June lake

We all had a lot of fun boating out in June lake. By Sierra

This Is The Saddest Story

This family is sharing the short life of their precious son, who was killed by an adverse vaccine reaction. It is heartbreaking what this baby endured.

Summer Vacation

We finally dusted off the motor home and took a trip to June Lake to spend a week camping with friends. Sort of a private family camp since we are churchless :)



The trip started with a few bad omens. Hailey had been having pain in her side for a few days before we left, but I sort of ignored it... Within a few days she couldn't sleep and woke writhing in pain and crying. Sooo, a trip to the ER for a pleursy diagnosis. Basically, a virus had settled in the outer lining of her lung and it was inflamed, causing pain. Here are some pain killers, it will run its course and get better in a few more days. And it did. $300 peace of mind.

Isn't it beautiful?!?


It was probably the same virus that settled in the digestive tracks of the two bigger boys, causing...distress. And Pain. But no ER visit :)



We still managed to have a really nice time though. Mostly sitting by the water watching the kids play and getting sunburned. Plus, without that trip we wouldn't know all the things we need to fix on the motorhome :) That's a plus, right??
On the way home we stopped at a cool little park in some small town. It might have been
Lone Pine. Or Big Pine. Or Independence...

But it was a nice park, with a stream running through it. It was a refreshing break, but the two littles had just fallen asleep when we stopped and when we got back in the RV they screamed most of the way home :-(

Allergy Free Cookies

The Common Room always has lots of frugal recipes (and great commentary), but this cookie recipe is really a home run for us.

Cookies that contain no eggs, wheat, or corn are expensive and I have to go to the "big city" to get them. This recipe is quick, cheap, easy, and uses things I most always have on hand. AND, he really likes them. They're also healthy enough that I can just hand him a few for a quick breakfast or snack on the run. I think we'll be making lots of these.

Super-Simple Banana Cookies

3 mashed bananas
2 cups oats
1 cup chopped dates
1/3 cup oil
1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat oven to 350*. Mix ingredients well, and drop by teaspoonfuls onto ungreased cookie sheets. Bake for 20 minutes or until lightly browned.

This made 18 cookies for us, and I tend to make cookies a little on the large side. Your mileage may vary.


Make sure you click through to the link to see what other things she has tried. Besides, it's rude to steal a recipe and not click through :-) Here is the home page, the link above will take you straight to the recipe.

Field Trip!

We took the kids to the CA Science Center for a "field trip" this week. There were two Imax movies I was really hoping to see, but the undersea one sold out before we got there. I was pretty bummed, but we did see one about surfing the big waves in Tahiti. It was in 3D and the kids thought it was amazing. The littles kept trying to reach out and touch everything :)

As soon as we arrived Ethan ran over and climbed this rope right to the top. He couldn't duplicate it, but it was pretty impressive.


Blue Boys. I'm still trying to figure out how to make my camera do everything I want it to :)




Game of telephone anyone?Sierra, traveling through Egypt on a camel.


In the desert ecosystem there was a flash flood exhibit that the kids really wanted to see. They stood in the "splash zone" and waited for the flood to come. It thundered, and lighteninged, and rained. The water ran out of the hills and then turned to a trickle. Just when they thought it was done...flash flood!
Ty didn't really like the splash zone.


We were there all day and still didn't do it all. There are 3 other museums on the campus too.

Annaleise...You're 1!!

My baby girl is 1. We've all had such a good time watching her grow, she's starting to take steps now; and she is sooo proud of herself. She wasn't walking for her birthday, but she's going to be soon.

We decided on cupcakes for the birthday party, and I assigned the girls the job of decorating. I LOVE have girls big enough and skilled enough to be able to assign jobs like that :)

I stayed up late the night before making the cupcakes. I could have assigned that job too, but I decided to cut the some slack. Besides, it was sort of fun. We have two types of allergen-full cupcakes, some flourless chocolate, and some vegan vanilla ones. Ahhh, I remember when everyone ate the same thing...

Sierra's happy to be decorating cupcakes :) The toothpick means it's gluten-free.


I asked Hailey to make one where the rose covered the whole cupcake. I decided that one would be Annaleises. Unfortunately I asked for it after the chocolate ones were already decorated, so she didn't get as messy as she could have.

Didn't the rose come out great?? The first one came out great too, but I dropped it on it's top and smashed the rose so she had to do it again...

Annaleise thought it was pretty good though :)

We waited for the party for Eli to open his presents, even though we did the traditional birthday stuff on his real birthday, so that more family could be there.



Miss Cadence :)

The balloons were a big hit. Gotta love the dollar store!




Happy Birthday baby girl! We are so grateful God brought you to us.

Happy Birthday Eli!!

Eli has completed his 8th rotation around the sun. Even after 8 rotations, he isn't tired of it :-)

We woke up to freezing temps and snow, and decided it was a bad day for me to take him to the Cat Preserve. So, we did the traditional breakfast at Mimi's and then he and I took off.

We ended up shopping for shoes (because the dog ate his), and then we headed to a movie. I gave him a choice between miniature golf and seeing a movie and he chose the movie. Cuz movies are a Very Rare Treat. How To Tame Your Dragon was playing and I had read reviews that left me feeling like I wouldn't be kicking myself for the next 3 months if I took the boy to see it.


The movie had some good points and I actually didn't hate it. There were a few things to discuss when it was over, but it was really a lot of fun.


Earlier in the morning, his friend Everett had given him a knife with a 3in blade. Everett bought it with his own money and presented it to Eli at church. Eli is beyond thrilled with the knife (yes, this is relevant!), and after the movie we stopped in this little candy shop where Eli picked out Spree in a little plastic bottle. We were going to sit at a table outside, and before I even had my chair pulled out I see Eli wiping blood on his pants and trying to look nonchalant.
He had whipped out his knife to open the bottle and sliced into his finger. You should have seen the eyes on that guy behind the counter in the candy store. Eli had just been telling him that he was turning 8 today, and now I'm back in asking for napkins because he cut himself with his knife. "His knife!," he sputters, all bug-eyed. It made me wonder what he would have said if I told him about buying bullets for a friends son on his 8th birthday. Or was he 7?


3 minutes later the guy is at our table with a big first-aid kit to bandage Eli's finger, while customers wait in the store. He was very concerned. I know he wanted to report me to the Hover Parent Police.


Home to a delicious dinner of burgers grilled on our new bar-b-que, and root beer floats for dessert.


Happy Birthday Eli! We love you so.

This Is Why We Can't Find A Church :-)

"Sunday's Coming" Movie Trailer from North Point Media on Vimeo.

Nashville

Did you realize the extent of the flooding? Do you remember how we couldn't turn on a television or radio without hearing about Katrina? Where is the coverage?

Spring Has Sprung

And around here that apparently means we need lot's of baby animals. There are chicks in the basement, puppies everywhere, and Knightly. Sierra's new kitty. He's supposed to be an outside cat but he's so stinkin small he hasn't made it out there yet. And Bingley is uninterested at best. Sierra sleeps with him at night, I'm afraid that moving to the yard is going to be a rude awakening for this little boy.

But Eli is swollen and snotty, and going through an entire roll of toilet paper in one day just blowing his nose. So Knightley's days are indeed numbered. Perhaps some sweet momma cat will come and take him under he wing...

Archery Practice

Yesterday was the first archery lesson for the upper four. Everyone really enjoyed it, and most everyone hit the bulls-eye at least once.



The younger three had to content themselves with watching the fun and playing in the grass. Some of these were more content doing this than others.


Nothing made Annaleise happy until I put her in the Ergo and she fell asleep on my back.

Ty was initially happy playing in the grass and "fighting" with Ezra. But before long I was we were all paying the price of missing nap-time.


Ezra had a great time watching and looking forward to when he will be old enough to shoot arrows.

I'm so glad it's finally getting warm enough to be outside more. 6 weeks from now I'll probably be begging for mercy from the heat, this will be our first summer off the mountain with no a/c. But for now, I'm really thankful for the sunshine!