room and down another set of stairs. We have 2 bedrooms which we have broken up to be for Tyler and Daniel and then Noah and Jacob. They seem to be enjoying the split that way. The door you see just straight down the stairs is Noah and Jacob and I purposely closed it as it is a huge mess and I am afraid to say always will be. Tyler and Daniel's room is just to the left of that. Then on either side is 2 more rooms. On the right we have a storage room for our food storage and miscellaneous storage. Also the furnace and things are in there. On the left is the laundry room. There is also some storage under the stairs.
Well there you have it. A virtual tour of our house. Like I said before, we are really enjoying it. I was a bit skeptical at first, not sure how we would all fit, but we have worked it all out and I love it. With the 4 levels, we are amazed at how we can loose each other. I was down in the laundry room the other day and Jim searched all over the house for me. I could not hear him calling for me upstairs. LOL. The kids are enjoying the neighborhood, being able to go out and ride bikes, scooters, etc. The backyard is nice too. Jim and I have gotten some nice chairs to go on the porch and we have enjoyed sitting out there in the evenings watching the kids play and so on.

We miss Missoula and all the fun we were able to have as CA's, but we are looking forward to our new life here in Spokane.

I will soon post all the fun stuff we did while we were away at Grammy and Poppy's house. Things that include going to the zoo, going to the beach, and fun around the house. Hope all is well with everyone. Keep looking back for more updates from us in Washington.

The Big Move!!!!!

Our time in "The Country of Montana" as Jim says is over. Jim has graduated and we are now in Spokane, WA. It took a while for us all to get here. We left Missoula on May 31st, but just moved into our new house on July 14th. Jim has been staying with an Aunt in Spokane and working while the kids and I have been in Yelm with my parents.

We have had lots of fun experiences during these last 6 weeks that I will post about later, but for now we are glad to finally have a place to call home again. I will post pics of the new house at a later date. The kids are loving all the "extra" room. I never realized how small our place in Missoula was until we finally have so much room here. We dont have enough stuff to fill it all up right now, but I am sure it wont take long to get there. It is nice to see the kids having fun running around and playing, but not being in my hair either.

I am slowly getting things organized and I would say after 4 days I am about 50% done. Just got all the toys organized, which is a hard thing to do with the kids playing and getting toys out as fast as I can get them put into buckets and figure out where to put them. LOL.

Anyway, I will post pics of the kids and of all our fun adventures soon as well as a pic of the new house.