Happy, Happy, Snow, Snow!

last saturday we went sledding with a bunch of friends at this awesome place in orchard park! the kids had so much fun--and so did glenn and i! haven loved it, although only while sledding, she got pretty cold. look at the sweet cabes helping out--awhhh!


toran is the epitome of happy! check that kid out--he was my sledding buddy, and even had fun with a face full of snow. i only got to go down a few times, because haven got really crabby and so we hung out in the van for awhile. we tried the lodge, but she kept trying to get to places that were "restricted" or on fire!


here is ciela with josh and dave! caleb was taking pictures of random weirdness so i begged him to shoot people that we know. he did a pretty good job.


on the way home caleb passed out! all that sledding and then hiking up the hill, it was a total workout! and the wind was c-raazy! we needed goggles and those face things. more gear that needs to be purchased. rei.com here we come...


i'm not quite sure what haven's excuse is, since she was hauled everywhere, and i don't think her little boots ever touched the ground, but i guess it's alright if she sleeps...look close and you can see she's got someone on hold on her phone, she's a busy bee!

I Love Glenn!

this week, and honestly nearly every moment of every day since i met glenn thomas (almost 14 years) i have been grateful to know and have him near me. here's only a few reasons why:

1. glenn encouraged me last year to participate in more things. so hard for me, and yet now my life is so much more fun! thanks baby!

2. he is so handy! i often take this a bit for granted and just assume he can do anything (mostly right!) and that everyone else's hubby's can too. thankfully glenn knows more than just how to kiss and use a bit of duct tape!

3. the best dad ever! when he is around i am amazed at his patience and exuberance he has for our very energetic kids. WOW!

4. intelligence is always a blessing and since we seem to be in a constant state of "school" i am glad beyond words that he can do well and still have time for the rest of our life!

i have loved this man for nearly half of my life, and things are always getting better. we have rarely ever fought, and really always seem to be in sync with each other. i am crazy blessed!

My Boys

so the boys were in need of some serious hair-cutting, and toran was willing to let glenn have a bit of fun with the buzzer. here is one of the coolest kids in the world!

toran really means it! i actually loved the mohawk, but thought it might distract others more than his regular "messy-hawk" that he gets!


if you look closely at this picture caleb took, you can see that glenn has a bad "owie" on his lip. all from some racquetball that got out of hand. oh, boys...

Winter Adventures!

a few weeks ago, we headed up to see the falls in "winter" condition. we saw some great stuff! caleb took this photo of some turtles in the flower exhibit house. he named them: "slow" and "turtles", so that together they are "slow turtles"! they were so slow, that all the kids thought they must be statues, but of course they are real, and very slow.


in the flower house, they have some beautiful flowers. i am fairly horrible at remembering flower names, but this one is crazy and fun--just like our cabers!


here are the same 2 pictures of toran, because i uploaded the wrong one, but this looked to be a crazy huge orchid, growing out of the side of some kind of tree. check out the zebra striping on the stalk!

now you can just check out sweet toran--again!


here is ciela with some pretty flowers that she thought nana might like to see--and name!


and here is the fam in front of the poinsettia "tree". the flower house is really small, but with lots of pretty flowers--and totally free! there are also some exotic birds flying around in there-but we only saw or heard a few of them. there were so many beautiful orchids! i love those flowers! and it reminded me of home--we used to give orchids as gifts often, because they are gorgeous and so inexpensive at trader joe's. however, i went to check out getting an orchid for our home a few days ago--holy cow! $35 at the store! umm...i guess i need to take some more pictures!

so the silly boys and i in front of the falls, but you can really only see the mist. we are on the canadian side, so in the background you can see some of the american park.


we did something else we had never done: spent $ on food! well, at the falls, i mean. we had cocoa and muffins, and somehow a random walnut got into my blueberry muffin, which led to a panicked run to the bathroom to scrub my teeth and tongue. then when i returned ciela offered me the rest of her bagel and cream cheese, but a couple bites into it, my throat was feeling very constricted and so i had to pop an emergency benedryl (i have crazy allergies to nuts and carob, which is now used as carob bean gum and a thickener in nearly every non-organic dairy product out there!) and so the drive home and the rest of the day were a bit blurry for me!


the falls looked so green! still mammoth and amazing, but definitely a new site in the winter!


this sign is posted in the women's bathroom in the flower house--why?

Christmastime!

caleb's preschool put on a cute holiday musical filled with gingerbread kids, elves, snowpeople, reindeer and santa. caleb was an elf, and they sang lots of christmas favorites. the best part was during jingle bells when all the little "elves" shook their heads like mad to jingle the bells at the end of their hats! caleb loves to sing and did a great job. then afterwards we had a little cookie party and santa came. that was a disaster! cabes is totally afraid of santa! and he cried and wanted to leave and didn't even care if santa had a gift for him.

well, we missed out on quite a bit of picture taking for christmas due to battery shortages and camera weirdness, but we did get a few! we opened up presents from my parents on christmas eve, and haven got this excellent tin princess case with a little dora inside--her favorite!


toran loves animals of all kinds, and he was very excited to receive a new webkinz penguin to add to his growing collection. both the boys got new ones and all the big kids got their first "shining stars" pets. we now need another computer to keep up with all the feeding and tending of online-animals!
this picture seems to epitomize our family christmas this year. slow and lazy with a few great gifts and plenty of junky treats! we get to have sugary cereal! oh how we love golden grahams, and chocolate lucky charms, and our favorite cracklin' oat bran! and the pop tarts, yummy yum!
so tasty, but definitely only good to have all that high fructose corn syrup and crazy additives on just the one day! this was the first time in years that we have been all by ourself for the whole of christmas, and while we totally missed family, it was really nice to just hang out with our kids. actually i forgot for a moment that glenn and ciela and toran went to some of our friends for dinner, but the cabes and haven had been off and on sick so i did get to stay home all day. we did video chat with lots of fam, or atleast try for a few minutes! that was awesome!

It's A Snow World...

a few weeks ago we had a nice little snowstorm that dumped several inches of snow and a few kids into the yard! the boys of course love the snow. i mean think of all the great activities: snow wrestling, snow throwing, snow running, actually all of their "usual" activities fit into the realm of snow pretty well.

this here is the "tractor plow", a common sight in the lane we share, and a welcoming noise after a storm blows through!

haven loves the snow! although not her mittens so much ( i realized later they were too small), and she loved shaking her hands super fast after she had picked up snow to watch it fly all over, then have to wipe her face with the same "windshield wiper" handmotion!

haven was amazed at the snow on the van. she put her speedy fast wiper hands to good use and wiped off all the snow she could reach.

caleb would live outside in any condition. he lives for anything outdoorsy! he rolls all over the place like the crazy monkey he is, and gets snow everywhere inside of his layers, but doesn't cry until we get in the house and he is all red and frozen!

I Love Buffalo!

so as i have been reading friends and families blogs regarding thankfulness, i have been inspired. thank you to everyone for that! i shall embark upon a year of expressing gratitude and love, blog-style. and first up would: buffalo!

1. i love the snow! who knew? a rain-loving girl with no aspirations of shoveling anything, except sand occasionally, could love this crazy stuff that seems to be in abundance here at times, but never as much as i think we should have. mexico, ny gets all the love!
2. friends here have been my actual saving grace. all of us in my little family have made such fabulous friends, and i don't know quite how to tell them all how much they have blessed our little family, so thanks to any of you who read this!
3. since dental school is here, it definitely fits into the buffalo thanking department! now, i don't love all the time glenn is away from our family, or the stress he occasionally feels, but i am grateful that he is here doing what he actually wants to do. getting here, was so hard and disastrous at times, which translates into a huge testimony building experience, at least for me. and that is why i love UB!
4. we left a truly amazing ward in portland, & i was very nervous to meet our ward here, but of course they overwhelmed me! the ward kind of fits into our "friends" category, but is so much than that, so i gave it a special spot for it's own. we fit in perfectly here, with students & "normal" families alike. sometimes i am blown away by the generosity of the people in our ward, & the acceptance that seems to radiate from most of the members. we wouldn't quite as happy a family without our extended family here. love you!
5. that we don't actually live in buffalo, is definitely on the list. i love how we are in the "country" and yet only 5 minutes from target and wegman's. it is beautiful here, & very peaceful & so safe that sometimes i wish we could stay here & never leave. but alas, in a couple of years we will be out of here, with only memories and friends to take with us.


now i know that this is not a big list, but i love it all and i'm so grateful for all the things on it!

Rakin' In the Kids

one day last week i noticed that the leaves had piled up so much that i could no longer see the flagstones for our walkway, and i decided to have special one-on-one time with the rake. after a few minutes the kids caught on to my sneakiness, and they tried to help me, but with only the 1 rake they got creative. caleb used a sand shovel and a lot of force, while toran found the tiny broom and swept away the leaves on the ground!

i ended up playing with haven for awhile once she woke up from her nap. and her new boots proved to be very cumbersome on the slide. i of course purchased them a bit big so as to get 2 seasons worth out my $, but they kept popping off her tiny feet when she would try to get her legs onto the actual slide from the ladder. eventually, she ran away after one episode in just her socks, and stayed that way until we went inside for some serious bath time!

ciela graciously took over my actual assigned duty of raking and did a marvelous job, all the while caleb is foiling her almost just as quickly with his lightning quick shovel moves!

the boys had been begging to play in the leaf pile that "the men" as we call them (actually the landlords hired help who thankfully take care of the yard a lot) had made from all our leaves several days previous to this, and so i gave in and they went hog wild, with my piles!


the boys can be happy in almost any situation of dirtiness and loudness can be involved. they buried each other and then both together so they would look like they were one of the leaves!

haven is growing so fast lately! she says a lot more words now and her curiosity for all things not baby approved is daunting. her vocab list includes: book, baby, ciela, toran, caleb, cup, more, outside, bye-bye, shoe, up, down, banana, pablo, dora, boots, backyardigans, elmo, mouse, mama, mama (actually meaning dada), no, stop, and bath. she gets very excited for most things still and kicks and giggles and has a silly lop-sided huge grin! she is currently teething 8 teeth at once, and just went to the dentist for the first time. she of course, cried.

Halloweeny

halloween at our house was long with several days of partying, and way too much loot! the second day of parties began with the kids having their school shin-digs, and then coming home and heading off to the tae kwon do party. this was great fun, with games and stunts performed by some of the instructors. there was a halloween costume contest and caleb won for the 3 and 4 year olds. although i feel like we cheated a bit because they thought he was the "bow-tied dinosaur" (what is that?) and it is plain to see that he is pablo! he won a tae kwon do gourd for his prize, i was just glad it wasn't a bag of candy!

here's all the kids after the tkd party and full day at school, as we are heading to go beg for treats from the neighbors. they are all frazzled, with bits of costumes left at various location and and some dinner and other food adding to the loveliness. we barely got this shot, everyone was so whiny and tired, i don't even know how we made it walking around the few blocks that we went to. ciela ended up staying out extra long with some neighbors from across the street who have kids her age. she had a great time, and no one complained about needing anymore candy. in fact, caleb asked many times to go home before we finally did, and even stopped trick-or-treating for about 1 block. haven on the hand got better at each house, and near the end would baby sign for "more" when she got up to the door, and stopped fussing and gave up the binky entirely! it was a lot more fun than i thought it would be this year. haven is ready for anything now!

the best close up of haven we ended up with . she was a blue octopus, and so cute. the first party we went to she wouldn't wear the hood, so i put her hair into 8 little bear-ears (buns), so so cute! by the 3rd time in the costume she loved the whole thing and kept the hood on all the time. we never got good shots of ciela or toran, but bayla was hannah montana with a wig she seriously regretted begging for. and toran was a fighter pilot, a pretty cool costume i found for $7 after glenn realized his homemade optimus prime wasn't rain weather friendly (though if you know the gman you know it would've been totally sweet! with big chunks of boxes painted with decals for the choppy body parts, way better than the 2-D version from the store) and so i had to make a costume run!

thankfully caleb was willing to be pablo again this year. this boy has the most creative costume ideas and i really wish i would act on them sooner. last year he wanted to be a red apple, and i contemplated how to make one and even searched the internet for costumes but i was not willing to pay the crazy prices, so i convinced him that pablo would be even better. this year he wanted to be a stool! i really had no idea what to do, and didn't even try looking for ready-made ones, i just frequently encouraged pablo again, and again. sometimes caleb does listen.

Various Knots and Nots!

things are moving along here in the ashfam house, and while i fiddle around with a different picture program i am trying to update the world on our happenings. here is toran tying a "cape" to haven, and while she is sad here, she did love it for several minutes! you can see toran's room here with red and white stripe walls and the navy and hammered-metal dresser, which we spray painted to change the previous color of tan.



here is ciela wearing her new blue belt, which she received earlier in this class, with toran in the low-belt family class. they are sparring eachother here. now ciela is considered a high belt, and so they won't be taking any classes together again for awhile. ciela had to test for blue belt at another location for the school (they have 6) and that was very difficult for her. but after a few minutes of tears she talked with one of the instructors who dates one of ciela's instructors, and relaxed enough to go onto the floor.

glenn grew out his facial hair for halloween with intentions to have a costume to go along with some "look". but we ended up running a bit late for our day-of-halloween party, and so no fun could be had then. nevertheless, the following day glenn began demonstrating his artistic abilities in the form of hair. here is the the cowboy stache

one of my least favorite offerings would be the slimy stache! and here is the green in the tv room portion of the front room. i love it!

New Adventures

ciela and toran on the first day of school.


caleb on the first day of school.


haven and her big toothie grin!


toran and haven following the geese in the park behind our house, which you can see! it's the green building with a roof on the left side of the picture.


haven and a friend playing our piano. it was so cute, they were "singing" and everything!

Summer Lovin' Pictures!

at the pool haven loved playing with a friends bike hat. she kept putting it on and off and playing with the clasp!
haven is a busy little girl who loves to play and is very smart. she can say stop it- "dop it!" a phrase constantly being heard in our home, and loves to point out anything hot-"haw, haw"

for tae kwon do ciela has to wear this helmet for sparring, but when she is done haven takes it and puts it on herself and velcro's it together. this in the playroom at the tkd place, and haven loves to ride on this car!

a few weeks ago caleb ran into the corner wall going up the stairs and busted open his head. blood was all over the place! all the kids were screaming and glenn had just left for his first day of school, all i could do was laugh, thinking how could this get any worse? i called glenn home
(since it was a bbq day, no classes) and then he and the boys spent a few hours at the er, toran wanted to go for support.

cabes could have used 4 stitches, but he got 3 and was proud to show them off at the birthday party for a friend that we went to right after the incident!

here's the cutie picture of glenny and haven hanging together at crystal. how sweet!