Happy Birthday S aka #2

S was a much anticipated baby. Some people thought we were crazy for having our kids so close together, or that some of them were accidents or mistakes. That is not the case. After J was born we loved being parents, and looked forward eagerly to the growth of our family. I was very happy when I found out we were going to have another baby.

S sure loved that pacifier when he was little!

He got himself into his share of mischief as well. Still, he looked so cute all covered in flour that I couldn't be too mad.

S has a great smile and a wonderful laugh.

Then suddenly he wasn't a baby anymore. I missed a couple of years worth of pics because they got lost off the computer, and our scanner isn't hooked up right now for me to rescan them. Trust me that he was cute during those years too. When this picture was taken he had three younger brothers already! He is about five years old here.

S loves being outside.

S and I on a walk along the Columbia River.

S and D at S's Baptism.

S loves to joke around with his Grandpa A.

Jumping over the rainbow.

And now he is growing up into a young man. I can't believe it has already been 11 years!

Wordless Wednesday

I caught this one out in the garden, perched on top of a corn stalk. (The bug was perched, not me.) Note, when you see a pic with the Copyright Moss-Grove on it, it just means that it is one of our pics that D has posted on his blog.

Family Reunion

Last weekend there was a family reunion on D's side of the family. It included his Mom and Stepdad and their kids and grandchildren. In all we had 28 people there for at least a few hours. It has been 16 years since all the siblings were together at once, and unfortunately we weren't able to get everyone there this time either. We were missing 11 people as D's oldest stepbrother and his family live out of the country and were unable to come, and his youngest sister recently had twins who were born premature and aren't ready to travel yet. Still, it was a lot of fun with those family members who were able to make it.

The reunion took place at Ensign Ranch, which is a facility owned by our church. We rented the Lodge there for four days and three nights. The kids loved the opportunity to feed the horses and to play with their cousins. They ran around the grounds and around the main rooms of the Lodge, played pool and ping pong, and just had an all around great time.

There was also fishing (no one had much luck with that), hiking and canoeing. D took S and T out on a canoe while J went with Grandpa Dan. C and K were too nervous about getting on a boat, and so they stayed on shore with me and Baby B.

We slept either in The Lodge, which has seven bedrooms, or in a bunkhouse. In the case of D and myself, along with the kids, we stayed in a bunkhouse just next to the Lodge because the bunkhouses sleep ten people per side, so we could all stay together. The Lodge was lovely, but not luxury accomidations. It was more like camp. We slept in metal bunks and ate cafeteria style in the dining room just off the commercial kitchen. Still, it was a lot of fun, and great to see family members that we don't connect with very often.
For our boys, the all time favorite activity was the slip and slide. Ensign Ranch has a very large slip and slide set up with sprinklers at the top, and the boys spent hours sliding down. It was a big highlight of our trip for them and a great way to stay cool. Their cousins enjoyed time on the slip and slide as well (see below).

All in all, it was a wonderful time and there are plans in the works for another family reunion in two years. By then D's step brother will be back in the U.S. and his sister has promised to make it next time as well. By then though, his youngest brother will be serving a mission for our church, so it still won't be everyone together at once. Maybe the time after that!

Here is a final shot of everyone that stayed through Sunday. We all went to church together and took up four rows in the chapel there. I can't wait to see everyone again! Two years is too long!

Wordless Wednesday

Daisy was disappointed when she didn't make the synchronized swimming team.

Wordless Wednesday

You might remember a few weeks ago I did this Wordless Wednesday with a chrysalis pictured. That butterfly has since hatched, along with others and they can be regularly found flitting around our garden. Here are a few shots...enjoy!

Flying over its old grazing grounds (i.e. what is left of my cabbage)

Time for a little rest.

Checking on the corn crop.

A yearly Tradition...

Our family has had a tradition of getting together every summer for a picnic at Blue Lake Park in Portland. This year we made plans to move our festivities to another park because Blue Lake is always extremely crowded and it just hasn't been as much fun. Unfortunately when we called to reserve a spot at the new park, all the reserveable areas were full. My lovely sister Myra (not her real name) opted to invite us all to her house for a lovely BBQ instead.
There was a LOT of food (that is also a family tradition). We were all in HOG heaven I think. There was also badminton and a huge water fight. It was a lovely day and the time flew right by. The best part was that because we were at my sister's house we spent most of the time in the nicely fenced back yard and didn't have to worry about the kids escaping. Usually the parents of younger kids spend all of the time at Blue Lake trying to keep their kids away from the water, and it is STRESSFUL. So thanks Myra for a lovely Saturday!

Here are a few pictures...

Oldest sister Ardyth shows us how to play badminton.

My younger sister Ezre learned that badminton is good exercise!

Our hostess Myra dives for the birdie.


Baby B enjoys the swing.




Someone is impatient for the water fight.



Pink Avenger, my youngest sis tossing water at #4. Who knew Aunts could be so ruthless!

#4 gets his revenge.

Cousins are ruthless too...poor # 5 is about to get soaked by his cousin T-gal!

My Nephew G-Man knows that happiness is a warm towel and a full squirt bottle.

Not pictured were the rest of our kids, cousin J-Man, my parents, my brother, my three brothers in law and my Aunt and Uncle. I can't wait for next year!

Wordless Wednesday

Another shot from the temple grounds...

Out of my comfort zone...in more ways than one

Last night I had the opportunity to push the boundaries of my comfort zone.

A woman that I know through church called us yesterday and invited us to come over to her house for dinner. Being a large family with rambunctious children, and knowing that several people perceive some of our kids as troublemakers, I was taken by surprise by the invitation and was too flustered to refuse.

The poor woman didn't really know what she was getting herself into. She just knew me, knew of my husband and that he had served a mission in Korea, and knew my oldest son. She was a bit surprised when I mentioned that I had six children and was she sure about inviting us. She sweetly responded that it would be fine, even after I mentioned that some of our children have Autism. We arranged to be at her house around 6 p.m.

I am not much of a social person. Social situations are out of my comfort zone, and even though I usually end up talking a lot (sometimes to the point of babbling) I almost always feel foolish afterwards. I made a fruit salad and we bought a macaroni salad as sides for the dinner. When we got there, Sister T (we call each other brother and sister in our church, so I will refer to our hosts as Brother and Sister T for this post) had plastic leis, Hawaiian straw hats, ribbon and candy ready. She had the boys tie candy onto their hats and leis to keep them busy. After a short time the missionaries and another brother from our church arrived to join us for dinner. Now, let me see if I can remember everything we had! Sister T had told me it would be a luau type of party with an Asian fusion theme for the food. She offered:

Rice

Curry

Shrimp with sauce

Pot stickers

Egg rolls

pan fried balls of shrimp

Octopus (I can't remember what they called it exactly, but it was steamed octopus in a sauce)

Two kinds of Kimchee

Korean radish

Honeydew melon

Pineapple

Kalua pork (cooked in banana leaves)

Steak

Kalbi (Korean style ribs)

Kim (toasted seaweed)

Steamer Clams

Traditional Hawaiian rolls cooked in coconut milk

Poki (this dish involves raw tuna in a sauce)

Two kinds of sushi, one made with Lox (smoked salmon) and one made with raw tuna.

We also drank a Korean juice drink called Sac Sac which is basically grape juice with sugar, and whole pieces of grape mixed in the drink. All that plus my fruit salad and Macaroni salad and that was a lot of food for a total of 11 people!

The food was the second part of me getting out of my comfort zone. We eat some kinds of Korean food here because D loves it from when he served his mission. We regularly eat the Korean brand of curry, we eat kimchee and we make Kim Bap (which is similar to sushi but doesn't involve raw fish) a couple times a year. The menu items in this case that were out of my comfort zone were the two kinds of sushi, the raw tuna, and the octopus. I have never eaten sushi other than the Korean kind we make that has ham, Korean radish, spinach, egg and carrot in it. Sister T used to own a sushi bar, and she made the sushi fresh that evening. I tried both kinds, and even had seconds of both. I will say that I didn't love it, but I liked it. I also tried a small piece of octopus which I didn't like much. Octopus is very chewy, and I am big on texture. I wasn't brave enough to try the poki, because I was afraid enough to eat raw fish when it was mixed into a sushi roll of rice and seaweed. All in all, we had a great dinner, I got a couple of new recipes, and Brother and Sister T sent us home with enough leftovers to set us up for dinner tonight, as well as two pies!

After dinner they made us Hawaiian shave ice. They started out with vanilla ice cream at the bottom of the cups, then put shave ice and syrup over the top. The boys each had two helpings and loved it. After that there was no more room for the other desserts so she sent the pies and cookies home with us. The boys had fun making their candy leis and decorating their hats, and for the most part they behaved very well. Maybe I don't have to be quite so scared of being social! (Really though, I don't see me ever being very comfortable with it.)

Sister T was a great hostess, did a ton of work and was accepting of our kids. It was a good experience for the boys and we were able to praise them for doing so well.

My question for you...do you like to socialize? And what do you think of Sushi?