Kangaroo Kid

of course the haven is silly and she often does really cute things, but she created a "pocket" for herself the other day, and i was laughing so hard! she would take her food and tuck it inside of her shirt and then fetch it out a little later! sometimes kids just blow my mind!

Camera, camera, wherefore art thou camera?

last friday glenn finished school and so to celebrate we met at a friends home with a few other families to go to a new park. crystal beach. i'm thinking, as is glenn, that it's not really a beach, more like a river with rocks and a park. wrong. also, we thought we were heading to grand island, and island here with a lot of parks, wrong again. what? canada? can you say unprepared? there you go. going to canada is nice, but requires i.d., and we don't keep the kids birth certificates in the car, but we are only 5 minutes away from the border, and 20 from our house. we decided to give it a shot.....and it worked canada let's just about anyone in, especially if you aren't trying to go the falls. we get to the actual, real beach, where it seems we have stumbled across a "members only" section. beautiful people everywhere. very surprising. all skinny. again, i'm not dressed for a real beach, i feel like a complete dummy dumb. oh, finally an older couple and i spy a few girls a tad overweight, i'm feeling a bit better. we ended up having a super fun time playing in the warm water and glenn jumped off the defunct pier a few times. i of course left my camera in the safety of my purse-locked in the van. so we have a shot of the drive home on the peace bridge, which is by the way also the easiest way into america. no questions, just come on in. thank heavens. on saturday we continued the celebration and went to grand island for real, for a picnic with more friends. this was the "beach" we were picturing. the boys and haven had such fun running all over. ciela was partying with a friend in her heated pool! and wouldn't you know it? i left my camera in the car again! so we have a shot of the beautiful sunset off the golf course as only can be captured by a point-and-shoot! we had a marvelous weekend, with fathers day and big potluck at church on sunday. we are ready for summer. bring it on! oh, and i'll grab my camera for sure!

Flip-flopping

haven found toran's flip-flops on the floor and kept trying to put them on. in our house, we don't wear shoes inside, just outside, and haven has already picked up on that, and wanted to get ready. she'd cry everytime she couldn't get her foot in just right! so sad, and yet so cute.

August + 22 = Toran's B'day!

toran celebrated his 7th birthday at school with all the other summer kids. we had snacks and everyone, including haven, had a good time. haven loves going to toran's class with me, she gets so much attention, from all the kids and mrs. malinowski. although i think next year she'll have to go somewhere else, she's getting squirmy in her stroller! this title was actually from an assignment that toran did at school: they had to write an addition problem about summer. i loved toran's!

Kernels of Love!

haven had her first corn on the cob, and thought it was mighty tasty. she was a messy disaster, and at times was eating the wrong parts, but all in all i believe she enjoyed herself. look at that crazy-haired-corn-girl!

Finally...

i-pods, how cool are those things? i know i'm a little behind here, but in the past few weeks i have had a few epiphaneal (hmmm...) moments regarding somethings that should've clicked awhile ago. let's start with the i-pod. glenn got one with his laptop when school started, and it was an issue of frustration for me. we love music and have zillions of cd's why an i-pod? unneccesary. oh, it plays movies? cool, but we have a dvd player, the kids don't need anymore tv time. fast forward to me trying to exercise with some problem dvd players and a missing power cord. ahhh..i can use the i-pod and run around the house, and the block, and do laundry, and holy cow this thing is AWESOME!!! still the movie thing, unneccesary, but nifty. next up, shade. umm, ladies how did i live without these capsleeve coverups for the past couple of years? i knew about these tops, the website, the parties, the raves from others, but i adamantly said "no, thanks. too much money." dumb. how much money have i spent on tanks that don't cover everywhere? how much time wasted tugging and pulling to cover up those parts that should be? oh, so lame the christy! i am onboard LaDieS and also discovered the clearance bin-$5 is definitely my price. which totally brings us to my new favorite place to look and save for : shabby apple. again, i knew the site and thought the dresses were beautiful, but too spendy. then liz's friend gabby had a giveaway for one of their dresses and i was reignited with the apple passion! of course, the prices are a bit steep, but i'm saving for a new fall dress. the clothes remind me a bit of my favorite store, that we don't have here, and i don't get to shop at a lot. i definitely have post-dental-loan shopping plans! and the last aha! moment....laundry. it has taken me, well, 10 years to figure out how the laundry system should be for me. i tried all sorts of things. but i have a new system: if the washer is empty-fill it and start the load. the kids hang out for about 30 minutes in the playroom, while i hang and fold, and place clothes directly into large bins; one designated for each person. twice a week the bins are lugged up the stairs and clothes put away. i always start a load before bed, usually towels or sheets, and in the morning while the kids are eating breakfast i move that load and start a new one. i use a large, softer plastic bucket with handles to carry the dirty things down the 2 flights of stairs to the laundry room, and haven rides inside and loves it! it's a little heavy, but worth knowing that haven is safe with me and not alone in the basement. i iron 1 night a week, while watching tv. no clothes enter the bedrooms wrinkled. so that's it for me, now i need to figure out how to get the dishes done? i'm taking ideas.

Buffalo Heat

it's been nice and hot here for a few weeks and the boys have been having a grand time in the outdoors! they love "double boy" swing time, and often cabes jumps on even when toran is hoping for a singles ride. we had to purchase a new hose and sprinkler, because we left ours in oregon-angie go get it and you can keep it! caleb had lots of fun for a few minutes, but of course the wild buffalo wind kicked in, and it was towel time!

Open During Remodeling....

i'm feeling a little more comfortable in this blogging world. i have even opened a new blogspot up for business. it's my space and i think it'll be fun. check me out!
glenny thinks the new blog is a bit confusing, so scroll down to the bottom the first time you go and read everything from the beginning. i think it'll help the confusion. and please leave feedback, i'm open for ideas of all kind! new pictures of the fam will be up and running shortly, we have been busy. of course, when are we not? happy official first day of summer and break out the a/c's-it's hot! i like this new layout, but the pictures are a bit wonky, don't ya think?

Happy Birthday Glenn!

well, the big strappin' man who sometimes hangs around here recently had a birthday, and it mostly was no big deal. the kids wanted to take glenn out for burgers and here that means red robin, since there is no selection of good american food, or maybe even any food for that matter. i digress...the timing was perfect since his birthday was the day before we headed out on our trip, and i really didn't want to cook (code for: i didn't want to clean, i almost always want to cook)so we had delicious burgers and milkshakes and mudpie. although, to whomever in the ashworth clan devised the mudpie we eat at family parties-yours is better! then, in virginia we had another celebratory meal of taco bar, and yummy ice cream. we also celebrated mom and daddy's day for my parents, so glenn did have to share the spotlight a little. he hasn't complained of any extra ailments and he seems to handling all the aging quite well, i know i am a bit one-sided in my comments here, but i find him quite sexy! pardon, to all those "g" rated readers, but he's a keeper! we love him and miss him too, since we often don't get to see him for much more than dinner and bathing (the kids, you dirty birds!!). he is currently practicing drilling holes and filling holes. man, that makes him sound like a construction apprentice of sorts, huh? he has a practical exam on tuesday, and then done on fri. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY LOVIN" MAN!!

Our House

we've been asked what are current digs look like and so here's a few pic's of our humble abode. it's a green farmhouse, in desperate need of a scrape and paint job with a nice front porch that we use for a variety of things (slightly white trashish, but we have no shed or garage to house yard needs). we have a huge front yard with no fence and a sideyard that heads back and back...there is a little backyard but that's where don drives his tractor or frontloader or backhoe or other large digging vehicles and where there is a well, and where the snakes used to habitate (we haven't seen any live ones for several weeks, maybe good news?)there is a full basement which we use most of for a playroom, a bit of storage, a very good sized laundry area and a bar, where glenn sets up "shop". the main floor consists of a front room which is divided into 2 unequal parts by a slight arch wall, the bigger side is the dining room and the smaller side houses the tv and couch. walk through the front room to the good sized kitchen and continue on to a fork in the hall, well a 3-pronged something. on the left is the office/craft/dump spot, straight ahead is the ONE AND ONLY BATHROOM, and to the right are stairs. up we go, and come to a nice landing where there is a large linen and game closet, and a book shelf and the attic entry. here is another 3-pronged set-up. to the left is door #1 our bedroom,to the right #2 is haven, #3 is caleb/ciela. continue on through caleb/ciela room to a new door-and toran's loft space, which brings us to yet another door and a new entry to our bedroom. that's right folks, our house is one eternal round of bedrooms! the attic is big and currently half for storage with plans to turn the other half into a bedroom for toran and shuffle the kids around so everyone has their own space. we have lots of trees on or property and flower beds in need of attention, which i just started tackling, and which will take all summer and probably into the next summer before they are functioning properly. behind our house is the garage that we can't use, a huge shop, and a shed (again, not for our use), a small creek and then a beautiful park. thanks for the tour, come back again!

To Virginia and Back Again

whilst in virginia we went to a little farm/park and found this great sign with one of toran's middle names perfectly spelled. we went swimming and the kids had great times with nana and papa and cousins and liz and patrick. we had a date night out-woohoo! and we stayed up late chatting about nothing. on the drive back we first turned haven's carseat to the more comfortable and sleep happy rear facing then visited one of my friends from byu and her family in maryland, and had a fabulous time. the rest of the drive was bearable until about 2 hours away from home when it turned decidedly miserable. but we made it home and everyone slept in on tues, and on wed. even though the drive made glenn and i realize even more clearly that we are not a road trip kind of family, we were so happy to get to spend a couple of days with some of our extended family. now to put away those pesky suitcases....and save for airline tickets...

ROAD TRIP-YAHOO!

we actually went somewhere! we went down to virginia to visit my sister and her fam and my parents were there! the drive down took 10 hours and the kids were pretty good, except for poor haven. we had turned haven's car seat forward facing, finally, and she was so miserable with the lack of recline that she didn't sleep the whole time! we got to see beautiful pennsylvania with lots of hills and turns and funny signs. at each and every bridge it said "Bridge May Be Icy"(funny in the 75+ hot weather), then there were the seat belt signs: fasten seat belts for the next million miles. then maryland, very pretty. and finally virginia. crazy. the perfect word. the drivers are insane! the traffic is random! and lizzie and patrick are oughta there!

Princess Haven

haven has found the love of dressing up, and LOVES it! for several days she would find the crown in the morning and ask to put it on and be sad when it came off accidentally, like when she forgot it was there and would pull on it, or bonk it on the table, or try and comb her hair. she is a princess and loves to walk around with a sparkly bag and play with her own train, rosie. caleb loves to play with her and they play trains together, although cabes let's haven wear the crown the whole time. he doesn't fight for that toy.

ZOO

on another cousin escapade we went to the zoo. our little zoo is a bit sad, but you can see the giraffes from the street, and hear the sea lions too! there is a pretty sweet little "dig" where you can find fossils and get sand in all the hiding spots of your little ones body.

Bounce, Bounce then FLLYYY!

more updates from the cousin brigade. the little kids and the babies and the mama's went to a place called roly polies. it's a super fun kid playroom/gymnastics center that has been a hit for a bizzilion birthdays that our kids have partied at. oh, and also the scene of toran's head wound in the fall that required stitches! we all had so much fun, bouncing on this huge long tramp, and climbing on all sorts of things. the babies just loved to walk and be free, and haven loved this little baby rollercoaster. at the end the kids got to go crazy on the zipline! 90 minutes of exhilerating exhaustion, that thanks to toran's injury was FREE!

"Tagging" the Sheets

i found this excellent outdoor craft idea from family fun magazine, and the kids all loved it! crazy and messy which seems to be necessary for good kid fun! cabes had a few moments of sadness when he had to share his green "special color" with the others.

Our Backyardigans

afton and cabes had much fun outside: on the rope swing, picking pine needles off the tree, playing restaurant or as caleb calls it "fooder", digging and digging and more digging. the rest of the kids, especially the babies, loved it too.