Summer In the Snow!

many-o-moon ago, our mall held an indoor sand themed play day. there was plenty of sand and sand toys and some games where the kids could win more "sun" themed gadgets.


haven, who loves going to the "real" beach, did not care for this indoor version! can't you just hear her?


poor haves! she's picking sand out of her toes! so glenn did the sand thing single-dad style, as i had a plethora of returns and exchanges to do. i felt a little bit guilty leaving them all behind, but they seemed so excited when i left!


now this toran is very happy, but caleb received a shovel-full of sand in the eye from a neighboring child, and that led to the early removal of the children from sandland. oh, i forgot to mention that i took all of the shoes with me, and the stroller because the area for those items were packed! so, now glenn texts "i need you" while i'm waiting at gap. i think, in a few minutes kind of situation, not real life emergency. so, the lady who is helping me is having some difficulty with my mixture of online purchased returns, in-store purchase returns, exchanges, and price adjustments, all while she is helping another customer on the phone, and has sent 2 other slightly bored employees away! i don't know what to do. so i do nothing. then text back "7 minutes?" the question mark is more for me than glenn, as i have no idea when my transaction will actually be completed. this is when glenn walks in. haven, caleb and toran, all scraggly with sandy parts, and no shoes! caleb is crying. and i dressed them in grubby attire because they were just going to play in the dirty sand, not venture into the world of retail snobbery. glenn was seriously chastised by the mall cop, for having no shoes on the kids. it turned out ok.

First, the Bad News...Then the Good News!

hello, all! i am sad to announce that really i will give up on trying to keep up with my personal cooking blog. "What?" you say. "How can this be?" i know it's been over 6 months since my last posting on astumblingblockorasteppingstone.blogspot.com, but i have been imagining all the new recipes and tips, and it just wasn't happening quite the way i wanted it to. so, i will be joining in sweetteeth.blogspot.com a spot with a few dental wife friends and their recipes, so if you haven't been, then check us out, although i have nothing on there as of yet!

also, even greater news. my sister liz started a way cool blog, and i begged to join, and she lovingly accepted me! so while we are in the newly workings of thetipspot.blogspot.com, visit us regularly for excellent ideas on all aspects of home and kids and family, on a shoestring budget! we are excited, and looking for lots of readers, so pass out the word!

CALEB RYAN SCOTT!

monday our little man caleb, turned 5! crazy. we had a little family party for him, and he got some great books from ciela, toran and haven. this shirt is his favorite! green with other "boy" colors and a car that looks like bumblebee (transformer).


some other gifts from glenn and i. cabes is in transformer mode right now. in fact he thinks he is a transformer. it's an excellent work-out...


caleb's favorite present: a "pop-up" bumble-bee. you press on the head, and then he transforms back into a car, and speeds away on the floor.


i moved the candles to a "better" location, and then couldn't find them! the cupcakes are covered in ganache, and were quite tasty.


we are excited that caleb is 5. when he showed up, that's when i feel i actually became a mom. ciela and toran had been really so easy to figure out, and i rarely had a moment of worry or panic. ummm...with cabes i was in a constant state of "code red" for his entire first year. and honestly i was relieved that we all made it to his 1st birthday! each year since has gotten a bit less intense, and more enjoyable. caleb is such a sweet boy, and so smart, but he is maybe the most stubborn person i have ever met. he is the best big brother to haven, she adores him! and he lives for moments he has with ciela. toran and him are a bit difficult, but when they do get along (more and more now) they are so adorable. cabes has been a daddy-boy since he was a tiny infant, and still loves any attention and time he has with glenn. caleb is becoming more of a big boy all the time. and he is quite patient with so many of his little buddies, and so understanding of them. i must admit those recent qualities have shocked me some. i am very curious to see this little person continue growing. oh, how we love caleb!

Vampire Addicts Rejoice!

ok, so you might be aware that i am a "twilight" addict. now given that knowledge i must announce that "BREAKING DAWN" WILL BE RELEASED ON AUGUST 2ND! i know that it is still the dead of crazy winter, but the last i had read, was that the 4th book would not be available until the end of august or maybe not til the start of september (cry!), but never fear edward will arrive soon to save the day! i sound like a complete freak, i need a bella costume i guess...and a convention center. oh, and to make this news even more delicious... the "twilight" movie will be released on december 12th, i am going with or without my regular date night partner!

Forgotten, But Not Gone

i realized that a few pictures i thought i had posted never made it on! here is haven playing out in the yard when it was weird and warm a few weeks ago!


haven "riding" one of her 2 bikes. this day she finally mastered keeping her feet on the pedals while i pushed. she is getting so big! by the way, don't you love my landlords truck garden in the back there?


i don't know where this picture has been hiding! this is my niece afton, & ciela & toran in our house in portland. ummm....that was atleast 18 months ago. as you can see, we had green walls in more than one house! those ones were striped! difficult to see, because it's all the same color but different levels of glossiness. i loved this room!


caleb took some packaging from something that came in the mail and made himself a "worm hole". funny boy.


here's the boys the way we like "em: sweet and happy and getting along!


haven joined caleb in the "worm hole" for some great fun. she laughs the hardest with caleb!


the kids playing in the oddly warm weather! it was actually a nice break for a couple of days, but really i'd like the winter to just be winter and then LEAVE when it is actually spring. so you know the kids can wear real easter clothes to church instead of their christmas attire!


ciela next to our house, and in front of the garage we are not allowed to use. besides playing, the kids and i removed all the big branches that had blown down from the previous storms. funny, because the next day a HUGE storm blew into town, and since then our lawn has been strewn with even more huge branches! i guess i know what to do when the next thaw shows up.

A bit of Haven...

little haven is such a great helper! she loves to clean-up! here she is picking up trains off of caleb's floor. she will find toys around the house (not much is where it should be!) and deliver them to their rightful owner, or room if the owner is unavailable! love it!!


haven loves to climb! i thought we would be all done with monkeys when she showed up, but i of course, was wrong! haven climbs up and down caleb's ladder several times a day, even in tights, and hasn't slipped in quite some time!


haven heard one of the boys yelling and proceeded into her mommy/dora stance: "stop it", is heard from her more than i would like, and so that means fixing what I say, and hopefully taming the boys a bit more so there is nothing to say!

We Love Ciela!

so, in our home ciela is quite often not around, and so we have few good pictures of just HER. today i decided to remedy that. beautiful ciela posed for awhile, and we got several pretty shots!


ciela ADORES this sweater! a few weeks ago the whole fam went to the GAP to check deals on winter items for next year. ciela and i were having some disagreements as to what she would like, of course, until she found this: a silver babydoll sweater. i loved it, she loved it, but it was a size 8, which is much too small for her. ciela, being ciela decided that trying it on would be necessary to prove me wrong. and of course, miraculously it fit! later, after getting home and checking the receipt slip i realized the sweater had not been on super clearance like the rest of our items, but ciela loved it so much i thought i'd be nice, just this once, and let her keep it. oh, and if you didn't already know, this is the wall in our living room!


ciela also loves this hat: another GAP un-bargain, because she begged and begged, and it looked so cute on her. i guess i'm nice more than i think, or she thinks i am!


ciela is such a pretty and sweet girl. she is amazing at playing with haven: "tea party, havie?"
and the boys of course love to play with her. caleb's favorite is bob the builder guys, and toran likes and kind of board game. chess and disney monopoly seem to be regular choices. this is in the "master" bedroom, in front of one of 3 attic doors. i think i want to paint our walls some kind of gray, and funky patterned something...


we are so blessed to have this piece of heaven in our home! she is an excellent student, loves tae kwon do, loves church and all her friends, so creative that sometimes i am utterly amazed, and fairly obedient to our home request of chores and such. what would i do without her?

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!