Best News Ever!

We're excited to announce... 

 We're having a TURTLE!

Just kidding, but that's what we think she looks like.

We're actually having a baby girl, due on November 5th! We're Sooooooooooooooooo HAPPY!

Our 10th Anniversary Trip!

For our 10th Anniversary we went to Seattle, and we brought our kids! There aren't even words to describe how happy and thankful I felt to be with my favorite people, in the coolest city, doing the funnest things...going to museums, chasing birds, making paper out of elephant poo, making friends with gorillas, holding hissing cockroaches, catching a giant, slimy fish in mid air and eating drive thru Burger King at midnight with the people I love most, exactly 10 years after marrying the most perfect man for me! There is nobody else I'd rather go on adventures with or sit at home on the couch with! All of my life's happiest memories are with him!

March Memories!

At the beginning of March Robert and his Dad and brothers went on a boy's trip to Mexico. This is my favorite picture!

 They had lots of fun, but so did we...

 We saw the Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dream Coat play.

 And we dissected a squid.

 Winston examined it very closely. It has 3 hearts.

We all pulled out the eyeball. It was interesting and exciting to learn about these amazing creatures, amazing creatures that stunk up our van. We shouldn't have brought the squid remains home with us. Lesson learned.

 

 At home the next day we made homemade cheese, from scratch.

 That stunk too, and watching the curds and whey separate was unappealing.

 We also went to Winston's art class with him and made pottery.

 Then we played at the Children's Museum.

We camped inside a teepee. See, more fun than Mexico!

 Then Daddy came home (yay, we missed him) and it was time for the Science Fair! Noelle's project was to see how much pee (yellow water) different diaper brands could hold. Huggies won!

 Stanton's project was to see how many scents his nose could recognize while sniffing them blindfolded. He only missed one, which was his hypothesis.

I was the co-chair of the Science Fair, so Winston and I were at the school for a couple of long days, and he was the perfect little tour guide, showing all of the big kids who came in which projects were his favorite and how they worked.
It was such a fun experience for our whole family!

 Noelle also lost her 6th tooth at the Harlem Globetrotter's game. She yanked it out during the 3rd quarter, and judging by all of the blood and how hard she had to pull, I'm pretty sure it was not quite ready to come out.

She also had cupcake hair for crazy hair day at school! I tried to spike Stanton's hair, but he made me brush it out cause he thought it looked crazy...not his look.

 He did start baseball though and loved every minute of it!

He also sang in a children's choir of 12 little kids for a special Easter Celebration!

And Daddy took us on a special bird watching, nature hike. We correctly identified so many birds, and our cheering scared them away every time.

 

And to end March right, we went exploring inside a giant inflatable colon. Our tour guide was a nice lady dressed as a polyp.

It was a fun and different experience, and we went home with a lot of fiber samples, free pens and a much greater knowledge of hemorroids.
I'd say the month of March was good to us!

Valentine's Day Trip!

Over Valentine's Day weekend we went on a family overnight trip to Portland, Oregon. Our first stop, and one of the best stops of our lives was the Lewis and Clark Museum, SO COOL!!!
We saw Big Foot ruins there too!!

 There were so many fantastic exhibits, and so many interesting things to learn and see, like Wooly Mammoth remains.

 And Winston in a covered wagon that may or may not have said "please keep off the exhibit." I didn't read it cause  I didn't want to know because he just looks so cute in a handcart.

 Robert and I made all sorts of Oregon Trail jokes about our Pa's oxen dying and Ma coming down with dysentery.

Then we waited thirty minutes in the rain to try a famous Voodoo Donut. It was a kooky place inside,  they pretty much tasted like a grocery store donut covered in cereal. They were shaped as your choice of voodoo dolls with pretzel needles and jelly blood, or men's genitals. We told our kids those ones were pogo sticks, and just stuck to buying the boring old circular donuts.

 After that we toured a submarine.

 Stanton was loving life, and we all agreed it would be cool to eat a sub in a sub.

Then we spent hours inside the Museum of Science and Industry. They had everything, including a giant ear! Noelle said she was the wax.

The next day we toured the Tilamook Cheese Factory, which I have always wanted to do! We learned so many cheese facts, and our family came up with a lot of cheese jokes and puns. It was EVERYTHING I'd hoped it would be!

 I didn't even have to ask Robert to pose in the cow cutout. He just read my mind and led me on over, one of the many reasons why I love him!

 Stanton actually doesn't like cheese (blasphemy) but he did like driving the cheese bus!

There was so much cheese (and cheese curds) to sample. Winston didn't even have time for toothpicks. ( I made sure to serve him his samples after he caressed all of the cheese in this tray.)

 After that we went out to the Coast and hiked around some huge, old trees...

 Perfect for climbing!

 Then we went to the beach to check out the lighthouse.

 It was so pretty out there by the ocean.

We ended our trip with a visit to the Portland Temple Visitor's Center. It was the perfect ending to a great trip, one of my favorites! It was so perfect just being together, uninterrupted. The kids all said the best part was the car ride. They like just talking, which melts my heart. I love my little family so much!